Haunted.
The bright, sunny day was in direct conflict with Harry Potter's sad, depressed state of mind as he stood alone in front of the grave of his best friend, Hermione Granger. Hermione had now been dead for two months, and Harry still couldn't get over the guilt that plagued him following her death. Weeks after the event, he was still cursing himself for not being there when Hermione had died. Granted, his presence didn't mean she would have survived, but at least he would have been there as his best friend had breathed her last.
On the night of Hermione's tragic demise, Harry had been at Order Headquarters alongside Hermione and their other best friend, Ron Weasley. The trio had been doing yet more research into Voldemort's Horcruxes, and had just decided to call it a night when two alarms began to blare in the front room. Every Order property, or property of people heavily involved with the Order, were heavily warded and one of the wards sounded an alarm at Grimmauld Place whenever they were breached.
Harry, Hermione and Ron had raced to the front room, where they found the alarms for The Burrow, and Shell Cottage going off. Since both properties belonged to the Weasley family, Ron was understandably torn about where to go first. Harry, however had known exactly where he was going. Ginny had been at The Burrow, after feeling under the weather all week, and Harry's main priority was going to check his girlfriend was okay. Since Harry was eager to go to The Burrow, Ron had decided to accompany Hermione to Shell Cottage.
Harry had then set off to The Burrow, where he discovered the wards had been set off by accident. A fox had crept onto the property in an attempt to get to the Weasleys chickens, and it had triggered the alarm. Harry had been so relieved that Ginny was okay that he'd lingered at The Burrow for longer than he should have before he remembered Shell Cottage. Sadly, but the time he remembered about Shell Cottage and headed there, it was too late. He found an injured Ron sitting in the rubble of the house, cradling a dead Hermione in his arms, with the cottages occupants, Bill and Fleur, missing presumed dead.
As it turned out, the entire thing had been a trap, and when Hermione and Ron had arrived at Shell Cottage they were set upon by Death Eaters. Even though they tried to fight them off, Hermione was killed and Ron buried under the rubble as they brought the house down around the pair, and Bill and Fleur who were later found seriously injured in another part of the collapsed house. Ron had then managed to crawl out from under the rubble, despite having a broken leg, and he'd pulled himself over to Hermione and held her until Harry arrived.
Harry had never forgiven himself for not being there when Hermione had died. After everything she'd done for him, he felt terrible that he hadn't been there for her when she needed him. However, he was determined to honour her memory and find the people who had killed her. Ron had told him the Death Eaters that had attacked them were the deadly group led by their old arch enemy, Draco Malfoy.
In the years since Draco had killed Dumbledore on Voldemort's orders in sixth year, he'd risen to become a top ranking Death Eaters. These days he even had his own regular group of Death Eaters to lead. The group consisted of his old school friends, Blaise Zabini, Theo Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, as well as some of the older Slytherins who'd attended Hogwarts around the same time as Draco like Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey. The group were well known for their deadly attacks, and they were among the most brutal of Voldemort's Death Eaters.
"I promise I'll get the bastards that did this," Harry whispered to Hermione's grave. "Your death won't go unpunished, you have my word on that."
As Harry finished speaking a sudden gust of wind hit him from the side. Looking up, he gasped with shock when he found Hermione standing under a nearby tree. Harry wasn't sure if it was the bright sunlight, or some sort of magic at work, but Hermione looked to have an ethereal glow about her. She also looked deeply saddened by something as she stood forlornly watching Harry.
Just as Harry took a step towards his dead friend, the gust of wind hit him again and he was forced to close his eyes against the grit heading in his direction. When the gust of wind abruptly stopped, and he opened his eyes, he found the place where Hermione had been standing deserted.
"Hermione," he called as he ran over to where he'd seen her standing.
Of course there was no sign of Hermione, since she hadn't actually been there, but Harry could have sworn he felt her lingering presence. To be honest he wasn't sure how ghosts worked in the wizarding world, but the Hermione he'd just seen didn't look much like the other ghosts he'd met. In his opinion she was either a figment of his imagination, caused because he wanted her back, or she was a magical projection of some sort. Maybe wherever she was, she was sending him a message of some sort. Harry just wished he knew what the message was. Was she angry because he hadn't been there for her, or had she heard his vow to get revenge for her and was showing her appreciation?
Still wondering about what he'd just seen, Harry slowly walked away from the small graveyard Hermione was buried in. However, as he left Harry had no idea a pair of steely grey eyes were watching him from the darkness of some nearby bushes. It was only once Harry had apparated away that the figure emerged, a wicked smirk gracing his handsome features.
