A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you to all of my new followers and reviewers, you guys are the reason I'm still doing this! I think this fanfiction novel is about halfway done at this point, but no worries! There will still be many more chapters to come before that time is near. Also, I just want to point out after like 10+ years of being a Potterhead, I only now just found out that Blaise's last name is Zabini and not Zambini like I had previously thought :P
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Hunger Games. Not even a little bit. Nada. Nyet.
Creatively Yours,
~*RebelComicNerd*~
"It is known that wildfires behave unpredictably- this is fundamental- but it is my experience that humans in the presence of wildfire are also likely to behave in aberrant and unpredictable ways."
~Michael Leunig
Ch. 14: Wildfire
Hermione couldn't help the bubble of laughter that burst from her mouth. In all of her time within the Game of Survival, she had never felt so carefree. Nevertheless, she knew that they needed to use their time wisely or they would go to sleep without food tonight.
"We should catch some dinner. Neville and Luna will be wondering where we are," she said, breaking the peaceful silence.
"Yeah, all right," Draco said, seemingly avoiding her eyes for some reason. He swam over to the edge of the pool, pulling himself out of the water with a slight grunt. Her eyes lingered on his soaked shirt that clung to his chest before she realized what she was doing, internally scolding herself as she pulled herself up onto the ledge beside him.
She searched the trees for a moment before finding a good sized branch, hacking it off, and making her way back to sit on the ledge, dangling her feet in the water below. A few moments passed before Draco took a seat next to her, a branch in his hand. It was almost uncomfortably silent as the two sat there for several moments, whittling their branches. It was nothing at all like the comfortable silences they usually had. Hermione had almost grown accustomed to having him around, but the air seemed to be charged with a different energy, a different feeling now than it had been before.
After nearly an hour of mucking about in the water, missing their attempts at spearing the fish more often than not, both Draco and Hermione had caught four fish between the two of them and decided to call it quits. The sun was just beginning to set on the horizon as they made their way back to camp, the reds and oranges dusting the sky like some vibrantly colored painting. All around them, the sounds of nocturnal animals emerging from their dens and nests began to resonate through the forest. Crickets chirruped their nightly song from the grass, an owl hooted at them as they passed by, and the fireflies began to light up, looking almost like tiny flickering lanterns in the night sky.
She glanced over at Draco, who was watching his feet as he walked. His hair hung limply on his head, still damp from their swim. He seemed almost lifeless with his usual air of playfulness gone. She found herself almost missing the familiar smirk and the playful banter. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, why he wasn't talking to her, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it and so they walked in silence.
When they arrived back at the camp, Neville and Luna were camouflaging the open spaces between the brush that surrounded them with leaves and twigs. Luna was first to notice them and gave Hermione a smile.
"Oh, you're back!" the blonde exclaimed.
"With food," Hermione grinned, holding up her two fishes and pointing to Draco's other two.
"I haven't eaten a fish in ages," Neville said. "Luna and I didn't eat that great after the food sources were taken out of the game. We had to pilfer what we could from other players."
"I know the feeling. It's nice to have the food sources back into the game," Hermione smiled.
"I gathered some cedar. It should produce less smoke than the hardwood we have on the fire now," Luna pointed to a pile of logs that sat near the fire.
"Perfect, thanks Luna. We should get this fire going. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm famished." The others agreed, and so she flexed her fingers, letting a fireball spring to life in the palm of her hand before throwing it at the pile of logs in front of her. The fire began to spread from log to log and in just a few short minutes, a nice-sized campfire was crackling in the darkness, producing only a minimal amount of smoke, as Luna had promised.
Once the fish were done cooking, they each took their share and settled around the fire, watching the sky and waiting for the fairies to give the nightly recap. As if on cue, the familiar twinkling lights of the fairies appeared out of thin air, bobbing around haphazardly for a moment before drawing together and beginning to play the day's recaps. Hermione watched quietly as the fairies replayed the deaths of Daphne, Nott, Ron, and Blaise. So many deaths today, she thought. There was bound to be more too, she knew. There always was.
