C/W: mild gore

Hermione stood carefully, shaking the hair out of her face and dusting her hands. Blood dribbled down her left arm where something sharp had sliced through her jumper. Thank Merlin, the wound appeared to be superficial.

Hermione glanced once over her shoulder to inspect the cabinet of full of hourglasses; it was intact, but there was something unnatural about its appearance now. It seemed to quiver with nearly imperceptible movement, giving the whole thing a rather indistinct quality. She knew better than to chance touching it now.

Relief at her unlikely escape suddenly washed through her, so profound that it nearly brought her back to her knees.

It was quickly replaced with horror when she looked over to find a large, maskless, blonde Death Eater watching her with his mouth hanging open in astonishment. She squeaked in surprise, pointing her wand and falling back instinctively on one of the first offensive spells she'd ever learned.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The big Death Eater must have been too stunned to react — he keeled over to lie face-up in front of the door to the room full of prophecies, his eyes darting around madly.

Hermione shied back against the wall, hastily scanning the room for more enemies. If one was already here, how many others were on their way? Would she be able to stay out of sight until her former self arrived?

She looked to the nearest couple of clocks, but no two of them were the same. Her wristwatch was no use; a pesky discovery she'd made third year meant it was still set to the time she'd just left — whenever that was going to happen.

Chewing her bottom lip, Hermione's gaze landed on the Death Eater again.

Abrupt realisation had her gasping aloud; she'd made a grave miscalculation.

This Death Eater had been lying there when she entered the room just moments ago, but he definitely hadn't been there when she'd come through the first time with Harry and the others. Her assumption that the time-turner worked in similar increments to the device she'd owned in third year meant that she'd vastly overestimated how far back she'd travelled.

Given the presence of the Death Eater, she'd logically only gone back a few minutes, and time was quickly catching back up to her.

Looking down at the device in her hand, Hermione briefly contemplated using it again to buy herself even more time when she noticed a small crack running through the setting around the tiny hourglass.

Memories of her time-turner mishap third year surfaced, tinged with residual fear. The time-turner simply not working the next time she tried it was the least of her worries. What if she got trapped somewhere? What if it wasn't safe?

She dismissed the whole idea immediately — she wouldn't use the time-turner again unless there was no other option.

Hermione nervously sidestepped the petrified man, whose eyes were black with fury, and carefully opened the door. The same gust of cold air whooshed out as she entered, her wand drawn and poised to attack at the first sign of trouble.

She tiptoed down the line of numbered aisles, beginning to hear voices as she approached the ninety-seventh. Peering around the edge of row ninety-six, Hermione watched from afar as she and her friends huddled together, cringing as soon as Bellatrix started screaming about Harry saying Voldemort's name.

Hermione pulled back to the next row, thinking fast. What could she do in the brief time left to improve their chances of escaping the Death Eaters unscathed?

Or rather, what had she already done?

Movement caught the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see Cedric suddenly flashing into view halfway down row ninety-six.

She immediately recognised his adept use of the Disillusionment Charm from earlier — a charm advanced enough that most N.E.W.T.-level students never mastered it. When they'd first been caught by Bellatrix earlier, Cedric must have taken the opportunity to quietly disappear from view while the Death Eater's attention had been on Harry.

Focused intently on the next row over, Cedric flickered in and out of sight as he moved, disappearing neatly into the background once he stopped behind the outermost ring of Death Eaters.

Hermione watched as the closest Death Eater suddenly brought a hand to his throat before going silently rigid. A small blue beam of light followed, hitting the Death Eater squarely in the back. None of the surrounding Death Eaters noticed their companion's incapacitation.

She instantly pieced together what Cedric was doing. As he moved to repeat the performance, Hermione gathered her courage and darted silently past row ninety-seven and into row ninety-eight. She'd take care of as many as possible on this side before her time was up.

Heart hammering loudly in her chest, she took aim, only for her breath to catch when one of the Death Eaters half-turned their head almost exactly in her direction. She kept completely still, not even daring to draw breath until they had looked forward again.

