Chapter One
"Come on, Hermione--" Ron coaxed, hands on Hermione's shoulders. "Let's go-- there's no use staying here any longer--"
"I'm not leaving him alone." Hermione spoke deliberately, in a dangerously quiet voice. "We'll be along in a moment."
"What's wrong?"
Ron sighed and motioned helplessly around at the ruins of the small little cottage. Harry's eyes roved around the scene, finally landing on Hermione, who was kneeling beside the small, horribly discolored figure of an eight year old boy, whom she had covered in her cloak.
"Hermione--"
"Look at him, Harry." Hermione whispered, cutting him off. She lifted her shivering hand, which had long ago been taken from her gloves, and ran it through the dirty, stringy blond hair that covered the boy's head. "He's alive, I know it. He just has to be."
Harry glanced at Ron, who spread his arms wide in a sign of resignation. He knelt beside Hermione in the snow, staining his jeans and soaking his kneecaps in icy, muddy puddles.
"How'd you find him?" he asked, as Hermione pushed the hair out of the the boy's eyes. "How did he get like this?"
"I was trying to find anyone in this area who had seen those Death-Eaters. The ones that escaped after Voldemort fell." Hermione explained, "They came this way, I'm sure of it. And... I think those are his parents and grandparents, over there--"
She pointed, where four bodies lay buried under rubble.
"He's alive, but Ron--" she sent Ron a resentful glance, "Ron thinks he's dead."
"What-- what makes you so sure?" Harry questioned tentatively. "Hermione, he's been here for hours, at least...."
"I just-- I just know." she said pleadingly, "We've just got to get him somewhere that they can help him. He's an orphan now, Harry, if we don't take him, he'll die."
She turned her eyes to him, searching his face entreatingly.
"All right, Hermione." Harry said finally, quite gently. "But there's a chance he might not survive."
"I know." Hermione said eagerly, hope shining in her brown eyes. "I know that."
"All right, then. Let's take him with us." Harry squeezed an arm around her shoulder. "Can we Apparate with him, do you think?"
Hermione shook her head. "We can't risk it. Come on, let's walk."
Harry looked at Ron, who sighed and shrugged.
"I'll walk with you lot, I guess." he said, resignedly. Harry nodded, then swept the boy up into his arms, surprised at how light he felt in his arms. Hermione fussed for a moment, tucking her cloak around him and casting a slight warming spell around him. Then, they set off, Ron and Harry alternating turns carrying them for the next four miles to the Burrow.
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