It's in the Hunt

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Chapter Twelve


Hermione was in the middle of getting dressed when Remus came over, drying his hair as he did so. Smiling he went over to her and kissed her, making her forget about the shirt she was buttoning and pulled her back into the bed. She buried her face against his neck.


“We need to get going,” she whispered.


“I know,” he breathed, holding her all the tighter. “I want to say here, hiding here with you.” His hand slid down to her belly. “With you both…”


Hermione woke with a start, her hands going straight over to her small belly. Was she pregnant? True, that was the future she wanted with Remus, but with the war looming, should it be now?


“I was fixed,” came coldly from next to her. “So you don’t have to worry about having my get.”


She spun around and snapped, “Must you be an ass? All of this is new to me or has it escaped your notice?”


“No, on the contrary, I haven’t,” he muttered, getting up from the bed. “Why the state of horror?”


“It wasn’t horror,” she told him. “I had a dream about going off to war with a baby in me and I was scared!”


Remus hissed out a curse as he joined her in the bed again, pulling her into his arms. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’m just so used to people being disgusted by what I am…” He kissed her forehead. “I love you.”


She was silent a moment and was about to reciprocate the emotion when an alarm went off. He jumped up and went straight over to a special coin he had in his dresser. Remus looked over to her.


“There’s a battle starting over at Hogwarts! We have to go now!”


They rushed getting dressed. And just as she jumped into Remus’s arms to disapperate, she kissed him hard on the mouth.


“I love you. Stay alive. Don’t forget that.”


Smiling he murmured, “That goes for you too, pet.”


They arrived just outside of the gates of Hogwarts. A blast went off to the side that had Hermione extend her arm, shielding them both wandlessly. She charged into the battle, throwing off hexes and curses without effort until she was into the heart of the battle. Remus was right behind her, protecting her when she couldn’t do so herself.


At one point Remus tackled her to the ground as a particularly nasty cutting hex was aimed at her back. After asking her if she was okay, he launched herself with a growl and went after the man that had cast the spell. Hermione jumped to her feet just in time to avoid being hit by a stray cruciatus. She arrived at the great hall just as Bellatrix LeStrange was beginning to battle with Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood.


“Oh Bella!” she called out to the woman.


Spinning around Bellatrix grinned and laughed in a maniacal way that could have had skin crawling.


“Still sane I see,” she said. “It’s a shame that you should live only to die now.” And she threw the killing curse at Hermione.


But nothing happened to Hermione. Bella’s smile faded little by little as she realized what happened. The spell had been magically, wandlessly blocked. And it in turn had rebounded so fast that she never saw it coming in for the kill.


“You’re a natural…” Bella fell to the ground dead.


Hermione looked up to a wide eyed Ginny Weasley and an oddly calm Luna Lovegood. “Let’s get these bastards out of our school, shall we?”


“How did you do that?” Ginny demanded.


“Ginny, this isn’t the place!” Hermione snapped. “We have to be on the defense against the Death Eaters not…”


“Don’t tell me how…” The killing curse hit Ginny from behind. She dropped dead instantly.


Hermione yanked Luna out of the way just in the nick of time before another killing curse was shot out where the mellow blond once stood. But before she could put up a shield, Antonin Dolohov had his wand pressed to the underside of Hermione's throat.


“One little spell and you’re dead,” he hissed.


Hermione smiled slowly, sending out a blast that sent the man flying backwards. But not nearly as far as she thought she would have. Dolohov was back to his feet and whipping out the killing spell. Hermione covered Luna, blocking her and squeezed her eyes shut. When nothing happened, she looked over to see Remus standing in front of them both and Dolohov dead on the stone floor.


Everything went quiet in that instant. Hermione went over to Remus, taking his hand into her own as they went over to the window overlooking the main part of the battle.


“Harry’s dead!” Hagrid cried out as he carried Harry’s limp body out of the forest.


“No,” Hermione whispered, tears thick in her voice.


Everything from that moment on moved as if it were an unreal dream put into fast forward. Neville killed Nagini and the battle for the future of everything they held dear began anew.


Before Hermione knew what was happening the battle was over, Voldemort was dead and Harry was nowhere in sight. She looked around, frowning. The Weasleys, parents and siblings, were gathered together around the body of Ginerva Weasley and were weeping, as were many other families with their own dead. But then it occurred to her who wasn’t there.


“Where’s Snape?” Hermione asked quietly.


“What?” Remus looked around. “Not here.”


“We need to find him right now!” she exclaimed. “Something’s not right. He would have been here.”


Fifteen minutes later they found Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack. He was still alive, but just barely so. Between Remus and herself they were able to stop his bleeding from what could have only have been a bite from Nagini and rushed him straight over to the medical station that Poppy had set up.


Hermione relaxed against Remus’s body as they watched child after child weeping over the bodies of one or more of their parents. Sniffling Hermione thought of her own parents over in Australia and wished that she could speak to them.


“What’s the matter?” Remus asked quietly.


“I need to get my parents back from Australia.”


“Hmm, but that wasn’t all you were thinking,” he murmured, wiping absent tears of hers away.


“When we’re ready, would you be apposed to adopting a child?”


Smiling he hugged her, whispering, “No, love, I wouldn’t be.”


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