Chapter Four – The Power that he knows not
As soon as they both finished their climax, without any warning, and as if a puppeteer had cut the strings, they both blacked out. Hermione fell onto Harry's chest, her hair spread around him, his manhood still deep inside her.
The sun was just starting to make an appearance over the horizon before anything changed in the room. The pair were still locked in their passionate embrace, for them time had stopped. Both hearts had stopped, all neurons had stopped firing and neither were breathing. Harry was still hard inside Hermione, but neither couple were aware of it, in fact they were aware of nothing. For them not a second had passed since they blacked out.
Once more a light began to appear and before long a figure of a man appeared. However this time it was not that of the old man, but a younger looking man. He had short blond hair and was clothed in a pristine white suit. His face, though young had a timeless quality about it, but his eyes were a golden colour. He walked slowly over to the frozen couple, his steps slow and faltering.
"Strange bodies these souls have, only two legs? How on earth do they move as fast as they do?" he grumbled to himself as he walked over to the coupled pair.
"So these are our saviours are they? Not much to look at." He observed the way they were coupled. "Now that doesn't look comfy, but judging by the noises she was making she seemed to enjoy it. Corporals, no sense of dignity."
He continued to examine them as if they were a particularly interesting set of specimens.
"What was the old man thinking off, Immortality but no major increase in power or knowledge?, oh he gave a bit but nothing like they are going to need, he must be losing it." As he finished the examination of the pair, he walked over to the side table and picked up Hermione's wand.
"Hmm, so this is one of them wands they go on about so much." As he looked at the wand, it suddenly disassembled itself in front of him so he could examine the components.
"Ha, it's just a piece of wood with some old animal hair, dragon if I'm not mistaken. Odd it has no power of its own...Ah I see; it's just a focus point. How quaint." The wand re-assembled and the being put it back down. He walked back to the stasis locked pair and looked at them.
"Oh, well, I suppose I'd better help them." He put a hand on each of the pair's heads and concentrated. Once he'd boosted their power levels he then just whispered at them, transferring knowledge and understanding to the pair. Once done, he stood and looked pleased with himself.
"Now that will help, Voldemort with be a doddle now, but you will still have the most difficult challenge to face afterwards. Well that's done, better get back home...Oh yes before I forget you two need to know each other a little better. Let's transfer memories shall we."
He looked at the pair and waved his hands. They glowed briefly and he then smiled. With an almost silent pop he vanished leaving the two young lovers embraced in their love. Time slowly returned to the pair, but not at the moment consciousness.
The sun continued to climb into the sky, castling warm shadows in the room.
Deep inside Harry's mind something odd was happening. He started to remember a childhood, but not his own. For some reason he was a lot smaller and had long brown hair. He distinctly remembered growing up with a loving pair of parents and in a home full of happiness and love. He could remember when he/she first learnt to read and the delight of been able to pick up a book and to lose yourself in another world. At first the books had all been stories, but they soon became about 'things'. There was so much to learn and he/she had an insatiable appetite for learning. All was good in life until school started. Hermione, for Harry now realised that these were her memories and not his, was looking forward to going to school to learn new things. He saw the six year old young girl getting ready for her first day, ready to read more books and see other children. Been an only child, with busy but loving parents, she had not had much interaction with other children and was therefore unprepared for the possibility that most other children were not as studious as she was. She eagerly left her mummy at the gates of the new school and ran to the other children, her beloved books in her new school satchel. It was a much sadder Hermione that meet her mummy at the end of the school day, the tear tracks clearly visible on her face. She had told her mother that the other kids were mean to her and that they had pushed her to the ground and stomped on her books. The first use of the word 'bookworm' had been uttered and it had hurt her. Harry watched as the years progressed and Hermione withdrew into herself and her books, the years of name-calling and occasional physical violence taking its toll. She had no friends at all during her younger years. She had never been invited to another child's birthday party nor had she ever been to play with another child. She always sat on her own at school, mostly ignored but often bullied. The strange things that would happen around her, especially when she was been bullied had also added the label of 'odd' to her repertoire of insults thrown at her. The teachers were not much better; annoyed with her constant desire to answer questions and more annoyed that she was nearly always correct. The only sources of happiness in the young girl's life, other than her books, were her parents. They loved there young child totally and were constantly telling her that she was a good child and that things would get better. Harry then remembered the delight that Hermione had felt when she had received her Hogwarts letter in the summer when she was eleven. She was a witch, and she was going to Hogwarts. He felt her happiness when Professor McGonagall had appeared to explain it all to her and to her parents. The Professor had accompanied them to Diagon alley and Harry felt the amazement in the young girls mind when she first held her new wand. She was complete, all the previous hurts fading away as she felt the power coursing through her as she held the Vine wand. He felt her delight at the sight of the steaming red train at Kings Cross station, and her happiness at meeting her first other magical child, Neville Longbottom, whom she helped search for the missing Trevor. Then he saw the meeting that would define the young witch's life for the rest of time, she met Harry. He could feel the instant connection she had felt with him, as if something had clicked in her head when she saw him sat with Ron. However the delight was short lived as he felt the hurt when they had both teased her. Although it was Ron who had said the hurtful things, Hermione had been more hurt when Harry had not stood up for her. She had cried for hours in the empty bathroom, but when Harry had stopped the troll from killing her, he could feel the love for him begin, never before had anyone ever risked so much for her. At the time it was the love of one child for another, but it grew and it never went away. Harry could feel however Hermione try to bury the love, for she did not feel worthy of the love, and was terrified that he would not return the feelings. She had pretended to herself that she could love Ron, even though he would constantly hurt her and disappoint her. She still however could not admit her love for Harry until that fateful night in the tent, when it all came out. Harry was shocked by the intensity of her feeling for him; she would gladly die if it would save his life. Never before has he felt such warmth and love, as she had for him and he would never for the rest of all time, ever question the love she had for him.
