Author's Note: Aw gee… I feel so loved! I've never gotten such an overwhelming response to a story in such a short time… Thanks! Please continue to R&R- but if SSMM scares you- as I think it did one of my readers, than please do me a favor… don't tell me! You'll squash my love of the very non canon ship!!! Okay here goes! Hope this doesn't disappoint!
The castle was cold and damp as she ascended the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower. An eerie silence filled the castle as she could hear the clacking of her shoes against the stone floors. With each step she grew more suspicious… Why was everything so desolate? Why were no students about? The silence only grew louder as she opened the door to the common room. As the door creaked open, she leaned in the room wanting to hear something, anything, but there was not a sound. She moved cautiously through the dormitory, wand at the ready. Each tap of her shoe was like a bullet, so loud, so conspicuous, so deadly if anyone was indeed lurking in the shadows.
From behind the door to the girl's dormitory she heard a noise. Umbridge! Her mind cried out, but as she sung open the door, there was only an empty hall, deserted with beds unmade, and papers strewn all over. She stooped to gather a piece of paper when she heard a soft cry from the closest… it was the faintest sound, but it did not escape her. As she cautiously opened the door, she found a rather bruised and battered Hermione Granger huddled in the corner, rocking back and forth muttering incoherently. "Miss Granger? Hermione?" she asked the abused child in a concerned manner, asked for anything, even a slight nod of recognition, but none came. As she leaned closer to the child she saw that her hands were covered in cuts, and across her badly bruised cheek was a deep gash. Her hair was missing in places, and her skin was a deathly shade of pale. "Hermione?" she tried again to reach the girl, but she came up with nothing.
The cries were horrific and tore at Minerva's very soul. The whimpering was worse than any cry of pain. She could do nothing, the child was in so much pain and there was nothing she could do. She leaned down near the protégé witch, just to comfort her, but she was only given a terrible, shrill scream. Each time she tried to comfort the girl, all Hermione did was wail in agony. What happened here? She kept trying to figure out what had occurred not only to Hermione, but to the other children… and then as another wail escaped from Hermione's lips, she remembered. Frank and Alice. The Cruciatus Curse. Bellatrix Lestrange had hit them with the curse so many times they were driven mad from the pain! That could not be! Not her Gryffindors! The anger boiled inside Minerva as she looked at the child that was once Hermione, now huddled in a corner sobbing from the pain.
The door to the common room swung open behind her and she pointed her wand at the nightmare that walked in… A low voice called out at her. "Your time has come McGonagall." The voice was calm and placid, but fierce and biting as it annunciated her name. "It is time that you join Lord Voldemort, or you will die." She knew that voice all to well, and as she looked at the figure that approached her, her eyes widened in fear. He wouldn't! Not after all these years of loyalty to Dumbledore. But in the darkened room she could see the Dark Mark burning through his robe. It had all been a lie! Now she knew where his true loyalties lay. And as he pointed his wand at her and shouted the killing curse, she awoke with a start and screamed his name out.
"Severus!" The nurse came running toward her. She was given potions to calm herself down, but nothing worked, and no spell would allow her to sleep peacefully tonight. She had to get back to Hogwarts. She looked over at her bedside table and as she saw the rose, she wondered if all this time everything had been a lie, and she began to doubt him. The flower fell to ground as she lay back in her bed, tears falling down her cheeks for Frank and Alice, for Cedric, for James and Lily, for all the fallen.