A/N: As always, thanks for the reviews! They were lovely and helped so much. To get an up-date soon, be sure to leave lots of feedback, please! I hope you enjoy this chapter. It too moves quickly. As you can see, we are getting close to the end…
Part I: Hermione's Trap (Chapters 1-13)
Part II: Hogwarts (Chapters 14-22)
Part III: Christmas (Chapters 23-30)
Part IV: Not Yet Certain (Chapters 31-41)
Part V: A Lighter Darkness (Chapters 42-45)
Stolen
Chapter 42: Welcome Home
Hermione opened her eyes with great effort, as if someone had placed a weighting spell upon her eyelids. The room around her swam a little and noises were muffled as if by a thick fog which seemed to fill the room. She found that even though she struggled, her mouth could not form words, but her parched throat made a little scratching sound.
A voice, distorted as if underwater, came close to her. Something cold touched her forehead. Concentrating very hard, willing all her energy to her limbs, she tried to leap up and run. She could not remember why she was running.
"Easy, Hermione." A soothing voice urged through a cloud of confusion. "You can't move just now, so there's no point in trying. You're safe here."
She eased a little at that melodic rising and falling of the low tones. A hint of familiarity was in the voice, in some scent close to her. A sweet sip of water trickled down her throat and though she coughed, she swallowed it happily. It cramped a little going down, being so delightfully cold. Her body surrender to exhaustion or to whatever magic had been placed on her for presumably her own good.
She dreamed she was walking through Malfoy Manor garden. She thought it might be winter because everything was black, the way it went so lifeless one began to believe nothing would ever be green again. It was very quiet too, and every small branch that popped underfoot, every shifting stone, echoed. The hedges looked rugged.
It went on and on, the fountain always in sight but never getting any closer. The Manor never came into view either. The air was not cold. It was not warm. There was no breeze or bright sunlight. It was one grey cloud overhead. There was not even any scent in the air. Strange.
At first, walking in the garden was relaxing, but the longer she went without seeing life, without hearing anyone, the more sinister it grew. Not dangerous, just vast and empty. On and on with only silence and blackness and feigned death.
As she rounded a hedge, Hermione felt a hand tug hers and she was pulled to her knees. She found herself at Harry's side. Green eyes sparkling brilliantly, he hushed her and pointed through an uninviting gap in the bush through which she could not see. Ron appeared and crouched on her other side. He was carrying massive longbow.
"This will get him, Harry." Ron smiled widely with glee.
"Get who?" Hermione asked. Harry pressed his finger to his lips. Ron looked through their spy hole, but Hermione, even pushing him aside, was still unable to see. She blew her hair from her eyes in frustration.
"Not Porthos!" she exclaimed in a harsh whisper, remembering the poor, blind bear that had once frightened her.
Ron handed his friend the bow, ignoring Hermione. "You best take the shot, mate."
"He's harmless." She grabbed, Harry's arm.
"Hermione's he's a killer." Ron told her, looking at her as if she had gone daft.
Harry aimed and fired through the hole before she could stop him. She instantly covered her mouth to stop herself from crying out. Tears burned their way to her eyes and welled there at the terrible moan the animal gave, hit.
She scrambled around the hedge towards it, ignoring her friend's cries and blowing the maze of greenery out of her path. When she came to the clearing, she stopped cold. There, in the center was the fountain, water overflowing and covering the ground. Heaped on the ground she did not find Porthos, but a figure wearing dark clothes of fine quality. Blonde hair disheveled. Face contorted in pain. Body trebling. Blood pouring out onto the stones, blossoming out in the water.
"Draco!" she cried to him. He could not speak. He collapsed.
She tried to run forward but found as she did, she moved backwards instead. Her friends stared at her as if she were losing her mind. They stood there, dumbly, doing nothing.
"Harry! Ron! Please. He's human for god's sake! You can't just hunt him like an animal."
The figure, looking more like a heap of clothes than anything, remained motionless, but the water, rather pink with blood, rose the base of the hedges, and things—first the dried vines wrapping wildly around the fountain— began to bloom for the first time.
Hermione heard herself scream.
