Welcome to the last chapter of the first season. I was so proud when I got to the last one and the story was looking how I had imagined. I hope you like it!

In front of the CDC there was nothing but rotting corpses. The vicious smell made us cough while we were avoiding the cadavers walking towards the doors. Covering our backs T-Dog, Merle, Harry and I stayed behind while Rick was hitting the metallic doors. The noise reverberating against every single surface of the city.

-Walkers.- shouted Daryl. We had just a few minutes to choose what to do. Daryl shoot one of his arrows to the walker's head and turned around while shouting. -You led us into a graveyard!

-He made a call.- Shane cut him.

-It was the wrong damn call!

Rick started hitting the door, completely sure there was someone still inside, swearing the camera had moved.

-I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Please, we're desperate. Please help us! We have women, children, no food. Hardly any gas left. There's nowhere else to go. If you don't let us in, you're killing us!

Lori and Shane were making Rick back up to get back to our cars when the door opened up letting a wave of bright light hit us, blinding us for a few seconds. We got inside before whoever was in the other side changed their minds and left the door behind us to close. A man with a shotgun talked to us from up the stairs.

-Anybody infected?

-One of our group was.- retorted Rick.- He didn't make it.

After some more polite, dry conversation and a blood test, Dr. Jenner -the man who had opened the door- lead us through corridors underground to what he called zone 5. He was alone, no more doctors or security. Just him and a computer system called Vi. The silence reigning such a big place was overwhelming.

After the blood test Jenner showed us our bedrooms, an spartan cot in a simple room that look wonderfully after so many days sleeping and living precariously. Even with our magical tent it was nice to have four walls around us. I updated Harry on my plans and theories and informed him of our new help, he looked surprised but glad we could trust them. And we still had to talk to Rick as well.

We caught Daryl, Merle and Glenn on our way to the kitchen to meet the rest of the group. Glenn looked relieved, finally being under a roof after so long living in the quarry. Merle took Harry by the shoulders talking about something related to cars and guns again, part of Harry's new education apparently. And I waited for Daryl, he looked still on hedge. Never lowering his defenses.

-Is good to be under a roof, right?- I said casually.

-Huh. Do you trust Jenner?

-He haven't give us any reason to not trust him for now.

-Isn't it weird that he's alone in here? All by himself?

-Yes, but I'm sure he will explain us what is happening. For now lest focus on rest and look for what we need.

We gathered in the kitchen where Carol and T-Dog were putting together the dinner. Some kind of egg powder omelette with canned meat and vegetables. It tasted like glory and made me miss Hogwarts's food at the same time. We were laughing around the table, finally relaxed after so many days of constant tension.

-You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner.- said Dale.- And in France. Is the same in England?- he asked Harry and me, smiling.

-I don't think so, no.- said Harry laughing holding his own glass of wine.

I had declined my own glass of wine, hoping to have time during the night to explore the building and look for everything I needed.

-Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, or even England.- said Lori smiling, she was nicer after a couple of glasses of wine.- He can have some then.

-What's it gonna hurt? Come on.- said Rick teasingly.- Come on.

The poor kid spit it out as soon as he tasted it. We all laughed and Rick patted his back.

-That's disgusting.- said Carl making the laughter begin again.- You don't like it either, right Hermione?

-Not my choice of drink.- I smiled at him serving some more water for both of us.

-And what is your choice of drink?- asked Merle in his usual mocking tone of voice. But his voice wasn't aggressive anymore, not like in the rooftop when he was handcuff to the pipe. His voice, his interaction with us and with almost everyone had turned into a joking-protecting kind of attitude. Daryl, next to him, was more relaxed too not having to make sure his brother wouldn't start a fight any second of the day.

-Humm, I think I prefer fire whiskey.- I said making Harry choke with his wine and burst out a laugh.

-Is that something English?- asked Shane with a bite of disdain in his voice.

Ignoring his tone I looked at Glenn, who was already getting a bit red on his face.

-It is, if we ever find some you should try.

-But for now Glenn you should keep drinking.- said Daryl already laughing.- Keep drinking, little man, I want to see how red your face can get.

