The chilling silence was only broken when a scream erupted from the midst of the students, which naturally caused another panic attack to engulf the student population. The various professors of the school were now terrified since they were unable to guarantee the safety of the students, and the fact that Draco Malfoy couldn't be slowed down by the ghosts made the situation look far more serious than originally conceived. Not one wand seemed to have any power at all, and not one person had any solution to the horrific situation they were facing. Draco smirked to himself as he neared Hermione; his idea to act like a ventriloquist and form a scream in the crowd had succeeded in removing the immediate attention away from him. She looked up at him fearfully, and he made a mental note that she resembled a hunted rabbit perfectly as he crouched beside her and watched her shiver in trepidation at his presence. His lithe form was reflected in her soft hazel eyes and if he could view it without the sinuous essence inside him, it was doubtful that he would recognise his appearance. He ran his hand slightly over her body and her breath rushed out of her body from an unseen force, and with a snap of his fingers she shot up and became rigid in her stance against her will. He squeezed her hips sharply and suddenly the whole castle was engulfed in total darkness as the young couple teleported out of the hall to an unknown destination. The body of students screamed and Hermione's two closest friends felt paralysed with an alarming fear for her safety.
Hermione felt herself being forced backwards onto the grass of their new destination, and the pain inside her became far more intense as he leant over her and hissed out an eerie command in her ear that she couldn't decipher. She felt her own blood pour out of her legs as the ground shuddered violently and she heard screams of anguish and malevolence rushing across the 'night' sky (she wasn't sure if it should have been dawn by this stage, and she failed to detect anything in the sky through the choking blackness). She couldn't see where Draco was, he appeared to have destroyed his unnatural glow, but she could hear voices swirling around her head repeatedly, making her feel like she was going insane from the shrill screams right next to her ears. She struggled to her feet as the vibrations continued in the ground, but she was forced backwards against a column when she regained a degree of balance, and she heard a low growl over the cries from unseen persons.
"Stay"
She obeyed, although she wasn't actually locked in that position this time, and suddenly she felt nauseous as a strip of the darkness lifted and she could see her lover at the far end of a cloister. Swarming around his body were humans in various stages of decomposition and she suddenly came to an appalling conclusion: he had resurrected them from beneath Hogwarts' grounds! She didn't know what to feel other than panic, but she quickly drew out of her thoughts when she felt her hand being twisted around to face her, and a small purple spark was growing at the tip of her wand. The cloud spun around her a few times until it hovered in front of her eyes and revealed the words 'Fight now or die trying' before vanishing in a blinding flash, literally. She knew that he was still in front of her, and that he had lifted some of the heavy black, but now she couldn't see anything and the screams had turned to a dull throb in her head. She cursed to herself, thinking that if she were to be down a sense, she'd need her other senses sharper to raise her odds, not reduced, as they were to form a handicap. She muttered 'Lumos' and although she heard it spark into action, she couldn't even see the slightest trace of the light that it would have created. She felt him call out a command for her to step forwards and accept his challenge instead of hearing it, and she cried out that she couldn't see where to go. Something propelled Hermione forwards from behind and her body formed the ceremonial activities that traditionally commences duelling, and she felt something entering her body momentarily that threw her off her guard altogether. When the vile feeling had disappeared, she noticed that she had regained a fractional portion of her vision, and she didn't think it too important that her vision was still blurry—at least she could see. She noticed Draco aiming for her and she touched her neck just before it made contact with her, and she wasn't sure why she did it. As it turned out, the kink at her elbow absorbed the spell and deadened her arm, instead of her jugular vein and if the spell had hit it, she would have certainly died. She feebly sent an advanced spell in his direction, but all he did was outstretch his arm and pointed at the beam of orange light to split it into two shots and it took its effect on two nearby benches. She hazily heard a cry to her left but she knew that it would be dangerous to her health if she looked towards it, and a flash of bright white light cut through the darkness in a small circle where the cry had originated. She could barely make out Draco's form, and even that was surrounded by a glow so she couldn't see his expression, and if she had, she would have seen that his face was as blank as a puppet's, yet he somehow showed terror in his motionless face. Another beam of light headed in her direction and she dove to the side of the ground to avoid its awesome blast. She felt the ground shudder again, and she returned to her original position when the ground crumbled beneath her nearly numb form, and she slipped on her blood as she stabilised herself. She somehow knew that if she dodged a blast it would reduce her fighting capability, which was limited enough as it was in her opinion, and she suddenly felt spectral words echoing in her head; the difference was that it seemed to be assisting her this time instead of handicapping her. The words were too muffled to comprehend, so she just sent another charm at Draco (who easily avoided it) whilst she concentrated on the ghostly whispers in her ear. Without warning, she suddenly knew what it was she had to do, and why she needed to do it, even though the outcome of the spell could swing in either direction since it was an ancient and forgotten magic that was required to perform it…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry was frantic with worry as he struggled to see any trace of where Hermione had disappeared to from where she'd stood against her will, and he was close to screaming out in anger, frustration and worry all at once. He struck a fist outwards and ignored the sharp pain that wisped its way up his arm from the collision, and then he heard a cry from a student that lightened the burden that the situation exerted on his shoulders.
