Chapter 82

Terrified, Hermione and Ron raced down the corridors towards the Great Hall. After methodically isolating and disarming dozens within Voldemort's army, they became separated from Hannah's group sweeping the castle. Now Bellatrix was at their heels and she didn't fuck around. Red and green streaks of light from Killing and Cruciatus Curses flashed around them from behind. They pummeled the floor, pounded into the walls and hit the ceiling – cracking stones, pictures and tearing tapestries on impact.

One curse narrowly missed Ron's leg. The two leapt over fallen bodies and nearly tripped on broken paintings lying strewn across the floor in their mad dash for safety.

The only reason they weren't dead now was because Bellatrix came to the fight wearing heels. And even then they could barely outrun her while dodging her curses. Every time they cast shields, a curse would obliterate them with a crackle of static and glittering gold light.

Thighs burning from running so hard, Hermione wildly looked around, trying to figure out where to hide and recuperate. Suddenly Ron yanked on her hand, pulling her bodily towards a pile of rubble blocking the broken entrance to the Great Hall. They quickly scrambled over the sharp rocks of the destroyed arch, trying to squeeze through a small opening in the pile where the large door used to be.

"Come on!" he egged her on anxiously. "Hurry!"

With one last glance down the corridor to ensure Bellatrix hadn't turned the corner yet, Hermione struggled behind Ron. Not wanting to waste any time, he grabbed her wrists from the other side, straining to pull her through. The hard rocks scraped her stomach and she fell forward, collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she pushed herself up after Ron and they plastered their bodies against the wall inside the blocked doorway. They made it. Bellatrix hadn't seen them. Maybe they could hide here. Her lungs felt like they would burst after sprinting for so long.

Breathing heavily, Ron's eyes were wide with terror after racing for his life through the castle. "She hates you!"

"She hates everybody!"

Hermione searched the Great Hall, gasping for breath as she took in the carnage of the second strike. Over two dozen dead and injured Death Eaters were strewn about the floor in the room they once dined in as children. If the Death Eaters weren't dead, they were incapacitated, restrained, and had their wands broken. Blood was splattered on the walls and she watched a small dark red rivulet flow between the stones under her feet.

The room stank of copper, and she fought the compulsion to retch.

"I don't know if she'll find us in here," Ron's voice rose in panic. "But she'll get us in the hallways. What now?" he asked, wheezing for breath.

"Harry gave me his invisibility cloak," she panted while digging inside her shirt for the fabric. "I didn't have a chance to use it before!"

Tugging furiously on the fabric, her heart pounded in her ears and they heard the echo of Bellatrix's cackle slowly approach the Great Hall.

She's coming.

"Quick! Give it here!" Ron whispered frantically.

Hermione's hands started to shake and she fumbled with the cloak. "Maybe she'll pass by?"

Stiletto heels clacked on stones in the corridor and she froze as she remembered a dark cell, screaming for help as her body was carved up.

"Come on, Hermione! We've come this far!" Ron yanked the cloak out of her hands and huddled next to her, trying to pull it atop their heads.

The heels stopped in front of the entrance.

Oh god.

Her mouth went dry.

As she brought the fabric in, tighter around her body, Hermione closed her eyes and tried to Occlude, praying that Bellatrix wouldn't enter.

The little Mudblood that knows too much…

She trembled at the memories and Ron pulled her into his chest. He was hot and sweaty from their panicked rush to escape and his heart beat like a drum against her back. The two waited in silence, while Bellatrix stood outside the rubble. She reached back for his hand.

Cackling… knife slicing into flesh…

"I can't face her again," Hermione whispered. It felt too much like being trapped again.

He squeezed her fingers.

"You're with me."

Skin peeling away….

Hermione pictured snowflakes melting on a pond to repress the memories. She dug her fingers into Ron's palm and tried to control her breathing.

"We're going to make it, Hermione," he whispered. "Breathe."

Her dark cell in Azkaban dissolved into the bright white of individual snowflakes. Ron counted softly in her ear to help pace her breathing. Slowly, she released her grip on his hand as her head cleared.

"Babiiiieeeeessssss!" a mocking call pierced through the opening of the rubble. "Come out to playyyyyy!"

Fuck.

Hermione glanced around the hall. If Bellatrix knew they were here, an invisibility cloak wouldn't stop her.

