Gah! I knew I forgot something in the first chapter! Well, this will just have to suffice...
Disclaimer: The Potterverse is owned by J.K. Rowling. I just live in it. ( And that is the last disclaimer you will see from me in this story, as I find them tedious and fundamentally stupid; after all, would I be posting this story on a FREE internet site if I were making money from it? Even I, of the "loony-blue eyes," am not that dumb.)
Chapter 2: Lutter
In the space of a second, it seemed, the whole school had mobilized into a defensive line. The older students had pulled the long House tables to the floor to act as shields, causing the food on top to clatter down upon the younger students' heads; meanwhile, the Death Eaters were busy sealing the Hall off from the rest of the school. The teachers were still trapped behind the wall of energy, and every single one (save Hagrid, who could only stare helplessly without a wand) was trying to break the barrier. Unfortunately, the wall seemed to be sustained from the Death Eaters' wands, and nothing any of them, including Dumbledore, tried could make it disappear.
All of this had only been going on for less than a minute, yet already Harry and Ron had joined the upper-year students in dueling. Hermione, however, stood transfixed behind the overturned bench, half of her brain still believing that it was all a nightmare. A small child began to pull on the hem of her robes; when Hermione looked down, she saw all the Gryffindor first years staring at her as if to say, why aren't you out there helping?
The pleading looks did it. As if being snapped out of a trance, Hermione quickly pulled out her wand, took a deep breath, and ran into the middle of the battle.
Immediately, two formidable-looking Death Eaters descended upon her. Hermione didn't have time to think; she screamed "Expelliarmus!" as loud as she could, and her attackers' wands flew into her hands. She was about to break them in half when the pair of Death Eaters looked at one another, laughed, and pulled out spare wands from under their cloaks. Quickly Hermione stopped trying to snap the thick wood and instead ran back towards the Gryffindor table.
The Death Eaters were clearly playing the offensive; their aim seemed not to get to the teachers, who were still trapped, but to the younger students, who couldn't defend themselves.
A thought hit Hermione as she ran: if they only had some trouble seeing us, we could use some stealth! Softly she muttered the Disillusionment Charm, then ran right back in front of her former opponents. For one crucial second they stared right through her, and Hermione had them Stunned before they even realized what she was doing.
Hermione glanced wildly around- where were Harry and Ron? After a minute she spotted them; Harry was battling with a strong-looking Death Eater, and Ron had joined the coalition defending the tables.
Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed Hermione's shoulder and spun her around; she had a fleeting glimpse of the haze-concealed High Table, where Professor McGonagall was staring back at her with a look of terror upon her old face. Instead of killing her then and there, the Death Eater held her wrists together in one hand and began to unbutton her outer robe with the other. Hermione screamed, then rammed her knee into his groin; the man let out a moan and released her hands. Hermione tried to run, but the enraged Death Eater grabbed the back of her robes and pulled. Without hesitation, Hermione simply slipped her arms out of the sleeves of the now-unbuttoned robes and escaped, leaving the would-be rapist howling with anger.
Hermione stumbled away from the furious Death Eater, feeling slightly sick. She shivered; even thought the Hall was unbearably warm with the combined heat of hundreds of moving bodies, cold sweat was running down her neck. With a shaking hand, Hermione softly whispered the Disillusionment Charm again to buy herself some time: As long as she stood perfectly still, no one would be able to see her unless they were purposely looking for her.
As Hermione fought to calm her disobedient body, she surveyed the battle before her. The students, she thought proudly, were putting up one hell of a fight. Perhaps spurred by the sudden absence of the protective teachers, they had floored at least a dozen Death Eaters, which was approximately the same number of students who had fallen. None of the kids seemed to be grievously hurt; they huddled together in one corner of the Hall and nursed minor cuts and scrapes. Hermione found it slightly disconcerting that the Death Eaters were not dueling like they would with adults, but then she thought that perhaps they had ulterior motives for storming the school. With the Hall locked, no one could be sure what other, more cunning Death Eaters might be doing in some other part of the school; Hermione only hoped that Dumbledore didn't have anything that Voldemort desperately needed hidden in some dark corner of the castle.
I never knew Hufflepuffs could make such fighters, thought Hermione in awe, as Ernie Macmillan bound the arms of a Death Eater with a length of enchanted rope.
In fact, to Hermione's slightly-prejudiced eyes, it seemed like it was the students from their fifth-year "D.A." classes who were leading their side of the fight. Cho Chang had opted for the more humorous curses; currently, her opponent was unable to shake off a potent Jelly-Legs Jinx. Ron had put himself in charge of protecting the younger students behind the tables. Hermione almost laughed when a Death Eater, still disoriented from a well-placed Conjunctivitis Curse, stumbled into Ron and was immediately hit with a Furnunculus Curse; with a loud smacking noise, the Death Eater's teeth began to chatter rapidly, and then suddenly they all popped out of his mouth and clattered to the floor. (Apparently, thought Hermione wryly, Furnunculus shouldn't be mixed with either Jelly- Legs or Conjunctivitis.)
For an instant, Hermione had a vision of Malfoy and his two overgrown sidekicks lying on the floor of the Hogwarts Express, covered in hex-marks. But as quickly as the memory surfaced, it dissolved; minor discrepancies between school rivals seemed petty and surreal to Hermione now.
