XXXVI
And neither can the flood drown it
Sirius awoke with hazy vision and a horrible ache in his back. It took a matter of seconds for him to remember where he was and what had just happened. His head snapped up from the grassy spot it had been resting on, eyes opening quickly.
The forest and the clearing around the cottage were completely empty. Sirius cursed to the gods, getting up from the ground and ignoring the screaming pains in nearly ever part of his body. The blackout had caused him to shift back into human form. He quickly checked himself over for a werewolf bite but found nothing.
Forgetting his other injuries, Sirius sprinted towards the cottage, swinging the door open and finding the interior empty. Outside there was nothing. The wards were gone and all that remained of the encounter with the Death Eaters was a bit of spell damage. He looked up at the sky, noting that the moon was reaching a peak. He'd been unconscious for a long time. He needed to get back to the Estate fast and get the others to help him find Hermione and Remus before something truly awful happened.
The only problem was that he couldn't go straight to the Estate without a Portkey. He'd have to go to Hogwarts and find Dumbledore. Sirius pulled out his wand and Disapparated to Hogsmeade with a loud crack.
Hermione drifted into consciousness slowly. First, she recognized that some sort of magic bound her limbs tightly to her sides. Next, she realized that she was being levitated, slowly moving forward at a steady pace. Lastly, her sense of smell came back to her, and she recognized two distinct scents among several other unfamiliar ones. The scents she recognized were those of Remus and Fenrir Greyback.
Hermione opened her eyes, unable to move while under whatever magical bind this was, but still able to see. Above her were slowly passing treetops and a starry sky. They were still in the woods somewhere, and the trees looked similar to those at Remus' cottage.
"There it is," a gruff, unfamiliar male voice called out, "just through here."
Hermione didn't know what the man was talking about, but a moment later she heard it: there were many other voices drifting towards them. She could pick up on some of their scents as well, but none were recognizable.
Wait… no… there was one scent she recognized. It took her all of three seconds to place it as belonging to Lucius Malfoy.
This night was just getting worse and worse.
Hermione tried her hardest to tilt her head in any direction. She knew that Remus was somewhere to her right, but she just couldn't get her body to move. She didn't dare risk speaking and alerting anyone that she was conscious. Instead, she held onto the stability that Remus' scent provided her and tried to think of a way to get out of this alive.
Everything at the cottage had happened so fast. She could hardly remember some of it now. All she knew was that one moment Remus was spinning her around and telling her that he loved her, and the next Greyback was charging at them and Death Eaters were tearing down the wards.
The wards. Professor Snape had created them. She knew they'd been extremely strong wards, and was still quite confused at how their location was discovered. Of course, Remus had stepped outside the wards for just a second, but that should have only alerted people already in the area to her presence. Had Greyback been tracking them somehow?
Perhaps Professor Snape had been alerted to the collapse of the wards. With many powerful barriers like that, the creator's magical core was closely connected to the spell work. Hermione remembered reading about ward creators knowing when their spells had been dismantled or destroyed. She could only hope that Snape was aware and was going to alert the Order.
"Finally," a voice called out from ahead, "the Dark Lord is waiting."
It took Hermione a second to realize that this voice belonged to Lucius Malfoy, and that he was now approaching them. A shiver ran down her spine at the mention of Voldemort. The voices behind Malfoy were louder now, the scents stronger. Hermione tried to pick out a scent she could affiliate with Voldemort, but nothing came to her. That caused another shiver to run down her spine. She didn't know how they were going to get out of this alive, and she really didn't want to know what Voldemort had in store for Remus and herself.
In seconds, Hermione felt herself being surrounded by a new wave of people. Up above, she no longer saw any treetops. They were in some sort of clearing.
"Ah, our guests have finally arrived," a sinister voice said. Hermione knew instantly that it was Voldemort. She felt a cool sweat break out on her forehead.
"Put them down, Yaxley, and release the body bind," the same disembodied voice spoke, "it appears they've both awoken just in time to make my acquaintance."
Hermione fell from her position suspended in the air, her limbs coming free of the bind and barely breaking her fall on the cold, hard ground. Her head snapped forward and she found Voldemort first among the crowd. He looked just as Harry always described him: beady red eyes, deathly pale skin, and a menacing smile on his face. He stood at the other end of the large clearing they were in, masked Death Eaters surrounding him left and right.
Her gaze turned to Remus next; he was a few feet away from her on the ground. She could see his chest rise and fall rapidly as he tried to find his wand in his pockets. Hermione tried to inconspicuously check for her wand as well, but she knew they had taken it from her. Remus met her gaze after a moment, his expression tight, worry lines creasing his forehead.
