I apologise in advance for where this chapter leaves off.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but this twisted so-called "plot".
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One small sigh for calm, one giant heave for equanimity.
"Okay," Hermione said to herself bracingly. Then she began rummaging around in her bag.

"What are you looking for?" Ron asked.
"My DA Galleon. I'm quite sure it's in here somewhere..."
Ron grunted and shook his head, "What good will that do, really? I hardly think anyone will still be carrying theirs around with them. I'm going up to the dorm to wake Neville, Dean, and Seamus. That's the best we can manage right now."
She hummed perfunctorily as he got up and left, still caught up in her search. Finally, after much fumbling and scrambling, her fingers closed around the elusive coin. She tapped it gently, altering the engraving on the facet to read, '7th floor corridor ASAP'.

A sigh had barely escaped her lips when the portrait hole swung open and Ginny traipsed in tiredly.
"Blazing buggering fire crabs," she groaned, falling onto the sofa next to Hermione, "I'm exhausted. My brain has melted. It's like a puddle of thickened slime in my skull. I can't wait for these O.W.L.s to be... what's happened to you?"
Hermione met her concerned frown with consternation.
"Um... Ginny," she began, worrying her lower lip with her teeth, "Harry's... gone. With Dumbledore."
Ginny's spine straightened as she was - almost involuntarily - lurched out of her slouch. "What do you mean gone?!"
"He... they... Well, they've gone to do something. I don't really know what..."
"You don't really know. Right," Ginny said with scathing disbelief, "Is it dangerous? Oh, wait. Don't bother. Of course it's bloody dangerous." With all the colour drained from her face, she suddenly stood up. "You just let him go off like that?"
"He's with Dumbledore, Ginny–"
"And he couldn't even bother to tell me? Just a 'hullo little girlfriend, I'm off to be a valiant hero again, tara' would've been nice. Oh Merlin. WHY does he keep pulling these stunts?"
"He didn't have time to find you; Dumbledore was waiting–"
"He told you, though. Had time enough for that."
"I just happened to be here when he was leaving, and he–"
"Of course you were. You always happen to be there for him, don't you?"
"Ginny..." Hermione whispered imploringly.
And just like that, the agitated, ashen-faced girl before her deflated. "I know," she said in a pained voice, "Sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm just... scared, Hermione."
Hermione rose, stood in front of her, and put a comforting hand on her arm. "So am I."

That was when Ron came back down from his dormitory, followed by Neville, Dean, and Seamus, each wearing bewildered looks of varying intensities.
Tousle-haired and bleary-eyed Seamus was the first to speak: "Alright, Mister Weasley sir. We're downstairs now. Will you please tell us why the sodding fuck you dragged us out of bed?"
"Stop being so bloody shirty, Seamus," Ron snapped (Hermione, in her twitchy state, struggled to contain a giggle and suppress the urge to challenge Ron to say Shirty Seamus five times, rapidly), "This is important. Dumbledore's not in the castle tonight, and there's a very good chance that something bad is going to happen–"
"What d'you mean something bad," Dean asked anxiously.
Hermione cleared her throat, "We have reason to believe that Draco Malfoy has... something planned. He's been working on it in the room of requirement all year. Snape's involved too, in some capacity. And since Dumbledore's away, we think that they're going to... act... tonight. We need to keep an eye on them..."

There was a brief interlude in which the three newcomers digested her words.
"Malfoy and Snape have... something... planned," Dean clarified.
Hermione and Ron both nodded.
"What exactly is something?"
"Donno," said Ron with a shrug.
"But you're sure it's something."
"Yeah."
Neville, whose face was a mask of apprehension asked, "Where's Harry?"
"He's gone with Dumbledore," said Hermione.
"And where have they gone?" Seamus demanded.
With another flippant shrug, Ron replied "Donno," once again.
"Basically, you know sweet fuck all," Seamus grumbled, "I'm going back to bed."
"Don't be a tool, Seamus," Dean entreated at the same time as Ron said, "Settle your arse down!"
"Well, I'm sorry," Seamus barked, "But this whole thing is mad as a box of frogs. We're in Hogwarts for fuck's sake – Dumbledore or no Dumbledore, it's as safe as safe can be..."
"I'd have said the same thing about the Ministry before last year," Neville countered, before looking over at Hermione, "How're we doing this then?"
She gave him a grateful nod, unfurled the Marauder's map, and muttered the activation phrase. Scrutinising carefully, she searched the map from corner to corner.
"Malfoy isn't showing up on this," she announced, "So he's obviously still in the Room of Requirement. Snape... is in his office. We'll split up and stand guard at both those locations..."
Dean and Seamus peered over her each of her shoulders.
"Cool map," Dean said in awe, "Where'd you get it?"
"It belonged to Harry's dad..." she replied absently.
"Anyone else from the DA show up?" Ron asked.
"Um... Luna."
Ron whickered, "Brilliant. Just the person you want around in a time of crisis."
"Shut up, Ron," Ginny snapped, "So how are we splitting up, Hermione? ...Er, Hermione?"

