Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N. Yes, for those who were beginning to wonder - I'm still alive and still working on this.

Time flies. Has it really been 5 months since our last update? What I really wanted to do was finish all the chapters before posting but recent notes from some of you (and thank you for the constant reminders) have convinced me to abandon that lofty plan. I absolutely agree that this story needs to be finished, not only for its readers but also for Harry and Hermione who deserve a happy ending.

Here's the latest installment.

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Chapter 69 - The Fountain of Hope

Harry listened as Hugo recanted their meeting with Death. His mention of Al being alive was a relief though Harry wished there was some indication where Al would have gone back to. Maybe they could get to him through the book and he made a note to ask Padma to look into that.

Hugo excitedly told them that Death assumed they had come to return the Peverell Hallows. And although Harry found it curious that Death offered them more artefacts, he was relieved that Hugo refused them. The new set of Hallows would have helped them against Malvado but their presence would have added to the reasons for the invincibility stone's existence, and Malvado would have benefited more. More than ever he was convinced that the best way to get rid of Malvado once and for all was to return the Hallows to where they came from. And Hugo had found a way through Hermione's book.

This was the break they were looking for. Harry shared what Hermione told him.

"The invincibility stones were created by Death and given to certain individuals like Malvado to purposely counteract powers that give mortals immortality."

"Like the Hallows," Ron followed up.

"Yes."

"So Malvado has always known about the Hallows," Jessie was surprised.

"Yes."

"Why does he want the Hallows now?" Jessie followed up, "Why the sudden interest?"

"An immortal recently decided to permanently reside in another realm," Harry answered, "Malvado found out that the Peverell Hallows are the only reasons left for his stone's power.

"Malvado knew the POTH had the Hallows, and more importantly, of their intention to destroy them. He began tracking them down, to eliminate them and to ensure the Hallows remained hidden.

"But he underestimated the POTH. When it became clear to him that he couldn't completely get rid of the POTH, he figured that possessing the Hallows, even if just one of them, would ensure his continued invincibility."

Ron added, "And he prefers the wand for the obvious reasons."

Jessie summed it up, "So, the Hallows must exist here for his stone to work. If the boys can return the Hallows to Death in the other realm..."

Padma finished her sentence, "...his invincibility stone will lose it's power here."

Ron concluded for them, "And Malvado will be mortal."

They were finally on the same page. They gathered around him as he opened the POTH parchment again. Ink began appearing on it almost instantaneously, revealing the locations of all three Hallows. Europe...Great Britain...London...the exact street address and the building's facade appeared and then the places within it where the three Hallows were.

The Resurrection stone inside the old, worn out Snitch warmed up in his pocket.

The Invisibility Cloak was somewhere in the room with them.

And, all these years, the Deathstick lay undisturbed in the busiest part of the Ministry of Magic. He and countless others walked by it every day, clueless that the most powerful wand was there all along.

XXXXXXXXXX

Warren was fading quickly. Hermione got flung aside by a repelling spell as Malvado grabbed Warren by the collar and lifted him off his feet. The impact with the cement floor caused her to lose connection and before she could regain it, the smooth, black stone had made a complete transfer.

Instantly Malvado's old body folded into a limp heap. Warren slumped on his knees and let out a bone shattering cry.

"Arrghhh!"

Warren writhed in agony. He struggled to get up, stumbled and staggered about, his entire body out of control. He was morphing indiscriminately into shapes and forms of identities Hermione had never seen him use before. Drawing a wand from Malvado's rapidly decomposing body, he cursed one of the guards who was trying to help. The other one shot him with an automatic and received an AK for the panicked response.

Hermione, hindered by the chains on her wrists and ankles, forced her eyes shut and concentrated. She managed to link up with Warren's mind again.

It was a war-zone; there was fire everywhere. The bit of Malvado that came with the stone was trying to burn down Warren's defences to gain command of his physical body.

Outside their connection she heard spells ricocheting off the walls, floors and ceilings, as Warren tried to regain control. She ignored them to maintain her focus.

Where are you? she asked.

No response. Warren had retreated into the deep recesses of his mind to elude Malvado's mental attack. Distant voices came to her over the raging blaze.

Give it up.

Fuck you!

Your mother said the very same thing. That's how she ended up with you.

More flames sprang out, torching everything within sight. Malvado laughed derisively as Warren let out another cry. A sudden, uncharacteristic hopelessness engulfed him. She felt it too. It was the cold, draining sensation of life being literally sucked out of her.

Dementors.

