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The Paths We Take	By : Luckycharms Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 18436 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. That right goes to the AMAZING JK Rowling. No profit is made off this story. Shout out to Scorpia11 for being my awesome Beta!!

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
“In the darkness you could hear the crying of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men. Some prayed for help…Others wished for death. But still more imagined that there were no Gods left, and that the universe…was plunged into eternal darkness.”
- Pliny the Younger

Chapter 7- ...Fight to Survive
Fall of 79 A.D.
The two Slytherin’s inside the arena looked to each other with wide fear-stricken eyes as their ragged breaths caught and dark ash and steam billowed impeccably from the volcano's peak. It was a magnificent sight that none of them had ever seen before, though in retrospect they all wished they could have avoided the experience entirely.
Reading and hearing about volcanic eruptions was one thing but witnessing it in person and as close as they all were, was mind blowing. None of the students could wrap their minds around the sheer beauty temporarily numbing them from the violence that was about to ensue. Although, the admiration of Mount Vesuvius awakening from her long slumber…was short lived.
Shaking his mesmerizing stare away from the mushroom cloud surging from the crest, Blaise quickly jumped down from the boulders he stood on and struggled to gain his footing as he tried to run opposite the erupting mountain. Grabbing a still stunned Draco as he rushed to escape, the Italian raced towards the passageway they had used to enter the arena, praying he had enough strength to blast through the wreckage with wandless magic.
It was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose and the dark-skinned wizard was once again far from thrilled about the location the amulet had placed them. The idea of jumping back to the Ice Age was far better than the fiery nightmare that was only seconds away from occurring. At this point, he would rather freeze to death than burn in an inferno of molten magma.
But as the boys neared the caved in tunnel, the ground exploded beneath them as the coliseum quite literally began to disintegrate. The earth continued to violently tremble while it swallowed a large section of the stadium almost effortlessly, forcing Draco and Blaise to halt their running in a panic and turn around to sprint back in the opposite direction. However, the surface of the arena began to crack and split, forming a giant fissure that coursed through the sand with ease. But in that brief and terrifying moment, gravity ceased to exist…and the two boys fell with the terrain in what appeared to be an untimely death.
XX
“HERMIONE!” Ginny screamed as she tried to stand, but the strangers running for their lives pushed into her making it difficult for her to get back to her friend. One had even roughly shoved her so hard she had hit her head against the stone railing, lining their upper tier and which so many were falling over. She cried out in pain as she gripped the side of her head where a small amount of blood was now dripping from and tried to stand. “MIONE!” she cried as she looked through the sea of bodies completely falling apart from fear.
Hermione called out to Ginny, who she could no longer see through the chaos and the panic of the mob surrounding her, while shoving into men and women doing their best to escape. People raced passed her, falling over the edges of the upper level, and crashing to the stone floor before being trampled painfully into the ground. Terrified screams filled her ears and momentarily, she found herself back at Hogwarts. All she could see were the faces of the people she knew, personally or in passing, battling in the courtyard of the school on that fateful day. She quickly shook the memory from her mind because she knew Pompeii was not the war; however, the feeling of dread felt so much like it.
The volcano continued to belt out toxic sulfurous gases the city would soon breathe in as she tried to reach where she had last seen the redhead, but the disorder and tumult made it extremely difficult. She suddenly felt a hand wrap around her wrist, making her eyes snap to her right and she breathed a sigh a relief when she recognized the soft warm brown eyes.
“Merlin’s beard, Ginny!” she expressed gratefully as she brought the girl in for a quick hug before letting go and looking her over. “Are you alright?” she asked while looking at a cut on the side of Ginny’s forehead.
“I’m fine! We have to get out of here!” the redhead replied before looking around for a way out.
Hermione’s focus suddenly turned to the center of the arena when she remembered the guys were still down below. But she unfortunately watched in turmoil while part of the amphitheater began to collapse into ruins as the earth effortlessly devoured the stones whole; taking unsuspecting victims along with it.
The bookworm barely had a chance to release a sob while clasping a hand over her mouth, before a huge crevice split through the soil of the arena. Both girls’ eyes widen as Hermione held her breath and watched as the ground collapsed beneath the two boys running for their lives; momentary suspending them in midair before plummeting into a cavernous hole. And even though it happened instantly, it was like everything had moved in slow motion.
Without even realizing she did it, the brunette cried out in agonizing horror when she saw Draco and Blaise vanish before their eyes while people continued to shove into her and Ginny without a care in the world for the loss, they just bore witness to.
“NO!” Ginny shouted as she took a step forward down the stone stairs, but the curly-haired witch quickly stopped her and began pulling her in the opposite direction.
A stampeded was met outside of the stadium full of people selfishly pushing each other while descending the steps in a frenzy, causing others to fall over the thick gravel railings before being crushed under feet of the masses. Ginny wept while the brunette witch pulled her down the stairs and once they reached the bottom they stepped back, away from the hysteria and glanced up at Mount Vesuvius in all her glory.
“Th-they’re dead…aren’t they?” Ginny asked with a trembling lip before lowering her gaze to the bookworm as the violent tremors subsided. “They w-went through all that just…just to-Oh, Gods, Mione!”
“W-we can’t think about that right now, Gin” Hermione stated sorrowfully as the sky began to grow dark. “I-it’s just us now and w-we have to get out of here…” she claimed as she tried her best to hold herself together, refusing to think of the blonde as he fell beneath the earth’s surface.
“I-I-I can’t do this!” the redhead cried while gripping her head in her hands. “This is fucking insane! THEY’RE DEAD AND THE BLOODY WORLD IS ENDING!” she shrieked while pointing to the mountain as she quickly became unhinged.
“Ginny! Get your shite together!” Hermione yelled as lightning began to crackle within the caryatid of billowing smoke. “We need to leave! Can you apparate?”
Ginny nodded her head, but a loud blast reverberated from the mountain causing the girls to scream and duck at the same time. The volcano’s peak which was now entering its third stage known as lava dome buildup, began discharging extremely large and incredibly hot boulders and debris. The girls watched in anguish as a few of the over-sized rocks, crashed in the direction of the entrance where they had arrived at the city mere hours ago.
