"What's wrong?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Well, nothing's wrong. Not according to you, anyway." Ron replied with a bite in his voice.
Harry frowned. "Look, if you've got something to say, don't be shy. Spit it out."
Ron stared at him for a moment and shrugged blithely. "All right, I'll spit it out. But don't expect me to be grateful just because now there's another damn thing we've gotta find."
Harry's temper rose immediately. He didn't expect something like this to be a problem. Did Ron expect this hunt to be easy? "I thought you knew what you signed up for!"
"Yeah. I thought I did, too."
Harry's frown deepened as he bore into Ron. He didn't know what Ron's problem was, but he wasn't going to suffer his tantrums.
"Well then, I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand. What part of this isn't living up to your expectations? Did you think we were gonna be staying in a five-star hotel? Finding a Horcrux every other day? You thought you'd be back with your mum by Christmas?"
Tip of Ron's ear started to redden, an immediate sign of a coming explosion. Harry knew from experience that there was no chance this conversation was going to end well.
"I just thought after all this time we would have actually achieved something! I thought you knew what you were doing! I thought Dumbledore would've told you something worthwhile! I thought you had a plan!" Ron said, his voice rose as he spoke.
"I told you everything Dumbledore told me!" Harry rose from where he was and walked towards Ron. "And in case you haven't noticed, we have found a Horcrux already." He continued, pointing at the locket dangling from Ron's neck.
Ron shook his head. "Yeah and we're about as close to getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them, aren't we?"
Hermione chose this moment to interfere. "Ron, please!" She pleaded, her hand reaching to take the Horcrux from him. "Please take the Horcrux off! You won't be saying any of this if you hadn't been wearing it all day!"
Instead of taking off the Horcrux, Ron sneered to both of them and shoved Hermione back strongly. Much more than Hermione expected, as she fell to the ground and hissed in pain.
Ron didn't give her a second glance. Instead, he continued staring at Harry. "You don't know why I listen to that radio every night, do you? To make sure I don't hear Ginny's name. Or Fred, or George, or Mum..." He trailed off.
Harry's eyes widened, he grabbed Ron's collar and pulled him forward. "What, you think I'm not listening too? YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS FEELS?!" He shouted to Ron's face, his face reddening as he did so.
"NO, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS!" Ron shouted back as he slapped Harry's hand off. "Your parents are dead! You have no family!" Even as he spoke, he knew he went too far.
Harry saw red. Who was Ron to say that? His knuckles whitened, and without warning, he punched Ron. The blow was strong enough to make Ron stumble backwards as he tried to get his bearings, but Harry didn't wait for it. His second punch immediately followed his first, hitting Ron right on the nose. A sickening crunch echoed in the tent as Ron's nose broke. Ron stumbled to the ground. Harry moved onto him to continue.
Hermione moved between them immediately afterwards and pulled the two apart. Or, at least, she tried to. "Stop, Harry! Ron! Stop, please!" She begged as she physically separated the two.
"FINE THEN, GO! GO THEN!" Harry bellowed as Hermione pushed him back. "LEAVE, YOU BASTARD, GO TO YOUR FAMILY!"
Ron didn't answer, instead, he wrenched the locket off and threw it to the ground. He shoved past Harry to take his bag from inside. Harry watched him with furious eyes, with his wand trained on Ron.
"Ron..." Hermione trailed brokenly.
Right before he left, Ron turned to Hemione. "And you? Are you coming or are you staying?"
Hermione threw a fleeting glance towards Harry and bit her lips as her eyes watered. She was still in too much shock to react to what was happening.
Ron took her silence as a decline. "Fine. I get it. I saw you two the other night." He said bitterly.
Hermione's tears started to fall. "Ron, that's; that's nothing!" She protested.
Ron didn't answer, he simply turned and left. A few seconds later, a crack signalled his departure.
Hermione fell to her knees as she sobbed. Her tears rained to the ground. Part of her mind couldn't grasp just what happened. How could something like this happen? How could Ron leave them? He was aware of the importance of their mission, as well as any plan they had. Why did he blame Harry, on that matter?
She threw a hateful look towards the locket and saw a silver object sitting on the ground where few drops of Ron's blood fell.
