Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
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The next few weeks went by without flaw. Hermione and Draco's relationship stayed strong and slowly Blaise and she stopped being embarrassed when they saw eachother. It was five weeks after the incident when it happened.
A loud banging resounded on the penthouse door and looking confused Blaise left the breakfast bar where he along with Draco, Theo and Hermione had been sitting. Blaise answered the door to find a tired looking Harry Potter in the doorway.
"Hermione, is she here?" Harry asked quickly. Blaise nodded and led Harry into the kitchen. The moment Hermione saw Harry she rushed over and hugged him tightly. When they separated Hermione looked carefully at him and saw all the exhaustion in Harry.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"Voldermort… he's planning a huge attack here in Italy next week. Hermione we need you. We need all of you. Attacks have been happening none stop and we've lost a lot of muggles and a few Order members." Harry paused at this moment and a pained expression flitted across his features. "The Weasleys… they were attacked and… well none of them made it…"
Hermione gasped at this and fell to her knees crying. Draco automatically rushed over and hugged her, whispering soothing words in her ear.
"I can't believe it. Ron… Ginny… all of them!" Hermione sobbed even harder while Draco just sat there hugging her. Theo came over and motioned for them all to go into the sitting room. Once in the Draco sat one of the armchairs with Hermione in his lap still sobbing.
"You said there's going to be a huge attack here in Italy next week. Do you know when?" Blaise asked. His tone of voice clearly showed that he wasn't in the mood for sarcasm, jokes or anything that isn't serious.
"We can't be sure. But here's the deal. We're hoping to make this be the final battle. We need you all. Hermione because of her intelligence and power, Draco, we need you because you're powerful and also intelligent plus you have the venom none of us in the Order have. Blaise, we need you mostly for your extensive knowledge of Italy and you are a powerful wizard. As for you Theodore, we need you for another fighter. I know you've got to be pretty good with magic to be hanging around with this lot." Harry said seriously. Hermione's sobs had finally subsided and she was now listening intently.
"Do you know exactly where in Italy this is going to take place? If you do then we might be able to figure out when it'll happen." Draco said. His arms were wrapped protectively around Hermione.
"Florence." Harry replied simply.
Blaise's eyes went wide and they all knew he knew the day at that point.
"Damn he's planning this attack for next Friday! There's a carnival that always comes in then and it's always well populated with muggles just being carefree. That place'll be packed!" Blaise exclaimed, standing up.
Harry's eyes went wide and he nodded. "I best get this information back to headquarters." Harry said. He stood and prepared to leave when Hermione finally spoke up.
"How many do we have?" She asked quietly.
Everyone looked at her surprised. Draco was the first to recover soon followed by the other three.
"Well let's just say we have all our former classmates in our year along with all the soon to be seventh years. We've been training them ever since you and Draco here left and they are all now prepared to fight the Death Eaters. More than likely we'll be outnumbered but we've got our ammo. We have all our former Slytherin classmates… save for those two dunderheads Crabbe and Goyle."
"How'd you manage to get all the Slytherins?" Draco asked in wonder.
"When you left the entirety of Slytherin house was confused. In the end they all decided to continue following their leader and came over to the Order." Blaise said.
"And you never told me this why?" Draco asked, narrowing his eyes.
Blaise just shrugged and sat back down.
"Every one of them has a secrecy spell on them of course so that they can't tell Voldermort our plans and things like that. They're all kept under surveillance and so far they've all seemed to be okay with it. We can only hope that we didn't end up missing someone." Harry said. He then nodded to them and opened the door. "I shall see you next Friday then. Meet us at that carnival Zabini here mentioned." And with that he left the group with their thoughts.
It was after a couple of minutes that someone spoke and surprisingly it was Hermione.
"Well I guess we need to get ready. Draco you need to take your Healer test. We're going to need a healer in this battle and the more the merrier. We also need to practice the spells needed for this. We have a hard week ahead of us and there will be no slacking. No junk food, Theo, we must eat healthily. We'll need to sleep for at least eight to nine hours a night and we'll have to work in any other time." Hermione stood up and began exiting the room but when she looked back she saw that none of the guys had moved. "Well what are you waiting for?"
At this the three men set to work. Draco quickly apparated to St. Mungos while Blaise and Theo began clearing the room.
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For the next week Draco, Hermione, Blaise and Theo worked hard, training for the battle. Draco of course passed his test with flying colors and was now an official Healer. Friday soon came upon them and all three were ready. The night before all four of them got a lot of sleep and for breakfast they ate eggs, bacon and sausage. As the clock struck none four loud cracks sounded in the penthouse and the next minute the four of them arrived at the annual Florence carnival. The four of them quickly set out to look for the rest of the Order. As expected they were spread out randomly around the place.
After some searching the group came across Harry.
"Ready?" Harry asked them.
"Hell ya." Draco replied with a grim smirk.
Harry nodded and then they waited…