A/N: Sorry for the delay. I was battling the flu last week, and some other things popped up over the weekend. If I missed any errors in this chapter, please let me know so I can correct them. Thanks.
Chapter Twelve
The Edge of the Light
Sharon's hand flew to her chest and a tear rolled down her cheek. She drew in a sharp breath, smiling like she was trying to split her face in two. She looked at Ron's face, he looked nervous and hopeful. She couldn't imagine a life without him anymore, and the incident a week and a half ago had scared her beyond belief. She reached out and pulled him into a tearful hug.
"Of course I will!" she said excitedly. She felt Ron relax into her hug and he pulled back from her. He reached down and took her left hand and slid a very lovely diamond and ruby ring on her finger. She pulled him into a steamy kiss that had everyone letting out cat calls and wolf whistles. They broke apart after a few moments and smiled at each other. Kingsley had been watching from his office and walked out to congratulate the two of them.
"Well, finally Weasley gets a smart idea," he said. Ron scowled good naturedly at the comment and chuckled. "Well, since this has turned into a celebration, I have another announcement. Mr. Weasley. While you have been on holiday recovering from your ordeal, the Wizengamot met to decide what to do about your actions." He paused here to take a breath. Ron looked a bit nervous, thinking he might be in trouble for continuing the raid when he suspected the setup.
"They have unanimously voted to award you the Order of Merlin First Class," Kingsley said with a smile. Ron sagged in disbelief and his jaw was hanging open. "And that's not all. Auror Command also decided to award you the Medal of Honor. You stayed behind to make sure no one under your command was left behind, dead or alive. You took out a large cell of Death Eaters, knowing you would more than likely die in the process. You put everyone else's life in the wizarding world ahead of your own without thinking twice. Well done."
Ron had to sit down from shock and everyone was clapping for him. He got several pats on the back and a few hugs. Sharon was overjoyed for Ron. Kingsley pulled Ron aside and gave his some more details on the official ceremony in a couple of weeks. He gave Ron and Sharon the rest of the day off, so they could spread the good news.
ooo
Hermione arrived home from work expecting to find Harry in the study, reading. She looked all over the main floor hoping to find him. When her search was fruitless, she called for Winky. Winky had immediately improved when Harry took her in. After a long and grueling argument with the stubborn house elf, Harry and Hermione finally gave in and had her bound to him in the traditional way. Winky outright refused to be paid, and she would not budge on the issue.
"What did you need, kind Mistress?" Winky asked cheerfully. Hermione made a slight face at being called Mistress, but Winky would call her nothing but that.
"I'm looking for Harry. Do you know where he is?" Hermione asked. Winky nodded and answered.
"Oh yes Mistress, Winky knows. He is in the dungeon, working on his weapon," Winky said.
Hermione thanked her and went into the back of the mansion to the dungeon entrance. Harry had told her that the dungeons had never been used for anything but storage and the potions lab. She found him in the main center room, checking on his materials. The diamonds had finally become soft enough to mix with the metal mixture he had bubbling in the corner. In a separate forge, he had started to heat the aquamarines so he could include them as well. The room was very hot, and he had a sleeveless tee shirt on and a thin pair of pants. Over that was a thick fireproof apron he had over his chest. Hermione took her sweater off and asked if there was anything she could help with.
"Of course. Could you wiggle the forge over there to check to see if the aquamarines are ready?" he said while carefully levitating the diamonds to pour them into the metal. She walked over and pulled out her wand. She used a low power banishing spell to move the forge a bit, so it could wobble on its stand. She noticed that there was a thick sky blue gel in the bottom moving fairly easily.
"Harry, I think they are ready," she said. He walked over and nodded approvingly. She levitated the forge over and Harry helped pour the heated gems into the mixture. They set the forge down to cool and he used his wand to make the mixture swirl in its container. While that was mixing she motioned she wanted to speak with him.
"Harry, I just got a floo call from Ron. He proposed to Sharon!" she squealed. Harry just nodded and smiled. "Harry, did you know he was going to do this?"
"Yeah I did. He made me promise not to tell anyone so he could surprise her. Who do you think picked up the ring, hmm?" he said with a grin. Hermione huffed in mock outrage.
"Well, I'm just glad he finally did it," she said. Harry nodded and grinned. "Oh, and he told us to keep the Tuesday two weeks from now open. It sounds like he is going to get a couple of awards for the battle."
They talked some more about no particular subject while the metal was still mixing. Hermione brought up a sore subject she had been meaning to talk to Harry about.
