Right, so I'm sorry this chapter took soooo long to put up. It's been... what, two months? Anyway, hopefully the next one will come up sooner. Thanks for being patient and still reading it, even though it seemed like it was abandoned... at least, I hope you're still reading it...

Disclaimer: Well, duh, you could really write this part for me... I don't own any of the Harry Potter genre (but you know that), I'm not J. K. Rowling (you know that, too), and I don't claim any part in bringing the books into publication (...why am I even telling you this?). There, now you can't sue me.

Enough blabbing. I present to you... Chapter Nine of Harry Potter and the Lord of Darkness!

Chapter Nine

Harry legs thudded into the ground, buckling beneath him. He shook his head, grumbling. He still hadn't quite managed the whole Apparition thing.

Ron and Hermione had kept their feet, and Ron reached down a hand to help him up. Harry grasped it and got to his feet, brushing off his clothes as he looked up at number twelve, Grimauld Place.

"Well," Hermione said after a moment of silence, "Shall we go inside?"

Harry nodded dazedly. He felt strangely lightheaded; the knowledge that they had defeated Voldemort once more was rather overwhelming. They had fought him, and they had won.

Hermione led the way inside, tip-toeing into the hall. They made their way to the kitchen without encountering anyone.

Harry sank into a chair at the counter and let out a long breath. "We did it."

Ron's face broke into a grin, and Hermione smiled slightly. She had an intrigued look on her face. "Can I see the Timeturner, Harry?"

He withdrew the tiny golden hourglass from his pocket, dangling from its chain. It was beautiful, but in a dangerous, foreboding way. "We have to destroy it," he said softly as Hermione took it.

She looked at it sadly. "Yes, I know. It's such a pity; nothing else of Ravenclaw's survived the Dark Ages. It's a wonderful piece of history, and we have to get rid of it."

"Speaking of which," Ron interrupted, "do either of you know how we're going to destroy it?"

Harry shook his head. He hadn't really thought about it until they had arrived at Grimauld Place; he had been too shaken over the retrieval of the Horcrux. Hermione looked thoughtful.

"I don't think that just smashing it would work. It's too simple," she said, turning the Timeturner over and over again in her hands. "No, it'll be some spell or another."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Though what that might be, I have no idea."

"There you are!" said a voice from the doorway. All three of them jumped, whirling around. Remus Lupin was standing there, a relieved smile on his face. "Molly said you'd gone off, and she didn't know where. We were afraid…"

His voice trailed off as he looked at the Timeturner in Hermione's hand. "What's that?" he asked, nodding at it.

Hermione hastily shoved it into her pocket. "Nothing," she said quickly.

Lupin gave her a reproving look. "Give me a break, Hermione. I'm not as thick as you seem to think."

"I don't think you're thick," she said defensively. "I just… it's a secret."

He smiled slightly. "Alright, then, if you say so. You probably want to get back to the Burrow. Ron, your parents are worried sick."

"Yeah, they would be," Ron muttered darkly, running a hand through his hair. "Would you tell anyone else who happens to be worried out of their skin that we're fine? Wouldn't want them to go rampaging all over London looking for us…"

"I'll do that," Lupin said. "Trust me, you had half the wizarding world in an uproar."

Harry grinned. The euphoria of his success was starting to get to him. "We've got to go, then," he said, "Mrs. Weasely will want to know that we're okay."

"That she will," Lupin said. "Goodbye, then."

Harry looked to his friends. They nodded, screwing up their eyes in concentration once more. Harry did the same, and only seconds later, he found himself in front of the Burrow.

Ron beckoned them inside, shielding his eyes from the mid afternoon light. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood in the hall a moment, their eyes adjusting to the darkness, when they heard a squeal from the next room. "Mum, they're back!"

Ginny hit him at a run, throwing her arms around his neck. He hugged her back awkwardly.

"You're back," she muttered. "Don't ever do that again, ever."

She broke away from him and hugged her brother. "There's a bit of dirt on your nose, by the way, Ron."

Ron scowled, pushing her away. "Ha, ha, very funny."

She hugged Hermione just as Mrs. Weasley rounded the corner. She wrapped Ron in a hug and kissed the top of his head.

"Mum," he said, trying to squirm away, "I'm fine now, but I won't be if you suffocate me."

"Oh, thank goodness, you're alright," she said, hugging Harry and Hermione in turn. You had me so worried, you were gone for hours…. Come into the kitchen, dears, and I'll make you some lunch."

Harry massaged his ribs, following Mrs. Weasley into the kitchen. Before long, she placed a plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of pumkin juice on the table, and the three of them dug in eagerly. Harry hadn't realized how famished he was.

When they were finished, they retreated to Ron's room. Harry sank onto the bed, letting out a long breath.

"I want to go to the library tomorrow," Hermione said, pacing. "There's something I want to look up."

"What library?" Ron asked.

"There's one at the Ministry. Biggest collection of wizarding books in all of Europe."

