"You're no fun, Mudblood. Keeping a full body shield around you for so long. I can't even play with you…" Tom, inhabiting Ginny's body, cooed at the unyielding brunette who merely glared heatedly at him, shaking slightly from fear and adrenalin. Her lack of reaction made him sneer and her and slam her shield forcefully once again, to which she grunted and frowned, beginning to sweat from the exertion. It's been a few hours now since she's wandlessly put the protection of the protego sphere around herself, finding it one of the easiest wandless spells in her book besides Wingardium Leviosa.
It was luck she'd need the very first spell she had attempted in her life, the one that kept her alive back home, in this very predicament. Even exhausted, she could hold this spell through the night, and now with him taunting her, she growled faintly and stubbornly kept the shield up, confident with her anger, fear and adrenalin powering it all at once she'll easily last a day, if only to piss him/her off further.
She refused to wound Ginny's body, even if that thing was inside it. So how in Merlin's name was she going to eliminate it? Or at least ward it off? There also remained the more pressing matter of an 80ft Basilisk attempting to murder the school's muggleborns to boot.
One good thing was even Voldemort was tired after torturing this 'Rat man' as he is using an 11 year old's magical stores, no matter how powerful his spells were. Perhaps Ginny's soul fighting him from the inside had something to do with it; when Riddle directed his attention to her and was about to act, she saw his black aura recede and the red/blue hues of the girl retaliate violently. Resulting often in nearly an hour of stalling and magical stores wasted.
Hermione was immensely proud Ginny hadn't given up yet, and was hell bent on protecting her friends. She was a bit surprised why she didn't mind Riddle torturing 'Pettigrew.' Knowing they wouldn't get anywhere before Voldy restored his magical stores, she tried to strike up a conversation, as foolish as it sounded.
"It looks like both you and Ginny hate that man…"
"Ah so the mudblood speaks… considering you'll be dead by sunrise and I can't complete my resurrection without getting my hands on the diary that bumbling excuse of a rat- Scabbers, or Pettigrew, you could call him a piece of shit for all I care- failed to acquire along with you, I'll humor you. He is a waste of space, despite being a pureblood he's probably worse off than most of the wizarding community." She ground out, still glaring at the unconscious man surrounded by his own bile and feces before sitting near the brunette- well, as near as her shields allowed him/her to be.
She made sure to reinforce her occlumency shields and hide her shock and disgust Ron's rat could have been a hidden animagus and slight smugness at the fact that the diary was in her possession and she was currently siphoning away the soul energy he had spent months gathering from it to power her own shields. As long as she hid this with her aura up she'd be fine… she hoped.
"He's not a rat though…" She had to be sure it really was Scabbers.
"His animagus form is, stupid girl." She huffed, a bit miffed at being called stupid but kept her silence. It wouldn't do well to anger him and make his aura spike, or blow her cover in the process.
'What if he doesn't leave Ginny's body unless he gets that diary?'
"What…what happens to Ginny if you get your body…?"
"She dies, of course."
She held back a gasp and pushed herself up away from the maliciously grinning possessed ginger.
"You… Isn't it enough you've poisoned her mind all this time already!?"
"Nothing will be enough until you all bow to my feet, until my power exceeds that of Merlin himself!"
"You can't even match Dumbledore's, and you call me a fool!?" She screamed, now furious with this wretched being that sucked off the life of two of his friends like a leach.
In her moment of ire, she failed to mask her surrounding aura well enough, and said wretched being knew exactly of his diary's fate.
'Shit… He's so mad his eyes turned crimson..' She tried not to gulp and put on a brave enough front.
"You… little shit! You had my diary all along! Bas-"
"Summon that thing and I'll make this blow up!" She cut off her livid opponent with her own growl and yell, nothing but dead seriousness in her fiery chocolate eyes.
"You couldn't you ridiculous little mudblood." He scoffed arrogantly at her, and she forced herself to imitate his arrogance as best as she could.
"I can actually, I've been sucking away its energy all this time, I can easily suck it dry or put in so much energy it'll explode in our faces." After the first few words, her smugness came naturally, much to her private astonishment. She'll blame her adrenalin for that.
