6th Year Part Seven: Chapter 35

"It seems to me, that love could be labeled poison and we'd drink it anyway."

~atticus

~.O.~

The short lasting peace they had gained would continue throughout the short Christmas break which, as usual, Hermione spent partially at Malfoy Manor under the guise of visiting her parents before commuting back to the Burrow. These days she spent with the people she considered just as much her family as she did Harry was the most relaxed she had been since leaving Hogwarts once more, barring the second ritual she attended to which Tom with restoring the diadem piece of his soul. Those short hours being the most horrific thing she had seen to date, not at all knowing how exactly a human body could withstand such pain as he did, let alone the soul. She had stood outside the customary circle of candles he encased himself in, watching as his back arched in pain with his hands dug into the earth while he screamed silently up to the sky. This ritual full of pain and fear was not something she could interfere in again, she had tried with tears flowing down her cheeks, gaining a sudden sense of being watched by the gods all the while, and a feeling within her heart that spoke of sadness as well as joy. She never was good at identifying her emotions, so she chose to go with the latter interpretation even if it did not feel an entirely correct deduction.

Once again looking up to the lightening sky, although Hermione had maintained her wakefulness unlike within the dealings of the last ritual she had attended, she listened to her brother's quiet ramblings. Talking quietly while keeping an ear on the wakening chirping of the birds in the trees all around them high in the branches, she asked him questions in his bouts of silence while continuing to try and take the residual pain away. The most she could do to touch it this time was sense how high a level it was, but alas, she continued to be barred from taking it completely.

Maybe it was the Gods deciding to continue to punish him… to teach him a lesson in meddling with things he should not be touching…

She had turned her cheek into the dirt beneath her in an all- to familiar gesture to gaze into the side of her brother's cheek, admiring his sharp cheekbones and long eyelashes while asking, "Would you like to see the memories of your mother, Tom? The ones Dumbledore gave Harry?"

He had looked at her with suddenly very clear eyes as if he had not spent the last few hours screaming himself hoarse, "She was never my mother, Sister. She was simply the woman who gave birth to me and branded me with a man's name who would gladly have allowed us to live on the streets. Allowed us both to die." The cloudiness returned to him as his voice grew into a far away whisper, "You are my mother, as you are my sister. The only I will ever know."

She had grabbed his hand up from where it had balled up his trousers, tucking it into her own upon her stomach as she continued to stare at his loopy profile while stroking it as a mother would to soothe their own blood child, "Yes, darling."

The House of Ravenclaw's precious and beautiful heirloom granting wisdom and intelligence to the wearer lay in the dirt on the other side of him with the now broken and cracked gems loose around the metal.

She had no other words to respond to his ramblings, and now, as she sat within the kitchen of the Burrow on Boxing Day with the other Weasleys in tense silence, her thoughts wandered while watching Harry and the Minister of Magic Pius walk about garden behind the ramshackle home. Their lips moving, even she with her enhanced hearing could hear nothing of their long topic of conversation so she returned to moving about the food on her plate while letting her mind wander once more.

Her and Draco had made significant headway on mending the Vanishing Cabinet before they had left to spend the holidays with their family, after the many months and many hours spent on coaxing it back to life they had finally been able to send an apple back and forth between Borgin and Burkes. The large piece of bitten white shining in the dark of the Room of Hidden and Missing Things in the midst of the red being a happy sight for their eyes, having breathed a sigh of relief their efforts were not in vain. But even so, a no longer living and growing object sans heartbeat being sent back and forth was but a small dime in the ocean to what they needed to do. One living person let alone multiple would be an even larger feat to accomplish, but yet, for a once dormant and misbehaving piece of magic one had to look on the bright side. They were one step closer to their goals being fulfilled.

