Chapter 5

From The Journal Of Hermione Granger: Entry 5

It's been long. I had even thought I lost you back in our old tent. Harry and I have made up. It's taken quite long, but he apologized, as did I. I am currently residing in our tent. So much has happened. I've been a bit weak actually from the round of events we've been experiencing.

Of course, after we listened in to Potterwatch, everything went downhill. Harry had accidentally muttered Voldemort's name, which led to our capture. Snatchers arrived outside our tent through Apparition and they tied us together with other hostages.

We were then sent to Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix was there. She questioned us but we didn't reply. Then she said, "Take them away to the dungeons!"

Obediently, our capturers motioned us out until Bellatrix spoke again, "All except… the Mudblood."

"NO!" shouted Harry and Ron simultaneously.

She smirked. "So it is true. The Dark Lord has told me about your latest fancy, Potter," said she, grinning evilly.

"Don't take her! Take me in her place! Wouldn't I be a better prize?" Harry begged, trying to pull out of Greyback's tight grip on his bounds.

"Shut up! If she dies in questioning, I'll take Weasley next! Blood traitor is next to Mudblood in my book. Remember, Potter, the Dark Lord is going to deal with you himself," hissed Bellatrix, scowling heavily, then she looked at Greyback, "take them downstairs, Greyback, and make sure they are secure, but do nothing more to them—yet." She pulled out a silver knife then cut me off from the rest of the prisoners and tied my wrists together again.

Then she pulled on my tied wrists. "Over here, Mudblood!" She spat the word out like a dirty word. "Now, how did you get hold of the sword?"

"I-I don't know!" I yelled, pleadingly, "I wasn't the one who found it!"

"You're lying, filthy Mudblood, and I know it! You have been inside my vault at Gringotts!"

She quickly pulled a sharp knife out, "What else did you take? Tell me the truth or, I swear, I shall run you through with this knife! What else did you take, what else? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!"

I let out a deafening scream of pain. It was then that I heard screams coming from the basement. Harry and Ron were banging on the walls screaming my name out, but it seemed that I only heard Harry's.

"How did you get into my vault? Did that dirty little goblin in the cellar help you?"

"We only met him tonight! We've never been inside your vault! It isn't the real sword! It's a copy, just a copy!"

"Liar! You filthy, little liar! Tell me! Where did you get it?"

I shook my head vigorously, crying now.

"Pathetic! Don't show me your tears, Mudblood! Crucio!"

I screamed and sobbed, writhing in pain on the cold marble floor.

"HERMIONE!" Harry yelled, loudly. Then Bellatrix stopped and asked me again.

"Now, where did you get the Godric Gryffindor's sword?" She demanded, pointing her wand at me.

"We didn't get it anywhere! It's a copy, I swear it is!"

"DON'T LIE TO ME, MUDBLOOD! CRUCIO!"

The familiar pain shot through me and I screamed again. "Stop! Stop it!"

Bellatrix laughed. "You think I would listen to the words of a Mudblood? Now, once more, where did you get the sword?"

"It's a copy! We found it lying in the forest!"

"That's it! Bring me the goblin!" She ordered.

In a few moments, Griphook was brought to the drawing room. I was breathing heavily, my knees to the ground. I was clutching my stomach, still experiencing the shooting pain.

"Is this the real sword of Godric Gryffindor?" She asked, throwing the ruby-studded sword at him.

Griphook looked at the sword, then at Bellatrix and then at me. I gazed back with pleading, tearful eyes. Then he looked back at Bellatrix.

"I'm afraid it is indeed a copy, Miss Lestrange. Miss Granger wasn't lying," said the goblin.

"A fake, I see," she said, "surprisingly, you weren't lying, Mudblood," she pointed her wand, "but filth is filth. Crucio—!"

Before I could yell out from the pain, Harry and Ron burst through the doors, wands at the ready. I was dazed and on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Let her go!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at Bellatrix. "NOW! Crucio!"

Bellatrix released me, screaming in agony. Then Harry stopped and moved towards me until Bellatrix climbed to her feet and placed the knife she used earlier to my throat. Harry froze in mid-stride, looking anxiously at the small piece of cutlery pressed against my throat.

"If you dare to—"

"Oh, I do dare, Potter, I do! I wouldn't mind killing this filthy piece of grime!" She pressed the knife deeper and I felt a drop of blood slide down my neck. Harry frowned and lowered his wand arm.

