"I suppose we can go now. We have found them..." Hermione sighed still a bit shaken after at list five minutes.
"Well, well, well." Said a voice they knew too well.
Lucius Malfoy had emerged from the gallery entrance.
"That's great news. We were just looking for those rings too." He added playing with the wand he held in his hands.
"Father, go away!" Draco shouted.
"Oh look, I was waiting for you few days ago; I really thought you would go back to the dark side, but you chose the painful path. If you don't mind me asking; can I know what stopped you?" Lucius asked mischievously continuing to keep a low profile with a veil of threat.
"Hermione." Draco replied dryly, taking her hand.
"Oh what a horrible revelation." Lucius commented coldly while the others jumped with a low gasp for what Draco just said. "bah nevermind, we have more important things to look after."
Then he disappeared for a moment from their sight and came back in the gallery dragging an unconscious Ronald Weasley. Fear filled the heads eyes.
"Give us the rings and we'll give you the blood traitor. You can decide to give us the rings peacefully, or choose to fight." Lucius proposed with a light smirk plasted on his face at the sight of their faces.
Hermione and Harry looked at eachother hoping that the other had a plan, something, but there was nothing to do. with a quick glance at the others, they started to walk towards Lucius and Ron with resignation, under the astonished, sad looks of their companions. Harry had the rings in his hand open and slowly stopped facing Lucius. Hermione stopped in front of Ron. Waiting.
"First you give us Ron."
"I don't trust you." Lucius glared at them.
"same..." Hermione hissed.
"At same time." Harry's hand moved toward him, contemporaneously Lucius levitated Ron closer to them, his hand open at a few distance from Harry's one. Harry started to advance slowly, but then stopped as with the corner of the eye saw Hermione already with an hand on Ron's shoulder.
Harry's eyes, that from when he started walking, were always looking at the floor, glared up at Lucius a determinated spark in them. he took a silent deep breath and started talking. "As long as there will be someone who will force us to do evil, we will always choose to fight."
Hermione took Ron as fast as she could and then with Harry run back to the others, still in possession of the rings. In a second, Hermione woke up Ron with magic and freed him from the ropes that were around him; then gave him the truth ring that Harry handed her while she kepd the Dragonlear's one.
"You filthy little/" started Lucius walking towords them with his wand pointing right at Hermione's face. "Touch her and I'll kill you." Draco cut him off stepping in front of Hermione.
"...Well, in this case... I would say we can start dancing. Timorfit." Lucius said back to the calm tone he used before.
It was a spell that none of them had ever heard, and for a few seconds they thought it was useless, that nothing happened; but then like lightning, a stubbing pain crossed their heads, and they fell on the ground, with dark, empty mind.
/
Harry got up from the floor of the ministry of magic, rubbing his head with one hand.
He was in the central hall of the ministry, on a small stage, and around him banners and billboards said: -the war is over!- -The Chosen One Has Triumphed!- and other such things, but the crowd didn't seem to cheer him: journalists, citizens and ministry officials shouted against him.
"Harry Potter!" "How do you expect to defend yourself against the accusations of the magical world?!" "The lives we have lost!" "It's all your fault!" "Without you it wouldn't even have happened!" all this was really putting Harry in difficulty.
He had suffered long after the war was over; he had difficulty accepting that someone loved him, and he hated himself because he saw himself as the cause of the death of many innocent people; even though no one had ever accused him as they were doing now. he didn't really understand how he woke up there since a lot of time had passed from the battle, from the war, and people had already declared that he had no fault.
"Please stop, I don't think I'm the cause of what happened! They chose to fight." Harry justified himself in front of the screaming crowd.
"Yes, it is!" "It's your fault!" "They wouldn't have died." The crowd in front of him continued.
"Please, stop!" He shouted to the crowd that showed no sign of stopping.
What's happening?! Why?! Who did it?!
/
Harry wasn't the only one in an uncomfortable situation: Luna had gotten up in the dungeon of Malfoy Manor, the same dungeon where she had been locked up for all that time last year.
"What's going on?" she asked herself looking around. There was nobody there. She heard the dungeon door creak open, and from the light of the stairs she saw Wormtail who timidly and trembling came to take her by the arm.
"Where are the others?" Asked Luna.
"Dead!" Wormtail grinned with a crazy, sick look in his eyes. Luna's ones widened leaving her in a shocked expression.
"Where are you taking me?" She asked again.
"Upstairs." He replied annoyed.
"Why?" Luna was really putting a strain on the rat's patience.
"Because you must die, like the others!" He said keeping her while she looked at a terrifying scenary: the bodies of Ollivander, Dean, Griphook, were piled up lifeless near a wall; and in the center of the room his father's body lay dead.
"Nooo!" Luna cried desperately.
"It... It's not true! It's not real." she screamed falling on the ground. Again like at Harry, her worst fear had come true; "Timorfit" fear and reality.
/
Not even Morgan had been spared from that torture. When She got up from the cold floor, all around her she saw pieces of walls collapsed, dust and rubble; but it wasn't the worst thing: corpses, only corpses laying around her.