"Ron, she'll find us. Can we make it to the kitchens? There's the passageway where we left the Malfoys. They might still be there."

"Atta girl." Ron rubbed her arm, relieved she was back to her problem-solving self. "Stick to the wall."

Just as they started inching around the perimeter of the room, a blast from her left threw them to the ground. She broke her fall with her hands and knees, scraping her palms on small stones and pebbles that had once been blocking the entrance. Hermione and Ron struggled to get to their feet, tripping on the cloak and half exposed.

Dust burned her eyes and she couldn't see clearly, there was so much smoke and debris in the air. But if she couldn't see, then Bellatrix couldn't either. Ron seemed to have the same idea.

"Run!" he whispered urgently. "Before she figures out where we are!"

Balling up the cloak in her hand, they ducked, staying low, and ran as fast as they could when something hard slammed into her, tackling her to the ground as another explosion rattled her ears. Arms locked around her torso, pinning her hands across her chest as she and her attacker rolled on the floor three times in a tangle of limbs.

Vision swimming from the violent tumble on the floor, Hermione blinked her eyes open.

"Draco!" she gasped.

He stared down at her, eyes dark with violence and gasping for breath.

He was healed. He was here.

Lifting her head off the floor, she saw that the wall where she had just stood had a gigantic gaping hole.

Bellatrix sauntered into the Great Hall, laughing as she approached them. Her wand emitted sparks as the dust and debris settled around her, framing her wild black curls like a halo. Draco stiffened and Hermione clutched his shoulders.

"How fitting," Bellatrix smiled evilly down at them. She pointed her wand at Ron, standing poised to attack where her curse nearly took off Hermione's head. "The blood traitor that got away," she moved her wand down to Hermione, "the Mudblood that got away," she shifted the aim of her wand slightly upward to where Draco was laying protectively atop her. "And my baby nephew defiling himself." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Just as disgusting as my sister."

Draco jumped lithely to his feet, grabbing Hermione's hand and yanking her upward with him. Hermione readied herself to duel and eyed Ron, unsure how they would attack when Draco's deep voice thundered out.

"Crucio!"

Bellatrix raised her eyebrows in amusement as she deflected the red light with a flick of her wrist. Draco shot the curse again, and again, and she deflected each time with a swish and a flash of her teeth.

"Oooooh," she cackled. "It tickles!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

She twirled, dodging the green light in maniacal delight. "A shame you couldn't put your talents to better use."

Hermione gasped when she saw Draco's face so contorted in hatred. Before he could cast again she pulled on his arm. "Stop it! She's not worth it!" He gazed down at her, eyes dark and sinister while his aunt twirled her wand, laughing.

"Ickle Draco, you have so much potential!" Bellatrix taunted. "If your Mudblood is dead, perhaps you'll return to us."

Jolted into action by the threat, Hermione quickly cast several jinxes at Bellatrix's hands and feet which the older witch easily deflected, while Ron added a few curses of his own. Draco must have realized he wouldn't get very far casting Unforgivables. They required too much concentration for fast paced dueling, and he set to fighting his aunt properly.

The three gave it their all, hexing in between grunts and yells. Bellatrix didn't appear to be putting in much effort. With horror, Hermione realized she was entertained. At first Bellatrix swatted their curses away as if merely flies, not worth her effort. But when she started deflecting their curses back at them, the three quickly became overwhelmed, barely able to react fast enough. Ron breathed a loud curse after they sustained several close calls as flashes of light streaked by them, mere inches away.

She had a feeling Bellatrix was missing them on purpose. That she was toying with them.

Hermione covered them with a shield as they threw themselves to the floor, eyeing the blasts of light zooming over their heads in terror.

Bellatrix pointed her wand at them, curling her wrist with a lift of her red lips.

"Play time's over, kiddies."

Hermione's arm trembled with the effort of strengthening the shield covering them. What now? The three of them were no match for her.

"Surround her!" Ron yelled from the ground. "Different angles!"

Not waiting for them to react, Ron jumped up and ran across the hall, leaping and dodging the hexes Bellatrix shot after him. He dove behind a pile of broken chairs and half an overturned table before popping up and shooting off several rapid-fire hexes.

