"Harry! Harry, dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is!" Neville moved his blood-covered hands away from Hermione's wrist. On his way across the room, Neville had tripped on Dolohov's body and banged his nose on a desk. It was now swollen and bleeding.

"Are you s-sure?" Harry looked up.

"Yuh-huh."

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Harry that for a moment he felt light headed. Wiping his eyes, he asked,"Sh-she's alive?"

"Yeah, I dink so."

"Well...well what an we do? How to we stop this? How do we bring her back?" Harry squeezed his eyes shut to stop more tears from falling.

"Uh...uh...didn'd she deach you a spell?" Neville said,"A...a rennerbate or someding?"

Of course. Hermione had told him about that spell! Hands shaking, Harry pulled out his wand, praying he could improvise the spell well enough, praying it would work. "Rennervate!"

Nothing happened.

"Rennervate!"

Still nothing.

"RENNERVATE!" Harry made a wild swishing movement with his hand.

Hermione's nose wrinkled. Then, her eyelids fluttered and she propped herself up on her elbows, blinking at Harry. "Nnng..." she groaned.

Harry couldn't believe it had worked. She was alive. She was okay. Flinging his arms around her, he did something he'd never done before, and kissed her on the cheek.

"Harry? Are you okay? Why are you crying? What happened?"

Chest rising and falling quickly, Harry closed his eyes and whispered,"I...I thought you were dead."

"Oh, Harry..."

"I thought you'd left me." His voice cracked.

"No. No, I would never leave you." Hermione hugged him tightly, wincing a little.

It was only when he heard a nervous cough from behind him that Harry remembered Neville was still in the room.

***********

Lupin put his arms around Harry from behind to stop him from running into the veil.

"SIRIUS!" Harry screamed,"SIRIUS!" The unbearable pain was back. Harry's breath came in searing gasps as his eyes moved between the veil and Bellatrix.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry-" Lupin insisted, trying to hide the pain from his voice.

The only two hooded Death Eaters remaining were stunned quickly by Hermione, and they dropped their grip on her and Neville as they collapsed. The other Order members had already led everyone else out of the room.

"Get him - save him - he's only just gone through!"

"-it's too late Harry."

Harry heard sobs from behind him. He had thought Neville and Hermione were going to die at the hands of Bellatrix. She had performed the Cruciatus curse on each of them in turn until Harry had said he would hand over the prophecy, much to the despair of both Neville and Hermione. Their screams had been enough to make his scar burn red hot.

"We can still reach him-" Harry struggled. Lupin wouldn't let go. "We can...I...let-"

"He can't come back, Harry." Lupin was growing tired,"He can't come back because he's d-"

"HE - IS - NOT - DEAD!" Harry roared,"SIRIUS!"

Bellatrix cackled from across the room,"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!" She taunted before sliding through the door.

Harry ripped free from Lupin's grip.

"Harry! Harry - no!"

"Harry, sdop! Come bag!"

"No, no, don't do that! What are you-"

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" He bellowed, charging after Bellatrix,"SHE KILLED HIM - I'LL KILL HER!"

The whole way back to the main hall of the Ministry where there were lines and lines of fireplaces, Harry could have sworn there were footsteps a little way behind him, but nothing inside of Harry wanted to check.

***********

"Come out, come out, little Harry!" Bellatrix called out in her mock baby voice as Harry crouched behind a large fountain,"What did you come after me for? To avenge my dear cousin?"

Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before. He flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed,"Crucio!"

The force of the curse sent Bellatrix flying backwards, but she did not scream as Neville and Hermione had. Bellatrix laughed,"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you? You need to mean it. I'll show you how it's done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson. Crucio!"

Harry cried out in pain.

"Crucio! Where is it?"

"PROTEGO!"

"POTTER!" Bellatrix screeched,"I'm going to give you one chance! Give me the prophecy, and I may spare you. May."

"Don't have it!" Harry shouted. He wasn't lying. The prophecy had smashed whilst he had been wrestling with Lupin. He hadn't noticed until that point.

"LIAR! YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME! Accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

"It won't work!" Harry laughed because he knew it would incense her. Pain built in his head so badly he thought his skull might burst. "Nothing there! It smashed just a minute ago."

