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Two Steps From Hell	By : Ssserpensssotia Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 30375 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. No profit is being made. No copyright infringement is intended. Everything Harry Potter related belongs to J.K.Rowling.

Chapter List
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Beta : Serpent In Red
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I, Horcrux
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Chapter Two
Disbelief. Pure and outrageous denial raced through Harry Potter's every cell as he saw Hermione appear from behind, pushing him away from the Killing Curse's path.
No. No, no, no! Not Hermione, not his Hermione sacrificing her life for him. Like so many other. Like his mom and dad, Sirius and Cedric … like Snape and Dumbledore … like Dobby..like Hedwig...
He had to die!
Never before had Harry been this scared, never felt so hopeless, and Harry had seen his fair share of horror.
She didn't know. She didn't know he just had to die!
As the green light engulfed them both—he was too damned late to push Hermione completely away—Harry closed his eyes in defeat. That was not meant to happen.
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Everything was white. Finally finding the needed strength to open her eyes and sit up, Hermione Granger in absolute fascination and disbelief found herself on the platform, surrounded by a white mist.
So this is death then.
It wasn't a surprise that she did end up dead. She wasn't Harry Potter who had survived the Killing Curse. She was Hermione Granger and she made her bed. Remorse and guilt, she would handle later. For now, she needed to understand where she was and why she was here.
She was dead, wasn't she?
Quietly getting up, noticing that her torn clothes was now fully intact and looked completely new, as if just purchased and worn for the first time. Taking a precautious sniff, Hermione noted the light scent of lotus and vanilla.
My favorite.
Hermione's lips stretched into a serene smile. She'd done it. She saved Har-
A loud moan suddenly pierced the serenity surrounding Hermione.
What … cannot be.
Suddenly frantic, all previous thoughts flew out of her head, and Hermione struggled through the thick fog.
I am not alone.
Her legs refused to move, or they did move, but not fast enough. Nothing could be fast enough when Hermione finally saw the curled figure near the bench.
Harry.
Hadn't she been dead, her head and heart would have exploded, Hermione was just sure of it.
There was no way that Harry was here. It was not possible.
But here he was—in a fetus-like position, eyes closed and not moving. As Hermione violently tugged on his arm, Harry's eyes opened.
Horror.
That was the only thing Hermione could read in Harry's eyes.
Pure, unveiled horror.
Just about as Harry tried to open his uncooperative lips and say something, Hermione saw a tall figure approaching them.
Trying her damnedest not to lose those last precious parts of her rational mind, Hermione gaped at the approaching figure, noting the long white beard and the type of robes that only one wizard had worn.
"Professor," Hermione breathed in amazement and anticipation.
Were they all dead?
If Hermione thought that she had seen a horror-struck expression before, it was nothing, nothing, compared to the utter gut-wrenching horror she could see now fully blossoming on Professor Dumbledore's face.
An old, wrinkled hand was now clasped tightly in front of Dumbledore's mouth, shaking.
"Prof-" she tried to somehow shove the building terror and panic away, but the tears, those tears, were now cascading down the old Headmaster's face. And she couldn't even breathe.
xxx
Run.
Run for your life, run away from danger, run towards escape, just run.
Harry had done his fair share of running but never before had he felt this overwhelming urge to just run back and fix it.
Fix this impossible situation, rewrite this horrible scenario, just fucking do something.
It was just too wrong.
Hermione, his best friend Hermione, who he had met all those long years ago, was here. Dead. Just like him.
His best friend, who had never let him down, never abandoned him, never gave up on him. She was the only one who was a constant in his unfair and tragic life. While Ginny had been his ray of light, Hermione had been a constant warming sun, her presence always giving him support and courage. She never doubted him, never betrayed. She was the only one who was always honest with him. His Hermione.
Ever since that troll accident in their first year, she was with him. Her and Ron.
At the thought about his other best friend, Harry's already bleeding heart expanded and filled with unmistakable sense of doom.
Wouldn't surprise me, if Ron joined us soon, Harry thought in an almost deranged panic.
They were all here—dead—because he had failed.
He couldn't breathe and didn't even care anymore. He had failed them all.
Harry Potter would have loved nothing more than to close his eyes forever and not feel his insides clench with terror and guilt. The guilt had been more than overwhelming. How could he have not noticed Hermione? How could he have allowed her to sacrifice her life for him?
Bitter with guilt and up the pole, Harry finally gathered his strength and got up, pushing Hermione's hand away.
How could she have done it?
"My brave, brave children." A quiet defeated sob was what finally had gotten Harry's attention.
Dumbledore was here.
Hope, this sickening hope that spread like a wild fire in his blood, rose its ugly head again.
Dumbledore would help. He was the only one that could help! He'd get Hermione out of here!
Finally remembering how to breathe properly, Harry turned to his old mentor only to take a step back.
Dumbledore was crying.
Dumbledore never cried, even when he was ready to die.
What changed?
Tremor run down Harry's spine and through his whole body , making him shake like a leaf.
What happened to the Horcrux?
Almost breaking his neck, Harry quickly looked around. There was nothing else here. Just them.
Where was it?
It didn't work. Professor Dumbledore had said that he needed to allow Voldemort to kill him. And he did allow him. So where was the damned Horcrux? Was it gone?