Knowing they could no longer apparate to that area and still be able to outrun the plunging rocks destroying everything in their paths, the curly-haired witch grasped Ginny’s hand while trying to think of a new plan.
“The harbor!” she proclaimed when her eyes landed in the direction of the sea, but the girls had to quickly duck again as fire balls crashed into buildings around them.
Children could be heard wailing and screaming as men and woman engulfed in flames burst from a ruined building only a few meters away from the Gryffindors, causing their breaths to catch at the gruesome excruciating deaths. Bodies laid in heaps of rubble, gone from this world, and all Hermione and Ginny could do was cry as they ran as fast as they could from the horrible sight.
XX
Falling hard into the dungeon beneath them as rubble and debris from the sinkhole fell on top of them, Draco and Blaise gasped in pain while trying to gather their breaths from having the air knocked out of their lungs. Rolling onto their sides while trying their best to avoid the fallen rubble, they gracelessly staggered to their feet. Draco coughed a few times before spitting dirt and sand from his mouth and spotted his friend leaning against the cool stone wall beside him.
“Are-are you alright?” he asked while wiping his lips with the back of his arm when he suddenly realized where they had landed.
“I-I think so” Blaise replied with a cough before touching his fingers on his good arm, to the cut on his cheek. “Are you?”
Nodding his head, Draco began looking around through the cloud of dust beginning to settle when his gaze fell to a lever that rested on the wall by the cell they were once constricted to.
Blaise glanced to the blonde also covered in cuts, dust, and blood and knew exactly what his friend was thinking before being suddenly interrupted by a reverberating blast coming from above. They both knew they didn’t have a lot of time but in order to reconcile with themselves for the lives they had taken, they ran to the lever and opened the gates; releasing the prisoners still trapped inside and giving them a chance to live before finding a way out of the coliseum.
It felt like forever as they weaved in and out of tunnels and collapsed staircases and they both thought they were permanently trapped in the dark and unforgiving dungeon. When they finally found a set of stairs that were still intact, something exploded through the wall next to them, throwing them into the hard surface to their right, but breaking the soft chains still attached around their wrists and ankles. Draco groaned as he looked down at his right arm to see several ragged cuts filled with pebbles and sand on the side of his shoulder from the impact. But before he could get a closer look at the wound, Blaise ushered him up from the floor and began running up the stone steps.
As they reached the top and swiftly exited the stadium from a side door facing the heart of the city, they looked at the people running and screaming past them before glancing up at the destructive merciless force shooting molten rocks from its crest.
“Hoooolllly…hell!” the dark-skinned wizard expressed in shock while holding his left arm in his right hand as a few of the convicts they had released pushed by them.
“Hell…is a perfect description…” Draco stated in astonishment as the world around him darkened and the cloud of smoke fully covered the suns remaining rays. However, the apocalyptic scene was the least of his worries when a large fiery boulder appeared to be coming straight at them. Blaise grabbed the blondes’ arm and began dragging him out of the way when Draco suddenly halted their movements. “NO, STOP! Watch it!” he yelled while pointing to the descending rock hurdling right for them.
“Are you blood-” the Italian began but stopped when the ball of fire crashed into the land hard and fast…exploding to pieces right in the area Blaise was dragging them to. “Wha-how?” he asked stunned while turning his eyes to Slytherin standing frozen next to him.
“Th-their lava bombs” the blonde shockingly explained over the chaos of the noise after expelling a heavy breath. “You don’t move…until you know where it’s going to land.”
“How the bloody hell do you know that?” Blaise questioned with furrowed brows as people continued to holler and shriek around them.
Right as the blonde wizard was about to answer he was quickly cut off when a large blast shot more magmatic rocks into the air.
Stumbling backwards as they stared wide eyed, they began to run as fast as they could in the direction of the harbor. They both knew they couldn’t apparate during the pandemonium without knowing the damage caused to the location they had entered at by the volcano’s angry cries, and they also refused to leave until they found the girls…if they could find them.
Making their way further into the city, the boys were stopped by a massive crowd trying to get into the wharf. They could barely see over the heads of the many people and were shoved and pushed as others ran past them. Draco looked in all directions before noticing a tall wooden trellis just to his left. Squeezing himself through the bodies as Blaise followed so they wouldn’t separate, the blonde Slytherin began to climb up the espalier and glance around; hoping he could spot the girls by some miracle.
However, a blast resonated from the mountains crater, forcing Draco to look behind him as the volcano’s dome exploded. The huge detonation ejected magma, rock, and gases into the atmosphere and almost caused the blonde to fall off the trellis from the invisible wave the sound had created. He turned back to see if any ships where left, however, his gaze lingered when he noticed something was wrong. Ships still at the port began to tilt to the sides as if something heavy was pushing into them. It was only a matter of seconds though, that he witnessed exactly what had caused the vessels to move.
“TURN AROUND! YOU HAVE TO RUN!” he screamed at the people below as he waved his free arm like a mad man. The crowd looked up at him perplexed, since they could not understand the language he was speaking, but the boys’ obvious panic and fright, was enough to convince a majority to rush the other way as an immense wall of water…headed straight for them.
XX
“We’re never going to get on one of these ships!” Ginny yelled while looking over the people trying to scramble on to any vessel they could before being pushed back or thrown off by guards and owners.
Half of the fleet that was nestled in the harbor, had already sailed away while fire continued to rain from the sky, crashing into the cool sea and causing steam to rise into the air. Thoughts of Dementors attacking the school raced to the front of Hermione’s mind as the heat that was being cooled at such a rapid pace, billowed upwards. Flashes of the dark heartless monsters emerged from the surface of the blue pond causing the Golden Girl to freeze in place.
Ginny looked to the bookworm who was shaking uncontrollably with a fixed stare, before following her gaze towards the sea. At first, she thought her best friend was discouraged by the boats trying to escape the disaster without them, but when she noticed Hermione didn’t shudder, even when boulder sized fiery hail crashed into stone near them, causing everyone but her to flinch and duck, she realized…she was hallucinating.
