Frustration and wild terror raced through him late Friday evening; one day since he'd found out what has been causing Hermione to act so unlike herself. Harry ran an agitated hand through his hair as he paced back and forth outside of the Herbology classroom Green House No. 5. The class period was almost over; he could see some student beginning to pack things up. He had to get Hermione alone to talk to her; make her see reason.
She walked out of the green house carrying a loaded book bag; briskly following a group of girls and Harry sprinted to catch up, slowing only as he reached her. When he fell into step with her, she threw him a irritated look and sped up. Harry matched her pace easily.
"Get away from me Potter," she growled, keeping her eyes firmly ahead of her.
Harry grabbed her elbow and pulled her towards the lake. Hermione struggled, but Harry didn't pay her any heed. He pushed her onto a large, flat rock and took her book bag off her shoulder and set it on the ground. She folded her arms, her bushy hair fizzling with furious energy.
Incensed, Hermione stubbornly glared at Harry, but he just ignored it and sat on his haunches. She tried to hit him and Harry caught her hand, stopping her flailing. Hermione turned her nose up at him, but Harry was determined. He shook her a bit to get her to pay attention.
"Hermione, listen to me," he pleaded. "I know you can understand the trouble you are in so listen. I don't care if Daniel, or the Queen's son gave you that locket; you need to take it off. It's not good for you Hermione."
"Get your hands off me," Hermione yelled, jerking her hands away, succeeding in only overbalancing herself and falling to the ground. Harry just pressed himself on top of her. "This is harassment Potter! Let go!"
"Shut it," Harry growled, griping both of her wrists with his left hand, so that his right was free to grab the locket that, thanks to her struggles, was now dangling over her clothing.
"NO!!!!!!!!!!" Hermione screamed bucking wildly under him as his fingers closed around the hated object.
The locket burned into his hand, searing his flesh. The smell of smoke and burning flesh rose from where he gripped the locket, but Harry just gritted his teeth through the pain, small plumes of smoke forcing him to shut his eyes. As he started to pull it away from her and the chain tautened she increased her thrashing and she managed to wrangled an arm loose and lunged at his face.
Harry dropped the locket as her nails raked down his face and she clawed at him. He jerked his head away at the pain. Harry opened his eyes as little rivulets of blood trailed down from her marks. Hermione lunged again this time aiming for his eyes and forcing him to leap off of her.
She was panting loudly as she scrambled away to the opposite side of the rock. Harry took a few steps toward her; Hermione edging away.
"Hermione," he beseeched, holding out the hand that locket had touched, the seared flash clearly visible in the light of day.
"You come near me again and I'll tell Daniel, our Head of House, and the Headmaster," she vowed, pulling out her wand. "Accio book bag."
Her book bag flew from its spot and she caught it. Harry stared after her, breathing heavily and could not find it in himself to wield his magic against her. He knew he wouldn't succeed in ridding her of the locket using conventional methods. Hermione was growing more leery of him and if this time was anything to go by, he thought touching his cheek coming away with blood on his fingertips, then his chances at getting the locket from her with her cooperation were swiftly dwindling. The pull of the Horcrux had on her drove her to protect the very thing that was hurting her.
He would have to sneak up into the girls' dorms from the common room. A feat he knew wasn't nearly as impossible as breaking into Dumbledore's office but almost as complicated. Harry couldn't afford to waste time planning an elaborate entry, he would have to figure it out rather quickly, before Hermione could sink further into the clutches of the Horcrux.
Luckily for him, at least, she now slept in the Headgirl suite, something Hermione had spoken to Dumbledore about at Daniel's insistence. The Headmaster had opened them up for her with little fuss, not thinking it strange that she changed her mind after a term of continued existence with her friends in the seventh year girl dormitory.
"Kreacher!" Harry beckoned, walking away from the castle and toward the Forbidden Forest.
He had gone on for a bit and just as he was about to call the house elf again the grubby elf appeared. Kreacher bowed low, his snout touching the ground waiting for Harry to let him rise. Harry waved his hand and the house elf straightened.
"I've found the Horcrux," Harry said without preamble. "I actually found it last night but couldn't get it away from the person who had it."
"Kreacher could do it for snake boy. Kreacher would be delighted to kill owner to get it back."
