Haha, sorry about that cliffhanger.

This is the last chapter, but there is an epilogue.

And, yeah, this really has to be in Hermione’s POV, because I don’t know how Voldemort would think.

I don’t really want to think about it.

This chapter should be a little longer because of a lot of conversation.

And you won’t find out what the letter Hermione wrote to Ron said until the epilogue, because…well, you’ll see what happens.

Umm…that’s about it.     

Please vote and comment!

I’ve got more than nearly500 reads on this story, so THANKYOU SO MUCH for that!

And I’m writing my first realistic fiction, so please tell me if you want me to put that on here. Thanks! Just a warning: it’ll probably be a load of crap because I’m bad at realistic fictions.

- Bianca

P.S. I can’t believe I’ve finished 3, nearly 4, stories. Before November 2014 I had never finished one!

Well, unless you count When the Chicken Got Lost (Short Stories for Little Kids), which I don’t.

***

HERMIONE’S POV

I said nothing to Dumbledore or any other portraits in the room. Racing down the stairs, around corners and out into the courtyard, all I could think was, Harry can’t still be dead…he can’t be dead…

Ron stared at me oddly as I ran down the steps. “You only went into the building 10 minutes ago! What were you doing that only takes 10 minutes?”

I wanted to correct him.

For me, it had been 7 months.

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

Then I turned my attention to the scene in front of us.

Harry was still in Hagrid’s arms, but I could have sworn he was placed slightly differently before…

As Voldemort finished his speech, chaos erupted, but I kept my eyes on Harry.

But suddenly, he rolled to the ground and disappeared.

His Invisibility Cloak!

I remembered that he had taken it with him.

So he was alive after all.

I may have succeeded in that aspect of my mission, but I had left Tom Riddle behind, lost and confused. He had probably been so angry at me that he began taking out his anger on others again. He must have resumed meeting with his Death Eaters and therefore resumed torturing and killing people.

History went almost the same as it would have gone without me – the only difference being that Harry could not be killed by Lord Voldemort.

It was all my fault that Voldemort was still Voldemort and not Tom Riddle. No-one else but me could be blamed.

I glanced around and realised that everyone else was running away.

But I didn’t move.

Voldemort turned to look at the girl who wasn’t moving anywhere, just standing there, frozen. And he understood that this was the girl he had fallen in love with when he was only 16, and she wasn’t aged a day.

I tried to imagine what that would feel like, but it was impossible.

All I recognised was that he probably now hated me with a burning passion, so I would be second in line for people he wanted to kill, only after Harry.

So I ran.

Ron wasn’t far ahead of me, so I caught up to him.

Together, we ran into the half-destroyed castle. “All we have to do is kill his snake and then Voldemort will be the only one left,” I said to Ron. “But we should probably try to find Harry as well.”

“How about we split up to find Nagini and Harry?” Ron suggested.

I wasn’t thinking properly at the time.

I nodded.

At the next intersection of the corridors, I turned left and Ron went right.

The moment I reached the next intersection, I realised exactly how stupid splitting up was.

It was a really, really, really bad idea.

I was about to turn right to try to find Ron, when Voldemort appeared right in front of me.

“You-you kept your promise,” was all I could say.

I remembered the golden threads of the Unbreakable Vow winding around my left arm. I unconsciously rubbed my left arm.

Though it had only been a few minutes for me, it had been 55 years for Tom.

Or rather, Voldemort.

He looked at me as if I had just declared that he was Lord Voldemort.

“Of course. I would have died otherwise – and, believe me, I almost did, 17 years ago.” He frowned.

“I knew you had gone back to your home – here, as it turned out. When you left, Narcissa and I lied about your whereabouts. Everyone believed the story the two of us had concocted – that you ran away from the school in a sudden fit of homesickness.

‘Not long after you left, I began meeting with my followers once more and resumed being known as Lord Voldemort. A part of me still hoped that you would come back.

‘But you never did. I began cursing your name instead of loving it.

‘I went into hiding when I finished school. And my followers – Death Eaters – grew up. Abraxas Malfoy, my most faithful, married Narcissa Nott. They had Lucius Malfoy.

‘Regulus Black married Luna Yaxley and they had Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda Black.

‘As for Parkinson, I believe she married a Muggle and their son married a Muggle-born witch, and they had Pansy Parkinson. That family was a disappointment, a failed pure-blood family.

‘Anyway, my followers grew strong in power and number. One day, Severus Snape came to me with report of a prophecy. It told of a boy born at the end of July whose parents had defied me three times. This boy would have the power to destroy me. I gave orders to the Death Eaters to search for this boy, and I finally found out that it could be one of two boys…Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.”

I gasped.

Neville was the Chosen One too?

But Voldemort wasn’t finished. “I had to make a decision. It was easy. I chose Potter, for you.

‘I knew that I had made the Unbreakable Vow, but it was really Tom Riddle who had made it, not Voldemort. I suppose I thought it would no longer apply. I was wrong. I was essentially destroyed by a combination of breaking the Unbreakable Vow – or at least trying to – and Lily Potter’s love for her son.

‘And, as they say, the rest is history.

‘And, in case you were wondering, I told you all this so you know how much has happened since I last saw you. And how long I have had to plot my revenge on you.”

He raised the Elder Wand.

I stepped forward.

I was about to do something extremely stupid.

“Wait! I have an offer, Tom. Leave the world alone. Stop your army and we will stop ours. We can have peace. You can live the remainder of your life as a great wizard, but not a Dark one. Your soul will be split with all the murders you have committed, but it won’t matter if people accept you. And not everyone will, of course, but some will, and I promise you I will be one of those people. Please, Tom,” I pleaded.

I knew there was no Tom left in him anymore, but I had to try.

He looked out the window for a couple of seconds before turning back to me, shaking his head.

My heart sank.

“I have deliberated, but my answer is no. There is no point inme calling off my army. We will win easily if we do not. I have made my choices and you have made yours, Hermione Argentum. Avada Kedavra!”

I ducked and the green light went flying over my head to collapse a stone pillar nearby.

And then I was running.

And running.

And running.

“You may kill me,” I gasped, “but you can never kill Harry!”

Voldemort glared at me. “I will prove you wrong!” he promised.

And he disappeared.

Now I just had to hope that the Unbreakable Vow remained unbreakable, to the end.