Inside Hermione's mind a similar experience was playing out, just as traumatic as her schooling had been; she had parents that loved her to help her through the difficult years. Harry had nothing, absolutely nothing for the first eleven years of his life. He had not even had his own name until he was five, just answering to 'Boy' or more often 'Freak'. She remembered all the nights he had tried to get to sleep in his cupboard under the stairs, dark and cold. Often very hungry only having eaten scraps and leftovers, Harry had felt unloved. Her heart broke when he tried to write on the inside door of the cupboard, 'Harry's room' with a small piece of crayon he had found. The physical and mental abuse was abhorrent to Hermione, how anyone could treat a child like that was beyond her. Her pride in Harry grew; the fact that he had grown into a tolerant, kind loving man a minor miracle considering. She watched with a heavy heart the hours of 'Harry Hunting' the young boy was forced to endure as a boy with his larger cousin. She felt the pain of the beatings administered by both his uncle and his cousin, the broken ribs, cuts and bruises all failing to heal properly. Then the day came, the fateful day when Harry got the letter. She watched as Vernon tried to avoid Harry's fate, but soon Harry was on the train to Hogwarts. She saw him meeting her for the first time and was pleased that he liked her from the moment he met her. She finally saw the reason that he didn't stand up for her when Ron was been nasty. Harry had never had a friend; he was so scared of losing his first one, that despite his mind screaming at him to stop Ron, he didn't. It was only when he heard about the troll that Harry finally admitted to himself that Hermione was more important to him. She saw his heartache when she was petrified in their second year. The hours he had spent sat holding her hand when she laid in the hospital wing melted her heart. She felt the love for her grow, but Harry felt the need to bury it deep down. He couldn't risk been hurt or making her a target for Voldemort. She saw him pretend that he loved Ginny, as more than a sister, but once more he had to leave that behind him as well. He was prepared to spend his life alone to save them all, and this was the way he felt it had to be. That was until the night in the tent. Why he kissed her, even he didn't know. It was a spur of the moment thing, but he was glad that he did. The love he had for her was immense, so big that it almost scared her. He was frightened that she couldn't love him forever. Knowing that they were immortal, spending it alone, without Hermione, would be torture.
As soon as they both came to the end of their shared memoirs, then the extra knowledge began to grow. They both learnt how to cast much more powerful magic than they had ever done before. Added to that they learnt that the wand was nothing more than a magical focus, that the wand had no or little intrinsic magical power. They soon learnt that wandless and non-verbal magic would be a lot more powerful during a fight, as the waving of the wand and the speaking the incantation gave your opponent a advantage in how to avoid the attack. They quickly learnt how to use magic in this manner. They also learnt that even thought they were to all-intensive purposes immortal; they could be killed by the killing curse because that curse causes no physical damage to the body for their immortality to work with. It just separates the soul and they would not survive that. Added to their increasing power was the ability to become muti-animagi. As well as their wolf form they could now transform into any animal, magical or otherwise. They then learnt that they also possessed the skills of Earth Magic, they could control all four of the elements, Air,Water,Fire and Earth. As soon as the learning process had begun it came to an abrupt end and for a long while the couple remained locked in stasis whist the power they had been given stabilised.
It was nearly midday when signs of life re-emerged in the young couple. Their hearts slowly re-started, causing them to both begin breathing once more. Slowly Harry's eyes fluttered open and saw his Hermione laying on top of him. He was confused about what had happened, he could now remember clearly his beloved's childhood and all the hardships she had faced at the hands of the bullies. He knew more about his magic than he had even known before, but how had all that happened. The last proper memory was of the most wonderful climax inside the woman he loved more than life itself. He then noticed that it was bright sunshine outside, just how long had they been laid here. Just then, Hermione also started to stir, her eyes fluttering as she clawed her way to consciousness. She looked him in the eyes and smiled before her expression dissolved into one of abject horror.
"Oh Harry? How could they treat you that way for all those years?"
As soon as she said those words, Harry realised that as much as he now knew about Hermione's life she now knew just as much about his. To his surprised he wasn't embarrassed about this new aspect to their relationship, rather he was pleases that someone now knew what he had been through.
"Ssshhss love, it's in the past. You're my future now and that's all that matters." And he gently kissed her.
Hermione suddenly realised where they were and how much time seemed to of past. She could feel Harry still softly inside her, but the daylight was streaming through the window. "What happened Harry. I remember last night, but now I can remember all about your childhood. And Merlin, I know so much about magic. I think I know how to do wandless magic."
With that she gingerly moved off him, and stood up. With a wave of her hand she summoned her cloths and tidied the room.
"Why did you wave your hand like that?"
Hermione's eyebrows shot up at the thought. She just looked over at one of the chairs and with a thought transfigured it into a small table and then back again. She looked up at Harry with childish delight on her face. Harry silently summoned a towel to wrap around himself before asking the whereabouts of the shower. With a suggestive look Hermione took his hand and led him to the large shower in the bathroom. Once the water was running warm she led him inside the cubicle and began to wash him all over. He returned the favour, taking care to wash her hair for her. She sighed in contentment as the hot water washed away her cares for a few moments. Turning to face him, she looked deep into his eyes as the water fell around them. Unbidden tears sprung to her eyes as she realised how much he loved her. She knew exactly what was required of her.
"Harry James Potter, upon my magic I promise that I will never ever leave you, I will love you till the end of time and I will always be there for you, so mote it be!"
With a flash magic surrounded them, encompassing them in a bright light. Harry looked at Hermione in surprise. Had she just done what he thought she had done? With his newly acquired magical knowledge he recognised a marriage vow when he heard one. Without hesitation he responded.
