To Get Back Life


Thank you –

PandylBas
countrybutterfly
epiphany-the-storyteller
mysteriouscharm
Danish Pastry 28
Onigiri Momoko
Pip08

A/N – This may be one of the last chapters of this story, I'm not too sure yet I'll see how the next one turns out (that may even be the last one, possibly, excluding an epilogue). I'm currently planning a new HGDM fic; info about it is on my bio under the title of upcoming stories if you want to check it out. Thanks.

WARNING: This chapter contains references from the sixth book so if you haven't finished it and do not wish to know what happens don't read.


Chapter 12
Set Free

"Harry? Y-you're a ghost?" Ginny stuttered not quite able to believe her eyes.

"'Fraid so." He sighed as he looked down at them; he was floating off the ground so his head was about a foot above them.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione cried and ran forward, trying to hug him forgetting that he had no corporeal form so ended up just running through him.

She flushed slightly with embarrassment as she turned back towards her friends. "But why are you still here? I thought only people who suffered a painful death came back as ghosts." she asked trying to move along the conversation.

"I have unfinished business I can't move on until Voldemort is dead and my mind can be put to rest."

"Does anyone else find this really weird?" Draco butted in, completely ruining the moment, "I mean even in death he has to be dramatic."

"Why is he here?" Harry snapped frowning at his former school enemy. "He's a deatheater, he was going to kill Dumbledore!"

"He's not a deatheater anymore Harry, he even helped me escape slavery and has saved my life but let's not get into that at the moment." Hermione tutted, "How do we kill him Harry? If you've been here for so long you must have overheard something?"

All four of them looked toward Harry hopefully, but he merely shook his head. "I can't leave this room, he put a spell on it or something, I can't further than a foot from the walls before I hit a barrier."

"Then what do we do?" Ron asked. "How do we kill him?"

"I don't know, but before he killed me I remember him saying something." Harry frowned trying his best to recall the memory. "Something about protecting himself and then something about my death aiding it. I think he made one last Horcrux after he killed me. He must have known that all the others had been destroyed."

"What could it be?" Ginny asked, "It could be anything we'll never find it!"

"No, it couldn't be anything. That's the point it was always something of value to him and it would have had to have been close by, he wouldn't have wanted to wait long to do it in case one of us lot had come back." Hermione said, straining herself to try to remember every detail she could that had been in the room that night.

"Well, well what a touching reunion this is!" A voice sneered from behind them, they all spun to see Voldemort's figure looming in the doorway. "Now how about I kill you all so you can join your precious Potter for ever and ever?"

"No way! An eternity with him! I'd rather go back to my parents!" Draco snorted and everyone in the room drew their wands.

Hermione is the first to send a spell hurtling through the air, the anger on behalf of Harry building up inside of her; she couldn't stand to think that he had been trapped for all the years gone by since his murder.

Voldemort quickly responded with an Unforgivable that was blocked by Harry rushing in front of it, it didn't harm him - he was already dead so he could die again.

A sudden flash of inspiration hit him as he watched his friends fight. "His wand!" he yelled, "I bet you it's his wand!"

"Expelliarmus!" Came four voices in near perfect unison, a blast coming from each wand, hitting Voldemort from different directions.

He was thrown back against the far wall with great might, his wand soaring off and hitting the ceiling as it continued on its path right over the edge of the tower.

Hermione ran forward and pointed her own wand down toward the one falling to the floor.

"Avis!" A huge bird flew from the tip of the wood and hurtled down, capturing the wand in its beak before turning to fly upwards again. It deposited it into Hermione's outstretched hand before disappearing in a wisp of smoke.

She shoved her own wand into her pocket and gripped Voldemort's in both fists.

"Do you know if you break a wand you're cursed for life!" He called before she had a chance to snap it.

She looked up at him, all his deatheaters were in rooms below, he had been too cocky to believe he needed back-up and now as he lay sprawled on the floor, bleeding and broken, no wand, no power, he just looked like a fragile old man. She pitied him.

"Look around you," She whispered, "This world is a curse."

