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Chapter Text

It was a typically cold winter day, and as Harry walked back into the tent from his shift ensuring that the wards held, a particularly strong gust of wind blew the falling snow against his back, pushing him along slightly. Shivering, he finally stepped inside, wrapping his coat around himself tighter.

Once he was fully inside, he saw Hermione looking disapprovingly up at him. “I’ve taught you the spell to keep warm, why don’t you use it?”

Harry mumbled that he had forgotten about it, as he pulled off his coat, and slumped down into the spare armchair, exhaling. Hermione was sitting in the other one, with a stack of books on the table beside it. “What are you reading?” He enquired, leaning over for a glance.

“Everything I brought with me,” Hermione sighed, “Anything that could help us find the Horcruxes, or at least get closer to finding them.”

“Why don’t I help?” Harry offered, hoping to show Hermione, who had been rather down ever since Ron had left during that fateful day with the locket, that he could alleviate some of her self-imposed burden.

Hermione looked up at him briefly, and grabbing a book at random, and eyeing it, passed it to him. “How about this one? I’m not sure what it is, but it would definitely help if you read over it. It’s one of the ones I took from Dumbledore’s office.”

Harry took the book and glanced at the cover. It was a worn hardback, yet its title, ‘The Collected Proceedings of the Pan-European Symposium on Magical Properties, 1946’, subtitled ‘Delivered at the University of Aberdeen’, was still clearly visible; Harry assumed it was enchanted. He opened the book and began reading.

It was nearly a hundred pages, and two hours later, before he found something interesting, after slogging through various lectures about magical phenomenon that he found both dull, and useless in practical terms, he came across the next chapter, titled “An Analysis of Magical Geolocation, Based on Soul Fingerprinting”, but it was the author (or speaker, as Harry reminded himself, this was a series of transcribed lectures), Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

“Hermione, look, this chapter is by Dumbledore!” Harry called out to her, prompting Hermione to set her book down and scrambled up to lean over his armchair.

“What about him?” she pressed, to which Harry tilted the book in her direction so she could see.

“A lecture, of course. He did quite a lot of those back before he became headmaster. But this one... it seems really interesting. Magical Geolocation? Fingerprinting? Harry... that could help us find the Horcruxes!” Hermione exclaimed, her brown eyes lighting up with genuine excitement. “Come on, let’s read it together.”

Harry nodded, and started to shuffle over in the chair, making room for Hermione to sit beside him. She shook her head, smiling, and flicked her wand, stretching the chair out into a small sofa. “Much better,” she said, but still sitting down right next to him, and Harry suppressed a grin at her enthusiasm, and a warmth at the closeness of her presence.

They began reading, and Harry found the language rather difficult to follow, the language was dense, and he didn’t understand many of the words; Hermione on the other hand was reading as quickly as always, and Harry found himself struggling to keep up.

It took Hermione just half an hour to finish the whole chapter, and she smiled wider than she had in weeks. “Harry, this is amazing! Dumbledore talks about how magical geolocation can be used to track any person via their soul, and how all you need in order to track it is to access a person’s soul to locate their magical signature. He says it’s really obscure, and not many people know about it, so it’s highly likely that You-Know-Who didn’t know and forgot to set up protections against it!”

Harry nodded, Hermione’s infectious enthusiasm was hard to resist, and he found himself getting excited too. “We have the locket, we could get the signature from that... but how do we do this?” he asked, looking at Hermione. “You know the theory now, but how do we actually use it? I didn’t see the spell named in the lecture.”

Hermione’s face fell slightly, but she looked at him determinedly, “Well, Dumbledore delivered the lecture at the University of Aberdeen, so surely someone there knows how to do it. All we have to do is go there and ask around, and someone will surely know. Maybe he even planned for us to find this, maybe this was his secret to help us find the Horcruxes!”

Harry turned fully to face her, staring at her, slightly dumbfounded, “But isn’t that a muggle university? We can’t just show up and start asking about magic!”