After that Rick gave a nice speech giving thanks to Jenner, who after all had saved us today, Shane had something to say. He couldn't keep it to himself.

-So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc? All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, we are they?

-We're celebrating, Shane.- told him Rick, getting tired of his attitude.

-Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right?- apparently he was still bitter about not following his plan.- This was your move. Supposed to, you know, find all the answers. Instead we… we found him. Found one man. Why?

-Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just… left. Went off to be with their families.

-That's understandable. If you had a family you would like to be with them in a moment of crisis, right?- I said looking right in Shane's eyes. Maybe I shouldn't be pocking the bear, maybe I should just let him complain. But his constant attitude was driving me crazy. Harry pat my leg under the table, a quick touch to calm me down. And there it was, in Shane's eyes, I could see what was happening. Or at least a small part of the story, that son of a bitch… Did he take advantage of the situation? Or it was something that was happening before? He looked at Lori briefly, confirming my theory in just one second.

-Yes, I guess.- continued Jenner.- And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted. Many couldn't face walking out the door, they opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time.

With the mood ruined thanks to Shane, we left the table to finally take a shower and go to sleep. After so many days of having my hair up in a tight bun it was a mess, I used more conditioner than ever and spent a long time brushing until it was back to normal. My bushy normal. I couldn't catch Rick to talk to him and Glenn was already sleeping completely wasted after dinner but Harry, Daryl and Merle were talking in the corridor, whispering about something.

-Is everything alright?- I asked them when I got to their side.

-I feel like something bad is going to happen.- Harry looked stressed again.- I've been having this feeling since we got here, like if we should run away right now.

Merle was holding himself up with the wall, more affected by the wine that he wanted to show but looking concerned, and Daryl was looking at us alternatively. Up until now it had been a bit difficult to look at him like I wanted to do, but now I could. I could see his short hair still a bit wet from the shower. He was brawny in a natural way, like if he had always been going through the forest hunting to eat and walking miles and miles every day. His light blue eyes were now looking at me probably because I had spent too much time looking at him. Harry was looking at me too, lifting one of this eyebrows, hiding a smile.

-Merle, can you stay on watch?

-Why not.- he said.

-Harry, Daryl, you go and look for medicines, guns, food. Everything we might need. Put everything in our bags, extend another one if you need to. We need to be ready to run, just in case.

-You shouldn't go alone.- said Harry.

-It's okay. I'm just going to look for any information, maybe a chimney to make contact.

We left Merle there, smocking in the hallway while everyone was sleeping, if anybody asked he had an excuse. Like if he needed any excuse. Daryl and Harry left in one direction carrying our bags and a couple more that Harry had extended and I left in the other direction.

The corridors of the building were dark, I tried to turn on the lights every few steps, but there wasn't any power on this side of the building. Was this place running out of fuel already? Where would that leave us? Checking I wasn't being followed I cast a lumos spell to light my way through out that maze. The complete silence surrounding me was eerie after so many days sharing my space with someone almost all the time. The sound of my steps hitting the walls and traveling through the corridors, hinting anybody -or anything- that I was there. I finally found the offices inside the maze of corridors and after I checked five or six of them I started to thought I was losing my time. But just as I was expecting, in the office of the former director of the CDC, there was a chimney. An old construction made of stone and mortar with a cup of powder on top of the beam. It didn't take me too long to identify the powder in the pot as floo powder, and after a quick spell I found that the chimney was connected to the floo system but with limited access. I could send messages but no trips were allowed. I smothered down a yell of victory and started to work on sending the message to the office of the head master of Hogwarts.

-To Minerva McGonagall, it's Hermione Granger. Harry and I are in America, with my family and some friends. If you ever listen to this message I truly hope you all are alright. I'm not sure for how long we'll be staying here or if there's any other way to contact you, we don't have any owls… Take care Minerva, I know you will take good care of everyone. I was thinking that maybe Hogwarts could be a shelter, a place to live both for wizards and muggles. I hope you can find a way to send us a message back, I hope I see you again.

