Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. I'm not an Heron shipper, thank you very much.
A/N: My response to the "My sin, My virtue" challenge from cosmopolitan, here's the link to it: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26784 Hope you will enjoy, and as usual if you read, please review, ok? Thanks! Oh, by the way, I think this could be considered a collection of one shots, everyone focusing on a different sin/virtue. Just so you know and aren't disappointed by the lack of continuity between the chapters, lol. Also, the chapters will feature a virtue, and then the opposing sin in the following chapter.
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
The Seven Virtues And The Seven Sins
Chapter Eight: Wrath
Two white coffins were lowered into the ground, and covered with dirt, as many let their tears fall freely. Amongst those stood Hermione Granger, completely dressed in black, sobbing into the embrace of her best friend Harry Potter, as she mourned the death of her beloved parents.
Harry gritted his teeth, if there was something that always made him sad was to see Hermione crying. She had been doing that often, in the last couple of years, but always for good reasons. Mourning Dumbledore, mourning Moody, mourning Fred, Remus and Tonks after the final battle. There were the happy tears of Fleur and Bill's wedding too, of course, but they seemed to disappear confronted with the amount of sad tears his best female friend had shed.
He berated himself for not seeing the danger, blinded by the happiness of the victory over Voldemort. He never considered that with his own parents already dead, and the Weasleys being magical folk, that some of the vicious Death Eaters who escaped would see fit to take revenge for their Master's demise. Their ruthless attack on the family who was completely defenceless was a crushing blow to the female member of the Golden Trio.
He should have thought about it, and sent them into hiding, although for the little he had known them, and if Hermione herself was any proof, they would have probably refused and happily taken their chances at continuing their normal daily routine.
As he held Hermione close, letting her cry against his chest, he felt rage surge through him. He may be devoid of the Horcrux in his forehead now, but he had suffered enough through the years to have any reason to muster anger and resentment of his own. He was tired of seeing those he loved suffer, even after the war was finished, and he wondered who else would be affected next.
That was the moment he realized Hermione had stopped crying, clenching his shirt in her fists. He dared to look down, and at the same moment she looked up, green meeting brown.
He could see determination, and fury swimming in those chocolate pools, and for a moment he felt frightened. He had rarely seen Hermione so irate, and it never bid well for the object of her wrath, usually Ron or Malfoy.
"I'm gonna catch them" she whispered, almost challenging him to stop her, to tell her Aurors would catch the murderers of her parents and punish them. He didn't.
He knew that would have been the right course of action, but honestly, he had no faith in the Ministry and thus by extension in the Aurors. Sure, there were good ones like Kingsley, or Tonks, Merlin bless her soul, or Mad-Eye, replacing these last two was going to be hard in fact, but the problem was that if their superiors were corrupted or lenient, they could do just so much.
He would have also felt hypocritical to tell her that, because the first thought he had when Hagrid told him his parents had been murdered and not dead from a car crash was to see the bad guy who had killed them punished. He then thought the same once he learned about the prophecy, the only reason why he was a tiny bit happy because he would have the chance to avenge his parents' deaths. In the end, he did just that, and he could perfectly understand Hermione's desire to do the same.
He nodded, and crushed her against his chest.
"We will catch them, Mione. I promise you, we will catch them"
--
It took them several months, but they were finally able to corner the two Death Eaters responsible for her parents' deaths.
"Avery and Dolohov" Harry spat after Accioing their masks. He wanted to know who they were dealing with.
"Potter and Granger, what a nice meeting" Dolohov mocked them, his wand already in his hand. Avery was silent, his eyes trained on the two in front of him. "Granger, did you like the little surprise we left you?" Dolohov taunted her, and Harry could see Hermione shake with rage.
He silently hoped she wouldn't loose her cool, it was just what Dolohov wanted.
"You bastard" Hermione icily hissed, before sending a curse flying his way. And so it started.
The lights from the spells flew back and forth, but if Avery and Dolohov had been to Hogwarts with them, they would have known that it's highly advisable to stay away from the business end of Hermione's wand if she's pissed, and boy was she angry at the moment.
When the fight ended, a hour later, the two Death Eaters, especially Dolohov, were hardly recognizable given the amount of bruises and cuts they had on their faces and bodies. Their wands snapped by Harry as he had Accioed them to put a final stop to the duel, they lay defenceless on the ground. Hermione went and kicked Dolohov in the face, a loud crack signalling that she had broken his nose.
She would have done more if Harry hadn't dragged her away, the tension of the fight leaving her as she started struggling against his tight embrace, sobbing and crying, the void of her parents' deaths more painful now that she didn't have something else to focus on anymore. Harry silently bound the two murderers, and making a Portkey with a nearby pebble, he tossed it at the two Death Eaters. The stone activated on contact, and whisked them away to a Ministry cell. There would be time to go and see that they were sent to Azkaban later, now Harry's concern was Hermione.
She had been driven by revenge all this time, and now that her "mission" had been accomplished, he feared she would break down.
"We did it, Mione. We caught them, your parents have been avenged"
"I know, Harry" she said in a small voice. "But this doesn't give them back to me"
"No, it doesn't" he agreed. Revenge felt good, but it couldn't completely fill the void. If anything, in time she would feel bad about what she had done, the injuries she had inflicted. Of course they deserved that, and much more, but still, a good person like Hermione, and like himself Harry liked to think, was just bound to beat herself over that, given enough time to calm down and think about it.
"Thanks for being there for me, Harry, when no one else would"
"No one else could understand, Mione. Only Neville, maybe, and not even completely, because he still gets to see his parents, even if only in that wretched state Lestrange left them. Sure, the Weasleys lost Fred, but it's not the same thing"
She looked up, and gave him a small smile. "Am I a bad person, Harry? For actually wanting to kill them? If you weren't here to stop me, I might just have, with my bare hands"
Harry shook his head. "You're only human, Hermione. It was a natural reaction, even if it was wrong. But we are not robots, Hermione, we feel, and because of that we might feel bad emotions like these too. Believe me, I wanted to kill them too. I kept remembering you at the funeral, and it was very hard to restrain myself from using the Killing Curse on them. I don't think this makes me a bad person, so it doesn't make you one either"
She nodded, settling once more against his chest, sighing loudly.
After a couple minutes like that, in complete silence, she finally pushed herself away from him, and taking his hand she looked at his worried face.
"Let's go home, Harry" she said, and he grinned, taking off after her as they both Disapparated with almost silent pops.
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