Chapter 4
It has been awhile since Ron came back, all smiling and holding the Slytherin's rocket and the Sword of Gryffindor on both hands. She had hit him with his bag and called him an arse for leaving them for months and demanded for him to explain how knew where they were.
"It’s the deluminator,” he said. “The deluminator that Dumbledore gave me. It showed me your voice and there's a light, and I followed it. It led me to the lake and then I saw Harry,” he explained.
Awkwardness followed that explanation. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and gulped. They haven't talked about the kiss that happened once but they definitely knew that they harbor feelings for each other. All the months that Ron was gone, each other has filled the gap where their other best friend must have been. That kiss was all they needed to know that there is something else to survive this war for. It had been a silent reassurance that they would have each other’s back even after this war. They and no one else. However, now that Ron is back, they certainly had not prepared for Ron's confession. Harry cleared his throat, “Why would you hear Hermione’s voice?” he asked, attempting not too sound so interested.
"Well.” Ron chuckled and looked away, rubbing the back of his head. He looked at Hermione and smiled still before answering Harry. “Well mate, I think that is a talk for after this war, yeah?”
Ron, obviously as he is, did not notice the way Harry slipped his hand on Hermione’s waist tightly and the way that Hermione patted his arm that held her.
—
The name is taboo.
Harry cursed himself for his own stupidity as he let the wretched name slip off his name in annoyance. Now, they are being chased by snatchers who wanted to give them to Voldemort. Harry held Hermione’s hand the moment he caught up with her and ran faster. The snatchers are running up towards them so he believes Ron is safer than they are now.
“What are you doing?” Hermione asked bewildered. “You should run! Go!”
“What? And leave you here?!” he stormed back and ran faster. They’ve been going in circles for Merlin knows how many minutes. They are getting tired and they need to catch their breath.
Soon enough, they heard the raging ruffling of dried leaves, and an idea struck Hermione. In a matter of rushness, Hermione pointed her wand at Harry’s face and yelled. “𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑜!”
Harry stumbled back at the wave of magic from her wand. Hermione then tried to drag him when a hand suddenly grasped her hair from behind. “Got ya,” a man whispered in her right ear. The man’s maniacal voice sent shivers down her spine. “What a delicious girl… A delightful treat…”
Hermione closed her eyes tightly and winched and tried to get away when the death eater— a werewolf who was given the permission to wear a death eater’s robe— Greyback, licked Hermione’s face. Harry, when saw this, tried to get away from the snatcher holding him. “Get away from her! Get off her! Hermione!”
“Ugh, keep your mouth shut, ugly. I do what I want with the girl,” Greyback snarled and looked intently at Harry. “Who are you?”
Fixing his mind to create a reasonable answer and take his eyes off Hermione’s disgust and frightened expression, he stammered, “D-Dudley.”
“First name?”
“Vernon.” The first name he ever thought of.
“Huh. Vernon Dudley. You’re not on my list.” Greyback and Scabior kept rumbling and rumbling on about them, wondering if they’re on their list of hunted targets. Harry, still half-blind from the hex he received from Hermione, kept glancing at her as Greyback was still holding her tightly. She’s not looking back at him though, just stiffly trying to get away, until they met Dean, and he was grabbed as well, and Ron.
“You’re Harry Potter,” Greyback mused when they found their belongings inside the tent — the Prophet, the sword of Gryffindor, and Harry’s glasses, and they soon dragged them into walking.
It was a few moments when Harry realized where they were going. “The gate won’t fucking open,” Scabior grumbled as they shake the metal gates of the manor.
“We’ve got Harry Potter!” Greyback shouted. “Open the gates, we’ve got Harry Potter and his friends!”
The gate to the manor opened, letting them in, and soon they’re in the drawing room with Bellatrix Lestrange, Narcissa, and Lucius Malfoy. Bellarix’s eyes glinted with malicious shine upon seeing them. “We have to make sure that it’s them first before we call the Dark Lord. Kill Draco, he can identify them, I am sure.”
“I can call the Dark Lord onceDraco already made sure of their identities, Bella. It is my house, it is my authority,” Lucius Malfoy attempted to talk.
“You have lost your authority the moment you lost your wand, Lucius!” Bellatrix snapped back. “It must be in my honor to show them to our Lord!”
“I found them!” yelled Greyback and pulled Hermione’s hair rougher causing the latter to whimper and Harry tried his best not to act rashly. “I should be the one to have the gold —”
“Gold?!” Bellatrix shrieked. “I don't care about the gold, you take it! I only want our Lord’s honor!”
“And the mudblood.” Harry's blood ran cold.
“What?”
“I also want this mudblood,” he again pulled Hermione;s hair. “For my own.”
“Huh.” Bellatrix winced upon hearing him but smiled widely and in a way that would make anyone who sees it shiver in fear and disgust. “Of course Greyback, I’m sure our Lord won’t forsake you your right for the mudblood.”
Harry tried hard to get away from Scabior’s grasp in an attempt to get to Hermione due to the horror of hearing those words from them. It disgusts him, much more to Hermione, he’s sure. He swore he would get to them before they even do something to Hermione.
