Unofficial Portkey Archive

TITLE: All Roads Lead Back

KEYWORDS: Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Draco and the rest of the gang. Primarily H/Hr, but a slew of various ships as well. Post-HBP.

SYNOPSIS: Harry Potter always figured that once his destiny was fulfilled he could finally have a happy, normal life. Unfortunately for him, he fell in love with his best friend...and everything went straight to Hell! A very gradual, slow moving H/Hr love story told through multiple canon character perspective as well as several flashbacks. Set 7 years after the final battle.

SPOILERS: All six books.

WORD COUNT: 22,675

RATING: NC17 for language and later sexual content.

BETA: Padfoot & murphsmine

WARNING: A few vague mentions of incest, necrophilia, and bad things happening to good nuns. Other than that; good wholesome fun! Be prepared for a lengthy flashback at the start.

DISCLAIMER: If it looks like it's JKR's, well, that's because it is. She's provided me with the canvas and I'm truly enjoying painting on it.

The Monastère Sainte Claire, that's where Boadicea DuManoir had been residing for over 52 years now, at least according to Professor Sinistra. If everything that the Astronomy teacher revealed was true, it was quite possible that DuManoir was in possession of the disguised Ravenclaw Pensieve, and more importantly, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Of course some pieces of the troubling puzzle just were not fitting right, to Hermione's thinking. No matter what Dumbledore said it still seemed inconceivable that Boadicea was some how descended from the Ravenclaw line, even if she had been in possession of the Ravenclaw Pensieve. More than likely a grandmother or even a great-grandmother of DuManoir's found it in some estate auction or in a trunk that had been tossed aside with no one knowing what treasure lay inside it.

Also it seemed terribly implausible that Voldemort would have had a "Mudblood" lover. Voldemort seemed the type who wouldn't sully himself with an undesirable like the former Head Girl. Maybe Professor Sinistra got it all wrong. All the information she had was secondhand at best. Then there was the fact that Boadicea was insane. She killed a man, had tried to kill her mum; maybe the great love affair she told her friend about was just a figment of her own imagination.

Then why are Voldemort's minions looking for her?

That was the sticking point that Hermione kept coming back to. He's looking for her. Why else would he be looking for her? Really, in some sick, twisted way it was really brilliant strategy. Leaving a Horcrux with one of his Death Eaters would be an expected move. But leaving it with some expendable "mad Muggle-born", to quote former Headmaster Black, was inspired. Who would ever think to look to her? Hermione could almost admire the boy who had been Tom Riddle. Almost. She just preferred to save her esteem for those who actually had souls.

The important thing right now was that Voldemort was looking for Boadicea. If the intel they had gathered some time ago was correct, he had been looking for her since late summer. The fact that he hadn't been able to locate her yet gave them some hope. Harry had already informed them that Professor Dumbledore didn't believe that Voldemort could tell when a Horcrux had been destroyed; whatever connection he had with that piece of his soul long gone. It was obvious that he couldn't tell where he had misplaced one either. This little nugget of information not only put them on equal footing with Voldemort, it actually tipped the scales in the Order's favor for once. They had a hot lead on where to possibly find one Horcrux. They pretty much knew for certain what another one might be. Four of them were already destroyed. As long as Voldemort didn't know that the Light side even knew what a Horcrux was, they had a fighting chance. Harry had a fighting chance!

Why is he looking for her then?

Did Voldemort discover that Harry and Professor Dumbledore had figured it out about the Horcruxes? Or worse, could they have a double agent within their midst? Had Malfoy become a member of the Order for the sole purpose of spying on them? True she had finally gotten to the point that she didn't want to hex that pointy arrogant nose off of his pointy arrogant face every time she laid eyes on him; this development did not negate the fact that Hermione trusted the pugnacious prima donna about as far as she could throw him. And to quote Ron, after many a dismally played rounds of Gobstones on her part, she threw like a girl! But before she could have Malfoy tried and found guilty of treachery by reason of being an enormous git, she quickly dismissed these thoughts from her head. She was starting to sound as unreasonable as Ron or even as bad as Harry these days. She was allowing her opinion of Malfoy to sway her view of the facts. Malfoy had brought them the Cup; had even told them how to destroy it. He was on their side now. He was still a vainglorious, sneering, ill-tempered, obnoxious jackarse; but like themselves he was also an enemy of Voldemort, and these days that had to count for something.

Then why is he looking for her?

Whatever the case, the fact still remained that Voldemort was after Boadicea and there was no telling what he would do to her if he found her. The Order needed to intercept him before this could happen. That's why it was so distressing that nearly half an hour after being told where DuManoir was Harry, Malfoy, and herself were still stuck in the Headmistress' office.

"And furthermore," continued McGonagall who had been lecturing them for what seemed an eternity, "you are not to make a move without Remus Lupin's or Auror Shacklebolt's expressed approval. Am I understood, Miss Granger?"

Despite addressing Hermione, the Headmistress' eyes were trained steadily on Harry.

"Of c-course Headmistress McGonagall," Hermione managed to stammer out as she and Harry tried to edge their way towards the door for a third time. Malfoy had finally just walked out.

"AND THAT GOES FOR MR. WEASLEY AS WELL!" she called after them.

"Where is Gingerlocks, by the way?" Malfoy sneeringly asked as the three teens made it to the spiral staircase now going downward. "Still writing a letter to mummy all this time?"

Harry, who looked as though he was pulled as tight as a snare drum and just spoiling for a reason to snap, swung around fiercely towards the blond.

"Malfoy, I swear I'm going to remove your big fat mouth from the rest of your face if you don't shut it!" he growled as he made a move to lunge at the other boy.

Hermione grabbed his arm to hold him in place.

Malfoy grinned as he stepped on the staircase and looked over his shoulder at them. It was the smile the boys had designated as his "I LOVE being a bastard" look. Harry and Hermione followed close behind.

"If that threat was coming from Granger here I might have taken it seriously. But I'm afraid, Potty, that you just don't have her talent with a wand without the Half-Blood Prince helping you out."

"Who said anything about wands?" Harry seethed in a cold, chilling voice. The look he gave Malfoy made the idiot swallow hard and quickly look away.

Hermione could feel the tingle in the air that Harry's emotions were expelling. Power. It seemed to be a living, breathing thing that emanated from him. It gave her a heady, almost light-headed feeling. And 'ye Gods, was it sexy! Harry's normal goofy cuteness seemed to just fade away at these times and be replaced by this sort of primal confidence that made him...dare she say it...hot! If she was the kind of witch that went in for that kind of thing she might have swooned at his feet. But she primly and firmly reminded herself that she indeed was not that kind of witch, that there were far more pressing concerns right now, and if needed, she wasn't afraid to turn her wand on herself and douse a brisk spray of water at her face to cool her down. Damned ruddy hormones!

"Could you two call a cease fire to this juvenile battle of egos please?" she reprimanded them both, sick and tired of their constant bickering. "How are we supposed to work as a team, much less save someone's life, if you two and Ron won't stop attacking each other? It's so childish!"

Harry looked at her incredulously as he asked, "Oh? And what do you call it when you and the Ferret are going at it?"

She opened her mouth to tell Harry that she had no idea what he was talking about, but before she could, Malfoy took it upon himself to answer the question for her.

"Foreplay."

"SHUT UP, MALFOY!" Hermione and Harry yelled at the git at the same time.

Harry looked like he was trying to restrain himself from ripping Malfoy's scalp off. He purposefully turned his whole body so he wouldn't have to look at the back of Malfoy's head and be tempted. Instead he brought his attention towards Hermione.

"We need to find Ron," he told her anxiously.

"He's probably off somewhere sulking," she replied.

She knew that Ron would probably not speak to her for at least a whole day. He was sure to be embarrassed over the little joke she had made about his mother. If he was still upset she couldn't muster up enough feeling to really care. Maybe a night with little canoodling would do them a world of good. It definitely would do me a world of good, she inwardly sighed as they neared the bottom of the staircase and the stone gargoyle started to move to let them out.

"Either that or stuffing his face," she continued right before her eyes fell on the crumpled form of her boyfriend by the wall facing the entrance into the Headmistress' office.

"Or he could just be lying in a heap in the halls," Malfoy dryly quipped.

She and Harry practically tossed him out of the way to run quickly to Ron's side. Ron was out cold and the side of his face looked badly bruised, as if he had been on the losing end of a fight with a sledgehammer.

"RONNIE!" Hermione cried, kneeling at his side.

She gathered him by the shoulder and gave him a desperate shake. She felt an immense wave of guilt wash over her as she recalled her disloyal and selfish thoughts just a scant few seconds before their discovery. How could she be so callous, Hermione wondered to herself. Ron was a good boyfriend! He deserved better than a fraud for his girl.

"Ronnie, please answer me!" Hermione begged as she told herself over and over again that she would never forgive herself if anything happened to Ron. She promised, to whatever forces were listening, that if he would just be ok she would never raise her voice to him again. She would turn a blind eye if she saw him lift up a fifth or sixth éclair to his lips. She would be the perfect girlfriend. She would even try not to roll her eyes the next time he talked about Quidditch incessantly. "Please Ronnie, this isn't funny! Wake-up!"

Harry pulled her back a bit so he could get closer to Ron. He got on his knees, pulled out his wand from his back jeans pocket, and pointed it at their best friend.

"Ennervate."

Ron's body seemed to shiver for a moment before he opened his blue eyes and groggily stared at Hermione.

"Scabbers," he moaned with difficulty.

"Is that his pet name for you in the sack?" Draco snarkily inquired from his place next to the stone gargoyle. "Romantic," he smugly stated.

"YOU ARSE!" Hermione yelled as she looked over her shoulder at him. "IT'S NOT A PET NAME; IT'S HIS PET'S NAME!"

Harry hovered near Ron, checking him all over for any other bruises or signs of injury. Although Hermione could tell that Harry had been deathly worried for their best friend when they first found him, he had effortlessly slid into his role as leader now.

"Ron, who did this to you?" he asked fiercely as though he were ready to take the offending party down single handedly.

Ron pulled himself into a sitting position, his chin resting on his knees.

"P-Pettigrew," Ron whispered, voice choked with pain. "Peter P-Pettigrew."

Hermione quickly looked at Harry and saw the intense fire that had lighted in his eyes the moment they found Ron; now grow into a powerful flame. Pettigrew after all had been his parents' friend; their friend and partial executioner. He was the one who had betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, giving up the secret where the young couple as well as their baby boy had been hiding.

It was also the appropriately nicknamed Wormtail who caused Harry's godfather Sirius to languish in an Azkaban cell for years, accused and believed guilty of the crimes that he had committed himself. If anyone should have been angry and bitter towards Pettigrew is should have been Harry. But when given the chance to have the ultimate revenge on the traitor Harry had chosen the higher road and begged for the pitiful man's life. Of course Harry hadn't been able to look into the future and see Pettigrew's subsequent escape and assistance in bringing Voldemort back into the world, still Harry's act of kindness back then had amazed a young Hermione. Who in this world was that selfless? Who was that goodhearted? If Hermione hadn't been friends with him for nearly three years by that point she would almost think that Harry Potter was too good to be true. These days though, Hermione had to wonder what Harry would do to Wormtail if given a second chance, especially now after this assault on Ron.

"Pettigrew?" Harry asked; a far off look in his eyes.

"He was here?" Hermione asked Ron. "He was here in the castle? Are you sure?"

"Tell me everything that happened?" Harry demanded firmly.

Groggily, and a tad irritably, Ron began to recount to them the tale of how the side of his head met the acquaintance of Wormtail's magical silver fist. Part of his irritation was due to Hermione's attempts to try and heal the rather large, bluish black lump on his head that seemed to be growing by the minute. Being the best friend of the Boy Who Lived in the Infirmary, one would think that Hermione would have known all there was to know about healing charms and spells. But the little feminist in Hermione protested this kind of thinking. Why should she play nursemaid just because she was the female member of the group, she seethed inwardly. Let Ron open up a book for once! If he could memorize by heart the scoring average of the entire British Quidditch league each year, he could learn how to brew up a proper bottle of Pepper Up. But that was as likely to happen as Trelawney correctly predicting whether or not it would rain the next day, she archly conceded.

So Hermione did learn a few of the necessary spells and potions that she felt would come in handy; incantations that would heal cuts, charms that would cool burns, draughts that would either cure your migraine or knock you out long enough that by time you finally came to, your head had stopped pounding. But she only did so grudgingly. That was probably why she was lacking her usual brilliance when performing most healing charms. The fact that Ron wouldn't stay still long enough to let her get his swelling down also did not help matters.

"Dammit, Hermione!" Ron gritted out through his teeth. "THAT HURTS!"

"WELL IF YOU WOULD STOP FIDGETING ABOUT LIKE YOU WERE HOPPED UP ON SUGAR QUILLS, I COULD FIX IT FOR YOU!" she barked back at him, her annoyance making all her vows of a mere minute ago take a running leap out the window.

Malfoy's snort of disgust made her turn to him as he sauntered over to her side.

"Move, Granger," he pompously sneered as he motioned her out of the way. Hermione haltingly did so, and before she or Harry could do anything to stop him, Malfoy drew his wand on Ron, placed its tip on the injury, and said, "Integrosectum". Before their eyes the bruise began to go down and Ron's face returned to its natural color.

Although Hermione should have been grateful for Malfoy's surprising, yet helpful assistance, she instinctually knew that he was going to find some way to rub his supposed act of kindness in her face. She knew him pretty well by now. He hadn't helped Ron out of the goodness of his heart. He had only wanted to show her up.

Hermione got up from her position on the floor as Harry began to get the rest of the story out of Ron. Hermione stepped a few paces away and of course the prat took this as an opportunity, while Harry's attention was diverted elsewhere, to annoy the hell out of her.

"Looks like we finally found your Achilles' heel," he smarmed near her ear. "And I don't mean your boyfriend."