"No! NO!" Bellatrix wailed, suddenly despairing as she realised Harry was telling her the truth,"MASTER - I TRIED, MASTER - DON'T PUNISH ME, PLEASE! I TRIED-"

"Don't waste your breath!" Harry scrambled to his feet,"He can't hear you!"

"Can't I, Potter?" Voldemort was instantly stood right in front of him.

The following minute was one which Harry had been most unprepared for. Voldemort had shot the killing curse at him, but a golden statue had leapt out of nowhere to defend him. Dumbledore had entered the room, declaring that he was the one who had animated the statue and speaking to Voldemort as though the two had merely been Hogwarts rivals in their youth. Then - out of the blue - Voldemort had begun to attack him. Dumbledore had used "Impedimenta," to send Harry behind one of the fireplaces, where he was now huddled, covering his head and fighting the searing pain in his scar.

Harry glanced across to the opposite row of fireplaces. He froze. Someone was there. They were hiding behind the fireplace Bellatrix had leapt into to avoid having to duel anyone. Harry knew who it was before he saw their face. He had indeed heard footsteps behind him on his way to the main hall, and those footsteps had belonged to Hermione.

Catching his eye, Hermione hugged her knees to her chest as more glass from the office windows rained down on her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Harry yelled over the noise.

"I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT MUCH WOULD BE OBVIOUS TO YOU, HARRY!" Dumbledore replied, probably having thought the question had been directed at him. But suddenly, Dumbledore was losing.

Harry stood up, legs trembling, and ran to the professor's aid. However, he had barely had time to raise his wand when Dumbledore forced him backwards.

Everything happened at once - Voldemort was in the air - he was becoming a shadow - Harry could barely see him - the shadow smashed into the ground - the room went silent.

"Ha-"

Then Harry's scar burst open and he knew he was dead: it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance. He was gone from the hall, he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Harry did not know where his body ended and the creature's began. They were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape. And when the creature spoke, it used Harry's mouth, so that in his agony he felt his jaw move.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore..."

Blinded and dying, every part of him screaming for release, Harry felt the creature use him again.

"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy..."

Let the pain stop, thought Harry, let him kill us...end it, Dumbledore...death is nothing compared to this...

But then there came a feeling of sudden humanity, sudden existence, sudden life. Harry could feel contact. Warmth soaring down his spine, he suddenly felt the strength in him to try and fight whatever had taken over him.

"Harry!" A sound protruded the deafening ringing in Harry's ears.

His brain rattled in his skull and his teeth chartered with a chill that wasn't there, yet Harry kept fighting. It was something about the hands on his back as he lay face down on the floor of the Ministry of Magic that sustained him. He didn't know to whom they belonged, but he wasn't sure he would even recognise the name if he was told it. The only words he could remember by that point were pain, Harry, and death.

"Hermione, just let go-"

"No!"

Hermione. Harry knew that name. Harry knew Hermione. It was Hermione. It was her hands on his back and her voice in his ear. Harry knew Hermione. She was there. She was always there. Harry knew Hermione. Harry knew who she was and he knew that she wanted him to come back to her. He knew how he felt when he had thought she had been dead earlier on. More pain. But he also knew how it felt when he realised she was alive. That feeling had made the pain worth it. Alive. Harry knew that word, too. It was a good word. Not quite as good as 'Hermione', but he was sure 'alive' would mean more to Hermione than it did to him.

It was about now that Harry realised he hadn't been breathing. Letting the last of the numbing pain subside, Harry inhaled deeply. He heard both Dumbledore and Hermione gasp. Harry exhaled, opening his eyes to see the ice-cold Ministry floor. It was over. Harry was alive.

"Harry..." Hermione breathed.

"Harry..." Dumbledore repeated.

Harry rolled himself over and Hermione's hands left his back.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes...yeah...I am now." Harry stood up, shaking so violently he could barely hold his head up properly.

Then came the stampede of people, his friends and Order members alike.

"Mate!"

"Harry!"

"Are you okay?"

"I told you-"

"Bloody hell!"

"What happened?"

"Who's that?"

"Hermione?"

"Dumbledore?"

"Who broke everything?"

"What's going on?"