"I have to admit," Voldemort spoke again, stepping towards Hermione and Remus at a leisurely pace, "I'm quite intrigued by the fact that you are both werewolves, yet neither of you has transformed during this lovely full moon."
Just as he said these words, a low growl emitted from somewhere behind Hermione. She whipped her head around and saw a giant grey wolf stalking towards her. Greyback must have taken Wolfsbane, because there was certainly no way he would be here right now and not be attacking every human in the vicinity without it. He stalked closer to Hermione, teeth bared. She felt Remus quickly attempt to shift closer to her, as if trying to cut off Greyback's access to her. However, before he could reach her, some sort of shocking spell hit him.
Remus recoiled, letting out a harsh yell and gripping his arm, where he'd been hit. Hermione looked for where the spell had come from and saw a masked Death Eater with long platinum hair flowing out of the hood of his robe. She scowled at Malfoy, and wanted nothing more than to transform into a wolf right now and tear his throat out.
"Enough," Voldemort barked. Greyback and Malfoy immediately took a step back, training their eyes on their Dark Lord. "I want to hear an explanation from the Mudblood," he continued, red eyes falling on Hermione.
She didn't speak, just mustering all of her bravery and meeting Voldemort's gaze. When she felt him start to push at her mental barriers in what she figured was Legilimency, she looked away from his eyes. There was no way she was going to willingly give up information to this monster, even if it was probably harmless at this point.
"I don't have all night," Voldemort intoned, "Lucius?"
On command, Malfoy raised his wand, pointing it at Hermione. She was certain there was a gleeful smirk underneath that mask. Before he could do anything, Remus pushed himself off the ground again and knelt in front of Hermione, cutting off Lucius' view of her. "It was a potion," he said quickly, mouth setting in a grim line.
Hermione frowned at Remus, but he didn't turn around to look at her. Voldemort waved Lucius off, and the man lowered his wand disappointedly. Despite being angry that Remus had done that to protect her, she was glad Malfoy didn't get any satisfaction out of injuring her.
"What potion?" Voldemort inquired.
This time, Hermione reached forward and gripped Remus' arm tightly. She didn't want them to know everything. If they did, she had no idea what they'd do with the knowledge.
"It's not important," Hermione said after a moment of Remus' silence, "what are we doing here? We can't tell you where Harry is if that's what you want. We don't even know." It wasn't a complete lie; she couldn't say the location of the Estate even if she wanted to because of the Fidelius charm.
Still, Voldemort stepped closer, and she could tell he wanted to use Legilimency on her. Hermione turned her head away, and so did Remus. However, soon she felt some sort of spell controlling the muscles in her neck, forcing her to turn her head to face him. She tried to shut her eyes but couldn't. Voldemort's gaze bore into hers, and she felt him enter her mind.
It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before, and it made her feel sick to her stomach. Hermione remembered reading up on Occulmency, and tried her best to shield her mind from him, but it was no use. Putting up strong defenses against someone as powerful as Voldemort took years of practice. She was helpless.
He rifled around in her mind with brutal carelessness. She watched as memories replayed over in her head, of her time at Hogwarts and of her childhood growing up. With each memory that Voldemort drew forward he would throw it aside a moment later. She felt like her head was being cluttered, and the beginnings of a horrible headache formed.
Finally, Voldemort came to a string of memories that he was looking for. He flew through Hermione's memory of her graduation, and then the next morning when Dumbledore had informed them that they would be leaving, to Snape's Estate. A strange rage overtook Hermione at the sight of her mind's vision of Snape. It took her a second to realize that it wasn't her rage, but Voldemort's. He was only now finding out about Snape's betrayal.
The memories continued; first they arrived by Portkey to the Estate, then they settled in for the night. In a truly sickening moment, Voldemort watched the entire conversation Hermione had with Remus in the greenhouse on their second evening at the Estate. It was highly disturbing to think that Voldemort was taking any sort of interest in her romantic relationship with Remus.
Next he came to her memories about developing and testing the potion. He viewed nearly all of them, and by the end Hermione was certain he knew everything there was to know about the improved Wolfsbane.
After another moment or two of him tossing aside memory after memory, he withdrew from her mind.
Hermione was thrown backwards on the ground with the force of his departure. Her head ached terribly, and she felt like she might throw up. Remus was immediately at her side, asking if she was okay, but he was hit again with another shocking spell. This time, he stayed away.
Hermione sat up slowly, trying to calm her racing heartbeat and the throbbing in her head. The worst of the pain was fading away, but she felt horribly violated. Plus, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd just betrayed the secrets of every single one of her friends. Especially Snape; she'd just given away his true allegiance to Dumbledore.
