Next Chapter is filled with fighting and due to Dramione, a certain life is saved.
Disclaimer: I own nothing! *Sob*
Yells and shouts and unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor as I watch Draco turn the corner and disappear. I look around and my heart fell deeper in my chest; Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. At the end of the hall we see two red heads dueling, by the time we reach them Fred seemed to be laughing about something Percy said. Harry and Ron ran to join in the fight, as I look around for Draco.
"... I don't think I've ever heard you joke since you were -"
"Immobulus!" I shout as I watch a Death Eater shoot a spell at the wall next to the group of boys. Several bricks fell and cut them, but my spell stopped anything serious from happening.
Curses continued to fly at us from the darkness hitting the wall behind our heads. A body fell next to me as I run towards Harry and Ron as Fred and Percy ran towards Colin Creevey who was fighting one of the Carrow twins. With an unintended glance down I held in a gasp as I see the pale looking Cho Chang staring straight up at me.
"Get down!" Harry shouts from near me and I feel both he and Ron pull me down, a curse flying over my head. I shoot a spell at an on coming death eater and as he falls, the mask falls off to show Crabbe's father. I look away from his body and let out a high pitch scream.
A monstrous spider the size of a car was trying to make its way towards us. I had never seen a spider that big but apparently Ron and Harry had, because they both shoot the same spell towards the spider to stun it. Behind it more start to appear.
"It brought friends!" Harry yells. He looks through a nearby window and sent spells down towards oncoming spiders. Ron and I position ourselves behind Harry as more Death Eaters appear. Fred joins us but Percy must have joined a different duel. A few curses came close to Harry but none of us let them touch him.
"Harry..." I call over my shoulder.
"Let's move, NOW!" He yells. He shoots a spell that stuns an unknown death eater and pushes Ron and I ahead of him. Goyle had vanished but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from windows, I saw many people running backwards and forwards, whether friends or foes I could not tell.
Rounding the corner behind us Fred let out a bull-like roar: "ROCKWOOD!" and sprinted off in the direction of the tall man who was pursuing a couple of students. For a moment I watch Fred join the fighting but look away to see a tapestry untouched.
"Harry, in here!" I scream. I pull Ron in with me and Harry follows.
"Hermione we have to get back out there! I want to help - I wanna kill Death Eaters-" Ron's face was contorted, smeared with and dust and smoke.
"Ron, we're the only ones who can end it!" Harry exclaims.
"Please-Ron-we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" Out of the corner of my eye Harry glances at me and Ron shut his mouth but I ignore it. I planned on killing the snake and killing the last horcrux. "We will fight! We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're suppose to be doing! We are the only ones who can end it! We- We have to end it!" I wiped a stray tear from my face. I step away from Ron and lean against the wall behind me. "We'll end it soon Ron, and Harry will kill Voldemort. We'll end it and live like we are suppose to. We just have to get through it. All three of us together." I turn to Harry.
"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry-look inside him!"
Harry stares at me for a moment and I was about to yell at him again when his eyes seem to glaze over and he looks as if he was staring through me. Ron looks between us but I don't take my eyes off Harry, hoping this wasn't a bad idea. Images of Voldemort and Harry at the Ministry flash through my mind and before I was about to shake Harry to get him out of the trance, his eyes focus on me again.
Harry gasps and looks around at the screeches, cries, and bangs of battle. "He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."
I am only in shock for a second. "Voldemort's sitting in the Shrieking Shack?" I ask, outraged. "He's not- he's not even FIGHTING?"
"He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Harry. "He thinks I'm going to go to him."
"But why?"
"He knows I'm after Horcruxes- he's keeping Nagini close beside him-"
"But not Draco." I say, looking away from Harry. "Voldemort must think that if someone kills him, at least his soul won't be harmed. Only Draco's."
"Voldemort said that Malfoy didn't join him when he called or when the other Slytherins did. He doesn't seem to care about the horcrux in him anymore." Harry pauses and looks to Ron. "He thinks I'm going to go to him since I obviously need to kill the snake to kill him."
"Right," Ron says, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hermione, and I'll go and get it-"
Harry cut across Ron, ignoring me opening my mouth to protest. "You two stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I-"
Having had enough, I cut in. "No, it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and-"
"Don't even think about it," Ron snarls at me, and I return the snarl with much more force.
"I am just as capable as you Ronald!" The tapestry at the top of the staircase on which they stood ripped open.
"POTTER!" Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but before they could raise their wands I shout "Glisseo" and watch as the stairs beneath our feet flattened into a chute and Harry, Ron, and I hurtl down it, unable to control our speed but so fast that the Death Eater's Stunning Spells flew far over our heads. As we swept through the tapestry I turn and cried "Duro!" and hear two loud crunches as the painting turned to stone.