Hermione rolled her eyes and let out a vexed sigh as she folded her arms in front of her.

"I knew there had to be something you weren't good at, Granger."

"One or two things, but not much else, Malfoy," she said crossly, nose upturned. She would have slapped him about the head, but she didn't want her hands to be covered in the gooey hair product he used to slick back his hair.

Malfoy's cold gray eyes raked up and down her for a moment before his face broke out into a smarmy leer that made her skin crawl.

"I'm almost intrigued enough to test out your claim."

"Eww!" she groaned as she threw her hands in the air in disgust and stomped her way back towards her two best friends, Malfoy's evil sounding chortle following after her.

Malfoy was always saying things like that these days. He lived for getting a rise out of Ron mostly, Harry mainly. As of late, however, she had noticed that Malfoy had begun looking at her with a bit more...interest in his eyes. She would have been lying if she said that some small section of her female vanity wasn't flattered by it. Still she swore if the smug arse even thought of trying something on her she would give his other cheek a good smack to match the one he had received from her back in Third Year when he had taunted and insulted Hagrid so cruelly. As if she would ever allow him touch her. Hmph!

"So tell me again," she heard Harry say to Ron as she settled at his side and peered down at her boyfriend, "are you sure that you saw Pettigrew?"

Ron moved his head in an up and down motion.

"That's what I'm telling you, Harry. I came looking for you and Hermione. When I didn't find you two back at the suite, I went into your trunk and got out the Marauder's Map. I saw the little Harry and little Hermione dot in with McGonagall, Sinistra...him," he snarled as he threw Malfoy a nasty glare, "but what I didn't expect to see was the little Peter dot that looked like it was just outside the door."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, both of their faces registering shock. Hermione sunk to her knees.

"There's no way we could have missed that," Harry argued.

Hermione anxiously bit down on her lip.

"If he was in Animagus form we might have," she said in a weary voice. "He probably even got up the stairs when we went. I bet that's how he got into the castle again."

She closed her eyes to stop the tears that were about to fall.

"He heard everything!"

"AND WHY NOT?!" Harry shouted harshly as he pitched himself from the ground and began to pace the hall. "Riddle already lost his inside man in Snape," he proclaimed.

Hermione could feel Malfoy's heated stare at the back of her head, but she ignored this and tried to concentrate on making Ron comfortable where he was.

"Wormtail would make the next best spy, wouldn't he?!" continued Harry. "Riddle just traded in one rat for another."

"Yes...well...it looks like your div of a best friend let Rat Boy get away," Malfoy drawled in a bored voice as though he were completely disinterested in the whole drama unfolding before him.

"I DID NOT LET HIM GET AWAY!"

Malfoy's taunt had incensed Ron to the point that the redhead had jumped up, ready to physically strike out at the Slytherin. But he was obviously still woozy from his encounter with the Death Eater, because he shakily slid back to the ground as Hermione tried to keep him calm.

"By time I got over here he was already coming from behind the gargoyle. He wasn't Scabbers by then. I tried to surprise him, throw a Leg Locker at him or something, but..."

Ron paused and swallowed tensely.

"I don't know how to describe it. He threw that...that...hand up in front of him. The spell bounced off and came back at me. I had to drop to the floor to avoid it. That's when my wand slipped from my hand."

Hermione couldn't control the disappointed groan that escaped from her.

"It rolled to his feet and he scooped it up and pocketed it in his robes. Before I knew what, his fist was coming at my face and then...blackness."

"Oh Ronnie, if you would have just practiced your non-verbal spells more..."

Malfoy sniggered loftily as he leaned back against the wall. He seemed to find all of this highly entertaining. Hermione was about to toss off a cutting remark to him, but Ron beat her to it. The only problem was that he directed it towards her.

"Yes, yes Hermione, I'm a dumb, stupid git!" he snapped. "I'm already down enough, are you sure you want to keep kicking?!"

Hermione reared back from Ron, shocked at the vitriol in his words. She knew that she was only trying to help him; she wasn't trying to put him down. Why couldn't Ron see that? Why couldn't he and Harry understand that sometimes this was the best way she could show them how much she cared for them and loved them? She was certain she was about to start crying in a matter of seconds.

"He didn't mean it, Hermione."

Harry had dropped down to Hermione's side. She hadn't noticed him make the move, but there he was, his sad green eyes trying to convey to her that he did understand that she meant no malice by what she said.

"Tell her you didn't mean it, Ron," he said, a tad shirtilly, to his best mate. Ron, however, turned his head and muttered a few indignant words under his breath.

Seeing that he wasn't going to get the apology he wanted out of him, Harry switched gears.

"Did Pettigrew say anything to you, Ron?" he asked.

Ron looked back at Harry, completely avoiding the miserable expression on Hermione's face.

"He did actually. Something about...about..."

"SPIT IT OUT, MAN!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all sent Malfoy their best death glares.

"MAGGOT FACE, I DID JUST GET MY HEAD BASHED IN! SORRY IF I'M A BIT SLOW AT THE MOMENT."

The three friends then focused on each other again as Ron said, "Right before I lost consciousness he did spout some nonsense about his master being pleased that the blood traitors had found his toy for him."

Ron looked between Harry and Hermione who were gaping at each other. The terror filled expression that both wore was not loss on him.

"Then he turned into Scabbers again," he continued. "What did he mean, Harry?"

As if answering Ron's question, Harry simply said to Hermione, "We have to move now!"

Hermione felt a nervous pull in her stomach at these words. Something in his tone called up memories of their unfortunate trip to the Department of Mysteries, Sirius' subsequent death...her own near fatal injury. For a moment she almost protested.

"Harry..."

Harry's exasperatedly straightened his glasses on his nose as he sternly stared her down.

"We can't wait on the rest of the Order, Hermione. Pettigrew has a head start on us. For all we know Voldemort is already on his way to Boussac."

"But Harry-" she tried again.

"WHAT?! GOING TO ACCUSE ME OF PLAYING HERO AGAIN?!" he chided her resentfully.

A lone tear fell down her cheek. Hermione simply brushed it off and looked Harry squarely in the eyes.

"I wouldn't do that," she simply said. "Never again."

Harry looked completely chastised by her declaration, but before he could open his mouth to offer an apology she cut him off.

"You're right."

Her response not only stunned him, but seemed to baffle Ron as well.

"I AM?!"

"HE IS?!"

If the situation hadn't been so dire she might have laughed at their bewildered faces. But time was of the essence and they couldn't spend the rest of the evening lollygagging about.

"We have to be quick about it, though!"

She got up from the floor and Harry followed suit. Both of them reached down to help Ron to his feet.

"We could Apparate," Ron suggested.

"Yes and splinch ourselves in the process," she calmly dismissed. "Who here has ever been to Boussac?"

She looked between Harry and Ron as both boys muttered their negative replies to her question.

"Hell, raise it if you've even been to France?"

"Ahem," called Malfoy from his place on the wall opposite them. His right hand was elegantly raised in the air.

"You would," Ron enviously grumbled.

"Jealousy doesn't become you, Weasleby. Well," said Malfoy as he paused, gave Ron a superior once over, and added mockingly, "neither does that head of hair of yours, but I suppose you can't help that."

Ron made a move to jump at Malfoy, but Harry and Hermione each grabbed an arm to hold him back.

"The Malfoy name is still very powerful in French wizarding circles. I've often visited my cousins at their villa in Provence."

"Unhappily for us, it looks like they had the good sense to send you packing every time," Hermione snickered, effectively knocking the conceited, self-satisfied smirk off of the blond's face. Ron looked like he was ready to kiss her for the comment; any hard feelings from before wiped clean in her defense of him.

Harry, however, looked peeved.

"Listen," she said as she turned her attention back to her boys, "trying to Apparate there would be folly. Besides not knowing exactly where we are going, it also is too far of a distance. We need...we need..."

Hermione desperately tried to wrack her brain to find a solution to their problem. Then the answer seemed to fly out at her all at once.

"That's it!" she beamed as she quickly turned to Harry.

Harry opened his mouth to question her, but she was already ahead of him.

"You and Ron go up to the room and get your brooms," she instructed them. "Harry, get your invisibility cloak as well as some thick coats for all of us to wear."

All four of them were dressed simply in jeans and jumpers. The warmth of the castle hardly gave a hint of the true temperature outside. But it was autumn and at night the air was quite nippy. As high up as they were going to be, Hermione figured it might just be near arctic. They were going to need some form of warm clothing and a Heat Spell or two.

"Once you two are done meet us at Hagrid's."

Hermione then looked at Malfoy.

"You're coming with me," she said.

She sent both Ron and Harry a look that told them that she was not to be debated on this. She hated to do it, but the boys just might try to kill the Slytherin if she sent him off with them.

She turned and began to walk passed Malfoy. He pushed off from the wall and practically swaggered towards her.

"Trying to get me alone?" he drawled smarmily.

Hermione swung in his direction, ready to change her mind and hex the nose off...or at least give him a good kick in the shins.

"BUGGER THE HELL OFF, MALFOY!"

"Lovely," he drolled. "Kiss your mum with that mouth?"

"I ALWAYS KNEW YOU HAD A MIND LIKE A SEWER, BUT EVEN I DIDN'T THINK YOU CAPABLE OF THOSE KINDS OF KINKS!"

Hermione and Malfoy were about to turn into the next corridor when she heard Ron say to Harry, "You ever get the impression that when those two get going, they forget that there are others in the room?"

"OH DO SHUT UP, RON!" was the wrathful response that he got.

As Hermione and Malfoy rounded the corner she heard poor Ron's faint voice bewilderedly ask, "But Harry, what did I say?"

~~**~~ ~~**~~

As Hermione hastened her footsteps towards Hagrid's hut, she had to wonder what foolishness had actually sent her out here, on this chilly October night, without a coat on. She was freezing! She had her arms wrapped around her trying to ward off the chill, but that was of little help. Malfoy, skipping along side her as though it were a sunny summer day, also did little to help matters. He was babbling some nonsense about it being beneath a Malfoy to shiver like a commoner. Idiot! However she knew that she had to take care of a few things before the other two boys showed up.

Once they reached Hagrid's, Hermione went towards the pumpkin patch. She knew that if Hagrid was here he wouldn't mind that she was about to borrow his friend, but the half-giant was off on a rescue mission with most of the other Order members and he wasn't that much of a concern to her at the moment. She came around to where the fence was and found exactly what she had been looking for.

The gray coated creature studied Hermione and Malfoy sharply with its orange colored eyes. Actually it seemed to be paying particular attention to Malfoy as it ruffled its wings menacingly and took a few jerky steps on his hooves towards them and then backed away. The creature clicked his talons together and made a stabbing motion with his steel-colored beak at the air. Hermione, however, knew that there wasn't much to worry about since the animal was tethered to the fence post. At least for now.

As she cautiously inched closer to it, she had to remind herself over and over again that there was nothing for her to be scared of. He would remember her. She prayed that he remembered her. She kept steady eye contact with the creature, and when she reached the point that she felt was close enough, she bowed before the impressive beast. She kept her head down for a mere second or two before she looked back up to see if she should make a run for it. The creature, however, had already sunk to its scaly knee and was standing back up. That's when Hermione exhaled the breath that she hadn't been aware she had been holding.

"You know this chicken?" Malfoy asked obnoxiously from behind her. Hermione could feel the hairs on her neck bristle at the very sound of his voice.

She looked over her shoulder at him and hissed through clenched teeth, "Yes, as do you. So if you don't want to spend the rest of the evening picking your entrails from out the grass, I suggest you bow."

Taking the threat in her voice to heart, Malfoy looked straight into the hippogriff's eyes and bowed slowly. For a moment the hippogriff regarded Malfoy with an odd tilt to its head. Hermione quickly searched her memory for a spell that was strong enough to incapacitate a full grown hippogriff long enough so she could get Malfoy away from the pen. Really she shouldn't have been so surprised should she? Hippogriffs ate ferrets after all. But before she could settle on what to do, the hippogriff repeated the same bow for Malfoy that it gave her, then straightened.

"Fuck all!" Malfoy harshly whispered in a strained voice.

Hermione glanced at him again and saw the recognition that was in his eyes.

"I thought this...this...thing had escaped."

Hermione smiled at him with a gleeful smugness that surprised even herself, before she turned and faced the hippogriff.

"You thought wrong. Witherwings, meet Malfoy."

She looked back at the boy behind her.

"Malfoy, meet Witherwings. Or as his friends like to call him...Buckbeak."

Hermione had no idea that Malfoy's pale, pinched face could lose even more color. She almost reveled in his fright.

"That...that...beast was supposed to be destroyed for what it did to me!" spluttered Malfoy as he looked at Buckbeak hostilely. He was smart enough to take a few steps back, though.

Approaching Buckbeak with a bit more confidence now, Hermione reached out a hand to pat his beak. He allowed her to do so and closed his eyes in pleasure.

"Aww, Malofy, what's the matter?" she cooed in a mellow tone used to soothe the hippogriff and mock the blond. "Disappointed that you didn't get everything you ever wanted from your daddy?"

It wasn't until the final word had left her lips that Hermione realized what she had said. She might dislike Malfoy...greatly, she might think that he deserved to be taken down a few pegs or ten, but this all did not merit the nasty manner in which she had taunted him about his father. In her opinion Lucius Malfoy was a heartless fiend who she hoped, if there was any justice in this world, was in Hell getting sunburn. But he was Malfoy's father and she knew that the teen still mourned his passing. If he loved his dad even a fraction as much as Hermione adored and treasured her own father, she knew that her low blow had been uncalled for. Hermione had to wonder what changes this war was making in her for her to say something so hateful.

"I'm sorry, Malfoy. That was uncalled for" she apologized as she made her way back to him.

Malfoy preferred to not look at her and kept his eyes on the grass.

"I shouldn't have said it," continued Hermione. "I guess...I guess I just got carried away."

"Whatever," he sullenly mumbled, still avoiding her eyes.

