Chapter 25: One Last Act of Courage

"Do it!" Atropos hissed.

With a sigh, Harry let the sword clatter out of his hands. With an almighty 'clank', resonating within the huge Chamber of Secrets, it tumbled to the ground.

"I can't," he said despondently. "How can I do this? You're a living, breathing thing… a living, breathing person."

"I asssk you for mercccy," the giant snake answered, implored even. "I'vve never asked for any sort of pittty. I assure you, freeing meee ssshould not weigh on your conscienccce."

If Harry were able to look into the Queen of Snakes' eyes, he was sure about that, he would be able to see pleading in her eyes; immediately before being dropped dead.

"Pleassse…" Atropos pleaded. With another sigh, Harry picked up the sword. With his knuckles whitening around the hilt he took the sword in both hands and pointed it downward towards Atropos' heart again. "Pleasse…"

"Can't I just take you away from here?" He asked, hoping he would receive any kind of answer freeing him from making a choice like this. "I have a castle as well, with wards strong enough to keep Voldemort out for a very long time"

"Nnno, believvve mee. I havvve had a verrry long time to think about thisss," she responded. "I know that wherever I go, if he calls I havvve to anssswer; it isss who I am. I'm bound to ssserve Sssalazar'sss heir. Let me asssk for one more thhhing: Do not let my body rrrot away; ussse what you can, and bury what remainsss on the groundsss of Hogwartsss, at my home."

Taking in a deep breath, Harry raised the sword and readied himself for the strike, as much as he could anyway.

"I'm sorry, Atropos, that I couldn't help you," he apologized.

"Donnn't be," she hissed back just as the razor-sharp blade sank through the snake's skin like a hot knife through butter, piercing sinews, muscle and finally her heart. "Free. Thank you, Harry Potter. Know this: There is more than one…"

With a last shudder, the body of the giant snake lost all its tension and sank to the ground; once again, the only thing piercing the complete silence of the chamber was Gryffindor's sword clattering to the ground.

OOOOOOOO

Hermione was pacing up and down the Room of Requirement with such ferocity and speed she could have sworn she had seen the carpet getting thinner and thinner. It had been way too long since Harry had gone to face the Slytherin's monster in the chamber, although in all honesty, to Hermione it had been way too long the moment he set foot out of the door.

As she heard the door being opened, Hermione spun around and was faced by Harry. However, some of the fears alleviated by his reappearance were immediately replaced by new ones popping up as she took in his shell-shocked expression. She rushed to his side and steadied him, taking note of the fact that, as far as she could tell, he was unharmed.

"Harry, what happened?" She asked in a tone more demanding than she actually cared for. Harry just looked at her with an empty face and needily reciprocated the way she had enveloped him in without even realizing she did.

"I…" he started whispering into her hair, his voice cutting out quickly. With what seemed like a heartening sigh he continued, "I killed an innocent today."

After successfully coaxing Harry into taking a seat on the couch, then promptly planting herself on the seat that was Harry's lap, Hermione was regaled with a tale so far-fetched she would be hard-pressed to believe it if anyone but Harry were the source.

"So, let me see if I got this straight," Hermione began after taking a few moments to process what she had learned. "This particular basilisk was no 'king of the snakes' but a 'queen of the snakes'?" Receiving a nod, she continued, "And Salazar Slytherin bred her to defend the school, which he, after living through some unspecified hardship, thought would at some point be attacked or infiltrated by muggles and their magical offspring?" Another nod. "And Tom Riddle forced this basilisk named Atropos, after one of the Greek Fates no less, to do his bidding, almost driving her insane the last time?"

"Yes," Harry croaked out despondently. "She said he wouldn't be able to bear it another time; from what I remember of her during second year, I really don't doubt that."

Hermione distanced herself a little from Harry to be able to look him in the eye. With her voice consoling and, frankly, more encouraging than she really felt at the moment, she said, "Then you did the best you could; you granted her freedom and more of a merciful and honourable death than she ever could have hoped for serving Riddle," she stated firmly.

"But what if she…" Harry began, but was interrupted immediately.