The vaults within Warren's mind buckled under the intense heat and the Dementor pressure. He haphazardly conjured his wolf-like Patronus but Malvado's influence made it weak and ineffective. Hermione had to do something, and quick.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Harry looked up and saw eager faces. They didn't see what he did.

He turned to Hugo and said to him, "I need your rucksack."

Hugo was puzzled but answered anyway, "I don't have it. I left it at Pag-asa."

There was nothing strange about anything anymore.

"It's here, in this room," Harry replied, looking around, "The cloak is in it."

Without question, everybody followed suit.

"I found it," Rosie announced, fetched it from the corner of the room at the corner opposite the main doors.

Ron took it from her, emptied the contents on the table and held up the invisibility cloak that Hugo used on him at the fair.

"Finite incantatem," Ron tried the spell but that didn't do anything.

Padma took a turn, "Revelio."

Harry frowned. He touched the cloak. Instantly he knew.

"It's not the one."

Rosie and Hugo went through the other items on the table while Ron turned Hugo's rucksack inside out.

"Hermione must have put some secret compartment extendable charm on it," Ron suggested, then pointed his wand into the pack as he held it open, "Accio invisibility cloak."

Still nothing. They could always count on Hermione to make things more challenging.

"Did your Mum mention anything at all about this?" Jessie asked Hugo.

Hugo was as frustrated, shaking his head as he replied, "We packed it soon after she took the Malvado assignment. She said it was always good to be prepared, just in case. I didn't see her put in any other cloak aside from that one."

Padma let out an audible sigh and turned to Harry, "Any more ideas?"

He had one. According to the POTH the cloak was somewhere in front of them; they had no reason to lie. Hermione wouldn't be foolish to give Hugo something so valuable without telling him unless she put safeguards to ensure it would remain with their son.

The rucksack was charmed to follow Hugo.

He aimed his wand at it.

Aparecium.

The stitches that held it at its seams unknotted, the rucksack unfolded and straightened out, transforming into his invisibility cloak.

XXXXXXXXXX

James paced impatiently as his sister argued with their Mum.

Lily continued to be defiant, "I am not going with you just to confirm James' delusional story about meeting Death!"

"I did not imagine it!" he retorted.

"I don't care! I am not going!"

His Mum told Lily, "I am not leaving you here on your own."

"Then don't go," Lily answered back.

Lily was being a brat and he would have said it had he thought it would make a difference. His Mum was frustrated and he was.

He needed to see Hugo so he suggested one more time, "Mum, really, I'll be fine on my own."

XXXXXXXXXX

Hermione wasn't entirely convinced she could do it but it was the only thing she could think of. Drawing every happy thought and emotion she could, Hermione conjured her Patronus through the wand in Warren's hand.

It worked, or at least it felt like it did. She pressed on. It took considerable effort to remain focussed. With haste, she propped up Warren's mental defences but it was too little too late. Malvado had just broken into a part of Warren's mind, the part Warren never even allowed her into. Warren was unlocking the door to her cell and was approaching her with purpose.

"Your eyes, open them," she heard Malvado say in Warren's voice.

She obeyed the command and held back her surprise. The scarred, deformed face before her took her aback.

Malvado was amused, "He never showed you what he really looked like. Grotesque doesn't quite sum it up, does it?"

Hermione didn't answer. She was aware from their initial trust exercise with the Hag that Warren suffered significant physical injuries when he was a boy, when Malvado killed his mother and tried to kill him, but she never imagined it was this bad. She looked past the appearance and deeply into Warren's grey eyes. The absolute lack of familiarity unnerved her.

"Where is he?" she asked, searching.

Malvado boasted eerily much like Warren sounded, "I am him and he is me. I have complete control."

And to prove it Malvado morphed skillfully into many different identities before settling into Warren's likeness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Ministry Atrium was almost empty now save for the few employees quietly leaving work for the day. Harry gave the signal and his most trusted Aurors began diverting traffic to an alternate exit.

He stood in front of the Fountain of Hope and looked at the structure in detail for the first time in a very long while. The boy wizard statue's likeness to him still disturbed him every time.

Harry always wondered why Hermione brought it upon herself to be involved in the creation of the Atrium centrepiece. He remembered how she joined the Rebuilding Committee with Percy when she first arrived at the Ministry following her stint with the NAIMP. She pushed for the sacking of the artist commissioned to create it and initiated the process to name a new one. He recalled thinking it odd why she would choose to be involved, how she appeared to care way too much, how he thought she would think the project frivolous, but considering how the Atrium rebuilding had gone on for years without end, it seemed only sensible to get someone like her to see it through.

