(I don't own any of these characters. Once again, if I did, I'd say so, but I don't. J.K. Rowling owns them.)
Chapter Two: New Hair
Ginny! Hermione tried to scream to the vague presence, lying beside her in the incredibly dense mist, that must be Ginny Weasley. She barely felt her there, but knew instinctively that someone lay beside her.
Ginny! Hermione felt her mind racing, and she felt a thick, pounding in her skull as she struggled to try and shout to Ginny. My wand, Hermione thought, I'll call my wand. Accio Wand! Hermione thought forcefully. She tried again, almost a dozen times before realizing she might be completely helpless.
The Death Eaters got us, Hermione let the bleak thought pound into her mind. We might have died, too, and this is what death feels like. No, Hermione decided, Death Eaters had caught them. She lay there, unable to move, and too discouraged to try.
This is the end, Hermione thought bitterly. We went down fighting, but this is the end. Maybe this is what it feels like to start losing your mind. Maybe we're in a comma, yes, very possible that our bodies are there, but we're never going to wake again, Hermione thought as she quickly made theories in her mind.
Let me out! Hermione mentally shouted, but to no avail. Then, she felt someone else, farther away, and for a moment, feared that a Death Eater had entered this place, too. No, Hermione realized as she focused on the slightly more distant figure; it was Tonks.
Tonks! Help us! Hermione felt like she shouted insanely loud. Oh, did her head ache, though, it felt as if a sledgehammer were being driven into her skull. She wanted to rub her aching mind, but found she still couldn't move.
No! NO! Hermione tried to jerk, mental frustration taking over. Let me out! I don't want here! They've got me! HELP ME!
Ginny! Tonks! Ginny! Tonks! HELP ME! THEY'VE GOT US! HELP ME! Hermione frantically thought, the pain stabbing like a blunt knife into her brain, gouging her mind to the point where she should've gone unconscious.
SOMEONE! HELP US! THEY'RE TORTURING US! Hermione thought frantically, deciding they must be doing just that. I'M GOING BLOODY INSANE! I JUST WANT OUT!
POP! Hermione gasped air, as if she'd held her breath under water for five minutes. She panted, breathing the air in loud, shallow gasps, thankful that she could feel something again. Breathe, she thought, breathe, just inhale, exhale . . .
Hermione felt her heart stop racing, and she lay there until her breathing became normal again. Breathe, Hermione thought as she felt her body relax, and the terrible pulsing in her head ebbed away. You're alive, Hermione, you're alive, she reassured herself silently.
Hermione suddenly realized she might be able to move and open her eyes, but she hesitated, afraid to discover herself surrounded by Death Eaters. Maybe I was saved, Hermione tried to be hopeful. Yes, I'll wake up in St. Mungos, Ron and Harry sitting by my bed, Hermione convinced herself, and then, she tried to open her eyes. It felt like a heavy padlock that had just fallen off as she let her eyelids flutter open.
I'm at Hogwarts? Hermione tried to grasp what she saw. Yes, she was most definitely lying in the Gryffindor girls' dorms. She recognized the room where she'd spent so much time sleeping, waking, and living at Hogwarts. She rested on her right side, with all her thick blankets pulled up around her because the room was chilly, which meant it was in the middle of winter.
Winter? Hermione paused at this thought. Yes, it definitely was winter, she realized, peering out the barred window. Snow lay thickly on the ledge, and more fluttered silently past the windowpanes that nature had imprinted its icy designs on.
Hermione carefully surveyed the room from the warmth of her bed, feeling afraid to move. There were five other beds in the room, but Hermione didn't recognize any of the things around them. The girls she'd always roomed with, which included Lavender and Parvati, didn't arrange their things like this. All the trunks were different, too, Hermione noticed, as if other people lived in her familiar dorm room, but it was definitely the Gryffindor dorm, and this bed had always been hers.
Hermione lay there, examining the bed closest to hers, which had a thick, scarlet, fleece blanket. The bed had been made, and two fluffy, white pillows sat on top. The old, weather-beaten brown trunk was closed, but several books were scattered on the floor. Hermione had never seen the trunk or blanket before, although red wasn't an unusual color for decoration in Gryffindor.
I could move, Hermione thought. Accio Wand! Hermione thought, concentrating hard enough to cause a dull throb in her head. She took a breath to scream, ready to fall back into the abyss like fog, but suddenly, she flexed her fingers, realizing her wand was in her hand.
"Ha," Hermione laughed humorlessly. She sat up, putting her feet over the side of the bed. She squeezed her wand tightly, glad not to be in the phantasmal haze, but safely in a real, solid Gryffindor tower. Hermione pushed herself off the bed, walking shakily across the room to the vivid, scarlet blanket.
