Man, it's been a bit since I've written anything for this...I've been pretty busy as of late, though thankfully I didn't leave you hanging for a whole year or something, huh? I've had a lot of inspiration lately as well and have been writing things that will take place after BoS. One is an AU where Hermione does reject Carina and how, after the war, she and Luna end up in Forks with Teddy, where they find that they have soulmates and get thrown into the drama there. Another is something of a future, nineteen years later, next generation sorta fic, but with Carina's three children (triplets) Rigel, Rose (Rosalind, because Hermione in the fic insists that the tradition of having celestial names, constellations and moons and planets and stars and such, isn't a bad one to have and wanted it to continue), and Caelum. It follows the adventures they have (mainly Rigel, I think so far) as well as a bit of Carina/Hermione as well being all parent-y (and sometimes, not so much). Anyway, enough with my raving, here you go-please review!

Oh, I also found this, which reminds me of Carina:

You are a thing

both beautiful

and terrible,

and you deserve

someone

who treats you

like the moon

and can love

the dark side

of your soul too.

—Nikita Gill

"We're going with them to the Great Hall," Harry informed her quietly, as they weaved in and out of the crowd of students marching that direction now. Carina found the silence unnerving as they moved, no other sound except the stamping of feet against stone. "Stay hidden, alright? Here."

He passed her a Gryffindor robe and slipped on the extra that had been slung over his arm. Before she could think to ask where he had gotten it, he was gone, having slipped away and a bit farther ahead, to where Ginny Weasley was. Huffing, Carina slid on the robe and then ducked her head, falling into line alongside the others.

It was not long before they reached the Great Hall, and instead of the clusters of students she expected, all pressed together, they were instead separated by houses; Snape and the Carrows stood on the platform, watching.

"Now," said Snape, and his voice echoed through the hall. His tone brooked no room for argument and was quite grave. "It has come to my attention Harry Potter is here in the castle, accompanied by Carina Black and their companions. If anyone knows anything, has any information, I urge you...step forward now."

Some students shifted anxiously on their feet whilst others discreetly turned their heads this way and that to check for the impostors, and Carina kept her head down as several eyes passed over her. No one spoke.

"If you have any knowledge of their whereabouts and you do not step forth, your punishment will be severe. This is your last warning."

Yet still, no one opened their mouths and no one moved from their places, and Snape kept his face carefully blank as his dark eyes roved over them all; Carina felt a hand brush hers and ever so slightly tilted her head. From the corner of her eye, she could see Ginny Weasley beside her, inclining her chin in the faintest of motions to where Harry was already moving.

Carina slipped by her, but as she did, tapped the girl on the back in thanks as she moved to stand beside Harry, away from the students, out of the crowd, and out in the open for all to see.

Harry cast aside his robe, and Carina allowed hers to fall from her shoulders as the furious boy demanded, "How dare you? How dare you stand where he stood and call yourself headmaster? Tell them how it happened that night—tell them how you looked him in the eye, the man who trusted you, and killed him! Tell them!"

Snape abruptly drew his wand, and in an instant, Carina had her own in her hand, thinking, The things I get myself into with this boy around.

Before she could so much as open her mouth to say a spell, or even cast a silent one, Professor McGonagall was suddenly in front of the two of them and shoving them aside, out of harm's way, with her own wand drawn as she faced down the headmaster.

The raven haired girl felt two parts offended and grateful; while she could have held her own for some sort of time, she was glad McGonagall had come to their defense. She truly was a great Head of House to have, for she always protected her students, even when they may no longer be classified as such.

Carina watched Snape falter slightly, wand lowering in a motion so small that hardly anyone else would have noticed, and his eyes flashed. He appeared rather...reluctant. But then, his wand was back up and his grip tightened as he flung a spell at the old witch, who blocked it quickly and then fired off her own spell three times in quick succession.

Snape deflected them all from himself, but the last struck back and knocked his companions onto the floor; it looked rather painful. McGonagall held up her wand to fire again, but then the man suddenly drew up his cloak and jumped; he was nothing but a blur of black as he moved, and Carina had never seen anything like it as he leapt out the window, his former professor's cry of, "Coward!" following after him.

He was gone.

Cheers erupted throughout the hall, but Carina felt anything but cheery even as the torches lit up and illuminated the room, casting away the shadows from before. It was, if only for a moment, calm in the hall; however, it did not last long when everything fell eerily silent.

Then, the hissing started, coming in the form of a voice some of them (Carina and Harry in particular) knew all too well, "You have fought well...bring me Harry Potter, and you shall be spared. Bring me Harry Potter, and none of you shall be harmed...bring me Harry Potter…"

The voice had started up a round of screaming and many were covering their ears or had sunk to the floor; Carina herself flinched when it first began, unable to help herself. It was Voldemort himself, they knew, who continued to warn them that if they did not bring Harry Potter to him, there would be consequences.