I cut the contact before I started crying. I missed Hogwarts, I missed the Gryffindor tower and the classes. And the library, I missed the library with all my heart. And the people. And for a few seconds I let myself hope for a future where we could all go to Hogwarts and survive there, and help other people to survive. I could picture myself there again with Rick and Carl playing in the gardens. Glenn would be amazed by everything but he would step up, I was sure about that. Merle would be friend with Hagrid, for some reason that made so much sense. And Daryl…. I could see Daryl investigating the castle grounds and the forest, maybe helping me gathering ingredients for potions and enjoying the few days of warm weather under the Scottish sun.

I had found the chimney to send the message but I didn't have the same luck about the information. Any information about the investigation was locked up in the computers, beyond my reach. I got back to my bedroom with a mix of feelings to find that Merle was gone, Harry had got back to his bed and I assumed Daryl was back to his own too. The next day was promised to be a busy one so I just fell sleep in my cot with conflicted feelings in my heart.

The morning after Harry woke me up shaking my arm.

-Did you find anything- he said with a raspy voice, squinting his eyes probably because of the hangover.

-I did.- I said getting up from the bed and looking for a hangover potion in my bag.- I found a chimney connected to the floo network and send a message to McGonagall, or whoever is in the headmaster office now. But I'm not sure if she'll get it, we don't really know what's is the situation back there. If it's safe to go back.

Harry gulp down the potion and we got ready to go to the kitchen where we found the rest of the group, most of them in different states of hungover. Carl and Sophia were playing in a different table with Carol, the only one except for me that wasn't holding her head in pain. I got close the pot of fresh coffee and mix it up with some more potion for the hangover with only Daryl as witness. I winked at him and pour a cup of warm coffee for him. I offered the cup to him and, after a few seconds under his scrutiny, he bit his lip and took the cup nodding as a thank you. I repress a wave of arousal, not the best moment to deal with that.

-Have some coffee.- I said to everyone.- You'll feel better.

And just like I said, they all were feeling better in a matter of minutes. It was then when Shane made his entrance, he went straight to the food without saying anything to anybody.

-What the hell happened to you?- asked him T-Dog.-Your neck.

-I must have done it in my sleep.

He had what looked clearly as a scratch in his neck, something that he hadn't had last night. And who was the only person with long nails in the group? I spilled the rest of the coffee down the drain, Daryl next to me was trying to not laugh.

-Never see you do that before.- said Rick. God Rick, I had to talk to him…

-Me neither. Not like me at all.- said Shane looking at Lori for a second.- Is there any coffee?

-Sorry, is gone.- I told him with a fake smile.- But I think there's some more coffee powder left in one of the cabinets.

This time Merle and Harry joined Daryl in their muffled laugh and Rick looked at me censoring. If only he knew… Jenner got in the kitchen and guided us to the big room with computers. Right before getting inside the room I hold Daryl's arm and whispered.

-You know something is happening between Lori and Shane, right?

-I don't want any trouble with your dad, this is none of my business.- he said putting his hands up, answering in his I don't want any trouble tone of voice.

-I'm not blaming you, Daryl.- he looked surprised listening that, probably too used to being blame for things that weren't his fault.-I just need to know if you know something. If I'm going to talk to my... my dad, I need to have proofs. Not only a theory.

-I saw them, before you gays joined us. They were having more than words in the forest.

-Thank you, Daryl. I can believed them...

-You can't?

We joined the rest of the group in the computers room, the place with all the information I needed get my hands on was. I tried to forget all that information about Shane and Lori. I needed to focus myself on looking for a cure now. Dr. Jenner showed us, after talking with the computer system, the playback of TS-19 which ended up being his dead wife turning into a walker and being shot in the head. Harry was getting more and more concerned, I could see it in his face, his magic was feeling something was off. And I trusted Harry's instincts with my life. Not his plans of course, they were always a mess, but his instincts...

-So you don't have any information about what is this.- I asked Jenner.

-We didn't have enough time. We only knew it starts the brain stem. It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal.

-Or the wrath of God?- said Jackie.

-Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere.- asked Andrea.

-There are others, right?- said Carol hugging Sophia.

-There may be some. People like me.- answered Jenner.-Everything went down. I've been in the dark for almost a month.

- So, it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere. Nothing.- intervened Andrea.- That's what you are really saying, right?