And that she did. The Atrium project was completed the year after Lily and Hugo were born, to the relief of hundreds of Ministry employees who were sick and tired of the endless construction work. Her motive for taking lead in the project was now clear. She buried the Elder wand somewhere within the massive sculpture knowing it would be untouched for decades and where it would be under the watchful eye of a few POTH members, including Phil the Prophet Elf whose newsstand stood just meters away.

Ron, who had been standing quietly beside him, spoke up, "How do we do this exactly?"

He meant without causing undue notice. It was a good question. They had scanned for the wand moments ago but, as expected, didn't detect any hint of it. Hermione knew Ministry security periodically searched for magical threats and would have made sure the signature wouldn't be picked up.

They had to look for it the hard way. Do they start with the likely and take apart the statue of the boy wizard or go with one of the other young beings?

Harry didn't want to waste time. A thought came to him. The purpose of the POTH was to keep the wand from ever being used again, which meant Hermione would have tried to destroy it at some point and failed. And if Hermione couldn't destroy it, he doubted that he could even if he tried.

"I know that look," Ron said then warned him, "She's going to kill you, and me, then you again."

Harry shrugged, "We'll tell her it was an accident."

"Which she will believe hook, line and sinker, because she knows how much you love this piece of art."

"She's in danger. We don't have time," he reasoned logically, "Are you going to help?"

Ron caved, "Fine. But I'm telling her that I did this under protest."

Hermione wouldn't believe that either. Ron made the contents of the fountain disappear while Harry shut off the spell that constantly filled it with water. As Ron's dome shaped containment charm encompassed the entire fountain, Harry conjured a blasting curse aimed at the boy statue. It exploded into many small pieces to his satisfaction and energized a chain reaction.

They shielded their eyes from the blinding flashes of light as the muted destructive force did its job. Ron's spell dissipated and the dust settled. With a compartmentalizing charm Harry shifted the rubble away from where the boy statue stood. On the floor was a cleanly cut circumscribed opening spanning about two feet across.

Pocketing their wands they walked over and knelt beside the deep hole, peering into its darkness. Harry knew the wand was within; he could feel its power drawing him, beckoning.

He didn't have to reach in. The wand came to his hand just as he was about to, the magic it breathed through him undeniably strong and unwavering. It was demanding him to use it, to acknowledge ownership of it.

It was difficult to suppress curiosity. He walked back to where he stood earlier with Ron right behind him and waved the wand at the damage that was before them. Then they marvelled at the ease with which the fountain reappeared with all the intricate details he didn't even remember existed.

"Whoa!"

Ron's reaction just about summed it up. Then he noticed the one modification Harry made to the original design.

"I never liked that statue of the boy wizard either. Maybe no one will notice he looks different," he commented.

"One can hope."

"What's next?"

Harry answered without hesitation, "I'm taking it to Malvado."

His friend sighed audibly but didn't say anything. Playing straight in a hostage situation went against every rule in the book. He never liked that rule and this was Hermione. He was not taking any chances.

XXXXXXXXXX

Malvado leaned in, his face not an inch away from hers. Hermione prepared herself for the mind games.

"My...such intense memories...," he whispered as he brushed the back of his hand down her cheek,"...so this is how he feels about you."

Even though Malvado looked like Warren the entire thing creeped her out. She couldn't let him see that.

"Softened you up already, has he?"

"On the contrary...he has given me valuable insider information."

His eyes descended upon the golden locket that hung around her neck. He took it in his hand, cradled it for a moment before abruptly pulling it off her, snapping the fragile chain.

He turned it over, read the inscription and scoffed at the writing, then opened it to Hugo's and Rosie's pictures.

"Lovely children."

"Thank you."

"Ingenius magic, your locators."

Malvado probed for the way to unlock them. She blocked his mental intrusions easily.

Hermione told him, "We can do this forever. I don't mess with my children's safety."

Realizing the futility, Malvado abandoned his attempt, looked her in the eye, and declared, "Die knowing they will live long miserable lives."

"I'm not dead yet."

"You'd be dead already if not for my need for a damsel in distress."

Malvado smirked. He was in control and rubbing it in.

He continued, "If you play your part well I might spare them, maybe even show some mercy?"

"Right. Let me get in character straight away."

She spat at him. He wiped his face off with his sleeve and laughed at her. Beneath the calm facade she was beyond furious, mostly at herself for not having the foresight to avoid the predicament she was in and at Warren for giving her hope that through their mental connection she could indeed help Harry and Hugo out.