'How long do I have to stall? Daphne, Harry, Cho, anyone! Hurry up already!' She thought gritting her teeth, and seeing the disbelief in her opponent's eyes, she clutched the book tighter and accelerated the rate she was absorbing energy from it, and was rewarded with widening eyes and gaping mouth.
"Wh-what! You- How dare you!?" That, she expected. She probably expected him wanting to understand how she managed to do it- not that she'd tell him it had to do with her aura reading ability.
But she definitely didn't expect Ginny's body lunging at her, and pinning her to the floor while she tried to rabidly claw at her face.
She was so terror stricken that she nearly froze instead of retaliating, but forced herself after one swipe at her cheek painfully snapped her out of it. During this short debacle, the brunette heard him hissing incoherently and realized after hearing answering hisses that the Basilisk has come out in response to his master's anger.
Things did not bode well for Hermione.
She managed to kick away the red head as far as she could with her chained leg and immediately shut her eyes while casting a shield simultaneously and huddling against the wall, having no clue how else to escape her situation. Those damned magical chains just didn't seem to break, unless… she could do what she threatened to do with the diary to break free before Riddle or the Basilisk have her head.
'What if I don't have enough energy to keep fighting?' Was the one thought that came to her and that she disregard moments later. If she didn't break free now she'll be that Basilisk's damned appetizer.
'Steady… Now!' Willing her magic to shoot from her limbs, she broke the chains after they overheat, accidentally singing the skin in contact with the now useless shackles lying at her feet. Lacking time to even yelp in pain, the brunette sprinted like no tomorrow to the nearest column she could find and slid behind it, holding her breath and shutting her eyes tight, trying to control her erratic panting.
'Okay quick, do the thing you do when you used to run away from Fraudish…' With that one thought running over and over again in her mind, she summoned a good part of the magic she possessed to silence all her movements, followed by a disillusionment spell where she for once thanked the heavens for the feeling of having a cracked egg spilled along her spine- it meant the spell worked wandlessly. Lastly, she made sure not to repeat her mistake and muffled her aura to the point that any aura reader would see her as a corpse- hopefully.
She dimmed the book's aura along with hers while looking around for an exit- any exit by slinking around the room, and trying her best to avoid the damned beast lurking around with occasional hisses around as well, grateful, Ginny's rant to herself was somewhat distracting it- it looked like inhabiting a 12 year old's body had him throw childish tantrums as well- lifesaving ones, for her.
She silently cursed to herself and huddled up once more behind a pillar trying to figure out a plan. She had no idea how long it would take for help to arrive. If she wasn't confident in her friends and Dumbledore, she would have given up on any semblance of it long ago. Nevertheless time was running short especially when she looked around the stone column and worriedly watched Ginny's original aura flickering. The more she stalled the more her mind would get damaged.
She stifled her anger and frustration the moment they flared, not too keen on letting Voldy spot her and his bloody diary- ah that reminds her, she ought to continue sucking off some energy, and later think of killing that stupid beast.
'What had I written on that list with Luna again…? Transfigure a rooster? Conjure up a mirror? How the bloody hell am I supposed to do those without getting found and killed? I can't even transfigure living beings! Damn it I should have learned and practiced more instead of wasting my time!' She swallowed nervously, chancing a hasty peak across her hiding spot to the snake now slithering close to its master, search fruitless.
'I can't risk looking into its eyes, or else it's game over…' she bit her finger in thought while occasionally peeking out from her hiding spot.
After 5 more minutes of stagnant observation, she took deep breaths and with one last burst of determination, ran out, making sure to avoid noisily stepping into puddles.
'I'll use the one spell I'm sure will work wandlessly- Wingardium Leviosa!' She yelled out in her mind while sprinting, willing shards and rocks to shoot from the ground and straight to where she estimated the beast's eyes to be.
The pained screech, writhing and blood splattered on the floor that followed nearly made her cheer aloud as she immediately retreated back behind another column now closer to the infuriated but pale and swaying possessed ginger and equally livid beast. She chanced a look into the creature's eyes through a puddle, relieved its blood smeared eyes were tightly shut.
One step down.
