Hope this chapter was subpar.
"He's going to be alright honey." Emma stated, looping her arm around her daughter as they sat inside the castle. "We both know that something like that monster won't be enough to take down your boyfriend."
"How can you confidently say that mum?" Hermione whispered, her eyes staring at the floor. "Harry's going up against the most dangerous person of all time and he's doing it alone. He needs me out there! I know that I can help him!"
Emma sighed, "And what if you get hurt? Or worse die? How can you be so selfish like that?"
"Selfish?" Hermione asked, a shock expression on her face. "Please tell me how I'm selfish mother? Is it wrong that I want to have Harry's back? That I want to make sure that the man I love will make it back home?"
"Do not take that tone with me Hermione." Emma snapped, glaring as if she was daring her only daughter to try to cross her. "Do not for one second think that you are the only one who cares about Harry. I care about him just as much as you do and if I had my choice, neither of you would be here right now. We would be somewhere in America hiding out."
"Mum..."
"Do you think your father is okay with just sitting here? Have you not notice just how jumpy he is? He wants to be out there more, regardless of who or what creature he's facing. He wants to be the one standing in front of Harry but instead, he's been told to just stay inside where he's safe." Emma rattled on. "Can you ever imagine a world where your father has done anything safe?"
Hermione shook her head, a small smile on her face. "Is that why you banned him from the kitchen?"
"The man melted the glass off my pot honey. In an oven. How can someone turn on an oven without checking if there's anything inside of it first!"
"Is this how you feel when daddy does something stupid? Or when... I come back to Hogwarts?"
Emma nodded her head. "I'm your mother honey. I'm always going to worry about the people that I care about and that includes Harry. Can you imagine what Harry just go through if he has to worry about you while fighting that monster?"
"What should I do then mum? I feel so helpless just sitting here doing nothing."
"There's always something to do sweetheart. I'm sure if you asked, your professor can give you a list of things. As long as Harry knows that the people who love him are safe, he's going to do his best to win and come home."
Just as the conversation was going, they were suddenly interrupted with several loud noises of a bell chime echoing through the castle. Hermione stood up looking confused. "What's going on?"
A student suddenly ran into their room, the doors banging itself against the wall from the sheer force, "It's over!" The boy shouted. "He's won!" Just as quickly as he relayed the message, the boy was gone and onto the room.
Emma smiled and pulled Hermione into a big hug. "See. Now come on, let's find your father and go outside. I'm sure you want to find Harry."
The Grangers made their way into the Great Hall, loud cheering noises erupting from everyone inside the castle. Celebratory fireworks were lit up into the ceiling and the professors did nothing but smile as they too felt the same. Hermione grabbed onto her mother's hand as they pushed their way out of the Hall. They found Daniel already waiting by the doors, waiting anxiously for them as well.
"Are you ready?"
Both of the women nodded. "Is it bad outside?" Hermione asked, slightly afraid.
Daniel nodded his head. "I'm not going to lie to you. This is what war looks like and I want you to remember it. Even though I pray that it will never happen again, we should never forget the sacrifices that people made to achieve this victory. War is not pretty. It is messy and dangerous and I don't want anyone to forget that."
He grabbed both of their hands and they walked out the door together, united as a family. The sight outside was worse than anything he could have imagined. The smell of burnt flesh was in the air and he did everything in his power not to vomit from it. Bodies were on the ground, some of them missing limbs and even some that didn't have an upper torso.
"My god..." He heard his wife gasp.
"Don't look at them. Focus on Harry."
On his left, he felt his daughter shivering and pulled her closer. Sounds of wild animals from the forest made their walk quicker as no one wanted to find out which animal made those noises.
As they reached the courtyard, they stopped momentarily and stared at the destruction that unfolded here. Daniel could only imagine just how bad it would have been for Harry.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled, her eyes frantically scanning for her boyfriend. "HARRY!"
Emma and Daniel then started to walk around, each one of them yelling for Harry as well. "Do you think he's..."
Daniel shook his head. "The boy's alive. If he died like this then our Hermione would have kicked his ass for it."
While her parents were off searching for Harry on one side, she found Headmaster Snape walking in from the right. "Headmaster!" She waved to get his attention before running over. "Did you find Harry? Is he alright?"
Snape shook his head. "Miss Granger! What did I tell you earlier about coming out here? It's still dangerous and we haven't done a sweep of the courtyard yet."
"It's fine Snape." Kingsley chimed in, limping into the conversation. "You can feel it too don't you Miss Granger."
"Feel what?" Hermione asked, confused.
