Disclaimer: I am in no way the owner of any of these characters
Warning: Contains mature themes of femslash
Too Far Gone
Chapter 4: The Other Cure
Hermione opened her eyes cautiously; she was in the large room with the long corridor off to the right. There were stone walls and candles as Harry described. She proceeded through the corridor looking at the archways that held Ginny's memories.
"What a happy childhood" Hermione thought to herself as she moved further along. She stopped at another archway and thought "we've never done anything like that before." She tilts her head to the side for a clearer look her face flushes red. "Must be a fantasy" she smiles slyly "I'll remember that one if I ever get through this" She stopped only for a moment when she heard a scream. She slowly looked through the large archway and much like Harry and Ron; she was stunned by the images, sounds and smells. Taking a deep breath she went in.
Back at Headquarters Madam Pomfrey was trying to determine how long Hermione would be under the potion. "The whole bottle you say? Oh dear. She could be out for a couple hours at least" she said in a worried voice
Harry and Ron looked at her then to each other then finally to Hermione's body.
"Can't we bring her back sooner?" asked Ron
"She took the potion, even if we tried that potion is too powerful. We have no choice but to wait, and hope for the best…foolish girl"
"Harry…" Ron said quietly
"I know Ron, I don't want to think of Hermione in that place either" Harry said
Hermione saw the images that Harry and Ron described to her. Her stomach did a lurch as she took in the repeating scenes of her breaking up with Ginny; she was saying the most awful things. The scene with Tom Riddle raping her and then Ginny brought tears to her eyes, as did the image of her and Malfoy. This was the image she needed…Malfoy's death…she was sure of it. She moved in closer and there was Ginny on the chair smoking. Ginny looked up and caught Hermione's gaze, a look of confusion came over her face as she looked at the other Hermiones then back to the real one. Ginny opened her mouth to speak but there were no words from her instead it was Malfoy. Hermione turned to look at him and there he was sitting in a chair with his pants at his ankles and Hermione between his legs. The real Hermione was becoming ill.
"Hello Mudblood, come on over here, it's always good to have a spare….did I mention how much I enjoy your mouth." He sneered
"Well you would have to conjure up a girl for yourself. No real woman would touch you" she spat back. As she moved closer to him she saw Inferi moving toward her. In an instant they had her and were bringing her to Malfoy. She looked at Ginny who tried to get up but was also surrounded by Inferi.
"I want to show you something…." Malfoy said and he waved his hand to the images behind him. "What your about to see is the reason we're all here. The hidden memory, the only thing Ginny hides from you."
"NO!" Ginny screams and fights her way through the Inferi only to reach Malfoy and be kicked in the face by the fake Hermione.
"You shouldn't be here…." Ginny pleaded as she held her jaw and crumpled on the floor
"Thank you darling" Malfoy says to his Hermione he kisses her presents a straight edge razor and proceeds to carve his initials in her cheek. The real Hermione is just disgusted "now…on with the show" Malfoy side-stepped out of the way and the scene unfolds. Hermione tries not to look but the Inferi are too powerful for her she watches in silence.
When the scene finally ends it loops and starts over again like all the other images. "There you go Mudblood" Malfoy is inches from Hermione's face "your precious little lover is a cold calculating murderer…and keeping that little bit of information from you is what's brought us all here."
Hermione looks at Ginny still on the floor. Ginny won't meet Hermione's eyes. Malfoy continues "you think that's cruel…watch this." Hermione looks to Malfoy who now has the other Hermione kneeling with her back to him. He has her hair in his fist as he yells "Oy Weaslette!" when Ginny looks at him he slits the throat of the fake Hermione and tosses the body down spilling blood onto the floor that flows toward Ginny and Hermione. Ginny screams and scrambles to the body picking it up and cradling it in her arms while she rocks back and forth. Hermione reaches her.
"Ginny, baby…that's not me…I'm here. Right here….you need to come with me. We have to get out of here."
Ginny looks at Hermione and then to the corpse. She stands up Hermione joins her. Ginny takes Hermione by the hand and tries to get away but the Inferi grab Hermione and wrestle her out of Ginny's grasp.
"Ginny!" Hermione yells with her hand still outstretched. Ginny turns around and conjures a blue flame around the Inferi. When they drop Hermione Ginny drags her over to the far side of the chamber where the image of another Hermione is breaking up with Ginny over and over. Hermione watches for a moment before turning to Ginny.
"That won't happen Ginny that's not real. I'm real and I'm scared" Hermione looks at the Inferi advancing on them slowly "Ginny the Inferi are coming for me you have to help me…please"
Ginny looks at Hermione then to the Inferi.
"You're dead, I saw it" Ginny said in a detached tone
"That's right Weaslette…she's dead…by my hand and yours. They're all dead…soon it'll just be you and me forever." Malfoy is standing near them. "Now let's get rid of the distractions." In an instant Hermione is on her bed in the middle of chamber surrounded by the rotting corpses of the Inferi and all the other Hermiones that have been killed. Hermione screams, Ginny looks at Malfoy then back to Hermione. She walks over to her and climbs on the bed with her. Hermione clings to her.
