Villain
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any of the characters, books, or films nor am I making any profit off of them.
Notes: I'm new to this fandom, and perhaps a little late to it as well, though I started reading the books in 1998, recently I've come back to reread them all (for maybe the third time) and this story entered my mind, demanding to be written, the entire thing has been laid out and planned, perhaps 15 chapters in total. I have tried to keep this as close to the original as possible, but as you will see, I have changed a small segment of what happened in the battle of Hogwarts.
Rating: This will be a T for most of the story, but there will be a few mature scenes in future chapters hence the M rating. So do be aware, and I will listed warnings at the top of all new chapters.
Chapter One
She didn't think she'd ever spent so long just looking at a person. There were people she saw all day, like Ron and Harry, but she didn't just look at them, she listened to them, she talked to them, played games, argued, lectured them, but actually very little time was spent solely looking at them. It seemed such an intimate thing, just to look at somebody. Especially here, in the hospital wing, where he lay unawares of her eyes drifting over his face.
He was so pale, she knew that he had always been pale, but this was something different, this was as if all the blood had been leached from his body. She could see blue veins whispering under the skin of his cheeks, the brief bristle of hair moving as he breathed from between blue tinged lips. Despite how still he was, there was nothing peaceful about him, the white skin, white sheets, and white hair were betrayed by the shocking red streaks in his hair, dried to rusty brown in places, but still an unnerving reminder of the violence that had passed.
Hermione knew that by now people would be looking for her, trying to seek comfort in the people that were still alive today, knowing that there were some people untouched by this, at least physically. She knew that there were other people, here, in this hospital wing that deserved her vigil more than the boy lying in front of her. She knew that soon the hospital wing would become once again full of the grieving and inconsolable, the castle would be waking up from the dreamless sleep that Madame Pomfrey's potions provided them. They would wake up and realize that the sun had risen once more, but in rising it had revealed the bodies of death eater as yet uncollected, crumbled walls, and children who had grown up all too quickly. They would mourn before they would rebuild, and she doubted that any of them would feel any happiness in their new found freedom for the next few months.
She could hear footsteps echoing in the halls beyond the hospital wing now. She did not have long before the quiet was disturbed, and yet, she still couldn't move. She still didn't have an answer. Why had he done it? She looked back at the face of the boy who she had learnt to hate and pity in equal measures. The boy who had spent years tormenting her, the boy who was the total opposite of all that she and her friends were. The boy, who yesterday, had stood up to Voldermort, changing sides at the last moment.
He looked like he was asleep. Cradled like a small child in Hagrid's oversized arms her friend, Harry, was dead.
The fight that she had unknowingly been drawn into six years ago was over.
They had lost.
"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as well every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before him, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."
Hermione was barely aware of the despair rippling around her. She was barely aware of anything, it seemed like her whole world had shrunken to that limp figure whom Hagrid was gently lying on the floor. There had been a prophesy, there had been a plan, there had been the trust that good would triumph over evil, now, there was nothing.
She was aware that a cry had escaped her lips. Then there was a wall of noise as others cried out in despair and defiance. She saw somebody rushing forwards wand raised, and she barely had time to register that it was Neville before his body got knocked backwards as if by a great force and his wand spun out of his hand. Not Neville too, she thought to herself, but the boy got up seemingly unharmed and stared down the tall wizard in front of him.
"Who is this?" Voldermort snarled.
"Longbottom Master." Bellatrix Lestrange said stepping forwards. "He's the son of the aurors, he's been giving the Carrows trouble all year."
"Ahh, yes, Longbottom. You may think that I would want to punish you for your insolence Longbottom, but the new world is going to need strong young wizards like yourself. Especially those of pure blood. So instead, I will make you an offer. Join me Longbottom, become a deatheater, and all will be forgiven. You will have wealth and glory that you have never before dreamed of."
"Never!" Neville shouted.
