Happy Friday! I hope everyone is safe and well. Especially those who might be reading from Florida or who might have loved ones there. It's been a rough week but I'm so glad that you are all here. Hopefully you all like where this ones going there's two more chapters and an epilogue after this (plus two chapters/sections of the spin off three-shot about Sev and Tuney).

As always special thanks to pianomouse for going through and picking apart yet another chapter for me! (But if any errors exist in the first fourish sections, those are all me. I added that section quickly after replying to some reviews from the previous chapter.)

Love,

Adrien

Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters or settings, those belong to J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy making things in her sandbox.

Chapter Sixteen: The Ball Doesn't Roll, It Barrels

Hermione didn't know what to think about Petunia. She wasn't the woman she presented herself as in the few interactions she'd had with her since befriending Harry and she was radically different from the woman she had always expected her to be based on Harry's upbringing (both that he shared with Hermione and that she deduced from things that went unsaid with her best friend). The way Severus had talked about the older woman in that park right after Hermione had run away should have told her that the older woman was different.

But seeing Petunia take strong arm Severus into staying in bed and eating proper amounts of food at his specified time when most people wouldn't have bothered or would have let him bully his way out of his bed. Knowing that Petunia had trusted her gut and risked Flooing from the Prince Estate to Spinner's End when Severus hadn't returned home for nearly a day after he had been unexpectedly called to Voldemort over the winter holidays. She'd found him, bloodied and dying after being left for dead in the house everyone knew Severus hated with his entire being and she had had the presence of mind to use her portkey to get them both to safety.

It had taken Severus almost a month to heal from his injuries but it would have taken so much longer if it hadn't been for Petunia. If it hadn't been for Petunia, there was every chance the first adult she had been able to trust in the wizarding world would likely be dead.

Despite barely being healed, Hermione should have known that he would see something the others missed in his first major meeting since coming to Bulgaria. After all, he'd been a spy longer than she had been alive. Noticing minute connections is what had kept him alive. But he didn't call her out on it in front of everyone. It wasn't in his nature.

Instead, he silently probes at her mental walls with Legilimency as their current meeting winds down. The first meeting Severus had attended since his body and mind had been mended. Their latest meeting about the object that was quickly becoming the bane of their existence: the Horcrux in Harry's head.

Hermione lets him in without hesitation and she can feel his surprise as she lets him into the outermost layer of her mindscape.

He doesn't make any statements or send her any concrete thoughts but she can feel his desire to speak with her privately after this meeting.

Hermione sends a wave of acceptance and understanding before closing her walls again as Severus pulls away, both magicals turning their attention back to the meeting at hand before anyone notices their brief distraction.

The meeting ends without any further progress, the same way it had for more than a month, and everyone makes their way off to their next activity.

"You have a theory," Severus states once the last person leaves the room.

"It's dangerous." Hermione doesn't deny his statement because she refuses to disrespect the first adult who had stood by her by lying to him.

"But you have one." Again, it's a statement instead of a question because he knew she had something she was holding back.

There's a long, tense silence.

Severus doesn't push for more information or lash out at her for holding back but Hermione knows that her last resort was quickly becoming their only option.

"He's tied to me," Hermione eventually confesses. "Draco, Luna, and I have been searching through bonds since their bond showed up like the one between Harry and I…I think I can use our bond and the protection Lily left behind to purge the Horcrux from Harry."

"Let's do it," Harry cuts in from the doorway before Severus can form a response, making Hermione jump.

"Absolutely not," Hermione snaps. She's equal parts frustrated with herself for not putting up privacy charms and angry with Harry for recklessly offering his life like she'd been trying to avoid.

"It's not your choice to make," Harry argues, his eyes narrowing as he quickly closes the distance between them.

"The hell it is." Hermione glares back, her back ramrod straight and her tone reminiscent of her first year bossiness. But there are tears beginning to blur her vision and she knows that Harry is close enough to see them.