"What if she was wrong?" Hermione asked, already knowing that was what Harry would say. "From what you tell me, she had some ability at prophecy; yes, I know I always say it's hoodwink and I stay by that, but if she is so insistent, maybe we should take it seriously."

Her piece having been said, Hermione closed the distance to Harry again and re-intensified their hug. For a good ten minutes nothing happened, until somewhere next to her ear, she could hear Harry whisper, "You're right; of course, you're right. What about the last bit, the 'more than one' part?"

With a huge groan, Hermione motivated her mind to leave the warm, comfortable fuzziness that had enveloped her in Harry's arms. After giving herself a few moments to think about it she answered, "Nothing; sounds like a prophecy to me, and even more vague than the one in the Department of Mysteries. I think we've seen enough examples of people making a real mess, trying to follow predictions they did not fully understand."

Under and around her body, Hermione could both feel and hear Harry sigh in relief. "Good," he stated. "I have enough prophecies and people trying to interpret them around me as is."

OOOOOOOO

"Hermione," Harry whispered to the girl lying in his arms. "Hermione, you have to wake up."

The only response he got was some incoherent mumbling and a bushy head of hair burying deeper into his chest.

"Hermione, it's time to get up; you're missing transfiguration," Harry chuckled, looking at the peaceful look on his girlfriend's face.

"Not funny," she grumbled. "It's the weekend, so there're no lessons; you better have a good reason for waking me up, because I was having a really good nap."

"I was too," he laughed back, putting a small kiss on the back of her head. "But we've missed lunch and we're closing in on dinner; I thought you might want to eat something."

With a small huff, Hermione turned towards Harry, returned the kiss she had received on the back of her head onto his lips and, with some cat-like stretching, got up. Giving Harry a small, contented smile she held out her hand to help him up. Returning her grin, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the sofa.

"I said 'we're closing in on dinner', not 'it's time for dinner," he remarked. "I actually thought we could spend the rest of the time to cuddle on the sofa."

"Oh Mr. Potter," Hermione remarked cheekily, "I get the feeling you are trying to take advantage of me; I'm not sure I like it…"

Paying her words as much heed as she did, he snuggled into her, as she laid her head on his shoulder. Some minutes passed, in which the young couple just enjoyed their closeness, before someone spoke again.

"What did you say about 'use what you can'?" Hermione inquired. Obviously taking note of Harry's confused expression, Hermione explained, "You said Atropos told you to not let her body rot away, right? So, what do you plan on doing?"

This prompted some intense thinking on Harry's part, as using the dead body of what he now considered a person seemed morally dodgy to him. "I don't really know, actually…" he responded, noticing a fleeting look of annoyance on Hermione's face. "Okay, let me hear it."

"For one thing, I understand your hesitance," she began in some of her usual diplomatic tactics (something Harry actually appreciated a lot), "but it is exactly what she wanted; think about it: she explicitly allowed, even demanded you use her body well, after which burying her in the place she has been made to protect. From that point of view, you really have to use everything you can, because anything else would be disrespecting one of her last wishes."

Harry gave a sigh; of course he knew all that, yet he still had some reservations, something Hermione seemed to have picked up on as well. "Think of it along the lines of organ donation: She agreed during her lifetime, she certainly knew what it would entail and she demanded it anyway. Sure, it is not easy to process, or particularly palatable, but at this point, the only way to honour her memory is to do what she asked for."

With another big sigh, Harry acquiesced to his girlfriend's reasoning. "So how do we go about this; any ideas?"

It was heartening watching Hermione think, because despite all the things radically changing for the young couple and everything they still had in front of them, this was something that would probably be a staple: Hermione and her 'thinking face'.

"First thing would be to try and preserve that carcass," she determined. "I think cooling it down would be a good idea; later, we can find out what to do to harvest as much usable stuff as possible, just like she wanted."

That moment, even though he was still wrestling with his conscience, Harry had an idea. "How about asking Fopey for help?" he proposed, eliciting a smile from Hermione.

"Sounds like a good idea," she judged. "She would know how to keep things cold, working in the kitchens and all."

