CHAPTER 14

'Whoa! Sandy,' Draco said with a look of stunned surprise on his face. It wasn't false either. This was their first dress rehearsal and they were all wearing their new costumes for the first time. Hermione had just walked onstage in an outfit of tight black spandex, spike high heels, and a wide pink belt. It was indeed a breathtaking sight.

'What's it to yah, Zu-' she began smoothly, but a scream from the audience stopped her mid-sentence. A girl had spotted the owl swooping toward Hermione, a letter clamped in its beak. It dropped the letter at her feet and zoomed back out of the open doors.

Hermione bent down and picked it up. It was from Harry. She looked up at Draco, a look of utter horror on her face. Harry would never have let an owl deliver a letter in the presence of muggles unless it was something really important.

One thing that struck her as odd, though, was that Vince and Ari were also looking at the letter as though it meant something to them. Hermione opened the letter with trembling fingers.

Hermione,

Voldemort's here in the school. He's after me and the teachers are busy trying to evacuate the other students. We need you to come back right away! We need your help to keep the Death Eaters at bay. Hurry!

Harry

Hermione clapped a shaking hand over her mouth and sent Draco a significant look. He nodded grimly and looked out over the audience.

'Ms. Tina, I'm afraid we need to leave,' he said in a voice of forced calm. He knew what that look had meant. Hogwarts had fallen. 'I'm sorry to skip out on rehearsal but it's unavoidable.'

Tina looked for a moment as though she was going to refuse.

'We need to go, too!' Vince called. Draco looked at him. He looked resolute, as did Ari, whom he had his arm around.

Tina looked confused and angry for a moment, then sighed and waved them off wearily. Draco grabbed Hermione and sped off toward the door, grabbing their dance bags--and their wands--on the way, Vince and Ari hot on their heels. They reached the front door and sped off to find a place to aparate out of view from the others.

They stopped behind a tree, glanced around, and spun on the spot. There was the nauseating sensation of being sucked through a tight black tube, and they were standing in Hogsmeade. They weren't alone.

Vince and Ari were standing beside them, staring at them with expressions they were certain mirrored their own shock. They looked up at Hogwarts castle in the distance as one. There were screams and flashes of light that carried all the way down to the village.

'What are you doing here?' Draco asked confusedly.

'We could ask you the same thing,' Vince said. He pulled out…a wand! And he pointed it right at Draco's chest. Ari's was directed at Hermione. Draco almost laughed. This situation was just ludicrous!

He nodded to Hermione and they pulled their wands out of their bags and pointed them at the others.

'Well, isn't this an interesting situation,' Hermione said. Vince and Ari rolled their eyes and lowered their wands.

'You two are a witch and wizard? Why didn't you tell us?' Ari asked indignantly, leading the way through the eerily silent village.

'Why would we? We were told we were in an entirely muggle town! We didn't know there were any other witches or wizards in the state,' Draco explained.

'That's what we were told, too, ' Vince said. 'Our families sent us to Tallahassee to keep us out of harm's way. Is it safe to assume the reason for your "transfer" was the reason you spread around?'

'Yes, we came for the music program,' Hermione said. 'Now are we going to fight or continue our explanations?' she asked testily. They had reached the gates flanked by winged boars that marked the entrance to the Hogwarts ground--they were knocked at odd angles as though someone had forced them open. The grim look on the others' faces gave her her answer. She lead the way through the broken gates.

There were people sprinting around the grounds, fleeing from their pursuers, jumping over the bodies that littered the ground and dodging the jets of green light flying past them. There were huge chunks of the castle that had been blown away and were now lying in heaps all over the grounds. The roar of voices and curses was deafening.

Hermione motioned the others to get close to her and muttered a few complicated spells. A translucent bubble encased them, blocking all spells and hiding them from view. They crept their way through the crowd, looking for a glimpse of anyone familiar. They made their way through the smashed doors and into the Entrance Hall.

Hermione stopped dead so that Draco, Ari and Vince all bumped into her. It was immediately apparent what had her so stunned. The great hall, too, was crowded, but not with duels; with corpses. Peers, teachers, friends were strewn around the hall, blank and staring. Hermione was frozen, stuck, empty. She saw so many familiar faces and she realized with a jolt that she would never see those faces again.

