I had originally planned for this to be the final chapter, but it wound up being long enough and had its own merits to stand on its own. Therefore, the one after this will be the final chapter.

Enjoy.

"I cannot believe that worked." Astoria muttered her disbelief and she and Ginny rounded another corner. The latest curse flying in their direction once again missing but only barely.

Ginny heard that, but didn't bother saying anything in response. She hadn't believed it, either, but she'd only had a split second to think and acted on pure reflex. She doubted even a Ravenclaw could have come up with a better idea in the short time she had.

On one upside, the fact that their pursuer was throwing sone nasty curses in their direction killed stone dead any doubt Ginny or Astoria had left that the man had been coming to rescue them. Not that Ginny had much to begin with. Part of his sleeve had been rolled up, just enough to see a tiny part of what was likely the dark mark.

If there was even a tiny chance he'd been a death eater, and that chance had been a lot bigger than tiny, Ginny wasn't about to take a single chance in risking her life or Astoria's on it.

That was why the death eater got the biggest shock of his life when he opened that door into their prison cell. After all, it must have been a shock to have Ginny Weasley screaming like a banshee coming out of the dark in full sprint. Between that, and her fist ramming into the death eater's testicles coupled with the momentum of said sprint, Ginny had managed to put the man moaning onto the ground. After that, it had been a simple matter of scooping Astoria up onto her back and the duo was off.

The bigger question was how the hell he'd managed to sneak into Hogwarts but that was a question not to be asked at a time like this.

A squeeze around Ginny's neck had the redhead veering off hard to the side, just in time to dodge another curse flying at them both.

Ginny tried to keep turning corners, but the death eater was relentless in his pursuit and closing the distance. Like it or not, the straight halls gave him a perfect and clear line of fire on the two witches and Ginny could do nothing about it. Her only saving grace thus far, had been Astoria watching behind them and giving her a warning when to try to dodge before the curse reached them.

Seeing as how Astoria had to be carried, she certainly didn't have anything else she could have done to help.

The two witches had been successful thus far in staying ahead of their kidnapper, but their luck was running out just as fast as Ginny's stamina. While in better physical shape than most girl's her age, thanks to her love of sports and having so many older brothers, even her body was wearing down. If they didn't get a miracle soon, they'd be recaptured or, more likely, killed.

Turned out, a miracle was literally right around the corner.

"Oof!" Ginny gasped when she literally ran into Harry and her brother, Ron.

"Gin…" Whatever Ron was about to say was quickly cut off by his screaming sister.

"Behind u…" Ginny never got to get the full words out.

It was, who Ginny thought was Astoria's sister, Daphne, who saw the death eater coming around the bend first. The older blonde grabbed Ginny and her sister and yanked them both out of the line of fire while at the same time shoving Hermione back the opposite way. There wasn't enough time to do anything about Harry or Ron.

It was anyone's guess who was the target, but standing in the middle of the hall, it had to be one of the boys. In the end, it didn't matter who the real target was. Both had tried to pull the other out of the way but it hadn't been enough.

It was Harry who took the foul looking orange colored curst right to the chest.

Ron acted entirely on instinct, catching Harry just before his face was introduced to the floor. However, just when the redhead thought his friend was just knocked out or stunned, the first torrent of blood exploded from his mouth, all over the floor.

A second curse flew from the wand, but this one went far off its mark.

Namely, because Ginny had thrown her entire body at the death eater in an attempt to tackle him, but she lacked the mass to do so. Instead, she'd latched onto his wand-arm and clung to it for dear life, all the while trying to keep the deadly weapon pointed away from Harry and her brother.

While keeping the wand pointed away was great, it was not Ginny's true goal. Rather, that was to get the man to release the wand in question. When her fingers failed to the job, so tight was the death eater's grip, Ginny chose a different tactic. Yet, even when the death eater was howling in pain as Ginny's teeth bit into his hand, he still didn't let go.

The death eater's hold was strong, but so too was Ginny's. Not even when the first punch landed in her face, Ginny didn't stop. Rather, she bit harder, growling like the lion that was her houses sigil.

A second and third punch had struck the younger Gryffindor before Hermione had managed to grab hold of the death eater's other arm to stop his attack while at the same time, trying to help Ginny push the man over.

At the same time, after making sure her sister was alright, Daphne had drawn her wand and was trying to get a clear shot at the death eater. With Hermione and Ginny struggling with the man, she couldn't get a bead on him, not without hitting one of the girls by mistake.

The death eater continued firing curses, each one flying wildly in random directions, sometimes missing the others by mere hairs. It was one of these curses that landed squarely at their feet, blowing up a chunk of the stone floor and sending up a cloud of razor-sharp shrapnel in all directions.

The stones sliced into everyone present, save Harry and Astoria. Neither received a single scratch because they were shielded by Ron and Daphne respectively.