Whatever they thought, they obviously hadn't seen her. Steeling herself against her buzzing nerves, Hermione set to work, half-listening to Crouch's explanation about prophecies and those who are allowed to retrieve them while concentrating on her nonverbal casting.

She managed to Silence, Petrify, and Immobilise three other Death Eaters in their upright positions before the fighting began.

"Stupefy!" shouted Harry, and Hermione simultaneously attempted a nonverbal Stunning spell towards Bellatrix, who was nearest him apart from Crouch. Bellatrix blocked easily and her face twisted with rage as she looked around wildly for the source of her attacker, uncaring to the glass shards suddenly splintering around her.

Hermione didn't wait around to be found. She lurched into motion just as Harry yelled for them to run, the sound of shattering glass covering her retreat.

"Find him!" came Crouch's shout, much closer than it had been before. "Find the boy!"

This time, she was able to follow Harry by the disembodied spells he cast. She ran hard down the aisle, squinting between the shelves every few moments to make sure she didn't lose him.

A set of footsteps suddenly crashed after her, far more quickly than she'd anticipated being found.

The red light of a Stunning Spell shot by her left arm, just missing its target. She pointed her wand over her shoulder and sent back a Reductor Curse, hoping that wherever it hit, the collateral damage would slow her adversary enough to get away.

The sound of more broken glass reached her ears, followed by the cracking and tearing sounds of splintering wood.

She didn't look back. Hermione made it to the end of the row and whipped around the corner, colliding with something hard.

"Hermione!" came Harry's breathless voice. "Which way to the exit?"

She sucked in a painful breath and pointed down the rows. "This way, I think."

An involuntary scream tore out of her throat as a bolt of white light suddenly shot past her head. A masculine voice behind her yelled in fury as Harry's spell made contact.

"Come on!" Harry urged, and an invisible hand tugged her forward. They sprinted past the rows of prophecies, exchanging frantic wandfire and occasionally ducking for cover whenever another Death Eater appeared. Bright flashes of light pulsed throughout the room, often punctuated by ear-splitting booms. The number of assailants seemed to be endless.

Fortunately, their opponents were too dispersed to attack them with a united front. Even more fortunately, Harry seemed to possess some sort of sixth sense for rooting them out, and if Hermione hadn't been a first-hand witness, she never would have believed just how fast he could cast.

They reached the far corner of the room, forcing them to turn to follow the perimeter towards the exit. A Death Eater appeared ahead of them in the darkness.

"Stupefy!" screamed Hermione at the same time Harry shouted "Expelliarmus!"

The Death Eater fell back, his wand arcing through the air to disappear into the blackness.

Hermione heard the rough voice behind them far too late.

"POTTER'S HERE! HE'S NEAR THE PLANET—"

"Silencio!" Hermione cried as she spun on the spot, and the man's voice cut off.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, just as the masked assailant made a slashing movement with his wand.

Time seemed to slow. Hermione watched helplessly as a bar of purple fire streaked towards her, cutting cleanly through Harry's spell. Before she could so much as open her mouth, the fire embedded itself into her chest. Wide-eyed, she brought a shaking hand up to where the burn should be... except there wasn't one.

Then pain exploded across her body.

A scream of pure agony ripped from her lungs as an unbelievable, excruciating heat seared through her middle and burned to her extremities. She crumpled to the floor, wishing for death. Her vision blackened, her ears roared, and her entire being — everything she'd ever known — condensed to pain and only pain. Let it be finished, just let her die...

The feeling of a hand on her shoulder. Frantic words in her ear.

"Hermione," someone was whispering, "Hermione, please. You have to be okay. It's all my fault. Please be okay—"

It was Harry, she realised. She could hear him again. At some point, the pain had ebbed away, leaving only a dull ache in her chest. She was panting, and a sickly-sweet smell reached her nose. Hermione opened her eyes to see a pile of vomit on the floor in front of her.

She turned to look at Harry, who continued to mutter panicked supplications, and was surprised to be able to see him.

"Death... Death Eater?" she managed to ask in a raspy voice.

