{20-The Things We Do}

Hermione started with the harder task first. 

She had decided that the locket was going to be her first retrieval, and luckily enough for her, she'd trained well on Voldemort's idiotic enchantments before entering. The inferi and that damnable poison would not best her, they never would. Of course, things always did tend to go wrong whenever she had a plan. 

Her blood did not work when she attempted to give up her sacrifice to the entrance. Apparently, something Dumbledore had failed to mention was that not only did muggle-born blood fail to appease the stone, no animal blood would either, of course such a thing would be too easy. 

So... she did exactly what she promised not to do which was obtain help from her friends. 

Severus was reluctant to give up his blood unawares of why in Merlin's name she may need it, but asked no questions, only complained a lot that he wanted to help more. She told him that he was helping more than enough by giving her his small donation. 

With reluctance, he let her go, watching as she disapperated to her destination. 

Hermione did as needed in the cave and went on with her journey. 

Second on her list was the diary. She knew the Malfoy's had to have it in their home, they were entrusted to safe-guard it until the right time, but getting into Malfoy Manor was a lot harder than probably even Gringotts. 

The horcrux within Nagini did not yet exist, and neither did the one in Harry. She was grateful she did not need to kill living things, the idea of it blackened her soul, but Voldemort would be different. He'd be justice. If she was the one to even kill him. 

An idea had raged in her mind as she camped on the outskirts of the Malfoy property, careful not to set off any of their wards or alert the influx of Death Eaters that seemed to visit as time went by. When all was said and done over the horcruxes, she would alert the Order about what she'd accomplished and allow them to handle Voldemort... then maybe she would actually go away for a while and rest. Already having one horcrux was a burden on her mental stability, she couldn't imagine what it would be like when there were five in her possession. 

Because while she had worked out a few kinks, there were many more in her way. Like, how on Earth she was going to get into Gringotts this time, or where Gaunt's ring was, or how in bloody hell she was going to destroy them all once she had a hold of them. It was a big task that she'd taken on, but she wasn't going to let anyone help her lest they get hurt and ruin the future she was building for them. 

It was hard to watch so many people go by and yet see so little. When wizards and witches exited the wards, they were visible, but whatever they did within was not to be seen, and this killed Hermione's curiosity. She wished very much to be apart of something again, but the time came soon for that. 

Eventually, Hermione stopped being daft and realized something that could help her with her cause. And once again she broke the promise she'd made. 

It was very late in the night when she levitated James from his bed into his own sitting room. 

When he awoke, he wasn't entirely pleased with the silencing charm that was on him. 

"If you promise not to scream, I will tell you why I'm here." 

James looked slightly annoyed, but nodded anyways. 

"What in bloody hell are you doing?" He whisper-yelled, which Hermione supposed was good enough, "I haven't seen you in months..."

"Yeah, I know, I will explain it when everything is said and done, and I know it probably feels like I'm doing nothing what with what the radio says, but I need you to listen." 

"Surely," he replied, though not too confidently seeing as he had been removed forcibly from his warm bed and loving wife. 

"Congrats, by the way, to you and Lily. I wish I could have been there, but... that's not why I'm here. I need to use your invisibility cloak." 

"I never told you I had that."

James seemed to forget she was from the future. 

"Your son inherited it on his first Christmas at Hogwarts, but I can't really give you a life story right now, I need it! It's pertinent that you let me use it for just a small amount of time." 

He looked at her warily, "You know the order could still help you, Hermione... instead of doing it on your own... whatever it is you're actually doing." 

She laughed, however hollow it may have felt. 

He mumbled something about not having his wand and having to walk up the stairs to retrieve the cloak, coming back down and still mumbling about the same thing as he handed the folded material over. Lily must have had it last, she imagined. 

The next day she had the diary in hand. 

It was a terrifying object, really, because she'd never interacted with it before in her life. Ginny had been the one to fully possess the book, and Harry had merely shoved a basilisk fang into it's leather. 

The basilisk would not be her problem, if she did her job correctly, she would merely tell Dumbledore and let him sort it out. Of course with no parselmouth around, that could be a very hard thing to accomplish.

 Speaking of telling Dumbledore, Hermione made an excuse to go see the old coot, who funnily enough, hadn't bothered her in quite some time. Maybe his suspicion wore off after she'd stormed off on him. 

Seeing the manipulative but great wizard was not an entirely thrilling experience. In truth, she wanted very much to pass go and collect her two-hundred dollars without a hitch, but he gave her many problems for being on school grounds. DeLancey, on the other hand, was extremely helpful. He seemed to come into the office just as Dumbledore was beginning to pry with weird or odd questions that seemed too out of place not to have real meaning. 

Professor DeLancey feigned some important discussion he wanted to have alone with the Headmaster, for some reason understanding that she was there with a purpose and excused her for a couple of minutes, stressing this small fact. 

Hermione ran to the room of requirement. 

The diadem had not moved, as though it had been sitting there for thousands upon thousands of years, and yet she had no remorse removing it from its place a lot earlier than the last time she'd seen it done. 

Halloween came and went, and she dreaded the idea that she was but a few months closer to running out of time. 

