Beta love as always to CarbConnoisseur.
"What happened next?" Minerva asked into the confused silence.
"We…ah…we broke into Gringotts," Hermione said faintly.
"You broke into Gringotts?" Severus repeated, looking at her like he was sure he had misheard. The look was mirrored on all of the faces in the room.
"Ah, yes?"
"Have you no sense of self-preservation?" he snarled. "What the fuck were you thinking! And you!" Draco looked momentarily startled at being addressed. "You were a fucking Slytherin! You have no excuse!"
Draco's face twisted into wry amusement. "I was surrounded by sodding Gryffindors and outvoted."
"It worked didn't it," Hermione said mulishly.
"Yes," Draco reluctantly agreed. "If you consider breaking back out on a dragon to be working."
"You flew a dragon!" James asked, his eyes wide.
"Yes. It was fucking awful! Poor thing! They were torturing it!"
Several of the older members of the Order….and Severus and Remus, closed their eyes like they were praying for patience.
"Explain," Charlus demanded tersely, looking distinctly unimpressed.
Hermione sighed. "When Bellatrix was…interrogating me, she was overly concerned we'd been in her vault. It made me think that perhaps she had something to hide, which made me wonder if she had a Horcrux."
"Why?"
Hermione looked back at her Grandfather, clearly weighing her words. "The diary got into the school because Lucius Malfoy slipped it into Ginny's school things during an altercation with Mr. Weasly in Diagon Alley. It made sense to wonder if perhaps he'd given another one to another of his loyal followers and Bella was known for being one of his favourites."
"Ok." He let out a long exhale. "So there was some semblance of reasoning."
"Of course there was! Do you think we broke into bloody Gringotts on a whim? We weren't actually trying to die!"
"You could have fooled me," Severus muttered.
"Fuck off! We were desperate! It was the best we had to fucking go on!"
"How did you get in?" Charlus sighed.
"We had Bella's wand from when the boys had incapacitated her and I found….hairs on me. She'd been pretty fucking close after all."
"You broke into Gringotts polyjuiced as Bellatrix Lestrange?" Dorea clarified, looking nauseated.
"Yes. We transfigured Ron and Draco and said they were foreign wizards interested in the cause. Harry and Griphook hid under the cloak. It…well the goblins were suspicious. Harry had to imperius one of them to get us down. The Thief's Downfall obviously washed away the enchantments, but we got in. We got the cup. Bella had a few geminio charms on her things, so that was fun. She fucking made it burn, sadistic bitch. Unfortunately, our presence had been detected, so we untethered the dragon and broke through the roof."
"Just like that," Remus said in a slightly strangled voice.
"Not quite," Hermione replied wryly. "It was fucking terrifying and not at all pleasant. There was a lot of shouting, screaming, running about, and panicking, but we didn't have a lot of options."
"How did you get off the dragon?" Severus asked in a voice that sounded like he was desperately forcing it to be calm.
"Oh…we..ah..jumped. When it got low enough to a body of water."
"You jumped," he stated flatly.
"Yes. Again, not a lot of options. Then Harry got a vision. Voldemort was aware of our break-in and was fucking furious, so we headed to Hogwarts."
"Why?" Charlus asked again, in a voice eerily similar to Severus'.
"Oh, ah because Harry confirmed that there was a Horcrux there and Voldemort was planning on heading there next."
"Absolutely preposterous. I would know!" Dumbledore protested, finding his voice.
"We can take you there now to prove you wouldn't," Draco offered.
"It's there already?" Minerva gasped.
"What do you know about the come and go room?" Draco asked in response.
"Room of requirement!" Hermione protested.
"Same thing, Princess."
"It's truly real?" Minerva asked. "It…it was said to be Helga Hufflepuff's contribution to the castle. I know you mentioned it before but….the true Room of Requirement?"
"Oh, it's real," Hermione snorted. "In one form, it's the room of hidden things. That is where Voldemort stored his Horcrux. He thought it was the only one who knew about it, the arrogant fucking arse."
"What was the Horcrux?"
"Oh. Ah, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem."
"Her lost diadem?" Minerva queried, sounding stunned.
"Well…maybe less emphasis on the lost part seeing as we know where it is. But yes, that diadem."
"You cannot expect us to believe this!" Albus exclaimed.
"Again. We can take you there to prove it. Why the fuck would we lie? It's too easy to fucking check! Idiot."
"Pygmy puff," Severus growled in warning, seeing the look on the Headmaster's face.
"I was distracted before, you know, but I absolutely will not answer that!" Hermione shot back.
"And yet you just did," Severus' grin was smug.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I got a message to Severus. We invaded the castle through the Hog's Head and things….I….It was the beginning of the end."
She closed her eyes for a moment, wrapping her tattooed arm around her waist as if hugging them close. "Harry…Harry had no idea where the diadem was. Luna suggested we speak to the Grey Lady."