"Hermione! It's alright." A hand pushed her down, but she could not be contained. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? "Hermione, stop." It commanded. Another body entered the room hurriedly and took her shoulders in its large, warm hands. The voice, the one from before, spoke again.
"It's just a dream. Here, have this. You'll feel better." Remus Lupin extended a piece of chocolate.
"Where's Draco?"
Lupin and Tonks exchanged glances. "We do not know. He disappeared." Lupin informed her.
"But why would he—"
"Is it possible that he has returned to their side?"
"No! He couldn't, he—"
"Alright, calm down."
"But no, you have to believe me, Draco—" the panic of her dream, still fresh, resurfaced.
"If you say Draco can be trusted, then Draco can be trusted unless and until he proves otherwise." The man gave her a serious look, sitting down. She relaxed a little. He placed a careful hand on his now wife. Her cheeks were glowing as if she'd been working rather hard and just recently stopped. The now rainbow-haired woman let out a long breath from her seat by Hermione.
"What's happened? How long was I asleep?" the younger witch rushed out.
"I'm going to go get some tea." Tonks mumbled, acting rather uncharacteristically quiet. Hermione noticed her stomach protruding like she had swallowed a large melon. There was an awkward pause.
Lupin attempted a small, sad smile. "I'll explain everything," he promised. "But first, I have to thank you, Hermione."
"Thank me for what?" she blinked. She had no idea what he was talking about and did not really care, not with everything that must be going on.
"Since James and Lilly, well, I haven't had family. Not really. Then, Harry and Sirius walked back into my life. Sirius was killed. Now I have Tonks, and she's about to have a child. She's been in labor a few hours now and had some potions for the cramps, but she wouldn't leave your side until you woke up. Harry is supposed be godfather, but when he fell ill.. and we thought…I don't know what you did or how you did it, Hermione, but you brought him back to us. And you brought my father."
Oh. John. Of course, she mentally slapped herself for being so self-centered.
"I haven't seen him in ages." Lupin began, "When he tried and failed to help me, to save me, from what I am, well, he could not handle it. The money he spent in experiments and trying to find a cure, in scams, then the money he spent on alcohol after… He lost his practice. He made sure he had the money to let me finish school, but that was all there was. Almost as soon as I finished, my mother died, and he more or less disappeared.
"I always thought he was afraid of me," He continued. "Being a muggle himself. And he's seen me at my worst. I'd…hurt him. I thought he blamed me for the worry that sickened my mother, but he was ashamed. He thought he'd failed me. And all this time, he's been in London.
"He's a drunk; I know that." He gave her an uncharacteristically shrewd look, as if to warn he was in no danger of becoming naïve. "It won't be easy, but potions will help and Snape has agreed to assist there. He'll have the best here with us. I have hope. I know it may not work out, but I'm in Sirius's home." He looked around him, incredulous.
"Harry is in the kitchen, talking," he laughed, "standing! And you're back safely." He smiled at her fondly. "I'm going to be a father and my father is here to see it." His eyes welled proudly.
"I'm so glad things have turned around for you." She replied honestly. "You so deserve it."
"I know I may not live through the battle that is about to happen. I know many of us may not. But I, I'm so happy, I don't care." He laughed, his eyes glistening. She felt her own throat tighten with emotion and not feeling this slightest bit shy, she leaned forward across the warm bed she was safely cradled in and hugged her former Defense against the Dark Arts professor.
"I'm so glad I haven't missed anything." She admitted. He looked at her.
"Well, I'm not sure you're quite fit enough to—" she pulled back, ready to fight him on this one.
The door opened and Harry entered, carrying a tea tray. A thin boy of average height with messy black hair and green eyes. He was completely unspectacular, really. But his appearance was so astounding to her, it was as if the red sea had parted before her eyes.
"Feeling better?" he grinned.
"Are you?" she asked him.
"Harry, she has had quite an ordeal," his mentor began warningly.
"Remus," Harry interrupted him. "You are needed elsewhere rather urgently."
"Remus!" Tonks called.
"Is there anything I can do?" Hermione sprang forward with excitement.