Her mind immediately supplied the answer. "His deluminator..." She muttered in shock. Did he meant to leave it, or did it fell to the ground?
"We'll give it to the bastard when we see him again, I guess." Harry said as his anger abated, but the fiery flames of fury still burned strong towards Ron. He knew from deep inside that neither his nor Hermione's friendship with Ron would survive.
Harry remembered the previous years. This was not the first time he betrayed their group either, he noticed bitterly. Triwizard Tournament was a prime example. Even after he forgave Ron back then, it took nearly a year for their relationship to return to normal. And Harry knew that if Voldemort hadn't returned on the night of the Third Task, it would never have returned either.
The rain started to drizzle on top of them, and Harry noticed the darkening sky. Hermione was starting to shiver, staring blankly at where Ron disappeared.
"Come inside." Harry muttered to Hermione. She didn't give any indication whether she heard him or not. "Come on." He said with a normal, albeit somewhat cracking voice. He gently helped her to her feet and walked her inside. "You're going to be sick."
Hermione moved inside like a zombie. She didn't react when he dried her, nor when he put her to her sleeping bag and gently closed her eyes. She didn't open them back again, as if lacking the strength to even do something so simple.
Harry sighed as he watched Hermione. What Ron did crush her, considering they were starting to get involved with each other. They probably would've become a couple not too much in the future. That was probably why Ron's abrupt departure hurt her much more than him. It was one thing for a friend to leave, another for someone she most likely was coming to love.
He shook his head and entered his own sleeping bag. Too much happened in one night. He tried to make himself relax as he chased the sleep.
The following days were a nightmare for both of them. Hermione switched between crying her eyes out and cursing everything in sight.
Harry tried to give her some space, but it became apparent that she wasn't going to settle down. Her emotions were still all over the place, and it wasn't getting better.
He watched her fall to the ground like her strings were cut. She would do this after throwing curses all around, then cry on the ground.
This wasn't what he had in mind for today, however.
He moved inside, making as little noise as he could. Within a few steps, he reached her and sit on beside.
He watched her silently sob and aimed to hug her. Just as his arms wrapped around her shoulder, she threw herself to him and started crying in the earnest.
"W-Why did he le-leave us? Did he not kn-know what we-we're doing? Did he not ca-care about us?" She stammered, and her sobbing increased as her mutterings turned into incomprehensible babbles.
"Shh." Harry murmured to her ear as her grip on him strengthened, holding onto him like a lifeboat. "It's all going to be okay. We're going to be okay."
As he continued to murmur, she slowly relaxed and shakings of her shoulders steadied. Harry listened to her breathing slow down and felt her heartbeat relax.
She fell into sleep. Harry hoped it was much more comfortable and relaxing than the ones she had for the last few days. Perhaps nightmares would skip her tonight.
He waited for her sleep to deepen, and laid her into her bag again, making sure she was comfortable. At least as comfortable one could be in the situation.
Seeing her hurting like this hurt him, cut him deep inside. She was the one that cared about him more than anyone else. She never left him alone, even during his worst times. Even if he never told her, he knew she took his best friend position from Ron much earlier. Probably during his third year.
The least he could do was to make sure she was okay.
The next morning Hermione woke before Harry and tried to recognize when she had come back to her sleeping bag. As the last night's memories gradually returned to her, her cheeks dusted a faint blush of embarrassment.
She was quite surprised Harry offering physical contact on his own. As the years passed, she learnt his habits and reactions, even the ones he hid from everyone.
She knew how he made himself as small as possible whenever he entered a large group before he corrected himself, or how he flinched whenever someone touched him in any way.
She first experienced it during her second year, after she was woken up from her petrification and hugged him after she returned to the Great Hall.
He flinched when she threw her arms around him, and for a moment he hugged her back much too stiffly.
Of course, she didn't know why that was, but she researched the subject during the following summer. The conclusions she reached was those she begged and prayed to be not true, though deep down she knew they were, much to her anger.
How could someone do this to him, she never knew. She tried to not pry much about his home life even if her curiosity was tickled.