Hermione shook her head, “You are right, it is a muggle university, but there is a secret magical department there, which is nearly as old as the university itself. It’s one of only a few such departments in the UK, and they do quite a bit of research into deeper magical theory, and teaches students who want to continue their studies after school. I wanted to go there after Hogwarts, surely you remember me talking about it?”

“I must have forgotten,” Harry admitted, “But if you are sure, then we can go. But where will we apparate so that we aren’t detected?”

“There is a wooded area nearby, we can apparate there, and then walk. No one will be suspicious, we’ll look just like a couple of students walking to the university,” Hermione said, her eyes shining with determination.

Hermione’s choice of words could have made Harry blush, but the potentially groundbreaking implications of the lecture kept him focused. “Tomorrow then? It’s getting late right now, the university is probably closed.”

Hermione nodded, “Of course. We’ll leave at around eight, that will give me time to prepare everything, and we should arrive before there are students everywhere.”

Dinner was a quiet and quick affair, as Hermione insisted they both retire to bed early, so that they were well rested for tomorrow’s journey. Luckily, despite Harry’s excitement, he managed to fall asleep quickly, much quicker than usual in such situations, but he wasn’t complaining.

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“Sleep well, Harry?” Hermione’s voice woke him up early in the morning, sounding brighter than it had in weeks, and he opened his tired eyes to see her standing over him, already dressed, holding a tray, “Here’s your breakfast, I still have some stuff to prepare for our trip.”

No sooner had Harry taken the tray from her than she had rushed away, grabbing her bag, and evidently packing various items. “Oh, and Harry, make sure that you don’t look too suspicious.”

Harry finished his breakfast, and cast a cleaning spell on himself, a substitute for a shower that he found was more effective, and, as with most other practical spells he knew, had been taught to him by Hermione. He grabbed some clothes that were the least worn out, and got dressed, before heading out into the main room, brushing his fringe down over his scar, where Hermione was waiting by the tent entrance, wrapped in a warm coat. “You look good, very inconspicuous,” she said, smiling at him. “Ready to go?”

“Let me just grab my coat,” Harry said. “If it’s cold here, imagine how cold it is in Scotland.”

Hermione pointed behind him, where Harry found she had already got his coat, hanging on the back of the chair. “Obviously, I already thought of that,” she said with a grin.

Harry pulled his coat on, and slipped his wand into its pocket as Hermione pulled her bag over her shoulder. “Ready?” she asked, to which Harry nodded.

They stepped outside, and Harry felt the cold air hit him, the wind lighter than yesterday, but as it was the morning, it was colder. They walked just outside the protections of the tent, the snow crunching underfoot, and Hermione turned to him. “Hold on tight,” she said, grabbing his arm firmly.

Harry concentrated, and he felt the now familiar feeling of being pulled through a tunnel, the world spinning around them, and he concentrated on keeping hold of Hermione’s hand. The moment passed, and they landed in a wooded area, there was less snow here, but it still gave a little crunch as they landed, and there was also the quiet crack from their apparation, which Harry was sure couldn’t be heard.

“So this is Aberdeen?” Harry asked, looking at the trees in front of him, without any building in sight, and no people, except a man walking a dog far in the distance, who hadn’t noticed them.

“Turn around,” Hermione replied, and Harry did, seeing a cathedral, its twin spires clearly visible through the trees. “That’s St. Machar’s Cathedral, the university is just less than half a mile beyond it.”

Harry nodded, and looked down, noticing they were still holding hands. Hermione noticed too, and they both quickly let go, both their cheeks reddening slightly, although it was surely just the cold, Harry rationalised.

The walk to the cathedral was uphill, but mercifully short, and they quickly arrived at its gates.

“This is The Chanonry, it is an ancient street that leads straight towards the university.” Hermione explained, as they walked through the gates, and past the cathedral, where it quickly turned into a cobbled road, with a wall on the left side, and several large granite houses on the right.

They soon arrived at a bigger road, and Harry pressed the button at the pedestrian crossing, and they both patiently waited for the light to turn green so they could cross, watching the cars quickly passing by.

