Chapter 2
Hermione trudged back to the shabby tent she, Harry, and Ron once shared together. She carries her provisions for the next week which she stole from the nearest town. She honestly had no clue where she was, somewhere in middle America? The towns were small and filled with muggles. She never ventured near larger cities as the dementors often congregated there and frankly she was just too weary to even attempt to produce a patronus. Plus, there were always muggle born detection spells set like landmines in the streets of larger cities. If caught in one she would be frozen in place, in a stasis hold until the nearest death eater deigned to see who their trap caught.
She had found out about the muggle born detection traps on her first venture into muggle London. It had been a very close call that day. Crabbe Sr had come to drag her off to gods knew where when she managed a non-verbal spell that caused him to break out into large green pustules which promptly burst causing what must have been excruciating pain because he lost the ability to hold the stasis charm. She apparated quickly away and never stepped foot into a metropolis again. Luckily for her she hadn’t dropped her beaded bag containing the tent and her supplies.
Looking up at the tent once she was inside the protection spells and hex mines (a very clever invention on her part, think land mines but instead of blowing everything within a 5o foot radius up it deployed a bat bogey hex or the like) she scowled at what she found in front of it. It was black, white, and extremely fluffy. It had a haughty expression on its face like it had been waiting for her to return for ages and she was the one who was late to this imaginary appointment.
“fucking cats…” she cursed.
Ever since Crookshanks passed away, shortly after the battle of Hogwarts where her life and friendships literally burned to ashes, she could not travel anywhere without at least one cat appearing seemingly out of nowhere to keep her company. Occasionally more than one appeared, and there was that one time 6 cats had wandered in for a nap on a winter day sometime near Christmas the year everything had gone to shit. They stayed with her anywhere from a single night to several weeks. None had decided to keep her company for any longer periods of time. They always disappeared at one point or another. She often wondered if Crookshanks had put some kind of curse on her before death so she would attract cats but none would linger to keep her company long term. Much like happiness, a long term feline companion, seemed out of reach.
“alright then, get inside, I’ve got food and water”
Holding the flap open the cat made its way inside with her. She opened a tin of cat food and conjured some water into a bowl next to the food.
As she put her stolen provisions (yes, she steals now, morals went out the window after the first 2 years on the run) away in cupboards and drawers the cat surveyed its temporary home. It wasn’t much, in fact it was even worse and more shabby than it had been when Harry and Ron also resided in it with her. Hermione had changed in the past 7 years. She no longer had an unwavering moral compass an cleanliness standards had fallen off sometime after the depression set in. She was mostly just surviving day to day with very little else to live for.
The Order had all but disbanded after Harry tried to disarm Voldemort in that last duel. Voldemorts Avada curse hit him squarely in the chest just as his expelliarmus was deflected by Bellatrix’s shield surrounding Voldemort.
“idiot… righteous, arrogant, idiot…” she muttered to herself as she halfheartedly tried to tidy up a place on one of the beds so she could wallow in self pity. It was after all ,her usual wallowing time.
Grabbing a bottle of cheap muggle vodka she prostrate herself on the bed she had cleared off. Her current temporary feline companion (dubbed by her as TCP’s) hopped up next to her, sniffed at her open bottle ,then stared disapprovingly at her.
“don’t judge” she told the cat.
“it’s a necessity in such hopelessly horrid times. I need something to make my mind stop thinking of every way we failed and how foolish we were. How foolish he was.”
She sighed in a deep world weary way and took a large guzzle of the vodka. Despite the liquor numbing her thoughts she was pulled back in time to those last hours before it all went to shit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had just apparated to Hogsmeade and were walking down the secret passage into the room of requirement when Hermione stopped Harry and Ron.
“Harry, are you sure we should be here? Are you sure you’re ready for this? We could wait, learn more defensive spells, prepare”
“c’mon Hermione, it’s the only way. We have to find the diadem and destroy it. We don’t have time, every day we wait the stronger he gets, the more people he kills!” Harry had a wild look in his eyes.
She could tell he was exhausted and ready for it all to be over but still she pleaded more.
“But Harry, I don’t think you’re ready. You need more practice, more rest, you aren’t ready” there were tears in her eyes now. She was so frightened of what would happen once they entered Hogwarts and someone spotted them and called Voldemort in.
