Summary: During the battle in the Department of Mysteries, Remus isn't fast enough to stop Harry from following Sirius through the veil. Hermione tries, but is pulled through the archway with Harry. What lies beyond the veil is worse than a nightmare. They find themselves in the midst of one of the darkest chapters of wizarding history with no apparent escape.
a/n: The whole ministry fight in The Order of the Phoenix is chaos and extremely hard to follow. As much as it pains me, I'll be using the movie scene to work from. For those book canon purebloods, I apologize. I've read the info on the wiki regarding the Veil of Death and there are some surprisingly definitive statements about it that are not in the books or the movie. This reimagines why the veil exists and where it goes.
Prompt by UntoldHarmony: aka Macabre AU or Dark AU. Where Harry and Hermione are in a dark setting.
Chapter 1: Death isn't the end
Hermione watched from her place of cover while the Order members dueled the Death Eaters. Harry was on the dais with Sirius. They were both too out in the open and it was making her nervous. She wanted her wand. Tearing her eyes off the fighting, she searched the ground where Dolohov had grabbed her. Finally, she saw the vine wand nestled in a crack on the stone ground. Crouching low, she rounded the boulder, ducked when a red spell bounced toward her head.
"Hermione! Stay down," Harry shouted.
There wasn't time to ease his fears. She dove for the wand, her fingers wrapped around the handle. She nearly let out a sob of relief to have it back where it belonged. Before popping up she surveyed where everyone was, making sure she hadn't lost track of a threat. That task seemed impossible. Everyone was moving around the small space so quickly, none of it looked strategic. Or smart. Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of black flying right toward her. She threw up a shield charm and with a certain amount of satisfaction watched the Death Eater regain his bodily form as he was knocked out of whatever spell they were using to fly around. She followed up with a stunning spell to give her time to find new cover. She didn't want to return to her previous position now that she had gotten the attention of the combatants. The rest of her friends were wandless. Those in the fight needed to keep the Death Eaters preoccupied away from the defenseless.
Despite the intensity of the fighting, Hermione couldn't help but appreciate the synergy that was happening on the dais in front of the veil. Sirius, Lupin, and Harry were certainly a good team, blocking, dodging, and sending off offensive spells. If the situation wasn't so dangerous, it would be a nice reunion. A purple spell soared through the air, hit the center of the veil and disappeared. What was that thing, she wondered. It might be inadvertently providing safety for the trio, they were dangerously close to it, though. Hermione was torn. She wanted to call out, tell Harry to move, but he needed to keep his concentration on the fight. Not just his life depended on it, Remus and Sirius were in precarious positions.
A pop announced someone apparating nearby. A streak of black. Bellatrix. Where had she been? It didn't matter, she was back in the battle and her focus was training on Harry. Hermione stood up, not bothering that she was risking herself. "Harry! Watch out," she yelled.
The killing curse was invoked and a flash of green was hurtling toward them. The flood of emotion was overwhelming as she watched Sirius pitched backward.
"No," she whispered, rushed forward.
Remus turned toward Hermione, wand up until recognition flashed in his eyes. Hermione wasn't paying attention to him though. Harry was reaching for his godfather who was falling backward into the arch of the veil. Rushing past Lupin, Hermione was reaching out for Harry, grabbing his arm. Too slow. Too slow, she cursed. Her grip was tight, her momentum kept her moving forward as Harry plunged after Sirius, taking Hermione with him.
Hermione felt like she was falling. The wind whipped past her so fast it sounded like screaming. No, there was screaming. A fog was so thick she couldn't see her feet. She didn't know what she was standing on, if she even was standing on something. Then, in a terrifying realization, she saw her hands were empty. No wand. No Harry. Was she dead? "Harry!" she called out. Her voice echoed back at her. Turning on the spot, she looked for the veil, for a path, for evidence of the Ministry. There was just nothing. No sounds of dueling. Nothing. Getting on her knees, she felt around for her wand. The ground was wet and cold.
Sensing something near her, she looked up from her task. Something moving in the shadows within the fog. Urgency renewed, her hands searched blindly. She was starting to panic. Her breath was coming in shallow gasps. Tears blurred her vision. Her right hand hit something, and she heard it skitter forward. Following the sound, her hand came down on her wand. The victory was short lived when a dementor lunged at her. It came from nowhere. The feelings of despair that were associated with them were absent. Like it was a shell of a dementor.
"Expecto patronum," Harry's voice called out, his stag rushed toward her. The dementor turned away, disappeared where it came from.
"Harry. Harry, are you okay?" she asked, reaching out for him. As soon as her hands touched him, the tears in her eyes fell. She hugged him close. The fact that she could touch him proved they were still alive. They were. "Where's Sirius?" she asked pulled back look him in the eyes. They were clouded with pain and sadness.
"I don't know. I don't know where he went. One minute he was there, the next…" he trailed off.
"Okay, you found me. We'll look for him," she said, knowing she saw the killing curse hit Sirius. Even if she and Harry weren't dead, that didn't mean Sirius was alive. "Let's just walk forward, see if we can find the edge of this… whatever this is."
"What way is forward?" Harry asked.
Hermione wasn't sure. Somehow she and Harry had been separated when they entered, that made her doubt she had any grasp of where they were in relation to where they entered. "Well. The dementor came from that direction," she pointed to where it had also retreated. It didn't get in the way we did. Maybe we go toward it?" She didn't want to antagonized a dementor. She wasn't great at casting the patronus charm. Harry was. She trusted him to keep them safe.
Harry looked skeptical himself but didn't have a better idea. They both adjusted their wands in their grip and walked forward together. "What is this place?" he asked.
"I don't know. The archway has never come up in any book I've read," Hermione started, moved closer to Harry. "It looked ancient. Like they built the room around it. Maybe it was there before the Ministry."
