I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. Some noticeable sections are from 'Lord of the Rings' by J.R.R Tolkien, which again, I do not own. Thank you to everyone who has read this story to this point, even if you did so to clown on it. And a special thanks to reviewer 'fhl1234' for adding both this story and its predecessor to a community of other series'. I have now followed this and have started to read through some of the other stories on there.
Harry was still running for his life or, walking for his life, as he knew the snake now had to rely only on hearing his footsteps. Finding a dead end, he went to turn back the way he came, only to come face-to-face with the phantom boy, Tom Riddle again. "You are lucky I can't touch you or pick up a wand yet, though when Ginny Weasley is dead, I shall rule Hogwarts and Britain itself with you out of my way!" Tom shouted and Harry knew it would be only a matter of seconds before the giant serpent showed its snout again. Sure enough, when Harry tried to move out of the way, to the next tunnel, the gargantuan beast turned the corner. "Avis," Harry whispered thinking of Fawkes' song from earlier. This spell was brand new to him, being thought of just seconds before the snake was staring him down and tested for the first time in this moment. A flock of large birds erupted from Harry's wand and made the whole chamber fill with sounds of crowing, which made the basilisk turn tail and slither from its position leering over Harry. Tom fumed and marched off, leaving Harry to revel in his short-lived victory.
Upon re-entering the chamber, Harry saw the basilisk trying to penetrate Tom's soul purge shield, to no avail, much to his dismay. Running over to Neville and Zoe, Harry gawked at the massive sword that Neville was holding. "Where did you get that?!" He said, careful not to alert the pre-occupied serpent. "I don't know. I pulled it out from that," he said, pointing at the sorting hat which sat unattended on the stone next to Zoe. Harry looked over affectionately at Fawkes and grabbed the sword, swinging it up high, leaving the two to cradle Ginny, trying to coax her back into consciousness. "I'm going to kill that bloody great snake!" he whispered defiantly to them, walking off towards Salazar Slytherin's head. "Harry, no!" Zoe cried, tears streaming down her face. She attempted in vain to escape from the pre-constructed shield, but he was long gone, already climbing the head. At that point, there came a flurry of screams and voices from the entrance to the inner chamber. The 'rescue party' had arrived. Among the people were Professor McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Amelia Bones and Gethsemane Prickle, head of the Department for the regulation and control of magical creatures, all of whom were left with mouths agape at the size of the basilisk. They shook themselves out of it, the snake seeming to be occupied with a shield around a pale figure, who was holding his own well and ran over to Zoe, Neville and Ginny, Fawkes seemingly gone to help Harry.
"HARRY! GET DOWN! PLEASE!" Remus bellowed, his face paler and looking more deathly ill than ever. He shook his head and started to cry out for his nephew, breaking his stoic façade in two. Minerva looked equally white as a sheet but knelt to help Ginny's evaluation. She pressed her fingers to the girl's neck and cast a diagnosis charm, weaving glowing blue lines over her body. The Headmistress felt momentarily relieved, though looking back up at Harry, who was on top of the bald statue's head, she started to panic again. The Aurors, thoroughly broken from their bewildered state, cast every spell short of the killing curse at the basilisk which had noticed the fresh meat upon its master's stone head. Harry had made everything and everyone else in the room disappear, his sights solely set on the puppet that nearly took Hermione from him. He waved the sword about, making the goblin steel clang against the stone wall and drawing the blind beast's attention for the final time. As the basilisk lunged forward and down, Harry met its speed with the blade of the sword, thrusting it up through the skull and brain, killing the sixty-foot serpent in a single blow.
The blade emerged from the skull of the basilisk, covered in pieces of brain matter and scales, drenching Harry's shoes with scarlet essence of the snake. Harry pulled the hilt back down, removing it from the beast, though his arm had caught a fang, now embedded into his arm. Everyone in the chamber fell silent, including the raging Riddle still recovering from the assault that the previously alive serpent had attempted. Harry started to stumble as the basilisk's body fell from its position at Salazar's head and fell to the floor below, deafening everyone with a sickening crunch. The most skilled at charms in the room and Auror by the name of Shacklebolt levitated the body down from his height and place him gently by Zoe's side, which was covered in tears. "Harry, please? Stay with me, please?!" she cried as Remus held her tightly. He moaned something which was drowned out by the sobbing, so they listened again. "Get, th- the di- diary." Zoe shook her head, asking its importance as Neville brushed away his tears and handed him the black-covered book. Riddle picked that moment to re-emerge from his state of confusion, and screamed "NO! NOT THA-!" he was cut off as Harry plunged the fang, his nearest weapon, straight from his forearm with a wince, into the diary. A sickening scream, not unlike the one Riddle had just shouted himself, was heard, though the sound was amplified by five, making everyone but Ginny cover their ears. In the second that everyone moved their hands to their ears, Riddle exploded in a burst of light, as the diary emitted a jet-black ooze that rolled straight off Harry's hands onto the stone beneath him.