"Stunned," Harry replied, looking anxious. "Are you okay?"

Hermione got up to her knees, rubbing small circles into her chest with one hand and looking sideways at the motionless Death Eater sprawled on the floor. His mask had fallen off in the scuffle, revealing a long, sunken face that looked vicious even insensate. She shivered.

"I... I think so," she said, mentally examining each part of her body. Nothing felt out of place. Nothing particularly hurt now. Even the dull ache in her chest had subsided.

Hermione stood, flexing her fingers and toes and rolling her shoulders back. Harry watched her through slightly foggy glasses, a look of profound relief on his face.

"Harry! Hermione!" came Neville's whispered shout. He and Cedric thundered into view. "We heard that Death Eater shouting and then one of you scream — are you alright?"

"Ron and Ginny? Luna?" Harry asked instead, his expression hopeful. Cedric, a large purple bruise around one eye, shook his head.

"We don't know. We think they must have escaped," Neville supplied, his round face dripping sweat and dried blood smeared under his nose. "We were able to throw off two of those Death Eaters but there are more around somewhere."

"They appear to be regrouping," Cedric added. "They know you're still inside, Harry, and that sickly-looking fellow is directing them to block the exit. There are only a handful left, I think, but the most dangerous are the ones still standing."

Harry mulled over that information for a split second before turning to Hermione.

"Can you replicate this?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass sphere glowing with a dim light inside. Hermione gasped.

"Harry, you didn't!" she moaned softly, passing a hand over her eyes.

"I couldn't leave it," Harry whispered defensively, "not if Voldemort needs it. So can you do it?"

"Yes, yes, I can do it," she said, unable to keep a touch of exasperation from colouring her tone. She took the prophecy from Harry gingerly, cradling it in one hand and touching the tip of her wand to it with the other.

"Geminio!"

A near-perfect replica appeared next to the first. Harry snatched up the replica, which glowed very faintly comparatively, leaving Hermione with the true prophecy.

"What are you—"

She stopped as Harry next retrieved the invisibility cloak and threw it over her head.

"I'm going to distract them," Harry explained quickly. "Get them away from the doors. While I do that, you, Neville, and Cedric are going to get out, find the others, and get to safety."

Neville looked alarmed. "But Harry—"

"They won't hurt me," Harry cut in, "not as long as they think I have the prophecy."

Neville's brows mashed together. "No way — we're not leaving you alone in here. Right, Cedric?"

Cedric nodded solemnly. "Right." He held his hand out. "And we can each carry a fake prophecy. It will confuse them even more, and we'll all have a small measure of protection."

Harry was silent for a long moment, visibly fuming as he looked between Neville and Cedric. Whatever Harry saw in their faces must have weakened his resolve; he conceded with a sigh, dropping the fake prophecy into Cedric's hand.

Cedric promptly mimicked the Replication Charm, distributing the others to Harry and Neville.

Watching them prepare, uneasiness settled low in her gut.

"Harry, I don't think this is a good idea," Hermione whispered, drawing the cloak more tightly around herself. "I don't think I should leave you behind — what are you going to do if they catch you? Any of you? Maybe we could all squeeze under the cloak and cause a distraction—"

Harry shook his head. "No. I can't risk letting him have the prophecy — it's too important. Dumbledore had the Order guarding this place day and night, and even Sirius risked his freedom for it. In fact, Sirius is probably on the way for help right now. He has to be. Crouch would have mentioned before if they'd had him."

He spoke the last so confidently that Hermione couldn't bear to contradict him. Not when it might mean wringing out the last shreds of hope left between them.

"What if we just hide in here?" she asked instead. "Wait for help?"

At that moment, a heavy presence seemed to swoop down from above and wrap them in its shadow, causing Hermione to gasp from whatever unseen magic had found her.

"That'll be the Revealing Charm," Cedric explained, flexing his fingers at his side. "They're not likely to leave us alone for long."

