A/N. Here's the end of this very long fic. Thanks to all who contributed to what it became.
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Chapter 68 - In the Garden of Death Part 2
Andy saw Harry disappear with Malfoy just as her fellow MLE came into the Potions Lab with all guns blazing.
"Halt!"
"MLE!"
"Drop your wands!"
Maybe it was just her but all of a sudden she felt like she was in the midst of some British cop show with really bad Canadian actors. Weird.
She refocused her energies on the task before her. In her opinion, she had wasted way too much time on Tom Waterman and, as much as she wanted to inflict and prolong his agony, her services were needed elsewhere. Walking through his rain of ineffective spells it became suddenly clear to her what to do. She pocketed her spare wand and summoned her weapon of choice.
Accio!
The autopsy saw zoomed into her hand feeling way too light and too tiny for the big asshole of a job she was going to have it put an end to.
Elongo! Engorgio!
The sharp blade lengthened and the contraption enlarged to a size and weight she would have had difficulties with had it not been for the same potion that was giving her protection. Waterman, the idiot that he was, didn't know what was coming.
"Must we go through this again?!" he asked as she got close, rolling his eyes up. "Although I must say I enjoy seeing you like this. I find this fiery side of yours…um…very disarming."
"Disarming, huh? It's funny you would say that."
Whhhrrrrr!!!!
Whhhrrrrr!!!!
A quick up and down motion of the bigger and better man tool cut off Waterman's arms at his shoulders. The horror and shock on Waterman's face only grew as he saw both stumps magically heal so quickly the procedure was almost bloodless. This self healing wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"I guess you're right. I am disarming."
The moron was wide eyed and speechless, not to mention armless. For a brief moment Andy felt pity. It was very brief.
Whhhrrrrr!!!!
Andy lifted the saw and swung it neck level from left to right. It took a fraction of a second longer but the deed was done. Greasy's head rolled on the floor. Without reservation and in her best Mia Hamm impersonation, Andy lined up her shot and kicked his still rolling noggin in the face solidly, sending it soaring and crashing out through the window far away from the rest of him.
Goal! Goal! Goal!
It was a shame there was no time for a celebratory dance. She watched his twitching but still standing remains lose balance.
Thud!
Next?
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Harry was falling back. Seconds ago a green beam of light exited Malfoy's fingertip and it followed him on his downward trajectory. He reappeared in the physical world and landed onto moist soft ground, holding in his hand part of the broken wand still lodged in Malfoy's chest. The curse, thankfully, had not made it across.
He was in the greenhouse of what he figured was the Plant Lab. Several tall, long and multi-branched odd looking plants were bent over his still supine figure as if looking at him and judging. He sensed trouble.
Swoosh!
Dean's favorite one. He instinctively rolled to his right and got up in one fluid motion as one mean appendage whipped down upon him.
Whack!
Soil parted on impact and cleaved an innocent bystander shrub in half. There were quite a few of the arm swinging plants and he really had no time to mess around. Without second thought, he stepped and stood on a thick part of the recoiling branch, balancing on it and riding it on its way up.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
There were limbs coming from all angles. He dodged and cursed as many as he could but there were too many he wasn't sure how long he could stay on. He jumped off sooner than he wanted to and crashed through the glass wall of the greenhouse, unwelcoming stone floor breaking his fall.
Four minutes until self destruction. Thank you for your orderly evacuation. This is not a drill.
Harry swore in his head. He scanned the huge plant lab. It was at least three stories high and Quidditch pitch huge. Malfoy was nowhere in sight. He lost the git!
He thought of Hermione and not seeing her or the Bruin woman there he could only think that they had heeded the pesky warnings and left. He would have to check up on Andy and then find them and the rest of the MLE in the Potions lab a way out.
Thinking about escape plans, an old wooden tool shed on the right side of the greenhouse entrance caught his eye just before Disapparating. Harry busted the locks and ripped the door off its hinges. He was right. Just by the sheer size of the atrium and some of its long term inhabitants, the lab had to have some. Propped up against the wall was a long row of worn down broomsticks, a least five of them, used by the lab caretakers to look after the taller, more difficult to reach specimens. While he had not been on a broom in ages and was unsure of his ability to be on one, he figured he did not have the luxury to be picky right now.
Before he could reach for one a noise made him turn around.
"Pale blond hair, ugly face, stake in the chest," Harry described the man who had Apparated before him, already wondering why the git came back, "Welcome back, ferret. Forget something?"
"Actually, yes."
The jagged splinters of the broken wood that jutted out from his bleeding chest did not look healthy but he seemed unperturbed about that. His eyes scanned around and stopped on the stone floor a few feet to Harry's left. Harry followed his gaze and saw the mess of documents, broken pots, and intact phials that had been in the stash Malfoy wanted to take. That was what he came back for.
Harry was closer. He summoned one phial and pointed his wand at the rest.
Recyclus phialus!
Puffs of purple smoke evaporate in the air with a hiss.
"Oops! Did you want that?"
"You just wasted perfectly good potion."
"Sorry," Harry apologized insincerely.
"But you left one phial intact," Malfoy noted motioning to the one Harry had, "I guess it would only be fair. I'd hate to win in an obvious mismatch."
Harry merely smiled, remembering Hermione's warning, put the phial in his pocket and thought he should clarify.
"No asswipe. I don't need the potion to kick your butt."
"Your confidence in your ability is pathetic but then you have always been a delusional fool."
Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha
"What's so fucking funny, Potter?"
"You, O most Revered Grey Warlock," Harry replied, still sniggering, "All this so you can squirm your way to become popular? Surely, even you can appreciate that if there's someone who's delusional that would be you."
Malfoy attacked. Harry was prepared for it, immediately shutting the curse out with a protective spell, electing to counter for the moment. His senses were so tuned into detecting wandless magic now. With intent to maim, harm and kill, Malfoy fired nonverbal curses in a row from both arms, giving Harry a good workout.
"Sectumsempra!"
In frustration, Malfoy uttered the last one, giving him time to redirect.
Cursio rebundo!
"Argh!"
Fresh cuts bled and healed on Malfoy's arm. The Slytherin's rage boiled over and Malfoy shortened the gap between them throwing curse after curse, challenging Harry's reflexes to the hilt. After another unsuccessful cascade of hexes Malfoy took his wand out. Harry suspected that his extra powers were fading.
Three minutes until self destruction. This is not a drill.
Petrificus totalus!
That grazed Malfoy and he stopped the curse from spreading.
"Come on! I strung your woman along! I tried to make plant versions of you! You can do better than that!"
What was he thinking?! Geez! Harry calmed down and shook off the moment of weakness. He was over it now.
Harry conjured the most powerful Stunner he could and forced it upon the ferret. Malfoy took it on the torso and landed on his back a few feet away. He got up laughing, taunting, getting what he wanted from Harry.
"That's the spirit! Know this Potter! If you let me live I will kill Granger!" Malfoy continued, "And I'll be doing her a favour. She's better off dead than spending her life with a lying traitorous bastard!"
"You bad guys talk way too much!"
In slow motion, Harry saw Malfoy's wand let out an all too familiar green beam of light.
Protego!
Harry was in no real danger even though he was only a couple meters away. He aimed for the splinter in Malfoy's chest.
Geminio maximo!
A piercing scream of agony echoed through the Lab as a couple of identical fragments erupted close to the original inside Malfoy's upper body cavity. The visibly irked Slytherin moved suddenly and before Harry could react, grabbed and lifted him without effort, body slamming him on the now so familiar stone floor.
An involuntary grunt escaped Harry's lips, cursing that he had to be reminded so harshly about the giant strength his foe was temporarily blessed with. Still on his back and trying his best to peel himself off the indentation on the floor, Malfoy connected with a fist. It stung like hell and almost knocked him out, making him regret not taking a sip of that centaur-giant potion Hermione had given him. Harry's head had barely snapped back in place but out of the corner of his eye he saw an incoming right fist and was able to move in time.
The punch missed him completely, the impact pulverizing the ground Harry had his head on and Malfoy let out another cry. The ferret got off him and gingerly carried off his mangled right hand, broken bone exposed and all. There was no self healing there. Instinctively he aimed at Malfoy only to find out he had lost possession of his wand just moments before.
Another announcement. Two minutes. Harry really had no desire to stick around for much longer. He took determined strides towards his opponent.
Wandless and out of time he had to take a chance. He got on his feet, closed the gap between them quickly and before Malfoy could face him, he tightened his fist into a ball and punched the ferret in the face, unleashing upon the despicable prick a combination of jabs, hooks, uppercuts and yet to be named blows; rapid and ruthless, not caring whether the hits were effective or not. Harry was encouraged by Malfoy's lack of retaliation and his continued backpedalling. The couple of times Malfoy tried to point at him he was able to deflect Malfoy's evil finger elsewhere.
At the end of the string of blows, when his arms could not be coaxed to swing anymore, Harry looked at Malfoy's limp expression, grabbed Malfoy's collar and steadied him, hissing in his face, "You should have stayed away from her and picked on someone else!"
Harry let go and with one concluding outburst hit Malfoy with a roundhouse kick squarely on the chest, burying the remaining fragments of wood deeper beyond skin and sending his enemy up into the air and back. Malfoy's body went through the lower roof of the greenhouse, smashing it, shards following him in. Harry had to finish him off.
Accio wand! Bombarda!
He shut his eyes for a second and felt the gush of air displaced by the blast of his curse. The glass wall before him crumbled into tiny little pieces and the deafening sound of the initial detonation shattered more of the same. Harry saw that Malfoy had landed on a clearing of soil but was not alone.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
A solitary green plant about seven feet tall with several monstrous limbs scooped Malfoy up by his arms, took him up in the air and then lowered him into the waiting cavernous cavity within its thick trunk. Three quarters of the way Malfoy got stuck and tried as the git did with all his might, he could not get out. Harry approached. He wanted to see Malfoy die.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Harry cut off the obnoxious branches with the Sectumsempra spell as Malfoy continued to sink into the plant.
"Come close," Malfoy was fading and weakening, "I want to tell you something."
"Can the confession. I'm not a priest," Harry told him pointedly, eyes as cold as ice.
"I didn't know Creevey was poisoning her. I was being poisoned too. I was pissed when Aunt Bella told me a couple of days ago. Don't you think it curious that my evil aunt wanted me permanently hitched to Granger?"
"Go to hell, Malfoy!"
He was obviously lying and playing with Harry's mind. He was in up to his shoulders, his arms propping him up, preventing him from being sucked down any faster.
"There's more to who she is that she would want to know about," Malfoy said with an evil grin, "The Last Corollary, the one that eternally binds the Bruin granddaughter and the Grey Warlock..."
