Chapter 3: Ex nihilo nihil fit ~ Nothing comes from nothing
Being back at Hogwarts was surreal. So much had happened, so much had changed, Hermione thought everything seemed… small. Ron was off with Fred and George, helping reinforce the protective wards. Not having his energy pressing down on her gave her room to think. Tightening her grip on her wand she didn't feel the familiar vines on the grip, it wasn't her wand. As she studied Bellatrix's walnut wand a fleeting moment of doubt came over her. She was about to go into battle, not just without her wand, but with a wand of an evil witch. It had been working for her fine. What did that say about her? That Bellatrix Lestrange's wand recognized her.
"...you did murder someone today already…"
Ron's words echoed in her head. Had the war changed her so much? A violent shaking rained dust down on her. Students were running as the Ravenclaw prefects ushered the young students toward the dungeons to a safe zone that faculty had established. Harry was talking to Luna about her house and Hermione knew she should be listening. The sorting hat almost put her in Ravenclaw. Rumor was, she was nearly a hatstall. McGonagall herself had addressed the issue with her in her first year.
"It took the hat five and a half minutes to decide I belonged in Gryffindor over Ravenclaw," Minerva shared after a transfiguration class.
Hermione's chin quivered. It had been a rough week. She thought she was making friends but Ron was often annoyed with her constant corrections when they studied together. On top of that, the night before she tried to get both Harry and Ron not sneak out to duel with Draco. The two boys thought running into the three-headed dog after curfew had been a fun adventure. She thought they were all lucky to still be at the school. Waking up that morning, she had been wondering if she really belonged in Gryffindor. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked, hoping her head of house wasn't about to bust her for the rule breaking the previous night.
"It can be hard to find your place when you're meant to be in two places," Minerva observed.
They were words that Hermione thought about often. Not as much about the sorting hat's decision. She was a muggleborn in a magical world. Finding her place in both worlds was hard enough before the war. There were times she wondered if McGonagall hadn't been referring to that truth as much as the hat's apparent indecision during her sorting. Ironically, Hermione had gone straight from that pep talk to the charms class where she tried to help Ron with his levitation charm. It all turned out alright, it just hadn't been easy.
In the end, Hermione was very glad she wasn't a Ravenclaw. They seemed to make situations unnecessarily complicated for the sake of acquiring knowledge. That might be all well and good in an academic setting. That wasn't what this was. They just needed to find the Horcrux and she worried Luna might be spinning a puzzle to solve. A lost diadem. Merlin, why did Ravenclaw's have to be so difficult? Of course this task to hunt Horcruxes would include a centuries old mystery no one had been able to solve.
Not no one though. If Tom Riddle had solved it, that mattered. Get it together, she told herself. Another blast shook the ground under her. Worried, she looked around to make sure the structure would stand. Harry was walking toward her.
"Luna said I should talk to the Grey Lady," he explained.
"How can she help?" she asked, skeptical. Even if the ghost knew Tom Riddle, she was hardly an approachable ghost. Hermione doubted that had changed much since Voldemort was a student.
"She's the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. If anyone here knows what happened to the Diadem it's her."
"That sounds… reasonable," Hermione said in surprise. "Let's go find her."
"I need to go alone."
"What? Why?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Luna thinks she'll be more receptive if it's just me."
A loud explosion had them both ducking. "Okay, go on then. I'll go down to the Great Hall to see if I can help."
A flash of worry was evident. To his credit, Harry didn't voice a concern. He gave her a chaste kiss and then took two steps backwards, "Watch your back. I'll try to hurry."
Within seconds, he was swallowed up by the sea of students. Separating seemed like a mistake. She should have asked where he was going so she could find him if he took too long. Taking a step forward she considered going after him.
"Miss Granger," Minerva's voice caught her attention. "Come with me. We need to reinforce the grand entrance."
