The rolling hills of the grounds; while typically green and lush, were burning. The magnificent castle was in ruins, and was continually getting worse the longer the battle went on. Still bodies were strewn across the grounds, the halls, the courtyard, the lake. Sobbing men and women alike draped over their fallen comrades and family, but they couldn't mourn over them for long. Duels between black clothed, masked men and people of all ages lit the territory alight with different colors; if you tried hard enough, you could see it as beautiful, like fireworks. But there was nothing beautiful about tonight. It would be the longest night for every single soul there. No one was safe. No one could hide. No one could rest. It was fight or die. It was the night the war was going to end. Everyone can feel it in the air. The tension. The stress and the strain was almost palpable, you could almost taste it. But who knows which side would win?
Hermione couldn't breathe.
Faster. She had to run faster.
Her lungs screamed at her to slow down. Her breathing ragged.
She seemed to always be running, fleeing from one enemy to the next.
She was the target of 2 predators so she had to ignore the throbbing and painful stitch in her side.
All she could hear were explosions around her, and her own blood rushing through her ears, sounding like waves crashing on jagged rock. Her legs burned with exertion as she bolts down the seventh floor corridor.
'I have to find Harry' her mind cried out. She throws a jinx behind her blindly, one of the men who were closing in collapses and the other trips over his fallen comrade, and he lets out a snarl as his body slams into the stone, but it didn't deter either of them for long.
She ran down one of the corridors as fast as she could, away from the Death Eaters who were chasing her like a pack of rabid dogs chases a rabbit. Flashes of blue, red, and purple spells fly in what seems to be a million directions, flung by members of both the light and the dark.
She takes down the corridor with the tapestry of the Dancing Trolls and the Room of Requirement. She sees Fred, George, and Percy Weasley, who were all fellow Gryffindors; and older brothers to one of her best friends, Ron. The three Weasley's fought back-to-back, formed into a tight triangle, against a group of masked Death Eaters, and Hermione rushes past them. At the other end of the hall Neville Longbottom; Hermione's oldest friend was in a furious duel with Thorfinn Rowle, a massive blonde with hulking shoulders. "Incarcerous!" She yells, ropes shoot out of her wand and slam into the dark agent and she darts past them.
She runs. Runs faster than she ever has in her life. She has to get to Harry. 'Harry' The one she is fighting for. He was the only family she had left. The one she knew was going to sacrifice himself to the Dark Lord to stop the onslaught of their beloved castle and friends.
Suddenly she heard rather than saw, a spell buzzing towards her. She tries to dodge just a little too late and felt her side rip open when a red flash gets too close. Blood immediately starts pouring out of the sizzling flesh wound. 'Find Harry' she thought through the agony. Her vision was getting blurry. 'I have to find Harry' She starts off at a run again trying to get past the twisted laughing man, although she notices she cannot move as fast as she was without causing her side to burn with more fire-filled pain than she's ever felt.
'Find Harry. Find Harry. Find Harry' her mind cried out. She glances back and sees her attackers were gaining on her. She shouts an "IMPEDIMENTA". It misses the closer of the two, but smacks into the thinner Death Eater right in the chest. She takes a sharp left down into a corridor that must have been previously hidden, but now was unveiled due to a large hole in the wall that must have been caused by one of the explosions that she can hear all around her. It was quieter in this corridor, almost too quiet, her feet make an echoing 'pound pound pound' on the stone floor.
She presses her left hand to the bloody gash above her left hip, which was almost as large as her hand. It was bigger than she thought. She runs through the burn in her side, and the burning in her lungs due to running so hard and for so long. Every single footstep hurt worse and worse. 'Harry' She skids to a stop. The hall comes to a dead-end. The only thing that is on the barren wall is a crude Hogwarts Crest carved deeply into the stone, that looked to be centuries old if you looked at the style of the crest. But Hermione could not think about that now, so she catalogs it into her almost photographic memory.
She turns around terrified, with her wand raised and a spell on her lips, just in time to see her pursuers get hit with a loud shout of "Bombarda!" She ducked and covered her head and face with her arms to protect herself from the rubble that exploded into the corridor when the masked man slammed into the wall with a sickening crunching and the sound of breaking bones.
She swallows the tears of relief. She gulps the air and chokes a little when smoke fills her lungs. Her vision was going in and out from the blood loss. All she could hear was the explosions. She feels herself growing more and more unsteady. She reaches out with both hands and supports herself against the carving in the wall. She cannot help but notice how the blood dripping from the hand that was pressed against her side, was dripping into the deep grooves of the crest. Such a deep, dark, morbid shade of red. 'Oh Harry, I'm so sorry' was her final thought before she blacks out and drifts into a world of nothingness.
Neville was in a furious duel with the Death Eater Rowle, on the 7th floor corridor. Verbal and nonverbal spells blast from both wands. Murder is in the eyes of the larger blond Death Eater, and Neville knew it. It's a fight to the death; and just when he thought he might lose, ropes erupt and tangle themselves all around the colossal prat.
He takes advantage of the fact the mans arms were now wrapped tightly under the ropes, and he stuns him, and the man topples over directly onto his face with a loud crack. Fred grins from across the hall and shouts, "Bet that was his nose!", as Neville sees two Death Eaters pursuing Hermione; and gaining on her, and in a split second he dashes down the hall and follows her attacker.
His strong legs carry him down the hall faster than he thought possible. He follows a trail of burgundy red, 'That's too much blood.' he then sees Hermione throw a jinx at one of the men and Neville has to jump over him to avoid running right into him. He sees Hermione run down a passage in a gaping hole in the wall and he speedily follows.
He glanced in the direction she was headed and he knew she was running towards a dead-end. She turns around and all he can see is terror in her eyes that lacked the light that usually fills her whiskey colored eyes. She looks ghostly pale, her chest heaving trying to get enough oxygen in the smoky hallway.
The two men in black raises their wands and Neville thinks fast and shouts "Bombarda!" The Death Eaters never even saw him, and by the sound of the crunching that their bodies made when they collided with the wall, Neville was sure they would never see or maybe even breath again.
He watches as she stumbles backwards and turns her back towards him, not having seen him, placing her palms on the wall in front of her. She was incredibly unsteady and he vaulted over the body as he heard Hermione sob "I'm so sorry Harry." as she collapsed. He hurried over and caught her head as it almost smacks against the unforgiving stone. "Everything is going to be alright. Please let everything be okay," he prayed. He lifts up her scorched shirt to her ribs and has to look away immediately, swallowing the bile that quickly fills his throat; her skin was burnt away and blackened. Shakily, he pulls a small bottle of dittany out of his muggle jean pocket and counts the drops as they fall out; 'One. Two. Three.' It was the last of the potion he had, he hoped it would be enough.
Out of the corner of his eye, he notices something in the hall changes, and he glances up and stares in amazement. The carving of the Hogwarts crest was glowing a deep purple light that cast an eerie glow across the hall they were in. Shaking his head, feeling slightly dazed, he reaches out to touch the middle of the crest and suddenly, with his hand a wands tip width away from touching it, there's an explosion and he has just enough time to throw a shield charm up over them and throw himself over Hermione and he knew no more.