"Blow it out your ass."
"She is the Cursed One and she's choosing you. That makes you the Grey Warlock, the next Dark Lord. If she finds out, she won't want to be with you anymore."
Malfoy laughed. Harry was curious about the convoluted prediction but it was hogwash. He wasn't falling for that one.
"Get a grip. It's only a prophecy. Seriously, me, a Dark Lord?" Harry scoffed, already thinking how to expedite matters.
"Help me. If you save my life that'll prove to her and everybody else that you don't have what it takes to be one."
One minute until self destruction. Have a nice day!
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Hermione had to find Harry. Andy said he Disapparated with Malfoy and as the MLE began evacuation she heard loud thunderous crashes she broke off from the pack and followed the noise to the adjacent Plant Lab.
Her relief of finding him there alive was quickly erased when she saw him pocket his wand, grab Malfoy by the arms, and attempt to pull Malfoy out of the plant trap. From across the way she watched Harry struggle with the amused Malfoy in a tug of war against the monster plant. The humans were losing.
"Don't make me regret this!" she heard Harry yell.
Malfoy let out a hideous barbaric yawp, grabbed and abruptly pulled Harry's arms down into the plant as he did, "There are no regrets where we're going!"
The bastard!
Harry was trying but couldn't move his arms. It was obvious he didn't take the giant-centaur potion she had given him. Malfoy continued to sink into the plant's wide open trap and was taking Harry in. Harry drew blood with a head butt but also additional mocking laughter. Malfoy continued to hang on.
"You're so predictably noble!"
Swoosh!
Whiiippp!
A young freshly grown branch got a hold of Harry's legs and lifted him up, feeding him in! She had to do something!
Crack! Pop!
Hermione reappeared beside the unfriendly green growth which seemed to sprout arms by the second, her wand drawn out.
Swoosh!
Contracta!
One branch shortened, missed her by a mile.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Entanglo!
Two branches entangled and entwined.
Relashio! Confringo!
The limb which had Harry captive released his legs and got blasted off.
Malfoy said to her, "There's room in here for three. Would you like to join us?"
"Harry, we have to go!"
"Hmm, that's a no, huh?"
"I need some help."
"Did you really have to save him?!"
"That's a mean thing to say!"
"Must I answer that right now?!" Harry replied as urgently.
More emergent alarms just started and the countdown blared over the speakers.
Thirty, twenty nine, twenty eight...
Harry looked at her, then her wand, then Malfoy. She pointed it at the git and cursed.
"Stupefy!"
"Ouch." Malfoy mocked dryly.
That didn't work. There was one that might although she doubted just how effective hers would be. It was one she had never used in her life.
"Kill me, save Potter, a no brainer" Malfoy said matter-of-factly exactly what she was thinking.
She swore in her head and looked at Harry. Could she do it for him? She had to. It was either that or all of them perishing for there was no way she was leaving him there. She lifted her wand again, the one she swore to save lives with...
Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…
"No!" Harry stopped her, "In my pocket! The Purple Potion, let me take it!"
"Let her decide!" Malfoy whined as Hermione reached inside Harry's pocket, contemplating the effects, the possibility of being controlled by the vindictive wicked wizard before them…
Hermione was perplexed when she found herself holding two phials. In a split second she decided.
"Misery loves co..."
She rammed the one containing muscle strengthening potion inside Malfoy's still yapping mouth and touched it with the tip of her wand.
Reducto! Effectus instantus!
Blood caused by the broken phial stained her weapon as she withdrew it from his mouth. Malfoy's eyes glazed over as the highly reactive muscle strengthening potion mixed with all the other different brews Hermione knew Malfoy had in his system, the Anti-Polyjuice among them, and produced an immediate deadly reaction. She watched the spark in his eyes go away and his face sink deeper into the flesh eating tree.
Malfoy was dead and she killed him.
Ten, nine…
Swooosh!
Harry had regained use of his arms, knocked her down to avoid the hit and blew the limb off. Less than five seconds. They got up. They had to hurry. They could Disapparate if they both drank the Purple Potion. She uncorked it but before she could take some successive explosions jolted the structure, catapulting them off into different directions. Fires broke out everywhere and all of a sudden things got very hot. The smoke was unbearable. She couldn't see Harry.
"Hermione!" he called out from somewhere close.
"Harry! I'm here!"
She was coughing, choking from the fumes and the diminishing supply of oxygen. A bubble head charm came to mind but the explosions had caused her to lose her wand and the potion. All she could see was grey and red.
Zoom!
Someone caught her arm. It was Harry.
"Hold on tight!" he instructed as he swung her behind him and maneuvered the broomstick through the murderous branches of the evil tree.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The limbs were swiping and grasping. Harry bobbed and weaved through them.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Smash!
Hermione screamed and looked back. Half the broom's tail was gone and Harry was having difficulties steering.
Boom! Boom!
"Just hold on!" he repeated through the noise of the blasts.
Shattered glass from the transparent roof rained upon them. He had them going straight up towards that opening into the sky.
Swoooooshhh!
The flying broom suddenly lost momentum and their ascent ceased. They were suspended between that hole to the heavens and the nasty sinewy tree extension that had wrapped itself around the tail of their broomstick, intent to bring them back.
Harry handed her his wand, "Zap it!"
She took the weapon, reached back and aimed.
"Stupefy!"
A stem materialized from a stump, wrapped around her wrist and tugged violently. Her shoulder burned and they lost some ground!
