The girl walked down a poorly lit path with a certain purpose in her step. Thick brown curls swayed behind her as she navigated over thick, gnarled tree roots and beneath low hanging branches. She walked with a confidence that did not betray her nervousness, her feeling of overwhelming anxiety being in the depths of the forbidden forest in the middle of the night.

What little moonlight shone through the treetops did nothing to light her way and she acted almost on instinct alone as she moved through the trees. In her hand, there was a wadded piece of parchment, crumpled almost past the point of reading. The trailing end of her cloak caught on one of those branches and stalled her for a moment, earning a curse under her breath.

Why had Harry and Ron told her to meet them out here in the first place? She assumed it was because they wanted to speak outside the prying eyes of Umbridge and her cronies but surely this was going just a bit far. Wouldn't the room of requirement have made as good a meeting place as the dying trees of the forbidden forest?

Hermione stalled her steps for a moment, her eyes wide as a sudden realization crashed over her. Harry and Ron- they would not meet her in the middle of the forest! Ron was terrified of the spiders who dwelled within and Harry could not navigate a place like the forest without her! He was hopeless without a map and someone to navigate for him. Her stomach dropped well out of her body and she cast a shield charm that barely dulled the sensation of a powerful curse crashing right into the center of her spine.

She fell to her hands and knees and whimpered at the sensation of hard earth, dead leaves, and gnarled roots digging into her tender palms. The heat at her back spread outward quickly soon working its way to her neck. What was it? She could not identify it!

Her arms gave and she fell face first to the forest floor. Where was she again? What was happening?

Her vision blacked, in and out. No one spoke, not a sound reached her ears as total darkness reached in around her, consuming her. It wrapped around her like an icy blanket until she was gone from herself- there was nothing, complete nothingness cradled her.