In Love and War

Title: In Love and War
Description: My take on HP Book 7. Harry and his friends need to find the Horcruxes in order to defeat Voldemort and end the war, but they receive unexpected help along the way. Eventual HP/DM. HBP Spoilers. Please read and review.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters or franchise. This is just what I wanted to happen in Book 7, nothing more.

I would just like to say thanks to everyone who’s read so far and thank you for the one review Bulma! I appreciate it so much.

Two: Headquarters


Harry felt the squeezing and tightening sensation around him come to an immediate halt as he almost fell forward when his feet landed roughly on the hard pavement. Harry opened his eyes slowly, his hands still clutching Malfoy’s limp shoulders, Ron directly in front of him, holding onto Draco’s legs. The two friends stared at each other for a moment before they realized they were no longer in the Dursleys living room but instead on the street outside, the light from a streetlamp shining down on them, making everyone look ghostly and ill.

Harry felt a slight breeze on his skin, causing Goosebumps to erupt all about his body. Hermione was a little ahead of them, leaning on all three trunks that she had managed to Apparate with her. Every single one of them was breathing heavily as though they had run a distance.

“We…we did it,” Ron said, completely dumbfounded and awestruck.

No one answered. They had indeed managed to do what Harry thought was impossible.

He looked around quickly at the dark and empty street. They were in the proper location, the same location that Harry had been brought to by members of the Order the summer before. However, the Headquarters was no where to be seen. Harry immediately remembered that he had to whisper the name of the Headquarters aloud, just like he had done when he first came to the building.

Harry cleared his throat and then said into the night, “Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.”

Ron and Hermione looked up at him.

“What?” Ron asked, nervously peering around.

But Harry had no time to answer. Almost as soon as those words left his mouth, he could hear a rumbling from under his feet. The streetlamp above him began to shake violently, the light flickering on and off every second or so. The garbage and litter on the pavement began dancing and jittering in every direction, the houses around them began to shake as well, rattling loudly; the two homes in front of them began separating as another house began to squeeze in from the middle. The trunks near Hermione almost fell from all the grumbling but she caught them in time as the Headquarters appeared before them.

And as suddenly as it began, it all stopped. All three friends stared at the Headquarters, Ron and Harry immediately moving forward toward it, Malfoy still held in between them. Hermione ran ahead of them, leaving the trunks behind as she threw her weight against the front door to force it open. Harry wondered if that would even work, but after a moment, the door creaked slowly open and Hermione pushed it, letting Harry and Ron in.

The hallway was completely pitch black, Harry and Ron moving blindly, attempting to balance Draco and not fall over at the same time. Hermione had left the door open so some light from the street would to flood in. She had run back outside to drag the trunks into the Headquarters.

“We need to get him upstairs,” Harry whispered to Ron, suddenly remembering the portraits that hung on the walls of the house and how they screamed and swore loudly if they heard any noise.

Harry barely saw Ron nod as Hermione came back into the house, heaving a trunk impressively. She let it down to the ground with a soft thud and then ran back outside to grab the other two.

With the dim light guiding them, Harry was able to make his way to the curtain where he remembered the staircase was behind. He reached out as much as he could with his right hand as he balanced Draco with his left and pulled back the curtain, revealing the staircase that would lead them upward. In the front of the hall Harry heard Hermione bringing in another trunk.

Harry and Ron moved slowly up the stairs, Harry’s back to the top of the hall as Ron led him up as best he could in the darkness. Harry held his breath as he did this, sharp pains coming up again in his chest and a headache almost blinding him with the pressure it was giving. His back suddenly began to hurt from having to carry Draco’s dead weight and his hands were becoming sweatier, compromising Harry’s grip on the young man he was carrying.

To Harry’s horror however, he unexpectedly lost his balance and felt his body lurching backward as he missed a step going backwards up the stairs. He let out a sharp cry as he felt his back hit flat ground, Draco’s limp body falling softly on top of him. Harry clutched onto Draco as this happened, but now he knew they had reached the landing.

“Harry!” Ron yelled, panicked. “Are you alright?”

He felt Ron groping blindly throughout the air, missing his foot by inches.

“I’m fine,” Harry hissed, trying to stand himself up.

He suddenly saw Ron’s face emerge from the dark staircase, his skin pale and green. Harry turned his head around to see what had caused all the sudden light, and he saw small candelabras on the walls of the hall giving off dim, bouncing candlelight. Ron was still fumbling, trying to help Harry up and not drop Draco but was incredibly unsuccessful. All Ron managed to do was aggravate Harry further.

In the distance the two of them heard the front door slamming, and suddenly, screams and wails erupted in the front hall.

“What the fuck is that?” Ron cried, his head snapping back and staring down at the dark staircase. Harry noticed the red-head was shaking violently.

“It’s the portraits, remember?” Harry growled, as he managed to stand himself up and keep a hold of Draco.

Ron had let go of Draco’s feet as Harry adjusted the blonde’s body in his arms. Draco’s head was completely limp, falling backward, his dirty and bloody hair going in every direction, framing his beat up, pure white face. Harry held tightly onto the blonde, and felt the young man breathing slightly against his chest. It took Ron a moment to realize he was no longer holding on to Draco.