"Sectumsempra!"
Wrist freed, reddish purple sap exsanguinated from the amputated ends before disappearing into the fiery core below. She aimed for the one that was holding onto their broom but before she could fire, it let go. They were finally on their way!
Her heart still raced from what just happened. Their battle scarred vehicle sputtered through the aperture accompanied by billowing smoke, the cold chill on her face welcoming like a breath of fresh air.
In no time they were far from danger. Harry glanced back, smiling, relieved that it was over. Then, with a mischievous grin, he swung to his left and fell off the broom, scaring the life out of her before coming back up on the right. He was facing her now and way too happy the thought of scolding him for frightening her went away quickly. He was flying again for the first time in a long while and they had both survived.
He was flying again and she was with him...she looked down...tiny lights from the small town contrasting with the large red area burning below them...the distant sound of sirens and flashing from the fire trucks responding to the emergency… a full moon fuller than she had ever seen...air all around them...far from solid ground... a complicated past threatening an uncertain future...
"It'll be fine," she heard him say.
It was a moment she would never forget. He knew what she was thinking. She met his loving and reassuring gaze and felt her fears go away.
"Trust me. It'll be fine," he repeated calmly.
Harry was sure of it; his certainty soothing. And if there was one person in the world she could trust with everything, after what they had gone through the past year, that person would be him.
She answered with a smile and a slight nod, appreciative of his reassurance.
"I love you," Harry said to her, his words reaching deep into her soul and warming her through out.
"I love you, too," she replied.
He leaned in closer and the rest of the world blurred away. Their lips touched, softly, sweetly, reassuringly, and as they deepened their kiss nothing else mattered. She was with Harry. She loved him and he loved her. The rest they could figure out together.
Perfectly content and for the first time unrushed by impending doom or death, they enjoyed each and every second of their intimate kiss. It may have lasted an eternity and they wouldn't have noticed until turbulence jogged them both back to reality, more so her than him, and broke off their contact. It was a bugger that her fear of heights had returned at such an importune moment.
"We should get back," Harry said to her, sensing the change and her growing apprehension.
Harry went back right side on the driver's seat and steered towards the earth. Hermione tucked Harry's wand into his back pocket and held onto his waist...tight.
The fiery blaze that hungrily ate up what used to be Professor Tan's lab reflected in their eyes as they passed on the fringe of the burning building. Earlier, the Bruin woman and her cousins helped her move the magically altered plants to an undisclosed location where Tilden Toots would reverse the gene altering magical process. Through Ginny's list, they would eventually track down their pro potion cousins and convince them that while Sophie's potion could be made and had been made, it was not the lasting solution to their grandmother's quest to make Squibs magical.
Her immediate future flashed before her eyes. She thought about the questioning from both Canadian and British MLE and Unspeakables and about facing Dennis' family and not having words that would make sense or even be right. She had been very wrong about Malfoy and unnecessarily endangered so many people because of it; a lot of them did not survive. Warranted and all, she took Malfoy's life and at the moment she was too numb to think how she felt about that. There was the search for the truth about her identity, confronting her parents if they knew, her mother. The list was long. The most daunting of all was living with the reality that she was right about what Ron did that night on the pitch, of coming to the realization that even though it wasn't her fault, she would always feel as if it were.
Then there was Harry. Knowing what she knew now could she be happy enough on her own so they could be happy with each other? Right that minute, happily ever after was unthinkable. She felt undeserving of that redemption.
It'll be fine.
Harry's words echoed in her mind. She was thinking too much again.
Boom!
The building imploded and collapsed inward onto itself, startling them both with that finishing explosion. Harry turned away from it and as he did, she loosened her grip to look down at the hell below them. What was it that Malfoy said?
There is no such thing as redemption. Just hell...
What if Malfoy was right?
It'll be fine.
Swooosh! Swoosh! Swooosh! Swooosh!
It happened without warning. Several branches appeared out of nowhere and effortlessly took her off the broom. The limbs spun her so fast and they had her entirely cocooned in an instant, unable to move, unable to speak, and unable to see. She was falling back into the raging inferno she thought she could escape from.
Harry was calling out her name and that was the last thing she remembered before blacking out.
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Pia thanked her cousins Bruno, Rusty and Sienna as they left her at her house. They had helped tie up loose ends. All the Bruin traitors involved, including Healer Hama and Professor Tan, had been debriefed and disposed of, the plants transformed back to normal, the residual organs sent to Weasley's contact at the Society for the Protection of Magical Beings, Toots Obliviated, the remaining phials at the Ministry replaced by muscle strengthening potion brewed to have the same hue as the magic enabling ones. Those confiscated phials were going to be used to convince their pro-potion Bruin cousins that Grandma Sophie's potion had been concocted and clearly not the way to go. In the morning, with clearance from Uncle Crummy and the new Bruin Council, the four of them would leave and meet with the Bruins on Weasley's list to tell them of the news. And it was closure when she read in the Granger book that Draco Malfoy was dead.
She gathered the stuff Uncle Isaac left her, put them in a safe and sealed it, except for one story she was awaiting an update on. Healer Granger was either unconscious or dead and Pia was rooting for her.
But it made her wonder. None of the books said 'The End'.
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Hermione looked around and recognized where she was. The Hogwarts library. Strange. How did she get there? Her last recollection of being was a sensation of falling and then losing consciousness.