With a panicked look in her direction, Draco gasped, "The Weasel's right. Back up!" before sprinting perpendicular to Ron, forcing Bellatrix to alternate her attack at ninety-degree angles. Hermione pushed herself up and backed away, avoiding a tangle of chairs so Bellatrix had to fight all three in a semi-circle. Their bodies contorted with the rough, angular motions of spell casting while parrying her return fire. Slowly, the three shifted their stances, side stepping to form a triangle around the older witch.

Bellatrix swiveled and twirled around, dancing through the blasts of colored light, black curls swinging. Completely manic and unpredictable, Hermione had never seen anyone fight like her before. Barely able to keep up, she couldn't tell which hexes were being cast by Bellatrix, and which were being deflected back at her.

With a sudden burst of adrenaline, she ducked to the side, just missing an orange colored curse. Something exploded behind her on its impact. Hermione grit her teeth in frustration after watching her hexes fizzle out in small bursts of static on Bellatrix's shield. Meanwhile, the older witch curved her arm to catch Draco's hex, and diverted its path to hit Ron's legs.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed in terror when she saw him fly back.

Bellatrix swiveled back to her with a deranged smile. Hermione couldn't tell what hit him amidst the streams of bright light between her, Draco and Bellatrix. After something singed her hair, she saw Ron wincing behind an overturned table, struggling to lift himself. Her heart leapt as she breathed in the rancid smell of burnt hair. He was alive, and still attacking from the ground as he pulled himself up, using the table as leverage.

Bellatrix was fast and wild. She whirled around, difficult to catch, shrieking and cackling with each jinx that she cast. Hermione, Draco and Ron could hardly stay alive, let alone gain the upper hand. She didn't know how much longer they would last. They continued to hex and parry when she was suddenly knocked to the floor from an explosion caused by an errant hex.

Hermione hit the ground hard, and slid backwards, bruising her shoulder and cracking her head on the stone. She heard her ankle snap, and shrieked as pain shot up her leg.

"No!" She screamed as her wand whipped out of her grip and into Bellatrix's waiting fingers.

Terror clawed at her lungs as she realized she had nothing to defend herself with and was now crippled. She pushed her body up with a grimace to see the damage to her foot, but couldn't see anything underneath her boot. The pain was unbearable and tears quickly clouded her vision.

Felling helpless, she blinked through the blur of her tears to see that felling her and Ron came at a cost. Draco managed to hit Bellatrix with a curse which slowed her movements.

But it wasn't enough. Bellatrix now had two wands and was dueling Ron, who had managed to return to the battle despite his injury, and Draco at the same time.

Hermione released an agonized cry and wiped her tears away. She looked around wildly for something, anything she could use as a weapon and struggled to ignore the throbbing nerve endings in her ankle. Her eyes landed on the Sword of Gryffindor, abandoned where Draco had tackled her to the ground a few minutes ago. She glanced up, Ron and Draco were still fighting Bellatrix, yelling directives to each other in between curses.

Hoping Bellatrix wouldn't notice she wasn't quite out of commission yet, she crawled as fast as she could on her elbows, wincing with every movement. She ground her teeth, pushing with the knee of her good leg, over to the sword. A spate of shivers overtook her as something shifted in her ankle and she contracted her body, nearly gagging from the pain.

Gasping for breath, she focused on her target and lurched forward again. Ron saw what she was trying to do and adjusted his stance over to his right to draw Bellatrix's attention away from her. Throwing her hand out to grab the sword, she grasped the hilt, and crawled over to Bellatrix from behind. Biting her tongue held in the scream of agony as she put pressure on her bad leg.

If Bellatrix saw her, she was dead.

As she clawed at the ground, dragging herself closer, she met Draco's eyes over Bellatrix's shoulder and knew he was going to do something stupid. Not wanting to miss the chance he was giving her, she pushed herself to a standing position and limped towards Bellatrix, using the sword as a crutch. Draco charged forward, hexing at Bellatrix's feet now that Hermione was standing. Ron caught on and aimed towards Bellatrix's torso. She parried Ron's assault easily but Draco's open sprint made him vulnerable to attack.

Hermione watched in horror as a blue light hit Draco square in the chest. He flew back with a heart rending cry while Bellatrix blasted Ron off his feet again. Looking on in horror, she lurched forward. It was now or never. The older witch cackled and, ignoring the pain in her ankle, Hermione tightened her grip on the handle with both hands, reared back, and swung as hard as she could.

"Toujours Pur," Bellatrix released a throaty laugh, taunting Ron and Draco in her victory. "You should know better, Ickle Draco. It's in your blood. Sanctimonia Vinc–"

Her words were cut off abruptly as Goblin steel sliced through her neck. The force of the blow knocked Bellatrix's head clean off her body. Hermione watched the mass of black curls spin four times, arcing up into the air before landing with a thud on the ground. Bellatrix's body collapsed into a lifeless heap of black fabric and pale limbs on the floor soon after.

Draco and Ron gaped at Hermione from the floor, wide-eyed.

They were injured, but alive.

Holding the sword now dripping with Bellatrix's blood, Hermione stared down at the lifeless body. Her head pounded as she gazed in shock at the severed head. She shifted her stare to the gleaming metal of the blade reflecting the torch light of the Great Hall, and she saw another blade, reflecting the poor light of a darkened cell.

It looked the same.

Somewhat in shock, she bent over to take a fistful of Bellatrix's hair, lifting the severed head. It swiveled around in front of her, spinning, twisting the hair into a tight spiral until it slowed, finally coming to a stop. After a pause where Hermione could hear the blood dripping from the severed neck onto the floor, the hair untwisted, making the head spin in the opposite direction.

Bellatrix was still smiling, and her eyes sparkled from the flickering light of the Great Hall, sparkling with glee while she carved up Hermione's body. Everything around her seemed to get fuzzy. All she could see was Bellatrix's face. Separated from her body but still smiling at her. The older witch smiled wider and Hermione unfurled her fingers in horror, releasing the tangle of curls to let the head drop to the floor. It rolled over and Bellatrix stared back at her, and blinked.

No!

Her red lips lifted in a sinister grin, and more blood oozed from her neck. "The little Mudblood that knows far too much," she crooned.

Petrified, Hermione recoiled, and toppled over with an agonized yell after putting weight on her damaged ankle.

Oh god!

"Hermione!"

"There's no one to save you now," Bellatrix taunted with a flash of her gleaming teeth.

"You're wrong!" Hermione shrieked back.

Not alone.

She wasn't alone.

She didn't have to keep secrets alone, she didn't have to fight alone, she didn't have to return her parents memories alone, and she didn't have to face her nightmares alone.

"Hermione!"

Bellatrix cackled. "Are you ready to tell me what you did with my sword?"

The sword.

She was the one with the fucking sword.

Taking it in both hands, Hermione rose up on her knees, hefted the weapon above her and swung down with a cry of rage, slicing Bellatrix's head in half. She lifted again and swung down with another scream, severing her wand arm from the body. She lifted again and shattered Bellatrix's wand.

"Hermione!"

Her throat hurt from yelling but she didn't care, and hacked at the head again, slicing right through the eye. And then the shoulder. And then the torso. Grunting another shriek, she yanked the sword out of Bellatrix's chest and severed her leg at the calf. She lifted and swung again, nearly falling over again with the force of the effort.

"Hermione!"

Someone's arms wrapped around her before she could raise the sword again, and hands clasped her forearms. Someone else pried the sword out of her hands.

"No!" she cried out, desperately clawing at the air as she eyed the mutilated body in front of her. She'd be defenseless!

"Malfoy! Careful with her leg!"

"Hermione," Draco's voice sounded in her ear. They stumbled back and he pulled her into his body, holding her in his lap.

"My wand!" she yelled. Pain returned to her leg and she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

Ron tossed the sword to the ground with a loud clank and retrieved her wand from Bellatrix's left hand. She looked up into his worried blue eyes and he struggled to sit in front of her, blocking Bellatrix's mangled corpse from her view.

"Hermione?"

She blinked, staring at Ron in confusion. The fuzziness around him cleared. She was at Hogwarts. They had just beaten Bellatrix. She, Ron and Draco did.

Ron.

Draco.

They were here, they were safe. And so was she.

Harry died so they would be. She remembered his arms outstretched in sacrifice and squeezed her eyes shut as more tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Shhhhhhh," Draco whispered into her ear and tightened his arms around her. "It's alright. You're alright."

They swayed as he rocked her back and forth and she could feel him tensing and relaxing his muscles behind her. What was wrong?

