The world in which we live in is a curious place. It can make us feel a myriad of positive feelings such as happiness and also make us smile and cure us, yet it can also make us sad and angry. Countless thoughts and memories whirl inside my mind, penetrating my heart as I remember watching Harry die, helpless as I tried to help him, to push away the death eaters who had grabbed me and shoved me to the ground before the countless attempted rapes occurred. I was one of the lucky ones who escaped that fate. The world is a curious place. Just like the weather, it can be very unpredictable. A thing that holds so much beauty with the potential to be cruel. The world is heartless.

"Move it you stupid bitch!" one of the many death eaters surrounding us shouted.

One of them raised his whip yielding hand and whipped one of the prisoners up ahead. I heard a cry of pain and desperate plea. Suddenly, the line stopped moving and a battle of angry shouts could be heard.

"Why did you fucking whip her so hard?" a sudden booming voice interrupted, breaking the argument.

If I trusted my ears, I believe that horrible voice belonged to Fenrir Greyback. He was the one who I saw mutilate the Patil twins' faces.

"She wasn't moving fast enough!" a death eater hissed.

"You killed her!" Fenrir growled. "Lord Voldemort won't be too pleased to find that we've got one less prisoner than we previously counted!"

A deathly silence soon covered us. The rattling of chains I had gotten used to was hardly there. Only the growls being emitted from Fenrir Greyback's throat could be heard.

The survivors of the war who had opposed Voldemort were chained up and forced to stand in a straight line as to make sure nobody could escape. My arms were tied around Luna's waist and hers were tied around Ginny's; the only possible way to move was to lean forward and walk slowly to avoid falling over. I didn't know who was behind me, but I had a feeling it was Neville. He had been rather silent today. I never knew him to be a quiet person.

"Don't just stand there you stupid lot!" Greyback suddenly shouted. "MOVE!"

The cracking of whips could be heard again. Cries of pain and sorrow could be heard. I only wished now that this was all entirely a dream. If only we had gotten to Nagini sooner, Harry wouldn't have died. Several more Horcruxes were made after his death to ensure Voldemort could live on. It was now only a fools dream to wish all of this away. We were all now truly living in a nightmare.

...

"Do you know where we are?" Ginny asked as the prison door shut.

"I don't know and I don't care," Ron mumbled, fumbling with his lame leg that had been brutally damaged by Nagini. "We're all going to die."

"Ron. We aren't going to die!" Ginny hissed as she stood by the door. The others were restless. "They wouldn't have kept us alive and brought us here in the first place and go through all that trouble if they were going to slaughter us in the end!"

"Maybe they are going through all that trouble to get more pleasure out of it!" Ron remarked.

"Ron! Try to stay positive!" Ginny pleaded.

"But Harry's dead! He wasn't the chosen one. He never was and he never will be. There was never a chosen one to destroy Voldemort! We're all going to die, Ginny! Every single fucking one of us!"

"Ron! Please don't talk about him in that way!" Ginny started to cry.

"We shouldn't start bickering amongst ourselves," I interrupted, trying to diffuse the situation. "We are all that we have."

Ginny, Ron, Luna, Neville and I were locked in one prison cell. Dean, Seamus and Lavendar were locked in the one opposite ours. Their cell was awfully quiet today. Nobody was being themselves.

I looked behind me to find Luna attempting to wrap her arms around Neville, only to be stopped by the ropes that tied her hands together. She sat next to him instead and rested her head on his shoulders. Neville turned his head around to kiss her hair.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" Neville suddenly asked, speaking for the first time in two weeks.

"I don't know." Luna answered. "But as long as we are together, we will all be all right. Won't we Hermione?"

"Of course..." I had to say that. It was what I hoped for.

...

A small stream of light entered our cell from the tiny hole near the ceiling of our confinement. It was what told us that it was day now. The death eaters had made sure that we were all to stay in total darkness, so when they left us alone, they had gotten rid of every source of light.

"Are you guys awake?" I asked quietly.

I could tell that Ron was asleep since he snored when he was.

"We're awake." Ginny muttered. "Ron seems to be sleeping peacefully."

I stroked his hair after feeling my way through the dirty floor and sighed as I remembered the kiss that we had shared. "At least some people manage to find some sort of escape from this mess that we're in."

"Lucky bastard." Neville sneered.

"Don't you lot find it curious that Cho Chang disappeared all of a sudden?" Luna suddenly asked.

"What do you mean, Luna?" Ginny asked. "What about?"

"She does have a point," Seamus suddenly joined in. He had heard the entire conversation from the start. "I am awake, the others are asleep."

"What do you mean?" I asked Luna. "I don't get why you are suddenly bringing Cho up into the conversation. I mean she's hardly been with us."

"You see, right after Cho suggested that she take Harry to look for Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem and Ginny intervened, she disappeared." Seamus explained. "I didn't realise it at first but after Harry's death and the havoc afterwards... I realised she was gone. Like POOF."

"I saw her make her way out in a rather secretive manner. It was like she didn't want to be seen." Neville suddenly joined in.

"Well, she did a bloody well good job at it." Ginny muttered.

"Maybe she was one of the many casualties of the war," I suggested.

"When Fenrir Greyback told us to gather the dead bodies into the room and make a list of who had died, I didn't find her name in the Ravenclaw list," Luna said.

"I couldn't see her body either." Seamus said.

"She's probably in another cell." I suggested.

"Maybe..." Neville agreed.

Silence soon greeted us again. The tiny speck of light on the floor started to dance, appearing and disappearing as something outside periodically covered the hole. Soon, a pitter pattering began. It was raining outside.

"Is this really all happening?" I asked, suddenly feeling teary eyed. "Is this really all happening?"

"Oh, Hermione, don't start us all off," Ginny suddenly said, her voice cracking.

Suddenly, a miraculous chain reaction occurred. Anybody within hearing distance appeared to be crying. It was like the darkness and specks of light were doing something to us. Maybe there was going to be hope for all of us. Ron was sleeping peacefully. Could that be a sign of anything at all? I sighed. My logical side told me to stop kidding myself. This was all real. We were in hell.

"What is all of this wailing about?" Fenrir Greyback roared as a sudden blast of light filled the pathway that lay in front of our cell door. We could tell there was a blast of light as the tiny gap underneath our door was glaring brilliantly. "Fucking shut up!"

There was an immediate silence. The happenings of the war seemed to have trained everyone to pay dead attention to orders.

"Get up all of you!" another death eater shouted. "The Dark Lord requests everybody's presence in the open field."

"What do you think he wants?" a voice suddenly whispered.

It was Ronald's. He had woken up.

A/N

An AU fic. Some of the character's may appear OC, but that is obviously because the war does things to people. Voldemort has won in my story and it is about what happens later on to my story's main character, Hermione Granger.