As the idea was unanimously accepted (not that that was a big hurdle, with only two people involved in the decision-making process), Harry put the plan into action.

"Fopey," he called, immediately followed by the crack of an elf appearing.

"Master Harry be calling?" the overeager little creature greeted, making Harry groan; he had not thought of the fact that he would be called 'Master Harry' over and over again when calling in elven help, let alone when he returned to Potter Castle for the summer.

"Yes Fopey, I did. And hello to you," he returned the greeting. Deciding to make one more attempt at dissuading the annoying 'master' business, he continued, "and I told you, you could just call me Harry."

The little elf looked outraged for a second, before she started talking again, "Oh no, that not be proper, Master Harry. How does Fopey be able to help?"

Seemingly realising the annoyance always overcoming Harry when he was confronted with the elven deference, Hermione took over. "Hello Fopey. Would you be able to tell us how to preserve a giant snake?"

Despite her obvious bewilderment, Fopey's answer came promptly and self-assuredly. "Fopey be able to preserve anything," she stated proudly.

OOOOOOOO

That evening at dinner, Hermione was still a little shaken. While it was true that she had seen the skeleton of the basilisk in the old timeline, she had never seen it in real life-size and, although the skull had been impressive enough, the sheer magnitude of Atropos' fresh corpse had been staggering

It had been a somewhat hard trip down the chute to the basilisk's lair, considering she had once nearly killed Hermione; alas, the more vindictive part inside Hermione was content in the knowledge that never again would she be in the situation of being misused for nefarious purposes. From that standpoint, the snake was as much a victim as anyone else: Forced to do things she hated to, in the end bringing the ultimate sacrifice to stop it from happening again.

"Hermione, are you still with us?" she was woken from her thoughtful trance by Neville. "You were spacing out there a little."

"Yeah, I'm alright," she responded, and she actually was; mostly.

Still, building a working emulsion of the story Harry had told her and the terrifying image of these yellow, piercing eyes…

"Hermione!" Now it was Harry's voice pushing through the veil of memories; that would always work. She looked at him, he winked at her and Hermione smiled back weakly.

"So, is everyone prepared for their exams," Hermione inquired, trying to distract from her probably weird state and eliciting groans from all around their group. The one the least happy about the upcoming end of the term, though, was Daphne. The dark-haired girl sat there morosely with a dark expression on her face; she was obviously still distraught with the idea of returning home for the summer. Not that Hermione could fault her.

"I'm looking forward to it," Neville commented, visibly surprising all of them a little. "What, I'm looking forward to the holidays; and with Snape's test being overseen by Dumbledore, I'm nearly looking forward to the exams as well."

This reminder of the most recent positive development surrounding teaching and staff at Hogwarts conjured up some smiles on people's faces; as far as the Hogwarts rumour mill said, Snape had lost his cool during a teachers' conference so badly, not even Dumbledore had been able to ignore it. The rumour mill further said that, as for the reason for Snape blowing his top, the fact Harry, Hermione and their friends were receiving teaching in potions that was not administered by him was near the top of the list of contenders.

"What are you guys starting with, anyway?" Tracey asked the group. "We're starting with charms on Monday."

"Transfiguration, as you very well know," Hermione commented, frowning at the other girl in jest; the change in topic was obviously for Daphne's sake, and it seemed to be working. "What do you think about Defence?"

As soon as she asked the question, Hermione could hear Harry grumbling next to her.

"I don't like it," he commented. "I mean, it's one less exam, and that's great, but I'm good at Defence. Couldn't it have been history?"

This received widespread agreement among the members of their little group. No one who had ever been in a History of Magic Lesson with Professor Binns could be excited about the subject.

"It's a shame though," Hermione thought out loud. "Seriously, if we don't remember our younger history, how are we supposed to learn from our mistakes? Take Grindelwald as an example: He had around the same sort of followers Voldemort had… or maybe had, still nothing has been changed about our society."

With a group of shocked faces commenting her, for who was supposed to be a twelve-year old, very sophisticated statement, Hermione was reminded of plausible deniability. "I thought there had to be more to magical history than Goblin rebellions, so I read a few books," she explained her unusual knowledge away.