"Hermione, are you still with us?"

She focused on Ron's blue eyes and on Draco's warmth cradling her from behind, and tried to breathe more slowly. Draco shifted his weight so he could cradle her against his chest.

Panting for a few moments, she swallowed and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "What? With who?"

Hermione looked down at Ron's wand arm. His sleeve was soaked with blood and two fingers on his wand hand looked broken. He couldn't cast, but was holding her wand out to her.

They needed help. They were injured.

Not knowing how to heal him – much less herself – she took her wand, and remembered the squeals of joy when hugging Ron and Harry after defeating the troll in the bathroom. She sighed in relief as her Patronus shot off to find Mary and Cho. Hopefully one of them would be able to make it to the Great Hall.

Ron smiled while watching her otter race out the entryway in a silvery display of light. "Still with us then."

"Are you okay, Ron?" Hermione's ankle was killing her, and she grimaced as more pain ran through her leg.

"Aside from my knee and hand, yeah." He shifted his gaze behind her to Draco. "You look pale, Malfoy. More than usual. What'd you get hit with?"

Draco contracted his muscles behind her with increasing frequency. He must have been really hurt from whatever Bellatrix hit him with, but hadn't said anything. She turned around abruptly when she felt him shaking. To her horror, his eyes rolled and he pitched backwards onto the floor, clutching his arms around his body.

"Draco!" she cried out as he moaned and rolled over on his side. Repressing her panic, Hermione crawled over his body, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

Ron leaned over, eyes wide in shock. "What is it?"

"I don't know!"

Heart rate kicking back into high gear, Hermione frantically pulled Draco over so she could see what was wrong. Searching his body for something she could heal, she released a cry of frustration. There weren't any visible signs of damage, but he squeezed his shut and ground his teeth together, hugging his body and shaking.

Her stomach twisted at the sight of him in such pain.

"Draco! Draco! Where does it hurt?" She tried to keep the panic out of her voice. He didn't answer. "Can you hear me?"

He grunted, but couldn't unclench his teeth. Hermione tried to move his arms from where they hugged his torso but she didn't have the strength.

"Ron," her voice shook. "Ron, can you help me move his arms? I can't."

She had trouble getting leverage with her broken ankle, and Ron only had his left arm, but together, they pried Draco's arm off his chest. Hermione immediately sliced through his shirt to reveal a dark purplish bruise about the size of her fist. Tendrils leached out and discolored his skin as the bruise got larger.

Ron gazed down in horror. "The fuck is that?"

Her lip trembled. "I don't know." She hoped Mary or Cho was able to get here soon.

A loud female voice sounded from the entrance to the Great Hall. "In here! And they're helpless!"

Hermione and Ron turned around in dread to see three Death Eaters stalk inside, blasting bits of rock and stone to the side to clear a path. Smoke and dust kicked up in their wake and Hermione coughed as the debris burned her throat.

Their situation was dire. Ron couldn't fight. She had no idea what was wrong with Draco, but he was deteriorating rapidly. She was crippled and couldn't take on three even if her ankle wasn't broken.

The sword was of no help to her now.

The woman sounded relative young, perhaps only a few years older than they were. Maybe she could talk their way out of it.

"You've already lost!" she called out to them with more confidence than she felt. "Voldemort is dead, Bellatrix is dead," she motioned to the mangled corpse next to them and one of the Death Eaters recoiled, "and your army is decimated."

Not daring to interrupt, Ron gave her a nudge of encouragement.

The three faltered. Panicked, she glanced down at the bruise on Draco's torso out of the side of her eye. It was getting larger; the size of her foot now. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Where were Mary and Cho? She brought her terrified gaze back up to the Death Eaters.

Raising her voice and doing her best to sound intimidating, she tried again, taking a page from Voldemort's book. "If you surrender, you could avoid Azkaban. The battle is lost! Come help us rebuild instead! Don't you have parents you want to go home to? Brothers and sisters? Families?"

They turned to each other in confusion, seemingly at a loss at what to do. Just when she thought they might yield, one of them growled in retort, "Or we could kill you now and escape."

The black robed figures advanced in their direction. Draco's shaking worsened and he started making low pitched whines. Hermione's fingers tightened around her wand. She wanted to cast a shield but was afraid any sudden movements would incite them to attack, and they'd lose.

