Chapter Thirty-Five.
Making Plans.

To Harry, it had felt like hours before Hermione returned to the common room. He had managed to complete a whole essay by the time she got back, with a few glances at the one Ron had just finished. There were a lot more people in the common room than usual, with lessons back the next day, Harry guessed they were all rushing to do there homework that they had left till the last minute. He spotted Lavender in the corner getting very agitated with Parvarti who was more interested in talking to Seamus than helping her with her work. He stared silently at the rain splashing down hard on the windows, and the rumbling thunder coming from outside, only to be taken out of his thoughts by a soaking wet Hermione sitting in the armchair next to him. Her bushy hair now stuck to the side of her face soaking wet and dripping onto the common room carpet, shivering from the cold. Everyone seemed to look up at her interestedly wondering why she had been outside in a thunderstorm. Hermione didn't notice this as she took out her wand and pointed it towards herself sitting by the fire. Her robes and hair became immediately dry without her uttering a sound and Harry, had to admit he was impressed with how well she had managed non – verbal spells recently. He had a feeling she'd been practising a lot.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked, sitting opposite her playing with a fanged frisbee that he had confiscated from a fifth year.

"Remember I said I had maybe found something to help Harry's hand?" Hermione beamed looking very pleased with herself, glancing from Harry to Ron who nodded. "I went to see Slughorn and – those are against the rules." Hermione grabbed the Frisbee Ron had just been throwing and put it inside her robes.

"Give that back!" Ron demanded looking annoyed and ruffling his hair, once again reminding Harry of a certain marauder he had seen in Snape's pensieve. As Hermione opened her mouth to respond Harry interrupted.

"Hermione, you were saying."

"Right." Hermione turned to Harry and pulled out two small bottles. One bottle half filled with yellow bubbling liquid inside, and the other was half filled with a smooth light blue liquid. "As Slughorn taught potions last year, and he knows about the you know…" Hermione lowered her voice to a whisper. "Horcruxes. I thought he would be the person to talk to. Now, he said Dumbledore had come to him about his hand, but as Dumbledore wouldn't tell him what happened it was hard for him to help. Oh no! Don't worry I didn't tell him about anything I wasn't supposed to." Hermione said quickly reading the look on Harry's face.

"Good." Harry said quickly, eager to hear the rest.

"He said it would always be scarred. But this can help. Just take it twice a day until you feel it start to heal. I've looked at the potion, and to me it looks pretty simple." She poured the blue liquid into the container with the yellow liquid carefully. Putting the lid on top and shook them together as they now merged and made a silver colour. As Hermione took off the top, smoke rose out of it and it bubbled lightly.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Harry said looking over at the potion uncertainly.

"Yes, it's exactly how the book Slughorn gave me says it's supposed to look." Hermione said impatiently thrusting the potion towards him and laying the other now empty bottle on the table in front of them.

"It looks disgusting." Ron grimaced eyeing the potion with a revolted look on his face.

"I guess it can't be any worse than polyjuice potion." Harry joked taking the bottle and holding it to his lips not even daring to smell the potion as he downed it in one. Surprisingly the potion seemed to taste of nothing but all the same was warm as it trickled down his throat. Minutes later a tingling sensation appeared in his hand.

"Thanks." Harry grinned at Hermione who looked satisfied. "Tell us the rest then." He placed the bottle he had just drank out of next to the other one and gently poked at his bandaged hand to see if there was any difference, knowing the answer straight away as he pulled away in pain.

"Harry it's not going to work immediately and what makes you think I have anymore to tell?" Hermione said.

"Trust me, by looking at you its obvious there's more." Ron muttered. Harry knew what he meant, Hermione looked like she was bursting to tell them something else just as she had done a few minutes ago.

"Ok well yes there is. I asked him about making horcruxes into living things. As you can imagine, he was reluctant to answer at first. Quite taken aback by the question I think, but after a little persuasion he said he really didn't know that much. But he knew that it wouldn't be a very wise thing to do. To entrust a part of your soul into a living creature, but it was possible. And knowing Voldemort there would most likely be protection on it, just like all the others. Wouldn't be able to be as strong though." Hermione said this in a lowered voice glancing around the room to make sure no one was listening in on what she was saying. Ron and Harry were both leaned forwards towards her listening intently.

"So, its possible Nagini can't be killed with just a killing curse." Harry asked disappointedly.

"Yes. That's what we have to assume. But we can try." Hermione replied.

"How do we even get to the thing? It's always around Voldemort." Ron now said Voldemort's name without fear. The three of them didn't speak for a moment as Ron studied Hermione as if looking for the answer. "Killing two birds with one stone then?" He asked staring at Hermione who's face brightened.

"Ron, that's exactly what I was thinking."

"Ok, easy now all we need to do is get them both alone and kill them. No problem." Harry mumbled sarcastically.

