Author's Note: Okay, so this is the last chapter of Phoenix Flames! Finally! I hope you all have enjoyed my story as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Oh, and this chapter is also going to bepretty long.

Previously on Phoenix Flames:

Draco caught her arm and pulled her to him. He did something very unexpected then and bent down and caught her lips in a kiss, but just as suddenly, it was over. He spoke passionately, "Damn it Hermione! You can't pretend you don't feel anything and then keep hiding from your emotions so they don't catch up with you. This might be brash of me to say, but you can't say you haven't felt something towards me in all of this time."

With that, he turned and left. Hermione just barely had time to register what had happened just then as she saw Harry, Ron, and Ginny standing in the middle of the hall way in shock.

She couldn't deal with all of it anymore and there was only one person who could help her logically sort this out, she took one look at her friends and she ran . . .

Chapter 18 – Ashtoreth's Sacrifice

Hermione felt tears coming down her cheeks as she ran through the halls. There was no way that this was happening she rationalized in her mind, but she knew that it had. 'Why did he have to do that now . . . Surely he must have realized that there are too many secrets I've been keeping from him? He has no idea who he's dealing with.' Hermione reached her location and knocked on the door in an almost frantic fashion.

"Who do you think you are pound-" Snape answered with an acrid edge to his tone. "Hermione, what's the matter?"

Hermione looked at him and burst out sobbing just as soon as the reality of the situation sunk in.

Sighing, Snape stood aside saying, "You may as well come in." Hermione did so quickly and he shut the door turning around. He ushered his distressed niece to the couch and said, "What happened?"

Realizing that he wouldn't understand a thing she said unless she calmed down, she took in a deep breath. "He told me that . . . he . . . he loves me."

He knew it had been coming. "I assume you are referring to Draco?"

She nodded. "Of course I'm talking about Draco. Who else would I be talking about?"

He knew she was conflicted over her feelings for him, but couldn't even begin to understand why. "I fail to see what is so horrible about that Hermione."

"It wasn't that. It was what he did after he told me. He . . . he kissed me."

Snape sighed again. 'Women and their silly emotions.' "Again, I don't see what the problem is."

Her eyes flashed briefly. "You don't get it. He knows I don't believe in kissing unless you're in love. And I can't love him, he deserves so much better. I've lied to him for the entire time he has known me. And he shouldn't be in love with me either . . . he doesn't even know who I-" Hermione cut herself off as she realized that her last statement wasn't true. When he had stormed off he called her Hermione. "Oh my God . . . he knew."

"Yes, he knew. He's not that thick," Snape said wondering when she'd catch on.

This made Hermione angry, "You knew he knew? How long has he known?"

"Well . . . it would be at least four months by now, I think. He said that he had been watching you when your other friends came up to you and Lavender almost called you Hermione. He had his suspicions from that, and then you showed him the three o' clock room. He figured it out from there."

"Why didn't he tell me?"

"Because he wanted you to tell him yourself. But you haven't exactly achieved that end yet."

"But why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? He didn't exactly make things easy on me back there."

"And you haven't made it easy on him for the entire year. He didn't deserve that you've been playing with his emotions if you honestly think you can't love him in return. And I don't know why he chose you, but accept the fact and move on."

"What are you talking about? I've done nothing to play with his feelings!"

"So you mean to say that all of that time you've spent together with all of those awkward moments, and then turning around and dating anyone who would take you wasn't toying with him? Funny, because I would have thought you'd known the difference."

"Have you been spying on me?" she asked increduously when she thought about the implications of that statement.

"No, you silly girl, but Draco has been confiding in me . . . much like you do from time to time."He saw the increduous look she sent his way,"Hard to believe that a Slytherin would be willing to confront their emotions head on and admitting to it while you spend your time trying to pretend they don't exist?"

"Why are you attacking me? I haven't done anything to deserve this from you either?"

"Because I want you to realize that you aren't the only person on the planet who is conflicted with their emotions. Draco has been worse off since you've been paying no attention to him."

"Of course I've been paying attention to him. I have spent every moment I can with him to make sure he's okay. I've done everything in my power to be with him . . . why are you taking my efforts as a joke?"

"Have you seen his arm recently? It's gotten worse."