Luckily, it didn’t take too long, and they crossed, walking onto the ‘High Street’, another cobbled street, this one wider, and lined with buildings on both sides, in particular a large house in the middle of the road, which a sign named as the ‘Town House’, in front of which stood a stone structure, which Hermione explained to him, “that’s the market cross, all Scottish towns have one, or used to have one.” It was still rather early, but there were already some students, also walking towards the university.

Harry and Hermione mirrored their actions, and walked as discreetly as they could, looking around at the historic buildings that lined both sides of the road, and occasionally catching the glance of a student, who never seemed to be surprised or bothered by their presence.

“You don’t think we might be overthinking this?” Harry commented, reflexively brushing his hair down over his forehead to keep his scar hidden, “I mean, we are just like them really, nothing about us stands out.”

“You’re probably right,” Hermione admitted, “But only because of my dedication to careful planning beforehand,” she added with a grin, “So not all of my efforts were completely in vain. And anyway, we aren’t really trying to hide from the students, but from any wizard, especially Death Eater, that might be investigating this area.”

A minute later, having walked further along the street, they saw to the left side of the street, the buildings gave way to a large lawn, bounded on all sides with collegiate-style buildings, including a chapel with an intricate crown tower in front of them, and an ivy-covered building just behind them. “This is King’s College,” Hermione explained, in a slightly lowered voice, looking ahead, “Now, we just have to find where the you-know-what department is.”

“But how are we going to find it?” Harry asked, looking around with interest at their surroundings. “It’s not like they are going to put up a big sign for it, considering this place is full of muggles.”

Hermione shrugged, “We’ll just walk around and look for it I guess, it’s bound to be here somewhere.”

They made their way through a gate and onto a cobbled path alongside the lawn, which Hermione informed him through a curt whisper was called ‘King’s Lawn’. Harry was beginning to suspect that it was more well hidden than they had expected, yet, as they walked through down the path in the middle of King’s Lawn, they saw a new building emerge into view, in a gothic style in keeping with its surroundings, yet it was clearly not visible to any of the muggle students, as they all just walked past it, their eyes jumping over it as if they couldn’t even perceive the area it occupied.

“There,” Harry pointed subtly, his voice low, finding Hermione was already looking at it, “That must be it.”

“Yes, let’s go,” Hermione said, and they started walked towards the building, as naturally as they could. Fortunately, no-one seemed to notice or care for their presence.

The building was four stories in height, and in a relatively compact frame, clearly they needed to minimise the footprint of land they were hiding from the muggles, likely for practical reasons. The windows were large, and several on the upper floors jutted out slightly, while the top of the building featured many intricate details. Above the door was an alcoves, occupied by a statue of a wizard, holding a shield bearing a coat of arms in one hand, and a wand in the other. As they approached, Harry observed the door, which looked like it had been unchanged for centuries. Just above the door, a worn and ancient-looking wooden plaque read ‘Universitas Aberdonensis’, and under that ‘Departmentum Magiæ’, Harry assumed this was Latin. They arrived at the door, and Harry gingerly took the handle, and turned it, the door creaking open to reveal a modest entrance hall, built entirely of the same stone the outside of the building was, with narrow corridors leading off to the left and right, and a staircase going up at the front.

They stepped in, and Harry noted the atmosphere was not unlike that of some of the quieter sections of Hogwarts, and a slight feeling of nostalgia washed over him, but he brushed it away. Suddenly he heard the door of the building swing shut behind them, and turned quickly, trying the handle, but it wouldn’t budge an inch; it was locked.

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“Harry Potter,” a voice echoed from the stairs, “and Hermione Granger, I presume?”

Harry and Hermione turned back to see a rather short man of noticeably advancing age, wearing a rather pompous looking burgundy three-piece suit with a cravat, and robes, slowly coming down the stairs, his shoes, also burgundy, tapping on the stone stairs, each step resonated slightly across the hall. He was clean-shaven, and his grey hair was noticeably thinning, and while the expression on his wrinkled face was unreadable, there was a slight twinkle in his grey eyes.