She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze of comfort.

"I am truly sorry," she said again. "I mean it."

This time Malfoy only nodded his head.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

Startled, Hermione took a step back from Malfoy and pulled her hand from him as though she had been burned. Both she and Malfoy turned to see Harry and Ron trudging their way towards them, both of their arms laden down with items. Hermione couldn't understand why she felt so rattled by Harry's accusing tone. She hadn't been doing anything to warrant the fishy look that he was giving her and the Slytherin. All she was doing was standing in the middle of a pumpkin patch with a hippogriff and a Ferret. What the hell did he think she was doing?

"Yeah Hermione, what's going on?" asked Ron suspiciously as he eyed Malfoy up and down.

"Nothing!" she stated righteously.

She then looked to Harry.

"Did you get everything I told you to get?"

Harry stared at her then at Malfoy a moment longer before answering.

"We did, but..." he began, then paused as though trying to figure out the best way to phrase what he wanted to say. He rubbed unconsciously at the back of his neck. "Help me out here, Hermione," he continued. "Merlin knows that you've been saying and doing some things lately that have been confusing the hell out of me ever since..."

...you drank out of that Cup. Harry didn't bother to finish the sentence, but they all knew that was what he was thinking.

"But...um...aren't you afraid of flying?" he finished as he looked at her, uncertainty in his eyes. It had been obvious that flying to Boussac had been part of Hermione's intention all along.

"More like afraid of falling," she said as she walked towards him and Ron and took a winter jacket from each of them. She turned to hand one to Malfoy and began to put the other one on. "But right now we have to fly. It's the quickest way."

Ron came up beside her and threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione," he said reassuringly. "As long as you hold on tight to me, you have nothing to fear."

For a moment Hermione just gaped at him, unsure of how to explain to him that what he was suggesting was not part of the plan. Ironically it was Malfoy who helped her do so.

"I'M NOT RIDING WITH HIM!" he shouted as he pointed a finger in Harry's direction.

Before Hermione could yell at the prat for being such a childish oaf, Harry raised his own finger at him.

"HE'S NOT RIDING WITH ME!"

"Unless Potter here buys me dinner and takes me dancing first, none of my bits are rubbing up against any of his!"

"SHUT UP, MALFOY!" shouted the Trio in unison.

Malfoy was of course broomless. The night that Hogwarts was breached he didn't have time to retrieve his precious Nimbus. He probably assumed that he and the Death Eaters would have come out of the mêlée victorious so he didn't have to worry about it. Once aligning himself with the Order, he had the opportunity to use any one of the school issue brooms that Madame Hooch kept locked up, but when Hermione had once suggested this to him he sniffed scornfully at the suggestion. A Malfoy wouldn't be caught dead riding a Shooting Star, he arrogantly informed her.

Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed out a weary sigh.

"Look, if it's such a big deal, Malfoy can ride on Buckbeak," she said as she gestured towards the hippogriff.

Malfoy balked at the suggestion.

"NOT ON YOUR LIFE! ARE YOU MAD?! THAT THING..."

He paused, realizing that his voice was carrying, and that Buckbeak had suddenly found him interesting again.

"That thing has already tried to kill me," he spat in a hushed whisper. "If you think-"

"Buckbeak wouldn't try to kill me, would he?" she asked, cutting off the rest of his ceaseless whinging. He stopped short to look at her. "You'll be riding with me," she said.

"Well I guess I can make the sacrifice," he sniffed haughtily.

Harry and Ron, however, did not take this news as lightly as he did.

"Hell no!" Harry very firmly informed her.

Before she could respond to that, Ron got in on the act.

"There's no way I'm letting Malfoy get that close to you," he said. "HE MIGHT TRY TO KNOCK YOU OFF!"

"HEY!" exclaimed an insulted Malfoy.

"I FORBID IT!" said Ron.

Hermione's eyes seemed to outgrow her face as she turned on him, hands placed firmly on her hips and seethed, "YOU...FORBID...IT?!"

She couldn't believe that Ron actually had the audacity to say such a thing to her! Just because they were together that didn't give him the right to order her to do anything. She was about to pull out her wand and show Ron just what she thought of him asserting his "manly" authority, when Harry grabbed one of her arms and pulled her a few steps away from the other two, nearer to Buckbeak.

"I think we're being grossly unfair to Granger here," Malfoy called after them right before Ron stepped in front of him and began calling him every name in his arsenal. Malfoy matched him insult for insult.

Both boys were so wrapped up in their war of words that they completely ignored Harry and Hermione. Harry quickly bowed before Buckbeak and the hippogriff wasted no time bowing back. He and Harry were old friends after all. Harry approached the hippogriff and gave him an affectionate pat to the head. Buckbeak playfully nudged him. Harry continued to stroke the hippogriff as he focused his attention on Hermione.

"I don't like this at all," Harry told her.

"And you think I do?" she asked.

When Harry didn't answer her, she changed tactics.

"Harry, if Malfoy and I ride along with you and Ron, where do we put Boadicea?"

He resolutely sighed signaling that she had got her point across.

"I have an idea," Harry said loudly, drawing the attention of the other two boys back to him and Hermione. "Ron, you take my broom," he said looking at his friend. "Malfoy can ride yours. I'll ride with Hermione."

Hermione could only wonder at Harry's insistence that Malfoy get nowhere near her. Did he think she couldn't take care of herself? Although it warmed her at times to know that he was so protective of her, she couldn't help the irritation that bubbled up inside whenever he and Ron treated her like some...some...girl. Hermione also didn't care for the idea of being so close to Harry for what would be an extended period of time. Hermione didn't think her sanity could take it, much less her heart.

Like herself, Malfoy didn't seem too enamored of the plan. Then again he had totally different reasons why.

"A Malfoy wouldn't sully himself with an inferior broom bought secondhand," he obnoxiously told them. Ron's ears went red at the slam.

Harry positioned himself right in front of the jerk. Their noses were almost touching.

"A Malfoy is going to be sitting in the dust alone in the dark if he doesn't shut the hell up!" he coldly informed the Slytherin. Before the two of them could come to blows, Ron spoke up.

"Don't...d-don't you th-think," he began haltingly as Harry turned his green, lamp-like eyes on him, causing him to falter at first. He had to steel himself with nerve just to continue. "I mean, shouldn't I be the one to ride with Hermione, Harry?"

Hermione's fuse was getting shorter and shorter by the second. Did these prats forget that she was standing right there? They were acting like she was some battered old quill that could be passed back and forth between them. Because she was too busy being huffy about the ill-treatment she felt she was receiving, she hardly noticed the peculiar expression that passed quickly over Harry's face.

"You're right, Ron," Harry said calmly. "You are her boyfriend."

Hermione pursed her lips at the sentiment.

"Be my guest," Harry said as he looked between Ron and Buckbeak.

Ron's eyes left Harry's face and goggled at the hippogriff. Although he had helped feed and tend to the animal before, back when Sirius and Buckbeak were hiding out at number twelve, Ron had never considered actually riding the creature. He loved to fly, but racing brooms were more his speed. Brooms did not have the tendency to gut you if they were feeling fussy.

As the redhead took a timid step towards Buckbeak, he nervously swallowed and blinked. Buckbeak reared up on his hind legs and came crashing down hard with a thud. Ron scurried backwards to where Malfoy was standing.

"On second thought..." he managed to squeak out as he threw his Cleensweep at Malfoy and grabbed Harry's broom from him.

For once Malfoy couldn't muster a snide insult. Even he must have been aware of the hypocrite he would have looked like if he had.

"So what's the plan?" asked the blond instead. "Grab the barmy old crow and run?"

In answer, a dark figure stepped out from behind a wide oak tree nearby.

"Sounds like fun," she said mirthfully. "Can anyone join?"

Nymphadora Tonks made her way from the edge of the woods that surrounded Hagrid's hut, dressed in her scarlet colored work robes. From the neck down she looked all business, an Auror who was not to be messed with. But the look of amusement on her heart shaped face, coupled with the peppermint green color of her hair, almost negated the fact.

"Tonks!" Hermione gasped.

"I've never met a witch who was more commitment-phobic about a hair color," Malfoy drawled in disgust.

Tonks brought her delighted attention towards him and smiled jovially.

"Hi'ya, cuz!"

Malfoy snorted. He and Tonks had been at odds for the last few weeks. When he had first joined the Order he ignored her and acted as if they weren't related at all. He would constantly make comments about her appearance, her lack of coordination, and her boyfriend. In retaliation Tonks took great enjoyment out of publicly reminding him at every turn that their mothers were sisters, thus they both swam in the same genetic pool.

Then one night during an impromptu party to celebrate the Headmistress' 72^nd birthday it looked like Malfoy had decided to make friends with his first cousin at last. They had been drinking out of two mysterious goblets and singing a few Weird Sisters' songs together. No one really seemed to pay much attention to this odd occurrence. Just about everyone had been in a good mood that night actually, most of them coming to the conclusion that if this were going to be their last year on this planet, they wouldn't let a single occupant of the castle have a birthday without some fanfare.

That night in the Great Hall Hermione had been positioned in a corner with Ron's arms wrapped about her shoulders as he and Harry passed a bottle of Killerman's between them. She had wanted to scold them both soundly, but Harry's long face stopped any nagging words that might have come from her mouth. He must miss Ginny dreadfully, her melancholy thoughts told her. These same thoughts almost dulled her to the rest of the goings-ons of the room; McGonagall laughing flirtatiously at a joke Charlie was telling her, Professor Flitwick looking skeptically at a plate of treacle fudge that Hagrid was offering, and Ron whispering feverish pleas to go off somewhere, while hiccupping, in her ear.

But even Hermione couldn't miss it when Draco Malfoy jumped up on one of the long House tables and began performing a dance that looked rather like the Macarena, in Hermione's opinion, before their very startled eyes. What they wouldn't find out later until Tonks told them was that she had secretly slipped a bit of Scintallation Solution into Malfoy's goblet of mead. The brew caused the drinker to be the life of the party. And make an arse of themselves obviously, Hermione reckoned. Thinking that the grumpy Slytherin needed to loosen up, Tonks considered herself doing a kindness for a beloved family member. Malfoy tried to avoid her as much as he could after the incident.

"So, what are my little charges up to this fine evening, hmm?" she playfully asked as she looked back and forth between all of them.

"We...er..." sputtered Harry.

"Well Tonks, it's like this...you see..." chimed in Ron.

Malfoy scoffed disgustedly at their attempts to try to get one over on the Auror.

"You lot can't lie for shite."

Hermione, ignoring Malfoy's crack, stepped towards Tonks purposefully, shoulders set.

"I'm going to be straight with you, Tonks, because we've already lost enough time," Hermione said to her. "Remember that thing Voldemort was looking for?"

Tonks nodded her head affirmatively and Hermione continued.

"Well it was actually a person and we think we know where she is."

"Blimey!" was all that Tonks said in shocked answer.

"But the thing of it is, Voldemort might now know where she is too."

Hermione then quickly filled her in on the whole Wormtail situation.

"We can't wait for the Order," she explained as she tried her best to express to Tonks why the four of them had to make a move now. "We have got to get there first. And..." Hermione swallowed as she pulled her wand out of her jeans pocket and held it on Tonks in desperation. The three boys' simultaneous intake of breath sounded like a bomb had gone off. "And I won't allow you to stop us," Hermione continued, her brave words sounding false, even in her own ears. "I'll hex you if I have to."

She stiffly lifted her chin.

Pleasedon'tcallmybluff. Pleasedon'tcallmybluff. Pleasedon'tcallmybluff.

Tonks eyed the young girl up and down, sizing up her supposed opponent. Although she could tell that Hermione didn't want to go to the extreme measure of threatening her, if push came to shove she wasn't so sure that the teen wouldn't actually follow through with her threat. Tonks couldn't help but admire that kind of pluck.

"I believe you," she said, not even blinking an eye.

The simple statement seemed to rattle Hermione and for a moment her wand arm wavered. But the honesty in Tonks' words made her slip her wand back into her pocket.

"Besides, who said I was going to stop you?"

Harry, Hermione, and Ron looked between each other; shock registering on their faces.

"You're not?" Ron asked.

"But aren't you supposed to be spying on me?" Harry asked, his accusation coming off somewhat bitterly. "Making sure I don't do something brash and stupid, right?"

Tonks impishly grinned.

"I believe Remus' exact words were, 'keep an eye on him'. He never said where I was supposed to keep an eye on you, though. So I'm coming with."

The Trio was completely bowled over by her announcement. Hermione tried to form several sentences and failed. By Ron's befuddled expression one would have thought he had entered his bedroom only to find the NEWTs examination board waiting. Poor Harry just seemed exhausted. Only Malfoy looked as though nothing his cousin could say would ever really surprise him.

"If you lot tell me this is important then I believe you," Tonks clarified. "I recognize the fact that you aren't children anymore, and I don't think you deserve to be treated like you are. You're Order members. Merlin knows you all have gone through more than anyone your age has a right to. When I was 17 all I had to worry about was whether or not Charlie would ask me out for a Hogsmeade trip."

Ron's mouth fell open at the admission.

"You fancied Charlie?"

"Madly!" Tonks exclaimed. "But he went for the pretty, witty types, while I had a hard enough time not tripping over my toes," she chuckled. "Luckily Remus finds it cute."

"The klutz and the lycanthrope; a fairytale love story for the ages," Malfoy annoyingly grumbled.

Tonks heard him and sauntered over to where he was standing, a great big smile plastered on her face.

"Since I left my broom at the castle I guess I'll just have to ride along with you, Angelface."

Malfoy grimaced.

"Goodie."

"Y-yes...w-well..." stuttered Hermione trying her best to regain her composure, "now that we've settled the seating arrangements I think our best bet is to get on our way. It's going to be a long trip."

Ron rubbed at his stomach forlornly.

"We're going to need to head south first and then...and then I guess once we get near Central France we could ask for directions."