"Oh!" Hermione shrieked as she caught sight of herself in a long, thin mirror. She staggered backwards, falling across the floor. The mirror reflected the image of an entire human body, and Hermione gaped at what she saw.
"My hair," she muttered, touching a lock of thick, chestnut brunette hair. Her hair slid through her fingers, and Hermione silently marveled at the silky texture. She stood up, looking at her figure, deciding she still looked like Hermione, but only better than usual.
"I'm actually pretty," Hermione gaped as she walked back and forth in front of the mirror, examining her thin nose, soft, hazel eyes, and pouting rose lips. Yes, she had better skin, too, Hermione realized triumphantly.
Her triumph lasted only several moments before she remembered that she shouldn't be here. Suddenly, her new appearance disturbed her. She backed away from the glistening mirror and gazed madly around, expecting a Death Eater to pop out of a trunk.
However, when nothing happened, Hermione surrendered to the fact that maybe, just maybe she hadn't been captured. What happened, then? Hermione wondered as she got dressed, realizing the reason no one was there might be because they'd gone down to breakfast.
I slept in, Hermione thought ruefully as she slid into a pair of jeans and a thick, wool, cream sweater. She grabbed one of the black robes that had been freshly laundered and slid on a pair of black boots with a low, thick heel before thundering down the stone steps.
She reached the common room, but stopped as she crossed the threshold from the dorm steps into the brightly lit, comfortable room. The red and gold curtains and tapestries hung upon the walls, illuminated by the mid-morning winter sunlight, and the study tables with their chairs sat unused. The fire blazed, inviting the cold and tired to warm themselves by its flames. The plush armchairs sat around the room in little clumps, but most of them circled around the fireplace.
Hermione was so busy observing the common room, making sure everything was still intact that she didn't hear the person tread quietly down from the boys' dorms.
However, she spotted the tall boy with healthy, dark bronze skill a second too late. She opened her mouth to scream, but the shriek for help died in her throat. The boy, smiling amiably from ear to ear, briskly walked over to her in a few precious seconds before she was locked in his embrace, pulled forward against her will.
"Mione!" Blaise Zabini exclaimed as he locked her eyes and tilted her head back. Hermione felt frozen in a nightmare as he pressed his lips against hers, giving her a sensual thirty-second kiss.
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The light blinded Tonks for a moment, and she thought she'd been cursed. No! She struggled to think, trying to jerk her body and fight. However, she couldn't move, and she heard the chaos swirl around her as she fell, as if in slow motion, onto the wooden floor.
Ginny! Hermione! Tonks's mind reeled as she looked over at Ginny, face down under the table, and Hermione, sprawled on her side. The two girls lay lifelessly beside her, and she felt guilt rush into her mind, knowing she'd gotten them killed.
"Tonks!" Amidst the rushing noise of the battle and the pulsing in her head, Tonks heard someone should her name. She couldn't place the voice because of the deep, throbbing, heartbeat like noise that filled her skull. "She's down!"
She didn't feel herself being moved, but only saw the scenery change as she was flipped onto her back, now able to look straight up into several concerned faces. Oh, but her head hurt, and she felt strangely detached from the world, only able to see and hear, but with the beating pulse in her mind, that was even difficult.
"Ginny!" She heard another scream. She saw the world move again, and became vaguely aware her head lay over someone's shoulder. "Hermione!" Another voice yelled as they found the other girl.
Oh please, I'm not dead, don't let them be dead, Tonks pleaded silently, fighting the pain that slowly confused the world around her. A pair of extremely sharp, painful claws ripped at her mind, tearing apart the last of her senses. I'm being torn away, Tonks realized hopelessly. No!
She struggled wordlessly, vaguely realizing the floor began to move. She couldn't hear anything, the voices were too distorted, and she found it increasingly painful to focus on anything she could see. The harder Tonks tried to concentrate, the more muffled her mind became as the claws scraped her brainaway.
No! Help me! Tonks shouted silently, as all the noise became mute, and slowly, everything that rushed past her eyes grew dark, outlined in misty shadows. Soon, the night engulfed her, rocking her into its depths.
No! No! I'm all right! Wake me up! Wake me up! Tonks shrieked in frustration, but no one could hear her. She attempted to shake herself free, but she felt bound, just so detached from herself she couldn't move. Her mind felt like a piece of led, held down and heavy, but aching in horrible pain.
Ginny! Hermione! Hang on! Tonks tried to cry out again to the two girls. She felt them near her, and she wanted to help them. God, they couldn't be dead, she begged silently. Help us! Do something! WE'RE TRAPPED!
No one could hear her, though, and Tonks felt like she was being smothered with her nose and mouth clamped firmly shut and covered. Her mind panicked, and she wondered how long she could endure this before she suffocated.