Hermione's gold eyes lifted from her plate as she once again looked up to find an uncomfortably placed Percy leaning against the doorway to the kitchen while doing everything to avoid his parent's hopeful looks, she let her fork fall to the table with a dull thud. Sirius, who had been laying beside Hermione's feet beneath the table with his nose resting on his paws since the two Ministry officials made an appearance looked up to her with a quizzical look. Arthur's resigned face while looking to his third oldest son tapped her heart more than Molly's hope, the twin's and Ron's glares to their brother, Charlie and Bill maintaining carefully blank masks while Fleur looked to her almost- husband out of the corner of her eye with a hand on his knee beneath the table. Each of their matching heads of red and eyes of blue and brown turned to her sudden movements as she made her way around the long table to the Minister's new lackey after scratching Padfoot between the ears.

The boy's own blue eyes shot up to the small girl who mimicked his stance of both their arms crossed tightly, staring him down until his eyes returned to the floor. It did nothing to deter from her cocked head boring a hole into the top of his red curls. It then took but seconds for Hermione to decide to drag the older boy into the other room by his ear, causing him to lose his balance slightly at her sudden strong movement and stumbled after her as his family watched on in stunned silence.

"Hermione! What are you doing?" he asked her curly head as she allowed him to fall back on the couch that the back of his knees had hit, his tall body slumping backwards while rumpling his muggle style suit.

She crossed her arms as she continued standing in front of him in silence until he righted himself and rubbed his ear. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Percy Weasley." His eyes widened slightly at her tone, knowing how the girl could make you feel just as small as could be when she allowed herself to freely chastise those who she thought was doing something supremely wrong. "You have put your mother and father through absolute hell all these months you decided a job was more important than blood. You may not believe that the Dark Lord is alive and you have every right to disbelieve anything concerning that aspect of your family's beliefs, as if your right as a human being. But you have no right to allow your mother, who still loves you very much despite you cutting her, your father, and your brothers and sister out of your life as if they were dead to you. A job can be replaced as well as anything, a family can not no matter how hard you might try."

Percy stood before her while smoothing his suit out once more with an indigent look written across his mouth and eyes, but she stepped in front of him to bar his running away from her truths. "I'm not finished." She told him coldly but lowly so as to not be overheard by any red headed eavesdroppers, "You will listen to what I have to say. I have sent my parents away from me, for their protection because I do believe that Voldemort has been resurrected. On the sole word of Harry and Cedric's death, which I know some people do have trouble accepting. I understand that aspect." She ignores the flinching of his still widened eyes, "Harry has never wanted the publicity that came with being The- Boy- Who- Lived, as I am sure you have seen since you have known him all these years just as I have, despite your obviously limited capacity to understand basic family values. What if if I hadn't of sent my parents away myself, but they were instead killed by this silent war we seem to be in lately? Never to talk to them, never to hug or kiss them again after they died thinking I no longer loved them all due to pure ambition, greed, and pig- headedness."

Percy's instincts had been right, instead of the uncomfortableness he had felt previously from the beginning of the girl's speech, he felt an undeniable sadness at the thought of what she had to do. Tears pricking the corners of his eyes, he couldn't help but think of what she had given up herself, and the fact that everything she had said was true. He may not believe in You- Know- Who returning to life, because that thought was simply terrifying even as there is a deep seeded doubt laying within his brain that maybe it was true. But, he did still love his family despite any differences they had. He had always been the odd one out even among his two older brothers with his meticulousness and reserved attitude in a houseful of rambunctiousness.

In a totally out of character move, he grabbed up Hermione in a hug and spoke into her ear, "Thank you, Hermione. I know how much you care about all of us."

Hermione froze for a second, not having anticipated this turn of events at all, but quickly wrapped her own arms around his skinny back to rest her hands on his shoulder blades. "I do, Percy. Even when you are being a prat." His lips turned up at the corners while buried in her curls even if she could not see it, "Now go back in the kitchen and give your family the presents that are weighing your pockets down."

Her impromptu speech was well worth it to see Molly's dejected face turn into one of ecstatic pleasure upon receiving a gift from her black sheep of a son who then allowed her to pull him into her ample bosom, and actually hugging her back. Harry returned to the room just as Ron said his thanks of bringing happiness back to his mother's face right into her ear, as even if he had never spoken of it, the fact that his family was all together again and she had released his worry from his shoulders. Hermione smiled and squeezed his hand that lay on the table before releasing it and turning back to Harry whose serious face had turned lighter once he sat beside her in the now animated kitchen. He patted Sirius, who had opted to stay in his animagus form for want of Percy relapsing into his Minister's Pet occupation, stroking his fur much in the same way she had earlier when his chin had rested on her knees.

