This chapter was released 4 days early because GenesisYD left 5 reviews on the story.
Draco's Solution
Hermione:
"Get the snake!" Draco bellowed as he wrestled with his aunt on the floor. "It's the last horcrux! Get the snake!"
Voldemort paused in throwing killing curses for a moment. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "What are you talking about?"
Hermione leaned out and said, "Diffindo!" Her cutting curse whizzed past Voldemort's head and sliced his cheek open.
Voldemort turned, seething. And because Hermione was so far out in the aisle, he noticed the locket hanging around her neck. "Open!" he hissed at it.
The locket sprang open on her chest, but nothing happened. This made him even more angry. "Where is it?" He yelled and slashed his wand in a wide arc. The shelf Hermione hid behind was cut in two. She dodged out of the way.
Voldemort began to hiss in Parseltongue. Hermione had no idea how – she'd been doing really badly in all her practice sessions with Harry(they usually ended with her tongue tied but not with snake language) – but she could hear everything he said. "Nagini!" he called. "Dinnertime! I have a delicious Mudblood for you here!"
"Nagini!" Harry called in Parseltongue from not too far away, "Over here! Follow my voice!"
"Nagini!" Hermione joined in and heard Voldemort yell in rage. More shelves were being sliced – she jumped behind two more. Somehow, her mouth was forming all the correct syllables. "Come quickly! We need you!"
"Unworthy Mudblood!" Voldemort yelled. "How dare you defile the language of Salazar Slytherin himself! My death eaters, find them!"
Ron suddenly rushed by and grabbed her wrist. He hauled her into the shelves with one hand. The other hand was holding the Sorting Hat underneath his arm. When they paused to hide behind some shelves, Ron dug his hand into the hat. "Come on, come on…" he muttered.
"What are you looking for?" Hermione demanded.
"Harry got the sword out of the hat, didn't he? Because he's a true Gryffindor?"
"I-I suppose, but Harry is also actually Gryffindor."
"Dumbledore said any true Gryffindor could pull the sword out of the hat," Ron said angrily. "And a sword would be mighty helpful now to-"
"Stupefy!" Hermione stunned a death eater who'd come around the corner. Quite strange – he'd run right around the corner and towards them, as if he'd known they were there. As if something had signalled him.
Hermione looked at her hands. They seemed a normal colour. "Ron, are my ears green?"
He paused in digging and concentrating. "No," he said. "Why?"
"Because the light would give us away." Hermione put her hands over her ears. She thought about perfectly normal things. Finishing in the middle of her year. Getting a job as a shop help. Becoming a stay-at-home mom.
The locket burned against her chest. She looked down and it was bright green. She picked it up and thought. Salazar could help her. Salazar had been a very accomplished wizard. She was a young, fifteen-year-old girl. And so she began to think again. What if she went back and graduated top of her class? And she helped kill Voldemort – maybe even tonight? And by the time the paper came out tomorrow morning, everyone would be telling stories about them. And she and Rosalie could submit their research and the spells they'd invited. And they'd both be given Order of Merlins at the same ceremony. And they'd be the first Muggleborn and Muggle to be given the awards, ever.
"Er, Hermione?" Ron asked. "I think you're doing the opposite of what you need to be doing." Because she now closely resembled a green candle.
"Maybe I can turn the tide of this battle with a little help," Hermione said. And she stood up and wielded her wand again. It almost felt as if she were working with half the brain power. As if the motions were drilled into her with decades of experience. Not five years at Hogwarts.
She was glowing green from head to foot.
She got up and ran back to the battle. The first death eater she came across, she stunned. The second, she petrified. She sprinted back into the circular section and heard a scream of rage. "It's not here!" Lord Voldemort yelled. "Where is Dumbledore's wand? Who has it?"
Hermione shot a stunning spell at him. It fizzed and whizzed towards him. She thought it would be a direct hit. But at the last second, he deflected it. He shot a killing curse back towards her. She dodged and shot another stunning spell. "Stupefy!" But it was interesting – she was speaking in parseltongue again. "Stupefy!"
She was fighting the most powerful dark wizard of her century. And she was going to walk away from it.
They dueled and it was like Hermione's wand had a mind of its own. It moved in her hands without her planning her spells. And once, she heard herself utter a spell she'd never used before, that caused prophecies to come flying off the shelves and shatter against Lord Voldemort's arms. He barely managed to deflect it.
"Filthy Mudblood!" He yelled as he summoned spikes to hurl at her. "I will wear your skin!"