"Hermione Jean Granger, upon my magic I promise that I will never ever leave you, I will love you till the end of time and I will always be there for you, so mote it be!"
The glow of magic increased and strands of light surrounded them and bound their bodies together. With little idea of what he was doing Harry bent down and kissed his new wife with a passionate kiss. Slowly the light faded leaving the two holding each other in a tight embrace. Harry slowly parted from her and looked in her eyes.
"You know what just happened don't you?"
"I know Harry; I hope you don't think I forced this on you. I remember from our transfer this morning that you were worried that I would leave you. I needed to prove to you that I won't. We are now married magically and with the wording of the bond I used, I can never ever leave you, nor you me. We are bonded for all eternity, and in our case that could mean a very long time."
"I must admit to been a bit surprised when you made that vow, but I could not be happier. I can think of no one that I would rather spend all eternity with then you. Now I know this isn't romantic, but do you think we can get out of her and get something to eat, I'm bloody starving!"
With a laugh, Hermione turned off the shower and before long, the young married couple were sat at the kitchen table with a microwave meal that she had found in the deep freeze. To the hungry couple it tasted like ambrosia. It wasn't long however that the conversation moved from the mundane to more important matters.
"What are we going to do now, we need to find the remaining Horcrux's"
"I know Hermione, but to be honest I have no idea what they are or where we can find them. We also need to find the Weasley's and let them know about Ron. The creature will try to find them and we don't know what it will do."
"Let's start with what we know, we know that two of the Horcrux's are gone, Tom's diary and Gaunt's Ring. We have the locket, when are we going to destroy that by the way?"
"Today, as soon as we have finished this conversation. I want that thing gone!"
"Okay, so that leaves us with three more that we think exist."
With a flash of flames Fawkes appeared in front of them.
"There was a seventh, but it is now destroyed."
"A seventh? What was it?" asked Harry
With a mental laugh Fawkes replied "You, young one, you were a Horcrux. Voldemort created one in you when he tried to kill you all those years ago. His soul was shattered and part of it latched onto the only living thing it could find…you."
"Me! Oh Fuck!"
"Language! Don't worry, a Horcrux created in a living receptacle is a fragile thing. In order to destroy it you only need to kill the host."
Harry looked in horror, "Does that mean I have to die…hang on I already have…OH!"
"Yes youngster, you already have. And you really died that time, so the Horcrux had nowhere to go, and poof!"
"Ok that's fantastic, it still leaves us with having to find three more, any ideas Hermione?"
"Well I guess that Nagini could be one"
"Don't be stupid Hermione, what did I just say about living creatures making poor vessels. Too easily killed, only a fool would intentionally make a Horcrux from a living creature. Voldemort is many things, but he is not a fool."
"Sheesh, Fawkes, there is no need to be so rude about it. God what an arse! Well what do you suggest, you smart-alec bird?" Hermione asked angrily.
Fawkes laughed in their heads. He secretly loved winding these two up. They were so much more fun than the old headmaster, even though he wasn't even human.
"Well I don't bloody know…."
"Language!"
"…HA! As I was saying, I don't know, but I can tell you who will be able to help you. You need her help so much."
"Who Fawkes?" Harry practically screamed
"No sure if I want to tell you with that attitude."
Harry took a deep breath. He knew phoenixes were powerful, but nothing was written about them been bloody annoying. "I'm sorry Fawkes. Could you please tell us who can help us?"
For a long while Fawkes maintained his somewhat fictional annoyance before announcing
"Luna Lovegood, she can help. She has the power of Sight!"
"Oh Crap!" Hermione swore.
Chapter Five – Potter Cottage.
Hermione had a look of dismay on her face at the announcement by Fawkes. With a psychic laugh, Fawkes had flashed out of the room as soon as he finished speaking to them.
"What's the matter love? I thought you liked Luna?"
"I do Harry, she's a kind and gentle soul who would not harm a soul unless they hurt her friends, but she can be so..."
"Infuriating?"
"Yes! But if we need her, then we need her. Where do you think we can find her, Hogwarts?"
"Maybe, but I don't fancy going there unless we have to, it's far too dangerous for us at the moment to go there. Besides, if what we have heard about Hogwarts is true then her dad may have kept her at home. Do you know where she lives?"
"Not a clue, except it's near to the Weasleys."
"Well we go to talk to the Weasleys then" Harry stated.
"Oh Harry, What are we going to tell them about Ron? Their son has been dead for years and that thing walking about looking like him. It will kill them."
Harry took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "We need to tell them, and soon. We also need to check out Potter Cottage, as a safe house. As much as I like your parents house, I do feel slightly exposed her."
"Yeah plus it will be nice to spend our wedding night somewhere safe, I have plans for you Mr Potter!"
Harry arched his eyebrow at her, aware that he was blushing. "Wedding night?"
"Don't think I forgot what we said in the shower. In magical terms we are married and I plan of jumping you as soon as we can. I am NOT letting you go, my beloved husband"
"Since when did you become such a sex monster Mrs Potter?" he asked with a smirk
"Since you took my virginity you rogue!" she said with equal humour.
With a laugh Harry started to kiss Hermione's neck, "Oh I'm a rogue am I? Well let me show you how much of a rogue I can be" as he slowly planted kissed on her exposed neck. With a groan, Hermione closed her eyes as she felt the stirrings deep inside her as he kissed her neck. She loved it when he kissed her there and she was finding it hard not to rip his clothes of straight away.
"Harry...oh God that's nice...Harry we cannot do this now, we have too much to do. Oh Merlin, that's good!...Harry we have to stop..Please..Oh Hell!"