"Totally capable." Ron said from beside me. "but don't you have another Horcrux to kil- deal with?"
"There's still time." I counter. "Harry, you get the Cloak on. Never mind us-" Without listening to me, Harry threw the cloak over all three of us.
We ran down the staircase and found ourselves in a corridor full of duelers. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming advice and encouragement, while the Death Eaters, both masked and unmasked, dueled students and teachers. Dean had somehow gotten his hands on a wand because now he was dueling with Dolohov, and not far away Paravati with Travers.
Simultaneously, the three of us raised our wands, but the duelers were weaving and darting so much that there was a strong likelihood of hurting one of our own side if we cast a curse. As we stood there, there was a loud "Wheee!" from behind us and I see Peeves zooming over us, dropping Snargaluff pods on the Death Eaters.
A fistful of tubers hit the cloak above Ron's head and before we could rid it a Death Eater saw. "Someone's invisible there!" The pause that came from most Death Eaters in the room led to the end of duels as the light side duelers took advantage of the distraction and won.
"LET'S GO!" Harry yells, and we gather the cloak tightly around ourselves as we run down the stairs towards the marble staircase into the entrance hall. There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall. Death Eaters everywhere you looked: Yakley in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley right beside them. Neville emerged from a hallway throwing armfuls of Venomus Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Death Eater.
As we ran through a new hallway, two familiar bodies that I had grown up with fell from above, and my roommate lay on the ground as Fenrir Greyback and sunk his teeth in Lavender Brown's neck while Parvati Patil lay dead neck to her.
"NO!" I shriek, sending a curse toward him and Greyback flew backwards off the now dead Lavender. He begins to struggle to his feet when a crystal ball fell on top of his head, knocking him out.
"I have more!" Professor Trelawney yelled from over the banister. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked over Lavender, but continued to throw her crystal balls. "More for any who want them! Here-" At the same moment she sent a ball rushing out the window, the gigantic spiders forced their ways into the front hall. The spiders frightened both sides as fighters scatter. Both sides sent red and green jets of lights into the midst of the oncoming monsters.
"How do we get out?" Ron yells from beside me, before Harry or I could think of an answer, Hagrid came booming down the stairs.
"Don't hurt 'em, don't hurt 'em!" He yells. Next to me Harry went very rigid before he yells out to Hagrid and runs out from under the cloak towards Hagrid.
"HAGRID, COME BACK!" He yells, the pain in his voice clear. Before Harry got halfway, the spiders and Hagrid merge together and with Hagrid, the spiders retreate. "HAGRID!" Harry yells like a little boy calling out to his father.
"Harry come back!" I yell. Ron helps me gather the cloak as we run after the distressed Harry who continues to call for Hagrid until he was almost squashed by an enormous foot.
"Oh my-!" I shriek as we finally reach Harry and watch the giant try to seize people in the window above. I raise my wand to get the giants attention but Ron grabs my wrist and pulls it down roughly.
"DON'T!" He yells, confusing me. "Stun him and he'll crush half the castle-" before I could explain how giants skins were more protected than that, another, smaller giant joined the fight.
"Hagger?" As Grawp came around the corner, a fight between the two giants broke out and we all ran out-of-the-way to avoid getting killed. Harry grabbed my hand and Ron follows as we run towards the Dark Forest. Before we reach it though, we are stopped.
The air around us begin to freeze and each time I breath in, the cold air hurt my lungs. As despair and hopelessness settle in my heart, I watch the many black cloaked figures emerge from the forest and make their way towards us. Behind us all fighting had seemed to stop because of a silence only Dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night. Friends had died, Hagrid might be dead, and Draco was going to have to die.
"Expecto Patronum!" I mutter but not even a whisk of smoke came out. Next to me Ron shouted the spell and his little terrier ran near me and was able to clear my mind for an instant.
Draco wasn't going to die, instead we were going to live together and grow old like he promised. "Expecto Patronum." We were going to get through the war and embrace and have a passionate kiss. "Expecto Patronum!" Because I knew the answer to Harry's question now. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" I yell with all of my heart and watch as my otter patronus flip in the air and turn into a new animal. My dragon roars through several dementors and floats near Harry who had still not made his Stag.
"HARRY, COME ON!" I scream and when I look at him, my wand dips at the look of surrender on his face. Next to me Ron's terrier flickers and dies. My dragon goes through several more dementors before fading out too. When images of war and Bellatrix begins to haunt me, I accept my new fate.
Before we could surrender completely a silver hare, a boar, and a fox appear between all three of us. Luna, Neville, and Seamus, stood between us making the dementors fall back farther. "That's right," Luna said, looking to Harry and smiling like we were not in the middle of the war. "That's right Harry.. Come on think of something happy."
