The pain was too much to bear. Not even the shaking, but comforting, warm hand on her shoulder could stop the lump rising in the back of her throat, or clear her vision that was now being marred in tears.

'Harry!' She screamed. 'Harry!'

Her best friend lay in the arms of their old Game Keeper and Professor of Care Of Magical Creatures. His hair was as messy as ever and his glasses lay crooked on his nose, in danger of slipping off, but his trademark green eyes were closed. Oh how she would do anything to see those eyes flicker back open. He looked so small in the half-giant hands, almost as if he could be sleeping. How vulnerable he looked.

'Ha-Harry'. The boy beside her gave a strangled cry.

She had never seen him cry before, not even when he'd been in a lot of pain, and he looked more shocked than anything else when his brother, Fred, had died. Now, however, tears poured freely down his face.

She could hardly tear her eyes away from the sleeping body. He had to be sleeping. He just had to.

'Hermione?'

'Hmm?' She looked up from the book that she was reading.

'Hermione.' Harry's hands shifted awkwardly in his pockets. 'Hermione, I'm scared.'

How scared had he been when he'd faced death again, and this time, actually felt the blow? She began to sob and huddled into her companions shoulder. But when she heard shrieking, she pulled away.

Neville Longbottom stood with his head on fire. The Sorting Hat had been crammed onto his head and was now burning spectacularly, with the shrieks of pain coming from Neville. Foolishly, she looked towards where her best friend lay, this was where he would come in and save the day. He always did. He always had to.

'Leave him alone.' Ron roared beside her. Still with a protective arm around her, he faced Lord Voldemort without fear, just as Harry used to do.

The scarlet eyes glistened at Ron. 'Make me.'

Ron broke out into a near hysterical smile, and she whimpered as he fished around for his wand. But before he could do anything about it, his mother and father were standing in front of him, their backs to Lord Voldemort as they implored their youngest son to stay out of his way. But Ron only angrily pushed them aside.

'I know you.' The older main said suddenly, gliding towards them all.

Terrified, she looked over to where Neville lay unconscious on the floor. The hat wasn't burning anymore, but she couldn't be sure if he was breathing.

By the time she forced herself to look up and away, he was standing in front of them and Arthur and Molly were standing protectively either side of the weeping Ginny.

Ron stared squarely at him in the face, and said nothing. When Lord Voldemort glanced down at her, she gave a small cry, causing him to smile. Never before had they been so close, it was only at Godric's Hollow had she ever glimpsed the man she probably hated most in the world.

'And I recognize you too.' He said softly, looking her up and down.

Ron frowned and spoke up loudly. 'I am Ronald Billius Weasley, best friend to Harry Potter and fighter against the dark arts and the pureblood ideal.'

From behind them, Molly squeaked anxiously.

'A Weasley, did you say?' Voldemort smirked, twisting his wand around his long fingers, while she looked on in terror at what he might do. 'And yet, you come from a long line of pureblood families.'

Ron's ears grew red and Arthur Weasley spoke up sharply. 'A coincidence only. Any blood group is welcome into our family.' He stole a glance at her.

'But you are all still purebloods. We would be advancing you in this new society. Shouldn't you all be fighting with us instead of against us?'

'Not when you're in love with a Muggleborn.'

Voldemort's eyes flickered back quickly to her, as she quickly looked down and huddled against Ron, torn between the need to blush or to cry. His grip strengthened on her small shoulders.

'Miss Hermione Granger.' Voldemort said quietly. 'We meet at last then. You have been so very evasive, and yet I have been wanting to talk with you for a long time. Now, let me guess, you're Harry Potter's best friend too?'

Biting her lip, she nodded fiercely.

'Anything more?'

She flinched slightly at that, some of the Death Eaters let out a little whoop of disrespect. Ron's grip stiffened slightly. She knew full well that he had often been suspicious about something going on between the two of them, even though they hadn't-

Well, not really.

Clearing her throat, far louder than she'd meant to, she said. 'There was never anything like that.'

Voldemort scoffed, and she was reminded of Draco Malfoy. 'But something happened. You cannot lie to me I could see inside that idiot boys head.'

Yes. Something did happen. But it was only once and it was only a kiss. A very long kiss. They'd been just lying there; weeks after Ron had gone and left them. He was exhausted, and she was upset. He'd had his arms wrapped around her, cradling her, and when she'd looked up they were only noses apart. And then one of them kissed the other and the other kissed them back. They'd kissed for a long time, and then some more, but it was nothing. They'd just been so desperate for physical contact and some form of affection. When they'd stopped kissing, she'd fallen asleep in his arms and no more was ever said about it again.

A small sob gave way for tears.

An evil grin spread onto Voldemort's thin mouth. 'Would you like to say goodbye to him?'

His tone was polite, but she could see the threat in his voice. 'Would you like to kiss his filthy half blood lips, goodbye?'

