It had been just about three weeks since Ginny's mysterious arrival. She remained in a coma, her body slowly recovering from whatever Bellatrix had put her through. The nights had become colder, until snow fell almost nightly.
It was December nineteenth now, and snow fell lazily to the ground, covering the courtyard in a blanket of white. The wind licked at her, lifting her robes gently around her ankles. She stood motionless, the silver shine of the crescent moon laying across her skin. She made no motion to move as the snow slowly piled upon her shoulder's, melting into her dark robes.
The creak of a door behind her went unheard, her mind solely focused on the past.
"You'll catch your death out here."
She remained unmoving, not even turning as the figure spoke. She heard the crunch of snow as he slowly made his way into the courtyard, coming to a stop just behind her. Behind her stood Remus Lupin, one of the few original Order members left.
"I deserve it. I've failed everyone." she whispered, her voice low.
"No you don't Hermione. War has its losses, and you've kept the Order together through everything. Dumbledore made you leader for a reason." he trailed off, his voice clouding in the air in front of him.
Hermione turned finally, allowing a single tear to slide from her eye to her cheek, before hastily wiping it away.
"Why did he leave us? I thought he would always be here for us! Instead he left us here without any hope! He left me without any hope..." her voice, clouded with raw passion, trailed off.
For a brief moment, Remus mistakenly thought she was speaking of Dumbledore, but quickly realized she spoke of his late godson. Her brown orb's bore into his, as if waiting for an answer but the werewolf merely sighed before dropping his gaze.
"I don't know Hermione. Leaving us was the very last thing Harry intended. Half the time It's almost as if he's still here, you know? Like I could reach into my memories and pull him out..." Remus said slowly, his voice full of sadness.
"Come inside Hermione, it's twenty degrees and you're going to freeze." He lifted his arm to sweep her into the church again, but, she remained standing silently looking into the stars. He sighed and turned to make his way into the church when she began to speak.
"I still think about him all the time... Just thinking about all we've done over the years.." She trailed off slowly, standing stock still. Remus opened his mouth to speak, thinking she was done, when she continued.
"Now look at us. Ron's entire family is missing, Harry is d-dead... Both by the hand's of Voldemort. Ginny's in a coma, Sirius is dead... just like my parents." The witch turned, her eyes flashing in the moon light.
He remained silent, thinking idly to himself. The weight of the world sat upon her shoulders, just like it had once sat upon Harry's.
"Come inside Hermione, Your going to freeze out here." The werewolf said, chuckling slightly as she defiantly waved her wand, the air becoming a warm eighty degrees.
"Go inside Remus.. I'll be inside in a moment." Her voice was flat as she pulled her robe off her shoulders, stretching in the warm air.
She heard the door close behind her as Remus walked inside, talking to someone as the door closed.
She remained standing, the snow around her melting away. She heard the door behind her creak open once again, than the sound of footsteps crunching snow underneath.
She turned, a small smile accenting her her face as the man walking toward her emerged from the shadows of the building. He was a small man, hardly taller than she was, but with broad shoulders, and muscular arm's he had gotten from years as an enchanter. He used a massive forge they had set up in the basement to merge magic and fire, much as the goblins made there magical blades.
As a result of the constant proximity to fire, he constantly smelled of smoke and brimstone, his robes burnt and singed around the edges. His dark brown hair hung down in front of his black eyes, hiding them most of the time.
"Hello Anthony." She kissed him on the cheek, the stubble from his beard lightly tickling her cheek. He gathered her in his arms, pulling her closer as he wraps his long arms around her thin frame.
He nuzzled against her neck for a moment, before feeling how rigid the young brunette was standing. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice full of concern. For a brief moment she wasn't looking at into a set of warm black eyes, she was looking into the past and seeing a pair of emerald eyes staring into hers.
She blinked, her eyes wet slightly. She hid this quickly by replying, "They found Ginny. She's in a Coma. Madam Pomfrey doesn't know how to pull her out of the coma without endangering her, so we're forced to wait for her to wake up on her own." She paused, a sudden thought springing to the front of her mind.
"What if she knows where Ron is?" She stammered, her voice escaping in excitement.
The broad man before her smiled as he gently picked her hand up.
"Than we'll gae rescue him." he smiled, his Scottish accent breaking through slightly. He put his arm's around the young woman's waist, gently picking her up as he twirls her around in a circle. Before long the young woman was laughing, her beautiful laughter echoing around the snow covered courtyard.
The man set her down, smiling as he felt a magically warmed gust of wind blow his robes back.
Hermione smiled up at the man, before lifting on her tip toes to kiss the man on his lips, smiling as he wrapped his arms around her again.
"I love you Hermione." Anthony whispered into her hair as she settled against his chest.
"I love you Anthony." She grinned as he looked into her eyes. "I don't know what I would do without you keeping me sane..." The witch trailed off as a strange sound filled the air.
The witch turned away from the wizard, lighting her wand and squinting into the darkness beyond the now lit courtyard.
Anthony stepped to her side, his wand pointing into the darkness also, his eyes sweeping the dark yard before him. A strange sound rang through the court yard, similar to the flapping of a large set of wings.
Hermione's eyes caught a flash of movement in the dark, her eyes narrowly tracking the speeding black mass.
"What is it?" Anthony asked, his voice on edge.
"It's a Raven.." The brunette answered, her voice trailing off as the large bird dug it's talons into the stonework of the small wall to her side. She stepped back, attempting to put a couple more feet between her and the mysterious creature.
She lifted her wand, attempting to scare the bird with the light, only for the bird to give her a seemingly patronizing look.
