I burst through the doorway, my wand pointed out and a hundred different spells on my lips, ready to go. There was so much chaos everywhere that I didn't know where to look. People were running in all different directions, everything was on fire and the room was filling with smoke. Through the smoke spells were firing every which way and there was almost no way to tell if you were accidently hot with one of those spells whether it would be a harmless spell that would simply knock me over, or if it would be a spell that would leave me dead before I hot the ground.
Harry had taken off towards the Ravenclaw common room under the advice of Luna to find another possible horcrux. Ron had suddenly announced that he had an idea and had grabbed a few people to come with him, including Seamus, Dean and Ginny, and had run into the battle full of determination.
Ron hadn't been the same towards me since he had found us again in the forest. It was like he had come to a sudden realisation and everything had changed. While he hadn't been ignoring me or rude, it was like I could feel our connection had been cut. At first I had been hurt, but then I realised that I wasn't as hurt as I should have been. That after he had begun to see Lavender that something had shifted inside me to. And while I was ok with that, I was not ok with being left out of the loop at a time like this.
So when the rest of us left in the room stepped out into the battle, I had quickly been separated from the group, as I imagine most people had been in the chaos that was happening outside of the room.
I hadn't known where to go so for a moment I had just stood in the hallway, firing every spell I could at every Death Eater that scurried past me. Most people had run out of the hallways, trying to take cover in rooms and barricade the door.
I had seen one room a few doors down from me be blasted open by two Death Eaters and I had followed suit.
As I looked around at the turned over desks, papers scattered everywhere and bookshelves on fire, I finally noticed that there were about 10 people within the room running around. It didn't take long though to recognise the Death Eaters among the crowd.
"Hermione!" I heard someone call my name as I fired off my first stunning spell, hitting one of the Death Eaters directly in the chest and he dropped like a rock. I looked around to see a familiar pointed face shielding two people behind him.
"Colin! What are you doing here?!" I shouted, only looking away to take aim as I fired another spell at the other Death Eater. As the second Death Eater fell to the ground people started making their way towards the door.
"I just want to help. This is my school too. My friends. I'm standing with Harry" Colin called as he was being pulled away with the students he had been protecting.
"No you need to get out of here. They're evacuating everyone under 18. You need to get to safety!" I yelled as he headed for the door.
"Good luck Hermione! I'll see you when we've won!" He grinned before disappearing into the crowd. I tried to follow him out but he was lost in the smoke and havoc surrounding us.
I fought my way through the hallways with the rest of the student population that was still standing. My mind was spinning but I couldn't think, couldn't feel. I was just numb. Firing every spell I could think of at every Death Eater I saw. Spells were firing everywhere and three times I had taken a spell to the chest, knocking me on my ass. And all three times I almost cried in relief that it hadn't been the killing curse, or something equally as bad. Mostly there was no ways to know who the spell had come from, either friend or foe, as the screams and bodies of people running and failing were too distracting.
After the third spell had hit me in the chest, I laid there on the ground, trying to suck in air to my lungs. My chest felt like it had been lit on fire and a heavy box was sitting on it. I felt a tear stream down my face as I struggled to pull air in and my body laid there unmoving, broken. People were running around me, some over me, not stopping to see if I was ok, too busy trying to save their own lives. I tried not to think about my friends, who was still fighting and who had lost this fight.
Finally my chest relaxed and little by little my lungs began to work again. I forced myself to sit up despite my body screaming at me to lay back down. Slowly I made my way to me feet and stumbled out towards an open hallway outside.
I allowed the brick wall to support me and I struggled to keep my feet moving, still trying to get enough oxygen into my body.
As someone ran past me their shoulder hit mine hard and I felt pain shoot up my arm and I leaned against the wall harder to stop from falling. As I tried to balance myself a flash of pink caught my eye. One of the bodies laying on the ground was wearing a pink scarf.
I had a heart sinking feeling as I neared the body, sweat began to prickle on my forehead. It was a girl with brown curly hair that flowed out around her like a halo. Her face was ripped apart by claw marks and my stomach lurched. As I took a step forward my hand automatically covered my mouth to stifle a scream that jumped up my throat as I recognised Lavender Brown underneath the disfigurement. Her eyes staring up empty towards the ceiling.
I reached out to touch her. My other hand still covering my mouth to hold back the sobs of shock. Suddenly someone grabbed me and a small scream escaped while I prepared my body to attack.
"Hermione. We have to go. Leave her" A familiar voice said with a low growl and I felt myself being pulled away from Lavender and back inside the castle.
"Neville" I breathed a sigh of relief when I looked up to who was pulling me inside.