For the first time Hermione began to sound a little unsure about the project.

"I think if any Death Eaters were looking for us they would expect us to go that route," Tonks said. "We might try going over the Atlantic and then hooking a left."

Hermione's throat went dry at the thought of flying over all of that water. Maybe she could handle flying with Harry after all.

"I...I...I..."

"Granger, your yapping is wearing on me," Malfoy said dismissively as he trudged up towards her, took a shiny gold object out of his pocket, and tossed it at her.

Hermione caught the object before it beaned her on the head, and took a good look at it.

"A compass?" she asked anemically. Then she opened the golden object and gasped.

"Gee Malfoy, there's a little spell called Point Me. Ever hear of it?" Ron smugly asked as he and Harry traded superior smiles.

"You idiots!" rebuked Malfoy harshly. "That is a Psychopompus."

"The guider of the lost," Hermione whispered in awe.

Inside of the compass-like casing, instead of the usual arrow and lettering, a tiny red ball of energy floated. The ball was no bigger than a large pebble, but it pulsed and throbbed like a living organism.

"It can find any thing, any one, any place; even if it's unplottable."

Malfoy's little curio rendered Hermione speechless. She had read about the Psychopompus, but never dreamed that she would actually hold one in her hands one day.

Nearly 2000 years ago, in the ancient and doomed city of Pompeii lived a priestess of the fire God, Vulcan. Her name was Trivia and she was a witch. Trivia was also what was called an Imbuer. She had the ability to cull magical energy from its unknown source and infuse it into objects to create powerful relics. It was an incredible power that came with a huge cost. Each time she used it she took years off of her own life. But it was no matter to Trivia, she knew that her destiny would end in ashes.

Trivia had three sons; Evander, Latinus, and her favored child that was consecrated to her God, Mulciber. On the eve of her death she gave each young boy a Psychopompus she had fashioned for them. Inside the Psychopompi she placed what remained of her magical essence. She told them that they were to flee the city and that they should use the Psychopompi to take them wherever they most wanted to go. All they had to do was tell the ornament what they were looking for, and the Psychopompus would lead them straight to it.

Latinus chose to find power. He settled in Albion, what would one day be England, and became the lord of a great tribe. Evander chose to find his heart. He eventually wound up on an island in Oceania, the husband of many wives. Mulciber, however, refused to leave his mother's side. The next day was the Vulcanalia and he and his mother went to the temple to preside over the burnt sacrifices offered on the feast day as they normally did. However that year there would be no festival. Vulcan chose to claim all of Pompeii as his sacrifice instead.

Whatever became of Trivia and her son was never really known. Some say that Vulcan took pity on his beloved priestess and changed her and her son into cormorants. But others believed that Trivia and Mulciber used the last bit of her magic that she stashed in his Psychopompus and disappeared from this world, never to be seen again.

For years many a witch and wizard hoped to find one of the remaining two Psychopompi which had fallen into legend. Some said that Merlin had been in possession of one. Countless great explorers through out history were accused of using a Psychopompus to direct them to new lands and discoveries. Hermione had even read once that Albus Dumbledore was believed to have one hidden somewhere in Hogwarts. Then again Professor Dumbledore had also been rumored to have a scar above his knee that resembled a map of the Underground. Hermione used to think that story was as much twaddle as the Psychopompus, then Draco Malfoy practically dropped the magical object in her lap.

"You've had this all this time?" Harry tersely asked Malfoy.

The blond pompously lifted his chin in the air and sneered, "How do you think I found Durmstrang?"

"WE COULD HAVE USED THIS THING TO FIND ALL OF THE HORCRUXES BY NOW!"

Once again Hermione felt that pulse of energy coming from Harry. He was incensed!

"Couldn't have expected everything to be handed to you, now could you, Potter?"

Malfoy was sneering at the black haired boy contemptuously, but Hermione hadn't missed the first expression that had flickered over his face. Astonishment. Malfoy hadn't withheld the Psychopompus from them out of spite, he simply hadn't thought of using it for that purpose. And to think he had been a pretty good student in school! They should have thrown him back to the Death Eaters, let them suffer!

Harry seemed to bristle at the answer. But before he could start an argument with him, Malfoy walked over to Hermione and lifted the Psychopompus out of her hand.

"All you need to do is tell it who or where or what you are looking for. The more specific you are the better. Like this," Malfoy said as he concentrated on the small ball of energy. "Regosi Rexia."

At these words the little red ball turned blue.

"Take me to..." he said, pausing to look at the faces surrounding him. As his gaze settled on Harry, an evil and malicious smile coiled itself on his lips. "Take me to the nearest virgin."

The blue ball of energy began to softly hum and sprang into life. But before it could get very far, Hermione snatched the Psychopompus out of Malfoy's hand and snapped the little ball back into its case. However it had been plainly obvious to all what direction the Psychopompus was heading in. If Malfoy's laughter hadn't given the fact away, Harry's very pink cheeks would have.

"Knew it," the git smarmed.

"YOU ARE SUCH AN ODIOUS LITTLE PYGMY TROLL!" Hermione retorted as she restrained herself from slapping the bastard and stamped away from him instead. She tried to ignore the eyes on the back of her head that she somehow instinctually knew belonged to Harry.

She went to the rope that tethered Buckbeak to the fence and unknotted it. Next she untied the rope from Buckbeak's neck and was preparing to mount him when she suddenly saw his head snap back. The quick movement unsettled her at first until she realized that the hippogriff had the bloody carcass of a ferret in his beak. She couldn't stop herself from smirking at the image. As the hippogriff bent down to finish his snack, she turned around to find Harry standing close by. The smile slowly faded from her lips.

"I figured Buckbeak would like a treat before we got on our way," was all he said. Hermione curtly nodded her head.

The air of awkwardness that lay between them was palpable. Malfoy's little prank had opened up a can of flobberworms that she preferred to not dwell on. She used to think that she didn't want Harry to know what all went on between her and Ron because she didn't want him to feel lonely and excluded. But now you know different don't you, she downheartedly told herself.

Hermione tried to focus her attention on anything but Harry's eyes. She glanced over to her right to see Ron and Malfoy bickering while an amused Tonks watched. Before she could walk over to see what the trouble was, she heard Harry softly call her name. She looked back to see that he had already mounted Buckbeak and was offering his hand to her to give her a lift up. Hermione tentatively took it and felt herself effortlessly raised up and placed in front of her best friend.

Once the other three members of their party realized that Harry and Hermione were ready to go, they all prepared to lift off on their respective brooms. Malfoy and Ron awaited the signal; Harry and Hermione were going to go in the lead. Harry gave a gentle nudge with his right foot to Buckbeak's hindquarters and the hippogriff unfurled his wings. It scratched at the ground for a moment before taking a running start, then soaring into the sky.

"Hermione?" she heard Harry's worried voice call to her. At the time it sounded a bit muffled, but that was only because she had her face pressed firmly into Buckbeak's feathers. Her eyes were closed, and she held the poor hippogriff in a death lock about the neck.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Harry asked; his question almost drowned out by the wind.

Hermione turned her head as much as she could and tried her best to look over her shoulder at Harry.

"Sure. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that...well…you screamed."

Hermione's cheeks would have turned pink if that weren't already that color due to the cold. She hadn't even been aware that she had made a sound.

"Force of habit I guess," she sheepishly replied with a tiny smile.

She sat up as straight as she could muster and held the Psychopompus before her. She opened the clasp and watched as the little red ball hovered up.

"Regosi Rexia…"

The ball glowed blue.

"Take me to the Monastère Sainte Claire in Boussac," she said to it as it began to hum and float off before them. Harry placed his hands around her so he could get a good hold on Buckbeak to steer him. Hermione sat up, steel spined, so that she wouldn't involuntarily brush up against him. Both of their eyes were focused on the blue orb in front of them. They flew like this through the night sky for a good length of time, neither saying anything to the other. Hermione had no clue as to what Harry's thoughts could be, but all she hoped was that he didn't ask her any questions about her and Ron that Malfoy's childish stunt might have brought up. By the way that Hermione's stomach was churning; she just didn't think she had the strength to handle it if he did. Not at this height at least.

"Uh, Hermione?" Harry's voice sounded nervous and uncertain in her ear.

Circe!

"Yes Harry?"

She figured that she sounded no better than him.

"You could...um...I mean, if you want, you can lean back against me. You know, so you aren't uncomfortable or anything."

Thank Merlin!

"Oh. Ok then. Thank you, Harry."

That hadn't been what she expected him to say, but for this she was thankful. Truth be told, Hermione had been feeling rather stiff and uncomfortable sitting so straight and upright for so long.

She cautiously lay back against Harry and he instantly guided one of his hands to her hip. A burst of warmth seemed to fill her through out. She sighed. Although she knew the move was done to keep a good and steady hold on her, she couldn't help the emotional flutterings in her stomach that it produced. Normally she would have chastised herself for being such a silly goose, but for once she decided to just live in the one moment. Harry was always being such a good friend to her; looking after her, protecting her, taking care of her. It wasn't his fault that she felt things for him that she shouldn't. He wasn't to blame for the complications that she was introducing into all of their lives. He couldn't help it if he would never look at her the way that she looked at him. But high up in the sky, amongst the clouds, she could pretend that none of that existed. Up here there was no boyfriend whose heart she could break. Up here there was no girl for him to go home to. Up here it was just Harry and Hermione.

And she could pretend.

~~**~~ ~~**~~

"I still think we should have gone with the ones I transfigured."

"Nuns don't dress like that anymore, Tonks."

"But I saw it in a film once. There were nuns and Nazis, people dressed up in tacky curtains...and singing! Although that was the part that was confusing."

"It was a musical and that film is over thirty years old, Tonks."

"Well how was I supposed to know that?"

Hermione shook her head wearily. She was tired to the bone, they still hadn't found Boadicea, and Tonks was chatting and chirping away as though they were on a picnic instead of a grave, secret mission. Sometimes Hermione found it hard to believe that the woman was actually an Auror. Though her wand work couldn't be denied, Hermione had practiced dueling with her before and had received a nice set of boils on her forehead to prove it; she still wondered if Tonks ever took anything seriously. Besides Professor Lupin, that is.

Like when they first touched down in front of the cloister. It was decided that she and Tonks, being the women in the group, would sneak into the nunnery and look for DuManoir. The boys would stay outside and act as their look-outs. Before the dust had settled from that decision, Tonks had already pulled out her wand and transfigured her robes and Hermione's clothes into a proper nun's habit; a proper nun from the 1800's. The long black tunic, the scapular, the white bib, cap, and various veils and under veils; it had all been way too much. The boys had practically rolled around in the grass, laughing at the two of them when Tonks was done. Tonks seemed to think the whole thing jolly fun as well.

Hermione had threatened each boy that she would hex off something that they would be sure to miss if they didn't knock it off. She then promptly changed her and Tonks' costumes into outfits that were more modern and serviceable. They were disguised as novitiates in simple black skirts and blouses with a white veil over their hair. She asked the boys how they looked. Malfoy told her that the skirt made her look fat. Harry and Ron had to physically restrain her when she made to tear him limb from limb.

After using her wand to get into the cloister, Hermione took out the Psychopompus and told it to lead them to DuManoir. Tonks carried Harry's invisibility cloak in her arms. As far as they knew, they had miraculously gotten there before the Death Eaters. Surely there would have been a dark mark above the monastery if they hadn't.

After descending a long flight of stairs that seemed to go on forever, they found themselves tip-toeing through what appeared to be a secretly hidden, underground chamber.

"Are you sure it was such a good idea giving your wand to Ron?"

"Yes, we needed a clear cover," Tonks said from beside her. "We couldn't leave him out there defenseless. If something were to happen he would be a sitting duck other wise."

Hermione guessed she could see the sense in that.

"Besides, I don't think I have much to worry about with you leading the way," Tonks continued airily. "You're pretty sharp with a wand. I've seen the security crystal captures of that night at the Department of Mysteries. You'd make a pretty good Auror one day."

Hermione's brow knitted as she turned to look at Tonks.

"But I got hit!"

"And?" asked Tonks. "I did too. It happens. I still think you would be brilliant. I could see you and Harry making quite the team."

At the comment, Hermione bristled. What the hell was Tonks getting at? What was she trying to imply?

"Why me and Harry?" she asked a tad briskly. "Why not me and Ron?"

Tonks seemed to stew on the question for a bit before innocently saying, "Dunno. Ron wants to be an Auror?"

Hermione sighed. Of course Tonks wasn't trying to insinuate anything.

"No," she simply said in answer.

As of late, Ron had been talking about his future plans, their future plans, a lot. He had already constructed huge castles in the sky for them where she was his wife and he was something amazing, he just hadn't quite figured out what yet. She did know that he had long ago put away any ideas about being an Auror. He often said that once the War was over all he wanted was his girl and his broom and he would be happy. His blue eyes would always take on a bright, giddy glow whenever he told her about these dreams of his. And her heart would always feel like someone was squeezing the pulp out of it.

"Well I see Ron going for something flashy. Something to make him stand out from the rest of the redheads," Tonks said as they began to follow the little blue ball down a narrow hall. "Now that cousin of mines on the other hand..."

Tonks almost hooted at Hermione's stunned expression.

"Draco Malfoy? An Auror?"

"He has pretty good natural instincts."

"Honestly," Hermione dismissively said as she rolled her eyes. "Draco Malfoy would have to care about someone other than himself for that to ever happen."

Tonks softly chuckled.

"Aww...Angelface can't help the way he was raised. I almost feel sorry for him in that regard."

"Yes, but he can help the person he's going to become. You know the saying; the pumpkin doesn't roll far from the patch. All of his family members are monsters."

Hermione paused to look at Tonks.

"Present company excluded, of course."

Tonks laughed.

"Besides he can't be an Auror. He'd be a liability. Every dark wizard would smell all the product in his hair coming a mile away."