Harry had other ideas, He gathered his young wife in his arms and despite her rather feeble protests, lifted her and carried her bodily to the lounge where he gently lowered her to the sofa. With a wave of his hand he shut the curtains, and lit the small table lamp. He began to kiss her once more, this time starting with her neck before slowly moving to her mouth. His tongue danced on her lips and she quickly allowed him access to her mouth. She had wrapped her arms around his neck and tightly held him to her. As the embrace became more passionate he moved his hands down to her loose T-Shirt and lifted it to expose her stomach. His hand began to caress her flat toned belly before slowly moving to her breasts. As they had just thrown on some clothes when they left the shower, she had not bothered with her bra, and so Harry had instant access to her exposed breasts. He slowly began to tease her ample flesh, rubbing he fingers over her nipples. Hermione was moaning into his mouth, all thoughts of not having time vanished from her mind. She loved this man, and she wanted him...Now!
Suddenly they were interrupted by a loud bang from outside and Hermione felt the wards she had placed on the property fail with a painful jolt in her head. She sat bolt upright "Shit, Harry. Deatheaters!"
Harry swore in frustration. "Fuck! Great timing, I was enjoying that!" all thoughts of passion immediately disappearing. He stood and with a wave, both teens were instantly dressed. Hermione summoned her beaded bag containing the sword and the Horcrux. Within seconds they were both ready to leave and facing the door of the lounge. Outside they could hear a number of voices all talking at once.
"Told you he was here. Lucius told us that he would have brought the bitches body here. Sentimental fool! We are to capture him alive for our master, but he doesn't have to be whole, just living. You two take upstairs, we'll start down here."
Harry whispered to Hermione "They still think you are dead. I'd rather not get into a fight, let's just apparate out of here to the Burrow"
Hermione nodded and they took each other's hand and tried to apparate away. Quickly they realised that the Deatheaters must have put up anti-apperation wards as they found that they couldn't apparate away.
"Bugger! Now what, they will be in here soon?" She asked. She lifted her wand and cast a shield charm on the door. "That will hold them for a few moments, but it's just an internal door. They can blast it in a moment of seconds."
"Erm, we could climb out of the window? Nah they will have guards outside." Dismissing the idea as soon as he thought of it.
By now they could hear the Deatheaters outside trying the door. "Harry!"
With a loud detonation the door was blasted off its hinges and flew across the room, barely missing the pair. Harry pushed Hermione into the shadows before the intruders had time to see her. Two Deatheaters stalked into the room with wands drawn. They spotted Harry, apparently defenceless as he held no wand. Even though they had their Deatheater masks on, Harry could see the sneer on both their faces. Hermione had moved further back towards the shadows, and for the moment neither of the Deatheaters had seen her. Harry was content to let them talk for the moment, giving Hermione and himself more time to come up with a plan.
"So Potter, you came back to the Mudblood whore's house did you. Foolish mistake, we have been watching this place for signs of new wards for days now. Knew you'd been here. Didn't think you'd be such a fool as to stay after you disposed of her body. I'll say one thing for your dead Mudblood though, she did a good job on old Lucius, he's not the man he used to be!" he said with an evil grin, It seemed that even the other Deatheaters didn't like Malfoy senior that much.
"So anyway, Potter, we'll just get to a bit of torture before your date with our Master" raising his wand as he spoke in an almost polite manner. It was quite surreal thought Harry as he looked at the tip of the glowing wand pointing at him. Suddenly the chatty Deatheater shouted "Diffindo", Harry put out his hand and thought 'Protego.' A shimmering blue shield popped up to the surprise of the Deatheater, causing the severing spell to bounce back hitting the Deatheater on the leg, creating a massive cut to appear along its length. The Deatheater screamed in agony and fell to the ground.
"Crucio!" shouted the other Deatheater and the spell flew towards Harry. The spell passed through the shield as if it wasn't there causing Harry to fall down in absolute agony, but only briefly as he then heard Hermione shout "Reducto!" The spell hit the Deatheater on his wand arm, causing it to be blasted off at the elbow. As he screamed in agony, the second Deatheater saw for the first time Hermione as she came out of the shadows.
"You! But how?" but before he could continue, Hermione had stunned him and he fell to the ground.
"Harry are you okay?"
"Fuck that hurts! We need to get out of here. The ones upstairs will be down soon."
"Harry, the portkey! The one for Potter Cottage!"
"Shit, I forgot about it. Where did I put it?" and Harry began the pocket dance as he searched for the missing Portkey.
"Hurry up Harry, they'll be here soon."
With a smile Harry pulled out the portkey from his jeans pocket. "Come on let's get out of here" As Hermione moved to take the Portkey, a couple of Deatheaters ran through the door, casting spells at them. With a wave of his hand, Harry created another shield around them that deflected the spells. He wandlessly cast a Bombarda spell at them. They both exploded backwards into the hallway where they both lay unmoving.
"Come on, let's go!" they both grasped the portkey and Harry activated it. With the usual feeling of been hooked behind the navel they both vanished, only to reappear on a pathway leading up to the cottage.
Harry immediately fell over pulling Hermione on top of him. He landed with a thump and immediately had all the air knocked from him as she landed on his chest.
"Hey Harry, not the time or the place!" she said with a smile.
"Ha Ha" Harry gasped. "God I hate Portkeys. One of these days I will land with a little more grace. Well that could of gone better, I need more practice at fighting the bastards. I let the little shit talk rather than attacking," As they both disentangled themselves from each other and stood Hermione took him in her arms.
