Sooo….no one gets the super-quick review award since I didn't actually get any reviews for the last chapter L. Here's the next chapter anyways…

I said I'd put in a mini-summary, but you'll have to wait a bit for that, sorry.

Here we go.

--Aimes


Eight forty-five a.m. This has been going for over three hours now.

The plan had gone smoothly for the most part: the giants had kept their appointed meeting with Voldemort and in the midst of the welcoming, Madame Maxine used a potion to channel Dumbledore and break through the new wards. The onslaught began.

Ron had divided the castle and its grounds into sectors and had deployed students according to their familiarity with the areas. It had worked beautifully, with ninety-seven percent of the castle being recaptured within the first hour and a half. It was a good thing too: Snape had calculated that if the majority of the castle was not reclaimed within the first two hours of the battle, they'd almost definitely lose.

Remus and Dumbledore were presumably working on binding the magic of the Deatheaters. Not as successfully as we'd hoped, apparently, considering they're still hexing some of us into next week. She gave Padma Patil a wry glance as the girl hit a table. The body count was rising, and not just amongst the enemy. Colin and Dennis Creevey had gone down in the beginning of the onslaught and neither had yet risen. Judging from the amount of Killing Curses being fired off, I'm going to be attending a lot of funerals.

Ginny Weasley had managed to destroy Shiv in the dungeons, though no one knew exactly how she'd done it. Her appearance in the Great Hall had thrown Voldemort off for just a split second and Harry took the opportunity to throw off his invisibility cloak and attack. The battle had begun…and not ended.

Hermione ducked as Crabbe…or was it Goyle? Well, one of them went flying over her. Ginny looked up and winked.

"Always wanted to do that," she shouted before turning and punching a random Deatheater in the face as he raised his wand.

Hermione ducked again as Goyle…or was it Crabbe?…followed his chum in a trajectory that happened to arc directly above her.

"No joke," agreed Luna dreamily as she watched her victim hit a wall. "He groped me once," she shared confidentially. Ginny was about to scream a warning to her when she turned casually and hexed Pansy Parkinson.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ginny before returning her attention to Narcissa Malfoy. "You've got serious issues," she spat as she dodged a rather half-hearted looking Crucio.

"Filthy mudblood bitch!" came the venomous reply.

"Bloody hell, doesn't anyone have some originality?" she shot off a stunner that Narcissa deflected with ease.

"Diseased daughter of a perverted hippogriff!" growled Narcissa. Hermione drew up short with an impressed look on her face. Well that was unexpected. She narrowly avoided a curse she didn't recognize and tripped over Crabbe's inert body, grunting as she connected with the hard floor.

Narcissa loomed over her with a lethal smile, raised her wand…and hit the ground as Hermione lunged upward with her legs and scissored her down.

"Fuck! Do you know how much these robes cost?" she shrieked as Goyle's blood traced Rorschach patterns on her icy blue robes.

"Hey, you're the nitwit who wore light colored robes to a meeting with Voldemort. What did you think would happen?" Hermione retorted nastily, scrabbling for her wand and casting a particularly harsh jelly-legs hex at an approaching Deatheater. Both of them were on their feet in seconds.

"Look, hexing my son's friends was not how I planned to spend my day, little girl. I was going to make the requisite breakfast appearance then go shopping for books, and don't you dare give me that look, young lady, I do have an advanced university degree in Arithmancy! Contrary to popular belief, I am neither stupid nor delusional, I was merely unlucky enough to fall in love with a degenerate bastard!" She turned and hexed Crabbe Sr. into oblivion. "I am trying to have a conversation here, Matthew! Don't even think about it!" she hissed at Goyle Sr. who immediately turned his attention to Ron Weasley. Hermione could do little more than stand and watch in amazement.

"Now," said Narcissa, composing herself, "where was I? Oh yes, I hate these bloody fiascoes. Complete cock-ups is what they are. If the idiots would just plan things out, all of this could—"

"Duck!" Hermione yelled as Alastor Moody cast a hex at Narcissa. Quick reflexes, Hermione thought as Narcissa hit the ground and Hermione herself lunged to the left. Moody was quickly distracted again but not before he managed to bark at Hermione to mind her duties.

Hermione looked over at Narcissa who looked back over at her with an extremely tired and frustrated countenance. "Would you just knock me out please?" she begged. Hermione shrugged and hit her with a stunner. "Thanks," Narcissa grunted.

That was the single most bizarre experience I've ever had.

