The pain hit Hermione like an anvil falling from the sky. She couldn't even compare it to the cruciatus. This was something else entirely. Instead of an intense wave of fiery torture, there were small pains all over her body. It was as if each bone in her body were breaking individually.
"Stop." Amycus ordered dangerously from the front of the room.
Hermione barely heard it among all of the screams and cries of her mudblood classmates. How long had the spell lasted? Minutes? Seconds? When the spell was lifted she was on the floor, Kylie Sanders tear streaked face staring back at her from the ground, her eyes wide in terror. How were Harry and Ron holding up having to cast this spell? How was Draco? It would seem alarming to anyone that Harry and Ron weren't on this side, but no one else know Amycus' plans. Harry would take torture from anyone...but he'd never let others do it in his place. It was probably taking everything they had to keep still during this and follow orders.
"That was...interesting. I've made three classes so far test that spell, and this has been the most…powerful it's been. Maybe that's because you're all seventh years...there's more…experience." Amycus pondered this to himself, writing down a few notes on a piece of parchment next to him.
Hermione used every last ounce of strength she had and lifted her head to the right to find Draco.
His face was completely white, and his eyes held a mixture of sinister hatred and fear. Every muscle in his body was flexed, keeping back the urge to move toward her.
Hermione willed him with her expressions to not make a move. They needed him to be a spy, he could not blow his cover.
"It is interesting that as seventh years, the students that the spell was being tested on didn't use wandless magic." Amycus spoke casually. Hermione heard Dean Thomas on her left mutter something in pain. "What was that Mr…Thomas?"
Hermione heard Dean's breath become wheezy and he coughed next to her in pain.
"Do you need me to come closer?" Amycus moved down the middle of the lines of students, each footstep echoing and sinister.
Hermione felt the wind of his robes flutter by her. She could smell his cologne, and the sickly sweet scent made her more nauseous.
"Tell me what you said Mr. Thomas."
"No…It's okay."
"I order you to tell me Mr. Thomas. As a teacher of Hogwarts I expect you to obey my commands. Perhaps you need more convincing with another round of that special spell I just showed you."
"No!" Dean spoke up louder than he had before. "No, please. I just said that it was difficult to use wandless magic when we were in such pain."
"Oh…so you would describe it as too painful to perform magic?" Amycus waited as Dean nodded in agreement from his sprawled position on the floor. "Interesting. Well that's a good theory Mr. Thomas. But I just don't think it's very…valid."
"Valid?" Hermione heard Ron's voice float over. It was filled with hatred. If Hermione could turn her head his way and look up she'd imagine his skin would be as red as his hair. "What is your theory then?"
"Well Mr. Weasley…It seems to me that the students that had the spells projected onto them are just…weaker than those that cast them. I assume that if we allowed them to cast the spells on you, you would be able to deflect them with wandless magic easily. Most likely because they would cast the spell in a weaker fashion."
"Have you even tested that theory by letting the roles be switched?" Neville Longbottom shouted from the end of the room.
"I don't see a need to." Amycus smiled evilly at the classroom. "Now, shall we try another spell?"
"You can't be serious!" Neville shouted.
"Oh I'm very serious. And if you have any more annoying objections to my teaching methods I'll make sure you're on the other side of the room next time Longbottom." Amycus turned, dismissing the conversation, but Neville wasn't done. Hermione was glad that at least Harry was keeping quiet so far. It was important that he and Ron stay in the walls of Hogwarts. Any false moves and they could be expelled. If they were gone, finding the Horcruxes hidden in Hogwarts would be more difficult.
"Fine. Put me on the other side of the room. I refuse to inflict pain on anyone else today." Neville dropped his wand and marched over to Dean Thomas' side.
Amycus looked stunned for a moment, but regained his composure. He walked over to where Neville was standing.
"I have the feeling Mr. Longbottom that inflicting pain on you would do nothing to straighten up that attitude of yours. You're vey…self sacrificing. A stupid quality. But I have a feeling that there could be easier ways to persuade you to participate."
"I doubt that." Neville sneered at him.
Amycus smiled evilly, turning to face the mudbloods.
"Which one of you would like to volunteer to make sure Mr. Longbottom follows directions?"
"Wait!" Neville exclaimed.
