"Please,"
whimpered a helpless Hermione. "Please,god, no. Let this be a
dream. A very, very bad dream that-" Poor Hermione was too
overcome with emotion to carry on. Her hands shaking uncontrollably,
she was overpowered by an outburst of waiting tears.
"It's
true," she sobbed. Burrying her face in her hands, Hermione
allowed herself to cry the many tears that were tugging at her heart,
just waiting to come out.
Hermione couldn't see how she could
leave this spot. It seemed as if she would forever always be curled
up by this very window, all by herself...crying. Just her, the big
luminous moon, and the many tiny specs of stars were all that seemed
to matter in this big empty room.
"Hermione!" boomed a
voice, way across the room from the other side of the door, startling
Hermione.
She jumped and sobbed. No, go way. I can't deal with you
right now... Hermione bowed her head low, feeling defeated as more
sobs tugged at the back of her throat.
"He found me,"
she whispered.
"Hermione!" Bang, bang, bang! "I know you're in here just-" Bang, bang, bang! "Let me in!"
Hermione stared wide-eyed at the door. Though it
was blurry from tears, Hermione could still see the pounds of his
fists were threatening the well-being of the door. She wouldn't be
surprised if he knocked it down.
"Alohamora." Hermione
heard him murmur. But she had thought of that already. Tears running
less and more slowly, Hermione stared in silent horror at the door.
All was silent and all was still...
"Ow...Dammit,
Hermione! Just open the damn door!" he barked.No...The
tears increased and began to flow more rapidly again.
"You
can't lock yourself in the da.mn closet," he said impatiently.
"It's not the answer...you know that, Ron knows that, I know
that!"
"Ron..." she whispered angrilly, shaking her
head and blinking against a fresh batch of hot new tears.
"Let
me explain...let me help you. Why won't you open the bl00dy
door!"
Hermione shook her head. She wanted to let him
in...the closet and in her mind, but another part stongly cautioned
her not to.
"He's fine! Please...open...the...door," he
pleaded with her.
"Wha-!" Hermione gasped."He's
alive!" she asked incredulously, unable to believe it. There
was a long pause on the other side of the door.
"Yes,"
Harry finally answered.
Hermione frantically searched the room, her eyes darting around wildly. Where was her wand! She scurried to the other side of the room and snatched up her wand. She whiped her wet face with the back of her robes and sniffed.
"Stand back," she announced, her voice shaking violently. She muttered a spell, sending the door flying off it's hinges.
Harry burst
in the room, having spotted Hermione immediately. He wrapped her in a
tight and brotherly hug, kissing her furiously on the forehead and
temples.
"Hermione...don't ever do that again!"
Hermione
pulled out of his grip and looked up at a 7th year Harry.
"Where's
Ron?" she demanded.
"Outside," Harry murmured.
"He's just fine..." Harry looked down at his
shoes.
"Something else?" she hissed, fear clutching at
her heart. Harry shook his head.
"No," he lied
boldly.
"Well, what happened? Is
You-Know-Who...gone?"
Harry's face flushed in anger.
"Not
exactly," he answered, sounding furious with himself."
"But
things are better know, right?" Hermione asked hopefully.
Harry
stared hard down at Hermione.
"I don't know," he replied
tonelessly. "Most likely not. Voldemort will never be
over."
Hermione sighed, realizing she had probably asked
enough questions. The look on Harry's face brought out nothing but
sympathy. He must be furious with himself. Hermione reached out and
gently stroked his cheek.
"You made a difference," she
reassured. Harry slowly forced a smile.
"Yeah, but we need to
get you out of here," Harry informed urgently. "We have to
run as quietly as possible."
"Run? But I thought this
whole thing was over."
Harry slowly shook his head.
"I
told you Hermione...it's never over."
Hermione raised a brow
and her eyes grew wide with fear.
Gasping
for breath, Harry half-walked half-ran towards the forbidden forest,
almost dragging an out of breath Hermione.
"Almost there,"
he hissed.
Hermione nodded. "Yup. I'm almost dead
alright."
Harry shook his head and rolled his eyes,
tightening his grip around Hermione's small wrist.
Running...running
through the forest lined thick with tall trees and many tree trunks
protruding from underground for them to scramble over. It was
true-this wasn't a place for playing and running around fore the
forest was filled with many creatures
and low hanging
branches.
Harry screwed up his face in concentration.
"Ron!"
Hermione hissed. They had at last found the spot. Hermione gasped.
"I
thought you said he was okay!" she added to Harry.
Harry
shrugged. "He's alive."
Hermione's eyes grew wide as she
rushed over to an unconcious-looking Ron. He sat, leaning against a
tree, one hand clutching a bl00dy arm, his head hed low. Seamus sat
next to him with Neville, tending to his arm. Seamus looked up in
time to see Hermione rush over. He gave her a sad sympathetic
look.
"Is he okay? How's Ron?" Hermione frantically
asked as she stroked Ron's scratched cheek. Ron groaned and tilted
his head off to the side so as to get away from Hermione's
touch.
Harry swallowed hard. "He'll be okay. This is just
a pit stop for me. Seamus, Neville, be sure to lookout for Hermione
and see if you can help Ron. I should be back by dawn. If not..."
he shook his head lightly, letting the sentence trail. Hermione
briefly turned away from Ron.
"Harry, you're not going back,
are you? You can't. You could get hurt!"
"He already
did," Seamus piped up. "Look at his neck."
Harry's
hand quickly shot up to his neck/
"I'm fine," he
defended. "I need to get back-"
"Harry, I don't
think you should go, either," Seamus said harshly.
"Yeah,"
Neville softly agreed timidly.
"Look, I'm this close to
defeating the Dark Lord. I can't walk away from this fight. If I
don't go now, who knows when we'll get another chance at him. I'm
sorry, guys. I have to."
There was an awkward silence that
followed his statement. Harry sighed and strode over to give Seamus
and Neville a hug and Hermione one last kiss on the cheek.
"I'll
be back," he reassured. He glanced down at Ron and hesitantly
turned away. Hermione blinked back hot tears that were beginning to
brim at her eyes, watching Harry slowly walk away and then finally
disapperating. She shook her head.
"He won't be coming back,"
she said boldly, more as a statement rather than a question. Seamus
looked down his hands.
"He might."
Hermione shook her
head once more as she turned back to tend to Ron. He groaned and
tightened his grip on his damaged arm.
"I guess it's up to
me," she said quietly, slowly slipping a thumb under Ron's chin.
She gently pushed his chin up so as to level their eyes. He gave her
a pained expression and Hermione silently gasped to find his eyes
silvery grey instead of it's normal green-blue. A tear slowly rolled
down her cheek as she planted a gentle and brief kiss upon Ron's
lips. He weakly returned it.
"Please," whimpered a helpless Hermione. "Please,god, no. Let this be a dream. A very, very bad dream that-" Poor Hermione was too overcome with emotion to carry on.
Tears were now streaming down her face as she realized her life may never be the same. After all...this would never be over...
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END