"What are you talking about? He can't have. He promised me!" she wasn't too shocked that Snape knew that Draco mutilated himself now that they were having this converation.

"You needn't take my word for it. Just ask him yourself when you see him next time."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I'm telling you because I know you're in love with him and yet, you're the only person who doesn't know it. And as much as I am loath to admit it, I want to see the two of you happy. I'm also telling you this because I think that you need to get over your foolish pride and tell him how you feel before it destroys you both."

Hermione replied to that sentiment rather shrilly, "Why does everyone keep saying that? How is it that everyone else is so convinced that I'm in love with him when I'm so unsure of that myself? How am I supposed to love someone when I have no understanding of what the hell love is in the first place?"

"Are you entirely sure that it is you who doesn't understand what love is?"

"Unless I'm schizophrenic I would have to agree."

Snape smirked at the irony he found behind the statement because in a sense she was acting that way, "And yet you fail to realize that the phoenix spirit that resides in you has over-powered your ability to gauge your own emotions. And you have let her take control of you."

"No I haven't, she has said the same thing as you. She said I've fallen for him. But it's not true."

"She would only say that if it were true. Deep down in your heart you have to realize that you have. Phoenixes don't lie about emotion, even if they can't feel it. And do you know why it is that they don't? Because if a phoenix were able to feel emotion they would be forced to spend eternity living in the memories of those feelings. They gave up that right so they wouldn't have to live their lives in misery. They knew that if they were to love, it would only hurt when they would be forced to outlive that love, and spend forever having to deal with the pain that comes with its loss."

"Wouldn't that make me incapable of love since I am a phoenix?"

"No. You are not a phoenix yourself.That's what I've been trying to tell you. Because humans are not immortal they have the capacity to love and be loved in return. The phoenix spirit in you knows that. It will not be able to reside in you forever because eventually you too will have to die. You though, have become emotionally unstable at this point. And if you refuse to let yourself love, you could easily destroy the phoenix's capability to leave your body and it will be forced to die with you in a certain aspect."

"That makes absolutely no sense."

Snape ran a hand through his hair and sighed with frustration, "Albus would be able to explain this much better than I can. Phoenixes are ultimately compassionate creatures. When a phoenix indwells you, it makes a pact with your spirit. It gives you the ability to experience the life that you otherwise would never have known. It does it because it expects you to use the life it gives you so that you can experience the emotions that it can't. That is how they learn; they pass that knowledge on once they leave your body so that all creatures can understand the wonder that is the human heart."

"But what does that have to do with Draco and me?"

"I have a feeling that you have allowed your phoenix spirit to overthrow your control of your emotions in place of theirs. It is only a very powerful phoenix-human combination that can do that, though it is very unintentional on their behalf . . . which means you had to willingly allow it to do so. It has gotten to the point that you have taken on all aspects of your phoenix . . . even your appearance has become like it."

Doing something quite unexpected to the both of them, she slapped him. "How can you be so bloody calm about this?" Hermione was livid with his always tranquil façade. "You're telling me I threw my feelings away and you act as though we were commenting on the weather!" She began to pace the room furiously.

He rubbed his cheek feeling the burn beginning to form, but he ignored it due to her current state. "Because, if I were to act as distressed about this as you, there would be no fixing it would there?"

She stopped moving and looked at her uncle. "There's a way to fix this? How?"

"You will have to exorcize your phoenix spirit. You have to ask it to depart from you."

"You mean kill her? Couldn't that kill me too, since she's been the one keeping me alive for my entire life? And wouldn't that make me lose my powers since she would no longer reside in me?"

"Well, not necessarily. I'm not going to lie and pretend that the outlook might not be bleak.It ultimately depends on how strong the bond is between the two of you; you could very well lose your memories as well and even then it's still a chance that I would advise you to take."

Hermione's eyes lit with her inner fire just then as the spirit of Ashtoreth indwelt her.

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'Hermione, just do it. I'm willing to risk my life for you if it means you'd be able to love the boy the way you're meant to.'

She knew that it was the phoenix speaking to her. 'But what happens if something goes wrong Ashtoreth? We could both die.'

'Since when have you been afraid of death? You've been through it before and still come out on top, what makes it any different this time?'

'This time, we will have to be parted forever. There will be no remnant of your existence left in me and then what will I do?'

