Disclaimer: Voldemort and his non-existent nose don't belong to me.

Chapter Twenty-One

A blast sounded outside the hospital wing, startling Hermione back into reality. Ron grabbed her other arm and they quickly helped her to her feet. "Do you have a plan?" She asked them urgently, looking between Harry and Ron.

Panic began dripping into her bloodstream, coursing its way through her veins at the same time as her heart started to pump adrenaline into her body. There were so many faces that flashed across the forefront of her mind—Naomi, Andrew, Ginny, Lavender, Parvati, Cho, Scott—but the one that haunted her the most was Cedric's.

Ron gave her an exasperated look despite the fear that she could see written across his face and shining in his eyes. "Well, Hermione, we haven't exactly had time to do much thinking in light of this chaos."

Hermione looked at Harry, who raised his dark eyebrows in surprise and pushed up his glasses with one finger. "If you've got any ideas, feel free to say so," he said.

"Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall interrupted, her wrinkled face twisted with worry. "I'm not sure that jumping into battle the wisest choice given your predicament."

Hermione looked at the older witch, regarding her words carefully. This was a woman that she had looked up to since she was eleven years old, an adult who had guided her to better herself as a magical citizen as well as a person. On either side of her were more people who had cared for Hermione since she had begun school at Hogwarts. All three of them mirrored Hermione's determination to rid the castle of the evil that had managed to creep in as well as the dread of not knowing what the outcome would be.

Who would still be standing at the end of the battle?

And although she could see the genuine fear—the fear for Hermione's life—on McGonagall's face, she knew she had to go. It was her duty and her job to stand beside her boys and help them in any way she could.

"I'll see you in a little bit, Professor," Hermione offered with a smile that faltered slightly when she saw the woman's eyes beginning to water. Her hand gripped firmly around her wand as she heard another loud banging sound outside the large room.

This was what she was born to do.

"Let's go," she told Harry and Ron, and without another glance behind her, she turned and ran after her best friends into the fight.

"We have to do something," the mediwitch whispered as the doors banged shut behind the three sixth year students.

"Yes," he agreed, withdrawing his wand from his pocket. He looked at the great wand for a second before gazing between the women's anxious faces. "We have to protect this school."

McGonagall turned toward the white haired headmaster as a tear rolled down her cheek. "She'll die, Albus."

Dumbledore closed his eyes for a moment. "She might," he finally agreed, opening his eyes and looking between them. "But that is a risk that we all take when we decide to fight for what is right and Miss Granger is quite aware of that."

"Bloody hell!" Scott shouted before immediately casting a shield charm to block a jet of red light.

Spells flew overhead in a rainbow of color, the sound of battle filling the corridor. "Expelliarmus!" Cedric yelled as another black cloaked figure drew their wand to cast a spell toward them, knocking the Death Eater's wand from his hand.

The pungent smell of dust and ash rushed into the boys' noses, burning their nostrils. Scott coughed and wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his forearm, smearing dirt across his forehead. "Are you okay, mate?" He asked.

"Yeah," Cedric replied, breathing hard. Just minutes before, a group of Death Eaters had come and cast multiple killing curses that they had been able to deflect, but it resulted in the walls crumbling down around them into piles of rubble with each hole blasted through the stone.

They had been walking to the hospital wing when they heard a scream. They rushed to the corridor and managed to stupefy the masked man before he could harm the first year girl who had been cornered. Suddenly, everything twisted into a horrible nightmare and more Death Eaters filled the hall. They had cast spell after spell but the stream of them didn't seem like it would ever end.

As Cedric stood there for a moment to try and catch his breath while they had a few precious seconds of quiet, he wondered what had happened to Cho and the rest of his friends. Dread weighed him down like a lead balloon and he suddenly wished that he had let them come with him when they offered. Now he didn't know if they'd ever find them again.

"C'mon, Ced," Scott said, gesturing for his friend to follow him. "We've got to try to make our way downstairs."

Cedric nodded and collected his bearings. "You're right."

On their way down the first staircase nearest to them, Cedric stupefied two Death Eaters and Scott managed to disarm another. As they rounded another corner, Cedric spotted Aiden through a plume of smoke on the other side of the corridor.

"Look, Scott!" He pointed toward their friend, who was occupied with dueling another wizard.

The boys raced toward him, reaching him just as he said between exhales, "Petrificus Totalus."

The Death Eater stiffened and fell forward, a cloud of dust going airborne around him when he smacked down on the floor. "Where is everybody?" Scott asked him.

Aiden's brown eyes looked up and down the hallway for more intruders before telling us, "I don't know. One minute, we were eating dinner and joking around and the next, a crowd of hooded figures with skull masks came pouring into the Great Hall. Everything erupted into chaos and spells started flying." Aiden had a disturbed look on his face as he continued describing the events from his perspective. "Naomi and Andrew stuck together of course and I stayed with them for as long as I could, but we got separated at one point and I don't know where they are anymore."

Cedric's thoughts were conflicted as he considered his friend's words. Part of him wanted to know where Cho was and if she was okay amidst the craziness of the war that had broken out in the school. He could almost picture her standing among some of her friends, her hair hanging around her face as she seemingly tirelessly cast spells to defend herself.

