Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.

My thanks to all the people who reviewed yesterday, you guys are the best! :) Also, my poll will be up for another month or so, I guess that by that time, they'll have figured out what they want to do with their lives. :p Unless I stumble in more writer's block. Anyway, on with the story.

Chapter 25

-o-O-o-

…24th October 1979…

Hermione's eyes opened to stare at the pale ceiling of Sirius' room. She stared around for a few seconds and noticed that her boyfriend was still fast asleep. Good. She needed some time alone right now.

She had just awoken from the same dream that haunted her during her Christmas holidays, almost two years ago. Every time, it just came back, the very same dream, starting at the same moment and ending at the same too. It was starting to wear her out.

She quietly slipped out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. Something important was happening today, but she had forgotten what.

Sirius woke up half an hour later, striding out of his, no, their, room, a huge grin on his face. She was on the sofa, curled up and sipping her second mug of Earl Grey. "Hey, beautiful." he greeted her, coming up behind her.

"Hi." She smiled and twisted her neck towards him to allow his lips to kiss hers softly. He pulled away after a while, walking back to the kitchen and pouring himself his own mug, before walking back to the living room and setting down next to her.

He took a long sip and asked. "Why did you leave this morning, we could've had some fun before Egypt."

'Egypt.' she thought. 'That's what I'd forgotten.' Than aloud: "I sorry, Sirius, I'd rather have all my energy to face whatever is coming on there." Sex was not new to them. After all, she'd moved on, and dating Sirius Black as a virgin was much easier when you were at school than when you lived at his place.

He smirked. "We still have time, you know." he replied cheekily.

Just then, Remus entered the room from the kitchen doorway with his own mug of tea and said: "I agree with Hermione, we should have all the energy we can get. It's a really important mission, after all."

Sirius groaned. "It's safe, for hell's sake! Hestia Jones went there to investigate the terrain with her squad! She sent us a letter saying the coast was clear!" he claimed, pulling a piece of parchment from under a book and waving it around their noses.

Hermione sighed. "You never know, Sirius. Better safe than sorry."

He growled and declared. "You'll be sorry when my sexual tension mounts up so high in that hot pyramid with tight passages that I just grab you, push you against a wall and-"

"I think she gets the idea, Sirius." Mary declared, entering the room with her own mug of tea. "Hello, honey." she smiled, pulling Remus in for a fervent kiss.

After a few minutes, it went so far that both of them had to put their mugs down to be able to feel each other better. "Ugh!" Sirius exclaimed. "And I don't even get any of that. I'm going to dress." And with that, Sirius finished his mug and stalked back to his room.

Shaking her head, Hermione tipped her mug back and finished it, before walking back to the kitchen to get another. The teapot was empty.

And, for strange and obscure reason, in made her smile.

-o-O-o-

"Okay, I knew it was going to be hot, but that hot… That's too much."

Hermione sighed. "Stop whining Sirius. If you don't want to be this mission's senior member any more, then just pass the map to Remus and get on with it."

Sirius huffed and continued walking, map held high. All six of them, that is, Remus, Mary, James, Lily, Sirius and Hermione, had their wands lit up in front of them to illuminate the ever-lasting pyramid corridors.

"Wait!" Sirius called out, holding his wand arm out to tell the others to come to a halt. "The map says we have to turn left!" And so they did.

Lily, who was just behind Hermione and who closed the procession, said, slightly ecstatic: "This is easy! When Dumbledore told us about the letter, I thought this was going to be hard."

James smiled at his wife from just in front of Hermione. "Important doesn't rhyme with hard, sweetie." he said lovingly.

"I agree with Lily." Mary said. "It's really easy." That left Hermione thinking.

"Why didn't Peter come again?" Remus asked from behind Mary.

Sirius, who was intently concentrated on his map, responded vaguely: "I think his great aunt is sick, though I'm not exactly sure with what… I just know he went to visit her."

Remus nodded and they continued walking, Hermione still deep in thought. They had been walking for at least an hour when Hermione mumbled: "It's too easy." Then, louder, she added: "Sirius, do you have that letter Hestia sent Dumbledore?"

He looked up, stopping them temporarily. "Uh, yeah, I think I do." He fumbled through his pockets for a few seconds before pulling the piece of parchment he had waved at her that morning. "Here." said, handing it backwards. He passed it to Mary, who passed it to Remus, who passed it to James, who passed it to Hermione.

They started walking again, and Hermione read the letter by the light of her wand.

'Albus,

Most of the coast seems clear, if we rely on our

best Aurors. The pyramid doesn't seem to be

under siege, so you can apparently come

safely. We wish you good luck in your quest.

Hestia Jones.'

She read the letter over and over again, without finding what was wrong with it and what made her stomach queasy. Then it dawned on her, and she paled. "Oh, God!" she exclaimed, one hand going to her lips in shock. "Stop!" she yelled, planting her feet in the ground. Lily bumped into her from behind and huffed indignantly.

Everyone did what she said and turned towards her. "Hermione, what's wrong?" Mary asked looking slightly worried at her friend's ghostly colour.