ANYONE! WE'RE TRAPPED! Tonks felt a jab of pain so intense she thought she'd pass out, but then, the pain peeked, and she took a breath. She breathed deeply, feeling her heart racing in her chest. The gnawing of the claws disappeared, along with the searing ache in her skull.
Now, her body lay still, and Tonks wondered if she could even more it. She opened her eyes, gazing up at the dirty, cobweb covered, ceiling. The roof slopped down, and the rotted rafters looked as if they could barely hold up the roof. Where am I? Tonks wondered as she wiggled her toes and fingers, testing out her movement.
She sat up cautiously, propping up her unsteady body with her arms. She stared around the cramped, dingy room. Bookshelves littered the walls, and some were placed randomly in the middle of the room because there was no more room against the wall. Nothing colorful or cheery decorated the walls, only vague shapes on shelves and things piled on trunks and boxes.
This looks like a place where you'd find Death Eaters, Tonks thought, gazing around the room, whose only source of light came from a grungy window over Tonks's bed. Then, a shiver raced up Tonks's spine as she realized Death Eaters could have brought her here.
She waited tentatively, closing her hand around her wand, as if waiting for someone to appear from the gloom. However, after waiting what might have been several minutes, several hours, or an eternity, Tonks slid her legs over the bed, deciding she was very much alone up here.
She brushed her hair out of her face, but stopped, gently holding up a lock of ebony hair in the waning light. I didn't change my appearance, Tonks recalled the last moments she could remember. No, and I definitely can't change my appearance while I'm unconscious, she suddenly felt alarmed as she searched for a mirror.
She found it easily, at the foot of the old, dilapidated bed. It took up the height of the entire wall and was four times her width. The mirror glistened unnaturally in the gloomy room, and Tonks gazed stupidly at her reflection.
Her face had changed from heart shaped and full of color to long and quite pale. Her eyes were a vivid emerald green, and the shiny, smooth raven colored hair she had went down to her butt. However, her outfit shocked her the most. She wore a black bustier with a very short, black leather skirt that showed long, porcelain legs, accented by a pair of black stilettos. All in all, it was a very un-Tonks like outfit.
"Oh, gods," Tonks muttered. I must have been captured and put under the Imperius curse to wear this, she thought and fought the urge to retch. I look like a whore! Tonks turned away from the mirror, deciding she definitely wanted something else to wear.
However, when Tonks found the wardrobes, they were full of wizarding cloaks and robes, ornate and fancy outfits, and much of the same as what she'd woken up wearing. She found two pant suits, and decided to wear the deep colored violet one with a very revealing black top underneath, but she kept the suit jacket buttoned, not liking how much of her body this comparatively modest outfit revealed.
She put on a more comfortable pair of shoes, deciding who ever brought her hear might have already gotten a laugh or more out of her. Her stomach churned, but she fought the urge to hurl, realizing she could've been taken advantage of while out. She pulled a thick, warm black cloak over her shoulders to keep out the drafty chill in the room.
You will walk out of this room, Tonks told herself resolutely as she approached the door. No one will frighten you, Tonks braced herself as she opened the door. She walked down a narrow, rickety flight of stairs before she reached another gloomy landing, with three doors leading off it. Nothing seemed to be stirring on this floor, so she walked down another two flights of stairs before entering a sitting room, illuminated faintly by a weak fire, smoldering in the hearth.
So, I was in the attic, Tonks realized as she approached another flight of stone steps, leading down into the basement. Tonks walked cautiously down them, stopping before a closed door. She drew her wand and pressed her ear against the rough, oak door.
" . . .with you, but you almost failed," a harsh, hoarse voice spoke.
"We didn't fail, that's the point," a deep, gruff male answered the first speaker. Tonks's jaw dropped, reconizing the second voice. No, no, no . . .Tonks thought desperately. It can't be . . .
"You got lucky," the first speaker, who Tonks couldn't tell if it was male or female, spoke again.
"We killed Avery, that's the point," the second person said confidently. Yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Tonks recognized Sirius Black's voice.
"You still got lucky," the first voice cackled. "I must say, she is pleased, though."
Tonks almost opened the door, but years of Auror training made her slightly more cautious. They'd just talked about a death, so she hesitated and listened for Sirius to speak again.
"Nymphadora and I never mess up. Those blood traitor cousins and their cronies couldn't stop me even if we fought them without wands," Sirius boasted. Tonks felt her mind real and almost dropped her wand.
What was going on? She thought helplessly.
A/N: You're just going to have to wait to see what Ginny is up to . . . Thank you for everyone who has reviewed. I like how this is going so far, so thanks a bunch. Blaise Zabini is my favorite Slytherin, and Hermione is my favorite character, so I liked this warped pairing. . . . I personally went into Sirius denial, so I brought him back in this story because I wanted to. So tell me your thoughts. . . .Thanks, MorganRay.