Hermione
"Come on Hermione! How much longer are you going to make us wait!" Harry asked her impatiently.
"For the thousandth time, Harry, just a few more minutes! I will not let you ruin something I have been working on every day since November because you cannot wait a few more measly minutes! You have made it this long a few more minutes won't kill you," Hermione answered in her best McGonagall impression. She honestly could not blame him for being so anxious to test the potion. She had not slept at all the night prior due to her anxiety and excitement.
Today was finally the day that her animareavelo potion would be finished and after all the long nights and hard work that she had put into brewing it she was ecstatic. She was certainly excited to drink the potion to find out if she was an animagus, but honestly she was more excited that when the potion was finally completed that she would be officially finished with all of her end of the year projects.
Knowing how she was though, Hermione knew even when she was finished with all of her projects she would just find something else to work on. She was still excited that at least most of the stress she had been under all year would be gone, at least until the school year was finished and she had to wait to find out her final grades.
The potion for the most part was done and just needed a few more minutes off the burner cooling before it was officially ready. She was proud of her work on the potion. Snape had been by a few times since she had started to check on her progress and had even told her that based off of all the other first year projects he had seen or discussed that hers was by far the most advanced. She still did not know though if Snape knew that Daphne was brewing a polyjuice potion or not.
After the letter Marik had sent her and Harry telling them about what he had seen Daphne researching in the library, Hermione had set about looking into the polyjuice potion as much as she could.
At first finding information on the potion had proved to be rather difficult. However, after asking to borrow Harry's invisibility cloak and getting Marik to show her the book in the restricted section that Daphne had been looking at, she had found all the information she needed on the potion. In the end she had become confident that although the potion was very complex it still was not as difficult or advanced as her animarevealo potion was.
Plus Hermione knew since her potion required rare and difficult to brew ingredients like unicorn hair, and all of the polyjuice potion's ingredients could be found in the supply room. She was confident that the extra challenge her potion presented would give her the edge. From the lack of the trio seeing Daphne much after the holiday break it appeared that brewing the polyjuice potion was absorbing as much of Daphne's time as the animarevealo potion had been absorbing hers.
Regardless of Daphne and her potion, in just a few more minutes Hermione could finally have some free time away from the dungeon lab and would be able to focus her attention on something else. Though what that something else was Hermione had no idea, free time was not something she was used to. Maybe she would just go back and triple check her other projects again.
She could leave the lab today knowing she had probably the best potions end of year project for the first years. With just a few weeks left before they would all have to present their end of year projects Hermione felt confident that she would be going home with at least one 'M' mark. As much as she wanted to be number one in all of her classes she was realistic enough to know that Harry and Marik were better than her in a few of their other classes.
Well not in taking notes or having read as much, but at least better in the practical parts they were. Hermione thought to herself.
As much as not being the best in everything pained her, she honestly owed her success this year with the animarevealo potion along with the rest of her classes to her two best friends sitting across the table. Although she hated admitting they might get a higher grade or be better in a school subject than she was, both Harry and Marik's drives to have the best projects and best ability ratings were what pushed her to the level she had reached so far. She was okay with being second once or twice if it meant she got to learn and see more magic, and all of their end of year projects were certainly turning out to be amazing magic.
Harry had proven himself over the school year since they had become friends to be quite the skilled wizard, and because of his skill Hermione guessed that he would probably walk away with as many top marks as she would. She was not taking astronomy this year like Harry was, so obviously she could not get a top mark in that class. However, with the success Harry had received from his work on his portable galactic way-viewer she could not imagine anyone beating him out in that class.
In transfiguration Harry had distinguished himself as the clear leader of their year, even as much as Marik denied and hated to admit it. Harry was just a natural when it came to the subject. He even had two end of year project ideas for the course that he could use depending on if he was an animagus or not, both of which were honestly miles better than her project was.
Even his history of magic project on werewolves was really good. It would be a close contest between their two projects in that class, although she honestly thought her project had a slight edge. So maybe if things worked in her favor she could walk away with a history of magic 'M' mark to go along with potions, but she was still skeptical.
