Harry paced up and down the kitchen, feeling keyed up enough that even if Midnight Oil wasn't currently in his system, he would still feel like he couldn't sleep even if he wanted to.
Hermione had immediately gone upstairs to heal herself and attempt to get some rest, but Harry felt too tense at the moment to even think clearly enough to attempt such sensitive magic.
The goblet... Hufflepuff's Cup, rather... sat innocently atop the kitchen counter, as if nothing was wrong with it, taunting him as it sat there, whole.
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when a Phoenix Patronus glided through the window and started speaking with Dumbledore's voice.
"Heard of commotion you caused. A status report would be greatly appreciated."
Harry sighed as he pulled out his wand to send his own messenger Patronus (that and its regular form was just one of the many spells he'd been practicing whenever he could) to the old wizard.
"Got the item. Both of us are safe and recovering at the place."
With a flick of his wand, he sent the Patronus on its way and set about making some tea in an effort to relax.
Once he was one, he took the cup into the sitting room, and plopped himself down into the biggest, most comfortable looking armchair there.
Taking a sip of the piping hot tea helped soothed his nerves, even as he wondered where Voldemort was and how he would take the news of the Gringotts break-in.
Especially when he found out what he and Hermione had stolen from the vault.
Another thought that crossed his mind, just before he finished the tea and sleep started to tempt him as the effects of the Midnight Oil finally wore off, was just how upset Roxy and his other friends- both on Earth and in Magix- would be when they found out about his latest escapade.
Hours later, Harry and Hermione sat staring at the cup, pondering what method would be best to destroy it.
"We could always ask Dumbledore to bring the Sword of Gryffindor here and stab the thing up..." Hermione suggested.
"An appealing idea," Harry agreed. "Or we could go to the Chamber of Secrets and get a Basilisk fang to use on it..."
"Also a good idea, but can we pull it off?" Hermione asked. "We can't Apparate directly in to Hogwarts as you're well aware and Hogsmeade is teeming with so many Death Eaters, it's a wonder that none of them have found a way to break into Hogwarts yet..."
"I can't Summon Dobby and have him bring us in either. Dumbledore closed that flaw in the Hogwarts wards himself..." Harry mused.
"Avada Kedavra could work, but I don't know if I've got it in me to do it," Harry spoke of another option. "I definitely can't do Fiendfyre. Ordinary fire yes, but that cursed fire? I'd end up burning down all of London if I tried it now..."
A bright flash of light and fire filled the corner at that moment, startling Harry and Hermione out of their chairs.
Harry swore rather loudly and Hermione simply screamed.
"I apologise for startling you both..." Dumbledore chuckled, not looking sorry in the slightest as Fawkes hovered behind him.
"Bloody hell. Nearly gave me a heart attack..." Harry muttered darkly.
"...but I come bringing something to use to destroy the Horcrux." Dumbledore continued on as if he did not hear Harry's (and Hermione's) mutterings as he laid a long black case on the table and opened it up, revealing the Sword of Gryffindor.
"Convenient timing," Hermione looked at him suspiciously.
"Just as we're considering how to get this thing to Hogwarts to get it destroyed, you show up..." Harry looked at Dumbledore with equal suspicion.
"Either way, I was still going to come here to see if you truly had the last Horcrux so you would not have needed to make such a trip..." Dumbledore pointed out.
Harry face-palmed. "I really should have remembered that. We've just been so jumpy since the robbery we just pulled off..."
"Which is excusable." Dumbledore simply nodded. "Now, I do believe that we have more important business to discuss for the moment..." he gestured to the sword.
Hermione held up her wand and levitated the Horxcrux towards them, not wanting to touch the cursed item at all, if she could help it.
The cursed cup floated onto the table and after making a light clunk sound as it was set down, sat there in eerie silence.
"Well then," Dumbledore spoke cheerfully. "Who would like to do us the honours of finishing off Voldemort's last Horcrux?"
"I think Hermione should do it." Harry spoke quickly, drawing objections from the witch in question. "She's the only one of us here who's not gotten to destroy one and she helped get it so why not?"
"I've done some reading Harry," Hermione started.
"Obviously..." Harry rolled his eyes.
Hermione continued on as though she did not hear him.
"...and I know that the Horcrux will actually try to fight back in its own way when you try to destroy it. Can we contain such a reaction here if... anything goes wrong?"
"There is no need to worry yourself about that, Hermione. I'm sure that should anything go wrong Harry and myself shall more than able to rectify it. Now, will you make the attempt?" Dumbledore pressed.
Hermione looked between the Sword, the Horcrux and Harry, who smiled reassuringly at her.
Hermione took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a brief moment and then spoke.
"I'll do it," she spoke determinedly. "no sense in putting it off any longer than it has to be..."
She reached for the sword gingerly and once she got a good grip on the weapon, her expression turned into a determined one.
As if she was back at school and had gotten a particularly challenging bit of homework.
Harry and Dumbledore stepped aside, both of them with their wands ready, just in case.
Swinging the sword high, she plunged it straight into the middle of the cup.
It let out a bloodcurdling scream as a black cloud erupted from it, which dissipated after a few seconds.
Hermione stared at the now destroyed cup, chest heaving as she continued to hold the sword as if she expected the Horcrux to still attack her.
"Well," she started, breathing heavily. "is it truly destroyed? No chance of repairing it, not even Voldemort could fix it?"
"It is indeed, Miss Granger. The Horcrux is completely destroyed. Voldemort's taint no longer remains." Dumbledore nodded.
"Great." Hermione dropped the sword into its case and plopped herself into a chair. All of Voldemort's Horcruxes are finally done for. I'm only sorry that he had the gall to taint such valuable historical items so that we'd have to destroy them..."
