When Hermione, Draco and Luna Apparated back to the Manor, Blaise Zabini was waiting for them. He looked a lot worse that he did three days ago, the smile was long gone from his lips, his face seemed ashen and the dark circles under his eyes were deeper. He saw the three of them come back, but his eyes were on Luna.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice dead.

Luna stepped forward, reaching out her hand toward him. "I'm going to help Hermione and Draco kill the snake. It's the last Horcrux." She paused, watching him carefully. "What are you doing here, Blaise?"

Blaise's face contorted into a pained grimace. "They set my home on fire," he said quietly. "They thought I was inside when they cursed it, and they probably think I'm dead, art least for now, although I managed to escape." Luna went closer and touched his hand softly, comforting him. "Nineteen… Nineteen generations lived in that house… My parents, my grandparents, my grandparents… My children were supposed to grow up there… Now it's all gone…" His voice broke more and more with every word he said.

Hermione's heart sank. If Blaise's house was burned down, that meant the Malfoy Manor will be next…

"Oh, Blaise… I'm so sorry…" Luna spoke out, her voice filled with pity as she hugged her, and he hugged her back, leaning into her as if she were the only anchor he had left.

Blaise finally raised his head to look at Draco. "I didn't know where else to go…"

"I'll kill him tonight," Draco said firmly. "If everything goes according to plan, Voldemort will be dead by nightfall."

Blaise nodded, determined, his eyes filling with justified rage. "I'm coming with you," he said.

Draco inclined his head. "Lovegood, walk him through the plan, I'm going to retrieve the sword."

Luna listened and told Blaise what they were planning to do. A few minutes later Draco came back with the Gryffindor sword at his side. Hermione only now thought that they should've taken some Basilisk fangs from the Chamber of Secrets so that all of them had a weapon to kill the snake with, but she also had no idea there would be four of them on this mission, since the original plan involved only her and Draco, and in Draco's plan, there was only him. So a single sword will have to do. They had no time left to waste.

"Mipsy, we will be back soon, but I will put up the wards back the moment we're gone," Draco informed his house elf who popped in front of them at the mention of her name. "Don't let anyone inside unless it's me or Hermione, and even if it's me, make sure I'm not under Imperius."

Mipsy watched her Master speak with wide eyes, then she nodded quickly. "Yes, Master."

Hermione said her goodbyes to the elf, hoping to see her soon with victorious heart.

Draco told Blaise to change into the Death Eater robes, while Hermione and Luna were to act like submissive wives in case they met someone on their way to the Department of Mysteries. Hermione gave Mipsy one last look of farewell. When all was done, the four of them Apparated to the Ministry.

They reappeared next to a battered telephone box and opened the door, somehow all of them fitting inside. Blaise dialed six, two, four, four, two, and stated their business as work, their destination - Department of Mysteries. The floor shuddered and the four of them sank into the depths of the Ministry. For a few short moments, everything was only a mix of dark with sudden bursts of light, and when they reached the lowest ninth level and the door of the lift swung open, the light that settled was so low they needed time to adjust.

The long corridor lined with black glossy tiles seemed endless, but they started walking. Draco hid the sword under his robes, but his hand was looming over it, ready to sheath it out whenever necessary.

"Lumos," he said, making the tip of his wand light up and illuminate the way ahead. He started walking forward, the rest of them following behind. Hermione and Luna both cast a Lumos charm too.

It was quiet and eerie, and the voidness of it made Hermione's skin crawl. She half-expected a monster to jump out of a corner when they passed it. Yet there was nothing.

"Why is it so empty here?" Blaise whispered.

Nobody answered but they were all thinking the same – they might be too late.

Doors upon doors upon doors stretched before them, and it reminded Hermione of her time here almost eight years ago. She shuddered at the memory. She wished Harry was here. She wished he was Harry, that he would tell them where to go, that he would lead the way. She believed he knew exactly where the snake was and that with him they would spend no time wandering around aimlessly; but she also knew that it would be too dangerous for Harry to be here with them – he was the Chosen One, and he had to stay alive. She didn't believe Draco would kill Voldemort tonight, because it was Harry's destiny to do so, but she wanted to believe they would manage to destroy the snake and get out of this unscathed.