"No!" he said forcefully, startling the elf whose bat-sized ears flapped in annoyance.
"Then what would snake boy have Kreacher do?" he asked sneering.
"I need you to find out how I can get up into the Ravenclaw girls' dorms without setting off the alarms on the stairs and at the doors. Especially the door to the Headgirl suite."
"Headgirl has locket Kreacher thinks," the house elf said, "Kreacher could go after it on Mistress' orders. Kreacher could kill--"
"Kreacher will listen to snake boy," Harry inserted firmly, shaking thoughts of Hermione out of his head. "She is not to be harmed. I will get the locket and destroy it, but first I need to know how to bypass the male intruder alarms."
Kreacher looked furious, but acquiesced. "Kreacher will do as snake boy says, but this is the last time, Kreacher will come at snake boys' call."
"Fine," Harry returned testily. "I understand. Now go and get back to me before midnight."
Kreacher bowed again, grumbling the entire time, before popping away. Harry ran his hand down his face in exhaustion. The warm trickle of blood reminded him that he had to fix himself up. Pulling out his wand, he cast a few mild healing charms and the wounds on his face and his hand closed up. Carefully, he tucked the wand back up his sleeve and looked back toward the castle.
Dusk was falling quickly and Harry forced himself to go back inside the castle. He drifted down to the kitchens, eating the food Swibby and the army of house elves provided for him. When he was done he got up and left, at first heading toward the library to complete some of the essays his professors had heaped upon them this week but lost in thought as he was, his feet took him in another direction entirely.
He found himself in Myrtle's bathroom, calling out to the dead schoolgirl. Myrtle drifted out from a u-bend and greeted Harry coyly. Harry beckoned her over and locked the bathroom off before placing several wards up and then silencing the door.
"What's going on Harry?" she asked with a little hiccup.
"Myrtle," Harry started, licking his lips, "I need to ask you something very personal." Myrtle developed a dreamy look which Harry dispelled by saying, "Why haven't you gone on to the other side?"
She pouted, floating away from him. "That is very personal. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I need your help, I would trust nobody with this but you."
"Oh?" she said intrigued. "Well, if it's important--"
"It is," Harry said earnestly. "A matter of life and death."
Myrtle grinned a little maniacally. "I like those. Okay then Harry," she said, drifting back to him. "Ghosts as you know can't cross sides because they feared something here in the world--a matter of unfinished business for some. I thought mine was pestering Olive Hornby."
"So you made her life hell," Harry said, remembering her tale.
She nodded. "She deserved it, Olive, did."
"Certainly," he replied.
"I've come to realize that what holds me hear is not fear of death or old grudges but something rather more…"
---
Kreacher popped into the Ravenclaw common room at one minute to midnight. Harry raised an eyebrow at the small act of defiance on the house elf's part. Only at Harry's sign, did Kreacher began to carefully speak in a gruff whisper so that the few stragglers left downstairs did not overhear.
"How snake boy will travel up the girl stairs and get past the male intruder alarms, Kreacher has found out."
"Go on," Harry urged.
Kreacher looked hesitantly over at the group of seventh years cramming in front of the fireplace. He slunk further back into the shadows, his pig-snout nose quivering ever so slightly. "Kreacher has talked to Hogwarts elves. They would not talk castle secrets to Kreacher. Kreacher had to lie like Mistress had taught him to get anywhere."
"What did you find out?"
"Male elves would trigger alarms if they didn't bypass them too."
"Really?"
"Snake boy will do what house elves do. Kreacher was told that to climb or fly over the stairs is impossible. To go over them one must walk on the railing. Kreacher asked how to do that without falling and Goobee, an intolerable excuse for an elf as my Mistress would say, said to use sticking charm on feet."
Harry nodded, relieved. "Sound simple enough. What about the doors?"
"Goobee told Kreacher that to get past those snake boy would have to perform a virtually painless temporary castration curse."
"Oh hell no!" Harry said, cringing, ignoring the annoyed looks thrown at him by the others in the common room.
"Kreacher thought as much, so Goobee told him how to confuse the wards by transfiguring into a pet animal."
"Like a cat?" Harry asked, remembering Crookshanks and concluding that the cat's status as a pet must have been why the cat didn't set off the alarms while the house elves would.
