Thanks to the really lovely reviews I had! Here's chapter two.. setting context still
"Hermione, move!" Luna called, pointing to Hermione's left. The wall had been blasted moments before with a dark curse and was seconds from collapsing.
She nodded her thanks at Luna and sped away down the corridor, hoping against hope she wouldn't come across another body.
Seeing the Weasleys grouped around Fred's lifeless body like that had broken her heart. She was very fond of Fred, and George of course, and she couldn't imagine how George was going to carry on without his twin. The two shared laughs, thoughts, movements, sentences, DNA, love. Everything.
Hot tears fell down her dirty face and she swiped at them angrily. Now was not the time to cry. Now was the time to be a brave warrior and show those Death Eaters what for.
But inside, she was just an eighteen year old girl who had been staying too strong for too long. It had always been her that her friends came to for advice. Always her who found the answers, always her who knew all the facts. She was the one to rely on. Plain old reliable Hermione Granger. And as she made it to the entrance hall and stumbled past a broken and bleeding body, not knowing whose side it was from, she broke down.
Seeing her moment of weakness, a masked Death Eater blasted a curse towards her, which missed and hit the wall behind her, exploding it.
"Hermione!" came the frantic voice of Bill, who had seen the encounter.
The dust settled, and nothing could be seen beneath the pile of rubble except for a small, dusty hand. It didn't move.
"Hermione!" called Bill again, wanting to rush forward and help, but the Death Eater who had blasted the wall turned to him and entered into a duel with him. Bill slashed his wand through the air, trying desperately to defeat the Death Eater so he could see if Hermione was ok, but the man behind the mask was an equal match for him. Bill tried to focus his mind away from Hermione and entirely on winning the fight for the time being.
As Hermione tried to open her eyes, she felt as if a tonne of bricks had landed on top of her. And then she realised - it had. She strained her arm against the cold, broken stone and some of it rolled away; she pushed and pushed and more of the brick moved from above her.
When she tried to move her left leg, she had to bite down on her lip to stop from screaming and drawing attention to herself, and felt the taste of blood in her mouth. As she had cleared most of the rubble from on top of her, she looked down, and winced, bile rising from her throat.
The bone in her shin had broken away from her knee joint, and the top was sticking out underneath her knee on the outside. Blood soaked the leg of her jeans, and Hermione knew that she couldn't even feel half the pain she should be because she was numbed with shock; the pain would come ten times worse later.
"Argh!"
She looked up, and Bill was still locked in combat with the masked Death Eater. She clambered to her feet, balancing herself on her right leg, and pointing her wand shakily towards the Death Eater.
"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, and her shoulders sagged with relief as he fell backwards onto the floor, frozen.
"Hermione, you're ok! Thanks for that," Bill sighed, catching his breath from the intense battle. He looked down. "You need to get to Madam Pomfrey."
"I'll head there n-"
She was broken off by a loud, deep laugh.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Mudblood," came the drawling voice. She knew that one anywhere.
Lucius Malfoy stood before her, wand outstretched, and as Bill opened his mouth to speak, Malfoy flicked his wand sideways and Bill slumped to the floor, unconscious. As Hermione gasped, he took his chance.
"Expelliarmus," he hissed, and her wand flew out of her hand and into his. "You know, I wanted to be the one to finish you off. Especially after all that happened back at the mansion. You will pay for what you did; you will pay for your lies."
"You killed your own son!" Hermione cried, finding it hard to stay balanced on her right leg, and terrified because she was wandless.
"I - that is regrettable," he said coldly, his eyes becoming steely. "Crucio."
Suddenly, Hermione had dropped to the floor, the pain in her leg suddenly increasing tenfold, and it felt as if the rest of the bones in her body were being snapped too. It felt as if she were being pulled apart at the seams, and a terrible scream ripped from her throat.
Lucius laughed as her saw her writhing and twitching on the floor in front of him, but suddenly, his face froze, and Hermione saw Seamus rush past, and surmised that he must have cast the curse without seeing her.
She dragged herself painfully towards Lucius, and took her wand that he had dropped to the floor. She felt so weak, she could barely move. Her leg felt like it was on fire, and as she slowly pulled herself towards Bill's form, she looked back and saw a trail of blood following her every move. She had lost a lot, and her head was feeling dizzy.
Because her leg was useless, she was pulling her whole weight with just her arms, and as she outstretched them once more, they wobbled, and then collapsed under her. The Crucio had left her weaker than ever, and she dropped her chin to the floor in defeat.
"Enervate," she whispered, pointing her wand towards Bill, just as Ginny came rushing around the corner.
"Hermione, Bill," she gasped, looking at the blood that surrounded Hermione. Bill stood up, seemingly unharmed.
"I - tired, leg hurts," Hermione mumbled, black dots jumping around in front of her eyes, clogging up her brain, tuning out her hearing.
"We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey, Bill, right now," Ginny cried, rushing forward as Hermione's eyes closed.
Everybody in the Great Hall, whether they were sobbing, wincing, comforting or talking, stopped what they were doing when Bill walked through the door with Hermione in his arms, Ginny hot on his tail.
"She needs help!" Ginny called to the room at large, scanning for Madam Pomfrey.
The matron rushed forth from the crowds of injured and crouched to the floor as Bill set Hermione down. She began muttering spells underneath her breath, her wand waving so fast it was a blur.
So, Hermione thought, this is what it's like to die. To be honest, she had lost all her senses, and couldn't tell what was going on around her. She couldn't feel pain any more, and she could hear soft music playing in the background somewhere, a slow, mournful melody. Images appeared in her mind - it's true, she thought, your life does flash before your eyes. The last thing she saw was her, Ron and Harry hugging one last time before battle, and then everything went a bright white, and she thought no more.
"What's going on?"came a gruff voice from behind the gathering crowd, breaking the heavy silence.
"Oh, Ron," said Ginny sadly.
Ron faltered as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd and his eyes fell upon Hermione's unconscious form. Her eyelids were fluttering, her cheeks pale and cold sweat was dripping down her face.
"Hermione," he breathed, dropping to his knees next to her and taking her face in his hands. He shook her gently, but she didn't wake. Tears pricked his eyes as his heart raced desperately.
Madam Pomfrey shook her head in disbelief as none of her spells worked. The girl was just too weak...
"I'm so sorry," she said, silently weeping. "I can't do anything else..."
"No!" roared Ron, shaking Hermione violently in his arms.
"Hermione!" Ginny sobbed, dropping to the floor beside Ron.
The crowd around, mainly students, remained silent, apart from the cries and sobs that could not be held back. One of their idols, one of the Golden Trio, one of their hopes, one of their friends, was laying dead in front of their eyes.
For one Hufflepuff girl, it was too much. She rushed off behind one of the stacked house tables and she could be heard retching. One of her friends went to join her, to comfort her.
During the next few minutes, Voldemort temporarily held off the battle in order for Harry Potter to go to him in the Forest. More and more injured were entering the hall and when Mr and Mrs Weasley, still distraught from the death of Fred, saw another of their sons holding the dead form of the girl who was like another daughter to them, they rushed through and grouped around her like she really was another Weasley.
Soon everybody who was battling was stood around the heartbreaking scene - all except one...
Harry was striding purposefully towards the front doors of Hogwarts castle when he glanced into the Great Hall and saw a large circle of people, many with their shoulders shaking or arms wrapped round one another, so he decided to take a detour. Gently edging his way through the crowd, he pushed to the front and stopped breathing.
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