Warren's theory was a let down. Hermione had not been able to get a hold of Warren since he accepted the stone and performing magic through him was likely a one time thing. Malvado would not be so unaware the next time she tried that and even if she could do it again, it would cost her. She would have to make it count.

A phone rang. Warren's. Malvado reached into his pocket and answered, silencing her with a spell as he did.

"Potter," he said, switching to the original Malvado voice.

Hermione had to warn Harry about Warren. She linked up in time to hear Harry's response.

"I have the wand."

Ministry and Auror protocol in hostage for ransom situations was clear; no giving into demands and no negotiating, without exception. In his years as an Auror Harry never lost a hostage even though he never adhered to this protocol. It was safe to say he wasn't going to start following the hostage rule now. Her only hope was that someone rational talked him out of it.

Malvado replied, "I'm impressed. That took you no time at all."

"How is she?"

"Alive, though in the interest of full disclosure I have to tell you," he looked at her, taunting her to react, "I lost my temper and poisoned her with Asphyxiatus. Good news is you'll get her back with plenty of time to create a still non-existent antidote and save her. Sorry. No hard feelings, I hope."

There was a momentary silence. Hermione could feel Harry's frustration.

Finally, Harry replied, "I understand. You're an asshole. You can't help it."

Malvado was amused, "Warren was right. You'd do anything for her."

"How much time does she have?"

"Roughly, forty-five hours give or take a few minutes," Malvado lied.

It was confirmation that Malvado had no intention of letting her go.

"I want to talk to her," Harry demanded.

"I'm afraid she's speechless at the moment."

"I know how to get rid of the Hallows," Harry threatened, "I'm going to do just that unless I'm convinced she's still alive."

"You're bluffing," a worried Malvado countered.

"Try me."

Malvado looked to her in search for an answer. When he couldn't read her, he drew from Warren's memories and concluded that Harry never bluffed. He lifted the silencing spell and signalled her to talk.

She refused. If Harry did figure out a way to get rid of the Hallows he should do just that. Her disobedience pissed Malvado off and he cursed her with the intensely painful hex he subjected Warren to.

It was the Cruciatus. Hermione bottled up her reaction. With defiance she refused to give in.

Aware that she was listening in, he spoke in his head, Eventually you'll break or I'll find another way to prove that you're alive, one that will make him feel bad for insisting that he speak with you.

Malvado was visualizing body parts. Hermione couldn't get past the thought of the guilt Harry would feel. She nodded and Malvado withdrew the Cruciatus.

"I'm here," she managed to say.

"How are you holding up?"

"Just fine. You?"

"Never better. I found the wand and the cloak."

"That was expected."

"You don't sound excited."

"I'd be more pleased if you disposed of them. Harry, be logical. You heard what Warren said. There's ..." her voiced trailed off as Malvado shot her another curse for giving his secret away. Too bad it wasn't subtle enough and Malvado noticed. Hopefully Harry picked it up. When the pain waned she continued, "There's nothing to be gained here."

Harry carried on with the conversation as if nothing was amiss. He got the warning.

"I have to do this. You always said I have this savior complex. I'm just proving you right."

Give it to Harry to make something so crazy actually make sense to her. Given that it was possibly their last conversation, she conceded that there was absolutely nothing she could say to prevent him from doing what he was about to do.

"I can't argue with that."

"Hang in there."

Surprisingly, even in her dire predicament, she found his words reassuring. Harry always found a way.

She cautioned him, "Be careful."

Malvado interrupted, "Touching. I think that's good enough."

Harry asked to the point, "Where and when?"

"Half an hour at Mount Ingkanto's peak. Come alone with the Elder wand, the real one."

"I'm not staying if I don't see her."

"She'll be there."

He dropped the Muggle phone and stepped on it, crushing it, cutting off the only means of communication Harry had with him.

"Well, at least a version of you will be," he muttered to her after.

Malvado held up her locket, his eyes narrowing as he decided what to do. He had no intention of letting her anywhere near him at their rendezvous.

"You're a coward."

"Shut your mouth."

"He's a better wizard than you will ever be. He will end you with or without the Elder wand."

And that did it. Malvado snapped. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her closer to him, the tip of his wand stabbing hard against her chest. His eyes grew dark grey with the burning intent to kill. He concluded that she was no longer needed.

Then something happened. Past Malvado's cold glare she saw the Warren she knew.

He replied in Warren's voice, "I am invincible. No one can end me, not even your precious Harry Potter."