Hermione, however, was already halfway across the room. Without turning, and with her eyes still glued to the map, she said, "Theo is outside the portrait hole for some reason. I'll be back in second."

He was on her the moment she stepped out.
"Thank Merlin," he exclaimed, "I've been standing out here for twenty minutes trying to get this puffed up pink Fwooper to let me in."
An offended wail tore out of the fat lady's mouth. "Well I never..."

Theo took hold of Hermione's elbow and dragged her a few feet away.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked nervously.
His hair was all over the place, looking like he had run his hands through it a billion times.
"Hermione, listen," he began fervently, looking down at her with turbulent eyes, "Something's going to happen tonight."
She pursed her lips and frowned, "Why would you say that?"
"Because Draco told me expressly that under no circumstances am I to leave the common room tonight, and point-blank refused to give a reason for it. Then he left, and I have no idea where he's gone. He looked... he looked awful. Like he was going to be sick. I didn't get–"

He stopped talking abruptly, staring at something behind Hermione. She spun around and saw her housemates spilling out of the common room.
"'the fuck are you doing here, Nott?" Ron demanded.
"I don't have to justify my whereabouts to you, Weasley."
"Look here you plonker–"
"Oh, save the pissing contest for another time you two," Hermione rebuked, "Theo's just confirmed our suspicions about Malfoy. Now let's quickly get to the seventh floor before Luna gets tired of waiting..."
"Wait, what? Luna?" Theo yelled, "Why is she loitering around? Fuck."

He charged away like a boy possessed. The rest of them watched his receding back, gobsmacked, for a few seconds... and then they followed, tearing down the corridor, their cloaks billowing out behind them like Lethifolds.

It took ten long minutes for them to settle on how exactly they were going to divide themselves into two groups.

"Luna, Hermione, and I will wait here for Draco," Theo declared authoritatively.
"You'll be distracted if we're with you, Theo," Luna rejoined.
Hermione spoke before he could open his mouth to argue, "She's right. You wait here; you're the only one who might be able to talk Malfoy out of his designs. Ginny, Neville, Dean... You can disillusion yourselves and stand at a distance. That leaves Ron, Seamus, Luna, and I to wait outside Snape's office."
"No, that's –"
"Don't be difficult, Theo. Luna and I will be fine."
He snapped his mouth shut and loured at her.
"Er – Hermione..." Ron ventured, "D'you think I can stay here with Ginny? Mum will kill me if I let something happen to her–"
"Ha! Fuck off, Ron," Ginny scoffed, "I'm better with a wand than you are, any day of–"
"That's not the point, you daft cow–"
"Don't call me a da–"
"ALRIGHT," Hermione bellowed, "Theo, Ron, Ginny, and Dean will wait outside the Room of Requirement; Luna, Seamus, Neville, and I will–"
"Hey, at least let me have Finnigan!" Theo begged.
"Aw, Nott! Knew you had a glad eye for me, you rawny dah'lin..."
"Hardy har, knobhead–"

And so it was decided; Ron, Ginny, Seamus, and Theo went to stand outside the room of requirement, and Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Dean headed down to the dungeons to station themselves outside Snape's office.

That had been forty minutes ago.
Three jittery Gryffindors, and one unnervingly composed Ravenclaw sat in a row against the wall by Snape's door. Hermione had cast a quick Muffliato around them, taking buckets of pleasure in using Prince Severus' own spell against him.

