Deliverance: Chapter 8

It had now been a week since Dumbledor had told Harry and Hermione about Sirius and the upcoming final battle. Hermione was nowhere near forgiving Harry but at least they were on speaking terms again. Both Ron and Draco (Who it turns out was secretly a member of the Order of the phoenix all along) were informed about Sirius being alive and about the final battle. And now Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Dumbledor were all preparing for the last battle with Voldemort. Dumbledor had been researching through some of the original texts of magic for a spell to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledor had spent endless hours of research, he was about to call it quits for the day but he saw something that caught his eye. He saw a spell called 'mother earth', the description read as follows

'The Mother earth spell is a spell that uses the power of the love that a person has been shown throughout their lifetime. This collected amount of love creates an unstoppable force against any foe.' This was it! This was the type of spell Dumbledor had been searching for, and now that he had it, they were ready to fight. That evening Dumbledor gathered the four students as well as all of the aurors and every other person that was going to be fighting on their side, even Sirius was there. The plan was this: Harry was to use the mother earth spell on Voldemort. Only Harry was to try to fight Voldemort, and everyone else would be fighting Voldemort's deatheaters. They would attack tomorrow during a Deatheater ceremony that they had learned about through Sirius. Dumbledor ended the meeting by telling everyone to be careful and then one by one they left. Hermione and Draco however left together.

"Draco…" Said Hermione quietly "I'm…I'm scared… I'm only seventeen I don't want to die. And … I don't want to lose you." A single tear slid down Hermione's cheek. Draco looked up at her sympathetically.

"I don't want to lose you either Hermione…I love you…and … if we survive this…and I mean when we're old enough … well will you marry me?" Hermione hugged him tightly, new tears formed in her eyes

"Of course I'll marry you! I love you and I will always love you… and we're going to make it through this alive." Draco kissed her forehead and smiled lovingly then the two walked back to their dorms with a new vigor for what was to come the next day.

The Deatheater ceremony was to take place at night at Lucious Malfoy's Mansion. Throughout the day every single one of those who were to be involved in the final battle were more nervous than is possibly imaginable. They were to get to the mansion with an overly large portkey they were to dress as deatheaters and as soon as everyone had gotten into the building they were to attack.

That evening:

"Is everyone ready?" asked Dumbledor "right. On the count of three everyone is to grab hold of the portkey. Got it? Good. Good luck to all of you. Ok …1…2…. 3!" Everyone touched the portkey at exactly the same moment sending them all directly to Malfoy Manor. This was it, Voldemort was going to be beaten once and for all.

All of the Deatheater clad fighters walked inside and when the last person had walked through the door, it began. The deatheaters didn't know what hit them. Harry went for Voldemort. He was going to need a little time for this spell to work. He hoped his defense against the dark arts skills would hold out long enough. In one of the other areas of the mansion Draco and Hermione were standing back to back warding off as many death eaters as possible.

"How you doing?" Draco asked, his breathing was a bit ragged but as of now he was doing pretty well.

"Well as good as I could be in this situation…you?" she smiled sarcastically before quickly dodging a hex that had been sent her way. She instinctively hurled a rather powerful stunning charm back at the deatheater and was rewarded by a muffled scream as the paralyzed figure fell to the floor. Draco looked back at her, he smiled with admiration.

"Have you ever thought about becoming an auror?" he asked cocking an eyebrow and giving off one of his infamous smirks.

"Well… no, but it would certainty be exciting wouldn't it…however…the only thing I really want to be… is Mrs. Draco Malfoy." She gave him a quick kiss and then they went back to work, both of them were grinning broadly.

The spell was finally ready, Harry pointed his wand his wand at Voldemort "Your going to pay for all of those people you've killed… your going to pay for what you did to my parents AMORE MALASS!" A blinding beam of white light erupted from the end of Harry's wand. Voldemort was thrown violently backward his agonized screams were deafening as he writhed painfully on the floor, light came pouring from his beaten and disfigured body, the entire room was consumed with light. And then… silence…a silence so loud it was unbearable…and all that was left of what was once the most powerful wizard of all time…was a small pile of black dust…it was over.

As the last of the deatheaters were being rounded up by Dumbledore Draco carefully restored his wand to his pocket and went off in search of Hermione. At the time of Harry's final spell they had gotten separated and he hadn't seen her since. On the left side of his now destroyed home a small group of aurors were huddled in a small circle, they seemed to be looking at something. He pushed his way through the crowd to the other side. There in a crumpled and bloody heap lay the now lifeless form of Hermione. He dropped to his knees tears spilling unchecked from his eyes. Dumbledore placed a comforting hand on his shoulder… but Draco didn't notice. How could this have happened? Only mere minutes ago they had been laughing happily talking to one another…and Voldemort was gone…but what did it matter now? The only person that had ever truly known him… the only person who he had ever loved was gone. How could this be a victory? He closed his reddened eyes wishing more than anything to be with her again.

He opened his eyes once more… this time however he was no longer in the large mansion chamber… he was lying on a soft comfortable bed and he could feel warm flesh wrapped around his arm, he looked to his side…it was Hermione. But she looked different… she must have been in her twenties at least. She slowly opened her eyes and smiled up at him.

"Good morning my darling husband." She snuggled up closer to him. He pinched himself quickly…'ow'… no this was definitely real…but how?

"Hermione?"

"Yes Draco, what is it?" He tried to tell her what had happened what he had felt, everything that was going on in his mind right now…but he was unable to put it into words.

"…I…Love you." He finally choked out and he pulled her tighter. They were together and no matter what had happened whether it had been a dream or something entirely different… none of that mattered now. They were together and that meant everything.

THE END