Kreacher nodded his head vigorously.
"Good," Harry said. "You did good, Kreacher. Tell your Mistress thank you for all her help and that I will destroy the wretched thing tonight."
Kreacher swallowed, looking like he was choking down something rather nasty. "Good luck, snake boy," he managed to say through clenched teeth.
Startled, Harry looked in disbelief to the little elf. Kreacher just shuddered and popped away. Now all Harry had to do was wait for the early hours of morning when all would be dead asleep to the world. It would be a long night.
---
A quiet, disillusioned Harry pressed his ear against the Headgirl's suite at four in the morning and held his breath. He heard nothing. Taking a steadying breath, he closed his eyes, picturing the toad he was about to transform himself into when Crookshanks padded into view from the seventh year girls' dormitory, which connected to the Headgirl's rooms through a shared bathroom. Harry kept his wand pointed at his chest and held his breath awaiting the little beast's reaction.
Crookshanks opened his mouth letting out a surprisingly silent yowl. Harry thanked his lucky stars even as the little mongrel stalked towards him. He leapt in surprise when the orange furball rubbed against his legs in a friendly manner. How did the cat sense--oh smell.
Harry shooed the half-Kneazle out of the way and performed the complicated movement that accompanied all human transfiguration and silently thought the words, humanus transfigura bufo. As he shrunk and changed form, Harry held the picture of the toad firmly in his mind until after the whole transformation took place.
He opened his eyes and took stock only to find the bloody orange monstrosity looking even bigger than he last remembered. A croak of fear escaped Harry and he jumped several feet away in the opposite direction before he could gain control of his automatic reflexes. After a rather ungraceful leap Harry managed to will himself to turn around and rejoin the ghastly creature; it was difficult but he managed to get back to where he first started.
Crookshanks lifted a paw and Harry leapt to the door avoiding the meaty harbinger of doom. He croaked in warning to the half-Kneazle and squeezed himself under the door jamb into her rooms. Harry breathed out a small little croak as his toad body returned to its normal shape.
He looked around trying to gain stock of her room, but being so small made the furniture impossibly large to navigate. Harry closed his eyes and thought the reverse, bufo transfigura humanus, keeping his human form forefront of his mind. With speedy ease he shot up from the ground. Harry looked down at his hands checking them for any toadly residue, fingering his wand loosely before turning his gaze back up.
Tom Riddle lounged on his side, gently kissing a sleeping Hermione. His hand curled in her tangled hair, ghostly and pale. From her lips something white and pure flowed and Riddle was consuming it greedily. It took Harry a moment to put together what he was seeing.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!" Harry yelled in shock, whipping his wand forward onto the ghostly spectral of the twenty-something Voldemort, desperately trying to remember what he had to do.
Tom lifted his head from the kiss he had been giving Hermione. The trail of pearly white thinned and broke, seeping back into Hermione who took a deep breath her whole body shuddering. He removed his hand from her hair and in a mockery of affection ran it gently down the side of her pale cheek.
"Why would I ever want to get away from such a lovely creature?" he purred, the deep suave bed voice at such odds to the high hissing quality Harry had always heard before.
"If you've hurt her I'll kill you, Voldemort! I will destroy you!" Harry vowed, sending the two curses back to back, "Annullo Pravus! Avedo Kaodavrea!"
They flew through Voldemort's body and hit the wall; he leered. "Is that the best you could do?" he asked, his handsome features contorting into an evil sneer.
Harry's eyes widened as he took a step backward. Voldemort pulled himself from his sprawled position onto the other side of the bed; Hermione lay there between them deathly pale. She moaned, turning her head weakly, her body shifting restlessly.
"You're too late," he chuckled sinisterly. "In just a few moments, Hermione Granger will be gone. Don't fret, she'll have died for a good cause."
"You bastard," Harry growled, running to the bed and grabbing Hermione's hand.
It was ice cold, her flushed skin was paling, growing icy blue. In desperation he searched her face for some sign of life, but even her thrashing stilled. He shook her.
"That won't work," Riddle whispered in Harry's ear, laughing darkly.
"Come on Hermione! Wake up!" Harry yelled, shaking her roughly. Her head fell to the side, revealing the locket chain.
