A/N: There is still some violence going on in this part of the story.
All the old knives That have rusted in my back, I drive in yours. - Phaedrus (Thrace of Macedonia)
"What? Harry, what is it?" Ginny asked.
Instead of answering, he took out his wand and started for the entrance of the factory building. Ron took out his own wand and followed, not bothering to ask questions. Helton and Ginny followed close behind.
Hermione knew she was going to die. Her fingers had been broken and most of her fingernails had been pulled off. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to cry, her lungs burning from the curses Raden used on her. Ian was currently cutting off her hair with his bloodied knife while Raden watched from his chair. His damaged eye was covered by a bloody patch.
"This could have been avoided, Hermione," Ian ranted as he placed lumps of hair in front of her. "You could have chosen to love me and this could have all been avoided."
Raden smiled as he watched her cry, cradling her wounded hands to her chest as she lay on her side. She was so small. So insignificant. So desirable…
"Ian, I think this little Mudblood owes you one joy ride before she goes," he offered.
Ian smiled, looking down at Hermione's wide eyes through one wild lustful eye. "That would be wonderful," he growled.
Before Hermione could let out a sob and Ian could start anything, there was a large explosion from the front door. Raden stood up with Ian and waited until the smoke cleared. Raden smiled.
"Weasley. Potter. What a surprise! Come to join the party?"
The moment Ron saw Hermione, his heart constricted painfully and all the loathing he felt for the old man and the man standing over Hermione grew to such an extent, it consumed him and he started firing off the worse possible curses he could imagine.
The next moment the factory was filled with smoke and debris. Hermione was left in the middle while everyone ducked for safety behind machines and crates. Everyone except Raden and Ron. They continued to fire at each other. Raden was not about to lose this valuable prize that was lying wretchedly on the floor. Ginny wasn't surprised to see Aurors come through the entrance door. Harry had said that the place was being watched. What did surprise her was what backed Raden. Thousands of tiny winged monstrosities rose up from the second level and poured over the rusted wailings like a murderous tidal wave of gnashing teeth and blood-thirsty lustfulness. In simple terms, these minuscule atrocities were pixies that had spent a long time in the evil darkness with nothing to eat but the blood of their own and the expectation of precious flesh that so freely ran into their ungodly domain.
Not everyone was able to avoid the things, however and one unfortunate woman could be seen carried up. To everyone's horror the creatures ripped at her right there and then, spilling her blood for all to see. Ginny screamed and ducked behind an exhausted looking machine, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Looking over to her left, she could see Helton and a few men fighting off the swarm. When she looked to her right, she noticed Harry was watching her. She gave him a strange look then he shook his head, pointing to the middle of the floor where Hermione was.
She was gone.
Ginny's eyes widened and she looked around then she pointed. "Over there!" she screamed.
Hermione was being dragged back by Ian towards the stairs were the mass of beasties were congregating before expanding off towards the Aurors in violent regiments. Hermione was crying, but other than that, she wasn't putting up a fight. Harry stood and started firing off spells as Ginny sprinted off towards where Hermione was being pulled to. She didn't get far…
"Don't worry, Hermione. I won't let them hurt you," Ian muttered as he continued to drag her towards the stairs. Hermione let out a sob and tried to reach behind her, but the pain in her broken fingers was too great and she let him continue, her blood smearing the ground as they went.
But before they could reach the stairwell, someone shot something off and the old metal beams groaned and broke and the stairs collapsed. This benefited Hermione immensely seeing as Ian was hit in the head by one of the flying pieces of metal and released her. When she realized her feet had hit the ground, she began to use her elbows to crawl towards the entrance.
This would not be her grave…
"There's too many of them!" Harry shouted to Helton, moving back as the creatures continued to surge forward in their quest for fresh blood.
Helton nodded in agreement, killing a few before backing up as well. "We can't keep this up! They just keep coming!"
There was a scream and Ginny could be seen being lifted off the ground by several crazed beasties. She struggled to be released but one of them took her wand and began whirling it around before tossing it into the air. Another one screeched something awful and the wand exploded, but not before releasing a few curses that hit several beasties as well as one unfortunate Auror. The explosion also caused many of the crates in the building to catch flame.
"Ginny!" Helton screamed, aiming his wand at the creatures.
Harry reached out and stopped him, shaking his head. "No! You could hit her," he snapped, watching as Ginny continued to struggle.
There was a painful scream then Ginny fell, landing on the same crates Hermione had.
"GINNY!" Harry and Helton screamed at the same time, sprinting over.