As if to confirm her thoughts, the scene changed and suddenly Hermione was watching as Goyle struggled within the confines of the plants Neville had conjured to trap him. The sun was just barely peeking out over the horizon, indicating that this hadn't been long after the battle with the Slytherins and Justin.
It was almost cruel to watch, but Hermione couldn't bring herself to stop. She watched in mesmerizing horror as the vines tightened around Goyle's body. A solitary vine snaked its way up his body, wrapping around his neck and constricting it. She winced as the Slytherin let out a horrible, guttural gasping noise, his body struggling to breathe in the oxygen it so desperately needed. He tried in vain to struggle against the vines, but no matter what he did they kept tightening. After a minute or two, he seemed to give up, knowing it was hopeless, and his body went limp. The familiar bang sounded and his body flickered and disappeared, leaving nothing behind but the vines that had killed him.
Gregory Goyle had been eliminated from the Game of Survival.
The scene changed once again to show the desert sun beating down on Lavender Brown and Romilda Vane, who seemed to be engaged in a heated argument.
"You know, ever since Dean and Seamus turned on us, you've been a right pain in the arse," Lavender hissed.
"I've been a pain in the arse? You're the one who elected yourself as some sort of self-righteous leader of this alliance. You just can't help but boss everyone else around," Romilda retorted.
"You would've died without me! Remember the acromantulas?"
"God, this is what I mean. You want me to kiss the ground you walk on or something? Forget it, Lav," Romilda unsheathed her knife, dropping down into a combative pose.
Lavender unsheathed her knife, mimicking Romilda as the two circled eachother, each looking for a weak point in the other that they could use to their advantage. Suddenly, Lavender vanished, almost as if she had never been there. Romilda glanced around warily, her knife clutched so tight in her hands that her knuckles were white.
Silently, Lavender reappeared behind Romilda and lunged at her. Romilda must have sensed it though, because she spun around and blocked her fellow Gryffindor's attack just in time. Lavender gritted her teeth in frustration and lashed out at Romilda with her knife again. Romilda closed her eyes, as if concentrating on something, and her body became transparent, completely intangible, invincible to Lavender's attack. Moments later, she became tangible again and plunged her knife towards Lavender's chest. Clumsily, Lavender jumped out of the way and then disappeared once more.
Hermione could almost feel the tension that charged the air as Romilda spun in a circle, gripping her knife tightly and looking for any signs as to where Lavender would reappear. The silence was nearly palpable, the only sounds in that moment being the hot desert wind as it shifted the sand this way and that and the occasional scream of an eagle overhead. Suddenly, Lavender reappeared behind Romilda, grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and yanked her closer, plunging her knife into the girl's back, just where her heart should be.
Everything went silent and, for an awful minute, Hermione watched as the life slowly left Romilda Vane's eyes and her body grew limp. Lavender pulled her knife out of the girl's body and let it unceremoniously fall face-first into the sand.
The scene changed and the image reappeared in the prairie biome. Hermione could just faintly hear the rustle of the switch grass as it blew in the wind amid the sound of pounding footsteps as Padma and Parvati Patil ran for their lives, their arms held over their heads for protection. Behind them, a flock of pitch-black ravens with beady black eyes flew after them, letting out a screeching sound so horrible that it almost sounded like a banshee. With a start, Hermione realized that these birds were the same ones that had attacked her earlier on in the game.
"Flesh-eating birds," she whispered.
After a few short minutes, Parvati collapsed, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. Padma glanced over her shoulder and, noticing her sister was no longer following her, she turned and sprinted back towards her sister.
"We need to get to the trees," Padma gasped between breaths, pointing at the line of trees on the horizon that marked the start of the forest biome.
"I can't…," Parvati trailed off, still trying to catch her breath.