"Where are they, my lord?" a high-pitched voice called out from behind Voldemort. Hermione watched the woman approach and peer at Voldemort with a mad reverence. It must have been Bellatrix Lestrange.
Voldemort watched Hermione with a grimace on his ugly face. "It appears that Severus has been betraying me for a long time, hiding Potter and his friends away in some family property."
"But we checked Spinner's End weeks ago," Bellatrix muttered.
"Another property. Some Estate. Dumbledore is the Secret Keeper. Plus it appears that the Blood Wards are active there." Voldemort's eyes focused on Hermione with a renewed keenness, "We'll have to lure Potter out."
"Sir?" A voice from behind Hermione spoke up. She didn't dare look back, not wanting to see Greyback glowering behind her.
"Yes, Yaxley?" Voldemort intoned with an air of boredom.
"There was another one with them," Yaxley said, voice shaking nervously, "a-at the house. An Animagus. I think it was Black."
For the first time since waking up, Hermione remembered Sirius. Was he okay? He'd hit the tree pretty badly and not gotten up off the ground. Beside her, Remus shared the same worried expression.
"Well what did you do with him?" Voldemort snapped, glowering at the man now.
"We… uh… we left him there. He was pretty beaten up. Unconscious when we left."
Voldemort clenched his yellow teeth together. "And you didn't think to tell me this earlier?" he asked, his voice filled with barely-contained rage.
"Uh… no, my lord. I'm sorry."
Voldemort looked like he was about to murder Yaxley, but then within a second all his anger fizzled away. "That actually works quite nicely," he said, withdrawing his wand and turning it over in his hand, "Potter will probably already know what has happened to his precious werewolves. I'll just send him one more message to assist him in finding us here…"
The look on his face had Hermione extremely worried. So he was going to use them to lure Harry in, but surely someone would stop Harry from coming here… right? The Order would find out and together they would devise a plan that didn't involve putting Harry in danger. In the grand scheme of things, Hermione and Remus didn't matter as much as Harry.
"Lucius?" Voldemort beckoned the Death Eater to him. "Where is that blade?"
Hermione felt her palms grow clammy. She knew where this was going and she really didn't like it.
"Here, my lord." Malfoy obediently drew something from his robes. When Voldemort retrieved it and held it up in the moonlight it glimmered. Hermione could tell just by the sadistic grin on Voldemort's face that it was pure silver.
Voldemort faced Hermione and Remus again. "Despite this potion the two of you seem to have come up with, you are still Werewolves, and we all know that any werewolf has a special weakness to silver…"
Sirius had arrived at the Estate with Dumbledore only moments ago and already the majority of the house had descended into a state of utter panic.
Harry was the worst out of anyone. "We have to find them, we're wasting time!" he yelled, not sure who in particular he was speaking to at the moment. Everyone had collected together in the entry hall to see what was going on.
"I know, Harry," Sirius said, putting a hand on either side of Harry's shoulders, "and we're going to find them, but first we need to figure out a safe plan of action."
Harry wanted to scream. Why was Sirius choosing this moment to be so rational? He wanted to get to Remus' house as fast as he could and track them down from there. Of course, realistically, they were probably hundreds of miles from that location, wherever Voldemort's lair was.
"Well put, Sirius," Dumbledore said, standing at the front of the group, "Severus, can you describe again what you know about the wards at Remus' home?"
Snape stood near the back of the crowd, and intense expression on his face. "I know hardly anything. The wards were breached from the inside and then attacked for several minutes in order to completely dismantle them."
"So one of them stepped outside the wards?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"Yeah," Sirius breathed, running a hand through his hair, "like I said before, Remus accidentally put his foot outside the wards for a second. Then they started attacking."
For some reason, Harry felt a surge of anger at Remus.
Dumbledore nodded. "Severus, are you certain you don't know where they are?"
Snape shook his head. "He hasn't spoken in a long time. I've been excluded from a few meetings and last I heard they vacated Malfoy Manor. Unless Voldemort activates my Dark Mark, I can't locate them."
There was a moment of silence before Dumbledore spoke again, "we can send a team out to Remus' house to investigate. Other than that, I don't believe there is anything else that can be done at this…"
Harry could no longer hear the words coming out of Dumbledore's mouth. His hearing faded into a vague buzz of words. A second later, his vision started to black out and he felt himself falling backwards. Harry knew what was happening before he hit the ground. These visions hadn't happened since fifth year, but he still remembered them perfectly.
The first thing he saw through Voldemort's vision was a shining knife, held up in the air by what felt like Harry's own hand. In the background of the knife were several figures surrounded by trees. He picked out Hermione and Remus among them instantly, and the form of a huge grey wolf behind Hermione. They were kneeling on the ground, and both wore fearful expressions.
