6th year comes and goes, and Voldemort simply disappears, his threat gone, the wizarding world back to normal. Yet as her final year begins a new transfer student comes to Hogwarts, a brilliant, handsome, charming, arrogant man who has gotten under her skin / Tomione, Slowburn, Canon to 6th year.
6th year had been stressful on them all, a constant fear surrounded the school. Even she found her focus slipping from her NEWTS to what was to come next. Harry had his secret meetings with Dumbledore, though he of course told them everything and they learned more and more about the man Tom Riddle and the monster he had become in Lord Voldemort.
He told them of his journey from orphan boy with a talent of making people do what he wanted and the parsaltongue ability he shared with Harry, to his time at Hogwarts, when he had excelled beyond all else and slowly went about collecting his followers. They learned about his years at Borgin and Burkes the position beneath him but a simple means to an end in achieving what he wanted. They learned of his past, so they could understand him now, in his future, as Lord Voldemort. It made sense, even if it did make her a little sick.
To see someone so brilliant, so naturally gifted, to see him turn down the wrong path … it was dreadful. She thought once or twice, when lying in her twin bed in Gryffindor tower, she thought about what he could have become if he hadn't had a bad childhood, if he hadn't thirsted for power. She thought what he could have been. Instead of what he had been instead of how twisted and depraved he had become.
Horcruxes, it was a dirty word, and the main thing tying Voldemort to the earth. Harry and Dumbledore went on a mission to find them, and found and destroyed three: the ring, the locket, the diadem in the space of less than a year, but not all, it wasn't enough. They had more to do, and as Harry chased the objects with Dumbledore, Hermione did research, Ron provided much needed levity. They soldiered on, determined.
They would defeat him, the man that would see her killed, Harry murdered and even Ron executed, blood traitor and all. They would destroy him, they were determined, three teenagers and a brilliant wizard would see the biggest evil the wizarding world had ever known dead. She was sure of it.
And then Dumbledore fell.
Hermione had been too shocked to cry, as Harry told them, as he sobbed, and Ron pulled his best friend into a hug. Hermione had only stood, unable to believe it. Dumbledore? The great Dumbledore? Disarmed by Draco Malfoy and then executed by Snape? It felt unreal, too insane to be true… though what came next was even more insane.
He disappeared.
Voldemort, the spectre that had hung over them for years, that had ruined Harry's life, terrorised all around him, persecuted her. He had just up and vanished. For the first few months they simply thought he was lying low, but months passed by, his Death Eaters were rounded up, found, locked up. The dementors perished in a sea of screams on one random night. The giants went back to their caves, the pureblood families carried on with their blood purity and their sneers but nothing else. Even Snape, revealed his true allegiances, showed his memories and confirmed, his fake master had disappeared.
He was simply gone.
And only 6 months after they had not heard a peep, as the last Death Eaters were thrown in Azkaban never to be released, as Fenir Greyback was killed in a Ministry standoff did they finally celebrate that he was gone. No one knew how, but they knew he was. They danced, drank, and cheered until dawn. Parties erupted across the country as the Ministry officially announced they believed him dead. People partied, cried, smiled, celebrated that he was gone.
They celebrated too soon.
...
