Across the camp-site, Harry Potter could hear off-key singing, and the occasional bang or crack of fireworks as the Irish celebrated their win.
It was, rather surprisingly in fact, rather calming to the young raven-haired wizard, who found himself drifting between waking and sleep in a gentle doze. Partly aware of the noise of the also celebrating Weasleys, the other half of Harry's mind was filled with fantasies – of him soaring into the quidditch stadium in Gryffindor Red robes astride his Firebolt as everyone screamed his name.
"Oh… I'm so glad I'm not on duty," Mr Weasley's voice murmured quietly, Harry missing out the rest of what the man was going to say as he fell back into sleep. When he came back to himself, it was to the red-haired man shouting, "GET UP! GET UP! RON! HARRY! HURRY UP – BOTH OF YOU!"
Half falling off the top bunk, Harry blinked up at the panicked looking man in confusion, as he watched the Weasley Patriarch staggering around the tent - grabbing his children and shoving them towards the door. Grabbing Harry's jacket from the floor and shoving into his arms as Mr Weasley pushed him towards Hermione and guided the two of them towards the tent door as well, slipping something small into Harry's hand and curling his fingers around it.
As he finally woke up completely, Harry felt shivers running down his spine as he realised what was wrong – the happy singing had transformed into terrified screaming, and the cracking of fireworks had turned into loud explosions of spell-fire.
"GET INTO THE WOODS!" Mr Weasley ordered as he dragged them all outside, tapping Bill, Charlie, and Percy on the shoulder and gesturing towards the direction of the screaming and the fires burning in the night. "Get into the woods you lot! Stay safe, stay away from everyone else! You two," he added pointing at Fred and George, "Look after your sister, and – and just stay safe, all of you".
As Mr Weasley turned and sprinted off after his elder sons, Harry watched as Fred quickly lifted Ginny off the ground and threw her over his shoulder, George doing the same with Ron. "Run you two!" the twins shouted simultaneously as they shoved Harry and Hermione towards the forest, ignoring Ron's indignant squawks as they started running.
Feeling a flicker of amusement as he watched Ron bouncing on his brother's shoulders, Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and started running after them, fighting the part of him that wanted to look over his shoulder as he instead focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Catching Ron's wand as the red-head tried to draw it mid-bounce, Harry unashamedly threw a curse at someone who stumbled into their way, his stinging hex knocking the man to the side with a yelp as he cringed at the feeling of using someone else's wand.
Ignoring Hermione's wordless cry of disapproval, Harry kept dragging her along, not willing to lose one of his best friends to the chaos raging around them. He had a hard enough time sleeping in the same room with the other Gryffindors of their year, he didn't want to think about what would happen to him if he lost either of his best friends – an image of old Mrs Figg from Privet Drive flashed through his mind, the woman all alone with only a horde of cats for company. That image was one too real for Harry to want to think about so instead he kept pushing forward, both he and Hermione using their wands to clear their path of any obstacles or burning debris.
Almost tripping over a small rabbit-hole in the ground, Harry managed to right himself in time to see a tornado of black smoke touching down in front of them, a man dressed in black robes with a bone-white mask stepping from it as he sent a stream of black fire towards a tent bearing a grinning leprechaun's face. As the tent went up in flames, Harry followed Hermione as she started to tug him away from the robed man and after the twins, keeping his wand locked on the man in case he turned and saw them.
"Death Eaters," Hermione hissed as they ducked behind a tent, the two of them crouching there paralysed as they looked at the wide open space between them and the Weasleys. "You-Know-Who's servants," she explained as Harry's mind raced.
Instead of responding, Harry waved his arms to catch the twins' attention, trying to convey through gestures that he and Hermione would catch up and that they should run. "When I say," he whispered, trying to peer around the tent at the 'Death Eater' hurling destructive spells around, "Run".
"But Harry!" Hermione began.
"Run," he interrupted, not wanting to sit there and argue as he grabbed her hand again, keeping the tent between them and the Death Eater as they ran away from the dark wizard. "We'll circle, meet up with the Weasleys in the forest," he explained as they dove behind another tent, "It'll be simple, like wizard's chess".
"This isn't chess," Hermione countered.
"I hope not," Harry confessed bluntly, "I'm crap at chess". Almost leaving it there, Harry glanced over at Hermione, freezing as he saw the tears forming in her eyes, "Hey, hey. We'll be fine," he promised, trying to simultaneously assure Hermione and watch over her shoulder for the Death Eater. "We'll get out this. If we can take on Voldemort, his basilisk and an army of dementors, then I think we can get out of this safely yeah?"
As Hermione blinked away her tears, leaving her beautiful brown eyes locked onto his, Harry found himself leaning forward before he could help himself, pressing his lips against hers awkwardly. "We'll get out of this," he repeated as he pulled away from the shocked girl, "I won't let anyone hurt you".
What Hermione was about to say went in one ear and out the other, as his eyes flicked past her to the Death Eater standing there, watching in growing horror as the man turned to face them. Freezing, the two of them staring each other for a second or two, Harry reacted the only way he could – as a cry of "AVADA KEDAVRA!" filled the air, he reached out and shoved Hermione away, hands rising uselessly to shield against the Killing Curse.
