“Everyone remember what to do?” Harry yelled out to everyone, disrespecting Godric’s orders. Harry took a step forward, mainly to his friends and confronted them one last time before going out into their school...their home. Bellatrix and her army were wreaking havoc throughout the entire school and no one had cared the least about confronting the students besides the founders of their temporary homes.
“Are you ready?” Harry asked, putting his arms around his friends as if in a huddle. Harry gave them each a pat on the shoulder and stepped back. “Guys, if anything happens out there, anything at all, I just wanted to let you know that, well, I love you guys. You’re my best friends! The best friends anyone can have! I’m just so sorry I had to put you through all this. This is all my fault! If I hadn’t been here would Bellatrix and her army have ever come here?”
“Harry, if you had never come to Hogwarts, we would never have met you. Even with all the battles that we have, we fight together. The only way we could have won was with our friendship. Our love. A triumphant victory is our gift to us. Harry, we have to risk it sometimes. And with risk comes reward. Well, most of the time anyway.” Hermione finished while gripping Harry tightly in her shivering arms.
“Thanks, Hermione,” Harry smiled at her and watched as she backed away with a smile placed on her own face as well.
Everyone exited the Gryffindor common room and walked out into the halls, making themselves vulnerable to Bellatrix’s Army. A third year took a step down the hallway and was sadly confronted by a Matnadorian. The Matnadorian gave a loud shriek and watched as the third year fell to the floor, dead.
Hermione gasped and took a step back farther into the crowd. Her fear grew as she was shrouded in the group of Gryffindors. Her cold and limp body fell to the floor. She was on her knees, her teeth clattering and her hands shaking. “No,” she whispered to herself, feeling as if she was isolated, her breathing coming to a minimum, “not again. Fredrick, don’t do this.” No one was aware at what was going to happen next as Hermione’s eyes flicked open to reveal the blood red iris that had happened only days before. The menacing smile was strewn across her face with her hands in fists which were shaking furiously with power. She stood up, her fear drained out of her.
Harry, Ron, and the rest of Gryffindor house ambushed forward, sprinting down the corridors, wands at the ready. Hermione casually walked behind them. Part of Hermione had still been in her, residing with Fredrick’s soul.
A Matnadorian walked down the hallway, spotting Hermione’s clothing. He gave a loud hiss and began sprinting toward her body. Hermione slipped her wand up her sleeve, preparing for a surprise attack. She placed the cuff of her sleeve over her mouth, muttering a mystical spell into her wand. She swung her arm to the side, her wand flying straight toward the Matnadorian. The wand flew threw its body, making a small bullet shaped whole in the Matnadorian’s heart ” that is if he even had one.
The Matnadorian gave a loud shriek that death itself would have run from. The shriek reverberated around the castle’s inner skeleton. Hermione’s wand made a quick u-turn, flying itself back up her sleeve. “Foolish creature,” she hissed angrily. She walked over to it, avoiding the temptation to look at it. “You and all your little misfits can all just go back to your master unless you all want to turn out to be dead...just like you.”
She gave it a swift kick in the stomach before walking off to join the others.
Harry was running down the halls, looking for his friend, Hermione. He rounded a corner and spotted her cloak billowing in the relentless air.
“Hermione! There you are! You had me and Ron worried sick! We thought you’d be dead by now, all the Matndadorians roaming the castle and whatnot.” She didn’t respond. “Hermione?” He took a step closer to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. “You okay?” Her head jerked backward as she felt Harry’s clammy hand touch her shoulder.
“Don’t touch me!” she yelled. “Don’t get near me! Leave me alone!” Hermione thrust her arm forward, throwing Harry against the wall. “Serves you right. I’ll just let you rot away. I’ll let everyone see what powers I, Fredrick Berfulema, have as they walk by your rotting corpse. Harry Potter...dead. That’ll make the headlines, won’t it?”
Harry sat up, rubbing his head vigorously. “You’re not Hermione, you, you imposter. Where’s Hermione?! What have you done with her?!”
“She’s right here, standing in front of you. Her personality has changed a bit, hasn’t it? For the better most likely.”
A shriek was heard running toward them. The Matnadorian rammed into Hermione, sending her flying into the cement wall. The Matnadorian hovered over her, its beady eyes staring right into hers. Her body shook for a moment before everything became limp and motionless. Death’s second victim. Hermione’s body floated up in the air, Fredrick’s ghost lying on the ground, dead. The Matnadorian erupted in a cloud of ash which rained on Fredrick’s ghostly corpse. Hermione was stood upright and put against a wall. Her eyes opened in a flash and her breathing quickened.
“HERMIONE!” Harry ran over to her. “I thought we’d lost you!” Harry grabbed her in his arms and held her tightly. “Don’t ever scare me like that again! Got it?”
“Scare you like what? What happened to me?” Hermione asked feeling a bit woozy.
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. I think it involved someone by the name Fredrick Berfulema.” Hermione’s eyes widened.
“I ” I know him. He took Ron! A long time ago,” Hermione announced.
“Well, that happened in my dream, but you said none of those things happened...Did they?” Harry asked, confusion filling inside of him.
“Well, Harry. The truth is, all those things...they did happen. Sorry I didn’t tell you, I thought you might be stressed over all of these things happening! Mr. Weasley dying, Sirius, your parents...”
“Wait, Mr. Weasley dying? I thought he was at St. Mungo’s?” Harry asked; his untruthful friend began to tell Harry everything she knew about what had happened in the past weeks.
“Harry, that was just a back up story...for the same reason. All the stress,” Hermione finished lamely while guiding her and Harry through a dingy corridor.
Ron ran down the nearby staircase, happy to see Harry and Hermione. “I’m glad I found you! Everyone’s going crazy! All the other houses joined in on the fight, but no one can seem to find Bellatrix. Do you guys have any ideas?”
