Endurance

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except, of course, the plot and any OC characters in here.

Chapter 4

Hermione exited the common room shaking slightly. Tanya, who'd been giggling at something Ginny had said, stopped what she was doing immediately and walked up to Hermione. Without another word, she embraced the girl.

"Hermione," Ginny asked coming up to them with a frown on her face. "What's wrong?"

"O-Oliver," Hermione hiccupped into Tanya's shoulder. "Oliver and Victoria." Ginny frowned.

"I'll kill him."

"No," Hermione shook her head. "No. I just want to get away from here right now."

"Why don't we take a walk around the grounds?" Tanya suggested pulling away from Hermione so that she could get a good look at her. "We could always go down to the kitchens later and have a late dinner." She gave a slight smile. "I met a sweet house-elf by the name of Dobby, know him?" Hermione nodded.

"Yes," she whispered. "A walk sounds nice." Tanya nodded and led her friends away from the common room.

"Why?" Oliver demanded as soon as the portrait door closed behind Hermione. He glared at Victoria, seriously contemplating strangling her. "Why did you kiss me? How could you do that when you knew I was with Hermione?"

"I'm sorry," Victoria said quietly. She bowed her head. "I just-I don't know what came over me. You were so sad and I just wanted to help you…I'm sorry." Oliver said nothing but turned and walked away from Victoria into the boy's dormitory.

The rest of the weekend passed slowly and by the end of the next week, the small group of friends seemed to split into sides. Harry, Ron, and Ginny all favored Hermione and barely gave Wood the time of day. Fred, George, and Victoria favored Oliver's.

Tanya refused to choose sides and spoke to Hermione and Oliver frequently as though nothing was wrong. This bothered no one but Victoria. Tanya, seemed to know what was on the other girls' mind and constantly kept a close eye on her, annoying Victoria even more.

Krum made no more advances on Hermione, but was seen staring at her direction every time they were in the same room. He'd been warned by both of Hermione's girlfriends, Ginny and Tanya, to back off. He wasn't too intimidated by either of them, but he just wanted Hermione to think about what he'd said.

Hermione entered the common room that Friday night with Ginny at her heels. They'd just returned from dinner and had decided to talk in the common room.

Once they'd been seated by the fire, they realized they were missing someone.

"Gin," Hermione said, her eyebrows furrowed. "Where'd Tanya get to?" Ginny looked around, just as confused.

"Don't know. She was right behind me." Hermione sat back in her cushy chair and bit her lip; an indication that she was thinking.

"She's been disappearing more and more lately." Ginny nodded in agreement. "I wonder what she's doing." Ginny shrugged as the doors opened and Oliver, flanked by the Weasley twins entered the common room.

The two girls became quiet as the three boys came closer to them. Oliver stopped once he reached Hermione.

"Hermione," he said softy. "Can we talk?" Hermione's jaw clenched.

"I've nothing to say to you, Wood."

"Please?"

"Fine. You've got five minutes." The twins walked over to Ginny and grabbed her arms.

"Where's Tanya?" they asked at once.

"She hopped off again," said Ginny struggling in their grasp.

"Well," said Fred.

"Let's go find her," finished George. The two dragged Ginny off, protesting, through the portrait hole. Oliver waited until the door closed behind the three to begin talking.

"Hermione, about what happened Saturday-"

"I told you not to worry about it," Hermione snapped smacking her hand onto the arm of her chair. "We're over now so it doesn't matter." Oliver lost his temper.

"It matters to me!" he shouted. "We've worked so hard to be together and you're willing to throw it all away?" Hermione looked up at Wood with her face indicating that she couldn't believe what had just came out of his mouth.

"I'm willing?" she asked. She stood up and walked over to Wood so that she was right in front of him. "I'm willing? You kissed her! You threw it all away!" She pointed accusingly at him.

"She kissed me! I didn't have a choice!" Oliver reached out towards Hermione who sidestepped his efforts.

"You didn't push her away, though, did you? You just stood there. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't interrupted!" Oliver sighed and ran his hands over his face.

"Look," he said quietly. "I don't know how to fix this yet, but when I find out, I will. I can't just go on like this. I need to be with you." Hermione shook her head.