Tonks nodded her head sadly. "True. And it would be such lovely hair without all of that goop," she said fondly.

"You almost sound like you have a crush," Hermione said wryly, looking at Tonks from out the corner of her eye. They had just made a sharp left only to end up in another narrow corridor.

"Well I'm not blind!" she exclaimed. "If I was a bit younger I wouldn't mind kissing that cousin. What about you?"

"Pardon me; I think I vomited a bit in my mouth."

Tonks laughed outright at the comment and Hermione had to remind her to be quiet. She was acting as though they were at a sleepover giggling over which boy they fancied.

"What about Harry?"

Hermione's footsteps halted and she turned around to face Tonks fully. Tonks paused as well.

"What about Harry?" Hermione cautiously asked.

"You think he might become an Auror?"

Hermione mulled over the question for a moment before continuing on in the direction they had been going. Tonks followed suit. They were just in time to see the Psychompus make a right around a corner and hurried along after it.

"I don't know," she finally said in answer, her voice sounding almost lifeless. "Harry used to talk about it, his future. But he doesn't much anymore."

Hermione's eyes began to burn just thinking about this.

"He has these dreams you see. Sometimes I get the feeling that he doesn't even think he'll have a future."

Tonks seemed oblivious to Hermione's misery.

"Well I bet there's a certain red haired girl who could convince him otherwise," she said cheerily.

Hermione turned her sad brown eyes towards Tonks and frowned.

"What?"

Tonks smiled brightly.

"Ginny," she replied as though it were the most obvious answer in the world. "I saw the way the two of them were huddled up at the funeral. Almost gave me the habdabs actually, thought that Lily and James were back from the dead."

Tonks chuckled, but when she caught a glimpse of Hermione's mournful expression she muted her gaiety. The girl obviously didn't find the humor in what she said at all.

"Sorry," she offered. "Tact was never my strong suit. As I was saying," she continued, "all he has to remember is that he has that waiting for him and Harry should perk right up."

Tonks then winked conspiratorially at Hermione. Hermione smiled back at her weakly. It was all she could do other than run her own head into the wall over and over again. Luckily, before she could give herself a nasty case of brain damage, they came before a door and the Psychopompus ceased humming and turned red again. Hermione took out its case and trapped it back inside of it.

"Oh look, we're here," Hermione drolled as she placed her hand on the doorknob and gave it a turn.

It was locked so she pointed her wand at it and smiled when she heard the familiar click that meant she could go in. Once again she turned the knob, and as it gave way, she gently pushed open the door and made her way into the small, sparse room. It was almost like a cell. There was no hint of ornamentation anywhere, just a small cot and a stone floor. She'd expected it to be dark, but surprisingly enough the room was all aglow from the light of over a dozen lanterns. Hermione thought their presence was quite odd for such a late hour, but then she looked towards the window, at the room's only occupant, and all thoughts of what was odd and what was queer left her.

The girl looked to be about 17 or 18 years old and was dressed almost similarly as they were. Her long ebony hair hung well passed her shoulders in waves. She stared out at them with unblinking, violet colored eyes and seemed to tilt her head as if to test if they were really there or just figments of her imagination. A set of full, thick lips sat under a nose only Modigliani could have painted. She had a round face with dimpled cheeks. This, added with all of her other more mature features, would have given her appearance a certain little girl adorableness if only there had been some sort of expression on the face. Instead she was giving them her best impression of a blank slate and for what it was worth, it unnerved Hermione greatly.

"I think that thing is broken," Tonks whispered near her ear, in reference to the Psychopompus.

Hermione never took her eyes off the girl.

"I don't think it is," she whispered back as her eyes drifted upwards and settled on the hairpin fixed in the girl's hair.

Hermione took a few nervous steps forward and asked, "B-Boadicea?"

The sound of the name finally culled an emotion from the girl. Fear.

"Oui. Qui est vous? QU'EST-CE QUE VOUS VOULEZ?!" she screeched, her panicked eyes looking back and forth between Hermione and Tonks.

"Son of a bitch!" Tonks swore. "I thought this one was supposed to be Sinistra's age," Tonks said as she came fully into the room and closed the door behind her.

Hermione turned to look at her companion.

"She is," she answered her.

"SON OF A BITCH!" was all Tonks could manage again.

"QUI EST VOUS?! QUI EST VOUS?!" Boadicea demanded over and over again.

Her cries were so loud that Hermione quickly pointed her wand at the door and placed a silencing charm on it. Boadicea, who hadn't noticed the wand before, went wild eyed at the sight of it now.

"VOUS N'ÊTES PAS CENSÉES ÊTRE ICI!"

"Shouldn't she speak English? Didn't she go to Hogwarts?" Tonks bewilderedly asked. "What is she saying?"

"At first she wanted to know who we were and what we wanted," Hermione said as she took a few cautious steps towards the girl. "Now she says we shouldn't be here. I don't think she speaks English anymore."

But for some odd reason Hermione couldn't shake the feeling that DuManoir still understood it. Instead of thinking on that further, Hermione tried to calm Boadicea down.

"Je suis Hermione," she said as she placed her hand on her chest. "Et voici Tonks ." She pointed back at the Auror, then turned back towards the young girl. "Nous sommes des amies. We're friends." Hermione held a hand out slowly to her.

Boadicea looked at Hermione suspiciously before scurrying to her little cot in the corner of the room and sitting on it.

"QUE VOULEZ VOUS?!"

Hermione wracked her brain for the best way to explain to the girl what was going on.

"Nous allons vous porter d'ici," answered Hermione slowly. "We've come to take you away from this place."

At this statement Boadicea's alarm seemed to vanish and she slowly rose up from the cot. A ghost of a smile danced on her lips before she questioned sweetly, "Tom?"

Merlin! Sweet Circe! Dear merciful God in Heaven!

"Est-il venu pour moi?" asked Boadicea.

She wanted to know if Tom had finally come for her. All these years she must have stood at that window and waited for the day when Tom Riddle would come and take her away, Hermione achingly thought. Boadicea was still in love with him. Even after everything he had done to her, she still loved him. Even after he had cast her aside. To her mind she still belonged to Tom Riddle, time had changed nothing for DuManoir. In fact, it would seem that time had somehow managed to stand still for her. Now she was prepared to go back to the love of her life, and Hermione could not allow that to happen.

"Tom?" she asked again, hope brimming in her eyes.

Hermione nodded her head bravely and smiled kindly at the girl.

"Oui. Nous te conduirons à lui," Hermione told her.

Boadicea let out a jubilant cry before pitching herself into Hermione's arms and hugging her tightly. She began spinning the both of them around like they were children. Her laughter filled the room.

"What just happened here? What did you say to her?" asked Tonks. She couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione said assertively.

She pulled Boadicea along with her towards the door.

"We just need to get out of here now!"

Just one lie; that was all it was. Just one lie. It was a lie for a good reason. That's all it was. It was for a good reason. That's all it was!

Hermione's hand was on the door knob when all of a sudden she heard a loud thud coming from outside. It sounded like someone was stumbling their way down the hall towards them. If she was hearing correctly, it sounded like it was more than one of them.

"I still thin' we took too long interroga'in tha' wi'ness, luv," she heard a high pitched, female voice say from outside.

A slurred, baritone voice answered her back in the same Cockney accent the woman used.

"Master said we were to get 'is toy by any means, Sissy. And the Mummy Superior wasn' bein' 'elpful. I 'ad to find some way to convince 'er, I did."

The female must have found what her friend said extremely funny because she let loose a cackle that set Hermione's teeth on edge.

"I don't thin' Master 'ad tha' in mind," the high pitched voice said back.

"But she 'ad such a pret'y mauf. Seemed a waste not to use it," came the reply.

Once again that bone chilling cackle rended the air.

"Oh shite!"

Hermione turned towards Tonks and nearly went white at the expression on the older woman's face. Tonks was sweating bullets, despite the cold bite of the air, and she looked absolutely scared shitless.

"What's wrong?" Hermione worriedly asked her.

Tonks glanced at Hermione, then back at the door.

"Death Eaters. And from the sound of that laugh it could only be Alecto and Amycus Carrows. Sid and Nancy look like the Weasleys compared to them."

Hermione looked fearfully at the door and then towards Boadicea who had a far off, dreamy expression on her face. It couldn't end like this, Hermione's racing mind shouted out again and again. It just can't end like this!

"But I read about the Carrows. They helped butcher a whole family once, or something. I thought they were siblings, a brother and a sister act."

Tonks and Hermione's eyes locked.

"They are," answered Tonks in a voice laced with dread.

This was bad. This was very bad. With no time to digest what Tonks could possibly mean by that, Hermione walked closer to the door and contemplated putting a locking spell on it. She was just about to do so when Tonks swore loudly again.

"WHAT?" Hermione nearly cried; her heart in her throat.

"We have more problems," Tonks responded. "Anti-Apparition ward."

"FUCK!"

It had just gotten worse.

Hermione had often heard the saying "blood ran cold", but until that very moment she never knew that it was an actual scientific phenomena. She was sure she could feel the jagged edges of little icy chips floating through out her blood stream. They couldn't Apparate out. Tonks didn't have a wand. They were all as good as dead.

"Thin' Master will whip us?" By now Hermione could only assume that the female voice belonged to Alecto Carrows.

"'Ere's 'oping."

Hermione saw the doorknob begin to slowly turn. Without very much thought, Hermione did the first thing that came to her mind. She grabbed the invisibility cloak, pushed Boadicea into Tonks' arms, and before the Auror could offer any protest, Hermione threw the enchanted material over the two of them. They disappeared before her eyes. Thinking fast, Hermione dropped her wand down the front of her blouse. She might have been able to stun one of them, but she was never going to be able to take both out single handedly without some sort of miracle being involved. Hermione quickly made the decision that maybe, just maybe she could bluff her way out of the door. Right now anything was worth a try.

"Well, well, well," said a squat, rolly polly man dressed in soiled black robes from the doorway, a stubby wand in his hands. "What do we 'ave 'ere?"

Hermione suspected that she was going to lose her lunch soon if the man kept leering at her the way he was. But she called upon every bit of her Gryffindor courage she could muster and innocently turned large, round eyes on him.

"Que voulez vous?"

"Vu, vu wha'?"

"Pardonnez-moi," she said as she gave the man a small bow of her head. "Je pense que je vais y aller maintenant. Je dois bientot commencez mon priere du matin."

After effortlessly lying about having to rush off to go pray Hermione tried to nonchalantly walk by the dangerous looking Death Eater. She bravely tried to maintain her composure though she found herself nearly gagging at the smell of the male Carrows' body stench and the scent of stale ale that clung to him.

"Not so fas'," Alecto Carrows said as she stepped fully into the room and into Hermione's path.

Alecto was about her brother's size and was dressed in robes that matched his, only hers were slightly cleaner. But not by much. The siblings' resemblance to each other was so strong that Hermione had to wonder if they were twins. Neither masculine nor feminine; the pair seemed to revel in their androgyny. If not for their voices, she wasn't sure if she would have been able to tell them apart. Both of them had chin length gray hair that was dirty and stringy, as well as harshly lined faces. A bulbous nose only a mother could love sat in the middle of both faces. Two sets of dark brown eyes roved every hill and valley of her body, and when she shuddered involuntarily at their perusal, she was greeted by identical thin lipped sneers.

Hermione quickly backed away from them, but gave no hint that there were two other people in the room with her.

"I know you," Alecto said as she eyed Hermione from head to foot. "I've read abou' you in the paper once. You're famous."

Alecto then smiled proudly displaying five missing teeth.

"Still Potter's li'l Mudblood 'hore?" she snidely asked.

Although Hermione tried not to show any emotion, she couldn't control the rage that swirled through her at those words. Her nostrils flared. Her eyes narrowed.

"Is tha' a no?" the wench taunted. "Got tired of you, did 'e?"

Hermione's eyes burned furiously in the woman's direction, but she refused to give her any satisfaction.

"Where's the other Mudblood?" Carrows' brother asked casually as he came further in the room.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Hermione stubbornly.

"I thin' she's lyin', Ahmy."

Amycus smiled at Hermione, menacingly, as he twirled his wand in his fingers.

"Naugh'y li'l girl. Workin' your way to a spanked bot'om, you are."

"No fair, Ahmy," chided Alecto as she pouted in her brother's direction. "You got to 'ave fun with the las' one."

An annoyed, belligerent look flickered upon Amycus' face. This was sibling rivalry at its best.

"But remember, Sissy, you got to kill the nun."

Apparently Alecto didn't find her act of cold blooded murder quite fulfilling enough. She stuck out her bottom lip so far that Hermione was shocked it wasn't actually gathering dust from the floor. This seemed to be Amycus' undoing. He pulled his sister into a quick hug and gave her a loud smacking kiss on her forehead. He then turned to Hermione and leered at her menacingly.

"I jus' can' deny my Sissy anythin'."

His yellowish, canine-like teeth almost made Hermione, beloved daughter of two dental practitioners, weep.

"Come now poppet, you don' really expec' us to believe tha' you're 'ere all by your lonesome. Tell us wha' your frien' is usin'?" the disgusting man asked as he took a step closer to her and swayed on his feet. That brief mistep awakened a well of hope so deep in Hermione that she almost did a cartwheel.

The man was drunk! The sister didn't seem to be, but the fact that he was intoxicated was all she needed to know.

"A disillusionmen'? Transfigure themselves?"

"Uh, uh," answered Alecto for her. Her eyes were glued near the floor.

Hermione's head turned to see what she was looking at and nearly cried out at the sight of Tonks and Boadicea's feet fully unveiled for all to see. From what she could tell someone, more than likely DuManoir, had been trying to lift the cloak off of them.

"Come ou', come ou' wherever you are," Alecto sing songed as she took out her stubby little wand and waved it like a conductor leading an orchestra. "There you are!" she shouted as she pointed the wand at them. "Accio invisibility cloak."