"I think I'm going to have to agree with Seamus now," Dean said, "This is stupid."
He'd tilted his head back to rest against the wall and had his eyes closed. Hermione fiddled with a loose thread on her cloak, unable to come up with something to contradict that proclamation.
"Hermione," Neville broached tentatively, "You're absolutely sure about all this, yeah?"
"Yes. That is to say... Harry's been keeping a close eye on Snape and Malfoy all year, and–"
"No. I mean... are you really sure? Harry was certain that Sirius Black was being held prisoner at the ministry, too... And well, you know how that turned out."
Hermione bit her lip. "Neville, you know that that whole fiasco at the ministry was a trap. This... this is different..."
She tugged and tugged at the loose thread, but it refused to break.
...She really wished she hadn't given the Marauder's map to the other group.

"Is it really different?" Dean asked, opening one eye to look at her, "What, besides Harry's conviction, has brought us here? Do you always just do what he says?"
Hermione bristled, half wanting to tell him that he was welcome to fuck off.
Instead she said, "Absolutely. Ours not to make reply, Ours not to reason why, Ours but to do and die."
"Oh brother," Dean huffed, and settled back into his reposeful pose.
Hermione glared daggers at his profile.

"Look," she tried again after a spell, speaking more to Neville than anyone else, "I am absolutely certain that Malfoy has something sinister up his sleeve-"
"Theo says that he isn't really a bad person," Luna interjected.
Dean and Neville expelled identical noises of disbelief. Hermione wound the thread around the tip of her finger till it was bloodless and chalk-white.
"Theo's a bit biased," she said.
"Maybe," Luna allowed, "But you trust his judgement, don't you?"
Hermione didn't answer - she simply stared down at her anaemic fingertip.
"...don't you?"
"Yes," she confessed, grudgingly.

That admission marked the end of their surveillance-time chitchat. They just sat there quietly (in a row against the wall by Snape's door); Hermione played with her thread, Neville blinked at a crack on the opposite wall, Dean kept his eyes closed, and Luna tapped her wand repeatedly against her shoe, changing its colour with each strike: blue, green, purple, maroon...
...Hermione found herself partially mesmerised by the flickering hues, thinking about bright neon signs at Piccadilly...

"What's that?" Neville exclaimed urgently, "Someone... someone's coming!"
They were all on their feet in a flash, squinting their eyes to see through the shadow-heavy corridor; a tiny figure was vaguely discernible in the distance. They stood in tense anticipation, each holding tightly onto their respective wands, poised to attack if necessary...
As the figure came closer, Hermione realised that it was Flitwick. He ran wildly past them, not even sparing a glance in their direction, and burst into Snape's office, leaving the door open behind him.
Neville let out a shaky sigh, "What the he–"
"Shhh!" Hermione hissed sharply. She pressed herself against the door jamb, straining to hear what was going on inside.
"...Death Eaters... the castle!" she picked up fragments in Flitwick's high voice; he sounded desperate and panic-stricken, "Severus... with me... Astronomy... outnumbered..."

Then there was a heavy thump, and four seconds later, Snape was standing before them. His eyes travelled from Hermione to Luna to Dean to Neville, his curled lip becoming more and more prominent along the way. Hermione, expecting interrogations and detentions, set her jaw defiantly.
"Professor Flitwick has collapsed in my office – he appears to have over-exerted himself. Go in and look after him... and if you meddlesome children want what's best for you, you'll stay inside for the rest of the night."
And with a thoroughly uncharming sneer in lieu of a 'by your leave', he marched down the corridor. The meddlesome children watched him till he melted into the shadows, and then looked at each other with wide eyes... on your mark, get set, go!... They hurtled into the office.

"Oh!" Luna gasped miserably, "Poor Professor Flitwick!"
He was unconscious and spreadeagled on the floor. Hermione knelt beside him, and pressed her wand to his forehead.
"Rennervate," she whispered. Flitwick stirred feebly, and his previously shallow breathing evened out, but he did not wake up. She removed her cloak, bundled it up, and placed it under his head like a pillow. Luna and Neville draped theirs over him like blankets.
"Is he going to be alright?" Neville asked Hermione uneasily.
"I think so. He should wake up once his nerves recover..."
"At least he's warm now," said Luna. She took one of her strange Gurdyroots out of her satchel, and placed it next to his head. "There. That's perfect. Now the Gulping Plimpies will stay away too."