"We never said it was going to be easy." Ron said.

"I have a plan…I just, Harry please hear it all before you just say no." Hermione said looking uneasy.

"OK, what is it." Harry said thinking that right now, any plan would do. As so far they had none.

"Well." Hermione began and paused. "I think Malfoy is the key to this. We convince him to contact Voldemort…or a death eater saying he has one of the horcruxes. He'll say we've been hiding him for months but finally he's managed to take something from us after following us and listening to our conversations he knew what we were doing. There's no way Voldemort could know how many we've destroyed. For all he knows, Malfoy has one."

"One little problem, we can't trust Malfoy. And neither can Voldemort, you think he's just going to turn up unaware and alone? Not even Crabbe and Goyle are that stupid." Harry said.

"I'd bet they are." Ron snorted.

"My guess is, Voldemort is so desperate for one of his horcruxes he would have to know if Malfoy had one of them, there's no way he wouldn't at least get someone to see if he really did have one." Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Maybe, that still doesn't sort out the Malfoy problem. So anyway, what's the rest of the plan." Harry said hastily.

"We need help from the order. Gather everyone on our side together. When Voldemort meets Malfoy this is when it will happen, we fight. I don't expect Voldemort to turn up alone. I half expect him to guess what's going on and I expect him to come prepared. But he won't be the only side who's come prepared. So really, it doesn't matter if Malfoy betrays us. This is just a time for Malfoy to choose which side he's really on. He's just the source of contact. This way, we choose where it happens. The horcrux plan is just worth a shot, that's what I figured anyway" Hermione took a deep breath waiting for Harry's response.

"So were just picking a fight with them?" Harry said.

"It makes sense. It's better than being attacked unaware, and it's our best shot of getting to Voldemort. Even if him and the snake aren't there, we can capture a few death eaters…use veritaserum and well, you get the rest. We find Voldemort." Ron said looking impressed at Hermione's plan.

"And if we lose?" Harry said uncertainly.

"It's a chance we'll have to take." Hermione said.

"Now, we don't have to tell the order about the horcruxes, that's really up to you. Just make it clear we need to kill that snake. Anyone see's it and they go for it, but we have to let them know just how dangerous it could be." Hermione said seriously.

"Like they'd be able to get near Voldemort anyway." Harry said. "What makes you think he'll stick around? Or any of them will stick around."

"Since when have death eaters ever turned down a fight?" Ron said finally.

After a while of talking, Harry, Ron and Hermione had agreed to tell Lupin and Mcgonagall about there decision immediately. The sooner this was over, the better. All three of them unsure how the order would react to going into a full on battle with Voldemort and his followers and how many people they would get to help them. Harry had mixed feelings about the whole thing, he half hoped that the plan would go ahead, and half hoped the order would tell them it was ridiculous, that they were just kids and no such plan was going ahead. But he knew this was the only way to get to Voldemort. He wasn't just the kind of wizard you could walk up to and kill. If he was going to get the last horcrux and finish off Voldemort he needed help. Harry had always known it would come down to this, the final battle. He just didn't expect it to come so soon. In a few days, by tomorrow, next week, would he have become a murderer? Or will you be dead? Another voice in his head popped up. Thoughts were racing in his mind, which seemed to have gone into overdrive.

Harry had one sinking feeling. It didn't even seem possible that the order and whoever else joined them would win against Voldemort. Was he just leading a bunch of innocent people to there deaths? Harry clenched onto the side of the chair with all his might. He, Ron and Hermione were all sitting in silence, each of them deep in thought. As Harry had wanted to explain to Ginny what was happening before they went to Mcgonagall's office, he finally got up and set off to look for her in the library where she was doing last minute homework with Luna. Ron and Hermione had followed him, Ron saying all the way down that his sister was to stay out of this and would be fighting with them over his dead body.

"That's really not a very good choice of words Ron." Hermione smiled taking his hand and squeezing it nervously looking for reassurance. Which she received as Ron put an arm around her and whispered something in her ear, which Harry couldn't hear.

"I agree though. There's no way Ginny's coming. And I've been thinking, I don't want you two there either. I just couldn't stand it if..." Harry stopped and looked at the floor walking next to Ron down the corridor toward the library.

"No way. We've come this far; if we die…well you know. We die." Ron said coolly, although his expression didn't represent his tone. Harry said nothing knowing it was useless to argue and carried on walking, his arms folded tightly. Once they'd found Ginny, the four of them walked up to Mcgonagall's office as Ron, Harry and Hermione filled her in. She said nothing about fighting with them, though Harry knew it was the only thing that was on her mind. As Harry walked with them, thoughts came back into his mind. Was this war finally going to come to an end? And what kind of state would the wizarding world be in when it was over. He just prayed the order had some damn good fighters on there side.