"Power and knowledge are great but without training they don't mean much. We just need to practice with our new abilities for a while love. Come on let's see where we are before we go find the Weasleys"
They both stood and looked at their surroundings. They seemed to be deep in a dense forest, with trees on three sides of them. At the head of the pathway lay the cottage, although to call it a cottage did push the boundaries of the word to it limits. A very large house would have been a more apt description. It was a large two story black and white timber building. It appeared very old, but it excellent repair. In keeping with the 'cottage' name it had a tidy thatch roof on the building making the whole cottage look like something out of the time of Shakespeare. In front of the property was a pleasant cottage garden that even thought it was winter was still in bloom as if it was early spring with the flowers waving in the slight breeze. Both of the two teens felt instantly at calm when they viewed the house, it seemly giving off a warm homily feeling. They could both feel the massive protective wards surrounding the house, as it was making both sets of teeth buzz slightly with the magic. As they walked hand in hand up the path towards the door, it opened silently for them allowing them access to the interior. Inside was just as warm and inviting as the outside appeared. Even though the house had been unoccupied for many years it was clean and dust free. They walked into a large entrance hall with an inviting fireplace against the back wall. A warm fire instantly sprung up casting a warming glow on the room, the polished wooden floor reflecting the flickering light of the fire. Paintings hung on the wall, some muggle but most magical. As they walked into the room they could feel the house accepting them as its owners and master. Information about the layout suddenly appeared in their heads, as if they had known the house for all of their lives.
"Come on let's get to the kitchen. I could murder a cuppa before we go to find the Weasleys" Hermione stated.
Harry followed behind her, still hurting from his moment of inaction at her parents' house.
"Will you stop that already, so you froze for a second, get over it Potter! And come and kiss me"
This made Harry smile and he was soon in Hermione arms kissing her for all he was worth. Once they came up for air she asked him, "Better now?"
"Mmhuh!"
"Good, once we have spoken to the Weasleys and found Luna we can use the training room in the basement to practice wandless magic."
"I would still like to get another wand so finding Ollivander would be good"
Hermione passed him a cup of tea and they sat in the large country kitchen to discuss the plans.
"Well we still need to destroy the locket"
"Good point, let's do that now. Can you get the locket and the sword out please"
Hermione reached into the beaded bag and first removed the large sword of Griffindor which she passed to Harry. She then removed the locket, holding it by the chain and nothing else. She quickly threw it onto the wooden table they were sat at.
"How are we going to do this?"
"Well we will need to open it first then stab it with the sword. I will need to command it to open in Parseltongue, then I'll stab it"
"Why you?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Well as it's my sword, I guess it will respond better to me, that's the only reason"
Hermione nodded and stood back whilst Harry got ready. He held the sword by the hilt and stood in front of the locket. He hissed the word *open* and with a snap the locket sprung open. Light burst forth from the locket and Harry could see the figure of Hermione stood within the light.
"Pathetic fool! As if I would want to spend all eternity with an idiot like you! I couldn't love you if you were the last man on Earth! Your family were right, you should of stayed in the cupboard under the stairs Freak! You freeze at the first sign of action, you must be a coward!"
"Harry don't listen to it, I do want to spend my whole life with you! I do Love you!" Hermione shouted, but Harry wasn't listening.
"You are a pathetic lover, you fumble around like a small child. To think I can be satisfied by you, I'd rather have Viktor. At least he was a real man"
The tears were rolling down Harry's face as he listened to the fake Hermione, suddenly he felt a pair of arms around him and lips against his neck. "Stab it my love, stab it for me" she whispered to him. With a cry Harry brought the sword down into the centre of the locket. With a scream the fake Hermione faded and the light exploded outwards before the locket was left rattling on the table, empty and dead.
Harry dropped the sword with a loud clang, his expression one of abject misery. Hermione wrapped him in her arms and pulled him close to her, cradling his head again her chest. "Harry, I love you more than life itself, and you are a magnificent lover. Please don't pay attention to what the locket said, it was just Voldemort's soul trying to confuse you."
Harry was sobbing against her, his feeling of worthlessness raising its head again. Hermione thought to herself that she was going to kill the bloody Dursleys when all this was finished. After a while, Harry managed to pull himself together and was looking rather embarrassed with himself. He looked out of the window onto the spectacular garden at the back of the house, before turning back and gently kissing Hermione.
"Thank you for been you. I don't know what I would do without you."
Hermione smiled back at him, "Same here my love! Now let's get cleaned up and then get to the Weasley's and find Luna."
On the other side of the county on the outskirts of the small village of Ottery and red-headed man was walking home. As he walked up to the odd looking house that was the home of his 'parents' Ron Weasley, or the creature that looked like him was whistling happily to himself. He had experienced an epiphany the other day. For eons the creature had inhabited bodies, it had fed slowly, allowing itself to feed on the slow trickle of dark emotions its meddling had created. It had been content with this existence, as it was the only one it had known, the life it had lived taught by its sire many centuries ago. All that had changed when he had killed Harry and Hermione, he had glutted himself on the massive outpouring of the dying emotions of the pair and he had found that he loved it. The feeling of satisfaction from such a meal was glorious and the creature had found that the slow feeding he had been used to was no longer satisfying him. He needed more of the delicious glut of emotions, and had decided that going home and killing his family would be a good start. Then he would feed on more and more of these wonderful humans, they breed like cattle anyway and who would miss a few hundred..or thousand or even more? As the creature got closer he could feel his mouth watering at the thought of such a feast. He got to the door but before he opened the door, he conjured some injuries for himself. He added a long cut on his arm and bruises to his face as well as adding some dried blood. Happy with the alterations, he adopted a distraught look and pushed the door open
"Help, is anyone there?" he shouted.
"RON! Come in, how are you, where's Harry and Hermione?" his mother asked
"Mum, I have some bad news for you" 'Ron said as the door closed behind him.
Chapter Six –" Pop goes the Weasel!"
