Welcome back Everyone!

Remember my comment about unequal chapter lengths from Chapter 2? Well, this chapter drew the short straw (literally) and is more of a canon connector than a full chapter. I very seriously considered just merging this with the previous chapter, but since it switched perspectives, I thought that I should keep it consistent and leave it as its own chapter. (Also, it turns out that not much editing gets done on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and so I wanted the extra time to finish polishing this too.)

As with the rest of this story, I'm the only person who has edited this, and all mistakes are my own. If you have any feedback, whether it be things you love or (kind) constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it.

Finally, the usual "no own, no money, no sue" disclaimer applies.

With that, I leave you to enjoy the final chapter, this time from Hermione's point of view again!

Best,
OfLegosAndDragons


When Hermione woke up, her first thought was that Harry had tried to be sneaky and had stolen the big spoon position from her in the middle of the night. Then she realized that she wasn't in her own bed, and Ron was still wrapped around her. Right, just as warm as it was last night, but still equally as empty given that Harry would apparently rather spend the night outside in the cold than let her try and protect him in his sleep after she'd broken his wand. That's when she realized that it was already light in the tent, and, more alarmingly, it was way too bright for it to be time for her to take over watch duty. With a desperate glance at the old clock on the kitchen table, she realized that it was already noon, and Harry should have gotten her up more than 4 hours ago. Terrified that he'd managed to get himself killed—for real this time without either her or Ron around to protect him—she scrambled out of the tent to try and find him. Fortunately, she saw him pitifully hunched over a mostly burnt-out fire as soon as she stepped out of the tent. As much as the sight broke her heart a little bit, she was really glad that he wasn't actually in any trouble. She had forgotten in her panic that Harry still had her wand, and she wouldn't have been able to do anything if he had needed rescuing.

When she gently called out to him, he just looked over at her blearily. With a heart-wrenching pang, she realized that not only had he been outside of the tent for at least 14 hours straight at this point (in the middle of winter, no less), but he also had to be exhausted. He'd been up for what, at least 44 hours since seeing the doe? And for some reason he let her and Ron sleep for at least 12 hours while he suffered alone. She hadn't seen him like this since his moping in 6th year after Sirius had died, and she desperately wanted to sit down in front of him and make him tell her what was wrong. When he got like this, however, she knew that she'd have better luck trying to convince a blast-ended skewt to go vegetarian, and so she just focused on taking care of Harry first. She resolved to think about it later though, as she hustled him inside the tent and pulled the blankets off Ron's bed (and Ron himself) to wrap Harry up in. She then bustled about the kitchen trying to heat up some water for tea, hoping that it would at least start warming up Harry's hands, even if he seemed a bit too out of it to actually drink it. Finally, she gently peeled Harry's boots and coat off, and shuffled him over to bed.

Once Harry was safely tucked into bed, she longed to wrap herself around him to try warming him up. Ultimately, however, she knew that they simply couldn't afford to have both her and Harry out of commission for a full day. Between keeping watch and gathering food, both she and Ron had work to do while Harry slept. Gently chewing on her lip, she conjured up one of her little bluebell flames, and put it in a jar before stuffing it under the blankets with Harry. She hoped that it would act as a hot water bottle for him to warm up with, even if it seemed like a poor substitute for being able to warm him up herself. Part of her also really wanted for Harry to think of the little flame as a way to keep a part of her with him while he slept, but she knew that he was probably too tired and too cold to have any such sentimental feelings.

As much as she wanted to do more for him right now, though, the best course of action was for her to figure out how to end this stupid quest once and for all. So, with Ron back out hunting for food, she settled in to watch their surroundings and see if she could make it further into The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore. While doing so, she finally thought that she might have figured out a lead: they needed to speak to Xenophilius Lovegood….


Well, that's a wrap everyone! I know that it wasn't necessarily a true "resolution" in the sense that it resolved whether Harry and Hermione got together or not, but I hope you thought it was a good ending anyway. This is just me as an author, but I have a hard time writing something that is canon-divergent without having it impact the rest of the plot. I enjoy reading those, but struggle to write them since it's hard for me to not try figuring out the butterfly effect of how my change would influence the rest of the story, and then I focus on that and it never gets written….

From here, it's entirely up to you what happens. I pictured the rest of Book 7 going as it did in canon, but then after the Battle of Hogwarts it can easily branch off from there. If you want to bask in the angst and despair, maybe it ends with the canon endings and pairings, and Harry and Hermione never realize that the other had feelings for them, or maybe they only realize it once it is too late. Alternatively, if you like fluff and happy endings, maybe once the war is over and Hermione isn't trying to suppress her feelings to keep them alive, and Harry isn't concerned that he's going to die and leave everyone he loves behind, they end up joking about it, and their snuggling becomes the "I'm so glad we don't have to do that anymore, unless…" moment that gets them together. Reader's choice!

Also, I wanted to address a comment that I got as well. A guest on had mentioned that it seems like there are a lot of works where Harry and Hermione are cowards for not expressing their feelings to each other since they are both afraid of ruining their friendships. I wanted to say two things about this. Number 1: there is nothing wrong with not wanting to start a relationship with someone because you value their friendship more. I personally never even considered dating when I was in high school because I was close friends with a lot of the people in my class, and I didn't want to accidentally fracture that by dating one of them and losing out on multiple friends if we broke up or something happened. Number 2: there are more reasons than just not wanting to ruin a friendship for not wanting to start a relationship with someone you have a crush on. It might be that you're concerned that you don't have time for a relationship, or maybe you want different things that make you good friends but not compatible partners. It's also perfectly alright to just not feel ready for a relationship yourself, even if you want one. As for this story itself, I tried really hard for the angst to come from the fact that neither Harry nor Hermione act on their feelings not because they don't want to ruin their friendship (putting themselves first), but because they are trying to make the other person happy (putting the other first), and are making themselves miserable as a result. I hope that this came through as I intended. (Not that there is anything wrong with will-they/won't they stories, for the record, but that just wasn't the story that I was trying to tell.)

Thank you again for reading this!

Best,
OfLegosAndDragons