“Mione! Mione, snap out of it!” she demanded while snapping her fingers in front of the brunette’s face, however, Hermione stayed rigid where she stood. The redhead stepped in front of the Golden witch, but the brunette’s eyes remained definitive as if she was seeing a ghost from their past. “HERMIONE!” she screamed, causing the bookworm to break from her trance and look to Ginny with a perplexed gaze. “Are you okay?”
“I-I…yeah, I think so…” Hermione answered with a shake of her head.
“Alright, good! We need to find a ship!”
The anarchy was almost unbearable as the girls listened to the cries of men, women, and children, while looking around for an open vessel accepting citizens, before their focus was forced back to the sea.
Lava bombs, big and small, continued to fall from the heavens and crash into ships, sinking them instantly and killing all those on board. Trying to hold back the heartache as they watched in agonizing horror, an enormous eruption from the peak of the volcano silenced the people below the mountain as buildings collapsed and the summit could no longer be seen.
After the resonating boom that left both Hermione and Ginny partially deaf for a short-lived moment, the brunette witch looked back to the water’s edge and noticed the tide pulling away from dock. Her heart raced when she realized what was about to happen and for a spit second, she couldn’t move. The ships began to rock back and forth as the water receded, crashing them into the side of the dock and breaking them like they were small delicate toys on a playground. People fell from the wooded beams connected to each vessel and landed hard on the now muddied sea floor as fish flopped on the ground and the undercurrent continued to fall back.
“Run…” she muttered in whisper as she looked out at the water beginning to build, tossing ships and debris like they weighed absolutely nothing.
“What?” Ginny asked over the incomprehensible shouting of the crowd around them.
“RUN!” she shouted while she began to drag Ginny off the pier. The redhead had no idea what was happening but what she did know, was that whatever spooked the curly-haired witch that much, must be bad.
As Hermione drug Ginny through the thick crowd, others began to notice the wall of water drawing closer to them. More fear and terror filled their minds and they all began to panic as they too started to run, making it nearly impossible for the girls to get through.
They pushed and shoved as they ran with the people, though Ginny still didn’t understand why. It wasn’t until she looked back and saw exactly what had everyone in such a frenzy that dread began to fill her lungs.
“Ohhhh…my…”
“Don’t look back, Ginny!” Hermione quickly yelled as she continued to try and pull them through the stampede.
The redhead snapped her focus back in front of her just as the wave crashed into the port where they once stood only seconds ago before. As people fell to the ground, the girls had no choice but to jump over them as they ran for their lives. Broken ships slammed into the port, shattering to pieces and crushing anyone who was too slow to react. Thousands of screams echoed through the city while the torrent of water flooded the alleyways and streets, swiftly washing them away in a sea of deep grey-blue.
Madness was not even the best word to describe the grisly scene of people being laundered into the depths of the vast tsunami, but insanity was the only term the girls could think. Nothing had prepared them to outrun a massive tidal wave, nor did anything prepare them for the amount of dead they would see. But as the screams grew louder more flashbacks formed in Hermione’s mind, forcing her to try and shake the dismay from her thoughts before they got her killed.
Every person she glanced at during her race for survival, was another person she knew from Hogwarts, and each terrifying cry led her down a dangerous path back to the school that was once under siege. Her thoughts where so scattered, she never saw the lava bomb hurtling at her until she heard the clash of rock against earth and noticed Ginny…was no longer with her.
She had wondered when they had even separated, but as she stopped running and frantically searched for her friend, she prayed to Merlin she wasn’t buried beneath the mass of the fiery boulder. As Hermione turned around and froze in a resolving fear, she didn’t realize that in her panic she had ran beneath a stone archway nestled between high stone walls. However, upon seeing the water rush towards her she couldn’t find the strength to move and watched in a stunned daze as a forty-five-foot Roman ship barreled towards her.
She couldn’t scream, she couldn’t cry…all she could do was stand fixed in place in the middle of the cobblestone street as hundreds of people left her behind. But as her life literally flashed before her brown eyes and everything moved in perfect slow motion, she felt two strong arms wrap around her body and turn her around just as the torrent of water slammed the ship into the passage, inadvertently blocking its own entry as the archway cracked under the extreme pressure pushing against it. The vessel essentially acted like a stopper and plugged the opening, thwarting the force of water from swallowing her whole.
Though the majority of the wave was stilted as it crashed against the rocks, debris and showers of salty water poured over the stone barrier while large pieces of wood and iron shattered from the ship…plunging directly at her. But while the brunette sobbed and waited for the wreckage to end her life, Draco produce the most powerful shield charm he had ever created in his life. Instead of using a wand, he inadvertently used rare raw magic that burst from his chest, encasing the pair in a powerful white shield while lumber and metal disintegrated into dust as it plowed into the magical barrier.
The sea pooled over the top of the wall while the pair held tightly to each other and the Gryffindor Princess released a loud wail when the liquid merged around her feet. However, when she opened her eyes, she observed the splashing of the cold water refusing to touch her.
The calloused hands that were protecting her slowly released while, for a brief moment, everything went quiet. Draco took a step back and turned around to see the rubble surrounding them as Hermione shockingly glanced behind her. When she saw a shirtless man with blonde hair running his wounded hands over his face, she could have sworn she was seeing things again, but when Draco turned around, she just about fainted.
“Are you okay?” he genuinely inquired while walking up to her and touched her chin to look at the cut on her lip left by the guard when they first arrived.
“Y-you’re d-dead…” she uttered while raising a single shaking finger in fear and stepping back, away from the Slytherin.
“What?” Draco asked with narrow brows, confused as to what she was talking about. “Granger, I’m right here…”
“No! I s-saw you…You’re not r-real…This isn’t real!”
“What in Salazar’s name, are you talking about? I am as real as I can be, Granger” he claimed while taking a small step forward with an outstretched hand.
“W-we both saw you f-fall…a-and it’s all m-my f-fault…” she whimpered while shaking her head in denial before raising her tear-filled eyes up to him. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…” she wept.
At that moment, the Slytherin Prince realized what she meant. He didn’t blame her for attacking him in the field, he would have been pissed too if the roles were reversed, and she had every right to be upset with him. Shaking his head, Draco quickly closed the gap between them and cupped the stunned bookworms’ face with both hands as tears began to stream down her dirt covered face.
