Chapter Thirty-Six

The End

"Harry!" Ron called out, arriving along side his brother Charlie, who was sporting a rather nasty over his forehead.

As Harry walked over to them, he caught bits of an argument they were having, something about Charlie jumping in the way like that, being stupid.

"Ron!" he called back, relieved to see he was fine. It was so difficult to keep track of what had been going on, between finally facing Voldemort and the chaos that seemed to have surrounded them.

"What's going on?" the redheaded boy asked, trying to cast a minor healing spell. For all the Quidditch incidents and mischief he'd gotten into, Madame Pomfrey had managed to nag him into becoming a bit more practiced in the basics of medi art. Now, as Charlie was blinded from the dripping blood, he took care of it, if only to stop the bleeding.

"I-I don't know." Harry fumbled, not knowing what had happened. He thought he had killed Voldemort, but Dumbledore had called for a retreat, which meant they were losing, or so he thought.

So many others looked just as confused as they did. Harry couldn't sort anything out; there were too many mixed messages. There were injured friends on the ground, and for those who appeared unconscious, Harry could only hope they were still breathing. But, for the most part, between the Order members and ministry factions who lent their help, they seemed in decent shape. Everyone appeared ready to keep fighting and uncertain as to why they had stopped.

As a hush began to fall over the now mostly accounted for ranks, Harry turned about, looking for the cause of attention. Dumbledore was waiting to speak. As an imposing man, and one so revered, it was easy for everyone's rapt attention to be given. It also didn't hurt that everyone also wanted to know what was going on.

"The Dark Lord-" the older wizard started, "has fallen."

No sooner had the announcement left his mouth than great cheers started up. The combined voices of the celebrating ranks were no less audible for the many who were missing.

As everyone was rejoicing Dumbledore easily slipped away, but for two boys who were not so eager to celebrate but get some answers, nothing went unnoticed.

Sweeping up the main stairs, Harry and Ron ran after the Headmaster. Obviously he wanted them to follow, since if he was able to make his way from the Quidditch pitch all the way back to the castle entrance so quickly, he could have easily been out of sight by the time they left the stadium.

"Professor!" Harry called out.

They caught up with Dumbledore just outside the main entrance, huffing from their sprint.

"Please, follow me." He said, turning to leave again.

"Sir, what's going on? If Voldemort is dead, then why did we run away?" Ron asked, liking this uncertain aftermath even less than the battle he was just in the midst of.

"Voldemort is indeed dead." Dumbledore said.

"But, sir-" Harry jumped in, "How can you be certain?" at the moment, even after Dumbledore's reassurance, he was far from accepting that it could be over. Voldemort was there in front of him, and he'd cleared his mind and tried to focus all his energy and thought into using what he'd ultimately figured was the only attack he could use, Avada Kedavra. Voldemort was far from being taken down just like that. Their wands had connected, like in his fourth year when Voldemort resurrected his body. The man he'd spent the last six years being pitted against in one way or another had finally fallen, at his hand. But, it was not what he'd expected.

How could it be over? He was afraid of a false sense of security. The moment he smiled or laughed, and became excited at the new future ahead, Voldemort would come back. That was always what happened. It seemed like the day after he'd learned he was a wizard and thought he might have a better life, Voldemort loomed over him suppressing everything that was good.

Sure, the past two years had been leading up this time, this moment. When he stood before the dark looming figure of Voldemort, he felt like it was a dream, but he also felt ready. He was confident he was strong enough. And then, he'd said the words; with as much hate and anger he could, picturing every smiling face this bastard had destroyed.

Accepting, for the moment, that Dumbledore spoke true, he was still confused, "Why did we leave?" he asked, keeping pace with a surprisingly brusque walk for someone of the Headmaster's particular age.

"Because, we couldn't stay there any longer." was his only explanation.

Harry was really getting tired of having to break fingers to get a damn reason for everything. He and Ron shared a very dissatisfied look, but they just kept following.

Finally, Dumbledore stopped outside what they thought was a random door. But, upon entering they found Moody, and the two Aurors which they'd seen pinning Draco down while he struggled furiously. And, then, there was Draco, who sat restlessly in a chair. It was apparent that there were some magical restraints on Malfoy, as his hands were glued to the chair arms and he seemed to be trying to struggle free.

The moment Harry's eyes locked on Malfoy's, the Slytherin settled down. "What's going on? Why was Malfoy shouting about Hermione?" he asked.

Moody stepped in, knowing it wasn't always in Albus to be blunt, and if they didn't tell the boy exactly what was going on, he'd be likely to do something rash, "Harry, Hermione was about to do something that would have taken us all out. We had to leave."

"What was she doing? Where is she now?" Harry followed up.

Sighing Moody admit, "I don't know what she was doing, but we could feel the power building. She was like a ticking bomb, we had to get out of there."

"So, she was using her powers, but where is she now?" Harry asked, already half knowing what Moody was going to tell him.

When no one answered him, he turned to Draco, "You know what's going on, where is she?"

Again, trying to tear his hands from their locked position on the armrests, he stared at Harry, "She's back on the battlefield," he bit out vehemently, "by herself!" he shouted, looking from one Auror standing on his guard to the other.

A stumbling mass of back robes came through to open doorway. It was Snape, and he wasn't looking too good, his greasy hair matted, his clothes torn, and even against the black of his robes, the blood soaking through them was visible.

"Severus!" Dumbledore rushed forward, to give the Potion's master a hand. "Alastor, would you floo Poppy?" he asked, directing Snape to a chair.

For a few moments, Snape just stared forward in a daze, as if in shock, "Gone, everything wiped out." He mumbled.

"What's gone Severus?" Dumbledore asked, knowing the man had stayed in the battlefield longer than anyone else.

"It's like before, Albus, with the girl's house… but it's everything this time."

"Oh, gods." One of the unknown Aurors exclaimed.

"Let me go now!" Draco yelled, "You heard it, its over, now let me go!"

"Hold on, we need to wait-" Dumbledore began.

Draco cut him off, "You've made me wait long enough, release me NOW!"

"Let him go." Harry stated, knowing Draco wanted, and had been trying to do, just what he was going to as well.

Draco, Harry, Ron, and Charlie, who had insisted upon accompanying his brother, arrived back near the battlefield.

The four of them stood on the nearby hill, not far from the cemetery, staring down at the small open field that should have been.

"What the hell happened?" Charlie asked in awe.

They had just been here, surrounded by allies and enemies. Ron had just been binding a Giant in place after one of the Vampires had taken it down. Charlie had just been jumping to tackle Ron out of the way as the tribal leader of said Giant swung a fist in revenge. Harry had just been standing over the motionless form of Voldemort. And, Draco had been trying to make his way to Hermione, but found he was held up, by incapacitating every Death Eater in his way.

Before Moody had shown up right in front of Draco, he'd nearly made it to Hermione's side. He'd only let his eye off her for a second. She'd gone after a Dementor. When he turned back and couldn't see her, his heart was in his throat and he couldn't move fast enough while trying to fight. Then he was being told he had to leave. He wouldn't ever want to hurt Moody, but when it became clear he was being detained from Hermione, he tried to get by. Two other Aurors had come to assist, and managed to apparate him back to their rendezvous point upon a retreat.

Now, there was nothing. It was all gone, as Snape had said. The field was this scorched wasteland, dipping down into the earth. No longer a flat plain, but a concave bowl of smoking dirt.

Before Harry, Ron, or Charlie could even fathom where to begin, they suddenly saw Malfoy far below, at the center. It was another couple minutes before they were able to reach him.

Once they came running up, Draco was just standing there, staring off into the distance.

"I repeat, what the hell happened here." Charlie intoned.

"What do you think Charlie?" Ron shot back, not liking how the first thing on his brother's mind wasn't Hermione.

"Any sign of her?" Harry asked, stepping next to Draco.

"No, none." He mumbled in reply, still thinking rapidly.

"Is she alive?" Ron asked, in a raised voice, not liking how the facts were adding up.

"Where is she? What did you see before you left?" Harry asked directly after.

Draco just looked from one to other. Did they honestly expect him to have all the answers? Right now, he needed to be alone and not have these gits slowing him down. "Go back."

"What?" Harry and Ron asked together.

"I work alone." Draco stated, not willing to put up with the two of them at this point.

Draco left them there, moving quickly to the cemetery. He had to think, where could she be? She was most definitely not dead, that was just not possible. But, where could she have gone? For all his reasoning, this incident was just like what he'd been told about the night of her parents' murder, when her powers were awoken. It was described that she was unconscious in the middle of the crater, since she was the source of it. That would mean she should have been down there in the center of that demolished earth.

'But she wasn't' his mind answered. If she wasn't there, and she was most likely unconscious, then someone got here before they did.

Again, Draco was back in the middle of the scorched earth, searching around. The other boys had left, and he feared the damage might be done to something he should have seen before. Thankfully, the others had not gone traipsing around.