Now how in the world would she breach its magic impervious skin? Much less kill it. Watching it open and close its mouth gave the girl both an idea and a fright from the humongous fans jutting out. She's going to need a lot more energy to take it down now. She sucked even more energy from the diary, but realized how huge of a misstep it was, as Ginny gasped and collapsed to her knees before whimpering and curling up on herself on the cold hard marble floor.
"G-ginny!" She yelled out in shock, alerting both the beast and the new comers that literally dropped in the room making their own noisy scuffle, which infuriated the blinded snake and made it lunge toward the entrance where her friends, covered in soot and cobwebs stood flabbergasted and terrified at the behemoth undulating towards them with speeds it shouldn't be capable of with its intimidating size.
"MOVE!" Hermione screeched so loudly her voice cracked as she waved her hands vigorously from left to right in the motion of a wave, pulling- no throwing- the three students toward her and away from the spot where stone shattered less than a second later. They all landed and tumbled right behind her, staring stupefied at the snake that had almost consumed them in one bite, looking around wildly and hissing furiously.
"Oh Merlin…" Their breathing was loud enough already, and Hermione was glad she cast a sound bubble around them.
"Hermione cast a bubble… we can talk…"
"Not for long- it will sense us eventually."
"You… you idiots!"
"H-hermione?" They stared up at their friend, dumbfounded to hear her insult them for the first time.
With her back to them, she craned her neck to face them with her spontaneous anger and adrenalin.
"How could you just stumble in!? Y-you almost got k-k-" The words got stuck in her throat as she roughly swallowed and breathed in deeply to calm her frayed nerves
"Let's just get Ginerva and think of an escape route…"
"Hermione, what happened to you wrists and face…?" Daphne was the first to get up and take a hold of the brunette's bruised and wounded limbs before the latter had the chance to flinch or back away.
"D-don't... It's Nothing, I got away, now let's just get out of here and leave. Please." The stutter less reply was terse but desperate. She needed to get to Ginny and make sure she's alive, that Tom wasn't just tearing apart the red head's soul to get back at her.
"I have an idea on how to distract it-" Cho began and Hermione almost immediately nodded once gazing into her eyes, having the utmost trust in the Ravenclaw.
'It's that little wandless trick'
'It's more than a little trick- I don't think even grown witches or wizards could do it as easily.' Hints of pride and fascination were laced in Hermione's tone that made the girl of Japanese origin smile before her friend spoke out loud.
"Alright Ch-cho, distract it for me please, we'll only have one window to get her and hide somewhere else again." She braced herself against the pillar, quickly glancing at her two other friends, insinuating they should follow her lead.
Cho then raised her hands, lifting many huge boulders off the ground and even ripping out tiles and rocks or shaping those on the wall to extend slightly in a way to block the beast's path, before launching those rocks- much to the awe of the other three- towards the blindly slithering beast that was thrown back from the impact, screeching in shock and renewed fury, following the source of sound from the rest of the rocks Cho sent crashing towards the wall opposite to where they were going.
"Go!" She practically flashed toward the unconscious girl, trying to shake her awake, but to no avail.
"Damn it- wake up!" She half-yelled and pleaded, taking her wand from the girl's pocket, and immediately casting whatever diagnostic and enervating spells she read in books of saw madame Pomfrey perform, too busy to enjoy the rush of power holding her wand restored in her. The only thing she was filled with after several failed attempts and curses was despair, until Harry gently pulled her away and told her to wait, pointing at Daphne and Cho examining the girl.
"Don't worry, she's alive and breathing, but her pulse is very weak. She's not waking up because she's exhausted-"
"N-no! Her a-aura… her aura's collapsing, i-it's because of- You!" She yelled once she saw the tall Hogwarts robed figure appearing before them, smiling sinisterly in all his arrogance and smugness.
She would have lunged at him had Harry not been holding her back.
"What the-"
"Who are you? I've never seen you in the Slytherin dorms."
"To think one of my own house would be down here… what sad times these days have come to… Pray tell they haven't allowed any mudbloods in, now have they?"
"ah-ah…" Harry's hand that wasn't holding Hermione back went to his scar whose dark aura was flaring, before her immediately put up his occlumency shields to block out the offending presence, much to said dark lord's shock, who sneered at the young boy.
