A/N: This took me weeks to write. Hope you guys really like it. Whenever I manage to finish it. :) also I know it kinda skims over a lot. But I hope you all understand I couldn't go into full description like normal.
So the movie was good. It's not as sad as the 1st part. But I think for all you Dramione Shippers, this will make you much more happy. :) Enjoy.
While You Were Running
He had left. He had actually left. I sat there wondering how I had ever fallen for him. Thinking about it, if things ever got complicated and he was stressed, he might run away like he had done today. I sat there on the rocks, thinking over my life, over all the things that had been said and done. Maybe things between me and Ron weren't meant to be. Maybe I was just imagining things and he was really my knight in shining armor. I didn't know, but right now he wasn't anything to me.
Harry came outside and sat down next to me. Things were getting complicated. We were searching for the Horcruxes and had yet to have any luck in finding anything. I looked at Harry who smiled at me encouragingly. We couldn't just sit around waiting for him to come back. He left us. That wasn't our problem. I looked at Harry and we started to pack up our things. We had to keep moving. But now that Ron was gone we could get serious and Apparate where ever we needed to go.
We Apparated to another location and quickly set to work on the spells and enchantments and tried to figure out our next step in finding Horcruxes. Harry said he wanted to visit Godric's Hollow, so we agreed to do that, then move onto Luna's, then go from there. As we Apparated to Godric's Hollow, I got a funny feeling about something. It was strange, almost like someone was following us.
We walked down the street, and at first I was weary because I heard noises from behind us. Suddenly a twig cracked and I knew for sure someone was following us. I turned around my wand at the ready. Harry stopped beside me, unsure of what I was doing. I muttered quietly a revealing spell and found none other than Draco Malfoy in our presence.
Ropes quickly bound around his body and hands, and he was frozen in place. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" I asked dangerously. The last time I saw him he was trying to prove something to me. He was trying to make me believe.
-Flashback-
"Hey, can I talk to you?" Draco said to me, his dark gray eyes filled with concern. I nodded, unsure of what he was going to say. We had been trying to be friends for a few weeks, leaving all of our past prejudices behind.
We walked around silently for a bit. Both of our minds running through war tactics. I knew he was thinking for the other side, he couldn't help it. He had born and bred that way. School would be ending in a few days and it wouldn't be a surprise if I never saw him again. I didn't want him to just disappear and end up being some Death Eater I eventually killed or took captive. This war was going to change so much. He looked at me, and I realized just how much he had changed since first year.
"I have to leave tomorrow. And I need you to leave too. It's not safe here anymore. He knows a way in to the Castle without being detected. Please, leave tonight and go be with your parents for what little time we have left til the real fighting starts. Please Hermione." He pleaded with me, but I couldn't help but feel confused and slightly angry.
"How do you know he knows a way in?" I asked cautiously, my voice low and fearful. He hung his head, admitting his own faults. "What? How could you do this? Draco, I trusted you! And you lead the Death Eaters straight into Hogwarts?" I asked, furious that he would do such a thing, but before he could speak, rumbles were heard somewhere in the castle followed by screams. I glared at him before walking away, I had to go help, I had to right his wrong.
"Hermione, please just listen to me!" He pleaded heavily, he was running after me, but I couldn't stop. I had to keep going. My parents had always said the Past was behind me, and my future ahead of me. I couldn't look back. We had tried to make a friendship work, but because of our history we couldn't do it. We both wanted to be with each other. But we couldn't take it.
"You have to understand that I can't lose you! And I knew that the Dark Lord suspected something, and if he found out you would have no chance. Neither would I. Please, I love you and you are the most important thing in my world!" The words echoed in the hall ways. I knew what he said was true. If He found out at least one of us would be dead. I stopped running and hung my head. I felt his arms come around me and knew that I was safe exactly where I was.
"I love you too." Was all I had strength to say. I prayed to Merlin that no matter what happened, he would never be on the other side of my wand from me.
His arms tightened around me. "I love you more than you can understand. I have to go, Hermione. My father is waiting for me to join him. I will never give in. I'll find you Hermione. I swear upon the grave of Salazar Slytherin, I will find you and we will be together." He walked away, and I wanted to go with him. For the life of me, I wished I could have. The next day the school was in ruins, Dumbledore was dead, and the Horcrux Harry thought he found was a fake. We weren't coming back to school next year.
-End Flashback-
His gray eyes looked over my face, sadness and regret were prominent in his features. I wanted to go and comfort him, but Harry didn't know what had happened between us almost 6 months ago. I stared at him, amazed that he was still alive. For a moment I took in how he looked. He was very thin and pale, he was always like that but this was a kind of sick look about him. It was like he was too pale, too thin. Something was going on, and I was hoping it was that the Malfoy's repented after seeing how terrible their precious Dark Lord was.
"Granger, I have information regarding the artifacts you seek. I renounce my loyalty to the Dark Lord, and I pledge my allegiance to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I will take an oath, and a vow to help you defeat the Dark Lord. I plead that you spare my life so that I may save many many more by helping you find his Horcruxes." He got right down to business staring past right past me and at Harry. I looked back and Harry looked wary, and seemed very skeptic. We had just lost Ron and now we were in Godric's Hollow looking for something that would help us.
"Give us a moment Malfoy to discuss your fate." Harry said shortly before mumbling the paralyzing spell and dragging me a bit away from Malfoy. "What do you think?" He sounded like he was actually considering taking Malfoy's word and having him help us.
"Well, I have never seen him get straight down to business like that. He is asking to join the Order, and he found us. Also, if we have someone who grew up in the Wizarding World to help us, who also understands the workings of His mind, we might be able to get farther in a shorter amount of time than we originally thought. I think this could actually benefit us and would be really good. What about you?" I asked him, taking in the way he looked. He was seriously considering all that Malfoy had to offer.
"Currently I'm 50/50 myself on him. But if he can help us more than we think he might prove himself useful. He'll be on probation for now, but one slip up, one notion that he's helping the enemy and we have to stoop to their level. We can't have someone running off telling our every move and all our plans. We'll have to kill him if he steps out of line." Harry said looking very sombre. I looked at Harry and nodded.
"It won't come to that, but I understand." I said and turned away without giving Harry a chance to respond. Harry lifted the spell he had placed on Malfoy, while giving me an odd look.
"Alright, Malfoy. We have agreed that you would be an asset to our efforts. So we will let you come with us and help. But for now you will be on probation. Which means that you will be responsible for telling us where to go. We will require you to be bound at all times and you can not go anywhere alone. You will not be allowed to do spells until you have proven yourself totally and completely loyal to us. If you should attempt to contact You-Know-Who or any Death Eater, you will be killed. If we find that you have contacted someone from the other side, you will be killed, and should you try to escape, you will be tortured, then killed. Do you understand?" Harry said, his voice low and dangerous. Malfoy nodded, understanding all of it.
"Your first job as our new 'partner' is to tell us what this symbol means." I asked holding up the Tales of Beedle the Bard book. The triangle like symbol stood out on the front page. Malfoy looked at it, then looked at the book, and smiled.