“Princess look at me…I am right here…I’m okay” he muttered before wrapping his arms around her so she could feel his warmth and know that he really was alive. Although, the salt emitting from her wet skin made him wince as she pressed up against the still fresh wound across his chest.
Hermione listened to the sounds of his heart beating, his soothing voice whispering to her, and it took her a few seconds before she hesitantly lifted her arms and slowly hugged him back. When the blonde squeezed tighter, the brunette witch broken down and cried into his bare skin.
“We thought you were dead…” she sobbed, but Draco only held her closer as he encased her head with his left palm, trying to calm the storm raging throughout her body.
“You think a silly little volcano erupting can take me out?” he chuckled nervously before slowly pulling away from the broken girl in his arms. “It’ll take a lot more than a fissure and lava bombs to get rid of me” he smiled tenderly. “So, it looks like you’re stuck with me for a little while longer.”
However, Hermione only gazed up at him; studying him as if she was making absolutely sure he was real, before standing on her tip toes and pecking him on the cheek, shocking him to the core and causing his body to go rigid in confusion. But he didn’t have time to think about the action or what it meant before gravel, the size of every type of Quidditch ball, began to rain from the sky.
Without giving it a second thought, Draco grabbed Hermione’s wrist and pulled her under a small roofed porch to shelter them both from the rock shower. He sighed heavily as Hermione cowered in the corner, and he looked around as they waited for the shower to dissipate. The curly-haired witch however turned her gaze to him and eyed him like she still couldn’t believe he was standing before her.
“How did you survive?” she asked in an almost whisper while clinging to wall in sorrow, making Draco turn his focus to her. “We saw you fall into the earth…”
“Blaise and I only fell into the dungeon we were kept in…” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “It wasn’t a far drop, though I lost sight of him during that tsunami…”
Hermione lowered her head back against the wall, removing her gaze from the Slytherin Prince, and refusing to speak…almost as if he had never said a word to her. It wasn’t until Draco looked closer, that he noticed her scrunched up nose and her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she tried to keep from crying in front of him.
“Granger…Granger what’s wrong? I told you, I’m alright a-and I don’t blame you for hitting me. I deserved it. I’m not mad at you.” But even trying to reassure her that he wasn’t angry, she still didn’t look at him. “Princess…” he spoke softly, while trying a more friendly approach “Talk to me, tell me what’s wrong-what happened?”
“I…” she began through a deep breath before the tears burst through uncontrollably. “I lost Ginny…” she sobbed into the stone surface.
“Lost her?” he asked perplexed. “What do you mean you lost her?”
“W-we were running…a-and I kept seeing flashbacks of the war…once I snapped out if it a-a lava b-bomb crashed near me…I-I couldn’t find her, Draco-I lost her. I-I think sh-she’s dead…” she choked before bringing up her hands and crying hard into them, seemingly unaware that it was the first time she had ever used Draco’s given name. “My best friend is dead!” she mumbled into her palms.
Rocks of all shapes and sizes continued to rain down, shattering clay pots and landing hard and fast on top of unsuspecting victims, killing them instantly, as Draco reached out and pulled the Gryffindor into his arms. Holding her close to his chest he let her cry out the unimaginable pain she was feeling while trying to also shield her from the deaths occurring in the bazaar. He held on to her tightly with absolutely no understanding as to why he cared so much when a sudden piercing scream broke them from the moment.
Looking around for where the cries were coming from, both Draco and Hermione saw a small boy wailing as his sister, who look no older than ten, tried her best to hold him back and drag him to a house for safety. Only a few feet away, a woman could be seen lying face down in the cobblestone with blood seeping out of the top of her head. The pairs breath caught when they both realized the perished woman was the mother of the two young children and without warning Hermione ripped herself out of Draco’s embrace. Understanding what the brunette was about to do, he quickly pulled her back and pinned her against the locked door of the home they stood in front of.
“Get off me!” Hermione yelled while trying to push herself forward to get to the children. “I can save them! Get off!”
“No!” Draco hollered, loud and firm while pressing her back against the metal entryway, while accidentally tearing open the wounds littering his chest once more and allowing blood to seep onto her pale dress. “You can’t…change…the past!”
The witch’s eyes shot to his with a shocked and angry scowl resting upon her lips.
“You already did that by killing all those men in the arena!” she screamed as she once more tried to break the blondes hold on her.
“They would have died anyway!” he yelled, silencing her instantly. Hermione’s shoulder’s slumped as she knew he was right, but she couldn’t bear to see children in torment. And even though she was aware of what was to become of the city, it was still painful to hear let alone watch, as innocent children perished and cried out for their families. “Even if Blaise and I weren’t in that arena, Granger, they would have all died by someone else’s hand” he stated while softening his tone. “And if they had lived through all of that…the mountain would have taken them in the end…”
“I can save them…” she whispered in defeat while lowering her head. Draco still had her pinned to the door only because he knew if he let go now, she would run out into the downpour of rocks and he would have to save her…again.
“I know you can” he said while lifting her chin with his fingers “but we can’t…we can’t do anything. Do you understand?” he looked at the curly-haired witch with pleading eyes but all she did was stare at him with tears brewing in her own. “Granger…please, do you understand?”
“Yes” she uttered with sorrow in her voice.
“I’m going to let go of you now, okay?” he claimed while studying her closely in case she decided to make a break for it.
She nodded her head sadly, but as soon as she did, silence encompassed them. No more crying could be heard, no more screams or panic, no one running for their lives or rocks pelting the ground…just an eerie calm of stillness encased the city.
Releasing his hold on the brunette, Draco followed Hermione out into the deserted alley and dolefully looked around. To their dismay, the street was littered with broken furniture from merchant stands that used to hold everything from grains to textiles, but now covered bloody bodies of people they didn’t even know. Burnt fabrics and ragged sandals once belonging to the people of the former beautiful city, were strewn across the cobblestone as if the items no longer meant anything to anyone.
Buildings that once stood tall were now caved in or crippled as the pillars and walls holding them up barely kept them from collapsing in on themselves. Small fires from the volcanic debris and fallen torches were the only things lighting up the street anymore, but it was enough to see the faces of the dead they wish they could have saved.