When the light was gone and the ooze dissipated, Harry fell from his sitting position into Zoe's arms and saw a red flash of light as Fawkes the phoenix came to rest on his sister's shoulder. Fat, glistening tears fell onto Harry's puncture wound as he said: "Tell her, Neville, I'm sorry. Please." He tapered off and winced, feeling the tears of the bird wash away the venom and illness in his blood. Neville shrieked in delight and shock, for Harry would be alright, yet Ginny had just awoken from her soul purge coma. "Harry, Neville, Zoe? Headmistress." She questioned quickly before bursting into tears. "I- I didn't- m- mean to-to -do that. I- it was all- Ri- Riddle. He- made- me- me write- th- those messages, I- swear."
"Harry, you tell Hermione yourself m,"- Harry drifted off into the realm of sleep as he heard Hermione's name for what he assumed was the final time.
His dreams were of Hermione, her beautiful eyes, piercing into his soul, the soft, brown, curly tresses that adorned her face. Her voice, calling out to him, crying for him. Then he heard another familiar sound. The song that he had sung to Hermione from The Lord of the Rings was being sung back to him, seemingly by angels, or sirens, beckoning him to come to them.
Farewell, we call to hearth and hall… In glades beneath the misty fell…
Until at last our toil be passed,
Our journey done… our errand sped…
Harry tried to rise from the cold floor but found nothing except comforting white sheets, a pillow beneath his head and the face of the woman he loved.
"Hermione?" he asked wearily.
"Yes, it's me, Harry. Don't you ever do that again." She said back trying to hold back her tears.
"I'm sorry, I had to break my promises."
Harry woke to cries of jubilation from his parents, sister, brother and Hermione. She stood out as the one he had been doing it all for. His revenge mission, the exposing of Tom Riddle to the authorities, the investigations. Now, he wasn't sure if he had made the right decision, for her. Hermione was awake, sure, though had he gone to the proper people before-hand, he could have avoided so many countless close-calls, for him and the people around him, not only at his bedside but also in the rest of Hogwarts. His mother was the first to hug him, lightly to give his body a chance to rest, then his father, after giving his son the most stern of looks, nearly breaking into hysterics. No-one could blame him; he thought his only son was about to die. Zoe shook her head and cried out to him "You stupid prat! Enough of your heroics! They only make you worse-off!" She hugged him begrudgingly and left him to the mercy of Neville's ribbing and Hermione's well… emotions. After a serious comment from his brother about 'not leaving him alone when he needs a drink in his thirties', Harry was left to Hermione's wrath. The Potters and Neville moved away, to give the two time to speak alone, as they went to Madam Pomfrey's office to chat with McGonagall.
Hermione shook her bushy head of hair at Harry, showing her disapproval, but then latched herself onto him, wrapping her arms around his chest and back. "Before we get onto the real reason I am here now, I just want to tell you how disappointed I am in you. You put yourself, Neville and Zoe, in harms way just to get revenge, for me. You know I wouldn't have wanted revenge, I would have wanted justice." She sniffled into his shoulder as he squeezed tighter, never wanting to let go. "I thought they were one in the same, but now I just don't know anymore. I wasn't sure if you were coming back to me. I couldn't live without you." He mumbled. Hermione pulled away, her tear-matted hair clinging to her face, covering up the lines of sadness cascading down her cheeks. "I heard you, you know. I assume you thought about comas when I got petrified," she said as he nodded along with her logic. "I did hear you, in my sleep. I heard every single word, every syllable, every character. Every tune you sang. I think that was the sweetest, kindest, most wonderful thing anyone has ever done for me. Though I also heard you break another promise. You said you loved me when I wasn't awake." He looked down in shame. "I heard you though. And you kept one, that we made without us knowing. Let me show you what you kept." Hermione brought his head closer to hers and kissed him with the passion, the energy and the love that most married couples could only hope to achieve.
"I love you, Harry Potter."
"I love you too, Hermione Granger. Let's not make promises that we can't keep, to each other again."
The feast that night was extravagant, as was the infernal eruption that happened when Professor McGonagall dropped a bombshell. "All exams are cancelled, due to-!" She was cut off by a deafening din that only subsided after the feast was well and truly over. Hermione inwardly cringed at the revelation, though for fear of being vilified by the rest of the school, kept her displeasure to herself. Harry saw the look in her eyes, one that longed for some homework, or revision, or spell practice and voiced his view on the matter. "Hermione, you were basically frozen in carbonite for over 2 months, with no revision but what I read to you from my homework, yet you still want to give the tests a go?" She blushed sheepishly looking down to her food. "I can revise with you, after all, I'm in detention for a week after locking the girl's bathroom door with the chamber inside it, with me still in the room." He smirked, wincing as Hermione hugged him, making sure not to touch his arm in the sling. "No, I think the exams can wait until next year." The Gryffindor contingent surrounding the two immediately dropped their forks to their plate, praising Harry for getting Hermione to do the impossible.
Here it is, the end of Year Two. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I will take a short break from uploading for a week or two, then we will start the series back up again.
All reviews are welcome.
Stay Safe
-E