"So hasty, but that is a symptom of your youth. Perhaps I have not made the chose clear to you. Perhaps you do not understand what will happen to you if you do not side with me. "
Voldermort's snake like eyes meet Hermione's, and for an instant it felt like she had been doused with ice cold water, but then there was a sickening lurch as she felt something grab at her stomach pulling her upwards in a rush. Invisible ropes snaked around her wrists and ankles so tight that they burned and tingled, her body complaining about the lack of blood. It was over in seconds and she was there, hanging three feet up in the air, facing Voldermort and his crowd of followers.
"This one however, this one is a mudblood, she is worthess to me. She will be the first in the cleanse. Today we celebrate the coming of the age of the pure borns."
Voldermort raised his wand.
Hermione knew that it was the end. Thoughts of her parents flashed through her mind and she was relieved that they were happy in Austraila, and would not mourn her. She closed her eyes waiting for the end.
"Not her! Expelliarmus! "
She opened her eyes in shook, not at the words, but at whom the voice belonged to. There was a red flash and for an instant Voldermorts wand hand shook, but there was little more effect than that. With a vengeful smile on his face he turned slowly to look at the teenage boy behind him.
Draco Malfoy stared with wide eyes at his outstretched wand arm, as shocked as everybody around him. There was stunned silence as Voldermort's lipless mouth twisted into a smile.
The white and black haired woman stood to Draco's side screamed wordlessly, the truth of what was about to happen sinking into her mind.
"Sectumsempra."
Hermione watched as huge slashes appeared on Draco's body, his robes torn as if invisible claws ripped at his body. The onslaught only lasted seconds, but the damaged it left was horrendous. It was not the clean easy death of the killing curse, this was a flaying. Strips of skin peeled from Draco's chest, the muscles underneath laid bare. The last flicker of Voldermort's wand had left a wide, open wound up the side of Draco's neck, and it was this he clutched at as he gurgled blood and collapsed to his knees.
There was silence as Voldermort turned back to Hermione, his cool demeanour flickering.
"I apologise for the brief pause to this evening's entertainment. "
There was a short forced laugh from a few members of the crowd of deatheaters.
"Crucio."
Hermione has expected pain, but none had come. She couldn't understand why the curse had not worked. At first she thought the murmur of surprise that had run through the crowd was because the curse had failed, perhaps Voldermort was losing power for some reason. But then she noticed a movement below and in front of her. And she looked down to see a twitching and blood soaked bundle of robes, indistinguishable if not for the flash of white hair.
She looked over to the crowd of deatheater, and there, where moments before Draco had be kneeling, was only mother, her arm reaching out in silent plea, her face tormented as if it were she herself who were undergoing the pain of the cruciatus curse.
Hermione looked back down, with nothing to stem the blood the pool of red surrounding Malfoy was growing at an alarming rate. She hadn't known a person could lose that much blood and still be alive, and as she watched his trembling lessened as if she was watching the very life drain out of him. Draco Malfoy, had just took the cruciatus curse for her, more than that, Draco Malfoy had tried to save her, Hermione Granger, a muggle born.
"Petrificus.."
There was a flash of blue light and Hermione looked up just as Neville flew backward once again. He had found his wand in the distraction that Draco had caused, but he had not been quick enough.
"I guess I can take that as your final answer. On your head be it." Voldermort snarled at him. He raised his wand. For a few moments nothing happened, then the sorting hat flew from one of the smashed windows of the castle, and gracefully placed itself upon Neville's head.
"There will be no more sorting at Hogwarts school, there will be no more houses. The emblem, shield and colours of my noble ancestor Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone, won't they, Mr Longbottom? Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anybody foolish enough to continue to oppose me."
Hermione watched in horror as the flames rose up from beneath the hat, Neville her friend, so brave just moments before, started to scream.
"Granger."
The hoarse voice woke her out of her memories. She blinked staring around her, for a moment surprised to find herself inside and firmly upon a chair. They were just memories, but they were so sharp, so real that she could still smell the bitterness of burning hair. Still hear the screams. But it was not screams that she had heard, it was a voice, her name. She looked down to the bed beside her and found herself meet with two ice blue eyes staring back. He was awake.
If you have made it to the end of this chapter, then I thank you for you attention. Please review, or follow if you want to see what happens next. I am hoping the next chapter will be up by Wednesday.