Chapter 4 – What Burns the Most

A/N: Hi everyone! I know I updated a bit late but I was trying to make my story more interesting… I thought this would only be a Golden Trio and Slytherin Trio fanfiction but it would be more interesting to see what happens to everyone else right? Tell me if that's alright or not. I love hearing your thoughts and reading your reviews :) I also added more plot so hopefully that's decent. Plus, the quote in this chapter is NOT mine but it belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling.

The full moon shone brightly as Luna was roughly thrown to the floor. Well this was her punishment. To survive. Luna was honestly surprised that neither of the Carrow twins hadn't snapped sooner. She knew she could take Cruciatus curse no matter how much it burned or pained. But this… this was new. A challenge of some sorts. It was something she had to overcome to fight in the final battle. War was on the horizon and rumors were spreading like rapid flames that Harry would be returning back to Hogwarts. Though it would be hard. Death Eaters were stationed everywhere; on the grounds, between hallways and even in Hogsmeade. Luna quickly jolted from her thoughts as she heard a few voices outside the door. Knowing it would take a lot of pain and strength, she began to drag herself to hear the conversation more clearly. Her body protested as tears began to fill her eyes though she refused to cry. It didn't even feel like her own body… it felt so foreign and wrong to force it to move.

"The Carrow twins will be mad at us! Do you even have common sense in that thick skull of yours?"

Wait… was that Goyle?

"Now isn't the time for petty insults Goyle! They'll reward us! We need to prove ourselves to them."

Well that confirmed her suspicions. Were Crabbe and Goyle arguing about her? Maybe to torture her even more. As if starving wasn't enough for a punishment.

"Crabbe, I am serious. We are in no state to command or make up our own rules!"

Ten points to Goyle for using his brain.

"Don't be such a coward- "

Luna jumped slightly as she heard a crash. This fight was going to be intense. She grabbed the bars of the small window as she tried to pull herself up to see what had happened. To her surprise, Goyle had pinned Crabbe to the wall and was growling at him.

"Don't ever call me a coward again", Goyle seethed quietly. He then released Crabbe as the other boy began to cough a lot.

Hearing footsteps, she begged for them not to be coming her direction. She then realized that they were going awayfrom her small prison cell. Well technically small would be an overstatement as it had barely any room. At least they were gone. 'Thank god for that' she thought, slumping down in relief.

Her stomach growled, a reminder that all pain wasn't gone for now. Hoping to ease the pain, she began to crawl to her tattered mattress at the corner, wanting nothing more than just sleep. Her thoughts swarmed her mind as she tried to get even 5 minutes of rest. Just as she thought she could get a few minutes of sleep, she heard an owl squawk. Annoyed, she whipped around to 'shoo' the owl away but astonishment overcame her as she saw a letter tied to its foot. The owl squawked again and if they could have facial expressions, Luna was sure it would be glaring at her.

Rolling her eyes at the impatient bird, she shakily stood up and gently untied the letter.

Dear Luna,

We are forming a plan. Please survive for a little longer.

DA.

Who was DA? Luna mentally slapped herself as she realized it as 'Dumbledore's Army'. Survive a little longer? Maybe she could after losing her mind here. Another squawk pushed her out of her thoughts as she noticed the stupid owl still hadn't left.

"I haven't got any treats for you", Luna said irritably. "Go away."

Looking offended, the owl waved its other leg in front of Luna as she realized there was a quill.

Snatching the quill, she hastily wrote a small reply and shoved it back to the owl. Luna huffed as the owl 'glared' at her once more before flying away.

"Yeah I don't like you either", Luna muttered, falling back on the mattress. She squeezed her eyes shut as she slowly fell asleep.

Ginny anxiously stared out of the window, waiting for her owl to come back with Luna's reply. Even though it was only the first day, she was worried sick for her best friend's health and appearance. As much as she wanted to break down the door and rescue Luna this instant, Neville convinced her it wasn't worth the risk. Neville's punishment also hadn't ended as in random intervals of the day, his mouth bled. It pained her to acknowledge that she didn't know the spell and worse, the counter-spell. During charms, Professor Flitwick had gasped as he spotted a trail of blood dripping slightly from Neville's chin. She recalled how embarrassed Neville was as he had taken the offered handkerchief from her. Later in the Great Hall while eating dinner, he had begun to spit blood while drinking pumpkin juice. The first years look horrified, some of them not so much as they may have already suffered much more thanks to the Carrows.

