What You Never Know (Won't hurt you)

Harry could hear Hermione coughing, but he had no strength to lift his head.
All he could do was raise a shaking hand to his throat and feel the place
where the locket had cut tightly into his flesh. It was gone; Hermione had
cut him free.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione's concerned voice said. Her hand touched
his shoulder and he found the strength to get up. Shivering violently, he
staggered to his feet. Hermione stood before him, fully dressed but drenched
to the skin. Her hair was plastered to her face, and she held the sword of
Gryffindor in one hand and the Horcrux dangling from its broken chain in the
other.

"Why didn't you take it off before you dived in, Harry?" she asked, but Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing--nothing compared with Hermione saving his life once again.

Without speaking and shuddering with cold, he caught up the pile of clothes still lying at the water's edge and pulled them on. As he dragged sweater after sweater over his head, Harry stared at Hermione, still unable to speak. She took a step towards him.


"Are you alright, Harry?" she asked again. Finally he found his voice.
"It was you," Harry said
"Yes."
"You cast that doe?"
"What, of course not, Harry! My Patronus is an otter. At first I though it was yours, but then noticed the lack of antlers."
"When did you see it?" he asked her.
"I heard a noise outside the tent, and then saw the doe. It wanted me to
follow it, which I did, and came across you and then pulled you out of the
lake. "

"You didn't see anyone else?" Harry asked

"I think I might have seen something move over there," she said pointing to
two trees growing close together. Harry hurried over to the place she had
indicted. There was a gap of only a few inches between the trunks at eye-level --an ideal place to see, but not be seen.

The ground around the roots, however, was free of snow and Harry could see no sign of footprints. He walked back to where Hermione stood waiting, still holding the sword and the Horcrux.



"Anything there?" she asked.

"No,” said Harry

"How did the sword get into the pond, Harry?"

"Whoever cast the Patronus must have put it there." Harry and Hermione both
looked at the ornate silver sword, its rubied hilt glinting a little in the
light from Hermione's wand.

"I do hope this is the right one," she said softly.

"There is only one way to find out," said Harry

The Horcrux was still swinging from Hermione's hand. The locket was
twitching slightly. Harry knew that the thing inside it was agitated again.
It had sensed the presence of the sword and had tried to kill Harry rather
than let him possess it. But now was not the time for long discussions; now was
the moment to destroy the locket once and for all. Harry looked around,
holding Hermione's wand high, and saw the place: a flattish rock lying in
the shadows of a sycamore tree.

"Come here." Harry led the way and brushed snow from the rock's
surface and held his hand out for the Horcrux. Hermione nodded,
understanding that she had to be the one that destroyed this Horcrux,




"I'm going to open it," said Harry. "And you stab it. Straight away, okay?
Because whatever's in there will put up a fight. The bit of Riddle in the
diary tried to kill me."

"Are you going to use Parseltounge to open it?" Hermione inquired. Harry
nodded and looked at the serpentine 'S', inlaid with glittering green
stones: it was easy to visualise it as a minuscule snake, curled upon the
cold rock.



"Make sense, doesn't it?" he said to Hermione

"Oh, I wish you didn't have to open it... but you do, and I'm here for when
you." Hermione said, gripping the sword tighter. Harry reached across and
give her shoulder a squeeze. "Thanks," he said softly and then turned back to
the rock with the Horcrux upon it.

"Ready?" he asked and Hermione nodded

"On three," said Harry looking back down at the locket and narrowing his
eyes, concentrating on the letter 'S', imagining a serpent. The
contents rattled like a trapped cockroach. It would have been easy to pity
it, except that the cut around Harry's neck still burned.

"One..Two..Three…Open!"

The last words came as hiss and a snarl and the golden doors of the locket
swung wide with a little click.

Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and
handsome as Tom Riddle's eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and
slit-pupilled.

Beside him Harry heard Hermione gasp in shock.

"Stab," commanded Harry, holding the locket steady on the rock.

Hermione raised the sword in her shaking hands; the point dangled over the
frantically swivelling eyes, and Harry gripped the locket tightly, bracing
himself, already imagining blood pouring from the empty window.

Then a voice hissed from out of the Horcrux.

"I have seen your heart and it is mine."