The creature that was Ronald Weasley walked into the main lounge of the Burrow, as sad visage etched onto his face. Inside he was drooling at the thought of the meal to come. He wouldn't take them all at once, it was possible that as a group they could do him some damage, but he would take them one at a time. Then the fear of what was happening as they found another family member dead would enhance the feast even more. He looked around at the group in the house. His 'Mother and Father' were there of course along with Charlie and the twins. Surprisingly Percy was also present, in fact the only ones missing were Ginny, who was presumably still at school, and Bill who would be with his wife, Fleur at Shell Cottage. Who would be first, the creature thought, who would taste the best?
"Ronald, why are you here without Harry and Hermione. I know that you have been with them doing some sort of task that Dumbledore gave Harry, but I am surprised that you are alone?"
"Mum, I'm really sorry to tell you this but Harry and Hermione are…" Ron burst into tears at this point, this was a trick he had learnt years ago when in another body, it helped people believe the stories he would spin. It worked a charm this time. Molly Weasley rose and came across to her 'son' and placed her arms around him.
"Ron, what's happened? Where are Harry and Hermione?"
"There d-d-dead Mum! They died", and he burst into a fresh wave of tears, all the while laughing on the inside at the stupid bitches gullibility.
Molly meanwhile had burst into tears at the news, holding onto her 'son' harder. The rest of the family had heard Ron's declaration and had all come into the lounge. The twins were looking serious for once and Percy and Charlie looked aghast. Mr Weasley peeled his wife from his youngest son and had taken her in his arms where she sobbed against his chest. The creature loved all the emotion and felt his stomach growl at the anticipated meal.
Mr Weasley sat his wife down on the sofa and looked at his 'son'. "Can you tell me what happened Ron?"
With a practiced sniff, Ron whipped his eyes and looked at the elder man. "Well, we were on the mission that Dumbledore had given us, and no I cannot tell you what it is about. Anyway we were living in the magical tend that we used the other year. I had gone looking for firewood and food as we were running low. When I came back both Harry and Hermione were d-dead. They had been attacked by a madman by the look of it, as there b-b-blood was everywhere, Harry had been stabbed in the chest and H-H-Hermione had her throat cut, it was horrible Dad!"
"Oh great Merlin!" Arthur whispered. Molly cried even harder when she heard how her two surrogate children had died. Even the twins had tears in their eyes at the horrible news.
"Did you see who did it Son?"
"No Dad, when I got there, there was no one around. I didn't know what to do"
"What did you do with the bodies' son?" Arthur asked in a quiet voice.
"Dad, I couldn't leave them there. I burnt the tent and everything in it, including the bodies. I didn't know what else to do. Dad what are we going to do now, and who's going to tell Ginny? You know how she felt about Harry."
"Oh hell, I hadn't thought about that. We pulled her from school the other week, as it was getting very nasty there. She's been spending some time with Luna for the last few days. We will need to go collect her and tell her the news. It should be me that goes. We will have to try to find Hermione's parents and let them know the news as well."
The conversation died as everyone allowed themselves a moment's private grief. Molly was still sobbing loudly, unable to say anything more articulate than "Harry" or "Hermione". The creature was loving all the outpourings of grief coming from his 'family'. As he looked around slowly he spotted his first victim. He would be perfect, the feelings of grief mixed with resentment were intoxicating, but how would he do it? Ron pretended to dry his eyes and look around at his family in sorrow.
"I need some air, will you come with me?" he asked his intended victim.
"Sure Ron, come on lets go for a walk, and you can tell me more details if it would help"
With a small smile. Ron stood and followed his elder brother out of the house to the large garden at the back of the property. This was going to be so easy. He walked down toward the large pond at the bottom of the garden with his older brother following him. Unseen by all, Ron's eyes were once more turning totally black and the large black knife appeared in his hand. He hid it under his robes, as he walked further away from the house. As they got around the corner, Ron turned to his brother and for the first time his elder brother saw the demon that looked like his youngest sibling. He felt terror as he gazed into the evil black pools that were his eyes. As he looked he suddenly felt intense pain as Ron swiftly stabbed the large knife into his stomach.
"So, Percy! Let's dance shall we!"
IY – IY – IY
Harry finally managed to convince Hermione that she was ready to leave. She had found one of the bathrooms and had spent an inordinate amount of time washing in the bath. True Harry had been with her and their love-making was amazing, but she did seem to take a very long time with all the shampoos and lotions and such.
For Hermione, making love in a bath was a revelation, it was just so damm sexy. Harry had made her climax more times in the hour that she thought possible. Hermione wasn't normally a vain girl, but after such a workout, she delighted in laying back in the warm bath and trying out all the various lotions and was amazed when she found one of the shampoos promised to tame her normally wild hair. With regret she finally let her lover convince her that getting out of the bath was a good idea.
She finally came down the stair wearing clean clothes that she had found in the master bedroom. She somehow KNEW that they were for her and they were all the right size. She was over the moon with her hair, for the first time without the use of massive amounts of hair products, it was sleek and smooth. It gleamed like polished metal and judging from the open mouthed expression on her husband's face, it looked good on her. She walked over to him with a smile and lifted her hand to his open jaw and gently shut it for him.
"Come on dear, let's not keep the Weasleys waiting."
Harry gave her a swift light smack on her bum, causing her to squeal and laugh. She then turned serious and looked back at him. "We need to apparate somewhere out of sight, so we can make sure that no Deatheaters are around."
"Good idea, lets cast a disillusionment charm on ourselves and then apparate to the pathway up to the house, that way we can see if anyone is around."
With a nod, Hermione took out her wand and Harry wandlessly cast the charms on both of them. They took a deep breath and disapparated away, only to appear on the lane leading up to the odd looking house. Looking around they could not see anyone and Hermione quietly said "Homenum Revelio". Checking the result, she whispered to Harry "Nothing!" The slowly began to walk up to the Burrow. They had just got to the front door when they heard an ear piercing scream coming from the back garden. As one they both broke the disillusionment spell and burst through the door and into the front room.