Accepting the situation, she followed McGonagall toward the main doors off the Great Hall. The towering structures seemed like both an asset and a liability. They looked impenetrable but they also impeded their ability to see a direct attack coming. They started to open and she understood. They could wait for the fight to come to them or take the fight to the attackers. If the school was going to survive the night, it wouldn't happen by locking it down and hoping it held.
"Enlarge that wall over there," Minerva instructed while she focused on the large stone statues lining the outer walls of the castle. "Piertotum Locomotor," she said. The stone soldiers came to life and took orders from the professor.
Hermione was about to focus on her task when to her surprise, more stone guards walked out from inside the castle. McGonagall's spell had awakened all suits of armor and statues within and without the school. It was an impressive display of power.
"All right there, Hermione?" Tonks asked. Hermione spun on the spot and saw the Auror.
Motioning toward the newly recruited army, she nodded. "Yeah, I was just–"
"–admiring Minerva's handiwork? I always wondered what she was capable of if she'd just loosened up," Tonks said with a click of her tongue.
The pair got to work blocking off blind spots, creating a bottleneck that would require an attacking army to be out in the open in a direct attack.
"I heard what you did," the Auror finally said while she created a great ravine in the ground. It someone tried to scale the wall, they'd be met by a dangerous fall.
Hermione froze. Killing Voldemort wasn't exactly news she thought would be kept secret. She wasn't sure she was ready everyone to know she had done the deed either. Chancing a look at Minerva, she wondered if her former head of house knew. "It doesn't seem like it helped," she confessed. The siege on the school was a direct result of those actions. How many would be injured or died that day because of her choices.
"The war was always going to breach the castle. We've been planning for this for months. Thanks to you, the Death Eaters are doing this without You-Know-Who calling the shots. That lot aren't really known for their strategic thinking, if you get my drift. That's by design."
Considering her words, Hermione looked out to the castle grounds. It did look chaotic. Instead of concentrating on one point to weaken the wards, the attacking force was broken up into factions. They clearly outnumbered those inside the castle, they weren't leveraging that advantage. Without warning the night sky lit up with bright white fire.
"That'd be Neville. He was going to destroy the footpath bridge," Tonks explained, wiping some soot from her face that had fallen onto them. "Remus won't say this because he still thinks of you as his student and wishes you kids didn't have to grow up as fast as he did, but you managed to do the one thing not a single adult thought was possible. Many in the Order were acting like they'd already lost until word got out that You-Know-Who was dead."
Tears pricked at Hermione's eyes. She'd spent the better part of the year on the run, disconnected from the resistance. Knowing she, Harry, and Ron were contributing in secret, it meant more than she thought it would to know those contributions and sacrifices weren't in vain.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted, trying to find her in the sea of animated sentinels.
"Go. Go on now, I need to find Lupin," Tonks encouraged and ran back into the castle.
"Harry. Here, I'm here," Hermione called back, meeting him on the steps. "Do you know where it is?"
He took her hand and pulled her through the doors. "The room of requirement. I saw it last year when I was hiding that potions book," he explained as they ran against the flow of people. "Tom convinced the Grey Lady to divulge where she hid it. She said he corrupted it."
As they ran through the halls, Hermione caught sight of Ron working with Fred and George near a tower platform. She nearly called out to include him, then stopped herself. He was with his family, where he should be. Putting him from her thoughts, she picked up the pace, taking the steps two at a time until they were finally on the seventh floor again. This part of the castle was eerily quiet. The sounds of fighting were muffled. Hand in hand, they both made the request for the room of forgotten things. The door appeared. Harry opened it revealing towering piles of illicit items that stretched as far as the eye could see. How could they possibly find it?
"It's on wizard bust. Hermione, I held it in my hands and didn't know what it was," he confessed, pulling them forward. Several feet in he looked indecisive.
"We'll find it. You go that way, I'll take the left," she said. "Send up red sparks if you find it." Hermione started to doubt her words the deeper into the room she ventured. The sheer volume of junk must represent centuries of students hiding things. Rounding the corner, she came up short.