"It'll look better on you than yours does!" Hermione shot back. And dang – she was going to be fluent in Parseltongue by the time this was over.
The rest of the shelf Voldemort had sliced when she'd hidden behind it toppled on top of him. Hermione summoned Dumbledore's body before he could be crushed. Behind the shelf was a bright red light. Harry had tipped the shelf, hoping to buy Hermione time. He might not have realised that she'd been fighting him.
But if he tried to push her out of this fight, he wasn't going to have a girlfriend much longer.
She got the idea to hit Voldemort while he was down. She knew she couldn't kill him, but just to be able to say she'd landed a mark. And as she flung the spell at him, she felt herself get taller suddenly. And her hand changed shape and texture.
Harry made it to her side. And he now looked like Godric Gryffindor.
When Voldemort came up, he looked at them both and frowned, squinting. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"I'm Salazar Slytherin, the Hogwarts Founder, and Hermione Granger, the Brightest Witch to live," Hermione found herself saying. This was unlike when Salazar had borrowed her body before. She was choosing to move her lips along with the words. As if she and Salazar had the same thought at the same time.
"I'm Godric Gryffindor, the Hogwarts Founder, and Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived," Harry said.
"Salazar Slytherin?" Lord Voldemort laughed. "You think you are Salazar Slytherin?"
"Shut up," Hermione hissed at him in parseltongue. "Yes, I am Salazar Slytherin. The same one who built the Chamber of Secrets and all of Hogwarts! And you are Tom Riddle, who learned about horcruxes from your potions master, Professor Slughorn."
Lord Voldemort glared. "I don't know how you know that, but-"
"I know everything about your days at Hogwarts," Hermione said. "I know every book you read. Every place you walked. I have seen thousands of students through the walls. I know what you did."
"Nagini!" Lord Voldemort shouted. "Come and eat this fool!"
"Nagini!" Hermione shouted. "I am your new mistress. And I want you to come and grovel at my feet!"
From a distance, Hermione heard hissing.
Voldemort swept his arm in another wide arc and Hermione narrowly avoided having her hips separated from her body above that point. All the shelves around them were sliced down. She noticed, in the distance, a blue and a yellow light. That was good. That meant Draco and Rosalie were still alive. And they were doing something smart and loyal. Hopefully it would get them all out of here alive.
"So this is my heir?" Salazar asked from out of Hermione's mouth, sneering at Voldemort. "One of my last known descendants? The Heir of Slytherin?"
Voldemort raised his wand high above his head. Hermione readied hers in front of her.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort yelled.
Hermione leaped to the side and the curse passed her by by mere inches. At the same time, she pointed, and a large snake jumped out of the end of her wand. "Attack him," Hermione commanded.
Voldemort slashed a circle into the floor at his feet and raised the portion he stood upon. The ground rose and Harry and Hermione were forced to raise their attacks. Voldemort was gaining the high ground.
"Hermione," Harry yelled at her. "Be nice if you could raise us up too!"
"We're not at Hogwarts!" Hermione called back. "Where's Draco and Rosalie? We need them too!"
Voldemort was firing spells so fast that his wand seemed lit with a lumos charm. His wand was in constant use. Harry and Hermione's were acting similarly, though Harry seemed to be struggling just a bit with the wand in his hand. The wand lagged in spells.
"Bellatrix!" Voldemort yelled. "Take the Mudblood! Potter is mine!"
"Retreat," Salazar said in her head. "You need Draco and Rosalie to win this fight."
Hermione looked over, trying to meet Harry's eyes. He was not focusing on her. She needed a fast solution. Cool logic in the face of fire.
Well, actually, fire was a great idea.
She waved her wand and flames burst up from the ground, shielding Voldemort from view. They rose up twenty feet high. Godric jumped back with his beard singed. Hermione seized his arm and yanked him down one of the aisles.
"What are you doing? I had him!" Harry said.
"Your wand is acting up and this place is crawling with Death Eaters," Hermione said. "Look, we need to find Draco and Rosalie. If we can get them to tap into Helga and Rowena, then we can use the abilities we can at Hogwarts! I can put them all in a pit! No one would be able to hide from you! Draco could backfire all their wands. Rosalie could mess with the ministry wards."
"But I had him!" Harry insisted. "I had him!"
"No, you didn't!" Hermione said. "Not as long as Nagini is alive! And you're still a horcrux too!"
