AN: Thanks to all the reviewers – you guys are truly awesome.
Chapter 20 Sending a Message
Hermione waited in the basement for Nearly Headless Nick to appear through the vanishing cabinet. While she waited she rolled her shoulder gently, testing the healing that had taken place since Fleur had rubbed her 'magic' ointment on it. She groaned internally at her own lame pun, and then giggled a little. The ointment had helped the shoulder was notably less stiff and the pain had eased off. She knew that it would take a while to get back to her old self but this was another step in the right direction. Hermione was looking forward to getting Fleur to rub the ointment on her shoulder again, not that pain relief was her only motivation, she smiled to herself and closed her eyes as she remembered the felling of Fleur gently massaging the ointment in. It had felt so good, so comforting, so safe.
"Hello!" Nick exclaimed. Hermione yelped in surprise as she was torn from her memory and was suddenly face to face with Nearly-Headless Nick who was bowing to her through the cabinet door. "I say I am rather surprised that this works!" Nick said. Hermione smiled.
"Hello Sir Nicolas!" she exclaimed and she too was surprised this plan had worked, but Luna had proven herself right once again. "I am very happy to see you." Hermione told Nearly Headless Nick.
"I had better get back before the Bloody Baron finds out, he is with them you know." Nick explained. His tone when he said the word left no doubt in Hermione's mind which 'them' he was referring to.
"Alright Nick, thanks for helping us." She said acknowledging his need for a quick departure.
"Oh no trouble at all," Nick said as he bowed again, "After all us Gryffindors need to stick together!" he told Hermione and then with the same haste that brought him here, he was gone again.
Hermione turned and headed upstairs to the kitchen, as she came through the door she noted from the moonlight coming in the kitchen window that it was quite late. Hermione turned her attention to the table, Luna was reading a letter and smiling, clearly delighted with the letters contents. Ginny was sound asleep her head cradled in her arms as she slumped across the table. Fleur was mulling over some deep though as she sipped on what Hermione hoped was not coffee at this hour or she would never sleep.
"Well it works," She announced. Ginny, startled out of her sleep by the sound of her voice, shot upright tin her chair holding her wand poised as she squinted around the room, looking for the threat that had awakened her. Fleur set her cup on the table and turned her full attention to Hermione, while Luna set her letter down and gently placed her hand on Ginny's arm to let her know that there was no danger.
"Well zat is good I suppose. So what ez ze plan zen?" Fleur asked a little warily. She was concerned that Hermione was going to ask them to go there and then and the group as a whole was not ready for that.
Hermione glanced at the time and noted that it was 11:30pm. "Let's meet back here at 4am, we will go through the cabinet and into the room of requirement, then we will quietly sneak through the halls to the second floor girls bathroom where we will enter the Chamber, grab all the fangs and then make our way back. Hopefully with it being the middle of the night we won't meet anyone, though we will need to keep an eye out for patrols." Hermione finished. It wasn't a solid plan; there was lots of room for error, but it was the best one she had. Strictly speaking the plan only needed Hermione to go, but she knew that if she mentioned that then Fleur would insist on going, and probably Ginny and Luna too, so she didn't bother. Hermione had also toyed with the idea of sending everyone to bed then sneaking there on her own, but she dismissed that as she did not want to face Fleur's disappointment when she returned.
Hermione looked around the table, Luna and Fleur were nodding in agreement however Ginny had gone a little pale. "Ginny, are you going to be alright with this?" she asked, knowing that her best friend's last trip into the Chamber of Secrets had not exactly been a picnic. Ginny swallowed and nodded, locking eyes with Hermione, the two seemed to have an unspoken conversation before Hermione offered her a reassuring smile and Ginny nodded again, this time more assertively, and got to her feet.
"I suppose we should get some sleep before we go." Ginny announce. The rest of the group got to their feet and headed off to their respective bedrooms to do just that.
Hermione had set her alarm for 3:45am and managed to somehow wake up a full minute before it went off and turn it off. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and grabbed her wand from the bedside table. Setting her feet on the cold wooden floor she took a deep breath, adrenaline was already pumping round her body. Hermione held her hand out in front of her and it shook, she took a deep breath and gave herself a mental pep talk then was satisfied to see that her hand stopped shaking, well almost. Hermione slipped off the bed and tip toed into the bathroom.
