Trigger warnings for implied torture
Hermione's skin feels like it's being ripped apart. Her tongue is bleeding from biting down so hard, and even then the screams are tearing out of her throat. To her own ears, they sound anguished, but the Death Eaters don't think so. They laugh mockingly at her.
She's a Mudblood, worth the dirt on their shoes.
It can't end this way. Harry and Ron are downstairs in the cellar, being held prisoner, and they wouldn't leave her —
And yet they're in a situation almost as bad —
Tears leak out of her eyes. How could it have come to this? They had planned out everything so carefully and somehow they'd been caught.
There's the sudden sound of masculine shouts and Hermione's heart lifts, but she can't move. And then she's abruptly being pulled up by her hair, and she glimpses spells flying —
And Bellatrix is screaming words she can't hear, the cool, jagged edge of a knife pressed against her throat.
Hermione braces herself for a final stand. This is it. She's going to die. There is no clever trick, no plan out of this. Almost everyone in the room wants to kill her. Harry and Ron are wandless. So is she.
It's time to face her fears; that she didn't have the answers to every problem.
An alarming creak sounds from overhead and Bellatrix has one second to push Hermione away and escape as the chandelier comes crashing down, glass shards everywhere, and Hermione is paralyzed.
Warm arms loop around her waist and pull her into his chest, protectively shielding her against the explosion of glass.
She's home.
Everything is a blur from then on out, but she remembers having the sensation of freefall, with Ron's arms around her.
They're on a beach and Ron shifts around her so that she's leaning on his shoulder with an arm around her waist, supporting her. They're trembling, she can feel his tremors too, and his ragged breath indicating he's afraid. Of what, she isn't sure. Afraid for Harry? Afraid for her?
"We're okay, we're okay," he keeps saying. A distinctly French accent drifts into the conversation — what is Fleur doing here?
"'Ermione?" Ron lets her go and Hermione lets out a weak moan as one body replaces another. Fleur is slender but strong — she helps Hermione into a cottage and onto a couch.
Shell Cottage, she thinks bleakly, Bill and Fleur's.
And then another thought: Where's Harry? Ron's here, but Harry —?
A new surge of strength rushes through her and she stands up, still clutching the blanket Fleur had wrapped around. Fleur exclaims something in French. "What are you doing?"
"I need to know where Harry is." Her voice is cracked, hoarse, but she perseveres. "Did he make it?"
"I don't know." Fleur sounds helpless and for once, Hermione can understand her.
Hermione starts towards the door. It's slow and every step is dizzying but she provides herself strength — the urgent need to see if everyone is alive.
"'Ave you lost your mind?" Fleur says, exasperated, but she helps Hermione anyway because she senses her desperation.
Hermione stumbles out into the bright daylight, allowing a moment for her eyes to adjust before she's walking unsteadily towards the beach, towards the sea, where a figure is weeping, holding a prone form —
Ron's arms are around her as the overwhelming sorrow buckles her knees, but she's watching Harry, his body wracked with sobs as he holds the body of Dobby.
Behind them, the sea also quiets, as if it were mourning too.
596 words
Capture the Flag - Hermione Granger
Triple Threat - "Have you lost your mind?" with angst
Actor Appreciation - 8. Good friends with Helena Bonham Carter - (character) Bellatrix Lestrange
Record Collection - Lego House: Character: Ron Weasley
Bingo - [4.c] Genre: Hurt/Comfort
World of Comics - (action) flying (kind of? Spells fly)
Book Club - Four - object) knife, (trait) protective, (plot point) facing your fears
Elizabeth's Empire - Eloquence - Hermine Granger
Liza's Loves - Mouse Trap - Write about a trap (setting or getting caught in)
Lizzy's Loft - Cottage Pie - (setting) Shell Cottage
Scamander's Case - 1. Ron Weasley
Insane House - 946. Title: No Way Out
