Hermione was at the front of the crowd, just shy of the front doors, when she glanced back and saw the Doctor standing up again with something big and heavy in his arms. She remembered Harry's doppelganger that Voldemort had killed. It took some effort for her to force her way to the edge of the crowd. "I'll catch up with you inside!" she yelled at Ron over the tumultuous cheers.
Once she had worked her way free, she ran until she was in front of the Doctor and stopped in his path. "Doctor, what are you doing here? And is that really Harry?"
His silence answered her question more clearly than any words would have. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. "Why? Why did you bring him here to die?" she yelled. Try as she might, she couldn't stop herself from crying.
"I'm sorry, Hermione, but he didn't give me any choice."
"What do you mean?"
"He had a long, productive life. He felt his time had come, and that he had to come back here one last time."
"That...that doesn't sound like him. I mean, he's known that that he could die facing Voldemort for years, but to just give up like that?"
"He had a very long life. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get to the Tardis and take him home."
"Oh. Of course. Allow me, Doctor." Hermione stepped aside, a hint of suspicion still in her eyes. With a flick of her wand and a whispered "Wingardium Leviosa," she was levitating Harry's body between them as she followed the Doctor.
"When you say he had a 'very long life," she asked, "just how 'very' are we talking, Doctor? He looks just the same as he does now."
"Long enough that he had taken to telling people he'd come across another Philosopher's Stone and re-created an Elixir of Life."
"And people actually believed he would do that, after Voldemort? Or had he changed that much after all he went through?"
"People will believe anything, when the alternative is believing the impossible. Those close to him knew the truth. But no, he hadn't changed that much. He was, at heart, the same person he'd been as a...as when you know him."
Hermione and the Doctor walked in silence, picking their steps carefully in the scant moonlight. They both occasionally looked back to make sure they weren't being followed. "Well, here we are," the Doctor said when they finally reached the Tardis.
"Oh, before you go, Hermione. Harry did something to the door before he left, and I've been unable to get it open again. Do you mind?"
Hermione let Harry's body come to rest on the ground and examined the door. "Oh, he did a good job with this, didn't he?" she said, almost to herself, then smirked at the Doctor. "Been practicing for a while, hasn't he?"
"Can you fix it?"
"Of course!" She gestured at the door and said "Alohamora." Nothing happened. She frowned and repeated the gesture, this time shouting. The door frame made a sickly squishing noise before the doors popped open with a bang.
"Thank you very much." The Doctor bent to pick up Harry's body again, but straightened up as Hermione brushed past him into the Tardis. "Oi! Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm going with you, of course. Harry is my best friend, and I am not going to miss his funeral. I don't care when it is."
"Hermione, you don't know...wait. Of course you do." The Doctor sighed in defeat. He carried Harry inside and kicked the door shut behind him before setting him down on the deck.
"Harry lived a very long time, Hermione," he said softly as he set the controls and threw the lever. "So when he comes from will probably look a bit different. So, just a quick pop in, then to the funeral, then back again. Agreed?"
"Agreed. Maybe I should wait here for you? Or will you need me to get in."
"I don't have the keys to his house, so..."
Before he could finish, Hermione pointed her wand at Harry and said "Accio house key!" A keyring flew out of his pocket to her waiting hand. "Next problem?" she grinned. She loved seeing the look on muggles' faces whenever she did even the simplest charm around them, and despite his centuries of travel, the Doctor was still basically a muggle.
"All righty, then. I will be right back."
"Oh. Before you go, Doctor," Hermione said after he had picked up Harry again. She cast quick Invisibility Spells over the Doctor and Harry's body.
She stood in the door of the Tardis and looked across the street at 12 Grimmauld Place, trying not to think about the fact that Harry was dead. Oh,not her Harry, of course...not really. But it was still Harry's body that was, even now, being put somewhere for someone to find. That was rather cruel, she thought. Someone's going to find a dead body. Someone close to him, if they live in the same house as him. Maybe his wife, or one of his children.
For some reason, she couldn't shake the thought that he was married. She hoped that he had been happy. But if he had forced the Doctor to take him back in time to die, she suspected that he wasn't. Not really.