She was shaking, her hands were clammy, her throat was constricted, but her eyes were dry; her grief seemed to be beyond tears. She jumped when Draco put a hand on her shoulder, but didn't take her eyes off the horrifying sight before her.

'Hermione, we need to go quick or we won't be able to find Harry,' he warned her grimly. She nodded slowly--noting dully that being in Hogwarts had reverted him to his British accent--and began picking her way carefully through the gruesome scene. Her heart, so low a moment ago she thought it had stopped, leapt up into her throat as she heard a familiar voice. Four familiar voices!

Hermione whipped around so fast that she nearly knocked Vince clean off his feet. She gasped and pointed at a vicious duel going on across the hall. Luna, Neville and Ginny were driving two masked Death Eaters back toward the oak front doors.

Hermione looked beseechingly at Draco but he shook his head and jerked it toward the marble staircase--it had several large chunks missing, which were littered around the hall. Behind one of these chunks crouched Ron, shooting spells over the edge at random at two more Death Eaters.

Hermione--ignoring the others' silent protests--took careful aim through the bubble and shot a silent Stunner at one of them; he slumped to the ground, motionless. The other Death Eater faltered and Ron, taking advantage of his hesitation, stunned him as well. He stood up and looked around for his savoir. Seeing no one, he shrugged and ran to help Ginny, Neville and Luna, who had been joined by two more Death Eaters.

Hermione waited to make sure they could handle the situation, then gestured to the others and headed toward the stairs. When they reached the top Hermione lifted the charm and the bubble dispersed. They exchanged looks; all of them looked severely shaken by the devastation they had witnessed.

'W-we need somewhere to f-focus for a few m-m-minutes,' Hermione choked out. Her accent had returned, too. 'Let's g-go to the Room of Requirement.' Draco nodded and set off along the corridor.

'What's the Room of Requirement?' Ari asked curiously, hurrying to catch up with him.

'The Room of Requirement is this amazing room that can be pretty much anything you want it to,' he explained. 'You just walk three times down a certain corridor, thinking hard about what you need to room to be, and a door appears. It's wicked cool! It's helped me more than once,' he said. For some reason--only he and Hermione knew what that reason was--he was looking sulky and ashamed. Ari wondered but decided not to ask questions. Vince didn't notice at all.

'Here we are!' Hermione exclaimed. They were in a corridor devoid of anything except a large tapestry of a botched attempt to teach trolls to dance ballet. Hermione was gazing at the blank opposite wall. She began to pace back and forth, muttering under her breath.

Suddenly, as she finished her third lap of the hall, a polished wooden door materialized in the blank stone of the wall. Ari gasped and Vince said, 'Whoa!' Hermione beckoned them through the door into a spacious room lit and warmed by a large fireplace, and filled with squashy couches and chintz armchairs. They each flopped down and sighed.

'Okay…what do we do now?' Vince asked. He seemed eager to be out fighting, in the thick of things. 'Who are we looking for again?'

'Harry Potter,' Hermione said shakily. The thought that Harry could be being tortured or killed at the hands of Lord Voldemort as they spoke made her sick to her stomach.

'Maya, are you okay?' Ari asked concernedly, transferring to the arm of Hermione's chair. 'You don't look so good.'

Hermione tried to say something reassuring but the image of the entrance hall floated through her mind and her throat constricted painfully. She let out an odd choking noise. Her breathing was quick and sharp, and her hands were still shaking visibly.

'Everything's going to be fine,' Vince said in what he must have thought was a heartening tone. Hermione stared at him. She stood up slowly and made to face him.

'Fine?' she whispered tremulously. 'Fine? Nothing is fine! I grew up with these people! This was the first place I ever had any friends, the first place I ever felt I really belonged. These people, those people in the entrance hall, are--were--my friends. Those people we helped in the entrance hall were a few of my best friends: Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna! I have been best friends with Harry Potter for seven years and now I can't find him to help him in his very greatest moment of need! Do you have any idea how helpless that makes you feel? Not to be able to help those who need it, to be entirely powerless? To see your friends and peers dead at your feet? It hurts! It hurts more than you can ever imagine!'