As Mount Vesuvius continued her wraith upon Pompeii, crackling lighting and thunder from the smog coating the once bright sky, Draco noticed Hermione was no longer standing next to him and he quickly turned to find her. However, she hadn’t traveled far as he saw her standing in front of a building…motionless. It took him a second to realize it was the house that held the children and his heart instantly broke when he assumed from the brunette’s stance that they hadn’t made it.
He wanted to say something, anything to take the pain away, but there was nothing he could do. Taking a step forward, Draco was about to call for her to stop looking when a large fireball crashed behind him making him duck as he covered his head in fear. Hermione quickly turned her attention from the deceased children, still holding one another as they laid lifeless on the ground, and to the blonde before looking up to the mountain to see more fireballs plummeting towards them.
Before she knew it, Draco had grabbed her hand and started dragging her down the street and away from the literal hell on earth. Ash began to fall from the sky and instantly the Gryffindor Princess knew the volcano was nearing her final stages. Panic filled every inch of her body as they weaved left and right, dodging lava bombs, rubble, and mangled carcasses, trying to find some way, any way out of the city.
When they came to another street filled with burnt corpses, burning buildings, and people screaming for their Gods to save them, the pair swallowed the anguish filling their throats and ran as fast as their legs could carry them; only stopping when they heard someone familiar calling their names.
The duo looked at each other in confusion to make sure they both weren’t losing their minds before turning around to see Blaise running up to them while holding the hand of someone behind him. It was hard to see through the thick ash coating their hair and skin let alone breathe through the grey poisonous powder, but when Hermione saw red hair swinging back and forth trailing after the dark-skinned wizard, the witch dug her nails deep into Draco’s arm, forcing him to wince slightly at the nagging pain.
“Ginny?” the bookworm whispered, making the blondes’ eyes snap to her before glancing to Blaise and the unknown woman behind him. As Blaise stepped over a broken cart, Ginny walked up beside him with ash and soot covering her pale skin. While wiping her hair out of her face she looked to Hermione clinging to the blonde Slytherins’ arm. “GINNY!” she squealed in absolute delight before letting go of Draco and rushing towards her friend. “Oh, my God, you’re alive! I thought I lost you. I thought you were dead!” she stated while her body shook in relief and she embraced the redhead in a fierce hug.
Ginny yelped in surprise by the sudden affection, but quickly wrapped her arms around the curly-haired witch as a small smile spread across her face.
“I’m okay, Mione” she claimed as she pulled back, her hands still resting on the brunettes’ shoulders. “When we were running, I lost you in the crowd, and then that fireball came out of nowhere and I had no idea where I was. I kept running hoping to find you, but then I tripped and was almost trampled, when Zabini emerged from thin air and picked me up.” Hermione glanced to Blaise who sighed deeply as he half-smiled before she looked back to Ginny while trying not to cry tears of joy. “We ran until the wave crashed into the wall and smaller rocks began to fall from the sky. We hid in a building and put up a shield charm until it was calm enough to look for you. A-are you okay?” she asked when she noticed Hermione was on the verge of tears again.
“I-I’m okay” the Golden Girl spoke but refused to talk about what she saw after Draco saved her from the crashing ship. She knew she would tell the redhead about it eventually but now was not the time. “We need to get out of this city” she said determinedly, before looking back to Draco.
“We tried to find a way out, but there’s just too much chaos and there are walls blocking every exit” Ginny replied while adjusting her ripped tunic.
“The volcano seems to be slowing down some” Blaise claimed while looking to the mountain still screaming with anger.
“She is just clearing her throat, Zabini” Hermione declared with a small shake of her head. “She hasn’t even begun to sing yet…”
“What do you mean, Mione” Ginny inquired with uneasiness filling her voice while staring at her friend in concern.
“She means,” Draco cut in when Hermione went suddenly quiet “the volcano might be nearing its final stages, but…” he paused with a deep exhale.
“But what, Malfoy?” the redheads’ eyes snapped to the blonde in confusion.
“But” he inhaled sharply, “Mount Vesuvius’s final stages…is what buries this city in four to six meters of volcanic ash…from a pyroclastic surge.”
“I’m sorry” Ginny chuckled while holding up a hand. “A what?”
“A hundred miles per-hour surge of super-heated poison gas and pulverized rock” Hermione explained without looking up from the ground she stared at, “swallowing everything and anyone…in its path.”
“What the actual fuck?” Blaise protested while turning around in frustration. “You have got to be bloody kidding me! You’re saying that ash clouds are real?” he asked when he rotated back to face the group. I thought th-that they were just made up to make Volcanoes seem more-I don’t know-deadly…to keep people away from them? My mother used to tell me that what happened here was greatly exaggerated and-”
“Their real, mate…” the blonde interrupted while running his fingers through his ash covered hair, smearing the grey matter deeper into his scalp. “And we have maybe ten-twenty minutes tops to get out of this city before the mountain really begins to sing.”
“How is it again, that you know all this?” the dark-haired wizard questioned with a raised brow.
“I like reading about nature” Draco shrugged while resting his left hand on the back of his neck. “Volcanoes used to be my favorite…now, not so much.”
“Really?” Hermione perked as if they weren’t still standing in the middle of a metropolis literally burning to the ground around them. “I prefer tornadoes myself.”
“Yeah?” Draco asked with pursed lips. “I always wondered how they-”
“Guys!” Ginny cut in, snapping the two away from the strange conversation they were having. “City burning, volcano erupting…remember?”
“Right” Hermione stated while inhaling a deep breath. “Okay, so we don’t have a lot of time and we have no way to get four horses to take us out of here, the amulet doesn’t seem to be going off anytime soon, and the place where we landed in when we arrived is now a giant crater, so…”
“So, we need to use magic to get out of here” the redhead added. “Okay, let’s bust through a wall and run towards the sea then.”
“You mean the sea that is half gone and filled with toxins from the lava bombs that crashed into it?” Draco stated while rolling his eyes.