In one sharp and swift motion she brought the wand down hard against her knee, smiling as it made a satisfying crack as the wood splintered and broke.

Before the Dark Lord even had chance to draw in a breath to shout for help Draco had put him in a full-body bind.

"So who wants to do the honours?" Draco asked as they all pointed their wands towards him.

"I'll do it!" Ron said quickly.

"No I think you've used enough Unforgivables to last a life-time." Hermione told him sternly, still shock at how easily he had killed the prison guard.

"When you watch your own father tortured and killed by these bastards you can tell me who I can and can't kill." He hissed, while giving the man laying before his a hard kick that was sure to have broken at least a couple of ribs.

"I still don't think we should sink to his level." She told them quietly.

"Well then you won't do it." Ginny said firmly as she tightened her grip on her wand, "But don't you want to? Honestly? Think about it, this is the guy whose fault it is that everyone we loved is dead, this is the guy who tried to sell us as slaves. This is the guy who murdered Harry!"

"You're right. We'll all do it." Hermione said, "All of us together no one deservers the pleasure more than another of us at killing this bastard. On the count of three."

"One,"

"Two,"

"Three!"

With a blinding green light the four all shouted the killing curse, the words burning their throats as it made its way out of their mouths leaving behind the taste of hate and anger.

"Is he gone? Really gone for good?" Ginny asked eagerly.

"Only time will tell, we'll never know for sure if the wand really was a Horcrux or not." Draco sighed and crossed the room to wrap his arms around Hermione.

"You did it guys!" Harry said happily.

"No we did it mate," Ron grinned, "And we were bloody brilliant!"

Suddenly Harry began to glow, white light illuminating the whole room with such a glare it could have been mistaken for daylight.

"Merlin, we knew you were happy but no need to over do it." Draco muttered sarcastically, even when he and Harry were on the same side – fighting for the same cause – he couldn't bring himself to like him.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked, clinging to her brother's arm in fear.

"He has no more earthly ties, he's been avenged, he can finally move on to the higher plane, or where ever it is dead people go." Hermione whispered as they all watched in awe, as the light grew stronger.

Finally when it became to bright to look at and they were all wincing and shielding their eyes did it begin to grow smaller, taking Harry with it, until it was just a tiny pin prick of light, then disappearing with a pop.

They did not cry, they had already mourned for the loss of their best friend and even if they hadn't they were all far to exhausted at the time to be able to properly register what had happened.

--

The battle continued the other side of the door; the prisoners had found where their wands had been stored when they had been taken from them and had forced their way into the room.

"Finite Incantatem!" Draco yelled over the noise and everything below them stopped, frozen in mid action.

"I'm really not in the mood for fighting, I reckon the Order will be happy to rejoin to deal with this." Hermione said as she conjured a scroll, an inkpot and a quill. She quickly penned a letter and attached it to the leg of the bird that Ron had made, they watched as it flew over the frozen crowd and out the window.

"Come on!" Ginny nagged and they began to make their way through the people all silently praying that the spell wouldn't wear off and they would find themselves in the middle of a battle.

"I never remember it taking this long to get down stairs." Ron grumbled as they walked down the entrance hall. The word had already spread through out the castle that Voldemort was dead so the deatheaters were giving them wide birth.

As they reached the end of the path and hauled open the large gates separating Hogwarts from Hogsmade village Order members were already appearing to take over.

"What happened?" one asked breathlessly as they ran up to them.

"Voldemort is dead." Hermione said as she leaned on Draco for support.

"You killed him?" the woman asked, clearly amazed.

"No, that was the mistake we made last time, we left out friend without any back up. This time we were in it together." Hermione told her as she look at her friends, "I didn't kill him we did."


BETA READER WANTED

I am looking for a beta reader for a Hermione/Draco fiction I will be starting shortly.
I need someone who checks their emails regularly and is happy to make suggestions for my work.
If anyone is interested please e-mail me and I can send you a synopsis of the story to see if you'd be interested in betaing it for me.
I plan to begin posting it once this story and 'Getting Over It' is completed.

Thanks. xxx.