"Hermione…" Harry attempts to change tactics, his tone softening as he relaxes his expression.

"You could die!" Hermione cuts him off before he can give her any of the half-cocked reasons she's sure he's concocted.

"And if we don't do this, I absolutely will." Harry's tone is clear and firm in a way that makes Hermione break eye contact because that's not something she can argue against.

"He doesn't know we know about them, we have time to find a safer way."

"What if there isn't one?"

"Then I will make one."

"How many people will die in the meantime?"

"If I have to choose between you and a country that doesn't give a fuck about me, I will choose you every time." Hermione's magic flares around them as her gaze locks with Harry's for the second time. This is exactly why Hermione hadn't brought her theory up sooner.

Harry freezes at her statement, his eyes softening in this heartbreaking sort of way and she knows instinctively that he doesn't agree with her but he loves and appreciates that she loves him more than anyone else he can ever remember loving him, before yanking her into a tight hug.

She breathes in his scent as she buries her face in his shoulder, her arms wrapping around him just as tightly as his were holding her. She couldn't lose him, he was the only family she had left.

"I will never leave you, Mione. Never." Harry's words are murmured into her curls so that only she can hear them.

It's those words that break her.

Her tears soak through his shirt at the same his seep through her curls onto her cheek.

A familiar set of arms wrap around the two of them and the dark haired pair let go of each other enough to wrap one arm each around the third member of their trio.

Ron's comfort is familiar in a way that Hermione hadn't realized she had missed until that moment. The three of them really hadn't spent genuine time alone together since sometime between their second and third year without the influence of someone outside of their circle. Whether it was Molly pushing Ron to pursue Hermione, the Order trying to separate them completely after the death of Cedric Diggory, or the physical separation of Hermione being in Bulgaria.

A lot of people assumed that Ron was Harry and Hermione's spare part but they had never seen him that way. Ron could see the bigger picture in a way that Harry and Hermione never could. He could make the hard decisions in a way they couldn't. Sure he could be harsh and, at times, it absolutely felt like he had the emotional range of a teaspoon. But when it came down to it, Ron understood the world in a way that Harry and Hermione never would and he was more than willing to do whatever he could to protect the two of them from the worst parts of it. Whether that meant sacrificing himself so that Harry could continue on, flying fist first at a blonde ferret calling Hermione a slur, or planning out an entire war so that his two best friends had somewhere safe to land in the aftermath.

Another set of hands firmly grasp Harry and Hermione's shoulders, drawing their attention to the older man they had forgotten was in the room.

"You're both correct. This is currently our best option by far but we have time. I think it's worth the time to see if we can use these bonds to destroy one of Horcruxes within the object first. Your theory that the power of two souls can outweigh the power of a fragmented soul is sound. But it makes me wonder whether Draco and Luna's connection would work on an object or if you and Harry have to be the ones to do it before taking the final Horcrux out of him because of his current connection to Voldemort. We have basilisk venom on standby but having the extra way to destroy the Horcruxes would never hurt." Severus's words are comforting in their certainty. He didn't beat around the bush or make empty promises but he acknowledged both sides and created a solid compromise.

The next two weeks feel busier than the last two years put together. Hermione, Harry, Draco, Luna, Severus, the twins, and Bill spend the time they aren't sleeping and eating barricaded in the library. They likely wouldn't have even left for that if it weren't for Winky, Viktor, and Ginny's insistence that their brains needed a break at least a few times a day.

Tapping into the soul magic was surprisingly easy when the four soul-bonded's brains were mixed with the unconventional thought process from the twins, Severus's background with the Dark Arts, and Bill's familiarity with ancient magic. Within twenty-four hours, both pairs could meld their magic into a single pool within themselves. By the time forty-eight hours had passed, they could bring their magic into the physical realm for the others to see. At seventy-two hours, tandem casting felt almost instinctual and the bond flowed freely between the pairs like it had always been there. Which Hermione supposed it had on some level, it had just needed to be activated and acknowledged.