Harry turned and kicked open a random door praying it was a bedroom. He was lucky because the first door he knocked open happened to be a small, dimly lit bedroom with a plain bed up against the wall, a beat up wooden nightstand and a dresser that was falling apart. There was one window in the room but curtains were pulled around it, keeping it shut. Harry ran inside, placing Draco gently onto the whit sheets of the bed and staring helplessly at the dying young man in front of him.

Ron and Hermione burst into the room suddenly, both looking shaken but Ron was looking as if he was going to vomit.

“Hermione, tell me you know healing spells?” Harry asked her as she stepped forward.

She nodded vigorously, her hair flying everywhere and her skin slightly green.

“I…I know a few but—but I c-can’t use any Harry,” she gasped, staring at Draco, positively shaking as she spoke.

“What do you mean you can’t use any?” Harry screamed at her, his anger and fright now bubbling to the surface.

“It’s illegal—we’re not all of age yet,” she tried to explain. “The Ministry—”

“FUCK THE MINISTRY!” Harry yelled, panicking immediately. What were they going to do if Hermione refused to perform the spells? “Malfoy is going to DIE if you don’t do something! Ron and I don’t know any healing spells!”

Hermione looked petrified. Ron seemed highly perturbed that Harry had just screamed at his girlfriend but Harry had a point in his statement, so Ron did not yell back. Hermione was shaking more than she had been before and looking down at the ground.

“Please Hermione,” Harry gasped suddenly, stepping forward and stopping himself from grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. “He can’t die—he doesn’t deserve to die.” He paused and then choked out, “No one deserves to die like this.”

Ron was staring at Harry wide-eyed, as if surprised, and Hermione looked once again, on the verge of tears. She merely nodded her head, her lips tightly shut and stepped forward toward Malfoy, pulling out her wand as she went. Harry heard her muttering an incantation as he stood in silence, his back to her.

Harry looked up and noticed Ron was still looking at him. Harry glanced away and not knowing what else to do, took a seat on the ground, his head in his hands. Harry forced himself to hold back the stinging tears that were burning at his eyes, but he couldn’t manage to stop himself from letting out a loud sob of grief.

He couldn’t believe this was happening…any of this.

Just to have seen Draco in the condition he was in was enough to disturb Harry greatly. He shut his eyes tighter as a few more tears attempted to find a way out of his eyes. Harry felt the cold ones that escaped running down his cheeks. In the back of his mind he hoped the Dursleys would be alright but he hoped even more that Hermione would manage to keep Draco alive. Harry did not know why he suddenly felt such emotion, worry or caring for Draco, but he suddenly remembered Draco in the school year before…How Draco was to be forced to commit murder against his will, how Harry had seen Draco cry for the first time, alone and frightened, how he knew there was a chance the young man could actually be a good, kind person and not the evil menace he had been for five years previous—

“Alright,” Hermione whispered, snapping Harry out of his revere. “I-I did everything I could…”

Harry looked up, blinking as the stubborn tears blurred his vision for a moment. Ron was now looking directly at his girlfriend as Harry stood up, his entire body aching and his back and shoulders sore. Harry turned to Hermione, who had stepped away from Draco.

“I closed up t-the wound on his left arm,” Hermione said, shutting her eyes for a moment as she remembered the graphic sight. “And then I cleaned the cut on his lip, foot and chest and I closed those as well.”

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Harry asked Hermione, his voice in pain again as he spoke.

She sighed heavily.

“I hope so,” she said truthfully. “He doesn’t look so good right now. But with all the wounds closed, I think he’ll be okay…I mean, he will definitely have scars from the wounds but it would help if we had some healing potions I suppose…”

“We do,” Harry said suddenly. Hermione opened her mouth to question him but he gave her no time to utter a word. “We have our potions books from the school year and we have most of the supplies we need. We could make a potion tonight and give it to him as soon as possible…Maybe if we do it fast enough, we can help him further—”

“Harry,” Hermione said slowly. “I’m not sure if we have all the supplies we need to make a healing potion…Those are some of the most complex and some of them take days to make…”

“We…we could try,” Harry said quietly.

Harry tried to hide that he was about to cry but Hermione saw this and looked sadder than ever but at the same time determined to try out Harry’s idea.

“Alright,” she said quietly. “Alright, we could try. I’ll go look in my trunk right now and I can try to find a potion in my text and see if there is anything I can do to help him…”

Harry nodded and barely whispered his thanks. She walked out of the room, grabbing Ron by the arm and bringing him with her. Ron left without a word closing the door silently behind him. As soon as Harry knew they were a distance away he grabbed a spare pillow and shoved his face into it, letting out a muffled scream.

He let out all of his built up pain, anger, rage, frustration and fright in one yell, his body shaking worse than ever as he attempted to contain his emotions. Harry leant against a wall and attempted to catch his breath, sending sharp stinging pains throughout his throat.

Harry glanced over at the young man near him, Draco’s chest was rising and falling more rapidly now but it was still slow and forced compared to how Harry and the rest were breathing. He walked over to Draco, putting down the pillow he had screamed into and watched the young man in silence, hoping everything would be alright.

TBC. Thanks for reading!