“Dumbledore told me that you would come here this year, but I honestly expected you to come earlier, I was told by him to expect three… but never mind,” he explained, “You are going to have to be rather quick, the university has already been visited by the Ministry of Magic several times since August, and they were looking for any ‘dissident activity’, and you specifically they call their top priority. I am Regius Professor of Magical Studies, Hamish Aurelius Olphæus.” He introduced himself, stopping as he reached the bottom of the stairs, looking at them expectantly.

“I’m Harry Potter, and this is Hermione Granger,” Harry said, stepping forward, stretching out his hand politely, “But you already knew that.”

“Of course I did, it is my business to know,” Professor Olphæus replied, shaking Harry’s hand lightly, “So, tell me, how did you find out about the lecture on magical geolocation?”

Hermione also took a step forward, so she was again standing beside Harry, and answered, “We found it in a book called ‘The Collected Proceedings of the Pan-European Symposium on Magical Properties, 1946’, which was delivered at this university, so we assumed that someone here could tell us about it.”

“Ahh, the Pan-European Symposiums... those were good times, I remember, my predecessor, Leonidas Valerius, was chair at the time, he presided over the symposium held here... I listened with great interest what Dumbledore had to say, I was still young then, as you are now.” Professor Olphæus reminisced.

“So, what did Dumbledore want us to know?” Harry asked, earning him a stern look from Hermione.

“He’s right to rush me,” Professor Olphæus addressed Hermione specifically, before turning back to Harry, “I’m sorry, I have a tendency to get carried away in my age, forgive me, it was I who said that time was of the essence.”

He turned and beckoned them to follow, checking his pocket watch briefly. “Come on, before the students show up, which is in about thirty minutes now.”

Harry and Hermione followed the professor down the corridor to the right, which was rather narrow, and while its walls and floor were stone, the ceiling was made of wooden panelling, which was rather attractively carved to look like branches and leaves. They both took of their coats, as the inside of the building was much warmer than it was outside.

“Here, come on,” came Professor Olphæus’ voice as he beckoned them to a door larger than the others. As Harry walked in, he noticed it must be the library, it spanned two floors, and shelves of books were everywhere. Even without looking, Harry knew Hermione was probably giddy with excitement, even if she wasn’t going to have much of a chance to look around.

The professor walked over to a shelf near the entrance and flicked his wand, opening a locked drawer, “I’ve got it here,” he said, as he carefully pulled out a book, approaching them again, “Let’s go to a classroom, so that I can demonstrate the spell without any students seeing us here.”

They went through a door in the library, which brought them into a small classroom, one side with windows that overlooked a little quadrangle with a fountain in the middle. Professor Olphæus opened the book, and it fell open on a specific page. “Remember everything on these pages, copy it down if you need to, it contains everything you will need to know. I will help you learn the spells.”

Hermione quickly opened her bag, and pulled out some parchment, a quill, and ink, and began writing. In the meantime, the professor sat down at the desk at the front, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead as he waited. It took Hermione only a couple minutes to copy down the two pages, and she coughed as she finished.

“Ahh, excellent, Miss Granger,” Professor Olphæus smiled, “That was quicker than I expected, well done. Now, as for what you need to do to track this, we will need to use magical runes, and this very special spell, Trigonometrius Locatus. It will only work if you have the entire rune for the soul signature memorised, and hold it right in the front of your mind. If you cast it correctly, you will get a warm feeling coming from a direction, and you should get an image of where to find the person whose soul signature you memorised. The casting of the spell is very simple, it’s a simple triangular motion followed by a flick. But it’s the memorisation of the rune that is the hard part. The image may be vague or unclear, it is up to you to figure it out, you can try again, as the better you cast the spell, often the more specific the image is.”

Hermione continued writing, while Harry simply intently listened and watched, as he demonstrated the wand movement, and flipped the pages of the book to show an incredibly complicated looking rune, an example of a soul signature, “This one is Leonidas Valerius’s, he was the one that helped Dumbledore formulate this book.”

“Thank you, professor, this is exactly what we needed.” Harry said as the professor finished explaining, as he looked at the rune with curiosity.