Hermione stood and surveyed the room, dodging stray curses, watching people rise and fall. Ron was engaged fiercely with Goyle and another Deatheater whom she couldn't immediately recognize. From across the room she saw Neville dealing out some justice to Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville livid is actually a fairly intimidating sight. Most of the giants had fallen as had many centaurs and lycanthropes. And entirely too many humans. Not the issue right now.

Her eyes zeroed in on the object of her hate. Dayrin Lestrange looked up and saw her just as she located him. Hermione hesitated, her wand aimed. To kill or not to kill, that is the question. Whether tis better to watch the scum die quickly or suffer protracted agony long into the future…

She didn't have time to finish before he raised his wand and she pulled out her knife reflexively. Thanks, Daddy. It hit him with deadly accuracy, sliding through his flesh like butter and severing an artery. He went down like a stone. Well that settles that.

She looked around and saw Snape gazing at her with an odd sort of sadness about him. Before Hermione could reflect much upon it, he nodded and went back to work on the Dementor he was currently hexing into oblivion. Hermione again surveyed the scene.

"You insufferable, ungrateful demon of a child!" someone screamed. Hermione looked around and saw Draco deflecting a curse aimed for Ginny. The screamer had been Peter Pettigrew. Bloody sleaze bucket is what he is. "You will pay for your disloyalty!" Pettigrew raged. Draco easily dodged the curse.

"You were pathetic years ago according to my mother. Not much has changed from the looks of it," Draco derided. Oi, Draco, can you never control your mouth? Heh, dear pot, love kettle, eh? I'm a fine one to talk about mouth-controlling issues.

Pettigrew turned red and dropped like a stone as Ginny decided to return the favor to Draco. He fell under a particularly unpleasant looking hex. Ew. Pus-filled boils are pretty high on my list of gross things. And let us note that we never learned such a spell.

Hermione saw Voldemort a moment before he fired off the Cruciatus, felling Draco. Gods, that's gotta be the most painful Cruciatus in the wizarding world. I've got to do something.

She sprinted over to help Draco and Callah disengaged herself from a Deatheater to join the mad dash to Draco's aid. Hermione stopped short as Lucius Malfoy suddenly fell at the hands of Voldemort and Draco released from the curse. Well shit. Malfoys are just full of surprises, aren't they?

Callah kept going, trying to avoid bodies and curses, desperately trying to reach Bill Weasley in time.

"Bill!" she shouted. "Move, dammit!" He turned at the sound of her voice, barely registering when the Killing Curse hit him from a Deatheater struggling on the ground—Dolohov. Callah caught him as he crumpled to the ground, watching the light flicker from his eyes. Enraged, she looked down at Dolohov who was suddenly alight with angry blue flames. He screamed and writhed as she watched with cold detachment.

Hermione tore her attention from the scene just in time to get hit with a binding spell by Narcissa. Damn, should've double checked when I knocked her out. She slumped, not even trying to fight the curse, simply watching as everyone died. Or so it seemed to her.

"Sorry," Narcissa apologized. Hermione looked up at her. "Well, I didn't want to kill you. I've never killed anyone before and my son seems to rather like you so…" she shrugged. "But I suppose I should be doing something as long as I'm conscious and all." Hermione managed a slight grunt of agreement. I really hope they don't send her to Azkaban. I could probably get to like her.

She turned her attention back to the battle, instinctively fighting the charm as she saw Fred Weasley being gripped tightly by a Dementor. No! Not Fred, please, not Fred. George will die without him. A helpless whimper escaped her lips as he slowly went limp in the Dementor's arms. Narcissa looked up from Susan Bones' broken body and cast off the Dementor, moving quickly to check Fred's pulse and frowning when she found none.

Hermione was distracted from the odd sight by Snape rising behind Voldemort, who was unfortunately beating the crap out of Harry, and slitting his throat. Wait, slitting his throat? Snape has a knife? Hang on, Snape has MY knife! He glanced at her and nodded, returning to the task at hand while Harry engaged once again with Voldemort. This time he had the advantage: slitting Voldemort's throat hadn't killed him, obviously, but it had shocked and weakened him long enough for Harry to gain the upper hand.

Narcissa came back to Hermione and released the spell. "Changed my mind," she said ruefully.

"I noticed," Hermione rasped. "Thanks." Narcissa shrugged. Hermione began to clamber to her feet but was unpleasantly obstructed by Narcissa's newly unconscious body slamming her back into the ground. Her head snapped back and consciousness abandoned her permanently.