Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N- Hi all. I would apologize yet again for so long between updates, but I've been working on my book and it's really doing great. I'm working on The Guardian 2 whenever I mentally block on my original story. So, here's the new chapter, and please remember while reading it that everyone at some time in this story has been OC and there's a reason to my madness. And there's a bit of a cliffy at the end, but again there's a good reason for it. Thanks for reading in advance, and if you have the time please leave a review. I love hearing from my readers, and miss my fellow HHR shippers so much. Happy reading! :)

~*~

Harry Potter woke up in hell.

At least that's what he thought at first. Thinking he was conscious, Harry tried to think back over what had happened to him lately and shivered as a wave of pure cold hit him. Looking around his surroundings more closely, he took in the darkness that enveloped him, the freezing cold waves of air that hit him regularly, and the sunless sky above him. Pulling at his shirt, trying to keep out the cold, Harry called out, "Hullo? Anyone here? Hermione?"

An evil laugh rent the air that chilled Harry's bone to the marrow. "Hermione? You're actually calling for that mudblood to help you?"

The voice was one that Harry knew well, one that froze the Soul and caused his knees to go weak. Swallowing audibly, he called out tentitively, "Tom Riddle? Is that you? I thought Damien killed you."

"That Soul-sucking leech?! Never!" Voldemort repied, laughing maniacally. "You of all people should know that I'm not that easy to get rid of."

"Oh, I know," Harry replied, closing his eyes. Trying to think through a raging headache, he took some deep breaths and asked, "So where are we, Tom? What is this place, some sort of Limbo between life and death?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," Voldemort answered. "Or maybe you're just trapped inside yourself, unable to get out. Maybe your mudblood won't be able to save you this time."

Seeing the evil grin spread across Voldemorts' face sent another cold chill through Harry's body, and he turned away from his life-long nemesis. A picture of Hermione flashed through his head, and he tried to supress it. When it came again, only this time Hermione was lying dead on the ground, her eyes wide and unseeing, Harry turned angrily and yelled, "Get the hell out of my head!"

Voldemort just laughed, and turning his back once again Harry yelled, "Hermione!"

~*~

She woke up with Harry's voice resonating through her mind, thinking that she would wake up to find him standing over her, completely fine. When she opened her eyes and saw only Jakob sitting next to her, she sighed, disappointment etched into every crevice on her face. "You can't be that sorry to see me, can you?"

"I'm sorry Jakob, I just thought that I'd wake up and find Harry awake and okay."

"That's why I'm here," he replied, smiling. "You fell asleep in the library, and I found you with a book opened, covering your face. Harry just woke up, and of course he's asking for you."

With joy erupting in her heart, she ran across the hall to Harry's room, excitement coursing through her. When she opened the door and turned toward the bed, she stopped cold.

"Oh, hello Hermione," Ginny said, a small smirk on her face. "Sorry, but when I heard that Harry was awake, I couldn't stop myself from coming to see for myself."

Seeing the evil, gloating look on the other girls face made Hermiones' blood go from pumping wildly with excitement to running ice cold. Feeling the sting of tears in her eyes, she swore not to let Ginny see how much she had been hurt, and turned right around, running from the room. Hearing Harry call out to her, she let the tears fall as she ran up to the third story to find Jakob once again, hoping he'd help her understand what the hell had just happened. Breathing hard, she knocked on Jakob's door and walked in when he yelled for her to enter.

He sat on the bed in the middle of the depressing room, but a smile lit up his handsome features. When he turned his eyes from her to the wall directly behind the door, Hermione gasped and whispered, "Sorcha! You're back?"

"For now I am," Sorcha answered, walking up to her. Suprising her even more, the older woman wrapped her arms around Hermione and gave her a hug, holding her tightly.

Hugging her back as confusion ran rampant through her mind, Sorcha let go and took a small step away from her former student. "I heard that there have been some major events that happened since I've been gone. Care to share?"

Hermione's eyes cut from Sorcha to Jakob, her expression an open question asking if he'd told her everything . He just smiled and said, "I've just told Sorcha about the attack on the Weasley household, and all the Shaddocks we saw there. She's concerned that Damien's power may be growing."

"Growing? But how?" Hermione asked, as fear skittered up her spine.

Just then, Harry walked up behind Hermione and put his hand on her back, making her jump. Turning, she tried to smile at him, failing miserably, as she said, "Harry! You're up! Does Madame Pomfrey know you're out of bed?"

"She's not my Mum, Hermione," Harry replied testily. "And why did you run out of my room like that?"

Empathically picking up on the anger Harry was trying not to show, she looked him in the eyes, imploring him to understand, as she asked, "Can we talk about that later, Harry? We were just about to discuss the things that have been happening lately."

"Sure, why not? It's not like you haven't always put your Guardian duties before me in the past, so why change things now?"

The hurt and anger that raged through her body was unexpected, and it found it's true mark. Hermione's heart constricted as she saw the raw hurt in Harry's expression. Reaching out, she tried to snag Harry's hand to stop him from leaving, when Jakob quietly said, "Let him go, Hermione."

Watching him walk down the hallway, his head down and shoulders slumped, Hermione turned angrily back to Jakob and asked, "Why? Why shouldn't I go after him?"

"Because he's the reason Damien attacked the Weasleys," Sorcha answered before Jakob could. "Hermione, Damien's been entering Harry's mind and extracting information. I don't know how, or why, but Harry is a risk to all of us right now." Putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder in a rare show of concern, Sorcha cut her eyes' to Hermiones' stomach and added, "And I do mean all of us."

She had to take a minute to take it all in, the hurt, the anger, the despair that she felt coming from the entire house. Blocking out all feelings but her own, Hermione sighed and moved into the room, choosing to sit next to Jakob on the bed. Behind her, Sorcha closed the door and moved to sit in an old chair across from them. "He wouldn't do it on purpose," she stated, looking first at Jakob and then Sorcha. "The Weasley's helped him all his years at Hogwarts. They're his second family, and he would never, never do anything to hurt any of them."

"We know that, Hermione," Jakob replied, putting a hand on the small of her back. "But he's been unconscious for a week now, so who knows what Damien's dug out of his head. What if he knows about the baby?"

"I don't know," Hermione answered, her eyes filling with tears. She was confused, she was bone-tired, and she wanted it all to be over with.

"I know," Sorcha said, breaking into her thoughts. "He'll kill the both of you first, and then kill Harry just for the hell of it. You need to stop thinking like a girlfriend first, and concentrate on keeping yourself safe."

She couldn't sit any longer, her nerves were making it hard to sit still, so she got up and paced the length of the small room. With her thoughts all over the place, she could hear Sorcha and Jakob talking behind her, but couldn't make herself listen. Why was it always like this? Why couldn't they just have a normal life, without two evil Earth-walking devils chasing after them all the time?

"Did you hear me, Hermione?"

Turning at the angry tone in Sorcha's voice, Hermione turned quickly and came face-to-face with her former trainer. "Where's your head right now, Granger?"

"Down the stairs, with Harry in his room," Hermione replied. "He's hurt, and he's angry with me, and I don't understand it."

"I don't really care," Sorcha said. "Have a seat, we need to discuss this."

"Discuss what?"

As Hermione sat once again next to Jakob, who put his arm gently around her, he looked at her with sadness in his blue eyes. "Discuss why we need to take away Harry's memory of the baby."