Hogsmeade had turned into a ruin. Columns of fire surrounded her completely, as her lungs burned with all the smoke she kept inhaling. The screams coming from everywhere didn't help at all. They made her hands shake with violence, even though she was running. She could feel her racing heart, she could hear the buzz of her blood flowing through her veins with force… and none of these things mattered.

Hermione had one simple goal; she wanted to find her roommates and bring them to safety. She knew that the scenes playing around her were completely terrifying, but the images that her brain kept showing her were much, much worse. But somehow, they also made things easier; she passed a body after body without even a sign of pain or compassion. She didn't see the tears flowing down the faces of those, who had managed to survive, she didn't hear their wailing full of agony and suffering that would never be eased. She simply ran.

"Hermione! Hermione, stop!"

That one scream had managed to reach her ears, as she recognized it immediately. Sirius. Why did he run after her?!

"For fuck's sake, Hermione!" His voice was raspy and hoarse. He must have screamed his lungs out, trying to get through to her.

She slowed down and allowed him to catch her, but as soon as he had done that, she grabbed his handed and pulled him towards the other side of the village.

"There's no time!" she pleaded and he stopped fighting her, only to squeeze her hand even harder.

"I'm going to fucking kill you, if Death Eaters won't kill us first," he gritted through his teeth. "Your roommates are probably already dead, Hermione! You've heard Hughes… He said that…"

"I know what he said!" she yelled and jumped over a lifeless body lying on the ground. It didn't belong to one of her girls, so she ignored it, just as the rest of them. "And I still have to see their corpses to believe that, Sirius! Don't tell me that you would've left any of your friends completely alone! And your friends are at least able to fight!"

Hermione didn't know where did she get the strength to say it all. She was nearly out of breath, as the smoke kept invading her mouth and her eyes, making her vision completely blurry. There was no way in hell she could fight in those conditions. The chances of finding her friends were equally low, if she couldn't even breathe.

Her wand appeared in her hand seemingly out of nowhere and she cast the Bubble-Head Charm, the only spell that came to her mind at that moment. Suddenly, her lungs filled with pure air once more, allowing her to run faster, but before she had done so, she turned her head to check if Sirius had followed into her footsteps. Once she had made sure he was okay, she resumed her relentless chase.

Their luck didn't last long, though, as one of the Death Eaters appeared in their way. Hermione stopped, causing Sirius to bump into her, but she didn't care about the mild pain he had caused. Her eyes were trained on the cloaked silhouette of a man, whose face was covered by one of those horrid masks.

Sirius needed only a moment to assess the situation. He jumped in front of her, shielding her from the enemy, his wand pointed straight at him. Hermione could tell that he was terrified, but his hand wasn't trembling. He stood still, like a predator waiting to pounce. If it wasn't for the situation they had found themselves in, she would have smiled tenderly, watching that familiar fighting stance.

"Go," he muttered, his voice completely void of all the emotions. "Find them and bring them to safety."

"I'm not leaving you," she protested and picked up her own wand while the Death Eater started to walk their way.

"Yes, you are. I can handle this."

"We can handle this," she corrected and stepped to his left.

She wanted to save her friends, but leaving the person she loved the most completely alone wasn't a good way to do it. Hermione might have acted on impulse when she had ran out of the Three Broomsticks, but the clean air made it easier to think. She was used to dealing with things on her own, but if Sirius had chosen to follow her, splitting wouldn't be the best idea. They could have been strong as individuals, but together, they were powerful.

Before they could say anything else, the cloaked man struck and sent a spell towards Hermione, clearly deciding that she must have been a weaker target. His logic wasn't bad, but… Well, he was about to see how wrong it was. She Shielded herself, pretending to do it with effort, while Sirius attacked him, using the Expelliarmus charm. The man had no troubles avoiding it and they engaged in a tough fight.

Their opponent had clearly underestimated them, as after a while, he started to retreat, while Sirius' and Hermione's attacks got fiercer and fiercer. It didn't take long to disarm him and bind him with magical ropes. Neither of them fancied the idea of actually hurting the Death Eater; they didn't want to stoop to his level and besides, time was pressing them to move.