The cloak went flying off of Tonks and Boadicea. Tonks, Merlin bless her, tried to catch it and pull it back, but it was no good. The cloak landed in Alecto's outstretched hand. The sight of that...that...woman touching Harry's cloak, the cloak that he treasured, the cloak that had belonged to his father, sent such a lightning bolt of hatred and wrath through Hermione that she was almost made sick by it. Suddenly all of the lanterns in the room dimmed and everything seemed to go still.

"You give that back!" she growled as she reached her hand down her blouse and yanked out her wand.

"I don' thin' I wan' to," the bitch said.

She then turned to her brother.

"Jus' thin' Ahmy, we could fuck righ' under this with other people in the room and no one would ever know the difference." She gave her brother a sickening grin as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Like tha' ever stopped us," he cheekily responded, then let out a wheezy, drunken chortle.

His sister joined him with her own cackling laugh. She then pressed her lips onto his and the two commenced to eat each others' faces before their very disgusted captive audience. At least that's what it looked like to Hermione. Even Boadicea seemed to be disturbed by the vulgar demonstration.

"Ugh!" groaned Tonks as she looked at the pair, revulsion radiating from her eyes.

Alecto paused mid-snog to spare a glance at Tonks.

"You're a Black," she stated.

Tonks, gaze never wavering, answered, "Yes."

Alecto's face frowned in distaste.

"I don' like you Blacks."

"I'm broken up inside over the fact."

"Bunch of fuckin' poncies," she snarled as she disentangled herself from her brother's embrace. "First Regulus, then Narcissa and 'er li'l pup. An' tha' Bellatrix thin' she's too good for the res' of us. I'm gonna enjoy killin' you."

Tonks merely smiled coolly and calmly at the threat.

"You can try."

And for the first time, Hermione understood clearly why Nymphadora Tonks was an Auror.

"Listen my li'l lovelies," Amycus cut in, seemingly growing tired of Tonks and his sister's battle of wills, "you two 'ave somethin' that we wan'."

He looked at Boadicea and the girl slowly backed herself into the wall by the window to get away from his lecherous leer. She slid down the wall and brought her chin to her knees. She began rocking back and forth silently mouthing the same thing over and over. Tom. Tonks went over to the girl, sat down on the floor next to her, and tried to comfort her.

"Me an' Sissy aren' let'in' you out the room 'til we get it. Now it can either be easy or it could be 'ard."

He started that wheezy laugh of his. His sister started clapping her hands merrily as though he had told the funniest joke.

"Personally, I like it 'ard," he finished.

"EMPTY THREATS, CARROWS!" Tonks shouted back at him confidently.

"Wha'? Thin' the cavalry is goin' to ride in?" asked Amycus mockingly. "If you had any frien's out there, le' me assure you, they 'ave been picked off one by one by one."

Amycus seemed almost saddened that he would miss out on such carnage.

"It's only fair," chirped up Alecto. "Our back-up deserved some en'ertainmen'. I'm afraid tha' me an' Ahmy got...detain'd a bi'."

She and Amycus looked at each other and both burst into laughter. If anything, Hermione wanted to hex the two of them for the annoying sound of it alone.

"Your frien's are dead," said Amycus.

"An' soon you will be too," added his sister.

"You can kill us, but Harry will not rest until that soulless monster that you call master is dead," Hermione said in a steady voice, eyes unblinking. "And that is a promise."

Her wand was pointed at Amycus, awaiting the perfect shot. Hermione's and Amycus' eyes then locked as they each sized the other up.

"This one 'as spunk," said Amycus.

Alecto gave her a disdainful once over and sniffed.

"I 'ate spunk," he said.

The comment caused a smirk worthy of a Malfoy to alight Hermione's face.

Amycus pointed his wand at Hermione, his hand wavering slightly, and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could utter a word Alecto placed a halting hand on her brother's arm and looked at him wondrously.

"But Ahmy," Alecto gasped, "aren' we going to play with 'em firs'?"

Amycus' eyes darted towards his sister and smiled wickedly.

"After."

And that was just the moment Hermione needed.

"Accio wand!"

Amycus' wand sailed out of his hand and Hermione plucked it from the air. The Carrows looked quite frankly shocked for a second, but before either could compose themselves Hermione turned her wand on Alecto.

"Conjunctivitus!"

"ARGH!" screamed Alecto in pain as she dropped the invisibility cloak and a hand went up to her eyes.

She still held her hornbeam wand on them.

"YOU BITCH! I CAN' SEE! I CAN' SEE!" she shouted as she stumbled backwards.

Amycus looked at his sister, then turned vengeful eyes towards Hermione. He let out an unearthly, almost animalistic scream before he went charging at her.

Hermione flicked her wand at him.

"IMPEDIMENTA!"

The spell knocked him back to the far wall giving Hermione just enough time to turn to Tonks and throw his wand towards her.

Alecto started yelling, "I'M GONNA GE' YOU! I'M GONNA GE' YOU, JUS' YOU WAI'!"

"HERE!" Hermione shouted over her shoulders as Tonks lept from the floor and dived forward to catch the wand. As Hermione turned back around, she saw Alecto still stumbling about, waving the wand furiously every which way.

"AVADA−"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The spell could have hit anyone of them. Hermione had no time to make a judgment call. She just sent out silently the first spell that entered her head.

Alecto staggered back as though an invisible hand had pushed her. Her eyes enlarged. She looked down at her chest to find the fabric of her robes ripped in shreds and a wide red gash across her bosom. She pressed a hand to the wound and let out a blood curdling cry when she turned it up to see it painted red. If she could have seen what Hermione could, she would have found similar cuts on her face as well as her neck. Blood seeped out of all of them."

"AHMY!" she wailed, the voice of a frightened little girl. She wilted to the floor onto her hands and knees. She dropped her wand and didn't seem to notice it as the crooked piece of wood rolled away from her. Hermione never looked to see where it went.

Tonks came up beside Hermione and looked on the scene.

"What the hell kind of spell was that?" she asked in awe. She had already changed back into her Auror robes.

"Sectusempra."

"I've never seen anything like it."

"Neither have I," Hermione droned mechanically.

"AHMY!" the blood soaked woman wailed again from the floor. By now she had turned on her back. "AHMY, WHERE ARE YOU? I can' see you Ahmy, it's so dark." Hermione, however, had already ended the jinx on her.

By this time Amycus had regained consciousness, and when he saw his sister lying in a bloody heap, he ignored the other three witches and crawled across the floor to get to Alecto. He gathered his sister in his arms and ran a loving hand over her cheek, smearing his hand and the side of her face with her blood.

"Wha' happen' to your pret'y face, luv?" he sobbed as tears worked their way down his grimy cheeks. "Who did this to you?"

"The Mudblood, Ahmy. She didn' play fair," she sniffed. "It hurts. Ahmy, make it stop."

The siblings' cries and wails were almost maddening.

"Take Boadicea, and as soon as you can Apparate outside, do it. Get her as far away from here as you can." Hermione told Tonks, eyes never wavering from the Carrows.

"Hermione-" Tonks began in protest.

"He doesn't have a wand," she said as she looked over at the older woman. "He can't do anything to me. Get her out of here," she said firmly.

Tonks, seeing the hard, unwavering look in Hermione's eyes let any objections she might have raised, fall. She went to Boadicea and pulled the girl up by the arms. The two of them ran out of the door, and as soon as Tonks reached the hallway, they disappeared in a loud pop.

Hermione slowly inched her way forward and dropped down on her heels to retrieve Harry's cloak. As she was rising up, Alecto's whole body began to convulse. Her eyes closed and her mouth contorted in a silent scream of anguish. Her whole body shook as though electricity was surging through it. Amycus called out her name over and over again. And then just as suddenly as it began it stopped.

Alecto Carrows never opened her eyes again.

"Is she dead?" Hermione asked wearily, praying that she didn't lose it at that very moment. Amycus didn't hear her, or if he did he ignored her as though she was of no significance.

"I-I..." Hermione stammered haltingly. "I didn't mean for...I mean...I didn't want to..."

Hermione searched for the best way to apologize for accidentally killing her own would be murderer. Killing Alecto had never been Hermione's intention. But the Death Eater had been about to cast the Killing Curse at them. She had to defend Tonks, Boadicea, and herself. She had just used the first spell her mind hit upon; Sectusempra, the Half-Blood Prince's very own creation.

The spell that Harry had used on Malfoy.

The very spell that Hermione had berated Harry over and over again for using.

The spell that even he regretted turning on the Slytherin.

And here she had used it on another human being.

But she shouldn't have died, Hermione's tortured thoughts told her.

What Hermione didn't know was that Alecto Carrows had a bad heart. The shock of her attack had killed her.

Giving up on trying to offer any condolence to Amycus, Hermione quickly made for the door. But before she could cross the threshold, Carrows' low, deep voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Everythin' you ever love, you Mudblood bitch..." he said as casually as though he were telling her directions.

Hermione turned around to face him, but he kept his back to her.

"Anyone you ever care abou', anyone who ever loves you, I'm goin' to destroy."

He then tossed her a look over his shoulder.

"An' then I'm gonna sit back an' drin' your tears."

It was a promise.

"Yes...well...good luck on that," she replied with as much fortitude as she could manage. She then turned around, exited into the hall, and Apparated outside.

~~**~~ ~~**~~

The scene behind the cloister of the Poor Clares was a madhouse. Everywhere Hermione looked she saw wizards and witches dueling; wands pointed in battle. Or she saw bodies scuffling in hand to hand combat. Chants and incantations filled the air, as well as dense breathing, anguished grunts, and earsplitting screams. The battle was fierce. As much as she didn't want to, she couldn't help but notice the motionless bodies that were strewn across the clover field.

And somewhere in the middle of all of this is Harry, Hermione worriedly thought as her teeth began to gnaw away madly at the corner of her bottom lip.

There were men and women dressed in Auror uniforms as well as mundane everyday robes. Hermione easily recognized the various members of the Order of the Phoenix. There were also several dark cloaked, hooded figures running about. In fact she saw one chasing after Tonks and Boadicea as the two of them fled in the direction of the woods in back of the nunnery.

Buckbeak and the boy's brooms were in those woods. She saw the hooded figure raise a wand towards Tonks, but instantly the Death Eater went down. His knees had been tuned backward. Hermione swung her head to the right in time to see that Ron was the one who had jinxed the Death Eater so expertly. She couldn't stop her squeal of triumph, nor could she control the gigantic grin that came along with it. However before she could call out Ron's name, she saw him begin to duel with a reedy looking fellow who was hoodless. Hermione was almost certain the man had been one of the Death Eaters who participated in the battle at the Department of Mysteries almost two years ago. Ron and the man circled each other for what seemed like ages before the man sent a spell at Ron's head. Ron dropped to the ground, rolled, and pointed his wand at his opponent, setting the man's robes on fire. As the wizard ran off in a panic, Ron turned back to the battle and headed straight in again.

Hermione heard a noise in the sky and turned her face upwards. She saw a red blur fly from out of the trees. It looked like Tonks and Boadicea, but from the distance she was at Hermione couldn't be sure. What Hermione did see was the pink, rosy hue of dawn breaking across the sky. It almost surprised her that it could actually be a new day. She felt certain that their nightmare night would play endlessly on loop, but so far they had actually lived to see another morning. So far, at least. Hermione almost gave into the giddy sensation of accomplishment before she looked behind her and saw the dazzling green skull with its serpent tongue hanging in the air over the monastery.

Hermione turned around just in time to see the crowd clear and got a good view of Harry chasing down Walden Macnair. Macnair appeared to be wandless. Macnair also appeared to be terrified of the young wizard who was stalking him as if the older man were a gazelle and his pursuer a mighty lion. Harry flicked his wand out at him and shouted, "Encapsilaria". The Mime Spell effectively trapped its victim in an invisible cage. Macnair pitched forward and hit an invisible wall causing him to bounce back. He soon found himself trapped in on all sides. He turned towards Harry and shouted soundless curses at him. Harry reached him and was staring admiringly at his work, when suddenly his head swiveled around in her direction.

"HERMIONE!" he shouted frantically as his hand rose up quickly before him.

Hermione felt some form of heat or energy pass by her quickly over her shoulders, and when she turned around she saw the body of a female Death Eater fly through the air and hit the wall of the building. It made a loud thud before falling down to the ground. Hermione took a shaky step backwards as she realized that she knew the black robed woman...more like girl; Carmen Calatrava. The gangly brunette had been a Prefect in Ravenclaw House. Calatrava had just left Hogwarts two years ago. She had asked to borrow a quill from Hermione once. What kind of madness is this, Hermione's over taxed brain seemed to scream. She then anxiously turned around and saw a sight that nearly stopped her heart from beating.

Off in the distance Harry had been preparing to run to her when Peter Pettigrew snuck up behind him and bashed the side of his head with his silver fist. Harry, surprised by the sneak attack, barely made a sound as his body crumpled to the ground like he was made of sticks.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed with all her might. She screamed so hard she felt the inside of her throat go raw.

She tossed the invisibility cloak over her and took off running through the endless sea of bodies that battled it out on the small stretch of field behind the nunnery. Hermione didn't care about all that now. She hardly noticed Mr. Shacklebolt holding off two enormous sized Death Eaters at once; a fellow who looked like an even larger version of Gregory Goyle and a big blond whose face looked like it had been bludgeoned by the ugly stick. She barely took note of Charlie limping away off the field. When she tripped and fell and found herself looking into the sightless gaze of poor Old Mr. Doge, she only took a moment to close his eyes before springing to her feet again. She just had to get to Harry. She needed to save Harry!

She was almost near him when she saw Wormtail straddle the unconscious boy. The foul little man had Ron's wand in his hand and had its tip pressed forcefully into the flesh of Harry's throat.

"Think Master will think kindly on poor Wormtail if I kill you for him, little Harry?" the pale faced, beady eyed rat asked Harry in his frail, squeaky voice.