"Good," said Bellatrix, "now, drop them. Drop the wands… or else!" She pressed a bit deeper and I whimpered.

Harry immediately dropped his wand and Ron followed rather hesitantly. Then everything happened in a blur. I was once again put under the Cruciatus Curse for a brief moment, and then I fainted. My eyes were closed but my ears were open. There was the sound of glass breaking and Curses and Hexes were being thrown around. I heard Dobby's voice in the midst of everything. Then someone picked me up gently.

"It's going to be fine, Hermione," Harry whispered to me. He carried me in his arms then ran to Ron. "We've got go!"

Then we all huddled together and Apparated away. When I opened my eyes, I was on top of Harry and we were lying on the hard ground of Shell Cottage. Climbing off of Harry, I dusted my pants.

Bill and Fleur immediately came out to help us. I looked at Harry and I found him kneeling by a small heap. I moved closer and found out it was Dobby. I let out a small gasp and Harry looked at me. There were tears in his eyes.

My lower lip trembled and I gave him a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, Harry! I'm so sorry!" Harry enveloped me in his own arms and squeezed me then let me go.

We stood up and looked down on Dobby's motionless body. I felt tears slide down my cheeks.

"Hermione," said Ron, placing a blanket around my shoulders, "you should rest."

I shrugged off his order. "I'm fine,"

"But Hermione—"

"I'm fine, Ronald,"

He nodded and left Harry and I alone.

"Harry?" I asked, looking at his face.

"He died for me. I don't see why he would though," mumbled he.

"There are other people besides me who would die for you, Harry,"

He nodded and cupped my face. "Hermione, I'm—"

"It's fine," I interrupted. I looked down at Dobby. "Let's put him to rest,"

Harry nodded and asked for a shovel from Bill. I understood perfectly why he chose to bury him manually. Dobby did everything for us with barely any magic and he never complained. It would only be natural for Harry to bury him without magic as well.

Then Harry started to dig. Being small, Harry only dug until three feet for Dobby. I had Dobby's body cradled in my arms. Quietly, I put him in the soil then Harry started to bury him. Luna said some last words and they all went inside the house to rest. Only Harry and I remained behind.

I watched as he pushed a bug rock over Dobby's grave and he engraved in it, "Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf"

"It's sweet of you," I commented and placed the blanket Ron had given me over his shoulders, "to do that for Dobby. He'd be very happy, you know,"

"He is happy," said Harry.

I smiled weakly and nodded, "Yes. Yes, he is." I turned away from him. "We should get back in before it gets dark. I could really use some rest,"

Then I felt Harry's arms around my shoulders from behind. "Thank you," He mumbled.

I don't know why, but I started to cry. I sobbed and sobbed, my tears falling onto his covered arms. I placed my hands on Harry's arms and squeezed them. Harry hugged me tighter as well; pressing small kisses to the back of my head. When I finally recovered, Harry spun me around.

"Look, I'm going to say this whether you like it or not. Every time I try to speak, you interrupt, so listen closely," he breathed in the blurted, "I'm sorry,"

I stared into his green eyes, a small smile on my lips.

"And I love you," he added, looking away and blushing.

I started crying all over again and when Harry looked back at me. He was shocked.

"Hey," said Harry, chuckling slightly, "I'm sorry for being so mean to you," He reached out to cup my cheek but immediately pulled back.

So I reached out and hugged him, wrapping my arms around his neck and signaling to him that it was okay to touch me. He went rigid for a split second then hugged me back.

"I'm sorry too," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion.

He chuckled lightly but hugged me back. "Come on, we've got to go inside,"

Then hand-in-hand, we entered the small house.

~*~*~

The next few days, we spent planning. I was told to remain in bed but Harry visited me often. He would push back my hair and kiss my forehead and tell me to rest and sometimes we would talk then when Harry would leave, he'd say he loves me then blush heavily and leave quickly. Sometimes, he would sleep in my bed then wake up early to go back to his own room. (Fleur highly refused to let us stay in the same room.)

Later on, Remus visited, announcing that Tonks successfully gave birth to handsome baby boy without his werewolf traits but instead having Tonks's Metamorphagus abilities. He asked Harry to be his godfather and Harry gladly accepted. What surprised me even more was when he asked if I could be the godmother. Being urged by everyone in the house, I accepted. Remus was delighted.