"We'll hold them off," Harry continued firmly to her as if nothing had happened. "You go and get help. Make sure Ginny, Luna, and Ron are okay. I expect you'll run into Sirius on the way and can lead him back to us."

How she was supposed to contact anyone if not, Hermione didn't know.

Before she could point out the flaws in his plan, Harry set off at cautious pace, Cedric right on his heels. Neville shrugged at her, pulled nervously at his collar, and turned to follow.

Hermione gave in with a small sigh. Stuffing the prophecy securely into her pocket beside the partly-broken time-turner, she followed the others as they tiptoed the last few rows towards the door to the time room.

Crouch was indeed standing guard, along with two other still-masked Death Eaters. Were there truly only three of them left?

Hermione somehow didn't think so. They'd been lucky — far luckier than they'd had any right to be — but there had been too many opponents to begin with.

Anxious as he must have been to get to Ron, Ginny, and Luna, Harry stepped out into view before they'd even formed a plan of attack.

Crouch's eyes lit up as they landed on Harry.

"Ah, Potter," Crouch said, his gaze immediately catching on the glass ball in Harry's hand. "Finally decided to see reason, did you?"

"Not quite," Harry said. Cedric and Neville stepped forward, also clutching their prophecies.

Crouch's face twisted into a snarl. "You think you can play games with us? We've already captured your other little friends—" Hermione's breath caught and Harry stiffened, "—and we won't hesitate to dispose of these two as well. Give us the prophecy now, and you have my word that we will spare them."

Harry snorted loudly. "Right."

Somewhere in the distance, Hermione thought she might already hear voices shouting. Spinning his wand lazily at his side, Crouch didn't seem to notice. His insane smile suddenly returned.

"We've had our differences, it's true, but you may mark my words as truth. In the Dark Lord's most honourable name, I swear it they will be spared." Crouch's smile widened. "As for you, Potter... you're going to die either way."

"Stupefy!" came Neville's voice without warning, and bright red light shot towards Crouch.

Crouch deflected with blurring speed. Two other streams of red light followed the first before Harry, Neville, and Cedric took off sprinting back into the rows of prophecies and pandemonium reigned once more.

Crouch took off after Harry, who barely avoided a nasty-looking hex as it flew over his head, and Hermione saw her chance as the two other Death Eaters split up to go after Cedric and Neville. She was almost to the door when the one chasing Neville abruptly halted and looked back over their shoulder to stare straight at her, invisibility cloak and all.

She hadn't the time to ponder it, for at that moment, Hermione yanked open the door and fell over the threshold into the time room. Except it wasn't.

Her feet went out from under her and she was in freefall. Although... was she actually moving? It was hard to tell in this cold, dark place she could only describe as nothingness.

She blinked and thousands of tiny pinprick lights registered in her vision, a few of them far larger than the rest. It only took another moment for her to piece together where she'd figuratively landed — the Death Eater who'd cursed her had been yelling about planets.

A noise behind her had her scrambling. She called on the meagre swimming lessons of her youth to propel herself forward, her feet finally finding purchase near Saturn.

She kept close to the wall as she ran, clutching the prophecy to her chest. Flying past Mercury, a door materialized in the dark wall ahead.

Hermione braced herself for the attack that would inevitably fall when she had to pause at the door, but it never came.

She didn't dare turn around to see if her attacker was still in pursuit; flinging the exit open, she spilled out into the familiar round, black chamber, immediately shutting her eyes when the blue flames began to quiver in their brackets.

As the room spun and came to a stop, she realised her predicament.

All of her fiery red marks had already faded from the back of the doors. There were an untold number of rooms in this place, all assuredly filled with both curiosities and horrors alike, and there was no telling which way was the exit.

A handle to the side rattled, and she threw herself to the nearest plain black door.

It was the small, untidy office from before. Hermione backed inside, careful to shut the door softly so that the Death Eater wouldn't be able follow, and immediately cast a spell to lock the entrance.

"Colloportus!"

The door sealed off with a squelch. She quickly weighed her options.

