Love is Hope: Life after fifth year

WARNING: characters loose their lives here!!! See to it that tissues are in close range, if you’re a sensitive soul!

***

Gingerly bringing her hand to her head, Hermione opened her eyes groggily. She was going to have to stop this from becoming a habit. Waking up in the Hospital Wing, again, she let her thoughts come to her. It was a very weird feeling to have, even if it was just a couple of hours, tops, knowing of an event happen to you, where you didn’t know a certain part of your past, and acted without the knowledge of said past. Even trying to define that concept in her head made it hurt...

Pondering on how long she’d been out now, she saw it was already night... Nott! He had been talking to Bellatrix with Floo in the Room of Requirement! Why hadn’t they thought of that before?! Last year the Slytherins had known about the room, following Umbridge’s instructions to capture the DA members... So of course they could’ve figured out, the fire places in Hogwarts were being watched by Dumbledore or the Ministry, but not one who appeared at will...

How long had they been doing that? Was there some kind of plan to attack the school, with help from inside? But Snape would be more convenient to have in on this plan, no? What could the likes of Nott and Malfoy junior really *do*? Because it was the little blond sh*t that had memory charmed her! She recognized the voice, but did Harry? Oh, the evil little brat was so going to regret that!

Climbing out of her bed, she wanted some answers as soon as possible. But going towards the doors, she suddenly felt a restricting arm around her middle, grabbing the hand that held her wand and a gloved hand covering her mouth.

“I thought we already dealt with you?” The cold disembodied voice was that of Malfoy; Hermione’s insides suddenly felt like ice... “I’m already in trouble because of your little filth, so I’m taking my guarantee with me... I’m sure the Dark Lord will appreciate the little gift. Now come on with you”

Swishing his Invisibility Cloak over her also, she tried to bite his hand and kick him to get him away. He only chuckled at her antics; his gloves must protect him from her teeth, because he just magically petrified her. “Ok, the hard way then, Mudblood...”

Levitating her slowly he made sure the Cloak covered them both. He led her to the Whomping Willow. She felt surprise for a minute when he prodded the knot with a stick, before she remembered Wormtail was on the Dark Side. Feeling the fates had quite a sense for irony, she saw it was the full moon...

When he’d brought her powerless body into the Shrieking Shack, she felt the effects of the Petrificus Totalus subside. But she chose to pretend for a while, it could be of some use to surprise him... She saw him finger the clasp of his outer robe in a special manner and tried to guess what he was doing. He levelled his gaze back to her. Raising his wand, she didn’t wait for him to cast the spell, but she dove away.

He had wanted to bind her with ropes, but was startled when she dove right at him and knocked his wand out of his hands. Her victory was short-lived, because Malfoy had no qualms in physically hurting a girl. Reeling back from his hard backhand, she tasted blood on her lip. Desperately she tried to fall back on Tonks’ lessons, but his clothing seemed to protect him from most of her blows... However, she was able to retrieve her wand from his robes and wiping the blood from her lips with the back of her hand, she stood pointing the tip of her wand at Malfoy on the floor.

She didn’t get the time to think of anything, though. She had to blink to believe it. She was confronted with the eyes featuring in her nightmares most. Dolohov had apparated between her and Malfoy. He sneered at her.

Of course, the clasp! Malfoy must have sent some signal... Behind her she heard two cracks. She was surrounded! Swivelling around she saw Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy standing there. However their attention wasn’t on her, but on their nephew and son. Lucius looked at Draco with distinct distaste.

“Where is Theo? And I thought she was dealt with! How do you *dare* call us!”

Bellatrix simpered and slithered up her brother-in-law’s arm: “Calm, lover,” Draco’s eyes flashed with anger, Lucius’ with annoyance at her indiscretion, “I’m sure our little dragon has a perfectly good excuse for all this”

Letting go of senior Malfoy, she brushed past Hermione who was held in place by Dolohov, advancing in a dangerous seductress way to junior.

Hermione saw Draco gulp with fear, he stammered his explication, while Bellatrix held his gaze. ‘She’s trying to see if he’s trying to lie!’

Lucius didn’t at all seem appeased at the explanation. “You mean that because you’re incapable of taking care of a minor problem like a nosey Mudblood, you lost our best agent inside of Hogwarts! And instead of doing some damage control for yourself, you give yourself completely away by letting us take care of your Mudblood problem! Bella...” He made a dismissive hand gesture.

Bellatrix’ eyes lit up maniacally when she put Draco under the Cruciatus curse. Hermione winced, even if it was the little bugger, she didn’t really feel he deserved that much pain. She saw the betrayal burning in Draco’s eyes, when he looked at his father. She could’ve guessed he didn’t for a minute expect his father would do that to him, he was used of his father taking care of his problems, not being punished this way...

Bellatrix held it up quite long, and when she finally released him from it, he was panting on the floor pitifully. Lucius looked at his son in disgust; marching up to him, he pulled the teen up by his hair. “You’re a disgrace to the Malfoy name” With that he shoved Draco away from him, to let him pass out in peace, and turned to Hermione.