"You have to," her sister replied in an unwavering tone. She laced her arm around her sister's shoulders, pulling her up and helping her stumble forward in an awkward sprint. Above them, the dark cloud of birds were gaining on them, screeching their presence to the two girls below.
Parvati and Padma made it a good distance to the trees before the flock of ravens descended on them, screeching. There were so many of the birds that Hermione couldn't even see the two girls. But she could hear them, and she decided that was infinitely worse. The cloud of birds writhed grotesquely, almost as if it were some huge other monster. It went on like that for five horrifying minutes until the screaming finally stopped. One by one, the ravens took flight, screeching their victory to the sky. What was left was just as horrifying as the screams and Hermione knew it would haunt her forever.
The bodies of the twins lay amidst the switch grass, their eyes staring unblinkingly towards the afternoon sky. Both of their mouths hung open and Hermione could almost hear the screams hanging on their bloodied lips. Their skin was the worst of all. Most of it had been picked off by the birds, leaving large fissures where Hermione could see down to the muscle and, in some areas, bone. She turned away from the scene that the fairies were replaying and closed her eyes, but the faces seemed to stare back at her even on her eyelids and the screams rang in her ears, overshadowed only by the booming that announced their death.
Hermione opened her eyes and dared to look back at the fairies. They were playing the next scene already. The scene had opened in the forest biome to the chirping of the crickets as the sun slowly brushed the horizon, painting it with vivid colors. This wasn't that long ago, she thought. Dennis Creevey seemed to be wandering the forest, looking very lost. His mousy brown hair was matted, and streaks of dirt and mud lined his face. His eyes were glinting with the dull ache of hunger and it was obvious that he hadn't eaten for a while. His clothes seemed to be the worst of all, however. They were torn and muddy in the front, as if he had fallen into a very large puddle.
A rustling came from behind him and Dennis froze, turning around slowly. A pair of orange eyes stared at him from the nearby brush, glinting in the setting sun. Slowly, Dennis drew his knife and backed away. The brush rustled and from it a mountain lion padded into the open, baring its fangs in a vicious snarl. Dennis practically squeaked in fear and turned, sprinting away from the creature as fast as he could. With a rumbling growl, the mountain lion charged after him, its paws thudding on the ground menacingly.
Dennis made the mistake of glancing behind his shoulder to see where the beast was and caught his foot on the root of a large oak tree, sprawling face-first onto the ground. He cried out in pain and Hermione saw that his foot had twisted at an odd angle, now unable to bear his weight. Desperately, the boy began to crawl away, pulling at grass and roots to inch his body along faster. The mountain lion stopped just a few feet from him and watched with an almost amused glint in its eye before pouncing on him, sinking its teeth into his neck. Dennis Creevy began to convulse grotesquely, blood gushing from the wound in his neck and lining his chapped lips until they were ruby red.
Hermione glanced away, once again sickened and horrified by the brutality of the deaths portrayed. She couldn't help but wonder how the Game of Survival would foster the solidarity and companionship between houses that the professors said it would. For some reason it had never struck her as odd before. She had never been wary about the Game of Survival like she had been with the Triwizard Tournament. Maybe the professors really did think it was the trust-building exercise they said it was, but it was a sick game. They were all insignificant pieces, killing and maiming their way to a bloody, meaningless victory.
The rumbling bang acknowledging the death of Dennis Creevey pulled her out of her thoughts and she glanced back at the fairies, taking care to avoid looking at Dennis' lifeless body. A figure moved into the scene, kneeling beside Dennis body and inspecting it. It glanced up, its lips curling into a smug smirk and Hermione recognized the face of Vincent Crabbe.
"Nice kill, Justin," he said, beginning to rifle through the Creevey boy's belongings in search of food or weapons.
The scene fizzled out to nothing, like static on a television and the fairies dispersed, lighting up the sky like a thousand colorful fireflies. Hermione was stunned, trying to process what she had just saw.
