Voldemort left the room and a massive snake slithered in. The last thing Hermione and Daphne saw was the beast working its jaws over the corpse's feet, massive teeth puncturing skin, powerful muscles slowing dragging the body across the floor.
Hermione felt sick.
The scene shifted and now Hermione was following the Dark Lord into a small cottage whose door had been blown off. Screams came from inside.
"No!" A man was kneeling on the floor begging as a screaming and flailing young woman was being dragged away by masked figures. "Please! Don't!" the man begged. "Please! She's done nothing wrong!"
Voldemort stepped in front of the man, who looked up at him in terror. "She is a mudblood — and you have disgraced yourself by marrying such filth. Crucio."
The man screamed, filling Hermione's head with its intensity. She clutched Daphne ever tighter, tears starting to cloud her vision.
The scene shifted again. This time they were in a huge, closed room, packed with hundreds of witches and wizards of all ages. Every face looked tired, dirty, and scared.
A door opened and Voldemort walked in, along with several dozen death eaters. "Witches and Wizards," Voldemort said in a soft voice that still carried all the way across the suddenly quiet room. "You have all resisted when you were told to surrender. The punishment for resisting Lord Voldemort is death."
The death eaters then started systematically murdering every person in the room — men, women, children, the old, even babies still clutched in their mother's arms, paying no heed to the screams, the begging, and the always brief howls of anguish. Voldemort stood, watched, and smiled.
Scene after scene, on and on it went. Hermione's face ran with tears. Her body trembled and shook. Daphne clung to her so tightly that ice started to form on Hermione's skin.
Eventually, it was done. Hermione felt herself pulled up and up, and she exited the pensieve, landing in an inelegant heap of sniffling witch.
In front of them, next to one of the trunk walls, Harry sat on a simple wooden chair, watching them impassively.
Hermione and Daphne got to their feet, eyes downcast.
"And what lesson have we learned?" Harry asked.
Hermione sniffled. "D-Don't go against your orders, Harry."
Next to her, she felt Daphne tense.
"No, Hermione." Harry's voice was firm. "That is not the lesson. You know I've always told you that orders can sometimes be disobeyed, under the right circumstances."
Daphne raised a shaky hand.
"Yes, Daphne."
"Don't put our lives at risk for…" she looked down again, "for things that aren't that important."
Harry took a deep breath. "You got half of it right. Yes, you take into account how important the thing is, but you also take into account how much you're risking your lives. You'll notice I didn't say anything when you two went after the troll on Halloween, despite my orders then not to. Why not? Hermione?"
Hermione's lower lip trembled. "Because the risk was lower and the thing we were fighting for was more important?"
"Exactly!"
The sudden shout caused both her and Daphne to jump.
"Okay, Sophie Roper wasn't on our side at the time, but there's a better than good chance she might be one day, and she's human. Two good reasons. Unicorns, on the other hand, while being light creatures, pure and good, and all that, are not people — they are animals — intelligent animals, no doubt, but still animals. Daphne, I know you have a thing for unicorns, but you are more precious than any unicorn."
Daphne shook.
Harry took another long breath. "And to compare threats — one the one side you have a mountain troll, which, while dangerous, you were able to handle, proving you'd made a good risk judgement, and on the other hand, you have Voldemort — a weakened Voldemort, yes, but still Voldemort — the freak'n Dark Lord! Has five months being taught by him in a classroom perhaps reduced your respect for him?"
Hermione stood with her head down, not saying anything, fighting back tears of shame, images of Voldemort's murderous rampage still fresh and sharp in her mind. She'd never felt like she'd let Harry down so badly before. Harry stood up. "Was this enough of a reminder of what we're fighting for and the type of person we're fighting against?" Hermione and Daphne both nodded.
"Do you need another spin in the pensieve?" Hermione and Daphne both shook their heads.
"Hermione, what is our overall mission?" She looked up. "The defeat of Voldemort and the control of Magical Britain."
"Daphne, how do I expect you to behave differently in the future?" "Don't do dangerous things that don't help with our overall mission, and even then, only if the danger is less than our ability to cope with it."
Harry let out a deep breath. "Alright." His face softened and he spread his arms. "Come here then."
Hermione collapsed into him, sobbing freely, letting the tension drain out of her, joined moments later by Daphne.
Harry wrapped his arms around them and held them.
They stood like that for an age before finally disengaging.
Hermione drew back and blowed her nose with a Harry-conjured handkerchief.
"Right." Harry conjured two extra chairs for the two of them and they all sat down. "Now, as much as we might like to move on to other things, we do need to discuss consequences. Let's start with the most obvious thing. Dumbledore."
Hermione stiffened.
Harry continued. "Dumbledore now knows that something is up." Harry shifted uncomfortably. "My… reaction… last night will likely bring up some red flags for him—yes, Hermione?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ready to lose yourself in an epic tale? Download the full PDF now and start reading from page one!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~