Hermione couldn't believe what she as hearing. Amycus was smart, and the fact made her blood boil…almost as much as admitting it to herself. He could tell right away that torturing Neville would do nothing, but hurting someone else to coax Neville into cooperating was almost too easy.
"No one?" Amycus asked lightly.
Hermione grunted, and used what strength she had left to push herself from the floor. She was having difficulty breathing and she needed to sit up.
"Oh! A volunteer. How perfect."
Hermione looked around to see who had volunteered, but no one had moved and everyone was staring at her. Hermione looked up to see Amycus smiling coldly down at her.
"Me?" She managed to say.
"You." He smirked at her.
"But…but I didn't volunteer."
"Let me ask you something Miss Granger." His eyes lit up in anticipation as he said her name. "Does it look like I care if you volunteered or not?"
She was speechless, but most of all scared. She willed herself not to look over at Draco while Amycus was staring her down, afraid to give anything away.
"Wait! I'll do it. I'll test the spells on them. I promise." Neville cried desperately from his side of the room. "I'll cooperate. Just don't hurt Hermione."
"Oh!" Amycus turned in mock splendor towards Neville. Hermione took the opportunity to shake her head furiously at Draco begging him to stay still. His eyes said that he would do no such thing. "How wonderful Mr. Longbottom. Very pleased you are willing to cooperate. But just in case you decide to not follow directions again I'll be using Miss Granger as a bit of an example of what can happen if students refuse to cooperate in class."
Amycus turned back to face Hermione who shuffled her body back against the wall in fear. Still on the floor, she curled her body into a ball in anticipation of the pain taking deep breaths.
"Let's test a new spell…one that none of my students have tried yet. I want you to be honest with me Miss Granger. When the spell hits you…just tell me how it makes you feel. I think that's the best way to tell if as spell is working as it should…getting first hand experiences. Please don't hold anything back." Amycus smiled evilly at her, the look in his eyes proving the spell would be worse than the last one.
"Please don't." Hermione managed to say in a whimper.
"Oh, but I must. The Dark Lord's orders." Amycus raised his wand, and pointed it at her. Hermione hid her face once more. "Evilaindo!"
Several things happened simultaneously. Hermione screamed, writhing on the floor unable to even remember her name. Ron Weasley bolted from the room, the only two people noticing being Draco and Harry. Harry Potter ran toward Amycus and knocked him down to the floor releasing Hermione from the spell. Once it was broken, Draco quickly picked the lifeless looking Hermione off the floor and out of the room. The only thing Hermione Granger remembered after that was lying in Draco's arms as he ran out of the classroom, and looking back as Harry Potter beat the living crap out of Amycus Carrow without magic.
…
…
….
"Hermione! Stop fighting me!" Draco begged, lightly keeping a hold on her arms as she tried to push him off her.
"Draco!" She managed to croak out. "We need to go back! We just left Harry there!"
"Don't worry we have this all planned out. It will be fine. Now I need to go, and I need you to stay here!" Draco let her go and began to move away from her.
"There is no way I'm staying here Draco Malfoy!" Hermione tried to sit up from the unfamiliar bed she was laying on. She lost consciousness briefly after she exited the DADA room and was unsure where Draco had led her to.
"Hermione please." Draco came back over to the bed, looking to be in a hurry. "Do you trust us?"
"Trust who?" Hermione whispered, lying back down. Her head was spinning wildly.
"Trust Harry. Trust Ron. And please trust me." Draco said desperately. "The last thing I want to do right now is leave you in this state, but I need to go right now if this plan is going to work. I need to leave. Let me go and I swear Ron should be here in just a few minutes. Just stay conscious okay? Please be okay for me."
"But Draco!"
"Trust us. And please don't leave." Draco said hurriedly. He kissed Hermione's forehead, gave her hand one quick squeeze, and bolted from the only door in the room.
Hermione was alone, unable to sit up at and take in her surroundings. From what she could tell from lying down, She was in what looked like a small common room. The only thing that really kept if from not being a common room was the bed she was laying on that was pushed up against the far wall. Other than that, there was a fireplace, a desk, a large couch and a set of drawers.
To say she was confused would be an understatement. Hermione didn't know of a single room in Hogwarts like this.
Before she could piece together anymore the door burst open again and Ron came in, a large rucksack draped over his shoulder. He shut the door immediately and set down the bag, which made a considerable noise.