"So young Potter… I see you've got some tricks up your sleeve, no thanks to that little mudblood I should have gutted the minute I got my hands on her." He hissed at the brunette who only growled with equal venom, baring her sharper than usual teeth.
'I never noticed how sharp Hermione's canines were… it looks like it would hurt if she bit her own tongue…' Cho remarked mentally, still panting slightly from her earthly stunt that would keep the beast trapped for about 20 minutes if they were lucky.
"Tom… You're the reason I was miserable for 11 years…" Even Harry had growled out, one hand on his scar and the other clutching his wand with enough pressure to crack one of the marble stones they were standing on. Riddle refused to admit the power and killing intent he was radiating made him nervous, so he proceeded to execute the rest of his plan.
"Enough of this! Give me that diary immediately, or I shall order the basilisk to rip you to shreds!"
"Forget the basilisk I'll rip you apart first!" THe usually passive raven haired boy yelled fiercely and made to lunge towards the man that actually flinched and stepped back- it was then Hermione's turn to hold him back.
"You'll get your chance soon, once we're ready..." She muttered in his ear, hoping he'll calm down before unwrapping her arms from around his shoulders and facing the guarded dark lord.
"Good luck getting it out of the rubble my good friend buried it under any time soon. Now is my turn to issue the command. I'll hand you the diary if and only if you wake up Ginny first. Restore her soul!"
"And what makes you think I'll listen to a little girl and a bunch of brats?" He smirked threateningly, to which Daphne grinned and took a step forward, matching the dark lord with her arrogance and contempt as she raised her chin in defiance.
"Yes, a little girl and her group of brats that outsmarted you both this year and the last. How grand is the dark lord when he has to make a deal with little kids? I believe it would be best if you agreed with our conditions before making even more of a fool of yourself."
"Why you…" He clutched his wand and readied to swing it at her with a spell on his tongue when Hermione jumped in front of the surprised blonde, sparing her an thankful glance and brief smile that conveyed all the warmth she wanted to express towards the surprised and touched Slytherin, before looking back up at the livid Riddle's face, nerves bulging from sheer anger.
"Move one inch and I'll destroy the diary, like I promised I would. Lower that wand and restore Ginny's aura!" She couldn't believe she was screaming orders at a megalomaniac that destroyed half of magical Britain during the last Wizarding War.
His hand froze body twitching before he lowered and even dropped his wand, looking away in bitter defeat.
"… Alright. Hand it to me. I'll need its energy to restore that naïve blood traitor's aura."
'So it's the energy in it… I could do that as well then, I had my doubts before but now…'
"Actually, I've changed my mind-" Voldemort's eyes widened and immediately narrowed as he drew a sharp breath before sharply bringing his arms to his torso, at the same time pulling the diary and the girl holding it into his grasp within a split second.
"Game over, girlie!" He strained as he got his hands on the girl's neck lifting her lithe but small form off the ground in a choke hold, while the persistent chit kept the damned book away from his busy hands and immediately threw it to a panicking and livid Daphne, immediately planning to lunge at the man with the intent to murder him when said man hissed ominously in a language only Harry understood and reacted to appropriately. The rest caught on when they heard rubble falling apart and loud hissing and slithering approaching them.
Clearly the basilisk was not happy with Cho's little stunt.
"Sh-shit…"
"Hermione! Damn it!" Daphne was torn what to do, already moving to stop her precious friend's suffering when the latter stopped her with her mental insistence.
'Daphne… please, go and help Harry and Cho before the beast kills us all- I promise I'll be fine- please trust me to be strong enough!' She pleaded so earnestly that with one last pained look, the blonde turned away, prepared to direct anything and everything she had in her arsenal to take down the beast or at least neutralize it to get back to Hermione as soon as possible. She knew the other two were thinking the exact same thing, but why or how were they so collected about it? Why couldn't she? She was supposed to be the cool Slytherin that persists effortlessly under pressure. What a joke she was…
'I trust you, Hermione. I'll be back before you know it.' She was glad mental talk didn't betray the overwhelming desire to just curl up and cry or yell, and she ran to the other two students' side.