As if hearing the answer he wanted, Wormtail jammed the wand into Harry's neck even more forcefully and opened his mouth to speak.

"Avada…umph!"

Draco Malfoy had come out of nowhere and had thrown himself at Pettigrew, knocking the man off of Harry. The two of them rolled around on the grass before coming to a stop, Draco on top of the balding little man. Draco began to pummel the man's rat-like face over and over again until he pulled back his fist and suddenly grabbed his arm in pain. By this point Hermione had reached Harry and had him safely in her arms. She threw the invisibility cloak over them to hide their presence. Hermione looked in the direction the spell that hit Draco had come from and saw a simply gorgeous specimen of man saunter up. With his long dark hair and bedroom eyes he looked like he had stepped off the front cover of a romance novel. Draco, still sitting on Petter turned to address his attacker.

"Uncle."

"Draco."

"Aunt Bella here?"

"No, she finds such outings beneath her. How's your mother?"

"In hiding."

Hermione dazedly wondered if she had somehow wandered into some urbane melodrama. Draco and the Death Eater, his uncle apparently, were acting as though it was the most natural thing in the world for them to have a family chat while people lay dying near them.

Draco's uncle still held his wand out on him.

"Oh nephew, what would your father say if he saw the riffraff you've aligned yourself with?" the handsome stranger tsked.

"Not sure; would be a pretty good trick, though. You see, my father is dead. Your master killed him, remember?"

For his impertinence, Draco's uncle hexed his nephew's other arm. Draco fell off of Pettigrew and clutched at the injured bicep. His face was a sickish gray hue. Wormtail took this as an opportunity to revert to his Animagus form. The nebbish, little man transformed himself into a rat with a tiny silver paw and scurried away across the field and into the direction of the woods. That's when Hermione saw her chance, while Draco's uncle's attention was diverted, to reach for Ron's wand that lay in the grass near where she lay crouched and concealed.

As she was reaching her hand out though she heard Draco's agitated voice call out the word "no". Hermione's eyes swiftly looked to where Draco was, still clutching at his arm, and saw that he was looking right at her! Actually it was her hand that he was staring at. She had stretched her hand out so far that it had come from under the invisibility cloak, and unlike the rest of her body, could be seen. Draco's uncle, who had been watching Wormtail scamper off, was just about to turn around to face her when he heard Draco's cry.

"No?" the man asked with a hateful sneer. "'No'....what, little dragon?" he condescendingly asked again as he brought his attention back to the teenager.

Hermione quickly grabbed the wand.

Draco looked his uncle in the eyes and said slyly, "Know what my father would say to me?"

Though Draco appeared to be in a great deal of pain, he still seemed to hold his own against his elder kinsman.

"I await it with bated breath."

"In the end," the young Slytherin began confidently, "Malfoys always come out on top!"

The man chuckled wickedly.

"So much arrogance for one so young," he snidely said. "I love it in comrades, absolutely abhor it in enemies. I guess it can't be helped, though. Humility was never a dominant trait on either side of your family tree. But take heart, little dragon. Because you're family, I'll kill you last," the dark eyed man magnanimously said as he turned his back on Draco. That was when Draco took out his wand from his pocket.

"Incarcerous!"

Thick ropes suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the Death Eater, all the way to his feet. The man fell forward cursing Draco's name.

"Because you're family, Uncle Rodolphus, I won't kill you," Draco said as he shakily stood to his feet and stumbled over to the fallen man.

He slowly turned Rodolphus Lestrange over, conjured a single silk dress sock, and stuffed it in the man's mouth. Draco then made his way close to where Hermione and Harry were and dropped to his knees on the grass nearby.

Hermione pulled the cloak off of them.

"You ok?" he tersely asked her.

She nodded her head.

"You?"

"My hair hurts," he muttered.

Hermione timidly reached out a hand towards Malfoy. She had barely touched his shoulder when he suddenly reared back in pain.

"AND MY ARM! AND MY ARM!" he yelped through clenched teeth.

"What happened out here?" she asked him.

"Not too long after you and that lunatic cousin of mines went in, the mark went up," he said glancing up at the sky as the last traces of the hateful calling card began to fade. "Your two wankers nearly lost their shite and tried to run in after you, but we got ambushed. If it wasn't for the Werewolf and the others we would have been flobberworm meal. Who was the bird Nympho-dora came running out with?"

"Later. I promise. You're going to want to be at full strength to hear this," she told him.

Hermione positioned Harry so that he could be comfortable and she could inspect him to ensure he wasn't too badly injured. His head lay in her lap. There was a painful looking red wand imprint where Pettigrew had practically punctured Harry's throat, and one of the arms of his coat was tearing at the seam. Other than that Harry looked none the worse for wear. She stroked his hair lovingly as she looked about her. The battle was over and it looked like the Order of the Phoenix had come out on top. She saw Aurors Proudfoot and Savage collecting the Death Eaters who hadn't managed to escape, Lestrange included. She saw the able-bodied helping assist the wounded. She saw the dead being floated away. The sky was dotted with Order members flying away. The one thing she did not see was Carrows.

"You saved Harry's life," Hermione remarked as she turned to face Draco again.

Although she tried to disguise the shock in her voice, it was there as plain as day.

"Why did you save Harry's life?" she asked him.

Draco held her gaze for a moment, searching for something clever to say, before drawling, "I have a bet on Potter winning Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile next month. I plan on collecting."

Hermione quirked a half-smile.

"Malfoy, I guess I was wrong about you. I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "I've never been so happy to be wrong about something in all my life!"

Malfoy looked gobsmacked by the declaration. She could practically see the gears turn in his head as he searched for some kind of reply to give her. Finding none, he settled on stubbornly huffing, "Well...I wasn't wrong about the skirt. I still think it makes you look fat!"

Maybe it was because she was tired, maybe it was because she had almost lost her life several times that day, or perhaps it was simply because she found the joke funny; whichever the case, Malfoy's snide comment elicited a belly laugh from Hermione so deep and powerful she felt she had to hold her stomach to keep it from tearing her in two. In fact she laughed so hard that Harry stirred to consciousness in her lap.

"Hermione?" he said weakly as he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

She smiled down at him.

"Uh huh."

Harry smiled back at her.

"You're alive," he said in rapt wonder and joy.

"I am," she said as she smiled sunnily at him. "And thanks to Malfoy, so are you."

The smile that had been playing at Harry's lips suddenly fell, and he looked towards Malfoy as if to hear him deny Hermione's obvious delusions.

Instead Malfoy paid him a Cheshire-like grin. Harry turned his head back and glumly said, "I think I would have preferred the Avada."

Hermione giggled.

"HERMIONE! HARRY!"

Hermione looked up to see Ron bounding towards them. His face was smudged with dirt, his jumper appeared to have been fed through a shredder, but he looked bright eyed and exhilarated. He dropped down to the ground beside Hermione, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her in for a deep kiss. Hermione was just so relieved to see that he was whole and not in pieces, that she tolerated the very public affectionate display.

Malfoy made a gagging sound. Harry jumped off her lap with lightning speed.

"Were you hurt?" Ron asked.

She shook her head as she handed him back his wand. He cried out in delight, then turned to his friend.

"Alright, Harry?" asked Ron.

Harry slowly nodded his head as he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

"Yeah."

Ron smiled happily at both of them before Malfoy made a huffy noise that brought their attention to him.

"FINE! Just don't ask about me then."

Ron's lips curled in distaste.

"I wasn't planning on it."

Ron then began to excitedly babble on about the battle they had just participated in. Harry indulgently listened to the redhead brag on and on about his part in it, with a huge grin on his face. Neither saw it when Hermione mouthed the words "thank you" to Malfoy. They both missed it when Malfoy tersely nodded his head to her.

Auror Shacklebolt and Professor Lupin soon found them and examined each of them to make sure that they were alright. Instead of receiving the tongue lashing she knew they all probably deserved, Shacklebolt commended them on a job well done. He informed them, however, that they needed to get out of there quick before Ministry officials showed up to Obliviate any poor nuns who happened to see the early morning skirmish. Also the Muggle authorities had been notified and were on their way to collect the Mother Superior who had the misfortune of meeting the Carrows. Shacklebolt made no mention of Alecto's body however, and although it made Hermione's stomach nearly wretch from guilt, she didn't either.

Hermione helped Harry up and Ron floated Malfoy in front of them. They headed back into the wooded area where Buckbeak and Harry's broom was. Ron took every opportunity he could to knock Malfoy into every tree they passed. Both looked displeased that they would have to share a broom, but since neither found the prospect of riding Buckbeak palatable, they both curbed their tongues over the matter.

Once they had gotten high up enough in the sky, Hermione pulled out the Psychopompus. She was just about to say the incantation that activated it when Tonks and Boadicea appeared seemingly out of thin air. The two of them had been flying around under a cloaking spell, waiting...hoping for the four of them to show up. The Auror's sudden appearance however spooked the hippogriff so badly that Buckbeak started flying erratically sending the Psychopompus falling out of Hermione's hands. Unthinkingly, she dove after it as it went hurtling to the ground. She would have followed after it too if Harry hadn't caught her about the waist and pulled her back firmly on the hippogriff.

"DAMMIT, HARRY!" she wrathfully yelled at him as she turned as far sideways as she could. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes, though it was her rage that nearly made it impossible for her to see him. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?!"

"Do what?" Harry bewilderedly asked.

She stared at him reproachfully.

"YOU'RE A SEEKER, HARRY! YOU COULD HAVE EASILY CAUGHT IT!"

Harry looked at her as though she had gone mad.

"But who was going to catch you?!" he asked.

"I'M EXPENDABLE! YOU MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE REST OF THE MISSING HORCRUXES!"

"AND WE WILL!" he plaintively yelled, the wind drowning out their voices to everyone but the two of them, "BUT NOT WITHOUT YOU!"

The statement seemed to shake some sense into Hermione and make her aware all at once just where she was. High up. In the sky. On a hippogriff.

"I almost fell," Hermione said as her throat constricted at the very thought.

Harry's lips twitched almost into a smile.

"Yes, you did."

Her head swam momentarily and she had to fight off a bad case of nausea and dizziness. She just reminded herself that if she fainted up there it would not help matters. It was a long way down, and from their height she wouldn't look too good once she hit the ground.

Harry, sensing Hermione's distress pulled her back so she rested against him, rubbed her arms reassuringly and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, I've got you. I've got you. I'll always catch you."

The little group eventually made it back to Hogwarts some time after that.

The dead body of Alecto Carrows was never found when the Ministry and the Muggle authorities searched through the Monastère Sainte Claire. Her brother Amycus vanished as well. The rumor that circulated was that the siblings had went into hiding, in fear of Lord Voldemort's wrath, because of their botched handling of the Boussac assignment. Stories popped up all over of the two being seen in the most unusual of places; sunning in Monaco, hiding out in a missionary in Manila, leading boat tours in St. Kitts, to name just a few.

Hermione, however, knew the truth. She knew that Alecto no longer existed; she had watched the woman die, she had played a part in her death. And Hermione knew that for whatever reasons that were his own, her brother had spirited his sister's body away.

Hermione told only two souls about the incident in Boussac; Harry and Ron. The night she sobbed the story out to them they both told her, without hesitation, that she had done what she'd had to do; that they didn't think any less of her.

Of course you didn't mean to murder her, Hermione...

It was either Carrows or you, Hermione...

After a while their reassurances made her feel better and she began to believe them. This was after all a war, casualties happened. What was just one more death in the scheme of things? After that none of them ever brought up the name Carrows again, it was anathema. Of course she had left out Amycus' threats, but she did so only because she didn't want to worry Harry and Ron over her any further. She was starting to become an old hand at keeping things from her boys by that point. Besides it was only an empty threat. She was sure of it. She tried to put the whole ordeal out of her head. Hermione had almost accomplished it too.

Then her parents' brand new car plunged off a simple country bridge on a cloudless, perfect day. And Hermione knew. If she needed any further proof, a few months after the double funeral she received a note written in a straight, no nonsense hand that confirmed it for her.

Everything you ever love.

"I never heard from him again after that," said Hermione as she looked sadly at her old house. "I don't know if he died or if he just got bored toying with me but...there you have it."

She turned to look at Harry.

"I'm a right Lizzie Borden, I am."

Harry's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Who?"

He then shook his head.

"Never mind that. Hermione, when your parents died the Ministry did a thorough investigation, remember? It was found that their accident wasn't caused by any magical means. Arthur looked into it for you specifically."

"Wrong. Although no magical means could be determined, it could not, however, be ruled out. The findings were inconclusive."

Hermione looked directly at him.

"I saw every memo, Harry. I read every piece of paperwork that was filed. Don't you get it? He wanted me to know. Carrows wanted to make sure I knew exactly why my parents were dead. To everyone else it would just look like some poor Muggle bastard drove him and his wife off a bridge. But I knew. I would always know."

"I remember Carrows from the night Dumbledore died," Harry said absentmindedly. "Him, and that face ache of a sister of his. Hermione, why didn't you ever tell me all of this before?"

"I didn't want to be a burd-"

"If you say the word burden again, so help me..."

Hermione only sighed as she looked down at the ground.

"So I'm the only person who knows about this?" Harry asked.

Hermione didn't say anything, but the way her teeth started working on her lip told him the answer.

"Who did you tell? Ron?"

She was going to draw blood soon.

"MALFOY?!" Harry could barely contain his outrage.

She dismissively waved her hand.

"I didn't tell Draco anything. He forced it out of me, the prat!" she grumbled. "Draco was there in my office when I got that last note. I tried to burn it, but he snatched it out of my hands before I could."

Although the idea that Draco Malfoy could ever know something about Hermione that he didn't, made Harry want to drown the wanker in a shallow pool, he chose to be a bigger person and not dwell on it. For now, anyhow.

"Ok, I still don't get why you would think that you were somehow accountable for your parents' death? Carrows would be the sick fuck responsible, not you."