"It's Justin. He's in the forest," Draco said, breaking the stunned silence. He stood to his feet, as if he were about to go find the Hufflepuff. Hermione rose and put a hand on his chest to stop him.
"We need to rest. I know we all didn't get very much sleep last night. We can find Justin in the morning," she said. He recoiled from her touch slightly and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to compose himself.
"Fine. But we leave at first light," he grunted.
"Deal," she agreed.
Hermione settled down near the fire, using her jacket as a blanket. It was a relatively warm evening, with hardly any wind whispering in the trees. The contented chirping of the crickets, the occasional hoot of an owl, it all seemed very foreign to her. For the better half of the Game of Survival, they had been without any food sources, roaming the world with their bellies empty. It seemed almost too comfortable, too peaceful, and Hermione didn't trust that.
Not one bit.
A faint crackling woke Hermione from her sleep. She yawned and rolled over, desperately willing herself to fall back asleep. A flickering light shone through her eyelids and she sighed in annoyance, rolling over to her other side again. It wasn't until she felt the searing heat that she understood what was happening. Her eyelids flew open and she saw tongues of flame writhing on the branches of the trees surrounding them, quickly spreading from one tree to the next.
She scrambled to her feet, snatching up her jacket and shouldering her backpack before rousing the others. They rose form their makeshift beds groggily, their eyes blinking with fatigue in the early morning haze. It wasn't until a loud crack echoed across the forest and a flaming tree fell into their camp with a resounding thud that the others really processed what was happening.
In a desperate attempt to halt the spreading of the flames, Hermione waved her hand, hoping she would be able to extinguish the fire in front of them enough to make a path. The flames sizzled out for a moment, but then sprang back to life, writhing and twisting more than ever.
"Bloody brilliant," she grumbled. "We need to get out of here before the fire becomes worse," Hermione yelled to the others, her eyes scouring her surroundings for an escape route with very little fire. Her eyes rested on a pathway to her left. The flames there were barely knee-high and weren't spreading nearly as fast.
"Follow me," she called to the others, beginning to sprint towards the area just in front of her. Even through the crackling of the flames, she heard the faint pounding of footsteps behind her and knew the others were right behind her.
She launched herself over the wall of fire, feeling the searing heat of the flames below her. For a second, time seemed to stand still and she felt nothing but the unbearable heat that was rising up towards her. Beads of sweat began to form on her forehead before trickling down her skin, which felt as if it would melt off at any moment. When she reached the other side, she rolled to break her fall and sprung back up, quickly turning to see if anyone else had made it out.
Draco sprang out of the flames and landed gracefully just feet from where Hermione stood. His skin was blackened by soot but other than that he had escaped the fire unscathed. Neville was the next to appear through the flames, arms flailing wildly as he vaulted over the ring of fire and landed clumsily, stumbling into Draco. He mumbled an apology and then seemed to notice that the corner of his jacket was on fire. He flung it off his shoulders and onto the ground, stamping on it until nothing remained of the fire but a faint tendril of smoke.
Luna launched herself through the wall of flames, landing unceremoniously on the ground with a soft thud. The tips of her long, dirty-blonde hair were singed off and she had soot marks on her arms and cheeks.
"You okay?" Neville asked, holding a hand out to help her up.
"I'll live," she muttered, but Hermione noticed a nasty burn forming fast on the girl's ankle.
Just as Hermione thought they were in the clear to make a run for it, a jet of fire flew at them from behind and latched onto the tree and brush in front of them, blocking their path. With a stomach of dread, Hermione turned to see where the fire had come from and came face to face with a flaming crimson salamander. The beast was much larger than the small magical beast that Hermione had learned about in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Its eyes were a horrible piercing hue of coal and its tail was long and covered with razor-sharp spikes. Hermione stood there, frozen in fear, before her adrenaline kicked in and she rolled away just in time to dodge a stream of flames that poured out of the salamander's gaping mouth. In the distance, Hermione could see three other salamanders slowly scuttling their way.