"That's called the Deathly Hallows. The story of the Three Brothers. The triangle is the Cloak, the line is the wand, and the circle is the Resurrection stone. I heard the Dark Lord was looking for those. But I will tell you those are his plans, but have nothing to do with the Horcruxes." Malfoy said seriously. I looked at him and my mouth formed an 'Oh!' shape as I realized what it meant. That made so much sense. But then I frowned.
"Ok so, where do we go to get the first Horcrux out of the way. We have the locket, but we haven't been able to destroy it." I said quietly getting closer to Malfoy. He smiled at me, he definitely knew something.
"How did you destroy that diary in second year again?" Malfoy asked Harry looking him in the eye. I sighed and told him that we already knew that we could use the sword of Gryffindor to destroy the Horcruxes.
"The only problem is that we don't know where the sword is. Do you have any others? First let's make a checklist of ones we have destroyed already, those we know where they are, and a list of the ones we need to find. So there's the ring, and the diary that have been destroyed. We have the locket, and we know of the Snake and Hufflepuff's Cup. What else is there for us to get? Do you know where any of those are?" I asked Malfoy. We hadn't notice Harry slip away into the graveyard. Malfoy thought about it for a second before answering.
"I know that Bellatrix has the Hufflepuff cup in her vault at Gringotts. And I can get into that. And the snake, Nagini, I think I heard something about her being in Bagshot's house or something. I didn't really understand what he said. And I'm pretty sure that there's a Ravenclaw artifact somewhere in Hogwarts that the Dark Lord hid. That's all he knows about at least, I think." Malfoy said. That's when I realized that Harry was gone. I looked around and found him beside a grave. I walked over to him, dragging Malfoy with me.
Harry sat there staring at the grave of his parents. I felt so bad for him. I felt bad for all of us. Malfoy's parents had parroted him into a belief system that was totally barbaric and crude, and then forced him into a circle of people that killed people for fun. Harry's parents died before he even knew them, and left him with a legacy and fortune that he was much too modest for. And me. I had to wipe my existence from my parents memories, and send them somewhere they'd be safe. Away from me. In a sense we were all orphans in our own way.
I bent down and conjured up a bouquet of roses for their grave. I stepped back and leaned my head against Harry's shoulder. I looked over at Malfoy who looked shocked. I could tell that he hadn't quite understood until today the pain Harry went through. He understood now that Harry had never known his parents and this was the closest he had been to them in almost 16 years. I somehow knew that he finally sympathized with Harry. I reached over and laced my arm through Malfoy's. We stood there for a few moments, standing in peaceful silence in honor for those we had already lost to this war. A tear slid down my cheek, and as I moved to wipe it away, I saw a woman watching us. I nudged Malfoy ever so slightly, and he nodded his head.
"She's been watching us for awhile. Don't make any sudden movements. Something doesn't feel right about her." Harry said quietly, still staring at his parents' names. I got a good look at her out of the corner of my eye, and quickly took in a gasp of air.
"That's Bathilda Bagshot." I whispered quietly. Malfoy stiffened a little and I knew Harry was confused.
"That's where Nagini is." I whispered confirmingly to Harry. He turned his head and looked at me. His eyes were cold, colder than I'd ever seen them.
"Then we follow her, find Nagini and kill her. This ends now. She has killed too many people." Harry whispered to us.
"How exactly are we going to kill her? With the sword of Gryffindor? Wait... Hold on." Malfoy looked as if he had just been given a trillion dollars for Christmas. He whispered something into his left forearm and Harry flipped out. Harry nimbly tackled Malfoy to the ground, the old lady still watching. He made sure his left arm was far away from his mouth. A faint popping sound alerted us to the arrival of someone else.
"What have you done Malfoy? Who have you called here?" Harry whispered furiously. He punched Malfoy in the face, and I prepared for the worst. Suddenly Snape came out from a jumble of brushes. I aimed my wand at him, ready to duel the man who had despised me for seven years. But instead of raising his wand, he actually threw it to the ground and kicked it towards me, then raised his hands.
"I don't mean you any harm." Was all he said. I looked at him, then glanced at Harry, who stood up, one foot still on Malfoy. He glared at Snape, distrust all over his face.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked quietly. He nodded over to the woman watching them and Snape nodded as well.
"I am here to deliver something to you. I had received it shortly after Albus' death, and was given strict instructions to give it to you. Luckily for me, you have enlisted Mr. Malfoy to help you destroy our old friend. He alerted me to the need of this item in your quest and I am here to do my duty. After handing this to you, I will take my wand and return to Hogwarts. If you'll allow me to step forward." Snape said formally. Harry looked skeptical but nodded, allowing the old Potions Professor step forward and reach into his robes.
He stepped forward some more, so that his robes and myself were blocking the older woman from viewing what was being exchanged. It was the Sword of Gryffindor. Harry looked at it, his eyes wide with shock. He looked at Snape who looked sadly at the grave of Lily and James Potter.
"Why are you giving this to me?" Harry asked. Snape turned back to him.
"Because I loved your mother. And I promised I would do anything to protect her. And I promised Dumbledore that I would do whatever it took to destroy your mother's killer. I wanted revenge. She may not have loved me back, but I would have done anything for her." Snape said simply. Harry nodded, dumbstruck that Snape had the sword. "Now, take another step in destroying the killer of your parents. Make him pay for the pain he has caused others." Snape said before swiftly turning around and Apparating away. Harry took the sword, unsure of how this would go. He turned his head and looked at the woman, and knew that he had to do this. There was no backing out. Snape had been right. He had to avenge his parents and destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Harry started walking forwards, abandoning Malfoy on the ground. I helped Malfoy up, and followed Harry hoping that he wouldn't accidentally make a mistake. He wandered over to the woman, I could tell he was unsure of what to do.
"Where is Nagini?" Harry shouted at the woman. She cocked her head, then suddenly her body dissolved there was Nagini, a giant snake that would scare anyone. I jerked back a little, stumbling into Malfoy. He caught me and held onto me tightly. He didn't want me to go anywhere near that thing. I could tell in the way he was holding me. It was a mixture of protection and holding me back from helping Harry. But Harry didn't need help, he saw the body dissolve and quickly swung the sword over his head in an arc, in a matter of moments, Nagini was dead and Harry stood victorious. He looked over his shoulder at me and Malfoy, his eyes sad, but triumphant. "3 down, 4 to go." He said quietly before wiping the blade off on his jeans. He picked his wand up off the ground and shrunk the sword into a manageable size.
And that was the start of our journey. We had no idea then what would happen, how things would end or what the seventh and final Horcrux was. No one had ever told us what we needed to know, Dumbledore had died too soon, and he had not told anyone else how to defeat Voldemort. Sometimes I suspect that he had no idea himself how to kill Voldemort, he had just been winging it the whole time and hoping he was right. But I knew Harry was on the right track. Eventually Voldemort would be dead and Harry would stand victorious over his body. I hoped it would be sooner rather than later.