Fleur had felt the change in weight distribution on the bed but wanted to allow Hermione this moment to herself and so pretended to be asleep. When she heard the bathroom door close she sat up and stretched. Fleur was not looking forward to the task ahead and she was reminded of another time when she had a challenge that she had to face which she thought was impossible. Madame Maxime had come to her bedside to tell her that she had learned the first task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament would involve dragons and Fleur had felt her stomach drop. Facing a dragon seemed impossible to her at the time, but Fleur had met the challenge face on and come out the other side victorious. Today could only be the same, though this time Hermione was the Golden egg she had to protect and Fleur was a ferocious dragon.
The bathroom door opened and light spilled into the room, Fleur looked up and smiled. Hermione had taken a quick shower, she had a towel wrapped around her and she was using a second towel to dry off her hair. She looked beautiful even like this. Fleur gave herself a mental pinch and turned and grabbed the ointment that she had made. She smiled at Hermione and the brunette smiled back, then fleur stepped behind her and swept her hair over the opposite shoulder. Fleur scooped some of the ointment onto her left hand before rubbing both hands together, warming the ointment. Hermione could hear what Fleur was doing and smiled, she liked that Fleur warmed the ointment, it spoke volumes about her. Hermione's breath caught in her chest as Fleur began to massage the ointment into her shoulder.
Fleur was working hard not to give in to temptation and just lean forward and place gentle kisses on Hermione's neck. She smiled as a quiet groan slipped from Hermione's lips, the ointment must be relieving quite a bit of pain for her to moan like that. A moment later a knock on the door brought the massage to an end as Hermione yelled for whoever it was to come in and Fleur wiped her hands on the towel that Hermione had been using on her hair, which she had dropped on the floor.
Luna entered the room, "Hermione, there are Nargles coming out your ears, have you been drinking gurdy root tea?" she asked her friend. Hermione instinctively lifted her hands to her ears and swatted at some invisible bugs.
"No but the ointment that Fleur made for my shoulder contains gurdy root." Hermione replied. She had learned long ago just to go with whatever the Ravenclaw said for two reasons: one because it was easier than arguing with her and two because more often than not she was right.
"Oh that explains it!" Luna exclaimed as she set some clean clothes on the edge of the bed, "Ginny had these prepared for you," she indicated the clean clothes as she winked at Fleur, for some reason best known to herself, and left the room.
Hermione and Fleur looked at each other and then burst into a fit of giggles, which turned out to be just what they needed to relieve some tension that they had not even realised existed between them in that moment. The two witches got dressed and headed down to the kitchen.
Hermione was carrying her wand and a bag that she had put an undetectable extension charm on, the rest of them just had their wands. They headed into the basement and stood before the vanishing cabinets each of them looking at it with more than a little trepidation.
Ginny opened the cabinet door, "hmm well its big enough for two of us at a time," she said, "wands out as well, just in case." The other three witches complied with the order and drew their wands.
"'Ermione and I will go first, zen in 60 seconds, you two should follow," Fleur said to Ginny and Luna as Hermione was already climbing in to the cabinet. Ginny and Luna nodded their understanding. Fleur climbed into the cabinet beside Hermione and pulled the door closed with the hand that was not holding out her wand. In the blink of an eye the door flew open again, Fleur reached out to close it, thinking that she had not latched it shut properly when Hermione reached out and stopped her pushing the door open. Fleur looked out into the room and realised why as Hermione stepped out. They had travelled into Hogwarts in the blink of an eye. Fleur followed Hermione out and shut the cabinet door so that Ginny and Luna could follow them. While she waited for their arrival Fleur looked around, there were piles of random 'things'. In fact the room was a veritable cornucopia of discarded and broken items none of which looked like they had ever been on fire. She turned to find Hermione stuffing a book into her bag, before she could ask about it though, Ginny and Luna spilled out of the cabinet.
"Curious way to travel, I feel quite sick." Luna announced as she stepped from the cabinet. The other three regarded her curiously, but none of them could think of anything to say so they proceeded towards the doorway.
As they reached the door that would let them out onto the seventh floor corridor Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, Fleur almost walked into her but managed to stop herself at the last moment. Hermione was kneeling down looking at something.
Luna stepped beside her and looked down, "Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem?" she asked in wonder, "Harry was looking for this." She said and she reached down to touch it, Hermione stopped her.
"Don't touch it!" She said quickly, "Can't you feel the dark magic that surrounds it?" she asked but Luna just looked puzzled, which was not a look that Ginny had ever seen on her before.
