When Hermione saw spells coming from her right and seemingly from nowhere, it took very little time for her to realise who it was.
"Run! You idiots! I need you to keep the others safe! Get out of here! Aurors are coming, just get away from here!" She yelled.
If they died, the students would be lost.
"What about—" She heard Will say.
"Stop worrying about me, for Merlin's sake! Go!"
They disappeared, but were soon pursued. Hermione did not have enough time or energy to stop the Death Eaters. About twenty or thirty Death Eaters went off after Will and Phoebe, and she prayed with all her might that they would get away.
Her leg was hit by a curse and she fell, but she was still able to fight. It was hopeless. They had got rid of about forty Death Eaters, quite surprising amount, but there were still at least another thirty and there were only six of them left.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Professor Denvil fall. Four teachers left. Where were the Aurors? Then it hit Hermione. The owls had very light colours. It would have been very easy to spot them and they could have been hexed. Then it dawned upon Hermione. No one was coming. No one was going to save them. They were all going to die here tonight. She looked around her, and saw her professors' dead bodies, the last three of her professors fighting for their lives and trying to buy time for the students.
This was hopeless.
Suddenly, Hermione felt a renewed sense of determination and courage wash over her, and she increased the speed and force of her spells. Soon, five were down, then ten, but she also received many blows. She managed to get fifteen when a flash of light appeared.
It was Dumbledore! She breathed a sigh of relief, but was struck by another curse. She fell, but not before she saw Dumbledore stunning and throwing Death Eaters to the side by the dozens. She was losing consciousness, but she struggled to continue fighting. She felt herself being picked up, and she screamed, but it was too late. The remaining Death Eaters disapparated and they had taken her as their one and only prize.
When she woke up again, many hours later, she was in a dark place. The room was large, about the same size as the Great Hall. At the centre was a cloaked figure. When it turned its slitted, blood-red eyes to meet hers, she realised exactly where she was. A shiver of fear trembled down her spine. Voldemort. She struggled against her captor's grip in vain. She was thrown onto the ground before Voldemort, to receive her due punishment for rescuing the school, but she tried to crawl away. Somebody stepped on her back and she collapsed under the weight. Unable to move, she squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to hold back her tears.
"So, all I asked of you was to conquer an insignificant little school, and you are not able to do that? Crucio!"
There was screaming and pleading for forgiveness. After a few minutes, Voldemort released whoever it was.
"But, Lucius, although you failed, you have brought back a very nice gift. And she was the one who foiled our plans? Even better." His voice became a high pitched cackle, and Hermione shuddered.
"Miss Granger, I will allow you one chance to live. You are a bright, intelligent girl. A Mudblood, yes, but you will receive the acknowledgement you have sought for so long, if only you join me."
"Never!" Hermione spat.
The pressure on her back was increasing, and that was when Hermione realised that it was Voldemort stepping on her.
"Not even for your family?" he sneered.
Hermione froze. That was exactly what Dumbledore had said to her, over a year ago. Was she willing to trade her friends' lives for her family's safety? Harry, Ron, Will, Phoebe, Ginny, Dumbledore...
"NO!" She yelled.
"Pity. Crucio."
Hermione was in extreme pain. This was beyond anything she had ever experienced. Even screaming did not help relieve the pain much. It was like having all of her bones broken and then being thrown into a blast furnace, although, she had never actually experienced that sort of torture, so she couldn't be sure, but that was what she thought it would feel like anyway. After what seemed like an age, she was released.
"Play with her, break her, do whatever you want with her, but kill her afterwards." Voldemort hissed.
There was a pop and he disapparated. Hermione felt her spirits rise, they could apparate here! But she didn't have a licence and would be breaking the law. She waved that off, what did she care what the law said as long as she could get out of here? But then, she could get splinched. Now that was a horrible idea. She decided to let her crystal absorb energy so that she could apparate out of this God-forsaken place, but the process needed time. She could feel the crystal becoming colder as its energy was passed to her, she needed to wait until the crystal was warm again before she was sure that she would have enough power to apparate. She felt someone roll her onto her back and Hermione bit back a gasp of horror. She was looking into a mirror-image of herself.
"Hermione Granger… do you know who I am?" the impersonator said.
"You're—You're the one who framed me! And you're the one who's been trying to kill Harry all year." Hermione said angrily.
"Correct, but who am I?" The girl said.
Hermione went quiet, her mind racing through the clues. In truth, she had not thought much about the identity of the culprit, more about what precautions should be taken. She went through the clues.
