Till the End

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Till the End

At the sounds of shuffling at the staircase towards the boys’ dormitories, Hermione quickly snatched her wand from the table beside her and sprung up from her seat in front of the fire. The firelight cast an orange-y hue to everything and the shadows of all the furniture danced eerily upon the walls. Basically, at two in the morning, the Common Room looked perfectly normal, but Hermione knew that something was a little out of place.

Tip-toeing quietly and keeping herself hidden in the shadows, Hermione placed herself in front of the Portrait Hole, blocking any sort of entrance or exit.

Just as she had expected, something collided into her, sending her to the floor. A furious glint came into her eyes as they fixed upon the air in front of her. Seconds later, that air was replaced by Harry Potter’s head as he removed his Invisibility Cloak.

“Hermione…” he said quietly, scrambling off of her. He actually had the decency to look guilty, she noticed crudely.

“Harry, what do you think you’re doing?” she said in a loud whisper, making it evident that she was not pleased. Harry mumbled something as he stared sullenly at the floor, resembling very much like a five-year-old caught breaking a vase on accident. “‘Scuse me? What did you say?” she asked impatiently.

Harry whipped his head up to look at her, his green eyes blazing with anger, very much like hers was doing at the moment too. “What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked.

“Don’t play stupid with me, Harry,” Hermione said.

“You should do the talking,” Harry shot back. “You seem to know exactly what I’m doing, so why bother asking.”

“Well, apparently, I find that you’re stupid for doing this in the first place. What makes you think that you can just flee to look for Voldemort? Without Dumbledore and the rest of the Order? Without the Ministry of Magic knowing? Without Ron…and me,” she added desperately.

Harry’s head returned to looking at the floor. The silence was unbearable, but the next words out of Harry’s words were even more so. “Get out of the way, Hermione,” he said slowly and steadily.

Tears sprung up in her eyes as the words wounded her deeply. She wiped them away hastily and stood her ground, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m sorry, Harry, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“Mobilicorpus!”

Hermione’s body floated a few inches above the ground and she witnessed Harry gently guiding her to the opposite end of the Common Room. He still looked angry, but with an apologetic look in his eyes, he slipped on the Invisibility Cloak and the Portrait Hole opened and closed, signaling his exit of the room.

It took a few seconds for realisation of the situation to dawn upon Hermione. Never had she expected Harry to actually do this. To run off and think that he had a good chance of fighting Voldemort…to abandon the Wizarding World…Ron…and her. Gripping her wand even tighter in her hand, Hermione set off at a sprint, knowing at the back of her mind exactly where Harry was going to leave the castle.

She beat him to the entrance of the secret Hogsmeade entrance, not exactly knowing how she was able to do so but not caring at the moment.

“Harry. Don’t,” she said, once again, blocking Harry from leaving. A rustle was heard and Harry’s body appeared in front of her, looking furious once again.

“Hermione, would you quit it?” Harry questioned angrily, clearly not believing that someone could be so stubborn. “Just leave me alone! I’m doing this for the good of the Wizarding World. The fight rests between me and Voldemort…even he knows that! So I’m not going to drag thousands of people into danger, you got that? Too many people have died already!” he said.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Harry,” Hermione began, her voice slightly shaking. “This fight rests between Voldemort and the whole Wizarding World. He attacked not only you, Harry, but other people and their families as well. He terrorized the whole Wizarding World for ages…he should have known that if he picks on one of us, he picks on all of us.”

“But Hermione,” Harry said, and there was a hint of desperation in his voice. “The prophecy…it says that one of us will conquer the other! One of us will die. You see? Only one. If I do this now, it will only be one that will suffer.”

Hermione sighed exasperatedly and covered her face with her hands for a moment. “And how exactly do you expect to find Voldemort Harry? How do you expect to fight off all his Death Eaters that are bound to be there? You may be special, Harry, but you don’t stand a chance by yourself!” Hermione stood in front of him, breathing rapidly. She just had to get him to see what she saw. She had to get him to stay. She couldn’t afford to lose him…not yet.

Harry shook his head. Hermione couldn’t believe that someone would be so daft to the voice of reason. He was reaching for his wand again…

“Expelliarmus!” Hermione said. The wand flew out of Harry’s pocket just before his fingers brushed it and landed firmly into Hermione’s hand.

“Give it here, Hermione,” Harry said seriously, stretching his hand out towards her.

Hermione shook her head and tucked it into her robes. “No.”

The two of them stared hard at each other for what seemed like an eternity. It was a battle to see who would give in first. But quick as a flash, Hermione felt something knock hard into her legs and she was sent sprawling to the floor once again. Harry was on top of her, digging inside her robes and finally pulling out his wand victoriously. He got up and brushed his clothes off.

