AN: This is where the adventure really begins and the wildness truly starts to unfold. I hope you like it. Read and Review!

Chapter 2

The rest of the morning was not quite as eventful for the young duo. Although they were still slightly embarrassed by the events of the morning the pair agreed that it was not too serious. The two had packed up their tent and were getting ready to disapparate to their next destination when Hermione felt a hand caress her cheek.

"Hermione, do you believe in me," Harry asked as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"Harry, you saved me from a mountain troll, you went back in time with me, and you convinced me to get on an invisible animal to break into the Ministry of Magic with you. Do you really need to ask that question," Hermione questioned, hitting him lightly on the arm.

"All of the traveling that we've been doing since we got the locket hasn't gotten us any closer to finding the answers we need to destroy the Horcrux or Voldemort. I think we need to go to Godric's Hollow," Harry said in a rush, expecting to find Hermione resistant to the idea.

"It will be dangerous; Voldemort must expect that eventually you will go there. As much as I disapprove of knowingly walking into potentially dangerous situations, I agree," Hermione surprised Harry by saying. "We need to find a lead. Right now, we are no closer to finding the next horcrux than we are to destroying the locket. We'll go in, look for any clues and get out. Hopefully, we can avoid being seen by anyone."

"I'm glad that I didn't have to fight you on this," Harry admitted. "I need to see where it happened. I need to see the place where I stopped being a normal kid and became the boy-who-lived. I need to see the spot where my parents made their last stand against Voldemort."

"Well, I couldn't have you going off by yourself," Hermione replied as she wrapped her arms around Harry. "I promised that I would be your rock and I couldn't make you go through all of that alone. You showed me that you could be a rock this morning, I need to return the favor."

"Hermione," Harry laughed, as he threw his invisibility cloak over the two of them.

"Don't worry, it will be our little secret," Hermione purred as she whisked them off to Godric's Hollow.

Fat snowflakes were drifting toward the ground when the pair apparated into Godric's Hollow. Harry's heart was warmed when he looked out upon the village. Each building had its own distinct personality; by looking at the shops and the houses, Harry got the feeling that growing up in this village would have been the complete opposite of his up-bringing at the Dursleys.

With Harry contemplating how different a childhood in Godric's Hollow would be from his childhood on Privet Drive, the pair slowly made their way through the village. Still under his invisibility cloak, the two further hid themselves from the wandering eye by using magic to prevent tracks being made in the snow.

"That must be it," Hermione gestured to the ruins of what was once a respectable house. "There is a monument, should we go closer?"

"I'm getting a bad feeling from the place; I think Voldemort may have come here before us. I feel something dark ahead. Maybe he warded the site in some way to alert him if I stepped on the property," Harry said to a very surprised Hermione. "That must sound a bit paranoid but he must have assumed that, since we haven't been captured yet, eventually I would be drawn to this place."

As Harry finished the last sentence he felt something pressing into his neck. "If you are who you claim to be then you need to prove it. I may not be the most powerful witch in the world; but, if you have harmed Harry in any way, you will suffer."

"Blimey, Hermione," Harry exclaimed at her sudden change in demeanor. "The spell combination that you used on Ron, when he burst into the classroom we had used to escape him and his Lav-Lav, was the Avis charm followed by Opugno. Your boggart is Professor McGonagall telling you that you failed your end-of-year exams. You were the first to realize that, in order to levitate a feather, the incantation is Le-vio-sa, not Levi-o-sah. Do I need to keep going?"

"No, that was more than enough. I was just shocked at the logic that you used when looking at the remnants of your parents' house. It put me on edge," Hermione explained to a Harry who appeared to be on the losing battle to keep from bursting out in laughter.

"Professor Moody always preached constant vigilance, right?"

With that, the tension was broken and the pair burst out in laughter.

Far away, in the Malfoy manor Lord Voldemort twirled his wand between his fingers contemplating which, among the many wards he cast, would be the one that Potter would set off first. Of course, he had plans for each ward set. However, his most diabolical plan involved sending Nagini to assume the identity of the late Bathilda Bagshot in order to lure Harry into a place that would prevent his escape thus assuring his painful demise.

"Lucius, I do not tolerate failure. Yet, once again, I find that my domination has not been as complete as you have led me to believe. With the death of the Old Fool, my power is beyond question. Yet there are still those who dare to question me. I have more pressing issues to tend to, but I expect that you encourage the man behind the Quibbler to acknowledge his role in the new magical order. Fetch his daughter and make sure that he realizes what the consequences will be if he dares to defy my will."

"Yes, my lord," Lucius Malfoy reverently responded. "I will go at once."