"What did the Minister want, Harry?" Hermione asked him lowly so as to avoid making the room tense once more even as Ron hears her words and leans further into their small bubble as well.

Harry's hand absent mindedly made it's way to Hermione's knee as he watched the others speak, and although neither of them thought much of the action so often as it happened, Ron thought otherwise while turning his head away to see Ginny watching them. He kept his ear on them while meeting Ginny's eyes, "He wanted to make it clear that they don't believe in Voldemort's return, and would appreciate me relaying the message to Dumbledore on the matter."

Hermione's brow raised, "That was a long conversation for that little of an explanation."

The darkest head of human hair in the room was ruffled by the boy's pale hand, "He accused me of being Dumbledore's man through and through, and that I don't know him as well as I think I do. He thinks, just like the prophet, that he told me to tell all witches and wizards Voldemort was resurrected simply for the publicity."

She snorted into her cup to cover her words least any of the others hear her next words that would most likely seem absolute blasphemous to the staunchest Albus Dumbledore supporters in the room. "Unlike certain others, I think both of us know he doesn't have that much sway over you despite his almighty all- knowingness."

More than once she had told him herself he did not need to listen to everything the Headmaster told him was right… or he needed to do… maybe she had some chance at convincing him herself what would be best for him…

Was she any different from Dumbledore in that aspect?

She wasn't trying to kill him… he needed to make the decision to keep himself alive himself… just a simple nudge was required…

Ron looked away from Ginny to pin their profiles with a confused glance, but neither of them acknowledged it as Hermione fell into a small pit of guilt and Harry's own mind . All the while, after the three grew silent once Percy handed each of them a Yule package, Ron felt as if he were missing a significant part of Harry and Hermione's conversation as he watched Hermione unwrap a new book charm for her bracelet before opening his own.

~.O.~

Once the students returned to Hogwarts, Harry was given the last piece of information in the memory puzzle the Headmaster wished for him to gain from Professor Slughorn. The last piece of the puzzle that showed how young Tom had been once upon a time, the time in which he had not yet known how to completely cover his tracks as if he had never been there before. It was supremely odd to Hermione to think of her infallible brother making mistakes, such was his intelligence until the point he had drawn too much attention to himself in several instances. But then again, no one is infallible it seemed for how many mistakes he had made up until he had killed Lily and James Potter.

"Voldemort killed his own father," Harry was looking a little green around the wings as he told her and Ron of his apparent last meeting with the Headmaster, the older man reasoning the boy had all he needed to uncover the missing piece to the memory mystery. "He killed Tom Riddle Sr and his parents in Little Hangleton, then stole a stone ring Morfin Gaunt had wore in the last memory before obliviating him." Harry met Hermione's calm eyes, "Then he asked Slughorn what horcruxes were, but the memory is in pieces. Which is what Dumbledore wants me to get from him."

"Why couldn't he just get it himself?" Ron asked beside her, bringing up a very good point that had circled within her mind for ages. "Slughorn is his professor now, and Dumbledore always seems to know how to get people to confess to things."

Hermione had allowed herself to blink and flinch slightly at the mention of horcruxes once Harry took his eyes off her to answer Ron's question, "I don't know, Ron. He isn't the most forthcoming man in the world."

Their friend grew silent at his snappy tone, to which Hermione raised her brow seeing as apparently her own words were coming from her other brother's mouth instead of her own this day, he had blushed lightly before turning his eyes back towards her.

Apparently Headmaster Dumbledore thought this little conundrum was an exercise in flexing the dark haired boy's loyalties and hard working abilities, as there was no other explanation to why he could not have simply took the memory from Slughorn once he learned of the horcruxes. The man being as versed in the Dark Arts as he undoubtedly was with his many years of study, although not as versed as her love, he must know exactly what the meaning of making such a thing as a horcrux is. Either way, while he might suspect her brother of making the objects to prolong and safeguard his life, he knew nothing for certain in any case at this rate.