The only further comment her outburst of carelessness had, was Harry whispering in her ear, "How on earth do you still find time to work on private side-projects with all the stuff we have to do?"

OOOOOOOO

It turned out that, just as expected, the exams were incredibly easy on both Harry and Hermione and there were two distinct reasons for that: Harry was more prepared for them than ever before (he had spent more time preparing than he had the first time around) and Hermione was more calm than she had ever been before when it came to tests.

The 'absence' of an instructor and examiner in defence had all of them skipping that exam, again just as expected. Snape was in an expectably vindictive mood during his opportunity to yet again torture the first years who had managed to get out of his grasp, but he was unable to get any real shots in due to the presence of Albus Dumbledore.

Binns' exam was just like his class, boring, uninspired and narcotic, while McGonagall was as methodical and thought-out as one would expect from her. All-in-all, it was quite the ordinary examination for Hogwarts, as far as Harry could tell, although he just could not shake the feeling something just had to go wrong at some point.

However, despite his misgivings, the day for everyone to return home was there eventually and they were sharing a train compartment again. Harry and Hermione had already supplied Daphne with an 'intel-package' of ideas that should be able to last her through the break; nonetheless, it also included a communication mirror they had procured from Sirius for Daphne to call for help, should the need arise, or she simply wish to talk to her friends.

The general merriment of the ride was only partly impacted by the sad prospect of not all of them being together before the start of the next rem; loose plans had been made for everyone to meet near the end of the break, but naturally, despite her role of a pretend-spy, Daphne would not be allowed to come to Potter Castle. Everyone else was looking forward to it, though.

"So, what are you doing during the break?" Tracey inquired of them, looking extremely pleased with her own prospects already. "I'm going all over Europe with my parents; Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Austria. It's going to be so awesome!"

Harry had to chuckle a little at her enthusiasm; the first real comment on her plans came from Neville, however, "Why would you go to these countries in particular?"

Tracey smiled a little, laughed and then responded, "Because, they have the best chocolate in the world, and dad says we 'should mix business with pleasure'; so, we're going to try the tastiest chocolate you're ever going to find; mum says, if we're going to France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland, we might as well visit Germany as well."

The whole cabin went silent for a while, trying to take in the massive itinerary this probably meant and the amount of places Tracey would visit; suddenly, the fact that she would spend six weeks out of the country was not so surprising anymore.

"So, you're basically going to travel around, eat chocolate and look at stuff?" It was Hermione who asked the question Harry had been considering as well. "My parents would be appalled…"

"Why would they?" Susan asked in return.

"They're dentists," Hermione explained, and before anyone could ask what that was, their faces were telling they wanted to, she continued, "They're a kind of muggle healer dealing with teeth; sweets like chocolate are bad for your teeth."

Daphne, who up until now had been sitting in the corner, silently, shook her head, bewilderedly. "There're special healers only for teeth? Sure, for spell damage, or potion incidents, but for teeth? Muggles are weird…"

This finally made Hermione crack; she had been visibly amused at the blank looks concerning dentists already, but this topped it all off. "I'm sure muggles would say the same about spell damage and potion incidents," she chuckled. "It's actually a highly respected profession, with loads of time spent in university preparing you for it."

This time, no one was lost for words; Harry had actually explained the concept of a university to their friends shortly after the winter break, and the reactions had been mixed at best. None of their friends really understood, why staying on for even more education after finishing school was in any way desirable. When they heard that some university degrees took almost as much time as a full Hogwarts career to complete, they were really stumped.

"Speaking of parents," Susan interrupted the silence. "You're going away with yours as well, right?"

Hermione, at who the question was directed, made a grimace and answered, "Yes; we're going to France as well, southern coast." The answer was delivered in such an annoyed tone that no on inquired any further and conversation quickly moved on.

OOOOOOOO

The scene playing out on platform 9¾ was a little tense; there were a few distinct groups of people with clearly differing opinions on important issues. One thing however it seemed they could agree on: They did not like each other or rather some did not like each other, while others just did not care.

