Run, Hermione, Run!

This isn't how it was supposed to be!

Hermione took flight through some haphazardly chosen corridors of the ancient castle, doing her best to ignore both the various looks of outrage or consternation and her very personal misery. As if it had been their fault, Hermione viciously wiped the tears from her eyes with a fury that suggested a personal affront. Yet, as the rampaging rage slowly ebbed away, Hermione came to a halt, her body shaking, her mind as still and cold as a frozen lake.

Nervously, she took a peek over her shoulder. Her current whereabouts seemed strangely deserted, and the sudden silence and encompassing loneliness felt equal parts welcome and depressing. She couldn't help but feel a small amount of disappointment that neither Draco nor Tracey was following her, desperately trying to calm her down, attempting to explain that it had been a misunderstanding, that all of them had overreacted, that everything was going to be fine.

A few moments passed while Hermione stared in shameful hope back the way from whence she'd came. The passage remained cruelly devoid of solace.

She crouched down, hugging her knees. Why is this so messed up? She lowered her head.

But eventually, her thoughts began to clear up again. Well, she thought fiercely, maybe this just simplifies things. Draco had always been a person that was, from her perspective, dancing near the edge of the abyss, at all times threatening to fall off the figurative ledge of morality. Everything he'd done, even when he had seemingly been of assistance to her, had been roundabout, and strangely alien or even hurtful. She couldn't help comparing the obsessively manipulative Draco to the warm and sisterly prefect who'd helped her on so many occasions, be it cheering her up or helping her gather up her parchments. No, it really was Draco who had forced her hand. She wouldn't have chosen one side over the other, but the Malfoy heir had left her no other choice. Now, it was either help Draco or Miss Fawley.

Clumsily getting to her feet, Hermione clenched her fist. I'm sure Tracey and Harry will understand. And if not...

She grabbed her wand, wiping the last traces of her breakdown from her face. Maybe it's better this way.

With renewed determination, Hermione rushed as fast as she dared towards the Great Hall.

~BLHD~

Tracey and Draco stared at the door through which Hermione had just dashed.

'Salazar, I really hate this,' admitted the short girl, massaging her temples. 'Are you sure she's going to be alright? If she loses her head completely...'

'It'll be fine,' replied Draco. 'I guess,' he added a short while later.

'You guess?' Tracey fixed him with a critical glare.

'Well, I don't know either,' shouted Draco unexpectedly, startling his counterpart with his rather unusual outburst. 'Harry insisted. I asked him the same question, and he said to do it like this.'

'Sometimes I really wonder why I put up with him,' grumbled Tracey unhappily.

Draco clicked his tongue. 'Well, I tend to ask myself the same thing occasionally. But you have to admit that his insane schemes work out more often than not.' He smiled smugly at her. 'And it's not like you have a choice, Davis.'

'Shut up!' Tracey growled dangerously, her left hand twitching.

Draco's expression didn't change, even though he seemed content to let the point go. 'Anyway, shouldn't we be explaining everything to Greengrass now? Or have you forgotten about that part of the plan?'

'Oh!' She blinked a few times. 'No, of course not. So, Daphy, I guess you have some questions, don't yo-' Tracey's eyes darted to the spot where her best friend had been standing the whole time. Problem was, she wasn't there any more.

'Oh, for Merlin's sake!' Draco cried out. 'You've got to be kidding me! Can't she just keep still a few seconds?'

'Daphy? DAPHNE!' called Tracey desperately. Only silence answered her yells. 'Oops!' she grinned embarrassedly. 'I guess we messed up.'

'Stop grinning like an idiot! We've got to catch her before she gets someone killed!'

~BLHD~

Daphne flew through the ancient hallways like an avatar of fury, her long blond hair blowing in the wind as if it was the golden banner of her righteous cause.

'I can't believe this shit!' she snarled angrily at nobody in particular, shoving a second year who stood in her way. 'THEY SURE HAVE NERVE!' she roared at the school in general, completely tuning out the strange looks and complaints her mad sprint elicited. She was blind with anger, enraged, that Tracey and that stupid Malfoy had planned the whole thing over her head, leaving her to wallow in misery while they planned and plotted. She was angry about the fact that Harry had apparently been bringing the whole thing about without involving her. As if I was some kind of damsel that needed his help with all of my problems!

Mindlessly elbowing a few Ravenclaws who just happened to have chosen an unlucky route this day, she grit her teeth. Worst of all, that stupid and pathologically naïve Mudblood had unwittingly been forced to play the bait. Even she wouldn't have gone that far, though Granger was, admittedly, bloody annoying at times. No, she corrected herself silently, an all-consuming fire of hatred rising in her. The worst is definitely that I couldn't even spot my own detestable cousin acting up. She took hold of her wand in a death grip, her fingers digging painfully into her own palm. A mistake I intend to remedy for good. Sorry, Gran!

~BLHD~

Hermione had problems making her way through the crowd. It was almost lunch time now, and she was fighting with all her strength against the pull of the mass that gravitated towards the Great Hall like a planetoid happily embracing the black hole.

Suddenly, she saw a hint of curly blond hair among the upper years. 'MISS FAWLEY!' she shouted, not believing her luck. 'Excuse me! Please, this is urgent! Excuse me!' She proceeded through the crowd as fast and politely as she possibly could. 'Sorry! Please let me through! Miss Fawley? Miss Fawley!' She doubted her words reached the target of her desperate attempts over the never-ceasing excited hums and chatter of the other students. 'Miss Fawley!'

She was only one corridor away from the Great Hall when a hand shot out of a small alcove between two statues. 'What's up, Hermione?' The prefect eyed her dishevelled clothes and her red face. 'Have you been running here? You realise that I'm supposed to curb such behaviour, right?'

'Miss Fawley! This is no time for jokes, please!' The prefect looked rather amused that Hermione was labelling her duties a joke and was about to retort when Hermione cut her off. 'Please! This is urgent! Y-you've got hide or something. They're after you!'

Fawley's eyebrows rose in confusion. 'What are you talking about? Are you alright?'

'I'm not joking, please! You've got to listen to me!' Hermione pleaded desperately.

'Okay, okay!' The Slytherin prefect raised both her hands in an effort to calm her younger housemate. 'So, uh, who's after me now?'

'Draco! He thinks you're behind all those attacks on Harry!'

'Malfoy?' Fawley asked sceptically. 'How do you know?'

'He just told me!' Hermione tugged at the prefect's robes. 'Please, you've got to get out of here! They want to bring you in and force you to tell them what you know!'

'What makes him think I know anything?' Fawley returned, bewildered.

'He's paranoid! He keeps saying ridiculous things like "Everyone approaching you has motives" and such rot. Please, I-I think he's serious. You've got to tell the teachers or something!'

By now, the Great Hall had swallowed most of the hungry students, leaving Hermione and Fawley free to exit their little hideaway.

'Please, Hermione. What am I supposed to tell Snape? "Some first years are after me. Please protect me"?' She grinned, likely imagining the ensuing reaction.

'I'm not joking, Miss Fawley!' Hermione insisted passionately.

'Alright, keep calm, Hermione.' Seeing the clearly distraught state of the younger girl, Fawley stopped grinning and produced her wand. 'I know a place where they won't find us, and then I'll get in contact with a few people to sort this all out, alright?'

Hermione was still unconvinced her friend was taking the situation seriously but nodded nevertheless.

'How long do you think we have until someone finds us he-'

A flashy curse cut Fawley's sentence short, forcing both of the girls to duck. They looked up, both of their eyes widening. Where not a second before both of their heads had been, a sickly green substance seemed to sizzle at the masonry, eating its way through the stone. Wary, Hermione turned towards the source of the magic. There stood a girl, brass and brazen, with long and sleek blond hair not unlike Miss Fawley's, her wand outstretched and murder in her eyes.

'Oh, crap,' Fawley muttered.

Hermione looked in confusion from Fawley to Greengrass. 'What?' she uttered eventually.

'No time to explain!' Fawley grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the nearest staircase that led away from the Great Hall.

'STAND AND FIGHT, YOU FUCKING BETRAYER!'

Fawley hastened her steps, dragging Hermione along with her.

'Can't you do something to stop her?' Hermione shouted in panic when two jets of orange light overtook them with blinding speed, missing by a hair's breadth.

