There is an indifference that washes over once someone has failed. When the ground does not cave in on itself, the world does not cut to black and fall silent, and the first few seconds pass when there is nothing more that can be done.
Gone. Panic was gone. Anxiety, after all, is the worry about what is to come. She didn't have to worry about the future anymore. Her worst nightmare was already five seconds in the past.
Six seconds.
Seven,
eight,
nine -
Her knees buckled.
Ten.
A piercing scream echoed through the courtyard and her eyes darted to the source. The dark wizard threw his head back in another manic scream, this one sounding more triumphant. It faded into a mad laugh as he slowly turned in a circle, wand in hand. Giddy with pride in what he had finally accomplished.
Harry Potter was dead.
She reached up to her face and found wetness. Bringing her fingers before her eyes, she saw the moisture was red. A mixture of tears and blood as both flowed down her face. Why didn't it hurt?
Suddenly, the indifference faded away. There were still crashes and spells being casted around the grounds. It slowly died out as more people attuned to the change in the air, looking and gravitating towards the courtyard. Feeding off his victory, and the attention of the people surrounding him, Voldemort rose the elder wand into the air.
"Morsmordre!" The dark mark takes its place above the school, plaguing the sky above what is left of the castle.
It made her sick.
"We need to go." A voice whispered beside her, cracked and hoarse. She felt a pull at her hand and looked down to see she had been holding tightly onto someone. Her eyes followed the length of the arm and saw it was Ron. His face covered in dirt and blood and eyes tight as he tries to keep his panic under control.
Her mind was still turning back on as she continued to take in her surroundings. She had suspected months ago that Harry was a living holcrux. They never spoke of it. Not until it was time for Harry to go into the forest.
Life had been so unfair to her best friend. How he would never get to see what life is like outside of the war. The joy that lifted her up when Harry came out of the forest alive made her hit the ground that much harder once he was irreparably killed in the end.
It may not have been a tragedy to be relieved of what life outside of the war would be.
Is.
The war was over.
No.
"We can't." Hermione whispered back to Ron as he crouched beside her, trying to lift her to her feet.
"Now – get up!" He hissed pulling her to her feet and behind him as he started to walk backwards towards the castle. All eyes on the mad wizard with the dead boy at his feet while they backed up to the doors of the castle.
"We can't leave!" Hermione scolded him once they were inside, her voice cracking under the weight of all that has changed in the last few minutes.
"There's nothing else we can-"
"We need to kill him." she said with conviction. More than how she felt.
"Harry is dead, Hermione." Ron said sternly to her, desperate for her to listen. "And-"
"There was no way of this ending without Harry being dead." she bit out. "We destroyed them," she continued, grabbing Ron by the shoulders watching his eyes turn mournful. "We destroyed them all and Harry is dead and now it is only him". She took a deep breath, "and we can kill him."
"Hermione, look out there," he begged as he grabbed her face, wiping the blood and tears from her cheeks. "He is surrounded by death eaters, and the ones who left earlier must see the dark mark because I can hear them coming back." He paused and Hermione listened around her. Indeed, several cracks were coming from nearby areas of the castles as the death eaters that fled earlier returned.
"He has the elder wand," Ron continued. "And an army, and we don't even know who on our side is left." She stared at him and blinked. This wasn't part of the plan. Their plan failed.
"Where do we go?" She said with urgency, changing tactics and looking around the nearly empty corridor as the courtyard fills. Death eaters rushed past them, hardly giving them a second glance as they joined each other in victory.
"I was hoping you'd know that." he said with a sad smirk.
"Right." She said with a bob of her head as she turned and started down the corridor. "Right, let's do a sweep. Quickly. See if anyone is hurt or needs help. The wards are down, we should be able to apparate out now if we must. Do you have a wand?" She stopped suddenly and turned to him as he nearly ran into her.
