The castle was in ruins. Hermione ran behind Harry and Ron as they desperately tried to get up to the sixth floor but they kept getting distracted by bodies or cries for help. A red curse flew by Hermione's face, making her hair flutter around her face.
"Harry, look out!" Ron yelled. Another shot of light, this one blue, came from somewhere to the left. Harry ducked just in time and the trio was able to slip into a passage that led up to the room that they needed.
"We're almost there, guys!" Harry called out. They took the stairs a few at a time. Hermione's breath was coming in pants but she managed to make it up only a step behind them. Harry burst out from behind a tapestry to a hex that hit him in the shoulder.
"Damnit!" He yelled, falling onto his back. Ron and Hermione ran up and grabbed him, dragging him back behind the next corridor. The castle shook as the were more breaches in the lower levels of the castle. Dust and rubble fell down around them.
"We have to get to the Room of Requirement," Harry ground out in frustration. Hermione ran a few quick healing spells over his shoulder while Ron looked around the corner.
"We're going to have to fight our way there," Ron said, rolling his shoulders back. Hermione steeled herself as Harry got up. She looked at her two best friends and wondered what on Earth she would do without them.
Harry's glasses were broken, one lens spidered and his face had blood spilling down one side. Ron's shirt was torn and he had a bruise blossoming under his left eye. Hermione remembered cowering in a girl's bathroom while these two idiots shoved a wand up a troll's nose for her. Now look at them. She wanted to grab them, hug them one more time. She was so proud of them.
"Hermione, did you hear me?" She shook her head and jumped a little as the floor lurched again. "We gotta go. Are you ready?"
"Ready," she agreed, wand at the ready. Harry lead the charge, firing off spell after spell. It was like everything was happening in slow motion. He wasn't the eleven year old boy who lived under the stairs without parents anymore. He was strong and brave and a hero. Ron was right at his heels. His wand wasn't making him puke up slugs anymore. It was a weapon and a shield. He wasn't living in anyone's shadow. He was –
He was hit.
Hit by green light.
Hit before anyone could do anything about it.
"RON!" Hermione screamed so loud her lungs almost burst. It was so loud it was a wonder Harry heard her at all, but he did. He turned around and watched Hermione catch Ron before his body hit the floor.
"NO!" There was nothing anybody could do. His eyes were open, his heart had stopped. Hermione cradled his head in her lap, having fallen to the floor with him. Harry ran to them, skidding to a stop in front of them. His eyes were wide in horror as he shook his best friend's shoulders in a futile attempt to reverse what just happened. "Ron! Ron wake up!" He screamed. Hermione couldn't move. She couldn't move at all.
The castle kept raining itself down on them. A particularly large piece of rock fell onto Harry's back. It seemed to knock him out of his grief. He grabbed onto Hermione's hand. She couldn't stop looking at Ron, running her hand over his face. He could have been sleeping.
"Hermione," he said as gently as he could while people were trying to kill them. "Hermione, we have to go." She didn't move. Harry grabbed her face in his hands and pulled her gaze to his. His emerald eyes were glassy with unshed tears but they were also fierce and unyielding. "We have to leave him."
"How," she whispered. Somewhere above their heads a curse rebounded from another hallway and they ducked against Ron's body.
"We have to go. Come on." Harry tugged her up and they spared one glance back before running back towards their mission.
Another voice filled the castle. One that only Harry could understand.
"Find me Harry Potter, avenge your dead friend. More are dying by the minute. Just like your parents. Just like Sirius Black. Just like Dumbledore."
Parsletongue. Hermione realized.
"Find me where everything is lost."
Harry roared in his anger and ran even faster. Hermione tried as fast as she could to keep up. They needed to get the diadem. They needed to get to the Room of Requirement and find it before Voldemort got into the castle.
"Harry, what is he saying?" Hermione asked.
"He wants me to meet him in the forest," Harry bit out. Hermione couldn't let that happen. She couldn't lose both of them. Not in one night. They were in the sixth floor corridor now, it was deserted. This really should have alerted to Hermione that there was something wrong. Harry didn't notice, he was already pacing back and forth in front of the door.
"Harry," Hermione started.
"Show me the room where the lost things are hidden, show me the room where the lost things are hidden, sho-"
"Harry, wait," Hermione said, but it was too late. The door materialized and Harry wrenched it open before she could stop him.
Hermione knew that Harry had lied to her as soon as they walked into the room of requirement. Voldemort didn't want Harry to meet him in the forest, he wanted him to meet him here.
"Welcome Harry. Ah, you brought the mudblood, lovely." Voldemort wasn't alone. Somehow, he had Bellatrix with him - and Snape. It was making Hermione's skin crawl just being in their general vicinity. She would take Voldemort over the psycho witch to be honest.