The duel, no matter how short it turned out to be, had worn her out. She could tell that her muscles didn't work as good as they did before and the exertion decreased the levels of oxygen inside her bubble immensely. They needed to hurry and pray that no other Death Eater was going to stop them again.

"Grace! Amy!" she yelled with force, once they'd gotten to the part of Hogsmeade that could be described as her roommates' favourite. The multiple shops that had once been here, were now almost completely gone, as the fire had descended them to the piles of ashes. Hermione looked around, trying to spot anything in the embers and the blackened wood that withstood the temperature.

"Grace! Amy!" Sirius tried his luck and his voice came out much clearer than hers. It echoed in the now empty space, overshadowing the faint sounds of screams and cries that began to die down over the last few minutes.

"They have to be here," Hermione moaned and grabbed her wand, wanting to cast Homenum Revelio, but Sirius stopped her.

"It won't work, love. There's too many people still in the village," he reminded gently and then looked around.

His stare stopped at the ruins of a former clothing shop and he gasped only a moment later. Before her panicked mind could have realised what was happening, Sirius pulled her towards the place and this time she had no troubles spotting the slight tremble of his hand.

A part of her wanted to stop, to turn around and never come back, so she wouldn't have to look at that horrid image just in front of them. But she couldn't do that. So she let Sirius lead her closer and closer to the ashes, where she had spotted Amy, sitting on the ground and staring at one point with a blank expression.

Her face wasn't marred by any wounds or bruises. It was dirty from all the dust and ashes around, with some clean tracks left by her tears that must have dried down by now. She looked beautiful in a way, eerie and filled with sadness, like a statuette carved into marble.

"Amy…" she whispered and forced herself to swallow a huge bile that started to grow in her throat. "Amy…"

"She looks really peaceful, when she's sleeping" the girl said, but her voice sounded completely void, making Hermione's heart stop for a short moment. She felt Sirius' hand tightening around her own, almost to the point of pain, but she couldn't care less.

Sirius let go of Hermione's hand and slowly walked up to the girl sitting on the pile of ashes. He crouched down and tried to catch her gaze, but Amy refused to look anywhere besides Grace's face that was frozen in a surprised expression. Her eyes had probably been filled with fear and panic right before the Killing Curse had hit her, but right now, they were completely hollow, reminding Hermione of endless oceans.

She dropped to her knees, feeling dizzy and nauseous. Even after all those promises to keep her friends safe, even after giving her all to keep them out of this… Hermione still had to stare at Gracie's dead body with nothing but a piercing sense of injustice and failure surging through her. It was like the Battle of Hogwarts happening all over again. She had lost someone important to her and there was nothing she could have done to change it. She couldn't change it, but she would have to live with another death for the rest of her life. The only question was: how? How could she keep on going, when her heart had already been shattered more than once?

"She's been that way for quite some time now. It makes me think that maybe she'll wake up any minute," Amy continued, completely oblivious to Hermione's despair and to Sirius' presence right next to her. "Although, knowing Grace it might take a while. She's such a lazy little thing."

"Amy…" Sirius started quietly and his voice broke a bit, making Hermione cover her mouth, trying to stifle in a sob that threatened to escape. "We should go. It's not safe here. Grace… Grace is gone."

"No, she isn't," Amy blinked and shook her head. "She's right here, can't you see?"

It was the first time, when Hermione had seen tears in her boyfriend's eyes, as he turned around, silently begging her to help him. But how could she? Her entire body felt numb and the pain was so strong that she feared it was going to split her up from the inside. Could she even move?

"It's just her body, Amy," Sirius said and reached for the blonde's hand, which lied on top of Gracie's. "She's really gone, she's not going to wake up."

"You don't know her like I do. Tell him, Hermione."

She looked up for the first time and met Hermione's gaze, making her shiver uncontrollably.

"He's right, Amy. I can't tell him anything," she whispered and inhaled sharply, unable to stop herself from crying.