And never would for all fragments of Tom's soul was tucked safely and wholly back into his body… all but for Nagini who is safe as warded houses could be…

"Have you heard of horcruxes before, 'Mione?" he asked her hopefully in a bid to know even marginally where to begin his search for a way to convince Slughorn to give up his memory easier. The look writ upon his face showed his already overwhelmed desperation, knowing Dumbledore cared for getting it very much and even if he did not idealize him as he had when first have come to Hogwarts, old habits died a hard death.

She smiled apologetically at him, his face falling before she ever spoke, "No, Harry. I haven't."

"But you can look it up, right? Please?" He gave her a desperate look that felt like a punch to the gut, with an undertone of something else that spoke of a silent plea saying speak to your love please, we both know he just might know this type of magic given how dark he is.

"Of course I will, darling. I'll tell you as soon as I find something."

…

Everything was then turned utterly upside down within Hermione's world when Severus came to her the day after Harry showed her the last memory he was given, depicting her young brother the ringleader of those within Slughorn's notorious Slug Club years and years ago. He was so handsome even then that she could clearly see how he had began collecting followers of his own, after all, charisma of those who seek attention are the most toxic of them all.

Severus sat down in front of her on his couch where she had a book propped up between her knees and torso, hauling her up by her hands after setting it aside. He simply stared at her confusion for a second before jumping right into his discovery that would cause her heart to fill with a sudden fiery hate. "Dumbledore has informed me of his aims with Potter, what he intends to do to end the war."

Hermione continued studying his face in silence, waiting patiently for him to raise the black eyes he had dropped from her own in rare form.

"He has deemed it wise, for want of any unexpected eventuality, that he should tell at least one other that Harry might very well be a horcrux. He also believes he may have found a possible location of one within a cave Tom had spent time at as a young boy, when still living at Wool's Orphanage. A piece of the Dark Lord having latched itself onto him after he killed Lily, Albus infers he is the best man to make a decision for the greater good and has made me take an Unbreakable Vow not to tell anyone who does not already have this information nor speak of it until the time is upon us."

A warning tightness grew in her stomach as she sensed this was not all the esteemed Headmaster had to say to his spy, and so she spoke to prod him into talking once again. "Go on, Severus. What else did he say, can you tell me? What about Harry?"

He finally looked back up to her while holding her small tightening hand within his own, "Seeing as you already know he is a horcrux I can speak of it with you." He took a deep breath, "Dumbledore has decided either of us should tell Potter he must die once each of the other suspected horcruxes are destroyed for good."

That feeling of scalding heat touched her cheeks in the anger she felt fill her heart towards the man who would allow, let alone orchestrate, the murder of a teenage boy. Her teenage boy who she had looked after all these years for the one purpose he sought to undermine her goals. Knowing Harry, he would willingly martyr himself for the purpose of ending this war, but never in a million million years would she ever allow that to happen. Would never allow himself to walk calmly to his death that would never happen at Tom's hands regardless of Dumbledore's oh- so- sure knowledge her brother was a monster. A monster would not allow itself to be deceived by the one who loved him unconditionally, a monster could not love according to the Headmaster.

She came to the conclusion, that no matter how much she told herself Harry's decisions were his own… that little nudge towards what she wanted him to do was completely of his own free will… it was not… he had to live even if he were determined to die for Dumbledore to be able to kill her brother… her other brother… who she had chosen… just as she had chosen the boy in question…

She closed her eyes, concentrating on Severus' steady breathing and pulse she felt within their joined hands. Concentrating on the thought that she was all that much more grateful for having put herself in Tom's path all those years ago as it was much easier to plan for every eventuality. Opening them back up once her own pulse was back to it's steady normal, she placed a hand on her love's cheek to which he leaned into while watching her warily, "I think, that when the time comes to kill Dumbledore, I will finally have sufficient hate within my heart for him to complete the task, Severus."