Their group decided to use Harry and Hermione in their first attempt on Slytherin's Locket at the end of the first week. They thought that the Horcrux in Harry's head would make it easy to draw out the other Horcrux and they were right to a point. The other Horcrux recognized the one in Harry's head but it tried to latch onto it when it sensed the soul bond closing in. Severus and Bill's quick thinking forced the Horcrux back where it belonged but their magic's reaction with the soul bond threw Harry and Hermione into bookcases on separate sides of the room. It was luck that Kreacher had wanted to see Regulus's last command completed because his magic cushioned their separate impacts, protecting the dark haired wizards from any injuries worse than a few bruises.

Many, much smaller tests, with Luna and Draco's bond followed before they attempted to destroy the Horcrux in Slytherin's Locket for the second time. This time when the soul bond closed in around it, the Horcrux had nowhere to go and it melted away with a slightly anti-climactic shriek.

They didn't have any time to celebrate before a sharp sting flared through Hermione's soul bond and Harry collapsed to the ground across the room from her. He writhes in pain for the few seconds it takes Hermione to close the distance. When Hermione's skin makes contact with his, his body relaxes as their bond forces Voldemort from his mind.

"He knows," Harry gasps, clutching her hand tightly in his. "He's going to check all of them but the last object is in Hogwarts. He'll check that one last since he still thinks Hogwarts is under his control. Then it's just him and Nagini."

"Harry and I will stay here to take care of the one in his head," Hermione states decisively when no one else makes a move because it's the only thing that makes sense. "Draco, Luna, can you take care of the locket somewhere else? I don't want to risk the two reaching out to one another in their destruction. Bill, Fred, George, can you all get everyone together and tell them where we need to go? Sev, you're the best healer here, can you stay in case Harry and I are hurt?"

There's a flood of movement followed by silence.

"I love you, Mione," Harry states firmly as he grasps her forearms.

"Always, Harry," Hermione replies as she returns the action.

Their bond hums, a soft light forming between their clasped arms before they even begin the process. Like it knows what they're about to do, what it needs to do. Their intent pushes forward in tandem, the entirety of their bond flooding Harry's system. When their magic touches the Horcrux, darkness physically burns through the bond but they don't let go.

They push forward and the pain flares more sharply before there is nothing. It's just their bond flowing between them, alleviating any pain the Horcrux left behind.

"Did we…?" Harry trails off as their magic settles and they separate.

"I think so…" Hermione's tone is hopeful but both teens wait for Severus's confirmation as his magic runs over them.

"You did," Severus confirms and gives the teens a small smile as his wand lowers, his diagnostic spell on the teens falling at the same time the wards around the room are canceled.

Viktor and Ron enter the room before anything else can be said. When their eyes land on Harry and Hermione, they know the soul-bond had been successful.

"Our side has all been alerted and they are all on their way to Hogwarts," Ron states, quickly corralling Harry and Severus out of the room.

They're almost there.

This is how it ends.

Viktor stops her before she can follow the other three wizards, a quick flick of his wrist throwing up a familiar set of privacy charms.

One hand on her hip spins her into him. Her eyes meet his and she understands instantly that he needs this…just in case. If she's honest, she does too.

His other hand threads through her hair as he pulls her into a hard kiss. Their teeth clash together almost painfully but neither of them seem to notice. The only thing that matters is that they're feeling something.

Both Viktor's hands slide down to her thighs as Hermione's back hits the book case, lifting her up so she can wrap her legs around his waist as her hands attempt to yank his shirt over his head.

The first time they break their kiss is just long enough for the shirt to hit the floor.

The second time they break apart is after Viktor has wandlessly banished Hermione's underwear and Hermione has pushed down Viktor's pants. His cock is at her entrance and his eyes silently ask permission as he pulls away. Hermione nods, smiling softly at the man in front of her and then he's inside her.