A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Things are definitely quickly winding down with this story, but I hope that you are still enjoying it. You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-four and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-five soon!
They were barely out of Gringotts by the time that Harry was clutching at the sides of his head, crying out from the pain of whatever it was that Voldemort was doing. Hermione was at his side in an instant, trying to reassure him that everything would be okay. "We have to get to Hogwarts now," Harry insisted, his green eyes darting around wildly. "He is headed back there now. There is another horcrux hidden there and he knows that we've destroyed these. He wants to check it."
Hermione apparated them to the outskirts of Hogsmeade and lead them slinking through the side streets towards the Shrieking Shack, where they hoped to sneak in using the secret passageway. When they went by the Hog's Head pub, though, a familiar voice hissed at them. "You lot. Get over here now!"
It took them a few seconds, but they quickly realized that it was Dumbledore's brother - Aberforth - who owned the pub. The man ushered them inside, and immediately began scolding them for wandering around the small village when every wizard alive was looking for them. It was clear that Harry had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask the man, but there was no time to chat.
"We need to get into Hogwarts," Hermione told the grizzled barman, tersely, knowing that time was of the essence if Voldemort was on his way to the school like Harry claimed. They needed to find the horcrux and destroy it before he even got there. "Can you help us?"
"I might know a way," Aberforth said with a hint of a smirk on his weathered face. "Though I would rather you turn away right now. My brother always thought himself more clever than he actually was."
But the four of them could not be deterred - they had come this far already, and it was impossible to turn back.
Hermione never would have expected the way to be by walking through a painting, lead by none other than Neville Longbottom himself, but when she walked out into the Room of Requirement, filled with familiar and friendly faces, she knew that they were back in Hogwarts for the first time in nearly a year. Immediately, everyone sprang into action, bolstered by the knowledge that Harry Potter was back. Exuberant calls went out over the Wizarding radio to call the Order of the Phoenix to action.
In the bustle as the students began to mobilize, Hermione almost didn't notice Harry crumpling down to his knees, clutching his scar in agony again. "He's close," he groaned, nearly physically ill from the pain. Hermione wrapped an arm around him, hoping to bring any measure of comfort to him. "He's going to the Shrieking Shack...to meet Snape. We should go there - try to head them off, or at least close the tunnel."
"But Harry, what about the horcrux?" she asked, biting her lower lip nervously.
"You and Theo should go find it," Ron said confidently. "Harry and I will go to the Shrieking Shack."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, looking at Ron as if he had grown a second head due to how mature he was acting in the moment. She couldn't believe he would willingly want her to run off with Theo.
"Yeah," he said nodding his head. "Merlin knows you two swots will be able to figure it out, and Theo's the only one who can destroy it. Just...make sure that you keep her safe. She is my best friend," Ron added looking to Theo with respect. It was an unexpected moment, Ron finally realizing that she and Theo were meant to be with one another, and she and Ron were only destined to be friends.
The four teenagers wished each other good luck, but then Harry and Ron were off, running towards the entrance of the school. "What could this other horcrux be?" Hermione asked. "It has to be something significant. Voldemort is too self absorbed for it not to be."
"Well, the Cup belonged to Hufflepuff, and the locket to Slytherin," Theo said, pacing back and forth to help him think. "So...doesn't it stand to reason that the horcrux would belong to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?"
"Not Gryffindor - he and Slytherin didn't get on at all. But I could see him using something from Ravenclaw," Hermione agreed. "What is some artifact of Ravenclaw's? She is sometimes depicted wearing thistle hairpins. Those would maybe be easily hidden around here."
"There's always Rowena's Diadem," a bright, optimistic voice startled the young lovers out of their conversation.
"Luna!" Hermione said, looking at the pale, blonde girl. "I didn't see you there. But isn't the Diadem, well...lost? And has been for centuries?"
"Well, yes, some people might call it lost, but maybe...it just needs to be found?" the girl offered, not really making much sense at all to the analytical girl. "I know who you could ask though - the Grey Lady."
"Why would the Grey Lady know?" Theo asked, looking at her, confused, realizing this was likely the first time that he'd ever talked to Luna Lovegood.
"Theo, we might as well try," Hermione said grabbing his hand. "It's better than nothing!"
Tracking down the Grey Lady was easier said than done. It seemed as if they were fighting the wrong way in the stream of students running in terror. The rest of the ghosts were ushering the younger ones to safety, but the older students seemed keen to fight. However the Grey Lady was suspiciously absent. The teenagers were unshakeable in their resolve, though, and eventually tracked her down looking depressed and forlorn.