"Dark Magic?" Ginny asked but Hermione ignored her. They were supposed to have destroyed it, the books said the fiendfyre would destroy a Horcrux, but then they hadn't seen it destroyed, the doors to the room shut before the fire had consumed it.
"It's a Horcrux. Harry, Ron and I thought we had destroyed it but I think when we left the room of requirement it put out the fiendfyre before it consumed the dark magic within it." Hermione explained as she reached out to a nearby pile of chairs and tore some of the fabric off. "I am going to put this in my bag, you don't want to touch it with your skin, even carrying it you might notice a difference in me." She explained and using the fabric she picked up the diadem and slipped it into her bag.
Once the horcrux was securely in her bag she got to her feet and led the other witches to the door, reaching out she opened it a crack and looked out into the dark corridor. The coast was clear and the four of the slipped out the room and started to make their way down the stairs.
Just as they were on a staircase that led from the third to the second floor they heard a yowl from Mrs Norris and froze. So far they had been lucky and had not come across anyone, but they knew that they were not far from being caught by filch if they could hear his cat.
"She is behind us." Luna said and pushed Hermione gently nudging her onwards. Hermione didn't question Luna, she just trusted her and started to creep down the remaining steps and onto the corridor. When the group reached the girls bathroom they opened the door a crack. It creaked loudly, and the creaks echoed through the stone corridors. Luna leaned over Hermione's shoulder and pushed the door open before pushing the brunette forward into the bathroom, Fleur and Ginny close behind.
"We need to hurry, if Filch didn't hear that then Mrs Norris probably did." Luna exclaimed as she shut the door. Ginny stood before the sink, she was white as a sheet and trembling. Hermione stepped beside her and squeezed her hand reassuringly and that seemed to be all she needed as she hissed in front of the sink and the whole thing began to change shape before their eyes with the sound of stone being dragged against stone.
Before they could enter the chamber however the ghostly figure of Myrtle stood before them. "ahh I see you have come back Ginny to cause more troubles? Well did you bring Harry with you?" she asked as she flew around them.
Hermione raised her wand "Petrificus totalus" she said and Myrtle froze in place, she knew that if they ever saw the ghost again they would get an earful for that but they did not need the annoying ghost drawing the attention nor did they need the distraction. Hermione stepped forward and entered the tunnel leading into the Chamber, the rest followed. It was not long before they reached another circular door and there was no doubt that this led to the basilisks lair by the snakes that emblazoned the door.
At the sight Ginny froze entirely. No amount of hand squeezing was getting her to move this time and Hermione steeped forward and tried to repeat the words that Ron used to open the door. She got it on her third attempt and as the door unlocked itself and swung open Hermione turned to Luna, "Wait here with her," she whispered. She then looked at Ginny, "You did great Ginny, we will be right back ok?" she didn't get a response but then she hadn't expected one.
Stepping into the lair she looked at the spot where she and Ron had kissed and felt pain and betrayal in the pit of her stomach. Hermione tried to squash down the feelings and pretend they did not exist but she was unsuccessful and tears dripped from her eyes. Fleur came up beside her and took her hand pulling her forwards. The warmth of Fleur's hand distracted Hermione from the cold in her heart and she soon was able to put her head back on the task at hand. They stood before the skeleton of the basilisk and looked at it. Hermione counted 9 remaining fangs and knew that she needed to remove them all, she could not risk Ron telling the Death Eaters they were here in case they used them as a weapon or worse destroyed them so that there was no way to destroy You-Know-Who.
Fleur and Hermione carefully collected the fangs and placed them in a compartment of Hermione's bag so that they were separated from the rest of the items in the bag. Once they had retrieved the last fang they returned to where they had left Ginny and Luna. Ginny was back to her old self again but definitely seemed ready to go, she raised her eyebrow questioningly.
"We got them." Hermione said answering the unasked question and heading back up to the bathroom. Once they were out of the Chamber and at the bathroom door they let Fleur cast a silencing spell on the door before they opened it and crept out into the dark corridor. As they tip toed their way back towards the stairs Hermione could not shake the feeling that this had all gone a bit too easily. Sure enough as they reached the top of the stairs onto the fourth floor they walked right into Filch, who was flanked on either side by death eaters.