“Glad to help,” came his earnest reply, “But, could I be so nosey as to ask why you need to know this? Dumbledore was very evasive when he told me about this.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry answered, “But this is top secret, we can’t tell anyone at all about this.”

“I understand,” the professor bowed his head, in thought, “I won’t investigate any deeper. I do hope you know what you are doing though, after all, all the things that are now happening in the wizarding world…”

The sounds of doors opening outside the classroom could be heard, and distant voices could be heard. “That must be the students. Leave quickly but discreetly, keep your heads down… and put your coats on, they will look less suspicious, everyone here will be in robes.” Professor Olphæus explained quickly, “Sorry that I don’t have any spare. Most of the students will be in class in about five minutes, so you can go then. To unlock the door, you have to tap the handle with your wand, that is how we keep muggles out, that’s why it didn’t open when you tried it earlier.”

Harry and Hermione nodded, and both put on their coats as they waited, and Hermione also pulled her bag back onto her shoulder, carefully putting the pages she had written up into it. Soon, the voices quieted down. “Go now, and good luck,” came the professor’s voice behind them.

“Thank you,” Hermione turned, but Professor Olphæus waved her off, “Come back once everything is settled down, you could even study here, if your Hogwarts record is anything to go off of.”

Hermione beamed as she turned back to Harry. “He thinks I could…”

“Let’s go Hermione,” Harry whispered loudly, and then walked out, heads down, first into the library, where they walked briskly, noticing several students sat, reading. They opened the door silently, hoping that no-one had noticed them, and into the corridor.

There was only one person there, a tall pale professor, whose eyes seemed to bore into them as they passed, but he didn’t say anything, and they passed him with their heads down. Harry’s heart was beating quickly as they strode into the entrance hall, going straight to the door. Hermione reached for her wand, but Harry was quicker reaching for his, tapping the handle with his wand first. There was an audible click as it unlocked, and Harry turned the handle, opening the doors, holding it open.

Hermione stepped out the door, turning to look as Harry followed, shutting the door behind him. But, as soon as both of them were out of the doorway, a voice rang out to their side: “Stupefy!”

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As soon as he heard the voice, Harry had instinctively grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the side, but luckily the spell had been fired slightly above Hermione’s head anyway. Time seemed to have slowed down, and Harry turned to Hermione, calling out “Run!”

Hermione didn’t need telling twice, and they both bolted. The lawn clearly wasn’t an option, it was far too open, so Harry grabbed Hermione’s hand, as he ran to the covered arcade at the front of the building to their left, which a small plaque on the wall named ‘Elphinstone Hall’. There were no spells following them, evidently whoever had cast it was concerned with not revealing magic to the muggles, but Harry could hear that they were being pursued. Several odd looks followed them as they ran along the arcade, but no-one seemed to be bothered to confront them.

“Where now?” Hermione said breathily as she ran along with Harry, already starting to gasp slightly, as she was unaccustomed to running.

“I don’t know, how about through there?” Harry replied, pointing to a gap between the tower in front of them and the chapel.

Hermione didn’t say anything, clearly not wanting to waste her breath, which Harry took as agreement, and they ran through the gap. “We need to get to somewhere where we can apparate safely!” Hermione exhaled, as she finally had a chance to catch her breath, since they were inside the temporary respite that the quadrangle offered.

“I know, but we can’t stop now, we are still being followed,” Harry replied, and with a sigh, Hermione followed him, and they ran through the quadrangle, and out the arch at the front. It was then that they saw what they had walked into, there were two men approaching from both sides of the street they had walked out onto, and glancing back, Harry saw the first man, who had cast Stupefy, approaching them too, he was hooded, so Harry couldn’t make out his face.

Help came from an unlikely place as a bus rolled down the street, the bus stop opportunely just a few moments from where they stood; they could make it before the men could reach them. They made a dash for it, and legged it onto the bus, jumping the queue, and Hermione subtly confunded the driver to let them on. They made their way to the middle of the bus, and sat next to each other, heads down, Hermione setting her bag onto her lap. The last passenger boarded, and the doors were closed, just as the first man reached the bus stop, and he looked furious as it began driving.