"Potter," Voldemort hissed, the word reverberating in Harry's mind, "I have your werewolves, as I sure you know by now."
With these words, Harry stepped forward, watching as the pale white hand of Voldemort stretched out in front of him, still wielding the knife. He walked towards Hermione and Remus, not caring about any of the cloaked Death Eaters behind them or even the glowering wolf. Remus watched Voldemort with a scowl set into his face, his wide eyes betraying his confusion and fear. Beside him, Hermione looked grimly determined. She knew exactly what Voldemort was doing. After all, she'd experienced most of Harry's visions back in fifth year. She shook her head slowly, looking directly into Harry's – or Voldemort's – eyes. She was trying to tell him not to give into whatever was about to happen.
"You have ten minutes to come here before I kill them," Voldemort's voice echoed. As he said these words, Harry watched the same pale hand bring the blade up to Hermione's face. She tried to move away, but Voldemort's other hand flicked his wand and she could no longer move. The blade rested against her cheek and she cried out in pain. Harry realized that it was silver. He'd recalled Hermione once telling him that silver caused extreme amounts of pain to werewolves, like acid burning the skin. Wounds with silver weapons were dramatically worse than any other.
The worst part of all of this was that, to Harry, he was the one pressing the blade to Hermione's face, making her cry out in pain.
The blade cut into her skin, drawing drops of bright red blood. Hermione screamed again, louder. Remus was shouting something in the periphery of Harry's vision, but it appeared that he couldn't move either. Harry just wanted to get the hell out of Voldemort's mind and come here as soon as possible.
"Severus will bring you here," Voldemort was speaking again, "The two of you will come alone. I will know if you bring any others and I will kill her instantly if you do."
In a split second, the vision cut out. Harry's view faded from the forest. When he opened his eyes again he was staring up at the ceiling. Ginny and Ron were leaning over him, trying to rouse him awake.
Harry sat up stiffly, looking around the room, noting that all eyes were on him. Dumbledore pushed forward and knelt at his side, "what was it, Harry?"
Harry took a shuddering breath, "They were in a forest somewhere. He's going to kill them if I don't come. I have to go." His words came out jumbled and rushed. Dumbledore appeared to understand them anyway. The old wizard opened his mouth as if to say something, but was cut off.
Snape let out a harsh breath, standing to Harry's left and clutching his arm. "He's calling me," he said through clenched teeth.
"He told me to go with Snape," Harry sputtered, "alone. He'll kill Hermione if anyone else comes."
Sirius stepped into Harry's view, shaking his head. "Absolutely not. We'll send everyone and attack immediately."
"Yeah," Ron intoned, standing up beside Sirius, "All of us at once can handle them. We'll get Hermione and Remus to safety and then fight."
Harry knew that Sirius and Ron's idea of charging in like that wasn't going to work, but he saw the appeal behind it. He was itching for a fight like this. It was time to end the war. Voldemort was practically inviting them in.
Snape scowled, "you think he'd allow me to Apparate more than one person? It's an idiotic idea that he's certainly considered. I'll be able to take Potter alone. No one else."
"I'll go," Harry said, finally feeling steady enough to stand from the ground.
"No you won't!" Mrs. Weasley cut in.
The whole room broke into yelling and arguments. Everyone was trying to say what they thought should be done, none listening to any others.
"He said I have ten minutes before he kills them," Harry shouted, his words causing the room to quiet down once more.
Dumbledore had been silent and pensive, listening to the suggestions around him but not saying anything else. At last, he spoke. "We'll use a Portkey. Professor McGonagall and myself have been working on developing undetectable Portkeys that work through wards. Severus and Harry will be there alone just long enough to get Hermione and Remus to safety, then Severus will activate the Portkey."
"We can't just send Harry in there alone," Sirius interjected.
"He won't be alone, Black," Snape sneered.
"I think it sounds perfect," said Harry.
Dumbledore's eyes fell on Harry for a long moment before he nodded. "I'll prepare the Portkey. We need everyone available to go." Dumbledore scanned the room, "Draco, Narcissa, we could use your assistance."
Harry looked over to Draco and his mother. Draco nodded and took his mother's hand. "We'll do whatever we can."
Around the room, everyone nodded in agreement. Harry noticed that Ginny looked more determined than almost anyone else. He wanted to beg her to stay here, but he knew it was no use asking someone like Ginny to stay out of a fight. Everyone would go in together- it was all or nothing.
Author's Note: The entire final battle was initially one chapter, but it got to about 7,500 words and I decided to split it in half. Luckily, though, I have the rest of the story (aside from the epilogue) finished, so you should get your conclusion soon!