"Are you ok?" I began to ask him but suddenly a shadow of movement caught my eye.
"Expelliarmus!" I yelled and the wand flew out of the Death Eater's hand that had been pointed right at Neville.
Neville spun around, raising his wand at the Death Eater who had decided to charge at us without his wand. Neville yelled a stunning spell and the Death Eater flew backwards.
Suddenly there was a loud explosion and as I looked up I could see parts of the roof starting to crumble. People began screaming louder and running towards the exit as the room began to shake and the roof began to fall apart.
I felt myself getting pushed along with the people trying to run towards the doorway to lead back deeper inside the castle, and I saw Neville get caught up in a group heading back outside. It wasn't long before I had lost sight of him and Neville had disappeared into the crowd.
I stood there, stunned, as people were running all around me.
"Hermione!" I heard another familiar voice call out. I spun around, recognising the voice from the crowd, frantically trying to find him.
"Fred?" I called back when I was unable to find his face.
Suddenly I saw them. Three Weasley brothers heading my way. The twins and Percy. My heart filled with relief. With George's arm around Percy's shoulder's I instantly felt better. At least some things were still right in the world.
Fred wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into an embrace. I felt George put his hand on my shoulder and give me a comforting pat.
"Are you ok?" George asked and I nodded, missing the warmth of Fred's arms as he pulled away. My stomach was in knots, I had never been much of a hugger, but it still felt different than hugging Harry or Ron. They felt like brothers/best friends. This had felt…..different.
I pushed it out of my mind and turned to Percy who gave me an awkward and embarrassed smile. I smiled back and he looked relieved.
"Have you seen Ron?" George asked, worry flashing over his face.
Fred and George may have been twins, but I had learned to tell the difference. For one, George's eyes were a slightly lighter brown, whereas Fred's eyes were darker, so much that no matter how he angled his face, there was rarely any lightness in his eyes. George had rougher looking hands, as the better Beater of the two, but Fred carried himself with more confidence, unless they had been caught doing something, in which George would then step forward with his better political skills. Fred hair was a tiny bit longer than George's. Not enough to really notice. But I did.
The last year or so, before all this happened, I had been spending more time with Fred and George at the burrow during school breaks than I had been with Harry and Ron. Ron and I were on shaky grounds and Harry didn't want to be caught in the middle. Plus, I had always been on a different level to Harry and Ron, a little more mature and on a different thinking level. I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the twin's company. While they appeared immature to everyone, with their pranks and jokes, I realised how level headed and smart they actually were. How much effort and design went into their products and they were actually running a successful business.
The night of Bill and Fleur's wedding, everyone was having a wonderful time. I'd had a couple of alcoholic butterbeers seems I was 18, even Molly had offered me one. I had loved seeing Victor, it had been so nice to catch up, and even Ron's snarky attitude about it couldn't have ruined my night.
So when everyone went to the dance floor after the first dance, I had looked around for no one. Victor had been swept away by a friend of Fleurs, Harry was on the floor already, stumbling around with Ginny. Ron was on the other side of the dance floor, arms crossed, with no inclination of coming over to me. As I turned to move away from the dance floor so go sit down, a hand had grabbed mine and pulled me back onto the floor. I looked up into the familiar dark eyes.
Fred had given me a small, sweet smile, but said nothing as he pulled me into his arms and started swaying to the music. Neither of us said nothing, but his eyes didn't move from mine. We weren't even really dancing, just swaying in one spot, our faces so close I could feel the warmth from his face on mine. His arms held me tighter and I wanted nothing more than to be closer to him. As the song ended, we had both just stood there, unmoving for a moment. His arms were still around me, and I didn't want him to let go, despite what people might start thinking if he didn't. In a movement so smooth I barely noticed it, his face bent closer to mine so that his nose touched mine.
No matter how many times I had replayed this memory in my head, I was still never sure who had leaned forward first. But one of us had, and suddenly his lips were on mine.
But then chaos broke out as a message that the Ministry had fallen arrived, and we were in danger. I had lost Fred in the confusion, and when we were attacked I had left with Harry and Ron and I hadn't seen Fred since that night.
Now here he was, standing in front of me. The same small, sweet smile on his face as he looked down at me. I had a million questions to ask him, but the walls began to shake and Fred grabbed me, pulling me and George away from the room.
"We should head towards the Room of Requirement" George whispered as we moved through the crowd.
We continued heading towards the Room, when down the hallway was a large group of Death Eaters coming our way. We all raised our wands, and I saw Fred side glance at me.
Spells began flying in every direction and the Death Eaters were upon us. There was only 3 of them to the four of us and I heard Fred and George laugh at something Percy had said.
Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw someone step out of the shadows. It was a Death Eater, and he gave me a sickly grin and he raised his wand. It wasn't pointed at me. It was pointed at the arch of the supporting wall within the hallway.
"Stop!" George called as they noticed what I was seeing. The guy just grinned and opened his mouth. I couldn't hear what the spell was, but in the spilt second, I knew it was bad.
It was as if time had slowed down. I heard Fred call out my name but my all I could do was stumble backwards. I saw Percy grip the back of George's shirt and pull him backwards towards a pillar, and I hoped with all my heart they would make it.
Suddenly I felt my body get violently pulled and I looked up to see Fred pulling me by my arm towards him. He pulled me into his arms, but there was no where for us to hide as we were standing in the middle of the hallway. Fred's eyes locked onto mine and I knew that he knew it too. His hand brushed my cheek sadly and I wanted to kiss him. But then there was a loud bang and the room began to shake. My ears felt like they had popped and I couldn't hear much around me. I opened my mouth to say something to Fred as he looked down at me, but his arms wrapped around me and he pulled me into his chest before I could react. As I felt his arms tighten around me, to shield me, to protect me, there was a second, much louder bang, and the world felt like it was ending.
We were both thrown into the air, and somewhere in the air, Fred's arms loosened around me and we were separated. I came down hard on the floor with a crash and everything went black.
I screamed at myself to open my eyes, blinking the dust out of my lashes. As I sat up my head was pounding in so much pain, for a second I thought it was spilt open. Blood gushed down the side of my face, it was warm and sticky, but it was only a small split. I forced myself to sit up and look at the destruction around me. I hadn't blacked out for long, a few seconds maybe, as I saw a limping George pulling Percy to his feet, who was holding his clearly broken arm.
I tried to pull myself up, but my legs were like jelly and I fell to the ground, too weak to stand. My ears were still ringing and my head was spinning, but even I could hear the heart-breaking scream that tore through the remains of the hallways.
George was on his knees, his head thrown back in agony as his screams echoed through the ruins around him. A red-headed body lay beside him.
My mind was numb. I refused to believe it. I began to drag myself towards Fred, almost crawling until to got to him.
His brown eyes stared up at what was now the sky.
"No. No" I cried, my hands searching his frantically for a pulse. I was barely aware of Percy dropping down to his knees beside George, silently wrapping his arms around him as tears streamed down his face. Both of them were in anguish, tears pouring down their faces as they clinged to each other and George clinged to Fred's un-moving body.
This wasn't happening, I told myself. My eyes couldn't tear themselves away from Fred's. His dark eyes staring up at the sky, as if he was in deep thought. As my eyes began to sting with tears and my throat began to swell, there was rare light brown glinting in his eyes.
"No. This isn't it" I said mostly to myself. I pulled myself closer to Fred, my hands on his chest.
"What- What are you doing?" George sniffed.
"Hermione, he's gone" Percy said so quietly I almost didn't hear him.
I ignored them. I had seen this scene too many times throughout my time in the wizarding world. Where someone was hurt, or worse, and either magic was the solution, or nothing was.
"Why are you pushing on his chest?" George cried.
"Its called CPR" I grunted, trying to get into a better position. I tilted his head back, holding his nose and parting his lips.
This isn't how I wanted our second kiss to be, I thought to myself and I blew air into Fred's lungs, returning to pumping his chest. You better wake up Fred Weasley, you owe me a real second kiss, I prayed in my head.
Neither George or Percy attempted to stop me, and all three of us sat there in silence, for what seemed like an eternity. I hadn't even noticed the tears streaming down my face, as time ticked on.
"Come on Fred!" I yelled in desperation as my arms were getting weak.
Suddenly there was a sharp inhale of air and Fred's eyes blinked.
"Fred?" George scrambled closer to him and Fred's eyes followed his brother's face. Slowly he raised his arm and clasped his hand around George's as he spluttered for air.
"What are you doing?" A small voice squeaked from him and his eyes turned to me.
"It's called CPR" I choked on my words as the tears kept coming, but this time they were in ecstasy.
"Silly Muggle concept" he grinned and I couldn't help but laugh even though my throat was still swollen from tears, making an awful sound.
"You saved me Hermione Granger" he whispered. His other hand reaching up to my face.
"You saved me first" I whispered back, feeling the warmth of his hand on my cheek, and it was the best feeling in the world.
"I wasn't just talking about now" he said so low that I barely heard him and he pulled me down towards him.
"You've saved me everyday since the night of the wedding. You kept me going Hermione. I just needed to find you again" he murmured, his hand sliding to the back of my head.
"You found me. I'm not going anywhere" I breathed and he finally pulled me in for our second kiss.