"Granger," Draco sneered.
Shifting the grip of her wand, she stopped short of raising it up, not wanting to escalating the situation. "Malfoy. How'd you get in here?"
"You're not the only one who knows secrets about this school," he said.
She took a step back to give herself some space if she needed to make a quick decision. She looked around him. "Alone? No entourage. Is it that bad for the Malfoys?"
Anger flared, he brought his wand up and pointed it at her. "You would know, wouldn't you? This is your fault. Isn't it?"
Did he know what she did, she wondered. Or was he referring to drama that unfolded that delayed calling Voldemort long enough for everyone to escape. How would he know? Where was Harry?
"How'd you do it?" he continued. "My aunt left a hair on you when…"
"Say it!" she yelled. Part of her emotions originated from the realization he was talking about killing Voldemort. "When she tortured me. When you just stood by."
"I–"
"–you what? You didn't identify Harry? Very brave. Feigning ignorance wasn't an act of courage, it was the best your guilty conscience was able to muster. And it was pathetic."
Expecting her words would drive him to action, it was a surprise to see his wand lower. Not his wand, she realized. Ron's wand. If Ron's wand was there, hers might be too. It was a stupid thing to care about in that moment.
"Hermione?" Harry's voice called out. He sounded like he was at least several rows over.
She was about to answer, Draco brought the wand back up.
"Well then. What are you going to do? Kill me?" she whispered. He didn't have it in him on the astronomy tower. However, it was a year of war later and she was just a mudblood.
"You don't know what it's like."
"Tell me. Tell me what it's like. To have known what your dad was and what he was trying to do. Knowing this could have been stopped before it started," she said, stalling. Wait for Harry. "You're a Death Eater, aren't you? Took the mark. And you want me to think you're the victim?"
"At least I haven't killed anyone."
His words felt like a physical blow. He had a point. They had both been faced with an opportunity to kill an unarmed man and only one of them did it. "I think I'll sleep better knowing Voldemort is dead."
Hearing the dark lord's name made Draco grimace. Before he could respond, the willow wand flew from his hand. Draco looked wildly around as he backed up against a shelf in an effort to ensure an attack couldn't come from behind.
"You okay?" Harry asked her, stepping out from his cover.
She nodded and picked up Ron's wand, slipped it into her back pocket.
"He's alone?"
"I tried to find Crabbe and Goyle, but it turns out all Slytherins are locked up and under guard in the dungeons," Draco answered for himself. "Is that how it's going to be under the new order? People are locked up simply because they were sorted into Slytherin?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "They're down there with all the students who aren't fighting to defend the school so they don't get hurt, you twit." She was done with him. Then she saw what Harry had in his free hand. "You found it?"
Draco was forgotten. The last Horcrux, but not the final one. It had seemed impossible.
"Yeah, let's reunite Malfoy with his pals and take care of it."
Turning the trio left the room of requirement. Hermione was surprised by the changes that had happened in the hallway. All sounds of the war were absent inside, but clearly the shields around the school were compromised. A gaping hole in the outer wall was allowing smoke to pour in. Hermione walked over to survey what was happening on the ground. Looking out, two forms were walking down toward the black lake. Just the two, and one didn't look like they were going willingly. "Harry, look. Is that Snape and…"
"Bellatrix!"
"You should steer clear, Granger. She has two people on her hit list and Snape wasn't at the top," Draco warned. "She knows what you did and how you did it. I've never seen her that crazed when it was worked out."
"Take Draco, I'll go," Harry offered.
"No way Harry. You're not going down there alone," she looked at Draco and then back at the wall where the room of requirement was hidden. "He doesn't have a wand. The room seems shielded from everything. I think we immobilize him inside. Come back for him later."
Harry didn't have to be told twice, he shot out a full body-bind curse and conjured some ropes for good measure. Hermione summoned the door again and levitated the rigid body into the room.
