Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize from the Harry Potter books or movies
Hermione held the hands of the two closest first years. As head girl, she was in charge of keeping the younger students safe. Her body yearned to go fight beside her two best friends, but her mind worked against it. Dumbledore had given her specific instructions to follow. Not pursuing them would bring death to more than one innocent soul. Hermione let go of the two children beside her and walked over to check the trapdoor above them.
They were lucky that Dumbledore had seen the advances beforehand, or they never would have made it through the trap door in time. Dumbledore had come across Voldemort's plans from an ever-useful spy, whose name had never passed Dumbledore's lips.
She finished checking the locking spell on the trapdoor and ran her fingers through her long brown hair, which was damp from the dripping water from above. Hermione looked around the room for some way to keep herself awake. Magic could kill at this moment. She had no idea if the final battle had ended or not, and there were most likely deatheaters roaming the castle trying to find them. Magic would be the easiest way to track anyone down, and if used, would be their downfall.
Footsteps sounded through the hallway above them. Friend or enemy, she did not know, and she had to figure out. Hermione walked silently up the staircase to look through the small stone tinted window. It was impossible to see through the glass from the other side. To them it was just another ordinary stone that the castle was full of.
Deatheater, Hermione thought, disgusted, as she went back down to the underground room to check on the younger students. Third year and under were in this moderately sized, underground area. The room was about half the size of the great hall, which made keeping track of all the students quite easy.
The footsteps faded away and a hushed whisper carried through the room. Hermione knew it was only natural for this to occur. The students had been cooped up in this room for who knew how long. A few of them had fallen asleep, but most of them were awake, staring silently at each other. They sat lifelessly, almost as if the terror of what could happen had drained them of any of the sparkle she had seen in their eyes when she had seen them when walking through the hallways.
More footsteps were heard from above and the students quickly stopped speaking. Hermione walked up once again to see who it was. As she was walking up the stares, the footsteps stopped, as more came in. Something was wrong.
"My lord, I believe that all has gone as planned."
"Do not lie to me, something is wrong and you know it."
Hermione recognized one of the men quickly, and she only had to guess who the other cloaked figure was. The man she recognized was Lucius Malfoy and the other man was Lord Voldemort.
"My lord, the deatheaters have been searching, and we can not seem to find the rest of the students, the ones who did not fight at all."
"What else Lucius, you are still hiding something from me."
"My Lord, the mudblood you told us to find, Hermione Granger is it?"
"What about Miss Granger?" Voldemort hissed.
"She is gone as well."
Hermione stared in horror at the two men. They had said everything else had gone as planned. Oh God no, Hermione thought. That only meant one thing. Harry was dead.
"It seems the little mudblood has slipped away from our grasp, but we will find her. Search the whole castle for her. I want her brought to me alive."
"My lord, what about the other students?"
"I do not care what you do with them, but find Ms. Granger first."
Hermione hurried silently down the stairs to check on the other students. Everything was in order, yet chaos started to fill the room as students whispered to each other what they had heard. In only a few seconds, everyone was staring at Hermione.
This was dangerous. She was on the top of their list. Staying with the rest of the group would be letting them kill two birds with one stone. She had to get out of here before the deatheaters found them.
Hermione quickly decided to use the passageway through the painting right outside the trap door. She quickly told the third years that they were to not let anyone out, and that there was food in the portrait.
Getting into the passage behind the painting was easier than she had thought. No one had gotten in her way. The murky passageway had not been used in a while, and for a good reason as well. This tunnel ended up directly in Professor McGonagall's office. Vivid memories about Professor McGonagall filled her mind as she kept on walking. Being brought to the sorting hat, the time turner… good god, the time turner! If Professor McGonagall still had that time turner in her desk, she might be able to warn Harry and Dumbledore about the outcome of the final fight before it started.
A/N: Hey, it's me again, with a new story! Tell me what you think about it so far. I'll give cookies out to reviewers.