They were stopped by a horde of the winged things, screeching at them and bearing their awful needle-like teeth. There was an explosion from one of the crates and suddenly the horde of tiny frenzied fiends scattered, their screeching getting louder as the flames grew. One Auror grabbed Harry's arm.
"We have to get out of here now before this whole place explodes!" he told him.
Harry nodded and glanced over at where Ron was supposed to be. The two battling wizards were in the far corner, oblivious to the furnace around them. Harry was torn.
Go and see if Ginny was still alive or warn his best friend that the walls around him would soon collapse if he did not stop.
Taking a deep breath, Harry ran off towards Ron, his wand destroying any little creature that got in his way. Four of them, however, managed to maneuver around his curses and grabbed him by the ear and hair, pulling and biting furiously. Screaming, he clawed at them, firing spells to get them off as they continued to clench at his ear. Grabbing one, he threw it off of him and blasted it into smithereens. This only made the others more blood thirsty. About ten swarmed around what was left of the bloody unfortunate while others attacked Harry's bleeding head.
There was a shriek and Harry turned to see an Auror be thrown out the second story window, a mob of excited, lusting parasites. Harry cursed another before making his way towards Ron again, his head aching as the things continued relentlessly to tear at him.
"Ron! Ron!" he called.
Ron wasn't listening. Raden was.
The old man smiled.
"The place is going down, Weasley! You'll never win!" he yelled.
"Avada Kerdava!" Ron screamed.
Raden dodged the murderous assault and shot off a spell of his own.
"Face it Weasley! You've wasted your life on that whore! You should know by now that mudbloods are bad luck!"
"SHUT UP! CRUCIO!"
"REDUCTO!"
The two spells met and exploded, blowing both men back into the wall. Harry scrambled over to Ron and kneeled down beside him.
"Ron, we have to get out of here," he told the man.
Ron shook his head. "I'm going to kill that bastard," he growled, getting up and moving towards Raden.
Harry grabbed Ron's arm violently and pointed to where Ginny had fallen. "Hermione's missing and Ginny could be dead, Ron!" he shouted.
Suddenly the enormity of the situation hit Harry at full force and a wave of helplessness fell upon him. Tears fell down his face as he continued to point.
"Killing Raden won't help them! Killing him won't help Hermione!"
Ron seemed to be hit with the save force that had over taken Harry, except it didn't have the same exact effect. Ron turned back to see that Raden was gone. He then nodded.
"Come on!"
The two made their way back to the entrance where others were waiting for them. They helped to shut the door and then backed up just in time to hear more explosions. Harry then looked around to see Helton holding Ginny as she lay on the ground. A woman was kneeling down beside the two, checking Ginny. Harry ran over and fell to his knees, taking her hand.
"Is she ok?" he asked frantically.
The woman nodded. "She'll be fine. She didn't fall that far, so the damage isn't that bad. She's just going to have a really bad headache when she wakes up," the lady explained.
"Where's Hermione?" Ron demanded.
"There you are!"
They all turned to see Moody coming down the small wooded pathway, followed by Ron's parents as well as several ministry officials.
"What's going on here?" Moody demanded.
"Hermione's missing. She was in there, but now she's missing."
"Over here!" an Auror called.
Everyone hurried over to him. The man pointed to blood that was on the dirt. There were marks on the ground which seemed to look like someone had been dragged. The trail led into the woods and unfortunately it was starting to rain. Ron started off for the woods.
"We have to hurry or the trail will disappear!"
"Well, Hermione… this is it… It's time for you to die," Ian whispered into her ear.
Hermione shuddered, tears running down her face as she watched him take out three more knives. Ian took her and rolled her over on her back and spread out her hands and legs. Hermione screamed pathetically as he drove the knives into her hands. She couldn't feel her feet…
Ian looked up to the sky and smiled. "Lucky you… You're going to die alone… no one will find you in the rain," he told her.
Hermione continued to sob. Ian straddled her and leaned down, kissing her face as she tried to avoid him. Ian's hands roved over her body as he leaned into her ear.
"Such a waste of something so beautiful…"
Ian stood up and took out his wand, smiling as the rain poured down harder. He pointed it down at her, loving the way her eyes got wide with utter terror.
"Goodbye, Hermione…"
Harry stopped for a moment, holding up his hand for silence.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
Another Auror nodded. "It sounded like… sobbing," he finished, pointing in the direction before taking off. Ron followed close behind until he could hear it himself. Then he charged forward, trying to find her. He then stopped, looking around. Harry caught up and he looked around.