"Rest!" he demanded, shutting the door behind before he rushed off down the hall. She could hear Mrs. Weasley fussing and was glad she would be saved that for the time being, as the woman had more pressing matters.
"Harry, tell me what's happening!" She commanded at once.
"Oh wow, nice to see you too, Hermione."
"Shut up. You know I love you. You must explain what I've missed."
"Well," he lowered his voice and she was blissfully transported to that world that was hers, had been hers since their first year. The world of her friends who had become her family. Of unquestioned loyalty and boundless valor. In this world, she was absorbed by a purpose so important, so vital, that she barely had room for selfish fear for herself and those around her. Harry sped through the synopsis of what had happened since she had 'died' and how badly they had missed her, then how he fell so sick. He picked back up in detail where her memory cut off.
"So Malfoy Manor burned to the ground and Harry Potter went missing. It stayed out of the public for a few hours, but it was soon out in the open and people started to panic. Not long after, there were rumors I was dead and rumors I was better. Voldemort went into hiding, having contact with very few. Snape said he has weakened and is desperate to locate his horcruxes and kill me. He must at least suspect what we have done.
"All communication in and out of Hogwarts was halted to keep the rumors, and the truth, contained. Those at the ministry were struggling to keep things from getting out of hand…"
"People must really be panicked!"
Harry nodded, looking grim. "They believed taking me and burning Malfoy Manor was an attack on Voldemort and the Death Eaters or, according to them, purebloods everywhere. They spread propaganda about resistance movements risking 'your children's lives' by attacking Hogwarts. They retaliated.
"It was bad. It's all over the muggle news."
"What happened?"+
"Trains derailed." She winced. "But that was the beginning," he went on in disgust. "The emergency responding vehicles had been taken over by Death Eaters, some in disguise some using imperious curse. It was a trap. The trains had been systematically located. It was brilliant really. They contained the muggle friends and family of wizards, mostly in the ministry or other places of influence as well as hundreds of others muggles. Over a thousand were killed. Hundreds are missing."
"Oh my g—"
"There are rumors— purposefully circulated by Voldemort, Snape says—that it was Draco's plan."
"Harry," she struggled. "He—he can't." But the truth was she had no idea where Draco had gone. No idea what happened really.
"Snape says he may have been thrown into Azkaban, but he can't say for certain." Harry was quick to add. "Either way, we really don't have much time to find out. It's about to happen, Hermione. We have no choice in the matter to even say when or where. We only know that Voldemort will arrive if he believes I am there. In that, we have the advantage."
She nodded knowingly, then said, "People will only be able to take so much tension, confusion, before they do something rash. And with families, children, being out of contact…"
He nodded.
There was moment of silence.
"Harry, I'm so sorry for what I had to do. Lying to you, k—"she couldn't say it—"hurting you."
"Hermione, you destroyed the Horcruxes. You saved me. And somehow, you escaped the Malfoys, even got one to help you." He shook his head, laughing humorlessly. "You don't owe anyone an apology. I'm sorry you had to do it. It, it was my burden."
"Harry, how many times do we have to tell you? It's not all about you. We're friends. We share."
He smiled and something happened she never thought possible. She felt eleven again.
"Harry," George Weasley opened the door, then stopped. "Hermione!"
"Hi." She offered.
"You're up!" he beamed.
"George, what is it?" Harry reclaimed his attention and his expression and tone change to one of business. Hermione noticed for the first time that her best friend seemed older.
"You had better come hear this…"
Harry got up and went at once down the hall. George went to her side and helped her from the bed.
"Thanks." She offered, leaning on his tall shoulder. He smelled pleasantly of peppermint.
"My pleasure." He smirked as he wrapped an arm around her and helped her subtly down the stairs and hallway to the room where the Order had always met. They entered the kitchen of Grimmauld Placed to find it positively filled with people, all shaking their heads darkly and looking downcast. Some nervous. Silence hung on the air.
"You just missed it." Bill Weasley informed them.
"What?" Harry asked, but no one wanted to answer.
"What happened?" His voice rose.