"Hermione," Ron whispered under his breath. "I can cast a bit with my left. They won't expect it."

It wasn't enough.

They couldn't die like this! Not after defeating Bellatrix! Not after having made it so far!

Trying to ignore the agony of her broken ankle and the unknown curse making its way through Draco's body, she sat up straighter and set her jaw.

She would negotiate. She knew how they could exit safely to Hogsmeade, and use that as leverage.

But just as she was about to speak, she heard another voice.

"Kill them and escape?"

Thank god.

"Not bloody likely."

The smoke parted behind the Death Eaters as Tonks stepped through entrance of the Great Hall, white teeth gleaming with menace. She was completely covered in blood, and her good eye carried the pitch black of frequent Unforgivable use.

The three Death Eaters whirled around to attack just as Tonks drew a semi-circle of crackling silver sparks with her wand, summoning the power of a spell Hermione had never seen before, and pushed. The air pressure dropped and Hermione's ears popped as a boom rocked the Great Hall. The Death Eaters flew backwards, smacking against the far wall as dust and pebbles from the ceiling pelted her head.

Hermione and Ron swallowed to clear their ears.

"Tonks!" Hermione cried, hoping the Auror could help.

The purplish bruise on Draco's chest was darker and had grown to the size of a basketball. Draco was shivering, screaming through clenched teeth. She was at a loss, helpless in the face of his pain. But the Death Eaters were still trying to fight and Tonks closed in on them with a snarl. Hermione had seen Tonks teach, she had seen Tonks duel in practice, but she had never seen Tonks on a real battlefield. As the three Death Eaters recouped, Tonks stalked across the hall, combat boots clomping loudly, flinging hex after hex after hex without pausing to think or recover.

She was methodical. Precise. Strong. Quiet. Her arm movements were purposeful, never wasted, and her body brutally efficient. She never moved more than an inch from what was necessary to curse, block or evade. While the three Death Eaters struggled to cast, deflect and parry, Tonks didn't waver as she closed in on them like a predator, silent and terrifying in her fury.

One Death Eater went down with a scream and Tonks kept walking forward. Hermione did her best to cast from her position on the floor, but her attempts were nothing in comparison to the large, powerful bursts of power coming from Tonks. A second Death Eater shrieked as Tonks' Diffindo sliced diagonally through her torso, and the top half of her body slid off, falling atop the bottom shortly after. Finally, Tonks ducked to evade the green streak of a Killing Curse and shot a well-placed Bombarda Maxima towards the third's midsection, making them to explode with a sickening splat. Blood and viscera rained down on Hermione and Ron and they covered their heads with their hands.

It was suddenly quiet in the hall, save for distant yelling echoing in the distance.

Hermione and Ron stared at Tonks in shock. She stood up, breathing heavily and turned to face them. Her menacing grin fell. "Is that my little cousin?"

"Yes!" Hermione cried, prying Draco's arms up with Ron's help to show the bruise, gradually increasing in size. "We signaled for Healers. Do you know what this is?"

Tonks approached and tilted her head, watching the darkening purple overtake Draco's torso while his body quaked. She pointed her wand at the center of the bruise and muttered an incantation Hermione never heard before. The dark purple gradually lightened to a faint tint until the discoloration disappeared completely. Draco's limbs spasmed one last time and relaxed.

Hermione released his wrist, not realizing she drew blood. He gasped for air and opened his eyes; they were bloodshot. He shifted his gaze to Ron, Hermione and Tonks all peering down at him in apprehension.

"Alright there, cousin?" Draco blinked up wordlessly at Tonks. "The curse slowly crushes your blood vessels. Easy to reverse if you don't die first." Tonks gave Draco a wry grin. "Hurts a bit, 'eh?"

Draco pushed himself to a sitting position and rolled his neck. "Fucking–" he leaned over and spat blood out of his mouth. "I bit my tongue."

Tonks crouched down, trench coat splaying out as she sat on her haunches. The black of her eye made Hermione feel uneasy, reminding her of how terrified she was of Draco in his worst moments. "Where else are you three injured?"

Sitting on the floor, Ron extended his right hand and left knee to Tonks. Hermione shifted to show her useless ankle, whimpering as it dragged on the floor.

