Thanks for all your reviews! 317, you are awesome. A special thanks to da ruth who proof read this chapter for me!

Chapter 18

Finding Her

"Where would Hermione go?" Harry muttered to himself. He had just left his house and was now on the hunt to find Hermione, his lover and the mother of his daughter.

He stuck his hand inside his pocket and pulled out his wand, which he still carried around for protection. He raised it, ready for it to transport him to another place.

Apparating, he knew that was the quickest and easiest way to find her. But how? He had mastered this way of traveling quite a few years ago, but not like this. This was the first time Harry was going to apparate to a place that he didn't know the exact location of. He had no idea where he was going to go, which was one of the main things he needed to know in order for this method of traveling to work correctly.

Destination, determination, deliberation. That's all he had to do… He had done it a thousand times before…

First, he had to figure out his destination; he had to figure out Hermione's destination. He knew where he was going, to find Hermione, but was that enough? Where exactly would she have gone? It shouldn't have been this hard for him; she had known exactly where he went when he wanted to be alone, but he hadn't the slightest clue when the shoe was on the other foot.

He doubted that she would go back to Hogwarts, like he did when he ran away. That would bring back too many memories for Hermione. True, some of them were good, but it would never be a good place for her to go if she wanted to clear her mind.

Where else could she go? Diagon Alley? No to busy… Maybe somewhere that she visited often when she lived on her own, with Emily. After another few minutes of contemplation, Harry finally came up with an idea, and a good one at that. Her house; that's where Hermione must have run to. It was a place that she could be alone; where she spent four years of her life, away from the wizarding world, but more importantly, away from Ginny and himself, both who had just mentally killed her.

Her old house, that's exactly where she had to be. That formed a bigger problem within Harry's mind; now he couldn't apparate there. He had never seen Hermione's house before nor had he heard anything about it. He just knew that it was where she lived after leaving Hogwarts. And that wasn't enough. If he wanted to apparate, a mental picture of his destination would have to be painted in his head, or else he wouldn't be able to arrive at the correct location, or maybe even lose a body part.

Or could he? He was Harry Potter, the greatest wizard of their age, he could master almost any spell or charm. Why should that change now? He could imagine what he believed Hermione's house may look like, and if he was determined, he could make it work.

Determination, that was the next big step in apparating; Harry had to be determined to find Hermione. He had to be determined to get to her house. He cleared his mind and began to concentrate on the woman he loved, and only her. He imagined her sitting alone, on a big comfy chair, reading a long novel. He hoped this was enough.

Harry kept telling himself that he had to find her, that he was going to find her. Nothing could stop him now, not even a stupid spell or charm.

Deliberation; that was the last step. He carefully rethought his plan, making sure that there were no loop holes in it, that everything was full proof. And it was, or at least it was as full proof as it was going to be, since he didn't know anything about Hermione's house, or even if she was really there. He pushed that thought out of his mind; he couldn't think about any problems now, he just had to get there. Then, he would deal with whatever happened after that.

There was a sudden tug in Harry's stomach as his method was beginning to work. Everything went dark, a sight that he had begun to get use when he was apparating. Pressure filled his body, and it felt as though he was losing oxygen.

Within seconds, the pressure was released. His body began to oxidize, and he was able to breathe again. But, everything was still black. What had gone wrong?

Senses arriving back in his body, Harry began to investigate where he was. He knew he was somewhere, because he could feel a huge amount of moisture in the air that was whipping against his body. Taking in his view, he noticed a very small light far off in the distance.

"I should have known this wasn't going to work." Harry said to himself, angry that he couldn't master this way of apparating, and frustrated that he was now wasting time, precious time that he could have used in talking to Hermione.

Once again, Harry raised his wand. Destination, determination and deliberation. He was going to have to start from the beginning.

The very small amount of light that was in front of him disappeared and complete blackness covered his eyes. For a split second, pressure was forced against Harry. But then, it was over. He opened his eyes, finding that he still hadn't moved.

"Why can't I apparate from here?" Harry asked himself. He thought it was strange that he had just apparated to this exact spot, and now he couldn't leave.

He decided that there must be something that blocked him from using this type of travel, and maybe if he walked a little ways it would end. He started to walk forward, using the moon as his source of light. Still, the scene before him was ominous; he felt like he was walking toward the edge of nowhere. Wind blowing, a branch flew right into his face, knocking his glasses onto the ground. He bent over, and started patting the wet mud in search of the accessory he wore on his face daily. Victory; he had found them. He placed them back onto his face, clearing up his sight.

Glancing up at the sky, he noticed the moon was moving away from him, and he knew the sun was going to be rising soon. This was taking too long. He had to go and find Hermione. Quickening his pace, he ignored the world around him; there was only one thing on his mind now; Hermione, and he had to find her.

Harry's foot got caught underneath a rock, sending him overboard, and landing flat on his face. Instead of getting a face full of the wet dirt though, his body hit some type of wet material. At first, he thought it was only some type of blanket someone had left behind, until he felt it moving slightly up and down, as if it was breathing. Afraid it was a mythical creature, he tightened his grip on the wand, willing to strike if it was going to cause any harm. Slowly, he pulled his body up off the pillow that had protected him from the fall, hoping that his movement didn't wake the creature. Studying the figure, he realized that it wasn't some sort of dangerous animal; it was a person. Lowering his face to the person's nose, he checked their breathing rate; slow and shallow. He knew they probably had less than an hour of life left in them.

The sun slowly peaked its way up toward the horizon, illuminating the sky with its reddish-orange glow. Harry took another glance toward the sky and acknowledged the rising sun. He knew it was getting late, yet he was still lurking in this forest, instead of talking things over with his best friend, his lover. But what was he going to do, leave this person to die? No, of course not; Harry Potter was a hero, and he was going to do anything to save this person life.

Crawling at a very slow speed, the sun still moved from its original position in the sky, letting off bits of light into every direction of the forest. The sun shone light onto the body, giving Harry a better sight of the person lying inches in front of him.

"Hermione!"

AN- Sorry about the wait, again, life just gets in the way, a lot. Please review