"Enjoy the ride," Harry said before closing him in. He turned to Hermione with a look of concern. "You sure about going after her?"
"We have to try to save Snape. I won't take unnecessary risks," she promised as she dug around in her beaded bag. Pulling out the sword, she handed it to him. "Your turn."
Harry made the indistinguishable sounds that she had come to know as parselmouth, the Horcrux erupted from the diadem. Standing back, wand up, she watched him struggle, like he was hearing something she couldn't. And then dozens of clones of herself appeared. Each one fighting Voldemort or Bellatrix. One by one, Hermione watched herself fall to killing curses, the small dagger, and even the sword. "Harry. Stab the center," she said, stepping closer. The forms on the ground rewound and reset. Only this time it was Harry fighting Hermione. "Harry! It's not real. Destroy it," she pleaded, even as the imitations of her fell around her. She could take the sword from him and do it herself, it would be better if he fought through the Horcrux's influence. A small piece of her worried that the Horcrux from the diadem might connect to the one attached to Harry somehow.
Suddenly, a scream erupted from him, echoed off the walls, and the sword arched over his head and down on the black mass. Everything disappeared. It was just Harry, Hermione, and a charred ball of metal.
"Harry," she said quietly. Stepped up and positioned herself in front of him. She brought her hands up and cupped his face. Tears had left trails down his cheeks, his eyes still filled with them. "Harry, it wasn't real."
The sword clattered to the floor as his hands flew up to take her hands in his. "Hermione."
"Yes. Take a minute," she said, knowing they didn't have too many to spare.
In a quick motion, he dropped her hands, and gathered her up in a fierce hug.
She simply held him, unsure what else she could do.
"I don't want to lose you," he confessed.
"You won't. I'm right here. We're together and we'll take care of each other."
His grip loosened and he pulled back to study her face. Brushing her hair back, he looked deeply into her eyes. "I don't want to hurt you."
Hermione opened her mouth to protest. Before she could figure out how to reassure him, he kept talking.
"Not like Ron hurt you. I'm afraid this thing inside. This piece of Voldemort might take over… like the locket, but stronger," he explained his fears.
The images from the Horcrux started to make more sense. "You've had this with you since you were a baby. It's never controlled you like that."
"It did. At the ministry. He took control. What if he finds out you killed him and can tap into it? I won't be the reason you get hurt."
She couldn't argue that it wasn't a possibility. They were on new ground, dealing with concepts that hadn't even been theorized. "We're going to figure out how to destroy it. If you think he's able to see your thoughts, if you feel him, you have to tell me. You can't keep it to yourself like you did before. That's the only way we'll know if it's a threat."
Her words were having a calming influence on him. His demeanor shifted from fear to resolve. "Okay. Okay," he said, shaking off the emotions. "We need to find Bellatrix. Snape might already be hurt, or worse."
Deciding it was faster to go through the hole in the side of the castle, Hermione used a levitation charm of them, and brought them gently to the ground level. "She was headed toward the lake. Maybe the boathouse?"
Harry agreed and the pair took off toward the small structure in the distance. Chancing a glance behind her, Hermione saw spells lighting up the night sky. It looked like fireworks. Flames smoldered in random patches, the protections around the school seemed to be deteriorating. The attack was directed through the defensive position they reinforced. Most of the protections in the rear of the castle were still intact. They probably could be restored easily enough, but now that the Death Eaters had breached the school, the priorities were the invaders not the defenses. They needed to get back up there to help.
The closer they got to the lake, the sounds of battle behind them faded and yelling in front of them intensified. They picked up the pace, spurred on by the thought Snape might still be alive.
"You let her in, didn't you! You knew what she was planning and you helped!" Bellatrix screamed.
They crouched down as they approached the side of the boathouse.
"I didn't know," Snape said with conviction. "Search my mind if you wish. I didn't know. I thought it was you."
