Between Fine Lines

Twenty-nine.

A/N:  Hi guys! I'm sorry its been so long, I went through a bit of a slump but now I've got the rest of this story planned. I'll try to remember to mark it but just know from here on out, there may be scenes of blood, gore, violence etc in the upcoming chapters.

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With two more horcruxes destroyed, Hermione and Regulus made their way back up to the deserted bathroom with the broom Hermione had shrunk into her bag. Once they touched down on the floor, Regulus took a good look at Hermione again, checking the small cut on her forehead. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Regulus, I'm fine, please stop fussing," Hermione insisted, reaching up to wrap her fingers around his wrist. He gave her a small kiss, pushing a piece of hair that had fallen from her braid behind her ear. "I'm just making sure, you looked like you knocked your head pretty hard." "And I'm telling you, I'm fine. We have to go find the others and let them know we destroyed the horcruxes. Harry and Ginny poked into the bathroom at this moment, tired grins on their faces as they looked at Hermione and Regulus. "Seamus almost killed us with fiendfyre, but the diadem is destroyed," Ginny informed them and Hermione's mouth dropped open in surprise. "He did what?!" she shouted, her eyes widening with her question. "I spoke to the Dark Lord, he's pretty pissed we've now destroyed five horcruxes, just the snake left then, yeah?" Regulus questioned. Harry's face was now the one that held shock. "You spoke to him? To Tom? How?" He bombarded Regulus with rapid questions. "A piece of him came out of the cup, and it recognized me-so he probably knows now that I'm alive-" Regulus paused when there was the sound of shouting in the halls and the four of them held their wands tighter as they slipped back into the corridor. Harry, Ginny, Regulus and Hermione came around the bend, barely missing the hexes that were flying through the halls. There was a full out brawl happening before them, dozens of death eaters fighting dozens of Order members, and in the center of it was Percy, Fred and "Ron!" Hermione called out, slicing her wand through the air and watching her spell cut through a death eater that was trying to attack him from behind. Ron whipped around, throwing up a shield charm to protect Percy from what looked to be a particularly nasty dark hex. "Fucking hell, you cut that bastard in half!" Ginny exclaimed, deflecting a spell that was hurling toward her and Harry. "I've learned a few things," Hermione informed her as she summoned her birds, shooting them off in various directions. "I want to learn," Ginny insisted, sending a tripping jinx to a death eater that was coming down the stairs, watching him tumble to the bottom and split his head open, blood pooling on the stone. "Nice trick," Regulus commented, directing his wordless spells toward a few snatchers, watching them all fall lifelessly to the ground. "Fred!" Ginny screamed, "Look out!" The bombarda whizzed past the Weasley twin's ear by barely any inch, slamming into the stone pillar behind him. The spell zig zagged through the column, cracking with a ferocity, zipping up to the top of the beam and crumbling it from the inside out. "Move!" Percy shouted to his sister and friends as he tackled Ron out of the way. Harry grabbed Ginny around the waist, pulling Hermione with them as he went to move behind one of the large platforms that he swore had been holding a giant knight statue. Ginny screamed in horror as the stone began to tumble, falling right on top of where Fred had been standing. When the dust cleared, anybody from Voldemort's side who had been left was dead, the crunching sound of a wand snapping as Ron kicked a death eater's wand from under his shoe. "Fred!" Ginny cried out, looking at the pile of rubble. She pushed from Harry's grip, running toward the pile to look for her brother. "Ginny, no! Stay back! Look!" Percy held a hand out as the stones began moving and a bright blue light began to show. Crouched down, his hands over his head, aside from a few bruises that would heal eventually, Fred was alive, saved by a powerful shield charm that was still cast over him. Ron turned to look for the source of the shield, unable to hide his surprise when he saw the complex magic was coming from none other than Regulus. Once the rubble had all moved, Regulus let go of the shield charm and Fred gave a weary glance around before standing up shakily. "You saved his life," Hermione whispered softly, her hand reaching out for Regulus' arm. "Hermione!" Draco called out and Hermione whipped her head to look as Draco and Theo came running from down the hall. "It can't be..." Severus Snape had followed the two young boys, strong disillusion charms cast on him as the two Slytherins led him right back to something he did not think was true. "Severus..." Regulus looked at his former best