Soon, Draco came and they asked him to identify them. Harry frowned upon seeing Draco. He’s thin, seemingly malnourished, but not still thinner than them. His cheeks are hollow and his cheekbones are showing. His gray eyes are dimmed, the light once evident in them is gone. “He doesn’t look like Potter. What happened to his face? He’s ugly.”
“Said he’s stung. Maybe it was just a stinging hex,” suggested one of the snatchers.”
“Search her wand!” Bellatrix pointed at Hermione. “See what her last spell was!”
Hermione struggled to keep her wand while Lucius Malfoy eagerly admitted the identities of Ron, Hermione, and Dean.
“What is that?”
“Found in their tent,” the snatcher replied and that is when Harry bothered to take his eyes away from Hermione and see that Bellatrix is pertaining to the sword of Gryffindor.
“That’s mine,” Bellatrix snarled.
“Apologies, Madame, but I found it,” the snatcher holding the sword replied. “Finder’s keepers. This sword is mine.”
Suddenly, there were red sparks flying across the room towards the snatchers and they flew across the room and Harry knew they were stunned. Bellatrix fixed her eyes on Hermione. “Cissy,” she shrieked. “Put the boys in the cellar!” Wormtail and Narcissa grabbed the three of them by the collar despite their best attempts. Bellatrix then walked towards Hermione. “This girl and I will talk, girl to girl!”
“No! Don’t touch her! No!” Ron shouted until they successfully put them in the cellar.
They found Luna, Mr. Ollivander, and a goblin named Griphook in the cellar with them, until they heard the voices from upstairs— Hermione screaming and Harry fighting himself to yell and offer himself too, like Ron. He knows he needs to find a way out of here to get them all out to safety.
He isn’t selfish.
Just because he feels something for Hermione, that doesn’t mean he would do something rash to endanger them. He knows Hermione wouldn’t want him to.
“What else?! What have you taken in my vault?!” It was Bellatrix’s loud voice followed by Hermione’s heart wrenching scream.
“I didn’t take anything! I haven’t stolen anything!” Hermione screamed.
“Liar! 𝐶𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑜!” Harry winced. It’s one of the unforgivables and he could not imagine the pain Hermione is experiencing right now. Ron’s screams of submission were covered by Hermione’s. Hermione's screams made him want to cover his ears but he prevented himself. He needs to hear her. He’d rather hear her screams of pain rather than her being quiet without him beside her. By her screams, he can assure himself that she’s still alive.
He needs to hear his sole reason for surviving.
Saving the wizarding world was one thing, but what does the wizarding world ever do for him? Both the muggle and wizarding world did not do him any better. The muggle world abused him all through his childhood. The wizarding world on the other hand did so much worse. As much as he loves magic, the wizarding world put him and his friends in a lot of dangers they weren’t warned about and ready for. The wizarding world killed his parents and gave him an obligation and responsibility that should be the adults’ responsibilities.
He had a lot of friends once he came to Hogwarts, especially in Gryffindor. Most of them are his dormmates, namely, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and of course, his best mate, Ron. There also came the Weasleys. But they also shared some teasings and betrayal he felt in his life.
There was when the whole Hogwarts population had turned their back on him when his name came out of the Goblet of Fire. They accused him of fooling the goblet, and even Ron was jealous of him. Then when Cedric died, they did not believe him when he said that it was Voldemort that killed the older Hufflepuff and accused him of lying.
Only one person never left his side.
That person is currently screaming her lungs out upstairs, and he swore to get her out of this place.
Dobby apparated Luna, Dean, and Mr. Ollivanders after a lot of Crucio shouted by Bellatrix, and Wormtail strangled himself out of the life debt he have over Harry when he saved him from Sirius their third year. They slowly made their way out of the cellar and found Griphook there assessing the sword of Gryffindor. His heart seemed to sink down when he saw Hermione lying down below Bellatrix, her right arm stretched out, and she’s barely conscious.
“It’s fake.” Harry closed his eyes in gratitude that Griphook agreed to his plea to never reveal that the sword was indeed, the sword of Gryffindor.
“Are you sure?” Bellatrix eyed him suspiciously.
“Of course, I am,” the goblin answered, and Bellatrix sighed.
“Fine, then,” she said. “I think it’s time to call the Dark Lord.” Harry widened his eyes. Bellatrix slid her sleeves up and was about to touch the dark mark when Ron suddenly shouted.
“No!” And with that, Bellatrix dragged Hermione and pointed her dagger in her throat, still barely conscious. At her position, he finally caught sight of her outstretched arm.
𝑀𝑢𝑑𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑.
It is carved in her arm, and he couldn’t think of anything else more.
Everything went by too fast. Dobby came, the chandelier fell and he managed to catch Hermione when the madwoman pushed her. He, Hermione, Ron, and Dobby, clung to one another as Dobby prepares to apparate them. But before they apparate, he came.
The world shifted and it swirled right before his eyes and he felt a strong dizzying nausea until they fell to a soft ground. He immediately looked at Hermione and saw her awake, eyes widened. Hermione suddenly held something out of her jumper and threw it over his head. He looked around to see what it was and then he saw him; Voldemort was gripping his wand and pointing it to them.
Green sparks came out of the tip of his wand the same time his world started spinning again, and he realized what it was.
𝐴 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟.