AFTERWARDS

‘Did you find him?’ He stared at her in the half-light.

Hermione looked back at him and nodded. Her face was pale, her eyes wide, dark shadows showing the strain of the last few hours.

‘And.. Was he?. Is he..? Harry didn’t want to know he worst but prepared himself anyway.

‘He’s alive… just…’ She whispered and stepped to one side.

Harry peered into the gloomy room. Hermione had shown remarkable intelligence as usual and they were standing in an empty house in Hogsmede, abandoned by its owner in the mass exodus that had taken place months earlier in a bid to avoid the final battle. The place was covered in dust, the windows grimy and cobwebbed. It was a perfect hiding place and more importantly, it was close. He wouldn’t have survived a longer journey. Harry could discern his shape on the bed in the corner of the room, gently lit by a single candle.

‘Can he talk? I want to talk to him.’ Since leaving the headmasters’ office he had been overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and was desperate to let him know that he understood, all of it. But that had been hours ago, he had only been able to tell Hermione briefly and beg her to return and help him.

‘He’s asleep; I gave him a sleeping draught. He’s very sick Harry…I..I don’t know if he’ll make it. I need to get to the Library, I don’t know the right potion for snake poisoning, all I could do was stop it spreading and stop the bleeding, but its only temporary.’ She was pulling on her jumper as she spoke.

‘I’ll wait here. Don’t be long, Hermione and be careful. Voldermort may be dead but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others still around.’

Hermione nodded and wrapped her arms around herself. Clutching her wand, she stepped out into the darkness of Hogsmede, pausing briefly to look back at her patient.

‘Just live…’ She said a silent prayer and headed towards Hogwarts.

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