Struggling, the brunette lifted her hand to cover his own tense ones, employing the moment she was waiting for. Despite the burning feeling in her throat extending to her lungs and the clouding in her mind, she kept struggling to get as much skin contact as she could with the materialized being.
"Ack… K-k-" She was even scratching his hands, in hopes her would lessen the mortal grip while trying to break through his unguarded mental shields and weaken him directly. The more time it took, the more her brain was deprived of oxygen and the weaker her struggling became.
'D-damn it…no… don't…black…out.' It nearly took her entire being to will away the dark spots dancing in her vision and keep focusing into Riddle's eyes creased with glee at watching the brunette's face contort in pain she was unable to control. The agony was even more apparent when she heard her friends' cries of distress and panic at trying to evade the deathly creature.
"You don't know how long I've waited to have you trapped like this- what!?" When were his hands and robes set on fire? Oh Merlin his skin was going to melt at this rate! Was this the girl's doing?
"Y-you…bitch!" She took advantage of his pain and struggle to keep choking her and mercilessly bashed through his shields as a last ditch effort and cling onto what was left of his rotting core and start sucking him dry. He immediately felt the drain of energy that hit him so hard that despite the death grip on her, she smiled strained but genuinely.
"I…I could say the same about you… Ah!" Frightened and panicked, he roughly threw her away as her back slammed into the pillar and she landed in a shaking heap next to Ginny, greedily panting and breathing in as much of the precious oxygen as she could, channeling some of her restored magic to internally heal enough of her esophagus and trachea so they don't hemorrhage too much.
'I've lost enough blood already…' She thought while wiping some of the red liquid from her mouth and staring at the man staring at his shaking limbs in agitation.
"M-my core… what…?" He noticed the emptiness eating away at him once he put out the fire with some difficulty, much the Hermione's pleasure.
"My mother has a better chokehold than you do…" She breathed out with a feral grin as she struggled to get up, placing a hand on Ginny's back and supplying enough energy that the red head was now breathing and had a heart beating much more stably and consistently than before, now merely trapped in a deep sleep rather than hanging on the verge of death. It was clear by the dark lord's progressively translucent form how much the brunette had weakened him due to his fatal loss of concentration.
"Th-this… it isn't over…I will torture you and every single one of your friends, and watch the light leave your eyes when I murder you..." He hissed venomously as he sunk into the ground, now as useless as the first year witch lying asleep on the floor.
Hermione regarded him blankly before turning away and running to join her family in all but blood in their own death match, impressed with how furiously Harry was swinging his sword and how- wait.
"Harry!? Where did you get that sword from!?" She yelled hoarsely, causing the three to turn their heads mid-fight, faces lighting up at the sight of the brunette freed from his grasp and cheering briefly, much to the snake's anger, that tried to swipe at them with its tail when Hermione cast wingardium leviosa on them to lift them off and let them back down after the swipe.
'Everyone be as silent as possible, that will make it harder for it to spot us. Seriously though, how did you get your hands on that sword?' Hermione asked while sidestepping another lunge from the basilisk before having them retreat behind several sets of pillars.
'Fawkes brought the sorting hat and the sword just came out of it. But I have no idea how to take it down!'
'How did I not notice that… must have happened while I was blacking out…Just what we needed…' She quickly sprinted to the tattered old hat and picked it up along her run to another column Cho was hiding behind.
"Hey, Cho, do you reckon you can use that elemental trick again?" She whispered to the Ravenclaw who smiled in slight relief at seeing the brunette mentally unfazed by her squabble with Riddle. If only she knew how his last words had shaken her up.
"I still have it in me for one more time… But I'll be spent after that." She breathed out sheepishly, rubbing her hand together and preparing herself.
"It's fine. One more time is all we'll need. Honestly you're a life saver right now. And you mister hat, no other weapons to provide for us?"
"I'm afraid Miss Granger Godric's sword is the only thing I can provide- other than that bird flying around distracting old Salazar's pet… What are you thinking, pray tell? I can practically hear your thoughts buzzing around."
"One distraction won't be enough. Fawkes is already there, getting occasional swipes and powering us. Cho will summon rocks and corner it, and Harry… there's no way he'll hit a vital organ from where he's standing…"
"Then he'll aim for his tail, at least then it'll even have a hard time moving."