The other half of him, which, oddly enough, seemed to be the larger part, felt anxious about the whereabouts of another girl. He envisioned her standing between Weasley and Potter, instructing them on the best spells to cast while continuing to focus on herself as well. Her frizzy hair was everywhere, sweat beading down her face as the multicolored beams of light flashed all around her.

"Where's Hermione?" The question fell from his mouth before he could stop it, and he couldn't help but wonder why it was that her name had bubbled from his lips with such familiarity.

Scott and Aiden shared a look before Aiden said, "Beats me. I haven't seen her since before you guys left to find her at dinner."

Cedric noticed how oddly he was staring at him, and coupled with Scott's confused expression, he couldn't help but scrutinize himself. Why had he asked about a girl he barely knew anything about?

"There's another one!" Scott suddenly announced, urgency in his voice as he withdrew his wand. As more followed behind the Death Eater, Cedric was forced to leave his perplexity behind to focus on the fight at hand.

Hermione had done her best at staying out of the way whenever Death Eaters approached. She was trying not to bog the boys down, but they were so busy defending themselves that they didn't seem to notice. Her eyes scanned her surroundings as she was blessed by a brief break in the flow of attackers, using the moment to take a breath.

She thought about everything that had happened the past few weeks leading up to her episode in the Hospital Wing. The pain that stemmed from casting spells, the ball of light from her dream, the looks between her professors...

The woman's voice seemed to be an eternal echo ringing in her ears—Let it go.

And suddenly, it all clicked into place.

She lurched forward, reaching out for the boys. Ron turned when her hand met his shoulder, his bright red hair streaked with grime. "You okay?" She asked him, her heart twisting painfully in her chest.

He nodded, blinking a few times to clear the dust from his eyes. "Yeah. You?"

She smiled feebly at him. "Absolutely," she lied through her teeth.

This was a magical battle and she didn't have magic anymore. For her, this was a suicide mission.

She saw that Harry was looking worriedly at her and hooked an arm around each of the to pull them both into a tight hug, tears springing to her eyes as they stood alone in the crumbling remains of what once was one of the many corridors in her beloved school. "No matter what happens, I love you both," she muttered fiercely into the mess of their mixed hair, a few tears leaking into her mouth.

Harry pulled away and, his emerald eyes clouded with doubt behind his filthy glasses, said, "That sounds like a goodbye."

Hermione was about to respond when a cackle that made her skin crawl interrupted her. The three jumped and turned around just in time to see Bellatrix Lestrange brandish her wand with a maniacal grin and send a jet of green light their way.

"Ced," Scott breathed, sweat droplets dripping off the end of his nose and clinging to his limp hair.

Cedric looked over at him, wiping his sweaty palm off on his trousers. "Yeah?"

They had just finished combating another wave of Death Eaters for over an hour and the boys' muscles were screaming in exhaustion. Scott licked his dry lips before he said, his voice tumbling out in a rush, "I have to tell you something, mate." His eyes seemed wild with desperation all of a sudden.

Cedric's heart pounded with dread for some reason as he said, "What is it, Scott?"

Scott rubbed the collar of his dirt-stained white shirt over his sweaty face, both of their Hogwarts cloaks discarded a while ago because they had gotten too hot amidst the battle. "Remember those dreams you told me about?" He asked. "The ones about Hermione?"

Cedric furrowed his brows, blowing out a puff of air to dispel a few sweat droplets off that had rolled down to his lips. "What about them? They're a load of nonsense."

Aiden came back from scouting the hallway just then, his hair slick with sweat. The boys dropped the subject the second they noticed how deathly pale his face was. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times before suddenly doubling over and vomiting all over the stone at their feet.

Cedric and Scott rushed to him, rubbing his back reassuringly as he finished, wiping his mouth on the back of his trembling hand. "What did you see?" Scott questioned him desperately, shaking him slightly.

Aiden's watery brown eyes looked up, his lips quivering as they parted once more, "It was – I saw –" but he cut himself with a half sob that turned into more upheaval of his dinner.

Scott stayed with him in an attempt to console their shell-shocked friend and Cedric wandered slowly down the hallway in the direction that Aiden had come from, his steps cautious as he got close to the corner. He backed up against the wall, holding his wand tightly in his grip in case there were any intruders on the other side.

His heart beat furiously against his ribs, each pulse resonating in his head.

Lub-dup. Lub-dup. Lub-dup.

He exhaled and turned swiftly, brandishing his wand before himself, a defensive spell on the tip of his tongue. The words died in his throat before they had the chance to fully form at the sight before him.

There was an ongoing duel going on at the end of the corridor, spells flying back and forth through the air as the opponents dodged and blocked the other's enchantments, but Cedric couldn't see anything except the crumbled remains of what had been the right wall. Dying sunlight flooded the broken pieces of stone that littered the dusty floor, stretching across the bodies that were strewn across it.

There were three bodies that he recognized easily, and he could feel his throat tightening as his eyes darted between each one, their unseeing eyes staring off in different directions.

Author's Note: Hi. I have had crazy writer's block but I've been trying to find my way with this story. I want to finish it so badly for you guys.

Don't give up on me or this story just yet. It's nearly over but not quite.

I hope you are all doing fairly well. :)

Any speculations now about what's to come?

- Caitlyn