Word had spread through the students that the dragon and You-Know-Who were siting in a compartment in the middle of the train. The students crowded both far ends to capacity. It was a long trip but finally they arrived at Hogsmead station. The students stayed where they were hoping the objects of their fear would get off the train and go away.
"Lets walk up to the school." Harry said as he and Draco got off the train onto the deserted station platform.
"We'll have too." Draco replied, "The carriages stopped working last year."
Harry threw his bag over his shoulder and strode towards his former home.
The castle still showed the signs of damage from the war. The north tower was nothing but a pile of rubble and the windows were still boarded up on that side on the castle. As they passed the ruin of a stone hut on the edge of the dark forest, Harry stared at a bare piece of ground nearby for some time. It was the first time he had been back to the place in all these years and his attention was riveted to that one spot. It was some time before he turned back to the castle and walked towards it. Draco had silently waited knowing what had happened here years before only too well.
As they entered the castle they heard the many raised voices coming from the Great Hall. One voice rang out above all the others. "Quiet please! We have to finish soon. The students will be arriving anytime now." There was dissent in the many voices that rang out in response.
"I'd better go first and warn them you're here." Draco said without apology.
Harry waited in the entrance Hall as Draco slipped into the Great Hall.
The Headmistress of Hogwarts sat at the staff table and tried to control debate between dignitaries from all over the wizarding world. They had been in conference for two weeks and on this their final night, they were no closer to finding an answer to the greatest crisis the wizarding world had ever known than they had when they started. The dragon's entrance had momentarily distracted the arguing parties. The dragon was not what you would call polite company. The dragon ignored the looks he was given by the majority of those present and walked up to the headmistress and whispered into her ear.
"What's he doing here?" the Minister of Magic shouted.
Hermione Weasley, the headmistress of Hogwarts rose and held her hands up for silence.
"I have sent for someone that might be able to help us find out what is happening to our world." She told the crowded hall. "The dragon has just informed me of his arrival."
"Who?" the Minister demanded loudly.
"ME!" a voice from the rear of the hall boomed out.
Everyone turned to look at who had spoken and the effect was electric. There stood a man just inside the doors of the Great Hall that most had not seen in over twenty years. But they recognised him by his scar and his green eyes immediately.
"Are you mad?" the Minister shouted at Hermione as the realisation of whom the headmistress had summoned to the conference went through the delegates in the Great Hall.
Harry strode down the hall with a presence unlike any other. Everyone in the room sensed the power of this man as he passed. It was not to be taken lightly. He was by far the most powerful wizard of the age and perhaps of any age. The people around him reared back as he passed. That innate fear of him wasn't lost on Harry either. If anything it had grown with his absence. The expression he wore was not a happy one. But he was not here for them, he was here for her. That's all that mattered. The dragon was right, he owed her and it was a debt he had to repay.
"Hermione, its good to see you. These are for you." Harry told her as he handed her a small bag.
Hermione opened the bag. It was full of uncut diamonds. They sparkled in her hand, a king's ransom in value that Harry had scrapped together in his many travels.
"Harry, I don't understand?" she said.
Harry turned to face the crowded Hall. " I only came back to see Hermione and make sure she was alright. I don't care what the rest of you think of me. I am done with you. I am going home now. Don't come to me again. You may all fear me but all I wish is to be left alone."
"Harry please!" Hermione asked.
He turned his back on the crowded Hall and told her apologetically, "You'll be alright Herm. Once the magic is gone, those little stones will allow you to settle in the muggle world."
"He doesn't know anymore than we do!" The minister yelled angrily.
Harry smiled demonically, "Ah but I do. I know exactly what is causing this. Magic isn't growing weaker. It is leaking out of this universe. Leaking through a tear in the space-time continuum. And that tear is getting bigger. Soon there won't be any magic left in this world." Harry laughed. That laugh echoed through the Great Hall and it held all the scorn and bitterness of his long years of misery. "And good riddance I say!" He spat at them with his anger.
You could have heard a pin drop in the Great Hall. Finally Hermione broke the silence. "Harry you have got to help us."
"Herm, I'd crawl over broken glass for you but the rest of them, can go to hell for all I care." Harry said in the now quiet hall.
"Its all rubbish!" the minister said with uncertainty creeping into is voice. "What tear?"
"Harry, please! If you know something, tell us." Hermione begged.
"The tear in the continuum is just outside on that little bare patch of earth near Hagrid's old hut. That's where he fell. It is a hard thing to kill an immortal. That's what Voldemort was you know. Immortal. I'd keep killing him and he'd keep coming back, over and over, stronger each time. Finally the only way I could stop him once and for all was to remove him from the very fabric of space-time itself. Excise him from this universe completely. Only it didn't quite work right. There was still this little tear left after I'd done it. I was always going to fix it when I recovered from the battle but by the time I was strong enough again, you had driven me away. You feared the power I wielded, you feared I might turn into another Voldemort and with Dumbledore gone; there wasn't a wizard in the world that could match me. You all treated me like a nuclear bomb about to go off. Well when the magic is all gone, you won't have to worry about me anymore. We'll all be muggles." Harry said, his voice hard and sounding like the doom of the world.
"You can fix this, you said you could." The Minister sounding desperate said.
"Perhaps," Harry replied, "but I'm not going to. And I doubt anyone else can."
Harry began to walk back down the hall with every eye on him. He soon made the doors to the hall and was gone. In the entrance hall Harry stopped for a moment to try to push down the anger and hatred he felt for these people. They had brought back the memories he had spent years running from, trying to forget. He should not have come back. He began to walk towards the front doors of the castle when a voice called him back.
"Harry, please wait!" Hermione had come from the Great Hall alone. Her voice held all her concern and gentleness for Harry that it had always had. She had not seen Harry in many years and Harry knew she had not expected the scene that had just occurred. She had expected Harry to be willing to be the great hero again.
"You are not going to change my mind Herm. I'm sorry but I'm not going to save the world this time. It costs too much. You'll be alright with the diamonds." Harry said without turning to face his friend. He couldn't bear to look at her in the eyes and tell her he wasn't going to help. "I best be going."
"Harry, at least stay and visit Ron. He'd love to see you again." She asked.
It was what Harry had feared she would do. He hated her for it but he could not refuse her this. "Very well. I'll stay tonight and see Ron in the morning but then I will be leaving Herm. I mean it!"
"Come, I'll get you settled in the guest quarters and then I must see the others down to the train." Hermione said leading Harry into the castle. "And I must see what's keeping the students."
"That will be down to me too, I'm afraid." Harry told her as she took his arm and led him into the castle. "Seems they didn't want to get off the train with me and Draco on the platform. Guess they're still there."
"I'll have a word at the sorting. Can't have them treating the school's most famous alumni like this. It's ridiculous!" she said.
"Same old Hermione!" Harry said sounding almost cheerful. "I have missed you."
"Same old Harry." Hermione replied, patting his arm but she knew this was in fact a very different person to the one she had befriended at school all those years ago.