"Harry, I know you have been wondering how Voldemort came back," she said cautiously. His mood darkened a bit and he half nodded as she continued. "I think I have a theory, but you aren't going to like it." She bit her lower lip a little and looked down at the floor. Harry reached out and put his hand on her knee and she looked up.
"Mione, Sure I might not like it, but I can assure you I won't be too angry about it, if it is what I think it is," he said. She shrugged her shoulders and didn't speak up yet. Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead. He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. She sighed at his touch and felt the calming effect he always had on her.
"Please, don't yell at me for this," she pleaded. Harry just nodded and let her continue. "Harry I don't think the spell that you and Ginny did worked right." She fidgeted with her nails as she drummed up the courage to finish her thought. Harry nodded and motioned for her to continue. "The spell we found has to be based on pure and true love. Otherwise the ritual takes too much from a person to try and make it work."
Harry understood where she was going with this. He had the same suspicion, but he had never really tried to really go in depth with that line of thinking. He had read about the ritual recently, and knew where she was going with this. His face fell, and Hermione thought that he was taking it badly, and that he would be angry. He noticed this and quickly put his hands on hers.
"Hermione, relax. It's ok. I was thinking along the same lines. It was a bit tough for me to face it, but I think you may be right. You see, I had to push a bit for the spell, but not too much," he said quietly. He leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling as he continued. "And I think that was why Ginny died from pushing too hard. Since you told me about her being a seer, it kind of makes sense.
"I read up on the ritual about a week ago. I finally read the fine print that went along with it. The ritual was originally designed by a couple who were true soul mates. They didn't have to push at all, since their love was so true for each other. It got me to thinking. I think Ginny saw that the ritual did not work. She made the necessary arrangements so that her affairs would be in order. She pushed it so the spell would work. I think that is when she realized that she wasn't truly in love with me. It may have been the image of the Boy Who Lived she loved, but I don't know for sure. And I think why I had to push a little bit, is because I was just trying to have a normal thing. Merlin knows I didn't have that when I was growing up."
Hermione brushed the tears from her eyes after he finished speaking. The sadness in his voice while he spoke was heart breaking. He had come to believe that because he kept the relationship going, he had been directly responsible for Ginny forcing the magic and killing herself in the process. The defeated look on his face was more than she could stand. The tone in his voice became more depressing, if that was even possible.
"How can I face them? The Weasleys would never forgive me for this," he said. "How can I look them in the eyes and have it all be alright? I got back together with her because I wanted to have one thing that would make me a normal teen. I wanted a girlfriend and I wanted to be with her. But look what happened because of that! Had we not used that ritual, Ginny would still be here with us!"
Hermione stood up and stopped him from pacing. She forced him to look at her. His eyes reminded her of the day Ginny died. The pain that was reflecting in them was almost too much to bear. She put her hands on the sides of his face.
"Harry, you had no idea. Ginny never told me the details of what she saw. She only told me that we failed and everyone was eventually killed. She never mentioned about the ritual, and I think that was because she knew we would try to find another way. And most likely that would not have been enough to stop Voldemort. She did that so you would survive. She did it for all of us," Hermione said. "Please don't draw into your shell again. I need you, Harry. We all need you. Life is not the same if you are not around. Look at how many people you have saved, and how things have turned out."
Harry nodded and sighed. He still felt horrible about finally facing the facts, but Hermione always had helped him look at the other side of things. She always did that, no matter what the situation was.
He turned back to the sword, hoping she would drop the subject for now. Hermione took the sudden change as a sign that Harry was done talking about it and needed time to think about it. They went to the task of compressing the mixture into the mold Harry had made for the sword. They used their magic to force the metal mixture into the mold. They kept forcing the mixture into the form until they were sweating with the effort of keeping the immense pressure up to make the sword as solid as possible. With great effort Harry managed to get a stream of water to start pouring onto the mold, attempting to cool the metal to the point where they would be able to handle the weapon for the rest of the process.
After a few more minutes, the steam stopped rolling off of the mold and Harry said that they should be able to try and handle the sword. He cracked open the mold and inspected the sword. Due to the metal mixture he used, the sword was somewhat transparent. He could see through it to a degree, but not completely. He frowned for a moment as he wondered if he used too many jewels to create the sword. But when he ran a scan on it with his wand, he saw that the correct amount of metal was in the blade. He breathed a sigh of relief and sat back into a chair. Hermione had fallen asleep from the draining effects of helping him a bit earlier. The surface was still hot enough to where he could make the runes on the blade in preparation. He grabbed his wand and downed a pepper up potion to keep his energy up. He started to carefully and precisely make the runes on the blade, near the hilt.
