Hermione Granger looked at Fred and George Weasley, knowing what was coming was going to be impossible for all of them to live through. The plan she had devised would only work if one of them sacrificed themselves to ensure Voldemort's death. There were a couple other plans but they had a lower chance of success, and at this point they couldn't take the risk. They had already lost everyone else that could have helped them, and even longer ago they had lost everyone willing to help them. It's not like they'd mourn each other for long. They'd stopped that when the war had started truly gaining speed and they didn't have the time to mourn. If they had mourned everyone that had died, they would have been offering themselves up as easy pickings.
Hermione would admit to feeling the loss of one of the twins more than the others, seeing as how much they had survived together. If it hadn't been for Fred and George, Hermione is sure that she wouldn't have left some of the battles until she was left dead in a dark alley. But could she really be blamed when she didn't have anything else to survive for. In her opinion their cause had died along with the other parts of the Golden Trio, and now all she had is revenge.
"Alright, so if we go through this entrance in the left side of the manor there will be less guards and the ones that are there are least likely to be able to raise an alarm before we kill them. Though we are working on information that is just over a month old, the lack of threat has been making them sloppy so I doubt they will have changed their plans. Fred you will go first as you're the best as defensive magic and we could do with a good shield from which to attack from behind. Then George and I will follow close behind using almost exclusively the killing spell to ensure they don't have a chance to fire any spells back. We can't risk losing any of us before we get into the main dining room where Voldemort and his inner circle will be having their meeting. At that point it will probably dissolve in a free-for-all, so just try to take any shot at Voldemort before he can disapparate. We may have lost this war long ago but if he dies now, they will lose to." Hermione finished explaining her plan and grabbed her wand. Time to go kill some bastards.
They all apparated to the side of Malfoy Manor, ending up outside the high fence that surrounds the entire property. George quickly grabbed both of their hands and squeezed, a way to promise that they'd do their best to get back home. Hermione knows it's not possible this time but she's not going to take his comfort away. She's seen what losing everything can do to people and she needs them to focus on this fight. Unlocking the gate with a muggle picklock to prevent setting off the wards, they run through the dark garden only illuminated by the moon. Thank God wizards haven't come up with motion sensing lights or this would be so much harder. Fred quickly picked the lock on the door and they slipped inside.
Oddly there's no guards standing on the sides of the door inside the hall like the plan of the manor said there would be. It's not a good sign. Hermione knows that continuing now would be going in blind but they didn't know where Voldemort would be from now on. They had lost the last of their spies when they received the plan of the manor and Voldemort's location for today, which had been a worry, but they couldn't pass up this opportunity. So, they continue with Hermione's plan and Fred leads them down the hall with a shield covering their fronts and George covers their back with the same shield. Though the lack of confrontation did cause a nagging voice in the back of Hermione's mind to become louder and louder, telling her to get the hell out of there before everything goes wrong.
Ignoring it becomes almost impossible as they reach the main dining room and they still haven't seen another single living being. Not even the peacocks. She can see the tension in Fred's shoulders and how worried George is by his fiddling with his necklace. Stopping them before they enter the room, she asks them if they want to leave. She can't fight alongside those that will run away as soon as the going gets rough.
'We're not going anywhere Hermione. Let's continue with the plan as we have been, at worst there will just be more Death Eaters there than we planned.' George was clearly trying to be comforting but the voice was still there. Plus communicating through their necklaces was starting to make her head feel crowded. The necklaces were made near the very start of the war for her, Harry, and Ron so that they could communicate without words if they needed to stay silent. Not that it did them any good in the end. But she stole them off their corpses and gave them to Fred and George, as they are valuable assets in situations like these where talking would alert those nearby to their presence.
Nodding at each other they barged in and started firing off spells, but when there was no retaliation they came to a stop. The room is completely empty bar the three of them. There's not even a table or chairs like you would expect from a dining room. Not good.
The cracks of apparition quickly sound all around them and they get back to back, forming a small circle in the centre of the room. Hermione curses at herself for not running when they had the chance, she couldn't even see Voldemort. If he isn't here their deaths will be pointless, they won't even be weakening him. It's easy for him to gain more followers now he has complete control of magical Britain and is spreading it to the rest of Britain. It might annoy him but, in the end, they will have done nothing.
A sharp jab in her ribs from George brings her out of her thoughts and she glances over her shoulder to spot Bellatrix Lestrange. The bitch that tortured Hermione and killed Dobby in the first month of the war. But before any of them can react a killing curse is coming for all of them, though none of them could tell from which direction nor who sent it. What was surprising though is that a single killing curse managed to kill them all.
Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen.