Chapter 37
It had been exactly two weeks since Ron had left the camp; two weeks since his name had been uttered, and two weeks since he was mentioned. Hermione knew that the entire ordeal had taken a large toll on Harry's mental and physical state, which she could see by the dark circles under his eyes growing with each day.
Even though it was Hermione who stayed by Harry's side, it was still Ron who was his best friend. Maybe it was because of his gender, or because the two boys had more in common; regardless of the reason, it still stood that Ron was the person who Harry was closest to.
A few months ago it would have bothered her; in fact it had, but now she was more worried about her friend than some petty thoughts about why it wasn't her that he was close to. She loved Harry like a brother, and she knew he viewed her in the same light, which is why it killed her to see him like this.
She sat outside on a log in the cool winter weather, as she watched the flurries around her fall to the ground. She had a heating charm set up so she couldn't feel the full extent of the coldness, but she was still able to feel a slight chill. When was it that her life got so complicated? She was barely 18, and while it meant that she had been a legal adult in the wizarding world, she felt like she was anything but. She loved Harry so much, and there was no way in the world that she wouldn't be here with him right now, but she would be lying if she said she wished she didn't have to do this, that he didn't have to do this. They should have been able to grow up without Voldemort's presence looming over them all the time. Harry should have had a childhood with two loving parents, and not the Dursleys. It just wasn't fair.
She squeezed her eyes close as a few rogue tears swept down her face. She wasn't crying because of her life, or what should have been. She was crying because she had no idea what to do, and it terrified her. She was the logical one; she prided herself on always having a well thought plan, but now she didn't even know what general direction she should go in. She brought her knees close to her chest as she wept softly.
"Hermione?" a hesitant voice called out from behind her. She quickly wiped her eyes, hoping to eradicate any trace of her tears.
She felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and she looked up to see Draco, cradling her into his chest. She leaned into him and rested her head onto him. Draco placed a kiss onto her forehead, but didn't say a word.
Neither of them did; they just sat in silence for a while. Draco ran his hand over her back in a comforting manner.
It wasn't just bothering her to see Harry so upset. The departure of Ron also left her devastated. The three of them had always been friends; even when they had fights, they never full out left the other. Ron had always been the rash one, even more so than Harry was.
A person is always the most truthful when they are angry. It was a simple truth that her mother had told her when she was a child. For when someone is angry, they speak everything and anything on their mind, without any sort of barriers preventing them from what they thought. It wasn't the angry ones you had to worry about for keeping things from you; it was the ones who were always calm and rational.
It didn't make the truth any less painful though.
"Always sleeping with the enemy, aren't you?"
"I loved you, you know? I loved you so much, and you kept crushing my heart for all these guys who are only going to hurt you in the end."
"You're nothing but a stupid girl who spreads her legs for every man who looks her way."
It wasn't fair. Ron always believed the things he wanted to, and wouldn't listen to reason. She loved Draco, more than anything in the world, but there was a time where she had feelings for Ron as well. They had been nowhere near as strong, but they were still there. And while it took him four years to even notice she was a girl, she had been pining after him since second year. And even when he finally realized he had feelings for her, he couldn't up and tell her, he had to ruin the night which was one of the greatest in her life, all because of his jealousy. And then he spent all of sixth year chasing after Lavender Brown, simply because he was a hormonal teenager. But Hermione just dealt with her pain; she never tried to sabotage their relationship.
It wasn't that she had anything against pre-marital sex; it was just that she wasn't ready. She wanted to wait until she was absolutely sure, and Draco knew and understood that. But Ron painted her out to be some sort of slut who slept her way through Hogwarts. Merlin, the most she and Victor did was kiss chastely. The older boy may or may not have wanted more, but if he did, he never showed any signs of that. She hadn't exactly had that many boyfriends either.
Did it even bother to say those words? Did he even think about what the words meant and how they would affect her? For someone who claimed to have loved her, he obviously had no regard for her feelings.
"Hermione, you know what Weasley said wasn't true right?" Draco said, breaking her thoughts. He always had a way of knowing just what was bothering her.
She sighed softly and met his eyes, "I know. It just hurts to think he would even have those sorts of thoughts. I know his family is in danger; every day I worry that I'll find out someone I care about has been killed. If anything ever happened to Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, or anyone in that family, I don't know what I'll do. I thought he knew that. We all care for them; the Weasleys are like a second family to me."
