Moving On

Chapter - 10

Gringotts' Prison

"Well, Don't worry. It won't be long. The dragons are ready and, by this time tomorrow, you will be at least useful as manure." guffawed the goblin, slightly reminding Harry of his loving uncle, adorned in a warrior outfit as he stepped out of the tiny room that served as a prison.

"I am sorry. Hermione. I don't know why I even proposed coming here! Now, you too are going to die, because..." started Harry.

"Harry! Stop! It's not just your mistake. I too should have thought twice about coming here. Well, I have an idea of why we both did this, but I don't think it would matter anymore..."

Silence engulfed them as they sat still together, thinking about their approaching death. Even then, their minds wandered to the one snuggled next to them, Both angry at their fate's for not giving them the time to spend with each other. As Hermione closed in further into Harry's embrace, she noticed how cold he felt. Ignoring it, for the time being, she turned her thoughts to her happy memories for some time, most featuring the one sitting next to her. She slowly looked up to her lover's face, drawing his eye to hers, she spoke.

"Harry. Whatever happens, this is not your fault. I love you and that's all matters for me. I do feel sad at thinking how we could have spent much more time together, happily, but even if we die, I believe we will be together. I don't know how I missed this... This feeling; this happiness, that I get from you. It feels like I am complete! I never realized. So" she got a smile in her face, as she poked her finger into his chest "stop brooding and let's just spend this time together." and started to tickle him, trying to cheer him up, her smile grew as she succeeded.

They still sat together, but rather than worrying about the approaching death, they both now held each other, feeling the love they had for each other, something that they never experienced before, not to this extent. Feeling happy and loved, they slipped into a deep sleep.

A goblin nervously walked towards the prison area. Carrying a small but rather heavy globe-like-stone in his pocket. As he stood in front of the room, he pulled the stone out of his pocket and set it down on the ground before him. If his peers were to see the stone, he would have been made to join the two he came to save.

" !" called out a raspy voice, silently, nearly in a whisper.

As they both jerked from their sleep, they reluctantly released each other as they looked at the source of the voice. Suddenly, Hermione's bead-bag was thrust into her hands, with their wands, as the voice proceeded to speak.

" , I am your Account Manager, I knew your parents very well. Listen carefully, I can help you escape from here. The previous Head Goblin was assassinated, the current Head Goblin is bribed by the now-dead Dark Lord's followers. While you could have contacted us rather than break in here... We don't have much time, intimate this to your Ministry, not that it would do any good. Here" he thrust a scroll and a ring into Harry's hand, as he began to explain "This is your house ring and the list of properties you have. Your ring is a portkey, use it to escape, it will take you to Potter Manor. Now get going, put it on your hand and call out 'Potter Manor'."

Still in a sleepy confusion, Harry put on the ring and waited for Hermione to grab on to his arm. He looked at the goblin in thanks as he rubbed the ring.

As the two in front of him disappeared in a swirl, the goblin silently whispered "Good luck." before hurriedly walking out of the room, removing the ward breaker as he left.

Ministry Holding Cells

A young woman came running to the cabin of the officer-in-charge, followed by a stern-looking man walking at a brisk pace. Seeing the man, the officer stood up to greet.

"Good Morn.." the officer started.

"What are you thinking!" shouted the man, embracing the now crying girl, trying to calm her, he spoke again "You have arrested my future son-in-law! Release him this instant."

"But..."

"No Buts! Can't you hear me? Release. Him" he nearly screamed.

The officer in question was in a fix, he knew the background of the family standing in front of him, whoever was that son-in-law, he could bet on his paycheck that he was arrested for doing something serious, but if he did not release him, he seriously doubted whether there would be a paycheck for him to bet on.

Noticing the confusion on the officer's face, Dominic pushed him further.

"Don't just keep standing like a statue, move on! I want my son-in-law released this instant"

"Lord Bulstrode, I just can't release him just like that..."

Dominic did not want to reveal this card at the moment, but as his daughter's life and happiness mattered to him more than that. He took a picture out of his pocket and placed it on the table before sliding it towards the officer in question.

The picture was something very simple but would be very effective if was ever released to the press. A young Theodore Nott was being smuggled out of the holding cell by Auror Dawlish accompanied by none other than the officer seeing the picture.

