Chapter Twenty-Three
Broken Bones

Hermione woke up. It was midnight on July 30th. She had no idea where she was, but she was extremely uncomfortable. She rubbed her head, which was aching badly, and felt scabs covered in dried blood, and huge bumps. She lay on the cold, hard, dirty floor, looking all around her. There was no door, no window and no stairs: no anything that could lead her to an escape. After reaching in her pocket for her wand and finding that it was not there, she heard voices shouting at one another. Through a miniscule crack in the wall, Hermione could see jets of light in the midst of a dark, dungeon-like room. Moments later someone pressed against the crack in the wall. Hermione could only see scarlet hair.

"Ginny! It's me, Hermione! Help me Ginny!" Hermione whispered frantically as she reached for a strand of the hair. With a swift tug, Hermione ripped out a hair from Ginny's head. Ginny turned around and looked at the wall she was leaning against…

After going through the hole in the wall, Ginny and Harry met up with no less than thirty Death Eaters, all firing curses and hexes at them from the moment their feet emerged from the hole.

"Ginny, just run ahead and hide! I'll come get you in a minute!" Harry exclaimed as he elbowed a Death Eater in the face. Ginny didn't move at first, until an enormous cloaked Death Eater came running over to her. She threw a stone at his head and ran as fast as she could. She found a fissure in the wall, which she barely fit into, and slipped in it. She leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths, when she felt a hair being plucked out of her head.

"Ginny! I'm sorry; I had to get your attention! I'm locked in here, and I don't have my wand! Help me please!"

Ginny recognized Hermione's voice, and her heart leapt. Hermione was still alive! They hadn't failed her! Checking that no one was coming, Ginny took out her wand.

After trying every spell she could think of to open the wall, Ginny resorted to the Shadow Orb.
"I need this wall to open. We need to free Hermione and get her out of this place!"

In a few seconds, the wall began to dissolve, and Hermione was visible. Ginny ran into the room where Hermione was, and threw her arms around Hermione's neck. Hermione was sobbing loudly, but managed to exclaim her appreciation.

"Thank you so much! But I don't know where I am. The last thing I remember, I was dueling Pansy Parkinson, and then I woke up and I was in here. What-"

"Hermione, you'll have to get someone else to explain! I don't have time and you have to get going. Try apparating, first, but I doubt it will work," Ginny interrupted hastily. She shoved the Shadow Orb back into her robes, and looked around the corner to make sure no one was coming.

Ginny tapped the walls; her hand bounced off.

"It's no use; you can't apparate or disapparate in here. We'll have to get you out somehow," Ginny cursed and kicked the wall. Her foot bounced off, and she landed flat on her back.

Hermione helped her up, and smiled weakly. She knew that Ginny was just a bundle of nerves right now, so she tried to stay on her good side.

"Ginny, don't worry about me; I'll be fine. I'll find some way out of-"

"Why, if it isn't the Mud-blood and a Weasley! I enjoyed killing your father, and I plan to enjoy killing you." Lucius Malfoy's eyes glinted malevolently as he peeked inside the crevice and saw Hermione and Ginny.

"Expelliarmus!" he yelled, and Ginny's wand flew from her hand. Ginny ushered Hermione aside, and gritted her teeth.

"ACCIO WAND!" Ginny screamed, her right arm extended, palm open. The wand flew into her hand with such grace, that it seemed to have missed its master. Ginny clenched the wand tightly, her arm trembling, and she tried to think of a curse to use. But apparently, she didn't think fast enough because Lucius Malfoy started running.

"Get him, Ginny!" Hermione shrieked as Ginny darted off after him. Hermione was still intrigued by Ginny's show of wandless magic…she had never seen anything like it before! She now knew how much Ginny had been underestimated in the past, but none of had known her true powers. Hermione cantered towards the small exit, and before she could poke her head outside, she heard a loud cracking noise and a yelp of pain.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Someone help me!"
Hermione ran as fast as she could to where she estimated the screaming to have come from, and what she saw wasn't a pretty sight.

Ginny was lying on the floor in a bloody mess. She looked like a crumpled up piece of parchment covered in red ink, and Hermione knew that Lucius had used the Bone Severing Hex on her…every bone in Ginny's body was broken.