After the declaration Warren was gone again. Malvado let her go and stepped back, annoyed at himself for not killing her right then and there. Hermione couldn't decide what to make of it but if it was a ploy to give her hope that Warren was still somewhere inside him then it was working.

The rest of his nefarious scheme came to her and instincts took over.

"Leave him out of this! He's just a boy!"

The shackles around her wrists and ankles tightened as Malvado left her cell. The metal door slid shut and he exited past the Dementor guards, taking her locket with him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Harry relaxed his balled up fist and allowed calmness and clarity to seep in. Ron was watching him throughout the conversation with Malvado and knew something was wrong.

Harry told him, "Warren took the stone and he lost. Malvado has his body."

"I don't care about the arse. What about Hermione?"

"Asphyxiatus," Harry replied grimly, "He said forty-five hours, likely much less than that."

Ron got angrier, "Git's going to get what he deserves. Just gave us the excuse not to play this straight."

Temper aside Ron was right. As Hermione pointed out, it would make more sense to have Hugo give the wand and the rest of Hallows back to Death now than take it to Malvado. If only he could convince himself to be logical.

Sensing his dilemma, Ron reasoned with him, "Malvado has no intention of letting her go. She could already be dead."

"If I show up without the real wand we will never see her again."

"You're mad! You're not thinking straight! You're too close to this!"

"We're all too close to this but I get to make this decision," Harry said firmly.

And he wasn't going to let anyone else make the decision for him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Hugo and Rosie watched from the safety of the observation room as the three women tried every spell in the book to pry the Snitch open. Neither force nor persuasion worked. The indestructible nature of the Resurrection Stone extended to the Snitch that encased it and they had just about given up.

"We need to find the person this Snitch will open for," Unspeakable Boots concluded, "It's the only way."

Nobody disagreed.

"It's not Harry and it's not Jean," the IMP officer, Maria, eliminated possibilities.

"Who else would the POTH trust?" Aunt Jessie asked out loud.

"One of them," Unspeakable Boots answered.

"The Keeper," Maria suggested, "Maybe if we tell them we intend to return the Hallows to Death they'll unseal it."

Aunt Jessie got on the phone, Hugo guessed to speak with the POTH. He just noticed that Rosie was no longer with him and had wandered into the test room.

"How old is it?" she asked Unspeakable Boots.

"Three, maybe four years old."

"Do we know where it came from?"

"It's mass produced. It's near impossible to trace where this particular one was sold," the Unspeakable explained.

Aunt Jessie came off the phone and said to them, "I passed the message along. Got the usual I'm not the Keeper crap."

Hugo was losing hope. They were running out of time.

He watched as Rosie took the Snitch and rolled it in her hand. A vivid old memory of her in a Quidditch game suddenly came to him that, for a moment, he thought the Snitch would open for her. It didn't but it did give him an idea of who the Snitch could belong to. It was a long shot but it was the only one they had.

Hugo's watch vibrated. Mum's locket. Maybe she escaped. Maybe she could tell him where she was.

His hopes were quickly dashed when Malvado appeared on it.

"You don't have much time so listen carefully," Malvado said to him with a sense of urgency, "Your mentor is dead. I have your Mum and your father thinks he can save her. But you and I know that's impossible.

"You are the only one who can stop me. Your mother and father will die if you don't act now. The question is are you man enough to accept your fate or would you rather live with the thought that you could have saved their lives and chose not to?"

Hugo's heart was pounding hard against his chest. If he didn't do this Malvado was going to kill them. He wouldn't be able to live with that.

"How do I find you?" Hugo heard himself reply.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Ron stomped into the DOM office with a scowl on his face. He was instantly bombarded with questions the second they noticed him.

"Did you find the wand?"

"Where is it?"

Where's Harry?"

He held both hands up.

"Yes, Harry has it and he's gone to meet Malvado..." he interrupted Jessie's follow-up question to answer it, "And yes, I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted on following Malvado's instructions to a T."

"He's gone loco," Maria concluded.

Ron corrected, "He's always been loco. Here's what he wants and I don't think it's unreasonable. Padma, Jessie, forget the Snitch. Hopefully the POTH will come through but if they don't then it'll have to wait.

"We need an antidote for Asphyxiatus and we need it yesterday. Get a hold of St.Mungo's, the Potions Research Institute, or any scientist legitimate or otherwise who's done any recent work on it. Tell them Harry will consider their collaboration a personal favour if you have to."

He shook off the question Jessie was about to ask but Rosie and Hugo were smart enough to decipher what was unsaid.