With a little searching, Draco found what he was looking for. Foot prints, not his own or Harry's or Ron's or that other guy. Draco had to think for a moment, replaying what and who he had seen after they retreated. There wasn't much time for him to see anyone once he got back. After all, he was being detained and then knocked out, which he resented but there was nothing to be done from a direct hit from a spell like that.

As he observed an odd print accompanying the shoes he tried to rewind and think from a different angle. What was missing? He'd been so patient when they were walking down to the Forbidden Forest, where they could apparate; when all he'd wanted to do was get here in a fraction of the time. During that time, he had observed some of the crowd, who was missing?

"Blain" he whispered, his hopes rising high. The print in the dirt was from his cane, and as he stood to track Blain's path, there were only a few steps near the center. Only a Vampire or an Auror could do that. He was almost certain, as each fact supported his conclusion.

His feet couldn't take him to that clearing quickly enough. He'd let Hermione down, when he said he'd never let anything happen to her. He never should have let her anywhere near the battle.

There was a disturbance, something cold, on her face. As Hermione came around, she could tell it was water. 'Water!' her brain said, knowing how parched she was.

Opening her mouth, the trickle of water flowed in, and she gulped thirstily. Every muscle in her body felt on fire, she was so sore. When she tried to move, she whimpered, realizing too late that having every muscle in pain, meant she couldn't move without feeling all of that.

Groggily, she lifted her lids, having given up trying to move. While her mind jumped back, startled, her body decided it would pretend nothing happened.

"Blain?" she said incredulously, surprised at how she thought she'd almost shouted the Vampire's name, but it hardly louder than a whisper.

She looked up, only seeing the underside of his chin. The rest of his face was covered by his top hat. While she was reluctant to believe it, she could only come to the same conclusion, Blain was sleeping. She didn't think they slept so leisurely. At the moment, her head was resting in his lap, and he was leaning up against a tree trunk.

But, if Blain was sleeping, who had given her water? It was then she realized it was raining. 'Merlin my mind is screwed up.' She surmised, if it had taken her that long to realize there was water falling down all over.

"Blain" she called again, terribly confused at how she ended up laying against the Vampire, back in the clearing of Mistywoods Forest.

Biting her lip, she tightened her stomach muscles and pulled herself upright.

"The Angelus has opened her eyes!" came Blain's voice, positively giddy.

"Blain, please," she began careful, afraid he might decide her being an Angelus was not reason enough to keep her alive. "What happened?"

"Fair maiden, it was truly a grand carnival." He started, flashing in front of her all of a sudden.

Blinking Hermione sighed. She didn't think she'd ever get used to following the movements of others who could move this fast. When he started gesturing with one of his gloved hands, she furrowed her brows. He seemed to be prompting her to move back. She understood what he was getting at after she looked behind herself.

Scooting back, she leaned against the tree he had just been using. Blain eagerly inched closer, sitting in front of her with his legs crossed, much like she'd seen Draco doing with him when she'd returned from delivering the students back to the school.

"So much power!" he continued excitedly, "My friends are delighted. We should do that again sometime."

'Yeah, sure, next weekend perhaps.' She thought.

"Great fun! Great fun! The Angelus makes us all grin!" he said, giving her a grin.

"Where are your friends?" she asked, giving up on getting a play by play from him.

Blain gave her a very serious look. Well, it was half amused still, but for him it was the most serious she'd seen him. "It was because of your wand."

For a few moments, she just stared at him, "What about my wand?" she asked, realizing it was nowhere on her right now.

"You were building your power…" he just kept staring at her.

Hermione thought for another moment, trying to recall what had happened. She was getting bits and pieces now, starting to remember. "I don't know what happened after I blacked out." She looked at Blain again, wishing he'd just talk perfectly coherent for once and tell her exactly what had happened.

"You were using your power, drawing it to a finite mass. You kept building on more and more, but that damn wand you wizards insist on using kept you from releasing it. Those things are death traps, really." Upon seeing the shocked expression on Hermione's face he held his hand up, "Hey, now, you wizards can defend them all you want. But, if you'd start teaching your young to use their magic without the twigs, then they'd be more powerful and have more focus."

Mouth hanging open, Hermione didn't know what to say to the vampire. One minute he's his usual half crazed, dangerous, ready to snap at any moment self, and the next minute he's as elegantly spoken as his movements. "Since when have you been sane?" she asked incredulously, wondering if he hadn't been playing one big game with them all.

