Drip…
Her shoulders tensed.
Drip…
A growl was building up in the back of her throat.
Drip…
"Merlin's Beard! Would you stop with the infernal dripping already?!" Hermione Granger screamed to no one in particular.
The dripping noise was getting on Hermione's last nerve. Seven weeks. Seven weeks she has been in this cave! Seven weeks it has been since her last real meal. Seven weeks of her walking from one side of this bloody cave to the other. And worse of all, it has been seven weeks of listening to that damned dripping noise! No matter how hard she searched, she could never find the source. She had tried every spell and potion that she could get her hands on. She had even gone so far as to try muggle solutions, but nothing ever worked!
Drip…
Hermione ran her fingers agitatedly through her coarse curls pulling at her roots in what she believed were the early signs of madness. Will this torture ever end?! She thought desperatley.
Drip…
Hermione stood up quickly from the spot for which she had been occupying the last few minutes and walked over to the opposite side of the small cave. She had gotten used to cramped cave but more often than not, she would start to feel claustrophobic. The walls were too close and she barely had enough room to walk.
Drip…
Hermione sighed and sat down. She rested her head in her lap and rolled over onto her side. It has been almost three months since the fall of the Wizarding World, and the Death Eaters had placed a hefty bargain for her head, making it more or less impossible for her to move around safely. Hermione sighed, and then snorted. She had been doing a lot of that nowadays - sighing that is.
Drip…
Hermione growled and reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her wand. "Silencio!" she shouted in no particular direction for the umpteenth time. She waited for a few breaths and when she was answered with silence, she breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe finally it worked .
While the Wizarding World had fallen to shambles, she had fled. Harry was dead. Ron the rest of the Weaselys were dead as well. A solitary tear trailed down her cheek as she remembered their lifeless corpses and empty eyes. The Five Year War it is called.
"Five Years of Hell is more like it." Hermione said aloud.
For five years, she, Harry, and Ron had fought the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. And for five years Hermione had watched the people whom she had grown to love, die at her feet. Her innocence had been taken and so had her childhood. And now she was on the run. It seems that she would never get a break.
Drip…Groaning, Hermione sat up with her wand in hand, and stood facing the back of the cave. She walked menacingly towards it. And poked at the stone with her wand, "Okay, that's enough. I've had it up to hear with you!" She said holding her thumb and index finger up to her face. "And if I so much as hear one more peep out of you," She breathed. "I'll blow you into the next millennia!" She gritted out menacingly.
Drip…Drip...
"Really?!" Hermione screeched. She then slashed through the air with her wand making a bowing arc, and screamed, "Reducto!"
When the spell hit the wall of the cave, dust enveloped Hermione making cough and wheeze. Suddenly a loud groaning came from below her. "Blast," Hermione muttered before the floor gave out from under her.
Hermione felt air rushing around her as she hurtled to her imminent death. The cold clutches of fear gripped her heart and panic momentarily paralyzed her.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
I don't want to die.
I REALLY don't want to die. She kept thinking to herself.
Her mind whirled with useless information and memories as she tried to figure a way out of her current predicament. Alright, first where is my wand?" Hermione gripped her wand reassuringly. Okay, so I've been falling for close to thirty seconds now and that either means that I'll hit the bottom any second now or… this is a very, very large cave. She thought quickly.
Now spells, I need spells. Um… Cushioning Charm… No that won't work, Wingardium Leviosa… possibly but I'm trying to stop myself from falling not the opposite… Hermione's brow scrunched as she thought quickly all the while trying to ignore the air that rushed around as she fell closer to her imminent death. Ahah! She mentally shrieked.
"Arresto Momentum!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She suddenly halted mid-air, rapidly gasping for air. "Lumos." She whispered. Hermione looked around. She tried to study the illuminated cave walls. She glanced below her at the gaping abyss to what seemed to be a bottomless cavern. All she could see was blackness; even the stone walls were black. Did I die without me noticing? Is this some type of hellish Purgatory?
As Hermione was blinded by the darkness, she could feel a completely new panic set in. She was trapped mid-air, without food, and in a cave that no one knew she was in. "Brilliant." She muttered darkly. Hermione scanned her surroundings looking for a way out of her mess, when suddenly:
Drip... Drip…
Hermione clenched her jaw in frustration, and groaned. "Kill me now." She whispered bitterly, and then scrunched her brow in confusion. Wait… Is that… getting louder? She thought to herself.
Drip… Drip…
"It is!" Hermione said aloud. She turned her head looking for the source, when a new sound from above her followed the dripping. It was a low bone-rattling rumble that caused her teeth to clatter unwillingly. A feeling of terror washed over Hermione as the rumbling came closer to her.
Bloody Hell! The cave is collapsing in on me! Hermione thought despairingly. She quickly went through her options. A cold panic quickly slivered its way to the pit of her stomach as she realized that the only way to safety was out of the cave. And the only way out of the cave was… down.
Hermione had always thought herself to be rather brave. She was sorted into Gryffindor for Christ's sake! But despite what most might think, Gryffindor's valued their lives just as much as the next person did. So it was safe to say that, No she wasn't looking forward to resuming her downward descent into the shadowy depths of this cavern.
But as bits of gravel and debris started sprinkling down onto her head, Hermione knew that there was no sure and safe way to get out of here alive. So too much her consternation, Hermione uttered the two words that she would later regret ever saying.
"Finite Incantatem."
And thus she resumed her earlier descent into the hopefully bottomless pit.
Hermione felt as if she had been falling for at least a few hours now, but she knew that that would be anything short to impossible, as she is sure she would have hit the Mantle by now. But she suddenly felt quite light-headed as she continued her free-fall.
Her eyes were slowly closing against her will and it felt as if the oxygen were slowly being sucked out of her aching lungs.
So this is what it is like to die. She thought morosely. Well I hope it hurries up, 'cause my heads killing me! Hermione inwardly sighed. Even in her deathbed life wouldn't give her a break.
Suddenly there was a loud popping noise. And she mentally shrieked in pain as her bones grinded together as if gravity itself was crushing her. Her head suddenly felt as if it had imploded as bright pops of colorful light ricocheted across her vision. Then all at once everything stopped and she knew no more.