"You're lying! You knew and you helped her escape," Bellatrix was nearly hysterical. She was clearly losing what little sanity she had left.
Several boards at the base of the structure were missing. Hermione leaned up against the wall and peered in. Snape was floating above the ground, unable to move as he spun. Bellatrix had the vine wand. Angry at the thought that it was being used for dark magic, she almost sprung up right then. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder, motioned to the water.
Grindylows and Merpeople were just under the surface. Some were looking on at the school, others were captivated by the events unfolding in the boathouse.
Seeing the opportunity, Hermione aimed her wand at the dock under Bellatrix's feet. In seconds, she was careening toward the water, her arms flailing as they tried to find purchase. Her fall stopped nearly as suddenly as it started. Bellatrix found herself sitting and a few feet of water, looking around wildly to see who caused the offense.
Bellatrix braced herself with her free hand, pushing up from the muck and seaweed. Before she could gain her purchase, something wrapped around her wrist and jerked her under. Long fingers flew out of the water pulling at her hair, her clothes. The witch yelled in frustration.
Taking the opportunity, Hermione entered released Snape, feeling guilty as he crashed loudly on the floor. There wasn't time for finesse. She raced in to help him while Harry focused his attention on Bellatrix.
"Relashio!" Bellatrix screamed and Hermione knew the fight wasn't over.
Hermione sent Snape crashing through the wall with a force from her wand to get him out of the line of fire without a wand. Not that it would matter. Bellatrix would be casting to kill, and there was no defense for that. She saw her vine wand turning on Harry. Time slowed. She had to decide if she'd resort to an unforgivable curse to save his life. At that moment, Bellatrix saw her. The hate in her eyes was terrifying. A spell shot from the vine wand at the same time Harry tried disarming Bellatrix. A Grindylow's hand was wrapped so tightly around hers, the wand didn't budge. It did change her aim and a jet of red light hit the wall inches from Hermione's head.
Why wasn't she using the killing curse, Hermione wondered. There wasn't time to process. Harry was too close to Bellatrix. Afraid any spell she cast might hit a shield, bounce off, and hit Harry, Hermione brought the roof of the boathouse directly above the dark witch down on her with such force, the shockwave pushed Hermione down. The wind was knocked out of her. She knew the threat wasn't over, she had to get up, but her lungs wouldn't respond.
Harry leaned over her, grabbed her under her arms and pulled her around the remaining structure. He used his wand to enlarge a rock on the corner of the entrance. Now a huge boulder it would provide some initial protection. Movement distracted him for a second and they both saw Snape approaching. He had bruises on his face and dried blood around a large gash on his forehead.
"I got her," Snape told Harry. "Subdue Bellatrix. The wand she's using won't allow her to use unforgivable curses."
Harry nodded in gratitude for the information and disappeared. Hermione was starting to see stars. She still wasn't moving air.
"Miss Granger. Just relax. I think the wind was knocked out of you. Relax and try to take a deep breath," he said, keeping an eye out for an attack if Harry failed.
With relief, air finally rushed into her lungs. Hermione pushed the walnut wand into Snape's hand, "Go, help Harry," she wheezed.
Snape barely had time to stand before Harry rejoined them. "She's dead," he said.
"What?" Hermione was shocked and pushed up against the wall to help her stand. "I didn't… how?"
Harry grimaced. "Impaled by the cross beam, looks like."
It didn't seem like a fitting end to the woman who inflicted pain and suffering on so many. It was better than she deserved. "I didn't mean to."
"Nevertheless, it's done," Snape said matter-of-factly. "No one will find fault in your actions." He turned the wand handle toward her to give it back.
Hermione shook her head. "That's my wand she has. I want it back. That's hers. You can keep it." Moving to reenter the rubble, Harry stopped her.
"I'll get it. You don't need to see it."