Dominic snatched the picture from the table and asked again, "Can you now release my future son-in-law?"

The officer stammered a yes before asking "May I know his name?, Lord Bulstrode?"

"You might know him, officer, he's even in the Auror training program. You may find him listed as Billius Weasley."

Somewhere in Northern Scotland

Two figures appeared suddenly in the middle of the night with a thumping sound as one of them stumbled and fell. After helping the-one-who-fell-down, the figure passed on a wand to the other. Satisfied after giving a thorough look at the surrounding, both nearly jumped at each other, as their lips met in a kiss, which did take a long time before they parted, gasping for air.

"I was sure we both would die, Harry!" spoke Hermione in between her gasps.

"Yeah, me too 'Mione. I don't know what made us do it, but we just lost everything... " his words drowned as he was pulled another kiss as she realized where the conversation was going.

"Now that we are out of it, don't keep on thinking about it, Harry. We got out without any harm. That is enough for me." she said as she cupped his face in her hands. "Harry, look at me. I don't care that we may have lost everything. But we have each other. That is enough for me. Now, let's just get somewhere inside. I don't think it would either of us any good in this cold."

"Yes, by the way, did he ever say where Potter Manor was?"

By the time he finished speaking the words, a quite posh looking Manor appeared out of thin air. A wide-eyed look appeared on both faces that would do any owl proud, as they both walked to it in silence.

Hogwarts Infirmary

A certain potions master woke up, scrunching up his face from the pain. He hurriedly put up his occlumency barriers, which reduced the pain to a tolerable level. His eyes scanned the room, taking quite some time to check the surroundings. Unknown to himself, he winced as he saw the bed next to his, no, rather the one currently occupying it. As he was thinking about what led to him being ended up here, from which a certain medi-witch brought him out of. Slightly startling him.

"Severus! Lie down NOW!" nearly roared one Poppy Pomfrey.

The man in question gave a jerk before he quickly turned to look at the source of the quite loud noise. Seeing the look on her face, he fell back on to the bed. His face now having a look that would not look out of place from one of a child with his hand caught in a cookie jar.

"Don't even think about getting up from that bed! You are undoing hours of my work on you!"

Seeing the look on his face, she quickly started explaining.

"There was quite a lot of damage from the potions. I could repair damages to both of your skin. But the open wounds and scrapes are now needed to be soaked in neutralizing potions. That's the reason for bandages. As a potion master, you know that they need to be neutralized before any healing charm can work properly. So, you are stuck here for quite some time."

Not trusting his voice, for the time being, after all, it would not for his facade to slip. He motioned towards the bed next to his. He groaned inwardly as he realized that he would now be providing the gossip for the teaching faculty for a time due to this, which was confirmed by Poppy's next statement.

"Ah.. Yes. Your... friend... is also quite alright. She woke up this morning and is now in potion-induced sleep for now, in which too you'll be joining her." her eyes now filled with mirth at this. "She also asked for you, Severus" she continued, basking in Severus' glare. She pushed further

"She will be right as rain, as will you be too. Now that you have done the duty, taking care, being concerned, and all those things... You'll have to take this potion. It's dreamless sleep." She held a vial near him, gesturing to open his mouth, she poured the potion into his. "Good night then, Severus". As she walked towards her office, she called out, "Stay on your bed, Severus". silently giggling as she entered her office. Making the man do one of his trademark snort.

As the potion overtook him, he fell into a deep sleep, completely unaware of the plans hatched by his once-friends, to quite forcefully send him to the land of nod, permanently.

International Portkey Point

A portly looking man appeared in a swirl of robes and started walking briskly at a speed towards the exit. He stood before the security guard's desk, who was quite laxly solving a crossword. Not waiting for the guard to look, he cleared his throat and held the authentication papers over the table.

The guard looked up from the paper at the source of his distraction, sensing nothing out of ordinary, he took the papers held out and stamped a seal on it before mumbling a standard welcome phrase.

Taking back the paper, the man walked towards the flooing area. With a quite wide smirk on his face. He took a piece of parchment out of his robes just before entering a random floo.