Cover By Aani, Alpha-Read By Aani and Subdivide, Beta-Read By MasterChaos1

Dedication

This fanfiction is dedicated to the two people that made it possible, my alphas Aani and Subdivide

Thank you for being the phenomenal friends that you two are, you are one of the main reasons why writing is enjoyable to me. Every day that I work with you is a blessing, and I hope I get to have it for a long time.

Thank you for everything, I dedicate this to you two.

Chapter One

Hermione

"Lumos," said Harry, and his wand ignited. He gave a start: Bathilda had moved close to him in those few seconds of darkness, and he had not heard her approach.

"You are Potter?" she whispered.

"Yes, I am."

She nodded slowly, solemnly. Harry felt the Horcrux beating fast, faster than his own heart: It was an unpleasant, agitating sensation.

"Have you got anything for me?" Harry asked, but she seemed distracted by his lit wand-tip.

"Have you got anything for me?" he repeated.

Then she closed her eyes and several things happened at once: Harry's scar prickled painfully; the Horcrux twitched so that the front of his sweater actually moved; the dark, fetid room dissolved momentarily. He felt a leap of joy and spoke in a high, cold voice: Hold him!

Harry swayed where he stood: The dark, foul-smelling room seemed to close around him again; he did not know what had just happened.

"Have you got anything for me?" he asked for a third time, much louder.

"Over here," she whispered, pointing to the corner. Harry raised his wand and saw the outline of a cluttered dressing table beneath the curtained window.

This time she did not lead him. Harry edged between her and the unmade bed, his wand raised. He did not want to look away from her.

"What is it?" he asked as he reached the dressing table, which was heaped high with what looked and smelled like dirty laundry.

"There," she said, pointing at the shapeless mass.

And in the instant that he looked away, his eyes raking the tangled mess for a sword hilt, a ruby, she moved weirdly: He saw it out of the corner of his eye; panic made him turn and horror paralysed him as he saw the old body collapsing and the great snake pouring from the place where her neck had been.

The snake struck as he raised his wand: The force of the bite to his forearm sent the wand spinning up toward the ceiling; its light swung dizzyingly around the room and was extinguished: Then a powerful blow from the tail to his midriff knocked the breath out of him: He fell backward onto the dressing table, into the mound of filthy clothing —

He rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding the snake's tail, which thrashed down upon the table where he had been a second earlier: Fragments of the glass surface rained upon him as he hit the floor. From below he heard Hermione call, "Harry?" He could not get enough breath into his lungs to call back: Then a heavy smooth mass smashed him to the floor and he felt it slide over him, powerful, muscular —

"No!" he gasped, pinned to the floor.

"Yes," whispered the voice. "Yesss . . . hold you . . . hold you . . ."

"Accio . . . Accio Wand . . ." But nothing happened and he needed his hands to try to force the snake from him as it coiled itself around his torso, squeezing the air from him, pressing the Horcrux hard into his chest, a circle of ice that throbbed with life, inches from his own frantic heart, and his brain was flooding with cold, white light, all thought obliterated, his own breath drowned, distant footsteps, everything going. . . .

A metal heart was banging outside his chest, and now he was flying, flying with triumph in his heart, without need of broomstick or thestral. . . .

He was abruptly awake in the sour-smelling darkness; Nagini had released him. He scrambled up and saw the snake outlined against the landing light: It struck, and Hermione dived aside with a shriek; her deflected curse hit the curtained window, which shattered. Frozen air filled the room as Harry ducked to avoid another shower of broken glass and his foot slipped on a pencil-like something — his wand —

He bent and snatched it up, but now the room was full of the snake, its tail thrashing; Hermione was nowhere to be seen and for a moment Harry thought the worst, but then there was a loud bang and a flash of red light, and the snake flew into the air, smacking Harry hard in the face as it went, coil after heavy coil rising up to the ceiling. Harry raised his wand, but as he did so, his scar seared more painfully, more powerfully than it had done in years.

"He's coming! Hermione, he's coming!"