I sent out my Dragon once again and watch as a terrier joins me and soon a stag. Together the six of us drove the Dementors away and the sound of battle continues behind us once again, as loud as ever.
To my surprise Ron turns around and tries to thank our three saviors, but another Giant joins the fighting and his moment of kindness vanishes."RUN!" Harry shouts for the millionth time and we all scatter as its foot lands where we had previously been standing.
"Let's get out of range!" Ron yells as we follow Harry to stay close to him.
"The Whomping Willow, go!" Harry yells.
/\
The Tunnel was low-ceiled, we had to double up to move through it nearly four years ago; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Harry went first, his wand illuminated, I expect at any moment to meet barriers, but none come. We walk in silence until the tunnel begins to slope upwards, Harry was about to continue on when I stop him.
"The Cloak!" I whisper urgently. "Put the Cloak on!"
"Nox." He murmurs as he disappeared under the cloak.
Ron and I wait in silence for a long time after Harry had disappeared. It wasn't until we hear a terrible scream did we hurry after Harry. We stop when we hear the cold voice of Voldemort say "I regret it." After a few moments I see Harry's arm extend from under the cloak and his wand pointed at the crate blocking his view.
"Harry!" I breath out, but before I could tell him to stop helping the unknown Death Eater, the crate blocking the view lifts and he pulls himself into the room. I move forward and gasp when I see Draco's godfather lying there, dying.
When Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak Snape's eye widens. As Harry bends over Snape seizes the front of his robes, I was rethinking what Draco said about his godfather when I hear Snape's raspy voice try to speak.
"Take ... it... Take... it..." I notice it before Harry does and conjured a flask from thin air and thrust it into his shaking hand to collect the memories. When the flask was full to the brim, Snape looks like he was staring at death in the face.
"Look...at...me.." I hear him whisper to Harry. There eyes meet for a mere second before Professor Snape's hand fell to the floor and Headmaster Snape moved no more.
Moments after Snape died, Voldemort's voice reverberates from the walls and floor. "You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured." There was a pause and then Voldemort continued.
"I speak now to Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
The moment his voice ended Ron and I both shook our heads frantically. "Don't listen to him," Ron said.
"It'll be alright," I said wildly. "Let's - let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan-" with a glance towards Snape, I run into the tunnel.
I command my forces to retreat immediately. Will Draco go to keep up his façade? Or will he stay in the castle and more likely get cursed for being there.
The three of us walk in a daze through the grounds. Ron leads us to the Great Hall and I could see on his face that his adrenaline was disappearing and thoughts of the lost ones were clouding his thoughts.
When we reach the Great Hall, for a moment we look around the hall at people we had known our whole life. Witches and Wizards we had grown to care for and love, now injured and dead. Without a word to Harry who was still rooted to the spot, Ron and I seem to float towards his family. As Ginny catches sight of me she threw her arms around my neck and sobbed into my shoulder.
"I'm so tired Hermione!" She whispers, her tears soaking threw my shirt. "I can't go on, I don't want to see anymore death." I begin to cry too and soon we were both comforting each other and clinging to one another for support. We walk towards Fred and George who took Ginny from me. I get a clear view of the rows of the dead when she left. Tonks and Remus were next to each other on the ground and more tears begin to fall. I walk towards the young Auror and my old DADA professor. I hadn't been able to talk to Tonks when she came into the castle, but now I wished I would have asked about the baby or congratulate her. Now the only thing I could do was intertwine her hand with her husbands.
When I was finished I look away from the Weasley family to see if I could help with the injured. I walk away slowly as I head for Professor Binns who was directing people to help. Before I get there I feel a tinder touch on my elbow and turn around to see Luna looking at me strangely.
"You seem very lost Hermione." she says to me, her eyes no longer held as much lightness as they use to. She was beaten down like everyone else. Tears brim my eyes at the thought of this war making even Luna lose her innocence I had always admired. "Don't cry, the nargles hate it when people cry." She smiles at me like she was joking and I smile back, laughing a little. "If you are looking for someone, I suggest looking there first." Luna points a shaky hand back towards the Weasleys and I realize she was talking about the dead.
She walks away before I can say anything. I was about to turn around again when I see something that catches my eye in the line of deaths. Slowly I walk around the Weasley's towards the familiar person lying down. When I finally get a clear view of the wizard, I fall to the floor beside them as the tears double and my heart ached.
All I could think was No. That word continued in my mind without another one entering.
No no no...
Don't kill me!
And to explain how Fred lives in my story is that they got there late enough and Hermione wasn't distracted that she could see the spell before it hit where as in the book she was dueling.
So many things underlined!
Hey... where did Harry go? Anyone seen Harry?;)