Chapter 33 Rebellion (Hermione)

            My name is Hermione Granger.

            And the only person I love had just died.

            I fought relentlessly. These people, these parasites, had just killed Harry. It's all their fault that he had died, and they were going to pay for it.

            Rachel was at my side. She was a bear again.

All the curses I had ever read about were fresh in my mind. I used them, all but the three Unforgivables. Harry was dead and there was nothing I could do about that, but I could still avenge him.

            I was a horrific whirlwind of jinxes. Those near me were starting to back away and run. Even Rachel shuddered away from me. I didn't care. I was furious, sorrowful, and vengeful all at the same time.

            A part of me was missing. Nothing but love could fix it. It made me unable to think straight. I was seeing in red.

            Hermione, calm yourself down! Rachel cried when I nearly hit her with a curse.

            I flared my nostrils and ignored her. I was injured where no one could heal me. I had taken on too much mental damage. I had just survived a life-scarring event and she wanted me to calm down!?
            As if she would have in my position.

            Battle raged. A new platoon of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons had arrived. They were armed with the same kind of gun Istrum had had. They were supposed to, Rachel told me, painfully blow up every molecule of your body. The magic seemed to be having an affect on them, though, because they sure didn't do that.

            Yee-haw! Rachel cried, as if she were enjoying this.

            I don't see how you could enjoy battle and bloodshed. Sure, it's exciting in a bad and horrific kind of way, but definitely not enjoyable.

            I ached all over. The Nundu's Breath had left me weak. I was tired from lack of sleep. Yet I was driven by an insane notion to avenge Harry.

            He will not have died in vain. I will avenge him, even if it means my own death. He was my first friend. He was my first crush. He was my first love.

            I can't just let him die and not do anything about it.

            Hermione, are you okay? Rachel asked.

            I glowered up at her. "No. I'll never be okay. Not after what just happened."

            Rachel lowered her head in acknowledgment. She then growled fiercely and threw off the Taxxon that leapt on her back. I blew it apart with a Reducto Curse, spraying us both with Taxxon chunks.

            I spluttered as green blood dripped down into my face. "Lovely," I choked out.

            You're telling me?

            I shook my head and wiped the gooey stuff off on my tattered sleeve. It was disgusting. I scowled and blew apart an on-coming Hork-Bajir.

            One blade whirled straight at me. Unlike Harry, I don't have amazing Quidditch reflexes. It struck me in the shoulder and sank deep. I staggered backward, clutching the blade. I seized it and yanked it out, slashing my hand open as I did so. Blood seeped into my robes.

            My knees buckled and I fell. I had never felt such terrible physical pain. As the world dimmed around me, I saw Fawkes the phoenix soaring down to me. He was too late to save me from unconsciousness.

            My last thought before I blacked out was: This is for you, Harry.

~*~

            My name is… my name is…

            My head whirled as I came to.  So many memories of so many things! I had to sort them out before I could remember such a trivial thing as my name.

            I still couldn't remember what I looked like either. All I could remember were the things that swirled past my mind's eye too quickly for me to process them.

            I blinked dazedly and looked down to emit a gasp of mingled horror and surprise.

            I was half-beast, half-human.

            I blinked a few more times to try and clear my head, but to no avail. All I could remember was something about morphing and demorphing… yes. I must demorph now.

            Now, what did I look like?

            I still had no idea, so I just focused on the image of a human.

            The fur that had grown on my body slowly retreated back into my skin. I watched as I saw trembling, bloodless fingers appear. I closed my eyes and didn't watch as the rest of me appeared.

            I knew now that I was definitely human. I felt my face. My fingers touched high cheekbones and slid down a slender cheek. Yes. Definitely human.

            I opened my eyes.

            And then I remembered my name.

            My mind finally cleared and sorted memories into numerical order, as they should be. My nauseating headache evaporated. With it went most of my pain.

            And do you want to know my name?

            My name is Harry Potter.

            I rose slowly to my feet and looked down. My robes had a huge hole through where my abdomen was, front and back. The edges were burned. They were soaked through with blood. My face was covered in blood. My scar still pounded, telling me Voldemort was as near as ever.

