Left Behind

Chapter Eleven

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.""
Auric Goldfinger

Room of Requirement, Saturday afternoon

"One more time!"

Hermione had never heard Ginny yell so loudly. Then again, she supposed a loud voice and a commanding presence were necessities in a family of six brothers.

"That was sloppy!"

The fiery redhead was casting her famed Bat-Bogey Hex at a row of fellow students. Those whose shields withstood the onslaught of hexes were free to rest. Those left behind were waiting for Hermione's counter curses or healing spells.

They expected her to know and fortunately for them, she did. It was considered a self-evident truth that Hermione would be knowledgeable about such things seeing as she was so much better than them at almost everything. It wasn't arrogance, just the truth and in fact, it irked her to know this. She had trained with the boys during the summer whenever they could get away from the rest of the Weasleys or avoid Order members popping by – who for some strange reason were avoiding them as well, which was in Hermione's opinion rather stupid as they were leaving their supposed saviour of the Wizarding World in the dark-, taking advantage of Harry's natural skill, Ron's sheer strength of magical power, and her... research.

'Can't quite escape the label, now can we, Hermione?' She blinked rapidly then proceeded to change Justin Finch-Fletchley's hair back to its standard shade. A flick and Fletchley lost his new and very wiggly tentacles as well.

They had already made the most of what resources the trio had had and yet, Hermione knew she was woefully unprepared for the Battle, wherever and whenever it would happen. What was her duelling history compared to that of the Death Eaters who had been in the thick of things for the past twenty years? If she was unready, she did not want to even begin classifying her peers, many among whom still saw the DA as a game. Defence against the Dark Arts classes just didn't cut it when for the opposition, the Dark Arts was a lifestyle – that and they had had horrible teachers for most of their time in Hogwarts.

Hermione sighed. Maybe that was too harsh, but it did often feel that way.

"Ouch!"

The elder Creevey was recoiling from her. Colin, upon further check by Hermione, had been struck by a nasty combination of the Jelly-Legs Jinx and a mild burn hex, thus requiring quite a bit more of her attention than the vicious jab she had accidentally given him with her wand. Put simply, Finite Incantatem wasn't going to work on this mess up of supposedly harmless jinxes.

She met Luna halfway through the line, the latter having begun reversion spells from the other end of the queue. Hermione looked about and saw several students from the lower years, firsties even, and she could not help but feel saddened at having drawn them into a fight they were too young to understand.

'A hypocritical statement if I ever did see one. How old were you again when you met Fluffy?'

Right. Still it didn't seem fair. As she watched Ginny lead the class through a series of shielding positions, Hermione couldn't help but feel a sense of detachment. There was nothing they could teach her and she did not have the talent Ginny had in teaching them. The meeting was finishing soon and Hermione sat to watch them leave in twos and threes. Ginny, with Neville and Luna, could handle this. She would simply provide research as necessary. Yet again, she felt superfluous and it was a sobering thought.

'They don't need me anymore.'

Hermione got Ginny to leave by giving her the impression that she'd be studying. Alone. For a long time. With a heavy-handed comment about how excitingcharms applied on paper algorithms for Advanced Arithmancy was. Ginny swiftly made her excuses and was running out fast enough to beat a seeker mounted on a broom. Amused as she was, Hermione was too tense to read her books as she had told the younger girl she would be doing. She mentally began willing the room to change to her preferences, causing padded walls and flooring to melt from the air onto the room.

Quickly removing her outer robes, Hermione decided to quietly exit the DA, offering Ginny instead the continued service of her research for spell work and cure. It was the practical thing to do as the regular meeting time could be better spent for the Horcrux-hunt and her steadily piling up school work. Remembering the Horcruxes again, she wondered, as she often did, where Harry and Ron could possibly be.

They had continued to limit contact through the portraits, fearful that other portraits in the castle could find ways into it and spy upon either the boys or herself so as of a few nights ago, the two had sent only a few cryptic lines, mostly hinting at travels through the northern forests and an evident lack of success.

Tonight being Halloween, she felt a pang in her for Harry and what this day and night meant for him. Would they still be at this, hunting Horcruxes, fighting and fighting,well into their twenties and thirties and hundreds? All wars had to end - Hermione recalled well the history lessons she'd had while still in primary school - and grimaced. Some of thosehad lasted decades, if she remembered right.

