I'll Wait For You Forever...

Hermione awoke with a start. She could feel the cold sweat on her face, her clothes sticking to her body.

"Oh thank God!" Ginny sighed.

"Where's Harry?!" Hermione sat up and looked around the bar.

"I'm right here..." he answered gently, pushing through the crowd and kneeling beside her.

"Is it really you?" She felt her eyes well up again as she raised her hand, and gently touched his cheek.

"Who else would it be?" he smiled gently. "Can I take her home?" He turned his attention to Will and Ginny.

William, who didn't know who Harry was or why Hermione had fainted, eyed him suspiciously. Ginny, though just as shocked to see her friend, nodded to him.

"Let her go with him, Will...she'll be fine," Ginny whispered to the bar tender.

Harry pulled Hermione to her feet, and when he saw her staggering, quickly looped his arm around her waist to steady her from falling again.

The snow storm had calmed outside, and the short walk home was an easy one. Neither spoke. Hermione was still too weak. Harry was at a loss for words. His heart broke being near her again, knowing it wouldn't end the way it should...

"What happened to you, Harry?" she squeaked after he had dropped her onto her couch in the living room.

"What do you mean?" he replied, taking her cloak off, then her shoes.

"After the war...I waited for you...and you never came...and then, the dreams...you know about the dreams..."

"Yes, I know about the dreams...it was the only way I could come near you...it was the only safe way for me to contact you...being here now isn't safe...unless...are you wearing the vial?" his voice shook. He couldn't look in her eyes, couldn't look at her face.

"Yes, but Harry...WHY?" she exploded. "Tell me what happened to you!"

Harry closed his eyes, raked his fingers through his perpetually messy raven hair. "I'm not the same man that left you all those years ago, Hermione...and that's the first thing you need to understand...that even though I look the same, and that my name is still Harry James Potter...my past belongs to another man...for I am only a silhouette of the man that you loved...an image without his soul...

"When we reached that battle ground, it was...horrifying. There were corpses all around...wounded wizards...wizards we knew...we were friends with...the first person I saw alive was Colin Creevey...his arms...were...gone...he was half conscious...out of his mind...kept going into fits, seizures...the Death Eaters seemed to work in shifts...and everyday and every night for two months we dueled nonstop with them.. and then we faced Voldemort...and I don't know how it happened, but it happened...Dumbledore...he went after Dumbledore...and I killed him...I used the same curse he used on my parents...on me...on Cedric...and he just crumpled...but I didn't stop there..." tears began to fall from Harry's eyes. His hands and voice trembled as he relived that dark time. "I ran over and I took my knife...and I cut out his heart...and I cut his face and his arms and his chest...and then I started screaming the curse again, after I stepped away from him...I pointed my wand at his stinking corpse and I kept screaming it...I don't know why. 'Avada Kedavra' over and over and over again...I was angry...he killed my mum and dad...he killed Cedric Diggory...he killed Ron...and he killed Dumbledore...he ruined my life...he took EVERYTHING away from me...so I had to kill him...more than once...and so I kept screaming it...and every time that light hit his body, he burned...and I didn't stop until there was nothing left but his bones...and I crushed them...I crushed them with a boulder...until they were just dust...I think I scared the few that were left...they wouldn't come near me. They all stood there, watching me, not saying a word...and when it was done, I was covered in his blood, his bone dust...I walked away from them. I had nothing to say. And neither did they. I crawled into one of the camp tents, and I just sat there...and I cried. I had eighteen years worth of anger and hurt and misery lifted off of me at the price of another life. I always thought his death would make me happy, set me free. It only dragged me down farther...for I'm no better than he...I'm a murderer. I killed not only him, but his followers as well...I wanted to die. I...I slit my wrists..."

Hermione winced. Tears were streaming down her face as she silently listened to his tale. She reached for him but he turned his back to her, flinching at her touch.

"I slit my wrists," he continued, regaining his composure. "And as I watched that blood stream over my hands...I thought of you...how could I die and leave you when I'd promised to come back...and I realized what I'd done...I started to scream, and I ran out of the tent...and someone...something grabbed me, and knocked me out...

"When I woke up, I was in Hogwarts...but we all know Hogwarts now isn't what Hogwarts was...it's desolate, crumbling...gloomy and cold. I was in what was once the Great Hall, on the steps that led up to the staff table. The ceiling's still enchanted...it seems to be the only remnant of our old safe haven...and I looked up, and it was night, cloudless, clear, just a full moon and a million stars...and I heard footsteps. I tried to sit up, but the pain in my head from where I'd been hit blinded me, paralyzed me. I looked up, and who should be standing there but Draco Malfoy himself...the same cocky smirk, dressed to the nines in his best robes..." Harry's voice turned low and bitter.