            I gripped my wand in my hand. Ron—Istrum, I mean—was gone, but his floating wheelchair was still there. He probably had crawled away.

            I walked over to where he had fallen (I had seen him fall) and found the remains of a Yeerk. I slowly smiled. So Ron was free now.

            I turned and jogged over into the battle.

            I had a price to repay.

            First things first, however.

            I was easily ignored in the battle. I held no threat to anyone, so they passed me by and ran to the Animorphs. They, after all, were the real threat (please note the heavy sarcasm).

            Phoenix song filled the air. I titled my head back. Fawkes piped his eerie song to the ceiling and slowly circled down to sit on my shoulder. He carried something in his beak that I knew all too well: Godric Gryffindor's sword in a beautifully decorated sheathe.

            I gently took it from him and smiled. I fumbled with the belt of the sheathe but managed to get it around my waist. "Thanks, Fawkes. How about you and me go kick some serious Yeerk butt?"

            Fawkes cooed softly. I took that for a yes.

            And so my search began.

            "Potter," hissed a voice, making me turn. I looked up into Snape's face. He held a sword in his hand. I slowly registered the fact that he was a Yeerk and couldn't use magic.

            He smiled malevolently and swung his sword down at me. I dodged, rolled, and caught to my feet, unsheathing my own sword. The rubies on the hilt glittered in the moonlight that came down through a hole in the ceiling.

            Snape swung at me again, and I brought my sword up to meet it. Sparks flew as the swords connected. He thrust at me and I quickly parried. I lunged. He blocked. Our swords crisscrossed when they met and I pressed up against him, making him back up a little. His sword slipped. I brought the hilt of my sword down on his head, knocking him out.

            I slid the sword back into its sheathe. Breathing hard, I panted, "I've been wanting to do that for a long time."

            I continued my search. Now that I had a sword, a few people recognized me and attacked. I was a natural at swordplay, it seemed. I don't understand how, but I was. Maybe there was magic in the sword and it worked that way, but I was doing pretty well for a beginner.

            "Do you know where he is?" I asked Fawkes.

            Fawkes crowed and flew off into the crowd. I ran after him, looking up and not where I was going. This is probably why I tripped over a body and nearly fell into the Yeerk Pool.

            My glasses skidded across the stone floor and fell into the Yeerk Pool. I gasped in horror and scuttled forward on my hands and knees, making a wild grab for my glasses. They sank into the mass of alien slugs. I stuck my whole arm in and found my glasses to my great relief.

            I wiped them off on my robes where there wasn't any blood (very limited space). When I put them back on, I saw the person I had been seeking out: Visser Five.

            I unsheathed my sword and crouched down, stealthily creeping forward. Visser Five was standing on the pier of the Yeerk Pool with his lips pursed, surveying the battle but in no way taking part in it. His lip was curled in a sneer. He had both hands on his hips. He had retrieved his wand. It was carefully secured in his pocket.

            I slowed my breathing so that it even and normal. I raised my own wand and closed my eyes. "Accio wand," I whispered, barely audible.

            Slowly, but surely, the wand slid out of Visser Five's pocket. It drifted over. I held my breath the whole time. What if he noticed?

            Luckily for me, he didn't. I pocketed his wand and put mine in there also. I held my sword out carefully in front of me. My sneakers kept blessedly quiet as I crept up behind him. In one swift moment, I wrapped an arm around his arms and held the sword to his throat.

            Dumbledore's piercingly blue eyes looked at me, startling me. I had almost forgotten that Visser Five was Dumbledore too. I loosened my hold and Visser Five broke free, but I still had the sword at his throat.

            "Harry Potter," Visser Five acknowledged in Dumbledore's voice.

            "Visser Five," I replied.

            "Are you really going to kill your headmaster, Harry?"

            I paused and flared my nostrils. I weighed my choices. "For the price of freedom, yeah. I know I sure didn't like having a Yeerk in my head."

            I was aware of his hand snaking down to his pocket to grab his wand but didn't show it. When he looked shocked at finding it gone, I smiled in a hostile kind of way. With my free hand, I took his wand out of my pocket and twirled it in my fingers. "Now would be good to have a Plan B, Visser."