A hazy reflection of a sixteen year old version of herself stared back at her off the glass pane to her side. She was in Gryffindor house robes and the sight was worrisome. She remembered the scene. Professor Dumbledore had just died and she had just found out that Severus Snape was the Half Blood Prince. That wasn't a time she wanted to remember. She had come to the deserted library for solace, translated as gather information on how to get rid of the evil wizard who was trying to destroy everything that was good in the magical world, the universe that welcomed her with open arms and made an eleven year old 'Muggle born' witch belong.
It was also during that school year when she had the epiphany about Harry, her reality check that they would never be more than best friends (she had been obviously wrong) or that if by some fluke they became romantically involved, she would drive him nuts like she did that year it would never work out (that remained to be seen). The memory of the heartache from years ago resurfaced. Silly school crush, she thought. She closed her eyes thinking about the smile on his face that night, how he looked at her just before they last kissed, and the lingering feeling of his lips on hers, wondering if she would see him again.
But why was she here? Was she dead?
Bang!
Her eyes flung wide open as the loud noise broke the quiet and startled her. Curious, she walked further down the hall past the shelves of periodicals and magazines. Inside the walled off Restricted Area was a girl, not more than twelve, in Hufflepuff robes, her large brown eyes peering through the curtains of wavy brown hair, pouring over a thick dust covered book on Potions.
Hermione called out, "Hello."
The young girl looked up from her reading and spoke in an eerily much older woman's tone, "Oh. You must be my replacement. It's about time you came."
The girl started to magically put away the books back on the shelves.
"Replacement?"
"You're Hermione, right?"
"Yes, but..."
"Then you're it," the girl took out a huge book. "Read this. It will help you get started."
The book's title was clearly stamped across its front cover.
To Live a Death of Regret
Okay.
Hermione took a breath in and exhaled. The girl was putting on a coat and stuffing a book-filled, Hufflepuff-yellow backpack with a few more reading materials. The bag had the owner's name embroidered on it. It surprised Hermione.
"You're Sophie Bruin."
"Yes, Grandma Sophie to you," the young girl told her with an admonishing but not-too-serious look.
"But..." Hermione faltered, the flood of questions that suddenly came to her difficult to sort out.
"Hermione dear, just ask me one question at a time and I'll answer them as best as I can."
"You're dead."
"Not a question but yes, I am, been so for hundreds of years. Killed by the potion I created."
"Is this heaven?"
"Not sure. Most times I think it is. It is a wonderful library where knowledge knows no limits but sometimes it feels like hell."
"Why?"
"Because having passed on there's not much I can do with what I learn."
"Am I dead?"
"I'm dead but just because you're here doesn't mean that you are. It doesn't mean you aren't either."
Helpful…
"What am I doing here?"
"For years I've waited for the one who would finally free me from ignorance and overwhelming guilt, and allow me to let go," Hermione was perplexed and looked every bit so Grandma Sophie continued, "The potion. My potion. You've made it and proven that it's really not good enough."
"I'm sorry but it was quite flawed even from inception."
"You're annoyingly direct. I've known that for a long time but was too obstinate to admit it. It was my life's work, you know."
"You mentioned overwhelming guilt?"
Sophie showed Hermione the palms of her hands.
"Do you see what you've done?"
Hermione shook her head, "I don't see anything."
"Precisely. There's no longer blood on my hands that I have to keep on washing off. My harebrained idea of using magical beings to create magic enabling potion, the deathbed curse, that killed a lot, including our flesh and blood. It was worse after Professor Hufflepuff made the predictions. The guilt was crippling but I couldn't do anything to change what happened, especially after I died. I'm sure you can relate. You should see my entries into that book," she pointed to the tome in front of Hermione then continued, "But I digress. Thanks to you and your friends I'm past that now and I can let go knowing that even though I was wrong about creating the potion it's not the end of the world as Professor Hufflepuff predicted."
The young Sophie snapped her fingers and they switched places. Her grandmother's motion to exit caused a panic attack.
"I still don't understand."
"Hermione, you're in a library. Surely, you can find the answers."
"The answer to what? How to make better potion?"
Sophie Bruin laughed, "If that's what you're interested in, sure, go for it. But that's not the burning question in your heart, is it?"
Hermione shook her head and continued to frown, "I don't think I'll find my answers here."
"Of course you will. It's right in front of you," she pointed to the bound book she gave her. "At least that's where I found mine. It contains each and every sincere regret ever experienced by being-kind."
She took one look and doubted that very much.
"It can't be. It's not thick enough."
Sophie laughed again.
"Maybe you're right but the ones listed were enough to make me realize one important thing."
"What's that, Grandma Sophie?"
"You'll find that no matter who and how many others forgive you, you'll have most trouble with forgiving yourself. I may not have to wash blood off my hands but I'll never forget the image. I doubt that complete self absolution exists. And without true forgiveness you will never find redemption, not when you're alive and most definitely not when you're dead."
"That's not the answer I want."
"You're stubborn. But what do I know? Good luck finding the one you do want but be prepared that this may very well be the only answer you'll get. And I hope once you accept this, you can figure out what you need to do."
Sophie Bruin started walking away and just before turning the corner she looked back at Hermione, transformed into her adult self and said, "I never got to be a one in real life but here's some grandmotherly advice. Don't let it kill you before you're actually dead. That would be such a waste of life."