A Gryffindor. A girl. Sixth or seventh year, since the potions thing had to be done by someone familiar with NEWT level stuff. The Exploding Hex thing meant that it had to be someone who went into Harry's dormitory quite often. Someone that they trusted. The girl who framed Hermione would want to make herself safe…
The answer dawned on her and in a fit of rage she lashed out, and made a deep scratch across the false Hermione's cheek. Hermione was furious, and ignored the stabbing pain in her legs as she launched herself at the girl again.
"How could you! How could you!" Hermione screamed.
She managed to give the girl a black eye and a deep cut on her face, but then, she suffered a long dose of the Cruciatus, very painful and drawn out. She clutched her crystal and screamed:
"HARRY!"
She did not have the strength to say Ron's name, but the pain… the pain…
Little did she know, miles and miles away, in a large building set towering above a lake, a boy fell over in his chair in the middle of breakfast, screaming in agony.
"There's no use, Granger. I have your wand, and your little crystal won't work without it. Pity, isn't it? By sunset, Harry Potter will be no more."
The girl laughed shrilly and disapparated. Then, the horror began. Although most of them had left, there was still a group of about five or six men. The crystal was as cold as ice, alerting her to the fact that her magic was at an all-time low. They stood in a ring around her. One on her right swooped down upon her first, and tore off her clothing. When she realised what they were doing, she struggled to get away. But two others held her down. She squirmed and wriggled, and kept her legs tightly glued together, but the man slipped a hand in between her knees and parted them.
"No! Get off me!"
She twisted her body this way and that, but gave up the moment he entered her, and pierced through her. She screamed and screamed, but he continued thrusting into her, over and over again. And when he was done, she was a broken heap on the ground, sobbing. The other five took turns raping her, and, one by one, disapparated once they were finished, except for the last – Lucius Malfoy.
By now, Hermione had lost her will to go on. So much pain… such humiliation and demoralisation. She was their whore, and now she was going to die. She yearned for death, and looked up at Malfoy as he smirked down at her, raising his wand. Suddenly, bursting her cloudy mind like a flare of lightning, the memory of the impersonator's words flashed before her eyes.
"By sunset, Harry Potter will be no more."
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was a flash of green, but Hermione had rolled out of the way. You cannot defend yourself from such a spell, but you can evade it. The man howled with rage and cast it again, but Hermione ran into his body, bowling him over, and grabbed his wand. She immediately stunned and bound him before putting him under a full-body bind. She was not taking any chances. She was already lucky that she managed to wrestle his wand from him. She then put on what remained of her Phinxmere uniform, before grabbing Lucius Mafoy's arm and disapparating. At least, if she splinched, he would too. The thought allowed a strange smile to light up her face.
When she opened her eyes, she almost cried with relief. She was just outside Hogwarts! She laughed and stumbled forwards, using a mobilicorpus on Malfoy and floating him through the gates and up the path. She was fighting to stay conscious, and walked slowly, pain emanating from her wounds with every step she took. The muscles in her legs were basically sliced through, her kneecap was smashed, she had broken her wrist and her face was covered in cuts and bruises. Her arms were covered in black and blue fingerprints, and she was bleeding heavily from her newest wound.
She ended up crawling on all fours, until she collapsed a few metres away from the main entrance. The sky was cloudy and it began to rain heavily, just Hermione's luck, so that nobody could see her or Lucius Malfoy. She turned and removed the spell, before attempting to crawl even further. She left Lucius Malfoy behind, seeing as using magic was draining what energy she had left and she crawled desperately up the stairs. When she reached the door, she clawed at it, and thumped on it with all her might, hoping that someone… anyone… would answer.
She blacked out just as the door opened into her head.
When she woke, she felt very refreshed. She looked around her and sighed. She was in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey bustled in and smiled kindly at her.
"How do you feel Hermione?"
"A lot better, thank you. Just a little sore… down there." She said, flushing.
"Yes, that happens. Don't worry, it'll go very soon."
"What time is it?"
"It's almost supper time. It's dusk."
The sun is setting. Those few words repeated in her mind, and she froze. She jumped out of bed and stared out the window. The sun was beginning to set.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked, panicking.
"Oh, Mr. Potter? He left about twenty minutes ago, saying he had Quidditch practice."
"Thank you Madam Pomfrey! But I have to run!"
Hermione dashed out just as the school nurse shouted at her not to go anywhere. Hermione ran and ran, ignoring the students. Her mind was a little fuzzy and she felt a little dizzy, but one thought took priority:
Harry.
Hermione dashed down the stairs, and flew past the portraits. A few professors paused when they saw a flash of brown and black, and followed after the girl. Hermione was feeling very tired by the time she reached the main entrance, so she did the one thing she thought that she would never have to do for the rest of her life.
"Accio broom."
And she waited.