"Don't listen to it!" Harry said harshly. "Stab it!"

'I have seen your dreams, Hermione Granger, and I have seen your fears. All
you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible..."

"Stab," shouted Harry; his voice echoed off the surrounding trees, the sword
point trembled and Hermione gazed down into Riddle's eyes. '

"Least needed, least respected, second best to his sister, easily forgotten,
muggle born."

"Hermione, no, don't listen, just stab it," Harry bellowed; he could feel the
locket quivering in his grip and was scared of what was coming. Hermione
raised the sword still higher, and she did so, Riddle's eyes gleamed
scarlet.

Out of the locket's two windows, out of the eyes, there bloomed, like two
grotesque bubbles, the heads of Harry, Ginny, all weirdly distorted.

Hermione give a squeal of shock and backed away as the figures blossomed out
of the locket--first chests, then waists, and then legs, until they stood in
the locket as it burned suddenly white hot.

"Hermione!" he shouted, but the Riddle-Harry was now speaking with
Voldemort's voice and Hermione was gazing mesmerized, into his face.

"Useless, mudblood, always left behind."

"Ha," laughed Riddle-Ginny, wrapping her arms Riddle-Harry. "Always running
after you like some well behaved dog." She swayed and cackled before
Hermione who looked horrified yet transfixed, the sword hanging pointlessly
at her side.

"You could never be like me, too ugly, too plain." Harry saw tears leak out
of Hermione's eyes.

"Hermione, stab it, STAB IT," he yelled, but Hermione did not move; her eyes
were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Ginny were reflected in them,
their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted
in a evil duet.

"Useful to a point, annoying most of the time," sneered Riddle-Harry, while
Riddle-Ginny jeered.

"Doesn't even like Quidditch, prefers books. Which man would take you? Not
Harry! You are nothing to him, nothing to him, useless unwanted, unloved,"
crooned Riddle-Ginny.

She stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: their lips met.

On the ground in front of them, Hermione's face filled with anguish; she raised
the sword high, her arms shaking.

"Do it, Hermione!" Harry yelled. Hermione looked towards him and Harry
thought he saw a trace if scarlet in his eyes.

"Hermione-?"

The sword flashed, plunged; Harry threw himself out of the way, there was a
clung of metal and a long drawn out scream. Harry whirled round, slipping on
the snow, wand held ready to defend himself, but there was nothing to fight.

The monstrous versions of himself and Ginny were gone; there was only
Hermione huddled on the ground, looking down at the shattered remains of the
locket on the flat rock.

"Harry…" she whimpered before fainting into the snow

-->

A/N Thanks to everyone who posted a review, its nice to know people are still reading Harry/Hermione fan fiction. Thanks also to my beta-reader. *hug*

Harry made his way slowly though the snow, back to the tent. Hermione was cradled in his arms still unconscious. It worried Harry; he hadn't been able to bring her around yet. Gryffindor's sword was in a make-shift scabbard in the form of his belt across his back and to add to things, it had started to snow quite heavily. Pulling Hermione closer to him to keep her dry and warm; Harry made his way thought the forest back to the tent.

Finally, he arrived at the tent, ducking inside, he walked over to the closest bed and lay Hermione down on it and pulled the covers around her. She looked so pale. Reaching out, Harry tucked a strand of damp hair behind Hermione's ear and traced her cheek, feeling how cold she was. He wrapped another blanket around her and then moved to the front of the tent to stand watch, but every now and then he looked over his shoulder to check on Hermione.

Hermione could hear someone moving about the tent loudly and the noise was making her pounding headache even worse. She forced open her eyes, but closed them again against the bright sunlight that filtered thought the open flap of the tent. Hermione groaned and pressed a hand against her closed eyes.

“Hermione.” She heard Harry's voice say, laced with concern. She felt the bed dip under his weight, and it all came flooding back to her. The locket, Riddle versions of Harry and Ginny and the worse of it, the real Harry had seen it all. Hermione knew Harry would have questions about what had happened, and she didn't want to answer them.

“Hermione?” Harry called again, and she finally opened her eyes. Harry was sitting on the end of the bed.

“How you feeling?” he asked.

“My head hurts what happened? How did I get back to the tent?” she asked, Harry's face fell.