"Harry," Hermione said. Bellatrix flicked a lazy curse in her direction. Hermione blocked it just a little too easily so it could only have been a warning shot.
"Watch your mouth mudblood. Nobody gave you permission to speak," she spat. Hermione tried not to show fear but she also tried not to roll her eyes.
"Easy Bella," Voldemort said. "These are our guests." Harry was stock still, standing upright and rigid. She could see the muscles in his forearms as he gripped his wand tight. Her eyes went back and forth like a tennis match.
"I'm going to kill you." Harry's voice was as dark and deadly as Hermione had ever heard it. It was the first time she was ever scared of her best friend. Voldemort had the audacity to laugh at him as he walked closer to him. Hermione surveyed the room. Snape was looking at her like he was trying to force thoughts into her head.
"You know Harry, your father, dear James, said the same thing to me. We all know how that worked out for him." Bella laughed with such insanity it was almost contagious. Voldemort was close enough to Harry now that he could have touched him if he wanted to. "That was right before I killed him and then your mother. So pretty she was, for a mudblood." Harry raised his wand arm but his curse was knocked away by Bellatrix. "Now, now Harry. I'm not done."
Hermione was still staring at Snape. He shifted his eyes to the left. Hermione did the same. Bellatrix and Voldemort were way too focused on Harry to notice. Hermione didn't notice anything that Snape would want her to look at. There was simply an old cabinet with the door shut. He nodded almost inperceptively and turned his attention back towards the main attraction. Voldemort was circling Harry now.
"I will kill you," Harry said again, firmer now.
"I appreciate your fire Harry. It is futile but I will give you a chance to defend yourself. I will let you die on your feet like your father." Voldemort stepped back and made a sweeping motion with his wand, clearing a space for them to duel in the crowded room. Hermione felt herself being pushed back. It was almost like they forgot about her.
"Harry," she whispered, hoping that he could hear her. He either didn't or was choosing to let her be invisible.
"Are you ready to meet your fate, Harry Potter," Voldemort asked, feigning a bow to his dueling partner.
"You wish," Harry said and without any warning he fired a curse at the towering pile of lost things behind Voldemort. The stuff came down in a deafening crash that covered Voldemort, Bellatrix, and Snape. Harry grabbed Hermione and began firing off spells behind him as they ran through the room looking for anything that could help them.
"Harry, what were you thinking!" Hermione said to him once they were far enough away. Harry was too busy looking around him for something that she couldn't understand. "Harry talk to me!"
"Hermione, the vanishing cabinet! We have to find it and use it to get everyone out of here. You have to get it out of here!" He was barking mad.
"And what are you going to do!?"
"I'm going to-"
"Harry Potter!" Voldemort roared. "Don't prolong your destiny."
"I'm going to fight him." Hermione held onto his hands.
"Harry, you can't."
"I have to. Find the cabinet, get everyone out." he said and he gave her a hug. "I love you, Hermione." Before she could stop him, he pulled out of her grasp and ran up the aisle. Hermione tried to run after him but he pulled a tower of books down to block her path. She groaned in frustration and had to take a new path. It led her back up to where they were dueling. Harry was throwing all the curses he knew at Voldemort who was deflecting each one with ease. Bellatrix was jumping and clapping.
"You have been taught well, Harry," Voldemort stated "but do you have the stomach for this – crucio." To Harry's credit he didn't scream out in pain. He didn't even fall to his knees. He stood as tall as he could and closed his eyes. Hermione could see him fighting as hard as he could. "Ahh," Voldemort said, lifting the curse after a tortuous minute, "you never cease to impress me Harry. However, we are at the end of the line here for neither can live while the other survives."
Hermione crept closer and realized that she was next to the cabinet that Snape had indicated earlier. She couldn't open it now. She couldn't distract Harry or she could kill him.
"Then it will be you that dies." Harry tried to lift his wand arm but the cruciatus curse had taken most of his strength.
"We'll see," Voldemort's red eyes shone with excitement, "Will you die on your knees Potter?"
"No." Harry raised his head and Hermione stifled back a sob. Snape looked over at her sharply. Her horrified eyes met his.
"As you wish. Avada Kedavra."
Harry's spell came too late. The green light hit him before he could finish his word. His green eyes were open and looking in her direction, void of any life. Hermione found herself stunned still again. Apparently, there was no time for celebrating though because Voldemort was back to barking orders.
"Get the body and find the mudblood, I want her too," he told them. Bellatrix was dancing around Harry's body and Hermione saw nothing but red. She could kill her. She would kill her. Painfully. Slowly. She would bleed for this.
"Sectumsempr-"
"Bombarda!" Before she could finish her spell, Snape's curse hit the cabinet behind her. The wood exploded and it showered her in gold, glass, and sand. It made her dizzy and sick. She tried running. Tried moving.
She was pulled backwards and there was nothing she could do about it.