If what Crouch had said about Ron, Ginny, and Luna was true, she needed to find and free them. But the thought of Harry, Cedric, and Neville still trapped in the prophecy room had her hesitating. Could they all evade Crouch and the others long enough to escape? To stay alive?

Maybe she should go back, what did it matter that Voldemort couldn't have the prophecy if he ended up having Harry instead—

Something hard collided with the door she'd just come through, rattling the wood in its frame.

Heart pounding painfully in her chest, Hermione backed against the wall and ducked down behind the cage with the strange-looking bird-creature. She had the cloak, true, but it obviously hadn't stopped her from being followed here in the first place.

She scanned the room more thoroughly, barely even aware that she'd begun muttering frantic pleas for help under her breath. There had been at least two ways into the prophecy room, hadn't there? What if there was another door leading inside from this place—

An earsplitting squawk had her reeling back and clutching at her chest.

"Box! Box!"

It was the Humdinger — bird-thing — whatever — and it was making such a racket that the Death Eater outside was sure to know her position now if he hadn't already.

"Shhh," Hermione pleaded, forgetting that the bird couldn't see her waving her hands beneath the cloak. "Be quiet, please, be quiet—"

"Box!" it continued to insist, even louder than before.

Hermione covered her ears, redoubling her efforts to find another way out. Another heavy thud on the door she'd locked was barely audible over the squawking. She looked across the row of desks and finally spotted deliverance in the form of yet another plain black door, half-hidden behind an overgrown houseplant.

She ran for it, not waiting to find out if her charm on the first door would hold. She flung it open, only to come face-to-face with the Death Eater that she'd most hoped to avoid.

Hermione gasped aloud. In her panic, she immediately tried to force the door shut on an equally shocked-looking Crouch.

He recovered quickly; a white flash of light and she was thrown backwards into the office to land hard on one of the cluttered desks, the cloak slipping off of her in the process. The air whooshed out of her lungs and she wheezed for breath, barely managing to roll onto the floor in time to avoid the next jet of light.

"Protego!" she gasped, shuffling backwards on her knees and blocking a third beam of wandfire just in time.

But Crouch was too fast — the fourth took her squarely in the chest and her muscles seized. She was trapped inside her own body, her back against the wall and unable to do anything more than suck in rapid, shallow breaths and blink furiously.

Then Crouch was there, towering over her with triumph in his eyes.

"I should have known it was you," he spat with a sneer. "You have interfered with the Dark Lord's wishes for Potter for the last time."

If she'd been able, she would have flinched at the hand he suddenly raised in front of her face, but he only plucked the wand out of her fingers and tossed it to the side, resulting in a dull clang as it made contact with something there. The bird was now silent.

"I regret that I couldn't make this more painful for you," he continued, almost lovingly in the way he caressed her temple with the tip of his wand, "but I have more urgent matters to deal with than a meddlesome, insufferable child."

He smiled then, certain death promised in his eyes.

It was with extreme déjà vu that Crouch's eyes proceeded to roll up into his head as he dropped bonelessly to the ground.

Still frozen in place, Hermione searched hopefully for her saviour, only for her insides to shrivel at the sight of yet another Death Eater looming over her.

This Death Eater reached up slowly, removing the mask to reveal a pale, pointed face framed by a familiar shade of sleek, white-blonde hair.

Lucius Malfoy stared down at her with a cold expression.

"Stand up," he ordered curtly, causing Hermione to belatedly realise that she could indeed move her muscles again. She stiffly complied, never breaking eye contact with the sneering man in front of her.

Cold, grey eyes boring into her own, Lucius suddenly reached over an unconscious Crouch to catch her chin with ice-cold fingers.

Hermione inhaled sharply at the contact and tried to pull away, but his fingers tightened painfully, digging into the soft flesh of her cheeks.

His wand stayed loosely at his side as he turned her head this way and that, apparently searching for something.

Without warning, he snatched at the chain around her neck and drew out the pendant from the front of her jumper. His nostrils flared and a low hiss escaped him.

"What is this?" he demanded harshly, eyes pinned to the small blue sapphire in his palm. Under his touch, the glow took up inside the stone, revealing an impossibly tiny figure inside.