She ignored the question and asked: "Sirius, where is the closest exit?"

He took a glance at the map and declared: "A couple of corridors ahead, why?"

She again ignored the question. "Who gave you the map?" she asked again.

He looked puzzled but still answered. "It was in the same envelope as Hestia's letter." he said, starting to look worried. "Hermione, what's going on?"

"This!" she shrieked, handing him the letter back. "This s what's wrong! This is a trap! An ambush! There are probably plenty of Death Eaters in that chamber, waiting to just pick us like flowers when we thought this was going to be easy! We're dead!"

Sirius looked even more puzzled. "I don't see what's wrong with the letter." he said. "I had it authenticated, it's really Hestia who wrote it-"

"And she tried to warn us!" Hermione shrieked, getting more and more fidgety. "She wrote that letter under pressure, she was forced by her kidnappers, but she left us a hidden message! Unfortunately, not only did the Death Eaters not see it, but we didn't, either!"

"Hermione stop!" Sirius yelled. "You're over reacting, there is no hidden message, no spell was put on the paper-"

She cut him again. "You don't need a spell to hide a message, Sirius! Look at the first letter of each line! They form a single word-"

"Ambush." Sirius finished for her, paling significantly as well. "Oh, shit! Come on people, let's get to that exit as fast as we can."

He started to leave, but Hermione stopped him. "It's useless, Sirius." He turned toward her and she developed. "They gave you the map. All the exits marked there are probably fake, dead ends and all that kind of stuff."

He gulped. "What do we do, then?" he asked her.

She sighed. "We go back to the only exit we're sure of. The one we entered through. And we hope to God that we can leave before they notice that we've caught on and are not going to the chamber."

He nodded, but then, a cruel laugh echoed around the narrow corridors of the pyramid. The whole group's blood froze. "It's too late, now." a voice said, apparently coming from the direction of the exit.

"Who are you?" Sirius yelled. "Show yourself!"

The voice laughed again. Then, footsteps were heard and out, emerged from the darkness, a Death Eater, fully robed and masked, his left forearm the only piece of skin visible to wand light. He rose his hands up in the air, showing then that he was unarmed. "Kill me, if you want," he said, sounding amused. "But I'm the only person who knows the exits here."

"Oh, yeah?" Sirius called back. "We know exits too."

The Death Eater laughed. "Right. I was placed at the entrance to follow you under Dillusionment charm in case you figured out this was a trap. You did, and rather late too. Now, if you would please follow me so we can get out of here, it's boiling."

And with that, he turned around and stepped to another corridor. The six Order members nodded at each other and followed, in the opposite order than when they first came. After following the Death Eater for only a few minutes, they arrived at a dead end.

He waved his hand at them. "Wands, please." When he saw their refusing expressions, he chuckled. "You can always kill me now, but you'll never find the exit. Might as well hand over your wands and surrender. At least you'll get out."

Lily was the first one to give her wand up. James soon did the same. One by one, they all gave away their weapons, until only Hermione was armed. She looked at the Death Eater's mask where his eyes should be. "You'll get us out?" she asked.

He nodded. "I promise." He sounded truthful, but she wasn't having any of it.

She shook her head. "I need more than a promise. A Slytherin made a promise to me once. Now I know what they're worth." She gulped a little at the memory, but little held her chin high.

He didn't answer right away, but when he did, he sounded angry. "I'm afraid you have no choice now, little miss! Hand over your wand."

Reluctantly, she did as she was told. The Death Eater kept his promise, though and, tapping a stone on his right, the wall slid open, revealing bright sunshine. They all stepped out into the desert, the hot sand warming their shoes and the violent sun making them temporarily blind.

When she recovered her eyesight, however, Hermione gulped. They were surrounded by a dozen or so Death Eaters, masked and cloaked people who looked so still they could have been statues.

Hermione felt herself being shoved, landing in the arms of a man, judging by his hard chest, which bent her arms behind her back and held her steady. She saw the same treatment being administrated to her friends as the Death Eater who held all of their wands came towards her.

"You." he said, pointing at her. "You figured it out. You're smarter than the others. You should be smart enough to give us all the information we need without making a fuss. Now, where are the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix located?"

Saying that she was disgusted by his behaviour was an understatement. She was utterly appalled. Finding no words to describe her anger, she spat in his face.

He didn't even flinch. After a while, he said: "You won't tell us? Fine." He pointed his wand at her. "Crucio!"

Knives dug at her sides, peeling away all of her skin as she was thrown in a pool of fire and her ribs were snapped away, one by one. She was vaguely aware of falling to the ground, but the pain she was feeling quickly brushed away the though. At the very back of her head, she was aware that someone was screaming, as if in agony, and she thought: 'Your pain can't be as intense as mine.'

Then, after what seemed like decades, it stopped. The screams did too, so she deduced that it had in fact been her yelling her head off. She felt something warm and sticky in her mouth and realised she must have bitten her tongue so hard that it had bled. She was also crying.