Hermione woke to find Harry turning over the sword to duplicate the runes on the other side of the blade. She watched him work on the sword, and she had to admit that it was a piece of art. She looked at him in wonderment as he slowly and carefully worked. About an hour later, he sat back and sighed. He had finished the runes, and saw that she was awake.
"Sorry for waking you," he said tiredly. She shook her head and motioned for him to come over to her. She sat him down on the ground and began to massage his shoulders, attempting to force his shoulders to relax. He groaned when she found a particularly troublesome knot. She smiled when she felt him relax even more and he leaned his head back onto her lap. She looked down and realized he had fallen asleep. She whispered for Dobby and he arrived silently.
"Dobby, can you help me get him back up to the bedroom?" she whispered. Dobby nodded and he gently took Harry's hand and with a quick and quiet pop, he had transferred Harry up to the bedroom. Hermione took a moment to inspect the sword. Dobby popped back in.
"Master Harry says to put the sword into the fire to keep it warm so he can finish a couple more things in a few hours. He says the sword must not be cooled fully yet," Dobby explained. Hermione levitated the sword into a bank of hot coals to keep it hot. "Dobby was told by Master Harry that you should be back up to sleep as well. Dobby will keep the fires going."
Hermione smiled at Dobby and said goodnight. As she slowly walked upstairs, she thought about the previous conversation they had. She was still awake a couple of hours later thinking about that fateful day. She couldn't believe she didn't notice when she had the chance to stop them. She remembered panicking when she saw Ginny forcing the magic so hard that day, and now she understood why. She kicked herself for not remembering on the battlefield that day what the ritual needed, but there were so many things going on that day. Then she realized that if she had stopped them, Ginny's vision would have come true. Harry would have died, as well as everyone else. She fell into a fitful sleep, having nightmares of what could have happened.
ooo
Harry woke up early that morning, with the thoughts of what he and Hermione had talked about still in his head. He went outside for his run, seeing that Hermione was still sleeping. His mind went through several variations of what could have happened if he had known what would happen. They always came out the same. He would have beat Voldemort in the duel, but would be unable to destroy him. He would have kept coming after them, and things would be much worse than they were. Many more people would have been killed, most likely Hermione as well.
He kept running and pushing himself further and further. His legs were beginning to ache and his lungs were burning. He pushed on, punishing himself for not seeing it earlier. He knew that he would not be able to use the spell again; for fear that the same thing would happen. He loved Hermione with his whole heart and soul, and she felt the same, but he just couldn't take the risk.
He collapsed in front of the house unable to move. Dobby popped in next to him, grumbling about masters who punished themselves and forbid elves to do the same. Harry grinned at Dobby and his ranting. Dobby gave Harry a pepper up potion and Harry left to take a long hot shower before he worked on the sword some more.
Hermione woke to find Harry gone, but heard him in the shower. She walked into the steam filled bathroom to find Harry just standing under the hot water.
"Harry? Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. She knew that he wasn't really ok, but he was trying to set her at ease.
"Honestly, Harry. You know that answer doesn't really mean anything," she said with her hands on her hips. "You always pull out that line when you are not really alright, but you want everyone to stop asking you."
She heard him grumbling about her ability to see right through him. She left the bathroom to get dressed for the day, and she had to leave for work in just a little while. Harry came out of the shower dressed the same way as the night before so he could continue to work on the sword. She kissed him and then left for work. Harry walked back down to the dungeon to work more on his sword.
He noticed Dobby was keeping the coals hot, in order for the sword to stay a little bit pliable. He needed to make the small clasp on the end of the handle so it could hold the orb that would contain the evil essence that would be drawn from Voldemort. He sat down at a workbench and began to fashion a small spiral of the same metal he had used for the sword. When he finished it, he still had to fuse it to the end of the grip. He made sure to attach it in a way that would allow an easy removal of the orb, so he could destroy it later.
He heated the gold so he could finish the hilt and the grip. He wove a delicate pattern into the hilt, mainly for decoration on the sword than anything. He also wrapped a thin cord of gold around the grip after he wrapped it with leather. When he looked up at the clock, he realized that it was already well into the afternoon, and that he needed some lunch. When he was about to call for Dobby, a plate popped into existence on the workbench with a large helping of shepherd's pie. He grinned and shouted a thank you to Winky, as he knew that Dobby still grumbled about the rule Harry had placed on him. Since he could not get away with that with Winky, he knew that she had done it.