"Look! Over there, I can see something in the distance"
Everyone crowded around the door like they had been transported there with a rush of adrenaline, and both Ron and Harry drew their breaths back quickly by the sight that greeted their eyes. After a void of unnatural darkness, there was a shimmering radiance a few hundred feet away from them, and there were many sparks flying around in the area in question, yet it was still impossible to make out what was happening. Professors Dumbledore and Snape's voices were easily detectable over the roars of the frightened crowd, and another familiar, yet previously unheard voice appeared. It was that of Cornelius Fudge, and a certain note of urgency was detectable in his rushed, yet lowered style of speaking. Ron could only decipher a few key words out of the heated conversation, though it was evident that they were discussing what the best course of action for them to take would be, and what punishment would be inflicted on the powerful youth. Even in the thick of his rage for his best female friend, he released a shudder at some of the suggestions for Malfoy's life; in his opinion, not even Voldemort deserved any of those treatments, and that was really saying something. The cry that had distracted Hermione's attention was now heard by professors and students alike, and the flash of light was so surreal that it seemed more like a mirage than what it actually was. A scream was released at the battle as the grounds were flooded with an iridescent golden shine, and then the whole castle fell silent for the glow to dissipate to allow them the chance to see what had happened.
Her long hair lashed wildly at her frightened face at what she had done, and she screamed out as her spell collided with the boy she loved. She closed her eyes and momentarily drifted back to the split second she had shot it towards him, and she felt guilty, knowing what the low probability of his survival was. She felt compelled to keep her eyes closed when she drew herself out of her reverie, and she instantly locked her eyes on Draco's form involuntarily. She gained no personal gratification as she watched him writhe like a metal snake controlled by some unseen magnet, and her horror worsened when she saw the natural expressions on his face. The creatures he summoned to help him were now interweaving through his body, each experience of it more detestable and gruesome for him than the last. His smooth skin was diminishing as he became further exposed to the decomposing flesh of the demonic essences, and with an explosion, the gold light reacted like an atomic bomb, and the humans at the far end of the battleground braced themselves for the oncoming death as they were consumed by the impact of the mushroom-shaped cloud. It never came.
A fraction of a second later, there was no trace of the gold, or the darkness for that matter, which startled everyone present. The only sign of movement was Hermione rushing over to Draco, who was still naked and slumped on the ground from where he had evidently teleported them to, and from the position he lay in it looked like his neck was broken. Tears splashed from her eyes onto his taut skin, and she begged for him to look at her as his body continued to decompose at a steady pace. He opened his eyes before immediately squeezing them tightly shut to try and remove the blurred line from his vision, and he knew that it would be permanently unsuccessful when his eyesight was equally appalling when he reopened his weary eyes. He tried to move and apologise to her, but to his horror he discovered that she had left him completely paralysed from his lower ribs down, as his abdomen had been affected the greatest by Hermione's spell. He croaked out his apology as he realised that his hearing was fading just as quickly as his vision, and that his last images would be of the girl a force had tried to make him murder. He felt Hermione kissing as his life force ebbed away from him, but when he reopened his eyes, he felt a burn in his forearm cause him to seize up, and when he looked up, he saw Lucius standing above him and Draco released a scream of anguish, followed by 'NO! NOT YOU!!' He protected his head from his father as Mister Malfoy swung out to hit him across the top of his skull with his fist, and Hermione was perplexed why her lover was acting like this to her. He screamed out again as his cranium made a sickening crack (again Hermione didn't know how he'd made that noise as she couldn't see Lucius), and his head rolled limply at his neck before the demonic creatures attacked him at once and his body vanished completely. She shrieked out for him to return with fruitless results as Cornelius Fudge approached her from behind, mentioning that she deserved an Order of Merlin, First Class for her actions. A single white owl flew across the grass and landed on Pansy's forearm before returning to its owner, Harry Potter, and Pansy gushed with delight when she saw she could talk again. A flash of light behind them went unnoticed as Warlock Gornby de Ferrière returned to his own time in Marseilles, 1605 to write about what he had witnessed, knowing for certain that if he planted it in the correct way, the powerful being of the future would annihilate Lord Voldemort before destroying himself. He had travelled to the future on more than one occasion and had detested what he had witnessed when the Dark Lord was at the height of his power. But what he didn't realise was that there was another formidable essence to contend with. That night, when Hermione Granger, Mudblood to some in spite of being awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class went to the Prefect's bathroom, she smiled placidly to herself at her reflection. Her kiss with Draco had transferred his power to hers, and her dark brown eyes showed that there was something within herself that was a part of him, and she felt it growing inside her. When the time was correct, she would complete what her deceased lover had started…
*~*~*~*~*~*~THE END~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Sighs and leans back in chair* I'm finally finished this meaningless garble! For anyone who was wondering, Hedwig returned to her normal condition from the effect of the golden glow, as did anybody affected by Draco's power, with the exception of Nagini and the Death-Eaters. Since you've let me down in the past by not reviewing *glares at guilty hit-and-run writers who failed to review after reading* I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this, and who knows, I may consider a sequel. The reason for the delay with the final installation is not due to me being a slow writer, I'm actually the opposite, but instead it's due to me being in hospital for over two weeks after a near-fatal incident where I nearly died from blood loss. So make a pathetic, weak teenager happy by reviewing!
*~Maddie~*