She heard footsteps running toward her, then the Doctor's breathless voice near her. "Done. Now, can you let me in and...de-invisible me?"
Hermione stepped back inside. Once the doors closed (seemingly of their own accord, although she knew that the Doctor must have closed them behind him), she cast the counter-spell. The Doctor, once he reappeared, had a slightly manic look on his face.
"Why didn't anybody tell me about the alarms?"
"What alarms?"
"I don't know. Some magic-y stuff. One made my tongue go all weird, and one made the ghost of some long-haired bloke appear and point at me until I said that I didn't kill Harry."
"Oh. Those. They're still around?"
"Apparently so, yeah!"
"I'm sorry, I thought that Harry would have gotten rid of them after everything."
"Right. Well, then. How are you doing, Hermione? Do you want to get some rest before we go on?"
"Yes, I think I would. I'm all right, but a good night's sleep would be good. Thank you."
"I'll park the Tardis somewhere while you get some rest, then. Just straight done the corridor, pick a bedroom you like."
Hermione felt surprisingly well-rested when she finally got out of bed after what felt like days. At first, she had a hard time staying asleep, as it seemed that every time she finally drifted off she had another nightmare and woke up again.
She had found a kitchen and made herself a good breakfast before she found the wardrobe. She spent only a few minutes looking before she found what she was looking for: a black dress with a matching veil.
"I haven't slept through it, have I?" she asked as she walked into the control room.
"No chance of that, is there?" The Doctor was wearing a tuxedo with a black bow tie. "Are you ready?"
"Yes. Where are we going?"
"Godric's Hollow. They're going to have something like a state funeral, then a procession to the graveyard, where he'll be laid to rest with his family."
"I'm sure that's what he always wanted. I remember him saying once that if he didn't make it, he wanted to be buried with his parents."
The Tardis materialized on the outskirts of the city. Hermione stopped when she stepped out of the police box. She had always pictured Godric's Hollow as a small village, and it had been just that when she was there at Christmas with Harry. But now, it was a good-sized town. She could see throngs of strangely-dressed people, obviously wizards, headed toward the centre of town.
"What are they doing?" Hermione whispered as she grabbed the Doctor's arm. "People will see them!"
"They don't have to hide anymore, Hermione. Haven't had to for a while."
The two followed the other wizards to the small church. When they stepped inside, they saw that the inside of the church had been expanded to the size of St Paul's Cathedral. They had no trouble finding a seat, although it soon became obvious that whoever had planned the funeral had done a good job of estimating how many people would show up. It wasn't just witches, wizards, and muggles in attendance, either. A number of centaurs stood against one wall, goblins and house-elves (all of whom, Hermione was pleasantly surprised to see, were fully dressed) sat in the pews, as did a few giants and trolls. Tanks holding a few merpeople were also wheeled in.
Eventually, a handful of wizards walked slowly up the center aisle carrying Harry's body, which they gently laid on the table at the front of the chapel. A tall, somber-looking man with long red hair walked up to the table and started to speak to the mourners. The longer he spoke, the more amazed Hermione became. After a long while, she leaned over to the Doctor and whispered, "How long...?"
"Like I said," the Doctor whispered back before she could finish her question, "a very long and productive life."
Eventually the speaker finished his eulogy and nodded to the pall-bearers. With a flick of their wands, cool, white flames erupted around the body, coalescing into a seamless white marble casket. They then, with another flick of their wands, lifted the casket into the air and slowly made their way to the graveyard, with the casket floating between them.
Hermione and the Doctor joined the procession after most of the others. "Now, Hermione, whatever you do, don't go looking at the gravestones. Might accidentally see something you have no business knowing about yet."
"I understand, Doctor."
The two stood off at some distance, watching as the casket was lowered into the ground and the earth moved to cover it. Eventually the crowd started to disperse, and they had enough room to move to the graveside.
Hermione stood there for a while in silence, tears streaming down her face. "I'm ready to go, Doctor," she finally said.