He finished eating a bit later and sat back to admire his sword. It was almost complete to the point where he could start to work through the enchantments. He took a break and went back upstairs to start reading up on the spells. He found the needed book, and unfortunately, it was still open to the page on the ritual that had failed to work on Voldemort. He walked over to his cabinet in the office and opened it. He carefully extracted the memory of the previous night's conversation about the ritual and put it into his pensieve. His heart lifted a bit when the memory faded to the point to where it was not completely occupying his mind anymore.
He was sitting and reading inside the study when his Order ring started to heat up rapidly. He jumped up and bolted for the armory. He could only hope it was someone other than Hermione that activated the rings, as she had not arrived home yet. He got his gear together and ran for the edge of the wards to apparate to where the ring had been triggered. Once he cleared the wards, he homed in on the distress signal and apparated there.
ooo
His feet hit the ground right outside of the Leaky Cauldron. His eyes widened at the scene before him. Some of the buildings were on fire, and bodies were scattered on the street. He ran to the nearest one, and saw the telltale look of shock and horror that the killing curse was known for. He clenched his eyes shut and ran down the street towards the sound of spell fire. He leapt over a tipped over cart and landed behind a makeshift barrier that had been setup. His eyes quickly took in the injuries to the few Aurors that were trying to protect a group of young children that had been caught in the crossfire. He recognized Crystal Edwards in the group, trying to get past the barrier and screaming for her dad.
"Keep her there! I'll go and help!" Harry shouted. The lead Auror was about to argue with Harry, but that was until he saw who had spoken. Harry nodded and leapt over the short stone wall and let loose of a barrage of spells that pretty much destroyed anything that was hit. Loose stone and splinters of wood forced the Death Eaters to fall back and regroup.
Harry flung curses left and right at anyone who was wearing a Death Eater mask. He was making some headway when he heard a yelp of pain from behind him. He whirled around to see John Edwards take a cutting curse to the chest. Harry's vision went red and his hands started to produce the lightning again. He advanced on the attacker and threw an immense bolt of energy at the Death Eater. The Death Eater screamed in agony when his left leg exploded from the inside. Harry ran to John's side and helped him up.
"John, can you walk?" Harry asked. He got a weak nod from the injured man. "Come on, I have to get you to safety, or your daughter will have my head." He managed to get John behind the barrier, where a wizard that knew a bit of healing worked on the injuries.
"Mr. Potter," a timid voice said. Harry looked down to see the adorable little girl looking up at him. He knelt down and patted her shoulder. "Thanks for bringing my dad back here." Harry smiled and gave her a short hug. He rushed back off to try and drive the Death Eaters to a retreat.
Harry kept fighting for about another half hour when he heard the scream that he had been hoping to never hear. It was Hermione. He raced off in the direction she heard her scream from and stopped suddenly at the sight before him. Half of the order had been disabled and Hermione was cornered by a couple of Death Eaters. Many others were standing around cheering the person on, as he was torturing her. She had been hit with a couple of bone breaking curses, and several cuts were visible.
Harry went berserk. He had the Death Eater pinned against the wall in a second and he had conjured several daggers that had literally stapled the Death Eater to the wall in less than another second. Many of the Death Eaters disapparated, but a few of the braver ones faced off against Harry. While the Death Eater that had been torturing Hermione screamed in pain begging to be let down, Harry made quick work of the Death Eaters. Many of the injured ones managed to use a portkey to retreat, but a couple had not been so lucky.
When the dust settled, Hermione had recovered enough to gasp in horror at Harry. He had killed two Death Eaters. The first had been impaled on a sign post and the second looked like he had taken a reductor curse at point blank range to the chest. He was lying on his back, and Hermione could see the dead man's spine.
Harry had moved onto the Death Eater had been torturing her. He was using wandless magic to slowly twist each dagger in different directions. His goal was to make the Death Eater think twice about torturing anyone ever again. Judging by the look on the man's face, he was succeeding. Hermione looked away, horrified that the man she loved with all of her heart, was slowly torturing the Death Eater. Harry looked over at Hermione and understood the expression on her face right away. He stopped twisting the daggers and stunned the man. Harry removed the man from the wall and cast a few spells to stop the bleeding.
He stepped away and approached her. He reached out to take her in his arms, only to have her recoil in horror. He hung his head and walked away, without saying a word. Harry returned home and locked himself in the dungeon, warding the door so no one could come in. He heard a hesitant knocking on the door, but he ignored it, trying to vent his anger. He proceeded to start crafting a normal steel sword, and kept hammering away at the sword, his anger slipping away with each jarring blow.
