The Stars Tonight // H.Granger x Male OC

DH // 47 - Returned

"Hermione's right. He loved me, Dumbledore." Harry opened up to him. "He was friends with him at first that is why he was also dragged into that belief, but if there's anyone who knows him, it's me."

"He wouldn't have helped us defeat You-Know-Who if not for him, Harry. You must always think about it." Altair said to him. "I was also, stunned by the idea but I realized that in the end, he still chose to do good. That's what makes him better."

"You're right." He agreed to him.

They both stayed like that for hours, keeping watch. Hermione was inside the illuminated tent, slumbering in their bed. Altair then saw Harry look somewhere far from their place.

"Harry?" He asked him and looked back, and also saw that faint light from the dark side of the forest.

"You saw that?" Harry said to him.

Something seems to glimmer faintly, but so briefly as to seem a trick of the eye. The air is cold, gives texture to the darkness, and makes it a living thing.

"Yeah... What's that?" The young Black squinted his eyes as well.

And then it is there again, the light, looking pure and bright and silver and moving through the trees toward them.

"Here." Harry removed the locket and gave it to Altair. "Wear this, I'll just follow it."

Altair took the locket from him and wore it. "Wait, you're following it?"

"Yes. We need to know what it is." He told him but the young Black also stood up.

"I'm coming with you." He said to him. As much as he hated leaving Hermione all alone here for a while, it's also what she would say to him.

"Fine," Harry said. "Let's go."

Gripping Hermione's wand, Harry watches the light drift closer, then shatter throughout the trees, momentarily blinding. And then it appears...

A silver-white doe, moon-bright and dazzling. It gazes at Harry and Altair as he stands, transfixed. And then the doe turns away. His voice cracks...

"No..." Harry muttered.

"It's a Patronus," Altair said to him.

Frost crunches beneath Harry and Altair's feet as they dash through the trees in pursuit of the silent doe up ahead, breath streaming from their lungs. She leads them deep into the forest until, finally, she stops, as do the two of them. As they watch, she turns her beautiful head toward him... and vanishes.

For a moment, a ghost image of her, like a retina burn, hangs in the air, and then they were plunged into darkness.

"Lumos!" Harry cast Hermione's wand.

Altair quickly paints the clearing with light and something gleams, it is a small frozen pool. He crosses to it, and looks down. He sees their own image reflected dully and then, deeper, within, a silver cross. He looks closer.