Hermione's Mission

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I thank Rowling for letting me borrow them.

Hermione's Mission

Chapter One: On a Mission

"Hermione, this is crazy, just...drop it."

"You know you will never find him."

"Its been ten years...this is pointless."

"If he is there, then he obviously doesn't want to be found."

"When he is ready to see us, he will."

"You need to move on, you need some rest."

"Hermione, he's gone."

She woke up again, drenched in sweat. They all thought she was insane, obsessive. They tried to get her to slow down, to stop. They were the remaining Weasleys, Dumbledore and everyone else working against her. They told her that Harry was dead, that she would never be able to locate him if he wasn't. She refused to listen to them, she knew that Harry was out there. She sat up in her bed and looked at the picture on her night table.

"Harry, I know you think you don't want to be found, but trust me, I know you are out there, and I will catch up to you."

It was close to sunrise so she saw no point in returning to her nightmares. Those visions had been haunting her for ten years, ten miserable, sleepless years. Flashing green light, death, curses flying at her from every direction. Then something wonderful happened. She stumbled across the dead form that was Lord Voldemort. She and Ron were the first ones to reach the scene that day. Harry had disappeared in the middle of the night. Everyone knew that he was desperate and determined enough to go after Voldemort on his own. He didn't want to put the others in danger, so he sneaked out of the Aurors' tent and went alone.

When they discovered his bed empty, no note, no nothing, they all hurried after him. They arrived in Little Hangleton to find that a battle had already broken out. She and Ron had one mission. Find Harry. Getting through the Death Eaters was easy enough, there weren't many left at this point. It was still dark out. They were headed towards the town cemetery. It seemed an appropriate place for them to look. It was there that Hermione found what she had been looking for, a very, very dead Voldemort.

"He's dead, he's dead!" she screamed, half horrified, half excited.

"Harry? Harry's dead?" Ron called out from a few feet behind her.

"No, not Harry, Voldemort." she saw Ron flinch a little at the name.

"Then, well, where is Harry?"

"His wand, his wand is over there!" she shouted, running to grab Harry's wand off the ground.

It was indeed Harry's wand, but it was snapped in two. She looked around for some sign of him, but there was none. There was a thorough search of the cemetery as well as the rest of the town, no Harry. Something about this didn't seem right to her. There was no living, breathing Harry, but there was also no dead, lifeless Harry. That night upset her greatly. Hermione, Harry and Ron had been the unbeatable trio for weeks. Death Eaters ran at the sight of them. They couldn't be stopped, she couldn't be stopped. She had failed for the first time since the war began. She had not found Harry.

Hermione found all of these events very unsettling. She knew Harry was not dead, she just felt it. The next two months were very hard for the seventeen year old girl to deal with. The Ministry was searching all of Great Britain for Harry. They never found him, they never even had a decent lead. The fragments of wand had been tested, but they held no evidence of what happened. That wasn't the only thing, she and Ron were called in to testify against the remaining Death Eaters. They vowed to get revenge, many of them borderline insane, swearing that one day the dark lord would return.

She put those thoughts out of her head. It was a new day, she didn't want to dwell on that, it would only make the nightmares worse. She heard some noise in the kitchen downstairs.

"Ron," she said, "why does he have to be here so early?" Hermione made her way down the steps, still in pajamas.

"Morning," he said. He was standing at her counter fixing a bowl of cereal.

"Right," she said back.

"You look horrible, tough time sleeping?" Ron asked, all he got in response was a glare. "I'm sorry Hermione, I wish I could help you, but I can't. I don't know how. Merlin knows I have tried. You should just have some dreamless sleep potion."

"Ron," she began, "its not your fault I'm miserable. I appreciate everything that you and your family have done for me. There is just one thing I have to do, then maybe I can move on. And you know that I am never going to take that stuff."

"Hermione, stop. I thought you were going to teach again this year, you can't keep killing yourself. If he wanted you to find him, then you would. I miss him, too. You have been searching non-stop for seven years, just try to settle down," it was a familiar suggestion.

"Ron, you don't understand. I have to find Harry. I have to know why he just left. I have know that he is okay. I just, I know that...that if I had just vanished of the face of the earth, he would come looking for me." That was only half of the truth, she had to find Harry because she loved him. She had to be with him.