We sat down in the Graveyard staring at Harry's parent's grave and started planning on where we were going to go next. We had to figure out where the other Horcruxes were and make sure we got them before it was too late. We didn't want the Dark Lord to kill anyone else. Malfoy had warned us of the taboo on His name so we couldn't say it as freely anymore.
"Ok, so we have the locket. And we have destroyed the diary, the ring, and the Snake. Wanna try the sword on the locket? It killed Nagini so perhaps...?" Draco suggested looking between me and Harry. Harry nodded, knowing they had to get this over with sooner rather than later. If they destroyed this, then they would be that much closer to finding the answer.
"I'll open it and you hit it. Whatever happens, you destroy it. Got it?" Draco said looking Harry in the eye. Harry nodded and gripped the sword tighter. Then Harry shook his head. "It can't be opened without speaking ParselTongue. So I have to open it. You destroy it. It might react better to you." Harry said keeping eye contact with Draco. Draco's eyes widened as he realized what Harry was asking of him. How could he do this? What would the locket do to him? He took the sword from Harry and gripped it tightly. He didn't want to screw this up.
I watched with baited breath as they looked at each other, their eyes trying to figure out what was going to come out of the locket once they opened it. I looked back at the past few months. So much had changed and we had all grown up a bunch. I was no longer the bushy haired nerd of Hogwarts, and Harry was well on his way to defeating the Dark Lord. I hoped that our efforts would work, and I hoped that eventually we could go back to things being normal. For once, I wanted a normal life. It had been over 7 years since life had been normal for me. 7 years? Can you believe that? It seems like a few weeks ago we were meeting on the train, and being sorted into Gryffindor. Things were coming to an end.
Harry closed his eyes, and hissed out something. As the locket swung open a dark mass flew above Draco. It started talking to him. It was the Dark Lord's voice. As scared as we all were at hearing His voice, we knew that there was no point being scared. He had no idea that someone was hunting his precious Horcruxes. He couldn't feel it when someone killed a part of him. It started saying things to Draco. Draco swung the sword over his head, cutting it off before it could say anything else. The locket was crushed underneath the force of Draco's hit. Draco glared at the monstrous thing, and we were all thinking the same thing.
"That makes 4 down, 3 to go." Draco said quietly collapsing on the snow. Harry and I joined him and we sat for awhile, contemplating the last few minutes. We had destroyed two Horcruxes and were so close to finishing this. Was it a coincidence that our luck had gotten better once Ron left? I wanted to shake my head at the thought, but something stopped me. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was a good thing Ron had left. We had met someone who had been more intelligent, and much more knowledgeable about goings on in the Death Eater ranks.
"So where to next?" I asked looking into Harry's eyes. I hoped he knew what we would do next.
"Not sure. We still have the Hufflepuff cup. And whatever Ravenclaw thing you were talking about earlier, Malfoy. And then there's the seventh and final one. Any idea what it could be?" Harry asked looking at me. I had an inkling of an idea, but I was really hoping that I wasn't right.
"Well. I have a feeling that when Voldemort attempted to kill you, he left a piece of himself with you. I mean he left the mark and his ParselTongue, it seems to make sense that part of his soul would remain as well." I said quietly staring at my feet. I wasn't sure how Harry would react to that. He remained pretty quiet, he was thinking about everything.
"So does that mean I have to die?" Harry asked quietly. I shrugged my shoulders, unsure of how to answer him. I got up suddenly and brushed the snow off myself. Harry and Malfoy were staring at me, wondering what I was doing.
"Well, let's not waste any time. We should try to get all of this over and done with before more people are hurt and killed. Who knows how many lives we'd save by defeating Voldemort." Hermione said happily. She knew that the first place to look would be either at a Wizarding Library, or Hogwarts itself. They had to find out what Ravenclaw artifact Voldemort had somehow made into a Horcrux. I helped Malfoy and Harry up and we set off for the Leaky Cauldron. What better place to start than Gringotts. Malfoy could get into the Lestrange Vault and get the cup without any problem. They would destroy it and leave it for the Dragon way beneath the main Bank.
Me and Harry were of course different than normal. For instance We had charmed Harry's hair a light brown, and his eyes a simple brown. His skin became tanner and his form a little more muscular. I charmed my hair a light blonde color, straightened the curls out and made my eyes a dark black.
Me and Harry wore very different clothes than the Muggle clothes we had been walking around in since the Wedding. We knew it was a risk going to Gringotts, to the Malfoy's vault, but it had to be done. And we were in less danger after charming our appearance and going with Malfoy than we were on a normal occasion.
Draco flashed a smile at the Goblin at the front and told him he was Draco Malfoy and was there to get something from his Aunt's vault. The person nodded him through without a doubt. He was nearly identical to his father and no doubt everyone knew who he was without having to tell them.
When we got down to the vault, Draco carefully removed the cup from its place. He had dismissed the Goblin who had led us down here the moment we got here. Draco and Harry took a quick glance around and, signaling that it was safe, they swung the sword and destroyed the fifth Horcrux. I couldn't believe our luck. This was turning out to be much better, I was almost thankful Ron was gone.
That night we dined, still in our charmed appearances, at the Leaky Cauldron. Draco's Aunt paid for the whole meal, what a generous lady. We couldn't talk about our plans to find the last two Horcruxes here. Too many ears, too public a place. We had to wait til we got to a place we could talk privately. Renting a room was too dangerous, we would probably Apparate to a forest and sleep there.
Its how we had gotten by before and it worked for us. I looked at Harry, wondering if he was thankful that this was almost over. I wondered if, had things been different, how he would have dealt. What if me and Ron hadn't ended up as his friends and instead Malfoy had been his friend at first? I wondered to myself silently as Harry and Malfoy started talking about things like Quidditch. They seemed to be getting along quite nicely.
Suddenly Malfoy tapped my arm, bringing my attention back to him and Harry. "Ready?" I asked looking at the the pair of them. They both nodded and we quickly got up to leave. I left a few knuts and sickles to pay for our drinks and we walked out of the Leaky Cauldron.
For awhile we walked down the street, figuring out silently where we would go. Then Harry grabbed my hand, and I in turn grabbed Malfoy's and we Apparated to some place unknown. Harry immediately started setting up the protective wards, and me and Malfoy assembled the Enchanted Tent. It was late and we all needed rest. It had been a stressful day, and no one wanted to talk about how we were going to do things.
We decided in the morning we would talk about where we would go next. I knew that we had to figure out where the next Horcrux was, and more importantly, what it was. We couldn't decided whether to ask an older witch or wizard or go to someone who might know. The only problem, who would know?
I knew I had to bring up a good idea. "We can't keep charming ourselves and our appearances. There's a possibility that we could be followed by our magical trail, even if we aren't still plagued by the Trace. We need to come up with another way of keeping our true identities hidden." I said starting the conversation off.
"What are you suggesting?" Draco asked, his eyes confused. Harry kind of understood what I was saying, but he wasn't sure, I could tell.