Those two classes were about the only top marks she could realistically hope for she knew. As their first year had progressed the top students of each subject became quite clear. Herbology was about the only subject someone of their trio did not seem to be the best in. Though that was probably because they all seemed to agree that herbology was the least interesting course taught at Hogwarts.
Hermione had learned as the year progressed that charms was one of her better classes. She had proven herself to be one of the top students in their year in the subject and had received a number of compliments and credits from her Head of House for it. However, unlike Marik, she seemed to mainly excel in the non-offensive charms. If she and Marik raced to charm a chair to dance they were even, but if they raced to see who could summon the chair across the room while charming it to catch on fire or something advanced like that Marik was ahead of her. Plus Marik had proved in the dueling tournament along with their practice sessions that he had a natural knack for dueling and charm work and because of that Hermione figured he would most likely end up beating her out in the class.
In the case of their dark arts and spell creation classes, Hermione unfortunately as much as it bugged her had to admit it; she was well behind Marik in the practical areas. Throughout the year she had learned that she did not quite have the imagination required to be a master of spell creation. She was a logical straight forward person and did not have the ability to think creatively like Marik could when it came to that class.
Regardless of her lack of imagination spell creation class was still one of the more interesting ones and had been useful in assisting with learning in all of her other classes just like Marik had said it might be during their trip to Diagon Alley before the school year started. Marik's end of year project for spell creation would probably not only earn him an 'M' for the class this year, but she honestly thought if he just continued to add on to what he had already accomplished that he would be set for an 'M' in the class every year moving forward. It was truly inspirational and amazing the magic he had been able to create.
Marik had set off back over the holiday break when she and Harry were at home just looking to create a spell that would be able to move or manipulate a shadow. Being able to create even a spell half as complex as that would be difficult enough to earn a first year a top mark based off of what they had heard of past first year projects, but Marik had been so absorbed in his work that he had ended up going far beyond just moving a shadow.
Over the past few months he had not only accomplished being able to manipulate a shadow with his wand, but had also created a spell that made part of the shadow three-dimensional. As well he had also been able to create a spell that absorbed the darkness of an area and could be used as an offensive spell.
Marik planned on using the three-dimensional shadow spell along with the shadow manipulation spell for his spell creations and charms end of year project and would surely get an 'M' mark for it. By this point in the year he had managed to produce an entire three-dimensional hand that would emerge from his shadow and could wave, grab onto something, and unfortunately for Harry, slap people.
The offensive spell Marik created he decided to keep just between the three of them so no one knew he was capable of doing it. Since he was planning on using it for his upcoming dueling championship tournament over the summer he did not want any of the other duelists to have time to prepare a defense for it, which Hermione couldn't blame him for.
The offensive spell Marik created was even more impressive than the three-dimensional shadow hand. When Marik cast the spell any darkness in the area around him was sucked into the area right around the tip of his wand, which resulted in the area getting much brighter since all of the darkness was all concentrated in one area.
At the tip of his wand it would start forming into a sphere of dark energy the size of a baseball. From there Marik was able to send the ball of darkness wherever he aimed. The result of impact was much like a stupefy spell. On impact the spell ended up with the victim being sent flying from the force of impact, but instead of being stunned the release of all the concentrated darkness made it almost impossible for them to see anything, although in his tests the force had proved to be enough to knock the victim unconscious more times than not. Again unfortunately for Harry. It was really quite incredible.
So an 'M' in spell creations for her she had to admit was out of the question. As well, even though Marik would not tell Harry or her what his top-secret dark arts project was, from the amount of time he spent in his room working on it to go with his ability rating in the class; she figured Marik would most likely get the dark arts 'M' mark too.
Plus Professor Kingsley, since day one of replacing Quirrell as their dark arts professor, had made it very clear to the first years that Marik was his favorite first year. As tough as it was for her to admit Marik and Harry were better than her in some classes and admit to herself that she would not be ranked number one in all of her classes Hermione was still happy for herself and her friends. And more than that she okay losing once or twice if the people that might beat her were her friends.
