A/N: Here we go, another chapter. I haven't written the next chapter yet, which means I'm not entirely qualified to say this but it kind of feels like this story is drawing nearer to the end. But don't worry, even if there won't be many more chapters for this story, I already have another one in my head that wants out :)

Anyway, thank you to everyone who helped edit this chapter and everyone who reviewed the last one. Please keep it up, I love getting feedback.

Chapter 16

The day was spent recuperating from the stress of the last few weeks. Harry and Ron left the Burrow after breakfast. It was clear that Harry still wasn't very comfortable being around Hermione and Ginny, especially after the night they had clearly and audibly spent together, and Ron being his best mate decided to cheer him up even though he obviously would have preferred to stay for his mother's cooking.

Hermione had wanted to apologize to Harry for forgetting to use a silencing spell but first he was too good at avoiding her and then he was gone before she could get to him. Ron of all people had sought her out and asked her to just give Harry some more time.

George spent the day at the Burrow too, and after sufficiently having made fun of the brightest witch of her age he moved on to explain Exploding Snap to Valerie.

Molly kept busy with knitting and listening to some music on the wireless, and Arthur had decided to spend some time in the shed, tinkering with a Muggle laptop he had gotten his hands on.

That left Hermione and Ginny to their own devices. "So, what would you like to do today?" Ginny asked cheerily.

"There is so much that I need to get done, but I feel way too exhausted to actually do any of it. The last few weeks are kind of getting to me," Hermione explained, taking the redhead's hand and drawing her closer, "also, the lack of sleep is making me want to just hang out and be lazy."

Ginny smiled at her, "I know what you mean. I should be practising but I really can't be bothered to do a proper training session." Ginny pulled Hermione in for a kiss, when suddenly they heard a small explosion from the sitting room, followed by a lot of cursing from Valerie. Laughing the two women decided to spend the day at the pond. They deserved a little downtime as much as everyone else.

After packing a couple of sandwiches, some towels and lots of sunscreen, they were on their way.

"Have you decided yet where you want to live? I mean, not that Mum would kick you out or anything, but I'm assuming you won't want to stay living here forever," Ginny asked, making herself comfortable on one of the towels.

Hermione absent-mindedly plucked some grass with her fingers while watching the clouds go by. "Hm, that's one of the things I meant to do today. I can't stay here forever but I haven't talked to Valerie yet. I kind of want to get back to our quaint little flat but I know that's not possible." Hermione sighed deeply, but then smiled at Ginny and took her hand, "But let's not discuss things like that right now. I said I wanted to be lazy and I meant it."

All of a sudden she jumped up and shouted, "Race you to the water!"

Ginny scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could but lost the race anyway, "You cheated!" she laughed, as they were both standing knee-deep in the water.

"No, I win!" Hermione chuckled and waded further in.

"You win what?" Ginny asked, following suit until both of them were up to their hips in the clear, cool water of the pond.

"This," Hermione said and jumped at Ginny, who only caught her because her reflexes told her to rather than stepping aside. But the force of Hermione's jump was a bit too much, especially standing on slippery, mossy rocks. Hermione wrapped herself around the surprised redhead and let the water slow their fall. Ginny held on tight to Hermione when they went under.

The brunette witch opened her eyes underwater only to find the redhead had done the same. She framed Ginny's face with her hands and drew her closer for an underwater kiss before closing her eyes again. Ginny complied and pulled the brunette witch closer with one hand while caressing the small of her back with the other, all the while keeping their kiss going.

Hermione enjoyed Ginny's ministrations and pulled the redhead even closer, playing with the strings of her girlfriend's bikini top.

She felt her lungs burning but was enjoying herself so much she really didn't want to come up for air. There was no other way though. She broke their kiss and pushed up from the ground to propel herself towards the surface of the water. Ginny followed suit and both women hastily filled their lungs with fresh air.

They had drifted off quite a bit and now had to tread water to stay afloat.