But Harry, Ron, Griphook and I had to continue planning under the other house's occupants' noses. We knew Bellatrix had the cup of Helga Hufflepuff in her vault and Gringotts. The plan we made wasn't entirely complex but it wasn't very simple either. There was a bit of good acting needed on my part. Ron kept saying I couldn't do it, but Harry insisted that I could. So it was set.

So on one early morning, we acted out the first part of our plan. We all woke up early morning. Harry and I slept in the same room, since he had decided that he didn't give a damn about what Fleur said. So I woke up to Harry spooning me against his chest. I woke him up and we both rushed out, taking turns in my bathroom to change.

I had taken the Polyjuice potion with Bellatrix's hair in it since she left some on me during my interrogation. When I had fully transformed, Harry looked at me with a mixture of distaste and humor.

"It's still me, you know!" I screeched in Bellatrix's high-pitched sharp voice.

Harry laughed. "I know, I know. Although, I'm not giving you a kiss in that body," He scrunched his face up in disgust.

I made a vomiting sound. "I wouldn't want a kiss from you when I'm in this body, anyway!"

Harry laughed again. "I can't imagine Bellatrix like that at all."

I frowned and ignored him and Ron and Griphook came over.

"Ew, ugly creature you have there, Harry," Ron teased, doing a once-over at me.

"Shut your mouth, you—!" I hissed.

"Do that mean face when we go to Gringotts, Herms," He interjected, giving me a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Don't start a fight you guys. Come on, we've got to go to Diagon Alley," Harry interjected.

Huffing slightly, we both followed him. I cast the spell on Ron to change his appearance and Harry and Griphook ducked under the Invisibility Cloak. But just as we were about to leave, Harry's hand appeared from out of the Cloak, quickly grabbed my own hand and squeezed it before letting go. He left the Cloak for a while to look at my reaction, which was shocked.

He coughed and blushed. "Er—for good luck. And I don't want to kiss you when it'll look like I'm kissing Bellatrix, so that should do for now,"

"Oh Harry," I whimpered, tearing up.

"Hey, don't cry! Sweet Merlin, Hermione—for goodness' sake—" he paused as I wiped my tears away hastily, "—just—just don't make that face when we're there, alright?"

I nodded and gave him a tiny smile. And then we Apparated to Diagon Alley.

It felt strange to have people cower at the sight of you. Ron was silently snickering every time I passed by a person and he hid away. I couldn't hear anything coming from Griphook or Harry. Then we arrived at Gringotts. The goblins stared at me. Then Ron quietly snarled, "You're too polite to be Bellatrix!" but the goblins let us into her vault anyway.

We went through many obstacles on the way there. There was a shield to block out any impersonation spells. I was immediately transformed back into my usual self then everything happened in a blur. Harry had come out from his Cloak and took my hand. After getting past a dragon guarding her vault, we were locked into the Lestrange's vault. Harry, Ron, Griphook and I had begun to search the vault.

I touched a goblet to move it out of the way, then it dissolved into smaller, numerous goblets and pushed me a bit backwards. Then I reached for another and my hand singed and burned. I immediately pulled my hand back while howling in pain.

Harry looked at me, worried.

"Harry," said I, panicked and raising my arms so as not to touch anything, "the treasure here has Geminio and Flagrante spells! Don't touch anything unless you absolutely need to!"

Harry nodded but his eyes drifted to my burnt hand. "It's fine!" I said, hiding it away from him. "Continue searching!"

He cast me one last concerned look before continuing his search. Then he found it and with Griphook's help, he managed to grab it. Then Griphook turned on us. He grabbed Godric Gryffindor's sword and yelled that there were thieves in Gringotts (which, of course, were really there). Ron had little time to vent out his anger before people started coming in. By some miracle, we managed to escape by riding on the dragon that guarded the vault. Although the interior of the cave was destroyed, we were safe. Harry was at the head of the dragon; I was behind him, freezing because of the hard beating of its wings. Ron was behind us and the farthest from us. He was clutching onto the dragon's body as tight as he could.

After what seemed like ages, the dragon began to descend. We quickly jumped off before it could fly off again. We fell into the freezing cold water since the dragon had been flying right over a lake. Sputtering and gasping, we appeared at the surface. Harry first followed by Ron and I.