“Oh give it up Mione, lets go. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be, lets end this.” Ron whined.
“But Harry, Ron… We aren’t ready to fight full grown wizards!” she pleaded one last time.
“No, you don’t get it, this is where we are supposed to be, Dumbledore wanted it. We will find the last horcrux, the diadem, and destroy it. It has to be me who destroys him once and for all ‘neither can live while the other survives’ and I want this to be over!”
Hermione looked at him and saw his face was set in a hard line. She looked to Ron, who glanced away. She gave a small nod and the three of them followed after Neville into the room of requirement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The battle was chaos incarnate. Nothing made sense and Hermione could only make out friend from foe if they were standing right in front of her. There was so much dust and debris flying around that the air was constantly shrouded as if a thick fog had rolled in. In some places it actually was a thick fog that slowed ones progress across the floor to a snails pace making for easy pickings for the death eater who mercilessly used the killing curse on anyone who got caught in it. Hermione saw Cho Chang fall victim to the fog not long ago. The death eater had flung the curse at her and she watched as Cho’s eyes turned glassy and void of life.
She was currently sprinting down the second floor hall trying to find Ron or Harry to make sure they were alive and still fighting when she smashed into someone running the opposite direction. She raised her wand in an instant seeing it was Draco Malfoy with whom she collided. He raised his wand to point at her but glanced around as if looking for a way to escape.
It was at that moment that another death eater, Yaxley she thought, came barreling around the corner behind her. Before she could turn to face her newest adversary a curse flew over her shoulder and Yaxley’s skin started peeling away from his body. He started shrieking in agony as she turned back to look at Malfoy only to see him already rounding the opposite corner of the hall. Strange, she thought, did Malfoy just curse a fellow death eater for her?
There was no time to ponder what was going on. She had to find Harry and Ron.
As she re-entered the fray she threw hex after hex towards any death eater she saw all the while scanning each face to find the two people she most wanted to see.
Then a disembodied voice boomed throughout the castle calling for an immediate ceasefire. Every death eater inside the castle suddenly turned on the spot and disapparated leaving those defending the castle and everything good and right in the world to clean up and collect the dead. Voldemort must have tampered with the inherent magic of Hogwarts for the death eaters to be able to apparate within the walls of the castle.
Why had Voldemort called for a ceasefire? What was happening?
She immediately renewed her search for Harry or Ron.
She found Ron lying in the great hall, now serving as triage and wartime hospital, he had a large gash across his chest and was missing an eye. Madame Pomfrey was knitting his skin back together as he screamed in agony. She grabbed his hand to anchor him and murmured that everything would be alright.
“that’s all I can do for him, the rest will have to mend itself” Pomfrey said as she wiped her hands on her robes and walked off.
“Mione?” Ron rasped
“I’m here Ron, you’re going to be ok” she brushed some of the sweat soaked hair off his forehead.
“it was Malfoy, he cornered me. I tried to block him but he was just too fast. He got me with a hex in the eye and used Sectumsempera on me while I was half blind” Tears streamed from Ron’s good eye. “George and Percey are dead, Mione. Mum, Dad, Fred, and Ginny are with them. I tried to be there too but Mum made me come here to be fixed up”
“Malfoy did this to you? Draco…?” His behavior from before was still on her mind and she was wondering why he would hex a death eater after attempting to kill Ron.
“No, Lucius Malfoy, the bastard was laughing the whole time ranting about blood traitors and saying the world would be better with less Weasleys in it” he glared up at the ceiling that showed a few wispy clouds drifting across a periwinkle sky.
She could tell he was tired and just wanted to rest so she asked “where’s Harry, have you seen him?”
“haven’t seen him since the beginning, he said he was going to look for the diadem and destroy it” tilting his head away from her in a clear dismissal she decided it was time to leave.
She looked around the great hall. She could see Neville and Luna dragging in the fallen bodies of their friends, classmates, and order members. They had just set the body of Remus and Tonks next to Kingsley’s lifeless frame when she arrived next to them and asked if they had seen Harry.
Lunas once dreamy voice sounded so bone tired as she said she last saw Harry running towards Dumbledore’s office just after the ceasefire was called.
