Vicis Vulnus

Chapter Four. He Came for Me

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"Harry, please, I thought things were going well between us."

Harry shook his head. The girl became even more upset, glaring at him while tears began entering her eyes. Harry hated himself at the moment, she wasn't the type to cry. Why was he doing this?

"What? Is this because of Ron?" Ginny snarled. "Just because he left the two of you? I'm not like that Harry!"

"I know Gin, it's not-" a palm raked across his face, halting his speech before he could say anymore. In retrospect, he would be happy that it wasn't a fist. She was glaring at him lividly, breathing hard. There was a long moment of silence where neither of them said anything or made any move to leave. Finally, Harry whispered his reason.

"I'm quitting the Order."

The youngest Weasley gasped, her eyes widening as she stared at the wizarding Savior. He continued, keeping his eyes trained to the floor so he wouldn't have to look at her. "I just can't stay here any more Ginny. I can't deal with him. I'll still fight, but not with all of you." There was a pause. "I've already told Dumbledore."

"B-but why?" she asked quietly. "Surely it can't be that bad?"

"It is, I'm sorry," Harry replied, turning to look out the rooms window. The Muggle street outside of Grimmauld Place was as dreary as ever, setting the mood to their conversation. This wasn't a talk he wanted to have with her. The only one who knew all of it was Hermione, and he planned on keeping it that way. "It would be too much to keep a relationship with you after I leave, think about it. We wouldn't be allowed to see each other for fear of letting out information, and it'd be too dangerous to try meeting each other in secret. Voldemort could always use one of us to get at both organizations. It's just easier this way."

He couldn't even remember what had made him think trying for a relationship with her during the war would be a good idea. It had been so long since either of them had really had someone to be with that it just kind of happened. At first it was a mistake, she came into his room one night and the rest was history. They tried to keep it out of the way, but eventually it occurred more often, and soon they couldn't even deny they were doing something with each other.

"Organizations?" Ginny asked, a hopeful note entering her voice. "You mean you'll be starting something to? I can go with you! You'll need members, you can't have gotten everything already."

"Ginny…"

"Why not?!" She screeched. "Do you want me gone so badly?! I want to be with you! I don't care who you are, I don't care if you're his target, I don't care if I get hurt, I want to be with you!"

Harry shook his head and she broke. Ginny collapsed to the floor, bringing her fists up to bury her face into and started sobbing uncontrollably. Harry stood there listening for a long minute before turning to leave. As he walked past her he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder for the briefest second before exiting the room and closing the door behind him. Looking around he saw Hermione standing in the corner of the hall, having listened to the entire discussion silently.

"I'm sorry Harry." She whispered. He shook his head and motioned to the stairway, indicating that it was time for them to leave the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for the final time.

Harry had just finished getting dressed when Hermione came into the boys dormitory to collect him. It had become their ritual; if Harry woke before she did he would wait for her in the common room, if he had had trouble sleeping the night before then she would come and wake him up. It hadn't taken very long for Hermione to notice he had trouble sleeping on a regular basis. She had suggested he go to the school nurse and see if he could take some medicine for it, but he brushed it off and told her it was fine. She would still nag him- every morning that she had to wake him up, but he knew she was only worried so it didn't bother him.

It had been two months since they had first gotten to Hogwarts. Harry had quickly become the pride and joy of the Gryffindor Quidditch team after receiving his Nimbus Two Thousand, and he and Hermione were the best students of their year, competing for top marks on everything. Harry had thought he would have easily beaten her with his future knowledge, but after getting lower scores than her on the first few projects he had quickly put effort into studying the things he already knew. She was still be more thorough about the subject itself, but Harry was more creative with linking topics to other areas of magic and improvising spell work. In a manner he was happy that she could compete with a twenty-two year old war veteran, it was proof if he ever needed any of her brilliance as a young witch.

They went down to breakfast, enjoying the signs that Halloween had finally appeared. There was the smell of baking pumpkin in the corridors and a few stray bats flying around the castle who had escaped from wherever they had been being kept. The two of them sat down at the Gryffindor table chatting animatedly about their lessons which were becoming more interesting as time went on. Harry already knew all of it and was busy learning Hidden Arts during the night, but he still kept up with her interest. Eventually he would ask her to join him in the extra lessons he imposed on himself, but he didn't think that the first year was the best time to do it. If they were still best friends by the beginning of the second year- which Harry saw no reason why they wouldn't be- he would begin showing them to her then.