Relenting, she stood where she was, letting Harry reenter the boathouse. "The last Horcrux is destroyed. We found it in the school," she told Snape. "Draco is up there. We locked him in the room of requirement when we saw you and Bellatrix heading this way."
"Here," Harry said, returning to the conversation.
"How did Draco get past everyone?" Snape asked. "Every entrance was blocked with the exception of the Hog's Head tunnel."
Hermione and Harry exchanged glances. They assumed it had been a secret entrance. "He didn't say. The vanishing cabinet is destroyed?"
"I helped Mad Eye myself," Harry confirmed.
"I need to get back up to the school, I'll send someone up to the seventh floor to collect Mister Malfoy," Snape said and started forward before turning around. "Thank you."
It was genuine, with an edge of pain to the sentiment. "Yeah. I guess that makes us even then."
With a look of agreement, he was gone.
Glad to have her wand back, Hermione studied it to make sure it wasn't damaged. It was hard to believe she killed both Voldemort and Bellatrix. As much as she hadn't wanted to use the killing curse, knowing her wand hadn't let Bellatrix use the curse left her wondering if she would have even gotten an effective spell off if she tried.
"Hermione?" Harry whispered, uncertainty evident.
"I really didn't mean to kill her. I thought about using the killing curse. I couldn't do it." Still, Bellatrix was dead despite her intentions. "We should move her body."
He blew hair out and scratched his head. "We really have bigger issues right now."
Of course he was right. The school was burning. Voldemort was loose and needed to be found. The Death Eaters were clearly not willing to give up even though their leader was gone. And they weren't any closer to having a solution for the final Horcrux. "You're right. What do we do now?"
Harry was looking at the forest, he didn't seem to be listening to her.
"Harry?"
"All the secret entrances were closed."
"That's what Snape said." She didn't understand what he was getting at.
"What about secret chambers?" he finally asked.
"If that's how Draco got in, they might be planning an ambush from inside the school," she said, following his train of thought.
Setting off back into the castle, they were forced to enter through the main entrance. The fighting was intense along the bottleneck McGonagall had created. The pair weaved their way through, sending off spells as they went to help their side. Hermione spotted Ron still with Fred and George. Ginny and Luna looked like they were holding their own with a pair of Death Eaters. Remus and Tonks were backing each other up. The Death Eaters still hadn't figured out how to coordinate their efforts. It was looking like the invaders would be held at the doors. That made it even more important to make sure there wasn't a threat building from within.
The girls bathroom wasn't far. The entrance to the chamber was firmly closed. If this was how Draco got in, he was considerate enough to lock it down after him. Harry opened the entrance. "I didn't think I'd be making this jump again. There's a bend that will slow your speed," he explained, taking her hand they jumped together.
The descent was fast enough. There were rocks still blocking the entrance, Hermione made quick work of them with a severing charm, a path forward was clear.
"We could have used you last time. Ready?" Harry asked. They might be walking right into a trap.
"Ready," she answered, wand leveled at the snake adorned vault.
It opened under Harry's influence without issue. The resulting silence was anticlimactic. They exchanged glances and stepped forward. The large tunnel had branching pipes. Harry motioned for Hermione to take one direction and he took off in the other. A loud thud had her turning on the spot. Looking down the path she had walked. Thinking about the basilisk gave her chills. The creature just lived in the chamber for decades? Had it hibernated? It never occurred to her to figure out how the snake survived in so much isolation. Why hadn't they confirmed there wasn't another one down there? The attack she expected never came and she turned around. Exiting the pipe, Hermione saw Harry standing in front of the large stone statue. A dedication to Salazar Slytherin himself. Hermione took in the vast cavernous space. When she looked back down, she was startled to find Harry standing in front of her. "Harry–"
Harry's fist made solid contact with her face. Stars exploded and she felt herself falling backward for the second time that night. Trying to shake off the pain and wrap her head around what had just happened, he came into her line of sight again. Looming over her. His eyes were blood red. He wasn't Harry anymore.