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Ginny sat in the back, tense and worried about her friends. She was with Andy, Neville, Dean and Luna in a black van going against the flow of fire trucks which were on their way to the building on fire. The lab had just imploded and collapsed. Everyone from the MLE had been accounted for except for Harry and Hermione. Malfoy was also at large.
The Canadian Auror was driving while Dean navigated beside her. He was keeping an eye on the tracking device that had a beat on Harry's cell phone. The signal suddenly reappeared shortly after the MLE pulled out of the diner and they quickly determined that Harry, or his cell phone at least, was moving way too fast to be on any Muggle transport on land. Definitely broom. They tried calling him but couldn't get through. The signal had just stopped moving a few kilometers east of the Potions Lab and they were on the way to it.
"Left at the lights," Dean instructed.
Andy followed without comment, the van jolting as it hit a pothole. They had veered off onto a less travelled path and Andy had to switch from the half busted low beam headlight to high, revealing a narrow asphalt strip in the middle and deep trenches on either side. The mood within the group was somber, having no idea as to what happened to Harry or Hermione or if they were even together. They just hoped, some prayed, that the dot they were on their way to was Harry and that Hermione was with him, for the alternative was too difficult to consider.
"We're beside it," Dean announced, motioning to their left.
"There!" Neville excitedly pointed to a spot a few meters into the empty field.
A figure was cutting across the plain, outlined by faint light from the smoldering part of the broomstick behind him and the object he was trying to get to. It was Harry.
Andy swerved the van into the shoulder and managed to get them over a shallow part of the ditch. She was already on the phone.
"Medic and Portkey transport twenty meters left of my location! Hurry!"
They got off the van even before it came to a complete stop, its headlights on Harry who had just slumped to the ground on his knees. He was trying to pry off partially burnt tree branches from an object with his bare hands.
"Help!" he said to them urgently as they gathered around him.
Ginny looked at the cuts and burns on his hands and fingers as he continued what he was trying to do. Beyond them she saw Hermione's pale face still partially covered by wood. Even as she heard Luna mutter a spell, Ginny was quite worried that in all the years of knowing her, she had never seen Hermione as tranquil as right now.
Then Hermione stirred.
XXXXXXXXXX
Her eyes fluttered open and it took no time for them to adjust in the dimly lit room she was in. She was in a hospital, St. Mungo's, in a particular patient room that flooded her with predominantly good memories. She turned to her left and a relieved smile grew on her face. Sleeping soundly on their recliner was just the person she wanted to see there. Harry.
The sight of him opened a floodgate of thoughts and emotions. She recalled what came up in her mind on the broom just before she fell and her 'conversation' with Grandma Sophie in her dream. She had a lot of healing to do and some of it she had to do on her own. She had to have that talk with Harry, tell him that she needed space and he would not approve. The sooner she had that with him, the easier it would be.
She got up, tried to anyway, but suddenly felt dizzy she noisily flopped back onto her bed, waking Harry up.
"Hey," he was beside her quickly, his calm exterior unsuccessfully masking the concern in his green eyes. "Welcome back."
No, she couldn't tell him. Not right now.
"Darn," she found her voice and swore weakly.
"What?" Harry asked, not hiding his worry anymore.
"I missed dinner, didn't I?"
She smirked at how he bit into that. They shared a chuckle and he instantly punished her with a much needed kiss. No complaints here.
"You know," Harry said as he joined her in bed and continued to nibble on her lips, "It's seven o'clock somewhere...we can go now...have dinner..."
"I am famished," she fibbed; food was the farthest thing from her mind.
"So am I," the smile that she felt on his mouth told her he meant something else too. "Or...we could skip dinner altogether."
Hermione suppressed the guilt she felt that she was enjoying this way too much. She really had to get away.
XXXXXXXXXX
"You made me a list?" Ron was amused as Hermione showed him in bullet point form possibilities of why he still had not crossed over, "I'm a project."
"No, you're not."
Fleeting eye contact...definite lie. He was a project.
She continued, "We need to be more organized. It'll help us keep track of what doesn't work and give us a road map of what to try out next."
He should have expected this when he decided to pay her a visit. It was a day before Ginny's wedding and he was on a mission to make sure Hermione was going to be in attendance. Now she was making his inability to crossover into a convenient excuse.
"We?"
"You did ask me to help."
"I asked Harry to help too. Why isn't he here? In fact, why aren't you with him?"
Hermione grew uncomfortable with the pointed questions but he pressed on. "I think you should work on that rather than this."
"This is easier."
"But that is more important. I'm already dead; you are both dying. Let me put this in perspective for you. I was too chicken to jump on my own but I got my wish to die that day anyway. That was my choice. You shouldn't feel hostage to my stupidity. You can't be responsible for every asinine thing people do because they can't handle the cards that are handed them."
"Even if I dealt them?"
"You're not responsible for my happiness. And you told me in so many ways you wanted out."
"I should have..."
"You can't change the past just like I can't."
"I feel horrible when I think about what happened," Hermione shared.
"You have to move on."
"Move on. Just like that?" she asked as if it was a strange concept.
"Well, what else are you going to do?" Ron asked a rhetorical question.
Hermione had no answer but the furrow on her forehead told him she remained unconvinced. He had to come clean, to wake her up and give her the shock she needed.
"Okay. Confession time. The path to the other side has always been open for me. There is no reason why I can't crossover."
"So why are you still here?"
"Because I can't leave you like this," Ron explained, "I was so mad that night. I wanted you to feel guilty forever and even became a ghost to see that through. It took me all of three days after I died to get over that. What was I thinking!