'You will love like you are supposed to. And even if we are parted, it would be more beneficial than you never being able to have human emotions again.'

'But it's too late for me. I've hurt him beyond anything I can repair, so what's the point? He won't trust me anymore. I'll just be forced to suffer the pain of knowing that I lost the only person who will ever truly love me like that. Why would I chose to go through that?'

'Be brave child. He has already told you that he loves you. And you will love him in return if you take your feelings back. I know it may be difficult to gain his trust back, but you should be willing to risk your heart for that love. Now just do it.'

'All right . . . fine, I'll do it.'

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Snape watched in rapt fascination at his niece as she levitated into the air and was engulfed by a fire so bright he could only make out her lucid silhouette. Then he heard the sound of a phoenix song. It wasn't just her figure that he noticed in the light now; there was also a phoenix present, but it was also translucent and it seemed as though it was being emitted from Hermione herself just as the song seemed to be.

With each passing moment, the phoenix became slightly less visible and Hermione became even more so. And even though it seemed impossible, the fire surrounding the duo became much more intense in both brightness and heat.

Snape raised his arm to shield his eyes and he could feel the material beginning to singe on his sleeve.

Roughly a minute later, the fire died down and Hermione fell unceremoniously to the ground and then thephoenix fell on top ofher chest with a dull thud resounding throughout the room as they landed. Then the phoenix disintegrated, leaving behind no vestige of her ever being there.

Too shocked to do anything, Snape stood stalk still and observed his niece having lost the ability to move temporarily.

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There was a knock on the door and that was what brought him out of his stupor. He answered the door distractedly, "Yes, what is it?"

He didn't even acknowledge the presence until they replied, "Professor, Draco is being attacked by Jack Willis. He just killed Lavender Brown. I can't do anything to help because there's a shield I can't dispel blocking me from getting anywhere nearby."

They heard a groan coming from the corner of the room. "What's going on? What happened to her?"

"Well, Miss Granger has just exorcized her phoenix spirit if I am correct. Now, please take me to Mr. Malfoy."

Hermione was sitting in a daze and holding her throbbing head until she heard his name, "What about Draco?"

"He's being attacked by Jack Willis, who just killed Lavender Brown. We need to hurry and find a way to dispel the shield he put up," said Blaise as the two men turned to leave.

Hermione felt her insides boil at the mention of the man who killed her parents and attempted to kill her. "Wait! I'm going with you."

Neither of them argued as theyknew they werepressed for time and felt it was not well advised to quarrel with her, especially when her vengeful nature was coming into full swing.

They reached a hallway where they saw a small feminine body lying on the floor with a wand by the lifeless hand. They knew instantly that it was Lavender Brown, but they continued on down the hallway and took a turn but as soon as Snape tried tomove any further down the corridor (as he was in front of the other two,) he was clumsily thrown to the floor by an invisible force field. That was when they saw Draco dueling with a man whose back was conveniently turned to them.

Snape tried to lift the shield charm that was preventing them from moving any further. But he had no such luck with any of his attempts.

"Where is she?" asked Jack angrily.

"I don't know! What makes you think that I would know that?"

"You're her friend aren't you? So where is she?"

She felt something deep down that she had never realized was there as she watched Draco being attacked by the man who killed her parents. Hermione sighed in frustration. She knew what it was that was thwarting her uncle's efforts . . . the shield would only let her through. She stepped through it and called, "I'm right here you bastard, now leave him alone!"

"Stupefy!" he said as Draco dropped to the floor unconscious. Jack turned around with an almost psychotic grin plastered to his face. "Hermione, so wonderful to see you. You're looking remarkably well, though not quite like yourself. Too bad that won't last for very much longer."

She then realized that part of Ashtoreth still resided in her .. . she still had the appearance she had taken on after the third time she was revived. She was happy to know that her memory could still live on through her in that sense.

Shaking her head, Hermione looked at his face then and smirked at the burn scars he carried. "I see you're doing just lovely yourself," she said indicating his face.

He emitted a low growl and lunged towards her, "Bitch! Well I promised I would hunt you down until I killed you myself if my Black Widows couldn't, so it seems I will make good on my word. Expelliarmus!"