"Come on, we've got to get to the shore!" Harry yelled. He swam over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. Ron swam closer to us and I put my arm around his shoulders. Together, we swam towards the shore. When we reached there, we had to fight our way through mud and reeds. We were so tired when we reached the slippery grass that we just fell down, exhausted. And even though he was tired, Harry stood up and cast the usual protecting Charms then fell down beside me. He took me in his arms and held me close.

"Are you alright?" He asked, hugging me and kissing my forehead.

I nodded and hugged him back. "I'm fine, really." Ron had reached us (undoubtedly by crawling as well) and rubbed his arms, still quite cold from our escapade.

"Hey, you lovebirds," said he, grinning a bit.

"Hey," We greeted back, returning the grin.

"How's your hand?" Harry asked, looking at my palms. He found the burn on the left hand.

I tried to pull it back but he held onto it with a tight grip. "It's fine. I think the cold air from the dragon ride soothed it."

Harry frowned and muttered a spell then my hand instantly felt better, and the scar had disappeared.

I looked at him with a smile. "You've been practicing your Healing spells!"

"Don't sound so surprised," said Harry, blushing a tad, "I Healed Ron after he destroyed the Horcrux."

I kissed him slightly until Ron began making gagging sounds. "Quit it, you two," He grumbled, looking away.

Harry and I pulled apart, blushing heavily. "Sorry," We mumbled.

Ron's head turned to watch the dragon, splashing and bathing in the water. Harry and I followed.

"What do you think will happen to it?" I asked worriedly.

"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron, rolling his eyes at me. "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, deadpanned, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts,"

It started with a slight giggle coming from me, and then both Harry and Ron blew up, laughing. Then we were all laughing hard, rolling on the ground. It was hard to breathe, but we couldn't stop.

Then we finally sobered and Harry took me in his arms again, still chuckling slightly. I hiccupped once or twice and then asked, "What're we going to do, though? I mean, You-Know-Who knows right?"

Ron started to look worried. "I dunno. Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him,"

I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, Ron, the chances of that happening are probably one in a mill—"

I was interrupted when Harry yelled out in agony.

"Harry!" I cried. He was writhing and sweating, his eyes were closed and he was clutching onto his scar.

"HARRY!" I screamed. I pushed him down onto the ground and pried his hands away from his scar. Once I touched it, he yelled out in agony and tried to pull my hand away from his forehead. Then after a second, he calmed down and his hands fell limp and dropped to each side of his head. I calmed down and lay down on his chest. His heart was beating heavily. Then his arms went around me.

"He knows," said he, "and he's seriously angry. And scared, too. He doesn't know how we knew about it, but still. We've got to get to Hogwarts,"

He stood up and helped me up after. Ron followed, frowning.

"But what about Hermione? She needs to rest!" argued Ron.

"Ron—"

"No, Ron. Harry's right. We've got to go to Hogwarts. If we don't, Vol—You-Know-Who will win. I'm with Harry on this,"

Harry looked at me, worried. "M-maybe Ron's right. You really need to rest, Hermione, after all that's happened,"

I shook my head. "It's true, I'm tired but this is more important."

He looked worried then sighed a bit. "We'll rest for an hour or two. After that, we can leave. How about it?"

Ron nodded immediately, but I protested, "But Harry—"

"I'm sure about it, Hermione. I'm going to let you rest. You need to,"

I sighed a bit then nodded. Harry smiled weakly and kissed my forehead then we set up camp.

This is by far the longest entry I probably written in days. I'm afraid I must go. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to write. We're going to leave soon. Harry started packing up and it's time I put you down. If I survive the next round of events, I'll write down everything.

If anyone finds this, I need you to know a few things. This is the real story. We're in a war, living everyday not sure if it will be our last.

The next thing is that, if I happen to die and Harry lives, please whoever finds this, tell him I love him. Tell him that our relationship was worth everything and that I will always love him.

Signed,
Hermione Jane Granger

~*~*~

A/N: I guess this story's almost finished. Anyway, I need a better summary! Please, whoever can help me, send me suggestions (well, it would be better as summaries already) that fit the size of FFN (255 characters, I think) in either a PM (private message) or review. Thanks! ^_^