During their first class of the day Professor Flitwick surprised them all by saying they were ready to make things fly, which was something all of the students were looking forward to. He put them in pairs to practice, with Hermione and Harry together (which had become a normal thing for them) and Neville and Ron working at the table beside them. Harry was jotting down something in his notebook (which he used over wizard parchment) while he waited for Hermione to get the spell right. This was something that had become a habit for him to do. When Hermione had confronted him about it after the third week he had admitted it, saying sheepishly he had simply been trying to be chivalric. In truth a part of him felt guilty about doing better than her when in the original timeline she'd gotten most spells right first, and it felt like cheating by using his future knowledge. While she had huffed and walked away he knew she wasn't really mad about it, especially since she had already told him in an annoyed conversation that he seemed to get the feel of spells better. It was a familiar conversation that caught his attention.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry heard Ron practically shout. He glanced up as he heard Hermione huff.

"You're saying it wrong." Hermione told the boy next to her. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron snapped back.

Hermione sniffed and turned back to her feather, flicking her wand and saying clearly, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather flew up in the air, hovering over the students heads. Ron glared at her as the teacher clapped. "Well done Miss Granger! Everyone, see here, Miss Granger's got it!" Flitwick turned to look at Harry, who still had his notebook open. "Would you care to try Mister Potter?"

Harry flushed as he closed his notes, hearing a small 'hmph' from Hermione, clearly indicating something close to 'I told you so'. He wasn't quite sure what she was proving, though he had no doubt it was something. He pulled his wand out of his holster- something that had gained a few surprised glances during the first week but was expected by now- and cast the spell. "Wingardium Leviosa."

His feather joined Hermione's in the air, although he pushed it a little higher than hers was out of amusement. She sent a mock glare at him but the Professor clapped again. "Five points to Gryffindor for the both of you! Wonderful jobs."

Their spirits were high as they left class, and a glare from Harry as the redhead was about to open his mouth kept Ron quiet. Their next class passed just as nicely, and heading to the Great Hall for lunch gave them an even bigger sense that the holiday was there. Nothing was yet set up, but everybody's spirits seemed to say something about the holiday.

No crying Hermione, which meant no situation with the troll. Harry mentally patted himself on the back. There was just one more thing he had planned for that day, and this Halloween would be perfect. In fact, it could become his favorite holiday if everything went according to plan. That was saying a lot considering it was the day his parents died, and it was in a cheerful spirit that Harry excused himself from lunch early to grab a book from the common room that he 'forgot' for the next class. Hermione simply huffed and told him not to be late.

Harry sprinted up the steps to Gryffindor Tower, trying to force the mad grin off of his face. By the end of year he might have a home! He gave the password to the fat lady and entered the common room. He wouldn't go back to the Dursley's, ever. He opened the door to his dormitory and looked around. The traitor was going to get kissed. That, or life in Azkaban.

Harry had been debating for a long time how he was suppose to help Sirius, and this was one of the best scenarios he could think of. All he had to do was wait long enough so Scabbers's disappearance wouldn't be suspicious and he could send the animagus to the Ministry for examination. With the right excuse and a convincing enough letter, an auror would realize the wizard wasn't registered and he'd have to be questioned- and knowing Pettigrew's ability to lie that would only lead to one thing. Sirius's freedom. If for some reason this didn't work, Harry would go to Plan B. Use his Boy-Who-Lived status and publicly accuse the Ministry of failing to give proper trials of the last war's criminals. He was sure he could find a way to cause enough trouble for the Ministry to throw Sirius on trial, wrongfully expecting to put him straight back in Azkaban only to be proved wrong in a very humiliating fashion. Harry was hoping not to have to resort to something like that however, and turned his mind back to the task at hand.

Seeing Scabbers snoozing on Ron's pillow Harry smiled. He turned to his trunk and began digging around inside of it. He had left the container in the dormitory on purpose, just so he could grab it without having to reach inside his pouch. Bringing out the box he closed his trunk and pulled out the map, keeping his back turned to the rat laying on the bed. Ron was still in the Great Hall, and none of the other boys were coming up to the common room either. Smiling he wiped it and put it back inside of his pocket. He brought out his wand and turned around, as though idly checking the dormitory. Scabbers hadn't moved, and her lifted his wand and sent a silent stunner at him. The small body flew off the bed at impact, but running around the bed to check, Harry was pleased to see his attack had hit.