Rosie offered, "I'll help."

Jessie, Padma and Rosie huddled around the DOM computers as he turned to the IMP.

"Maria, you have a way into the Malvado camp."

"Yes."

"I need you to get a hold of your IMP contacts. I'll get the POTH and as many Aurors as I can. Harry doesn't want back-up but he's getting it anyway."

"Got it," Maria acknowledged and began working on her list.

"What about me?" Hugo asked, eager for something to do.

"You're staying here. We need you to be ready to return the Hallows to Death once your father is done with the wand," Ron said firmly, "And you're to use the emergency Portkey immediately at the first hint of trouble."

There were no arguments from Hugo. As odd as that was Ron was going to take it as a good sign. He made his way to the Auror offices and was on to his next task.

"Dovalov," he rang up the Russian, "Gather up as many able bodies as you can and meet us outside the Malvado camp in twenty minutes. Sending you the coordinates now."

He had to prioritize. He called George Bones and pulled him from the McMillan surveillance. A few other phone calls after Ron armed himself with some spare wands and a few choice magical contraptions he found handy in battle. He then opened the bottom drawer of his desk, grabbed a few chocolate bars and shoved them into his cloak pocket.

Ron ripped one open and munched on it vigorously. Now he was ready.

XXXXXXXXXX

James finally convinced his Mum to let him go alone. He Flooed into the Ministry Atrium and stepped out of the fireplace into a run, eager to find Hugo. As he turned the corner towards the elevators he crashed into something, hard.

Someone stifled a groan. Right in front of him a pair of runners caught his eye before they disappeared. Without thinking James lunged forward and tackled whoever it was he bumped into.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was maddening to feel so utterly helpless. Almost half an hour had past since Harry spoke with Malvado. Every time Hermione tugged at the chains the restraints tightened, Malvado was too far to establish any mental connection with Warren and she was running out of time. And as much as she trusted Ron and Harry to keep Hugo from getting into trouble, she was certain Malvado could easily manipulate Hugo into doing what he wanted the boy to do.

She was worried about Hugo; very worried.

Warren definitely did not expect this, that Malvado would decide not to let her be around him during the confrontation. She had to find a way to get to the rendezvous.

A door opened and a Muggle walked in with two wizard guards. She heard one speak before anxious footsteps approached. When those stopped something metal slid across the concrete floor and into her cell. The same anxious steps walked away from her and out.

She gazed upon the tray of food that was just delivered.

Rib steak and asparagus - Warren's choice of her last meal. One look at all the wrong things about it and she was riled up.

One of the guards from beyond the metal bars released her from the magical restraints but neither made a move to leave.

"This is cold, the steak is overcooked, the greens are rotten," she complained bitterly to the guard, rubbing her wrists as she did.

"Not my problem," the more senior wizard replied.

"I'm going to need a fork and a knife," she demanded.

"Not happening," the guard retorted.

"How am I supposed to eat this?"

"And I'm told you're smart. You've been around a while. By now you should know how to eat with your hands."

That drew laughter from the other guard.

"An aspiring comedian. Great. This is my last meal. It's my right that you get this right. Section 2 Article 26 of the Third Geneva Convention says so. I want my steak medium rare. I want my meal hot. I want my salad fresh, vinaigrette on the side. And I demand proper silverware."

That got the guard rolling his eyeballs as he and the other wizard walked away, muttering something to each other about having the Dementors come in sooner to plant her a kiss.

"I'm filing an official complaint! Get me your in charge! Get me Malvado! Oh, you're leaving? Getting the man in charge, are you? Good, you're listening to me! You're a good listener! I'll be sure to put in a good word for you!"

That was too easy.

Alright Warren. I hope this works.

Hermione sorted through the asparagus. With her touch two of them lengthened and transformed into wands.

Dementors instantly sensed magic and she felt them moving in. Someone tripped the alarm. Sirens wailed. More of Malvado's armed men would arrive soon.

She cast a shield around her and pointed both wands above.

Bombarda!

That drilled an opening through the ceiling. She boosted herself up through ten feet of dirt and cast a series of hexes that caused the prison dungeon to cave in.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Harry landed on Mount Ingkanto's peak at the exact minute Malvado instructed them to meet. He put his broom down and stood on the edge of the hot crater, scanning the perimeter for any sign of Malvado or Hermione. He picked up a couple of strong magical signatures approaching him on his right.

Past the smoky vapors emanating from the mouth of the volcano he saw Hermione. Malvado was nowhere in sight.

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