He cupped her face gently, "I know, they're all really wonderful. They're so different from the family I grew up around, but there's far more love to go around." He paused before continuing. "That wasn't the only part I was talking about, Hermione," he said, as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "He may have been angry, but he had no right to comment on your virtue."
She remained quiet, not trusting herself to speak. Hermione simply looked at the ground.
"Hermione, look at me," he said ever so gently. The hand that was still on her face brought it up toward him, so he could see her. "Nothing he said was true."
She nodded, "I know, I just never expected him to release all that anger onto me. I knew he had feelings for me in the past, but I thought he had let them go graciously. Now I'm not so sure."
"He was just angry, Hermione. Wealsey's not the greatest actor, so if he had feelings for you still, then they would have been prominent."
Draco didn't speak after that. Her head resumed its previous position against his chest. He gave her room to think, while he stayed by her side. That's one of the things she loved so much about him; he knew exactly what she needed without her saying it.
"Hermione," he asked her hesitantly after several minutes had passed.
"Hmm?" She asked, muffled by his chest.
"What happened, with your parents?" he asked her carefully. "What did Harry mean, when he said you erased their memories?"
She sat up straight before replying. She stared at her hands before looking back at him. "I don't know how much of the Daily Prophet you saw when you were staying with your Aunt and Uncle, Draco, but it was getting really bad. Muggles were being killed right and left just because they exist; they still are. The Death Eaters know that I care for Harry, and that it would devastate him if anything happened to me. Who do you think they would have gone after first? They would have tried to kill me and my family if we stayed at that house. The Death Eaters probably figured I didn't go back to Hogwarts because of my Blood Status, and they know Harry is on the Run. They would have tried to draw him out. And honestly, if I wasn't helping Harry, I would have been at home. But I can't be there, because my place is here, and that would leave them alone, defenseless."
"So you erased their memories of you?" Draco asked her in a soft tone.
"They think they're Monica and Wendell Wilkins, and that their life ambition is to move to Australia. They're probably there now, living safely with their new identities, with no idea that I even exist," she said, as her eyes welled up again.
"Did they know before you erased their memories that you were going to?"
She nodded. "I debated against telling them. I was even going to at first. But then I realised that I couldn't do it without telling them. It's good that they agreed to, otherwise I would have had to do it without their consent."
She didn't say anything for a few moments. Instead, she simply watched the bare branches of the trees blow with the wind. There was a light frost along the ground, and she knew that winter was coming. Before long snow would cloak the ground, and she would be forced to add even more heating enchantments to keep them warm. Hopefully it would be enough.
Most of the animals had already begun their hibernation, so the woods were quiet. It made it lonely at times, even though she still had Harry and Draco. However, Harry was constantly preoccupied with other matters. She didn't blame him however; he literally had to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it wasn't an easy task to go about.
Draco squeezed her hand, and she smiled sadly at him.
"I think the worst part is that I have no idea where they are. I know they were supposed to go to Australia, but it's not exactly a small country. On top of that, what if I can't undo the charm? They may never remember me."
"Hermione," he said gently. "I can't promise that it will be easy, but I can promise that you won't have to do it alone. I'll help you find them, and I'll help you remove the charm. This war will result in many losses, but your parents will not be one of them."
She wrapped her arms around her neck, catching him off guard. He stumbled backwards, and fell onto the ground, and she landed on top of him. However, he simply smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist.
She laughed, "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."
He pulled her in for a kiss. "Doesn't matter. I rather enjoy this," he said, placing his lips upon hers.
"Hermione, Draco, are you out here?" Harry called out from inside the tent. Her friend came out, and saw the two of them in their current arrangement. He smirked at them, "Am I interrupting something?" he asked, amused.
Draco shook his head, as he got up. He helped Hermione up from the ground before letting out a laugh. "Nope, just Miss Clumsy here, knocking me down."
She glared at him, as she hit him playfully, "You're the one who fell over and brought me down with you, Malfoy!"
Draco held his hand to his chest, "Oh how you wound me woman!"
Harry held in a laugh, "I see you two are getting along splendidly."
Hermione smiled. "Was there something you wanted to say, Harry? It seemed like you came out here for a reason."
He nodded. "I want to go to Godric's Hallow. I've been thinking about it for a while."
She agreed with him. Hermione had been wondering about it for some time; ever since she found out that the sword had been removed, she had been thinking of places where Dumbledore could have left it. Godric's Hallow came to her mind a few days ago, but she hadn't said anything yet. She wanted to have been surer about it first, but seeing as Harry brought it up, he must have drawn a similar connection as her.