"There's a few Muggle inventions that could seriously save our lives. Hair dye, color contact, spray tan, and, especially for you Harry, make up. A little bit of concealer might hide that scar. And that would be so much easier than charming your hair to cover your eyes. Come on, it might be safer this way. Because magic can't see through Muggle things. I know how to dye hair and it'll be easy." I said, hoping to persuade the two of them.
They barely took it into consideration before agreeing. They said it was a good idea, because any finite incantatum can reveal our charms, but it won't reveal us if we have dyed hair or colored eyes. It was the smart way to go in this war really.
"And another suggestion, is maybe work on other accents. If we get caught by Snatchers we can use another accent and just say we're camping. Some of the other countries aren't entirely aware of what's going on here. The closer countries do, but Australia, and America are not so impacted." I said looking at Draco and Harry in turn.
They both agreed that that would also be a brilliant idea. Saying goodnight to one another we slid into our respective bunks, and attempted to fall asleep.
However that didn't last long when I felt something nudging my arm. I looked over out of the corner of my eye and saw Malfoy crouching beside me, trying to shake me awake. I rolled my eyes, what was so important? And why couldn't he have mentioned five minutes ago?
"Yes?" I asked him, barely moving. I didn't want to alert Harry, or make him freak out for no reason.
"We need to talk. Please, Hermione." Malfoy whispered back. I sighed, a deep sigh, half for the show of trying to sleep, half out of exasperation. Why did we need to talk now of all times?
"Go outside, I'll meet you out there in five minutes." I whispered almost inaudibly. However he got the gist of it and walked outside. I watched Harry and knew he was asleep. He wasn't a very good fake sleeper and I could just tell with the way he breathed and the way his face twitched that he was definitely asleep. I sighed yet again and removed myself from my bunk. I wasn't sure how well this was gonna go, but I knew it needed to happen.
"Yes, Draco?" I asked walking up behind him. He turned around and hugged me. His arms pulling me into a warm embrace. For awhile we just stood there like that. His arms around me, and mine around him. I wanted to know what he was getting at, but I also wanted to stay here and not fight, not argue, not even talk. I didn't want to move from this moment.
"I'll always be here for you. And as much as I want you to be mine, I want you to understand that no matter how long it takes, I will wait for you to be ready. I love you so much. And I don't want to spend another day without you. I'm sorry that I had to leave. But I'll understand if you want to just be friends for now. As long as I'm near you, I don't care." Draco said looking me in the eye. I couldn't help but wonder if I wanted the same thing.
"Draco. I'll be honest with you. Not much has changed since our last conversation about us. I still love you. And I'll always want to be with you. But I don't think that now is the best time. We are hunting Horcruxes and I don't want to have to worry about how Harry will react, how people will react to us being together. I want to wait, until people become more relaxed about the whole ordeal to be together. At least publicly together." I said, hoping he would understand. He nodded smiling.
"Well at least that's a start. We can be together in our hearts, but I can wait until the public calms down for us to be together in the open. I love you Hermione. No matter what happens between now and then, I will always love you." He said. And I knew he meant it. I knew that he also meant that coming with the brunt of the war was a decision he was going to have to make.
He had to choose which side he was fighting for, and the hardest thing was that neither side at this point was going to really want him or show any mercy to him. He knew as well as I did that the next few months were going to be very tough. And because he had come out and helped me and Harry, there was a better chance he was going to be pardoned. A really good chance.
"I love you too." I said quietly before giving him a quick kiss on the lips. I tried to pull away but he held me close, his arms strong and binding. I smiled into the kiss, knowing I had set myself up for it. For a while we stood there kissing. I broke off the kiss and looked him in the eye. "It's late. We should be going to sleep." I said quietly, hoping he would finally let me go. He smiled and nodded. We walked back to the tent, his hand holding mine. This was exactly what I wanted. I went to sleep, happy that things were finally going the way they should be.
In the morning we agreed that talking to the Lovegood's would be the best idea. We silently Apparated and made our way to their house. It was quite a strange house, but what else would you expect from the Lovegood's? I smiled as I thought about Luna and her strange ways. I missed her dearly. As we knocked on the door we heard a few crashes and bangs and suddenly the door was opened by a very happy looking Mr. Lovegood. He smiled brightly at us, unsure of who we were.
"Hi, Mr. Lovegood? I'm Harry. Harry Potter. We met at Bill and Fleur's wedding. And I was wondering if you could help me with a few things." Harry said stepping forward. Mr. Lovegood held out his hand and shook Harry's hand vigorously. As we passed him he shook both mine and Malfoy's hands quite vigorously and asked us our names. He frowned at Malfoy as he said his name, but I explained that Draco had swore to help us defeat the Dark Lord and was not affiliated with his family anymore. Mr. Lovegood nodded, but still looked at him warily.
"Harry, what is it you need me for?" Mr. Lovegood asked, his eyes bright and shining.
"We wondered if you have any idea about a Ravenclaw artifact? Any artifact at all?" Harry asked. He knew it was a vague question but someone who was so involved in Ravenclaw as Mr. Lovegood was, had to know about things associated with the House.
"Yes. There is one in particular that I'm sure most every Ravenclaw knows about. Ravenclaw's Diadem. No one knows where to find it. They say it's lost. But I have no doubt that someone will find it eventually." He said his eyes gazing dreamily at something else. This was definitely Luna's father. He showed them a few pictures and even a sculpture of it. This was going to be much easier.
Draco said that he thought he might know where it was, but it would have to be the last one. As we left the Lovegood's house Harry looked at the two of us, his eyes cold and sad. I wanted to understand what he was thinking. I wanted to understand what was going through his head, and wanted to make it all better. But I couldn't. Could I? I looked at Malfoy, and it was like they were having a silent conversation between just the two of them.
I was very confused. I didn't want to be left out of any decision making and them talking to one another was not going to bode well with me.
"What are you two doing?" I asked them, stopping and staring at them. They glanced at me and while Harry looked at the ground ashamed, Malfoy stared straight at me. He was afraid of telling me what was going on. Which meant it had nothing to do with Malfoy. He looked back at Harry real quick before turned once again towards me. I wanted to understand. But I had a feeling that it was going to take me awhile to understand exactly what was going on. "Malfoy, you tell me right this minute what is going on." I said starting to get very scared. Was Harry going to do something completely and totally irrational? What were the two boys thinking?
"Hermione, there are two Horcruxes we had no idea about. I think we'll all agree that the Ravenclaw diadem is a good bet of what one of them is. The other one however we're not sure about. The only clue we have is what you suggested it might be. And we need to think about how we're going to go about this if you were right." Harry started. He looked at me. And we both understood what was being said.
If Harry was a Horcrux, then that meant they had treat him like a Horcrux. It made sense. He had parts of Voldemort inside of him. He had the link with the scar, and the ParselTongue. If Harry was the last Horcrux, that meant that they had to kill him. I looked at him, hoping to God that he wasn't really considering this. How could he consider this? How could Harry allow himself to think this way? This would mean the end of it for all of them! Harry would die and no one would be left to vanquish the Dark Lord. This was terrible.