"You know what else?" he said grinning, "Harry wouldn't want to see you like this. I don't think he would like it very much. He always put us first, it would break his heart to see you, depressed, consumed with finding him, he would want you to be happy."

"I'll try Ron, really I will." This seemed to please Ron, so he didn't push the subject anymore, Hermione was glad for it. She knew how to get Ron to drop it, they had this conversation atleast once a month.

The rest of breakfast passed quickly. Ron informed Hermione that Ginny and Neville were engaged last week. This wasn't really shocking, it was the third time. Ginny and Neville had called off the engagement so often it had become a favorite famliy joke for Fred and George. Speaking of the two, the joke shop was coming along nicely, as was George's family. Alicia was expecting another very soon. Fred, however, was enjoying his bachelorhood. Molly was better, it was very hard for her when Arthur and Percy died in the raid on the Ministry building. Bill and Charlie moved closer to the Burrow to help her out.

The Weasleys, generally speaking, were a happy bunch. Even Ron had managed to move on. He wasn't seeing anyone, but he was very happy with his Ministry job. Hermione often saw Ron looking at her. She hated it when he did that, she knew what he was thinking. She also knew that he must have remembered that conversation from sixth year, because staring is all he ever did...

"Ron, I can't be with you anymore."

"Hermione, what, why? But I thought..."

"I'm so sorry, but, I just don't think its working out. I hope this won't affect our friendship. You mean so much to me, but I think we should just be friends at this point."

They did remain friends, it was awkward at first, but it got easier. They didn't have time to worry over such things. The war was getting more intense, and the only way to win was to stick together. Harry needed them more than ever. They had to get over themselves and help. Ron still loved Hermione, he asker again, three years after Harry disappeared, but she didn't want to try again...

"You know, I still love you, Hermione," she looked up into his eyes, he was crying, so was she.

"Ron, I don't know what to say. I love you, too. I love you very much, but I'm not in love with you. I can't."

"Its okay, I understand," he told her as they hugged tightly. She cried into his robes.

As much as she wanted to love Ron she couldn't. She had to make peace with Harry before she could be with anyone else. She had drifted away, into her own thoughts, when she heard someone snapping in her ear.

"Hello, Hermione, anyone home up there?"

"Yeah Ron, just daydreaming I guess."

"As I was saying...Mum expects you for dinner tonight."

"You didn't tell your whole family I was back in town again, did you?"

"Well, you've been gone for three months. They wanted to see you. Sometimes I think its you that disappeared instead of Harry."

"It was a tough time looking, those American wizards are so hard to talk to. Its like an entire nation of Gilderoy Lockharts."

"I've heard." there was a pause, "So, didn't find anything?"

"I had a few ideas, but nothing. Its worse over there, they seem to spot famous 'dead' wizards in America quite a lot. Even the muggles, their Ministry must have a time keeping them under control. I did find out a few things that might be useful in the future, but other than that, nothing really."

"You're leaving again? I thought you were going to take McGonagall's offer to teach Arithmancy. She'll be disappointed."

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I'll just have to wait and see. Truthfully, I don't know if I have another trip left in me, traveling is not the easiest thing on a person."

"I need to be off, I've got to get to work. It appears that they are handing out new assignments today. So, we'll be seeing you at seven tonight?"

"Sure," she told Ron as he took out his wand and apparated to work.

It was the truth. She was beginning to believe them. Over the past seven years she had harassed more black-haired, green-eyed men than anyone ever should, but none of them were Harry. Not a single one was Harry. No one was Harry, not Ron, not Viktor, not that nice French wizard that proposed to her last summer, no one. She found some valuable information in the states. Harry had been there, quite a while ago. The people he met had no idea where he went. It seemed very hopeless to her now. Still, she could not shake the feeling that he was there. She wanted to see him so badly, she had to find him.

With Ron gone, she sleepily went back upstairs and returned to bed. Surely she was too tired to have nightmares now.

"Nightmares have got to be better than dinner at the Burrow," she said into her pillow. "Those people ask too many bloody questions." With that thought, she was out, fast asleep. It wasn't a nightmare that woke her this time, it was the reason she never took dreamless sleep potion.