"I think they might've been expecting us," Luna whispered.

Draco cursed under his breath.

"We should enter through one of the doors," Hermione offered. Draco turned to her, questioning. "If the snake if here, it must be behind one of those doors, that's how Harry described it."

"We should split then," Blaise said. "Cover more ground. Check every door."

Draco shook his head. "I'm the only who has the sword."

"Well, we have wands."

Draco turned to Blaise. "You don't know what these things do. They're not that easy to battle. If anyone with a wand could eradicate a Horcrux, Voldemort would already be taken down."

"I agree, it's better if we're together. The snake is dangerous, and it won't go without a fight," Hermione added, desperately trying not to let memories of what happened to Ron invade her thoughts and disturb her ability to think rationally. Even the two of us couldn't kill it, she thought. I hope the four of us can.

Blaise only shrugged when his suggestion got outvoted.

They started opening the doors. A lot of them did not open, a few of them opened into a brick wall, and even more of them opened to rooms so small and dark there was no way a snake a size of Nagini could be hiding in there.

Finally, the one room that caught their attention was big and dark, and they had to actually enter inside, and further, to be sure they looked through everything. That's when Draco turned to Hermione.

"You two stay behind for a bit," he nodded hers and Luna's way. "Blaise and I are going."

Hermione lit up like match. "What? But you just said yourself that we cannot split up!"

She saw his jaw muscles tense. "We're not splitting, just, for Merlin's sake, I'm asking to stay here for a few moments until we make sure it's not inevitable death here!"

"And we are not staying behind while you go in!"

"Granger, you will not fight me on this!"

Another one of their battle of wills set place, and this time, after fuming and groaning inside, Hermione realized it was her turn to comply, no matter how much she hated it.

Draco and Blaise went in, looking around carefully. Nothing happened. Draco turned around, opening his mouth to tell them it was safe to come in, at least so far. They were ready to go in, but a strange sensation under her feet stopped Hermione in her tracks.

The ground beneath Hermione and Luna shuddered. It felt like an earthquake. The tiles wrecked in half and shattered in pieces as if the ground was splitting open. The ground was sinking lower. Draco and Blaise stared at them with shocked expressions. Both Hermione and Luna found it hard to stay on their feet, and soon they were both on their knees, trying to stay in place. Draco was about to run back but they were so below the level of the room they were in that jumping off now would be disastrous.

"Hermione, catch!" she heard Draco shout and when she looked up, she saw that he threw her the sword.

"No, don't!" she yelled out, but it was no use – the sword was on its way to her. She caught it with both hands, and the men's faces melted into the dark as the tiled floor her and Luna were standing on mere seconds ago turned into nothingness, and they were now free falling into whatever abyss awaited past the nine official floors of the Ministry.

Hermione screamed, and she heard Luna scream too, but their voices were muffled by the wind of the fall. She didn't know if ground was close, or if it even existed, maybe they were cursed to fall like this for the rest of eternity, but it was so black all around she couldn't tell, all she could do was scream her lungs out and clutch the Gryffindor sword in her hands.

Suddenly something shone in the periphery of her vision, and on the last moment before their bodies hit the ground, Hermione managed to shout out a Featherfell charm. That didn't stop her from hitting her chest to the ground painfully. Hermione groaned when all air whooshed from her lungs, she heard the sword clatter somewhere through the floor which she let go of upon impact. All was black again.

"Luna?" Hermione addresses her friend. "Are you alright?"

"Yes…" she heard Luna breathe out before she lit up her wand with a Lumos.

Light blinded Hermione, and she saw Luna standing in front of her, her hand reached out. Hermione took it, and Luna heaved her up. She lighted up her own wand and went to pick up a sword. It felt heavy and cold in her hands. Luna tried to flash up, but the blackness above them was so thick it seemed alive. Neither Draco nor Blaise were anywhere to be seen.