"You can't fix this," she said with a tremor in her voice. She sighed and clenched and unclenched her hands in frustration. "You have no choice but to let me-" she shook her head as she corrected herself. "Let us go."

"I can't believe you two!" Ginny hissed at her brothers. They'd long since put her down on the agreement that she'd stay with them. "How could you leave her with him after what he did?" Fred rolled his eyes and George sighed as they turned into the hall leading to the library. Tanya had to be there.

"You don't get it, do you?" Fred asked awestruck.

"Get what?"

"This is tearing Oliver apart," George told her earnestly. "He loves Hermione. Victoria was the one who attacked him!"

"Attacked? Don't you think that's a strong word?" The twins shook their heads.

"No, attacked just about sums it up," Fred said.

"With her lips?" Ginny asked skeptically. Both twins nodded again as they continued down the hall. They were just about to enter the library when they heard chanting. The voice sounded familiar and, at Ginnys' nod, they followed the sound back up the hall towards a room they'd never noticed before.

Tanya closed her eyes as she concentrated on the spell she was placing on Harry, Hermione, Ron, and their families. The spell was important and she hated to think what would happen if she didn't get it right. She hated to think about the anger she faced if she got it wrong.

She sat in the middle of a circle of lit candles and vials of potions meant to make the spell more potent. The only thing was, she wasn't sure they were working. She took a deep breath and prepared to begin again.

Feeling her powers, she reached out further with her spell and felt a moments fear when saw a flash of snakelike eyes right before she passed out.

"Guys!" Ginny gasped at Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Oliver as she entered the portrait hole into the common room that same night. "Come quick! Tanya-something's wrong with Tanya!" The four frowned and followed Ginny to the infirmary.

Outside the infirmary the Weasley twins were pacing impatiently when the others reached them. After being bombarded with questions, Fred held his hand up indicating silence. When everyone was quiet he began to explain.

"Well, after we left with Gin we headed to the library," Fred explained. "We figured Tanya would be there like always..."

"But on the way there we heard someone chanting," George continued. "We followed the sound of the voice to this room we'd never noticed before. Right before we opened the door, we saw this flash of red light and heard a scream. When we got into the room Tanya had passed out inside this circle of candles and vials. The candles had just been put out; the wicks were still smoking when we found her. She was sweating really badly."

"We tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't move. She was barely even breathing," Ginny finished after catching her breath. She was about to continue when Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Dumbledore rounded the corner and headed towards them.

"You should all be in bed," Professor McGonagall reprimanded when she and the other Professors had reached the group of friends.

"We can't go anywhere until we know she's okay," said Fred anxiously. McGonagall hesitated for a second before nodding and she and the other Professors went to enter the infirmary. "Wait here," she told them before disappearing into the room.

Once the Professors had entered the room, the group of students clamored to reach the door, hoping to eavesdrop.

"Pompey," said Dumbledore seriously. "What has happened?"

"I'm not exactly sure, Albus. I've only heard from her friends and I can't be sure until she wakes up. However, it seems Tanya was performing her protection spell when she passed out." McGonagall sighed.

"Well, she should be fine then...right?" she added after a moments hesitation. Pompey sighed.

"I don't think anything too bad will happen, but she'll be unconscious for a little while. She was sweating very hard and was barely breathing when Fred or George or whichever twin it was, carried her in here. Performing a spell, no matter how powerful, wouldn't do that. I believe something happened."

"Such as?" Snape drawled.

"George said or Fred-oh one of the twins said they saw a flash of red light right before they found Tanya..." she hesitated.

"What's wrong, Pompey?"

"She has a skull burned into her forearm." Madame Pomfrey led them to Tanya's bedside and lifted the dozing girls' right arm. She pushed up the girls' sleeves and exposed her forearm, causing McGonagall to gasp.

On Tanya's forearm was a large angry red burn bearing the shape of a skull. McGonagall gasped once again as the burn changed. A snake appeared on Tanya's arm right before their eyes. The new burn intertwined with the skull leaving the dark mark burning brightly on Tanya's arm.

"What is he doing?" McGonagall asked shakily.

"Claiming her," Dumbledore said grimly.