Hermione couldn't react fast enough to prevent her wand from flying out of her grasp. She made to get her wand, but was immediately stopped when he shouted another spell that she didn't hear clearly. All she knew is that it hit her and sapped her energy from her almost instantaneously. She heard his psychotic laugh and his approaching footsteps and tensed.

His figure towered over her and Hermione closed her eyes and resigned herself to the fact that this was the end. 'Hermione what are you doing? Kill him!'

'Ashtoreth?'

'No, I am you. You still have the trace powers of the phoenix, whether temporarily or permanently is still unknown, but you have them just the same. So how about giving it one more go and going after the wanker?'

Hermione noticed the irony of the situation. 'So wait . . . I'm talking to myself?'

'Yes! So stop it and kill the bastard before he kills you!'

She opened her eyes then and Jack gasped as he saw what looked to be fire in them just like the first time he tried to kill her.

Hermione felt her hands heating up and looked down slightly to see them glowing with fire. She raised them to his calves and he yelped in pain. Hermione saw her chance to gain the upper hand as he jumped around looking like a moron who had gotten to close to a campfire. She shakily got to her feet and even though she was hunched over slightly and breathing hard from exertion, she was still an imposing and murderous looking figure that caused Jack to cower faintly.

Blaise and Snape jumped back as the shield suddenly lit on fire and they could no longer see the battle. Draco awoke and was surprised to see a sight he never expected to see again.

Hermione's eyes were taken over by her inner fire and her red hair fanned around her looking almost like a veil of flames. She lifted her arms and summoned a heat wave, which spread quickly through the fire circle that was surrounding the three.

She heard two yells of pain and realized that she had just attacked Draco as well as she looked into his eyes briefly.

Using what energy she could, she realigned the firewall so it surrounded only her and Jack. She knew that her heat waves alone would probably not kill the older wizard quickly enough to prevent anymore harm from coming to her. Then she concentrated as hard as she could to create a ball of fire in her hands. It took a lot of effort, but she finally had one in each hand and threw them at Jack, who had moved away just in time. She was panting and felt sweat rolling down her forehead heavily.

"Oh, poor Hermione, you're getting so tired already. Aquarto!" he pointed his wand at her. Hermione had never heard of the spell before, but assumed it was used to conjure water. And she was correct, a jet of water was sent in her direction.

It hit her arm as she jumped out of the way. She felt steam coming from her arm and gasped in pain as she grasped at her right arm feeling the heat leaving the limb rather quickly. She looked up at him with murder in her eyes and lifted her good arm conjuring a ring of fire, which reached the entire height between the floor and ceiling, to surround her and then spread throughout the small circle with high speed.

She was satisfied by the scream he gave and saw that his clothes had caught fire. His screams became more insistent the longer they lasted. She panted from the energy it took to keep the flames burning.

Hermione felt guilt tearing through her . . . no matter how much the man deserved it, she could not kill him. She willed all of the flames to vanish. The flames fell away and Jack fell to the ground still in pain with his skin looking charred. She quickly grabbed her wand from the ground. "Incarcerous," she said as ropes surrounded him so he would be incapable of moving. "Know this Jack Willis . . . this will be the only time I will ever give you the courtesy of living. I will allow you to rot in Azkaban after this. But, if you ever cross my path again, there will be hell to pay," she said deadly serious. "Stupefy!" she said and it knocked him out.

She looked around her at the three other men as she continued to gasp for air. She felt a faint smile cross her face at the fact that she had accomplished her revenge and now her parents' deaths were avenged.

She felt Blaise rush up to her and envelope her in a hug. "Hermione, I'm so glad you're all right," he said practically crushing her to him with the force in which he held her.

"I'm glad to see you too, but you're kind of ruining the point of my trying to get air back into my lungs . . ."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking!" he stepped away from her.

"I am going to retrieve Mr. Potter and Weasley . . . and Miss Weasley. They are probably quite worried about you by this point," said Snape leaving.

Blaise looked back towards the direction that Lavender's body was. "I should probably take care of the body," he said, and without further ado, he left the two of them alone.

Hermione knew they had done that on purpose, even if they were correct about what needed to be done.