Draco tried to twist and winced. "I think my rib cracked when I fell."

After a cursory glance at Ron's wand hand Tonks shook her head.

"Too complicated; I might damage you more by attempting to heal you."

Ron grimaced as she gently poked his hand and then glanced up in open admiration. "What was that hex you did in the beginning?"

Tonks shot him a stern glance. "Don't you dare try it alone, Weasley. You'll implode your face."

Draco sniggered and Ron glared at him.

Tonks eyed Bellatrix's mangled corpse. "Who made mincemeat from Auntie Bella?"

Wordlessly, Draco and Ron each pointed to Hermione.

"It was a team effort," Hermione corrected, wanting to give them credit for their incredible wand work, but also slightly ashamed of her temporary insanity. She grimaced from the pain in her ankle.

Just then Mary came jogging in, accompanied by Angelina Johnson to provide her cover. Her eyes landed on Ron, Hermione and Draco and immediately she opened her bag, digging around as she approached them. Kneeling down next to Ron's hand, she took one look at Draco, extracted a dark blue vial and shoved it in his hand.

"Drink, if you don't want to pass out."

He downed it while she cast a diagnostic on Ron's hand, peered up at the diagrams muttering to herself, and then performed several incantations. Tracing her wand along his forearm, wrist, back of the hand and fingers they jumped when Ron suddenly screamed as his bones realigned.

"Wuss," Malfoy muttered.

"Go bugger – Aaaaaaah! MARY!" Ron jerked as Mary healed his knee and Draco chuckled again.

"Speed over bedside manner," she explained without a hint of contrition, already casting a diagnostic on Hermione's ankle and somehow reading it while slicing Hermione's boot and sock open.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut to prepare for the pain of a rapid heal. She felt Mary's wand trace her calf, throbbing ankle and foot when a painful squeeze snapped her bones into place. "Yaaaah!" she shrieked.

"Why didn't you call Hermione a wuss?" Ron accused Draco.

"Because she's not," Draco smirked while Mary cast a diagnostic over him. "At least she- Bloody FUCK!" His body spasmed as Mary healed his rib.

Ron laughed. "Sodding ponce."

"Fuck you, Weasley," Draco retorted, without any animosity. Fighting together was as much of a bonding experience as any.

"This was a quick and dirty heal," Mary explained, standing up and rummaging in her medi-kit and snapping it shut. "Come see me after the battle; I want to re-set the bones. You're all at risk for more fractures if you don't."

"Thank you–" Hermione's voice trailed off as Mary and Angelina quickly left the hall. The four slowly stood up and the throbbing pain in Hermione's ankle quickly subsided.

"Wotcher," Tonks replied tonelessly, and walked out of the Great Hall without another word, combat boots thudding heavily on the stone floor.

Ron glanced at her and Draco. "I say we follow her."

"Yeah," Draco agreed. "She's as scary as my aunt."

After darting across the hall to snag Harry's invisibility cloak, Draco grabbed Hermione's hand. They followed Tonks as she stalked down the hall, watching as she occasionally zapped random Death Eaters without even breaking stride while Ron, Draco and Hermione ensured their wands were broken.

After a few minutes they rounded a corner to see Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Millicent Bulstrode and Blaise Zabini fighting alongside Alicia Spinnet, Dean Thomas and Ernie MacMillian.

The seven were holding off several Death Eaters from behind some rubble. One large Death Eater climbed over the rocks and Millicent immediately grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, dragged him bodily over the wall of rubble, down to the ground, lifted his head and slammed his face into the stone floor. His mask shattered and he lay limp.

Tonks smiled. "I like her."

"Pans!" Draco cried.

Pansy turned around, gasped and threw herself into his large frame. Draco squeezed her and nodded at his friends.

Hermione was about to join the fight but noticed Theo wearing a holster. For a gun.

Yanking on his shoulder, she turned him around and away from the crossfire.

"You brought a gun."

His blue eyes widened in surprise. "Hi, Hermione!"

Pansy eyed him in distaste. "You're friends with her?"

Ignoring the barb, Hermione glared at him. "You have a gun."

"What? No, I don't."

"Gun," she ground out.

"I don't even know what that is," he retorted.

Hermione stomped her good foot in exasperation and pulled the gun out of his holster.