"Why?" Sirius asked before he could stop himself.
"Because when she was alive she was Helena Ravenclaw. Rowena's daughter," she said softly. "Harry and Luna found her. She….she gave them a bit of a riddle, but they worked it out. After Harry had gone, the Order arrived. Aberforth had informed them of our appearance. Ron and I went to the Chamber of Secrets to get a basilisk fang so we could destroy the Horcruxes. We left Draco with Bill to marshall people into some semblance of order." She breathed in deeply. Next to her she felt Draco steel himself. "It…it descended into chaos quickly. We destroyed the cup. Then Ron and I joined Harry in the Room. It…Crabbe. He…cast fiendfyre. We got out but…just. It was all levels of insane. We met up with Draco and Luna just in time….just in time to pull Percy away from a falling wall. We….we were not quick enough for Fred." She swallowed, swiping at the tears. "There was nothing we could do," she whispered. "George….George lost it. He….launched himself at Rookwood and he….he killed him too. Killing curse. At least it was quick." The Prewett twins looked ill, their pale faces staring at her in horror as they contemplated the fate of the tiny toddlers currently driving their sister to madness with their antics. "We…all we had left was the snake. And Voldemort was keeping it close, so we went looking for it." She ignored Severus' muttered, "Of fucking course you did."
"We found him in the shrieking shack. Draco and Luna had stayed behind to get Fred and George somewhere…where they couldn't be desecrated, so it was just Harry, Ron, and I. He had Severus." Her voice was so quiet all of them had to strain to hear her. The look on Severus' face indicated that he knew what was coming. "He thought Severus was the owner of the elder wand. He wasn't….. Draco had disarmed Dumbledore before Severus got to the Astronomy tower that night and Harry had disarmed him at the Manor before his brain caught up with him. But Voldemort didn't know that. So he….fuck." She took in a gasping breath.
"He murdered me. With the snake?" Severus finished for her.
Hermione flung herself at him, sobbing. "We tried. We tried. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."
"Hush, little puff. I'm sure there was nothing to be done."
The Order sat in the stunned silence that was becoming their norm as they watched the usually standoffish Severus Snape rock a crying witch in his arms for the second time that night, with a look that could only be described as fond.
"But we should have done something!" she sobbed. "I healed Harry when Nagini bit him. Why couldn't we save you!"
"I don't know, Hermione," he said softly. "But I have no doubt that you did everything you could." He pulled her into his body tighter. "You have to let go of the guilt or it's going to drown you. I am here, your friends will live. You are doing that. Now, no more crying over me, I'm alive and in no danger of being bitten by a snake. A dog perhaps….but not a snake"
Hermione shuddered, ignoring his feeble attempt at levity, "Promise me that if he acquires her early you'll stay far, far away."
"Of course." She looked up, slightly startled by his easy agreement. "What is it you keep telling us? I do not want to die."
She huffed out a small laugh. "Fine."
"What happened next?" he prompted gently.
"You gave Harry memories as you were dying," she said softly into his chest. "And He…he gave us an hour and told Harry to come to him. Harry went off to view your memories. Alone. And Ron and I….we…..we went to the Great Hall."
"Luna and I met her there." Draco's voice began softly as Hermione's tears began to fall faster. "Fred and George weren't the only casualties. Remus and…Tonks."
"Tonks?" Remus yelped.
"My cousin, Tonks? Tiny Dora?." Sirius whispered.
"Yes. She was an Auror. We couldn't have kept her away even if we had wanted to,'' Draco said gently. "Flitwick. Sinistra. What looked like half of the Aurors. Lavender Brown. The Patil sisters. Colin Creevy. Seamus Finigan. Blaise Zabini. Hannah Abbot. Ernie MacMillan. Cho Chang. Marietta Edgecombe. Pansy Parkinson. Cormack McLaggen. Marcus Flint. Terry Boot." The Order grew paler with every name Draco uttered. "And so many more I didn't know. Some were Order members, some were not. Civilians came once the residents of Hogsmeade got the word out. Lots of them were students. Many of them weren't even of age. There were casualties on both sides, but most of them were ours. I know that a lot of those names don't really mean much to you, but Lavender Brown was Weasley's first girlfriend. Parvati Patil shared Hermione's dorm. Cho Chang was Potter's first kiss. Marcus Flint was my Quidditch captain. Blaise Zabini was my friend. A lot of them were people we knew. And…I don't think I'll ever forget any of their faces."
Hermione moved off Severus' lap to hug him, her face mirroring the heartbreak on his.
"What happened next?" Minerva whispered, looking older than Hermione had ever seen her.