Hermione's stomach did a flip-flop. Where was Malfoy? In fact, where were all the Slytherins? Hermione looked around wildly, then sighed in mild relief as she spotted Malfoy's blond head. He was warding off a Death Eater and shouting orders to Crabbe and Goyle at the same time. Crabbe and Goyle, Hermione thought with a slightly hysterical smirk, were as useless in battle as they were in class; they looked as hopelessly confused at Malfoy's directions (whatever they were) as they did when Professor Flitwick asked them to perform a simple Levitating Charm. But something odd was going on in Malfoy's corner, and Hermione couldn't quite place it, until....
Of course. The Slytherins were all fighting together, in a group. Their strategy seemed to be working; the seven or eight Death Eaters in their arena, though undoubtedly skilled fighters, were no match for thirty teenagers hell-bent on decapitating them with Severing Charms. In this case, strength in numbers was definitely proving to be effective. Hermione snorted and thought, I wonder if Snape taught them that- it would certainly explain their "Slytherins Against the World" attitude.
On impulse, Hermione glanced towards Snape's customary end seat that the High Table. Just as she had feared, the chair was empty, and Snape was not among the other teachers working to destroy the wall.
"Really, Miss Granger, if you're trying to stay disguised, do attempt to keep that rat's nest on your head from moving every time you turn your head." Hermione gave a small yelp as Snape, looking for all the world like a vampire on steroids in his Death Eater garb, whispered in her ear. But something was bothering her about that description- ah yes. Vampires, no matter how bloodthirsty, were usually not translucent as Snape was now; Hermione realized that he was using the same charm to hide himself as she was currently employing. She opened her mouth to ask one of the million questions that had just popped into her brain, but Snape's glare quelled her desire for information immediately. "Miss Granger," he said with a hint of warning, "I suggest you get back to helping the others." He gestured to the hall before them, and Hermione's eyes followed the arc of his hand. As she looked back at Snape to ask what she should do, she gasped. Snape had completely disappeared, leaving Hermione feeling more abandoned and alone than she ever had before.
Her panicky feelings grew. Word and phrases flashed through Hermione's mind, each more nonsensical than the last ("Snape-Death Eater-banana peel- air hockey- carpe diem-electric stoves...") and her heart rate accelerated to a frightening level. As adrenaline surged through her body, Hermione did the only thing that made sense to her flight-ready brain: she ran.
As she was running away, Hermione glanced back at Harry. Already he had Stunned three Death Eaters, and he was now dueling with another two. Hermione felt a twinge of fear lick her heart, and a thought surfaced in her mind. Perhaps she should go help McGonagall and the others try to break the wall; after all, she was much better at that sort of thing than actually fighting on the front lines. After a moment of hesitation, Hermione ran back up to the front of the Hall.
Something odd happened to Hermione as she ran. She looked around and noticed that everyone else appeared to be moving in slow motion. For no apparent reason, she turned to look back at Harry. He was still fighting, but he hadn't noticed another Death Eater on his left side pointing a wand at him.
The lone Death Eater lifted his wand to cast a spell, and somehow Hermione knew that it wasn't going to be just a Stunner. She couldn't see his mouth moving behind the mask, of course, but she didn't have to; an instant later, a jet of emerald-green light erupted from the wand an headed for Harry's heart.
Without thinking, Hermione began to run back towards Harry. As she raced to beat the curse, she realized that the green light was still traveling at slow speed; it was her own body that was moving faster than it ever had before. To confirm this, Hermione looked down at her feet and nearly tripped: Her feet, indeed, her whole body, was emitting thousands of thin, pearly beads of light. With each bound of her legs, the light grew more intense, and Hermione felt a peculiar shot of something- she wasn't sure what- race down her spine.
As she neared Harry, Hermione knew that she didn't have time to stop the Killing Curse with a spell. But oh, it was so close! Instinctively, Hermione stretched her arms out in front of her. She was gaining on the curse... three feet to go... two feet.... one foot... come on....
Almost bent double, Hermione's hands smashed into Harry's back and knocked him to the floor just as the beam of Avada Kedavra sailed over their heads.
As soon as she touched Harry, however, time kicked back into gear, and the curse began to move again at full speed. She and Harry fell face-first to the ground. But the green light continued on its merciless and unbiased journey across the hall.
"NO!!!" Hermione screamed, as the Killing Curse flew across the Hall straight into the back of a girl with fiery red hair: Ginny Weasley.
As Hermione watched the horrible scene, the light radiating off her body turned red, then suddenly went black. Hermione felt anger pound in her chest, and in the space of three heartbeats it had swelled like some mutant virus. Hermione's body was wracked with spasms, then, as the pressure multiplied tenfold in an instant, she let out an anguished sob and fell twitching to the floor.
The result was spectacular. The black light pouring off her body splintered into fragments the size of peas, then, with a sound like thunder, shot out of her and hit every single person in the Hall. Hermione struggled to breathe as the grotesque power escaped her. Dizzy, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, all the students and Death Eaters had been Stunned, and the wall in front of the High Table was dissolving.
Still dazed, she struggled to her feet and stumbled over to where Ginny's body lay. Hermione turned the stiff form over slowly and gazed into the surprised eyes of her best female friend.
"Oh Gin," she choked, "I'm so sorry."
With that, she slowly closed Ginny's eyes, then buried her head in her hands and sobbed.