"The sight of him made the rage inside of me rise again, but I couldn't move, my head was throbbing, my vision was turning red as the blood pumped in my ears.

" 'Know why you're here, Potter?' he asked smugly. All I could do was shake my head. He grinned even wider and lunged at me. And he sunk his teeth into my neck...and I could feel it...he was sucking my blood, my life out of me...and as I felt myself dying, everything that was ever important to me flashed before me...I saw my parents, Sirius, the Weasleys, you...I saw the best and worst times of my life...and then it stopped. He dropped me back onto the step. I was weaker now than before, and I saw him grinning evilly down at me, the slight trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

" 'You're almost dead, Potter...but I don't think I'll let you die...just like they didn't let me die,' his eyes flashed as he spoke. 'Do you know what I am, Potter? Surely you do...you aren't stupid. Voldemort did this to me. He made me young and beautiful forever. I will live until the end of the world. Do you know why? Vampires are immortal aside from the sun...and Voldemort was finding a way to get around that barrier as well...before you killed my Master, he had almost found a way to make us creatures of the day as well as the night...a way to make us human and immortal...and then you killed him. And you thought it was all just going to be a bad memory, didn't you? You thought you'd run home to your little Mudblood and make little half-breed babies...that's not the way it works, Potter...you'll never see her again after I'm done with you...'

"He drank from me again...and I knew he was taking me to within an inch of my life...I don't remember much after that...only...I..." he choked up, looked like he was going to be sick.

"Harry..." Hermione shook her head, her hand to her mouth. "Tell me you didn't...you can't be..."

"I fed from him. I died, physically...my mind and soul are locked in this corpse forever..."

"That can't be...it isn't true," she sobbed.

"It is true, Hermione...I swear that it is...when I became what I am, I had to stay with Malfoy, join their coven...and they swore to me that they wouldn't harm you as long as I stayed away from you...as long as I never spoke to you again or communicated with you...and I agreed...I didn't want you to be harmed...killed. But then, a few months after it all, I realized that I was hearing you...I was hearing your thoughts. I felt your heartbreak and loss, your anger. I could hear you talking to Ginny Weasley...and it was then that I started sending you the dreams. I didn't know if it would work at first, but I assumed that if I could hear you...you may be able to hear me. At first, it was just a way to be intimate with you without putting you in danger...and soon it became an obsession...I couldn't leave you alone, even though I knew it was hurting you...you thought you were crazy..."

"Why did it sometimes feel like you wanted to hurt me, Harry," her voice was uneasy, shaking. She was terrified of the man in front of her. Terrified of the love of her life...

"Those were the times when I wanted you...I wanted your blood, your life...and I couldn't control it...I went to you and held you. And I could smell the blood in your body, the fear...and when I realized what I had done, I left you..."

"Why are you here if you swore to stay away from me..."

"I left them...the coven began to break apart. All loyalties were destroyed. And that's when I sent you the vial. It's filled with my blood...and as long as you wear it, they can't touch you. It's old, ancient magic...magic that they hadn't thought of. They were outraged that I'd been going behind their backs for so long...we fought...and finally...one night...I just left. And I ended up here. I followed you to your job, I waited outside, unsure of whether I should come in or not...I was scared to be near you...scared that I'd attack you..."

"Are you going to attack me, Harry?" She slowly inched away from him, her eyes wide with terror.

"No...I'm leaving well before the sun rises...and you'll never see me again. I'm here to say good bye to you, to tell you to move on with your life...we can never be again," he explained gently, tears falling once again.

Hermione noticed that the tears were blood, and it softened her for some reason. She slid off the couch and down to him on the floor. She rested her face in the cradle of his neck, just as she'd done so many times in the past, but he felt different than before. Harry had always been so warm and soft, smelling of cologne and shaving cream. He was now hard and cold like marble with no scent at all. His fingers tangled in her curls as she pressed even closer to him.

"Harry...I love you so much...stay with me..." she pleaded, crying into him.

"Though I love you desperately, you know I can not stay...don't make this harder than it need be..." he slowly lifted her chin with his forefinger.

His smooth hands cupped her face, and he brought his lips to hers. He kissed her deeply, passionately. Their tongues mingled and she felt his fangs gently bite her lip.

She felt him pull away from her slowly, and as if it were all another dream, she opened her eyes to find herself completely alone.