Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: All right well, this is it, for a while, my story is all caught up, and now, I'm off to Louisiana to rest, I will update as soon as I have another chapter written, which shouldn't be too far away, R&R!

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Harry and Draco froze as they stared at Hermione with a sword to her throat, "No magic in this cave," Lucius Malfoy drawled, "it's a nice trick, but it will only delay the inevitable." His eyes turned to his son, "Draco, come here!" Draco didn't move. "Draco, you are my son, come HERE!" he said angrily. Draco walked over to his father, not daring to look at Harry, and stood next to Hermione's side. "Now, Draco, take this," he said handing him a sword, "and finish her, we only need her blood." Draco took the sword and smiled and took the sword. He roughly grabbed Hermione's arm and thrust her back towards Harry.

"This is between you and me, father!" Draco said turning towards his father. Lucius looked at Draco, but didn't seem surprised that he had turned on him.

"So Draco, I see you have chosen death!" Lucius said getting ready to fight his son.

"I'd rather die knowing I'm doing what's right, than live knowing I'm a coward!" Draco spat at his father. Lucius looked furious and charged on him, Draco deflected most of his blows, as Lucius did the same, they were both fighting hard, but Hermione could see Draco was tiring. She looked around for something to help with, he had saved her life, she owed him hers. Hermione took her bag and began to dig through it when she heard Draco cry out in pain, her head shot over and she saw Lucius knock him to the ground.

"You worthless child! I taught you everything you know, and you think you can beat me?" Lucius spat, "Fool…"

"I think you're the fool!" a voice said from behind him. Lucius' eyes went wide before he fell to the ground revealing Hermione holding a bloodstained golden dagger, "You didn't teach him everything he knows, he has friends he can rely on!" Lucius, who was scooting away on the ground, was holding his side where she had plunged the dagger.

"You missed…" he said weakly smiling. She smiled at him.

"I didn't miss, I just didn't kill you!" Hermione said handing the dagger to Draco, "You may be an evil selfish prat with nothing going for him in life, but I won't make you turn me into a murderer. You won't win this time, you won't turn me evil." She stood up and turned to Harry, "I believe we have a book to find!" she said taking his hand and walking further into the cavern. Draco stood there fingering the dagger; he slowly knelt down beside his father.

"Hermione may not be able to do it, but let's face it, no one ever accused me of having a conscious." He said plunging the dagger into his father's heart, "Go to Hell, and stay there!" he said watching his father take his last breath.

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Hermione and Harry looked at the task in front of them and decided this was definitely not going to be easy. After sending Draco away to watch for more deatheaters that may come looking for Lucius, Hermione pocketed the dagger Dumbledore had given her, and threw her backpack into a corner, along with Harry's. In front of them stood a gigantic cage covered by some sort of plant that, undoubtedly, would kill them upon touch.

"Well, the book is obviously inside, so we have to get inside, somehow." Harry said examining the cage from a safe distance. Together they stepped closer and found what looked like a door. Hermione cautiously reached for the door but stopped when Harry grabbed her hand. "I'll do it!" He pushed her hand away and grabbed the doorknob, forcing the door open. Inside was a simple bar cage surrounding the Book of Deception.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Too easy!" Hermione gasped from behind him, he turned.

"I've read about this, I can't exactly remember where, but it's basically going to be that whole trust in ourselves thing, it reads our heart, it tells if our intentions are true, if so we get in." Hermione said approaching it.

"And if they aren't?" Harry asked. Hermione turned to face him.

"They will be!" she said quickly. "Now how we do this is…?" Hermione said approaching the cage. When she walked up a podium appeared out of thin air. Hermione looked back at Harry and he came up to join her at the podium. She looked at Harry expectantly.

"Hey, we'll figure this out, I promise!" Harry said taking her hand and kissing it.

"But what if we don't?" Hermione asked, Harry took her hand and squeezed it.

"We will!" Harry said, smiling reassuringly. Hermione looked at the podium and saw that it was covered in dirt; she dusted it off and saw that there were two hand prints on there.

"Harry?" Hermione said; he approached and looked over her shoulder. She turned around to look at him, he shrugged.

"I guess we just put our hands there!" he said stepping around to the other side and laying his hand where it was marked. He looked at Hermione expectantly; she closed her eyes and placed her hand on where it went. She didn't feel anything, `Am I dead?' she asked herself. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Harry staring at her.

"What happened?" Hermione asked looking around.

"Nothing!" Harry said. Hermione didn't move her hand, but she started looking around for a clue. "God dammit!" Harry yelled, Hermione looked up, "We came this far, and we can't even figure out how to get past a stupid podium!" Harry yelled slamming his hand down onto the podium. Suddenly the room began to rumble, Hermione tried to back away, but her hand wouldn't budge. She looked at Harry and saw that the same thing was happening to them. Suddenly they were moving down; Hermione looked around, panicked, still trying to get her hand free, she heard Harry cry out in pain, but was soon blinded by her own pain. Once Hermione finally got her hand free she looked around and saw that they had stopped moving. She looked down at her hand and saw that her hand had been cut; she assumed that the same had happened to Harry.

"What is this place?" she said stepping off the platform and exploring the new tavern.

"This is the Cave of Deception!" a voice said from behind her. She spun around to come face to face with someone she never thought she would see down here, Cho.

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"How did you get here?" Harry asked coming up behind Hermione.

"Simple, I just followed you!" Cho said approaching them, her eyes flickered to Harry, "Harry, it's time you stop this, think of what we shared last summer, I love you, she doesn't!" Cho said looking at Harry.