"Exactly! I'll try out whatever spells I've got… would fire help?"
"Possibly. Don't get it anywhere near me though…" The old hat grumbled while Hermione chanced a peek to look at Daphne and Harry hiding behind their respective pillars, occasionally ducking or dodging any close calls.
The boy was even hissing at the snake in hopes of calming it down, which at least served to confuse it, and dare she say make it hesitate?
'Daphne, Harry! When Cho and I come out, Harry run behind it and stab its tail or tell it to stop or whatever, it seems to be listening to you- somewhat, just try your best to immobilize it, and Daphne… throw the book into its mouth…'
"Wh-what!? Shit!" The blonde inadvertently yelled and gave away her location, immediately sprinting away from the lunging beast and to the brunette's side.
"Are you insane?" She whispered frantically, shaking Hermione's shoulders.
"I think it's keeping Ginny in that state- I sucked as much energy as I could from it, but there's a part as if blocked- probably its core soul- which I wouldn't force out unless I wanted to become a Horcrux instead... We don't have anything that would destroy it, so maybe that Basilisk could just do it for us…"
"But Hermione-"
"Actually, I think it's hunting down that book, more than anything else, even before Riddle lost control of it. First, Hermione and then Daphne, and partially Harry, once you threw it to her." The ever observant Cho interjected, leaving the others to pause thoughtfully.
"So it has something to do with Voldemort?"
"It hates its guts? Best case scenario, probably. Well then let's do it…"
"Wait, if that's the case, let's try it out. Throw the book out in the open, right in front of it, and have the rest of us hide behind the pillars."
"Wh- that's actually a good idea, Daphne. You made sure Harry knew too, yeah?" Cho asked Daphne before turning to Hermione.
"Why do you sound so surprised…?" Daphne muttered with a tick in her eye, ignored by the rest of the room's occupants. With a huff, she turned serious again and stared at the thrumming journal in her scratched hands.
"Here goes nothing." With a powerful swipe, the book landed across half the room, flipping across the slippery floor until it halted right in front of the basilisk that stopped dead and turned to face the dark tome, as if it could actually see it.
Within a split second, its head was onto the ground, teeth sinking into it. It was so swift whatever it had done before felt like a warm up; none of the quartet caught it flash from the ceiling to the floor.
But what they did catch was pure white condensed cracks of light forming on the book before a blinding white flash emulsified the room, with the previous dark lord's agonized screeches in the background serving as a definite sign to the occupants of the room that it was well and truly destroyed.
After a minute or two of blinking away the vivid white spots in their eyes, they looked around dazedly, catching the beast of the snake's tail, disappearing into the mouth of the statue before it shut closed, and the diary left with a gaping hole along with a couple of its fangs strewn about- the explosion literally knocked the monster's teeth out. Harry looked a bit farther and noticed Ginny stirring, making him gasp in shock.
"Girls! Ginny's waking up!" They ran- Hermione limped, with Daphne's arm wrapped around her waist and the other placing it around her shoulder- to the awakening red head, bursting in infinitely relieved cheers when hazel green eyes fluttered open after she sat up groggily with her palm at her forehead, groaning from an intense migraine.
With her up, Hermione saw it fit to take her place, and crumbled to the floor, curling up.
"I'll just take a nap, now…" She then promptly passed out.
"H-hermione!"
Hello Dear readers! First of all, i'd like to apologize for the lateness in posting this chapter- I was having a bit of trouble writing what's next in terms of plot and making the necessary changes. I also started working on scattered parts of the next years just to get my creative juices flowing.
I also wanted to post this chapter today in honor of Monty Oum, a great artist and person I look up to, (he was the creator of RWBY and many other great shows from Rooster Teeth), as today has been a year since his death. I'm quite saddened by the great and praise worthy Alan Rickman's recent and all too soon passing as well- may he Always rest in peace.
Finally, I hope you enjoy the story! Hopefully better plotted chapters filled with music will follow soon, and thanks again for whoever is still reading, commenting faving and following. You all make this story worth writing for me. :)
Stay safe and have a good day/night!