Hermione noticed that her voice had risen steadily as she spoke; she was now nearly screaming at Vince, who was backing away in alarm at her violent outburst. She could feel the tears pressing against the back of her eyes, the burning in her throat was intensifying: she wouldn't be able to resist for long.

Draco came forward and put a hand on her shoulder. Hermione whirled around and clutched at him. He put his arm around her shoulders and let her cry into his chest. The room was silent except for Hermione's muffled sobs. Vince seemed to have been more shaken by Hermione's rant than by the scene that had inspired it.

'Well…we should really get a plan and get going if we're going to find Harry Potter, don't you think?' Ari said hesitantly, sounding as though she thought Hermione was going to start yelling again.

Hermione pulled back from Draco, wiped her eyes and took a deep steadying breath. She had to be strong…for Harry. She turned to face the others, willing her hands to stop shaking, a look of determinedness on her face and a fire burning in her eyes.

'Okay. We need to find out where he went and if Voldemort has found him yet,' she said, her voice surprisingly steady. 'We can go out and find Ron or Ginny again and ask them if they know where he is and how he's doing. Any information will help.'

Draco nodded but Vince and Ari looked confused.

'Oh, right, you guys don't know Ron and Ginny,' Hermione realized. 'Ron is really tall and Ginny's…well, she's just Ginny. Both of them have bright red hair. There might be a few others like that--they have a really big family--but any of them might know something. Tell them you're with Hermione and Draco,' she instructed. They nodded.

'Let's go,' Draco said, pulling the door open and leading the way down the stairs. The others followed resolutely behind him. 'We'll have to split up.' Vince and Ari, looking anxious at being separated from their guides, tried to protest, but the desperate look on Hermione's face stopped them.

The four of them scattered, running through the duels still raging on the grounds, looking for a flash of red hair. Draco pelted full out toward a group of five Death Eaters ganging up on three scared looking fifth years that hadn't managed to be evacuated before the onslaught. Rage filled him as he watched one of the hooded figures laughing at their terrified faces.

'Stupefy!' Draco yelled, pointing his wand at the laughing figure. It turned just in time to see the red bolt of the Stunner hit him square in the chest. He slumped to the ground. Draco jumped over him and kicked one of the others in the stomach. He, too, fell over, gasping for breath. The fifth years looked even more frightened.

'Hey, I'm helping,' Draco said, shrugging. 'Impedimenta!' A Death Eater that had been sneaking up on a girl froze. The girl turned and, seeing the man frozen in the act of attacking her, screamed. 'Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Stupefy! Impedimenta!' Draco yelled. The other Death Eaters dropped like stones. 'Your welcome.' He smiled at the girls and ran off in the other direction, leaving them looking bemused.

Hermione ran through the battle, shooting spells every which way, wherever anyone seemed to need help, her eyes searching constantly for two of her very best friends, hoping nothing had happened to them. Soon enough, she spotted Ginny dueling with a large Death Eater.

'Stupefy!' The Death Eater fell, a look of surprise on his face at the assault from behind. 'Ginny!' Hermione threw her arms around the girl. 'Have you seen Harry? Do you know where he is? Is he with Voldemort?' she asked urgently.

'I don't know,' Ginny answered looking both relieved to see her, and bewildered at her outfit. 'I saw him earlier but then we just got so caught up in the fight. What are you wearing?'

'It was a dress rehearsal for Grease the musical,' Hermione said impatiently. 'Did you see which way he went? Where was he the last time you saw him?'

'Well, I thought he was going toward the forest, or maybe the Womping Willow, but I couldn't be sure from this dist-'

'Thanks!' And Hermione ran across the grounds, dodging shafts of light and hooded figures, toward the flailing tree in the distance. People must have been fighting near it, it was usually still, but it didn't like being hit at all.

'Maya!'

She turned. Vince was sprinting toward her, looking terrified.

'What's the matter?' she asked worriedly, stopping for him to catch up. 'What's happened?'

'It's Ari,' he panted, clutching his chest. 'She's been hit with something. I don't know what it was and I don't know what to do.' The worry and pain etched in his face was one of the few things that would make her turn around and come back.