She asked the gods for forgiveness… forgiveness for her sins of truly saying she could accomplish the murder of another living thing… but sometimes it is necessary for her own personal variation of goodness to be helped along with her personal version of a little badness…

As she stood before the Vanishing Cabinet, holding a white sealed letter bearing the single loopy word of Brother staining the pristine paper, as well as a small yellow conjured canary, she gently grabbed the delicate knob and placed the letter inside beneath the hopping bird. Resting her head on the closed door before opening it to the empty confines of the small space to ensure everything was in order, she emptied her thoughts for the time being as she sat before it to await a response.

Hours later she heard a screech that knocked her right back out of the meditation state she had fallen into as she felt along the edge of her warm magical core beside her soul, flexing it enough to open the door wandlessly. The pile of dark yellow shimmering ash covering the letter was of no surprise, and so she dusted the letter baring the single word of Sister. Picking the wax seal with her fingernail, the letter boasted few words before it burned with the fire licking at her fingertips.

It shall be done. The fake will be replaced upon the hill of inferni to await discovery. With all love, your Brother.

~.O.~

Grumbles from the other girls within her dorm and the screaming of her name awoke Hermione the day of Ron's birthday from a very good dream starring a panther Severus stalking her through the woods of the Forbidden Forest. Surprised that Harry, who was notorious for sleeping in to the very last minute so as to get to breakfast just as soon as it was served, was calling her at a time in which even she was not ready for the day, she grabbed her wand as she flew stumbling out of bed. Light on her feet as she ran down the stairs without a second thought as to her sleepwear nor her out of control curls, she came to the scene of a similarly dressed Harry fending off a redhead whose cheeks matched exactly the color of his hair. Harry holding Ron's wrists before him as the other boy desperately and wildly bucked his tall body in a spitting attempt to punch their friend.

Stunned at the sight for a split second, Hermione hit the boy with a stupefy that sent him falling to the ground with a thump. Placing a hand on her racing heart from the short but adrenaline filled run into the Common Room, she finally had a look around them to the few students of their house waiting for breakfast to be ready. As well as apparently ogling their three housemates who had decided to put on a little early morning showing of craziness, with no help whatsoever.

Harry looked to her gratefully while running a hand through his already messy hair that stuck up in the air. She raised a brow to him once her heart calmed enough, "Why exactly was Ron trying to throttle you this early in the morning?" She took the last few steps down to stop beside Harry and look down to the boy now on the floor, cocking her head to Harry once she caught sight of his own red ear that was steadily turning darker by the moment, "And why is your ear bruising?"

He frowned at her before scowling back down to Ron, "He hit me. Romilda Vane sent me some sweets that have apparently been laced with a love potion, so when I told him to quit joking around about his love since he's with Lavender he punched me. She probably got it from bloody Fred and George's joke shop. It's really bruising?"

She reached up to lightly run her fingers over it while shaking her head knowing Ron would pick up anything even resembling food even it it were not his, "You'll live." Summoning her beaded bag for the antidote to the supposed potion before bending beside Ron to rest on her knees, she woke him. "Ron, you need to take this potion."

He smiled loopily at her, evidently forgetting about Harry's slandering of his love for a girl neither of them had even fully met nor talked to. "Hi, 'Mione. Do you know Romilda Vane? Could you take me to her?"

She smiled back at him while holding the vile to his lips, "Yes, Ron. After you drink this I will take you to her."

He readily gulps it right down, becoming lucid for just long enough to look up to her in confusion as to no doubt why he was laying on the Common Ron floor before the convulsing began. His eyes bulging, his limbs began to shake as if one were standing and holding too much weight for a longer time than his muscles could stand, or he was getting shocked by an innumerable amount of electric volts. Reacting right away as Harry fell next to her frantically asking what was going on while holding down their friend's vibrating limbs, Hermione immediately summoned a stray bezoar from the bottom of her bag and calmly shoved it far into his throat.