Harry chuckled. "Only you, Hermione. Only you... Still, it really is a shame..."
"We all know that he would never settle for just any ordinary object to store a bit of his soul in. His pride would never allow it," Dumbledore said.
"So now that the matter of finally finding and destroying Voldemort's last Horcrux is over, let's move onto other important matters. Does he know?" Harry's tone made even Dumbledore straighten up.
"If he does not yet know why you were in Gringotts, it will only be a matter of time before he does and will know that you were successful. He will also want to check to make sure his other Horcruxes are safe and sound. I am sure that you both can guess where such a trip would eventually lead him."
Harry and Hermione looked at one another in horror.
"Hogwarts."
They spoke in unison.
"Precisely. I have done my best to upgrade the protections to the school and have received plenty of help doing so from Order members and more skilled refugees that live there now. However, even though it has managed to keep out even a Voldemort-controlled Ministry of Magic thus far, it might not hold up with this recent development when- not if but when he comes calling."
"And we've just been holed up safely in here for the past several hours while a whole lot of shite might be going on outside..." Harry groaned, putting his head in his hands.
It was a mark of how perturbed she was, that Hermione ignored Harry's swear and didn't attempt to scold him for it.
"I have been making preparations for our guests to move on should trouble arise, however..."
Dumbledore trailed off by a tabby cat-shaped Patronus floating into the room.
"Death Eaters attacking Hogsmeade. Making their way towards Hogwarts." McGonagall's voice issued from the Patronus.
Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione looked at one another as the Patronus dissipated.
"I will give you five minutes to gather anything you may need before we leave." the old Headmaster immediately switched to a commanding tone.
Harry and Hermione immediately bolted out of the room and up the stairs to get their things.
He quickly got dressed in another combat suit, secured his Shield Bracelet around his wrist, grabbed his utility belt and stashed his swords on either side of his waist, filled several pouches on the belt with Spell Spheres (saving what remained for Hermione), stashed his Invisibility Cloak into the belt, chugged another dosage of Midnight Oil while grabbing the remaining vials of it, strapped on the daggers that Garnet had given him and made sure that a certain clear gem was well secured.
Harry didn't waste time, simply Apparating back into the kitchen, arriving only seconds before Hermione.
He tossed her the bag of Spell Spheres and a vial of Midnight Oil, which she swiftly caught and drank in one gulp.
Dumbledore looked them over and nodding approvingly, motioned for them to take either one of his arms as Fawkes grabbed Dumbledore's shoulders and took them all away in a flash of flame.
The first thing that Harry saw when they arrived in Hogsmeade was fire.
Lots and lots of fire, sending thick, billowing clouds of black, acrid smoke into the sky.
Screams of terror and despair rang in Harry's ears as they took in the sight of the carnage around them.
Dead and almost bodies lay in the street, many of them sporting some rather grotesque injuries.
There were several Death Eaters randomly casting spells at buildings and random people just trying to escape, cackling wildly with amusement as they spread their terror.
Dumbledore simply nodded to them, before hurrying off to join the fray.
Harry and Hermione took off in the opposite direction.
They dodged random bits of flying debris and spells with various coloured beams of light, before they ended up on Hogsmeade's main street, near to The Three Broomsticks.
Madam Rosmerta stood in front of the half-wrecked establishment, doing her best to duel with three Death Eaters at once.
Harry immediately cast a Blasting Hex which caught one of Rosmerta's attackers, sending him careening through the air and crashing into the ground, snapping his neck upon impact.
The other two Death Eaters (and Rosmerta) looked around so see where the spell had come from and once they saw where the attack had come from, they immediately turned on them.
"It's Potter and his Mudblood!" one of them called out, immediately firing off a Killing Curse.
"Don't kill them!" his partner hollered out. "The Dark Lord wants Potter alive!"
Rosmerta forgotten, they engaged the pair.
"The Dark Lord ain't want the Mudblood bitch though!"
At this comment, Harry practically saw the fire appear in her eyes as she fought.
Hermione shrieked an incantation that Harry didn't recognise, a dark grey light coming from her wand as she jabbed it forward viciously.
As soon as the light hit the Death Eater, he began to scream as he quickly turned to stone.
She quickly followed it up with a wordless exploding curse, sending stone bits of the Death Eater scattering about the place.
Harry would have looked at her in awe if he wasn't currently occupied by the Death Eater currently engaging him, who had started throwing out even more near-lethal spells.
Harry threw up a shield, and used the small bit of time he gained from it to draw one of the daggers and using a banishing spell on it, propelled it towards the Death Eater.
It went straight through his eye socket drawing screams from him.
Harry summoned it back to him and with a simple flick of his wand, it was clean and strapped to him once again.
He breathed heavily as he stared down the Death Eater, who twitched one final time, before going still.
"That was an... interesting spell you used just now, Hermione." Harry stood up straighter as he turned to her.
"Yes , well, I learnt it in Tir Nan Og. It's a petrification spell invented by a Welsh fairy who lived around the Middle Ages or so." Hermione explained.
"I find it a bit ironic, given events in our second year..." Harry raised an eyebrow.
Hermione simply shrugged.
The ground started shaking violently at that point, throwing them and Rosmerta off their feet.
When they got back up and steadied themselves, Rosmerta ran down another street, her wand raised high.
"Thanks for the help!" she called out behind her.
"We need to get to Hogwarts. That's his prime target. That's where he's going." Harry clutched his wand even tighter.
Hermione simply nodded and the two ran off, through the chaos, trying to make their way up to their former school.