Agape
By: stu14688
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That world belongs to J. K. Rowling. Please don't sue.
Ron, Remus, and Hermione sat right outside the doors of the hospital wing – each lost in his or her own thoughts. They were waiting for Madame Pomfrey to tell them how Harry was. She had been with him for over an hour, and Hermione was starting to worry. She needs to come and tell us something. Remus should hear something at least; he is Harry's guardian.
Just as Hermione had that thought Madame Pomfrey walked briskly out of the infirmary. "He is still alive, but extremely weak. He has not woken up, and to be honest, I'm not sure that he will. I can't allow anyone to visit him right now." She left before anyone could protest.
"No, no, no, NO, NO! He is going to be okay! He has to be okay! He has to know that he did it. He did NOT go through this horrid life just for it end. No, I will NOT accept it! You hear me, Harry James Potter? YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE!" Hermione broke down.
She felt Ron pull her into a hug that could make his mother run for her money. She cried. What else could she do? Ron continued to hold her and rock her as she cried into his chest. She felt as the shoulder of her own robe become wet, and she knew that Ron was crying as well. She hugged her friend tighter because she knew how Ron was about showing emotion. This had been hard on him too, and he needed comfort just as she did. Then a third pair of arms entered into the hug. Remus had joined. He kept saying things like "It's not over… He'll pull through… Don't worry…"
Finally, Hermione's sobs quieted and her body quit its shaking. Ron released her gently, but continued to rub her back. She had to tell them. They had to know what had happened in that clearing in the Forbidden Forest. "Do either of you know how Harry did it?" The question was from Remus. It was clear that he had no idea how Harry had managed to kill Lord Voldemort.
Hermione gave him a blank look and Ron answered. "No. I figured he used the killing curse. Why did he do something else?" He had spoken quietly with both worry and wonder in his voice.
Hermione looked down. She knew exactly what had been used, and it had not been the killing curse. Harry would have never been able to execute it. It was powered by the force of hate combined with evil. Harry did not harbor hate, nor was he evil.
Hermione had been sitting quietly for about a minute when she finally spoke. "Yes, he did use something different. He used the spell Agape." She watched as the faces of the two men before her went from anticipation to confusion to question. "You have not heard of it. It is a new spell that Harry and I have developed over the past few months. It is based on an ancient magic."
Ron spoke first; Remus seemed to be mulling something over in his mind. "What do you mean 'you and Harry developed a spell?' You make is sound so everyday. Hermione, people do not just go around inventing new magic. Well, maybe Dumbledore does, but not seventh year students."
"Wait a sec, Ron. Hermione, you said the spell is called Agape. Agape is based on the Greek word for love. What in the world did you two create? If I know Harry, then he would not have been able to pull off Avada Kadvra. Obviously, though, that spell would not have worked on Voldemort. He survived his own rendition of it when it backfired off of Harry as a baby." Remus' eyes were boring holes into Hermione wanting to know about this new spell.
Here goes nothing thought Hermione. "Well, when Harry told Ron and me about the prophecy last summer, I began to wonder about this unknown power that he had. Then, he told us about the ancient magic that his mother used to protect him as a baby. After some more discussion, the three of us decided that the power must be love – which is also the ancient magic that Lily used. So, I talked Harry into coming to the library with me to look up spells. We looked for weeks, and found nothing that could possibly kill Voldemort. During that time though, we decided that Harry could not use the killing curse properly. He does not run on hate and is not evil. He had to use the power of love to succeed.
"Then, one day Harry met me at the library, like we planned, but told me that he thought that we should try to invent a spell. It took about a week for him to convince me. He surprised me, though; it seems that during that week, he was researching how to create new magic spells. So, we set to work – hard work."
Ron seemed have a revelation. "So that is where you two kept running off to. I was starting to wonder, and I wasn't alone. The whole of Gryffindor tower thought that you two had gotten together and was running off to find a broom closet. Why didn't you tell someone? Namely me. I am the other best friend to both of you."