"Yeah, managed to hold onto it." he nodded, "should pick any up we see along the way, though." Hermione turned to look out the window. Voldemort must be giving his victory speech, as his followers continue to circle around him. In the back arriving later than the others were the Malfoy's, followed by the Carrows.
That was one thing about Lucius Malfoy, always thinking one step ahead. Neglecting to fight when it appeared Harry and the Order would come out victorious, huddled in the corner of a corridor with his family avoiding hexes. Now that Voldemort reigns victorious, he appears wandless and with the Carrows. A perfect justification for his family's lack of involvement during battle.
Ron and Hermione started walking the corridors of the castle. They reached one end of the castle and the ground below them began to shake. As they turned a corner, they saw a girl on her knees with her arms extended and hands pressing hard on a boy's chest. When she heard footsteps approaching, she stopped her panicked ramblings and looked up with a gasp.
"Kellah!" Hermione exclaimed as she rushed and fell to her knees beside her dorm mate. She saw the boy on the ground was Seamus and his chest had been hit with several slicing hexes. "Seamus – oh my god – Seamus stay with me – hey!" She gave his face a couple light, rapid slaps. "Keep your eyes open. I am going to help you, but you need to stay awake-"
"Christ woman, hitting a man in my condition…" he slurred. A relieved laugh escapes her as she sees Ron kneel on his other side out of the corner of her eye.
"Gotta be quicker mate, someone made a right turkey out of you," Ron jested lightly at his friend as Hermione started healing the wounds on his chest.
"Tossers. Cursed me with my back turned." Seamus replied.
"Mm, is that how he gutted your stomach then?"
"Oi! Saw the whole thing, did you?" Ron laughed as Hermione's spell returned the color to Seamus' face.
"Could have helped me out mate." Seamus continued, "think I held up alright considering I had to take death eaters five to one."
"Which was it then, cursed with your back turned or fighting off the death eater army with one hand behind your back?" Ron teased again.
Seamus chuckled, "you wound me, Weasley." He tried to sit up only to have Kellah shove his shoulders down.
"No trying to impress your friend now, Finnigan. I didn't hold you together to have you rip yourself apart before Grangers got a chance to patch you up," Kellah scolded him softly.
"You were much nicer to me when I was dying." Seamus said sweetly. Her face still too fragile to give a tone with more than just a hint of tease.
"Yes, well the battle is young." she retorted with a smile, coming back to herself as he was no longer dying in her arms.
"The battle is over." Hermione said.
"What do you mean the battle is over?" Seamus probed flatly. No one moved an inch as they waited for her response.
"Harry is dead. Ron and I are trying to help who we can, but we all need to get out of here." Seamus and Kellah just stared at her. Surely, they must have suspected it.
"Most people must have apparated out already," Hermione continued. "You have lost too much blood to apparate on your own, you'll side along with Kellah," she said to Seamus as he continued to stare at her, trying to process her previous statement.
"Kellah? Kellah?! Have you a wand?"
"A wand I– no. No, I lost it in a duel. That's why I couldn't heal Finnigan." she said, coming to faster than the boy beside her.
"Here, choose from these." Hermione continued as she handed Kellah the wands she and Ron had collected. "Get Seamus to Glasgow. Muggle Glasgow. He's lost a lot of blood and needs a hospital. Use a confundo if they question why he has blood loss with no wounds."
"Why a muggle Hospital?" Kellah asked.
"We don't know where it is safe anymore. A muggle hospital won't be of interest to the death eaters. At least for a few days." Her last words came out almost in a whisper. She said goodbye to her classmates, telling them they would find them at the hospital once they left the castle, and turned to Ron a moment after they apparated.
"We aren't moving quickly enough," he said to her as she turned around. "If we got here a minute later, Seamus would have been dead." She flinched at his words. It was true, even as she healed him, she was afraid he would die before she was finished. "We need to split up," he continued, "I'm not as brilliant with healing charms as you but I can patch someone up good enough. Better than dying on the floor of the castle."
