Positive (Completed)

Chapter 13: Closer

Harry woke up with a crick in his neck. He didn't get much sleep the night before as Voldemort planted nightmares into his head of his family being taken away from him. He wished there was a way to check up on them and make sure they were okay. He wished he could just slip away to apparate to the home and see their smiling faces for just a split second to make sure they were fine. However, he knew that was not possible. He had a mission to complete.

He was already two Horcruxes closer to defeating him.

Closer.

That one little word was becoming a small motivation within him to keep going on. He would tell himself that he was closer.

Closer to vanquishing.

Closer to the ending of murders by Voldemort.

Closer to the peace he wanted.

Closer to being with Hermione and Arabella.

Closer to being...free.

"You're getting there. You're almost there. Don't give up. Get back up. You're getting closer. Don't give up, Harry," a voice in his head that sounded like Hermione's would say. "Don't give up. Not when you're this close."

That gave him the strength, along with his newly formed family, to keep going on. He was one step closer.

However many Horcruxes he destroyed, he still could not defeat him without figuring out what the seventh one was. He pored over books. Mountains and mountains of books. But never found anything of what it could be.

He was getting a little desparate. He wanted to get this whole thing over and done with.

He sighed as he rolled out of his cot and began the day.

*****

Arabella colored a new picture everyday. She saw that it cheered her mother up a bit. She had finally learned to draw shapes and figures. And soon became "Mummy's Little Artist". She drew suns, flowers, butterflies, bunny rabbits, trees, sunflowers, even. Anything that cheered her mother up, she drew. Hermione, very proud of her daughter's artwork, hung them up in the playroom for all to see.

One picture, in particular, Hermione just had to frame and put it in Arabella's room. It was of a heart. The heart consisted of three "cells" and were divided by lines. On the left "cell", was the one year old's drawing of Harry. It was pretty well-done, even for a four year old, Hermione could see. On the right was herself. And at the bottom, was Arabella. The little girl explained to her Mummy that the two top "cells", aka "Daddy" and "Mummy" created the bottom "cell", herself, out of love, which was represented by the heart.

Hermione shed a tear when she explained it. "Do you like it, Mummy!" Arabella asked nervously, folding her hands together behind her back and rocking on her heels, not looking at her mother, slightly a little embarrassed.

"No, angel, I love it." Arabella smiled and hugged Hermione and happily watched her frame it.

In a way, Arabella could see the love her mother felt for her father. She could see how delicately she held things that were his, that she was afraid she was going to break them. She noticed how she would sometimes sleep in his room, just to smell his scent. She noticed everything about her mother.