friend. "You're old." "I'm old?" Severus questioned, contempt in his voice. "You're alive. How?" he proceeded, still in disbelief. Regulus shrugged, because he was truly still unaware of the full circumstances that surrounded his entrapment in time. "Kreacher," he answered simply. "Are the ghosts of memories past haunting you yet, Snape?" Theo questioned. "Or...do we need a few more moments?" Draco rolled his eyes, observing at the way Harry watched the younger Black brother and their professor visually circle each other, as if trying to determine if the other was real. There was a thunderous boom and the double doors from the Great Hall burst open, black smoke filling the area as Voldemort himself touched down on the destroyed stone of the hallway. Nagini slithered with purpose beside him, a murderous glint in her eye. "Potter, run," Snape barely got out before spells were descending down upon them from the elder wand that was tightly grasped in The Dark Lord's hand. "We have to kill the snake!" Harry called out to his friends from where Ginny had dragged them to safety, hoping they could hear him over the explosions of brick and stone that came from the duel between Tom Riddle and Severus Snape. "After everything I've done!" Tom called out, red spells firing from his wand in rapid precision. "After all I've built! Traitors amongst my followers! Some of my most loyal men, teaming up to destroy everything we have worked towards!" Hermione and Regulus found themselves crouching behind the stairs, Hermione's eyes wildy darting around for the large serpent that needed to be slaughtered in order for Voldemort to be defeated once and for all. "Your time has ended, Dark Lord!" Severus called out, just as quick and precise in his wand work as Voldemort, a small line of sweat began to form across his forehead as he fought to block every spell and hex that came his way. "My rule has just begun, Severus!" His voice was filled with glee, effortlessly pouring spell after spell out against Snape. "But this wand, it is not perfect for me yet- it was not forfeited to me properly!" Down the hall, Draco could feel the color drain from his skin as he watched Nagini slide past where he and Theo had disillusioned themselves behind a tapestry. Dumbledore was the previous owner of the Elder Wand and Snape had killed him-so was Snape the true possessor of the elder wand? "Willingly, I gave that wand up to you. Mistakenly so, but it was done!" Snape deflected another curse, watching it spiral into the wall with a deafening crack. "Albus Dumbledore was the owner of this wand, and now he is dead..." Voldemort gave a wicked grin, his rotting teeth showing to Snape. "So I'm sure, Severus, that you know exactly where I'm going with this." "Incendio!" Ron called out as he got sight of the snake making her way back to Voldemort. "Incendio!" Ginny echoed from somewhere behind him. "Incendio!" Hermione called out, her fire hurtling toward the snake. Nagini hissed in pain as the flames smacked against her scales and Voldemort whipped his head around, realizing that he was far outnumbered and he could not lose his last horcrux. He quickly put out the flames, reaching for his snake and disappearing, but not before he sent one last devastating hex in the direction of Severus Snape. The smoke cleared and the moment that Voldemort and Nagini had disappeared, Harry's head whipped toward where Severus had been thrown into a wall, blood pouring from his throat. "Snape!" Regulus called out and he, Harry and Hermione rushed over to the older man, who was grabbing at his throat and gasping for air. Regulus immediately kneeled down, muttering incantations to get the bleeding to stop, or even slow. Harry kneeled down in front of Snape and the older man reached out for him. "You tried to save me... why?" Harry questioned as Snape's bloody hand gripped his arm. "Take..." he paused, struggling to speak with blood pouring from his wound." Take... my... memory..." he paused again, a small choking noise from the back of his throat came forward as a tear began to form under his eye. "You... have... to see..." "Accio vial," Hermione muttered, pulling an empty vial from her purse and handing it to Harry. He collected the tears, putting the stopper in the bottle. "Dumbledore had a pensieve in his office. I can use that," Harry looked at Hermione. "We'll go with you, we know the password!" Theo offered, barely holding Draco up as the blonde couldn't look away from his dying godfather. "We'll be fine," Regulus insisted, not looking away from his wand work. "Just go." Harry shakily stood up as Snape let go of his arm, looking to Draco and Theo and then back to Regulus. "Are you sure?" "Harry, go! Take Ron and Draco and Theo and go!" Hermione insisted, tears in her eyes as she looked away from him to Snape and Regulus. Harry chanced her one more glance before looking toward the others, giving them a nod as they headed back toward Dumbledore's office.