"Do not fail me Lucius, my Bellatrix will be here with a watchful eye on Narcissa and young Draco. She is always looking for new ways to prove her devotion to me," Voldemort threatened in a silky voice. "If she hasn't had the opportunity to speak with the Lovegood girl by the time I have returned then you know what the consequences will be. If you want to keep your free will then you have to prove to me that you deserve it, otherwise it will be mine."

"That will not be necessary, my lord. Xenophilius Lovegood will tremble before your name and the Quibbler will cause you no more trouble," Lucius quickly replied before leaving the room.

Let Lucius scramble to clean up this mess. The wand maker has already told me what I need to know. Voldemort thought while rising from his throne-like chair. Potter, you will not survive our next encounter. I will find what has been lost and victory will be mine. Be ready, Gregorovich, I will see you soon.

Unaware of the danger that they had inadvertently avoided, Harry and Hermione walked hand-in-hand down the main street in Godric's Hollow toward the only source of noise, besides themselves, in the quiet village. In front of them they saw a church, which caused a light-bulb to turn on over Hermione's head.

"Of course, Harry why would the only source of noise in the whole village be a church in the middle of winter," she asked, knowing that Harry would be able to answer to such an obvious question.

"It must be Christmas," Harry exclaimed. The two quickened their pace, heartened by their revelation. Approaching the church, Harry saw something in the distance that brought him back to reality. "Hermione, I think that's the cemetery."

"We'll go together," Hermione said before Harry had the chance to specify, not that he needed to. The pair slowly ventured into the cemetery. Once inside, they split up in order to cover more ground. As if under a compulsion charm, Harry almost immediately found the tombstone he had been dreading. His parent's tombstone was simple, yet elegant. Hermione must have seen him slump to the ground because she was there in a second.

"I'm here for you, Harry. You are not alone," she said consolingly. "You will never be alone. We are in each other's hearts and that will never change."

Harry couldn't answer her immediately. He had known all his life that his parents were dead but this tombstone literally cemented the fact for him. Harry felt Hermione's warmth as she wrapped her body around his in order to emphasize that he wasn't alone. He looked up from the tombstone and into her eyes and knew that she was telling the truth. In the bathroom, as a first-year Harry had unwittingly found one of the people that he knew, without a doubt, would stand by him for the rest of his life. Overcome by the depth of emotion that Harry felt for her at that moment, he did the only thing that he could think of to show just how much she meant to him; he kissed her.

To say that Hermione was surprised was an understatement. She had loved Harry since the first-year and had always regretted not telling him before he went through the fire to face Voldemort. However, he had never done anything to show that he liked her as anything more than a friend. Even that kiss, as passionate as it was, did not tell her that he exactly reciprocated her feelings. Before Hogwarts, Harry had never truly felt love and, Hermione knew, although he was more familiar with it after the last six and a half years; he was still relatively inexperienced. She had been sending him a lot of love and, whether or not he shared the depth of her love, he was moved to respond. After the event following Ron's departure Hermione knew that something had changed in her relationship with Harry, but she would never push him because she knew how he would pull away at the thought of putting her in more danger.

"Harry, come with me. I think I found the clue that we were looking for." Hermione said offering him her best smile and an enticing view as she got off the ground in front of him and sauntered away in the direction that she had come from. Harry was up in a flash, his mind still processing everything that had happened over the last few minutes.

"What is it, Hermione?" He asked as he looked at the Peverell tombstones.

Pulling out the Tales of Beedle the Bard, Hermione opened to the front cover. "Look, the symbol is repeated on the cover page. Dumbledore gave this to me for a reason; it can't be a coincidence that a symbol from the graveyard of your parents would be found in the margins of the first page."

Harry contemplated for a second before yielding to Hermione's logic. "Alright, that might be the case, but what now? We know that symbol is important, but we still don't have a new destination."

"Harry, we do," Hermione exclaimed. "Think back to Bill and Fleur's wedding. What do you remember? If you are tactless enough to say the way that Fleur or her sister looked in their dresses then you will be spending the rest of Christmas alone."

Harry chuckled at Hermione. "Didn't Krum get in a fight with someone because they were wearing that symbol?"

"Precisely, the man wearing the symbol was none other than Luna Lovegood's father," Hermione declared beaming. "Ask and you shall receive. We now have a destination; although, it is unlikely that the Lovegoods are accepting visitors at this hour. Therefore, I think that we will need to go elsewhere and continue our search in the morning."

"I agree, after all this time in the cold, a little bit of warmth and relaxation is just what the doctor ordered," Harry said taking Hermione into his arms and disapparating.