He picked up Pettigrew and placed him inside the box, wrapping it in simple brown paper and attaching a letter to the front. With that done he checked the map again- Moody would be proud of his paranoia, but he refused to let anything go wrong- and left the dormitory, heading to the owlery. He had debated using a different owl beside Hedwig, but he hadn't been able to ask her to delivery anything for him yet and didn't want to offend her. Plus, no one knew what his owl looked like outside of Hogwarts- who would notice they were the same? Finding his reasons justified he began looking for Hedwig as he entered the tower. She flew down to meet him almost immediately, and Harry stroked her feathers while tying the package onto her leg.

"Take this to the Ministry of Magic, Aurors Department, alright girl?" Harry asked quietly. "And try not to attract too much attention."

Hedwig hooted in understanding and took off. He watched her go, excitement still running through him as he left the Tower. It was probably his eager disposition that made him not notice the presence that appeared behind him. That is, until a loud raspberry was blown directly in his ear.

"Arg! Bloody hell Peeves!" Harry shouted, stumbling to his side. The poltergeist became visible, grinning madly at Harry's outrage expression. Peeves was one of the most annoying creatures Harry could think existed, interrupting his great day like this. Harry cursed again and tried to walk away.

"Wee Potty doesn't have time for a chat with lil'o Peeves?" The spirit asked as it followed him cackling.

"Not today Peeves," Harry replied icily.

"Not very nice Potty head." Peeves replied wickedly, swooping around him and sending Harry stumbling back to avoid him.

"What are you going to do," Harry asked in annoyed sarcasm, "throw dungbombs at me until I cry? I have to get to class, go bother someone else."

Instead of dungbombs, Peeves pulled out a sack of water balloons from seemingly nowhere. Harry bit back from swearing loudly and whipped out his wand. They stayed like that for a moment, Peeves enjoying the drawn out tension before he finally sent a few of the balloons at Harry, who quickly tossed them to the side with flicks of his wand. He felt foolishly like he was dueling a poltergeist. Peeves tried to alter his tactics, flying around and throwing them at the wizards back, but Harry had dealt with all of these maneuvers in his first life and followed Peeves's moves with perfect deflection. Finally the spirit was out of ammunition and swearing.

Harry grinned and put his wand back in its holster. "Nice chatting with you Peeves, but I really need to go."

With that he stepped forward without looking, putting his foot on the top step of the staircase. The moment the sole of his shoe hit the watery plastic that had been under him, he slipped, and crashed downward head first on the hard stone. Harry felt his body bounce off of multiple steps before he finally came to a stop halfway down, and he bit down on his lip as he felt a stinging pain in his wrist that stood out amongst the throbbing in the rest of his body. Peeves cackled madly from above him before zooming off in an unknown direction. Harry didn't bother listening, instead inspecting his right wrist as it was at an odd angle. He wondered if he'd be able to cast a healing spell with his left hand, having never practiced it before. Healing magic was tricky, and he didn't want to mess up.

Sighing, he decided to got to the infirmary and have Madam Pomfrey look at it. It dawned on him that this would be his first visit to her, and it was sooner than it had been the first time around. He severely hoped he wasn't setting a precedent as he picked himself and moved down the tower, conscious of the bruises now layering his body.

It took a bit longer than usual to get down to the first floor where the hospital wing was, and he noticed his venture with Peeves had taken up enough time for class to have started. Hermione would be angry with him later until he explained, he knew. Finally he went inside the large room filled with beds and looked around for Madame Pomfrey. She was sitting with an older student, looking over her arm which had what looked like a nasty bite on it. Harry figured she had come from Care of Magical Creatures, although he had never thought it to be dangerous before Hagrid started teaching. The nurse looked over at him and seeing him holding his wrist motioned him to a bed.

"I'll be right over dear, I just need to finish this up first."

Harry sat down, looking around the room for what felt like the first time in centuries. Everything was as he remembered it, and he felt himself drifting back into his thoughts about Hedwig and the package she was carrying. He had though it over numerous times before doing it, and he felt it was the best decision he could make. He wouldn't be like Dumbledore, who waited to see how things played out before acting. Sirius had been trapped in Azkaban for ten years and Harry wasn't about to let that happen for any longer. Hopefully he'd still be wanted, even though Sirius wouldn't have had the chance to watch him for a while like before. And by getting rid of Peter he had ensured that Voldemort would need a new way to revive. Or at least a new servant to help him. Harry shook his head- there was nothing he could do about that now. Instead he waited for Madam Pomfrey to finish, something that took longer than he expected. By the time she got to him classes for the day were over.

