A/N: Hmmm…the beginning of something new from me. This isn't a long chapter, consider it a prologue or a teaser if you will. It may tie in with the Number One Girl universe, not exactly a complete sequel but even if it were, the plot is much different and so I don't think that should be an issue…
I am also working on a one shot (or two!) and hope to have another chapter of NOG out soon as well. Thanks again for all your comments!
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Hermione stopped her restless pacing in front of the fire as she heard Harry's footsteps echo off the small staircase.
'They're all asleep. Almost as soon as their heads hit the bed…'
He stopped at the stricken look etched on her face. 'Oh Hermione…'
She swivelled quickly to face the fireplace again, feeling its intense heat searing her face and shut her eyes tightly, hoping against hope that the tears wouldn't flow, that she would have the courage to stay strong throughout this most recent development…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar and beloved body moulding itself to her back and wrapping its arms around her waist, giving it a quick squeeze. She leaned back into the embrace and for a tiny minute, willed herself to forget that they were miles away from home, absolutely in the middle of nowhere, with nothing more than the occasional and mournful cry of a seagull to keep them company.
Right on cue, the cry echoed amidst the winds swirling the area and Hermione shivered as a chill skittered along her spine. She turned abruptly in his arms and stared at the dear, green eyes that had come to be the source of so much light, love and joy in her life for the past twenty one years. On instinct, she reached up and ran her fingertips lightly across his eyelids, tracing the contours of his eyes, smiling at the way he squinted at her around her movements.
'What are you doing?' he asked gently.
'Looking at your eyes,' she answered in an equally soft voice. For an instant, the world had suddenly narrowed down to the two pools of emerald that she had so often read her life in and she could ignore the insistently eerie cries of the birds that circled their location relentlessly.
Said eyes rolled in bemusement, 'You've seen them plenty of times.' They moved closer as she lost sight of them for a second as his lips brushed a loving kiss on her forehead.
She looked up again, 'I love you, Harry. Do you know how much?' Now, her gaze had come to rest firmly on her hands, the palms resting lightly on his chest. She absently moved her fingers, thinking of all the times when she had been able to bring her world back on its axis after an affectionate cuddle against this very same part of him. Whether feeling it pressed against her in joy, supporting her in pain or transmitting the proof of life during their acts of love, she had always rested her head against it to give her strength.
Today was no different as she moved to plant a small kiss directly above his heart and then pull back slowly, desperately trying to keep him from seeing her lower lip quivering dangerously.
'Hermione…' his voice was strained, laced with anguish. They both knew what he had to do and what the ramifications of his finding could unveil, and yet there wasn't any other choice.
For Harry Potter, there would always be no other choice. It was the price paid for being The Boy Who Lived. Not just once. But seven times.
Seven times did Harry face Voldemort. And seven times did he defeat him. The seventh of course, being the fight to the finish.
And yet…didn't the dead ever stay dead? She wondered in mingled awe and hate. Wasn't seven times enough?
He hugged her to him fiercely and then registered the slow shaking in her shoulders. He pulled back but Hermione pressed her face into his chest even more firmly. He placed his hands on the side of her face and tried to pull it upwards towards him, but she resisted strongly, her shoulders shaking with increasing violence as Harry continued to coax her to look at him.
And then, it happened.
The first audible sobs issued forth and Harry swallowed repeatedly to keep himself from joining in her agony. Again and again, he tried to lift her face up to meet his and again and again she refused steadfastly, trying in vain to push her face into his chest as much as she could, and finally as he was about to completely pull himself away in an attempt to get her to look, she moved back, fractionally, just enough room to lift her head and snapped her gaze to his. She was still trembling, the tears caressed her cheeks in a grotesquely beautiful manner and her breath kept getting hitched as she tried valiantly to force out words, 'You…you have to come back, Harry. Back…back to me, love. You understand? You understand that? Do you? You have to come back Harry! You can't leave me, you just can't leave me!'
She was shouting hoarsely now, her voice wracked with despair and anger, with a deep tinge of fear festering underneath. Her hands had moved to grip his arms in a vice like hold, and her eyes glinted as she fiercely stared into his green orbs, demanding that he acquiesce to her command.
Harry felt his gut tighten and moved to enfold her in his embrace again, 'Darling, I….'
'No!' She moved back shakily, her knees feeling weak and a little voice at the back of her mind prayed that her feet wouldn't give out from underneath her. She looked at him, realising with an appalled horror that she was memorising his features - no, oh God no, she wouldn't ever think that. It couldn't, it wouldn't happen.
Because she wouldn't let it happen.
She'd helped him seven times. She could do it again. She could-
'You can't help me this time, love.'
Harry's gentle remonstration was also ominously firm and she trained a narrowed gaze at him. He held her stare evenly and then slowly, ever so slowly, reached out a hand to her.
His heart clenched painfully as she looked so carefully, with a tentative, eerie innocence from his hand, back to him and then to his hand again.
And then he caught her as she ran at him in a full embrace, fists clutching handfuls of his sweatshirt, registered her wild kisses of desperation on any bit of skin she could reach, the sides of his neck, his chin, eyes, nose, ears and again and again on his lips.
It was clumsy but it was so full of love, love for him that Harry had to lower them both to the couch or risk bodily injury from tumbling onto the rough carpet that they had conjured up to cover the bare stone floor just an hour back, a few minutes after their harried arrival.
He rocked her back and forth squeezing his eyes shut to stop the tears from showing themselves, even as he murmured words of comfort and love into her hair, her cherished bushy, brown mop of which he would never permit her to change a thing. It was one of the many things that made Hermione his Hermione. 'Please don't worry, love. It's going to be alright. Come on, now. Please, don't cry. God, Hermione, you'll make yourself sick. Please, darling, listen to what I am saying. I love you and nothing can ever change that, ever…'
'No!' She was gazing at him again, eyes widened in unbearable terror and a frisson of dread manifested itself into the depth of his stomach. What was he doing to her, to their family? Hadn't they suffered enough?
'No Harry, you have to promise me.' Her voice was low but carried enough force to pin his vision onto hers. She was clutching the front of his jumper so hard that her knuckles were shaking and a ghostly, sickening white and even as her voice wobbled unsteadily, she pressed a cold finger to his lips and moaned, 'Please, please promise me Harry. I can't live without you, I can't Harry, I just can't!'
And she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. Hugged him so tightly that the very air was seeping out of his lungs. He returned her hug with equal vigour allowing her tears to fall as she continued, 'You hear me, love? You just have to promise me that you'll come back. I need you, Harry. You are my life and I can't live without you.'
She felt him opening his mouth and cut him off, 'And don't you dare say that I need to be there for the kids. Don't you dare! You can't ask me to mask my feelings for you behind my love for them.'
And she leaned back to cradle his face in her hands, 'Harry, you hold a half of my soul. I'd be alone without you. You have to please promise that you'll come back. To me. To us. To our family.'
Harry brought her hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to their palms and then their backs. He sighed in resignation and then looked into the brown eyes that had been there beside him throughout every step of his sojourn through the magical world.
'I promise, Hermione. I will come back. To you. To the children.' Then as he caressed her cheek and watched her lean into his touch, he spoke with a determined glint, 'And I will get him this time. For you and for the children. For us. For our lives.'
He touched his forehead to hers and they stared trying to convey all that was unsaid. He moved to fit more comfortably into the couch and she instinctively went into his arms, head on his chest, that dear heartbeat consoling and soothing her as always while he drew strength from the tight hold of her arms around his waist and the occasional kisses she absently pressed into the skin covering his heart.
It was thus that Harry and Hermione Potter spent their night before the fateful dawn invaded their world.