IY – IY – IY
Percy looked at the thing in front of him in absolute terror. He could feel the blade deep inside himself. More frightening was the evil smile of the face of the man he thought was his younger brother, and the lack of anything approaching humanity in the dark pools of its eyes.
"Hell, that tastes amazing!" the creature gurgled, "Let's see what more we can get eh brother mine?"
With that he raised Percy of the ground with the large knife, effectively impaling him on the end of it as he lifted him up. The pain for Percy was indescribable and Percy let out an ear-piercing scream.
"There now, that's better! Yum!"
IY – IY – IY
Inside the house, things were going badly. All parties were grieving for the loss of the two teens. Molly had finally stopped sobbing but was sat on the sofa with her husband staring into space, not answering any questions. The twins were sat silently on the other sofa with their elder brother talking quietly. Suddenly two startling things happened. First they heard the most awful scream they had ever heard. Almost immediately followed by the front door banging open and two impossible people bursting in.
"HARRY! HERMIONE? What? How? But your dead!" Molly screamed
"Who told you that? Quickly!"
"Ron, he came a few minutes ago and told us you were dead"
The two teens noticed that the other men in the room were now pointing wands at them, as well as looking nervously at the direction the scream had come from.
"No, we are not dead, yes we are who we say we are, you first met me when I couldn't find the entrance to the platform at Kings Cross, and Hermione has a familiar called Crookshanks. Now where is Ron?"
"He's in the back garden with Percy" Arthur replied
"SHIT, Percy! Quick follow us, wands out!" and Harry and Hermione ran into the garden followed by the other Weasleys. As they all ran towards the pond they were greeted with a sight from a muggle horror movie. Ron was holding Percy aloft with a massive back knife and worst of all he was laughing at the situation. All the Weasleys were sickened by the sight and even more so by the black eyes that Ron possessed.
Harry shouted at Ron "RON!, put him down!"
Ron turned at the sound. For once in the creatures' long life, he was speechless. This wasn't possible; he killed these two with his own hands.
"How? You are dead. I killed you." With a flick he dropped Percy off the knife, and reversed the blade and quickly slit the elder mans throat. Blood spurted everywhere, and covered the creature in the warm liquid. Despite the shock at seeing the two teens, the creature relished the meal that the death of the older man afforded him.
"PERCY! NO!, RON WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" screamed Molly.
"That's not Ron, Mrs Weasley!" Hermione shouted back.
Molly looked at Hermione in shock before she pulled out her wand and started to cast spell after spell at the creature that had killed her son. The creature idly waved his hand and absorbed the spells with it. He smiled at his 'mother'.
"Now Mother dear, that's not very friendly is it? Not after I've just eaten." He cast an unknown spell that caused a green and yellow light to fly towards his mother. Harry wordlessly cast a shield charm just in time and the curse flew away into the trees. The creature's attention shifted back to Harry. "You! You're dead. I know I killed you and your whore; want to tell me how you are here. I don't smell Vampire, but you are you, that much I can tell."
"Just shows that you can't kill em all eh! Now back off and leave here!" Harry replied, hand raised at the creature.
"Now why would I do that eh? Lots of lovely Weasleys to eat. Plus you of course- again."The creature raised the black knife and with a surprisingly fast throw, the large knife imbedded itself into Harry's chest, causing blood to fly in all directions. The tip of the knife could be clearly seen poking out of Harry's back. With a low cry Harry collapsed.
"Harry!" Mrs Weasley screamed.
Hermione was suddenly galvanised into action. She had seen how useless the spells had been on the creature, but she figured that it was still subject to the same laws of physics that all objects were. With a shout she fired explosive curse after explosive curse at the ground in front of the creature. This caused him to fly backwards towards the trees. As soon as he was airborne, she fired repelling charms at him, aided by the now aware twins. This caused the body to fly backwards at a massive rate of knots. Ron landed with a loud thump in a knot of trees about a quarter of mile away. He felt one of his bones break with the impact. Whilst he was nearly immortal, his body was still mortal and he knew he couldn't win today, so he apparated away.
Back at the Burrow, chaos reigned. Molly had run over to her dead son and was cradling the body, covering her clothes in his blood. She was rocking back and forth, crying. Her husband was knelt beside her with a dead look in his eyes as he looked down on his deceased son. The twins and Charlie were stood with wands still held in their hands, unsure on what to do. They had just seen their kid brother kill there other sibling, and then kill Harry, who had just come back from the supposed dead. What was surprising them the most was the apparent lack of concern from Hermione, who was prowling around the garden, casting protective wards.
"Er, Hermione, what about Harry?" Fred asked.
"Oh yeah, hang on a moment, just let me finish this" she replied
Fred looked at George in amazement. They were both thinking the same thing, 'How could she be so unaffected by Harry's death?'
After a while, she walked over to Harry's body, and gently removed the knife. She threw it away, and looked back at the three Weasley men. "Don't worry, he'll be okay in a second or two" The three stared at her in disbelief
"She's lost it; Harry's death has pushed her over the edge!" Fred whispered to the others.
Hermione just smiled sadly at them and walked over to her dead husband. "Harry, come on time to wake up now"
Now even Charlie was getting worried. The girl had totally flipped. He was about to call for help when Harry suddenly sat bolt upright in her arms and looked around in confusion.
"What happened? Where is he?"
"Shhhs, it's okay, he's gone." Hermione said gently. The rest of the group were looking at the pair with fear and disbelief on their faces. Even Molly and Arthur were looking at them despite their grief.
"Would someone please tell me what the FUCK is going on?" Mr Weasley asked.
"Let's get indoors, and we will explain."
Harry stood up as if nothing had happened despite the blood all over his shirt, and walked over to Percy. "Let me have him Mrs Weasley."