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A month after he'd first seen his vision of Hermione, Harry found himself thoroughly haunted by his best friend. In the last few weeks, Hermione had just been popping up everywhere Harry was. He would look out the window at Grimmauld Place, and she'd be standing outside, looking up at the house in sadness. Or he would do the same at The Burrow, and find her staring longingly at the house she'd spent so many hours in. Even the one time he'd been up at Hogwarts in order to make sure the school was secure now it was back under Order control, he'd seen her in Hogsmeade, yet again looking so sad.
Harry had told both Ron and Ginny about his visions, but neither of them had seen Hermione for themselves. The couple of times Harry had seen her when someone else was around, by the time he'd attracted their attention, Hermione was gone. It was becoming clear to Harry that Hermione was visiting him for a reason. For some reason he was the only one who could see her, and he was becoming increasingly certain that she was trying to tell him something.
Five weeks after he'd first seen Hermione, Harry was woken in the middle of the night while he was sleeping at Grimmauld Place on his own. At first he wasn't sure what had woken him, until he groggily sat up and found Hermione standing at the bottom of his bed. Like the other times he'd seen her, she looked sad and had an ethereal glow about her.
"Don't be scared, Harry," she whispered, speaking for the first time since she started appearing to him.
"I'm not scared," Harry answered, although the slight waver in his voice revealed he was at least a bit spooked by the fact he was talking to his dead friend.
"I won't hurt you," Hermione said. "I'm here to warn you."
"Warn me about what?" Harry asked with a frown.
"You're looking in the wrong place," Hermione answered cryptically.
"Looking in the wrong place for what? A Horcrux?" Harry questioned. To be honest, since Hermione's death the Horcrux hunt had taken a bit of a back seat, but just yesterday he'd started re-looking at what information they had.
"Vengeance," Hermione replied. "It's closer than you think."
Hermione had barely finished speaking when something thudded to the floor from the nearby bookshelf. Harry jumped at the noise, but when he turned round it was too dark to see anything. Turning back to Hermione, he began to ask her what she was talking about when he realised she'd gone. Jumping out of bed, he turned the light on and standing next to where Hermione had been moments earlier, he could swear he could smell the light vanilla based perfume Hermione used to wear.
As the smell began to fade, Harry turned his attention to what had fallen off the bookcase. Lying face down on the rug in front of the bookcase, was a picture frame. When Harry picked it up, he found it was an old school picture of himself with Hermione and Ron. The trio had their arms around each other and were laughing and waving at the camera. As Harry recalled, Colin Creevey had taken the picture back when the trio were in fourth year. Sighing at how happy they'd once been, Harry replaced the frame on the bookshelf, before he turned off the light and crawled back into bed.
However, sleep eluded him as he thought about what Hermione had just told him. The only vengeance he was seeking, was for her death, and he knew exactly where to look for that. He knew who'd been involved in her death, he just didn't know which Death Eater had struck the killing blow. Not that it really mattered, Malfoy and his group were all dangerous and they were all going to pay for killing his best friend.
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"Damn it," Harry cursed as he sliced his finger open through jumping at the sound of the floo network going off in the front room.
At the moment he was a bag of nerves as he was getting very little sleep. Since the first night she'd spoken, Hermione visited him regularly. It wasn't always at night, and she didn't always speak, but when she did she always had the same message. She begged him to avenge her death and not let her killer go free. With each visit she seemed to be getting more anxious, and Harry was beginning to feel as though he was letting her down. He'd fully intended to have taken down Malfoy and his cronies by now, but the group were proving pretty elusive to catch. Several times, Harry had expected them to make an appearance at a battle, but they'd never showed. They were lying low, or else they were up to something else.
"Harry, what have you done?" Ginny asked in concern as she entered the room and found her boyfriend standing in the kitchen with blood dripping from his finger.
"An accident," Harry replied as he moved over to the sink and turned on the tap, plunging his bleeding finger underneath the water.
"You need to be more careful," Ginny scolded. "And you need some sleep. You can't go on like this, Harry."
"I know," Harry whispered. "But I can't rest until she's avenged, Ginny. The bastard who killed Hermione is still out there, and I need to find him. I need to give her some peace."
"She's still visiting you?" Ginny asked with a frown.
At first she'd believed Harry when he said he'd seen Hermione, but now she wasn't so sure. In the magical world it was quite common for someone recently deceased to pay one last visit to their loved ones, but she'd never heard of someone visiting for months on end. Not that she didn't believe it couldn't be done, and if anyone was stubborn enough to keep passing messages from beyond the grave it was Hermione, but Ginny was beginning to think the entire thing was just Harry's mind playing tricks on him. He was so cut up with guilt that she thought he was starting to imagine that Hermione was disappointed in him, hence his visions of her ghost begging him to avenge her.
"She's not going to stop until I've given her peace," Harry insisted.
"Maybe you should come back and sleep at The Burrow," Ginny suggested gently. "Mum's dying to see you."
"Maybe tomorrow," Harry replied, even though he had no intention of spending the night away from Grimmauld Place. While Hermione visited him in other places, it was always here that she spoke.