"This here! This sodding gun right here! What are you going to do with a gun?" she yelled, shaking it in front of his face by the barrel.

He shrugged his shoulders, completely shameless about his blatant lie. "Yeah, alright. I was going to fight with it but it doesn't work."

Tonks suddenly appeared next to them and pulled the gun out of her hand.

"That's because it has the safety on so idiots like you don't kill yourselves." She cocked it, checked the ammunition, and released the safety with a click. "Like so," her voice trailed off as she palmed the gun in her left hand and made a circle with her wand muttering, "Offendens capita!"

She, Draco, Pansy and Theo watched in curiosity as the gun emitted a yellow glow and returned to normal. Before they could ask what she had done, Tonks elbowed her way through the fighters and plastered her back against the rubble. She inhaled, turned around and opened fire on the remaining Death Eaters.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Everyone jumped to watch as she adjusted the angle of her outstretched arm in sharp movements, without blinking or pausing to breathe. One by one, metal masks shattered and the Death Eaters collapsed from perfect shots to the head. There was one last Death Eater standing, staring down at the bodies around him, perhaps in shock from what just happened. Tonks reared back and threw the empty gun with a grunt. It soared over the corpses and clocked him in the side of the head. He faltered, and then collapsed with the rest.

She turned around and surveyed their gawking faces. All of a sudden a loud, powerful voice projected throughout the castle.

"COURTYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRD!"

Tonks looked questioningly at the crew she was fighting with; her eye was still the unsettling black that Hermione remembered after Remus was taken. "Anyone recognize that voice?"

Most shook their heads to the negative, still in shock.

"Avery," Draco answered, after clearing his throat.

Pansy nodded in agreement. "Definitely."

Tonks glanced between Draco and Pansy. "After Bellatrix and Snape, who would be next in line?"

Draco furrowed his brows. "We never had a command structure like that. It was the Dark Lord or no one."

Tonks pressed on. "They'd look to someone if they wanted to surrender. Who would it be? Rudolphus?"

"I killed him," Draco answered, still eyeing her in awe.

"Jugson?" Tonks asked, undeterred.

Draco placed his hand affectionately on Hermione's shoulder. "She killed him."

"MacNair? Nott? Mulciber?"

Pansy shook her head. "No, they were captured. They wouldn't have the clout anymore."

"My dad's not nearly as important as he'd like to think," Theo added.

Draco glanced harshly at Pansy. "Wasn't he supposed to be in hiding?"

She glared back at him. "Does that wanker ever listen?"

"So Avery?" Tonks asked, cutting off their conversation.

"Perhaps," Draco answered.

"Are we all going to the courtyard so they can surrender?" Millicent Bulstrode asked, wiping the blood from her hands on her jumper.

Tonks gave her a disappointed look. "And cede the high ground? You're an excellent fighter but you need to learn strategy." Millicent raised her eyebrows in interest.

"Were you a Gryffindor?" Millicent asked curiously.

Tonks turned to her with a disparaging look, as if she couldn't imagine anything worse.

"Hufflepuff."

As she pointed her wand at her throat and cast a Sonorus, everyone backed away and covered their ears. "Order proceed to the second floor balcony. SECOND FLOOR BALCONY!"

Without another word, Tonks stalked off, trench coat billowing behind her.

Theo gazed after her. "I think I'm in love." After seeing Pansy glowering at him, he amended, "But only in a purely platonic, want her to smack my arse and bollocks kind of way."

Pansy narrowed her eyes. "If you need to be smacked around, Theodore, that can be arranged."

He smirked down at her. "Promise?"

Millicent surveyed Hermione, Ron, Dean and Alicia, somewhat awestruck. "Is she leading the Order?"

They all glanced towards Hermione for the answer. "I don't know," she replied, remembering how Minerva single handedly held off Voldemort's army to give them time to escape. "It's either her or," she fought down her rage, "Kingsley Shacklebolt." She looked at Tonks' receding figure in the corridor. "After today, it won't matter anyway. Are you all coming?"

Hermione took off in a jog after Tonks and everyone followed. But a shriek from behind stopped them in their tracks.

"Traitor!"

Chapter end notes:

Bellatrix's post death mutilation was inspired by Buffy crushing the bones of the Master into talcum powder at the beginning of season 2. It's a good way to deal with PTSD, no?