As the years passed, she researched the subject more and more, making sure she didn't miss anything important. She slowly and gently tried to heal the invisible scars his best friend's family left on him.
She made sure to never raise her voice too much, never hit him more than a playful tap even if it was a friendly gesture. She slowly helped him get used to physical gestures, small touches.
But every time she brought him out from his shell some more, he went back to his relatives for the summer. When he returned to school again after the summer of their third year, the year she first tried to help him heal, he was back to his normal state. Whatever healing she had done was unravelled during the few months he spent in his relatives care.
Sometimes she didn't know which one she hated most. The Dursleys or Voldemort.
She believed that both hurt Harry nearly the same amount.
During the fiasco of Triwizard Tournament, she was ready to fight with Dumbledore to make sure he didn't return to his relatives, for him to go somewhere else, perhaps even with her. But it was not to be, as he saw one of his friends die, and Voldemort return.
Even if it was a terrible place, it was the safest from Voldemort for him.
Her anger that day caused all the windows of her dormitory to blow up in a surprising show of accidental magic.
The next summer was the worst she ever had.
She hated, hated herself for not being able to write to Harry. It wasn't for the lack of trying in her part. When Hedwig brought mail from Harry, she tried to hide her reply on Hedwig for her to bring back to Harry.
She tried to use another owl. She even tried muggle mail.
None of them reached Harry. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was something Dumbledore did in a misguided attempt to protect Harry.
And whenever she thought how Harry was suffering from the last year, she was filled with sadness.
When Harry came to the Headquarters after surviving an attack from Dementors, she didn't say anything to him about trying to send him mail, she simply let him shout at them for leaving him friendless and alone during the summer.
To her surprise, after he shouted, he acted just like nothing happened, at least towards her. She didn't know what happened, after shouting, cursing, swearing for minutes without stopping, he took a look at her and stopped.
However, the same didn't happen with Ron, as it was shown when he requested his own room from Sirius.
She shook her head to dispel her thoughts. After last night, she felt much better than before. She was still sad, and very much angry at Ron's departure, Horcrux or no. After all, they all wore the locket, yet he was the only one that acted that way.
It was time for her to compose herself, and return to the task at hand. Destroying the Horcruxes and killing Voldemort was more important than Ron.
She heard Harry wake, and move around. He was probably preparing something to eat.
She rose and readied herself.
"We need to destroy the locket." She told him quietly as she sat across him.
A small smile appeared on his face, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Hermione!" He said, surprise and no small amount of happiness in his voice. "Good morning."
"Good morning." She greeted back.
He took a bit from his sandwich. "How?" He asked.
"We need to find something or some way to destroy it. Basilisk venom can not be the only way."
"I guess." His brows furrowed as he thought it over. Before she could tell him his guesses, he caught her eying his sandwich. "Do you want one?" He offered. "I can make one for you as well."
"Sure."
A comfortable silence fell as both of them thought over the issue.
"Hermione." Harry started with a controlled voice.
"Yes?"
"Do you want to return to Grimmauld Place?"
Whatever she expected, this definitely wasn't it. Her first thought was to immediately say no, but she caught herself before that and tried to weigh the pros and cons.
The first negative was the danger. It was a known place, and Snape most likely has already told the Death Eaters the location of the Headquarters, if he managed to have beat the Moody's curse.
And... that was it, really. The pros included a real place to live, and a massive library she didn't manage to take a deep look because they were mostly filled with Dark Arts and Molly didn't like them reading books like that.
Considering those Snatchers somehow managed to find them, the danger wasn't much different in the first place.
"Okay." She shrugged.
"Oh, well. It was just a sug-" Harry started before cutting himself in confusion. "What did you say?"
"Okay. We can move back into Grimmauld Place. Perhaps we can find a way to destroy the Horcrux in the library as well."
And that was that.
They settled into Grimmauld Place quite easily. Even without everything else, being able to shower was enough.
After getting settled into the house, they camped to the library. Harry, while was not someone who enjoyed reading and researching a lot focused on finding something on the subject, much to Hermione's delight.
Their first thought was to find information on the Horcruxes themselves, but it was simply not there. Not because of a book purge or anything, there were many, many references on them. But every single book they found wrote the same thing.