Hermione was still panting and was swimming towards the shore so she could get solid ground underneath her feet.

Ginny caught up to her to where the redhead could stand with only a bit of her shoulders being above the surface of the water.

Hermione smiled and wrapped her legs around Ginny's hips. She put her arms around Ginny's neck and gave her a peck on the lips. Ginny wrapped her arms around Hermione to hold her more comfortably.

"I like you like that!" Ginny admitted.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, not following.

"In school, you were the constant bookworm; always on about the rules and studying and so on. You always had to be convinced to let your guard down a bit. Valerie tells me that after school you relaxed a bit and came out of your shell, but we didn't have enough contact for me to notice that, did we? And now, you're all playful and carefree without even being prompted, I really enjoy this side of you," Ginny explained.

Hermione's expression turned serious again, "I'm still having troubles just letting go sometimes, giving myself permission not to work but to have fun instead. And to be honest, it didn't really help that Valerie got abducted when I was having a great night out with you. But I'm getting better at it and you're a big part of that!"

Hermione's lips were slowly turning blue and her teeth started chattering.

"Come on, let's get you out of the water. I think we have cooled off enough. Let's warm up again in the sun," Ginny said, starting to walk towards their towels in the grass. Hermione was still wrapped around the redhead and had no intention of changing that.

Athletic as she was Ginny had no problem carrying her girlfriend. She carefully put her down on the towel on the ground and let her eyes linger for a few moments when she saw her spread out like a cat in the sun, watching the pearls of water on her skin glisten in the light.

A couple of moments later, they were both lying down and enjoying the warmth of the sun. Ginny was lazily tracing circles on Hermione's arm and Hermione was playing with Ginny's hair. They simply enjoyed each other's company, even dozing off momentarily.

Their blissful peace was interrupted by Ginny's stomach, which began to growl at them after a while.

"Oh dear, let's get some food into you before you starve," Hermione joked and grabbed their packed lunch from the basket.

She was a bit peckish herself and they happily ate their sandwiches, watching the water.

When they where done, Ginny put her head into Hermione's lap and enjoyed the brunettes hands playing some more with her hair, while she stared up into the clouds, figuring out which animals they resembled. Hermione let her eyes wander.

She looked over to the forest with it's thick forage and dark leaves, the greener than green meadows around the pond, dotted with the most beautifully coloured flowers sticking out between the grass, the fields of sunflowers standing tall, like soldiers marching towards the sun, a little further down the Burrow, on fire, and right next to it a…wait, what? The Burrow is on fire!

"Ginny, get up, put on your clothes. Hurry!" Hermione said, jumping up and forcing her girlfriend to sit up too. Ginny heard the alarm in Hermione's voice and knew that something serious was going on. She didn't even bother to ask and followed her orders, practically jumping into her torn jeans shorts.

Hermione had already put on her shorts and was sticking her head into a t-shirt, when Ginny saw what was going on and sprang into action, "Oh my God, Mum and Dad! Hermione, we have to…"

"I know Ginny, I know. Here," Hermione cut her off and handed her her wand when she was dressed.

"We can't…"Hermione began her sentence, but was interrupted by the sensation of being side along apparated.

A moment later she found herself in Ginny's room. "Ginny, what the hell? I was about to say that we can't apparate right into the thick of it because who knows what is going on, and you just go ahead without thinking!" Hermione blew up in Ginny's face with a little more force than she had intended to.

"You're probably right, but my home is on fire and I have no time to discuss this now," Ginny said, annoyed at the tone Hermione had taken with her. Hermione wanted to apologize for her outburst. She knew that the woman had had nothing on her mind but helping her family, but she didn't get a chance to because Ginny rushed out the door and down the stairs to find her family. Hermione was right behind her. They could hear the distinct sounds of cracking wood that was giving way to the fire. There was smoke everywhere and it smelled like being in a furnace. Hermione's eyes quickly began to water and she started coughing.