"You have until midnight," he finished, and the voice faded away into nothingness, leaving the hall in silence yet again before the murmurs began from every side.

Harry himself stood in the very center with Carina by his side, and the girl had a feeling that this would not end very well at all.

Her suspicions were proved when Pansy Parkinson pointed and called, "Well, there he is, someone grab him!"

Carina fingered her wand and leveled it between Parkinson's eyes, which had widened dramatically as she fumbled for her own.

Silencio!

Parkinson opened and closed her mouth, glaring, and turned to her housemates for support; she found none, and Carina felt the barest of smirks appear on her face.

The pig deserved it. Of course they won't help her—I wouldn't either, if I were halfway decent and people like her were giving my house a bad name. The raven haired girl felt a hand brush her own, and she glanced over briefly to see Hermione standing there, Ginny by Harry's side and Ron with the rest of the Order behind them. When did they get here?

Apparently, it seemed, she had been a bit too preoccupied to notice them entering the hall, and Hermione gave her a sideways look when she saw Pansy Parkinson's soundlessly moving mouth as she and the other Slytherins were escorted from the hall by Filch.

Carina straightened her back when she saw the Order gather around them and Remus and Tonks approach her. Wait, Tonks? Didn't she have a baby? Oh, bloody buggering hell!

"Can't you, you know, not fight?" growled Carina when they approached, and Tonks only shook her head.

"No," she said fiercely. "If Remus is fighting, so am I. It killed me being out of commission for nine months as it is—I won't sit around and do nothing again if I can help it."

"And what about Teddy?" The raven haired girl advanced on her, but was stopped by Hermione's restraining hand on her arm. She slowly glanced over and, through gritted teeth, commanded, "Please let go of me."

"Carina," tried Hermione, who did not loosen her grip. "We need to move, we can't just stand here—"

"I said," Carina ripped her arm away, feeling rage overtake her. "Let go of me." She did not turn back to see her girlfriend's reaction and instead grabbed her cousin by the upper arms. "That little boy will have no one if you're gone, do you really want him to lose his parents? He'll have to grow up just like Harry did, just like I did, always wondering and yearning and-and…" She saw Remus and Tonks exchange small, fond (yet still so sorrowful) smiles. "What?"

"This is exactly why we wanted you to be godmother," Remus told her, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. "Because if something does happen to us, he won't be alone. He may have Andromeda, but he'll also have you. And I know—"

"We know," corrected Tonks, nodding alongside him.

"—we know," he continued, more serious than she had ever seen him. "That you'd go through hell and back to make sure our son is safe."

"We trust you, Carina." Her older cousin locked hands with her husband. "We know you'll look after him. Now, go. You have things to do, and so do we."

Carina felt her temper cooling and nodded once, before she turned on her heel and began to stride away, Hermione hot on her heels; she switched her wand to her left hand and grabbed the brunette's in her own, lacing their fingers together.