"What's a raven doing here?" She wondered aloud. "Most animals avoid areas of large magical fallout... yet this raven doesn't even look bothered. Also, It's staring at me.." She said, her voice steady.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anthony raise his wand, the tip glowing a deep purple. He flicked his wand at the bird, a small pop emitting from the tip of his wand. The spell sliced through the air, before dispersing against the chest bone of the bird.
For some strange reason, Hermione was alarmed for the bird, waiting for any number of things to happen to it. When the bird remained sitting upon the wall, not even moving its eyes from Hermione to show it had been hit, she asked over her shoulder, "What spell was that?"
"Bestia Humanus.*" He said, his wand held loosely at his side. She turned back to the bird, studying the bird, idly wondering why the bird remained so still.
She tore her eyes away from the strange bird as Anthony cleared his throat.
"I've been meaning to ask you an important question." he said slowly, drawing her close to his chest. She looked at him intently, her eyes widening as he reaching into his pocket, slowly pulling out a small unmarked box. The wizard dropped to one knee, hiding the box in his palm, as he looked up at the stunned witch.
"What are you doing?" Her voice coming out shrilly, even to herself.
"Hermione Jean Granger," Anthony said, his voice trembling slightly, the nervousness plain in his eyes. "Will you marry me?" he finished, his voice escaping in a smile as he lifted the small box in his hand, revealing a Gold ring with a glittering purple gem set in the middle of the curved band. The stone seemed to glow in the dim light, as if absorbing the light in the air.
The witch remained quite, looking down on the man before her. She opened her mouth to speak, only for nothing to come out. He remained smiling, his face falling slightly, the smile not reaching his eyes anymore.
"Hermione?" he said, hesitantly.
"Will you let me think about it? I've got a lot on my mind right now Anthony, with Ginny, Ron, and our upcoming attack..." She trailed off as she saw his smile die, before he quickly replaced it with a smaller understanding smile, but she could tell he was hurt.
She stepped forward, taking his hand in hers and pulling him up, until he was standing against her, putting her soft hand against his cheek.
"I love you Anthony, never doubt that. Just let me get through everything and we'll focus on this, ok?" She smiled at him, hoping to receive a genuine mile in return. He looked her in the eye for a moment, then smiled as he bent and pressed his lips against hers.
"I'll wait for you." He smiled at her as he snapped the box closed, before gently sliding it into her hand. He stepped away from her as he turned toward the door, saying, "I was hoping you would come to the forge and we could plan, but I know your busy with our attack plan's so I'll let you think for a while, ok love?" He bent and kissed her cheek, before standing again.
"I love you, Anthony." The witch replied with a foxy grin. "I'm planning out attack, but when I'm done I'll come to the forge and we'll talk." She ended by turning slightly, putting her back to him once again. He sighed quietly, smiling at the turned back.
"That sounds good to me. I'll bea working on a little prototype I 'ave been working on. Ma'be you can help me weave magic into the steel?" He asked over his shoulder as he headed toward the door.
"Sounds like a plan." The Brunette said as she watched her future fiance enter the church. She turned from the doorway, her mind mapping out attack plans already. Her plans slammed to a stop as she caught sight of the Raven once again. She had forgotten the mysterious bird was there after Anthony's proposal.
She stepped closer to the bird, slowly at first so as not to scare the creature away, but after seeing the bird watching her, almost intelligently she sped up slightly. The bird was massive, it's wingspan nearing an estimate of ten feet. The feathers had to be a foot long each, and were the deepest black the witch had ever seen, almost as if the midnight sky had been put into the birds feathers. Along the Raven's head was a tuft of feathers, looking almost like a small spiked crown. The strangest thing out of all on the creature had to be the eye's, which were a deep black, but that had a startling human intelligence to them.
The Raven remained immobile, watching her every movement, before it turned it's head, almost as if scanning the courtyard. A second passed, when suddenly the bird crowed, sticking it's left leg out toward the witch. Hermione stabbed her wand at the bird, waiting for it to attack, before noticing the pale yellow of parchment tied to the mysterious bird.
The young woman waved her wand at the parchment, whispering a spell under her breath, watching anxiously as the small band untied itself, letting the parchment to float to her outstretched hand. Grabbing the small paper out of the air, she quickly unfolds it, reading the words printed upon the paper.
The witch dropped the parchment, snapping her wand into the darkness in front of her. She slowly stepped back, her wand casting a glare over the paper bearing an ominous warning.
"They are Coming."
In the back of Hermione's mind the hand writing seemed familiar but he slammed that thought down for later. The brunette felt the cold rock of bricks nestling against her back as she came into contact with the church wall, meaning she was inches from the doorway. She slid her hand up the rock, her hand grabbing onto the thick handle of the steel door.
Hermione turned, her eyes darting to the door, before a movement in the darkness made her eyes snap back. The witch turned her wand in a defensive position, waiting for anything that might come at her. Despite her preparation, the young witch didn't even have enough time to scream as the killing curse filled her vision.
A/n: Thanks to any-one reading my story :) I'm sorry for the ridiculous Update time but I've had mid holiday depressions, and my final's for college ended Friday so between everything I have had simply no time to write :( but I'm out of school until January, so I'll hopefully have several chapter updates :) this was written in two day's so if there's any big error's please let me know :) Any way's Read and Review's, it get's my Writing blood pumping :)
Where ever there is a * in my chapter's, there is a custom spell, which will be translated at the bottom of the chapter :)
*1- Bestia Humanus- Latin; Bestia=Animal, Humanus= Human. Roughly this is the spell Lupin used to Reveal Pettigrew's true form in PoA.