“Do you know where this bus goes?” Harry whispered urgently to Hermione, turned back as he saw the men chasing after the bus.

“I’m not sure,” Hermione replied, “but considering the direction we are going, I assume the city centre.”

“That’s not good,” Harry muttered, “We need to get away from the muggles so we can apparate.”

“I know,” Hermione responded, “There must be somewhere unpopulated in the city centre…”

“I doubt it,” Harry sighed. “We could get on another bus and hope that goes somewhere rural…”

Hermione turned to look back, then men were still chasing them outside the bus, they had fallen slightly behind, but every time the bus stopped to pick up more passengers, they were gaining on it.

“Do you think they are death eaters?” Hermione asked rhetorically, “I mean… they must be, it’s either that or the ministry, but that’s the same thing now.”

Harry nodded, “But since they control the ministry now, they are trying to abide by the statute of secrecy to keep the illusion of normalcy.”

“Well, we can’t stay on here forever, we are going to have to get off soon,” she turned to Harry, “I have an idea…”

“What is it?” Harry asked, but as the bus slowed down, Hermione tapped his hand, “Now!”

Harry scrambled to his feet, nearly tripping due to the speed at which he did so, and made his way to the front of the bus, Hermione right behind him.

As the bus reached a complete stop, they quickly stepped off it, noticing that behind them, there was precious little space left between them and their pursuers, although they did seem to be thoroughly exhausted chasing the bus for nearly a mile, and even then, Harry was sure they had used some sort of magical means to keep up.

Hermione pointed, and they ran forwards, towards the grandiose granite building looming in front of them. They turned to the left and ran through a huge granite gate, with several coats of arms prominently displayed above it, bringing them into an enormous quadrangle.

“Where now?” Harry gasped, as they paused for a moment to catch their breath. The quadrangle was clearly too large and open; and there was nowhere to hide in it.

“This way!” Hermione called, and they sprinted back into the gate, turning to the side, and running through a door, into the inside of the building, up several steps into a vestibule.

“Where are we?” Harry asked as they briefly looked around curiously, before Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him after her into another room.

“Marischal College,” Hermione answered, “It’s also part of the university.”

Harry nodded as they ran through another door and into a small room, through which they arrived into a landing. Hermione grabbed his hand tighter and pulled him forward, and they ran up around the stairs, to the next floor. He heard a door slam somewhere far behind them, probably the main door, evidently their pursuers were still after them.

They arrived on a landing, and Hermione hesitated between going to the corridor on the left or right, so Harry quickly took the initiative and tugged her hand, “Come on!” he called as he pulled her to the right. They ran straight down the corridor, which opened up into an empty library.

They ran through it quickly, barely dodging the tables and bookshelves, as Harry could hear the footsteps behind them get ever louder, they were being gained on. On the other side, they ran through a storeroom, jumping over several boxes as they ran. Behind them, Harry heard someone grunt as he hit something, surely one of their pursuers had bumped into a desk in the library.

Hermione nearly tripped as they reached an unexpected staircase on the other side, but Harry caught her, and they dashed to the right, before seeing the only other door in the room they had ended up in was blocked off.

“What do we do?” Harry whispered urgently, as they looked around, “Could apparate from here? There’s no one…”

But Harry didn’t get the chance to finish, as there was a tap behind them: “Come on, through here.”

Harry and Hermione turned to see a portrait hanging loose on the wall. Without wasting a moment, they pushed it slightly to the side and went into the secret passage behind it. Just as the portrait settled in its position behind them, Harry heard their pursuers enter the room, their hard steps unmistakable. Turning to see who their unlikely rescuer was, Harry found himself looking at none other than Professor Olphæus, who tapped the portrait with his wand, and solid wall appeared between them and the portrait.

“They are bound to check behind it,” he explained, as he beckoned them to follow, “I realised you were being pursued when I went to teach my class, and I looked out the window and saw you two running. I figured you would go here.”

“Well, actually…” Harry started, about to tell him that they hadn’t intentionally gone here, but it was more a now happy coincidence, but Hermione interrupted him, “Who were they?”

