Chapter 1

92…93…94…95…96…97… "wait, he's supposed to be here!" Harry bellowed out frantically. "I saw him here, where is he?!" He looked around urgently, becoming more and more panicked at not finding his godfather.

"Harry, we need to leave, this feels wrong. Something is off." Hermione warned her best friend. She has this eerie feeling of being watched. Slowly surveying the endless hall, she gave pause on the main aisle in which her group was standing in. She could feel the presence of another standing a short distance away. She snapped her head back to her friend, "we need to leave, now," she hissed sharply at the boy.

"But I saw him, he's supposed to be here!" He snapped back at Hermione with wide eyes. He never received a reply, for instead another voice grabbed their attention.

"Harry," Neville called, causing the green-eyed wizard to turn around. "This one had your name on it." Confused, Harry quickly walked over to where Neville was pointing to, at once he noticed a glowing bluish orb that did indeed have his name on it. Entranced, he reached out his hand to take it.

"Harry, I don't think it's safe to touch it. We shouldn't even be here." Hermione hissed another warning to the boy.

"Why not, Hermione?! It has my name on it." And with that, he clutched the orb and lifted, bringing it to his person. For a moment, Harry stared into the orb, but he was soon snapped out of his reverie by a drawling voice.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give it to me." Everyone in the group turned at the voice behind them, in the exact spot Hermione was staring into just a moment ago. Looking in all directions, with raised wands, for a possible escape route, Luna, Neville, Ginny, and Ron let out gasps upon noticing that they were surrounded by ten other masked death eaters. However, while Harry was staring at the elder Malfoy while attempting to hide his trembling nerves, Hermione was intently staring—with narrowed eyes—into the empty space beside Lucius. As if he too sensed another presence beside the blonde wizard, Harry flickered his gaze over to the bare space. However, he kept his main attention on the approaching wizard. "Where's Sirius?!"

Smirking, he silkily spoke, "you know, you really should learn to tell the difference between dreams….and reality. You only saw what the Dark Lord wanted you to see." This earned him a round of small laughs from the surrounding death eaters, who had just previously removed their masks. However, Hermione only heard a low throaty laugh that came from the empty blank space. "now…hand me the prophecy."

"If you do anything to us, I'll smash it," Harry said simply, trying to keep his nerves out of his voice, but everyone could see his wand arm shaking.

Again, that low throaty laugh made itself known again. "He knows how to play." Creeping out of the darkness, revealed the woman who had her face plastered on the front page of the Daily Prophet for months now, since the mass breakout. "Itty, bitty baby. Potter." Finally, she has fully emerged, and Hermione got a good look at Voldemort's second in command. She wore a black leather jacket, sipped up to just under her breasts, revealing what looked to be a black tank top underneath. Below that, she wore black steampunk like pants with an accompanying pair of black combat boot. Her presence took over the vast hall by just being there, walking forward with her wand held carelessly in her hand.

"Bellatrix Black," Neville growled out. Said witch merely smirked at the introduction, but didn't spare him the respect of responding. No, she had her attention locked on Harry's shaking form. Hermione could see the amusement flickering in her black hole eyes as she looked upon the sight.

Keeping her eyes trained on the witch opposite of her, Hermione whispered to Harry quietly with the intent of ensuring none else heard. "Harry, we need to leave, now." However, she didn't see Harry nod in response, instead, she froze when Bellatrix turned her gaze onto Hermione. The dark witch had a smirk on her face with a look on her face that told Hermione that she had heard every single word.

"Come on Harry, just hand over the prophecy and you and your…friends can walk away with no harm." Harry flinched as Lucius smoothly spoke out his first name.

"Why did Voldemort need me to come and get this?" At the mention of His name, hisses could be heard the hall, but none spoke their disgust.

"My, my, aren't you a curious one," Bellatrix said with a throaty chuckle.

Throwing a sideways glance to the female death eater, Lucius took over again. "Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made. Which for you, really, is lucky…Haven't you always wondered what the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord?"

"I have, I have for 14 years," came Harry's simple reply.

"I know."

"But, I can wait a little bit longer. Now!" And on cue, a chorus of stupefies echoed throughout the Hall. However, having maintained a continuous stare off with the dark witch, Hermione, noticed the devilish, shit-eating grin that lit up on Bellatrix's face. It was as if she was waiting for the chance to demonstrate the extent of her powers. The teen broke off into pairs in separate directions with Hermione and Harry sprinting off to their left. Hermione had sent a reducto at Rudolphus Lestrange, causing him to apparate away in his usual black smoke style. Looking behind her, sending off stunners at the pursuing death eaters, Hermione saw that it was Lucius and Bellatrix who were following them. Shouting to Harry about her observation, they ran faster down the row of shelves and found themselves crashing into the other teens.

