Chapter 14

Hermione and Ginny

'Harry!' Ginny's piercing cry rattled Hermione down to her very core. Hermione glanced back. The falling wall had covered half of the entrance hall, as well as Harry and…

'LUKE!' Roda yelled, before hurling the grenade into the midst of the Daleks. There were a few tantalizing seconds as everyone's eyes in the room were glued to the small spinning ball, until there was a bright flash, and white fire rippled out over and around the Dalek's heads.

'They used a group shield,' the Doctor shouted. 'Now it's gone, you can shoot them!'

'FIRE!' cried Ginny. Hermione pulled the trigger on her gun and felt it jolt and shudder in her hands as it mowed down Daleks in front of her.

'It's working!' She shouted over the noise of the guns. Then the unthinkable happened. One Dalek raised its gun and pointed it at Ginny. Its voice couldn't be heard over the gunfire, but Hermione saw the two blue lights on its head flash, and the beam of light hit Ginny square in the chest. She fell to the hard stone floor, gun clattering down beside her.

Hermione had no room in her head for thoughts anymore. All that filled her brain that was once so packed with information was just filled with a never-ending agony. Everyone… dead. She couldn't cope, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. The gun in her hand dropped to the floor and she stood in the middle of the room, completely still, as the sound of Roda's gunshots slowly petered to a halt as she ran out of bullets.

'RUN,' she screamed at Hermione, as she turned tail and fled out of the hall after the doctor. Hermione collapsed onto the floor, in a dead faint.

One thing Hermione never expected was to wake again. She'd expected maybe to find herself wherever the dead go, with Ron, Harry, Ginny and Luke. But she knew she wasn't dead; the pain all over was too great not to be real. The only thing that wasn't in tie with her conclusion was the face looking down at her, whispering her name.

'Hermione… Hermione…'

'Luke?' she said as she levered herself upright. 'You're not dead?'

'Shhh. Luckily not,' he said. 'I was in-between two rocks, and a larger one fell on top of them, so I survived.'

'What about Harry?' she asked, excitedly, looking around and expecting to see a mop of black hair and bright green eyes behind glasses. But Luke shook his head.

'No,' he whispered. 'He didn't make it.' Hermione felt another shard of her heart break off.

Hermione looked around for the first time. They were in the entrance hall, but were surrounded by rocks, with only a small gap to get out into the remainder of the hall.

'It's a sort of cave,' Luke answered her unasked question. 'This is how I survived. The Daleks are outside, trying to break through the great hall door. The Doctor and Roda sealed it. They thought we were all dead.'

'But… I collapsed,' Hermione said quietly.

'The Daleks were too busy following the Doctor and Roda. I managed to get you in here without them noticing. It's good they have such a limited radius, thanks to that eyestalk.'

'What do we do now?' whispered Hermione.

'Well… I haven't quite got to that bit yet,' Luke admitted, 'but we need to help the Doctor and Roda somehow.'

'What are they trying to do?' asked Hermione.

'The Doctor's plan was to focus the time lock they put on the castle on the Daleks and kill them there or something like that,' Luke replied. 'But to do that would take a lot of energy, which I don't think is exactly handy.'

'How are we supposed to help?' asked Hermione.

'Well, for starters, we need to get you down to the Chamber of Secrets,' said Luke.

'What? No!' protested Hermione. 'I can't just hide! The Daleks have killed my friends, Luke; I want to help kill them.'

'You need to go to the Chamber of Secrets, so as soon as the Doctor focuses the time stop on the entrance hall, where all the Daleks are, you can help them find a way out.'

'But there is no way out!' Hermione protested.

'There is one way,' said Luke firmly. 'Cast a bubble-head charm on everyone and blow a hole through the wall into the lake. Then make everyone swim up and escape into the forest. Hide out in there. It's not the best plan, but it will have to do, and I need you to lead them.'

Hermione struggled to find a hole in this plan.

'What are you going to do?' she asked Luke.

'I'm going to help Roda,' he said, and he held out a silver locket, 'by using my brain.'

The Doctor's converse trainers slipped on the grass as he and Roda ran full pelt towards the outside wall of Hogwarts boundaries. He had decided that going through the gates would be predictable, and he'd always fancied pole-vaulting over a high brick wall… without a pole.