"Then maybe I should stay with you," Ginny offered.
"Not tonight, Gin," Harry answered. To be honest he didn't know if having Ginny staying over would stop Hermione from showing up, and it had gotten to the point where he needed to see her. There was something else she wanted him to know, he just knew there was, but so far she'd just been hinting around it, telling him he was looking for vengeance in the wrong place.
"This has to stop, Harry," Ginny snapped, deciding to try some tough love on her boyfriend. "You're going to make yourself ill carrying on like this. Do you really think Hermione would want you to be torturing yourself the way you are?"
"She can't rest, Gin," Harry whispered. "You don't see her, I do. She's always so sad, and that's because her death has gone unpunished. I need to get justice for her."
"You want to be careful that in getting justice for Hermione, you don't get yourself killed and doom us all," Ginny warned. "We can't win this war without you, Harry, just remember that. There are people who are still alive that are depending on you. Maybe you should think about them for a change."
Harry wanted to argue with Ginny, but part of him knew she was right. At the moment all his focus was on Hermione, and he was neglecting everyone else. However, in his opinion everyone else could wait. They weren't in any imminent danger, while poor Hermione's soul obviously couldn't rest until her killer had been brought to justice. At the moment, Harry could only concentrate on one thing, and he was choosing Hermione.
"Just think about it, Harry," Ginny said with a weary sigh. "And if you decide you want to focus on the living, you know where to find us."
Harry let Ginny leave without a fuss, and once she was gone, he set a barrier on the floo network so he would have no more interruptions. Returning to the kitchen, he looked at his half made sandwich, but suddenly he wasn't hungry anymore. Gathering the things up, he shoved them in the fridge before turning and heading off upstairs, maybe he could get a few hours' sleep before Hermione showed up. However, when he entered his bedroom, Harry got a shock when he found Hermione sitting beside his bed, staring sadly out of the window.
"You're early," Harry said gently as he approached the foot of the bed.
"I'm here to say goodbye," Hermione said quietly.
"Why goodbye?" Harry asked in a panic. "I haven't avenged your death yet."
"I know," Hermione replied. "And I fear you never will."
"I will," Harry vowed fiercely. "I promise you Hermione, I'm working on tracking down Malfoy and his gang. Just tell me which one killed you and I'll make them pay."
"Poor Harry, you've still got no idea," Hermione laughed weakly as she got to her feet. "I've been trying to tell you, my killer is closer than you think."
Again as she spoke, a picture fell from the bookcase and when Harry walked over to it, he found it was the same picture that had fallen the first time she'd spoken to him.
"You did this, didn't you?" he asked, showing her the picture. "What is it, I'm supposed to be seeing?"
"My killer," Hermione answered.
Harry frowned as he looked down at the picture, wondering if there was a Slytherin in the background. However, the background was just a blur and the only people in shot were himself, Hermione and Ron.
"See, you just don't want to see it," Hermione said sadly.
"See what?" Harry yelled. "Tell me who killed you, Hermione."
"Ron," Hermione yelled back. "Ron killed me."
"No." Harry slumped onto the bed, still clutching the frame in his hands. "You're wrong."
"I was there, I know who killed me," Hermione replied with a small watery chuckle. "It was all a trap, you know. He was working with the Death Eaters."
"He wouldn't," Harry whispered.
"That's what I thought," Hermione said with a sad sigh. "When we arrived at Shell Cottage they were waiting for us, and Malfoy thanked him for doing his job and delivering me to them. They then boasted about how they'd set the wards off at The Burrow at the same time, knowing you'd go rushing straight to where Ginny was."
"No, a fox set the wards off," Harry said.
"The wards don't go off for animals," Hermione said softly. "Nott and Zabini set the wards off, and let the fox out to fool you."
"How do you know this?" Harry asked as he looked up at Hermione with tears in his eyes.
"I'm dead, I know a lot more than I ever did when I was alive," Hermione answered sadly. "For example, I know the Slytherins used Ron's resentment of always being overlooked to get him on their side. Back in school they played on the fact he was the last brother, never quite as good as the others. They also used you, telling him how'd never be anything more than your sidekick."
"Ron isn't a sidekick, he's my best friend," Harry protested. "And he's every bit as important as his brothers."
"We know that, but does Ron?" Hermione asked.
Harry wanted to protest and tell her that Ron wouldn't fall for such lies, but he couldn't find the words. Truth be told, he'd always known Ron had felt inferior to his family. Bill had been Head Boy and very popular, Charlie was the captain of the quidditch team and again very popular in his time at Hogwarts, Percy was the super smart one who'd also made the cut as Head Boy. Then there was the twins with their inventions and their madcap ideas, not to mention Ginny the only girl in the family. So Harry had always known how overlooked Ron felt. Even by befriending Harry Potter, he'd been overlooked, not by Harry himself, but by other people.