"Tell me now, girl," Lucius demanded again. "What is this? What have you done?"

Terror tore at her heart. She opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her.

How had he known? Is this how he'd followed her?

"Answer me," he hissed, tightening his grip. The chain pressed slightly into the back of her neck.

"It's— it's nothing," she finally managed to squeak out, "just a trinket—"

"Do not lie," Lucius snarled. "This has something to do with my son. Explain yourself."

She pulled back from his grip and he let her this time, his furious gaze still caught on the blue stone now resting on her chest.

As she tended to under pressure, Hermione fell back on her oldest excuse.

"It's just something from class," she lied, her voice trembling. She hoped he mistook it for simple fear. "We had a project together, and I thought it was pretty so I kept it. It's nothing. It's harmless—"

Lucius's nostrils flared wide again and he tilted his chin up to look arrogantly down his nose at her.

"Do you take me for a fool? That is no ordinary magic—"

A huge crash cut him off from the next room over where the door still hung wide. Inside it, Hermione could barely make out a tank of dark green water with strange, greyish objects floating inside.

Unexpectedly, Lucius waved his wand so the door shut with a bang and held out his hand to her.

"The prophecy," he ordered, making no effort to hide his contempt.

She swallowed heavily. "It's a fake, Harry has the real one—"

He didn't let her finish. "Accio Prophecy."

The little glass ball was flying out of her pocket. She snatched at it while it was in the air, but it was too late. His fingers closed around the glowing ball and he flashed her a tight smile.

Her heart sank — he knew it was real.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he drawled in a patronising tone.

When she didn't respond, he made as if to walk away, but paused to throw a final, incensed stare back over his shoulder.

"If you make it out of this place alive, you are to stay away from my son. I will not have his life endangered over a stupid, careless girl."

He paused, lip curling before he added, "And a Mudblood, no less."

Stunned into silence, Hermione stood by while Lucius Malfoy glided back across the small office, black robes billowing, and let himself through the door leading out to the circular room. The quiet snick as it shut behind him might as well have been deafening.

She paused to collect herself, re-tucking the pendant and drawing a deep breath, then threw a single, apprehensive look at Crouch still lying on the floor before hurrying to retrieve the cloak and her wand. As for the prophecy...

It was lost. She hoped Harry would understand.

Bits and pieces littered the ground from her short-lived duel with Crouch, making the task more difficult than anticipated. The cloak was still by one of the desks, and she finally discovered her wand lying at the foot of the bird's wire cage. She snatched it up, fully intending to leave right away and find the others, when a nearby pile of familiar-looking, glittering objects caught her eye.

Her jaw dropped.

The last time she'd seen these, they'd been lined up on Albert Runcorn's desk. The memory had haunted her ever since.

She reached out a hesitant finger, reverently tracing the tiny gears that adorned one of the golden boxes closest her.

This one was hers — her magic. She knew it. It called to her.

She tried to pick up the box but fumbled it, having severely underestimated the density; despite fitting neatly in the palm of her hand, the thing must have weighed at least twenty kilos.

Another distant crash had her scurrying. She hurriedly whispered a charm, bewitching the box to make it feather-light, and pocketed it beside the cloak. The bird hooted pleasantly in the background. She was debating how best to quickly confiscate or destroy the others when a small groan turned the blood in her veins to ice.

Crouch, who was rapidly shaking off his disorientation, was looking straight at her. As she watched, his eyes filled with hate and his hand closed around his wand just as she pointed hers.

"Stupefy!" she screamed, mustering every ounce of strength left to her and throwing it all behind the spell.

He fell over unconscious once more.

Hermione was debating which way to go to find the others when the decision was made for her. The door Lucius Malfoy had swept through earlier opened with a crash, and Harry was there.

"Hermione! Are you alright? Ron told them you never came out — we came to find you and then heard you yell—"

She gasped at the man who appeared behind him.

It was Sirius.

