"Run!" Hermione cried, pulling at Ginny's arm. Ginny had stiffened at the sight of Snape, and that behaviour made Hermione wonder, what could Snape have done to her?

"Come on!" She shouted, turning to run. She felt strong arms grip her around the middle and swing her around, her skirt flying up from the motion.

"What?" Her tone was aghast as she looked into the face of Malfoy.

"End of the line, Granger." He sneered, his face contorted in a sick smile, laden with pleasure and satisfaction.

It was then that Hermione realized. It had all been a trick. Or had it? Malfoy's performance was too perfect, too tormented to be fake. Wasn't it? Her mind raced, trying to wrap itself around this horrible conclusion. Malfoy smiled, gripping her arm, having set her down and allowed her to smooth out her clothing. Ginny remained frozen, staring headlong at Snape.

"Marquis is such a good little boy. Unlike you, Draco." Snape scoffed, as the child stepped out from the shadows.

"I brought her, didn't I?" Malfoy said, his tone defensive. How could his "uncle" sneer so upon such a great capture?
"You let too much slip, idiot boy." Snape crossed to where the trio stood, and delivered a sharp slap to Malfoy's pale, pointed face. Malfoy released Hermione and sank to the floor.

"Forgive me."

"Forgive you, what?"

"Forgive me, sir."

"That's better." Snape said, kicking Malfoy in the gut and leaving him writhing on the floor.

"What shall I do with you?" He said, directing this question at Hermione, who stood, terrified, before him.

"What do you think, Ginny?" Snape asked, strolling to the redhead and caressing her cheek. The girl flinched at his touch, though her facial expression did not change. The flinch Hermione was grateful for, for it meant that Ginny was still there, still inside her own body.

Ginny smiled then, her rosy lips twisting into a sneer that bore nothing but evil. Hermione's eyes widened as she opened her mouth to speak. Her voice came, strong, and not at all the hoarse rasping that had overcome her after Lucius' attack. It was almost seductive in a way, and before Hermione's eyes, she began to change. Her hair became sleek and shining, the curls falling down her back in neat ringlets. Her eyes shone, no longer haunted, but dark and deep, bottomless pits of onyx. The pillowcase fell away, and briefly she stood, unclothed, her body no longer coated in purple and blue marks and red gashes, but merely pale and thin, beautiful even now. She closed her eyes and a close fitting bodice encased her torso, followed by a deep crimson skirt that settled around her like a bell. She was beautiful, a dark princess, a goddess before them. And she was no longer Ginny Weasley. Something inside her had died, replacing itself with the deep, twisting agony of darkness, of the pain she'd been subjected to. And like a phoenix from the ashes, she had risen, carving out something new, something dark, and something volatile.

"Crucio!" She shrieked, pointing her wand at Snape as she cried out, laughing maniacally as he fell to the floor, clutching at the dirt in pain.

"You...bitch...kill...you."

"Darling, I would love to see you try." She said, her voice seductive and strong, lilting slightly on "love" and revealing just how amused this all made her.

Hermione shrank back against the wall. Who was this girl, this great and terrible beauty before her? Was there any trace of Ginny left inside?

"Run." She uttered to Hermione, her eyes flaring like a candle as she turned to the quivering girl.

Hermione did as she was told and fled the room, hearing Ginny's sick cackle and Snape's wretched screams. Malfoy appeared behind her, his footsteps echoing as hers did in the barren tunnel.

"What WAS that?!" He asked, his voice incredulous.

"That...was the world your father created. Fuck this all, fuck your torment. This is what it costs. She's gone."

Gone? Child, I'm not gone. I'm not going anywhere. She heard Dark Ginny's voice in her head, as if she controlled Hermione's every thought.

"No, not more of this shit." Malfoy said. "This is my head. MINE!" He appeared to be losing his composure as he cried out the last word.

Hermione heard, audibly and externally, the shrill cry of the Killing Curse as Snape met his maker, and then the whimpering of a child.

"The child!" She cried, fearing for the welfare of Marquis.

"Heh. What do you know of the "child"?" Malfoy muttered, cradling his head as he sank to the floor, sliding down the wall.

"That she's about to kill him." Hermione said.

You always were such a bleeding heart.

Ginny did away with the boy with another shriek, and appeared instantaneously in front of Hermione and Draco.

"Who's next?" She said, her face aglow with triumph. The girl Hermione had loved was gone, and instead, this monster remained. A beautiful demon of a woman, who had done away with all Hermione had ever cared for so truly, all she'd known. Hermione felt a cavernous pain swell in her chest, and sank to the floor as Ginny disappeared, soon followed by the sound of screams.

It was never said, the death toll at Hogwarts Castle that night. All that was found were countless corpses, littering the old stone floors and furniture, as if they'd merely been going about their daily business, when cut down. No one could lament the loss of Lucius Malfoy, and when Bellatrix Lestrange was found, facedown in the drain of the still-running shower, the Minister of Magic sighed a breath of relief. Ministry officials combed the building, pulling one survivor from the tunnels beneath the school, Draco Malfoy, shaken and speechless, remained in St. Mungo's for the rest of his life, muttering about nonsense, though sometimes truth. The last body found in the castle was that of a brown-haired girl, dressed in a skirt and blouse, who, it is said, haunts the grounds even now, ten years later. The girl who died of a broken heart.