Do not meddle in Horcruxes, for they're being foulest of the foul and blackest of the dark.
Even the darkest book they found, which was about the effect of human souls on Necromancy didn't give any information on them but that only way to destroy them was to destroy the magic holding the soul.
"So that's why basilisk venom works!" Hermione cheered in excitement. "We just need to focus on finding something that has similar properties!"
Harry gave her a lopsided grin, and they both laughed in hope. This was the best news they had in a long, long time.
Their search continued until Hermione chanced upon a spell, one of the darkest there was.
"It says here that a properly summoned Fiendfyre would burn anything, including magic." Hermione pointed out the passage.
Harry remembered a scene from last year and asked in confusion. "Isn't this quite dark magic?"
"It is." Hermione opened another book. "Considering it burns through anything, it must be."
"But..." Harry trailed off into his memories before a nudge from Hermione brought him back. He easily noticed a slight concern in her eyes.
"Last year, before Professor Dumbledore-" The memories of that night filled him once more. The Professor begging as he forced the potion on him, and their return back to castle before Malfoy led the Death Eaters inside. As well as how Snape killed him as he watched in the corner, hidden and constricted.
"Harry..." Hermione put her hand on his arm and traced invisible patterns. Her tactic worked, as he relaxed and leaned back to his chair.
"Fucking Snape." He snarled.
"Language." Hermione laughed.
He smiled at the familiar antics, remembering a time before all this happened.
"As I was saying, I remember Professor Dumbledore casting the spell in the cave as we were trying to escape from the Inferi."
"I never knew Professor Dumbledore dabbled in dark magic." Hermione muttered. "I mean, he had to be otherwise he wouldn't know of the Horcruxes, but still."
They stayed silent for sometime.
"I want to learn it." Harry told Hermione.
Harry stood in the middle with his wand pointed towards the locket sitting on a small stool with utmost concentration on his face.
"Be ready to interfere." Harry shouted inside a room that was warded with everything they could find.
He gave a quick glance to Hermione, and she nodded sharply. He returned his gaze back to the locket.
"3, 2, 1." He took a deep breath and focused his magic to simply burnburnburn. "Fiendfyre!"
A monstrous fire burst from the tip of his wand, heating the room massively. The cooling wards were the strongest they could create, and they didn't even make a difference in the heat of the hellish flame.
Fiendfyre was different from other fire spells, in the way that it had no purpose but one. Burn everything. Every other fire spell, from the childish Incendio to darkest Agni Incaendium, they all needed something to burn to be cast. A focus for the fire, regardless of its power.
That was where the difference of Fiendfyre came. To cast it, there was no need to provide anything to burn. Because Fiendfyre wanted to burn everything, and if there were nothing to burn, it would simply turn its caster to fuel.
On top of that, Fiendfyre was not simply a flame either. The hottest flame had a limited sentience that simply enjoyed burning anything while taking the shape of mythical beings.
As the fire burst through from Harry's wand, it whirled around the room, illuminating the walls in a sickly orange before converging into the shape of a snake.
The fire coiled around Harry, not trying to burn him but testing, determining some truth about its caster.
Harry started into the fire-snake as it moved in every changing patterns around his body before he abruptly found himself face to face with it.
The eyes of the fire were both empty, yet not. They were dark, transparent. Except he could see something burning behind them.
As well as something akin to intelligence.
Without even meaning to, he asked the fire. "Would you burn this locket for me?"
The head of the snake whipped towards the locket and immediately lunged to burn. The heat increased as the fire tried to burn whatever protection was built into the Horcrux.
The drain was noticeable. Unlike any other time he cast spells, there was never a drain or accumulating fatigue. Unlike now.
Harry could feel the magic in the air, filling the whole room, gently caressing him as if he was standing in a breeze. A huge contrast to the ongoing destruction or chaos in the room.
The heat spiked once more, and smell of burnt metal wafted around before disappearing.
A terrifying scream followed, something inhuman, just like the one he heard after destroying the diary with Basilisk venom years ago.
The Horcrux was no more.
Harry grinned in relief, perspiration beading of from every inch of his skin before he stopped.
