Chapter Ten
Phantom

Hermione could barely remember falling when she landed hard on the floor.
"Oof!" She rolled over and stumbled up. What met her eyes was complete darkness
"Harry? Ron?" She called. She got no answer. Either they weren't here or the fall had knocked them out.
She tried calling louder. "HARRY! RON!" She couldn't find her wand. She scrabbled on the floor for it, until finally her fingers brushed over the thin stick. "Aha! Lumos!"
Nothing happened. She looked down to where she assumed her wand was, confused. "Lumos! LUMOS! Incendio! Lomusalem! Ferreris! Flammalarus! LUMOS! Oh, no." None of the spells to give light or fire would work in here. Voldemort must have enchanted the room against it…she was in pitch blackness…but what was the point?
Suddenly two yellow eyes floated before her, blinking slowly.
"Er…"
She jumped back just in time and the claw merely grazed her face. At least, she assumed it was a claw. It felt sharp at any rate. All she could see of the creature was its mad yellow eyes.
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus! Expelliarmus! SILENCIO!" All of the spells she tried hit the creature, but bounced off and she had to duck and dodge to get out of the way of her own spells. The yellow eyes continued to approach, icy fear made her barely able to move, but she ran for her life, shooting spells over her shoulder "Reducto! Furnunculus! Locomotor Mortis! Desuago! Crucio! What am I doing? That's ILLEGAL!"
Fortunately (or unfortunately) she didn't seem to be malicious enough to get a Cruciatus Curse out, the creature continued coming at her rapidly and in her haste to escape she crashed directly into a wall she could not see in the pitch darkness. She got up quickly and heard a crash on the wall beside her as the creature lunged where she had been. She ran her fingers along the wall, looking for a door a something, a way out.
Hermione thought about things a lot. She thought because she figured someone had too. All the others were too busy doing stupid things. Of the trio, Hermione was the thinker. If Harry and Ron were in trouble, they could always count on Hermione to come up with a brilliant plan to bail them out. Hermione was the one who had the plan, who had the brains, who predicted what was going to happen next. Of course, Hermione thought bitterly, running like crazy, it would help if Harry and Ron actually listen to her once in a while, but that was another matter. The point was, Hermione could think her way out of danger. If they were dealing with people, generally. Hermione knew about people. She knew how they worked. She could outsmart them, out think, and in a pinch she would always get away. This helped if the person had a gaping weakness, or was particularly stupid for instance, like Umbridge. Yes, Hermione could handle curse tossing power hungry wizards. She would at least, keep her head.
Creatures worried her. She'd read a lot about magical creatures, and knew one thing-they were unpredictable, instinctive and could kill you in a split second. So were people, but on a lower more manageable level, and she could always find out what made someone tick. Magical creature all ticked the same way though: Either their goal was to survive or their goal was to kill. These obviously overlapped a bit. It was hard to manage something like that. So Hermione, around trolls and giants, tended to lose her head, because she knew EXACTLY what they could do to you. Hermione didn't deal with creatures enough, not as much as people. And just seeing a giant lumbering toward you was enough to scare anyone. Harry always operated better than her in situations like this-her thinking slowed, his got quicker.
But Hermione could not afford to lose her head now. The way she figured it, she was not dealing with a creature, she was dealing with a person: Voldemort. This was Voldemort's challenge, so all she had to do is figure out what his evil brain might not have deciphered.
Sharp teeth clamped around her wrist. She tugged away, only to get a stinging pain in her back from some body part. She keeled over and was knocked into the wall with horrible intensity. She rolled out of the way and was grazed by a pain, but the creature delivered the fatal blow to the wall, not her. Dragging herself away, she vainly tried to hit it with spells, to no effect. If only she could see it, she could fight it-where were Harry and Ron?
A mouth clamped around her ankle, she kicked at the darkness, but might as well have been kicking a wall. She grabbed a corner of wall and jerked away, teeth ripped at her ankle, but she managed to escape.
WHAT HAD VOLDEMORT NOT THOUGHT OF? Hermione finger brushed against a bit of uneven brick. Aha! Voldemort never thought of the simple solutions-the Muggle solutions. The bricks were uneven-she could climb up the wall!
She hoisted herself up just in time; she heard a thump below her. She scrambled up the bricks, it was hard, she wasn't a very athletic to begin with, and it was had to get holds in the darkness and harder still to hoist herself up, but she was powered by adrenaline.
There was a flapping behind her-Oh no…the creature could fly! Teeth clamped around her waist, deep wounds puncturing her skin and she was thrown to the other side of the room. She crashed against the wall and rolled down, nearly knocked silly. She felt hot breath on her face and her fear heightened significantly, she was almost sick with it. She ran harder than ever, but the creature had gotten faster and seemed to know her every move. It caught her before she could think and she jabbed her wand desperately in its great yellow eye. The eye watered and bled, yet the creature did not react to this, did not howl in pain, let go of her, or even blink. The yellow eyes seemed to give the tiniest bit of light, she could see the tip of her wand, but it did not seem to be bloodied, and when she felt it, it was dry. And an idea striking her, she pulled a bit of fur from the creature, but it seemed to disappear in her hand. The creature looked at her in confusion with its good eye as if unsure of what to do next.
"You're not real," Hermione muttered.
As if he understood her, the creature took a chunk out of her arm and threw her against the wall in an effort to prove her wrong. Then it approached, and Hermione could tell from the growling it was going to kill her this time.
"It's an illusion-it can't hurt me…" Hermione squeaked, as the thing got closer. "B-But it hurt me-s-something must be powering it, if it c-can kill me…"
What was powering it… what would Voldemort find frightening…think others would as well…What scared Voldemort?
Voldemort was scared of the dark. He was scared of the unknown…in fact, in a way, Voldemort was scared of…fear. THAT was what was powering the monster. The monster was scary because Hermione didn't know what it was. The more she believed in the monster, the more she was scared of it, the realer it became. This was an enchantment that killed people with their own fear. Because Voldemort could not overcome his own fear, he thought others couldn't as well, thought they would surely would not get past this challenge.
The thing was approaching slower now. To escape, Hermione would have to let go of her fear…let go of her belief in the monster.
Hermione crossed her arms, stared the monster in the eye and said, "I am not afraid of you."
The monster kept coming.
"You're not a monster. You're a person. And I know how you work. Now I can take you down."
The approach was slowing.
"It's logic really."
Hermione took a deep breath, trying to let go. "Yes, very logical. You are not real. You're just smoke and mirrors.
Letgoletgoletgo…
"This is just darkness and I'm tired of running."
The monster stopped.
"Goodbye."
She took another deep breath and walked straight up to the still figure and on impulse, patted it on the head.
There was a blinding flash of light, Hermione tumbled back, her eyes closed and when she opened them and refocused, she found herself in a room with many doors, with blood running down her shirt.

" 'Afraid' is a country with no exit visa"-Audre Lorde