The image of Godric disappeared and Harry was left, sullen and upset, in his place. "Fine," he agreed. "I see your point. Where are they?"
Hermione pointed, then paused. "I… saw blue and yellow light that way… I think it was that way…"
"Come on." Harry grabbed her hand and yanked her in the direction she'd indicated.
They dashed through the shelves and through small openings. As they passed through one, a spell was fired and almost singed one of Hermione's curls, which had reappeared.
"I wish I knew where they were hiding!" Harry shouted.
"That's the point of finding Rosalie and Draco!" Hermione shouted back. "So you can track everyone here!"
"I've not been able to do that yet!"
They hit the edge of the room and turned a corner and ran into a death eater with a smack. They fell, and Harry and Hermione continued past, zigzagging away before they could get back up.
Then, they almost tripped over Ron.
He'd moved from when Hermione had last seen him and now held his wand in his right hand and the inside of the sorting hat in the other. And he was crouched around the corner of a shelf still intact when they tore around it and Hermione had to dodge into Harry's side with a yelp. Harry stopped and pulled her back. "Ron!" he exclaimed.
"Fantastic, it's you!" Ron said, relieved. "One of you, pretend you're Voldemort! Call Nagini back! She's around here – I'm sure of it."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance. "Er," Harry said as he tried to catch up to what Ron was saying.
"Nagini!" Hermione called, slipping back into Parseltongue though it took her a moment to remember the words. "I am Lord Voldemort. Come to me!"
"Mate, what are you doing?" Harry asked. "Where's Ginny?"
On cue, someone yelled, "Harry! Ron!"
Ron jumped to his feet and tore towards the sound. Harry hauled after him, pulling Hermione like a caboose. Her hand felt like it was being pulled off.
Ginny had fallen in an aisle with Nagini also in it. The snake was coiled, but the attack had already happened. Ginny was bleeding from a large puncture in her ankle, fending the snake back with the bag of potions, and holding a snapped wand.
"Diffindo!" Hermione shouted. The cutting curse hit the snake, but did not have the same effect it had had on the bookcases or the mouse.
"I already tried!" Ginny cried. Her face was going quite pale – poison or fear Hermione couldn't tell.
"Stand back!" Ron shouted. He put his wand away, plunged his hand into the Sorting Hat, and paused. For a moment, Hermione was embarrassed for him. Then Ron pulled the ruby hilt of Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the Sorting Hat.
Harry's image flickered in between his own and Godric's. "Aha!" Godric exclaimed. "Now that's a true Gryffindor right there! Heart of a lion, that one!"
Hermione hooked Ginny under her shoulders and pulled. Ron stepped up, past Harry. Hair sweaty. Face red. He raised the sword over his shoulder.
Nagini reared back, hissing, and then made to go for Ron's neck in a dramatic arced jump.
Ron swung and the sword passed through Nagini's neck.
The momentum of the jump and the swing caused Nagini's head to fly into Ginny's lap, who squealed in disgust and pushed it off. Nagini's body twisted and the horcrux screamed a little as it died.
There was huffing down the aisle. Rosalie appeared. "I told you!" she said over her shoulder. Draco appeared, scowling, as Rosalie dropped to her feet.
Ron dug the point of the sword into the floor and leaned on it. "Ginny's hurt!" He said. "Nagini-"
Rosalie was already rummaging in the bag. She pulled a purple potion out and handed it to Ginny. "Drink," she said, "For the poison."
She took the same bottle of essence of dittany they'd used on Dumbledore and put a few drops onto Ginny's ankle. With a poof, the bleeding stopped.
"If you're a Muggle, how do you make these potions?" Ginny asked.
"Keep your voice down," Rosalie whispered. "Them thinking I'm a Pureblood and my being smart are the only two things keeping me alive right now." She corked the potion. "None of these take spells to make and my wand still works in potions making most of the time without issue."
Nearby, shelves crashed. They all took a moment to breathe.
"Listen," Hermione said. "If all four of us can unite with our founders, I can open a door back to Hogwarts and get us there."
Harry frowned. "But we came here to fight," he said. "I mean, by all means, let's get Dumbledore out and Sirius and whoever else wants to go. But Hermione, we can use those abilities to fight."
"Harry," Hermione whispered and flinched as another shelf fell. "You're still a horcrux!"
"Draco's having a hard time getting Helga," Rosalie said softly. "That's why we weren't able to help you earlier."
Hermione and Harry turned to look at Draco, whose face was towards the ground. "Because of… what happened upstairs?" she asked.