Almost done shifting, the quickly lengthening hall sported at one end a small black box on a stand and Hermione focused her attentions on it. The here and now were infinitely more useful for their survival and that little beauty had arrived the first time she thought to use the Room of Requirement for training.

She stood in a stance, facing it across the room.

'Begin.'

Hexes and jinxes of varying hues and speeds began hurtling in her direction. She parried a blue shot at her leg with one of her own while dodging a Slicing Hex meant for her wand arm. Tumbling forward, she launched a Protego, relying on the backlash of the shield to propel her backward and stabilise her footing.

She loved the Spell Box, as she had fondly nicknamed it, for the precision and agility it required of her and because it never repeated spells within a single session thereby maximising her practice time. She'd introduced countless simplified versions of spells the Box had sent at her through retracing observed colour, speed, and yes, effect of the spells. Fortunately for her, the Box had charmed things such that a simple Finite Incantatem could reverse even the most complex of the darker hexes it sent.

Gasping from the exertion, she raised her hand and didn't bother to mentally address the room.

"Stop!"

The spells dissipated mid-flight and the only sound that could be heard was Hermione's heavy breathing. She lay down on the floor, hoping that one day she would be skilled enough to handle more than one box simultaneously. She had requested it from the Room several times but received the overwhelming sense of reluctance from the invisible provider. Having also requested that the room "be safe" – she didn't want to have Madame Pomfrey questioning her on curses she hadn't been able to fix hence the ease with which the Room's version of spells could be reversed – Hermione took it as a sign that the Room felt she wasn't ready yet. Similarly, she had found the room most hesitant to produce dummy versions of Headmaster Dumbledore or young Tom Riddle for her to practise duelling against, but she easily asked for and received doppelgangers of Harry, Ron and the older members of the DA. It also seemed that the room drew inspiration from previous visits since Hermione observed during her previous time that the pseudo-Dean she fought with preferred the same fighting style the real Dean did in DA.

Prying her sweaty self off the floor, she closed her eyes and asked for any opponent she had not had before. The room shimmered in response, its glowing centre cut short by the door opening.

Recognising who entered, Hermione grinned. It seemed a fake and rather spiffily dressed Draco Malfoy was her guest for the night.

The lad was looking around, just as he had the first night he had seen her reading. Quickly noting the setting, he took off his dark blue robes by the door and walked across the room to face her. There, he directed a deep bow towards her. And smirked.

Surprised, – none of the past dummies had done so but she chalked it up to purebred manners – she reciprocated the action. A split second after, they rose and spells flew.

It was vicious, it was fierce, and to Hermione, it was exhilarating. A far cry from her stodgy, school-driven, behind-the –desk self, she was lunging, kicking and dancing a deadly tango with the skilled Slytherin Prince. Very skilled his double was, in fact, because he proved far more challenging than those the room had provided before.

She narrowly missed a well-aimed Sectumsempra; her eyes narrowed as her mind whirred. Only those who had read the Headmaster's book would have known that – unless it was now common knowledge among the Death Eaters – which she supposed Malfoy had joined. Hermione rolled to the side and deflected a Slicing Hex which Draco deflected back in turn. Catching an opening, she was surprised to be at the receiving end of another Sectumsempra, but successfully blocked it back, fully expecting Malfoy to shield himself yet again.

Instead, she watched him clutch his side. Beneath long pale fingers, crimson leaked from his badly singed formal dress, shirt.

'Dummy duellers don't bleed.'

The images flew through her head like Quidditch players in a furious game.

'The clothes. The smirk. The bow.'

Hermione froze as the boy blanched and sank to his knees.

'The entrance through the door. The repeated Sectumsepras. The blood.'

Malfoy was real.

'Fuck.'

AN: Don't kill me for the cliffie. 8D

I apologise for the cuss at the end – it just seemed rather fitting.

I apologise too that I hadn't posted as frequently as I had promised for February. School work has been piling up on me so I hope you guys are okay with the long waits. The next wait will take a bit longer too as I hope to finish at least half of my SS/HG ex entry before continuing this one. That and I'm trying to fix the next chapter for this one as character shifts in it seem rather tetchy still D:

Thanks for reading this chapter though :) Reviews would be lovely.