"Where is she?"
They were looking around when a flash of green light lit up the area then the sobbing stopped. Ron's heart dropped and his whole body froze.
"No… NO!" He took off to where the light had come from, Harry screaming for him to be careful.
Ron crashed through several bushes until he reached a large tree. Ron looked around frantically then finally spotted something that made him freeze. It was Fred and George. They were coming out of the bushes with their wands at the ready and running over to where Hermione was. Ian's body draped over her. They all rushed over to them and fell to their knees. Ron and George shoved Ian's body off of her and suddenly the woods were filled with the sound of Hermione's sobbing again.
"Oh my God," Fred gasped, horrified by her wounds and pointing to the knives in her hands and feet.
George reached over to pull one out when she started screaming, shaking her head frantically, her eyes wide in fear. Ron leaned in and took her face.
"It's ok, it's going to be ok," he whispered to her gently as she cried. Ron looked up and nodded to the twins and they began to take out the knives, trying to ignore her screams. The moment they were out, Ron grabbed her and pulled her to him, his tears finally spilling down his face.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered to her as she sobbed. "You're safe now…"
A/N: What a long and agonizing journey... and who knows? Maybe it isn't over yet?
HerFathersJoy: Thank you so much!
h256: Who knows?
katrin4p: I like to create an atmosphere. Pleasant atmospheres are easy to make. It's the dark, psychological ones that test your guts and show the inner thoughts of a person. I love to bring out the best of people by bringing out the fear in them. You really see what Hermione's made of when she's scared.
ChainGang-Unit94: Thank you. Hope you enjoy this.
Mione-Girl.x: I'll try, but I must tell you, this is really hard.
Idunn: Yeah, well, when I started writing that chapter I really didn't expect to get as detailed as I did. In my mind I just kept thinking of how it would really look if it did happen and my mind brought up what you read. I wanted it to be cold yet somehow enticing at the same time. I know some people weren't able to read the whole thing but I wanted to show everyone how cold I could make someone be and yet... I don't know... my feelings about that chapter are somewhat mixed. I wrote it, but I really don't like reading it.
LunaSky: Don't worry! The nightmares will go away soon... hopefully...
bubblelicious749: I have a crush on him too... and Rupert! They're both sexy! I tried to do a little more of Ron but drama/fighting scenes are not my strong point so I tried to leave that whole thing to your imagination.
Hermione-and-Ron-forever-together: Yeah... he definitely saw Hermione!
Wesker888: What are you talking about! I was all about the fluff, with Ian expressing his hurt and his feelings about Hermione! That was all fluff!
;-)
charma10: :-o
polymath: Don't die! I've updated so you won't die! I LOVE cliffhangers! They're my best friend! Sometimes we go out and have coffee together are go and watch a movie. But mostly they sit next to me while I write and tell me when to stop. :-)
Coconut Girl: It's ok. You didn't miss much. I haven't read it over since I uploaded it so I don't know what vital information I did put on there. Hope things are going well with you and hope you update soon with the Darker side!
ronandmion4ever: Well, Ian wasn't about to let her die so he did heal some of her wounds after she passed out each time. He was trying to be nice. :-)
cellogirl: Just because Ron's found Hermione that doesn't mean I'm done yet... or does it?
MrsDiggs: I try not to write too many horror/dark fics though most of my stories are. The whole goriness/greusome thing is something I don't do often and try to do only once in each story with as little vital information as possible becasue I know some people can't handle certain things I've written, eg (graphic violence, rape)
lemonwedges4: Glad you liked it so much!
Lisha: You're not the only one who found this hard to read. I found it hard to read as well which is why I haven't read it since I uploaded it onto fanfiction.
sballLuvr5: Don't worry about Ian. Unfortunately Ron wasn't the one who got to kill him. Well, there's still Raden... if he's still alive... or did everyone forget about Raden?
NairobiDawn: Thank you. I can't wait to see what happens next either.
mione-ron-4ever: I won't. I rarely ever do, though seeing as it's almost summer, my updates are probably not going to come around as often. Exams!
cheeky splash: Like I told ronandmion4ever, Ian healed her after every break. I don't think tortured her as much as I did in Never Say Die. That was the ultimate torture which I will probably never do again.
A/N: I cannot believe how many people reviewed for that chapter! Either you guys watch too many horror movies or you just decided that now would be the perfect time to say something about my writing skills or lack thereof. No worries!
Chapter Tease:
I have nothing...
I haven't written anything yet, so I guess you'll just have to wait...
Sorry!