"What if there's no way out?"
"We got in, we'll find a way out," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Wait. Do you feel that?" she asked, looked at her hair. Something was moving it. "Wind. Or air moving."
Harry nodded, adjusted their trajectory and led them into the breeze.
Hermione felt the ground beneath her change. It wasn't flat, it seemed like the path was made of round rocks, causing her foot to roll if her purchase wasn't centered on the individual rock. Stopping, she leaned down to get closest enough to see through the fog. Coming face to face with a human skull, she gasped and fell backwards.
"Hermione," Harry called for her in alarm. Leaned over her to check on her. "What happened?"
Pointing in front of her, then looking down, she realized she was sitting on a line of skulls.
"Were they placed here, or were there so many they formed this path?" Harry asked, trying to find the edge.
"It's just skulls. No other bones," she said, letting him help her up. "Someone put them here like this." It was a gruesome thought and yet part of her was encouraged by it. "If someone put them here, they got in too. Maybe it's the way out." She wanted to hold his hand. That would require one of them to put their wand away or put it in their nondominant hand. They couldn't risk it.
They walked on for several minutes. Trying not to think about the shear number of bodies required to form the ground beneath them. Whispers swirled around them. Hermione hadn't heard the voices Harry had on the other side of the veil, but she assumed it was a similar sound. No words could be heard in the disembodied voices. The harder she listened the louder it got, and still no words. The ground suddenly pitched upward, making Hermione use her free hand to steady herself.
"I guess this is where all the other bones went," Harry observed, the fog started to clear revealing a looming pile of human bones.
Hermione pulled her hand back, wiped it on her pants. She felt sick. She hadn't meant to touch them. The fog continued to retreat until it finally revealed an archway similar to the one they entered but it was gigantic. At least ten times larger. "We're not going through that."
Even as she spoke, Harry started to climb. "What if Sirius went through there?"
"What if he's somewhere in here?" she countered, not moving. "Harry. Wait, we can't go through there. We don't know where it goes."
Harry stopped long enough to turn to her. "Do you see another way out of here? We can't stay in here," he explained and continued forward.
Spurred on by his movement, she wouldn't let him go through it alone. Still, she didn't think it was smart. They hadn't explored the entire place. They didn't know if there were other exits. It also wasn't guaranteed they would find that archway again if they walked away from it. "The path guiding us here did seem intentional," she was trying to convince herself.
Harry's foot slipped and sent some bones down on her. Hermione shielded her head, waited to make sure a landslide wasn't following. "Here, take my hand," Harry's voice was closer, got her attention.
She looked up and found he backtracked to help her. Letting him pull her up, they reached a platform covered in runes. Hermione circled the archway, looked over the other edge. More bones forming a macabre hill. Then there was just nothing. Where were they? "Harry, what is this place?"
Following her gaze, he shook his head. "Somewhere we shouldn't be."
"This isn't the ministry. We're not in the department of mysteries anymore," she observed.
"Yeah," he agreed, went back to the entrance of the archway. "Do we go through or turn back?"
She wanted to turn back, before she could say so, several runes lit up under their feet. An ear piercing scream seemed to come from all around them. Her hand flew to his arm and she looked around to find the source. The pile of bones they used to crawl up seemed to be writhing. A withered hand shot out from the pile, spraying bones outward. "Inferi," she whispered.
"A lot of them," Harry agreed, pointing to a disturbance in the fog below. They were quickly being surrounded. "We don't have a choice." Harry pulled her to the veil.
She knew he was right. What if whatever was on the other side was worse. Apprehensive, she looked at him and back to the archway. "Together," she said, secured her wand so she wouldn't lose it again. Harry followed suit and they stepped through hand in hand.
Hermione's stomach flipped, but this time, they didn't feel like they were falling. There was a pressure surrounding them, pulling them backward somehow, despite their forward movement. She clung to Harry, terrified of losing him. She wanted to speak and found she couldn't move air to make words. It felt like a combination of apparition and using a time turner. The thought was unsettling. Finally, they were falling downward. A structure flashed past her eyes. Too fast to see it clearly. They landed in a heap on a hard surface. The wind was knocked out of her. She laid there, assessing herself for pain or injury.
"Alright?" Harry asked her from his place on the ground next to her. "Lumos maximus," he said, his wand tip exploded with light.
"I think so," she answered and managed to get herself in a sitting position. They were in a large open cavern. It seemed to have natural features and manmade structure melded together. "Is this better?"
"Have you tried to apparate yet?" Harry asked, pulling her to her feet.
She shook her head. "I've read all about it, but we don't get to practice until our sixth year. It's not something we should try. Especially if we don't know where we are."
"Okay. So let's find an exit and figure out where we are," he agreed. There was only one path out of the cavern. Not having a choice in the matter, they headed for the tunnel. Harry's wand continued to light the way as they walked. A smell of salt air drifted through the tunnel and a small stream of water ran through the middle of the path. Eventually, natural light pierced the darkness. The opening was close. "Nox," Harry said, but kept his wand pointing forward.
"Is it morning?" Hermione asked, confused by the light. It wasn't possible so much time had passed. The tunnel gave way to grassy patch and blue sky. It took her time to adjust to the sunlight. What she saw confused her even more. A vast, empty sea lay before them. Harry pulled her forward. At the edge of the grass was a sharp drop off. Looking over the cliff's edge, large rocks were littered with the remains of crashed ships. They all had remnants of sails and looked like they were out of a pirate movie. Turning on the spot, she gasped.
Harry tore his eyes off the detritus below to what Hermione was looking at behind them. A huge black wall shot up from the ground. It was a fortress they had seen only in pictures. The sleek sides gleamed in the sun. Azkaban loomed large above them.