By the time Daphne recovered and switched her wand to her non-lacerated hand, it was too late.

The explosion of sharp rocks in the death eaters face had knocked him for six, and between that and Ginny literally tearing a chunk of flesh from his hand with her teeth, finally made him lose his grip and drop the wand.

It was almost a perfect storm, Ginny's hand lost her grip and a second later her teeth did as well. The death eater was able to grab the loose girl and shove her away.

Right into Daphne, who tried to fire of a curse but the younger girl crashing into her saw her miss by a wide margin while at the same time knocking her over. By the time Daphne was able to get back to her knees, the death eater's foot flew out and caught her in the gut, making the girl double over. A second kick to her face sent the girl sprawling back beside a dazed Ginny.

This left Hermione all on her own.

While Hermione could throw a punch to lay low a daft ponce like Malfoy, a real fight against someone like a death eater was an entirely different scenario. One that Hermione would be the first to admit she was woefully out of her depth.

The first swing anyone could have seen coming from far away. Hermione released the death eater's arm and ducked underneath it at the last second, causing the man's fist to hit the stone wall, instead.

This just served to make the death eater angrier, though. Hermione didn't have a chance to react before her face felt the sharp sting as she was backhanded across the face. The death eater now fully rounded on her, landing a punch right in her gut. The blow had barely registered before a second fist collided with her jaw.

Hermione could taste blood, but was more concerned when the death eater's hand latched onto her throat and shoved her back into the wall. Having her head impact against the stone had her seeing stars while another fist struck her middle.

The witch's foot lashed out, aiming for the man's bits, but unbeknownst to Hermione, he'd learned his lesson from Ginny and easily swatted aside her leg with his own. He even went so far as to stomp onto her foot. A blow so hard that, if Hermione had to guess from the sharp pain, might have just broken a few of her toes.

Like children the world over, Hermione had gotten into a few scrapes when she was little. She'd been a prime target of the bullies back in her home town, after all. Before today, she thought she'd known what it was like to be 'beaten up'.

This was something on an entirely new level.

"Mudblood filth." The death eater spoke for the first time, his fist going into Hermione's stomach again. She'd barely had time to gasp before she was struck once more.

While the others had been taken out of the fight either quickly, effectively, or both, the death eater seemed to take a different approach to Hermione. He took his time, seemingly taking some kind of sadistic thrill out of watching the girl suffer as she was beaten.

Hermione was not one to just sit and take it, neither would she give the bastard the satisfaction of hearing her cry or scream. As the death eater rained down blows onto her, her own fists and feet punched and kicked every inch she could reach. Unfortunately, between their size and strength differences, she might as well have been hitting a brick wall. There might have been a few tears here and there as well, but they were few in number. Her cries were of defiance, not pain.

Growling in annoyance, the death eater's fingers found their way around Hermione's neck, already beginning to squeeze. The witch could feel her windpipe being closed off, her vision slowly going dark.

Behind them, Ginny struggled to her feet, spitting out the foul chunk of death eater flesh she'd bitten off. With another scream she leapt onto the man's back, her arms enveloping his neck while he was distracted.

"Let her go!" Any other time, Ginny might have been able to do some good. But between carrying Astoria, and her first round of the battle, she was past exhausted. She'd barely gotten ahold of the death eater when his head shot back and nailed her square in the face and threw her off.

With the death eater's hands on her throat, Hermione's shot out to grab at his head. He'd been expecting the girl to finally crack and find her fear of death when faced with just that at his hands, but all Hermione found, despite her blurry and darkening vision, was the perfect opportunity for her thumbs to find his eyes.

For the first time in her life, and probably the last, Hermione lamented she didn't have those fancy long and sharp nails she knew many women wore for fashion purposes. While hers might be blunt and neatly trimmed, they still were enough to cause some damage.

While Hermione's throat was being crushed, the death eater's eyes found a similar fate. It was too bad that Hermione's efforts were stymied when the death eater pulled her back by the neck and slammed her head against the wall with much more force than before.

After taking a number of blows to the head already, that last one was the straw that broke the camel's back. Hermione's body went limp, and crumpled to the floor in a still and unmoving heap.

Yet, seeing his defiant victim go down wasn't enough for the death eater, a kick to her middle followed simply because he could. This was in addition to a vindictive stomp on her arm. Truth be told, he'd been aiming for her wand hand, but her thumbs had done quite the number on his eyes and he could barely see.

If asked, Ron wouldn't be able to tell you what set him off. To his shame and disgrace, he'd been paralyzed by a combination of shock and fear. It could have been watching the brutal beating and near murder of one of his closest friends. Maybe it was seeing his baby sister on the floor, barely moving with her face all battered and bruised with her mouth and chin covered in fresh blood that could be hers or the death eater's. That wasn't even mentioning his best mate on the floor in a pool of his own bloody vomit.

Whatever the source was, the effect it had on the boy was not up for debate.

