Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Summary: Harry and Hermione find comfort in one another as the war rages on and when trouble occurs at Hogwarts Harry is determined to set Hermione out on her own, but obstacles in his way bring Harry and Hermione together nonetheless. But can one part of the relationship survive?
AN: Oh. Spotting and somebody in St. Mungos… You know what 'spotting' means? I do. Wait till you see. One more chapter to go and then this is over!
Chapter 13:
"How are you feeling, Hermione?" Seamus asks apprehensively. Hermione smiles in his direction. It feels so odd not to have Harry around. Not to have someone close and connected to talk to. She feels so alone.
She had fallen asleep at midnight last night, crying herself to sleep about Harry. The man she was going to marry, the father of her child, and now, he was gone. It seemed so surreal.
"I'm fine," She answers kindly, and slides her schedule out of her bag. "Oh." Hermione says suddenly.
"What?"
"We only have one more week to go here."
"Oh god, that means N.E.W.T.s are close." Dean says sulkily. Hermione looks at him reprovingly, but turns back to her eggs fairly quickly again.
"Well, that's good for you, isn't it?" Seamus observes, turning to Hermione again.
"What?"
"With a child and everything it must be pretty stressful. Once you get out of Hogwarts you'll have so much more time and energy."
Hermione nods, but doesn't really agree. She loves it here, with classes and teachers and learning, and now with Lily to take care of. The only thing that was truly missing was Harry around. She still can't believe that he's truly gone. She's simply waiting for him to burst through the doors and come back to see her, but no… To think that the last time she saw him he was going to St. Mungos on Neville's account –
Hermione stops all of a sudden with her eating, her fork hitting her plate. Why was he even at St. Mungos? Had Neville really told him to come? Nobody had told her how he had died, where he had died, why or who had killed him… everything was so foggy to her.
"Professor, can I talk to you for a moment?" Hermione asks hesitantly, cracking open the Headmistress office door.
"Of course, Miss Granger, but quickly, please."
She slides into the office, slipping into a chair, but before she can even open her mouth, McGonagall opens hers.
"Your two friends are coming out of St. Mungos."
Hermione's eyes bulge out protuberantly, and she smiles. "Oh, that's great!"
"Miss Weasley and Longbottom will arrive shortly after lunch. But now, you came for a reason. What is it you wish to tell me?" She asks sternly.
She tries to push Ginny and Neville returning into the back of her mind.
"I don't have anything to tell, I have something to ask."
"Alright." McGonagall says shortly.
She hesitates for a moment. "I've been pondering this for some time, and – well, I would really like to know who killed Harry."
McGonagall takes a deep breath, her hands shaking slightly. "Alright. You may know, if anyone should, you have the right to," She paused. "Potter was murdered by Lord Voldemort. He was lured to St. Mungos on false premises so he would be alone, then steered over to the forest close to the hospital. He was put into a trance and killed. However, he was killed with honour and he died proud face to face with Lord Voldemort."
Hermione's breath is stuck in her throat along with her voice. She seemed to have left it with her brain, which wasn't functioning properly either at the moment. Her eyes slide back into focus and she swallowed.
"Er–" She said carefully, a lump in her throat forming.
"I realize that it is harsh news to take." McGonagall reassures her.
"No, it's just–" Hermione sighs. "Well, I wasn't expecting that."
There is a large pause in between the two, where Hermione silently cries and McGonagall finally says something. "You will be late for History of Magic, Miss Granger." She says softly, and Hermione nods, getting up from her chair slowly.
It had been the gloomiest, moodiest, sulkiest day of her life as she sat through History of Magic, only waiting for the minutes to tick by and Ginny and Neville to get here, her last real hope and friends.
"Class may be dismissed…" The ghost-teacher says boringly, drifting through the stone wall awkwardly, and Hermione charges to the door.
She rushes over to the Great Hall, where only a few students have started lunch, and sits down with the few people at the Gryffindor table.
She sits there for seven minutes and thirty-two seconds when she has the wind knocked out of her by something with flaming red hair. Hermione falls down onto the wooden bench, hugging Ginny back.
"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to knock you down." Ginny says apologetically, letting go of Hermione and tucking a strand of red hair away from her face. She smiles.
"What are you smiling like that for?"
"I want to see her."
"Who?" Hermione asks.
"Lily, of course! And Neville wants to, as well!" Hermione laughs at Ginny's eagerness, seeing Neville charging up to them.