Ari was lying in a sheltered niche behind a chunk of the castle wall that had fallen off. She was gasping in pain and clutching her stomach. She was sweating profusely and her temperature was raging.

'It looks like a Fiebermagen Curse,' Hermione said worriedly, laying a hand on Ari's stomach; it was hot to the touch. 'I think I can remember the countercurse. Hold on.' She thought for a moment, running over the mental list of spells. 'Kalter bauch.' The heat in Ari's stomach began to ease. She seemed to be resting more peacefully.

'Good. It should go away in a few moments. Just in case, the spells is 'kalter bauch.' Remember that and perform the spell again if she starts getting warm again,' Hermione instructed.

'Thank you, Maya,' Vince said. 'I don't even want to think what could have happened without you here.' He hugged her tightly, and gave her a small push in the direction she had been going.

Hermione ran toward the tree again, glancing back over her shoulder once or twice at the touching scene she had left. She shook herself and ran faster. She couldn't let herself be distracted anymore, had to focus all of her energies on finding Harry.

No sooner had she reached the Womping Willow that she ran into someone. She was nearly knocked over but righted herself quickly, wand at the ready, prepared to curse someone to get them out of her way. But it was only Draco.

'Hermione! Ron told me Harry was coming here,' he said urgently.

'Ginny told me the same thing,' Hermione said, lowering her wand. 'Do you think Harry's in the Shrieking Shack?' she asked doubtfully. It seemed a bit obvious.

'What's the Shrieking Shack got to do with the Womping Willow?' Draco asked confusedly.

'That's right, you don't know about that. There's a secret tunnel under the Womping Willow that leads to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. It was built when Professor Lupin went here so that he could be sneaked out once a month and transform without anyone knowing about it,' Hermione explained, looking around for a long stick. 'So, do you think he could be in there?'

'Possibly. We should go check, and if he's not there we can come back and try the forest,' Draco said. Hermione picked up a long stick and carefully poked a knot on the tree's trunk. It froze. Draco gaped at it, but not for long, as Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him toward a gap in the tree's roots.

They entered a long, stooped tunnel. It was so low that they had to run nearly bent double. It was dark and cold, and the ground seemed to slope upward after about ten minutes. Hermione stopped abruptly and Draco nearly ran into her backside.

'What?' he whispered up at her. She made a shushing noise and gestured toward a chink of light at the end of the passage.

There was to be a crate covering the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, blocking their path, but voices were filtering past it. Hermione was listening intently. Draco strained his ears to hear what was being said.

'…by me. You knew it was going to end this way, you always have,' hissed a cold, high voice. There was a quiet whimper. 'Oh, Potter, how the mighty have fallen. You were never the tragic little hero everyone thought you were. The prophecy did not matter. You have no power I do not, just a whole lot of people willing to die so you can carry on hiding behind your friends, letting them all die for you.'

'…no…' Harry gasped, his voice ragged and strained.

'Oh, yes,' Voldemort said, sounding almost amused. 'All these pointless years of running and training, all for naught. You should have just died alongside your parents, Harry Potter. It would have saved you seventeen years of torment when I'm just going to kill you now. You and all your worthless, Mudblood and half-breed friends-'

'NO!' Harry yelled.

There was a blast like a gunshot and Hermione gasped as a shot of bright silver light shot past very near the crate, so that a kind of heat wave washed over them.

'Potter, do you really think that a simple spell like a Patronus can defeat me, the greatest wizard of all time?' Voldemort sneered.

'You are not the greatest wizard of all time,' Harry said quietly. 'Albus Dumbledore is.'

'Albus Dumbledore is gone, at my orders, on my terms!' Voldemort said. Hermione was satisfied to hear that Harry seemed to have hit a nerve.

'He will never be gone! Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him,' Harry shouted defiantly. There was a sound like a whip crack and a cry of pain. Hermione bit her lip to keep from crying out as well.

'Hold your insolent little tongue, Potter,' Voldemort hissed, sounding more like a snake than a man. 'There is no one here to help you, no one left to die for you now. You are alone, defenseless, weak. You do not stand a chance against me, Lord Voldemort!' And he laughed, a cold, high merciless laugh that sent chills down Hermione's spine.

'Avada-'

'NO!'