Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the other characters or location in this story.
A/N: Sorry this has taken so long to get up, and sorry for the short length of it. Someone I loved very much passed away recently and it's been hard to dig the story back to the forefront of my over encumbered mind. As always reviews are appreciated (good or bad, constructive criticism helps artists grow) I appreciate all the feedback I've gotten and want to thank those of you out there that did. Believe it or not, your kind words helped to get me through one of the worst weeks of my life. Thank you all. And enjoy.
Somewhere in far away from himself Harry began to question his tactics. He always did, replaying his thoughts and plans again and again in some recessed portion of his mind. The part where he lives, Harry thought darkly. Still his mind was going to fast for the information to stick to anything important, and eventually he forgot the thought altogether. He raised his wand and shot off a stunning spell toward the big Death Eater on the right and without breaking stride he whipped out another in quick succession at the foreign Death Eater as well. His plan was dangerous, but it was the best he could come up with.
They were in an alleyway. Confined. Bottle necked. They could only go two ways. He could only go two ways. They would expect him to run. To grab the poor beaten and tortured Fletcher from the ground and make a quick get away. Harry had to send a message. They only way to do that was to be big and loud and totally unafraid. To do the exact opposite of what was expected of him. Which is how he had ended up running full out down the alleyway and straight for the people casting killing curses.
He was zigzagging to make himself harder to hit, but his sheer speed had caught them off guard. Fletcher looked on in terror at Harry's apparent reckless abandon. The big Death Eater dropped to his knees and spit blood on the ground when Harry's stunning spell made contact with his breast plate. The foreigner was thrown against a wall and slid down it very unconscious. LeStrange reeled her wand back and began to shout the first syllable of the killing curse when Harry had finally come face to face with her. With his free hand he pushed his fist forward in a powerful haymaker. His punch combined with the momentum from his run connected with LeStrange's nose. A deafening crack rang out and Harry felt her nose break beneath his closed fist. She fell to the ground clutching her bleeding nose, wailing furious because without her nose she couldn't utter words properly to cast magic.
Unorthodox, yes, but very effective. Harry's knuckles burned from his contact but he pushed the pain away so he could concentrate on the moment. He stared back at Fletcher and waited for the older Wizard to whisk himself away. When Fletcher had finally gotten the clue and disappeared Harry grabbed the robes of the large Death Eater and told him very discreetly to pass on the message. The wizard nodded slowly as he looked on his beaten and defeated comrades. Harry left him with a simple sentence, "Tell him he can't scare me anymore."
* * *
Hermione was pacing in the kitchen. The days had become weeks and Harry was still gone. She would be lying to say she wasn't worried. Her heart had pined for him in a way she thought impossible only a few years before. She had tried to distract herself by reading up on Horcruxs and how they're made. Her stolen library books were set by her bedside for convenient access at the end of her days. The kitchen however was the one place she felt certain she could find her other mystery. Ron.
She was confused about him breaking up with her, pleased with the freedom to be with Harry, but confused. She was afraid that she had hurt Ron. She loved Ron very much, he was her friend and her brother. The very thought of brining him any pain was tearing away at her heart. She didn't want him to feel like a third wheel, she knew that was his big fear, that one day he wouldn't belong with her and Harry. He had to know that he always had a place, his place was with them always. He had to know.
She had to know as well. It was trite and she hated herself for caring so much, but he had not told her why he had broken up with her. Whatever the reason she was certain that it had some importance in the scheme of all this. Maybe he knew about her and Harry, maybe not. Maybe he had grown out of her, maybe not. Maybe he thought that he or they were going to die. The possibilities were too many and too varied. She just hoped he would be okay.
Her attention had turned suddenly to the cabinets by the stove. She had noticed a piece of paper there among Kreacher's prized possessions that had not been there before. When she grew closer and examined it she saw that it was a small paper puppet. One of the ones Ron had been entertaining him with the other day. She picked it up to examine it better. It was a very crude rendering of Harry. After some digging she found others. One of her and one of Ron. He had been acting out a puppet show with them as the protagonists?
She examined the puppet that looked like her. Around the crudely rendered neck of her puppet she saw that Ron had placed a time turner. She smiled in recognition of the small artifact from their third year at Hogwarts. Just then a noise caught her ear. She turned to see Ron standing in the doorway.
"He likes that story." Ron smiled, "Asks me to tell it all the time." She tried to regain her composer. She was slightly embarrassed to have been caught snooping around in Kreacher's things.
"I'm sure he does." She said knowingly, "Harry is quiet the little hero."
"So were you." He winked playfully at her, "And I was too, matter of fact." She was unsure of how to broach the subject, but needed desperately to know.
"Why, Ron?" She asked with force enough in the saying that he knew what she meant.
"Why? You unhappy with the decision?" He asked patiently.
"I'm.." She tugged listlessly on her hair like she does whenever she thinks, "I'm not unhappy, exactly. Are you?" Ron paused for a moment. Thinking of the best way to answer that question.
"I feel kind of relieved in a weird way." He said finally.
"Why did you do it?" She asked imploringly.
"Because one of us had to." Ron answered knowingly, "It was better for me this way."
"Ron.." She had tears welling in her eyes, "I never wanted you to get hurt. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, I just wanted us to be like we always are." Ron moved closer and placed his hand on her head to comfort her.
"For someone so smart, you can be so dumb." He said with friend like warmth, "The three of us are set in stone. We can't be separated. No harm can come to us when we're together. Don't worry so much." She turned her head up and smiled at him.
"I love him, Ron." She squeaked out meekly. Ron looked down at her with a smile growing ever wider.
"So do I. He's my best friend." Ron took his hand away but kept his smile warm and confident, "He can't make it without you, Hermione. He loves you right back and let's face facts; when Harry has love he has the best chance for victory."
Hermione smiled through her tears and thanked Ron profusely for being so understanding, for being so smart, and for being such a great friend. Ron looked at her like she was daft and told her simply that "this is what you do. That's the rules." A small bout of laughter broke out between them, filling the cold empty house with a kind of life it rarely saw.
The moment was interrupted with a loud crack from the Hallway. The portrait of old Lady Black burst into a myriad of profanity and bigotry as it always does. A voice, gruff and in a hurry told the portrait where is could shove it's ideas. Ron and Hermione exchanged a look before bolting into the hallway to see Harry.
He was dirty. His robes were torn and he had blood all over him. He also had a strange determination set in his jaw and a glimmer in his eye. He had a plan, they both knew it. As they ran forward to greet him after his long absence he uttered to them something so matter-of-factly to them that the fact that it was suicidal didn't set in immediately.
"We're breaking into the ministry."