“Death eaters,” Professor Olphæus sighed, “led by a certain Augustus Rookwood. He was an unspeakable, worked at the department of mysteries, he came here more than a couple of times, on research assignments.”

“I knew it,” Harry muttered, pulling his coat off to cool down, before turning to the professor, “But now what?”

“Now, you go to the top of the tower, that is the designated apparation point in this college, and the only place where we lift the wards to allow it,” explained Professor Olphæus, “We can’t be apparating in front of any muggles now, and up there no one can hear it.”

“Thank you for your help,” Hermione said, as she also took off her coat; all the running had clearly made her rather hot, but she took her bag and slipped it back onto her shoulder.

“This building has an intricate network of secret passageways in the walls, so we can safely proceed in that direction,” the professor said, as he started walking, “Now, keep up, I can’t be missing from class too long, or they will get suspicious and I will get in trouble myself.”

“Of course,” Harry hurriedly replied, grabbing his coat in his arm, and springing up to keep up, he didn’t want anyone else to get in trouble on his behalf, after all, so many people had already died.

Hermione too seemed to agree, as she also was quickly on her feet and followed. They walked through a series of narrow passages, before arriving at a little door.

“Let me check if the coast is clear,” Professor Olphæus explained, as he opened the door and looked around. “Okay, quickly.”

They all walked out, and Harry and Hermione saw a tiny staircase going upwards.

“Go to the top, and once you reach the small circular platform right at the top, you can safely apparate,” the professor clarified, “stay safe, and whatever your mission is, finish it. What Dumbledore did tell me is that you are the only ones who can save us now.”

Harry hesitated, feeling as if he owed a more proper thank you to this professor, who had helped him twice now, without getting any answers as to why he should do it, but Hermione grabbed his hand again, “Let’s go! And thank you so much, professor, from both of us.”

They ascended the staircase as quickly as they could without slipping. “So that’s why he has been so helpful,” Hermione whispered as they ascended, “Dumbledore told him this was important, and he must trust Dumbledore quite a lot.”

There were no windows, so Harry had no idea how high they were, until suddenly they emerged at the top, gaining a high up view of the Aberdeen cityscape. But there was little time to look around, as Harry saw two men in the quadrangle, looking around suspiciously, clearly these were death eaters.

“We have to go, now,” Harry said, and they walked over to the apparation platform, which they couldn’t have missed, as it was a raised stone circle in the floor, and both stood on it. Harry held out his hand, and Hermione took it, colour briefly rising in her pale cheeks, and a slight smile which he shared in. They concentrated, and with a quiet crack, they apparated back to their tent, now with the knowledge of how to locate the rest of the Horcruxes with ease.

Chapter Text

The crack from their apparation as they landed back just outside the tent’s wards was quieter than usual, and the feeling of being squeezed through a tight tube disappearing as suddenly as it had begun. Harry brushed himself off, breathing deeply, and Hermione did the same, finally dropping her bag from her shoulder, where she had been carrying it for several hours now, onto the snowy ground.

“We did it Harry!” she smiled, finally letting out a sigh of relief she had clearly been holding in for some time, and, as she pulled Harry into a tight hug.

“Hermione!” Harry gasped as he felt the air leaving his lungs.

“Sorry,” she blushed, loosening her hold, but not letting go.

“Are you serious about wanting to study at university?” Harry asked, tilting his head down to look her in the eyes.

“Of course,” she replied, “but I’d really like to go with a friend, so it’s less lonely.”

“Do you think they would accept me?” Harry asked slightly sceptically, “my grades aren’t the best.”

“They mostly accept students based on interviews,” Hermione answered, before smiling, “but you are the boy who lived, any university would let you in just based on that.”

Harry joined in her smile. “So, what universities are you considering?”

“Well, Aberdeen seems to be quite a nice option,” Hermione looked up at him cheekily, “what do you think?”

“Yeah, it does,” Harry nodded, noticing they were still hugging, but this time, he decided not to let go, the cold of the day giving way to their shared warmth.