He glanced back at Roda, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. He felt a tug on heart as he remembered the look on her face when Luke was covered by the falling rock. The Daleks had obviously learnt form their past mistakes. And the Doctor had learnt never to underestimate the Daleks. Well, he had learnt that before, but he always seemed to forget. Instead of letting their individual shields build up after blowing the rocks off, the Daleks had created a wider shield to cover all of them, which used less energy and was easier to charge quicker. It only took a few microseconds. Blowing this up had bought them some time, but they really had to dash. Luckily he'd remembered to seal the doors behind him, to give them a few extra minutes. They had to get to the TARDIS.

'Doctor!' yelled Roda, clutching a stitch in her side, 'we won't be able to get over the wall!'

'Jump!' he called back. Then he reached the wall, and propelled himself over… only to land on someone on the other side. Roda came over a few seconds after, and landed on a familiar man in a blue army coat and a cocky grin.

'Hello Doctor,' he said, smirking at him and lifting up Roda, 'nice of you to drop in.'

Hermione and Luke had slipped out from their hiding place and had sneaked around the back of the large group of Daleks, who were all gathered around the great hall doors. They were now running down the corridors to reach the girls bathroom that contained the Chamber of Secrets.

'Can you remember how you open it?' Luke asked Hermione. She frowned, thinking back to before, and the thought of Ginny hit her like a steel battering ram. She gasped and stopped.

'Oh, sorry,' said Luke, but Hermione gritted her teeth and shook her head.

'Yes.'

'Pardon?'

'Yes I can remember,' she said confidently. She had to be strong, for all of their sakes.

'Right. I have to leave you here,' said Luke, turning round and grabbing her shoulders. 'You can remember what to do?' Hermione nodded.

'Good,' he said, before sprinting off in the direction of the stairs. Hermione wondered where he was going, and what he was going to do. He seemed to have a plan. She continued towards the bathroom, but stopped dead when she heard the whirring noise of a Dalek behind her, and its metallic voice.

'Hu-man found in the up-stairs corr-i-dor.'

Hermione realized she'd been spotted, so she raced towards the out-of-order bathroom quicker than before. When she got there she repeated the strangled hissing noise Ginny had uttered before, and she pushed off down the slide with her hands, hearing the toilet slide back into place behind her. When she reached the main chamber of the underground hideout, she was met by Megan.

'What's happening up there? Where are the others?'

'We need to get out of here,' Hermione told her briskly. She cast sonorous on herself and spoke to the Chamber at large.

'Everyone please cast bubble-head charms on themselves and those who cannot do it themselves. Everyone must be charmed within the next five minutes. Once this is done, cast as many reducto spells as you can at the ceiling. This will fill the Chamber with water as we are under the lake. Then everyone must swim up to the surface of the lake and run immediately into the forest. Those who are injured must be helped. Is that clear?'

The crowd of students and teachers said nothing, so Hermione waved her arms at them impatiently.

'Well, go on! Get moving! The Daleks will find us soon!' There was a flurry of movement as everyone started to cast the charm. But the crashing sound of the toilet and chute being destroyed told Hermione they didn't have much time. She turned to Megan.

'When everyone's charmed, I want you to reducto the ceiling. Escape into the forest, stay hidden. Got me?' Megan nodded, but looked at her, concerned.

'What about you?' she asked, chewing a strand of her brown hair nervously.

'I'm going to hold them off,' Hermione said, sounding braver than she felt. As she turned to leave she felt a hand catch her shoulder.

'Thank you,' Megan whispered, and Hermione nodded, and set off before tears threatened to escape.

She found the Daleks at the bottom of the chute. They'd blown a hole in the wall of the toilet and levitated down. She watched the four robots from behind a lump of rock that appeared to have fallen down from the explosion.

'Sev-eral hu-mans det-ec-ted in sub-terr-an-e-an cham-ber,' one said in its annoying tinny voice.

'Pre-pare for mass ex-ter-min-a-tion,' said another. Hermione shuddered, and pointed her wand at the rocky ceiling of the passage to the rest of the chamber.

Reducto, she thought, and she put the power of her grief for Harry, Ron and Ginny behind her spell. The resulting crack startled the Daleks, as their eyestalks moved alarmingly fast. The tumbling rocks blocked off the passage, but unfortunately left Hermione stuck in with them.

'Who is res-pon-sib-le for this?' one screeched, waving its appendages wildly. Hermione took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the rock.

'Me,' she said. One Dalek raised its gun.

'Ex-ter-min-ate.' But Hermione Granger died with a smile on her face, as before she lost all thought and feeling, she heard the sound of rushing water from the chamber behind her. They had escaped. And she was going to Ron…

AN: Tell me what you think! Keep reading and reviewing!

Meg