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

"I know," came the soft reply, and together, they threw themselves into the sea of people; they knew where they had to go.

~~~xxx~~~

In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Carina and Hermione stood together, hand in hand before the sink that would inevitably lead them into the Chamber of Secrets, where they basilisk fang they needed would be. It had seemed like an easy enough mission, except…

"Neither of us speak parseltongue," said Hermione hurriedly. "But we'll have to try."

Carina nodded and moved forward, crouching before the sink as she struggled to recall the hissing she had heard Harry emit so long ago. It took a few moments before she finally let out a strangled hiss; the sink did not move. Hermione's attempt was no better, if even worse.

Carina tried again, and again, and again, until just when she was about to frustratedly slam her fist into the tile, the sink ever so slowly slid aside, revealing a long, dark tunnel she remembered all too well.

"Brilliant!" Hermione moved ahead of her and peered down as Carina straightened and carefully did the same. "Let's go, then."

Before the raven haired girl could stop her, the other witch jumped and went sliding off into the darkness, leaving her with no other alternative than to follow, swearing the entire way down.

When she landed, it was rough and she came shooting out of the tunnel, landing directly on Hermione and sending them both sprawling; she found herself hovering overtop of Hermione on her forearms, their faces dangerously close together.

Brown eyes watched her and pale cheeks flushed; Carina got to her feet and pulled Hermione up beside her.

"There's one more way in," she whispered, edging over the scattered piles of bones and making her way to stand before the large door. Twisting her tongue, she forced a hiss, and this time, it worked on the first try as the door rolled open. She stepped inside first, memories of this terrible place flashing before her eyes the further ahead she went.

"Carina, run!" Harry shouted frantically as the Basilisk slithered toward her and the prone form of Ginny Weasley.

"BLOODY HELL!" the raven haired girl screamed, and heaved the redhead into her arms before staggering back quickly, sagging under the weight. The Basilisk struck and missed at the spot they had been, but then its head whipped around to face her again and she allowed Ginny to slide to the floor as she raised her wand. "BOMBARDA!"

It would have been questionable how a second year could know such a spell, but there was no one around to care about such a thing aside from her panicked friend, the unconscious first year, the enormous snake, and the ghostly apparition of the teenage Lord Voldemort.

The spell hit the Basilisk in the side of what would be its neck, and it was enough to blow a small dent in its skin, but nothing more; its scales were too hard.

The tail lashed out and slapped her wand roughly from her hand, and Carina tripped and fell beside Ginny, hissing in pain as she held her stinging hand to her chest. As the Basilisk advanced, she grappled uselessly in search for her wand as Harry began to rush forward, and her hand came into contact with a piece of cloth; the Sorting Hat.

Desperate, she stuck her hand inside and hoped to Merlin that something magical would happen, because if it didn't, she and her friends would surely die (she with her hand in a talking hat, looking incredibly foolish no less).

Her hand closed around something hard, and she cast the hat aside as she yanked on whatever was inside; the ruby encrusted hilt came out first, and then out came the rest of the sword. There was no time to dwell on it, and she called hurriedly, "Harry!"

The boy managed to catch the sword in time (though he nearly dropped it) and heaved it up just as the Basilisk struck again, just as he skidded in front of the two girls, and the sword was pushed straight through the roof of the Basilisk's mouth. The sharp tip of the sword had obviously ran through its brain, because the Basilisk collapsed after that, and the weight of it falling made the floor tremble, and Carina could see Tom Riddle glowing in rage.

She did not dwell on the fact that her friend had just killed the large beast that had been about to kill them, nor that she had pulled a sword from a hat, or that there was a phoenix circling overhead and landing before Harry; she could see the fang buried in his arm, poison seeping through.

"I…" She swallowed hard and glanced at Fawkes the phoenix, who had pushed his head against the fang in an obvious message of, Well? Remove it! "It'll be okay, Har. This is gonna hurt."

She grabbed the fang with both hands and pulled; Harry gritted his teeth and let out a groan, before he swayed and nearly fell. She dropped the fang and allowed it to clatter to the ground, catching him quickly, consumed with worry.

He was going to die.

"Carina," he slurred, attempting to focus his eyes on her. "Get Ginny out of here."

"I can't just leave you, you idiot!"

"Rina, please…"

"No." She glanced at Fawkes and saw his eyes welling; she remembered, then, what phoenix tears could do, and moved over. The phoenix leaned his head over Harry's wound, and a single tear slid from his feathery cheek and onto the boy's arm; the wound slowly began to seal itself, until finally, there was nothing left.

Harry carefully extracted himself from her arms and sat up, blinking rapidly. "Whoa."

Carina gave him a weak grin, before directing her attention to the diary and then the fang, an idea coming to mind as Tom Riddle hovered over them, speaking; she paid no attention and seized the fang. The teenage boy above them attempted fruitlessly to stop her, but Harry seemed to realize what she was doing and hastily moved to hold the diary open.

She plunged the fang into its pages, and as black ink spurted from the diary like blood, Tom Riddle screamed as he faded away into nothingness.

Ginny Weasley awoke, and Carina and Harry exchanged relieved looks.

"Carina?"

Carina blinked and turned her head to find Hermione staring at her, the two of them already standing in the middle of the water filled chamber.

"Fang, right," muttered Carina quickly, eyes scanning the room. When she found the Basilisk's corpse, she strode over without preamble and yanked one out. When she turned back, she found Hermione standing by her side, the cup in her hand; the brunette carefully placed it on the floor and knelt down. Carina crouched across from her, holding the fang loosely, and glanced up. Silently, she held it out, and after a moment's hesitation, Hermione took it.

"I don't," began the other girl, before trailing off.

"You can do it." Carina met her gaze steadily and curled Hermione's fingers tightly around the fang. "You'll feel better when you do. Trust me."

Hermione met her gaze and, at once, slammed the fang down into the cup.

There was an earsplitting shriek, and the waters rose far above them as the two hastily scrambled to her feet; the water fell upon them hard, and Carina felt Hermione press into her as it did so. However, the powerful blast from the waves knocked Carina off her feet, and she drug her girlfriend down with her to the floor.

Here we go again!

Hermione landed atop her, and Carina spat out a mouthful of water before reaching over to smooth back the brunette's hair, propping herself up on her elbow; she dropped her hand when two others came up to cradle her face, and she could feel one brush back her own raven locks before it fell back into place.

"You're right," Hermione said, and a soft, rather high laugh escaped her, as though she could not believe they had gotten this far. "I do feel better."

And then, she leaned forward and kissed Carina hard, leaving the raven haired girl with no other option than to kiss back, not that she had been planning on doing otherwise.

She didn't plan on doing otherwise for the remaining time she had left, as a matter of fact, because the chances of finding someone like Hermione Granger again were slim to none.

It's not like I'd want anyone else, anyway.

