Chapter 30

Left.

Hermione couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She had been Petrified. As in "Petrificus Totalus." And so had Ron. By Harry, who was standing over them. She knew there was only one reason this could be happening. She guessed what Harry was going to say before he even said it.

"I'm going," he sighed, sinking down on the chair beside her bed. "To get him. Voldemort. And…I just wanted to say…goodbye. I know you want to come. I know I'm being selfish, not getting as much help as I can. I am selfish. I just can't take it anymore. I don't want to watch helpless while anymore people die. I'm tired of seeing it, I'm tired of…it. It seems like people are always making up my mind for me and I can't do anything about it. I didn't ask to be "the Chosen One" but I am. I didn't ask for Cedric or Dumbledore or Sirius or the Dursleys to die, but they did…and I couldn't stop it. I even kind of caused it. Dumbledore once told me there's a difference between being dragged into the ring and going in with your head held high. He said I should kill Voldemort not because of the prophecy, but because I'm filled with vengeance." Harry looked at his hands. "I don't really feel filled with vengeance. I just feel tired. I dunno. I just want it to be over. I've got to take control. I'm sorry."

Hermione was still trying desperately to talk, to scream, anything…but she couldn't. She just had to listen.

"I never could have done any of this without you two. Thanks, seriously, for helping me find all the Horcruxes…for everything. I know this is hard. It's always been the three of us. I never could have made it, without you…you're my best friends and my only family. I…just…thanks. I don't think it would make a difference if you came with me. I'm supposed to do it alone, I think. See, this is how my plan works…I'm going to go and draw attention to myself. Then the Death Eaters will kidnap me and take me to Voldemort…but I'll escape…somehow and surprise him. Because…I'll steal your wand and put it up my sleeve! Then we'll fight. But you two would be killed on sight, which would ruin my plan. So…I have a logical reason for not taking you too."

If Hermione could talk, she would have told Harry he wasn't very good at logic and would really require some lessons before he was. But she couldn't, so he continued uninterrupted.

"I know you don't want to hear this, and I've been talking much too long. I…have to go…just…you two….I'll try and come back, so you can yell at me about all this. Just like old times. If not…I'm really sorry. You were the greatest friends I could have ever wished for. Thanks."

He grabbed Hermione's wand from her bag and shoved it up his sleeve, then brandished his own. "Bye." He muttered softly.

Then he cleared his throat and said "Stupefy!"

Wandless magic only works under extreme stress, especially for difficult spells, such as Protego. It took extreme concentration of emotion and logic, compounded by stress. Every inch of your magical BEING had to be concentrated. You had to want it more than anything in the world.

Hermione had never wanted anything more in her life than to remain conscious at this moment.

IStopStopStopremainconciousremainrescuesavenonononoPROTEGO!I/

She felt a vague jolt of drowsiness and that was it. Instinctively she closed her eyes and pretended to be knocked out.

She heard Harry cast the spell again on Ron. Then she heard him mutter something mostly incoherent, but it sounded slightly self-deprecating. There was a long pause. She thought perhaps he'd changed his mind. But then his footsteps sounded, quick and confident and sure, like he was ready for his final sacrifice.

She waited for them to recede entirely then opened her eyes.

"Ron?"

"Yeah…" she heard Ron mutter, sounding garbled. She beamed. He had resisted the spell like her! Though it sounded as though it had had slightly more of an effect.

"We have to get out of this," she declared.

"No way, really…" Ron drowsed.

"Yes. We need to summon our wands. Excuse me, WAND, since he took mine."

"Keep going, lay out every detail of the plan for my benefit…"

"You are very intolerable when you're tired. This is serious. Now let me concentrate…"

"I already summoned it…while you…were talking…" Ron yawned.

"Good, then…wait, I've just realized we're talking."

"Yeah, I just said…"

Hermione sat up and shook her head. "We're not paralyzed anymore…it wore off somehow! I wonder is it was our wandless magic, or if the Stupefy spell simply negated…"

"Hermione, shouldn't we be saving Harry from…whatever…"

"Right!" Hermione snatched up Ron's wand. "Rennervate!"

"Thanks," Ron said, jumping up. "Come on, let's go!"

They ran out of the tent to find a distinct lack of Harry.

"He already Apparated! He could be anywhere!" Hermione moaned.

"Let's wake up Ginny, Neville and Luna and figure this out," Ron opened the tent on the three prone companions. "Looks like they've been Stupefied too."

"Renervate, Renervate, Renervate!" Hermione said quickly and each friend sprang up accordingly.

"Harry!" Ginny cried.

"He talked to you too?" Ron said.

"Huh? What about Harry?" Neville yawned.

"Is this a hallucination or something?" Luna muttered.

"He's going to fight Voldemort! We don't know where he went," Ron explained.

Hermione massaged her temples as Luna and Neville chattered in confusion, Ron and Ginny filling in gaps. "He said…he was going to let the Death Eaters get him. Now. Where would Harry Potter go to attract the attention of Death Eaters?"

They all looked at each other.

"Hogwarts," all five of them chorused.

They gathered together and Apparated away.

Much to their surprise, they appeared right on Hogwarts grounds.

"Wha-?" Hermione muttered, spinning around. "I thought we'd just have to get as close as possible…what happened to the anti- Apparition spell?"

"I don't know, but this can't be good," Ginny said slowly, coming up behind Hermione and staring at the grim gray empty castle. Wind whistled eerily through the trees of the Forbidden forest. Hermione felt like they were in a ghost town.

"Harry's not here," Neville shivered. "NOBODY is here."

"Think again," someone behind them said.

All six of them spun around to stare at a cocky pale pointed face; one Hermione had had to endure looking at for six years, though it was the mouth she hated most, and how the word "Mudblood" would tend to pour out of it mind numbingly often.

"Malfoy," Hermione muttered, reaching for her wand, but then she heard the sound of rustling and realized he was not alone, and his smirk was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

-Kon: Of course I'm sure!

Cassie: Oh yeah? Like how sure?

Kon: Like…like…seventy… two... percent sure.

-Impulse number 77