"Let them breathe!"

"Get out the way!"

"Goodness gracious!"

"It's the Minister!"

"What's he doing here?"

"Merlin, Harry, are you all right?"

"Bloody hell!"

"I said let them breathe!"

Everyone was back. Harry felt glad to see them all as Dumbledore and Hermione both slotted an arm under each of his shoulders to support him.

Cornelius Fudge looked as though he had seen a ghost. "I...I...Dumbledore - was that...it wasn't...him?"

"Indeed, Minister." Dumbledore led Harry and Hermione to the row of fireplaces,"Now, get out of my way! We must get back to Hogwarts, as I am afraid these poor students have all taken quite a bit of a battering."

"I...right you are."

***********

Dumbledore sat with the six of them in the Hospital Wing for almost an hour after they all got back to Hogwarts. He was helping Harry and Hermione explain the events of that evening to Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville, as well as letting them all explain what had happened to them that landed them under Madam Pomfrey's care.

Ron had been attacked by a 'gross tentacle-brainy-thing' which had left suction marks and rashes up his arms and on his face; Ginny had broken her ankle whilst running from the Death Eaters; Neville's nose was swollen to an alarming size and most definitely broken; Luna had lost one of her teeth and needed a few stitches, but was otherwise fine; Hermione described the curse Dolohov had used on her the best she could, but Dumbledore had gasped when she had said "purple flame".

"What?"

Shaking his head slowly, Dumbledore said,"What was the incantation?"

"Oh, well, you see, I used a silencing charm on him so he couldn't exactly speak." Hermione replied uncomfortably, rubbing her ribs,"I don't know. I've never seen a curse quite like it." Dumbledore's hesitation to answer led her to continued rambling,"I probably should have thought before silencing him-"

"Merlin's beard, no!" Dumbledore said quite loudly, making them all jump,"If he'd have said the incantation...I'll daresay he'd have killed you, Miss Granger. Dear me...one moment, I ought to speak to Madam Pomfrey about this..." Professor Dumbledore stood up and hurried to the other side of the room.

"Does it...does it hurt?" Harry asked her quietly as Ginny and Ron started talking to Luna and Neville about Quidditch.

Hermione nodded, not meeting his eyes,"Mm."

"It could have killed you."

"I know."

"Did it hurt then? When he did it, I mean."

She nodded again,"A lot. Loads, actually. What about when you...when Voldemort-"

"Honestly?" He muttered darkly,"I thought it was the end."

"Harry."

"Hermione."

"Miss Granger," Dumbledore reappeared by the side of the bed,"Madam Pomfrey has given me these to give to you." He placed a handful of different sized stoppered vials onto Hermione's bedside table. "She says you must take these daily. But I am afraid I have already forgotten the schedule for them - ten different medications all at once is rather a lot for someone as old as I am to remember - but I don't doubt that she shall be more than happy to help you with that." Dumbledore winked.

"Thank you, Professor." Hermione said, hiding a heavy sigh.

"This has come for you, too." Dumbledore handed Hermione a letter.

Harry recognised the script straight away; it was her mother's. Awestruck, Hermione opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. Reading it to herself quickly, she broke into a little smile.

"What is it?"

She handed Harry the letter.

Dear Hermione,

I am terribly sorry for what I said to you last summer - I didn't mean any of it - and I shall be more than happy to pick you up from King's Cross station once you arrive back. I will wait for you in the car outside as it is always quite crowded inside.

Hope all is well, love you lots,
Mum xoxo

Harry broke into a grin in spite of himself. Then, however, just as quickly, his face fell back into a frown,"What did she say to you last summer?"

"Oh," Hermione went a little pink,"well, she got a bit drunk...she started going on about school again and said she wouldn't pick me up from the station after school. She told me I'd have to walk home myself and I said that was fine by me. Mind you, I really don't think she meant it. She's gotten a lot better, Mum has. She only occasionally goes off on one about magic, and that's only when she's been out for a few hours in a row." Hermione was beaming ear-to-ear, and Harry couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't told him this sooner. Then, he realised how he had acted when he had first arrived at Grimmauld Place and he understood.

"That's brilliant, Hermione, really." He hugged her and she winced badly,"Oh, I'm sorry! I completely forgot about - sorry."