"Hey, over here!" Luna called in an attempt to distract the salamander. The beast paused in confusion and then turned to face Luna, beginning a slow, menacing advance towards her.
"Oh no you don't," Neville cried, conjuring some vines with a wave of his hand and letting them snake around the beast, enveloping it in a tight hold. The salamander gave a rumbling roar and struggled within its confines for a moment before the vines snapped completely, falling pathetically on the ground. The beast turned its attention back onto Luna, trudging closer and closer. Luna backed away, her silvery blue-gray eyes wide with fear as she stared up at the monster before her.
In one swift movement, the salamander opened its gaping maw and spit fire at the silver-haired girl. An unearthly scream rose up into the air as a column of flames engulfed her, eating away at her flesh and hair. Luna Lovegood dropped to the ground and began to writhe in pain, desperately trying to smother the flames that enveloped her body.
"Luna!" Neville cried, rushing forward but not quite knowing what to do. "Hermione, please, you've got to do something."
Hermione was taken aback at his pleading. She was used to people looking to Harry for help, not her. Sure, she had been the brains of the trio, but Harry had been the Chosen One. His very existence had hinged on the fact that he was a natural born leader. It was a new feeling to her, this dependence that people were beginning to have in her. A sudden feeling of fear that she would lead them astray somehow or that she would fail them rose up in her. This must've been what it felt like for him, she thought, her mind going back to a young Harry Potter who had led the resistance against Voldemort.
A sudden thought came to her as she remembered the particular class that they had learned about salamanders.
Water. If they extinguished the fire the salamander had been born from, it would die. She squared her shoulders and turned to Draco.
"I have a plan," she announced.
"Yeah?" he asked curious.
"I need you to extinguish the fires. Salamanders can only die if the fire they are born from is extinguished."
"Got it," Draco nodded and stretched forward his arm. A jet of water erupted from his fingertips and flew at Luna, extinguishing the flames that had ravaged her body. The silver-haired girl lay on the forest floor, unmoving except for her feeble cries of pain. Her face was undiscernible, a mass of muscle-deep burns. A layer of her skin was completely melted off, but the skin that remained was an angry red.
Draco shifted his arm toward the nearest fire and another jet of water erupted from his fingertips. The flames hissed when the water touched them and fizzled out until there was nothing but a sizzling patch of scorched dirt. The salamander nearest them stopped in bewilderment as the flames that emanated from its body began to fizzle out to nothing. The creature let out a shrill, pained screech and collapsed onto the forest floor with a great rumble, dead.
A bang resounded amidst the forest and for a second Hermione thought that it was for the dead salamander until she saw Luna. The Ravenclaw lay spread-eagled on the floor, her silvery blue-gray eyes staring at nothing above her and her mouth hanging open in a silent scream. Her body was burned beyond recognition. If Hermione hadn't seen the girl burn to death with her own eyes, she would've never known it was her. The pungent smell of burnt flesh pervaded the air around her and Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Luna," Neville whispered, kneeling beside her corpse, his face twisted with grief.
Everything seemed to slow down and, for a moment, Hermione forgot that there will still three other salamanders and a wildfire raging across the forest around them. She turned away from the burned body of Luna Lovegood, a feeling of hopelessness and self-hatred rising up in her. If she had given the command to Draco just a moment sooner, Luna would've been alive. The sickening smell of burnt human flesh invaded her nostrils and nausea rose up in her stomach. She leaned over and spewed sick on the forest floor.
Maybe this is what Harry felt like when Cedric died, when countless others died. She knew it was just a game, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss and it was her fault. She desperately hoped that things would go back to normal after the Game of Survival, but somewhere deep inside of her doubted it. She couldn't help but wonder once again what exactly the teachers wanted to accomplish out of the Game of Survival. It seemed to pit the students against eachother more often than uniting them. What was the endgame?