"Oh god Ginny, please get us out of here, I don't want to stay here anymore. I'm scared. I don't care what you did to Malfoy…he deserved it all …and more. I love you no matter what." She grabs Ginny's face and kisses her
"She's lying Ginny…you are despicable. you murdered him in cold blood. You tortured him. You humiliated him." Spoke Another Hermione who was slowly approaching them. Ginny turned to her
"I lost my temper" Ginny said meekly
"What if it was me? If we argue are you going to loose your temper and kill me too? That's why I could never be with you. You were just an adolescent phase I was going through. What's worse is that you tried to hide this…"
"To protect our relationship" Ginny said again
"What relationship? You don't trust me or you would of told me this and not let it get this far. You are so stupid, I can't believe I ever considered being with you for one minute." The fake Hermione was going on "I can't believe you had the audacity to think you deserved me. You should just kill yourself now and save yourself a lot of misery."
Ginny glances at a chair and noose that has now appeared next to the bed and slowly makes her way towards it. The real Hermione grabs her and wrestles her back on the bed screaming.
"No I won't let you." Hermione yells out of breath. Ginny struggles the stops and collapses on the bed.
"Well that was useful Mudblood….what's your next trick?" spat Malfoy. Hermione laid her head on Ginny's stomach with her armed draped over her hips exhausted.
"Ginny I don't have the strength to fight them…I need you. We need to get out of here. Do you hear me?"
I'm
finding my way back to sanity again
Though I don't really know
what
I'm going to do when I get there
Take a breath and hold on
tight
Spin around one more time
And gracefully fall back to the
arms of Grace
I am hanging on every word you say
And
even if you don't want to speak tonight
That's alright, alright
with me
'Cause I want nothing more than to sit
Outside heaven's
door and listen to you breathing
Is where I want to be
I'm
looking past the shadows
Of my mind into the truth and
I'm
trying to identify
The voices in my head
God which one's you?
Let me feel one more time
What it feels like to feel
And
break these calluses off me
One more time
'Cause I
am hanging on every word you say
And even if you don't want to
speak tonight
That's alright, alright with me
'Cause I want
nothing more than to sit
Outside your door and listen to you
breathing
Is where I want to be
'Cause I am hanging
on every word you say
And even if you don't want to speak
tonight
That's alright, alright with me
Ginny opens her eyes and looks at Hermione. Hermione looks at her not sure what's going on. Hermione pulls Ginny's forehead to her own and speaks to her in a faint whisper
"Ginny I need your help and we can go home, to our place, to our life. Not this mockery with Malfoy and that doppelganger version of me. I need you to conjure a patronus. You remember how to do it right? Think of a happy memory." Hermione looks around "I know that might be hard in this place but you have to try…I'm going to try too. Do you understand me?"
Ginny nodded her head and spoke in her old voice"On three?"
Hermione smiled "Three, two, one" they both turned and yelled
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!!"
It wasn't as Harry described at all. Hermione's otter and Ginny's horse were huge in fact they were larger then normal where Harry said his was smaller. The two patronus ran together all over the cavern running down Malfoy, Riddle, all the Inferi…and all the Hermione's until there was nothing left. The horse turned and took a broad jump into the chest of Ginny. She collapsed on the bed. Before Hermione could react her otter scrambled up the bed and leapt into her. Hermione remembers everything fading to black.
Hermione woke up with a gasp and instantly found Ginny's body still lifeless. Harry and Ron were at her side. She was whispering and crying in Ginny's ear "Come on baby…come back to me, I had her with me…she was there…please baby I know you can hear me, I can't survive without you. I need…."
Before Hermione finished the statement Ginny's body convulsed with a huge intake of air then she collapsed on the bed. Hermione began to cry and hug her. Harry and Ron rallied around her with hugs and yells.
"Oh my gods Hermione you were out for over 2 hours…we didn't think you'd make it back" yelled Ron
"Yeah that was so stupid….for a genius you're not very bright" said Harry with a smirk
"All right everyone please back away…I still need to administer the other potions" Madam Pomfrey dispersed Harry and Ron. She gave each girl a potion and checked them both thoroughly. Ginny was exhausted she was in and out of sleep. Hermione was emotionally drained going over the things she saw and heard as she drifted off to sleep.
When she woke a few hours later Harry and Ron were brining Ginny food. She was sitting up eating some pudding. Once they all ate and Hermione explained what happened and how they escaped Harry looked puzzled.
"No offence Hermione but the only spell you have a problem with is the patronus charm. How did yours appear to be so big when mine and Ron's were so small?" he asked
"I think I can answer that" Interrupted Madam Pomfrey "you all know you need a strong happy memory to conjure the patronus." They all nodded in agreement and she continued "the only way you can make a patronus bigger then it's suppose to be is when both parties are using the same memory." She smiled at the girls and they looked at each other thinking
"Well??" Ron said anxiously "is that what happened?"
"I was thinking of the first" began Hermione
"First time we kissed" Ginny finished and smiled at Hermione
"Whoa" said Ron "That's wicked"
Breathing by Lifehouse