"But Harry. If you kill yourself to destroy the Horcrux, who will vanquish You-Know-Who? Who will be there to defeat him? We can't do this without you!" I freaked out at Harry. He looked down at the ground, knowing exactly what this was doing to me. Draco nearly refused to look me in the eye. I wasn't sure how this was all going to end. He came forward and engulfed me in a hug. We stood there for god knows how long before he said something.
"You are the smartest witch of our age. And Malfoy has always been second best in class. I know that between the two of you there is no doubt you will at least kill Voldemort. You are so brave and intelligent. I hope you know that no matter what happens I will always love you like the sister I never had. Please, just understand that i know what I'm doing. It makes sense that a part of him would go into me and if you could see it the way I see it, you would think it was a good plan. Please just know that you are my best friend. And also, follow your heart. I know that may not make much sense, but think about it and you'll understand." Harry said holding my shoulders. Even without thinking about it, it made a lot more sense than it probably should have.
"Hey, Scarface, don't be saying your goodbyes now. You still got a few things left to do before you commit suicide. Come on, let's go get people rounded up and back up on our side." Malfoy said stepping between the two of us. I smiled weakly, holding back the tears threatening to slide down my cheeks. I didn't want Malfoy to see me cry. Probably for what might be the twentieth time, but still.
We all Apparated to a forest, hoping to maybe hide away and get some rest. We weren't sure whether we were still being looked for or not, but we didn't want to take any chances. With Harry there was almost no doubt that we would be hunted no matter what day of the week it was. They slept peacefully that night. They didn't have to worry about how they were going to survive the next few days, or what they were going to do to destroy You-Know-Who. However I tossed and turned with bad dreams. I couldn't help but feel something bad was going to happen.
When we woke up in the morning I tried to stay as quiet as possible. I was listening outside, and I swore I could hear someone talking. Or something moving about. Draco saw the way I was acting and suddenly got very nervous.
"Mione. What are you doing?" He asked me quietly as I randomly stopped in the middle of the tent.
"I hear something outside." I said quietly. Suddenly, the noise was gone, and I felt I could calm down a bit. Draco told me to stay put and went outside to investigate the noises outside, but being the stubborn person I was, I followed. My mistake.
Outside were a bunch of Death Eaters and Snatchers, all of which had their wands pointed at us.
"Who are you and what are your names?" It was Bellatrix. I silently thanked Merlin for the preparations we had built up. It is amazing what haircuts, hair dye, and color contacts can do to people. Harry was now a dirty blonde with dark blue eyes, my hair was dark brown with green tips and I had hazel nut eyes. And Malfoy had nearly black hair with eyes just as dark.
They didn't recognize us. I was thankful for that at least.
"I'm Emily Weinberg, this is Elliot Wulff and Ryan Jones. We're just here camping. Is there a problem." I had made sure that if we had been found, we had nearly perfect American accents. Usually the English didn't care about Americans and what they did.
All of us, looked at them, we didn't hide the fact that we were wizards. We knew that we would have a better chance if we were wizards instead of muggles.
"Have you seen this kid around anywhere?" Bellatrix shoved a paper in my face, and I saw mine and Harry's faces in the front. And Malfoy's face beneath ours.
"Nope. Why are they in trouble?" I asked innocently. I was legitimately curious as to what stupid story they had cooked up about us.
"Well the girl and the dark haired kid kidnapped the blondie and then are threatening to kill a whole bunch of Ministry officials. We need to find them quickly before they kill anyone else. They've already killed a few people and they're very dangerous." Bellatrix said, already sounding bored.
She looked a few more times at Harry, but with a bit of coverup, his scar was completely gone. We didn't know why we hadn't thought of it before, it would have been so much easier.
"Well, you'll be the first to know if we see 'em, right?" Draco reassured them, his accent flawless New Yorker. I had gone with the more Southern approach, and Harry with SoCal surfer. It worked for him, what with the dirty blonde hair and all.
They were totally believing us. They left us in peace a few moments later. And we were alone again.
"Hermione, you are freaking brilliant. They totally didn't recognize us, you brilliant woman!" Draco said hugging me tightly. He looked like he was about ready to kiss me. Which I wouldn't have minded... entirely.
Harry also gave me a hug, and we realized that we needed to keep moving. We had to get to Hogwarts and find the last Horcrux. I wanted to get this over with and continue on with my life.
As I lay in bed, thinking about the next week was pretty much gonna go, I was a little concerned. It was possible that I would lose my best friends, the man I secretly loved, the people I had called my family for years, and everyone I knew. It was also very possible that we would encounter Voldemort and vanquish him as we planned and we would win this.
I was really hoping that we would win this.
There was a million things running through my mind as we ran from place to place. We were hiding out in Hogsmeade and trying to make our way to the Castle. We couldn't use Draco much to our advantage because his disappearance was now out in the open. But we were still trying to figure out a way. We hid out in the Hog's Head, and we really hoped we would be able to figure something out in there.
I thought there was something oddly familiar about the bartender, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I just felt like I had seen him somewhere, especially with those piercing blue eyes of his. I couldn't help but stare.
"Emily, what are you staring at?" Draco or Elliot asked me. I nodded towards the bartender, and Harry or Ryan looked towards him. He looked back at me confused.
"His eyes." Was all he whispered back to me. And I nodded back. We had both noticed something familiar about the man's blue eyes.
"They're like Dumbledore's." Was all Draco said to me. And that's when I remembered. I had been in a bookstore, waiting for Harry and Ron at Fred and George's shop towards the end of the summer, when I saw a book about Dumbledore. I had thumbed through it and found he had a brother named Aberforth. That's how the eyes are familiar.
I quickly waved the bartender over to a corner, and he, thankfully, followed. I don't know why but I knew I could trust him, there was a glint in his eyes that made me want to trust him. "I need your help, but I'm not entirely sure whether I can trust you or not." I said quietly. He smiled kindly at me.
"Are you from Hogwarts?" Was all he asked, and I nodded my head, hoping that was good.
"I've got a friend in there, name of Neville." And that's all it took. Neville knew who to be friends with.
"My name is Hermione Granger, and I'm with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, who by the way joined us of his own accord. And we were hoping that you might be able to help get us into Hogwarts. We have something there that we need to get. If we don't destroy this, we can't defeat... You-Know-Who." I said quietly, whispering in his ear. He nodded and quickly took a small golden coin out of his pocket and pressing it, he whispered into it, waited a little bit, then whispered some more.
He excused himself and went upstairs, saying he would be back momentarily. I walked back to my seat next to Draco and Harry. I thought about calling them by their cover names more, but I realized in my mind it was just too confusing.
"What just happened?" Draco asked me, looking quite concerned for me. I shrugged and whispered that I'd tell them later. And for a little bit we continued to sit there and drink our butterbeer, or in Draco's case, firewhiskey. How he could swallow that stuff down was beyond me. I had never had it before, but according to Harry and Ron, it tasted disgusting.