"Neville!" She says, and hugs him as well before leading both of them back up the marble steps and heading toward the hospital wing.
"How are you two feeling?" Hermione asks kindly and Neville grins.
"I'm fine. I'm really happy to see Hogwarts again." He says cheerfully, and Ginny nods along with him.
"Where is she?" Ginny asks.
"She's in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey said she would take care of her when I was in classes." She knocks on the wooden doors and the nurse peers through the crack.
"Oh, Miss Granger – and oh, Longbottom and Miss Weasley, you're back, too!" Madam Pomfrey says surprisingly, and Ginny nods. "I suppose you'd like to see her?"
"Yes." Hermione responds, and Madam Pomfrey hands her Lily.
"I had fun taking care of her today, she's adorable." She said longingly, fingering with the frill of her dress.
Hermione hands her to Ginny, who swoons over her.
"Oh! She's beautiful, Hermione, and looks just like you and Harry."
Hermione hadn't noticed that. But now that Ginny pointed it out, she sees it as well. She has her father's green eyes, her mother's brown hair, and her father's mouth, with her nose. She has her eyebrows and her facial structure, but she can still see Harry in her. It's comforting to Hermione.
"Here." Ginny hands her to Neville, who gives her back to Hermione after another minute of praise.
"I better give her back to Madam Pomfrey." She says, and knocks on the door again. The nurse takes her and ushers them off, where Ginny, Neville, and Hermione all head back to the Gryffindor common room.
Crookshanks jumps into Hermione's lap the moment she sits down on the couch, and Ginny laughs. She looks at Hermione seriously then, her expression concerned.
"How are you feeling?"
"What?"
"I mean, with Harry and everything being gone." She says gently.
"How do you know that he's gone?" Hermione asks sharply.
"The Daily Prophet didn't keep it quiet." Neville says quietly from the armchair.
"Oh," She says bitterly. "I should have known."
"So? How do you feel?"
Hermione hesitates. "Lonely. Empty. Abandoned. Old–"
"You're not old and you're not abandoned!" Neville says sharply. "The years before you were with Harry you were as independent as can be!"
"Well, things have changed–"
Once again, the common room door opens and their Professor walks in, looking very serious and taken-aback.
"Miss Granger, may I see you for just a moment?"
Ginny and Neville exchange panicked looks, but Hermione gives them an 'okay' sign. She walks toward McGonagall.
"Yes?"
"There's been a spotting."
"A what?" Hermione asks.
"A spotting, Miss Granger, a spotting. Mr. Potter has been spotted in the same forest he was predicted to be murdered in.
"What? But that means he's not dead!"
"We do not know how trustworthy the witness is, but however–"
"Who's the witness?" She interrupts.
"Sybill Trelawney." McGonagall says shortly.
"Trelawney?" Ginny asks suddenly from Hermione's back, standing up and striding over.
"Yes, Miss Weasley. Professor Trelawney says that she surely saw Harry Potter in the forest. A bit pale, peaky, thin, and wearing torn clothes, but she said that he was most surely alive."
There was a sudden silence in the common room. "So? Didn't anyone investigate?" Hermione asks irritably.
"Not yet, but it is being done probably right now." McGonagall says calmly.
Hermione's eyes bulge disbelievingly. "BUT HE COULD BE GONE BY NOW!" She explodes, turning into an anxious frenzy. She turns to face Ginny, who was looking rather bewildered.
"Sybill came in quite a time after she said that she had found Potter in the forest. She had been in hysterias, and therefore was not able for questioning if Potter is still in the forest."
"SO? Somebody could have checked instantly!"
The common room opened again, Rufus Scrimgeour at their faces again. Ginny gasps and drops Crookshanks. He looks furious.
"Is he in there?"
Scrimgeour looks at Ginny peculiarly. "No. I believe that he was a phantom of Trelawney's mind. There is no trace of Potter in the forest."
"That's not true." Somebody says suddenly, and Hermione looks over McGonagall's shoulder at the intruder.
Seamus and Dean are standing in the doorway, looking very windswept and alarmed, but determined nonetheless.
"What?"
"We both saw him as well, when we came to visit Neville in the hospital." Dean says rather hesitantly.
Hermione looks from McGonagall to Scrimgeour, from Dean and Seamus to Ginny, all looking extremely confused.
"Lead the way, boys." Scrimgeour mutters, and everybody follows him in a firm run behind him.