"By then it was too late. The damage had been done. I had to find Harry to fix it. I thought for sure Floyd or whatever his name was would blackmail you or him or both. I couldn't let that git tell you exactly what happened. But with designation it took a long time to get to where Harry was.
"I may have been a spiteful SOH with not much to live for but as I said, I can't leave you like this."
"What do you want me to do, Ron?"
Ron thought she'd never ask.
"Let's face it. If I didn't die you would be with Harry or you'd at least try it out. This is my fault. All I ask is for you to give yourself a chance to be happy with him. Start forgiving yourself because really, I won't be able to forgive myself if you don't."
XXXXXXXXXX
Choo! Choo!
"All aboard!"
It was the last weekend in March. The Hogwarts Express was pulling out of Platform nine and three quarters on a special run for a special occasion. There were last minute travel changes and some seventy guests were on the train with him on their way to a wedding on the Hogwarts grounds. Ginny and Dean were tying the knot.
Harry ran alongside the train and hopped on the last car, surveying the almost empty platform, waiting as long as he could. He was disappointed. He thought for sure Hermione would be there. The last time he saw her was about a month ago, the night after the Weasley gathering on Ron's first Death Day. It was when they had that dreaded conversation he sensed was coming. After Hermione's stay at the hospital things between them were not entirely right.
"Where?"
"My Mum's for a time. Maybe my Dad's."
"Why can't I come with you?"
"Because you complicate things," her voice cracked, "I'm sorry. I can't do this with you, not all of it."
He didn't totally understand but got the point. She wanted space. She was crying. He was angry why she couldn't move on.
"If it's about the Prophecy, about you choosing the Grey Warlock..."
She cut him off, "It's not. I don't believe in predictions, you know that."
"Then what? Tell me what's changed since Toronto."
She couldn't, didn't want to answer.
"Is it about Ron?"
Andy told him what she saw in Waterman's foul mind, what really happened that night, how Waterman did try to use the Killing Curse on Ron but it wasn't what killed Ron. Ron coached Waterman to make his broom vanish. That conversation they already had a few days ago.
She still did not answer. It was frustrating.
"I want to help."
"This is how you can help."
"You need me to stay away."
"Yes."
Some help.
"For how long?"
"I don't know."
"And what about us?"
Hermione looked down, and murmured, "I don't know. I just know that if I don't do this now we won't last."
Harry couldn't stay mad. He pulled her close and embraced her. She cried more and he could tell this had been difficult. It took her almost two weeks to finally tell him. She didn't want to go but she felt she had to.
Harry whispered in her hair, "I'll be waiting."
"But..."
She was going to tell him not to. Harry would have none of that. He pulled back, tipped her chin up and looked into her puffy brown eyes.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. And I'm not letting you get rid of me that easily this time around."
He would give her as much time as she needed and trusted her to let him know as soon as she decided. But it had been a month and he could not imagine her dragging this on for much longer. The fact that it had dragged on couldn't be a good thing. Not one phone call, not one note.
Harry found the last compartment empty and slid into it to avoid other guests, finding his foul mood of late quite inappropriate for the upcoming festivities. He sat close to and looked out the window, mindlessly watching trees go by, remembering that last night, after their talk. They made love, slow, passionate, bittersweet, prolonging the inevitable climax that they knew they would bring themselves to. Neither wanted that night to end for the morning would be that start of their uncertain future. She left before he woke up.
For days he sleepwalked, finding work to fill his time and his mind. After ten he stopped counting the days, he stopped checking messages that wouldn't be there, he stopped getting his hopes up each time an Owl headed his way. Waiting was difficult and he wasn't a very patient man to start with.
So when Ginny and Dean announced their marriage a couple of weeks ago Harry was excited. While the two had opted for the ultra short almost Vegas-spur-of-the-moment-like engagement and a simple no frills ceremony (Ginny believed that waiting longer would drive her nuts and she would back out for sure), Harry was sure Hermione would be around and be involved. But he had not seen her at all. Ginny had admitted to being in touch with her and assured him that Hermione was doing fine, adding that Hermione asked how he was doing. And she couldn't pick up the phone ask him herself?
And she wasn't on the train or at least if she was she didn't want him to know. He kept coming back to wanting that closure if it was indeed over.
"Hey mate! There you are! How's it hanging?" Ron appeared beside him with what looked like ghostly versions of chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour beans.
When Ron heard about the train ride he thought it would be fun to be on it. He outed himself during his Death Day party and caused a few relatives to faint, his Mum included. Harry suspected that Ron missed them all.
"Just fine," Harry lied, "Still not seeing that door to crossover?"
"It's a work in progress," the Ghost answered vaguely, "I still can't believe my sister's getting married, and to Dean who's been around forever. Go figure. Have you seen Hermione around?"
He had to hold his breath, "No...haven't."
"Strange, she wouldn't miss Ginny's wedding for anything."
Exhaling, Harry looked out the window again just as the compartment door slid open. He didn't want company.
Harry turned quite ready to deploy a scowl on his face until he saw that the person standing at the still open entrance was the last person he thought he would see. It was her. Brown bushy hair tied back neatly, already wearing the red Gryffindor robes the wedding guests were asked to wear, her brown eyes on him with a tentative look of anticipation on her face. He was stunned, half expecting her to come running in to give him her patented bone breaking hug, an image he would never forget. When he didn't say anything, she closed the door and frowned fleetingly.