"Even if it is true, Ron wouldn't turn on his family," Harry protested. "He loves them."
"But his family weren't killed, were they?" Hermione retorted. "Bill and Fleur were restrained, not killed."
"Why did they kill you?" Harry asked.
"I was a test," Hermione answered with a sad smile. "Once they had me, they told Ron to kill me. It was his way of proving he was loyal."
"No, he wouldn't," Harry insisted.
"Have it your way," Hermione said sadly as she smiled at Harry. "I'm telling you what happened, Harry, but what happens next is up to you. I just want you to know that no matter what you do, I will always love you. You will always be like a brother to me, even if you don't avenge my death."
Harry blinked back the tears at Hermione's words, and the disappointment that was dripping in her voice. Swiping at his eyes to clear his vision, he looked up and found Hermione had gone again. Only this time, she wasn't coming back. She'd given him her final message, and now he had to decide what to do with it.
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Draco Malfoy was lounging on his bed when he felt the wards around his wing of the manor shimmer as someone apparated into one of the rooms. There was actually only one person able to apparate into his private wing, aside from himself, so Draco knew exactly who had arrived. Even his parents couldn't apparate directly into his wing, although they could enter from the main body of the house whenever they wished, although they usually respected his privacy and asked before they entered his private domain. However, Draco had adjusted the wards so his girlfriend, the daughter of The Dark Lord, could come and go as she pleased.
"How did it go?" Draco asked as his girlfriend entered the room, an ethereal glow surrounding her.
"Perfect," Hermione Granger replied with a wicked smile as she moved over the large mirror opposite the bed and began to remove the spells she'd been using to make her appear otherworldly.
"Potter fell for it?" Draco questioned with a laugh.
When Hermione had first suggested, faking her death and visiting Harry as a ghost to turn him against Ron and alienate him from the Order, Draco had thought she'd been joking. Even once he realised she was deadly serious, he didn't for one minute think it would work. He didn't think even Potter was foolish enough to believe Hermione was visiting him from beyond the grave. Or even if did believe it, he didn't think he would ever believe Hermione's story that Ron had been the one to kill her.
However, Hermione had been adamant her plan would work, and once she'd gotten her father's permission to run with it, she went ahead and planned everything. With Draco's help, she found a spell that would give someone else her appearance just long enough for the Order to genuinely think she was dead and bury her. They then arranged to divert Harry's attention, and while Hermione was alone with Ron, Draco pretended to kill her as his friends kept Ron from getting to her too fast. By the time Ron was able to get to where he'd seen Hermione fall, the switch had been made and the real Hermione had been long gone, leaving behind a corpse which looked exactly like her. A few more spells had then given her an otherworldly look, and she'd spent the last couple of months haunting Harry.
"Of course," Hermione answered with a grin. "I am a terrific actress, as displayed by my years of undercover work with the Order."
"I've no doubt you were very convincing," Draco replied. "But will it be enough to turn Potter on Weasley? Is he convinced enough to accuse Weasley of your murder?"
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Hermione answered with a delicate shrug of her shoulders. "But even if it doesn't blow up right away, it'll fester away at Harry until he does something about it. And believe me, once he's accused Ron of killing me, there's no going back. The second he puts that out there, Ron will drop him like a stone, and even though the Weasleys love Harry, they won't choose him over Ron. Whether it happens soon, or doesn't happen for moths, it will happen. Sooner or later, Harry is going to act on what I told him, and when he does, he'll find himself all alone in the world."
"And when that happens, we strike and take him out," Draco smirked as Hermione kicked off her shoes and crawled onto the bed to join him.
"Indeed we do," Hermione agreed. "And this is the part where you tell me my plan was ingenuous."
"Let's wait and see how well it works," Draco chuckled. "Then I'll congratulate you."
"Just make sure you do," Hermione replied. "And just so you know, when this works, I want plenty of appreciation for my deviousness."
"I can appreciate that now," Draco said, grinning at Hermione as he grabbed her and flipped her so she was pinned underneath him.
Within a few seconds the couple were too busy fooling around to think about Harry and the plan Hermione had set in motion. Although, Hermione did turn out to be right, and Harry couldn't resist acting on what she'd told him. It didn't happen immediately, but a few weeks after her final visit he confronted Ron and the pair got into an almighty fight. The end result left Harry ostracised from both the Weasleys and the Order as they couldn't believe what he was accusing Ron of. Of course, once Harry was alone and vulnerable, the dark struck and he was kidnapped. Once he was in Voldemort's possession, Hermione couldn't resist visiting him and letting him know how he'd been played. Harry was understandably devastated, and he'd died never having gotten the chance to make amends with Ron. He'd believed the wrong friend, and because of that the wizarding world ended up in the dark clutches of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.