"Voldemort has demanded you," Mr. Weasley explained "In exchange for re-opening Hogwarts and releasing his muggle prisoners."
"He's come out of hiding." He breathed with a hint of relief no one seemed to catch.
"Just to deliver the message." Mr. Weasley nodded.
Moments later, Fred burst through the doors carrying a small scrap of parchment with some sort of code written on it.
"Ginny sends word from Snape!" he panted. Hermione wondered at her friend's bravery and brilliance as she watched her family beam proudly. "She says that according to Snape, Voldemort has no intention of keeping his word and that his men are, at this moment, trying to eliminate or overpower any student who will not fight under him. And word is he has already killed and imprisoned several of the muggle hostages at Azkaban."
There were moans gasps and exclamations from many she recognized and several she did not. There was no time for that.
"Then he's made himself vulnerable." She announced and everyone turned to her in surprise. She went on, "He's let everyone know Harry's alive. That's got to be something. That's got to give some people out there hope."
"But if we tell others he's alive," Kingsley warned, "That puts him in danger."
Harry shook his head. "I'm already in danger. Hermione's right. They need hope or someone is going to snap."
They nodded in agreement.
"And he looks scared." Hermione added. "They have to know he can't be completely true to his word. Or at least suspect it."
"We need to earn their trust, now more than ever." Harry said.
"It won't take long after a message like that for a panic to ensue and someone to get hurt," said Kingsley.
"This battle won't be a time or place of choosing. We have to be ready." Mr. Weasley stood.
Groups assembled themselves and began conversing and debating various plans of action. A few people came and went in their preparations. The air remained thick with anticipation evenly mixed of dread and hope. Every time a broadcast changed or a door opened, all talking hushed. There was a tense moment of expectation, a small collective sigh, and things gradually returned to the way they had been. Sandwiches were passed around and passed over. Cups of tea were limitless—quite literally.
Harry and Hermione sat together, scarcely speaking, and eagerly awaited news—good news from upstairs and the news that was sure to come from the outside world. It did not take long. Within the hour, news broke of disturbance in Diagon Alley.
"It is unclear what started it, but someone got into a dispute and hexed another person at Gringotts bank, which has closed its doors," the reported said. Great, several people exchanged looks at the third reason to make people tense. The bank is shut down. They can't reach their money or their children.
The reporter continued almost excited, but also dismayed. "Anger and fear spread like a dragon fire and fights broke out among strangers in the halls of the bank, then the streets of Diagon and Knockturn Alley. It's disorder, impossible to tell who is fighting who, just one angry mass wrecking havoc and tearing apart everything in its path. Tension has just become too high it seems…chaos." The sounds of curses and snapping and breaking of objects they struck, of shouts and feet hurrying, were in the background.
"It is the question in many people's minds if Harry Potter were truly the savior of the people…why doesn't he turn himself over to Dark Lord and end this terror…" the man said. Heads in the room snapped quickly towards Harry. He did not seem affected the way they expected. He was frowning in concentration. Something in the man's voice had changed. Became lifeless.
"Harry…" his voice was almost inaudible in the bedlam and static. It seemed to struggle against itself. "Harry…Potter…don't—" Their connection with the fighting at Diagon Alley was lost.
Owls were coming in quickly. An emergency meeting was being called at the ministry; it was time to make a move politically. Peace at Diagon Alley would have to wait.
"Harry," Hermione whispered. "Draco might be there." He nodded.
"And Hogwarts will be next. Our children." Mr. Weasley rose, thinking of his youngest son and daughter.
They looked to Harry. He looked to Hermione. "We have to get, Ron. We have to do this together."
She nodded, though it was not easy to let go. Ron's location was certain. They had to stay together.
"I can get us in to Hogwarts." Hermione asserted.
Harry took charge. "From there we can spread word to the professors, Snape, the Dumbledore's Army. We'll need a diversion for the Death Eaters. Something to draw them to one place."
"I can tell Ginny!" Fred volunteered and leapt into action.
"Everyone who works at the ministry needs to go there. Use all influence and contacts they have. People need to know that I am alive. And that I am coming. I'm not going to abandon them. It's time for them to chose."
