Jukebox plays- Somewhere, by Within Temptation
Chapter 2
There was nothing left.
The scent of ashes hung in the air, underscored by blood and the ozone tang of magic. The grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been churned to a bloody pulp by the hundreds of feet that had flocked here seeking revenge or sanctuary. After the months of planning, of preparation, it had all come down to this. Bodies strewn across the ground like scattered puzzle pieces, to many to count in a day, in a week.
The Great Hall stood empty of breath, save for one living figure. In the midst of the shattered tables stood Hermione Granger, surrounded by the still and ghastly faces of people she knew, all to well. The silence was deafening, pressing against her eardrums and echoing the sound of her frantic heartbeat.
Her hands were stained with ink and blood, chilled by the flesh of the corpses that pressed in around her. Stilled pulses that she had felt for, knowing that there was nothing more she could do. Her wand dangled limply in her hand, her body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
It was gone, it was all gone and there was nothing left. Mutual destruction and neither side had emerged with the slightest shade of victory. Her usually logical mind stalled and motionless in the wake of this- the end of all she knew. Barely feeling the beat and pause of vitae gushing from a laceration in her stomach. She had heard the Sectumsempra cast, but never seen the face of the man who cast it. Her free hand pressed against the soaked fabric of her sweater, blinking back tears that seared her eyes.
And there was nothing but blood, and breath, and time… So little time before she joined the rest of the corpses.
Time
The thought stuck in her head like a mantra, an idea so far fetched and impossible that her oxygen depleted mind couldn't wrap itself around the concept. Her breath gasped raggedly from her throat, sore and burning, inhaling smoke and the scent of a charnel house with every breath.
Hermione's fight or flight instinct had long since exhausted itself, and in the silence of the un-dug graves something else took its place. Shining and hard as a new penny, pushing aside the agony of what was surely a fatal wound. Placing her despair on a back burner, this one last chance to act before her body realized that it was going to die anyway.
Pocketing her wand with jerky motions, her hand skittering over her chest in haphazard pulses that matched the crimson beats that leaked from her veins. Closing around the Time Turner that hung like a life raft around her neck, her skin clammy and cold on the smooth dials and rings.
Sinking to her knees, her body no longer containing the strength the hold itself upright. Clutching at the little metal pendant, forcing her foggy mind to process the number of turns it would take. How far to go, and what she would meet when she got there- but it was all too much.
"Come on, you know this... Come on, you know this..." She murmured into the silence, sinking further to the ground. Her hands trembled now, so turning the little bands surrounding the Time Turner would have been well neigh impossible. Hermione's hands and feet tingling with pins and needles, blood loss making her shudder and the room spin wildly on its axis.
A helpless sob tore out of her throat, fear gripping her in a panic. Echoing through the halls, reverberating through the ears of witches and wizards who could no longer hear her agony. Her tongue felt heavy and clumsy in her mouth, muffling into illegible consonants the words of her private prayer to herself. Struggling against the black spots that swam in front of her vision, until there were too many.
Limp, Hermione's hand hit the floor with a crash, tearing the delicate chain of the Time Turner away from her throat. Cracking the tiny vial of sand, she was unaware of the pale purple smoke that rose from the destroyed device. Numb to the pain as she was torn away.
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