Fiendfyre was still burning and didn't lose any of the heat it gained.
Harry tried to remember the warnings and instructions Hermione gave.
Never lose your focus, Harry. If you ever feel like it had gotten out of your control, force it to back down.
Harry took another look at the fire in front of him and decided this was time to end it.
He focused on his spell, and brought it down, hard.
The now massive snake lunged at him to burn him, but he was already wrestling with the magic and bit by bit it was working.
The snake circled the room, screeching, as it tried to find something to burn that his casters focus didn't include, something to fuel itself.
"Leave. Leave, now." Harry whispered to the snake as he willed his magic to banish the spell once more.
The snake jumped back to burn him once more, but it disappeared with a swoosh before it reached him.
Harry stood there heaving but with a maniacal grin on his face. He was hardly aware of Hermione's arms circling him in a hug.
Magic on this scale - it was amazing for him. This was what he thought of when he was entering Wizarding World when he was eleven. Massive spells, monsters, everything magical.
He had an epiphany.
Magic should not have a limit.
But as soon as it came, it went away into a dark place in his mind as the reality crashed on him once more.
"'m fine, Hermione." He muttered into the brown hair.
The Cloak was a massive boon to them, as it was what allowed them to sneak around Gringotts unnoticed. The Thief's Downfall, a goblin enchantment that diapered magic as someone moved past them didn't notice them under the Cloak.
They were now watching Bellatrix Lestrange open her vault door to check into the Horcrux in her vault.
Harry was shaking from his anger towards the madwoman. He could still hear Hermione's screams. Screams caused by this, this monster's, torture on the only person that still supported him.
His vision swam as the memories filled her. Only the grip Hermione had on him helped get his bearings back.
He didn't notice she was shaking as he did. It must've been even worse for her, watching her torturer, the one who had Hermione at her mercy.
No matter. She was dying tonight.
The door opened, and a vault filled with massive amounts of gold and magical items appeared. And right in the middle, was a cup. The cup of Hufflepuff.
Harry grinned and took a step forward.
He noticed a red bolt hit the goblin from the corner of his eye, but at this moment he only had a single target in his mind.
With nary a whisper, he cast, his voice dissolving into the distinct biases of Parseltongue.
"Fiendfyre."
The appearing snake didn't even wait for his instructions, it immediately went on to burn everything in the vault.
Harry has a feeling that it somehow noticed his fury.
Noticing the rushing heat, Bellatrix turned and her eyes widened as she watched a basilisk made out of fire enter the vault.
Harry noted with distinct satisfaction that her screams were even worse than Hermione's.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Later that day, the inhabitants of Diagon Alley watched Gringotts' root explode, and a massive dragon flew out.
With two figures on its back.
Everyone there could swear that they heard a burst of laughter as the dragon rode away.
The Fiendfyre filled the Room of Requirements, spell Goyle cast leaving his control immediately.
Harry and Hermione rushed to leave to the room immediately. Crabbe and Malfoy were trying to leave the room as well, but not having as much success as Harry and Hermione.
He could save them both, Harry knew. But visions of what Malfoy did filled his eyes.
The taunts throughout the Hogwarts, his mocking of everyone and anyone, but most importantly, Hermione.
Dumbledore's death, caused by one student who brought a contingent of Death Eaters into the school.
The people he killed during the fights, and the ones doomed by his actions.
The screams of Hermione, inside the Malfoy Manor.
No. Malfoy didn't deserve help.
He turned back to Hermione and shook his head. Let them die.
Hermione nodded curtly.
"Harry Potter. The Boy who Lived."
Voldemort said with distinct satisfaction.
"Avada Kedavra!"
And green light filled his vision.
"Harry, you wonderful boy, you brave, brave man."
Harry walked towards Dumbledore and did the only thing he could.
He punched him and hugged him.
Dumbledore gave him one of his mysterious smiles. "I deserved that, my boy."
He turned sorrowful afterwards, as Harry let him go. "I see it know, that perhaps my way was not the best one."
He turned and moved his gaze around the white King's Cross Station. "I was bogged down with my past and my age. Losing sight of people was never my plan."