"Told ya there was someone in the castle!" Filch said victoriously as Mrs Norris Meowed at his feet in agreement. Fleur and Ginny instantly cast stunning spells at the death eaters as Filch reached out and grabbed Hermione. Luna took the bag from Hermione and ran, Hermione struggled in Flich's grip twisting and turning trying to get away but to no avail, wand in her hand completely forgotten. Ginny's stunner had hit home and the Death Eater had crumbled to the floor, she turned and ran after Luna as Fleur duelled the other Death Eater. Just as Fleur had reflected a stunning spell back at the other Death Eater and hit them Hermione had managed to wriggle free from Filch's grasp, both of them tore off hand in hand in the direction Ginny had ran in, knowing that the other two witches would be trying to find an alternative route up to the seventh floor.
Hermione and Fleur rounded a corner and skidded to a halt as they came upon Lucius casting a crucio on a heavily bleeding Ginny. Instantly incensed Hermione fired hex after hex at Lucius, hitting him several times even after he went down. She pressed forward while Fleur scanned the corridor for more Death Eaters. They reached Ginny who was coughing up blood and Hermione knelt down and helped the wounded red head to her feet. They continued heading towards the room of requirement and as they got to the seventh floor corridor and waited for the door to open Fleur scanned the corridor defensively.
Once the Death Eaters had realised there were intruders in the castle the whole place had been lit up like a Christmas tree. The paintings were offering the witches words of advice and encouragement, they too were clearly unhappy with the new regime. It was one of the painting (one with a wizard teaching some trolls how to ballet dance) that told them that the Death Eaters were coming. Hermione leaned a still bleeding Ginny against the wall beside where she thought the door might appear and took a defensive stance in the direction the paintings said they were coming from, Fleur took a similar stance beside her.
Hermione froze as she heard that cackle, her insides seemed to turn to water as fear coursed through her. Bellatrix tried to break through her mental barrier and Hermione felt yet more panic rise within her. Fleur squeezed her hand, she had heard it too. Before the Death Eaters came around the corner the doors to the room opened, Hermione struggled with Ginny but eventually, between them, Fleur and Hermione got Ginny through the door. They half dragged her into the room and over to the cabinet before they heard the unmistakable sounds of 'bombarda' being cast at the wall.
"Fleur, take Ginny and go, I swear I am right behind you" Hermione shouted as Fleur was opening the door to the cabinet. There was no time to argue, Fleur unhappily got into the cabinet as Hermione and she lifted Ginny's legs over the threshold of the cabinet. "Tell Kreacher to get ready to seal the cabinet!" Hermione yelled as she slammed the door closed.
"My Lord they are getting away!" Hermione heard the unmistakable voice of Bellatrix and spun around to see, they had broken through the wall and Bellatrix was helping You-Know-who make his way into the room followed a number of Death Eaters. Hermione opened the door to the cabinet and climbed in dodging a hex the Bellatrix threw her way. She took one last look at the Death Eaters before closing the door and what she saw stunned her.
"Harry?" she yelled out questioningly, more than a little surprised to see her best friend commanding the group of Death Eaters.
"Foolish Girl," Hissed a voice that was most definitely not Harry's yet it came from Harry's body. She ducked as he fired a hex at her and pulled the door shut. A second later she spilled out into the basement of Grimauld Place and was delighted to see Kreacher warding the cabinet so that no one else could come through. Luna was there which also relieved Hermione and she and Fleur were tending to Ginny's wounds. Hermione sank to the ground, had she really seen Harry? Why was Harry talking with You-Know-Who's voice? He must have somehow possessed Harry's body. As she deduced this she leaned over and breathed heavily.
All this time he had been alive. If Harry Potter was alive but possessed by Voldemort then how did she kill Voldemort without killing Harry? She had to let him know that she was coming for him, both of them, and while she had no idea how to kill Voldemort without killing Harry, she did know how to get that message to both of them. She pushed herself to her feet and went over to Ginny's side, she was asleep but Fleur and Luna seemed to have healed the worst of the injuries.
"Luna, my bag?" Hermione asked in a tone that implied that she was definitely not kidding. Luna reached over to where they bag was sitting and handed it to Hermione. Fleur got to her feet and reached out to touch Hermione but the brunette pulled away from the touch as she reached into the bag and pulled out the diadem. Hermione reached into the compartment and pulled out a fang then dropped to her knees.
"'Ermione what is going on?" Fleur asked. Hermione set her bag down as she placed the diadem on the floor in front of her.
"I am sending a message," she said and she raised the fang above her head and plunged it down into the diadem as she did so. Hermione was thrown across the basement and into the wall. She slumped to the floor and passed out. Just as she was losing consciousness she could swear she heard Voldemort cry out, she smiled, he seemed to have got the message.