"Ron, I'm sorry. It is just that when he was free you weren't, and Harry's free moments this year were far and few between. What with Quidditch, NEWT classes, regular classes, extra training classes, and the DA, we really had to use whatever time presented itself. Besides, you don't like research, and for months we could not get anything to happen with the spell. You would have been bored." This answer seemed to appease Ron, but by that time, Remus had gotten antsy.
"Okay, okay. I hate to sound so rude, but could we get on with the spell. It's just that you may know something that can help Harry's chances at living to see tomorrow."
Hermione was not sure how to take the last part of the werewolf's comment. It had hurt. He sounded almost as if he were blaming her for keeping important life saving information away from everyone. She did not have any way of helping Harry fight the battle for his life, but she went on with her story anyway.
"Like I said it was hard work. We had to decide exactly what the spell needed to do, and how to make it do it. Harry told me of how Voldemort had possessed him at the battle in the Ministry in our fifth year. He said that when he felt love for Sirius, Voldemort had left Harry's body. This gave us our idea as to what the spell would have to do.
"Agape is a spell that will send pure, powerful love to whatever it is aimed at. It is so powerful, that the person or thing it hits will be destroyed. Blasted from existence. In order for the user of the spell to make it work, they have to focus on love. Not only focus on it, but also focus the love itself. This was the hard – and tricky – part.
"Well, from about December to April Harry tried to execute the spell. Nothing seemed to work, and we were both getting frustrated. Harry had tried concentration, wishing, feeling, and who knows what else to focus the magic and love that was needed to make the spell possible. We both knew that it would work, but we were losing patience with the spell and each other."
Ron shook his head. "Well, at least I know why you hexed me when I did not get that charm to work fast enough back in March. It reminded you of Agape and its seeming failure. Come to think of it, both of you were snappy about that time. Everyone thought that you had had an argument."
Hermione noticed that Remus looked very annoyed with Ron's deduction, but Hermione went ahead and responded to Ron. "Yes, that was the reason that we were 'snappy.' I am sorry. I am sure that Harry is too. We were just so worried that we would not get the spell to work. That was all that we thought about most of the time. We really should have been more considerate, though."
Ron looked at Hermione with concern. "You know that you are forgiven. I seem to remember that soon after that you two became almost giddy. What happened? Did you have a break through?"
Hermione took a deep breath and continued. "Yeah. We had a break through. Harry was working with the spell again when his scar started hurting – really bad. It scared me. I did not know what to do for him when he fell to his knees holding his head. He must have done some kind of thinking, and fast at that. He pointed his wand at the small statue and almost whispered 'Agape.' Suddenly a shot of the whitest white light I have ever seen came flying out of the end of his wand and hit the statue dead on. It blasted into pieces no larger than a pebble.
"Harry had fallen over from exhaustion. I conjured up some water and helped him to a chair. He told me that his scar did not hurt anymore, and that he hadn't had a vision or anything. We sat for a while in silence as his strength built back up; we were both thinking about how he had been able to do the spell while in pain and weak, but could not do it when nothing was wrong.
"Finally, I asked him, 'What do you think this means? It would not work before, but it did just now.' I remember that when he looked at me he was slightly grinning. Probably at me because I was choosing to ignore the obvious facts. When he spoke, though, he was dead serious. 'It means, Hermione, that it will work when you are weak. Also, I found out that to focus love, you have to combine thinking about all those that you love and love you while feeling love at the same time. I thought of my friends and family – surrogate and by blood – and I felt the love that was coming from you. It takes two to make this spell work. It does not matter how you love each other, just as long as you do.' At that time, we thought that it would only work if the user were already weak. It was over the next few weeks that we discovered that it will work if nothing is wrong; it just will not be as strong. Though, it can still do some damage."
This time Remus interrupted. "Why is that? Why does it work better when one is weak?" Ron nodded his head in agreement to the question.