“you all right Hermione?” Neville asked looking her up and down.
“I’m fine, Neville, are you ok? Any injuries? I can probably help if they’re minor enough” she peered at both Luna and Neville giving them a closer visual inspection than she had before.
“we’re ok, we’ve both mostly been up on the roof with professor Sprout dropping Mandrakes, snargaluff pods, and pre-made potion bombs onto the death eaters.” Neville shared a grave look with Luna and they both excused themselves to go levitate more of the dead into the great hall.
Hermione sought out Harry in Dumbledore’s office but he wasn’t there. She could tell he had been there recently seeing the pensive set on the desk and an empty bottle laid next to it. Steeling herself she peered into the pensive seeing a young Severus Snape staring longingly at a girl who must be Lilly Potter given she had the exact same eyes as Harry.
Retracing her steps down to the entrance hall she saw a procession of death eaters and Hagrid headed for the castle. She quickly ran to the great hall and told everyone what was coming. Armed with their wands and determined expressions the remaining survivors poured out onto the castle grounds where they were devastated to see Hagrid carrying Harry’s corpse.
“Harry! NO!”
“No! Not Harry!”
Everyone was sobbing and wailing all at once. Hermione just stared at Harry with silent tears streaming down her face feeling like her heart had been ripped from her chest. Seeing the look of triumph on the snakey assholes face was a cruel punch to her gut.
Voldemort was announcing his victory and monologuing about the new world they would create when Neville broke free and tried hacking Voldemorts snake in two. He was caught almost immediately by a stunner to the chest and then bound in ropes that slithered up his body to secure him. Nagini returned to her masters side where she was safe.
It was then that they all noticed Harry had vanished.
“Harry? Where’s Harry?” Molly Weasley screamed.
Hermione felt as if her brain were moving through sludge. Where was Harry? Did Voldemort vanish him while they weren’t looking? No, she thought, looking to Voldemort and seeing a hint of fear in the way his black snakelike eyes widened and darted about just slightly. Harry was either alive and wandering around in his invisibility cloak or something very odd had occurred indeed.
It was then that everyone began hexing and cursing each other again. Molly Weasley was in a brutal duel with Bellatrix and everyone surrounding Hermione seemed hell bent on causing the death eaters as much damage as they had dealt their side. Hermione ducked and blocked a hex coming right for her and ran, eyes wild, looking for Harry. She ran face first into Draco Malfoy, who was running in the opposite direction, once more. If she didn’t know him and his hatred for muggle borns already she would have thought he was following her. She gave him a fleeting look, noting that his wand wasn’t raised towards her and began running again eyes near the ground looking for a disembodied foot or flutter of a shoe quickly concealed and invisible. Harry was getting tall and oftentimes he forgot his feet could be seen when he ran in the cloak.
There! She saw him, or rather she saw his sneaker running towards Voldemort who was battling Bill, Fred, Arthur, and (to her dismay) Ron. Why was Ron out here?! He wasn’t even healed! His sectumsempera scar had reopened and was oozing blood again.
Voldemort looked almost bored dueling the 4 wizards and quickly ended the battle by hurling an Avada Cadavera curse at each Weasley in turn. Fred was the only one to dodge the curse by throwing himself to the side and rolling away. Hermione heard Molly Weasley’s anguished wail seeing Arthur and two more of her sons slump to the ground, the light going out of their eyes. Bellatrix took the opportunity to throw a curse at Molly cutting her throat and spraying blood across everyone nearby.
Harry suddenly appeared directly in front of Voledemort with a look of grief and utter rage on his face.
“its just you and me, Tom”
“yes” hissed Voldemort “no one helps!” he called to the crowd who had all stopped to bear witness to the two now circling each other. Harry and Voldemort were speaking to each other as they continued to circle but Hermione couldn’t tell what was said, it was as if someone had cast a muffliato on the area. Just as everyone was growing restless she heard Harry.
“Expelliarmus!”
“Avada Kedavra!”
Voldmorts curse struck true and everyone saw the moment the “boy who lived” no longer had any life left.
In the melee afterwards Hermione had managed to disapparate back to the Forest of Dean when she immediately crumpled to the ground and sobbed for everything and everyone they had lost.