~~~xxx~~~

When they caught up with Harry and Ron in the Great Hall, the majority of the students, it seemed, had already been evacuated and only the upper years—those of age—had stayed. There was a smattering of adults ready to fight as well, everyone rushing about—it was chaos.

"Where the hell have you been?" shouted Harry as he made his way over, the redhead by his side.

"The Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione breathlessly, still clutching her own smaller pile of fangs; Carina herself had her own arms full. "It was Carina's idea, we came up with it ages ago—it was completely brilliant—"

And it was. She had never been more surprised than when her girlfriend had crouched before the sink and hissed in Parseltongue, nor when she had accomplished it a second time and went on to help her brave destroying the horcrux. The idea itself had been cleverly presented, as well, and their plan had worked flawlessly.

"I thought only someone who speaks Parseltongue could get in?" Ron asked, brows drawn together in confusion. "Carina's not…"

"She isn't, I know, but she did it!" Hermione turned to said girl, who had been studying the hall and their surroundings. "Show them!"

Carina raised her brows, but nevertheless let out a strangled hiss that had Harry blinking in surprise.

"Alright then," he said. "Now that we've got that cleared up...they're evacuating the younger years now, so we'll have to move fast before the Death Eaters close...in…"

He stopped short when a small, sandy haired boy ran by them, and Carina abruptly dropped her fangs, sending them clattering to the floor, and lunged; she and the boy both toppled, but she twisted so that she fell hard on her back and he landed on top of her.

"And what do you think you're doing?" she grunted at the boy, who Hermione recognized to be Jakob Marks, the boy who had first spoken to her earlier.

But why would he be out here and not...oh!

"I'm going to fight!" Jakob cried determinedly, squirming in her hold as she sat up and struggled to her feet, dragging him up with her. "Let go, my brother is out there!"

His brother, Hermione remembered, was a Ravenclaw in their year.

"And your brother is of age," Carina gripped him tighter, and Hermione could only watch as he continued to flail about. Her girlfriend seemed to grow tired of this, because she said sharply, "Stop moving, now."

The boy stopped immediately at her tone, a clear sign of his respect for her, and she carefully released him, but kept her hands on his upper arms and held firm.

"Carina," he looked up at her pleadingly, lower lip quivering. "Please, Johnathan is out there, I have to—"

"No."

"But—"

"No."

"Please!"

"No." Carina met his watery gaze with her own steely gray one, and then shook him to garner his attention. Jakob stared at her with wide eyes, tears freely falling now. Hermione could see the twitch of her eyebrows, the slight tremble of her fingers, and knew that somewhere deep down, she felt for the boy, but she was more angry at him at the moment than anything. "He can take care of himself."

"He's all I've got left." Jakob deflated, shoulders slumping, and Carina squeezed his arms hard. He winced and peered back up at her through his fringe.

Oh, you poor boy...Hermione felt a surge of sympathy—her parents were dead, had been since she was fifteen years old, and she was an orphan. She understood.

And so did Carina, it could be shown.

"I understand." Her voice was steady and even, almost soothing, even, and Hermione felt a surge of affection at how she was handling the child. "But you can't fight. You'll be killed. Don't you remember that I said that I would keep you safe? How can I do that if you're running off on your own to Merlin knows where to fight Death Eaters? It'll make me a bloody liar if you get hurt, won't it?" He nodded slowly, sniffling. "Exactly. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. Now go."

She sent up a shot of red sparks, and Madam Pomfrey came rushing over to them, having seen and realized one of her charges had escaped her.

Jakob, sensing this was it for him, surged forward and hugged Carina tightly around the waist; she went rigid, eyes widening in shock, but after a moment bent slightly and awkwardly patted his back. When he pulled away, he whispered something to her before finally departing with the mediwitch.

Carina straightened, and Hermione could see her eyes gleaming, much like they had before, but the raven haired girl stood tall, wand in hand as she turned to the others.

"We need the diadem, right?"

"Yes," Harry agreed hurriedly. "I reckon it's in the Room of Requirement, but we'll have to hurry…"

She nodded and, without preamble, flicked her wand at the scattered fangs, sending them all sailing, shrunken, into Hermione's jacket pocket.

"Really?" she murmured when Carina brushed past her.

The answer she received was the barest twitch of the other girl's lips and a slight incline of her head before she felt her hand being grabbed, and then she was pulled away with the others through the corridors.