Hermione knew this would be difficult to explain, but she figured that these two could make more deductions than they were. She sighed and kept talking. "Love is a powerful emotion. As a matter of fact, it is the most powerful. When the executer of the spell is in full form so to speak, that person can easily focus on other emotions. For Harry and me it was frustration and anger. We could not get the spell to work but when Harry's scar hurt, it made him weak. He later told me that at that time he wanted to beat the pain, so he thought of happy things. This made him think of how many people he loved and how many loved or had loved him. He said that when he thought of that, he naturally raised his wand, focused on the love that he felt and knew, and said the incantation. He said that at the same time he said Agape, his scar quit hurting and he got very weak.
"The love was powerful, more powerful than the pain he felt. It drove Voldemort out of Harry's mind it was so powerful. I think that he has been using the idea of focusing his love in combination with occlumency to keep Voldemort at a safe distance from his mind. Apparently, their connection is a two-way street, and Voldemort is repelled by love.
"Anyway, back to the story. We kept working on it for the next month and half. Harry got to where he could make the spell work while he was strong, but like I said the spell itself was not strong. I tried it, but my attempts were worse than Harry's attempts. We managed to make few pillows explode, but nothing more than that.
"During that time, Harry also started to work on trying to find ways that might make pain more bearable. He knew that he had to go through some, and that he had to be weak. The thing was that he still had to be strong enough to wield a wand and focus. We could not test his ideas, though, so he just had to keep them in mind until it came time to use them."
She had quit talking, and felt two pairs of eyes boring into her. I don't know if I tell them this. I don't know if I can talk about what happened in the clearing. They should already know that I was there. I told them that it takes two for the spell to work.
Remus seemed to notice her hesitation. "Hermione. You can tell us, you know. We already figured that you were somewhere near Harry because you brought him to the castle. Tell us, Hermione. Please." He had practically whispered the entire time. She looked up and saw Ron looking at her with sorrow in his eyes. He also looked like he was afraid to hear how Harry and Voldemort had dueled. She couldn't blame him. It was not exactly a pretty site.
Hermione stood and walked to the window. The moon and stars were out. She had missed the sunset while sitting here telling Remus and Ron about Agape. When she looked at her watch, she was surprised to see that it was just after midnight. Four hours ago I brought him up here. Four hours ago he killed the most evil wizard to ever walk the face of this Earth. She continued to stand there for a few moments before speaking again.
"When the battle started, I stayed close to Harry. We had already decided that I would be nearby when he fought Voldemort. I was the only other person who knew about the spell so it had to be me. I was to stay away from them – Harry made me promise. 'I don't care what happens to me. If you are not sure whether Voldemort is dead or alive, stay away. Promise me, Hermione.' I told him I would.
"It was about six o'clock when Harry finally managed to find Voldemort. I did as I promised and hid just beyond the clearing behind some trees. I could still see everything that happened. At first, I thought that there were only three of us, but I quickly found out that I was wrong. Wormtail was in the clearing too. Voldemort called for him and they exchanged wands. Because of the brother wands that Harry and Voldemort had, they could not duel properly. Then, the duel began.
Hermione stopped again. She did not like remembering what had happened. It made her think of Harry right now. Fighting to stay alive – at least he better be fighting she thought. She could not imagine not having him around to talk to. She knew that she had to continue with her story.
"They threw hexes, curses, and spells at one another. Both sides were getting bloody. Harry sent some things that I've never heard, and never thought that he would be capable of using. He never used the unforgivables, though. Voldemort wasn't that kind. He must have used Impervious five times. Harry managed to throw them off each time, and the last time he said, 'Tom, I thought that by now you would have realized that you cannot control me. Do you not remember using that particular spell on me in the graveyard three years ago?' This only enraged Voldemort. At that moment, he raised his wand simply said, 'Crucio.' I thought that Harry would use it then, but he didn't. As a matter of fact, he let Voldemort use Crucio three more times. It was the most awful sight I have ever seen. There was nothing I could do about it either. Harry was being tortured, but I knew that if I stepped out and were killed then Harry could not perform Agape. Besides, I had made a promise. Therefore, I stayed there – behind the trees, crying silently.
"Voldemort must have been getting antsy because he said it. The killing curse. Harry was on the ground trying to recover somewhat from his most recent torture and could not do anything. Then, out of nowhere, Wormtail appeared in front of Harry and took the curse just as it was about to hit Harry. He paid his debt."