Ron. It had been awhile since I had seen him. Well... it had been a little over two weeks. Two weeks and we were nearly done with something that had taken us almost six months longer with Ron. Ron had slowed us down quite a bit. What with his splinching, and us not knowing where to go next. But when Draco had come along things had changed.
Suddenly Aberforth was back, and this time Neville was with him. I ran forwards and hugged Neville, nearly crying with relief.
"Hermione! Harry? And don't tell me that's Ron?" Neville said identifying me, but having troubles with the other two.
"No, that's Harry, and that's Draco. But oh my, am I glad to see you! How are you doing? How is Hogwarts with Snape being headmaster?" I asked hoping everyone was rebelling against him.
"Not good. He's brought in Death Eaters to keep things straight, but they're not nice at all. We're now learning the Dark Arts, and anyone who has any connection to you three... well you, Harry, and Ron... is beaten. Ginny always has cuts and bruises, Luna is pretty badly beat up. It got worse during winter break. All of us would have left, but we were forced to stay here. They said that you had kidnapped Draco. Which I guess they weren't lying about. But Snape got better once the break was over, he lightened up, but only slightly." Neville said as he led us towards where he had come from.
"Well, Draco joined of his own accord. And Snape got better because he helped us. He can't be as mean anymore cause he's on our side. But he can't let You-Know-Who aware of that. Neville, we are so sorry that this has been going on. Merlin, if I had known earlier..." I started, but Neville cut me off.
"It wouldn't have changed anything. You're here now, and I hope you've destroyed all the Horcruxes?" Neville asked looking between me and Harry.
"Almost. We still have one more, and we know that one's in Hogwarts." I said quietly.
"Two more, Emily." Harry said behind me.
"Emily?" Neville asked looking at me.
"Its our cover names. My name is Emily Weinberg, Harry is Ryan Jones, and Draco is Elliot Wulff."
"I am one of the Horcruxes. I will be the last to be destroyed. Wait where's the sword?" Harry said looking at me. I gasped and dug around in my purse looking for the sword, but I couldn't find it.
"It's not here." I said feeling desperate.
"Don't worry. It doesn't matter. Neville, once I am dead, you have to kill him. Do you understand? He will be mortal, and as long as you're brave enough, which I know you are, you can kill him and save everyone before too many people die. You got it?" Harry said looking Neville in the eye. I remembered the prophecy Harry had told us about. I remember him telling me that it was either him or Neville that it had been talking about and he still wasn't sure which one it meant still.
"I understand, Harry." Neville said nodding.
"If you can, try and get the sword. But a Killing curse from behind will do the trick as well. If we do this right, he won't be expecting it. But make sure you have back up, especially if he's surrounded by Death Eaters." Harry said, hoping that Neville was actually listening. Neville nodded, then looked back at Aberforth. They seemed to have a conversation with their eyes. In the end, Aberforth nodded and closed the door behind us.
We walked down the tunnel, leading us to Hogwarts. And thats when I remembered that we had not checked if this was actually Neville.
"Neville. In first year, you stood up to me, Ron and Harry. What happened?"
"You Body Binded me, and went off to go get the Sorcerer's Stone."
"Alright, I just remembered we hadn't made sure you were you." Neville nodded totally understanding of the situation.
"Alright, so we need to hurry to the Room of Requirement, and try to find that Diadem. If we can find it and destroy it before anyone realizes we're here that would be good. Cause then we can hide out in some dorm room and make a plan of attack." Harry said as he walked between me and Neville. Draco was on my other side, casually grazing my hand every few seconds.
"Well, if we don't have a sword, how are we going to destroy it?" Draco asked. For a moment we were all stumped. Then I knew the answer.
"The Chamber of Secrets! Harry you go down and open the passageway and get a basilisk fang, then me and Draco will go and find the Diadem we'll meet up with you in the Gryffindor common room. OK?" I said hoping this new plan was better.
"Alright. Hold on." Neville took out the golden coin, and I realized that they had copied the DA's communication technique and were using it for their own use. He whispered into it when it glowed blue. He whispered something else and put it in his pocket.
"It took four Order members to recreate the coin. But this time we have it so if we whisper into it, it goes to a certain person. Then we can talk back and forth with each other through the coin. Everyone's is personalized. It's pretty cool. Kind of like that Muggle invention you once told me about, Hermione. A phone, was it?" He asked looking at me. I nodded and thought it was absolutely amazing.
"So what did you just do?" I asked him, feeling slightly uneasy.
"Oh, well, Aberforth was going to alert the Order to your presence at Hogwarts. We've been trying to find you for months. But no avail. And now you're here, so we can start keeping track of you guys. But he was gonna call them, cause it sounded like this was gonna be it. But you have other plans, so this is good. He now knows our plan and he'll start gathering the Order members in his pub, and he'll hide them upstairs. And eventually they'll all be here to help us when we need their help." Neville said. He sounded so calm. How on earth was he so calm?
"Ok. That's cool." Harry said smiling and nodding. We finalized the plan then made sure that we knew the Password to the commone room. And then I handed Harry his cloak, Neville said that we were close to the Room of Requirement and that it would be no problem to sneak in there then over to the common room. He promised to help us. It wasn't like we had to keep quiet or anything, because it was the middle of the day, and there was no doubt people would be about. Neville himself had no classes to go to.
When we finally got to the castle, we stepped out in the middle of a passing period. No one looked twice at us. Me, Draco and Neville went towards the Room of Requirement and Harry went off towards the Second floor Girl's bathroom.
I looked at Draco, knowing he knew better what to ask for then me. "I'm asking for the room of all lost things." That was where Harry had hidden the Potions Book the previous year. I nodded, and watched Draco pace back and forth. Me and Neville kept watch, but nothing happened. We slipped quietly into the room and found a very large room filled to the brim with various objects.
Draco immediately started towards an old cupboard looking thing and before I could stop him, he summoned an axe from across the room and started to break it apart.
"Draco?" I asked when he was done.
"That was one way the Death Eaters had in. Now it's gone. They will hopefully have a harder time of getting here now." He sounded distant. I held his hand as we looked at the broken cupboard.
Then we started looking. I quickly tried summoning the diadem, but that did nothing. Absolutely nothing.
It felt like hours had passed before Neville cried out to the two of us. We raced around the piles of crap and found him. He was holding a small silver crown. It was the diadem. Ravenclaw's Diadem. It was what Mr. Lovegood had had in his house. This was definitely it. I smiled at Neville and hugged him. This was amazing. The last two weeks had been such an amazing time, and much more what I thought this would be like.
We made our way back to the Gryffindor Common Room. How long had it been since I was last there? Almost a year I would guess. We walked into the Common room, and Ginny was sitting down near the fire, doing her homework vigorously. Apparently, if you didn't do your homework it wasn't good.
"GINNY!" I squealed running to hug her. She was confused for a minute, and stood up trying to get away from me.
"It's me Hermione!" She relaxed and hugged me back.
"I got a letter from mum, Ron went back home. But apparently you guys weren't with him. What happened? And that's not Harry." Ginny said.