"Okay it's time!" Hermione announced to her to friends after her watch alarm went off.
"Finally!" Harry shouted from the other side of the lab table.
"What next? How do you know if it is right?" Marik asked.
"Marik, are you doubting my brewing abilities?" She shot Marik an angry glare.
"WHAT!? Of course not Hermione!" Marik said apologetically. Hermione giggled to herself at his reaction.
"Sounded like you were to me," Harry joked.
"I will tell Ron Weasley you have a crush on him if you don't stop joking Harry!" Marik sarcastically threatened. The threat was successful though in getting Harry to shut up.
"We just need to pour three drops on this paper and it will give us readout of the accuracy percentage. Anything less than 93% and the potion becomes too dangerous to drink," Hermione answered.
"Wow 93%! Why so high? Most potions we've done in first year can have a 75% accuracy and still be used. Marik even got a compliment yesterday from Snape when his wiggenweld potion was a 67%," Harry asked her while provoking an embarrassed blush from Marik.
"It was 70% you nark!" Marik argued back. "Which wasn't much worse than your 72%!"
"Well the more advanced the potion is the higher the accuracy rate needs to be. Plus adding the unicorn hair and blood makes the brewing process much more unstable and if it's under a 93% it can lead to very bad side effects," Hermione answered Harry again.
"Side effects like what?" Marik asked
"Well it might actually result in growing you a brain for one," Hermione joked with a wink. Marik rolled his eyes at her joke.
"Well let's hope that it's above 93% then. Knowing Hermione though she probably will end up with 101% somehow," Harry joked.
"Thank you Harry," Hermione said. He was always so nice to her.
Hermione poured three drops of the potion onto the testing paper and the three of them hovered their heads over it waiting for the results to appear.
"99%!" Harry shouted excitedly, giving her a large hug in the process.
"Great job Hermione! That is truly amazing!" Marik congratulated her.
"99%… I wonder what I messed up," Hermione said, not knowing what had led to the potion not getting a 100 percent bothered her.
"Oh shut it Hermione, professional brewers don't even get 100% on most their potions. A 99% is incredible and it means your potion will work," Harry replied.
"Yeah you are right I guess, Harry. Thanks Guys." She was relieved that she had not wasted almost her entire year on the potion, but the perfectionist in her was upset it was one percent off perfect. "I guess it's ready to test now. Who goes first?" Hermione asked the two of them.
"Ladies first, plus you did all the work," Marik answered.
"Yeah, go ahead Hermione," Harry said. She could tell he was beyond anxious to test it himself.
"Okay, here I go I guess," Hermione said to them. She poured a nearby vial with the black animarevealo potion to the specified amount to test if you are an animagus. "Cheers!" she said, raising her glass to Harry and Marik as she put her head back and downed the substance.
She immediately regretted this decision. The potion tasted like cold coffee that had been sitting on the pot for over a year. It was disgusting. It took every ounce of control she had to not vomit it all up.
"How long does it take for the change to occur?" Marik asked.
"Mmpgdhs," was all she could manage to grumble out. She was scared if she opened her mouth much more that she would vomit. She just continued to cringe as she looked down at her hands waiting to see if anything changed.
"I'm sorry what language was that?" Marik asked, laughing a little.
"It should only take a few seconds for it to take effect," Harry answered for her, looking down at her hands.
The odds of her being an animagus were pretty slim, she knew that. Although there were a few registered muggle-born animagi in the magical world most registered animagi were of pureblood or half-blood descent. She was still hopeful that she would break the odds though. From everything Harry had told them about his dad and his friends animagus forms it sounded like incredible magic and she wanted to experience it.
The three of them sat there for a few minutes and no changes besides the horrid taste leaving her mouth occurred. Her hands looked like her normal hands, only a little paler from drinking the horrible tasting potion. It appeared that she was not an animagi after all. She couldn't help the frown that formed on her face.
"Oh well, at least I still have an 'M' mark worthy potion to turn in," she said breaking the silence. She was trying to mask the disappointment she was feeling at the results and hoped she was succeeding.