The holidays passed, and with a resounding echo of shame, Hermione spent it where she'd spent her first Christmas alone. Sitting in a graveyard in Godric's Hollow was probably not the best idea she'd ever had, but looking at the symbol on the Peverell grave gave her comfort. 

Luckily enough, there were no other names she recognized within the graveyard, and the plot where James and Lily had laid was empty as it should be. 

The thaw came and warmed her like she'd never imagined. Briefly, Hermione made a stop that bit at her heart more fiercely than she thought something like that could have. Shell cottage, with the eldest Weasley's trapezing around, was full of wonderful noises and smells, or at least, something that always mingled with the constant rush of sea water. She stayed far enough away not to be noticed, but how sweet it must have been to be those boys so young and careless... Hermione never thought she'd see Percy look so innocent. 

Summer finally gave her an idea of how she was going to get to the cup in the Gringotts vault, but it brought her no closer to the location of the ring. The fifth horcrux of course would be a pain in her arse, why wouldn't it be? Although she wasn't complaining that there were only five to destroy, she certainly was not happy that she couldn't find one of them and had no idea how to get rid of any of them. 

Again, one of her friends were very happy to help her.

"You know, Hermione, we finally joined up with the Order. They're all extremely talented witches and wizards, and we've taken up battling the Death Eaters, I don't understand why you won't let us help."

She looked at an unnaturally delighted Sirius with an award-winning glare, having perfected it with Ron, Sirius was not much harder to sustain. 

"I've told you, Dumbledore is... not what I need to keep going with this project, and my time is running out. Can you get me into the vault or not?" 

He sighed, holding up a hair of his father's, and it was merely luck that they had identical wands. This was, of course, where Hermione got the great idea to open up the Black Vaults where the cup resided. 

"I can get you anywhere, Hermione. How dare you doubt my acting skills."

They escaped almost like they had before, but Sirius had the time of his life doing it. She'd been smart enough to bring a broom, and the story of a Black vault being robbed did not take long to get out. 

Hermione feared she made things quite terrible for herself when she returned to her small corner of the world in her tent surrounded by charms while she left everyone else to deal with it. The order was mollifying the flare of attacks that came when Voldemort found his cup missing, too many years too soon, and yet she was cozied by a fire, doing research and crossing off random places on her list she felt that Dumbledore could have found the ring. 

In fact, at least nine months had to have passed by because when everyone was celebrating their twentieth birthdays, they also welcomed a new member to the Potter family come the July two years after they all graduated. 

Hermione had no idea how she'd let two years pass by so quickly, and yet also so slowly all at once. She had all the horcruxes bar the ring, but she was no closer to destroying them than she was before. Her previous research concluded that they needed to destroy the vessel beyond repair, but there were few things that could do that. 

The sword was useless as it did not possess the basilisk venom, the basilisk itself was still living, so unless Hermione went down there and fed the damned snake some horcruxes, she doubted that was an option. Fiendfyre had done it, but controlling it was... she was powerful, that was true, but she was not powerful enough to control such a deadly spell. Was it worth the risk to save everyone's lives... possibly. It was rumored a few magical creatures could kill them, but the magical creature expert hated her six ways to Sunday, so she need not ask that particular Marauder for help. 

All her efforts would be for nothing, however, if she didn't find Gaunt's ring. 

The last place she thought it would be ended up being the exact place she found it, and a part of her was extremely proud to have discovered knowledge even Harry didn't know. 

In the torn down ruins of the Gaunt family home, Hermione found the ring, stuffed in the rubble as though it had been carelessly lost and forgotten. One of the horcruxes Voldemort seemed rather keen on forgetting, she imagined. Having no outer form of protection, Hermione understood why the thing itself was so guarded. The curse that was on it proved fatal for Dumbledore until Severus put him out of his misery, and yet there she was... saving them all. 

Still, the thing skived her out, and she was reluctant to touch it without several thick cloths wrapped around it. 

She was glad to have found this one without the help of any of her friends. 

Asking Remus for help was still out of the question, and even though she'd been gone for two years, her heart ached at the pain she'd caused him... and Severus. 

August... she sat on the beach, her disguise still on, and her feet pushed into the sand. She wouldn't call it free time, but Hermione figured if she was going to sit around and think, maybe she could get a nice view out of it. 

The whole area was extremely warm, and since warmth was something she lacked in her life, it was nice to be there under the blazing sun, taking in the beams on her skin. 

How pale she must be from two years in the darkness. 

It was in that spot that she had probably the best idea that she'd had yet, and somehow it was also the worst. 

She needed all of her friends for this, because while Hermione alone could not control a fiendfyre, the six of them together had very high chances of doing so. The idea was a long-shot, but they were all so powerful, Lily and James especially, that she prayed to whatever god that was listening that it could turn out. Hermione merely needed Remus to turn up. 

She knew so little about her friends and their lives that she almost dreaded returning. Of course, Hermione's excitement poured over the anxiety, and in the heat of August, she found herself on the Potter doorstep, hoping for the best. 

A/N

I was so excited to write this chapter that I practically threw it up onto the screen. Super pleased. Hope you are too! 

PS: I looked up a trillion things to make this as accurate as possible, but obviously I can't research every detail, so hopefully this suffices! But like, seriously, I spent more time searching things up than I did actually writing, I think.