Seeing the wizard known as Jugson heading straight towards them, Ginny pushed herself to the forefront and shouted, "REDUCTO!" They were momentarily stunned at the force behind the witch's spell but soon bolted in the direction behind them upon noticing the endless rows of orb filled shelves collapsing upon each other. Finally, a door appeared before them; the teens ran faster to get to the other side of the door. Flying over the threshold, they found themselves freefalling into a black abyss. Hermione, however, noticed the rapidly approaching floor. With her quick thinking, she bellowed out, "arresto momentum," effectively halting the teens a foot above the ground. Then, they dropped the last foot, taking the wind out of each person's lungs.

Standing up, they noticed a grand archway, which was erected in the middle of the atrium. However, before they were able to do or say anything, the group of teens found themselves surrounded by the dozen death eaters. Looking around, Hermione deduced that there was no possible way out.

"Potter, look around you. There is nowhere to escape. You are surrounded. Just hand over the prophecy and you and your friends will not be harmed. You—". Lucius was cut off by pop and accompanying bright light that flashed behind him. Turning around, he found himself looking into the onyx eyes of Sirius Black.

"Stay away from my godson," and punched the blonde wizard across the face. And as if on cue, more pops and bright lights erupted throughout the chamber, revealing more Order members.

As the battle commenced, Tonks grabbed Hermione's arm, dragging her along with the other teens—besides Harry—and pushed them behind a boulder to be safe. However, Hermione refused to hide away while her best friend was battling for his life. However, before Hermione could get to Harry and Sirius, instinctively, she ducked low, barely missing the spell that was sent her way. Looking in the direction of the spell, Hermione found the smirking face of Nott. Readying herself for the next spell, she wordlessly cast a protego, effectively shielding herself from a particularly nasty curse that rebounded to the wall that mirrored her. Fast on her feet, "Bombarda!" she snapped back; she sent him flying backwards into the rock wall. She quickly cast a silencio at the wizard when she noticed the wizard about to cast another curse.

After making quick work with Nott, Hermione, again, turned to go help Harry, but she was stopped. The hair on the back of her neck raised at the prickly feeling of being watched. Turning to look behind her, Hermione found herself to be in possession of Bellatrix Black's sole attention. With wide eyes, she took an involuntary step backward, as the witch stared at her with a curious expression and cocked head to the side. "Hermione…Granger" said girl felt a strange tugging in her chest at the slow and sensual uttering of her name. Though, she thought he heard a slight hesitation by the dark witch when she had said the girl's last name. "I know you." This terribly confused the girl, who was now screaming internally as to why in this bloody world would Bellatrix Black know her. "But the question is…do you know me?"

"Why would I know you? I've only just met you today." Hermione asked with a frown, extremely confused at the dark witch's question.

"You sure?" Bellatrix asked with an amused smirk. Hermione opened her mouth to send off her retort, but before she could let her voice her response, a loud blast went off behind her. She just realized that there was still a battle going on when she saw it was that it was Ron who was blasted against one of the rock walls, cleanly breaking his leg and knocking him unconscious. Another blast went off as Tonks easily deflected a bombarda maxima that was sent her way from Rookwood. Not even thinking of what she was doing, she sent a reducto at the wizard, effectively launching the man straight into the wall. This earned her a throaty laugh from a certain raven-haired witch behind her. But she paid it no mind when her attention was pulled somewhere else. Sirius had been dueling Lucius, but the teen witch saw McNair sneaking up behind, intending to curse him from behind. All the while, Rudolphus Lestrange appeared out of a cloud of black smoke and volted out an "Avada Kadarva!" at the unsuspect wizard.

Again, not thinking of her actions, Hermione quickly sent a stupefy to her father figure. She let out a sigh of relief when her stunner sent Sirius flying back before the Avada hit him, causing the spell to, instead, hit McNair square in the chest.

I just killed someone, Hermione thought.

Silence…silence permeated the atrium.

Then a bright purple light zoomed through the chamber, hitting its intended target, a second later. All Hermione saw was the smirking face of Nott before falling into darkness.