Hermione was once again struck against the unforgiving stone wall but this time she was sure there was no reprieve, no sudden burst of energy, no hope of staying alive. Her last sensation was of something being crushed under her hand which had thudded back to the floor after the explosion and finally she felt like she was falling, falling away from her world just as surely as the witch she had just obliterated had fell from hers.

"Remus, even you can't defend him on this one" came a fierce whisper down the moonlit corridor "Did you see what he did? Of course you did, everybody saw what he did!" The young woman continued to rant to herself and the boy next to her as she had done for the last five minutes and to she was showing no signs of slowing down, "I mean really what was he thinking-"

"Lily," began the boy next to her rubbing his face tiredly "we've been over this, he wasn't thinking, but is this is James Potter we're talking about when does he ever actually think?" he watched out of the corner of his eye as Lily's face softened slightly in agreement.

"But still," Lily said unwilling to let the subject drop, " I thought he might have matured a tiny amount over the summer." Remus felt a slight tug at the corner of his mouth as he fount to control a amused smile.

"Lily, you do realise that James spent his whole summer with Sirius, right?" Remus questioned with his voice betraying him as to how funny he really thought the situation was. Seeing her confused expression he continued " What are the chances of anybody maturing when stuck with Sirius for the whole summer?"

"I suppose," she conceded before frowning as a particularly unpleasant thought hit her, " how am I going to walk into the Great Hall tomorrow?"

" Come on Lily, it's not that bad-"

"Remus, he declared his undying love for me while standing on the table, in the middle of the start of term feast! How can that possibly be classed 'not that bad'? demanded Lily her face reddening with anger at the memory of the previous mourning.

"Well look at it this way, he's done worse." Lily opened her mouth to fire off a retort but the words never came. Remus and Lily had just walked around a corner, both of them looking at each other and neither of them paying any attention to their surroundings.

It wouldn't have made any difference if they had been looking straight ahead for the force that ended up throwing them back was far too quick to pre-empt. Both prefect and head girl ended up skidding along the polished floor wearing identical expressions of shock. Remus was the first to recover and had soon hurried over to Lily to check if she was alright and offer her a hand up.

When both were standing and had checked for any injuries Lily began to creep forward to peer around the corner to see if she could determine what had caused her to be sent flying, her bet was on a prank gone wrong or a misfired spell but either way she would like to catch the culprits. She was just about to round the corner when she felt a hand on her shoulder both restraining and warning her. She looked over her shoulder to see Remus with his face set as he walked silently in front of her and took the first look to see what had happened. His body was blocking her view but she could see him visibly stiffen as he looked at whatever the sight was that greeted him was. When he looked back to her his face was of pure fear.

"What is it? Who's there-" Lily broke off as she pushed past Remus to see what was there for herself. Directly in front of her and a few metres down the hall a person was splayed across the ground as if she had been tossed there carelessly, lying in a pool of her own blood. Looking back at Remus with an identical expression to his upon her face they broke into a dead sprint to reach the fallen girl.

Upon reaching her Lily dropped to her knees to get a better look at her injuries but when she saw the girl properly for the first time all rational thought flew from her mind. Her face was unfamiliar but that only registered in the back of Lily's mind as she took in the broken girls body.

The girls limbs were all splayed at different angles with her right leg covered in shiny red burns and a large and deep cut on her thigh that was contributing to most of the blood that surrounded her. Looking up to her torso Lily flinched as she saw the cuts and wounds that littered her body and how her torn robes stuck to them.

When Lily finally looked up at her face her hand involuntarily flew up to her own to cover her mouth. The girls bushy hair fell matted against her face with blood from a gaping wound at the back of head that was still bleeding profusely, she had a deep cut which ran through her left eyebrow, down past her jaw and onto her neck. As Lily watched the girls half lidded eyes fluttered closed with a sense of finality .

But perhaps the most disturbing thing about the sight of this bloody and beaten body was the fact that the whole time Lily had been frozen and staring and Remus had been frantically searching for a pulse and trying to stop the bleeding at the back of her head with his robe, she had been smiling.

It was a small and mangled smile, but a smile none the less.

"Lily, her heart's stopped! What do we do?" Remus's voice broke through her state of shock as she head the desperate tone in his voice and took in the wide eyed and fearful stare he was giving her. His fear for the girls life seemed to steady her as her thoughts turned to how to save the woman in front of her.

"Remus, give me your belt." Lily's voice came out mechanical and efficient until she saw the his hesitation " DO IT!" Remus quickly undid his belt and handed it to her with shaking hands, Lily took the belt and paused to take a calming breath. Her mum was a muggle nurse and she wanted to be a healer when she left Hogwarts so she had a fairly good approximation of what to do but her task didn't seem any less daunting.

Shouldering her fear she began to work quickly tying the belt around the girls leg just above the deep cut and pulling it so tight that had she been awake the girls probably would have screamed. As it was she remained unconscious but the blood stopped flowing as freely from her leg, Lily moved on quickly, trying to ascertain if the girl the didn't have a pulse; Remus was right she didn't but her skin was still warm to the touch which was a good sign.

Turning around to face Remus quickly she instructed him to get Madame Pomfrey and get her here immediately. The sound of his footsteps fading told her that help would be at hand soon, she only hoped it wouldn't be too late.

When she turned back to the broken figure at her knees she released a breath she hadn't known she had been holding and lacing her fingers together she began her compressions onto the girls chest, wincing as she felt the ribs crack beneath her hands. She had lost count of how many times she had completed a cycle of CPR before she heard the sound that she had been straining her ears for .

Footsteps running towards her informed her that people were coming and she could only pray it was Remus retuning with the resident healer. Straightening her back to see who was approaching she felt her whole body sag with relief as she took in the welcome sight of Madame Pomfrey running towards her in her dressing gown (for the hour was quite late).

Shuffling over so that the older witch could take her place Lily watched as the healer muttered complex spells over the unconscious form of the girl whose bleeding seemed to decrease with every passing second of the spell that was being cast over her. Lily looked over at Remus who was standing behind her and she felt him gently pull into standing up as he wrapped a comforting arm around her middle and she saw rather than felt her fingers tighten around the front of his robes in a tenacious hold.

Both of them looked down on the medi-witch who had just finished pouring a vial of potion down the girls throat, they looked on she once again murmured a incantation and the tip of her wand began to glow as a white hot poker would do.

Lily stifled a sob that had been building in her chest as Pomfrey lowered her wand to the girls chest. Upon contact the girls back arched and her fingers twitched just as if she had been shocked with electricity. Poppy Pomfrey repeated this action twice before placing a slightly wrinkled hand at the girls neck. Frowning slightly she brought her wand down upon the girl once more and all who were present jumped as they heard the girl rasp for breath.

Her eyes shot open and moved frantically around the room as she dragged in another painful breath that racked her thin frame but even more surprising than this was that her lips started to move slightly as though she were trying to speak though no sound issued from them. Leaning in closely Madame Pomfrey spoke quickly and concisely as she knew the girls consciousness was draining away from her,

" What happened? Who did this to you?" seeing the girl was quickly losing the power to stay awake she tried one last question desperate to get at least a titbit of information from the girl " What's your name?" The older witches eyes opened in shock when she heard an answer though it had no more force behind it than a wisp of wind.

"H-Hermione" and with that the Hermione finally succumbed to the enticing allure of unconsciousness.

…

A/N- So here's chapter two I hope you like it. Updates won't always be this fast but hey, I'm on a roll! Please leave you thoughts in a review or a PM I really love the opportunity to improve my writing, wishing you well-VE