“We can’t use magic in front of the muggles, just in case some make it” Blaise claimed soundly, making three sets of eyes turn to him. “We aren’t too far from the barrier on the East side, if we cut through a house that is still standing and connected to the wall, we can blast through it and run through the field.”
The group looked to each other hoping they could come up with any other plan that didn’t involve outrunning a large cloud of hot molten gas, but it seemed no one could think of one. Nodding their heads in agreement the four students began hurriedly jogging in the direction of the cities border where Blaise had mentioned they should go. Hand in hand, so not to be separated again, they traveled about six minutes until they found an abandon house connected to the long tall barricade.
As Draco and Blaise did their best to break down the door without using their wands in case muggles were around, Hermione studied the mountain for any signs of the surge, and Ginny kept a lookout for anyone wanting to trail after them.
Although, it didn’t take long for Draco to become extremely frustrated with the metal entryway and without preamble he kicked it in anger, opening it in one swift motion. Blaise stood stoically next to his friend, his facial expression showing he was unsurprised by the blonde's outburst and he simply waited for the girls to enter first as the blonde stepped off to the side. However, both girls were momentarily taken aback by Draco's outburst, with widened eyes and raised brows, before glancing to one another and shrugging. Each accepting that it was the most reasonable action for their escape...even if it was a bit unorthodox.
Stepping inside the house, the four walked through a small kitchen that appeared to have had people sitting down for a meal before rushing off after the volcano blew. The hand-made bowls still had food insides as the wooden cups filled with wine spilled off the dining table. Not willing to linger any longer, they walked to the back of the house as Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out her wand.
While pointing the vine wood at the stones, her three peers stepped back and waited for her to blow a hole into the wall. Seeing as she was the best at charms, Hermione didn’t hesitate to take the lead. Inhaling a deep breath, the brunette witch cracked her neck and produced an impish smirk.
“Bombarda…Maxima” she spoke strong and solidly, blasting the stonework to pieces without even batting an eyelash.
Blaise stood stunned as he stared with a blank expression while Draco and Ginny began to walk through the unsettled dust as quickly as they could. Hermione followed shortly after while the dark-haired wizard tried to shake the amazement from his features.
“So, no one is going to mention how bloody wicked that was?” he asked while stepping through the large hole in the wall. “Nope? Not even one of you lot thought about how brilliant that was-annnnd I’m talking to myself…” he sighed before jogging to catch up the group ignoring his obviously impressed statements.
The four students continued to jog to save their energy, across the vast open grassy field, but unfortunately mother nature…was not amused. Mount Vesuvius proceeded to shoot fire from her crest, raining lava bombs the size of muggle cars into the city as she reached her final stages. However, a sudden moaning sound, similar to that of a modern submarine’s metal bending from water pressure as it sinks in the depths of the ocean, began to reverberate around the group forcing them to stop and look back to the mountain.
Everything began to move in an unexplained slow motion as the volcano’s peak caved in on itself before the summit…released a powerful supersonic explosion. Magma, mixed with a billowing cloud of rock and gases, pooled out of the crest and began plummeting down the sides of the massive hill at a rapid speed.
With quivering lips and wide eyes, Hermione, Ginny, Blaise, and Draco, all stared with horrified expressions as they slowly stepped back a fraction in absolute terror. No one even needed to shout the word they had become all too familiar with, before they began to run as fast as their legs could carry them.
They had made it about half a mile as the pyroclastic surge began to engulf the helpless city, burying it in hot volcanic ash and taking all who couldn’t escape with it. Before they could reach a safe distance, Hermione felt something snap in her right ankle and suddenly found herself falling face down in the grass.
When Ginny noticed the brunette witch was no longer with them, she stopped running and turned around to see the Gryffindor Princess crawling as tears spread down her soot covered cheeks.
“Mione! Oh, Gods!” the redhead yelled as she began to race back towards her friend.
Draco and Blaise both instantly halted their running and sprinted back to their fallen comrade as fast as they could. Ginny was already trying to bring out her wand when Draco realized they didn’t have enough time to heal the rapidly swelling ankle. So, in a quick moment of thinking, the blonde helped pick Hermione up, before scooping her into his arms bridal style, and began running away from the cloud rushing at them.
“Stop, stop, STOP!” Hermione yelled as she lowered a hand that was wrapped around the Slytherins’ neck to his chest. “Please stop” she begged as the constant jerking from the movements Draco was making, caused searing pain to shoot up her leg and nestle deep into her knee. Draco stopped his stride and gently set the Princess down when he noticed she was wincing at the motion. Her right arm still held on to him for support as Blaise and Ginny looked back at the impending doom speeding towards them. “I can’t” the curly-haired witch sobbed while looking at the ground. Tears began to fall to the grass; tears she knew would be her last. “Please, just go…”
“Are you bloody mental?” the dark-skinned wizard questioned with fire in his voice. “We aren’t leaving you here to die. Now come on! We’ve got you!” he yelled over the ear-splitting roar of the gas suffocating Pompeii as if it was nothing but a nuisance, while he grabbed her left arm and swung it over his shoulders. Hermione was now balancing on one leg as the two Slytherin’s held her firmly upward, but she knew their efforts to help her wouldn’t work…not now.
“I’m just going to slow you down, Blaise…” the brunette uttered, no longer caring about calling her once enemy by his given name. She was considering him a friend now, she considered all of them friends at this point, and if she was going to die, the least she could do was say his damn first name. “We both know it…” she spoke sullenly as she looked to Blaise with pleading tear-filled eyes.
“If…if you’re staying,” Ginny choked while trying to hold back the sorrow in her voice “then I am too.”
“No, Gin-”
“I won’t hear of it, Mione!” she claimed firmly with a thrusted fist at her side. “There is no time to argue and I am not going to leave you to die alone!”
“If you’re staying, then so am I…” Blaise spoke as he looked to the heartbroken redhead before looking back to his best mate; waiting for the answer he knew would come without even asking.
Draco nodded his head and licked his lips before taking the Gryffindor Golden Girl into both arms as Blaise let go and embraced a now crying Ginny. Reaching out an arm as he held the redhead, the Italian placed a hand on Draco’s bare right shoulder and squeezed lightly before removing the friendly gesture. A thanks of sort…for being there for him over the last year. Snaking his arm back around Ginny’s’ waist, the four stood in the open green field and waited…waited for the death, they all knew was coming.