A heavy cloud of hopelessness sat on us. That meant the muggle authorities were out of question, but maybe the magical ones were still working out there.

-Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question but.. That clock is counting down. What happens on zero.

There it was, the important question. And I felt the same the same feeling Harry had been feeling since last night. My magic was pulling inside my veins, begging me to listen, to focus my attention on that big counting clock. And right then everything made sense.

-Go get the bags.- I whispered to Harry and Merle.

The building was running out of fuel and when that happened the building would have to be shut down. This kind of place was built thinking on protecting what was inside from a threat from outside, a war or terrorism. Was built to keep the information inside or gone. Gone. Jenner was leaving the room when I said.

-Is a self destruction protocol, right? This place was built to keep the secrets or destroy them. Now that there's no way to keep the secrets…

-That's it.- nodded Jenner.- There are things here that could destroy half of the global population in a matter of days. Or whatever is left by now. We can't let these things out there, out of control.

-Lori, grab our things. Everybody get your stuff. We're getting out of here now! – yelled Rick.

Merle and Harry were back from the bedrooms and they left again to help everybody else.

An alarm started blaring and Vi's voice said "30min to decontamination" That's how long we had left to run away. But the doors were closing down, trapping us inside that mausoleum.

-You son of a bitch.- said Daryl throwing herself against Jenner.

-Shane.- shouted Rick in a clear order to keep him from hurting the doctor.

Between Shane and T-Dog managed to grab Daryl and pull him away from the Doctor, meanwhile Rick was trying to deal with Jenner. He was trying to convince him, make him open the doors. But nothing worked. The clock was counting and we couldn't waste more time.

-Harry.- I said in a concerned voice, I wasn't sure about what we were about to do but we didn't have any other choice. We were running out of time.

He followed me to face the steel doors that led to the main corridor and then to the entrance. They were heavy, probably too much, but we had to try. We pulled out our wands still listening to Rick trying to convince Jenner and pointed to the doors.

-Alohomora!

We shouted at the same time. It was like trying to push a giant stone by hand. Our hands were trembling, sweat falling down our foreheads. The voices behind us had quieted. The steel started to move, slowly, too slow. Inch by inch the door went up. And the shouting started again. Daryl hold my arm, keeping it straight the last few seconds. And we started to run towards the next door followed by the rest of the group. It wasn't until we were in the main hall that I noticed not everybody was there. Jackie had stayed back, followed by Andrea and Dale. I didn't want to think about, not now, not when we still needed to get the hell out of there. The window glasses at the front of the building were reinforced and it didn't matter how much Daryl and Shane tried to brake them down with their axes. With a deep sigh Harry and I took a stance again and shouted to everyone to step back as much as possible. They have already seen us opening the doors anyway.

-I'll cast the bombarda.- said Harry.- You cast a protego, just in case.

I nodded and got ready.

-Bombarda maxima.- shouted Harry exploding all the windows in front of us.

-Protego.- was my spell keeping, everybody protected from the explosion, the fire and the glass shards.

We got out of the building not knowing how long we had left. At this point I was completely exhausted, not using this amount of magic in a while had left me out of shape. Stupidly out of shape. Alastor Moddy would be ashamed of me. Running through the dead, soothing and slashing the few walkers that were coming towards us, we got to the cars. Not long after we heard Andrea and Dale running behind us. The explosion wipe out the whole building and lit a fire that would last for a long time. Dale and Andrea got in the RV stumbling down after the explosion had almost reached them, and we got out of there before more walkers came attracted by the noise and the fire.

/

-I've been trying to contact to the same chimney but it's like is not connected anymore. Like it doesn't exist.- said Minerva McGonagall.

To a non experimented eye it would look like she was alone in her office, talking to herself. But if you knew about magic you would soon see how she was talking to one of the pictures. The one portraying an old man with a long white beard, half moon glasses and a cryptic smile. His bright blue eyes shinning with knowledge.

-I'm sure you'll find a way to make contact with her, Minerva. But for now I think is time for that call, Hogwarts needs him again.

Well that's it. I had so much fun writing this season and I hope you had enjoyed as much me. I might need to take a week to organize what I already have for the second season but I'll be back really soon.