"I'm sorry Hermione; I was really hoping you were an animagi," Harry said, trying to make her feel better.
"Thanks Harry, me too. We all knew though the odds of any of us actually being an animagi were slim so I kind of expected it. Marik, you go next since you helped me brew the potion over the holiday break," Hermione said.
"Okay!" Marik answered. He didn't need to be told twice as he quickly reached across the table and poured himself a vial.
"If Marik ends up being an animagi I guarantee his form will be some sort of a cocky animal," Harry said smugly from his side of the table.
"What exactly would be a cocky animal?" Marik asked Harry, looking confused.
"I don't know… I could see you being a peacock. Always trying to flaunt your feathers," Harry joked. Hermione could not help but laugh a little at that. It was true, she could see Marik being an animal that liked to show off.
"Ya ya ya. You better hope for your safety that my animagus is not a dragon or something!" Mark threatened Harry with the joke.
"Marik, it is impossible for someone to have a dragon as their animagus!" she corrected him.
"I know, Hermione, I was just joking! Jeez! Ruin a guy's fun why don't you!" Marik grumbeled. "Alright here I go. Cheers!" His face made the same disgusted look as hers had when the potion hit his mouth.
Marik did not try as hard as she had to hide the disgust he tasted. The three of them all looked at Marik's hands and waited another few minutes to see if he had better luck.
"No dragon scales so far," she said still staring at Marik's hands. Harry laughed at that.
They waited just as long as they had when she drank the potion but again with Marik no changes happened.
"Damn. . ." Was all Marik said, not making an attempt to hide his disappointment.
"Well Harry, looks like it is all up to you now," Hermione said as she filled Harry a vial up with the potion and handed it to him.
"Good luck man, don't throw up," Marik tried to joke.
"It's that bad huh?' Harry asked them, nervously looking at the potion in his hands.
"It tastes worse than Romilda Vane smells!" Marik joked, earning a slap from her.
He was so rude sometimes! Harry seemed to find the joke funny as he almost dropped his vial of potion from laughing.
"You have no soul mate. It's true, but you still have no soul!" Harry commented back.
Harry took a swig of the potion and immediately his reaction to the potion was different than theirs had been. While they had both immediately sprouted a look of disgust at the taste Harry's face resembled a much a happier image. Within a second of finishing the potion his hands immediately began to shift in their form. Slowly his hands morphed into two large light brown paws that resembled larger versions of the paws of her family's cats.
"Congratulations Harry! That is amazing!" Hermione said excited for Harry and jumped up to give him a hug.
"This feels so weird! I wonder what it is. Hermione use the spell so we can find out!" Harry said. She retrieved her wand from her pocket and pointed at Harry's paws.
"What you can't hold a wand or cast a spell with those things?" Marik asked sarcastically. "Hermione, maybe we should just leave him like this so we can beat him out in transfiguration," Marik joked.
"Shut up you! Please Hermione," Harry said to her.
"Animarevealo!" She cast the spell on his hands.
The incantation that went along with the potion identified the exact species of the potion drinker's hands after they transfigured. Above Harry's paws blue letters began to spell out two words in the air.
"Mountain lion! My transfiguration form is a mountain lion!" Harry was jumping with excitement.
"That's so cool! I'm jealous Harry," Hermione said honestly.
"Yeah me too. I thought for sure knowing you it was going to be a slug or a goldfish," Marik joked.
"Bugger off!" Harry replied.
The three of them just sat for the next few minutes staring at Harry's paws as he moved them around and got used to having them for hands. His paws after a while slowly molded their shape back into his normal hands.
"Harry, what form was your father and his friend's animagus?" Hermione asked.
"My dad's is a stag and Sirius's is a large black dog," Harry answered.
"I thought Sirius was the werewolf?" Marik asked.
"No Sirius is Daphne's dad remember? Remus is the werewolf," Harry answered.
"Oh yeah that's right. So you are the first cat huh? I wonder why?" Marik asked.