"Shh. No ok from now on I'm Emily. This is Elliot and your boyfriend is Ryan. But don't worry. It wasn't working out with Ron. Elliot here joined us soon after he left and we're almost down. All we need to do is destroy this, and do something else, and then we can destroy him." Hermione said quietly sitting down near Hermione.
"That's fantastic. But who is Elliot really? Don't tell me..." She said looking at Elliot.
"Yes, it's the ferret. But don't worry. He's a good guy now." I said looking at Elliot. We exchanged smiles and a small agreement passed between our eyes.
If we make it out of this, nothing will ever come between us.
Suddenly Ryan walked in with a basilisk tooth. "Alright, let's get this over with." He said. Elliot put the diadem on the floor and Ryan handed me the fang. I quickly destroyed the diadem, wrecking it with the tooth. It was kind of hard, but it worked nonetheless.
Ryan collapsed on a chair, thankful that it was now done. He sat there with his eyes closed and just breathed for a second.
"Alright. Now let's start planning." Neville said quietly sitting down near the rest of us. We got close and started making a plan.
We would knock out the Death Eaters at the school, and get Snape on our side. Then we would get the Order in here to protect the school and the kids and whoever fought for our side would stay out and fight against those who wouldn't fight with us. It was going to be bloody, but hopefully we would win. We knew it was a long shot, but we still had hope. We had many good fighters on our side, and we hoped that soon this would all be behind us.
Eventually Harry, or Ryan as we were now offically calling him, told us all to go down and get food. There were so many kids at this school no one would notice if three more kids were there than normal. We went down in a large group and ate quietly. Then we went back upstairs and sat in the common room, waiting until it was empty of innocents.
Suddenly there was only the kids that were without a doubt on our side. Neville 'coined' McGonagall who joined us and congratulated me, Harry, and Draco on our success at destroying the Horcruxes and not getting caught by Snatchers.
Neville and McGonagall sat down and they discussed the plans we had come up with and she agreed. Neville made the call to Aberforth who circulated the plan to the Order, the entirety of which was ready and waiting at the pub. They made moves to be at the Hogwarts entrance soon, and then it would start. The battle, the end. I looked at Draco and jerked my head towards the hallway. He nodded and we made our way to the hallway outside the common room.
"So this is it. In a few hours, we'll be fighting to the death out there." I said looking at him. He nodded, and looked away quickly.
"I don't think I'm strong enough." He said quietly. I was confused. Of course he was.
"Of course you are! You're second in our class. And you know more spells than I do! You are more than strong enough." I said trying to get him to look at me.
"I don't mean physically strong enough. I know I'm strong enough to do this. But I don't think I'm strong enough emotionally. I don't want to lose you, Hermione." He said quietly. I opened my mouth, but quickly closed it. I walked over towards him and hugged him.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." I whispered to him. He hugged me back tightly, hoping that the harder he hugged me the more I was gonna stay there.
"Let's go back and see if they want us to get take down the Death Eaters here. That will be fun, right?" I asked trying to him to smile. He chuckled and nodded.
"Hey, so, do you want me and Emily to go and take down the Death Eaters here?" Draco asked as the the Portrait swung safely back behind us.
"Yes, that would be wonderful. I'll call them over here and you two can ambush them." McGonagall said. She almost sounded gleeful at the thought of them being hurt and possibly disappearing. We all laughed, and me and Draco went to go wait outside for them. Within a matter of minutes we saw two Death Eaters round the corner and a quick battle between us ensued. It ended so fast the Death Eaters had no idea what hit them. But they lay on the floor, unconscious and bruised.
We made our way back into the Dormitories and informed them of our success.
It was the middle of the fight before I saw Draco again. The Death Eaters had arrived quickly, as did You-Know-Who, and the Order members followed close behind. Everyone was here, including a few Ministry officials. More and more people were arriving for our side, and we were defeating those on his side quicker than he liked apparently. Mrs. Weasley had brought all of her sons with her to the fight. And they were a formidable group.
The Weasley's stunned all their victims, not wanting to kill anyone in case they got lifetime in Azkaban. Which they most likely were. Ron and a few other helpless beings started making piles of Death Eaters, and made sure no one woke up. We fought our hardest and Draco kept trying to stay near me so that I wouldn't die without him killing my killer. He was prepared to do the Killing Curse if it meant avenging me, apparently.
I looked over to the last place I had seen Harry and I saw him kiss and hold Ginny before walking off. I nudged Draco a little and he grunted in acknowledgement. We were standing back to back and fighting our hardest. This was actually quite fun. Or so I thought. Draco didn't seem to be having as much fun as I was.
We made our way to where Harry had disappeared from and started following him. We were the back up plan. We knew that he had told Neville to kill Voldemort when the time was right, and we had made sure Neville was there when Harry died. The thing I forgot to say was that Voldemort had told Harry that he had someone he cared about very much and that person would die if Harry didn't meet him out by the lake. Harry didn't know who he had, but he couldn't risk it.
Harry was about to sacrifice himself. We were kicking ass though, and we didn't know why Voldemort was making stupid requests like this. He must have known that he was outnumbered and his numbers were dwindling much too quickly.
Me and Draco stood fighting at the entrance to Hogwarts, unable to get past. We saw Harry and Voldemort dueling, we saw Neville hiding with his wand, waiting for the moment Harry fell. It was sad, but we had all dealt with his death hours before.
-Flashback-
While we waited for the Order to arrive, Harry got up in front of everyone and told them that he would not make it to see the daylight. He explained to everyone that tonight was going to be his last night, and that he would die tomorrow so that we all could live. Everyone had so many questions to ask.
Everyone wanted to know why he would think something like that? And why he would just let himself die? But Harry had to explain that he was the Last Horcrux. He was the one they were waiting on. And while he fell, Neville would take down the Dark Lord and vanquish him where he stood. Everyone was silent for a bit. But then came the celebration. We all silently agreed that we shouldn't sit around and mourn Harry's death. We should celebrate life, and the end of the Dark Lord. It was within view and we all had hope that he would die and never rise again.
And while Harry approved of the celebration instead of a mourning, he kept looking at Ginny with sadness in his eyes. I knew that he loved Ginny with more than any of us ever really realized. And he was losing her. And he was putting her through this. I wanted to push them both upstairs, so that they could at least enjoy one night before things changed.
But I didn't actually have to push. Harry did it all on his own.
Draco came up behind me and whispered sweet nothings in my ear as we watched Harry and Ginny disappear into Ginny's dorm room. I had no doubt that McGonagall understood and was just turning a blind eye to their disappearance. She eventually excused herself so that she could go and get the other teachers, and Neville went to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to get the people there who would fight on their side.
Me and Draco sat there, in the common room, talking with our friends. And I knew right then and there, that in a few hours I would be crying. There would loved ones dead, and students who had not even started to live would be lying dead for a fight that was not theirs to fight. I knew that there would be bodies littering the floor. I wondered what would become of the Slytherins. Would they fight with the rest of the students? Or would they fight with the Death Eaters? Would they be completely unaware of the war going on outside their dorm rooms?