Hermione looked at her hands. They were shaking uncontrollably. She also noticed wetness on her face. She must have started crying at some point. She took a couple of calming breaths and began to speak again.
"During the time that Wormtail had been repaying his debt, Harry had managed to stand up and face Voldemort. He stood there, back straight and a determined face. Voldemort laughed and told him that he would die like his father. I will never forget what happened next. Harry stood even taller, looked his opponent in the eye, and said, 'With honor. Fighting you – a power hungry, hypocritical monster. Good.'
"I was shaking in fear of what would happen next. Even from where I was, I could feel the raw power of hate and evil magic issuing off Voldemort. The interesting part was that I could also feel the power of love coming off Harry. I think that Voldemort's statement about Harry's father only made Harry's power that much stronger.
"Voldemort said it for the last time. He obviously just wanted to see Harry writhe in pain and suffer to death. 'Crucio.' Harry hit his knees in pain, but somehow managed to raise his wand and I could see him focus in on love. I tried to focus my own right at him. I did not dare say the incantation. I had seen its power at it's lowest. I did what I could, though. Then, Harry said the last word that Voldemort would ever hear. 'Agape.' It was just a whisper, but I know that he said it with all the force that he could muster. It worked.
"White light filled the clearing as the spell hit Voldemort. I had to close and cover my eyes to the brightness of it. It was even brighter than it had been that day in the Room of Requirement when it had first worked. Then there was a blast of power. It was evil power. It lingered for a moment and then dissipated into nothingness. As suddenly as the light was there, it was gone.
"I looked into the clearing. I saw three bodies. Wormtail, Voldemort, and Harry. There was no sound and no movement. I walked into the clearing. Voldemort and Peter were dead. I was about to turn and check on Harry when Voldemort's body glowed green. It was the same color as Avada Kedvra. As I watched his body began to change. He became Tom Riddle – at least that's who I think it is. He looked somewhat like Harry. I checked his pulse to see if he was really dead, and he was. Harry had done it. He had destroyed Voldemort and killed Tom.
"I walked over to Harry. He was unconscious. The sight scared me because he was taking very shallow breaths. I conjured a stretcher as quick as I could and levitated him onto it. I tried to fix some of his injuries: cuts and things. I knew that we could not apparate, and Harry may not have made it if I walked, so I turned his glasses into a portkey. That is how we got here. You know the rest."
Hermione went silent. They already knew how she had made another portkey for Moody and the others to go back to the spot where she had left Tom and Peter's bodies. She had been with Ron and Remus ever since. Sitting there waiting for news about Harry.
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The sun was on the horizon as Madame Pomfrey once again opened the door. Hermione smiled at the nurse's shocked look. She must have expected us to go to bed. Well, all I've got to say is, "Not hardly, honey."
Remus turned to the nurse. "How is he, Madame? Did he make it through the night?" Hermione held her breath for what seemed like an eternity. Finally the woman spoke.
"Yes. Yes, he is still hanging on. He is still very weak and asleep, but I think that given some time – I do not know how much time – but if given some time, then he should be as good as new. I do not know what kind of magic that boy used, but it must have been extremely powerful. Even Albus says that whatever was used was probably one of the most powerful spells there is."
Hermione, Remus, and Ron said nothing about the magic that Harry had used. They knew that it would only lead to questions and they figured that it would be better if Harry were there to help with the explanation.
Madame Pomfrey was not finished and started speaking again, "I will allow you to visit, but only for a few minutes. He woke up about an hour ago and asked if it was over. I told him that it was, and he promptly went back to sleep. I will let you know when he wakes up. You can see him then." With that, she left to tend to her patients again.
Hermione walked to the window on the opposite side of the hall to watch the sun make an appearance. Ron followed. "He will be fine. You know him – got more lives than a cat."
"Yeah, Ron, I know. I just hope that he will finally be able to have a good and happy life from here on out. I worry about him."
"Hermione, you more than worry about him. You love him. Even I can see that, and that is saying something."