"Mum? Dad?" Ginny shouted, but nobody answered. Ginny coughed too and tried to cover her nose with her arm, as if that would help against the smoke. She shot a desperate look at Hermione, mostly to see if she had come up with a plan, when suddenly they heard George scream outside.

Ginny rushed to the door and opened it without thinking. Hermione had just enough time to throw up a shield charm to avoid the redhead getting hit with an unknown spell. They both rushed off to where they could now see Ginny's parents holding up a shield to keep George form getting hit with spells as he bowed down over Valerie, who was lying crumpled on the floor, not moving.

No. No! Not after everything. No!

Hermione didn't think, she just started running, not thinking about the crossfire around her. Ginny saw what her girlfriend was doing and cast a shield around them while running along.

George was shaking Valerie when Hermione fell to the ground next to him.

"Valerie! Val!" she shrieked. But there was no reaction.

There were still spells coming from everywhere, but Ginny couldn't see enough with all the smoke and the fire, so she kept helping her parents with the shield. Occasionally, firing stunners perchance they might find their target.

"What happened?" she shouted, addressing her father.

"All was quiet, we were minding our own business when suddenly the fire erupted, and when we went to look there were spells out of nowhere. I tried to put out the fire, but look at it. It's not normal," Arthur answered, sweaty from the heat and the casting.

Ginny turned her head and saw a giant dragon made of fire breathe more fire onto the structure of the house.

Suddenly the glass windows burst and showered them in a thousand tiny pieces of glass.

"We need to get out of here!" Ginny shouted, brushing off some of the glass from her shoulder. She bowed down, while still holding up her shield, "Hermione, we need to get out of here. We can't keep up the shields forever!"

But Hermione didn't react. She was still trying to determine whether her friend was breathing or had a pulse. But it was proving to be exceedingly difficult with all the noise and heat and smoke. She thought she had felt her heartbeat but then again, it could have been wishful thinking. It was no use, "George, take her to Hogwarts. Poppy will know what to do. Apparate to the gates and send your Patronus. I don't know if she'd be safe in St. Mungo's, being a Muggle and all. But McGonagall won't send her away if she sees you're with her," Hermione pleaded. She fully expected his resistance. She was sure he would argue that he couldn't just up and leave a fight like this and his parents and sister to face an unknown threat but he simply nodded. Tears were streaming down his face as he lifted Valerie's limp body and he was gone the next moment.

With Valerie gone, Hermione felt a rage rising inside her that she hadn't felt since she had worn the Horcrux necklace. She felt white-hot anger bubbling up inside.

She put up a shield around herself and went to where she saw the spells coming from.

Ginny grabbed her arm, but she shrugged her off and went ahead.

"What are you doing? Come back! Hermione!" Ginny shouted, but she saw her father's shield weaken and went to help him out.

"Where are you, you coward? Hiding behind a wall of smoke? Coming with a whole army because you're too afraid to face me alone? You pathetic excuse for a man, come out and look me in the eye if you have the balls!" Hermione screamed into the smoke, not caring that her lungs pleaded for her not to.

The fire dragon on the roof of the burrow hissed in response and Hermione turned to look for the first time. All colour left her face. Fiendfyre.

But it was too late to turn back now. She kept up her shield and she kept walking, when suddenly the crossfire stopped.

There was still a lot of smoke that the wind was blowing over from the burning house but some of it was lifted and they could see a row of Death Eaters standing around the Burrow and a couple of feet in front of Hermione was Lucius Malfoy, standing tall with his wand at the ready. A few feet behind him was Draco, kneeling awkwardly on the floor and clearly in pain. He had a black eye and one of his arms hung limply down his side. He was sweating and gritting his teeth in pain and concentration.

Hermione followed the tip of his wand and realised it was Draco controlling the Fiendfyre, but barely.

"Miss Granger, how very Gryffindor of you to just walk into the crossfire," Lucius said, a patronising tone in his voice. It was clear that he didn't think much of her house's trademark attribute.