"Excuse me! We need your help!" Hermione said, startling the woman out of her own thoughts. She looked ethereal and young and for the first time Hermione wondered just how she had died in the first place. "We are looking for the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw. Do you know where it is?"
"You seek my mother's diadem?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.
Hermione was surprised that she hadn't realized that the Grey Lady was Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, but stopped herself from reacting. She didn't want the slightly temperamental ghost to become upset with them and refuse to help. "Yes, we really need to find it," she confirmed.
"No," the woman responded, nostrils flaring. "I made a grave mistake once in the past helping another who sought it, and he ruined...tainted it with dark magic. I won't make the same mistake again." She looked resolute in her pronouncement, but at the same time, she all but confirmed that the Diadem was what they were looking for.
"We know about Tom Riddle," Hermione said, trying to gain a rapport with the woman. "We know about how he tricked you. He was very good at getting what he wanted...he was very good at manipulating people."
"Please, we want to destroy it," Theo said, stepping closer towards the spectre. "We know all about what he did to it and we want to get rid of the dark magic."
"You would know about dark magic...Slytherin," she spat at the werewolf, hurt and lashing out.
"You are right," Theo agreed, unflinching under the constant onslaught of prejudice against his house. "But you also know that means I am fully capable of keeping my word. I am one of the only people in this castle that can actually get rid of it, for good this time."
The Grey Lady looked at him hard for several beats of silence, before sighing. "Fine. But you already know where it is - it's where all forgotten things go in this castle," she said, resigned to put her trust in them that they would do as they say.
Theo and Hermione looked at one another, realization in their eyes. "The Room of Requirement," Hermione said, grimly, before turning on her heel and running in the direction of the stairs, with Theo hot on her tail. For once, all the staircases seemed to be working to help them get where they needed to be and they made it to the seventh floor in record time. Standing in front of the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, they walked back and forth in front of it three times, until the doorway appeared.
Hermione was overwhelmed by the amount of things that were in the room. The junk that accumulated over the years...centuries even...stretched as far as she could see. This would be a monumental task, especially considering that they were under a bit of a time crunch.
Theo looked to be feeling the pressure too. He gave her a weak smile. "We could just...burn the whole place down?" he suggested with a laugh, making Hermione think he was at least halfway serious. When he saw the look on her face, though, he shook his head. "Okay, split up then? We should be able to find it quicker that way."
Nodding, Hermione quickly set out in one direction while her boyfriend left in the other. She wandered up and down through piles and piles of things that had long been forgotten by students over the years, never to be thought of again. She thought of Harry and his potions textbook the year prior and how it had been left here, untouched, she hoped.
Just when she was giving up hope, something glinting high up on an armoire caught her eye. Elated, she realized that it really was the Diadem. "Theo!" she shouted, hoping that he would be able to hear her despite the way all of the things in the room dampened noise in the room. "Theo, I've found it!" Eagerly, she used her wand to carefully levitate it down on the ground in front of her.
In the end, it didn't take long for Theo to find her. He was rounding the corner with his wand already drawn, skidding to a halt when he locked eyes with her. He looked at the diadem where it was resting on the ground. "It's a bit tragic that we are having to destroy so much history, isn't it?" he asked, looking at the elaborate silver and sapphire crown.
Hermione nodded. "It is, but it isn't us that destroyed it, not really," she said with a frown. "This was ruined the moment that Voldemort got his hands on it."
Nodding, Theo kept his wand trained on the pretty bauble, before conjuring the fiendfyre. The more he had performed the curse, the more control he gained over the fire. It was almost uneventful at this point to watch the black smoke that rose out of the diadem, spitting and crying out, another piece of Voldemort's soul railing at its mortality.
The relief that they felt once it was well and truly gone - leaving behind only a mangled looking piece of metal - was very temporary. Before they could even speak to one another, they heard Voldemort's voice clear as if he was standing next to them, announcing a one hour armistice during which they could collect their dead and consider which side they would rather be on. When Hermione heard him speak directly to Harry, taunting him to come out to the forest to face each other, she was struck with a bolt of fear.
"He won't be able to stop himself," she said, sounding miserable. "Harry has always been prone to sacrificing his own happiness for everyone elses'. We have to go try and stop him before he rushes off and gets himself killed."
Theo did not need any more convincing than that. Grabbing her hand tightly in his, they began weaving their way out of the Room of Requirement and into the deserted seventh floor hallway. Running down the stairs, they were immediately greeted by the sight of people in need of medical assistance, but they couldn't stop to help. Finding Harry and Ron was their top priority.