Next to the large group of parents whose only concern was to get their children home, after all, it had been a somewhat chaotic year at Hogwarts, there was the, mostly Slytherin, blood-purist section of the platform, under the questionable leadership of Lucius Malfoy. This particular group was passing their time by either talking quietly about things they obviously did not want the general public to know about, or so intensively looking down at others, that their exclusion was a foregone conclusion. Daphne's and Tracey's families were a part of that one as well, though the latter had the good graces to give Sirius a sheepish look.

Then there was the mirror-image of that particular group; former Order of Phoenix members and associates, the friends and allies of Dumbledore (still a disturbingly large group) and their various family members. This group also included one of the more flamboyant personalities displayed there; Molly Weasley was engaged in an intense discussion with a woman who Sirius did not recognise, although he had heard someone call her Dickery, or something along the lines of it. Whenever they stopped talking, they would turn towards Sirius' group, glare a little and then return to their conversation even more vigorously than before.

Sirius could not help but feeling they were talking about hams, and he doubted he was getting any praise. With him on the platform were some of the more politically-active 'light-side-if-you-want-to-think-in-such-dichotomy' families that did not support Dumbledore; sadly, their number was nearly as large as either the Malfoy or the Dumbledore camp, and currently consisted of only Augusta Longbottom, Sirius Black and Amelia Bones. Sure, there were some people with the same kind of leanings in the large, uninterested crowd, but in a political battle, these were not at all helpful, not to mention the fact they were still somewhat intimidated by Sirius, even with him being cleared of all wrongdoing.

The reason it was only Sirius there and not Remus still stung the old Marauder in the heart; after their intense disagreement over the last break, contact between him and his oldest friend had been hurtfully sparse, and Sirius could still not really figure out, why. After all, Remus had been livid about Harry's treatment when he heard of it, so why was he again thinking of Dumbledore as the great 'Leader of the Light' again? Was Dumbledore that good at rhetoric, that capable a manipulator of thoughts and feelings, or was something more potent than simple words involved.

The magnificently intelligent dog's, at least he liked to think of himself that way, even though Harry had derived a worrying amount of joy from calling him old mutt, meandering thoughts were cut off by a well-known scarlet tank-engine happily chugging its way into the station, being greeted by the happy parents.

One of the first to be out was who could only belong to Molly Weasley; this attribution was made easy by the fact that said boy stormed out of the train with surprising fervour and started what seemed like ranting mixed with an inordinate amount of whining. Knowing what his year had likely been like, a young boy completely without any kind of guile or family influence and money, being in Slytherin could not have been easy. From what his godson and ward, Sirius thought that particular thought as often as possible, just to get used to it, he was not coping well; still, it did not seem like he was trying that much anyway.

During Sirius' musings, another group of passengers had left the train, and this was the one he had been waiting for, for it included Harry and Hermione, as well as their friends. The only one missing was Daphne, but the exclusion of the girl he now saw leaving the train through another door, clearly showed; they were all much less enthusiastic than their peers.

"Hey, pup," he greeted his godson, still in hopes of encouraging the image of a wise, yet still young and vibrant pack alpha. "Hermione."

"Mutt," his plan was handed back to him in shambles by the girl he had greeted second, before he was engulfed in a hug by first Harry and then Hermione; it was still an unusual feeling, but definitely one he wanted to get used to again. After adults and children had exchanged well-wishes for the time they would be unable to see each other, as short as it might be with Neville, Harry, Hermione and maybe even Susan, only one particularly hard farewell remained.

By the time Hermione and Harry were done saying goodbye, somewhat out of Sirius' sight, they were the only ones left on the platform. Without much further ado, although obviously still very sad, Hermione stepped through the barrier and was gone.

A now rather deflated Harry Potter was taken on a trip of side-along apparition to Potter Castle.

OOOOOOOO

AN: Sorry for the long wait folks, especially after that mean cliff-hanger. I could not really get this chapter on track, and am still unsure about it; so I hope you like it. Plus, the heat-wave we had in central Europe did not help by drying out my creative juices.

Enjoy your day,

alexandertheII

he said desponkkkk