The Weasley Temper, as it was known across Hogwarts, was the stuff of legends among the students, terror amongst the Weasleys themselves, and headaches among the staff and faculty.

Ron had allowed his temper to flare up before, usually at poor times when he should have known better, but that was a three-year old's temper tantrum compared to the pure rage that overcame him in that moment.

The poor death eater never knew what hit him.

Despite being too young to be able to do so, Ron seemed to apparate. One second, he was beside Harry, the next he was right in front of the death eater. A death eater, whom had foolishly taken his eyes off his enemies in order to scoop up his fallen wand.

For the first time in Ron's Hogwarts career, he'd finally found what he deemed a proper use for Hermione's enormous copy of Hogwarts, A History.

All present, that were still conscious, heard the thunderous crack as the heavy book connected with the death eater's face as Ron swung the tome upward. The older man was left gasping, clutching his bloodied face as he stumbled back from the surprise attack.

Ron was far from done.

Another heavy swing saw the book striking the death eater again. Followed by another, and another, and yet another. The furious older Weasley was letting loose a roar that would have Godric Gryffindor himself proud as the young lion pressed the attack.

The initial strike had been as effective as a confoundus charm, the death eater was left reeling and dazed, unable to defend himself properly from the unrelenting assault. By the time the death eater managed to grab hold of the book, an act more of luck than anything, his face had been reduced to a bloody mess.

With his weapon stuck, Ron simply abandoned it and let his fist meet with the death eater's face instead. It was a fair question whether the breaking sound was his own knuckles, or the death eater's jaw, but at the moment, Ron Weasley was not capable of coherent thought, let alone proper questions.

Much like Ron, Astoria had been paralyzed when the fight started, but also like Ron, once she recovered, the youngest girl present knew she couldn't just sit and watch. This man, no, this beast, was a death eater. If they lost this fight, death would surely be a mercy, one the girls here probably wouldn't receive.

While the Gryffindors might charge in foolishly, but bravely, from the front, Astoria was a Slytherin, and the house of the snakes didn't do frontal attacks. Not without having at least an inkling of an advantage, such as a wand like her sister had.

With her ankle still injured, and wand Merlin-knows-where, Astoria knew she had to try something a little different. While her ankle was still too injured to walk on, she wasn't going to need it.

With Ron all-out attack proving the perfect distraction, Astoria crawled over on her hands and knees. Picking up a larger chunk of the blown apart stone as she did so. Her intent was to hamstring the death eater, or at the very least stab said stone into his leg, but she never got the chance.

While Ron was wailing on the death eater with his fists, the man would occasionally step or stumble backward. It was one of these exact times when he did so, his leg caught on Astoria's body.

The death eater yelled as he fell backward over the prone girl and there was a sickening crunch as he landed on the stone floor, head first.

Not that Ron cared, so great was his rage, that Astoria was barely able to crawl out from under the death eater's legs before a still raging Ron was on top of him, repeatedly battering his face in.

Daphne had been hit so hard, certainly the hardest she'd ever been in her life, she was only now able to regain some sense of equilibrium. With one hand on her face, attempting to staunch the blood flow of an undoubtably broken nose, her other held her wand at the ready as she moved to join Ron. One glance at the redhead was enough to tell even one of Crabbe and Goyle's intellect that a wand was no longer needed here.

That didn't stop Daphne from keeping it trained on the bastard, anyway. One slight twitch and she'd be happy to blast the death eater to pieces. Daphne almost hoped he'd throw Ron off just so she could do just that.

"Bloody hell!" Daphne suddenly shrieked.

Ron, despite still deep into his hate and rage fueled violence bender, shockingly still had enough self-control to pause mid-punch when he heard Daphne yelling. Although, regardless of what she had to say, he had no intention of stopping.

"Ron, do you have any idea who that is?" Daphne's eyes were wide in a combination of disbelief and shock as her now nasally voice continued. "I thought I recognized him, but I couldn't place it. That's…"

Both found their conversation interrupted by two witches screaming behind them.

Ginny was trying to move over to Harry, but seemed to collapse onto herself before making it very far, only to try again, all the while reaching for the fallen boy and calling out to him. At the same time, Hermione seemed to have recovered but only slightly, despite being in a really bad way, and was also trying to make her way to her boyfriend but couldn't even crawl. She was pulling herself along with a single arm all the while begging Harry to say something.

It took Ron and Daphne both far too long for either's liking to realize that people were not supposed to be that pale, but that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part, was that Harry wasn't breathing.

A previous reader suggested having Snape as the kidnapper in question. I'll confess, he was one of my top contenders for that position, but I ended up deciding against it. Let's be honest, Snape could have easily pulled this off, but he is far too obvious and most readers would see that coming miles away.

Not to mention, I am trying (whether I'm succeeding or not is up to reader interpretation) to flip the script a little here and not be so cliché.