"Ron what-?" Hermione began, but was cut off by his swift walk over to her and his examination of her.
"Are you bleeding? How's your head? Does anything hurt too badly?" Ron asked hurriedly. "Did Draco get out of here quickly enough?"
"No. Ouchy. I'll survive. And he left about ten minutes ago. Did that answer everything?" Hermione smiled at her friend, happy to see him despite being furious at feeling left out. "Ron what is going on? Where is Draco? Is he going to be okay?"
"I'll tell you in a moment, just first drink this." Ron pulled a vile from his pocket and uncorked it, handing it to her. "It's a pain reliever."
"Fine." Hermione downed the liquid in one gulp. "Now tell me what's going on!"
"Well…basically your plan was terrible."
"Rude!" Hermione exclaimed with as much furor as she could muster.
"Well it was! You basically wanted everyone to stand there like idiots while you were tortured by Amycus!"
"For the greater good Ron! Now what are we supposed to do. When I was leaving the classroom I saw Harry beating the daylights out of Amycus! Please tell me that was a hallucination!"
Ron laughed. "Oh thank god. I hope he got him good. I wanted to join in, but it wasn't part of the plan."
"The plan?" Hermione asked.
"See your plan was terrible, like I said. So we decided to form our own plan, but not tell you because there was no way you'd let us go through with it."
"Please tell me this plan of yours before I lose it." Hermione demanded furiously, her head still beating in her skull. She needed sleep, and more importantly she needed the pain potion to kick in.
"Okay, we need someone on the inside at Hogwarts. That part of your plan we liked. You're very right that we couldn't all get expelled or leave campus. I'm certain the horcruxes are here anyway. I mean the locket and the ring are destroyed, and we've destroyed the diary and the cup. That only leaves something of Ravenclaw's and maybe something of Gryffindor's, and I just know they're hiding in the castle."
"Ron, that's only six horcruxes though! Dumbledore told Harry there were probably seven."
"Malfoy reckons the seventh is Nagini."
"Who?"
"Nagini. That giant snake Voldemort always has with him. Draco was telling Harry and I that he always keeps it close. Over the summer Draco heard one of the death eaters suggesting Voldemort send Nagini out on patrol on instead of them, and Voldemort said that he'd never do that because it would be like sending a part of his soul into the wild to be slaughtered. At the time Draco didn't really think much of it, just that he was a bit of a snake lover or something, but now that he knows about the horcruxes he thinks it makes sense."
"Okay, but what about this plan you're on about?"
"Right, so we figure we'll find the rest of the Hogwart's horcruxes, and then lure Voldemort here so we can kill the snake and then…well Harry can kill him."
"Okay, that's great Ron, but how are we going to look for the rest of the Hogwart's horcruxes when we're all certain to be expelled for what we just did!"
"That's the best part of the plan. None of us are leaving Hogwarts. Draco particularly is staying right where he is. That's why he needed to leave so soon. His job was to get you out of harm, while Amycus was being…distracted…so that he could return before Amycus knew he was missing. Now as you, me, and Ron go well that's a different story."
"Clearly" Hermione said weakly. The insanity of their plan was exhausting her already beaten body.
"Once Draco gets back in the classroom, Harry is going to meet us here, the hope being that Amycus won't realize Draco was ever gone. He can maintain his spy status, and Harry, you, and I can all stay at Hogwarts horcrux hunting horcruxes with help from a man on the inside."
Just then the door opened once more and Harry came in, completely out of breath as he shut the door once more.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked sitting up wildly from the bed. A giant head rush greeted her and she quickly fell back down clutching her body in pain.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, coming over to her side
"I'm fine." She groaned in pain softly. "Ron was just filling me in on the plan."
"Brilliant isn't it?" Harry asked, softly rubbing her hand.
"Sure. But there's one flaw."
"What?"
"How do you expect us to stay in Hogwarts after the fiasco we just caused? Amycus will have us expelled for sure."
"Oh that's the best part. Amycus thinks we've left by now." Ron said smiling. "Draco will have imperiused Pansy who will have told Amycus that she saw us running for Hogsmeade just out the window when really we're still in Hogwarts."
"We are?" Hermione asked.
"Of course. This is the room of requirement." Harry beamed at her.
A/N: Please Review