Bellatrix smiled her lunatic smile: “Antonin, don’t get your hands that dirty! Let her go, I like a good chase”

Hermione’s eyes widened when she felt Dolohovs hands release her; they expected her to run, while they could just fire away curse after curse at her back? She raised her wand to them, and tried to back away. They just started laughing...

Dolohov spoke: “You want to duel? Maybe you think you’ll stand a better chance against my Pheanostus curse that way? Care to know if you can survive it twice?”

Lucius looked at her in utter contempt: “You’re just a little Mudblood student; you really think you can handle us?” All twisted mirth disappeared from his attitude. “You really think you’re better then our Dark Lord? You’re but dirt, an infestation in our world. I should love to torture that into your skull, but you’re not worth the time... well not that much of time, anyway”

His words weren’t even cold before she saw Dolohov raise his wand, ready to do his swishing movement. “Protego!” She still felt the excruciating pain, but didn’t seem otherwise injured.

Before she could come to, though, Bellatrix shouted: “Crucio!”

The pain was beyond words, she was writhing on the dirty floor, praying for the Avada Kedavra, anything but what she had to endure now... After what seemed an eternity, it stopped. Trembling violently, she couldn’t move a muscle. She barely heard Bellatrix taunting her to get up and run to safety.

She vaguely heard Malfoy declaring they’d wasted enough time. “Avada...” unable to do anything but squeeze her eyes shut she didn’t see what had brushed her cheek, “Kedavra!” Hermione never felt anything...

***

Opening her eyes, she saw Crookshanks lying in front of her, dead... With a new adrenaline rush coursing through her, she sprang up.

“So, you found out how to destroy them...” Harry’s voice rang through the room as a soothing potion on her painful body.

Backing away to where she’d heard it originating, she felt a hand push her behind Harry and Ron. Neville, Ginny and Luna were there, too. How did they know where she was, and why hadn’t they brought an adult? And what was Harry talking about?

Lucius looked furious: “Do you really think we could be fooled like that? Our Dark Lord knows, and you have lost your advantage over us. Though it was quite devious to have them shut down whenever our Lord was near, made it a little more difficult to destroy... Now we’re free again”

Hermione, who had been staring at Crookshanks’ body for a moment, saw Bellatrix finger one of her earrings, she whispered quickly into Harry’s ear: “Harry, they’re calling back-up!” He didn’t acknowledge her warning, but he must have heard her, surely?

Harry snorted: “Free? You’re licking a half blood’s arse, grovelling at his feet, at his beck and call... You’re calling that freedom?”

Bellatrix eyes literally flashed red from anger. She screamed like a fury, and pointed her wand in their general direction. They scattered away from her aim, all accept Neville. Like a man in rage he stormed towards her, yelling the disarming spell. Fate had it that their spells connected mid-air, creating an arch. Before Hermione could fully understand that it had to be brother wands, a splitting scream filled the room.

Everybody ducked, covering their ears. Some part of her mind reminded herself that Neville’s new wand contained the hair of a banshee. Bellatrix brought her wand down, breaking the connection, and looked bewildered. Neville didn’t waste any time. He shot a disarming spell towards her. Unable to stop it, she shouted an unfamiliar incantation. To Hermione’s horror, the wand transformed itself into a sword, which was pelting speedily with the sharp point towards Neville.

Ginny reacted by shouting the levitation spell; Neville shot into the air, while shouting a banishing spell. The sword swivelled sharply at the place Neville had just stood, and with double speed went into Bellatrix. With a piercing scream she fell to her knees, looking at the sword in her stomach. Neville hit his head on the ceiling and dropping down again, he was out.

All present in the Shrieking Shack were petrified, when a few cracks filled the room. There stood Crabbe and Goyle senior, with Wormtail in their midst. They looked around stupidly, before seeing Bellatrix taking the hilt of the sword and tearing it out of her body. Coughing up blood, the sword transfigured back to her wand.

Before anyone could stop her, she yelled the killing curse at Neville before collapsing.

“No!” She didn’t know who of them had yelled. Neville hadn’t moved, when the curse had hit him, but they all knew their friend was dead. He had revenged his parents, but lost his life...

Lucius in the mean time looked murderously. “You killed her! Avada Kedavra!” Harry tried to dodge, but Fawkes had flown in the path of it, making him burst in a pile of dust, she had not a lot of time to think when the room was filled with curses. From the corner of her eye she saw McGonagall, Tonks and a big werewolf enter the Shack. Harry and Ron were duelling Malfoy senior, who seemed to be a little exhausted after his second killing curse. Ginny was kneeling beside Neville, with Luna watching her back, McGonagall and Tonks were handling Dolohov, Crabbe and Goyle.

She saw Draco Malfoy stir in the corner, but before she could make sure he was unable to participate in the fight, she heard a dangerous growl and yelp. Remus, since his potion gave him power over the mind of the wolf, without feeling the pain of that effort, was obviously not useless around the full moon any more...