The Death Eater who had held her picked her up roughly and held her, as her legs were shaking too much to support her body's weight. The one who held the wands looked at her. "Still won't talk?"

She spat some blood out of her mouth and caught her breath, managing to form two words. "Fuck you." she hissed at him.

She braced herself for more main, but none came. Instead, he just shrugged and said: "Maybe your friends are smarter than you after all." He turned away and walked towards Mary.

Meanwhile, as the man repeated his question, she felt something being pressed into her hand. Something long, hard and cold… A wand! She turned to the Death Eater in shock, but his mask wasn't showing any emotions. She grabbed the wand and turned to Mary.

The girl was looking at her questioningly, probably wondering if she should answer his question or not. Hermione looked pointedly at the questioning one numerous times, and hoped to God Mary knew what she meant.

Suddenly, she whipped the Death Eater's wand out and yelled: "Stupefy!"

The curse hit the questioner in the shoulder and he dropped by beside Mary, unconscious. Taking advantage of the situation, Mary jumped and retrieved all of their wands, before running to James, who was nearest.

Remus, James and Sirius overpowered the Death Eaters holding them and each grabbed a wand that Mary threw at them. The five of them started Stunning all the Death Eaters they saw, until one of them called out: "Stop!"

The one who had spoken had his wand pointed at Lily, still being held by her captor. All of them froze, their wands in hand held mid-air.

"Move and she dies!" he said. Lily tried to struggle, but the man who held her tightened his grip on her and she choked.

"No!" James yelled, sprinting towards his wife.

Unfortunately, he was too far away. The man yelled "Avada Kedavra!"

James sprinted faster, but someone beat him to it. A distinctively female figure jumped in front of the beam of green light and absorbed it all, before slumping down to the ground, lifeless.

No one moved. Then, Remus was the first one to shout. "Mary!" he shrieked, running towards the body of the girl he loved, cold and unmoving.

He tried to shake her, but the only thing that happened was that her head lolled to the side, her eyes wide open, but unseeing in the blissful peace of death. "Remus, no!" Sirius yelled at his friend. "Remus, it's too late! You can't do anything! … She's gone!"

From where Hermione stood, she saw Remus' shoulders shaking. At first, she thought he was crying, but when he turned around, it was only pure, animalistic rage she saw in his eyes. He stood up abruptly and ran towards the man who had murdered his loved one. "You bastard!" he yelled, catching up with the Death Eater, who seemed to be frozen in place.

He tried to flee, but being short and squat, he couldn't outrun his pursuer, who seemed bent on catching him. When he did, Remus grabbed him by the collar and tried to punch the living daylights out of him.

James, using Remus as a distraction, had freed Lily and stunned her captor. The only two Death Eaters standing up now was the one Remus was beating to death and the one who had given Hermione his wand. "Remus!" Sirius yelled, running towards his best friend. "Remus, you're going to kill him! Stop! We have to go, before reinforcements arrive!"

"I don't care!" the grief stricken werewolf shouted. "I'm going to murder him! I'm going to murder him in cold blood like he murdered Mary! That snivelling little bastard!"

James and Lily had already Disapparated. Sirius turned to Hermione. "Leave!" he cried out. "Leave before they come! I don't want them to get you too!"

She shook her head. "Go ahead." she told him. "Just grab Remus and go. I'll be there in just a moment."

He tried to argue. "But, Hermione-"

"I'll be fine, Sirius." she cut him. "Just go." When she saw the insecurity in his eyes, she added: "Trust me."

It took some time, but finally, he nodded. Then he turned back to Remus, who by now had practically killed the man who had murdered Mary. He pried him away from the dying man and twirled with his wand, Disapparating.

And Hermione was left alone with the last, standing Death Eater.

She didn't say anything. She just walked to Mary's corpse, only a few feet away from him, and took the three wands from her hand. She then put Lily's and Mary's wands away in her pocket, leaving her with her and the Death Eater's, one n each hand.

She considered them for a while, before tossing the one that did not belong to her back to its owner.

He grabbed it, but made no attempt to stop her. She took hold of Mary's arm, already getting colder in death, and looking upon her saviour one last time. "Thank you." she told him.

He nodded, and she Disapparated.

-o-O-o-

When she came back to Sirius' flat, after bringing Mary's body to headquarters to await the burial, everything seemed empty. She put her wand down on the living room table and looked at the couch. Remus was sitting there, alone.

He seemed to have calmed down, and looked as if he was holding his tears in, as if waiting for her.

She sat down next to him, and wordlessly took him into her arms, making his head rest on her shoulder. And he sobbed. He sobbed for hours. Numerous times she tried to say something, to apologise or say she was sorry for his loss, but deep down, she knew it wouldn't help. So she said the only thing that seemed like the right the thing to say.

"I know how it feels."

And it was true. She knew how it felt when someone you loved died. You felt dead yourself.

And, once again, her thoughts drifted to Regulus and, she too, started crying all the tears her body held.

-o-O-o-

Please review… I know it was dramatic, but still, please.