"You okay?" Draco's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.
"I—yeah," she lied. "We need to do something about the other salamanders or we'll be toast soon too," she said, switching the subject and pointing to the other salamanders that were rapidly approaching them.
"On it," Draco replied, turning back and beginning to extinguish the other salamander fires around them as well. Tentatively, Hermione approached Neville. He was still kneeling on the ground where Luna's body had been, his eyes closed. She rested a hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there for him. He smiled in appreciation and stood to his feet, looking her in the eye.
"I—I know it's not real, but…" he trailed off.
"It feels real," she finished his sentence for him and he nodded. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way and she hated the Game of Survival too, but she stayed quiet. When she turned back to Draco, he was just finishing extinguishing the last salamander fire. Two salamanders already lay dead near a tree just feet away from Draco, and the other one was farther off, the flames on its body slowly sizzling out. Hermione watched as the salamander died, unable to handle the lack of heat that was missing as its fire slowly dwindled out.
Draco collapsed on the ground, clearly exhausted from putting out such a large amount of the fire. Behind them, much of the fire was still raging, spreading from tree to tree, slowly creeping closer.
"We need to get out of here," Hermione said, kneeling behind Draco and offering her hand to help him up.
"I can get up on my own, thanks," he said curtly, stumbling to his feet. Hermione was slightly taken aback by the way he was being short with her. Had she said something to upset him? What was going on with him?
After a couple seconds of teetering tentatively on his feet, Draco once again collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes, holding out her hand again.
"Stop being so stubborn," she hissed.
It was as if a façade had been lifted. She stared into the depths of his eyes and found a trepidation that she had never seen before. Draco Malfoy was scared. But why was he scared? With a grumble he grasped her hand and pulled himself to his feet. She laced her arms around his shoulders, helping him walk. Just like that, the wall was back up and his eyes were barred of any emotion.
The three of them hobbled across the forest as fast as they could move, gaining distance between them and the fire. For a long while, all Hermione heard was the crunch of the leaves and twigs underneath their feet and the wind as it rustled through the trees above them. Above them, the birds were chirping in alarm, migrating away from the fire just as the three of them were doing.
After nearly fifteen minutes of stumbling through the forest, they stopped for a break. Hermione helped Draco lower himself onto the ground and took a seat next to him, pulling out their singular pack of crackers. She offered one to both Draco and Neville, who gladly took them. It was nice to sit and enjoy a morning meal and pretend that they weren't in some twisted game, Hermione decided. They all sat there in silence and that was how she preferred it. Overhead, the birds began to chirp their morning song to eachother. Squirrels were scuttling down their trees, ready for another day of scavenging nuts. Hermione closed her eyes, taking in all the sounds of the forest. It was peaceful, and for a moment, just a moment, she was content.
"We should keep on moving," Neville said quietly, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"How're you feeling?" she asked Draco.
"Better, I guess," he said, shrugging. "Never realized how much energy it takes to conjure up that much water."
Hermione nodded, satisfied with his answer, and shouldered her backpack, continuing their trek through the forest away from the soot-covered and blackened camp that they had left behind. Eventually, the trees began to get denser until the branches wove together, almost forming a sort of canopy and Hermione knew they were heading straight for the heart of the forest. As they walked, the sun began to shine through the crevices that the branches left, creating beams of light that dotted the forest floor. The cool morning breeze that swept through the trees was rapidly fading into a warm afternoon breeze.
They had been walking for about a half an hour when Hermione heard a rustle behind them and stopped in her tracks.
"What is it?" Neville asked, his face creased with worry.