"HARRY! HARRY NO!
"Step aside, you silly girl!"
"No! Not Harry! PLEASE NOT MY HARRY!"
"Oh Harry… not like this…"
A red-haired woman flashed through his mind, smile sad as emerald green eyes teared up.
"Mum?"
"Yes baby, it's me," his mother's voice responded softly, sounding like it was coming through a thick wall. "It is not your time yet, wake up".
"I want to stay with you".
Lily Potter shook her head. Body fading in and out of view as Harry stretched out his arm to her.
"I'm so proud of you sweetheart," Lily denied, refusing to reach back out for Harry. "I've watched you, through my love – through my protection. But now it's time for me to join your father, and it's time for you to wake up".
"No… Mum".
"Harry, it's time, if you love me let me go".
For an instant Lily's form turned solid, tears dripping down her face as she mouthed 'I love you' at him before vanishing back into the white light shining from behind her that died off almost instantly.
"Not my son!".
"So be it".
"HARRY!"
Eyes snapping open, Harry stared up into the night sky for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on and where he was. Flinching as an explosion tore through the air nearby – leaving his ears ringing – he scrambled to his feet and looked around at what appeared to be a burning campsite.
Oh…
Oh.
Beginning to panic as the memories came flooding back, Harry began to search around desperately for Hermione, a scream sounding right on schedule that had him darting forward on instinct, every muscle in his body leaping into action like it was some kind of innate reaction to him.
Sprinting around the corner to find Hermione fighting with the Death Eater that had killed him, her wand missing as she clawed and kicked and sobbed, Harry took only a moment to think about a plan before he was charging the Death Eater and tackling it away from his best friend. That was step one complete; get Hermione away from the bad guy. Step two became apparent as he shifted so he landed straddling the Death Eater, pulling his fist back to punch him in the face as hard as he could, knocking the dark wizard's mask straight off.
"Hey Mr Malfoy".
As the platinum blonde wizard blinked up at him in dazed shocked, Harry pulled his fist back again and brought it down on the man's face. A cut-off scream exploded from the man's lips as their skin touched and something sparked in Harry's chest, sheer power beginning to flow into his body from Malfoy's, the light shining beneath their skin moving from Malfoy's face and into his hand, then up his arm to his own chest. Shifting his grip so he was holding the man's face instead of just punching it, Harry gasped as more and more magic flooded his body, the thing in his chest pulling it all in greedily.
And just as quickly as it started it stopped, leaving Harry straddling a barely twitching body. Feeling himself coming down from the high of whatever had just happened was, he closed his eyes and basked in the power he could feel in his chest, the other man's magic stored there just waiting for him to tap into it.
"Ha- Harry?"
Moving instantly as Hermione's voice brought him back down to earth, Harry clambered off of Malfoy's body and stumbled towards the shell-shocked girl, reaching out hesitantly to grasp her elbow and pull her into a hug. He could have lost her again. If he hadn't gotten there in time then Malfoy could have done anything he wanted to her and he would have gotten away with it, and Harry didn't think he could lose his best friend again, her being paralyzed in second year had been torture enough for him.
"Harry?" Hermione asked weakly.
"I'm here, Hermione, I'm here," Harry promised faintly, feeling her tightening her grip on his waist immediately. "I don't know how," he continued pre-emptively, "But I'm here".
"What… what did you do to him?" Hermione questioned as she pulled herself away from him, only the way her fingers remained curled in his shirt keeping him from flinching. "He's not moving".
"He'll be fine," Harry dismissed, just knowing that to be true. "I didn't kill him".
"But what did you do?" Hermione pressed, looking both fearful, curious, and just plain relieved that he was still alive.
"I…" looking down at his hand, Harry turned it upside down so he could see his palm. "I don't know".
Frowning, Hermione reached up to take his hand. The moment their skin touched he could feel the thing in his chest lashing out again, reaching into Hermione to latch onto her magic and start pulling even as she tried to say "It's okay, Harry".
Tearing his hand away from Hermione's as she choked on her breath, Harry backed away and shoved his hands into his jacket in fear, not wanting to accidentally brush up against his friend and kill her. "Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay!" Hermione interrupted, rubbing her chest breathlessly as she tried to send Harry her strongest most confident smile yet. "It wasn't your fault; I know you would never do anything to hurt me on purpose".
Stepping back as Hermione moved forward, he stood there stiffly as she murmured reassurances, feeling like a spooked horse as the bushy-haired girl cautiously reached out to place her hand on Harry's covered shoulder. "See?" she laughed out nervously, "You're not hurting me, it… it must just be your skin or something. It's okay, Harry, we'll… we'll get this fixed".
"Together?" was all Harry could ask in response, staring down at where his hands were cautiously. He didn't think he could get through whatever this was without Hermione on his side. Merlin, he didn't think he could survive without the promise of more Hermione-hugs in his future, they were all too easy to get addicted to when you were a touch-starved orphan.
"Together".
TOUCH
Based off DZ2's 'I will not die' challenge, this wasn't the first idea I had in mind but it happened and so I'm going with it. (And the reason behind the four updates in the past two days is that I've finished the ninth chapter of Ignition ahead of schedule and wanted to spend my assigned writing time doing something "useful").