Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift

Epilogue - Part 6

It took all of her willpower not to scream as Harry was struck with the killing curse. She had to focus...she'd promised Harry that she would focus. Once she'd done her part then she could check on Harry, and he would be alive. The Horcrux would be gone and Harry would live. Neither could live while the other survived. She was sure of it.

Her heart surged as she looked back toward the Death Eaters and saw them now huddled around Voldemort's lifeless body. Whether it was the blood protection or backlash from the Horcrux being destroyed Voldemort had clearly been affected...knocked unconscious at the very least. This was her chance.

She quickly made her way over to Harry, positioning herself between his prone form and Voldemort's army, all huddled around him. All panicked. All downwind. She quickly cast a myriad of protections charms on Harry's body, purposely trying to avoid looking at his face.

Once the task was finished she turned and faced her enemy. She couldn't actually see Voldemort due to the throng of supporters that now surrounded him, but that was fine. They'd chosen their path. She'd had months...years even...to reconcile what she was about to do.

In addition to her fruitless efforts to devise a different strategy, Hermione had spent the last few months studying anything and everything she could get her hands on about the spell she was about to cast. Books from Grimmauld, Knockturn Alley, from McGonagall and Flitwick, even from Xenophilius Lovegood. But as much reading as she'd done, as much as she'd studied and analyzed, it was Bellatrix Lestrange's simple instruction to Harry in the Department of Mysteries that had resonated the most.

With dark magic, destructive magic, in the end there was really only one component necessary. There was a reason it was so seductive...if the key component was present the casting became easy. It was hard to simulate it in her training but right now...in this moment...with what was at stake...whose lives were at stake...it was virtually seeping out of her pores.

You simply had to mean it.

"Fiendfyre."

The affect was immediate and all consuming, engulfing the nearby Death Eaters and forcing the rest into retreat as the fire continued to seek out its targets. Whether Voldemort had been alive was now irrelevant as his body was now ash.

Hermione desperately wanted to stop and check on Harry but she forced herself to move forward...to keep pushing the panicked throng toward her waiting allies. She felt the wand urging her on...to be more aggressive...to consume and destroy any and every enemy possible. But containment was now the plan. Containment and capture.

Hermione could hear and see the spell fire that was being blindly fired at her but kept moving forward. They had agreed that she would stop pushing when she was seriously injured, to retreat to safety under the cloak. But whether it was her own shield, or pure luck, she remained unscathed. Her heart was screaming at her to check on Harry but she kept moving. The job wasn't finished and she promised Harry she would keep going.

Hermione could feel herself weakening now...the power of the spell and her desire to see Harry were beginning to have an affect. She heard muffled shouting and realized it was her allies...she had successfully led the remaining horde of enemies into the trap. She was so hot...and so tired...she just wanted Harry. Only Harry...

And suddenly she felt a ruffle of the cloak and he was there...pressed into her back and his hand over hers on the wand...now powering the spell on her behalf. He was alive...he was alive and they were the Masters of Death and she had finished her task just like she promised. And he had come back...just like he promised.

She let go of the wand and turned, latching onto her lifeline. She felt Harry's free arm wrap around her waist and she let go...truly let go. "You're alive," she mumbled as she buried herself into the small of his shoulder.

"I'm alive," he repeated.