"Okay," Hermione nodded, "I'll work my way to Ravenclaw tower, and through the kitchen to check the Hufflepuff common room. You check the classrooms and Gryffindor. We'll meet at the clock tower."
"How long do you think it will take?"
"I don't know Ronald!" Hermione bit out. Honestly, this is not the time to be lazy about-
"Hermione." Ron grabbed her chin and looked her in the eye. "How long do I wait at the clock tower before coming to find you if I get there first?"
"Oh." She looked at him and gave him a small smile. Sometimes she forgot how much he had grown up. How much they have all had to grow up. "I think an hour is the most we can risk. Their celebration will have to end sometime."
"An hour." he said with a nod.
"Be careful," she whispered to him.
"Nope," he replied with a small grin. She laughed and he placed a chaste kiss on her lips.
Hermione was all but running through the halls. The evidence of battles in this part of the castle was less obvious. The ground of the castle shook again, harder.
She had just cleared Ravenclaw tower, giving a wand to a couple students taking refuge there. She got to the bottom of the stairs leading to the dungeons and the Slytherin common room when she stopped in her tracks. Flinging herself into an alcove, she was able to get out of sight just before the group of death eaters could turn around and spot her. Her lungs burned as she tried to take slow, silent breaths. Hermione didn't understand how they could have beat her, they must have been here all along.
Hermione's stomach clenched. She came down here on a whim, not wanting to leave the Slytherin students behind. They had been locked up in their house since before the battle started, for better or worse. Even so, damning the students to the mercy of death eaters because of their school house was too unfair. The ones who wanted to join would be welcomed, but she wanted to give them a chance to decide for themselves.
The floor and walls shook again hard, and she gasped. She looked over at the group of death eaters standing in front of what appeared to be an empty wall. They were trying to get in. The students must have casted more wards from the inside.
She silently weighed the odds between herself and the three death eaters. Her detour already made her come too close to the time before Ron will come looking for her.
Fuck it.
Hermione came out of the alcove attacking, stunning two death eaters before they had time to turn around and promptly dueling the third. After a few minutes, the third death eater fell and she kept pacing in a circle, wand at the ready in case another came out of hiding. After a moment she slowly approached, lifted her fist, and rapped on the wall.
"The hall is clear. I don't know for how long. You don't have much time but if you want to be anywhere but here when the death eaters come back, you need to leave now." Hermione waited in silence, hidden around the corner. She heard a sound like bricks shifting and hushed voices hissing at one another. She breathed a sigh of relief. Not everyone in this war could be saved, but by the group of Slytherins that ran past her hiding spot on their way out of the castle, there were at least ten to twelve of her schoolmates that were trying to create a choice for themselves.
Hermione left the kitchens, not a student left in the area of the castle, and headed towards the clock tower to meet Ron. After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, she started nervously pacing back and forth. If he came across someone who was injured beyond his healing ability, he would have apparated them out. It may take him longer to get back.
After another fifteen minutes Hermione couldn't take it anymore and headed back into the castle, taking Ron's route in reverse. She made it through the great hall and to the potions classroom without seeing another person. When she turned the corner to go head towards the library, her feet tangled beneath her and she fell to the floor.
Hands grabbed her shoulders roughly and turned her around to face her attacker, legs still bound with the jinx that caught her. Looking at her was the death eater she dueled in front of the Slytherin common room.
"Though you'd get away from me, Puppet?" he said through his snarl. She struggled through her bind to get a grip on her wand. If she could get her hand around it, she could apparate away. The familiar death eater looking down at her chuckled as she struggled against him. Then, finally, she got her fingers around her wand. Just as she pulled it into her palm the death eater raised his arm, and then everything went black.
A jolt woke her and she pried her eyes open. The carriage is dark and dusty, and she could feel the weight of another body pressed against her side. Her arms and feet were still bound as she tried to sit up and look around as her eyes adjusted. She counted fifteen separate bodies lying along the floor of the carriage. However, the darkness coupled with the spinning in her head prohibited her from identifying who anyone was.