Tears started streaming down her face and she covered her eyes with both hands, trying to erase that horrifying sight from her memories. And though her eyelids covered her brown irises, the image was still as clear as before.

"Oh, Merlin…" she sobbed and hugged herself, her fingernails digging into the skin and drawing some blood.

The pain it caused was nothing, compared to the one boiling inside her shattered heart. She knew that Sirius probably had troubles staying in his spot, after seeing his girlfriend cry like that, but she simply couldn't stop.

"Why are you crying?" Amy asked and furrowed her brows. "Hermione, tell me!"

"She's dead!" Hermione yelled and opened her eyes, her vision blurry from the tears that kept flowing down her face. "Gracie's dead! She's not sleeping and she's not going to wake up!"

"How can you even say that?! You're lying!"

Hermione forced herself to get up from her knees and she rushed to Amy and Sirius, crouching down and touching Grace's hand, which was still warm.

"There is no pulse, she's not breathing," Hermione whispered and grabbed Amy's hand, forcing her to see for herself.

The girl tried to protest, as she wriggled her body, but she wasn't strong enough and soon her expression changed completely; tears filled her eyes yet again and her lips trembled.

"She's not dead. She can't be!" she sobbed and fell on top of Grace's silhouette. "She can't be…"

Hermione shut her eyes and forced herself to push aside all the suffering she felt. Sirius was right, Hogsmeade wasn't safe, even if Death Eaters had already left that part of the village. They had to find a way out and they had to do it quick.

"We need to go, Amy," Sirius tried again, just as if he was reading her thoughts. "There's nothing we can do."

He sounded broken, but Hermione felt grateful that he was with her, trying to get them out of this terrible situation. Her brain was able to tell that she needed to do something, but all of her thoughts were occupied by chaos.

"No! No! I'm not leaving her! She's going to wake up, she's…"

Amy wasn't crying at that point. She was wailing. Hermione's vision went even more blurry, but this time, it wasn't from the tears. She started feeling weak, as her entire body went limp. All she wanted, was to become deaf and blind, to erase those sounds and sights from her memories…

"Hermione, please," Sirius pleaded quietly and she opened her eyes after a moment, only to see her boyfriend desperately trying to keep Amy in place, as she wriggled in his arms.

She did the only thing she could have. Her wand was out in a blink of an eye, pointed at her friend.

"Stupefy," she whispered, not having the strength to do it non-verbally.

A red light hit Amy in the chest and she froze, unable to move.

"We have to go," Sirius said, picking the girl up and holding her close to his body.

Hermione simply nodded and looked at Gracie's face.

"Are we supposed to just leave… Leave her body behind?"

Talking about it out loud was even more painful than all those thoughts swirling in her mind. Even looking at Grace wasn't as terrible as talking about her, like she wasn't there. Like Hermione wasn't going to hear her bubbly voice, like she wasn't going to watch her joyous outburst or dreamy expressions…

"I can't do this, Pads. I just can't."

"Hermione, you need to stay strong a little longer, okay? Grace would never want you to endanger yourself like that, you know it."

He was right, but at the same time, she wanted to yell at him for claiming to know her friend. It was easy for him to say, but she loved that beautiful, innocent blonde, even if their relations hadn't been perfect for the last couple of months. She was desperate to protect her… and she didn't.

"Love, please. We need to move. I can get us out of her through the Shrieking Shack, but I can't carry you as well."

Hermione nodded once more and stood up, her legs stiff as wood. Her entire body felt as though it didn't belong to her, but a part of her knew that Sirius was right.

"I'm so, so sorry…" he whispered, but she almost didn't acknowledge it, as she stared at Gracie's face.

"I hope that you're happy, wherever you are," she said in a shaky voice and clenched her fists, hoping that the physical pain would help her regain control over her body.

It didn't, but she forced her feet to move anyway; one in front of the other, until she fell into a steady rhythm, like an emotionless machine. Sirius was right, after all. A time would come, when she would be able to fall apart, letting all of her pain and sorrow drown her completely. But right now she had to stay strong. For Gracie.