Harry looked up at the door they were approaching. “I have a hunch.” He pointed up at the name plate which read “Potions”.
“Well, before we go in, Ron, is there anything you would like to say? We may not come back, alive...” Harry asked moving his eyes from him to Hermione and back to Ron with a slight smile on his face.
“Well, no. Not really.” Harry gave Ron a “tell her!” look and gave him that extra push.
Ron turned toward Hermione and hesitated for a moment he looked around nervously before hugging her. Ron, with his fear of girls still spilling out of him, whispered a few words in Hermione’s ears.
“I ” I ” I love you, Hermione. Don’t forget me,” said Ron backing up for a second and then kissing Hermione on the cheek.
She blushed and said to Ron in a small voice, “Ron, I’ll never forget you. Never. Will you remember me?”
“Of course I will, Hermione. I love you. Do you love me?” Ron looked at her for a reply.
A sudden bang erupted throughout the hallway’s wall sending the kids into a sudden shock.
A thick green vine erupted toward Ron, entwining itself around his feet. It gripped tightly and pulled back. With a sudden jolt, Ron was thrown backwards, slamming into the wall. His body was bruised and bloodied.
“RON!!!” Hermione screamed in terror, endless tears beginning to fall. She ran over to him with her wand sticking out of her tightly balled fist and checked for a pulse. “No.. NO!” Hermione cried out. “Harry! He’s ” he’s gone!”
Harry ran over to his friend in anguish. “No, he can’t be! He just hit his head! Nothing Madam Pomfrey can’t fix!”
“Harry, I know this stuff. He’s ” he’s gone, nothing a simple potion can fix...” Hermione teared up and held Ron’s shoulder. She bent over and hugged him and while hugging whispered her answer, “Yes, Ron. I love you too.” She kissed him compassionately before backing away.
“Hermione, there has to be some way that ” that I can fix this.” Hermione couldn’t stand to look at him. It was too hard for her.
“There is one thing I can do.” Harry said, taking his wand out of his side pocket.
He pointed it at his heart and whispered an incantation. He then placed his wand on Ron’s heart, imitating what he had done with himself. Both of their bodies lit up, a blinding flash flooded the room. Harry fell onto the floor with a loud thud while Ron stood up, seemingly unscathed.
“RON!” Hermione rushed over to him and grasped him in a hug. Her arms wove around his body, fitting perfectly into his back.
“I love you, too,” Hermione replied once more.
***
Harry’s eyes burst open revealing that he had been lying in a lush green field. He stood up and fell through the earth into a new layer of humanity.
“Harry, it’s us. Your parents.” Harry looked around, trying to find the source of the voices. “Up here, son.” Harry looked at the clouds, his parents’ faces glistening in the sunlight.
“Mom, Dad? Where am I? I thought I died. I thought I gave my life to Ron,” Harry finished while sitting himself down in the dirt.
“You are in the cemetery where your father and I were buried.” Harry watched as gravestones began lining up around him, his mother’s and father’s on either side of him. “You gave your life for your friend, and so we will give you yours back.” Lily lifted up her hand and thrust her hand out toward Harry, touching him on the shoulder.
***
“Ron, Harry, he gave his life for you and now ” now he’s ” dead,” Hermione sniffed and wiped her eyes on Ron’s cloak.
Ron walked over to Harry and looked into his friend’s eyes. “Thanks bud, you’ve always been there for me and well, you’re well”,” Ron’s eyes began to water up, “you’ve always been there for me and you gave your life for me. I just really wish that I could have talked to you one more time, thanked you for all the tough times that we’ve gone through. Harry, I’m sorry.”
Harry’s eyes flung open and light sprang out from them. “Harry?” Ron asked, pondering his friend’s sudden burst of energy.
“R-Ron?” Harry stuttered.
“Harry!! Harry, you’re alright!” Ron pulled him into a hug. “Thanks. Thanks for always being there for me.” He pulled away and walked over to Hermione, Harry joining them.
“Well, I guess this means it’s time to go in.” Hermione said pointing at the door.
“Yeah, I guess so.” They all stepped through the door at once, noticing Bellatrix’s evil glare coming from the dark corner of the room.
“So glad you could finally make it.” With a flick of her wand the door closed and locked behind them. “We wouldn’t want anyone knowing I’m here now would we?”
“Why didn’t you attack us before? You’ve known we’ve been here all this time.” Harry questioned.
“Like I said...wouldn’t want anyone to know I was here...”
Harry threw away that thought and suddenly became enraged. “Expelliarmus!” Harry shouted, getting straight to the point. Bellatrix countered the spell and sent a spell of her own Harry’s way.
Hermione cast an incredibly painful curse her way. The curse wrapped itself around her body, strangling her tightly. She screamed in agony and pain.
“We don’t need to kill her...we just need to get her out of our way,” Harry said enthusiastically.
Before Harry could send another spell her way, she Apparated...vanished. On Snape’s table was a box. Harry walked over to it, curiously opening it with his wet hands. “Ron! Hermione! Look! It’s the Gold Stone!” Harry took the stone out of its casing and held it in his palm.
Hermione suddenly screamed out in pain as the Gold Stone flew from Harry’s palm into her own. The gold substance slowly drained into her bloodstream sending gold waves of color through her body. The gold slowly faded away and Hermione began to return back to her previous state.
“Harry, what just happened?” Hermione asked, rubbing her palm intently.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Tragedies by TTOOMMYY11
Chapter Notes: So sorry this chapter took so long! However, chapter 13 is done and yea XD It shouldn't be too long a wait for that one. Oh and also I would like to thank ForbiddenLove for betaing my chapter! Thank you! :)