Or if anyone was alive.
Frustrated, she laid her head back down with a thud and took a few deep breaths. She was starting to drift off again when the carriage came to a halt. A few moments later, the doors flew open and the light flooding in burned her eyes. Murmurs started to increase around the carriage as the restrained witches and wizards were revived.
Hermione was dragged from the carriage and stood up on the ground outside with the others. An arm shoved her forward and she started walking in line with the rest of the captives. She blinked away the back spots adjusted to the light, and the building in front of her came into focus.
Malfoy Manor.
This was the second time she had been dragged into this mansion against her will.
Judging from the current company, this visit was likely to be as unpleasant as the first. There were several death eaters lingering at the front gate of the manor as they made their way to the entrance. Many of them were still covered in debris from the battle at Hogwarts. Her head throbbed again, and she reflexively reached up to touch it with her bound hands. From the left, a strong hand came down to strike her across the face.
"Eyes straight ahead," a death eater barked at her. "Keep moving. Faster." He continued with a shove to her back, causing her to run into the person ahead of her.
Pushing herself off and standing up straight, she realized the person is Anthony Goldstein, a Ravenclaw in her year. Anthony shot a glare at the death eater that struck Hermione, squaring his shoulders. Determined to keep the fight going.
"Don't. Just keep walking." Hermione whispered to him as she encouraged him to keep moving.
"Think they'll just leave us alone if we let them attack us when we can't fight back?" Anthony said, words laced with contempt.
"I think they're likely to kill us with our hands bound if they feel like it. I won't be able to take you with me when I escape if you're dead." she said with more lightness than she felt.
Anthony huffed, but she could tell that her confidence had bettered his mood. Hermione followed behind him as they were herded into the entrance hall and noticed more death eaters around her. Several of these ones had changed into clean robes and talked amongst each other excitedly.
The captives were forced forward until they entered the drawing room. This was the worst type of déjà vu. Only this time, the weight of the world did not rest on her shoulders. She had nothing that the death eaters wanted this time. She had nothing for them to take, and nothing with which to barter for her life.
She risked a quick look around and saw her fellow classmates that were taken from the school. She realized that there are no Order members amongst them. All of those that survived the battle must have escaped. Maybe they would come looking for them.
"Mm, what did you bring us, Dolohov?" A rough voice rang from the corner of the room. Hermione flinched at the sound. When she turned her head, she locked eyes with Fenrir Greyback. He was wounded and bloodied, having not taken time as the wizards had to present himself. He chuckled darkly at her, not a drop of amusement reaching his eyes.
He looked especially feral standing next to Draco Malfoy, who was immaculately groomed and robed, perched on the arm of a large chair. His lengthy arms crossed lazily across his chest. He had a look of indifference on his face. But in all his effort to look uninterested, Hermione could see the worry hiding in his gray eyes.
"Oh, I have been waiting too long to get my teeth into you," he growled out, eyes still locked on Hermione and hunched over slightly as he devoured her from across the room. "Shouldn't have waited last time we were together. Such a pretty little-"
"Must you do this now?" Malfoy bite out impatiently, looking disgusted at the werewolf next to him. "I suppose you are littering my drawing room for a reason, Dolohov?" he continued, turning to the death eater in the middle of the room. "Or are you trying to test the boundaries of my family's hospitality?"
Hermione grinned slightly to herself, too small for anyone else in the room to notice. Malfoy's arrogance was profoundly more enjoyable when it was not being directed towards her.
"Easy boy," Dolohov responded, "this lot was still kicking as we cleared the castle. The Dark Lord does not wish to waste more magical blood, merciful as he is." He took a step closer to Malfoy, "we brought them here since this is where the Dark Lord wishes us to receive our next orders. Figured you have a dungeon to spare until we know what to do with them. That is, if your family wants to continue to grace us with your hospitality." The threat dripped from Dolohov's words. The Malfoy's were on thin ice with Voldemort before the battle. It seemed in the hours since their situation hadn't improved.