Kingsley, Arthur, and two others nodded, standing.
"But we'll lose the element of surprise!" Someone protested in a voice which clearly said it was stupid and foolhardy. "Voldemort will be waiting!"
"He'll be waiting at a place we chose. Away from Hogwarts. That's what's important." Harry turned to Hermione and said only to her, "As soon as they are assembled and we have Ron, we go to Diagon Alley."
She shook her head. "It's only a possibility. We need to go to Azkaban, help as many muggles escape as possible while security is pre-occupied elsewhere."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded bravely, but could not speak. She might vomit.
"Then as soon as we give the word we need everyone else to go to Azkaban to try and release prisoners—"
"But 'Arry," Fleur stopped him, speaking up for the first time. "Won't that be risky? What if the wrong people are released and how will we repair all the memories the same?"
"She's right." Another ministry member agreed. "That will be a job for the new Minister of Magic."
"But then they will have to stay there until the election is complete!" Hermione felt a panic she could not explain rip through her.
The door flew up yet again and Molly Weasley entered, all smiled, her face matching her hair. "It's a boy!" her joy filled the silent room. "What's happened?"
They moved quickly, but not until they received word things were prepared. The moments ticked by as they admired the tiny hands and grey eyes of the newly arrived Lupin child. Savoring such joy, such newness, while willing every moment to pass so that you may at last dive headfirst into the most dreaded event of your life was a paradox only known in war.
The baby's warmth filled Hermione's arms as she hugged him to her chest when Fred entered to announce, "Neville and Luna have managed the distraction with the help of Hagrid. All the professors and Snape are assembling the students who are prepared to fight. The younger ones are being snuck out by the DA."
Lupin insisted on coming and they did not have the time to fight him on it. Molly Weasley demanded her place was with her children. The more wands the better, Harry supposed, giving in too easily. Hermione suspected something.
Straight away, they were in the streets of London, and then they were in Hogwarts again. They met Ron and Ginny almost immediately as they had been watching for their dots to appear on the map. The group exchanged tight hugs in the familiar corridor, tense with anticipation and secrecy.
"The last of the younger ones are being evacuated. Flitwick created carpets for them to speed away on with disillusionment charms." Ginny reported.
"What's the plan?" Harry asked.
"The Death Eaters are being led into the forest by Neville and Luna who were 'caught'. They are on a wild goose chase for Harry Potter. We fed the Junior Death Eater brats some false information about the DA having him." Ginny said.
"Snape managed to break them down in interrogation." Ron smiled.
"Hagrid's got a surprise or two awaiting them." Ginny joined in. Harry's eyes were on her with something between concern and admiration. Hermione recognized it; she'd seen it before. It was respect.
The group began to walk quickly to the Great Hall, nervousness swelling inside them as the moment grew closer, ready to break open like a storm cloud.
"Everyone's been trained." Ron called behind him, almost excited. The air buzzed with it. Their finger tips felt its vibration. Wasn't this why they made the DA, what they trained for, why they had a class like Defense Against the Dark Arts anyway? How could it feel so….wrong? "The professors alone can establish hundreds of protective measures. And then there's the castle itself!" The staircases moved anxiously. The portraits were scarcely more than blurred moving figures.
"Ron, they need them to see me." Harry said. They halted in their tracks. "All of them. They need them to see me and to tell their families I'm alive. And then we need to leave."
"Leave? We can't leave them to fight for themselves after—"
"We must."
"He's right." Hermione intervened. "Some of their parents have been taken. Others will want their children to turn Harry over to Voldemort to save themselves. We want to calm the panic. It's our most powerful tool." Not understanding, the others nodded.
Orders were being given in the Great Hall to sea of short heads—students and houselves. Their commanded turned and smiled at Harry and Hermione fondly.
"Hello, professor."
"Welcome home."
A great noise shook the walls around them. "Not to worry. We are perfectly safe in here!" She shouted to the students. They hushed as Harry stood on the table before them.