She could feel herself trembling, but somehow the lips of Harry James Potter and the memory of his sparkling emerald green eyes gave her courage. 'I don't need to prove my allegiance to Harry.' She said, far more bravely than she'd felt all day.

Voldemort struck as suddenly as a snake as he grabbed her by the neck of her robes. With a yelp, the ready to pounce Ron was pushed out of the way by an invisible curse, caused seemingly by Voldemort's own hand.

She bit back a whimper as Voldemort's red crimson eyes bored violently into hers. It was only when she heard his voice whispering threats in her head did she begin to scream, as loud as she could as if it would drown out his high pitched cackle and the cries of Harry Potter as he died.

'Put her down you bastard!' Ron swore violently, flinging himself at the barrier. 'Stop hurting her.' Blood began to spill out of his mouth and he yelled in shock as he clung onto his head as if in sudden and severe pain.

The noises stopped, but Voldemort still held onto her, looking curiously as she cried.

'I value loyalty in my Death Eaters.' He said thoughtfully. He could not see. Ply, glaring at someone who she could not see. Ply, glaring at someone who she could not see. 'All you need to do, dearie.' A few Death Eaters chuckled at his mocking tone. 'Is to swear your allegiance to me.'

Vehemently, she shook her head, even allowing herself to smile a little daringly. Harry's eyes were still in her mind, smiling at her to carry on.

Voldemort snarled. 'Do it. Or he gets it.'

All at once, Death Eaters were surrounding Ron. Still holding onto her with a firm grip, Voldemort turned to the crowds of people before him, shaking in fear and terror. 'All of you will be required to do this.' His voice rang and travelled through the masses. 'Anyone who refuses, will be killed.'

Arthur Weasley stepped bravely forwards. Never before had she seen him look so angry. There was a fire in his eyes that she would never have imagined could be there. It was then at that moment that she learned why he had been sorted as a Gryffindor.

'And what if I still refuse?' He boomed loudly over the hush of silence in the two crowds. 'There are still some of us who value our pride and our dignity as opposed to our mortal life.' He stared in disgust at the unprotected Lucius Malfoy.

'Then I'll kill your whole family.' Voldemort replied simply.

Arthur Weasley turned white as he stepped back in front of his family, Molly Weasley placed a protective arm on her husband as she held tightly onto her still weeping daughter.

'Swear it.' Voldemort hissed as he turned his attention back to her. His face was aggressively in hers, and all she could think about was why, despite being pressed very tightly against his chest, could she not feel a heartbeat?

'Don't Hermione!' Ron yelled from behind the mass of Death Eaters who were restraining him down onto his knees. Bellatrix Lestrange smiled wickedly at her as she pressed her long silver knife against his throat. 'I would rather die!'

Sensing her hesitance, Voldemort pulled her around to face the still Neville on the floor. The hat caught up in flames again, and the boy woke up screaming.

She began to cry again. 'P-please don't h-hurt Ne-Neville. He-he hasn't d-done anything wr-wrong.'

The flames only continued to burn brighter and faster. And while she began to gag at the smell of burning flesh, Voldemort only began to sniff it in appreciatively and licked his thin lips.

But as she began to form her lips over those treacherous words, Neville disappeared with a small pop and a few seconds later so did the now extinguished Sorting Hat.

Voldemort screamed with rage as he flung her to the floor and rushed over to the place where his victim had been lying just seconds before.

'Hurry!' yelled Ron.

She looked up just in time to see Arthur Weasley quickly grab all of his family's hands and disapparate with a small pop. Other people began to follow suit, and soon she and Ron were the only ones left, but as he dived for her where she lay, he was kicked to the floor and stood on by none other than Lord Voldemort himself.

'What has happened?' He demanded, one hand around the boy's throat, a foot pressed hard onto his chest.

Ron crowed triumphantly. 'I removed the barrier that prevented people from disapparating from Hogwarts. For only about ten seconds, and yet it worked well enough to get people out of here.'

Voldemort spat in his face, but Ron could only grin. Glowering at Lucius Malfoy he said coldly. 'Is it, true?'

Lucius Malfoy hesitated, licking his lips anxiously. 'It is, My Lord. But the spell has stopped now. Nobody is getting in. And nobody is getting out. We have made enchantments to prevent this from happening again, or for allowing any unwanted visitors inside here in this bubble.'

Voldemort turned to the pair, his eyes gleaming. When he swooped down to Ron, she suppressed a small cry, but was extremely surprised when he stopped last minute and offered him his hand to help him up.

Ron glanced at his suspiciously, but took it nonetheless and was pulled none too gently onto his feet. And then gave him back his wand; for her he did the same thing - except last minute he snapped it into two pieces before pressing them into her palm. Hard.

Ron moved closer towards her, his eyes never leaving Voldemort's, and Voldemort's eyes never leaving his. After a few moments, Voldemort's smile widened.

'You have ten seconds.'

His meaning was very clear. Ten seconds to try and run away to escape all of them. Escape them from a place that nobody could enter or leave from, a place where all the exits were sealed up.

'Hermione, run.' Ron muttered out of the corner of his mouth, his brown eyes still not leaving Voldemort's.

She knew exactly what he was going to try and do. 'No. No, I am not leaving you.'

'You have to, now run.'

'Ten.' Voldemort began his countdown.

'Give me the wand, I can fight.'

'Hermione-'

'Nine.'

'Hermione, I would never forgive myself if something happened to you. Now run.'

'Eight.'

'You know all of the secret passageways out of here. One of them is bound to work. You're Harry Potter's Best Friend.'

'Seven.'

'Please, please just –'

'Six.'

'Kiss me and run.'

'Ron I-'

'Kiss me.'

And so she did to the point where she wasn't sure whose tears were on her cheeks. His? Or hers?

'Now go.' Ron had gently pushed her apart, away from him. 'Run.'

'Five.'

'I'm not leaving you.'

'Please, don't make me do something that I don't want to do.'

'Ron, please I'

'Imperio.'

And then she was running. Crying as she was forced to run away from him. Deeper and deeper into the Forbidden Forrest she ran. Ron had her heading for Hogsmeade, or for the Shrieking Shack, or something. It was only when her legs stopped moving and she stumbled over, did she realise that the Curse had ended. No. No, no, no, no, no. A curse like that could only end so suddenly if -

Ron.

Even in her grief, she managed to regain her senses and back away against the trees to hide from the sudden pounding of footsteps that crunched along the leaves and twigs in the forest.

'Come out; come out, wherever you are?' Came the raspy voice of an old man, whom she could only guess was the Death Eater called Nott. 'Come on, my pretty, we won't hurt you.'

'But the Dark Lord says that-'

'Silence, Fool.' Crabbe Senior was cut off by a blow to his stomach and the silky furious tones of one Lucius Malfoy. 'Miss Granger.' She could picture that smirk of his. 'Please come here, we wish you no harm, at present. There is little point in resisting. The Boy who wouldn't die, has now died. Everyone has left you, left this country even and so there is no getting back into these walls, to save you. If you surrender yourself to us now, your life may even be pleasant here on after.' There was a pause as he licked his lips. She dared to take a glimpse at the three Death Eaters, and Lucius Malfoy lowered his head and sharpened his eyes through the forest trees. 'The Weasley boy is dead, you know.' He added slyly.

She could not help the sharp intake of breath, but luckily she felt that they did not hear her.

'Are you sure that she's even here?' Crabbe grunted sourly.

'Of course.' Nott wheezed. 'Women are so very predictable. Especially little girls. Come on, dearie. Come out, poppet. Come on, sweetheart, and you shall have a sweetie.'

Lucius snorted derisively. 'We're not at the playground now, Nott. Miss Granger, if you do not come here at once, then we shall take you by force. And trust me, that will not be pretty, or a pleasant experience for you to undertake.'

Beneath her torn shirt, her heart began to beat even more wildly against her chest, so loudly she wondered if the creeping men could hear it from her hiding place. They were only metres away. Nott was as she had expected, a small old man, not much bigger than herself. For a moment she foolishly thought that she could easily overtake him, but the way that he confidently and elegantly held his wand suggested that cursing came all too naturally for him. Perhaps in his late fifties, his silvery-grey hair was neatly trimmed into a surprisingly modern hairstyle, and despite the age of his hair, his tanned strong angular face looked as if it belonged on a twenty year olds, and the chocolate brown eyes looked like they belonged more on a five year old than they did on a sadistic Death Eater.

Crabbe Senior on the other hand, was the spitting image of his son that she had known, but somewhat aged. Nonetheless, he still resembled a sack of potatoes.

Somehow managing to creep away from them, she ran up to the castle. She knew where she needed to. The only difficulty was getting there. After screaming in shock at seeing the first few dead bodies laying on the floor looking glassy-eyed up at her, she knew that she had to learn to get used to it, and instead took to jumping over them with her eyes squeezed shut. Finally, she got there.

'I need somewhere to get out of here.' She thought frantically to herself. Her eyes still squeezed shut as she stood outside the great oak doors. But when she opened them, in the doorway stood none other than Lord Voldemort himself, leering down at her.

'Boo.' He said simply.

She screamed again, and hurtled down the corridors, running away to get away from the sounds of their hysterical high-pitched cackles. She now ran to the only place in the world where she could go whenever she was in trouble. Their arms.

They were still warm.

How long she lay there for she did not know. But then a pair of much stronger arms had dragged her by the waist and were now pulling her kicking and screaming and crying away from her two friends. Lord Voldemort, had claimed Hermione Granger for his own.