"It's all right. I ought to take this medicine now, though." She picked up a vial and peered at it. Looking at all of the other ones, she changed her mind,"You know, maybe I should wait until Madam Pomfrey tells me to."

Harry smiled,"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea."

The following day, Harry visited her again. He was in far lower spirits.

"I tried so hard to do the right thing," he muttered angrily,"and all it's done is make things-"

"Worse? Make things worse?" Hermione asked incredulously,"Harry, none of this has made anything worse."

He didn't listen,"Maybe it'd just be best if I left Hogwarts. Then everyone would stop getting hurt because of me. People would stop dying because of me. The more you care, the more you have to lose. I care too much. Everyone cares too much. I need to leave before someone else gets themselves killed because of something I've done. I'm a target for all these attacks, and if I leave, no one near me will get hurt."

"No."

"Compelling argument, Hermione."

Hermione frowned,"No. Harry. You can't just go away. You shouldn't. Look, if...if you're a target then I'm the most at risk. I spend most time with you."

"I know!"

"No, I mean, look at me - I'm fine."

Harry looked. She was pale and tired and weak. "Right."

"I'm fine, Harry. Even...even Malfoy's fine, and he's constantly picking fights with you."

"I feel like you're glossing over all the times you've nearly died just because you were with me."

"And thank Merlin I was."

She was looking in his eyes, so Harry tried not to look away. Sometimes, Harry was glad that he wore glasses; Hermione's eye contact was so fierce, it was good to have a buffer.

"Thanks." Harry mumbled, edging closer to her.

"And to you."

***********

"Harry! I asked if you would just leave me alone!" Cho Chang protested furiously from the other side of the Sweet Trolley.

Harry sighed as Cho turned away from him. He still didn't like her. He couldn't. Not when he still had feelings for Hermione. He had never called them that before. Feelings. Harry almost understood them now. He turned around. Hermione Granger stood behind him, a sympathetic smile on her face.

"I'm sorry, Harry." She said gently,"I know you liked her."

"Actually," Harry replied thoughtfully,"I don't think I did."

"You two mind?" The trolley witch snapped,"Train's pulling in and you're both blocking my way!"

Harry and Hermione mumbled their apologies, edging past the trolley and grabbing their things. Once they were in King's Cross, the pair bade everyone farewell before heading outside. Harry spotted the Dursleys' car instantly. Hermione waved at the woman sitting in the car behind it. Now was Harry's chance. He spun around to speak to Hermione.

"That's your mum, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it all right if I meet her?" Harry asked,"I want to say hi."

Hermione looked taken aback,"Oh...of course."

Grinning, Harry swiftly moved over to the open window of the car. "Hello there, Ms. Granger. I'm Harry Potter, a close friend of Hermione's from school."

Ms. Granger looked rather shocked that he was speaking to her,"H-hello, Harry. Pleasure to meet a friend of Hermione's..."

"And a pleasure to meet you." Harry replied politely,"She - er - Hermione means a lot to me, as I know she does to you. Having said this, however, if anything should happen to Hermione whilst she is at home," his voice got quieter and lower as he let this sudden burst of adrenaline-led confidence flood out of him, hardly knowing what he was saying,"I will come right over and take her somewhere far away. Not that I don't respect your authority as her mother, of course, I just care very much about her and want only what is best for her. Surely you understand where I'm coming from, with you being her mother and all. She has brought up a couple of occurrences in the past, and I really don't want to have to interfere, but I just want you to know that I will." He said as cheerily as he could,"Good day to you."

Ms. Granger gaped at him,"How...how dare you try and tell me how to raise my daughter? I'd like a word with your parents, Mister Pot-"

"Can't do that, ma'am, sorry."

"And why on earth not?" She demanded.

"My parents are dead." Harry said simply, unable to stop himself.

"Oh. Oh, I-"

"Good day to you." He repeated sharply before striding past the car and stopping in front of Hermione,"Good luck."

She sighed,"You'll be okay, Harry."

"Yeah. I'll miss you." Harry hugged Hermione tightly, kissed her on the cheek and climbed into the Dursleys' car, every emotion possible swimming through his veins.