Harry cursed out loud and threw the hammer when he could not swing it anymore and fell to his knees. He realized what he had done in anger and Hermione had seen what he had done. 'She'll never forgive me. She'll never see me the same way, and now I've lost her!' he thought to himself. 'If only she understood!' He started to seethe a bit more over the fact that she reacted that way. 'She's seen what they do to others, and she expects me to play nice and just simply stun them and watch them go free later!'
He heard the knocking again, and it was a bit more forceful this time. He continued to ignore it, until the door was blasted inward and a very angry Hermione Granger stomped into the room. She strode right up to him and pushed him back a step.
"How could you! You hurt that man deliberately!" she screamed at him. His face remained blank as she continued. "I understand that I was being hurt, and I thank you for saving me yet again, but that doesn't give you the right to torture someone as well!" His eyes narrowed a bit and he took a steady breath in.
"Hermione, I know you are disturbed at what I did tonight. But look at it from what I have seen," he said slowly and clearly. "Remember the last year of school when I was having the nightmares?" She nodded curtly and he continued. "Those were just not nightmares. Remember the news stories of the revelries they held? I saw them every night. Every. One. Now you don't have the right to sit there and tell me that they don't have it coming back to them.
"I have seen the worst a human can be in the past several years. I saw through Tom's eyes the pleasure and glee that his Death Eaters had in their eyes as they cut people to pieces while they were still alive! They are monsters, not men. And they deserve to be treated as such. Especially when they don't give a damn if their target survives. In fact they love it if the target does not survive and experiences the utmost amount of pain before they go," Harry said. Hermione shook her head and looked at him.
"But Harry, if you drop to their level, you'll lose yourself in your vengeance. You are walking a fine line here, Harry. And if you cross that line, I don't know if you'll be able to come back. And I hate to say this, but I can't follow if the line is crossed," She said with tears in her eyes. "I love you Harry, with everything I have. But if you fall off the edge, I won't be there to catch you this time."
Harry stepped back and thought about what she said. She sat down and buried her face in her hands. His thoughts kept battling each other. One voice said to go and hunt each one down and to take his time killing them, but the other voice kept repeating Hermione's name and to listen to her. He sat down and withdrew into his mind to look at things objectively.
Hermione lifted her head and saw that Harry was sitting upright, but his eyes were closed. His eyes darted back and forth underneath his eyelids, as if he was arguing with himself. She reached out and gently took his hand in hers, and surprisingly Harry's hand gripped hers as if he needed her support. He started to sweat and it looked like he was battling the darkness inside of his mind. She squeezed his hand tighter and held on as hard as she could. She wouldn't let Harry slip down that path, if it was the last thing she ever did. Harry's brow furrowed and he started to grind his teeth. Clearly the darkness that had been festering was strong, but he was fighting it with everything he had. He finally relaxed a bit and his eyes snapped open suddenly. He let go of her hand and rushed up the stairs. She followed as fast as she could and saw him disappear into the study for a moment. She got closer to the door and Harry bounded back out, heading back towards the dungeon.
Hermione slid to a stop and spun around to follow him back. When she reached the dungeons, he was setting up the rituals to do the enchantments on the sword. She quickly slipped into an assisting role and helped him set everything up. The rituals lasted a good thirty minutes each, but when they were done, the sword had taken on a pure white fire-like aura. Harry sat back and wiped the sweat off of his face. He picked up the sword and gazed at it.
"Finally, I got it correct. Hermione, I would like you to be introduced to 'The Edge of the Light'," Harry said. He tested the sword for balance and maneuverability. He seemed satisfied by the look on his face.
Hermione looked at the sword in awe, amazed at its beauty. She reached out and touched Harry's shoulder and pulled him into a hug. He pulled away after a second and his face twisted with effort. He started to sweat again and he backed away from her.
"Hermione, please remember something for me," he said nervously. She looked confused, but nodded anyways. "I can't control the darkness inside of me. When I saw you being tortured, it broke loose. I can't have that happen again. I refuse to walk that edge anymore. Just remember this no matter what happens, I love you forever and always."
Her face twisted into shock and horror as Harry said those words. His hands shifted positions on the grip of the sword. Hermione screamed in terror as he lifted the sword and drove it through his own chest to the hilt. The sword flashed for a moment and then he collapsed onto his side.