The bookworm, wrapped tightly in the blonde’s arms, looked to the enormous surge with worry embedded in her trembling lips. Sensing the fear emitting from the shaking of her body, Draco removed his right hand from around her waist and pressed a thumb to her chin. Gently turning her gaze to him, he looked deeply into her somber eyes as her bottom lip shook uncontrollably and her brown irises flickered back to the looming cloud once again.
“Don’t look at it…” he whispered, only loud enough for her to hear, causing her to tear her eyes away from their imminent death to him. “Look at me…Only me.”
Hermione found herself sucked into the depths of Draco’s warm grey eyes while the noise around them roared louder, but as much as she wanted to look to the cloud gaining speed, she couldn’t pull away. She felt herself wanting to swim in the orbs that were dancing around her face and a sudden unwarranted need began to fill her core.
Before she knew it, Draco began to lean down, and as he closed his eyes ever so softly, she knew then, exactly what the need was. And it appeared…he felt it too. However, the blonde’s lips that seemed to be aiming at hers, diverted to her forehead and she felt a supple tender kiss linger on her skin, before the moment broke, and she was back to looking into his sincere gaze once again.
Every emotion flooded her soul as Draco’s short blonde hair blew around them while a gust of wind whipped through their entangled bodies, and Hermione felt lost in his fixed stare. Without even realizing what she was doing, she reached up and cupped his left cheek in her palm before sliding her fingers through his hair and brought him closer to her.
Draco’s heart stopped as the brunette slowly brought her lips to his and a feeling of euphoria washed over his body. Closing his eyes once more, the blonde Slytherin embraced the witch with his right hand and deepened the delicate kiss. Lifting her up slightly by the waist while still strongly holding her body to his, Hermione parted her lips ever so slightly and allowed him to heighten the experience as she cradled his right cheek with the hand that was resting comfortably on his chest.
Entwined together and no longer caring about the burning world around them, Draco and Hermione felt nothing but each other’s touch. The way his calloused fingers brushed against her petal-like skin; the way she pulled him closer as the kiss grew even deeper. Everything around them had disappeared while the deafening sounds of the city washed away. They no longer felt torment from the injuries covering their skin or felt remorse for their last actions. In fact, they didn’t even feel pain as Mount Vesuvius’s ash cloud began to encompass them.
65 Million Years, 102 BC, 44 BC, 11 Thousand Years…79 A.D.
Dinosaurs...Extinct reptiles the size of Dragons, but even some were known to be only the size of a common house mouse…at least according to Hermione Granger. Great creatures that once roamed the earth well over sixty-five million years ago and creatures, Harry Potter thought he could never see standing before him.
Although, it seemed to be inevitable seeing as how he was suddenly thrown from his body and was now racing through time; trapped in an endless tunnel ripping through space as he witnessed moments of the past his four peers had encountered.
But as he stood in a crushing embrace of fear and confusion while looking up into the large jaws of a colossal Tyrannosaurs Rex towering over him, Harry did his best to try and run...but his legs wouldn't move. Something was wrong, but what...he didn't know. Was it the dread of being eaten alive in one foul gulp by a reptile so ancient he would rather face another dragon than stand in the spot he stood now? Or did something go wrong with the ritual and as he broke through the barrier of time and space, he found himself stuck; rooted to the ground with no possible way of getting back to his body? Or better yet, was not being able to move just part of the process?
Questions began pouring into his heart and mind in that terrifying moment, briefly making him wonder if he even technically had a body to begin with. But before he could linger on the fleeting thought, Harry was pulled forward by an invisible force, straight through the towering dinosaur and into a hot sandy desert brightened by a blistering sun.
A city stood before him, collapsed into ruins as over a thousand dead men and animals laid in heaps before a large smoking stone wall. Spears stuck deep into the sand while swords and shields scattered around the dead...useless anymore as it appeared there was no one left alive to use them. Looking down at his hands as he had a second to figure out what was happening, Harry noticed how transparent they were. Puzzlement began to pour over him, and he nearly panicked before he remembered he was in spirit form.
However, a large red cloth caught the corner of his eye, breaking him from the confused daze while it drifted through the air as a soft warm breeze carried it over the yellow sand. As it came to rest at the raven-haired boys’ feet, Harry tilted his head intrigued. He could only bend down as his legs refused to step forward, but he began to study the writing embroidered into the fabric. He couldn't tell if it was Japanese or Chinese, though he knew it was some sort of language based in Asia. Reaching out to pick the cloth up, his spirited hands passed right through the material, frustrating him to no end.
It wasn't long however, before he felt another pull from out of nowhere, and it was mere seconds until he found himself settled in a large stone room filled with over a hundred men in tunics. Confusion filled his mind as he watched an older gentleman dressed slightly better than the rest, walk into the room and stand before the masses. But before he could decipher where he was, a loud piercing scream echoed off the walls and straight into his left ear, making him flinch as a young lad, not much older than Harry himself, went after the elder with a knife. Chaos filled the quarters as people ran in terror before the boy-who-lived witnessed multiple citizens begin to stab the older man repeatedly with absolutely no reason as to why. It was like living through a memory, though this time…he wasn’t in a pensieve.
Another hard pull tugged at the Golden Boy, ripping him through the crowd and stopping only when he reached a very cold very dark cave. Shivering slightly as a chill filled the frigid air and his breath could be seen in front of him, Harry watched as a strange shadowy figure walked into the entrance of the cavern. Dropping the large carcass from its shoulders before taking a step forward, the raven-haired wizard deduced that man had to be a caveman or sorts. His animal hide clothing was ragged, and his dark hair hung loosely in his face, but Harry hadn't the chance to get a closer look when the man suddenly charged towards him. Could the man see him? Because it seemed to the wizarding savior that so far, no one could see him. Though with the way the man was racing at him, it looked more like his focus was on something behind the wizard, instead of on Harry himself.
And he appeared...to be correct.