He dropped her hand and grabbed the chain. Voldemort lunged across the bed, yelling hoarsely. Harry jerked the chain, breaking the thin connection. Locket in hand, Harry backed away from the bed. Voldemort crawled across the mattress, going straight through Hermione who gasped allowed.
"Give that back," Voldemort demanded, stretching out his hand for the locket.
"You can't harm her if I am holding it," Harry said, holding the Horcrux out of reach.
Voldemort pulled a wand from his robes and aim it at Harry. "You will return the locket to me if you know what's good for you boy."
"Right," Harry sneered, raising his wand, challenging, "Try me."
"I don't want to harm you, Harry Potter," Voldemort tried again, edging closer. "I would rather us be allies."
Harry scoffed, "You obviously don't know me very well."
"I believe I know you better than most anyone, Harry," Voldemort said, looking back at Hermione's prone figure. "After all who's the closest person to you, but our dear Hermione? I've been inside her mind; I know all about you. I know you've lied to her and that you've hidden things from her. I know that Daniel uses you for his own gain. I know you're the twin with the true power. I know you think you don't need anyone, Harry, but you need me."
"I need you like Veelas need a makeover."
"You should see them in their bird form," Voldemort replied, waving the wand confidently. "Expelliarmus."
Harry felt the Horcrux jerk in his hand, but a silent shield charm kept it firmly in his grasp. "Those spells should have worked," he said aloud. "Why didn't they?"
"Because," Voldemort said with vanity, "the locket is one of my more clever ideas. I modified the charms used. I wasn't sure they would work as I needed them to, but your little curses proved ineffectual against my superior mind. I knew I could have always been a Ravenclaw."
"A Ravenclaw values knowledge over all things, including power," Harry commented, running a list of spells that worked against ghosts and poltergeists in his head. "You're too power hungry to ever be considered a Raven."
"Knowledge is power!" Voldemort thundered. "Or are you too brainless to understand?"
"He's not brainless," Myrtle replied, slipping up through the floor. She adjusted her glasses, peering owlishly at Voldemort. "Hello again, Tom."
"Myrtle Cupressus," Riddle said disquieted. "The girl who died during the attacks of Hagrid's beast."
Myrtle grinned widely. "I remember you too Tom Riddle. Prefect, soon-to-be Headboy--my true killer."
"I heard you became a ghost," he said, ignoring Harry who was sidling closer to Hermione to check on her breathing once again.
She was breathing shallower. Harry snuck a glance at Voldemort who was growing more solid in presence before looking at his closed fist. He tightened his hand, the metal of the locket humming in warning. Voldemort met Harry's gaze when he looked up.
"Don't try anything stupid, Potter," he called jeeringly. "You're nothing without me."
"That could be the other way around," Myrtle trilled lightly, a gleeful expression lighting her usually dour face. "After all Tom, you seem to have thrived more on his competition than you ever did on your own."
"And what would you know Cupressus?" Tom said, shifting his grip on his wand as Harry jabbed his fingernails into the crease of the heart trying to pry it open. "You always were an ugly fat crybaby."
Myrtle drifted closer to Voldemort, circling him. He warily shied away, keeping her in front of him at all times. The girl ghost stopped when she was between Riddle and Harry and smiled sardonically.
"Perhaps," she replied, "but I would rather be Miserable Moping Moaning Myrtle than Tom Riddle the One-Who-Must-Be-Hyphenated."
"How dare you mock me!" Riddle shouted, throwing a dispelling jinx her way. It sailed through her and hit the wall, which groaned ominously on contact.
Myrtle tisked. "Why I do believe your wand is not up for the task there, Riddle."
In anger Riddle threw a series of curses, Harry had to duck two. He pulled Hermione off the bed, cradling her against his chest. While Myrtle kept Voldemort distracted, Harry was working on opening the Horcrux. He scratched and pulled, plucked and pried.
The metal grew hot, hotter than Harry could stand without pain. He gritted his teeth, throwing a glance up at Myrtle's fight with Voldemort. Colored lights of spells cast from Voldemort were expending themselves all along the wall above him. Returning his attention to the locket Harry cursed his lack of information. If only he knew what trickery Voldemort had applied then he could think of a way around it.