Hermione regarded Harry for a moment before taking the conversation in a completely different direction.

"I almost went to a different school," Hermione told him in a false, cheery voice. "Did you know that?"

Harry sent Hermione a baffled look, but chose not to interrupt her.

"École La Découverte de Mme Dupont; that's the school I would have went to instead of Hogwarts. Madame Dupont's School of Discovery; 'Where young girls become young ladies'. It was in Zürich. Ever hear of it?"

Harry shook his head.

"It should have been called Mrs. Dupont's Holding Cell for Crazy Rich Girls," Hermione said as she mirthlessly smiled. "Because that is what it was. It's where the wealthy sent their daughters when they didn't know what else to do with them. Drug addicts, girls who were a little too fast and loose with the boys, and the insane ones. Guess which group I was?"

Harry shook his head disbelievingly at her.

"Why would your parents ever send you to a place like that?"

"Because they were at their wits end, Harry," Hermione explained. "They didn't know what else to do. They felt like they had no choice in the matter."

Seeing Harry's mystified expression, Hermione tried to explain things the best she could.

"I still remember that story you told us, me and Ron, about you ending up on the roof when those Muggle hooligans chased after you."

A small smile grew on Harry's lips. He always thought of those times as the BTMs, the days before the magic. The days before he knew that he had a gift and that he wasn't a weirdo or a psycho like his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon tried to browbeat him into believing.

"Once when I was 9 or 10, both my parents had to go into the office so they sent for a sitter. Usually one of them always tried to be home with me when I came home from school, but this day I guess it couldn't be helped. Usually when this happened they got Old Mrs. Crittenden from a few houses down to look after me. I liked her," Hermione said with a smile. "She made good biscuits. Whenever Mrs. Crittenden stayed with me she would take me for a walk to Holland Park just to go look at the peacocks."

Harry sniggered. For some reason he found the idea of Hermione bird watching humorous.

She cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Sue me, I was a child. I liked to look at the peacocks. So," she continued ignoring the grin on Harry's face, "this one particular day it was bucketing down out real hard so she told me that until it stopped we couldn't go. I must have sat at my window for ages, wishing over and over again that it would just stop raining outside. And then just like that it did."

"Okay," Harry said warily, "that doesn't sound so fantastic. So it stopped raining outside."

"Exactly," she replied. "It stopped raining outside and instead started raining in my bedroom. The whole place was flooded. Of course by time my parents had come home it had stopped, but the damage had already been done."

Hermione shook her head ruefully.

"I was always doing things like that. I had no way to control it. And worse, my parents knew I was doing these things but had no idea just how."

"So they thought you were mad?" he asked incredulously.

"It's not like they wanted to," she defended, "but it was the easy answer. It may be wrong most times, but the easy answer is easy for a reason. See mum had this friend, Janice." As Hermione said the name her words practically oozed disgust. "They went to uni together. Janice was a psychotherapist. Janice was also a cow!" Hermione added nastily for good measure. "She somehow convinced my parents that all of these so-called stunts I was pulling were cries for attention, and that since I was such a loner I was destined to become some social deviant."

Harry gaped at her in disbelief.

"I know!" she said in answer to him. "I told you she was a cow! She's the one who convinced my parents to send me to that school. To this day I'm convinced she was getting kickbacks from Madame Dupont."

"My opinion of therapy isn't that high," Harry told her. "I wouldn't be surprised."

Hermione didn't seem to hear him, though. Her eyes were focused completely on her house. Her home.

"My parents loved me. They wanted the best for me. If sending me away to that school would help, they would do it. But then my Hogwarts letter arrived and everything was explained. I wasn't crazy, I was a witch!"

She smiled sadly.

"We were so happy! Now all these years later all I can think is if I had just attended that damned school my parents would still be alive. If I wasn't a witch, if I didn't go to Hogwarts, if..."

"You hadn't met me," Harry finished for her.

Hermione turned her big, sorrowful eyes towards Harry. She looked at him as though he were babbling gibberish.

"That's not what I was going to say," she stated.

"But if you had never been my friend the War might have never touched you. You would have never run up against Carrows and his sister."

"But then I wouldn't have gotten to know you..." and love you, she said only to herself. "Then where would I be? I don't blame you for my parents' death, Harry," she told him honestly.

Harry took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him.

"Good. Then you shouldn't blame yourself either. Your parents loved you, were so proud of you. I remember that year we ran into you and them in Diagon. They stuck out like sore thumbs."

Hermione softly chuckled at the memory.

"But the way they looked at you...It was like you were their whole world, especially your dad."

He slid one of his hands down her arm and took one of her hands in his. He playfully swung it back and forth.

"Did Ron ever tell you about that night we had to get you out of there?" he said motioning towards her old house with his head. She told him, "no".

"So your parents show up, days before you told us they were due. Everyone was already at Hogwarts by then. Me and Ron were still at your place because we hadn't decided on a way to move you yet. We were still hoping you would wake-up because the prospect of getting you up on one of our brooms and you coming to up there..."

"Jesus!" Hermione exclaimed, the very thought of it turning her stomach.

"Exactly," he smirked. "Merlin only knows why we didn't just Apparate you out."

"Trying to Apparate an unconscious person is risky. It's virtually impossible," the know-it-all in her replied.

He quirked a smile at her and she bashfully smiled as well.

"Well there you go. Only a certain sleepyhead wasn't around to tell us this. Guess you were too busy dreaming."

The smile slowly faded away.

"I guess."

Harry's smile faltered too. He was about to ask her what he had said wrong when she asked a question of her own.

"So what did you two end up doing?"

Harry's smile came back even larger than before.

"Well I wrapped you up in my dad's cloak and Ron threw you over his shoulder."

"Brilliant thinking," she mockingly said as she laughed.

"It was a good plan," he insisted, tongue planted firmly in his cheek. "It worked. Or at least it almost did. When your mum asked where you were, Ron told her that you had gone off to school ahead of us, but had left some things and sent us for them."

She turned to walk back in the direction of the truck and he followed. They were still holding hands.

"Let me guess, both your arms looked completely empty."

He boyishly smiled down at her from her side.

"Of course. By the way Ron was holding you it looked like he had a herniated disk."

Hermione laughed outright at that.

"We were almost out the door when your father asked to speak to me for just a moment. Ron, the wanker, kept going."

Hermione gave him a playful shove for that.

"So I turn to look at your dad and he has the strangest expression ever on his face. I then turn to see what he's looking at and it's your feet sticking out from under the cloak."

"Goodness," said Hermione stopping to look at Harry. Her eyes were filled with laughter.

"It wasn't funny!" Harry protested though his own smile told her it was. "Your father was a pretty imposing bloke. I never imagined a dentist could be so intimidating outside of his chair. I was convinced he was going to give me a good thrashing."

The image that Harry was painting was absolutely hysterical to her. She was practically crying with laughter.

"But all he said was, 'take care of my little girl'."

And just like that, Hermione began to cry.

Harry pulled her into a deep hug and comfortingly rubbed her back. He murmured nonsense words in her hair that might have had no technical meaning, but made all the sense in the world to her. He also ignored the mess she had made of his shirt.

"Now what do you think your parents would say if they knew that you had carried this guilt inside you all this time?" he whispered near her ear.

She sniffed as she pulled back from him and opened her purse to look for her handkerchief.

"Dad would tell me to stop being a goose," she said as she found it and rubbed it against her red, raw nose.

Harry looked her in the eye and in all serious said, "Stop being a goose."

His solemn order only made her laugh as she dabbed at her red rimmed eyes and returned her hanky to her purse.

Hermione had lived with her guilt for so long that it would take some time for her to let it go. She would always think to herself, "what if". What if she hadn't gone along to Boussac that fateful night? What if they had just waited on the Order before they went? What if she had simply used a disarming spell?

Deep down Hermione knew that Harry was right, though. Her parents would want her to find some measure of peace, not continuously blame herself for something she couldn't have controlled. They would want her to live, not live under the shadow of what a mad wizard had done. As Harry tenderly looked down into her face, she had to wonder why she hadn't just told him all of this in the first place. It might have saved her a lot of heartache if she had.

"You were a daddy's girl, weren't you?" he asked.

"Terribly so," she admitted. "Mum used to joke that I had an Electra complex. I was 10 before I found a book that told me what that was and instantly wanted to scrub my eyes out for ever reading it."

"I'm more than half that age and have no clue."

She held back a giggle.

"But I tell you what, if you don't start smiling more I'll have Ron read to you from his journal."

"Are you trying to cheer me up or torture me?"

Harry grinned.

"He's writing his own vows for the wedding, you know. Told me so himself. Quite proud of the fact."

Hermione bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling.

"You've accomplished the unimaginable. You've made me feel something other than contempt for Lavender Brown. Poor woman.

"Ah...ah...ah, that's Lavender Brown-Pye soon to be Weasley."

"Woman has more surnames than a bloody directory," Hermione muttered archly.

That got a belly laugh out of Harry and she finally released her own smile.

"But at least she has a place to live," Hermione said forlornly. "This whole day has been a waste."

Harry grabbed at his chest as if in pain. "Like a knife to the heart," he joked.

"Well not a total waste," she giggled as they continued on their way. "But I still need a place of my own," she stated. "Don't get me wrong, Molly and Arthur are sweet for letting me stay, but the Burrow is just too cramped what with Bill and Fleur, the children...Charlie. Just this morning I accidentally walked in on him in the shower."

Harry's stopped his tread and swung around to look at her.

"YOU WHAT?!!"

She nodded her head innocently.

"And let me tell you, I now know for a fact that no two Weasley men are created equal."

Harry grabbed her arm and hooked it through his own as he abruptly started marching away. Hermione helplessly got pulled along.

"Yes, we do need to find you a new place," he said tersely. "In fact..."

Harry stopped again and Hermione looked at him curiously. A delighted smile slowly worked itself on his face and Hermione couldn't help but think how adorable it was; like a little boy trying to please his mum.

"I can't believe that I didn't think about this before," Harry said to her. "I know the perfect place for you! All the room you need."

"Sounds good so far."

"It's a bit out the way, though."

She chuckled.

"I can afford the petrol. How's the rent?" she asked.

"I'm sure the land lord would be more than willing to cut you a deal," he said, practically bouncing on his toes.

The more Harry talked this place up, the more she liked the sound of it.

"I'm intrigued. How does he feel about house pets?"

Harry naughtily grinned.

"Surprisingly enough, he has no problem with them. In fact he might even be willing to throw in a wide, open back yard for that Shetland pony of yours to run around in."

She playfully swatted him for disparaging a lady's weight.

"Lizzie is just big boned!"

Harry laughed.

"I don't know, Potter," Hermione said, feigning distrust. "Place sounds too good to be true. Why hasn't it been snapped up before now?"

Harry's huge grin tapered down to a small smile at the question, but he never took his eyes off of her.

"Waiting for you, I guess."

Hermione tried to ignore the faint heat that warmed her cheeks at his words. She was just being foolish. She bent her head over her purse, trying to hide her face, and pulled her keys out.

"Well, why are we still standing here?" she airily asked, looking back at him. "Let's go."

She began to walk towards the direction of her truck. He grabbed her arm to stop her.

"No, not that way," he said as color slowly rose in his cheeks as well. "I-I can get us there quicker. I can have us there in the blink of an eye."

He held out a hand to her.

"Trust me don't you?"

Hermione ruefully smiled at the query. What kind of question was that to ask?

"Of course," she replied.

He looked around to make sure no one was looking and said, "Then let's go."

She stepped closer to Harry and placed her hand effortlessly in his. It was warm, and he gave her fingers a squeeze as he winked at her.

And then they were gone.

A/N: Next up is Harry's POV. Things to look forward to: a housewarming party, a telephone call, and a water fight gets out of hand.

A few more points of interest...

1) All characters other than Trivia, Evander, Latinus, Mulciber, Carmen Calatrava, Madame Dupont, Old Mrs. Crittenden, and Janice are canon.

2) A pyschopomp is a term used for a spirit, angel, deity, or what have you that guides souls through the Afterlife; Anubis, Hermes, Charon, Micheal the Archangel to name just a few.

3) The Malfoy/Buckbeak chicken line might be similar to one in the movie POA.

4) Regosi Rexia is derived from the Latin. rego rexi= to guide, direct.

5) The Poor Clares of the Monastère Sainte Claire are situated in Quebec and were borrowed for the story.

6) Carrows' line about hating Hermione's spunk is a well known Mary Tyler Moore reference.

7) The idea of drinking someones tears I fully cop to borrowing from the classic and bestest episode of SouthPark of all time Scott Tenorman Must Die. Yes, Eric Cartmen would make a hell of a Death Eater.

8) The psychoanalytic theory called the Electra complex is according to Freud, "the feminine Oedipus complex". In Greek mythology Electra convinced her brother Orestes to avenge their father's death by murdering his killer, their mother.

9) I tried to make the French understandable in the text bust just in case it wasn't clear....

Oui. Qui est vous? Qu'est-ce que vous voulez?=Yes. Who are you? What do you want?

Vous n'êtes pas censées être ici!=You aren't supposed to be here!

Je m'appelle Hermione et voici Tonks. Nous sommes des amies.= My name is Hermione and she is Tonks. We're friends.

Nous allons vous porter d'ici.= We're taking you away from here.

Est-il venu pour moi?=He's come for me?

Oui. Nous te conduirons à lui.= Yes. We'll take you to him.

Pardonnez-moi.=Pardon me.

Je pense que je vais y aller maintenant.=I have to go now.

Je dois bientot commencez mon priere du matin.=I have morning prayers to go to.

10) The concept of an Imbuer, the Mime Spell(Encapsilaria), École La Découverte de Mme Dupont(Madame Dupont's School of Discovery), and the concept of a Psychopompus are all original to this story.

Tell me if you like it. Tell me if you hate it. Just tell me something. Please review.