Happily Ever After | Hermione Granger [3]

Chapter 13 - I Love You

TW: Mentions of killing and death

No one's POV

"Confringo!" The boy who lived, who also was thought to be dead, shouted out, jumping out from Hagrid's hold. Harry started running away from him, as you-know-who's happy demeanour immediately changed to anger after failing to kill the same boy twice. He yelled out in irritation, shooting spells at the raven haired boy.

A lot of death eaters started turning into black smoke again, getting away when they had the chance, while all of the Hogwarts students and the Order went back to fighting, the war continuing. "I'll lure him into the castle. We have to kill the snake." Harry declared, and went away, doing exactly what he said.

"I think we should split up, looking for the snake." Ron stated, while all of them started running, wanting to find Nagini as soon as they could. "Ok." Katerína blurted out, nodding in agreement. With that, the redhead boy ran off, leaving the two girls alone. As the blonde was about to leave as well, Hermione grabbed onto her wrist.

"What?" The Alvárez girl hastily quizzed, but the brunette didn't say anything. "Hermione, we don't have a lot of time, we have to go and find the-" Though before she was able to finish her sentence, she was cut off... by a kiss. During the long kiss, Katerína was too shocked to kiss back, and that was when Hermione pulled away.

"Rina, I need to explain this to you before it's too late. I don't fancy Ron, ok? Not anymore. The kiss that happened between him and I... it didn't mean anything. Please just understand, I want to be with you. Nobody else. Ok? I love you." The curly haired brunette rambled, though widened her eyes after realising what she had confessed.

"I- I love you too." Rina told her. That led to Hermione's worried expression fading as happiness and glee washed over her, even if they were in the middle of a war. They shared one more kiss before running off to find the snake.

Time skip

Katerína's POV

After a while, Hermione and I also decided to split up to find Nagini since it was taking way too long. But in the process, I saw a group of first years trying to fight off a death eater. And even if finding the snake would mean being one step closer to ending the Dark Lord, I still felt the need to stay and protect the kids. But they weren't fighting off just any death eater, they were fighting off my father.

I ran up to them, shielding them with my body as I reached into my pocket to take out my wand, though not feeling it. Soon after, I remembered that I dropped it earlier, duelling with another death eater. "Don't do this!" I shouted out, not knowing what I was trying to do. Maybe I was attempting to find a drop of morality in him? Maybe I was still having hope that he had a shred of goodness inside of him?

But what came out of his mouth crushed all of that wishing. "I would have never betrayed the Dark Lord. I'm not untrustworthy, unlike you. You're nothing but a disgrace." He shot a non-verbal spell at me, but I swiftly grabbed one of the kid's wand, blocking it off. What I yelled out next shocked me.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A glow of green left the wand, hitting the man in front of me. The same green glow I saw under my bedroom door all of those years ago on my eight year old birthday. Hitting this man I have called my father my whole life. He dropped to the floor, lifelessly laying there.

I heard all of the kids run off, the one I took the wand from not even bothering to get it back. But I didn't take my eyes off of my father. I just stared at his dead body, an unfamiliar feeling in my chest.

It felt as if all of the air left my lungs. My lips and hands started quivering and shaking uncontrollably. My vision got blurry. Blurry from a sort of wet substance. And that was when I realised, it was tears. I was crying. I was crying for the first time in my life, at least from the parts of life I remember.

I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as an explosion of emotions rushed through my veins. I felt sad, anger, guilt. Sad that my father was dead. Angry at myself for being the reason for it. And guilt, for becoming like him. For killing someone. Someone of my own blood, my own family.

But out of the blue, a smile creeped onto my face, those negative emotions immediately leaving my body. Instead, I felt happy, I felt free. For the first time in my whole life, I was free. Officially free. Officially free from my father. From being a 'proper' Alvárez. If we end up winning the war, I could live my life, not worrying about what he would think. About what he might do.

But that was when I snapped out of it, realising I still had a mission to accomplish. I wiped the tears off of my rosy cheeks, running away to find the snake.

Time skip

No one's POV

Katerína left her father's corpse, laying there alone. Though, not long after, she located Hermione. The Granger seemed to notice her as well, going up to her. "Have you found the snake yet?" The brunette asked, leading to Rina shaking her head.

Then, Hermione saw the red in the Alvárez girl's eyes. The glow from the sting of tears that were still there. "Are you-?" but the curly haired brunette couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, knowing that what happened was so bad, that Katerína cried for the first time. She wasn't ready to know what had happened.

Then, Hermione noticed the shocked look on Rina's face as she saw the snake, the last horcrux, slithering down the stairs at lightning speed, going right to the pair. Hermione looked over too, her eyes widening as she took hold of the blonde girl's hand, shooting a spell at it, but nothing happened.

They began running again, running as fast as they could, Nagini still somehow catching up. Rina shot a non-verbal at the snake, though still, nothing happened. They fell on a pile of rocks, both of them squeezing their eyes shut as they held onto each other tightly, expecting to die.

Fortunately, Neville came just in time, slicing Nagini in half with the sword of Godric Gryffindor, a scream emerging from his mouth as he did so. Nagini then faded into black smoke, meaning that the Dark Lord was the only thing left to be killed.

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