Hermione just glared at him and some of the Death Eaters around wouldn't have been surprised if Lucius had dropped dead right then. If anyone had ever been able to cast a wandless and silent killing curse it would have been Hermione in this instant. This was the man who had not only made it possible for Voldemort to rise again and cause countless deaths, he was also the one responsible for hunting Valerie, abducting Valerie, and possibly kil…hurting Valerie. Hermione seethed.

"Call off your dragon, send your Death Eaters away. Let's settle this, once and for all!" Hermione called.

"How about this. You come willingly and maybe I'll spare the lives of your beloved blood traitors," Lucius snarled.

"NO! Never!" Ginny yelled at Lucius. She had inched closer and closer until she was just a few feet behind Hermione and was now standing next to her.

Hermione glanced nervously at Draco, who was struggling to keep the fire under his control. She had to come up with a plan in case he lost it. Fiendfyre wasn't just stopped. The one time she was confronted with it she had trapped it in the Room of Requirement, where it probably suffocated after burning everything in there.

How the bloody hell am I supposed to stop Fiendfyre like that?

Lucius saw her concern and said in his eerie high-pitched voice, "Are you worried about poor Draco here? I hear he's been helping your Muggle escape. Well, as you can see, I've persuaded him to come back to where he belongs."

Draco was clutching his wand with both hands, staring fiercely at the fire he was slowly losing control over. He didn't dare look away for even one moment but he muttered something, just loud enough for Hermione hear, "Valerie?"

Tears stung in Hermione's blood shot eyes. The smoke had really done a number on them, but these new tears were not from the smoke.

"I don't know, Draco," she said in a low voice.

"How touching," Lucius snarled before kicking Draco in the shoulder. The young man screamed in pain and for a moment forgot to keep his focus on the Fiendfyre. The fire dragon roared and hissed and blew its fiery breath high into the air before circling around the house a couple of times. It looked spectacular but also quite deadly and frightening.

"Fuck!" Draco yelled, desperately clutching his wand, trying to regain control of the fire beast, but he already seemed to know it was useless. Once lost not even the best of wizards would be able to regain control over Fiendfyre. They were doomed.

Lucius was laughing madly and his Death Eaters joined in hesitantly so as not to upset their new leader. Much like with the old one it was hard to regain the boss' favour once it was lost.

"You know, the fire is eventually going to kill you. We could just stand here and watch until it is done," Lucius explained as if talking to a little child.

"Only it would kill you too. Fiendfyre doesn't differentiate between friend or foe, you git!" Ginny growled. She didn't like the tone he took with her girlfriend and she certainly didn't like how he had ignored her presence completely.

And as if on cue the dragon swept over the field surrounding the Burrow, setting every crop aflame. They were trapped. Hermione could see that the Death Eaters were starting to get nervous. She chanced a glance back at the Weasleys. Molly clung to Arthur but had her wand at the ready, as did her husband. She looked ready to kill. Someone was threatening her home and her family; there were consequences. Bellatrix Lestrange could tell a story about that. Or rather, she couldn't anymore.

Hermione saw Lucius façade falter a bit. His confidence seemed to crumble, unsure of the uncontrolled Fiendfyre around him.

The ring of fire around them seemed to tighten and the Death Eaters started to fight the burning fields with Aguamenti, but as soon as they had put out a fire the dragon would sweep in to ignite it again, taking one or two Death Eaters with it.

Draco crawled closer to his father, Hermione, and Ginny, away from the fire. He stumbled to his feet, panting heavily. "Father, this is a losing battle, you have to give yourself up. The Aurors will be here soon enough," Draco pleaded for an end to the madness.

Hermione saw the first Death Eaters apparate out. Soon it was just a handful of very unsure Death Eaters against the three Weasleys and Hermione.

Draco stumbled further in Hermione's direction, leaving his father behind. This felt a bit familiar to him but this time around he was sure about it.

Lucius looked at his son with a combination of disgust, disbelief, and fury. He flicked his wand and sent a stunner in Draco's direction but Ginny was quicker and put up a shield to deflect the spell.