Ginny lay dead beside her. She was in Hogwarts, the night of the battle. At the end of the battle. but they lost. She got up and walked around the castle, but what she saw was always the same. always as tremendous and devasting.
She found Hermione, Luna, Harry... Ron, Neville, Pansy, and her Blaise... She cried bitter tears. She never cried, but this was too much.
How could she be still alive? Her friends died, evil had triumphed, she had failed protecting them... .
/
Now it was Ron who got up in the corridors of Hogwarts. but there where no corpes. In fact, he didn't quite understand what was happening: nothing was actually happening, all seemed normal. He decided to go find his friends to see if he could understand the situation.
"Oh, Harry, Hermione, here you are, how you going?" He asked the two friends who walked hand in hand through the corridors talking and laughing all the time.
"Oh sorry, who are you?" Asked cautionally Hermione looking at Ron.
"I'm Ron! Your best friend!" replied the redhead beginning to understand.
"We don't know any Ron, do we, bae?" said Harry.
"No, I don't think; so, ehm bye." Hermione answered leaving with Harry. Ron looked at them leaving with a strange look, there was something wrong. As he walked down the corridors looking around he found Ginny.
"Oh Merlin, thank you. Ginny, Harry and Hermione behave strangely; do you know what's going on?" He asked putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Who might you be? And then, I don't know Harry Potter and Hermione Granger; even if I would like so much." Ginny answered taking Ron's hand off her shoulder horrified.
"I'm Ron... you know, your brother." Said Ron surprised that Ginny didn't recognize him either.
"I'm sorry, but I have no brother named Ron, I have a Bill, a Charlie, a Percy, and a George; I'm sorry, no Ron." Ginny replied moving away.
"Bloody hell..." sighed Ron widening his eyes and sitting with his head in his hands on one of the benches in the corridors.
/
Draco Malfoy was... in the same place where they were before actually, but there was no one else, except for Hermione, and judging by her gaze, the situation didn't look good.
"Hermione! Hermione, are you okay? Did the spell hurt you?" he asked going towards her.
"Ugly, loathsome, traitor, you little filthy cockroach!" She cried.
-Why?! Someone explain me why things always have to be so complicated! Never a joy!- the only thing Draco thought before flying backwards, hit by... well, nothing; just a wave of air.
"I will never forgive you for what you have done, horrible death eater!" Hermione threw a punch without touching him, but for some sort of magic, the force of the punch hit him fully, amplified; making him fly ten meters from her, falling to the ground furiously.
"Hermione! but what the/?!" he didn't have the time to end, because he was hit again.
-How's possible to fly on the ground if nothing has hit you?!-
"And then, when I saw you crying that day in the prefect's bathroom?! Pathetic! Absolutely pathetic! Because you were sad to be a poor little dirty death eater! Ahaha, Weak!" said Hermione with a mad and disturbing look, laughing hysterically. Draco was thrown back again.
"Hermione what's the matter with you?"
"Why are you calling me Hermione? Wasn't I -filthy little mudblood-?!" Draco looked at her with narrowed eyes trying understand what was happening.
"Oh come on Malfoy, don't pretend not remembering! Let's see if you remember this! What you did to me!" Hermione shputed, revealing the scar on her arm, making Draco cringe in regret and terror.
"It is time for you to pay for what you have done to me! Because I will never forgive you, dirty death eater! You are a monster!" She yelled, pointing at him with a death stare.
"Crucio!" she said with a diabolic smirk. "Nooo! Hermione..."
/
Hermione instead woke up but was unable to get up; she blinked quickly to get a better look of what was going on. -My god, no. Please, please no. Not again.- Bellatrix Lestrange was there again, alive again, and ready to make her suffer again. With her wand she pulled her up from the ground and crashed her against a wall.
"Draco dear, you do the honours." She said with her usual crazy look and a disturbing smile.
Draco Malfoy was in front of her, about ten meters away, with a inexpressive, evil, cruel, look, in his stormy eyes; the same one he had when he insulted her, contemptuous. "With pleasure." He smirked walking slowly towards Hermione.
"Draco, what happens?" "Don't call me Draco! You are not at my level, mudblood!"
"But-" "But nothing! You're just a silly little mudblood! Crucio!" Hermione fell to the ground writhing in pain.
"No, please, enough..." ranted in the cries of pain.
A few moments of her pain passed, but then, her voice broke the silence.
"I said enough!" she shouted, slowly coming back up on her knees willing to stand up.
"And I said Crucio! Filthy mudblood." Again Hermione fell to the ground. Then, came back to her feet trembling.
"Maybe you don't understand, I said enough!" Hermione stopped planted with her feet on the ground not willing to move. "Try me."
A series of spells flew against her, but as if the wand was a sword she made her way with protection spells.
"Now you tell me what happens." she was now close to him, but in his eyes she saw only hate.
"Crucio!" Hermione fell to the ground again. Then she got up again, even if he didn't stop.
"But how can you stand up again? I'm torturing you!"