"Ah, my dear, I'm far from sane." He gave her that creepy broad smile, "But my mind and words are quite the voice of reason after so many lifetimes of learning."

"Then why the act?" she asked

"There was no act before, this is the act. You wanted me to speak to you like this, so I am."

"I don't think I'll ever understand you." She admitted, not sure how to act around someone she couldn't read.

He laughed at her, entirely amused by the Angelus. It wasn't often he could find someone so interested in the clockwork of a Vampire like himself. Taking off his top hat, he placed it on her head.

Blain put his hat on top of her head, and when the oversized accessory hid her view, she heard boisterous laughter, she tilt her head back to peer out the bottom. Blain was on his back laughing at her.

"The Angelus looks so funny!" he exclaimed laughing some more, and pointing at her head.

Not sure if it would be rude by taking the hat off, lest it be some sort of peace offering, she balanced to the back of her head and sat patiently until he settled down. There were more questions she wanted answered, "What happened after that? You said my wand was holding me back. I remember letting the wand fall, something must have happened."

"Oh it was a grand spectacle. Mimic wouldn't stop talking about it all through our teatime." He waved a hand off, as though while he was bothered by it, it didn't matter at the moment, "Everything was felled by the sublime Angelus!"

As Hermione's mind raced to what he meant by 'everything', she immediately pictured something along the lines of what had happened the night of her parents' death. Everything had been annihilated, destroyed down to the last atom. She felt like she was going to be sick, "Blain!" she cried. "What do you mean by everything?" 'Oh no, no, no, NO!' this was not her intention. She didn't even know what her intention had been, other than to attack those Dementors, but it just kept building and she didn't know how to release it.

"The fellow, I quite like him, Albus, I think he's titled. Well, he sent up that light which you all agreed would be the signal to run away like cowards, and everyone just left." Blain finished lamely, not liking that bit of the battle at all.

"So, everyone left?" she was still confused.

"No, the ones you are waging this war against remained, and though we were ordered we refrained. There was great fun to still be had, when they all left it was quite sad."

As Blain's words washed over her, she sat there, not registering them for a short bit. Once the meaning had sunk in, though, she felt a flush come over her, as though she'd been caught red handed doing a terrible deed. Gulping, she tried to wet her dry mouth. The rain had stopped, so she couldn't open up and drink. "Does that mean," she inquired in a hoarse voice, "that I killed everyone else?"

Blain's face took on a sour look, "Yes! There was nothing for us to do!"

Hermione's eyes immediately watered. How many hundreds of people had she killed? And surely, they weren't all on the Dark side, no doubt some of their own had been left behind or too injured to escape. Her eyes widened, and she looked to Blain for some sort of way out, maybe he could turn time back or erase it.

Seeing the Angelus react like this was rather unsettling, she looked lost now and sad. He didn't mean to make her sad. Maybe she didn't like his hat.

"No, no, no, no, no…" she started mumbling to herself, drawing her legs up and wrapping her arms around them, not caring at the excruciating pain it caused in her, she deserved every bit of pain at this point. As she began to rock back and forth, she continued her mumbling, "no, no, no, no, no…"

He was so confused. The Angelus was acting odd.

Eventually Hermione moved on from the word 'no' and began to whimper softly, as the first of many tears spilled over. Finally, it felt like too much, and she just snapped. Letting out a gut-wrenching scream, she used a lungful to push every fiber of herself into it. When it died down, her face was red and her voice was hoarse, and her body collapsed into sobs. Between sobs she still mumbled the same word, 'no'.

Draco didn't know where exactly the clearing, he'd been to before, was located. It was deep within the woods, and he tried his best to follow the same general steps they'd taken. He was just beginning to wonder if he was getting closer or on some wild goose chase, when he heard it. It was such a painful scream, and the scream came from Hermione. In that moment, his heart stopped. He could feel it, as his chest hurt so badly he had to grasp a hand to it.

Following her cry, he found the clearing in no time. He hadn't been far off. Arriving on the scene, he wasn't sure what to make of it. Hermione was curled into a small ball sobbing, wearing Blain's top hat. While, Blain, for someone so composed, was looking confused and awkwardly rubbing circles on Hermione's back.

At this point, he didn't care what Blain had done or might have done; instead his attention was on Hermione. Rushing forth, he knelt down and scooped her up quickly. She was mumbling, 'no'.

"Blain, what happened?" Draco asked hurriedly.

"There is much to tell, like how funny she looks in my hat-"

"No, Blain, why is she crying?" Draco interrupted, hardly able to have patience for this Vampire.