"What's happening, Hermione?" he finally asked once the long minute it took for the stone to work enough for the boy to fall into unconsciousness.

Standing quickly and telling the small group who crowded around them nervously for someone to inform Professor McGonagall of the events, "He must have been allergic to an ingredient in the antidote. Lets take him to the Hospital Wing."

Levitating him through the heavy doors as quickly as possible to see Severus handing over a box of potion vials to Madame Pomfrey, her and Harry finally were able to take a step back as the matron checked his vitals. Harry took over retelling the woman the short story of the morning while Hermione stepped back to stand beside Severus, who had been lingering beside the bed next to where Ron was now laying. Catching the eyes that pointedly looked down to her breasts that showed her nipples beneath the thin material as the cold puckered them, she shot him a dirty look.

"There wasn't much time to change between Harry yelling for me and transporting Ron through the halls, Severus." He sighed heavily before giving her his outer teaching robe for cover just as Madame Pomfrey asked him to call the Headmaster down to the Wing. Hermione sat down heavily while her disgruntled feelings of coldness surfacing just the other day regarding the man returned, the question also provoking a slight frown to grace Severus' face as he had done his best to avoid the man outside of Order meetings once the older man had spilled his intentions for the boy now sitting beside Hermione. He retrieved the man nonetheless as a favor to the Matron who had always been kind to him regardless of his background even in his own teenage years.

…

It was just days later with Ron still held up in the Hospital Wing that Harry joined him as a patient, and Hermione was absolutely fed up with each of the boy's intent on seemingly constantly trying to gain nights within the Hospital Wing. Watching the boy with a literal turban of gauze wrapped around his head awaiting the potions to work their magic, she sat beside Luna who was in the process of tying a bottle cork necklace around his arm multiple times so as to make it a mimicry of having muggle christmas lights around the length of his forearm. Hermione kept her eyes on the girl with a smile on her face, just knowing that the both of them were the perfect couple she thought they would be even though she did love Ginny. Although, even as they both had many interests in common and a mutual attraction to one another, she did believe Harry's words of not being stuck on one person to whom he could ever have the chance at loving.

A weird sentiment coming for her given her own state of relationship… she never did even consider anyone else other than Severus as her longtime love… even with her brief stint in dating Viktor after Severus telling her to explore her options… he had always been the only one in her mind…

The boy in question having gotten hit in the head by a dunderhead by the name of Cormac McLaggen, Hermione's short temper as of late was lit when just hours after visitors were admitted to the still sleeping boy the Keeper showed his face. So, to show her displeasure at the events that could have easily been avoided if the boy had listen to his now incapacitated Captain, she withdrew her wand while aiming it at him threateningly. Not having dealt with the curly haired girl's temper before, and frankly not believing her able to cause his large muscled person much damage, he simply put his hands up in surrender while continuing to advance into the room.

"Hermione, babe, if only Harry had listened-" his obnoxious words were cut short by a shriek as well as several small birds erupting from her wand that then proceeded to peck at his skin and tear at his no longer needed Quidditch uniform.

"As if you have the right to call me babe! Or tell your former Captain how to run his own team!"

Once these words were uttered, Harry's prone body gave a slight painful moan that had Hermione turning back around from Cormac who was running back down the hall the way he came with the birds still circling and tearing at his skin.

"Is my injuries so funny to you, Ron?" The boy asked opening one eye then the other to see a pale shining girl smiling blindingly at him before throwing herself over him gently in a hug, as well as Ron clutching his stomach in his laughter. Apparently having recovered from his accidental poisoning and breakup from the girlfriend who Harry had to listen scream obscenities at his friend just yesterday when visiting. Having thought Hermione was completely responsible for her boyfriend's poisoning, she left the Infirmary in tears when Ron finally broke up with her after saying how Hermione had been the one to save his life after simply eating the wrongly addressed birthday gift.

"'Mi- 'Mione, just- " his broken words gave Harry nothing as to the cause of them.

Hermione appearing just behind the still clinging Luna smiling brightly while awaiting her turn, she said, "More like Cormac's injuries from my birds are so funny to him."