"Yeah Harry your animagus form is supposed to say a lot about your power and gifts of magic so I guess we will have to see what being a mountain lion says about you," Hermione responded.
"Congratulations Harry, I already figured it out. Your magical gift is that you like mountains," Marik said sarcastically. All of them started laughing at that, even if it was a bad joke.
"I guess now you can actually practice your end of year project on yourself," Hermione said to Harry after she recovered from laughing.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to get started right away if I want to get it down before we have to present," Harry answered.
"How close are you do you think to getting it down?" Marik asked Harry.
"Hmm. . . Well I've had the motions and incantation down for months it's just a matter of getting the visualizations and being able to maintain my hand in its transfigured form at this point. It's supposed to be pretty difficult and a lot of the books suggest doing it with zero distractions so you don't mess up and end up doing damage to yourself," Harry answered.
"Well do you need any help?" Hermione asked her friend.
"Hermione, you just finished a project that you have been working on for pretty much the entire year! You should be taking a break not worrying about helping me or doing anything else," Harry said to her.
"I don't think Hermione knows what breaks are Harry, we haven't learned about those in class yet," Marik joked again. She stuck her tongue out at him in defense even though he was right.
"You really should go take a break, Hermione, it would be good for you to just get to relax for a bit," Harry told her.
"Yeah, I agree. I'm headed out of here now anyways too. I've got to go do some more work in my dorm," Marik said as he stood up.
"More work on your super-secret project?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrow. It was killing her not knowing what he was working on.
"I overheard a Slytherin in class say that Marik's dark arts project was a secret dark spell to get Daphne to like him. Apparently Marik only works on the project in his room because he has a shrine of Daphne in there that helps him focus," Harry joked and was immediately tackled by Marik for it.
Hermione knew the odds of Marik liking Daphne was about as likely as Snape coming to class in a pink robe. Marik had given Daphne the nickname ice-queen, which funny enough the entire school had picked up quickly. As mean as the name was it did fit her quite well.
"Well I think I may head off too. I'm going to find somewhere I can be alone without distractions to start practicing," Harry said as he and Marik finished wrestling on the ground.
"I see how it is. You guys use me for my potion and then just leave!" Hermione said sarcastically.
"Oh stop it; you know you are our favorite, Hermione!" Marik said. "You guys think dinner tonight at seven?" Marik asked as he headed to the door.
"Yeah, I can do that," Harry answered.
"Yeah, me too," Hermione said.
"Alright then. C'mon Harry let's get out of here," Marik said and the two of them headed out of the potions lab to go do their work leaving Hermione alone.
"Maybe I will take a well-deserved break," she said to herself.
For a few minutes she just sat there at the table looking around the room. As sad as it was she really did have no idea how to take a break and she was already bored. This moment had probably been the longest time she had spent not working since she had come to Hogwarts. She tried to wrack her brain and think of something else to do that would be considered a break and would not be as boring as just sitting here was.
"I got it!" she said again to herself. "I will take a walk around the grounds… and plan out what books I want to read next!" Hermione decided, feeling like that was at least kind of a break. She grabbed her wand off the table and made her way out of the potions lab.
The halls of the castle were fairly empty compared to how they normally were on a weekend day. Most of the students seemed to be locked in their rooms or practice rooms slaving away on their end of year projects.
Outside of the castle it was a beautiful summer day. There were surprisingly quite a few other students spread across the lawn sitting, reading, and chatting amongst friends. Most of them had probably already finished their projects or already given up she figured. She decided she should enjoy the nice weather and that she would go for a walk to the lake and maybe sit by it for a little while for her break.
As soon as she started walking her mind immediately started to organize her book reading list order. She was walking outside so that was technically taking a break, but she was not about to waste her time completely! She was definitely going to read the potions book Bronze-Age-Brewing that Snape had let her borrow first since it seemed the most interesting of all the books she owned that she had not yet read. After that she thought she should probably read the charms book that Marik had given her for Christmas. She had already taken a peek at the first chapter of it and it seemed to have a lot of useful spells in it.