"You're mad!" Harry said putting his hand on Hermione's shoulder. Cho opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she heard a voice behind her.

"Silence!" a voice hissed from the darkness. The man, if you could call him that, the voice belonged to stepped out of the darkness. "Harry Potter…"

Harry's eyes widened, "Voldemort…" Harry whispered.

"Potter, I believe that you and me have some unfinished business," Voldemort snarled, "you have escaped me too many times, it will end tonight!"

"Not with them here!" Harry said pointing to the girls. Voldemort smiled.

"Not that I care what happens to either of them, but shall we say, they have a score to settle." Voldemort said as Harry watched Cho pull out a sword and aim it at Hermione.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled, but just before the sword cut her throat she ducked and spun around facing a Cho.

"Cho, hitting someone while their back was turned, that's just down right deceitful. But then again, you don't have feelings, so why should it matter!" Hermione popped up and prepared to face Cho, "Harry…?" Hermione said not taking her eyes off Cho, "…kick his arse!"

Harry smiled, "With pleasure!"

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As Harry squared with Voldemort Hermione was looking at Cho. "So are you gonna attack me, or stand there and pretend to look intimidating?" Hermione asked with a laugh.

Cho advanced on Hermione, but Hermione just kept backing up, then she remembered the dagger. She pulled it out of her pocket, and Cho just laughed. "Ooh, I'm scared!" Cho said in a sarcastic voice. Hermione knew she only had one shot, and it had to be perfect, she aimed carefully and sent the dagger flying. It sliced Cho's arms just enough to make her drop the sword and Hermione went for her feet. Within seconds Cho was on the ground and Hermione grabbed the sword, she knew they couldn't use it so she turned to Harry.

"Harry!" she yelled tossing him the sword, he grabbed it with one hand and turned back to Voldemort, while Hermione turned back to Cho. "So, Cho, it has finally come down to you and me!"

"You deserve to die, you stole Harry from me, and I'm going to kill you for it!" Cho spat at Hermione.

"If you kill me, Harry would just kill you, and then bring me back; you forget that we have the Book of Deception." Hermione said smiling. Suddenly Cho broke into a smile; Hermione's face fell out of confusion. She turned around and picked up a bag.

"The Book of Deception…?" Cho said opening the sack, "You mean like this one?" she said holding up the book with the symbol for the Book of Deception on it.

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After Harry had received the sword from Hermione, he had quickly fought Voldemort, both getting hurt in the process. Harry knew that either he was going to kill Voldemort or die trying. Harry was tired of this, not of the fight, but of this whole war, he wanted his life back, he wanted to be with his parents and Sirius, he wanted to be with Hermione, he wanted to be free from all this. In his anger Harry felt a surge of energy and, after dodging a few blows finally got Voldemort to the ground, with Harry's sword at his neck. Harry knew he could do this now, and never look back, Voldemort wouldn't have hesitated, he knew that, yet something stopped him.

Voldemort laughed, "Can't kill me Potter? After all the training…all the sleepless nights when you knew you would have to come and kill me, you can't do it." Harry was about to just do, ending it there, when he heard Hermione scream. He instinctively looked over, but as soon as he did, Voldemort pushed to sword away, and when Harry looked back, Voldemort was no where in sight. Harry quickly turned around looking for Hermione, he saw her over in a corner with Cho, Cho had her back to Harry and was holding something when Harry caught a glimpse of it. Slowly coming up behind her, he reached out and took it from her, Cho spun around and came face to face with Harry, her face suddenly falling.

"Harry," she said reaching her hand out, "give me the book!" she said slowly.

"No!" Harry said, Cho's eyes flashed in anger and she turned on Hermione.

"You, you tricked him, you bitch!" Cho said launching herself at Hermione, when Harry saw this he reached for Cho and threw her off Hermione. Harry, paying no attention to Cho, went to Hermione, who was in a state of shock from seeing the book.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked taking her hand. Hermione looked at Harry and nodded, Harry stood up and helped her to her feet, Harry who had dropped the book, bent down to get the book revealing Cho, standing there with a sword.

"Harry…" Hermione gasped, Harry looked up at Hermione and stood up, she felt him take something from her pocket and he swung around. Hermione couldn't see Cho over Harry's shoulder, but she heard her cry out in pain, then Hermione realized the dagger, he had taken the dagger. Hermione moved to the side of Harry and saw Cho on the ground; she was alive, but just barely. Hermione saw her and she couldn't help but gasp, she knew Harry had no choice, but it was odd, seeing Harry kill someone.

Harry turned around and looked at Hermione, handing her the book; she looked down at it and put her hand on the front cover, it snapped open. Hermione opened it and began flipping through the pages. "Harry, all these spells, we can win with this!" Hermione said not looking up from the book. Hermione sat down on a large boulder and began looking at all the many different spells. Harry started looking around the cave and began looking for a way out.

"Hermione lets find a way out…" Harry said

Hermione looked up, "I'm assuming it's the same way we came down!" Hermione said standing up.

"All right, then lets…" Harry said trailing off, his smile fading from his face.

"Harry…?" Hermione asked. Harry's eyes moved to hers and he fell down. Hermione watched in horror as Cho stood there with the dagger in her hands. Seeing that she was too weak to try and fight Hermione, she turned her attention to Harry. "Harry can you hear me…Harry, hang on, Harry don't leave me!" Hermione said with tears in her eyes

"Her…mi…on…e…" Harry said slowly

"Harry hang on…DRACO…Harry, hang on Draco will go get help…" Hermione said

Harry was slowly closing his eyes, "I…love…you!" he said quietly before taking his last breath.

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