“Fine,” Hermione began shakily. She raised herself up and stood directly in front of Harry, her face set and her mind made up. “I’m coming with you, then.”

Whatever Harry was expecting, it wasn’t that. His furious demeanor fell and his eyes widened and his mouth parted in surprise. Before he could say anything, Hermione swiftly cut in.

“No. Don’t say anything. I’ve made up my mind. I’m coming with you, because at least with two people, you have some chance.” She gulped, knowing that they probably had no chance at all, even with her accompanying him, but she had to say something.

“No. I want you to stay here. Stay here with Ron. Stay where it’s safe!” he added pleadingly. “I don’t want you hurt.”

“Forget getting hurt, Harry! I’ve gotten hurt plenty of times…I don’t care about that. I’m coming on behalf of you.”

Harry’s eyes saddened. He took her firmly by the shoulders and gently gave her a shake. “No! You’re not coming on behalf of me, because if you got hurt or even died on behalf of me, I’ll never live it down!” He was begging now.

Hermione only scoffed. “It’s the same with you! I don’t want you getting hurt or dying either, Harry. Now, let me come with you!” She turned around and was just about to tap the humpback of the witch when Harry’s took a hold of her wand.

“Hermione. Please. Please stay. Stay for me…”

“Harry! My place is to be at your side, can’t you see that?”

“I almost lost you once! I don’t want it to happen again!” he shouted.

Hermione stood stock still, looking into his eyes and seeing something new. She didn’t know what it was…half of her mind was dwelling on whether Filch or Mrs. Norris would be flying down this corridor any minute.

Harry seemed to read her thoughts, for he took hold of her shoulders once again and said, “Come here,” and dragged her into a broom closet.

It was one of the large broom closets, so the two of them could stand on opposite ends of it and still have a considerable amount of space between them. Harry leaned his head against one the shelves containing many magical cleaning products. He closed his eyes, his head tilting up and sighed deeply.

“Filch is going to come zooming in here…now there’s no way I’m leaving tonight.” He opened his eyes and looked at Hermione who was sitting on an overturned bucket. “Thanks a lot for interfering, Hermione,” he said. He knew she meant well…but there were just sometimes where Harry wished that she wouldn’t voice her logic. He had been planning on running away for a long time already and when he finally had enough courage to do so, she came along and crushed those thoughts entirely. She had very good reasons though, he reluctantly admitted and to a certain degree he was a little glad that he wasn’t going to go after all.

“Harry, I only want what’s best for you,” she said quietly.

“What’s best for me?” he exclaimed, but still keeping his voice in check. “What about what I want? What if I don’t want to stay cooped up here while Voldemort still rampages out there? What if I don’t want anymore people to die? What if…” he looked morosely at Hermione now. “What if I don’t want people I love getting hurt?”

Hermione shook her head slowly. “There’s going to be people getting hurt…the lives of people you love are going to be risked…but it’ll be so much better and so much more worth it if we defeated Voldemort as one.” She stood up and took a step towards Harry and placed a hand on his cheek. “I just don’t want you leaving us behind Harry. Ron and I are always going to stick by you, no matter what. You’d think seven years would make you see that…”

“I do see it, Hermione, I do. It’s just that…I’d just die if Ron or you got seriously hurt. You guys are my life.” He then took a hold of her hand that was upon his face. “You are my life, Hermione.”

“Harry…” but that was all she was able to get out, for in one swift motion, Harry’s lips were upon hers and he was kissing her fervently. She kissed him back just as fervent, relishing in the sweet taste of him and the hunger of needing him so much. Their bodies were crushed together, yet their hold never loosened. Their lips were bruising, but no one showed signs of stopping.

The kiss was searing…feeding upon their built up feelings. Their need and want for each other was overwhelming. Neither one of them wanted the other hurt. They loved each other too much…

They pulled back slightly, their foreheads still resting upon each other and their breathing ragged.

“I love you, Hermione. So much,” Harry whispered, his grip around her waist pulling her closer to him, if that were possible anymore.

Tears pricked the corners of Hermione’s eyes. The words meant so much coming from him. They affected her entire being, planting itself to the very bottom of her heart. “I love you too, Harry,” she answered. “I just don’t want you risking your life. Not yet. Not when you’re not prepared…not when you don’t have any people to back you up…not without me. I’m with you till the end.”

Harry raised his head to better look at her face. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, her lips were slightly swollen from their passionate kiss…love and concern radiated off of her. Though he had wanted to leave tonight, leave his friends which had now become his family…he always knew, somewhere in his mind, that they would have gone with him no matter what. Especially Hermione…through hell and back, she had once said.

“Always?” he questioned, just wanting to make sure that it was real. That the whole entire moment was real.

“Always.”

-end-