"We'll go with you," Harry said quickly. "I want to look up Horcruxes. I don't know whether there'll be anything on them, but if there is, I want to know it."

Hermione nodded. "Now we just have to figure out how to destroy this," she said, pulling the Timeturner out of her pocket.

"Yeah," said Harry, "but that can wait. I think we've done enough for one day."

"Definitely," Ron said. "I'm about ready for a nap."

Hermione smiled. "I'll leave you two to your beauty sleep, then." She left, closing the door behind her.

Suddenly his muscles seamed weak, and he couldn't keep his eyes open. The adrenaline had worn off, leaving him fatigued. It was all he could do to walk to his bed and kick of his shoes before he collapsed.

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When Harry awoke, the bright light of morning was filtering through the window. He had slept all night. He kicked off the blankets and sat up groggily, brushing off sleep. Ron was already awake, seeing as his bed was empty. Harry made his way downstairs.

"Morning, sunshine," Ginny said as he sat down at the table. "You missed dinner last night."

"Yeah, I know," he told her, sinking into the chair between Bill and Ron. "Pass the pancakes."

Mrs. Weasley bustled in with a stack of toast, looking oddly cheery. "Good morning, Harry dear. Toast?"

"Please," he said, taking a piece off the plate and biting into it."

"Mum," Ron said tentatively, "we're going to the Ministry today."

"The Ministry?" she asked, nearly dropping the plate of toast. "Whatever for?"

"We're going to the library. There's some stuff we want to look up."

She looked apprehensive. "The new Minister of Magic is a Death Eater, Ron. He could…"

"Mum, he wouldn't do anything in broad daylight with thousands of wizards wandering around. We'll be fine."

She sighed. "I suppose you're right. Anyway, it's not like I can do anything to stop you…." She disappeared into the kitchen.

"Glad I got that over with," Ron said, pouring syrup onto his pancakes.

"Bill," Harry said suddenly, remembering something, "when's your wedding?"

Bill turned his scarred face toward Harry. "End of August. Why?"

Harry shrugged. "Just wondering. Where're you going to have it?"

Ginny interrupted. "It's a beautiful garden in southern France, on a cliff towering over the sea. It's magical, it's got all kinds of fairies and everything. You'd love it."

"Thank you, Ginny," Bill grumbled, then to Harry, "She's obsessed with it."

"Fleur is, too," she said defensively. "And Mum. And Hermione would be, too, if she'd seen it."

Hermione smiled. "I've only seen pictures. But even those were beautiful."

"See?" Ginny demanded.

Harry ate four pancakes before deciding he was stuffed to the breaking point, then stood up and made his way upstairs to get dressed. He pulled on his robes, tucked his wand into his pocket, and opened the window so that Hedwig could come in when she returned. Five minutes later, he stood at the front door, Ron and Hermione beside him.

"Bye, Mum!" Ron called.

"Goodbye, dears!" came the muffled answer from the kitchen.

Hermione straightened her robes, pushed a hand through her hair, and looked back and forth between Harry and Ron. "Are we ready, then?"

Harry shrugged. "Ready as we'll ever be. C'mon."

Hermione Disapparated with a loud crack, followed closely by Ron. Harry screwed up his eyes in concentration, watched the hallway around him dissolve, and felt tight bands squeeze him and pull him into utter blackness. A moment later, he was stepping out of one of the Apparition booths at the Ministry of Magic.

He joined Ron and Hermione, who were waiting for him a few feet away. Ron gestured to the security desk in one corner. "C'mon."

He led the way to the desk, where all three of them placed their wands on the burnished top. The young wizard at the desk smiled at them. "Where're you off to, then?"

"The library," Hermione stated matter-of-factly.

"Names, please?"

"Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley."

At the mention of Harry's name, the wizard glanced up briefly, then quickly looked down at the papers he was filling out. Harry tried to flatten his bangs over his scar without much success.

A moment later, the wizard handed them three badges. Ron accepted them and gave Harry's and Hermione's to them.

"The library's on the third floor down," the man was saying. "Just turn to your left after you get off the lifts and go all the way to the end of the hall. There's a big set of double oak doors. You can't miss 'em."

"Thank you," Hermione said graciously. "Let's go."

They rode the lifts down to the third floor and turned left, just as the wizard had instructed them to do. Indeed, enormous doors loomed ahead of them, with a bored-looking wizard leaning against the wall beside them. He straightened up as they approached.

"Hullo," he said jovially. "Here for the library?"

"Yessir," Hermione said.

"You all have your badges, I see, well then, here we go," –he pointed his wand at the door- "Patefacio!"

The huge doors creaked open, revealing behind them a library that made even Hermione's eyes open wide. Harry had only ever been inside Hogwarts' library, and he had thought that was rather large, but this… this was a hundred times, if not more, than the size of the library at school.

Grinning broady (she had, after all, gone a whole two months without a wizarding library), Hermione led the way inside.