Muttering about Peeves, Pomfrey pulled the curtains closed and ordered him to take off his shirt so she could inspect for bruises properly. He cringed as he did it but was grateful afterward, seeing some of the large dark bruises that had unconsciously appeared while he was waiting. She poked at them muttering spells before turning to his wrist and fixing it with another wave of her wand. He was grateful when she was done and he was released. The last thing she said to him was, "Take care of yourself, I don't want to see you back here."

Harry ran of with a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Figuring Hermione would have started on her homework he quickly made his way to the library. After searching for the better part of a half an hour he was forced to admit she wasn't there. Instead he sighed and went to check the common room. As he entered through the portrait he began scanning the room for his friend. The room was only partially full, and as he didn't know any of the students there very well he walked back out. Outside? He supposed it was possible, the weather wasn't that bad. With that Harry made his way back down to the ground floor and walked to the courtyard, checking for his bushy haired friend. She wasn't there either. Harry felt himself getting frustrated, and walked around the castle to scan the lake. Nothing. He hesitated for a moment before fingering the ragged piece of parchment in his pocket. It hurt his pride to think he couldn't tell where his best friend was without resorting to a magical map. The kitchens? They had only been there once and she didn't seem very attracted to the place at the time. Harry struggled with the idea before dismissing it. He hadn't heard her mention anything about unfair elf rights yet, so he felt safe enough that she wouldn't be there convincing them to rally for freedom.

So where was she? She didn't know about the Room of Requirements or Myrtle's bathroom. She wasn't a prefect so she couldn't be using any of their special privilege spots. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice and turned around. Neville was walking with Dean and Seamus, and they were talking about a game of exploding snaps in the common room. He walked over to them, waving for their attention.

"Hey Harry," Neville said, greeting him happily. The other Gryffindors were still sore at him and Ron for losing the points, so while they would allow them to hang out with them there was still tension between them. Harry and Hermione were the only ones who wouldn't send him a glare every once in a while. "Where were you last class? Where's Hermione?"

"Actually I was hoping to ask you guys that. I was in the hospital wing," he answered. Then added, "Peeves. None of you know where Hermione is?"

The trio of Gryffindors glanced at each other. Finally Seamus asked, smirking, "What, she didn't go running to you?"

"Huh?"

Dean shrugged. "We don't know where she is mate, sorry. We figured she had found you and that's why the two of you weren't in class."

Harry paused, he had a very bad feeling in his stomach. "What are you talking about?"

Dean answered again, looking at the other two at his side. "Hermione and Ron got in a row after you left from the Great Hall at lunch. She ran off crying. When neither of you showed up to class we figured she had gone to you since you're always together."

Harry looked at them blankly. "No one stopped her?"

Seamus sneered at him, rolling his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, Potter, no one else in Gryffindor can stand her besides you. At least you keep your mouth shut most of the time, she's just a know-it-all."

Harry watched him for moment, then turned to look at the other two. Neville shifted nervously and said quietly, "I don't think she's that bad..."

Dean shrugged a little, but Seamus just ignored the boy. Harry mentally berated himself. He should have figured something like this would happen. He felt a surge of anger at the Gryffindors standing in front of him but quickly smothered it. If he got in trouble for kicking their arses he wouldn't be able to find Hermione. Instead he turned and left, swearing that Ron would be suffering more than a little humiliation by the end of the year. When he got out of sight of them he pulled out his map and checked it. She was in the girls bathroom, same as last time.

He quickly wiped the map and let out a low growl. Oh, Ron was going to get pounded the next chance he got. Harry made his way inside, uncaring of who he saw. A number of the students moved out of his way in a hurry, looking at the pissed off wizard as he went by. Finally he stopped outside of the girls bathroom and took a deep breath to calm down. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

After a moment a confused looking Hufflepuff third year opened the door. Seeing an angry boy standing outside she raised her eyebrows and asked, "Yes?"

"Is Hermione Granger in there?" Harry asked calmly, as though this was nothing out of the ordinary. "First year, Gryffindor?"