He wasn't smiling. He stepped in after Harry, wand drawn and eyes immediately darting around to catalogue every square inch of the room. His stare hardened when it landed on Crouch.

Her knees nearly buckled in relief. Sirius was here — the Order was here. They were saved.

Harry ground to a halt, his eyes going wide. "Is that Crouch?"

"Y— yes," she stammered, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. "How...?"

Harry grinned, mirroring her relief. "I told you they were coming to help! Well, sort of. Sirius wasn't actually here in the first place, and you'll never believe who—"

"Not now, Harry," interrupted Sirius, who was looking sterner than she'd ever seen him. "We need to find the Diggory boy and go. At least three—" he glanced at Crouch again, "—well, two of the Death Eaters are still unaccounted for, and that's not including Voldemort. We need to keep moving."

Harry sobered up at once. Sirius strode briskly over to Crouch, bending to remove the latter's wand. He paused for a moment, as if debating something internally, then shook his head.

"Stay close to me," Sirius growled quietly, moving towards the door Crouch had come through before. "And keep quiet."

"Neville got out?" Hermione couldn't help whispering as they entered the next room. It was rather empty apart from a few desks surrounding the enormous glass tank in the middle. "Ron, Ginny, and Luna?"

Sirius looked back once and nodded.

"After we neutralised the remaining Death Eaters in the Hall of Prophecy, Tonks took the Longbottom boy back up," he whispered. "Harry wouldn't leave without you and Diggory, and Mad-Eye is searching the other rooms for him or the remaining Death Eaters as we speak. Still not entirely clear on how you all managed to take down so many of them—" he stopped to raise an eyebrow at Harry, "—but you won't hear me complaining. Luna, Ginny, and Ron were the first we found — they'd just escaped and were on their way to get help. Remus took them up first. I expect Dumbledore is here by now and upstairs evacuating the others."

Hermione's relief grew upon hearing that almost everyone was confirmed safe, and swelled tenfold upon hearing Dumbledore's name and those of the other Order members present.

They would collect Cedric. They would return to Hogwarts. Everything would be alright.

Beside the tank, Sirius paused to perform a funny little motion in the air with his wand. Hermione eyed the huge structure full of deep-green water while she waited, gaze caught on the pearly-white creatures drifting lazily inside. They weren't like any fish she'd ever seen...

It was with dawning horror that she realised they weren't fish at all.

"This way," Sirius said suddenly, moving on before she'd had a chance to dwell on it further.

He opened another plain black door. The room beyond was the second-largest yet, and rather resembled an inverted pyramid with huge, rectangular stone benches running in tiers all the way around the dimly-lit room. The layers of the stone pit fell subsequently downward towards the middle, where a raised dais sat to display a decrepit-looking arch in the very centre. A tattered black veil was affixed to the arch, fluttering slightly in a non-existent breeze.

Sirius and Harry both watched the veil with similar expressions of curiosity. Hermione watched the veil, too, but the only feeling inside was a kindling, inexplicable sense of dread.

"Cedric?" Harry suddenly called out loud, his brow furrowed. "Is that you?"

Sirius didn't reprimand him, only tilting his head as he studied the veil.

There was no reply. The veil continued to flutter below, despite the air around them being almost stiflingly still. It was too cold — much colder than any of the rooms before. The last echoes of Harry's voice dissipated, and a sepulchral hush fell back over the place.

Hermione was overcome with an overwhelming need to get out. To get out now.

Why hadn't they moved on? There was no one here, they—

An odd lifting sensation and a slight crackling in the air was all the warning she had. A bright flash of light and a searing heat singed by her. Sirius roared out in pain and the smell of burning cloth and flesh filled her nostrils.

A woman's mad cackling reverberated around the room, nearly drowning out the sound of receding footsteps. Hermione automatically cast a Shield Charm as she blinked furiously, fighting to restore her sight.

Heavy footsteps to her left meant Harry was already running to follow.

"Impedimenta!" he roared over the clamour.