He then turned back to Harry. "But this is neither time nor place for it. You know your choices, deep down. Will you move on, or will you go back, finish what you started?"
Harry piercing gaze fixed Dumbledore icy blue eyes, looking at Harry with satisfaction, pride and love.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment, and he knew his choice was made even before coming here.
Hermione.
"Is my son alive?" Narcissa Malfoy whispered as she checked his pulse and found it present.
Harry thought of the duel he had with his school rival just hours before, and the heat filling the room where they locked him and his goons.
There was no evidence of his death, however, he knew Malfoy didn't survive.
Regardless, Harry didn't react.
"Yes." He answered.
"Harry Potter is dead!"
No.
"Do you understand now, deluded ones?"
It's impossible.
"He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
Harry can't be dead.
She didn't know when she started screaming. Nor did she know when the curses started flying from her wand, with only a single purpose. Revenge.
With her attacking, the battle joined once more. Both sides were vicious, this was a battle where stunners and disarmers didn't fly.
The sound of the commending battle didn't reach Hermione, however. She only had a single opponent in mind: Voldemort.
She tore into him with such ferocity that even one of the darkest Dark Lords took the fight seriously. They met every curse with a curse, every attack with another.
It went on for seconds, minutes or perhaps hours, Hermione didn't know, but Lord Voldemort proved why he was considered Dumbledore's equal, as he had no fatigue where Hermione could feel the sweat pouring all over.
A cutting curse slipped her defence and left a cut on her shoulder, then on her cheek, and a piercing hex hit her thigh.
Combined with tiredness and the presence of ever increasing wounds, came a mistake, she stumbled and missed a step. She was too late to stop a piercing curse that would've drilled a hole into her brain and closed her eyes in resignation.
At least she was going to meet with Harry again.
Until a voice, she never thought she would hear again stopped the curse.
As well as the whole battle.
Harry was standing in front of her after shedding the Invisibility Cloak, with his wand pointed at Voldemort with a hard expression. His face could've been carved of stone.
His magic filled the battlefield. Hermione noticed the small, passive feeling it gave out.
She never knew his magic had such an effect, as well as Voldemort's. It wasn't something obvious, not like when they simply let their magic loose but something like a sound just below the hearing range.
It gave her hope, something she was steadily losing throughout the fight. Perhaps it was the doing of Voldemort.
"You still didn't manage to kill me, Tom." Harry spoke softly, sounding rather like Dumbledore. But there was a steel hard undercurrent and none of the second chances spiel Dumbledore had.
The bafflement of Voldemort and everyone on his side was obvious to nearly everyone.
Voldemort opened his mouth to reply, but Harry cut it with a curse, and battle joined for the third time.
The fight between Harry and Voldemort reminded her of the battle of Titans, beings that humans had no chance to interfere.
She turned her wand back to the surviving Death Eaters, but while they still fought hard, their heart appeared to be lost.
She knew what they were thinking. Perhaps there was a truth to the rumours of Chosen One, after all. Harry Potter was immortal.
If our Lord couldn't kill him, what chance do we have?
As the fight between Harry and Voldemort dragged on, more and more Death Eaters fell or simply fled.
Until Voldemort made a mistake. One rather obvious in hindsight.
He used the killing curse.
Instead of blocking or dodging, Harry grinned and used a spell nobody expected.
"Expelliarmus!"
The spell hit Voldemort, followed by a massive magical explosion as the killing curse rebounded from Harry's spell.
The Elder Wand spinner to the sky, just like Nagini's head did, every eye on the room tracking its trajectory. It fell on Harry's outstretched hand. Harry gave a small twitch.
With that, Voldemort finally fell, his eyes opened wide in incredulity and denial.
Harry pointed the Elder Wand towards the sky, and let out a bang just like Dumbledore did years ago. "Surrender!"
Wands of every Death Eater fell. Harry stunned them one by one, with nobody stopping him.
He turned to her and looked deeply into her eyes.
She could see emotions swirling around, happiness, love, tiredness, but most prominently, relief.
Before she could decode what they meant, he put his hands around his head and kissed her deeply.
Hermione didn't hear the cheer that went in the background, people rejoicing the death of Voldemort, end of this war.
She simply kissed back.