He tried unlocking spells, tapping the locket with each new one he came up with. His finger blistered. Harry could feel his flesh searing to the metal and dropped it onto the floor beside him. He gathered his robe sleeve around his hand and plucked it up again.
"Ah!" Myrtle cried out, Harry's circumventing jinx he had placed on her down in the bathroom hours earlier finally failing her as an orange hex hit her.
Myrtle dodged Voldemort's next curse, but her movement cause Riddle to laugh out loud. His bedroom voice gone replaced by his usual hissing intonation. Inspiration hit Harry like a bludger, fast and hard.
§Open,§ he hissed under his breath.
Twin snakes, not unlike Celestial Gaunt's Adæmus and Oglethorp, shimmered into view, their slithering engraved bodies entwining into an elaborate double 'S'.
§Who seeks us?§ one asked.
§I do. I demand that you open for me.§
§You are not the young Tom Riddle,§ said the other, peering up at him through squinted eyes. §Who are you?§
§Tom's my dad,§ Harry lied, refusing to glance up.
§I remember Tom,§ said the second one shrewdly. §He was a very isolated young man, valuing his privacy above all--§
Harry interjected swiftly, §He said to tell you he goes by Voldemort now. That his plans for immortality are successful.§
§Right,§ said the first one skeptically, but they opened up, releasing the latch with a whispered hiss.
A folded note sprung out, falling gently to the floor.
§Imagine, a silly little locket,§ Voldemort hissed scathingly, appearing in front of Harry, having overheard the hissing conversation. §In the hands of a silly little girl.§
Riddle knocked the locket out of Harry's hand, his touch substantial--solid, scaring Harry. Hermione had to be near death if Voldemort was nearly completely corporeal.
"No!" Harry denied, clutching Hermione to him with one hand and battling Voldemort for the locket with the other. "Let her go! Let her go, damn it!"
"It's over Harry," Voldemort intoned sinisterly, jerking the Horcrux by its chain up off the floor.
"I'm sorry Harry!" Myrtle cried out from the ceiling where she was stuck.
"I won't give up!" Harry vowed, throwing the weeping ghost a stern look. "Neither will you! It's not over yet!"
"Oh, but it is. It is."
§No, it's not. While she still breathes, I'm not giving up on her!§
§How noble. I swear you must have been a Gryffindor in a past life.§
§Gryffindor--that's it!§ Harry shouted, adjusting Hermione's lifeless body, pointing his wand at Voldemort. §Bravery against cowardice; honor against ignominy; love against hate; life and death! A Horcrux is the ultimate perversion using death to secure life! Opposites! It's all about opposites!§
§What are you on about?§ Voldemort asked, scowling. §You're wasting my time. I'm going to kill you Harry
Potter. I'm going to kill you slowly. Then I'm going to frame you for her death. You talk about disgrace and
contempt. Those things shall haunt the memory of you forever.§
§Heart of Ice§ Harry shouted, calling upon his magic to push it through.
A dozen blooming marigold flowers fell from the ceiling, sprinkling the floor around them, each clinking lightly as their frozen petals touched. Harry called one to him as Voldemort chortled.
§A flower? A dozen icy flowers? What good will that do you?§ he asked, slashing his wand downward as Harry banished the flower into the locket, "Avada--"
§Die! Close!§ he shouted as Riddle yelled, "Keda--"
Myrtle flew in front of Harry holding her arms akimbo shrieking in terror as the last syllable was said and the killing curse flew into her spectral form. She wailed loudly and evaporated just as the locket closed at Harry's command, the dead flower trapped within, symbolizing the death of love. Voldemort screamed in agony, his face charring even as the golden Horcrux blackened.
Together soul and Horcrux burnt to ashes, Harry held his breath, watching the eradication with barely suppressed hope. With the obliteration of the Horcrux, a pure white ethereal light remained hovering above the exhausted couple. Slowly with purpose, the light seeped into Hermione. Her body arched in a spasm of relief , her eyelids fluttering wildly as she took her first deep easy breath in who knew how long. Her whole body relaxed, falling peacefully into his arms and Harry let out a happy relieved laugh, as her breathing evened out into that of sleep.
He buried his face into her hair, his whole body shuddering in thanksgiving as he cried softly, "I love you, I love you, I love you."
º«««º»»»ºEnd Chapter 31º«««º»»»º