He gently took him off Mrs Weasley as if weighed nothing at all, and with the rest of the family following behind the sad procession made its way back to the warmth of the Burrow.
IY – IY - IY
It was a sad group that had gathered around the kitchen table. Percy had been sent to St Mungo's until the funeral could be arranged. The Healer had given Mrs Weasley a slight calming potion when he had come to collect the body and she was now sat with her head on Mr Weasleys shoulder.
"Could someone please tell me what just happened and what has happened to Ron?" Arthur asked
Harry took a deep breath, and felt Hermione take his hand in support.
"Mr Weasley, I'm so sorry to have to tell you this but as far as we understand it Ron is dead." At this Molly burst into another wave of tears, and it took another calming potion and a strong brandy to calm her down. To be fair, Mr Weasley and his remaining sons also had a swig of the brandy bottle, but no one held it against them.
"Can you explain that Harry if that's who you really are, it seems that I have lost two sons today, and I am struggling to keep it together?" Mr Weasley still had his wand pointing at the two teens.
"Sir, from what we have been told, Ron was killed by the demon that inhabits his body when he was ten years of age. Apparently it's a type of vampire that feeds of negative emotion, and it was trying to keep us apart and feed off our misery. It seems that when we got together it decided to take things a little faster. I'm so sorry for your loss and I promise you we will do everything to stop the monster."
Mr and Mrs Weasley had tears streaming down their faces as they heard that there youngest son was not even human.
"What do you mean 'got together?'" Mr Weasley asked.
"Well sir, Hermione and I are married and bonded magically."
"MARRIED?" Mrs Weasley cried out, half in shock, but otherwise quite pleased. She had once harboured a desire to see Harry get together with Ginny, but she knew deep in her heart that Harry had always been in love with Hermione. She had toyed with the idea of using a love potion for Harry and Ginny, but immediately dismissed it as cruel. Love potions don't create real love; they can only be used to speed things along a bit if the couple already have a desire to be with each other. She soon realised that it would be doing them both a disservice and neither would be truly happy and so had decided to let things take their natural course.
"Yes Mrs Weasley, we both made magical vows to each other the other day, and we believe that we are magically married and bonded for all eternity, in our case quite literally, to each other." Hermione answered shyly, causing raised eyebrows at her odd phrase.
Harry carried on his conversation."It seems that we were destined to be together and the creature was working to keep us apart. That way all the misery we would feel would feed him for decades. When we were left alone for a while in the tent, I decided to take the first step and since then Hermione and I have been together. When the creature found out, well let's just say things turned ugly."
"Why what happened?" Mr Weasley asked.
The two looked at each other. They had discussed this earlier and had decided that the Weasleys deserved to know the truth about them. They owed it to the memory of the friend they had never met.
"Well, the creature stabbed me in the chest, and then slashed Hermione throat, before leaving us for dead."
"Merlin! That's was Ron, er the Creature said happened, but how did you survive, and how did you survive the knife this evening. You were dead but now you're not, how...Oh Shit! Your Vampires aren't you?" Mr Weasley was hastily stepping back as the others all raised their wands to point at the couple.
Harry held up his hands. "First of all, no we are not vampires, if we were we wouldn't of been able to be outside in the sunlight today would we? And second, we didn't survive the first attack, we were both killed and we were dead for over twelve hours. "
Startled shouts broke out at this revelation. Most of the Weasleys were backing away from the pair as it they were some sort of evil creatures. All of a sudden, Fawkes flamed in and flew around the room singing his beautiful song before landing on the shoulders of the pair. Everyone knew that a phoenix would not land on any evil creature.
"Everyone, please!" Harry shouted trying to calm everyone down. "We do not fully understand it ourselves, but it appears that both Hermione and I are now immortal. We cannot be killed by normal methods. We woke up terrified and confused after the attack, but we were told by Fawkes here everything that we needed to know. We cannot tell you anymore at the moment cos we don't know any more, but please believe us when we tell you that we are still the Harry and Hermione that you know."
"Oh sweet Merlin!" Molly whispered. This news was too much for her and she fainted dead away. The twins looked startled and frightened. Charlie was looking at the pair with interest, despite the grief evident on his face at the loss of two of his siblings.
"How did this happen?" he asked.
"We really don't know, but we now know it to be true. Hermione has 'died' twice now, and this is my third time. What we do know is that it hurts like buggery as we can still feel the pain. I must admit to been terrified about been alone for a long time, but both Hermione and I had made magical vows to be together for all eternity, so that makes it al lot more liveable with."
Silence reigned for a while whilst Mr Weasley brought his wife around and more brandy was handed out, this time both Harry and Hermione took a swig.
"How are we going to deal with this? We have to bury Percy and now we know Ron is dead but we cannot even bury him. And who is going to tell Ginny and Bill?" Molly wailed.
"Where is Ginny?" Harry asked.
"She's with Luna over at her house" Fred answered.
"SHIT! The creature may go after Ginny, and that means there both in danger. Harry we have to go!" Hermione cried.
Harry was already on his feet, pulling Hermione up. "Where do the Lovegood's live? We have to get there as soon as possible."
The remaining Weasleys all stood, wands drawn. "We'll show you." Arthur replied.
"It's too dangerous, just tell us and we'll go."
"Not a chance, we've lost two today, I do NOT intend to lose any more. My family will fight for our loved ones, and that includes you two. Now are you two coming or not? The Lovegood's live across the hill; we can apparate there in seconds." Arthur replied with anger evident in his expression.
Harry and Hermione looked at the family in front of them with love and pride. They had just lost two of their own but they all had a determined look in their eyes as they prepared to fight for what was right.
"Okay, come on then, you will have to take us as we do not know where the house is." They all walked out to the back of the house and Molly held Hermione's arm whilst Arthur took Harry's. With a pop they all vanished ready for what would await them.