Till The End | h.p

godric's hollow

They apparate to Godric's Hollow the following night. They land on snowy ground and notice how empty the streets are.

"I still think we should've used Polyjuice Potion," Hermione admits.

"No. This is where I was born," Harry states, "I'm not returning as someone else."

They walk along the street until they come across a church with a cemetery.

"Do you think they'd be in there? My parents?" He asks.

"Yeah," Sam answers, "I think they would."

Harry looks at her slightly surprised, this is the first time in weeks that she's genuinely spoken to him directly. She leads them all inside the cemetery. Hermione searches in a separate are from Sam and Harry.

"Hey, Sam, Harry?" Hermione calls out, but when she turns, she sees them both standing still in front of a gravestone.

She makes her way over to them and sees that it reads, 'James Potter and Lily Potter.' Sam leans down and forms a wreath of flowers at the base of the stone before standing back up next to Harry. He grabs onto her hand.

"Merry Christmas, Sam. Merry Christmas, Hermione."

They both give a sad smile and say in unison, "Merry Christmas, Harry."

Hermione looks over by the church and turns back to them, "There's someone watching us, by the church."

Sam and Harry look over to see an ederly woman. She turns and walks away, but Harry insists on following her. She stops walking and they make their way in front of her.

"You're Bathilda, aren't you?" Harry asks.

She nods slowly in response. Sam immediately feels that something is off and she looks to Hermione, who seems to be feeling the exact same things. Sam studies the woman closely as she continues to walk down the street. They all enter a very dark and unkempt house that appears to be Bathilda's. The woman tries to light some candles, but Harry takes the box of matches from her.

"Here," he offers, "let me do that."

He lights them with ease as Sam and Hermione look around the cluttered room. Harry walks over to another candle while Bathilda stares at the girls. Sam gently holds Hermione's hand in reassurance.

"Miss Bagshot, who's this man?" Harry asks as he nods to a framed picture.

She picks up a candle, without saying a word and leads Harry up the stairs.

"Harry," Sam whispers, but he doesn't turn around to face her as he leaves her and Hermione downstairs.

"I don't like this," Hermione admits again.

"I know... let's look around. If we don't find anything soon, we'll grab Harry and leave."

They begin to look around at the old photos and books laying around the floor. Sam notices broken glass and a foul smell coming from down the hall.

"Hermione, I think there was a struggle here," Sam points to the hall.

Hermione follows her slowly and they gently push open the door, releasing a horrible odor and flies that buzz around the dark room.

"Lumos," Sam flicks her wand and points it ahead.

The first thing they notice is blood, splattered across the walls. Hermione gasps and points to the floor. When Sam lowers her wand, she finds Bathilda's body, covered in her own blood.

"Harry!" They both shout as they turn and run back down the hall.

They hear a crashing sound and run up the stairs quickly. Sam bursts through the door first and sees Voldemort's snake, Nagini, attacking Harry. He dives out of the way and Nagini turns quickly towards Sam. Hermione pushes her aside and casts a curse at the snake, causing it to fall through the floorboards and back to the ground level. Harry and Hermione reach for Sam, but she stops them, watching the floor intently.

The snake lunges back up towards Harry, but Sam lets her magic take over and a bright green light shoots out of her hands and directly at Nagini. The snake curls and writhes in the air as if it feels a great deal of pain before she hurls it out the window. Hermione grabs Sam and Harry and they apparate back into the forest.

They set up the tent quickly, as frost covers the ground and the air grows more frigid. Sam curls into a ball on her bed as the fire crackles in the front room area. She wraps herself in the flannel that used to be her dad's. She stares at the picture of her parents that sits on her side table. She feels her leftover magic still pulsing through her as she struggles to rein it in. She takes deep breaths to slow everything down and distract her. Harry enters her room quietly and sits on her bed.

"Don't tell me I shouldn't have used my magic because it's too-"

"Thank you," he interrupts.

Her brows furrow in confusion before he continues, "Do you still feel it?"

She nods slowly, still unsure of where they both stand with each other.

"Is there anything I can-?" He begins to ask before she cuts him off with a shake of her head.

He can sense how distant she is, so he lowers his gaze and begins to stand.

"Tell me," she blurts out, "Tell me what's going to happen between us now."

He turns back to meet her eyes and sits back down next to her, "What do you mean?"

She looks back over to the picture of her parents, "Things have changed between us again. I mean it always comes back to this. We're always either fighting or arguing or distant from each other... should we-" she shakes her head slightly and chuckles, "Should we just stop trying to make this work?"

A smile grows on his lips and he chuckles before lightly grabbing her hand, "Here's what's going to happen between us. We're going to keep hunting these Horcruxes until we find them all and destroy them, and we're going to fight this war. It's probably going to tear us apart over and over again, but we're going to stand by each other because we love each other, no matter what. We will most likely continue to argue and fight and there will be times where we won't be as close because there's so much pain surrounding us. But all the while, I'll be waiting for you. Even after this war is over, I will love you and I will wait until you're ready to fight for what we used to have."

She lets her head fall, "We aren't who we used to be Harry... we've both changed."

He feels at a loss and lets go of her hand, "Like I said... I'll wait."

He stands and begins to walk out of the room, but she calls out, "Will you stay?"

He turns his head around to look at her as she continues, "Just for tonight?"

He gives her a small smile and nods before climbing back into her bed. She curls into a ball once more as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her into him like he used to. They both feel that everything is different now, the difference between them is that Harry has hope that things will get better when all of this is over.

Sam, however, believes that this is it for them. She knows that the only thing in her near future is death and she wishes that the conflicts around them would bring them closer together, but in truth they've only tore them apart. It feels like their happiest times together are just a distant memory from another life. She realizes that she's been so focused on finding and destroying these Horcruxes, on winning this war, on controlling her magic, that she's lost sight of herself. She wants to be the girl who loved wholeheartedly, who was compassionate and kind, but she's changed into something so cold and hard and angry.

Who she is now, feels like a polar opposite of who she was. Everything around her feels different, even Harry. Nothing feels right anymore because she doesn't feel like herself.