"I am so very sorry," Professor Dumbledore whispered quietly while placing one shaking hand onto his knees, sitting like a broken statue on a bench. "This was not supposed to happen."
"Professor, where is it? Is it gone? Did Voldemort destroy his Horcrux?" Harry needed to know. He just needed to know that he had managed to get rid of that vile piece of a soul. He needed to know he hadn't failed at everything. And then, he could find a way to bring Hermione back. They would find a way.
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A pitched sob tore its way from Hermione's white lips. She pressed them so hard together that they felt numb.
Numb, but not numb enough, for a horrified sob managed to escape. And it made it all so much more real.
Harry was a Horcrux.
Hermione Granger was far from stupid and it didn't take long for her to piece the puzzle together.
Harry was supposed to die in order to kill the Horcrux that had been inside of him since that fateful night in Godric's Hollow all those years ago. Harry and Professor Dumbledore had this planned.
And then she interfered.
What had she done?
"Harry, Miss Granger." The old Headmaster stood up on shaking legs and offered a watery smile that didn't reach those blue defeated eyes. "You are so strong, both of you—"
Harry swallowed his shame and trepidation while Hermione could feel her own tears running freely on her pained face.
"—and I have never been more proud in my whole life."
Harry and Hermione could both feel it, there was something in the old Professor's face that told them it wasn't all. Something was coming and it was big.
Sick with anticipation, already knowing somewhere deep inside, Harry asked again.
"Is it destroyed?"
Hermione couldn't hold it in anymore and she puked. She puked because the terror had been too great. She already knew the answer.
"I am afraid not, my boy."
It pained Dumbledore to say it out loud. It pained him so much to admit it, admit defeat. It all went wrong, so wrong.
Sixteen years of waiting, all the sacrifices that had to be made … it was all for nothing.
It was a pure nightmare. It was not supposed to happen.
"Where is it then? It's still in me, isn't it?" Terrified green eyes looked directly into the pain-filled blue ones.
So it was in him. Again. But how?
Yes. Of course. Definitely. Forever.
Harry would have preferred to hear one of those words come out from Dumbledore's mouth.
Anything but this.
"No."
Where then?
xxx
Albus Dumbledore was many things—a brilliant student, a magical prodigy, a manipulator, a liar, a schemer, an old man—but he was no fool.
He knew just how risky this whole circus was. Juggling so many pieces in the air could bring only two results—complete success or total destruction.
He could do only so many things contemporaneously. He couldn't tear a part of himself and let it take care of the Hallows. He couldn't clone himself to resist the increasing attacks from Voldemort.
He had so many things to do and he was completely alone.
Sometimes, Albus Dumbledore thought that he had taken a piece of a cake too big to swallow. And then he would choke.
Desperate.
He was simply too desperate. He could not allow Tom to destroy everything he had worked so hard for.
He had to risk.
And risk he did.
Standing near a column on the King's Cross—here Albus had to marvel at the humor of universe—he could only hope. And wait for Harry to come.
xxx
A breath of relief escaped Albus Dumbledore's lips as he saw a figure materialize from thin air. He felt such a tremendous weight lift from his shoulders.
Harry … he was everything Albus could wish for; the boy had been so strong, so brave, so selfless.
And they made it. The world would soon be free from Voldemort's terror.
xxx
It wasn't horror. It wasn't even close to that. It was so much more terrible. There was just no word for how he felt now, looking dumbly at the prone figure of Hermione Granger.
How?
Where had he made such a crucial mistake?
With increasing horror, he observed how another entity coiled around the body of Hermione Granger, like an angry snake released from captivity, it circled around, making smaller and tighter rounds until fully imbedding itself into her magical core, tarnishing it with its vile presence.
And he could do nothing to stop it.
With a shaking hand, Albus covered his eyes for this was more than he could take.
And now his conscience had to carry his eternal guilt.
He had risked too much. Too many.
What would Severus say if he could see this tragedy enfolding before his own eyes? How utterly disappointed and heartbroken he would be. All his life's work was cemented and destroyed when Hermione Granger—a pure heart amongst the darkness—had sacrificed herself. So simple yet so complicated. He couldn't have foreseen it. It was not supposed to happen. But it did.
One sacrifice too many, it overwhelmed the delicately balanced scales and left the world in shambles.
Albus Dumbledore cried bitter, silent tears, his old heart breaking into million useless pieces.
He was so sorry.
xxx
Expression of true sadness and pain was stretched across the Headmaster's face as he looked away from Harry and towards the ground. Dumbledore couldn't look him in the eyes.
From the corner of his eyes, Harry could see Hermione suddenly collapse to the floor, eyes wide with true fear and lips trembling.
For a second, Harry thought he went really mad; he was insane. It could not be what he was thinking. It was not possible.
But the defeated blue eyes were not trained on him. They were watching her.
Hermione.
Before Harry could scream in rage so terrifying, so pure and unrestrained, the platform exploded.
A dark, suffocating aura bombarded the King's Cross station, making Harry shudder and Hermione gasp in shock.
For she could feel something stir, eager in anticipation and joy inside of her.
The Dark Lord had arrived.
xxx
Anyway, next chapters should be longer. I'm not a fan of short chapters myself, but...
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Two Steps From Hell