"I—I heard something, I think," Hermione breathed, now beginning to doubt herself. Maybe it had just been a trick of her mind. Slowly, she turned on the spot and glanced around her, looking and listening for any sign that something was out of place. The only thing that she could hear was the chirping of the birds above her and the sound of a woodpecker drilling away at a tree. She could feel Draco and Neville's gazes on the back of her head, most likely staring at her as if she were crazy. Maybe she was crazy. She could've sworn she had heard something, though.
Deciding it was nothing, Hermione turned back and began to make her way through the forest behind the two boys in front of her. They had no set destination in mind and, for once, it felt nice to just roam the forest freely. The crunch of leaves under her feet as she walked almost felt satisfying in a way. The further they walked into the forest, it began to get progressively darker. The sun snuck through small crevices between the branches here and there, but the canopy overhead cast such a large shadow of darkness that it almost seemed like a completely different world.
It came from behind her again, the snap of the twig. She stopped dead in her tracks, now sure that she had heard something. Neville and Draco both stopped and she knew they had heard it too.
"Who's there?" Draco called tentatively.
For a moment there was nothing but silence, but then a large dark-gray wolf stepped from behind the branches of a towering hawthorn bush, its teeth bared in a snarl.
"Justin," Draco grumbled. The wolf let out a growling bark and charged towards Draco. The Slytherin unsheathed his knife just in time and plunged it into the beast's chest just as it leapt at him. The wolf gave a yelp of pain and Draco let it fall limply to the ground.
"Stop hiding behind your animals like a coward," Draco growled. His eyes were back to that cold gray that they had been when he had eliminated Blaise from the Game of Survival and, suddenly, Hermione found herself frightened.
Justin and Crabbe ducked out from behind the hawthorn bush. Just was smirking, his hands in his pockets as if he didn't have a care in the world. A shiver ran down her spine. He wanted to be caught. He was up to something, and it wasn't good.
"Long time, mate," he said in an almost too cheery voice.
"Stuff it, Finch-Fletchley," Draco hissed.
"Back to last names, are we?" Justin taunted, smirking.
"You know, I'd watch yourself if I were you. You and your halfwit are outnumbered," Draco seethed.
"That doesn't mean anything," Justin said quietly.
Without warning, Draco's hands were around Justin's throat and he had a maddening look in his eyes. It was like Hermione was staring at a different person and it frightened her. She had never seen him be so aggressive, so blasé about violence. But then again, it was the Game of Survival and it changed people. Or was this who Draco had always been?
"Draco!" Hermione squeaked, resting a hand on his shoulder.
It was as if someone had flipped a switch in him. He let go of Justin and backed away, shakily running a hand through his hair. Justin gasped for breath, holding his throat. It didn't take long before his lips twisted back into a smirk.
"Damn. Never knew you had it in you, Malfoy."
"Go to hell," Malfoy growled. The blonde Slytherin drew his knife and lashed out at Justin, who ducked and unsheathed his knife, swiping out at Draco in return. Draco danced away from the blade, a jeering smirk twisting his lips and the cold, maddening look back in his eyes. A chill ran through Hermione's spine. Whatever was the outcome of this battle, it wouldn't be good.
Neville drew his knife and stood facing Crabbe, ready to fight if need be. She locked eyes with the burly Slytherin, who was wide-eyed with fear. One more slip-up and he would be eliminated from the Game of Survival entirely, if her calculations were correct. She stared at him dead on, not flinching or drawing her eyes away. If she could intimidate him, half the battle would already be won. It was him who finally tore his gaze away from her and lunged at her with a bumbling attack, which she stepped out of the way easily. She sheathed her knife and flexed both hands, willing a fireball to leap to life in both hands. She watched the flames dance higher and higher on her palms and then flung them at Crabbe. His eyes widened in fear, but he lumbered out of the way just in time.