"The more you hurt me, the less I cry." She replayed.
"Who are you?" Hermione asked, remaining strong.
"Draco Malfoy." He replied confidently, as if it was obvious.
"No, you are not the Draco I know. The one I know is a beautiful person, who would never use this curse on me."
"You are lying." "I don't tell lies." Hermione approached enough and hugged Draco, hugged him tightly, and kissed him hoping he was himself again.
/
And at that moment, even if she didn't know; also Draco was also fighting in the delirium of his imagination.
"Hermione! Enough! You don't remember me!? You don't remember the ball? The time you helped me at the beginning of the year? You don't remember anything?!" He exclaimed, getting up from the ground after having suffered yet another Crucio of his life.
"Why are you still standing?! I cruced you!" Yelled Hermione walking furiously in his direction with her wand straight in front of her.
"Because I stopped giving up." So saying he embraced that hostile person, and kissed her softly.
In that exact moment, in the same istant, they went back together in the corridor; the other two had disappeared, they had broken the spell.
/
Ron was also desperately trying to find a way out. He decided to go to the Gryffindor dormitory and brought together those three foreigners who were not even aware of his existence. The three were seated in a small sofa in the Gryffindor common room and Ron standing in front of them, all very uncomfortable.
"For the last time! We never seen you!"
"Error. I didn't want to go to that buuuut, you force me to do it." Ron said. He came face to face in front of Ginny. "Now look at me and tell me I'm not your brother! Red hair and a hand-me-down robe... must be a Weasley. Ginevra Molly Weasley, born on August 11, innate strength in magic duels, especially hex and jinx, and prodigy on the broom, you are the most stubborn person I know and a crazy fireball; you are my sister, and although I never told anyone, I am grateful to have a younger sister after having had five older brothers, and I really love you."
Ron passed in front of Hermione. "Hermione, I first saw you on the Hogwarts express at the beginning of our first year. And the first thing you did was make fun of me. The brightest witch of her age ladies and gentlemen! You have saved me from death countless times, even though I have said a lot of bad things about you, you kept saving me. I've had a crush on you since my fourth year, but now I know that your place is not with me. You are stubborn bookworm and an awesome person that I'll never forget."
Finally he stood in front of Harry. "Harry, where to start? When I entered the compartment on the train with you, I didn't think I was in front of the famous Harry Potter. You have been my best friend since day one; and all the stupid things we have done, and there are many, we have done together, do you remember? When we found the mirror of Erised; and when we spent the evening of the Yule ball pissed off together because Hermione went with Viktor Krum? We made so many stupid things together, and you must remember them!" the three in front of him had a lost and absorbed look.
"Now you have to remember, because you are my friends and I can't live without you!"
Here, Ron had made it too; in an instant he was back in the corridor from where he had disappeared, regaining consciousness a few seconds after Hermione and Draco. But someone was still struggling with her worst fear.
/
"It's not true. They are not dead." Morgan whispered among the corpses of her friends.
"I fought alongside Ginny, and saw our enemies die, knowing that together we would be invincible. I have seen Luna fight against her convictions of peace. I have seen Neville kill the snake. I saw Ron and Hermione running down the stairs to the chamber of secret, and I saw Harry resurrect.
They can't be dead.
And then, then I went back to Hogwarts, and decided to embark on this adventure with them. I went farr over my limits and weaknesses. I went to the ball with Harry and fell in love with Blaise. I found friends that I will never forget; like Luna, and Hermione, Pansy, Ginny... I met fantastic people... like Neville, Ron and Draco... and... and I would give my own life for each of them!" she cried in tears in the dead school, finally awakening from that nightmare.
/
Luna was still staring in horror at her father's dead body on the ground. "No! My father is not dead!" she sobbed. "He's at home, writing the quibble as always; and collecting the underwater apples, which he will send me by owl right tomorrow!" She screamed trying to free herself from the grip that kept her away from her father. She managed to escape and crawled near him.
"Don't you see it?! He's dead! There is nothing you can do! There is no more hope!" Wormtail shouted at her, repeatedly pointing at the corpse.
"Oh, on this you're wrong, so wrong, you rat. I will never lose hope! I'll never stop believing!" Luna replied shouting with a slight smile.
It was at that moment that she also returned to corridor of space-time.
/
But there was still one of them fighting.
"I have already suffered without you saying anything! Don't you think that I had already felt guilty and depressed after I saw what the war had brought? I didn't want anyone to come near me, because I didn't feel worthy of being loved, of still having friends." Harry explained to the crowd who kept asking him unpleasant questions.
"Just stop it! I don't care what you think of me! Till I am okay with myself, and my friends are with me, nothing can bring me down." Here, he said it, now he could go back.
/
At last they were all back in the space-time corridor. Only a few moments separated the arrival of one from the one of the other, so everyone returned in the space of a minute, shaken and still shocked.
"How can you still be here?" Lucius asked seeing them rise from the ground stronger and more determined than before.
"There is one thing you have not taken into account..." Harry said, looking up. "we are unbreakable."