Hermione blinked again to see Sirius lying on the ground, his leg bleeding freely from a gaping hole of blackened flesh in his thigh. He appeared to be already on the verge of unconsciousness. She dropped to her knees beside him and placed a heavy hand over the wound, uncaring of the blood seeping through her fingers.

"Crucio!" came Bellatrix's voice. Harry must have dodged, for he immediately parried back with "Bombarda!"

It hit one of the benches and Hermione was forced to throw an arm up against the sudden shower of stone slicing down from above. She placed the tip of her wand to Sirius's leg at the same time, using the only spell she knew that could possibly save him now.

"Episkey!"

The results were immediate, if less than satisfactory. A thin layer of dark red tissue grew over the wound, stemming most of the blood flow. Sirius breathed raggedly, gritting his teeth against the pain.

The battle between Bellatrix and Harry continued in a series of shouts and bright flashes. No matter how inexplicably fast Harry seemed to be, it was obvious that Bellatrix had the edge. Harry was down in the centre of the room now, forced to take cover behind the meagre protection of the tattered veil as Bellatrix's latest curse flew towards him. The archway swallowed it whole, leaving Harry safely on the other side.

"Come out, Potter!" Bellatrix shrieked mockingly. "Come out and play!"

With nothing more she could do for Sirius at the moment, Hermione began descending the steep steps quietly, hoping to get in range of Bellatrix undetected.

It didn't work; Bellatrix sent another jet of red light towards Harry before spinning on the spot and throwing her wand arm back towards Hermione. A burst of air sent Hermione flying back to crash into the stone bench behind her. Stars burst behind her eyes as her head cracked against the stone. Her legs gave out and she slid dazedly to the floor.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix cried again, and this time a horrible, blood-curdling scream followed. Bellatrix's laughter rang around the room once more.

"Having fun, aren't we?" she screeched in delight. "That's just a taste of what the Dark Lord has in store for you, Potter. Ah! No you don't— Crucio!"

Harry screamed again and Sirius stirred, fumbling for his wand despite barely being able to move. Hermione wasn't certain if the bile rising in her throat was from Harry's screams of pain or her head injury. She rolled to her side, trying to get her legs back under her.

"A pity I must leave you alive for the Dark Lord," Bellatrix continued, "but you won't mind if I attend to a little unresolved family business while we wait, will you? No?"

Harry groaned, vomiting on the floor in front of him. Sirius was on his knees now, trembling like mad in a pool of his own blood as he levelled his wand at Bellatrix.

He barked out a horrible laugh.

"I wasn't aware the Ministry was offering parole for life-sentences in Azkaban, Bella," he rasped feebly. "I'd say you had to sell your soul to a Dementor to manage it, but you and I both know they wouldn't touch it if you begged."

Bellatrix turned to him and smiled. "It only seems fair, doesn't it? You didn't serve yours, after all. Couldn't even spare a thought for your dearest cousin only a few cells down before you left. Not nice not to share," she cooed with an exaggerated pout on her lips.

Sirius didn't respond, only grimacing in pain as he shifted on his knees. His leg was already bleeding again.

Bellatrix eyed the wound with sinister delight. "Looks like another end of our Noble line, cousin. Don't worry — when you're gone, the Black family name will be in good hands once more. Draco's potential is quite promising, I hear."

Hermione, who had managed to get to her feet despite the two Bellatrix's swaying back and forth in her vision, felt a small shock at the unexpected mention of Malfoy.

Sirius seemed to be struggling to come up with a reply. His wand wavered before dropping out of his hands completely to clatter against the stone. He made no move to retrieve it, seeming to realise it would be no use in his condition.

Instead, he continued to stare down Bellatrix from his knees, his eyes flicking over once to Harry and back. He took a deep breath.

Watching Bellatrix, Hermione realised what the Death Eater was about to do about a fraction of a moment before she did it. Harry must have realised the same, because he started scrambling to get upright, but a lazy flick of Bellatrix's wand sent him crashing back to the ground.

Then Bellatrix raised her wand high above her head. Across the room, another door flung open nearest Sirius, but it was too late, her mouth was already moving.

"Avada Kedavra!"