"The magic in the air." The Auror pointed out. "Or more properly, the lack of magic. Ever since the fight between Voldemort and Harry ended, I can't seem to pinpoint any kind of magic and that's strange because we're standing on Hogwarts, the school that was built with Magic. The founders themselves poured their magic into this place so I find it very disturbing that nothing is left."
The information suddenly clicked in Hermione's head. "Does that mean that..."
"I can only hope Miss Granger." Snape said, finishing her thought. "This is why I didn't want you out here in the first place. If Voldemort is alive, he is still dangerous and because we still have no clue what happened, this area is considered closed to the general population which includes you.
Just as Hermione was about to argue that point, her parents suddenly shouted Harry's name and before she knew it, her feet carried her over to Harry's side. "Harry!" She cried out. The fear of losing him were slowly becoming a reality when she saw the amount of blood on the ground.
"Don't touch him." Snape firmly said. "We need to make sure nothing is broken." He cast a simple diagnostic charm and let out a sigh of relief when it showed a weak pulse coming from Harry's body. Looking over the readings, he then started to levitate Harry slowly off the ground. "Potter is fine Miss Granger. He's lost a lot of blood and has a severely depleted core so with your permission, can I take him to Poppy?"
Hermione nodded, her hand gently holding onto Harry's. "Did he win?" She whispered.
"I don't know Miss Granger. Please go inside while I try to make sense of what happened here." Kingsley said. He turned back around and sighed. If he had to take his guess, it must have been terrible here. To see Harry lying on top of a pool of blood made him sick to his stomach. By all means, the kid should have been dead but it's a miracle that he's not.
The biggest question now is what happened to Voldemort? He pulled out his wand and did a quick scan for body heat and when the results came back negative, he was scratching his head. Did his body just vanish in the battle or was it destroyed?
I guess the only person who can answer that right now would be Harry Potter himself...
"Pomfrey! I need your assistance now!" Snape yelled as he barged into the infirmary. Wasting no time, he motioned for Hermione to clear off the bed before carefully lowering Harry onto the bed. "He's alive but he needs medical attention now!"
Pomfrey came out quickly, holding several potions that Hermione recognized. Blood replenisher, skele-grow just to name a few. "My god... How did this even happen?"
"Never mind the how." Snape argued, "We need to get him patched up now."
"I know how to do my job." Pomfrey retorted. "I need to know how he came across these injuries so I can treat him." She looked around for any kind of answer but when she found none, she sighed. "Okay everyone out. I need space to do a full diagnostics. It's going to be an hour before I even consider letting anyone back into this room.
Hermione bit her lips, a side of her wanting to argue. "He's going to be fine dear." She heard Pomfrey whispering to her. She saw the kind look that the medi-witch was giving her. "Now please let me do my job."
When everyone finally cleared the room, Pomfrey lightly flickered Harry on his forehead. "Your father never gave me his much trouble Mister Potter." That was the last thing she said before going into work. There were numerous cuts and wounds but the one that gave her the most trouble was the famous scar. No matter how many times she tried to stop the bleed, it wouldn't stop. After a few moments, she realized that where was something stuck inside and with careful precision, a small piece of stone was removed from the scar.
Pomfrey pondered for a few seconds before deciding that it was probably debris that got caught during the crossfire. With other injuries like mending broken bones, she didn't pay much attention to that small piece of stone because if she did, she would have seen it glow for a few seconds.
Kingsley was positive that Voldemort was dead. He should have announced it to the world but he didn't.
He couldn't.
There was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that until he heard the full story, he couldn't afford to celebrate. There was no way that he can allow a repeat of history again. Fighting Voldemort once was enough for him and if the bastard somehow came back, he's afraid that there won't be anyone left to stand up to him.
He lifted several stones hoping to find some kind of evidence that Voldemort was dead but unfortunately there was nothing. There was no body, no residue of the dark wizard. Kingsley scratched his head for a few seconds before wondering how that was even possible.
The only thing that wasn't touched in this battle was the Veil.
What a strange object. He could see scorch marks surrounding the artifact but other than that, it didn't look like it was even touched. As he approached the Veil, his skin started tingling and every one of his instincts were screaming for him to stop.
"Don't touch it." An ethereal voice echoed and Kingsley immediately halted his advance. He turned around and began looking for the person who warned him to stop. He could have swore he was alone right now. "We don't want another accident..."
"Whose there?" He shouted, hoping to draw the person out, his wand already in hand.
When no one answered him, he sighed and then pocketed the wand. "They always said when you start hearing voices, it's time to go..." He muttered, walking away.
If he had just believed, even for one second, he would have seen a green light floating around the Veil, and if he looked closer into that light, he would have seen a smiling ghostly figure.
Almost there !