He had immediately leapt at Wormtail, the traitor, but hadn’t counted on the silver hand. Werewolves were highly allergic to sliver, it burned them excruciatingly. Quickly going over her options, she dismissed transfiguration spells or destructive charms, since the hand must be of strong magic, and not so easily disarmed. While Remus was circling Wormtail, avoiding the curses the bald man threw with his magical hand, Hermione tried to go around it in a more barbaric way, sending a whispered severing charm to his arm.

The charm hit him in the shoulder but wasn’t strong enough to actually make his arm fall off. Pettigrew turned to her menacingly, while he touched the magical hand to the wound she caused. It healed instantly. Before he could send a spell her way, Remus had taken the opportunity to jump on his back, and bite in his neck. Hitting the wolf with his silver hand, Wormtail plopped to his rat-form while Remus howled in pain.

But it was no use, Remus had obviously bit hard, because the bleeding rat was unable to shake the binding spell Hermione threw on him. Running to the panting werewolf, she saw he was bleeding, too. Quickly taking of her robes, leaving her in her nightdress only, she pushed it on the swelling wound. It was the only thing she could do, only a potion would save him from slowly bleeding to death.

Looking around, she saw McGonagall and Tonks still fighting the three wizards, and Ginny was guarding the motionless bodies of Ron and Luna, she hoped they were just unconscious. Harry was still duelling Malfoy. She saw Draco come stand behind his father’s opponent, and she started yelling to Harry to watch out.

But Draco raised his wand and used the Pheanostus curse on his father. Stunned Lucius fell on his knees, looking at his son. The spell, properly cast, created a deep slice. The gash was deep and bled rapidly. Malfoy fell next to his lover, increasing the width of the puddle of blood. Harry looked shocked at the Slytherin classmate. Draco Malfoy turned back to Harry, eyes full of hate: “You’re mine, Potter! I told you to watch your back!”

Before Draco could even raise his wand to make good on his threat Dumbledore arrived on the scene and stunned him. Quickly the remainder of the Death Eaters that were still alive were restrained. A loaded silence came over the room.

McGonagall was holding her wand raised to the bound Death Eaters, looking quite shaken. Professor Dumbledore brought Pettigrew back to his now lifeless human form. Harry stood trembling in place, looking at the bodies of Malfoy and Bellatrix.

Little baby Fawkes was crying from the floor, Ron had been revived from the stunner, and was bending over Luna. Her hair was a bit bloody, so Hermione guessed she had been hit over the head. Ginny had crawled back to Neville, her freckles stood out in sharp relief on her very pale face. Turning his body over, she started shaking it, desperately trying to revive him with her wand. Her cries filled the room. Tonks tried to calm her by putting her arm on her shoulder.

That’s when Remus gave a soft yelp. Looking quickly down, she saw her robes were soaked in blood, her hands also. The wolf was panting. Panicking all she could do was watch. Vaguely she felt Tonks push her aside, handling a vial with trembling fingers. Applying the potion, the flesh stopped swelling immediately and the wound started to heal fast. The wolf’s eyes rolled back in his head, but he continued breathing, however erratic.

Tonks had taken Remus’ wolf-head in her arms and was rocking him gently, whispering words of endearment and support, mixed with pleadings of not leaving her. Hermione looked down at her bloody hands, to Neville, with the sobbing Ginny on him. Ron had put Luna’s head on his lap and was watching Neville.

While Dumbledore touched his wand to Luna’s head, Hermione saw Harry shaking. Recognizing that expression as overwhelming grief, without having something to take it out on, she walked up to him. She whispered: “Harry”

His gaze swivelled to her. His eyes were burning with intense pain; he looked so scary, she had to scramble all of her resolve to proceed. Stumbling her way towards him, she crushed him in a hug. Feeling his body against her cold, battered one, she broke down, sobbing. He stayed immobile. Looking up she saw his face was devoid of any emotion, making him scarier then before.

Unable to feel scared, though, after everything she’d just been through, she just grabbed his robes, uncaring if she got Remus’ blood all over them. She shook the bunch of cloth in her hands feebly, until he looked at her. His eyes flashed with anger when he brought his hand to her face. Hermione almost flinched, before she realised he was watching her swollen cheek, from the blows Draco Malfoy had given her. Caressing it gently, she shivered.

She wished he’d put his arms around her, because she didn’t feel that strong, she leaned fully on him. Suddenly a brush at her legs almost made her jump, if only she had the strength left... Looking down she saw to her shock it was Crookshanks! Before she could formulate the question that was on the tip of her tongue, she heard a familiar, but impossible voice say:

“Looks like your cat has nine lives”

Neville? Hermione felt her knees give, oh no, not again, surly it wasn’t healthy to pass out this often... Before blackness took her away, she felt the reassuring embrace of Harry catching her.

***

Don’t worry, I’ll explain later what the Death Eaters and Harry meant by ‘destroying them’, and ‘being free’... And about Neville, I’m afraid he’s quite dead...

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