"One of the guests a few compartments down lost their pet toad. I'm helping him find it. Did you happen to see it?"
Ron laughed and headed for the closed door, telling Hermione as he was halfway out, "That is so lame!"
She blushed and chuckled in agreement, her eyes never leaving Harry's, who could not help but smile too. Ron left, wishing her luck. Harry was up on his feet but had to stop himself from crowding her.
"You're Harry Potter," she said as she walked towards him, reminiscent of the first time they met on the same train in the same compartment.
He nodded, meeting her halfway, lifting his messy hair up as he approached, "Scar and all."
"I see."
She squinted. She was so close to him, the few freckles on her nose were visible and he could smell her hair and her perfume. And her mouth was about to break out into that adorable smirk he missed so much. Her warm breath fell on his lips. He missed her.
"You don't look impressed."
"I'm way past impressed, although I thought you'd be a bit cuter. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."
"I know who you are."
"Good. Maybe you can tell me because lately who I am has been sketchy at best.'"
"I know you wear different hats and are wonderful at everything you do but what I really want to tell you right now is who you are to me."
"I'm listening," her brown eyes suddenly grew more serious.
He took her hands in his and squeezed them lightly.
"You're my best friend and the love of my life. It took me a long time to see that and I messed it all up but you gave me a chance to redeem myself. Those days were great until I realized they weren't as great for you. And I feel powerless because no matter how much I try, your happiness is not entirely up to me. I just want you to be happy and if that means not being with me..."
"Harry..."
"No, please let me finish. So if you're happier not being with me then just tell me straight up. I'll have a hissy fit at first but I'll eventually get over it, maybe after a long time..."
"Harry..."
"But...but just in case you were thinking of telling me today of all days, Ginny is going to be really upset at me because I won't be able to stay to make sure she gets the ring. But she'll probably be more upset at you. So, you shouldn't do it toumpf..."
He stopped talking, he had to. Hermione silenced his verbal spillage and had her mouth on his. Her arms were around his neck pulling him down as she pressed her body up against him, as if knowing this was exactly what he wanted. His arms came up behind her and pulled her even closer, quickly finding that physical grove they had grown accustomed to. Their lips melted, moved, and opened up, her tongue welcoming his with familiarity. Locked in the heady sensation and the infinite tugging in his gut, he lost all concept of time and being. All his insecurities of the past few days were erased by that singular act from her. She was as breathless as he was when she stepped away, pushing him back slightly.
"I'm sorry I just had to interrupt. Were you done with your speech?" her brows were up, her lips curving into smile, she was teasing.
"That depends. Does this mean you're not breaking up with me today?"
"Seriously, Harry. I wouldn't do that to Ginny."
He feigned a protest and after the laughter died down, she added, "I figured I couldn't break up with you even if I tried."
"And it took you a month to realize that?" his confidence drew a smile.
"That one I knew even before I left, smart mouth," she looked down at their entwined fingers and continued in more serious tone, "It took me a month to accept that there's nothing I can do to change the past and that I will always feel responsible for what happened. Ron, Malfoy, all those who died. No, I still can't forgive myself and I might not ever be able to.
"What I'm trying to say is, and you can say no and run away as far as you possibly can, I'm on this train with a lot of baggage, some I can't easily get rid of, and I'm just learning to travel with them.
"And there's you, who I really would like to go on this trip with me but it would be so unfair to have you come with me and deal with so much luggage around. I have to ask because I can't put us through that without knowing what we're in for and I wouldn't even bother but I keep on hearing what you said that night. You said 'it'll be fine' and I finally believe that it can be. So, will you take this trip with me?"
She had this really worried look on her face he found so endearing. How could she even think it possible that he wouldn't?
"I wouldn't miss going on this trip with you for the world," he pulled her closer again, and pointed out, "You, my luv, think too much."
"I'm afraid that comes with the territory."
"I can live with that. Now, this trip, you do know that I have, um, significant baggage of my own."
She echoed his earlier thought, "I can live with that."
"My therapist, AJ Hyde, did say once that baggage is not necessarily a bad thing."
"Your therapist? The one who doesn't exist?"
"You looked him up."
"I was desperate and he was so good."
They were laughing. Speaking of desperate…
"What do you say we get started on this trip of ours right this very second?"
Secure door and lock...check.
"Harry..."
She put up token resistance but kissed him back when he claimed her lips with his.
"What?"
Sound muffling and anti spying charms activated...check.
He left her mouth and nuzzled the length of her neck.
"We're on the Hogwarts express..."
Working on loss of apparel...check.
Hermione shuddered as the tip of his wand that was slowly undressing her touched her bare chest and was followed promptly by his more probing mouth. She smelled heavenly and she arched back to give him better access, the same time she was peeling off his shirt.
"I always wondered what it would be like on a train."
One uncomfortable seat transformed to more appropriate furniture…check.
He pulled her down and let her stay on top. Anybody who knew Hermione would have guessed that about her.
"You're incorrigible…"
She had him undressed completely and was checking him out in a very pleasing manner.
"Me?! Last minute change? You planned this train thing all along..."
He helped her out of her lace underwear, red, that was a surprise.
"I'm not admitting to anything as crazy as that."
Bare flesh touched and ignited.
"You are so busted..."
She laughed, her eyes full of cheer and warmth as she gazed upon him. She was happy. He was happy. This was going to be one interesting train ride.
Choo! Choo!
THE END