I looked into Draco's eyes and forgot everything. This was it, though. We had a few hours, and who knew whether any of us would live to see the light of day?
-End Flashback-
And now we waited. We waited for what we all knew would come. It didn't take long. Within a matter of moments, Harry fell and the Death Eaters near Voldemort surrounded his body, all waiting for someone to confirm his death. I started to cry and fought harder. I was not born into this world, I was not born into this war and I most certainly would not die for this war. I was going to live and carry on when those around me fell.
I would carry on and live when those younger than me, weaker than me, and less brave then me would fall or flee. And when the dust cleared I would be standing victorious even if I was the last of my side. I would stand victorious because I was the brightest witch of my age, best friend to Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy's love, and I was a muggleborn. I was better than any Death Eater in Voldemorts ranks and we all knew it.
I screamed in rage and fury and fought against those bastards who sought to destroy me and my kind. I used the Killing Curse, tired of seeing it kill my side and none kill them. I would kill them until none remained. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hagrid carrying Harry's body towards the castle. I saw Neville stand and yell. And I saw people gather behind Neville.
I ended my fight and went to stand behind Neville. I wasn't going to let this bastard destroy all that I had done, destroy my life and the lives of all I loved. I felt Draco stand beside me and I saw the sneers he was given by the Death Eaters. They were disgusted by him for joining with our side. Then in plain sight of his father he took my hand and kissed it.
If we lost this fight, he would die. And I knew it. He would die and I would die. But I didn't care. I loved him, and he loved me and this was our fight now. Harry was gone and this was our fight to fight.
"You shall not harm anyone in this Castle anymore! Your reign of terror is over." Neville yelled above the din of fighting still inside the castle. Voldemort chuckled and attempted to throw spells at us, but no matter what happened, he could never hit us. Then I realized it. Harry had sacrificed himself to save us. He hadn't done it because he was supposed to, he did it cause he didn't want anyone to get harmed while he was safe. He did what his mother had done 17 years ago. We were protected, and not even the Killing Curse could do anything to us now.
"Neville. You know what to do." I whispered in his ear. He nodded and out of nowhere pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor. I smiled. He was brave.
"What are you going to do with a sword, boy?" Voldemort asked his eyes mocking us.
"The sword is just for show, you useless reptile." Draco hissed from beside me.
"Young Malfoy. Aren't you supposed to be dead? Shouldn't Harry Potter have killed you?"
"No. I begged for forgiveness from him then helped him and my girlfriend here destroy your precious horcruxes. Harry was the last one. You're mortal, now Voldie." Draco said mockingly.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry screamed as Voldemort stood perplexed. No one had been expecting it. No one jumped in front of him to save him. Everyone watched as he fell lifeless to the ground. Spells flew everywhere as we dealt with the last remaining Death Eaters.
Everyone ran to Harry, no one expected him to be alive. He told us about how there had been Voldemort's soul, and his soul. And Voldemort had killed his own soul. Meaning Harry's remained in him.
We all trekked inside, all of us scared to see who was dead, who was hurt, and who was missing.
Lupin was gravely injured, and Tonks remained at his side the entire time. Fred had lots of cuts and bruises and Snape had been a victim of Sectumsempra. For the most part everyone was bruised and bloodied, and only a few were dead. Because of my rage, there were at least twenty dead Death Eaters and about forty waiting for trial.
On our side there were only 7 dead. Which was really good considering how many could have been killed. Harry at first ran around trying to find Ginny, but when he didn't see her, he started to panic. He got all worked up and started screaming for her, running up and down the halls looking for her.
Finally he found her, lying in a pool of blood in the middle of a hallway. Just about the time he found her, Ron found her as well. Harry was there at her side in an instant, picking her up and carrying her to Madame Pomfrey.
"Harry, mate, I'm real sorry I abandoned you and Hermione. I guess you guys had better luck with just the two of you. I'm hoping she'll take me back. Do you think she will?" Apparently Harry didn't answer because when they got back to the main hall, Ron went to find me.
"Hermione, I'm really sorry about abandoning you and Harry. If I had known how close you two were to finding the other Horcruxes I would have stuck around. I love you soo much Hermione. Please forgive me?" He asked holding my hands. I flung my hands away from him.
"Don't you dare touch me, Ronald. You left us, and abandoned us. You just ran off without another word and you had me and Harry worried sick that you might get caught." I screamed at him. No one was paying us much attention. You could barely hear me above the noise in the Great Hall anyway.
"I'm sorry, 'Mione! I was worried sick about you too! I promise I won't ever run out on you again. Now please forgive me?" He said begging me now.
"Hermione, I need to talk to you. Or my mum needs to talk to you." Draco said, placing a hand on the small of my back.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER FERRET!" Ron screamed at Draco. I slapped Ron.
"Don't you dare tell Draco what to do. You are immature and think you can just get me back. Well I've got news for you Ronald Weasley, I've moved on. And you don't get to get me back. Who do you think you are? Some buff man who's smooth and gets whoever the hell he wants? Well think again, Ronald." I screamed at him. He looked at me then at Draco.
"So it's Draco now?" He said with that 'attempting-to-be-threatening' voice.
"Yes, and he's also my boyfriend. And has been since beginning of sixth year. Now excuse me, I must go talk with Narcissa." I walked off, annoyed with the loser already.
How I ever put up with him before was beyond me. I couldn't believe that it was over now. I couldn't believe that we could finally have a normal life. Or as normal as it would ever get.
When I walked over to Narcissa she smiled at me and held my hands. "Hermione! I have heard so much about you from Draco. I had no idea how in love with you he was until recently, but my god, he was right! You are absolutely beautiful." She said touching my face. I was glad that she was fine. We hadn't met before, but because of all the times Draco had talked about his mother it seemed like she already knew her.
"So what are your Draco's plans now that this war is over?" Narcissa asked, hoping that it was going to be a happy ending.
"Well I was thinking about convincing her to marry me some day soon." Draco said coming up behind me.
"Oh, how wonderful! I can't wait for this! I've always wanted to plan a wedding. I hope you don't mind if I help you plan?" Narcissa asked looking at me. I shook my head.
"Please. I would be helpless without your help most likely." Narcissa looked happy about this. But she soon frowned, looking over Hermione's shoulder.
It was Ron. He looked a little helpless and very confused.
"Can you just explain one thing to me. When did all this happen? When did you and Malfoy?" He sounded sad, and small. It was like he had just found out something absolutely terrible.
For a moment I had to think about the question, thinking about how I was going to answer this. I had to take every thing into consideration and tried my hardest to come up with a proper answer for Ron. The old him really deserved to know the truth. She looked at Draco, and almost immediately saw the line she should say. She had heard it once, in a movie, and it had explained everything.
And she knew it was perfect for this exact moment. It was nearly the same thing, too. Hermione smiled, as she stared into Draco's eyes. She was going to make him watch that movie as soon as they got to her house. It was a must see movie.
"You asked me when we fell in love? Well it was... while you were running."