"Pardon me," Dean cut in loudly, "But if you're all done playing Florence Nightingale, maybe we could talk about the fucking Death Eaters that are supposed to be in the castle?"
"Right!" Hermione squeaked, "Damn it, I really wish I had that map with me..." She stepped away from Flitwick's... floorside, "We should go back up to the seventh floor and reconvene with the others. Come on."
"Death Easters," Dean yelped in distress as he swooped in front of her to block her path, "Death. Eaters. In the castle. What if we run into a couple of FUCKING DEATH EATERS?"
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "You have your wand don't you?"
He looked towards the other members of their quartet pleadingly. Neville shrugged.
"Isn't this why you joined Dumbledore's Army to begin with?" asked Luna.
Defeated, Dean nodded stiffly.

Screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.

They crept silently through passageways and up staircases, clinging to the walls and the darkness that pooled under them.
They needn't have bothered.
The castle appeared to be completely deserted; No patrolling sentries, no murderous psychopaths, no irascible caretakers, nor their mangy cantankerous cats. Even the paintings lining the halls were eerily vacant.
"I don't understand," Hermione murmured, "There were supposed to be Death Eaters... extra security–"

She stopped speaking and all four of them froze, listening in terror to the escalating sound of sprinting feet coming from somewhere ahead of them. Immediately, they got into their defensive stance: alert, prepared, with wands held aloft.
"...Luna...!...Hermione...!...Dean...!"

Almost as if they'd materialised out of thin air, Theo and Ginny were suddenly just there. Ron and Seamus came after, crashing into the other two and nearly knocking them onto the ground.
"Oh!" Ron huffed, "Are you all okay?"
"We're fine" Hermione assured him hastily, "But what on earth is going on?"
"Death Eaters have infiltrated the castle," Ginny averred grimly.
"But..." Hermione stuttered, "How... how...?"
"It was Draco's doing," Theo said in a gravelly, haunted voice, "I don't know how, but–" he seemed to choke on his words, and Luna took his hand in hers.
"Shit. Fuck!" Dean swore.
"That's what I said too," Seamus muttered frivolously.
"What happened with Malfoy, though?" Hermione asked keenly, "Did he –"
With a muted screech of impatience, Ginny exclaimed, "We don't have time to faff about and explain! We need to go help out!"
"Oh. Oh yes," Hermione mumbled penitently, "Yes..."

"Um... look here..."

"...Check the map, Ron – find out where everybody is..."
"Yeah. There's also this," he pulled the tiny bottle of Felix Felicis out of his pocket, "One little sip each, alright?"

"...Um, guys..."

"What is that?" Seamus asked, eyeing the bottle suspiciously.
"Liquid luck," Hermione and Theo said simultaneously. They looked at each other, and in the deep groove between his furrowed brows, Hermione perceived the full brunt of his despondency.

"...Oi, look here, guys..."

"Theo, listen," she whispered to him as the Felix Felicis was being circulated, "You don't have to do this. You don't have to fight."
"Are you mad?" he asked, looking aghast, "Of course I bloody well will fight."
Taking the tiny bottle from her hand, he took a bold swig. Luna watched him with immense pride; a sentiment that Hermione shared whole-heartedly...

"...WILL YOU FUCKING COME OVER HERE?"

They all spun around in alarm to stare at Neville. He stood a little distance away, staring outside a window while wearing the most blood-curdling look of horror.
"What is it?" Luna asked cautiously.
"Look," he said hoarsely, pointing outside.
Hermione's internal sparks of Felicis-induced euphoria and confidence fizzled into nothingness as they moved towards Neville in an anxious huddle, gathered around the window, and looked out into the night.
And there it was, looming repulsively over the astronomy tower – toxic green and glittering – the Dark Mark.

Of course, they instantly knew what that meant. Someone had been killed.

Ginny clapped her hands to her mouth.
Luna and Dean gasped.
Ron let out a strangled groan.
"Oh fuck," Seamus whispered.
Theo's mouth thinned into one straight line.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but...

Hermione whimpered.