Although there were still a bunch of books in the library that she had been wanting to read. And there wasn't much time left in the year so maybe she should start with those first and read her books over the summer. Decisions like this were so tough!
"Where is your boyfriend Mudblood!" a voice said behind her waking her from her trance. Apparently she had been distracted while thinking of her books and had managed to walk past the lake and further ahead towards Hagrid's hut. She turned towards the voice. It was Malfoy and two other boys she did not know.
As a whole Hermione's experience at Hogwarts had been a truly amazing one. However, if there was one bad thing to say about Hogwarts it would be Draco Malfoy. Although he never did anything more than threaten her and call her derogatory names he had really managed to get under her skin this year.
Ever since the dueling tournament when Malfoy had first called her a mudblood during their duel, Malfoy had apparently decided that he hated her. After their run in with him over the holiday break he had approached her one more time when she walking to the Great Hall for dinner with Harry. Harry had hit Malfoy with a stunner as soon as Malfoy opened his mouth and sent him to the hospital wing for two days. After that Malfoy never approached her or said anything to her when Harry and Marik were with her, but as soon as she was alone he came at her in full force with his offensive threats and words.
At first it had bothered her a little, after all no one likes getting called offensive names. But after seeing Harry beat Draco so easily and learning just how worthless Draco really was it had become rather easy to just let his words roll of her skin. He really wasn't worth her time or effort.
"What do you want, Draco?" she asked him hoping he would hurry up and leave her alone so she could get back to her break.
"I think you meant to say what do you want Sir Malfoy. That's no way to talk to a pureblood. I guess I should have figured a mudblood like you would have no manners," Malfoy sneered and the two boys beside him laughed.
"Okay, Malfoy. It was a pleasure as always talking to you. Have a great day!" she said sarcastically and turned around to continue walking.
"And where do you think you are going mudblood. We are not finished with you yet," Malfoy called out to her. She ignored him and continued walking away. She had found from prior experiences with Malfoy that the more attention you gave him the worse it got. It was best to ignore him. Besides she was on a break and had important book orders to think about!
"I SAID WE WERE NOT FINISHED WITH YOU MUDBLOOD! Crabbe! Goyle!" Malfoy shouted behind her.
Immediately the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. In an instant she managed to get her wand out of her pocket and throw a shield up just as the two boys with Malfoy spells hit it. They were attacking her! What the actual hell!
"Malfoy, what the hell are you doing?!" she screamed.
"Shut your mouth, bitch! My father told me all about what you and your boyfriends did a few weeks ago when I was visiting home. How dare two mudbloods and a half-blood attack the noble pureblood dark lord! Now you will pay for what you did! Tarantallegra!" Malfoy cast the spell at her. It was a simple spell. She could have easily dodged that spell their first month in classes.
"Expelliarmus!" She cast the disarming spell back at Malfoy. He threw up a shield and blocked it.
"Expelliarmus." she heard two voices in unison say behind her.
She quickly turned. It was the two other boys that had been with Draco. She had been stupid and focused only on Draco and not paid any attention to them. Still they were slow enough in casting that she was able to throw up another shield and deflect their spells. She heard Draco shout something from behind her.
Again she had been stupid and let her guard down. Whatever spell Draco had cast as soon as it hit her back her body immediately went limp and fell to the ground. She was unable to move a single thing in her body besides her eyes. From the results of the spell she knew she had been hit by the petrificus totalus spell.
"Drag her to the woods so no one can see us," she recognized the voice of Draco order the other two boys.
They grabbed her ankles and slowly dragged her across the grass. She could feel each rock scraping at the back of her head and body as they dragged her. She doubted by the time they were finished with her that those would be her worst injuries though.
The sky above her turned to a canopy of trees as the two boys dropped her ankles. The ground under her felt wet. Was it her blood? She thought to herself.
"How fitting. A mudblood laying in mud," Draco laughed out smugly. "My father taught me some new spells over the holiday break that I have been dying to use on you Granger. I've gotten bored practicing them on dummies so I think I will give them a shot on you. Confridor!" Malfoy shouted the unknown spell at her.