"Does this look like the dungeon to you?" Malfoy retorted lamely.
"Just needed direction from the master of the house." Dolohov replied smugly.
"Have one of the elves help you," Malfoy stated as he stood up and walked away. "I don't have time to be giving tours of the Manor," he threw over his shoulder as he disappeared out of the room and down the hall.
"The small one is mine." Greyback growled, pulling the conversation back to himself.
"They are all subjects of the Dark Lord." Dolohov replied flatly, looking away from Greyback with disgust. "Does anyone know the name of the elves?" There are small shrugs from around the room.
"Don't know the elves, but I can find my way to the cellar good enough." Gregory Goyle stepped up from a corner of the room. He looked exhausted, the evidence and war shown in the burn scars on his face. Painted by fiendfyre, and impossible to heal magically.
Goyle looked over at his schoolmates, the tiredness in his eyes nearly looked apologetic. Not that his sympathies mattered. Not that he would trade his own life to help them escape.
Dolohov nodded towards the door and promptly followed Goyle out into the hall. Two other death eaters assisted in filing the prisoners in a line so that they stayed together. Hermione was towards the back of the group, attempting to put as much distance between herself and Greyback as possible.
When they reached the cellar doors, the death eaters worked to lift the charms to unlock them. Hermione was standing next to the wall, her classmates surrounding her other side as she felt a tug on her hand. She looked down with as little motion as possible, and saw a small house elf holding onto her.
Shhh the house elf motioned with her other hand and started to pull Hermione toward her. Hermione hesitated for a moment, but then decided to trust the elf. It reminded her of the last time a small creature saved her life within these walls. She allowed the elf to pull her into the hidden alcove, not daring to look around or draw attention to herself.
When she was completely concealed, she stood there in silence, still holding hands with the elf. The elf looked past her at the cellar, and when the loud click of the doors unlocking filled the hallway, the elf tightened her grip on Hermione's hand and disapparated them away.
Hermione took an involuntary gasp when they reappeared away from the hall. She looked around her. The walls were the same as the rest of the manor except for the tapestries that lined them. One side of the room contained a study area, bookshelves lining the wall floor to ceiling and a desk with wingback chairs in front of them.
She turned around and saw a lounge area on the opposite side. A drink cart sat off to the side and in front a large fireplace was a black couch, surrounded by two large armchairs. Between the coffee table and the fireplace, a blonde man paced frantically as he tugged his hand through his hair. He had to have heard them arrive, but he refused to look up or seize his pacing.
"Neddy has brought master the small one sir," the elf said to her master. His responded only another run of his hand through his hair, his pace quickening.
"The small one with curly hair," Neddy tried again. "She was right at the edge of the wall and-"
"Did anyone see you?" he finally snapped. His steps came to a halt as he looked directly at the nervous elf.
"No master, the wizards were busy with the cellar wards. They were just getting through when we left sir," the elf replied, shaking her head rapidly.
"Go back. Stay hidden. Come directly here the moment they realize she is missing," he ordered her, and with a pop she disappeared.
The blonde turned his eyes back to the floor and resumed his pacing. Hermione stared at him blinking. The words died on her tongue and her body remained frozen as she adjusted to the whiplash of her fate changing once again.
She continued to watch the blonde spiral in front of her. When she heard curses slipping from under his breath, she broke the silence.
"Malfoy," she said, stating a fact.
He kept walking.
"Malfoy," she repeated, more urgently than the first time. Nothing.
"Malfoy!" she yelled, and he stopped facing the fireplace. He put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the ceiling as he took a deep breath. A few moments passed and he exhaled and turned around. Standing up straight with his chin raised, he placed his feet firmly on the floor. His hair was tousled, and face was attempting disinterest.
"Granger."