After Harry and Hermione had a wonderful and fulfilling dinner, they decided to do some shopping, while they felt safe. When they were done they headed back to the tent. They put everything away, both had a shower before they sat on the two beds in the bedroom. They were facing each other, even though they now slept together. This time they were going to talk, sex might come later but they needed to figure out what had been going on and what could still be going on when it came to their personal lives.
Hermione began with their first year, but she also spoke about how Harry met the Weasley's. Then it was the second and third year. Harry finally understood why Hermione felt he had been manipulated. He also realised that the old man must have sensed Hermione might become a problem if she became close to Harry. There fourth year is when Harry realised that Albus Dumbledore had played him. They both ended up mentioning things from fifth year that had both of them furious, but also saddened that it had cost Sirius his life. The sixth year was the one Harry started to explain, especially how he was told about the prophecy yet he wasn't given any type of training to help him fulfil the prophecy. He had no real fighting skills, just a lot of luck but he also was left without the information on how to destroy horcruxes, let alone when to find them.
'So it was all planned, but to what end? Dumbledore died, so he's out of the picture, and I could easily be killed. I know all of us could die, Hermione, but snake face has told everyone he wants me dead. So if there were love potions then Ginny would be out of luck. If I lost then I wouldn't be popular enough to have people want me as minister, not that I want it. After the way I've been treated by them, I am staying right away from the ministry from now on.'
'I don't know, none of it connects or makes any sense. The prophecy is what makes me believe it is either not real or already been fulfilled. You did vanquish him that night so it could be fulfilled. If that is the case then why did Dumbledore tell you that you still need to face him? There has to be something we're not seeing or we haven't figured out. I just don't know what. But maybe we should do more ourselves. One is we train so we have the best chance at surviving. But also we might have to learn some dark arts. We don't have to like using it, but they will use it all the time. We have to know how to fight them and fight the dark arts. We need to study the dark arts if we are to understand it. Let's take a quick trip to Grimmauld place and take some of those dark arts books. If we know how those spells work then we could fight them better. We're not killers Harry but we can't keep stunning them just for another to revive them and have them at our backs again.'
'I'm with you there. We stunned every death eater in the department of mysteries yet they kept coming after us. I believe it's time to make sure they are out of the fight. We won't kill them unless it's an accident or we have no choice. But one thing Hermione, no one will know what we do or what we might do. This stays between us or we could end up in Azkaban, or worse. They already tried to expel me for something we're allowed, use magic to save our lives, and the muggles were the Dursley's, who knew about the wizarding world. Then we know how those pureblood bastards think of you, they wouldn't hesitate, just throw you in Azkaban or give you to a dementor.'
'This is about us and our lives so no one will be finding out anything we don't want them to know. So it looks like we go for more hurtful or dangerous curses.'
'Yes, if we're going to survive, we have no choice.'
Harry and Hermione held hand then Harry took them to the top step of Grimmauld place. They knew the death eaters could get in, but they hadn't been near the place in months. They just hoped they haven't left anyone behind, in case Harry turned up. They also hoped they weren't monitoring the house in case anyone turned up.
Hermione was able to create another bag with an undetectable expansion charm and a feather light charm, but this bag was a lot bigger than her little beaded bag. They cast charms over the books to make sure they were safe enough to touch. Hermione believed Harry would have no trouble handling any of the books since he now owned Grimmauld place. But Harry nor Hermione wanted to take the chance they could end up cursed.
It took hours, but they were able to take half of the books in the Black library. They knew they could return, if they didn't find anything useful in the books they did take. They didn't believe they would need any more dark arts books, but they weren't ruling it out.
After dinner that first night they began to read, and they began to use dark spells, ones that would seriously injure their enemy. Both of them had conjured mannequins to aim at which would show them if they hit the target. Some of the spells made them unsure if they could ever them, it made them physically sick just reading, but they were not going to rule any spells out, not if it helps save their lives.
Over the next couple of weeks, Harry and Hermione studied spells then practiced. After using the mannequins, which helped them aim better, they had conjured rats to get used to seeing what some of the spells could do to an actually living, breathing thing. Having the rats explode or cut to bits made them throw up at first, but they realised that if they could just get used to using the spells and seeing the outcome, then it could just give them a chance to survive. After a week they weren't getting sick anymore, but they still felt a bit queasy.
During this time they always kept the radio on, but low. If they heard anything they needed then they would sit right near it, otherwise they would listen without paying too much attention. They got a surprise when they heard Fred and George's voice, yet they were calling themselves other names. They also recognised Lee Jordan and Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice. One voice surprised Harry, Remus Lupin, but it's also what he said that made Harry finally forgive Moony. Lee went on to explain about a rumour they heard, yet they weren't sure it was true or not. It seems daddy death eater may have put a jinx on the name, starting with V, in the hope to catch Harry Potter or anyone from the order of the phoenix. Harry and Hermione realised that if that was true then they had been lucky. Because of Ron, Harry, nor Hermione had been saying Voldemort. Ron kept getting angry or upset, so they began saying you-know-who, or snake face. Now they knew that avoiding the name might have just saved their lives. They both decided to say Tom, since it was his real name.
Hermione jumped up after reading one of the last dark arts books they had yet to look at.
'Hermione,' Harry hurried over to his girlfriend, 'what is it?'
'Um, I think I found a way that could help.'
'Okay, if it will help then why do you look like you've seen a ghost.'
Hermione put her hand on Harry's arm then pointed to the page she was reading. Harry instantly bent over and began reading.
'Fucking hell,' Harry yelled.
'I know, now we have to decide if it's worth it. We've talked about what might help, but also how to stop him and his followers. Nothing we've come up with will work.'
Harry straightened, 'If we remain here, we're dead, but we will be tortured first. We know he has Greyback, and Remus told us what the werewolf is like. He would take you, use you before he either kills you or turns you. The death eaters know not to kill me, but they know they can torture me. If they figure out you mean more to me that just a friend, they will torture you in the hope it will break me. They could even…um, you know,' Harry shrugged. Hermione instantly understood what Harry was trying to say. If they got hold of Hermione, they would rape her before killing her.
'As you said, none of our ideas will work. We talked about leaving the country, but we also know it would only delay our deaths. We need to stop them, yet right now, here, we can't do a thing. If we decide to use this potion then we may be able to change things early enough to stop people dying. Also, we could just prevent a war. Right now we don't have any chance, just try to keep hiding and hope we survive. That's not really living and this could be it, this could be our live, for good. I won't say yes or no, I think we could take our time, discuss this idea and everything that is involved.'
'So we talk and think about all the positives and negatives.'
'Yes, but we make a list of all the positives and negatives. Once we see the results of that it will help us decide.'
It only took Harry and Hermione a week to decide to use the dark potion. They knew they had nothing to lose, not really, but if it worked then they had everything to gain.
Harry and Hermione knew using this dark potion was a risk but they both believed it was worth it. They would keep their knowledge of what has happened, it would be easy enough to change things but also help save lives. They just knew they had to be careful how they changed things so it wouldn't affect what they knew. If they changed too much it could mean all their memories would be useless.