As he yelled the snake fell, hissing wildly. Everything was chaos: It smashed shelves from the wall, and splintered china flew everywhere as Harry jumped over the bed and seized the dark shape he knew to be Hermione —

She shrieked with pain as he pulled her back across the bed: The snake reared again, but Harry knew that worse than the snake was coming, was perhaps already at the gate, his head was going to split open with the pain from his scar —

The snake lunged as he took a running leap, dragging Hermione with him; as it struck, Hermione screamed, "Confringo!" and her spell flew around the room, exploding the wardrobe mirror and ricocheting back at them, bouncing from floor to ceiling; Harry felt the heat of it sear the back of his hand. Glass cut his cheek as, pulling Hermione with him, he leapt from bed to broken dressing table…

However, just as he was about to jump out the window and apparate away, the snake leapt towards them, forcing them to duck, barely veering away from its fangs. Suddenly, the door burst open, revealing a tall, pale white figure - cold red eyes staring back at him victoriously.

Harry's scar exploded in overwhelming pain, but it was a minor discomfort compared to the sense of dread that fell upon Harry as he felt that he was reliving a moment from his past - acutely aware of Hermione's presence beside him, her breath hitching as she stared wide-eyed at Voldemort.

It was as if Harry had forgotten how to move - the second lasted longer than an eternity before he finally reacted. Gripping Hermione's hand with as much strength as he could muster, he pulled her with him as he smashed out the window.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Voldemort's roar and a flash of green light was the last thing Harry sensed before he vanished into nothingness.

Something was wrong. He could feel it in the way that his body was forced through an incredibly tight tube, extremely aware of Hermione travelling alongside him. The feeling that usually didn't last more than a second continued for what felt like minutes before he abruptly crashed on the ground, Hermione's body flying some meters away from him.

Harry panted rapidly, his heart beating out of his chest as he tried to regain his breaths. He made no effort in moving, his body screaming at him to lie down for days on end. His mind frantic, still catching up to his current situation.

The smell of trees filled Harry's nostrils, bringing in a sense of safety that had been developed after months of setting up camp in forests all around the country. The snow tickled the hairs on the back of Harry's neck as he opened his eyes, his vision adjusting to their new temporary home.

"Hermione?" He called out to her.

There was no response.

"Hermione?"

Once again, she didn't answer, and the horror that had just barely left Harry was back in full force, his chest constricting into his furiously beating heart. The quietness of the forest that had brought some peace to him only moments ago had become uneasy, unbearable even.

In a second, Harry was on his feet - his eyes instinctively finding the slumped body of his best friend, facing upwards towards the night sky… deadly still.

"Hermione!" Harry shouted, rushing towards her and dropping to his knees right in front of her. He grabbed her and pulled her upwards so that she was on her knees. He cradled her head in his hands, but when he looked at her eyes, they stared emptily back at him.

"Hermione! Hermione! Hey, hey!" He started scrubbing the dirt and snow off her face before grabbing one of her brown locks of hair and tucked it behind her ear. "You're okay! You're okay, alright. Hermione!"

Her body was boneless in his arms, but Harry kept her upright, unwilling to let her crumble.

"You're okay," He could feel the tears trickling down his face as he forced a smile. "You're alright. Hermione? Hermione! Hey, listen to me, I'm going to fix you, okay? You're going to be okay; I promise. It's my job, right?"

He laughed anxiously.

"You've taken care of me so many times, it's my turn now, right? It's my turn to fix you up. You'll be as good as new, I promise - though I don't doubt you'd do a better job than me." He laughed again, it was frantic, almost maniacal. "I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to fix you. I promise. You're going to be alright, Hermione, I promise."

Silence.

"Hermione?" Harry once again moved her hair out of her face. "Hermione, hey! Hermione! Don't you dare," The growl that came out of his mouth surprised him. "Don't you dare leave me, can you hear me? You don't get to do that to me, Hermione! NOT AFTER EVERYTHING!"

Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. Her head fell forwards, as if a puppeteer had cut her strings.

"Hermione!" Harry once again shook her, but she didn't move. "Oh, God," He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug before whimpering. "No. You're not dead, you can't be dead. Not you, please. Please. Please. God, please! Not you."

Harry hugged her tightly, wanting nothing more than for her to hug him back.

"Hermione, please come back. Please don't leave me. Oh, God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, please! Please come back, Hermione. Please."

The silence that greeted him sent an agonizing pain straight to his soul.

"HERMIONE!"

Harry's harrowing cries would be heard inside the hollow forest until after dawn.

This was a small chapter, the next one is much larger (around 8k words). I'm currently two chapters ahead, and I'm trying to have weekly updates (every Sunday), but I can't promise that will be the case for the entirety of the fic.

Thank you for reading, favouriting, and reviewing!