Suddenly, she heard a scratching noise coming from the window as she grinned to herself. Opening the window, Ginny was about to feed her owl a few treats when it bit her. Swearing loudly, she glared at the owl which seemed as if it didn't care how many death stares it received.

"Why did I buy you?", Ginny mumbled to herself. "Useless bird…"

Snatching the letter to see Luna's response, her face fell as she read it.

Dear DA,

Ok.

L.

Well that was disappointing as Ginny tugged at her hair in frustration. She had expected more information than just a "Ok". Did the stupid owl not even do its job by handing Luna the letter? What if someone else had received it? Ginny bit her lip worriedly, her mind thinking of all the possible things that could have gone wrong. Getting so occupied in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed Neville watching her from a distance before he had walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

She yelped in surprise, grabbing her wand from the nearby table and getting ready to shoot a 'Stupefy'.

"Woah easy there Gin", Neville murmured softly in her ear. "Don't stun me".

"Neville you gave me a heart attack!", Ginny whispered angrily, slapping his arm of her shoulder.

"I can see that you aren't dead though" he joked back, his smile slowly disappearing as he watched Ginny glare at him. "What happened?" he asked sighing.

Ginny practically shoved the letter in his face as he read it in his mind. He couldn't say that he wasn't surprised though he didn't see any reason to get so hyped on it.

"Care to explain?", Neville asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Isn't it quite obvious?", Ginny responded weakly. "I'm worried about her Neville; I know we all are but… how are we supposed to understand the state she is in when she won't even reply?"

"Well basically she did reply-"

"I'm not in a mood for jokes Neville", Ginny groaned, walking towards the maroon couch and settling on it. "I'm serious here".

"I know that-"

"Then stop acting like that", Ginny muttered, cutting him off again.

Neville rolled his eyes at her continuous 'whining'.

"Someone has to keep up the hope doesn't someone?", he whispered, poking her in the stomach and suppressing a smile when she immediately tried to bat his hands away.

"Not now at least", Ginny sighed.

"Then when?"

Ginny stayed quiet at his question. Then when? Well… she wasn't sure. All she could do now was worry about everyone's lives including the Golden Trio's no matter how mad she was at them. Those two emotions… sadness and anger. It filled her up, destroying all the happiness she thought she had.

"Ginny come on", Neville urged. "Get some rest, we all need it".

She didn't protest as he carried her upstairs. She didn't protest when he tucked her in. She didn't protest when he turned off the lights. Only thing she did protest was when he was leaving the room. Her mind begged him to stay or to tell her a joke of some sorts. But he couldn't read her mind. Ginny had finally understood the meaning of a quote Dumbledore had said before he… before he died.

'Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.'

The lights were off… and her happiness was lost in a maze…

Pansy was in agonizing pain. For the past one hour she had been screaming and writhing in pain. It hurt, it hurt a lot more than she expected it to. She didn't even let anyone approach her after how much she had felt it burn the first time. Though it wasn't really her fault. Her instincts told her that it was the right move no matter how wrong it felt in her heart. But thank god they had taken a break in healing her wounds. She knew she could recognize Draco's and Theo's voices but she also heard the infamous trio's distant murmurs. Confusion swept her body as she wondered where the hell she actually was. The last thing she remembered was seeing Hermione's face before her body went up in flames and… well she fell unconscious. Were they in some kind of Order safe house? She knew that the Weasleys would rather commit suicide than let their precious trio run loose at a time like this. Although… they were Gryffindors. Who knew what rash decisions they could have made already. Worry overcame her as she tried her hardest to remember if there were any visible injures on Hermione. Though she was Hermione Granger and the smartest witch of her age. Hopefully her logical side over-powered her rash side. Suddenly, a hand touched her skin as her instincts quickly came into act as she began flailing around.

'No more' she begged as she tried to scream but no sound came, probably because of all the screaming she had done before.

"When will this mad witch stop flailing?! It's been one hour and she hasn't calmed down or stopped freaking out!", yelled a voice she recognized as Weasley's.

Mad? MAD? Oh how much she would love to transfer all her sufferings to him and watch him call her mad again…

"There's only one person injured here and it surely isn't you!", another voice yelled back.

That was definitely Theo.

"I wish it were him though…", muttered Draco.

True…but then Potter and Granger would be sad. Wait where was Hermione? She couldn't hear her voice and Potter's.

"Will all of you stop yelling? She can hear you!", someone growled.

Ah there was Potter. Trust him to speak sense because indeed she could hear every single word they yelled.