"Harry….Harry and his fucking hero complex." She took a moment, trying to pull herself together for what was arguably the hardest death of all of them. "He…he watched Severus' memories. Dumbledore had been raising him to fucking die at the right time." The sob that tore from her was entirely involuntary as she stared at the Headmaster. "Dumbledore…he told Severus Harry had to die by Voldemort's hand because….because he thought he was a living Horcrux. Seventeen fucking years you absolute bastard!" she screamed suddenly. "Seventeen fucking years and you couldn't come up with another fucking plan!" The fight left her as quickly as it came as she collapsed into Draco's side, silence ringing through the room. Many faces were torn between rage and grief. James appeared to be attempting to murder the headmaster with his eyes alone, on either side of him Lily and Dorea sat with blank faces, their knuckles white where they were gripping his hands in theirs . "He walked to his death willingly," she whispered eventually. "All alone. He wouldn't let any of us go with him. We tried and…..and they made Hagrid carry him back. To show us. To prove Harry was dead." Her eyes met the Headmaster's again, her voice eerily calm, sending a shudder around the room. "You murdered my brother. Voldemort might have cast the curse, but you were fucking responsible. And I will never fucking forgive you for it."
Albus stared back at her. A living Horcrux? It was unimaginable. He could ignore her ranting. At the end of the day there had been a prophecy to uphold, although he really did need to work out what had gone wrong with that. He surely hadn't meant the boy to die, not without taking Tom with him. He'd miscalculated somewhere. He'd do better next time though. He had time.
"He knew all the time?" Lily asked softly, her face still frozen in a blank mask.
"He suspected, yes. Apparently it was confirmed after Harry saw Mr. Weasley being attacked," Draco supplied, glancing worriedly down at Hermione, where she was burrowed into his side.
The tears had stopped, but her face reminded him vividly of the days following Potter's death where she had been almost stupefied in her grief. It wasn't a look he had ever wanted to see again.
"I see," Lily replied just as softly, ignoring the worried glances James was shooting her. "What happened next?"
"Voldemort asked people to join him. He promised mercy. Longbottom was first. He….openly defied him, so Voldemort put the sorting hat on his head and set it on fire. Somehow, he escaped unscathed. The sword of Gryffindor came from somewhere."
"Inside the hat," Hermione said softly.
"Inside the hat?" Draco frowned.
"Yes. That's how it worked for Harry in second year anyway."
"Oh. Right well…he had the sword and he used it to take off that fucking snake's head but…it bit him. Nagini's venom was…potent. He was dead in minutes."
"Some people joined him after that," Hermione said softly. "Many didn't but we were still outnumbered. We fought for a while. We lost Arthur Weasley, Percy Weasley, Dean Thomas, and several more students before we fled. Molly Weasley, Minerva, Augusta, and Andromeda were in the first round of captures. They were….publicly paraded down Diagon Alley before they were taken back to Hogwarts. We heard about it through a radio programme that Lee Jordan, a friend of the Weasley twins, was running. Kingsley was killed alongside a band of Aurors trying to rescue them. Ginny died when they were taken. We…we tried. We met up with a group of others in the forest, but there were so many of them. They brought the remaining students out to watch, reminding them what would happen if they stepped out of line. It was…it was fucking horrendous. They cast on them individually, making the others watch. Crucios. Severing curses. Bone breakers. They wanted them to beg for death. None of it was quick. Bill and Charlie were also killed during that skirmish."
"Fleur was caught trying to get food. Susan Bones was murdered during a small fight a few weeks later. We avoided detection for a while, but they caught up with us. Weasley took a sectumsempra meant for Hermione. We had to leave him there," Draco continued his voice barely above a whisper.
"Grey…Greyback got Luna two weeks after Ron," Hermione picked up the narrative, her eyes blank as she relived the horrors they were describing. "And then it was back to just being us. Lee gave daily reports listing the deaths. And then….then the radio went silent. We… broke back into Grimmauld. When we had stayed there in the beginning we had discussed a contingency: a potion and a spell that was hidden in the Black family grimoire."
"The tempus reset ritual?" Sirius asked
"Yes. We worked on it for weeks. I have no idea how Harry managed to get it to send us here, but I assume it was his doing. We had originally aimed for earlier and in a different location."
"What location?"
"A random one in the forest of Dean. We hadn't actually anticipated involving anyone this much, or at least I hadn't. He apparently had other ideas."
"I've never heard of it," Edgar Bones protested.
"No, I don't imagine you would have. One of the Black ancestors invented it. It allows you to go back in time without a time turner. Theoretically, it should work to embed you in the timeline so there are no nasty little side effects. You prepare the potion. Its active ingredient is time sand that you… programme almost, using a spell that allows you to dictate the time and place you go to. I left that to Harry while I sorted the polyjuice, which was apparently a stupid plan. After that it's a simple matter of ritual runes, ingesting some of the potion, and casting the spell. And well…you saw the results."
"Indeed we did," Augusta said softly.