Monsters in the Eye of Monsters

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ron's blue eyes. Harry's messy hair. It all flashed before her eyes, which were quickly filling with tears, making the unclear tunnel around her even blurrier as she was trapped in an endless, spiralling fall between those heavy walls.

His blue eyes, and his black hair. It all blended together in a swirling black and blue, as if it was mocking her.

She was afraid.

They were as good as dead.

It kept ringing in her ears. Her tears felt like acid to her exposed skin. Her mind was in clutters.

It kept ringing. Louder, until she could make out a mantra of uncomfortable voices in her head. Her stomach filled with butterflies, a kind she had never felt before. It was so painful, she wanted to scream, but her throat was closed off with strain, forcing her to take gulps of air at a time, like a fish out of water.

The nausea came and went, making her ringing ears louder, and making her throat tighten. She had to struggle for air.

A pressure built up at her temple, both from the pain, and from the tears tearing open her tear ducts from within. It felt like she was on fire. It was excruciating.

It hurt so much. She wanted to yell, to scream, to wail. She wanted to do something!

But she could do nothing, as the pressure at her temple increased, and the tears burned into her skin. Her stomach did a turn, and she forced herself not to vomit. She couldn't hear a thing, the rush of air that screamed in her ears was nothing compared to the high-pitched ringing.

It felt like her ear drums were splitting. Her head hurt so much.

Then, suddenly, it all lessened.

The ringing stopped immediately, the pressure in her head reached a peak, then was reduced to nothing, and the nausea evaporated completely.

She managed to let out a small yelp as her throat reopened, and drew in a large gulp of fresh, harsh night air.

And then, a loud crack filled the air, bursting whatever was left of her hearing.

Pebbles filled the air, ruthlessly abusing their bodies, as they crashed into them at full force, the incredible wind encouraging the battered rocks to leave bruises and blood on their skin.

She was violently thrown to the side, her torso scraping against hard rock on the tunnel wall, before an unknown force cut her abrupt fall into a halt, making her wheeze with pain. She was held mid-air for a moment before she was violently thrown to the side, her path being straight for the other side of the tunnel.

Then, as she soared towards the horrid wall that was going to be her end, the pressure in her temple built up. Her head ascended in pain in tact with the proximity of the wall, before she, surprisingly, tumbled into something that reminded her of a cave. It was like the wall had evaporated just before the impact. It had simply turned to dust, which was now covering her shaking mess from head to toe as she lay on the sharp rock ground, her whole body shaking from exertion.

She turned around, her sight blurry, as the dust settled and two other figures rose around her, equally shaky and distraught.

Nobody said anything for a while, only their distinct groaning echoed in the small cave. A second later, something flew in with a marvellous speed, the two wizards' wands making their entrance, missing Harry's head by only a few inches.

The wands scattered across the ground, and halted just before her shaking feet.

She locked eyes with Ron. His blue ones were wide and filled with an emotion she could not quite place. She could not picture how she, herself looked.

His voice broke as he spelled out with a shivering voice, "Guess you got some magical blood in you, eh, 'Mione?"

All of Hermione's emotions suddenly manifested, and she was felt like her body was frozen in place. "What?"

Ron shrugged half-heartedly, "Who else could have done that? None of us had our wands, and if none of us suddenly learnt wandless magic, it had to be you who did it! And that is really some impressive piece of magic, Hermione!"

She was speechless.

"So you're saying I'm…a witch? A Magical?"

He smiled, his grin coming off askew. It had been a long time since she had felt the happiness she felt now. He closed the distance between them, and looked into her eyes, his own blue ones shining.

For a moment, Hermione was sure he was going to kiss her. A warm fuzzy feeling embraced her skin, before he surprised her, and embraced her in an half-awkward hug.

"And hadn't you been one, I would've been a dead man," he muttered in her ear, "Thank you, Hermione,"

She couldn't help but feel a little disappointment, both at herself for thinking such thoughts, and at him for not doing so.

She let go of him, and turned around to Harry, just in time to get a glimpse of the astonished look plastered across his face.

Her face burned underneath the carpet of dust that covered all of them. Ron and Harry had picked up their wands, and Harry looked at her with amazement. "You. Are. A-mazing, Hermione," he finally said.

She smiled and felt a determination she had rarely felt before, dawn on her. "But we still need a plan," she hesitated, "And I won't be of use, I don't know how this Magical thing works,"

Ron sat down with a cheery look on his face. "Then we will simply sit down and have a meeting. Right here, right now," She couldn't possibly phantom where he got the cheery feeling from.

Harry nodded, a light-felt look on his face, although his eyes were grave and dull.

He said, "To sum up our situation, we are without a plan, with a potentially traitorous Ferret running around with his Death Eater friends, not to mention, we are very exposed," he waved his hand across his own face.

"Don't forget that our source in Belgium was wrong, and we are stuck with the dubious information we got from Malfoy," Ron piped up.

"I think he spoke the truth. He sounded genuine, and so did his story about Astoria," Hermione replied, "And the Pheralius curse looked real,"

"I think it was," Ron agreed after a break.

Another silence dawned on them where they sat, exhausted and dirty.

"I think they need me for something. Think about what our source had written. Resurrection, Horcruxes, Harry Potter–" Harry shivered, "Maybe they need me for something? Since the other parts make sense. They need the Horcruxes to make the Resurrection work. What about me then?"

Hermione felt the dread deep in her stomach.

After a long discussion, she felt more afraid than determined, like she had before. She looked at the others. Their plan was chosen.

Harry sighed, "Our best shot is to get rid of the Pheralius curse,"

Ron swallowed hard, and his eyes fell. Hermione drew a sharp intake of breath, "We got to heal them,"

"And then…" Ron said, letting his hand fall from where she could see a crimson stain on his shirt, "It all relies on us. We got to do our best,"

They stood up and looked at each other. The emotions were running wild within every one of them. Harry lifted his glasses to rub his eyes. Then they met in the middle, embracing each other in one, long group hug.

Hermione felt guilty when her eyes lingered a little longer on Ron than Harry. She couldn't sense whether Harry had noticed or not. She patted him caringly on the back. "We will do our best. Either we will die fighting, or we will succeed. Whatever happens, I am so happy I got you all,"

They all agreed, and before the tears would surface, they made the decision to move. Ron and Hermione clung to Harry as he gave them one last hug before he lifted his gaze up, his wand tightly in his hand.

"Hold on," he said, and only moments later Hermione welcomed the uncomfortable feeling of soaring through nothingness, as they Apparated up into the tunnels once again.

End Notes

I just wanted to say thanks for all the support, especially all the wonderful feedback. Thank you very much Guest, Mighty mito (this one is to you!), kehwie (I totally agree, Ron is too often looked upon at as a person with the brilliance range of a teaspoon), JeanAndBilius, HeRonLove, Beetle126, khairuldaniels12 (Did I update quick enough for you?;))and last, but not least ntlpurpolia.

Final chapter coming up soon!