Warning: Harry Potter is not mine.

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Will You Come Back?
by: imagia-quill

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Hermione walked her way through the mass of people on the dance floor, a smile plastered to her face as she scanned the room for Barney Weasley –a distant cousin of the Weasleys whose appearance was adopted by Harry for the remaining of the wedding. Her smile grew wider, looking at the merriness and liveliness of the wedding. She found him sitting across of someone she recognized as Ron's Aunt Muriel and an old wizard she assumed to be a member of the Order.

"I simply can't dance anymore," she blurted between her breaths. She kicked one of her shoes and began rubbing the heel of her foot. "Ron's gone looking for more Butterbeers." She then remembered she wanted to tell Harry about Viktor and Luna's father. "It's a bit odd. I've just seen Viktor storming away from Luna's father, it looked like they'd been arguing– Harry, are you okay?"

She stared at her best friend, his eyes looked just as troubled as his usual green eyes were when he was in deep thoughts. She was about to ask him whether he had been seeing into Voldemort's mind again when a luminous wisp of silver smoke caught her attention from her peripheral vision. It appeared in the middle of the dance floor, and the crowd who had been dancing there stood frozen looking at the Patronus. She expected it to sound as graceful as the creature the Patronus took form, which Hermione just realized was a lynx, but instead she heard Kingsley's voice, thick with air of authority.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

She jumped to her feet as soon as she noticed the sentence was repeating itself, with Harry following suit. They are coming, the Death-Eaters must be on their way. Her eyes darted to all direction to find Ron while she magically fixed her abandoned irritating high heel on her foot; she didn't even feel the pain as she began to panic. Where was Ron, honestly?

She frantically spun her head to her left and right, trying to locate the Weasley, but she couldn't see any redhead. She couldn't see Ron, she couldn't see Ginny, she couldn't see Fred.

She chastised herself. Their journey to kill Voldemort began here, she mustn't let her distracting crush for Fred ruined it.

There was a loud feminine shriek and the crowd, who had been standing thunderstruck even after the words had been repeating for three times, began to recover their senses. Harry snatched Hermione's hand as the crowd began to scatter, every one calling for their husbands or wives or children as they weaved into each other. She grunted as a wizard bumped against her and shoved her aside rather harshly, making Hermione lose her grip on Harry's hand.

"Oh no, Harry!" she called out. She thought she heard him calling out her name back, but she couldn't locate his face in the crowd. "Harry! Ron! Ron!"

She was about to call again when she saw a curse flying in her peripheral vision and struck a small in the carpet just inches from her feet. Raising her wand out of reflex, Hermione saw a Death-Eater fighting wand-to-wand with someone she guessed as one of Fleur's distant cousin. Sparks in turquoise flew hither-tither between them as the girl fought in French style Hermione didn't really recognize.

"Stupefy!" she said and a shot of red light coming from her wand struck the Death-Eater square in his chest, sending him falling down unconscious. The French witch spun around to see Hermione, but before she could say her thanks, another Death-Eater materialized to her right and they were dueling again.

Soon Hermione found herself unable to cast verbal spells quick enough to match her opponents pace and was forced to do it non-verbally, which she found hard now that she must concentrate. The French girl was nowhere to be seen when Hermione succeeded to stun the second Death-Eater.

She spun around, calling Harry and Ron on top of her lungs, but her voice sounded small over the sound of the panicking crowd and the blasts the spells made. Have they Apparated away and left her alone?

"Ron! Harry!" she called out, her voice starting to shake. Have they been captured? She shook the thought away as she moved through the crowd, not wanting to make herself an easy immobile target. They couldn't have Harry. And if they had, Hermione swore on her life to go after him, even though it would mean her death. They would all be doomed just the same if they had Harry captured.

Hermione thought she saw two red-headed men on the far side of the tent, looking almost like Ron and Harry under the Polyjuice Potion, but when she was about to run towards them, a grown-up wizard came hurtling down from the air before her, hitting the nearby table and toppled down to the ground. Turning to her side to look what had caused it, Hermione barely registered what she saw when she, out of reflex, brought up her wand up and deflected the curse with a Shield Charm. After a few spells thrown hither-tither between the witch and the Death-Eater, Hermione finally stunned the Death-Eater.

A red-haired wizard caught her attention from her peripheral vision but the former wizard shouted at her before she could even shout 'Ron!'

"Hermione, down!"

Hermione pulled herself to the ground as a wisp of electric blue whispered dangerously before her left ear. It came bouncing off an invisible shield before the red-head. Her heart leapt with relief; it was Fred.

"Fred." She barely breathed his name when she heard her name being called. She turned her head frantically for Ron and Harry, but she could only see a sea of panicking people.

Fred helped her to her feet after he finished the Death-Eater, sending the latter lying on the ground and with his skin turned into lush green. "You're hurt, Hermione?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she babbled, still hearing the ghost of the spell brushing past her ear and trying to calm herself down. Then they asked each other their questions in the same moment.

"Have you seen George and Ginny?"

"Have you seen Ron and Harry?"

Hermione answered him first, her trembling hands traveled around her dress for her beaded bag. "No, I haven't seen them. They would be alright, especially Ginny," she said in one breath and breathed a relieved sigh as she found her beaded bag still safely secured in her secret pocket.

"Yeah, I thought so too. I haven't seen Ron or Harry either," Fred replied. His head turned to his left and right, making sure no one was aiming a spell on them. His right hand was still holding his wand tightly but Hermione was suddenly aware that his left hadn't left her left arm. A swarm of butterflies flew down her stomach but soon crumpled when her heart fell to the pit of her stomach at the sound of another feminine shriek.

"You're leaving for it now?" he asked. She looked into his eyes and nodded shakily, her heart pounding louder with fear of what would happen. There was a slight determined smile on his face, as if she was worrying about her well-written test and he was teasing her perfectionism, but Hermione could feel his grip tightened on her arm.

They were both scared.

She was about to run to search for Harry and Ron again before she planted her foot to stop her. She was about to go and find the Horcruxes, to kill Voldemort. She didn't know what would become of her, but she knew one thing. Only the three of them, and three of them whole, knew about the Horcruxes. She couldn't die before she killed Voldemort, she must not die. For Harry, for Ron, for her parents, for the Wizarding World.

For Fred.

She gave him a fierce hug.

"I will come back," she managed to say, and with one last gentle squeeze, she ran.

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A/N: Yay, chapter two is here! And huge thanks for people who reviewed, faved, and followed this story! Sorry it's not as long as the previous chapter, but I did imagine it as a flash of event in the first place. Reviews are welcome!