"Give me a moment," the girl responded and ducked back into the bathroom. One thing Harry would always love about Hufflepuffs was that they never had any problem helping out a member of a different house. To them people were people. Harry waited calmly for the girl to return, running a list of pain inducing potions through his mind to use on Ron when he saw him next. He snapped out of his thoughts when the girl reappeared. "She's in here, but she doesn't want to see anyone at the moment."

Harry sighed. "Thanks. I'll just wait for her then." He slumped against the wall and looked around the hallway.

The girl disappeared back inside and after a minute came back out and left. Harry waited for the hall to clear before pulling the map out of his pocket. Hermione was alone in there now. He briefly debated what to do, and glancing around once more, conjured up an 'out-of-order' sign to hang on the bathroom door before he slipped inside.

The bathroom was lit by candles, with a large mirror on the wall above a number of sinks and opposite a row of stalls. Harry looked at end stall, hearing a quiet sobbing coming from inside. He silently locked the door and walked a few feet into the small room.

"Hermione?"

There was a loud squeak and he thought he heard her jump. Hermione's voice was a mixture of anger and terror as she spoke next. "Harry! This is a girls bathroom, you can't be in here!"

"It's fine, I put a sign on the door, people will think it's out of order," Harry said calmly. "Plus I locked it. I don't think anyone's coming in."

"That's not the point!" She said again angrily. "You're still not suppose to be in here! Now get out!"

Harry felt a small stab of pain as he heard her words. He didn't respond immediately, he had never heard her so angry, not at him. They had always gotten along with the exception of a few rare occasions. "I heard the Weasel prat did something to you, I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Oh I'm just fine!" Hermione laughed shakily. "Bloody brilliant, Harry! Now leave!"

"What happened?" he asked instead, trying to get her to talk to him. He had never actually had her confide in him a lot in the last time line. She had always kept things more to herself, the same way he tried to. He figured it had something to do with Gryffindor courage, not wanting to ask for help. He sunk to the floor against the wall. "I'm not leaving Hermione, you might as well talk to me."

He heard a small noise that sounded like a stifled sob. "I'm not coming out Harry, you might as well give up."

Harry stared at the door to her stall in silence for a few minutes. When she didn't come out and continued to cry, more quietly this time, he took out his notebook. It went on like this for quite some time, Hermione being too stubborn to leave her stall and Harry being too stubborn to leave the bathroom. When she finally opened the door she saw Harry sitting against the wall, scrawling something.

"What is that?" She asked, not quite out of her area. Harry looked up, seeing her puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.

"A list," he answered simply, shrugging. "Or a few lists, I should say."

"Of what?"

Harry debated for a moment. "Come over here and I'll show you."

Hermione let out a snort. "I suppose I'm supposed to talk to you afterward? Play the perfect little princess and let you run off and handle all of my problems?"

"Well, the talking would be nice," Harry answered awkwardly. "And if you want the rest I'll do it, but that's not what I was expecting. I thought you'd want to take care of the prat on your own. Maybe with some help."

Hermione snorted again. After another long moment, Hermione walked over and looked down at his papers. He held them up so she could see better.

---Pain Inducing Potions---

Babbling Beverage

Bulbadox Powder

Befuddlement Draught

Draught of Living Death

The list went on with various other potions that would cause the receiver a nasty side effect. A number of the potions toward the bottom Hermione didn't recognize, but she assumed they were more of the same. She glanced at the next list.

---Bad Things About Ronald Bilius Weasley---

Hermione felt herself give a small hiccupped giggle at the title and went on to read about 'close-minded', 'poor student', and 'complete arse' among other things. The last list caused her to pause.

---Things to Love About Hermione Jean Granger---

"Harry?" she asked quietly, slumping down to the floor beside him and pulling the notebook into her lap. She read the list, mouthing a few phrases that she came upon. Harry waited, watching her read through his notes. Finally she gave a watery smile and pushed them back at him. "Thank you, Harry, but if you think I'm going to break down and bare my soul to you, you have another thing coming. Just so you know."

Harry sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "It was worth a try," he said shrugging. "And now I have a few nice lists that I can look at when I'm having a bad day." He pulled out his wand and muttered a spell, creating a copy of the page. He handed it to her. "We both have one. There."

Hermione brushed her eyes with her sleeve, taking the copy with a small smile. She would have to figure out what spell he had just used later. They sat silently for a few minutes before Harry spoke.

"Those potions, if you want to make one I can give you the recipes."