Hermione tried not to let panic seize her. They won't be stuck here forever, they will come for them eventually. She prayed for them to find the snake in one of the rooms. But there was no floor left, so if Nagini is not in that room, they won't be able to search anywhere else… And the sword was with them, so even if they do end up finding the snake, they won't be able to kill it…

She shook these thoughts away. There was no use thinking like that right now. She looked around, trying to see something, anything that would help them measure the space.

"Where are we…" she spoke out.

"I have no idea…" Luna answered. "It's so dark and cold here…" It's been a long time since Hermione heard Luna so frightened and hopeless. She herself didn't feel any more optimistic.

They started walking forward because staying in one place seemed ridiculous. But no matter how far they went, the darkness didn't seem to fade. Whenever the two women spoke with one another, their voices echoed through creepily, so after a few tries they decided it was best if they stayed quiet. The silence was less frightening than their own voices that were distorted in this special nightmare.

As more darkness seemed to seep inside her through her nostrils, through the pores on her skin, Hermione couldn't help but think of where Draco was now and how he was doing. Was he safe? Did he find the snake? Was he worried about her? Maybe he and Blaise were planning how to get them out right now? She no longer knew if this darkness was real or if it was only her imagination, and more often than not she would even forget Luna was there too, because they didn't speak.

She didn't even register the soft hissing coming from the left. She thought it was an echo of their footsteps at first; only when the hissing go louder did she discern it as an outsider sound. Another millisecond of doubt and the snake's fangs would've pierced her shoulder, but somehow Hermione managed to turn her full body to where the snake was, take a step back, and whish the sword where the snakes head was just a moment ago. Her wand illuminated the enormous body of the snake, its wild eyes and mouth full open, hissing out poison, ready to attack again.

"Oh my god, do you see it?" Hermione shouted, ready to believe this was just a figment of her imagination.

"The snake!" Luna yelled back, hitting the snake once with a ferocious curse that did no damage.

The snake slithered closer to them and now Hermione had nothing better to do but to retrieve or attack, but she didn't trust the sword in her hands as she had never wielded it. They took steps back while Luna tried to curse the snake. She got too close, and Nagini attacked her. For a horrible moment Hermione believed the snake bit her, and she desperately prayed for the same scenario with Ron not to repeat itself, but Luna seemed to be okay, only her wand fell to the ground, and now she was weaponless.

Hermione was grateful that Draco had thrown her the sword before they fell here, but she was mad at herself for being so useless. She stirred the sword in air, desperately trying to hit the snake, but none of her blows were lethal. The snake's skin was too thick, her body too fat, and her slithers finally cornered them. Hermione swung the sword, and it got stung in the snake's insides. While she tried to take it out, the snake bit her once, but the thick fabric of her clothes protected from the piercing fangs. Still, her knees buckled, and she almost fell.

Nagini attacked again, and this time Luna kicked it to try and stop it, but it was no use. Hermione felt a stinging pain in her left hand, and she hissed almost like the snake. Luna rushed to the side and helped to take the sword out of the snake—blood splashed all over them. Hermione was weakened, but so was the snake. Luna took Hermione's wand for light, and Hermione raised the sword in the air to deliver the final blow, seeing her own ghostly reflection in Nagini's black eyes. Right before the slash the snake pushed forward with its' entire body, hauling her off her feet. Hermione fell on her back and the snake bit her again, in the exact same spot on the left hand. Hermione screamed and released the sword. Her vision went blurry. The snake was going to bite her until there's nothing left of her, just like what happened to Ron…She was going to die… She was already bit…

Hermione saw Luna take the sword and hit it once, twice, screaming out her fury. Nagini got chopped up in pieces, and Luna ran to Hermione's side, crying, screaming for her to wake up, but she couldn't. Her eyelids were so heavy. Her body didn't listen to her. She felt poison sink deeper into her system, and she knew the inevitable ending was near. She was dying just like Ron, but she would soon see him, and everything would be better. She didn't know if what she saw and felt next was real or was it just part of her pre-mortem nightmare. The ring Draco had given her set on fire and burned her hand, burning away together with the pain of the poison. Hermione didn't know which pain was worse – the one from the poison or the one from the fire of the ring.

Her last thought before she drowned into oblivion was that of Draco – and how horribly upset she was she didn't get the chance to tell him how much she loved him.