"Filthy blood traitor, how dare you?" Lucius snarled and sent another round of spells, this time at Ginny. She deflected them all.

Draco had finally managed to make it all the way to Hermione and Ginny. His breath was ragged and he could barely stand but he was going to fight and this time he would do it for the right side. And he wouldn't go back. Ever.

The fire was getting worse and worse, and the efforts of the remaining Death Eaters to quench at least some of it was getting less and less effective.

There was not much time left until they'd all need to just apparate out and then Lucius would be gone from their grasp.

"What do you want, Lucius? Can't you see that you can't win this?" Hermione yelled at the blond man in front of her.

"I want you to pay. I want you to pay for sending me to that vile place instead of simply confining me to my home. I want you to suffer as I have suffered every day in Azkaban," Lucius hissed.

"You're a right little shit, do you know that? You kidnapped my friend and you…you possibly even killed her. You set fire to the place I feel most at home at in the world, only because you can't accept the consequences to your own actions? You disgust me," Hermione shouted on top of her voice. She had worked herself up to a point of anger not even Ron or Harry had managed to make her reach.

"I've had enough. You're done for, Malfoy," Hermione added and started swishing her wand and muttering something under her breath. A huge ball of transparent magic exploded from the tip of her wand and expanded until it formed a protective bubble around all of them, friends and foes alike. Then Hermione cast a second, much bigger bubble trapping the Fiendfyre between two layers of magic. Hermione swished her wand again and almost instantly the two layers began to draw closer to each other, compressing the fire between them, slowly transforming into a ball.

Nobody moved. Everyone stared at Hermione as she held the ball of Fiendfyre until it vanished completely.

Hermione then changed her focus to Lucius, "You're looking at the witch that just made out-of-control Fiendfyre vanish. Do you still think you stand a chance against me, Malfoy? It doesn't matter how many men you bring. You will lose. Give up now!" she growled.

Ginny looked at her. In that moment, Hermione was not only the brightest witch of her age; she was also the most dangerous one. She had never seen or even heard of anyone defeating Fiendfyre. She couldn't have explained it. From the looks of it neither could any other person present. The last Death Eaters apparated, and left Lucius to fend for himself.

Lucius Malfoy fell to his knees and started begging to be left alive. He was afraid, like he had never been afraid before and whimpered and wept miserably. Hermione silently cast a body bind spell on the pathetic figure and he dropped to the ground, still in his pleading position.

Hermione looked at Ginny, her eyes dark with danger and power and something Ginny didn't wish to ever see again on the brunette witch: pain and grief so intense it hurt to look at her. "Send a Patronus to Harry. He can come collect a parcel I have wrapped for him." Hermione cawed, her voice almost gone from breathing in all that smoke.

With that she disapparated, leaving the Weasleys with a burnt house, fields reduced to ashes, one injured Malfoy and a body bound one.

"Hermio…ne," Ginny called when she saw her girlfriend disappear in front of her. She had no clue where she had gone and where to find her. So she kicked Lucius Malfoy in the shin.

"Don't," she felt his hand on her shoulder as Draco continued to speak ,"he'll get what he deserves. You're better than that."

Ginny turned around and for the first time she fully saw Draco for the man he had become and not for the boy he had been.

She had tears in her eyes from the smoke, from the frustration of not knowing where Hermione had gone to, and the wreck that was her childhood home.

"Come on, let's see if we can clean you up a bit," Ginny said and helped Draco back to where her Mother and Father were standing.

Molly immediately descended on the blond man, healing a couple of obvious cuts and bruises.

"We have to get you to St. Mungo's. I can't do anything about the rest of your injuries here now," Molly said, coughing and crying at the sight of her burnt home.

"And I think we should all get a check up anyway. All this smoke can't be very healthy," Arthur added.

Ginny nodded, whispered something to her wand and sent her Patronus on the way, hoping that wherever she was Hermione would get her message.