“You don't remember?” he questioned. She shook her head; she though it would be for the best if she just pretended not to remember.

“I remember following the Doe to where you were, pulling you out of the pond. You were telling me that I had to destroy the Locket, you opening it...and then nothing.” She looked down at the bedcovers not able to look Harry in the eyes.

“Are you sure you don't remember anything after that?” he asked. She shook her head again.

“I'm sorry, Harry.” she said, still not looking up. She heard Harry get up from the end of the bed and then felt his touch on her shoulder.

“It doesn't matter; you're safe that's all that matters.” But by the tone of Harry's voice Hermione could tell that he was upset. Finally, she looked up.

“What did happen?” she asked. Harry stopped walking and turned back to her.

“You fought the locket and won.”

“Is that all?” she questioned.

“Yes.” Came the answer, it seemed that Harry didn't what to reveal what had come out of the locket.

“Okay...” Hermione said softly, (and) she looked down at the bedcovers again. She hated lying to Harry, but it was for his own good really. How would she ever explain to him what she had seen in the locket? Why it was him telling her that he didn't need her and he never would? Hermione shook her head, she couldn't, wouldn't think about that right now. Pulling back the covers, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and went to get up.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked, moving towards her.

“Getting up, I can't stay in bed all day.”

“Are you sure you feeling alright?” Harry asked. Hermione sighed softly.

“Look, I only took on the locket, not Voldemort himself. I'm fine.” However, Harry shook his head.

“Even taking on a little bit of Voldemort's soul can be draining.,” Harry said, putting his hand on Hermione's shoulder. “I know Ginny said she felt exhausted after the diary.” Hermione scowled at Harry, pushing his hand off her shoulder, she stood up.

“Well, thankfully I'm not Ginny,” she snapped at him and then stalked across the tent to the bathroom.

She let the door close behind her, leaned against it, and breathed deeply. Harry mentioning Ginny made all her fears ten times worse. She knew that she could never tell Harry, not with the war and mainly because of his feelings for Ginny, and to top it all off there was the problem with Ron. Sighing, Hermione moved away from the door and splashed some cold water on her face. She was just drying her face when there was a knock on the bathroom door. She sighed.

“I'm fine, Harry; I'll be out in a few minutes.”

“Hermione, you need to take a look at something.” By the tone of Harry's voice, Hermione knew that it was something serious. She opened the door to find Harry standing, holding the Marauders map in his hands, and he looked deathly pale.

“Before you take a look at the map, don't hold it against him.” Hermione knew who `Him' was. Frowning she snatched the map out of Harry's hand. She scanned the map and then saw it. In the Gryffindor common room was a small label marked. `RONALD WEASLEY'.

“So he's gone back.” Hermione simply said, but the map in her hands was shaking. Harry nodded.

“I think I knew deep down that he would return to Hogwarts,” he said taking the map from Hermione's hands. She didn't say anything, and Harry let the map fall to the ground and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

“We'll be fine, just us, Ron only wants to protect Ginny, which I'm glad of.” He felt Hermione stiffen in his arms and she pulled away from her. She glared at him.

“Why don't you just say what we both know Harry. Ron is just too scared to face…”

“To face Voldemort, you mean,” Harry said Voldemort's name just before he remembered that it was a taboo. Hermione looked at him as a loud crack sounded outside the tent and with a stricken thought; Harry suddenly remembered that there was no protection around the tent. He had forgotten them in his haste to get Hermione back to the tent. It was too late now.

“Come out of there with your hands up,” came a rasping voice. “We know you're in there! You've got half a dozen wands pointed at you, and we don't care who is cursed.”

Harry's grip on Hermione tightened as he looked around for an escape route. Lifting her wand, he sent a spell to the other side of the tent; a large hole appeared in the fabric. Grasping Hermione's hand, he rushed towards the new opening, only to see a Death Eater creeping though it. They pointed their wand in his and Hermione's direction. Harry turned on the spot, trying to guard Hermione, just as the front of the tent was blasted open and more Death Eaters poured as did Fenir Greyback. Harry's stomach turned over as Fenir grinned at him.

“We've caught him. We've caught Harry Potter; the Dark Lord will be pleased.”

End Chapter two.

-->