"Honestly one might think you all are three year olds", Hermione agreed with Harry, entering the conversation. "She needs rest so shut up or else".

"Or else what mother?", Draco sneered at Hermione.

'Damn you Draco, Hermione is just trying to help' Pansy thought fiercely.

"Don't take that tone with Hermione, she is the only one who is calm right now", Harry gritted his teeth to stop him from yelling at Draco.

"After a nice nap of course", Draco snarled. "Before that we were doing all the work while she freaked out".

'Wait what…Hermione freaked out when she saw the injures?' Pansy struggled to think straight as she knew that she was severely injured but that much that Hermione couldn't stand it?

"Draco! Apologize to Hermione right now!", Theo replied angrily, clearly aghast that Draco would say such a thing.

"Why? For stating mere facts?", Draco retorted.

"All of you shut up right now!", Hermione screamed as silence followed. "Finally! Arguing like mad goats…", she muttered, making her way to Pansy while shooting Draco a dirty look.

"Pansy? Can you hear me?", she asked gently, grabbing a wet cloth and dabbing it softly on her forehead. "Give me a hand gesture if you can."

It took a whole lot of power to do so but Pansy lifted her index finger, groaning slightly while doing so.

Hermione smiled at her effort as she continued to merely dab at her skin. Although it was way more relaxing than what they were doing earlier, Pansy couldn't stop whimpering in pain as Hermione dabbed scars. Silence continued to stretch into what seemed like a million years as Pansy began to wonder where had the other four run off to.

"You are going to make it Pansy", Hermione murmured suddenly. "Believe me when I say we will get to see the future together".

Pansy tried to smile at Hermione's effort to try to cheer her up though she couldn't stop wondering what would really happen to them. She knew the brute of Voldemort's army; especially his Death Eaters like Yaxley and Rowle and quietly vowed to never let Hermione face what she had to. Remembering the dark dungeons of Malfoy Manor alone with them sent chills running down her spine. Never ever would she let them lay a hand on Hermione or her ever again…

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she jumped slightly as she heard a bang.

"Honestly… have no manners at all", Hermione muttered.

Pansy could swear Hermione whispered a good night before she got up and left, but then again, she was unsure because it was soft.

She sighed softly as she closed her eyes, trying to think of anything good to drive away her nightmares.

"What do you guys think you're doing?", Hermione questioned, crossing her arms over her chest and fixing all four boys with an angry scowl. "Do you even-"

"Oh no", Draco groaned, plugging his ears with his fingers "I don't require a long lecture about manners or some stupid nonsense like that"

Hermione's jaw dropped as she turned to Harry and Ron "I don't do that do I? Give long lectures?"

Ron sheepishly admitted that he was with Draco on this one.

"No you don't Hermione", Harry reassured with a tight smile. "You just give us short ones", he joked before dodging a slap from Hermione.

"Granger, relax", Theo commented dryly, holding up a slightly ripped bag. "We got food"

At the mention of food Hermione couldn't stop but let her face brighten. Any kind of food was a luxury during the run whether it be meat or edible roots. To be honest, she often did chastise herself for letting something so common as food make her feel extremely glad.

The four boys emptied out their bags on a small table revealing a few wild berries, squirrels, a jug of milk (Harry had explained that he used some of the money to buy it) and loafs of bread gotten from the nearby bakery.

"Wait", Hermione frowned. "I haven't finished lecturing you guys-"

Interjecting her quickly, Draco drawled "Granger… you'll have plenty of time to reprimand us later", giving her his infamous smirk "We aren't going anywhere."

She closed her eyes and let the full weight of his words sink in completely as she wondered if he was right.

We aren't going anywhere.

Only a matter of fact if the Death Eaters found out their hiding… it would bring chaos to the next level.

"Harry…? Can we listen to the Potterwatch?", Hermione inquired, ignoring the questioning looks on Draco and Theo's faces.

Instantly his face brightened as he nodded, getting up to tune into the broadcast. He then murmured the password to access it as he put it on high volume.

For the first few minutes it was just how everyone should keep fighting and rebelling the 'Dark Lord' but then it got more serious.

They had begun announcing the deaths caused by Voldemort and his army but one particular name caught Hermione's mind.

Ted Tonks

She watched as Harry froze, probably thinking that it was his fault as always. Reaching out to grasp his hand, she murmured "It's not your fault Harry", trying to push back her tears. "You've got to stop blaming yourself for everything"

Harry tried to look at it from Hermione's perspective but he failed.

'But it is always my fault… it always has been', he thought with a sad smile.