Prologue

September 17th

"Ron let's go!" Harry Potter shouted as he turned around to face his best mate Ronald Weasley, who was still deep inside the Chamber of Secrets, searching for their other best friend, Hermione Granger.

It was less then five minutes ago that the war had ended, Harry had finally defeated Lord Voldemort and to his own, and others', surprise, lived. Though sadly many lives were lost on both sides, including Arthur Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Fred Weasley, Tonks and many more. But not all the deaths in the war were tragic ones, those including Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Lucius Malfoy, who had actually died while in Azkaban after receiving the Dementor's Kiss. Others had perished as well. It was now five years since the events that took place during Harry's and Ron's sixth year. They had only found out a few days ago that the last Horcrux, Nagini, was being hid somewhere deep inside Hogwarts, which had been closed since the death of the famous headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. It had taken the trio less then hours to realize that Voldemort would hide the deadly snake in the Chamber of Secrets and that there was a large chance that Voldemort, or his Death Eaters, would be with her. They were correct, Bellatrix Lestrange had been down in the Chamber with the snake, but shortly after a fight the three had managed to stun her and Hermione set off to find and kill Nagini, which she had managed to find inside the mouth of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Not moments after she disappeared inside the statue, Voldemort and his other death eaters arrived, followed by Ginny Weasley and over thirty people that she had managed to pull together to help Harry, her brother and Hermione fight the final battle.

But that had all been over three hours ago and Hermione was not to be found. "Ron!" Harry shouted again due to being ignored the first time. "The Chamber is going to collapse!"

Ron started blankly at Harry as if the words had passed right through him before shaking his head. "I need to find her." He cried, his voice muffled by the ceiling that was starting to collapse. He turned his attention back to the pile of rocks he had been trying to get past and sighed angrily. "Help me, god damn it!" He shouted without even looking over his shoulder at Harry while he levitated rocks out of his way until he finally got through.

"Look Ron, it's been three hours since we saw her last, she's probably dead by now." Harry walked slightly toward his friend but stopped when he noticed that Ron was frozen in place. "Ron?" He frowned when he wasn't answered and walked closer towards him, stopping again when he was standing next to Ron. "Oh, Merlin." He stared at what had both paralyzed him and Ron from doing anything but breathe.

Hermione was lying on the ground and looked close to death. Blood had pooled under the side of her head, which was coming from a deep gash on her forehead that was probably obtained from hitting her head on a rock. Along with that, part of her body was trapped underneath a boulder, looking as if it was crushing her. Harry sucked in a breath of air when he heard mumbling, which he thought came from her, but then he realized it was Ron. "What?" he asked quiet, as if afraid to speak any louder, afraid possibly that if he spoke louder something horrible would happen. He moved towards the boulder, and with a flick of his wand the object was thrown across the crumbling chamber, leaving Hermione's body.

Ron walked over toward Hermione's body, bending down beside her and looked sadly at her pale face. "She's dead," he whispered in shock, without checking to see if she was breathing, had a pulse or anything else that would hint that she was alive. He looked up at Harry with a crestfallen expression. "Dead."

"No." Was Harry's response as he pointed to the slow rise and fall of her chest, which meant she was still breathing. He turned his eyes on Ron, who was still staring at Hermione with tears dripping off his long nose.

"Yes." Ron mumbled, taking Harry's no for a sign of shock or denial. He dried his eyes with the back of his hand, refusing to allow himself to cry anymore. Or at least to cry at the moment while they still needed to get Hermione's body and themselves out of the chamber.

Harry hissed under his breath as a chunk of the ceiling dropped, narrowly missing Hermione and Ron. "No, I mean she is breathing, she is not dead." he said, looking around the room slowly as he ran his fingers through his dark hair. "But we need to get out before we are all dead. Just be careful when you lift her, she probably has plenty of broken bones."

Ron nodded and bit his lip as he slipped an arm under her knees, easing the rest of her body into his arms slowly and lifted her. Before walking he dipped his head down, brushing his lips across her forehead and listened to her heartbeat for a moment. "Let's go," he said quietly and without waiting began to walk quickly towards the Chamber's exit, followed closely behind by Harry.

Harry turned around for a moment, looking at where Hermione had been laying and sighed. "Hold on," he said, darting over towards where her wand was on the ground and shoved it in his pocket. He turned back to notice Ron hadn't stopped walking, but continued, as if he had been trying to get Hermione out as soon as possible. He was also softly stroking Hermione's hair with one hand while walking. Harry managed to let out a quiet chuckle and jogged to catch up with Ron.

Ron sighed softly as he walked, glancing away from Hermione's peaceful face to look at Harry as he caught up with him. He managed to offer him a weak smile, which was only from the happiness that finding Hermione alive brought him. Both dragged their eyes down to look at Hermione for a bit as they continued to walk in silence. But said silence only stretched for a couple more seconds as both spoke at the same time.

"Ron-."

"Harry-."

They both laughed, which left a bitter taste in their mouths before Ron looked up at Harry, raising his eyebrows as if ask Harry to continue.

"No, it's fine. What I have to say will only depress us." Harry mumbled darkly, the small smile that was on his face vanished and was replaced with a large frown. "That is, if depressing us anymore is even possible at this point."

Ron sighed loudly, as if he was angry with Harry, or himself. "Depressing or not, finish. Mine can wait, it was of no importance." He glanced away as he spoke, running his fingers through his messy hair out of nervousness. He looked down at Hermione's face with a sad sigh, kissing her forehead once more. Harry stared at Ron for a few minutes, not speaking until Ron looked back up at him. By just the look Ron was giving Harry, he could tell that Ron was lying, that what he had to say was important but that he was afraid for some reason unknown to him to say anything.

"Er," Harry began quietly, looking away from Ron as he continued to speak, "I was just wondering what had happened to her." He stopped speaking when Ron gave him a look, something that was between anger and sadness for Harry bringing it up. "I mean, I know that none of us know but… What if she was just st-?" He never got to finish what he had begun to say though due to Ron cutting him off.

"She wasn't stunned," Ron said, looking down at Hermione's face again with a pained expression. "I checked already. Trust me mate, if she were just stunned she would be awake by now. Something else must have happened."

"Oh," Harry said in a soft voice. "Well, do you think she'll be okay? That she'll wake soon?" He thought for a second before adding in an undertone. "What if she was poisoned?"

Ron looked over at Harry, his eyes filling with tears as he shook his head slowly. "I don't know if she is okay, I really hope she is and that she will wake soon." he began but froze for a moment as Harry spoke a final time. "Poisoned?" He had never thought of that, what if Hermione was bit by the snake, slowly dying from poison rushing through her veins. "I-I… I really hope she wasn't Harry, I can't lose Hermione. I can't." He looked away sadly as they left the Chamber, their pace quickening in order to leave faster.
Nothing else was said as they walked out towards the nearest fireplace to Floo to St. Mungo's.

Harry watched Ron go ahead of him, not knowing that he had been correct, that Hermione was dying slowly from poison rushing through her veins. That the snake was designed to kill people in stages, making it the most painful death they could experience.

Author's Note: At first this story was going to be based off a movie and Hermione wasn't going to be dying, just in a coma. But slowly as I wrote the first chapter I decided to trying something new, something less fluffy and with more angst.
Chapter two will be three hours prior to this chapter and it will be from Hermione's perspective, showing how she got rid of the snake, got bit, and anything else that needs to be known about what Hermione did while in the mouth of Slytherin.
I hope you all enjoy this story and I will post the next chapter as soon as I can.

And of course this is AU, even though I've had this story written since before the seventh book came out.

Brooke