“Harry, you can’t go. Not now. Not when everyone needs you here-”

“Hermione, please. Just leave it. I’m leaving, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

Those words chilled Hermione’s brain as she thought them. There is nothing you can do to stop me.

Even though Harry was the Boy Who Lived, they still had no right to take him away from his friends. And . . . Hermione’s heart melted. What would Ginny say when she found out that Harry was going on a secret mission? They had been going out for quite some time now, and to see Harry up and leave with no explanation of the mission would break her heart.

~ * ~

“Hermione, please, just stop trying to prevent him from leaving. He’s going, and that’s final. I’m sure that it would be a lot easier on him if you would not beg him to stay.” Ron stared her in the face with a disapproving look.

“But, Ginny . . . What about her? He’s just going to leave her?”

“Hermione, he has no choice. It’s not like he wants to. The Order needs him for something and there’s nothing we can do to-”

“Then why can’t we go?”

Ron stopped dead and raised an eyebrow. “Why do you want to?”

“You know that I want to, Ron . . . it’s just a matter of going. I’m not scared of Voldemort anymore.” Ron gave a small squeak, but she rolled her eyes and continued. “He’s a part of our lives; of everyone’s lives; and especially Harry’s. He has to kill him or the Wizarding World is going to crumble underneath us. It already has.”

“Hermione, look. I’m not scared of V-Vol-” he paused. “You Know Who, but there’s a matter of us not knowing what to do and getting killed. I don’t think that you understand the responsibilities of how we would be in charge of keeping the Wizarding World alive.”

“But-”

“No ‘buts’. I really don’t want to talk about this now. You’re not the only one whose friend is leaving. I don’t know whether or not he’s going to return safely, and neither does he. All we have to do is hope for the best.”

Silence followed for a few moments, and Hermione opened her mouth, but closed it again.

What Ron had said was final, and she knew it.

~ * ~

“Horcruxes? He’s going to search for a Horcrux without us?”

“For Merlin’s sake, Ron, keep it down! You know that Dumbledore wouldn’t have wanted us to let everyone know about them. It would cause havoc to the school!”

“But, Harry was supposed to go with us on the mission for the Horcruxes! Why can’t we go?”

Hermione gave him a sour look and crossed her arms. “Why do you want to?” she asked, looking at him perilously.

“Oh, Hermione, don’t give me that.” He gave her the same look and walked over to her, smiling. He put his arms around her and wrapped her in a hug.

“I love you,” he whispered softly, breathing in the fresh scent of her curly hair. She tried to stay serious, but she couldn’t help herself. She smiled and told him back, “I love you, too.”

“Good. Now, we have to find out how we can go.”

“Ron . . .”

He whipped around to look at her. “What is it?”

Hermione paused, obviously searching for the correct words. “Do you think that . . . maybe he just wants to do it by himself?”

“Hermione, of course I have. But I know that he might need more help, so-”

“Ron, we have school. If the Order won’t let us help, then we can’t. I’m sure that your mother won’t let you go anyhow-”

“There are seven Horcruxes, and only one of Harry.”

“He’s got the Order,” she told him bluntly.

“Oh, screw the Order, Hermione. You know that we should be going with him.” He gave her a serious look and continued, “We’ve been with Harry through everything. When he first came to school, when he first overcame Voldemort, when we helped in the Chamber of Secrets, when he thought Sirius Black was trying to murder him and found him, when he was at the Ministry battling V- Volde-” he paused. “You Know Who, when Snape killed Dumbledore last year . . . Hermione we’ve been with him through a lot-”

“And who’s to say, Ronald, that he doesn’t want to do this one by himself? You know how Harry feels about others getting hurt. He always thinks it’s his fault. He thought that Sirius died because of his doing. What if something happens to us on the way of the mission? He’d never be able to get over it.”

“I’m glad to see the two of you thinking about my well being,” Harry said with a smile, entering the common room with a bag full of clothes. “But I need to do this alone, like Hermione said.”

Ron lowered his eyes and looked at him intently. “But Harry-”

“Ron, I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m leaving at seven tonight already, anyway. The Order needs me. You two should know by now that I’m the only one who can defeat Voldemort.”

Ron cringed for a moment before saying, “Harry, we’re your friends. Friends are supposed to stick together.”

“I know, and that’s why you two are staying here.”

“We’re not your friends, Harry?” Hermione asked. She said in such a small and saddened voice that Harry’s heart jumped.

“Hermione, I didn’t mean-”

“I know you didn’t, but it . . . it’s not right to see you leave. I wish that we could all just go back to being eleven again and first getting our acceptance letters . . .” she trailed off. Tear sprung to her eyes and Ron walked over to her and wiped them away with his sleeve.

“Come on, Hermione. You know that I hate to see you cry,” Ron told her, wrapping her in a hug. Harry looked like he felt a bit left out of the picture.

Hermione looked behind her in the hug at Harry. She held out her arms.

“Harry,” she whispered, another tear trailing down her crimson cheek. Harry could resist it. He walked over to the two and wrapped his arms around them.

“Good luck, Harry,” Ron whispered, pulling away and clapping a hand to his shoulder.

“Yeah, Harry. You had better not get hurt out there. Merlin knows what we’ll do without you,” she said, giving him a weak smile and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Thanks. It means a lot coming from you two.” He stared at the two for a few more moments, taking in their happy picture and picked up his bag. He turned around, walked to the portrait hole to exit, and looked at them again for a minute. Hermione ran over and kissed him on the cheek and backed away slowly, letting him go, finally. Now, Harry had one final thing to do.

He had to say goodbye to Ginny.