21. Something Truly Terrible Inside

"Hello, Hermione," the man said, grinning. "Happy to see me?"

Ron's bravado brought Hermione back to her senses, and she shook herself. "What are you—I mean, how did you… well, that's obvious… Ronald, why are you here?"

"To bring you home," he said, his grin faltering just a bit. "To bring you back to England."

"Dear Merlin, I don't have time to deal with this right now. The castle is under attack."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said—the castle has been invaded. Do you have your wand on you?

"Yeah," Ron said slowly, "I do."

"Good. Follow me." She grabbed his wrist, led him to the door, unlocked it, closed it, relocked it and swept through the corridors to the entrance hall. If the battle going on in the ballroom had looked bloody, it looked like a polite game of chess compared to what was going on in the entrance hall. Here it appeared that the townspeople were not only attacking the servants, but in some cases were fighting each other. Blood painted the grey stones, and one of the rails on the curved staircase had splintered.

"Do what you can. I've been stunning the townspeople mostly. Petrificus Totalus should work as well—maybe use Engorgement Charms on some of the servants. As far as I can tell, no one has magic, so you just need to watch out for the fire and pitchforks. Maybe eliminate the threats of fire first with Aguamenti." She said this all very quickly, hardly taking a breath. "I'll be back in a few minutes—I need to find Adam."

"You're leaving?"

"Ron, I'll be back. Please, we're wasting time." She unhooked herself from Ron's grasp and dashed away from the staircases. When she glanced behind her, she saw Ron had turned around, and water was spraying from his wand, dousing the remaining flames of the torches. She breathed a sigh of relief and darted toward the library. As she pushed the door open, she gasped in horror at what she found.

Pages had been torn from books, and scratches covered the plush armchairs. A few pieces even looked a bit singed as though someone had been carrying a torch and brushed it across the rich fabric. But otherwise the room appeared entirely empty. There were no bodies, no torn limbs, no fur, nothing to indicate that Adam had been here. Hermione's heart was thudding, pounding, and she felt frozen. She knew she should go back to the entrance hall and help Ron, but she had to know that Adam was alive, that he was safe.

As she turned toward the entrance and hesitated, she heard coughing. Cogsworth was lying on the ground, his feet a bit singed themselves, soot on his face. Hermione kneeled down at his side.

"Oh, Cogsworth, are you all right?" she asked. "Was anyone else in here?"

He coughed. "Master Adam was here, along with the great brute leading this attack. He was demanding that the master show him where he was hiding the witch, and Master Adam denied that there was a witch in the castle at all. He snarled at the man and they began fighting." He coughed again, and Hermione brushed the soot away from his face.

"Where are they now, Cogsworth?"

"I don't know," he said weakly, "but I imagine the Master might have led him to the West Wing so as to keep him away from the rest of us. This man looked particularly vicious."

"Yes, he has a beastly side to him. Cogsworth, will you be all right here?"

He coughed and nodded, and Hermione immediately left the room. She ran down the hall, not trusting herself to Apparate, and hurtled toward the West Wing. As she passed the entrance hall, Ron approached her and stood in front of her to stop her.

"Hermione, where are you going?"

"Not now, Ron," she said, moving to go around him. "Please don't stop me, not now." She continued running to the West Wing but couldn't tell if there was another set of feet pounding behind hers or not. She knew she was at danger of being attacked—she felt so focused on making sure that Adam was safe that she was sure she was paying less attention to her surroundings than she should have been.

Once she reached the West Wing, she padded along quietly and peered into the room where Adam held the rose. She saw two figures circling each other, both with scratches and torn clothing; Adam was on all fours, snarling, and the man across from him was leaning forward, a long dagger prominent in his hand.

"Now see here, Beast, I don't want to harm you, not tonight anyway. Your head would make a wonderful trophy for the tavern, but I'm not here to kill you. And tell you what? I might even leave you in peace if you tell me where the witch is. I know she's here—I saw her enter through the gate just earlier today."

"I told you already," Adam growled, "she's not here."

The man lunged with the dagger, and Hermione cast a nonverbal Summoning Charm. The dagger floated out of the man's hand, and his eyes became manic, terrifying, piercing frostbite blue. "The witch is here—you lied to me, Beast!"

"Leave him alone, Gaston," Hermione said, fully entering the room. "Your quarrel is with me."

"I'm going to kill you, witch. First you seduce me, then you spurn me, then you threaten the whole village with your black magic and your lies—no one says no to Gaston!"

Hermione stood there—she couldn't cast a Stunning Spell, not by herself. She readied herself to cast the Conjuvitis Curse when the hunter yelled in pain. Adam had bitten his side, and then as Gaston pulled another dagger from his belt, there was a flash of steel, a loud roar and whimper, and a pounding of footsteps.

"Adam!" Hermione cried, and she rushed forward. Another flash of steel glinted as Gaston threw his dagger—but someone tugged her out of the way and pushed her to the ground.

"Sorry I'm late. Lost sight of you… got lost," Ron said, panting and out of breath. Gaston was approaching them again, having retrieved his smaller dagger. "What now?"

"We need to stun Gaston. He's too big, so I can't do it alone—on three."

The two friends scrambled to a standing position and angled themselves so that Gaston would fly into the wall across from them. "One… two… three…"

"Stupefy!" they yelled. Their wands emitted a jet of red light, which struck Gaston directly in the chest—he flew backwards, hit the wall, and his head smacked into the stone. His eyes fluttered closed, and as his head slumped, brushing blood onto the stone, Hermione released the breath she had been holding. At least for the moment, they could stop fighting. She crossed the room to Adam and dug her face into the fur at his neck, kissing it before examining the damage.

"Hermione, I…"

"Ron, just please stop. Please. Not now."

"But I…"

"Ronald!" she screamed, tears rolling down her face. "I need to focus."

The dagger had been removed, so nothing was staunching the blood flow. She had no dittany or blood-replenishing potions on her, and based on the puddle near her, Adam had already lost too much blood—it must have been venal or even arterial wound. She healed the skin and a little of the internal damage with spells, but even so, Adam didn't seem to move.

"No, no… please don't leave me. Please, Adam. Please." She buried her face in his fur once more. "I love you," she sobbed.

At that very moment, the last petal of the enchanted rose tore itself from the stem and drifted lazily downward to meet the others.