Hermione turned to Jack and kicked him in the side in anger. Then she turned to face Draco, who was still on the ground and clasping his arm. She walked over to him and she could feel the tears in her eyes as she bent down to look at the damage she had done to him. She couldn't control the tears anymore when she saw his left arm. In place of the normal lines she was used to that marked his flesh was something that she hadn't expected. She lightly fingered the cuts and her tears began to flow freely. She watched then as the word 'HERMIONE' disappeared from his skin.

He was beginning to pull away from her wordlessly when she tackled him to the ground in a hug. "You . . . you . . . idiot!" he distinguished between her sobs. "How could you . . . take on Jack Willis . . . by yourself? You could . . . have . . . could have been killed!"

Not knowing what to do, he tried awkwardly to sit up so she wasn't crushing him. "You did," he mumbled quietly.

Hermione stopped crying then and looked up at him. "What?"

"You did. You took him on by yourself when you easily could have been killed. I fail to see the difference in our actions . . . except maybe the motivation behind them. I did it because he attacked me. You did it to avenge your parents."

Hermione bit her lip, "Yes I know. And I'm sorry. But that wasn't the main reason I did it . . ."

She trailed off as she heard three sets of footsteps rounding the corner. Her friends had impeccable timing as always . . . she realized sarcastically.

"Hermione are you all right?" questioned all three of them at once.

Then they noticed that she was with Draco. "Shit," Ginny muttered as they realized they had just called her Hermione in front of Draco.

Catching what they thought was wrong; Draco stood and said, "I already knew. So I'll just leave her to you lot."

"Draco," Hermione called, trying to get him to stop, but he just left her with her friends.

Hermione felt frustrated as she looked at her friends who all crowded around her to see if she was all right.

"We just heard about what happened," said Ron.

"We got here as fast as we could," said Harry.

"Are you all right?" Ginny questioned again.

They wouldn't let her leave for a few minutes until she shouted at them, "You guys are ruining my only chance to patch things over with Draco! Now let me go!"

They obliged her, seeing how distressed she was becoming.

"Good luck," Ginny called to her.

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Hermione ran with as much speed as she could muster in her weakened state. She caught up to him just as he was entering his common room. She stopped the door from closing with her hand and stepped in saying, "Draco, what is your problem?"

"Nothing."

She sighed and caught his arm, "I know you feel that you've taken a back seat to my friends Draco. I'm really sorry about that. I should have spent more time with you than I did instead of always listening to them when they asked me to go with them."

"Spending more time with me wouldn't have helped either. It would have just made things worse," he mumbled to himself.

Hermione's face softened at the statement. "Draco look at me." She waited for him to do as she said, "I know you feel angry with me about what I said earlier this evening."

"It's fine, just drop it," he said pulling away from her and heading towards the staircase.

"No it's not fine and I won't drop it!" she yelled at him.

"Well, there's no use in apologizing for it when you've made it very clear where we stand," he said when he started ascending the stairs.

"Damn it Draco! I'm trying to tell you something important," she said rushing over to him and grabbing his arm again and this time pinning him against the wall so he wouldn't leave.

"Fine, what is it?" he said flatly as he looked anywhere but at her.

"You have to realize something . . . I was telling the truth when I said I couldn't love you," he scoffed at her statement, but she pressed on, "but not for the reason you think. My phoenix spirit overthrew my feelings because I couldn't control it anymore. My phoenix gave up its life because it knew that. She told me that I needed to love you like I was supposed to instead of keeping her alive and never being able to feel the things I was supposed to. She sacrificed herself so that I could feel again. And you know what I found out?"

He looked her in the eye finally, "What?"

Instead of answering him, she stood up on her toes and kissed him. Unlike their first kiss, it was much softer, though it held all of the emotions she had pent up inside. "Even though I couldn't feel anymore, you still penetrated through my heart. Those moments were real . . . you didn't imagine them and neither did I.And I-"

"You're babbling Hermione," he said softly with a touch of amusement in his tone.

"Sorry. The point is that somehow, I was afraid of hurting again after my mum and dad were killed and so I wouldn't let myself love anymore. Not until you that is."

He was back to his old cocky self at this point, "So you're saying you love me then?"

She glared at him until she realized he was joking and smiled, "Yes you great dolt. I love you."

A smile lit up his face. "I love you too," and he bent down and kissed her with all of the passion he felt. She kissed him back and for once felt glad that she would bechucking that damned book out of her life and glad for Ashtoreth's sacrifice . . .