The immediate pain almost made her pass out. The spell Malfoy used was a bone breaking one judging from the snap she heard and the pain that followed in her left arm.
"Well that one seemed to work well. Let me see, what was the next one he taught me?" Malfoy was sneering over her as he talked to himself.
She had to do something. If Malfoy kept at this pace she might end up with permanent damage or even… No… There was no way even someone as low as Malfoy would try to kill her. Although. . . He did say a second ago though that she would pay for her and her friends attacking a noble pureblood dark lord.
What did he mean by that? He must have made a mistake or something. They had never attacked anyone their entire time at Hogwarts, let alone a dark lord. Regardless of if he was making a mistake or not she had to find a way out of this before things got worse.
She started thinking. Draco had hit her with a body binding spell. That meant that she would be unable to move her arms to perform a spell incantation to counter it with. As well her tongue was currently stuck to the roof of her mouth so actually being able to say a spell would be impossible too. Her options were practically slim to none.
"Let's try this one. Mobilicorpus!" Draco shouted his second spell off.
Her body immediately flew a few feet away from where she had been lying and collided straight into the trunk of a tree. If she had been able to scream she would have probably ripped a long from the amount of pain she was feeling.
She could feel her arm bleeding badly and the break in it from the previous spell getting injured worse. It also felt like she might have broken a rib when she hit the tree. The pain was too much for her to handle. She wanted so bad to be able to scream in pain but Draco's spell wouldn't allow her too. She could feel tears running down her cheek as black spots filled her vision.
She was going to die here. Malfoy was going to kill her and she was never going to get to see Harry or Marik ever again. An image of the three of them laughing in the potions lab earlier that day came to her mind at the thought of her friends. For a second she didn't feel the pain, but then it returned. No. . . She would not let that happen. She would not let Malfoy win.
Come on Hermione you are a Ravenclaw think! You are one of the smartest students in your year, you were one of the best in the dueling tournament, you had private lessons with Quirrell, and you practice every day with two of the best duelists in your year! Hermione yelled at herself in her head. She thought back as quickly as she could over anything she had learned that might help her. A thought struck. That was it!
Professor Quirrell, before he went crazy and brought a troll to the school, had taught her and Marik that the most important thing in magic was intent, and mentally visualizing what you wanted the spell to do.
Her wand was still locked in her hand from Draco's initial body bind spell Maybe if she willed the spell and visualized it enough she could still cast a spell without having to do the wand movements or say the incantation out loud. Silent casting was used commonly by aurors and more advanced casters all the time. Surely she could do a simple spell if she focused enough.
"You are starting to look more like a mudblood should, Granger. You and all the other filthy muggles don't even deserve this good of treatment. You should thank me for being nice. All mudbloods deserve is to die. . ." Malfoy was shouting at her. She closed her eyes and started to focus. She stopped listening to whatever Malfoy was saying and instead she focused on her senses.
An expelliarmus spell would be her best bet. It was a simple spell that already required little wand movement. Plus she had casted that spell more than any other in their practice sessions, and therefore it was easily one of the spells she was best at casting.
She focused on how the spell looked, sounded, and worked. She imagined the spell leaving her wand and hitting Draco. When her spell hit him she imagined he would be knocked back and disarmed. She calmed her breathing and she continued to focus.
Okay. . . She said in her head. Focus Hermione. Focus on the words, the spell, and the results. You can do this. She continued in her head.
"Expelliarmus!" she screamed the spell out in her head. She visualized the spell leaving her wand and flying towards Draco. Her body seemed to loosen. She tried to move her head to look if it worked. Her head moved! It had worked! She did it!
Looking up she saw the two boys that had dragged her to the forest running away from her. Draco was lying on the ground about fifteen feet away from her. She could see his wand only about two feet in front of her. She wanted to scream as the pain in her body came back to her now that she wasn't as mentally focused.
If she ran now she wouldn't get far before they caught up. Looking at the puddle she was laying in she could see that her arm was bleeding badly and she had lost a lot of blood. Her jeans were covered in red splotches all over as well.