Hermione did not respond. They stood in companionable silence for a minute before Ron spoke again. "Guess what else, Hermione."
"I don't know. What?"
"I am pretty sure that he loves you too. I think that he has for sometime now, but in an effort to keep you safe and our friendship on safe waters, he did not say anything. Why do you think he wanted you in that clearing with him?"
"Would you be jealous? If Harry and I started dating, I mean. I thought that you liked me?"
"At one point in time I would have been jealous because I did like you. When you and Harry started meeting in the library this year, I realized how that although I liked you, Harry loved you. I also noticed how much you two complement and complete each other. It just became obvious to me that you two would end up together. Though, if he ever were to hurt you, he can bet that I will come after him, and I will win."
Hermione laughed. She could just imagine Ron taking on Harry Potter: The Boy Who Defeated Lord Voldemort. Yes, she knew that Ron would always be there to watch out for her, but she also knew that Harry would never hurt her. Because of him, she was safer now than she ever had been in her whole life.
Ron gave her a hug. "It is good to hear laughter coming from you again. Well, hearing it come from almost anybody would be good." Hermione could hear the laughter in his own voice and had to agree that it sounded good.
She had not noticed Remus come over to where she and Ron were standing, but there he was. "Madame Pomfrey just came back and said that Harry is awake. She said that we could come in and visit for a few quick moments. Apparently, her patient is very determined to see us, and will not take her word on it that we are indeed alive." Remus smiled as if there was no tomorrow.
Hermione could not have felt happier if she tried. She smiled and said, "That is the Harry I know. So worried about the rest of us that he won't even try to get better. Let's go see him."
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Hermione let Ron and Remus go and see Harry first. She had something important to tell him, and wanted them to go first. Finally, Ron came out from behind the curtain that was around Harry's bed. "Well, Hermione. What are you waiting for? He is expecting you, and I think that you had better be expecting him to tell you something important."
Hermione looked at him and grinned. "Well, you are the one holding me up." With that, she walked behind the curtain.
Harry was lying on the bed. He had his eyes closed and had a small grin on his face. He really looks peaceful, she thought. She gently sat down in the chair beside his bed. He still had not opened his eyes. She reached out and took his hand in hers. It is so rough, yet so gentle. You would think that he was in the middle of his life to feel the calluses on them. These hands have seen and done many things. Fly against dragons, duel evil wizards, play rough Quidditch games. Many things and that includes being so gentle. All the times they have given me a hug, patted my back, caught me when I stumbled, or pulled me out of harm's way. Maybe one day, they will hold me in his arms.
Hermione looked to Harry's face to find him watching her and smiling. "I sure wish I knew what is running through your mind to make you look so happy, Hermione." His voice was quiet and husky from the fighting and his weak state. He was still pale, but his breathing was back to normal. She figured that he was probably fighting sleep too from the looks of him.
"I was thinking about you, if you must know. Well, I guess it was more like your hands, but still, it was you all the same. Harry, I have something to tell you." She knew that she was blushing. She could feel her cheeks warm. She was so nervous. What if he does not reciprocate the feelings that I have for him? What if I ruin the friendship that we have by saying three little words? Stupid "what if" questions. Ooh, I hate them.
"What is it Hermione? You know that you can tell me anything."
Hermione looked at Harry. She saw the worry in his eyes. She also saw something else. Dare she hope it? Could it possibly be? She looked directly at him and grasped his other hand – as she had yet to let go of the one she took earlier. She tossed words about in her mind trying unsuccessfully to find the right ones. She wanted to tell him exactly how she felt about him. How she would never let harm befall him if she could. How she would never leave nor hurt him. She wanted him to know that she would do everything in her power to make him happy.
As she sat there thinking these things she heard one word leave Harry's mouth. In one word, she knew that he had heard her thoughts. Not literally, but he could read her just as well as she could read him. He had said the word that sent her to realizing her feelings many months ago. She knew what he meant by the word as well. He had said, "Agape."
A/N: Thanks for reading my little story. I hope that you liked it. Please review, and don't be afraid of constructive critism. I will ask that you not flame me. Thanks again! Have a great day! ; )