Draco rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask for a therapy session, Granger," he said, and leaned against a shelf.
But Hermione was making connections. How would he trust someone who pretended to be someone they weren't? And if Draco couldn't trust her, could he be loyal to them still?
"Draco," Rosalie said, softly. "I know I lied about a lot. I tried to lie as little as possible. But I did lie. I know I've done you wrong."
"Good," Draco said, expressionless.
"I'm so sorry," Rosalie said. "And I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I swear. Please, trust me."
Draco looked at her. Then at Ginny. Ron, on his sword. Hermione. Harry. Then, he looked at Hermione again. His eyes drifted downwards. What was he thinking?
Draco looked at Rosalie again. He exhaled and shook his head. "This is the last time either of us pretends to be something we're not."
And he kicked the sword of Gryffindor out of Ron's hands.
Ron toppled to the floor and Draco picked up the sword of Gryffindor and the back of his robes and drove the sword through his robes and into the shelf, pinning him. Then he shoved into Hermione and pinned Harry in between the shelf and her.
"What are you doing?" Hermione shouted. "Draco, what are you-"
Draco reached up her sleeve and plucked the Elder Wand out of it. Harry began to push back. Rosalie shouted, "Wait, what are you doing? Stop it, Draco! Stop it!" Her voice was near hysterical.
The moment Draco had the wand, he threw Hermione to the floor. He put the wand in Harry's face and shouted "Confundus!" Then, he sprinted away.
Hermione barely managed to catch Harry as the confusion charm wore off. Harry held onto her for a second and then said, "I'm going to kill him."
"Draco, come back!" Rosalie screamed. "Draco!"
With all her yelling, she was sure to give away their position.
"My lord!" Draco shouted, not far away. "I was wrong! Please forgive me! I have brought you the Elder Wand! Rosalie told me that I am the one who hit Dumbledore first! And should you allow me the chance, I can reveal the secret spells we have developed, and the devices we have created!"
Rosalie collapsed into sobs. "Please don't!" she cried. "Please… you can't do this!"
Hermione began to shout. "We trusted you!" She was turning red in the face. "We trusted you! How could you?"
At the end of the hallway, Lord Voldemort appeared out of the shadows, like a bat. "Being it here, Draco," He called.
Draco returned to the aisle, wand in hand. He knelt, bowing low to the floor, and offered up the wand, over his head. Rosalie got to her feet, leaning on the shelf for support.
"No, stop!" Ginny cried. "That's Dumbledore's wand!"
"Draco, you can't do this! It's not right!"
"I thought you had changed!" Ron twisted and the sword fell out of the wall. He picked it up and wielded it over his shoulder again, about to charge. "You said you changed!"
"I never said anything of the sort, blood traitor," Draco spat over his shoulder.
Voldemort took the wand out of Draco's hands. He held it aloft with a smile. "You say… you were the person to strike Dumbledore?"
"Rosalie confirmed it privately," Draco said, and Rosalie bent over, sobbing harder. "And if you will spare my life, I will tell you of the device she built to track horcruxes. I will tell you about the spell she created to remove a horcrux from any object and transfer it. And I will tell you about the potions and weapons she has created."
"Well," Voldemort chuckled. "How could I pass up such an impressive offer? You will be punished, however, for your part in destroying some of my other horcruxes."
"I understand, my lord," Draco said, casting a nasty glare over his shoulder. "I was blinded… by affection."
"Not a mistake you'll make again, said Lord Voldemort. "You may get up."
Draco did, bracing himself, and Voldemort struck him across the chest with the Elder Wand. There was a sizzling sound and Draco yelled out in pain. He was knocked back and fell flat on the floor. Steam was rising from his clothes. A massive cut had been made in his Hufflepuff jacket.
"Expelliarmus!" Voldemort called, though Draco had no wand. Hermione's heart fell to her feet. Her head cleared of thought. Lord Voldemort was now the master of the Elder Wand.
And this wand he pointed at Harry, still dazed and using Hermione for balance. She saw the blow coming and screamed, "No! Stop!"
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort shouted.
The green light that burst from the Elder Wand was brighter and more intense than any Hermione had ever seen. The spell looked like a Mario Cart rocket, blasting forward without mercy.
Harry turned, just slightly. The killing curse caught him in the head, and he was thrown out of Hermione's grip.
He tumbled across the floor and landed chest down.
His green eyes stayed open and glassy.
And he was completely still.
The next chapter will be called Lord Voldemort's Demise.