            He stared at me, face livid. I put the wand away and moved the sword so that its blade lightly touched his throat, breaking skin but not enough to bleed. "Free Dumbledore, Visser, and maybe—just maybe—you might live."

            "Never," the Visser spat.

            I pressed a little harder. A thin trail of blood trickled down Visser Five's neck. Sweat beaded his forehead and ran down his cheeks in tiny rivulets. "It's your choice, Visser," I said, "Free Dumbledore and have a shot at life or you both die."

            Visser Five didn't answer. I applied more pressure.

            A shriek split the air behind me, making me jump. I nearly slit Dumbledore's throat open. I looked over my shoulder to see a wizard-Controller—Ravenclaw Terry Boot—rushing at me with a Dracon gun in hand. I gasped in horror.

            Another shriek and a few seconds later, Terry was on the ground holding his head. Blood seeped through his fingers. He had dropped his Dracon beam. When he took his hands away, I saw that both his eyes had been punctured.

            I looked to the ceiling. Erllon circled there, blood glinting on his talons. I nodded grimly at him in thanks. He dipped his wings in acknowledgement. I didn't like what he had done, but he had just saved my life. Terry would probably be blind for life now.

            I turned back to Visser Five. He looked as if his knees were weak. "Have you decided, then, Yeerk?"

            He collapsed and I went with him so I would not kill him. I noticed something about his ear, however. A glowing yellow light was coming from inside. I stared in horrid fascination as Visser Five himself crawled out. I quickly dropped my sword with a clatter and quickly caught the glowing Yeerk.

            It glowed so bright it was hard to look at. I didn't need to think twice to know that all of Dumbledore's magic was stored in it.

            Dumbledore looked at me, gratitude filling his eyes. I smiled. "Hello, Professor."

            "Hello, Harry," he replied.

            I dropped the Yeerk into his hand. "It's yours to deal with."

            He nodded solemnly. "There is only one way to get my magic back, I'm afraid." He said, and quickly crushed the Yeerk in his long-fingered hand.

            The yellow light seeped down into his skin. It spread throughout his body until he glowed with it. The glow died down to a shimmer and finally disappeared completely.

            "I think you might want this back," I said, handing him is wand.

            He smiled at me. "Thank you, Harry, for all that you've done. I will never be able to repay you."

            I looked grimly into his eyes. "Yes, you can. Get Voldemort out of the school. Destroy the Yeerk Pool. Free the Controllers. That we be enough for me. I'll help, but you need to do this."

            Fawkes suddenly appeared above us. He landed on Dumbledore's shoulder and laid his head against the man's gashed throat. Tears slid down the phoenix's face onto Dumbledore's wound. The wound healed, leaving a shiny pink scar.

            "Fawkes, could you heal that boy over there?"

            Fawkes cawed softly and flew over to do his master's bidding. Terry's eyes healed. He blinked a few times. "Harry?"

            "Yeah?" I asked.

            He grinned broadly at me. "I'm free."

            I smiled feebly back. It was true. There lay a Yeerk beside him, which he crushed with the heel of his palm. It had tried to make a getaway for the Yeerk Pool.

            I turned back to face the battle. Dumbledore had all ready disappeared to go find Voldemort. Terry was on his feet, wand in hand, ready to go fight with the Animorphs. He ran off.

            I stood for a moment on the pier to the Yeerk Pool, sword in one hand and wand in the other. My face was still covered in blood. My robes were terribly mutilated and tattered. My scar throbbed. I was tired, hungry, and cold, but I was ready to fight.

            I was ready.

A/N: Ta daaa! You all knew I couldn't kill Harry off (Well, the Animorphs, Ron, and Hermione still thinks he's dead but that's okay)! Dumblydore is free! Wah hoo! The plot is taking a most excellent twist, ain't it? (By the way, I love Evanescence: See my accomplished work "Whisper"—major spoilers in that 'un though.)  Stay tuned for "Chapter 34: Solid Phantoms (Cassie)"!