Barreling through Harry as if he wasn’t even there, the caveman's body suddenly flung to the left just as the Golden Boy turned around, and a glimpse of familiar platinum blonde hair could be seen. Almost like a blink of a figure before the flash disappeared and the wizard once again was pulled forward. Although this time, he landed hard on his hands and knees into a grassy field...covered in what appeared to be grey snow.
Pain riddled his palms and knees, but he quickly shook away the discomfort and noticed the snow fall on to his now visible skin. Raising a hand, perplexed because the grey matter wasn’t cold like he had expected, Harry turned his palm over and touched the substance falling all around him.
“Ash…” he said in a tone so low it was barely above a whisper, though it was more of a statement of fact, than a question. Lifting his face to the sky, he took in the dark surroundings before looking off to his left to see the source of the mysterious cooled cinders. “Mother of Merlin!” he expressed with wide eyes and a gaped jaw as he viewed the raging volcano showing more ruthlessness than Harry had ever seen mother nature procure. “Please don’t be here…” he begged as he stood from where he was kneeling. “Please have moved past this…Godric, don’t be here…”
However, to the Gryffindors’ dismay, he saw four figures about a mile and a half away jogging in his direction. Instinctively he took a step forward, before realizing…he could move. Shaking away the astonishment, Harry began to run in the groups direction while calling out for them. Though in his pursuit to reach his lost peers, a swift unexpected blast reverberated his body as the mountain in front of him screamed.
Stumbling backwards as a sound wave blasted into him, Harry looked back to the now panicked figures running for their lives. Although it appeared, they might actually make it to him, someone tripped and fell causing the remaining three to halt their strides and turn back. Alarm settled deep into the raven-haired boys’ gut and he quickly darted after the group as a large blooming cloud descended upon them.
They didn’t seem to hear his screams for them to keep going, or his cries of worry when he noticed them all just standing around and embracing each other. Realizing the person who fell must be too hurt to keep going, dread filled Harry’s mind, forcing him to run faster. He was about half a mile away now, and he could see which figure was who. After understanding that it was Hermione that was injured as Draco Malfoy of all people, held tightly on to her, the Golden boy-who-lived watched in bewilderment as the blonde leaned down and left a lingering kiss upon his best friends’ forehead.
Ceasing his race to get to his peers, Harry looked on in perplexity and amazement as a bright green light began to glow from his friends beaded bag around her wrist. But he became distracted from the illuminating shine when Hermione lifted a hand and brought Draco’s lips…to hers. He didn’t know whether he wanted to try and break them up or cry because he now knew, the only reason the person he called a sister would kiss their ex-enemy, was in result of them thinking they were going to die.
His eyes grew wide as he quickly looked away and glanced to Ginny nestled deep in Blaise’s arms; his heart shattering into a million pieces as he watched his ex-girlfriend finding comfort in another. But the green light promptly began encasing his peers, removing his dispirited gaze off the pair, before the group suddenly vanished in front of him…just as the ash cloud plunged into four.
Stepping back when the sudden realization that he wasn’t being transported again, Harry braced himself as the impact of the surge washed over him. His body abruptly felt like it was burning in a thousand eternal flames while his mouth filled with a fiery ash. He could no longer breathe as the smoke and volcanic cinders burned through his lungs and immersed his spirit in flaming orange embers. He could no longer see either as the darkness blinded him and his skin melted away in an instant. However, through his mind-numbing suffering and racing thoughts of death, Harry’s skeleton screamed in excruciating pain while he wished in agony…to just go home.
Thursday, May 6^th, 1999
It had been forty-five minutes since the boy-who-lived had gone motionless, and forty-five long harrowing minutes that the group of ten surrounding the Gryffindor laying on the floor, had stayed in their formation. Refusing to break the energy bond giving Harry the power to walk through time, everyone began sweating profusely as he took their strength. Their hands became clammy as the candles shooting fire from their wicks, heated the room to an almost unbearable temperature. Though no one wanted to release their grips and instead waited for the Chosen One to return.
Harry had fifteen minutes left on the clock and Narcissa began to grow increasingly worried that it wasn’t enough time. However, a hint of sulfur filled their noses as smoke began to rise around the unconscious boy settled on her marble tiles, forcing everyone to raise a brow in confusion. But a loud resounding noise permeated the room, causing the group to look back at the map.
Tilting her head as her heart slowed, Molly glanced at the blood pool slowly moving across the surface of the wall before coming to a stop on London, England. Yet before she had time to look at the date, Harry’s chest suddenly arched off the ground as he inhaled a large painful sounding gasp.
Whipping her head back to the raven-haired boy begging for air as he rolled to his side, Molly quickly dropped the book and pocket watch in her hands and rushed to the hyperventilating Gryffindor choking up blood.
“Harry!” she cried out while Narcissa and McGonagall raced to the wizard’s aid. “Harry what happened?” she panicked while Lady Malfoy pulled out her wand.
Though the former Slytherin Queen paused momentarily as she looked down at the blood Harry was coughing up and saw black clotting specks floating in the fluid. Dread filled her lungs, but she quickly began preforming healing spells on the boy before summoning a sleeping draught to knock him out as he healed. It was painfully obvious that Harry needed to rest, and she knew he would eventually be alright; however, something was not sitting right with her.
After calling her elves to help put Potter to bed, Molly and the others went to stay with him as Narcissa examined the blood soaking her alabaster flooring.
“What is it?” Professor McGonagall inquired as she stepped up to the blonde kneeling on the ground. “What’s wrong?”
“Minerva…” she spoke with unease. “What does this look like to you?” she asked while pointing to a clot in the liquid.
“That’s strange…” the headmistress replied while crouching down and bringing out her wand. “It appears to look like…crushed rock.”
“Why would he be coughing up rocks?”
“That’s a very good question…” Professor McGonagall pointed her long-wooden wand at the blood and preformed a revealing charm to try and identify the contents. When the spell reported the matter settled in the crimson fluid, both women gasped in absolute shock. “It-it can’t be…”
Narcissa’s eyes widened as she shook her head in repudiation.
“Why…is volcanic ash…in Potter’s lungs? Where the hell are our children, Minerva?” she demanded with a cry while flicking her gaze to the Headmistress. “What happened to my son?”
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The Paths We Take