Hermione gave a soft laugh and shook her head. She finally seemed to be calming down, and she looked up at the friend sitting beside her. "Why did you come here?"

Harry looked over at her in surprise. "Someone said you were upset. You're my friend, I wanted to help."

"He said the only reason you wanted to hang out with me is because you knew I didn't have any other friends and thought you could…get stuff."

Harry tilted his head slightly, trying to figure out what she was saying. "What could I get from you Hermione? The Potter family isn't badly off, I have all the money and items I need. I just want to be your friend."

Hermione's shoulders shook as she silently laughed. "He wasn't talking about that kind of stuff." Seeing that he still wasn't understanding her she smiled and said, "Girl stuff."

It took Harry a long moment in his adolescence clouded mind to realize what she was referring to. Once he did his reaction was far from the maturity he should have had as a twenty-one year old.

"What?! I don't-!" Harry cringed and immediately shot a few feet away from her. "What is that? Why would I-?! I don't want-! What-!"

Hermione burs out laughing, grabbing onto her sides as she watched her friend enter into a panic. Harry watched her, his entire face lit up as red as a Weasley's hair. "Ew! Hermione! You're suppose to be the mature one here. I'm not even going to become interested in anything like that for another two years!"

His comment made Hermione laugh even harder, and she managed to force out, "What, are you on a timer?"

Harry stuttered a few times before finally snapping his mouth shut, sending an embarrassed glare at the girl. It took a large number of minutes before she finally calmed down- the first few times she got close she would look at him and break out into a renewed fit of laughter. They remained sitting on the floor, trying to get over the embarrassed feeling of a few minutes before.

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione finally said. She wiped her eyes again angrily ignoring the dozens of footsteps of people leaving the Great Hall. "I should have known he was just being a prat, but, some of the things he said were true. You know you're the only one who likes me. Everybody else just sees me as some, some know-it-all!"

Harry leaned over to her, brushing off the feeling he was missing something. "Hermione, listen." She didn't look at him, but he continued anyway. "The only reason they're saying that is because they don't know you the way I do. You're… so much more mature than they are, that's all. None of them can wrap their heads around half the things you can, so they don't really see what you're worth. Believe me, it's a lot. And don't try to dumb yourself down for them, there's nothing wrong with you being brilliant, it makes you so much better. It makes you you."

Hermione sniffed, but when she looked up after a moment her eyes were clear. "Thank you Harry."

Harry smiled. The feeling that something was off had gotten stronger, but he ignored it. "Great. Come on, let's go grab something to eat."

She nodded. "Alright, supper must be half over already, I thought I heard people leaving a few minutes ago."

Then it clicked. There was a sound in the distance, something he hadn't been paying attention to before that. Foot steps. Big ones. And just then he began noticing the stench that the creature carried with it. He felt himself pale; how long had they been there for?

"Hermione, do you hear something?"

She looked at him questioningly and listened. There was a soft grunting as well, and the sound of something being dragged. "Honestly," she huffed after a moment. "Those people are impossible, I think they're coming to scare us."

Harry bolted to his feet. "I don't think so Hermione. Come on, we need to go."

"What? Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, rising to her feet and looking at his pale expression with stern worry.

"Let's just go-" Harry said, but just then the smell had become impossibly strong. There was a loud crunching right outside their door, and Harry immediately motioned for Hermione to be silent. By now she had picked up to the fact that there was something wrong and backed up against the wall. The door eased inward slightly, like something had been pushing on it. Hermione cast her terrified eyes on Harry who was watching the door with his wand in his hand.

As a child he had never known quite how dangerous trolls could really be, he had just gone after it blindly to save a friend. Now he realized that their skin was too thick for most spells to get through, and they had enormous amounts of strength. He stepped in front of Hermione, and said quietly, "I'm going to blast the door, hopefully that will surprise it enough to give us an opening. Once it's out of the way, run."

"Harry, what-?" She asked, terror entering her voice.

"Just do it Hermione."

With that he stepped toward the door a few feet. The creature seemed to know that the closest people were behind the wooden barrier, because it pushed on it again, a little more violently. Harry waited for it to let up, knowing he only had this last chance to do what he wanted. The troll did, and Harry heard something be dragged across the ground quickly as it picked up its club to bash to door in. In that split moment he unlocked the door and sent the strongest blast of magic he could conjure straight at its center. The door blew off its hinges, smacking something hard that was standing behind it, sending it stumbling back. Harry grabbed Hermione's hand, thrusting her forward and yelled, "Now!"