As she turned to go, she tripped over the feet of another wizard walking behind her and fell to the ground in front of a monument. As she got to her feet, she looked up and saw a picture of herself waving to people that only she could see. Although her picture was of a middle-aged woman, the hair was still as curly and bushy as it was now. Hermione couldn't keep her eyes from going to the epitaph. Her eyes widened in shock as she read:
Hermione Jean Granger Potter
19 September 1979 - 9 February 2133.
Member of Parliament, Minister of Magic, Prime Minister
Loving wife and mother.
She took a few steps back before turning and bumping into the Doctor.
"What did I tell you about looking at the markers, Hermione?" he said, taking her by the arm and leading her away.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, it was an accident!"
"Well, what's done is done. But you, of all people, should know better."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What I mean, Miss Granger, is that you have dealt with time travel before. You know how fragile the time-line is, how easy it is to accidentally change what was to what might have been."
"I'll be very careful, Doctor. But, since I've seen more than I should anyway, will you please tell me what Harry was doing? Why he decided to make you take him back to 1998 to face Voldemort again? You'd think that would be the last thing he'd ever want to do."
The Doctor thought for a moment. "I'll tell you in the Tardis, on the way back."
A few minutes later found them back inside the Doctor's vessel. He didn't say anything until he had led her to one of the kitchens and poured them both a hot mug of butterbeer. The Doctor grinned after taking a long sip. "This stuff is brilliant! How did your lot keep it secret for so long?"
"Doctor! What about Harry?"
"Ah. Right. Well, I was hoping you'd let me forget you asked that. But, since you didn't..." His voice trailed off as he picked out what he could safely tell her.
"I suppose you've figured out that when I said he had a long life, I meant an incredibly long one, for one of your lot. He lived about five and a half centuries after Voldemort." He ignored Hermione's gasp of surprise. "And he never seemed to grow a day older. After a while, I guess he figured out that he couldn't die. And he got the idea that the only way he could die was if Voldemort killed him, which would be hard to do, seeing as how Harry had killed him hundred of years earlier. So, he got the idea to use the Tardis to go back to he could finally die."
Hermione looked horrified at the Doctor's words.
"What can we, what can I do to help him?"
"Nothing, Hermione. Absolutely nothing you wouldn't do anyway. You've seen bits of the future, you know how the story ends. You can't spoil it for him by telling him what happens next."
"It's not going to be easy, is it?"
"It never is. But that's life. He's going to need your help even more than ever, now that Voldemort's gone. And I think you might need him, too. Just don't ever give up on each other, all right?"
The Doctor went back to the control room and set a course for immediately after the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving Hermione behind to think. It was mere moments before a solid thud and an ever-so-slight lurch told him that they had landed. Hermione came to the control room a few minutes later with worried look on her face.
"Oh, one more thing," he said as he walked with her out of the Tardis. "I'm meeting you out of order, in a way. It's like you were on chapter four, and you flipped ahead to chapter thirty-one. Or I've flipped ahead, it's hard to tell. So, when you meet me again, this hasn't happened yet, for me. So, no spoilers."
Hermione grinned. "No spoilers, I promise. So, that means we will see you again, Doctor?"
The Doctor grinned back. "Spoilers!" he said as he went back inside and closed the doors.
Hermione didn't look back as she followed the sounds of the celebration at Hogwarts, which almost drowned out the whooshing of the Tardis disappearing.
She smiled to herself as she walked back to the castle. She knew now what she had to look forward to. Now, she just had to make sure that Harry always knew that he had something look forward to. And she knew she couldn't wait to see what the next chapter of their lives held.
Author's note
And so ends my first story. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to writing more (now that I have an audience!).
I want to thank all of you for reading, and for those who favorited and/or followed it, THANK YOU! You will not believe how much that meant to me.
I especially want to thank my friends and coworkers who have been telling me for years that I was good at this (namely, DiDi, Vicki, Christy, Pandaeyes, and even She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and others whose names escape me at the moment) - I wish I had believed you earlier.
This story was originally intended as a post-script to my next story, Harry Potter and the Wizard of Skaro (elements of which I've hinted at in this story), but it demanded to come out first. I don't know when I'll be able to start posting that one, but I'll try to do better at keeping a good updating schedule when I do.
Again, thank you all very much.