"Hi, mates." Hermione smiled proudly. "You remember me, most of you. I know I haven't been well, but that's because of something Voldemort had, a weapon. We've destroyed it. That's why he's panicking. That's why he's cut off communication and demanded my life in exchange for those he's taken prisoner."
There were gasps by some, but mostly just unsurprised dark expressions.
"But I know that you are not going to give in to him. Because a few years ago we stood in this hall while a great man stood right there—" he pointed at Dumbledore's spot. "A man Voldemort feared, and told us how we had to honor the memory of Cedric. Voldemort killed Cedric. And he killed my parents. We cannot change the harm he's done, but we can stop him from killing more. But we have to stick together. Isn't that what we learned the whole time we were here?
"Is there anyone in your house who wouldn't fight for you? Any teacher who would not jump in front of a hex for you? Even Professor Snape tried to save me, and we know how friendly we are." People laughed a little at that.
"That's what we have that they don't. We can trust each other. You can trust me. You know me. I'm Harry," he shrugged. "Just Harry."
Hermione noticed her eyes weren't the only ones watering.
"But there's something they have that we don't yet." He paused and everyone's head shot up in attention. "Something that they have realized that none of us have. Don't you see why he's keeping you quiet? Why he is trying to make us panic and turn on each other? Why he wants me so badly?"
There was silence and hopeful eyes, wide with horror, looking up at him.
"He's afraid because he's realized…we can win this."
A small voice in the crowd began to chant and it spread like a roll of thunder across the hall. The little Creavey boy and Dobby on his shoulders, smiling widely, started it, and it grew until it was a roar one could probably hear from anywhere in the castle. "Harry! Harry! Harry!"
And Harry, shaking his head, punched his fist into the air and shouted instead: "HOGWARTS! HOGWARTS! HOGWARTS!" There was a cry, loud and beautiful. A brilliant flame of feathers soared into the Hall into the rising cries of the students and teachers, Fawkes. He would protect them.
Harry stepped down and addressed his closest with orders, his voice much less confident than a few moments ago. "Ron you are coming with us. Mrs. Weasley and Lupin, you stay here. They need you and they trust you. I have no doubt he'll attack or his men will resist. Hogwarts must be safe. It's more than a school."
They silently agreed. A few one armed hugs, a kiss on the head here and there, and they were running from the castle to the edge of the grounds. Running as fast as they could. Hearing the rugged breaths above all else, wind in their ears. Sides tugging painfully. Ground blurring around them. Behind them when they stopped: a glimpse of lights, red and green, at the castle.
Diagon Alley was soundless, empty and utterly torn apart. Glass in shards. A few bodies heaped here and there. Wood, ash, splinters, wood chips all askew and bloodstained and burned. Papers and feathers fluttering in the air, littering the streets. Carts overturned. Herbs spilled. Clothes on the breeze catching on awnings and roofs. They were late.
There was a moment where the friends stopped in the empty street, the image seared into their memories of the streets where they once bought their first wands, their beloved pets laid to waste by the wild, raging animal that was fear. Vandalism alone illuminated the ruined walls: "Help Us, Harry!" "Fight Harry!" and "Save the Children-Kill the Chosen One!" Ron spoke into the quiet which seemed to echo with chaos of moments before. "We have to go to the ministry. They will need our help to regain power. Once they know we have Hogwarts and Harry is alive, people won't be too afraid to stand up."
"But the muggles at Azkaban!" Hermione pled.
"They won't want them released without their memories being modified." Harry said. "We can't help them yet, but if we regain control of the ministry we can help them later."
She knew that of course, but was trying to buy time to figure a way around it. "But those people. How will we protect them? And Voldemort will suspect you are at the ministry. He'll have an upper hand there."
Harry waivered. "It's up to you, Hermione. What you think is best."
And in that moment she knew she must chose for everyone. "The Ministry of Magic."
A/N: What did you think of this and what do you think is next? Let me know in a review! As for the baby, that was taken from the final book for consistency and because I deeply desired a fair ending for Remus..0 The rest is my original end. The chances of the major fighting taking place in one location is unnatural, and I'm just trying to make it as realistic as possible. Warning: it will not be the same as the 7th book's end!