Hermione unsheathed her knife again and weighed it in her hands. It was similar to the throwing knives that she had stolen from Pansy, albeit slightly bigger. If she could just get enough force behind the throw… Throwing caution to the wind, Hermione flung the knife at Crabbe with as much force as she could muster. For a moment, she thought she had missed, but then the blade lodged itself into Crabbe's neck with a nauseating sound. The scream that pushed past the burly Slytherin's lips would haunt Hermione for the rest of his life. She could feel the little hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end as she watched blood flowing from his neck like some sort of twisted fountain. He clawed at his neck, attempting to dislodge the blade, but his hands were shaking too badly. After a moment or two, he collapsed face-first onto the ground and a bang resounded across the forest. The last bang that would ever sound for Vincent Crabbe.
She was just about to turn around and help Draco and Neville fight Justin when an arm wrapped around her and a knife was held to her throat. She let out a yelp of surprise and tried to struggle against the person, but they were holding her arms down. She felt the cold steel of the blade against her neck and then a sting of pain as it nicked her neck. She could feel the warmness of the single bead of blood that formed and trailed down her neck.
"If you make one more move, she dies," Justin's hissed from behind her.
"Let her go, Finch-Fletchley," Draco said coldly.
"Yeah, I'm just going to let her go because you asked me," Justin said sarcastically and Hermione could almost hear him smirking.
Suddenly, Neville dashed forward towards Justin, gripping his knife tightly. Before he could do anything, however, Justin drew his blade across her throat, slicing cleanly into the flesh. In that moment, time seemed to slow down. A wave of pain washed over her and she tried to scream but could only make a shrill, garbled noise as she choked on blood. The hot, sticky fluid trickled down her neck, staining both her clothes and her skin. Black spots were beginning to cloud her vision and she blinked, trying to clear them to no avail.
As everything faded to black, the last thing she heard was Draco Malfoy screaming her name.
A/N: So I know that this was a relatively short chapter in comparison with the others, but I needed to set up some themes and such that are going to sort of pay off next chapter. Let me know what you thought of this chapter! Was it too action packed or not enough? I've had so much fun writing this fanfic. Also, I've decided that I'm going to bring back my posting schedule! I should most likely be updating every Wednesdays. Today is going to be a weird day, so my posting schedule is starting the week after next.
Thank you so much to those who have been reading this fanfic since it was created in 2012, and also thank you to the newcomers. I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this story, and I can promise that it's going to get a whole lot better since we're entering the second half of it! (Updated elimination list below)
Creatively Yours,
~*RebelComicNerd*~
Hermione Granger—Fire (XX)
Draco Malfoy- Ice/water (XX)
Harry Potter—Air (XX)
Ron Weasley—Invisibility (XX)
Ginny Weasley- Electricity (XX)
Luna Lovegood- premonitions and manipulating dreams (XX)
Neville Longbottom—Earth (X)
Colin Creevey- Mimicking / voice-throwing (XX)
Dennis Creevey—Flying (XX)
Cormac McLaggen—Strength (X)
Romilda Vane—Intangibility (XX)
Seamus Finnegan—Explosions (X)
Blaise Zabini- Darkness (XXX) ELIMINATED!
Pansy Parkinson- Illusion of pain (XXX) ELIMINATED!
Gregory Goyle—Petrification (XXX) ELIMINATED!
Vincent Crabbe- Night Vision (XXX) ELIMINATED!
Lavender Brown- Teleportation (XX)
Parvati Patil- Morph appearance (XX)
Padma Patil— Healing (XX)
Dean Thomas—Speed (XX)
Ernie Macmillan- Memory manipulation (X)
Cho Chang—Persuasion (XX)
Marietta Edgecombe- Ability to drain energy (XX)
Millicent Bulstrode- Telekinesis (XX)
Michael Corner- Self duplication / cloning (X)
Hannah Abbott- Emotion manipulation (XX)
Justin Finch-Fletchley- Control over animals (X)
Daphne Greengrass—Lie detection (XX)
Theodore Nott— Poison touch (XXX) ELIMINATED!
Astoria Greengrass— Control over weather (XXX) ELIMINATED!