"I agree, we should go," she said.
Harry and Draco looked at her in surprise. Apparently neither one had been expecting her to say yes.
"Er, Hermione, did you hear me properly?" Harry asked slowly, as if he did not believe her answer.
She was tempted to roll her eyes, but refrained from doing so. "Yes, of course I did. You want to go to Godric's Hallow right? I agree that we should. Dumbledore probably left the sword there."
Harry looked baffled. "The sword?"
Maybe he hadn't made the same connections that she had.
"Yes, Gryffindor's sword, Harry," she stated calmly.
Draco's eyes seemed to draw comprehension, however Harry's did not.
"Why would it be there, out of all places?"
"Godric's Hallow is where Gryffindor lived. Honestly Harry, have you never read A History of Magic? Godric Gryffindor also owned the sword, so I assumed it would be a logical place for the sword to have been hidden."
He finally got it. She didn't bother asking him why he wanted to go there if not for the sword. Hermione figured that it was probably because of his parents, and wanting to see their place of death. She reached for his hand. He had suffered so much because of this war, and he didn't deserve it. Harry deserved to have two parents, and maybe even siblings, living with him. He deserved happiness, not the job of bringing down the darkest wizard in history, while he was barely on the edge of adulthood.
"So when do we leave?" Draco asked her. While Harry may have been in charge, she was the one who made sure every plan had been well thought out before it was put into action.
Harry looked up at her eagerly, and she nearly felt her heart break.
"Soon. We can't go right away; there may be Death Eaters waiting for us. We have gather supplies so we can disguise ourselves well enough first."
Harry nodded, "Soon then."
It was a disaster, to say in the least. Hermione sat in the tent staring worriedly at Harry's unconscious body. Draco had gone outside to cast up all the protection wards while she sat inside with her friend to make sure he didn't get any worse.
She wasn't sure when the trip to Godric's Hallow went so wrong. At first it seem nice, nostalgic even. The streets were quiet, as it was around Christmas, and everyone was at home with their families. The three of them left the words unspoken of how it was a far different Christmas than what any of them had previously experienced.
It was still alright when they went to the grave yard. She had been a bit stunned to see that there were grave stones marked with the Deathly Hallows on them, mainly for Peverell Family. Hermione assumed that it must have meant that they were possibly once owners of the Deathly Hallows, however it still seemed unlikely to her that the Hallows even existed. But since the symbol kept popping up, she knew that it would have to be explored some time or the other.
After going to the Potter house, they had seen a lady and Harry insisted that it was Bathilda Bagshot. Hermione and Draco weren't too sure about this, but had followed her anyways. That was where they made their first mistake. The second was allowing for Harry to go alone with the woman that they barely knew. It was only thanks to Draco's paranoid self that the two of them had gone after Harry.
They had made it to the top of the stairs just in time to see Bathilda transform into a snake. The next part happened so quickly, and was filled with cursing and hexing. Harry had slipped into his unconscious state shortly after the snake, Nagini had contacted Voldemort.
Harry currently was tossing and turning in front of her. He was muttering things, words and sentences that she couldn't make out, and it terrified her. The locket was stuck to his chest, and it seemed like nothing would get it off of him. She wanted to try and hex it off, but it wouldn't be safe. It worried her, to leave it on him. She had no idea what the repercussions of having a Horcrux on for so long could be.
Hermione knew she would have to tell Harry about his wand as well. She was worried about how he would take the news. It hadn't been her fault per say; her spell had bounced off a wall and Harry's wand had split in two.
"Has there been any change?" Draco asked her softly as he came back into the tent. He had helped her apparate Harry out while she cast a hex to distract the snake. She had no idea what she would have done without his help. Draco even carried him inside the tent and placed him on the bed.
She shook her head. "He's still out," she whispered. Draco came and sat beside her, and wrapped his arms around her body.
"He'll be okay, Hermione," Draco said, as the two of them stared at Harry.
"You don't know that," she said, scared of what could happen.
"I do," he said in a voice that was so sure. She looked up at him, and saw no hesitancy on his face. "Harry always survives, despite everything that life has thrown his way. He'll survive this too."
The two of them took turns that night, watching over Harry, but he never left his unconscious state. Hermione remembered praying that Harry would be alright, before sleep finally claimed her.