"I don't know why. I should think she'd be happy. Of course, we were sad, she took all our fun away all at once." He said dejectedly.

Draco's eyes narrowed, "You told her what happened? You told her that she killed them all?" his jaw tightened. While he wanted to kill the Vampire, the crazed creature had done nothing wrong. Hermione would have found out eventually, if she hadn't already known. "Look, I'm taking her back to Hogwarts, but I promise you'll get your feathers, just not right now." Draco said sternly, knowing that if he left it open for debate the Vampire might just do that.

"A trip!" he exclaimed, "I'd like to come, the castle is nice in the dark." He said expectantly.

With a dismissing gesture, Draco let him know it was fine, though there was a silent understanding that Blain wasn't to cause any trouble.

One week later, Madame Pomfrey was fussing over her unconscious patient, administering another sleeping draught. Draco had brought Hermione to the Hospital Wing. In his arms she was sobbing and so upset there was no calming the girl. And, upon inspection, she knew the girl had been back to her old habits of draining herself to the extreme.

It shouldn't have taken so long for her to regain her strength, but there was something ailing her poor soul so deeply that not even the strongest of Severus' sleeping potions could put her in a wholly peaceful rest. So, day and night, they kept her knocked out, forcibly making her well again.

Against all her experienced protests, the blonde Slytherin absolutely refused to leave the Head Girl's bedside. His face was pale and his eyes were becoming shallow. Often times he wasn't alone. Accident prone, Potter and Weasley joined Malfoy. And there was often this other man, who dressed most oddly. More than once, she'd had to reprimand the pale looking man for jumping up and down on the beds. Honestly, in all her years, she'd never met a more immature adult.

This grouping seemed most odd, and down right dangerous in her opinion, but the Headmaster had assured her it was fine. The Headmaster also told her that even if they wanted to separate the group, it would prove impossible.

During that week, which the youngest key figures of the war, spent locked up in the Hogwarts' Hospital wing, the wizarding world was celebrating. Voldemort was dead, which Harry still couldn't believe, nor could many others. But, he did have a bit of an inclination to think that even if he hadn't accomplished the goal, though Dumbledore said he did, then Hermione's unwanted and unintentional decimation of everyone on that field would have hammered the final nail on the coffin.

No ugly trials, no rounding up escaped Death Eaters, it was a devastatingly clean victory.

But, there was no satisfaction in it for Harry or Ron or Draco. All joy was taken out of it as they watched Hermione's eyes leek tears in her sleep, and witnessed when she woke up sobbing and apologizing frantically and begging forgiveness.

Let the rest of the wizarding world have their joy and happiness, there would be none of that for them. They had done the job, but at what cost?

Three more weeks passed, and Hermione had been out and about for some time. School had begun again, and she was slowly coming back to her old self. Through much consultation from Draco, she'd come to move on, if only a little. She highly expected she'd feel guilty for what she'd done the rest of her life, but being with Draco made her feel happy again, which meant she could move on.

As each day passed, she felt a little stronger, more like herself. As she received her first A+ of the semester, she began to feel more comfortable in where she was. It was also a nice little perk to be able to spend each night in the bed of Draco Malfoy.

She'd always feel burdened and marred by the lives she'd taken. And, after she'd given Blain his feathers, she felt a need to shun her Angelus abilities, at least for a little while. But, she had her two best friends, an amazing lover she was head over heals for, and even Blain who randomly showed up during meals in the Great Hall, scaring all the students and making Dumbledore laugh. She also got a great kick out of going public with her relationship with Draco. He had been most smug in the announcement, or rather like before, display of inappropriate affection.

At least they'd always have each other. They had been through a war together. Nothing could tear them apart. None of them would let it.

A/N: A huge thanks goes out to all my reviewers! My first story is indeed finished. No Longer Helpless is now complete. I can't thank the reviewers enough, for your support and warm words. For those who reviewed constantly, you know who you are, I'm so grateful. It was for you guys that I updated as quickly as I could. When you guys complained about my cliffhangers, I got right back on the computer and started the next chapter. As far as a sequel goes, we shall see. I'm not certain at this point, though it's not out of the question.

Right now, my next big story is: Is This Love Real? This is definitely another long-term project like this story. Once it is finished I may come back and write an epilogue of sorts or a sequel. But, I can't help it; I'm totally obsessed with the Labyrinth right now. If you're interested, check it out, it's on this same site… just different category.

THANK YOU ALL! You guys rock!