She bolted out of the door and let out a shriek, Harry following just behind her. The troll towered over the both of them, and Harry shoved Hermione forward so she would keep running. Hermione sprinted forward but stumbled after a few feet and fell. The troll turned to look at what had hit it, and slowly its eyes wandered over to the two students. Harry looked up at the creature for a moment as he tried to drag Hermione to her feet. It was livid after being hit in the face with a large block of wood and began making its way toward them quickly, swinging its club into the statues and portraits that were near it.

"Hermione, get up," Harry commanded quietly, tugging her arm. "You need to get up."

She sat their, frozen, as she watched the troll come at them. Seeing the troll get a few feet away from them he gave up on getting her to move and threw himself in front of her, spreading his arms wide to protect her from the attack. The troll brought its club down in an arc, sending Harry into the wall as it grunted loudly. Harry felt his body slam into cold stone for the second time that day and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. He vaguely heard Hermione scream his name and the footfalls coming over to him. A shadow fell over him and he quickly summoned the strength to throw himself out of the way before the club was brought crashing down into the spot he had been. He gasped as pain shot through his arm and tried to ignore the blood that was trickling to the floor.

He turned around to face the troll, seeing it turning to eye him as well. It gave out a loud roar and stomped toward him, brandishing its club again. Harry knew he needed it to let go of the club, but he was unsure of how to get it done. Deciding to try his luck, he summoned various pieces of broken stone to send themselves at the creature's eyes and neck, hoping he could get it to lose focus. Indeed, the beast let out a loud howl as some of the stone caused his eyes to bleed, and it began waving its club wildly while stomping around. It was a few feet from Harry, and he cringed whenever it got too close, but couldn't find the strength to move. Suddenly he was struck with an idea, and he sent a cutting hex at the handle of the wood. All at once it broke and fell from where the troll was waving it, clattering to the floor. The troll didn't notice as it was so intent on the stone attacking its face. Harry decided to pull a leaf out of Ron's book, and he used the simply hovering charm to lift the club from its position and smack the troll harshly with it over its skull. The creature stopped moving and went crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, so did its club, which chose to land itself straight on Harry.

Harry felt the heavy wood crash on himself and his vision was cast into darkness.

Hermione screamed when she saw the club fall onto Harry, and it was only after she knew the troll wasn't moving that she was able to drag herself over to her friend. He was bleeding badly, and she gasped and began shaking when she saw the glass from his eyewear had broken and stabbed into his eyes. She hugged him and whispered his name quietly, along with the phrase 'please', 'be okay', and 'I'm sorry' repeatedly. She heard running footsteps behind her and a startled cry when whoever it was saw them.

Finally a shaky hand grabbed her shoulder and dragged her away from Harry as another person knelt beside him.

"Why on earth are the two of you here?" McGonagall asked tightly, glaring down at the girl she was holding. Hermione was shaking and she seemed a step away from going into complete shock. The Professor turned toward the portraits who were watching and whispering, having been the ones to report the incident to the teachers. "Go get Poppy, we need her here immediately." She looked back at the girl in her arms. "Why on earth weren't you two in your dormitory?"

Hermione was staring at Harry's body in horror as Quirrell inspected his injuries. Snape was bent over the troll, viewing the damage. She couldn't wrap her mind around it, her best friend- her only friend- laying there. The fact that a teacher was demanding her attention, the fact that she might be expelled for any number of unknown reasons, the fact that it could've been her laying there, if he had left- none of it seemed to penetrate her tremors as she heard the soft footsteps of somebody running down the hall. Finally, as the teacher asked once more, she croaked, "He came for me."

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Author's Note

If the last chapter was nothing but fluff, this is where all the plot went. And I know there was a slight mention of Harry x Ginny early on, but don't worry, that's only the case in the flashbacks where things from the books are still in effect. This is purely a Harry/Hermione fic.

Something else I want to point out about this chapter is the troll. I know in a lot of fics that I've read, authors seem to make the troll seem really weak because a group of eleven year olds could beat it in the first book, but I always figured trolls were suppose to be strong and that they just got lucky. I figured that it would be rather believable to say Harry might end up hurt after fighting it if things had gone differently. Note though, that just because he was injured isn't suppose to make him any weaker or anything.