She had to finish them off here if she wanted to make it out of here without Draco being able to stun her again. Focusing on getting the pain out of her head she braced herself on the tree she had just hit and stood herself up. The shot of pain that came across her stomach as she did so proved her guess of a broken rib correct.
She felt like she was about to pass out from the loss of blood and the pain. Okay Hermione just a few more spells then you can pass out. She said to herself. She focused herself, and let a rage at Malfoy build deep inside her.
"DRACO!" she screamed his name out in a fit of anger. "Incarcerous!" she shouted the spell at the three boys and immediately the largest ropes she had ever conjured shot out from her wand and wrapped the three boys up.
"Petrificus totalus, petrificus totalus, petrificus totalus!"After the three bodies were tied up she cast the same body binding spell that they had used on her to ensure they weren't able to cast any more spells at her. "Levicorpus, levicorpus, levicorpus!" "Thank you Harry's dad", she said to herself as she cast the spell.
The spell hung all three of the boys upside down by their feet where she then tied the rope that had them ensnared to a branch of an overhead tree so they hung upside down in place. She limped over to Draco until she was eye to eye with him. She could see the panic in his eyes.
Good. She thought to herself as she watched his eyes quiver.
"This is the last time you will ever attack me Draco! This is the last time you will ever talk to me! This is the last time you will ever even look at me. If I ever see you so much as look in my direction ever again I promise that next time I will not be as nice as I'm being to you right now.
You are pitiful. You think you and your pureblood family are better than everyone else. Well how does it feel to know that a mudblood just beat a pureblood and his two friends. You will no longer call anyone a mudblood. If I ever get word from anyone that you even said that word I will curse you until you bleed mud, Draco.
"You will leave here and tell all your pureblood friends and family that from now on we mudbloods have a new name. From now on if you feel like addressing us you will call us newbloods. You have clearly shown your blood is far from pure and as you can see a muggleborn may have new magical blood but that doesn't mean they are any less of a witch or wizard. Do I make myself clear Draco?"
His eyes were as wide as they could go and they were filled with panic. If Draco could have nodded his head she was sure he would have from the look he was giving her. Even through the pain she felt good getting all that off of her chest. She was still furious and knew the rage inside her was about the only thing keeping her from passing out.
Suddenly the ropes around the three boys burst into flame. Hermione jumped back in shock. She looked around to see if there was someone around that had cast the spell but there was no one in sight. Had she caused the fire to start somehow? She wondered to herself. The three boys were unable to move a muscle and the burning ropes had quickly burned through the robes they were wearing and were starting to burn at their skin.
"Finite incantatem!" She pointed the spell at the flames and immediately they disappeared. She could see burns all over the boys bodies were the ropes had been. As bad as it looked she did not feel bad at all. Draco had tried to kill her. He had tortured her. This was an eye for an eye. They earned it.
Her leg was starting to give out and she could see more splotches of black filling her vision. She raised her wand one last time to end this so she could get out of the forest before she passed out. "Stupefy, stupefy, stupefy!" She hit each one of the boys with the stunner at point blank range. All three of the boy's eyes immediately shut. She dropped them from the tree they were hanging upside down from and turned to make her way out of the forest.
The pain in her arm and chest made it unbearable to walk. With each step towards the light outside the forest the blackness in her vision got worse. By the time she made it to the edge of the forest her world was almost completely black. There was no way she could make it to the hospital wing on her own. She fell to her knees crying.
As she hit the ground the first thing that popped into her head was the image that had come earlier of her and her friends all laughing in the potions lab. She smiled at the image, feeling some of the pain being replaced with happiness.
The pain started to go away as the last parts of her vision faded. She must have really lost a lot of blood. In the last few seconds before she blacked out she had started hallucinating. She saw an illusion of Harry running towards her. That thought also made her smile. As her world finally went to black she felt the grass brush against her face and heard her hallucination Harry call out to her.
"Hermio…" Was all she heard before she passed out.
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