Fawley drew up her wand. 'Stupefy! Reducto!'

Hermione winced, imagining being hit by the combination of both spells. But her momentary worry was clearly misplaced as another set of jinxes shot after them. 'STOP PLAYING AROUND AND LET THE CLUELESS IDIOT GO, DAMN IT!' Daphne howled after them.

Wait, she's not after me? Hermione thought, annoyed but otherwise quite sure that Greengrass was referring to her.

'Hermione,' Fawley whispered as quietly as she could while sprinting along the corridors, still holding the younger girl's hand. 'I think you might have had a point. Let's get out of here!'

'STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU DECEIVING WENCH!'

Fawley broke out into an all-out run, dragging a thoroughly confused and exhausted Hermione after her, shooting spells over her shoulder non-stop. Hallways and side corridors flew past at a speed that led Hermione to believe that Fawley must have been using some kind of magic, yet even that incredible pace was nothing in comparison to the firework of jinxes and hexes that threatened to hit both of them at every turn. Most of them, Hermione realised, seemed to be aimed at the prefect and, with her helping Hermione keep up, it seemed that she just barely managed to keep them from getting hit.

Another door vanished beyond Hermione's sight just when a hex finally made contact. She toppled over, bringing her friend down with her. As the both of them cried out in shock, Hermione's eyes darted to her feet that had somehow turned into unresponsive wooden replicas of their actual counterparts.

'Ack!' she cried out in panic. 'I can't move! Y-you have to go on alone, Miss Fawley.'

Fawley, jumping to her feet, her wand pointing in the direction the spell had come from, threw a quick glance towards her feet. 'Don't worry. I know that hex, they'll turn back in a few minutes.'

'What is that?' whined Hermione, shaking her legs. The wooden shoes dangled pitifully and uncontrollably in the air. 'That spell's not in my Defence books!' she said indignantly.

Fawley snorted in response. 'Of course, it's not. Hush now, she's here. Try to stay behind me, and let me work this one out.'

Daphne stumbled into view mere moments later. Only now did Hermione realise that some of the curses the prefect had shot over her shoulder had to have hit, as not much of Greengrass' usually impeccable appearance was left in shape: her hair was dishevelled, her robes torn near her knees, and she had a nasty cut on her brow that had forced her to shut her left eye. She rather looked like the last survivor of a medieval massacre.

'Well, you've got guts; I'll give you that, Daphne,' said the prefect, gauging the other girl's condition.

'Shut your ugly trap, you filthy harlot in heat! Granger, get away from that lying mongrel if you know what's good for you.'

'You can't talk to me like that, Greengrass! First you hex me and now you presume to order me around? What's wrong with your head!?' Hermione shot back, indignant.

'SHUT IT!' Greengrass yelled, her voice easily drowning out Hermione's. 'You don't know what's going on, you stupid girl. That slattern you just warned has been using you the whole time.'

Frowning, Hermione looked at Greengrass, who was patting her side and holding herself up by leaning against the wall. 'You're delusional! And you dare talk about using me?! Look at what Draco's made me do all this time.'

'I don't know anything about the crap that stupid little monkey has made you do, but it's clear as day that bitch right there in front of you has been using you. Wake up, Granger!'

'That's going a little too far, Daphne.' Fawley smiled, wagging her finger in a scolding manner. 'Is that any way to talk to your cousin?'

'Second cousin, actually. And not much longer if I have anything to say about it!' With what must have been an enormous effort, Daphne flung herself away from the wall and lunged at Fawley.

The prefect, however, merely waved her wand wordlessly, and Daphne was sent crashing into the wall again. 'Please, Daphne. You need to learn to apply yourself more. At least try to hex me or something.'

Daphne snarled angrily, spitting blood on the floor.

'I-Isn't that a bit extreme, Miss Fawley?' Hermione asked fearfully.

'Don't worry about her, Hermione,' the girl responded soothingly. 'She's pretty tough for someone who flounces about like a princess.'

'B-But she looks hurt,' said Hermione, clearly conflicted. She crawled a bit towards Greengrass. 'Shouldn't we at least make sure it's nothing serio-'

'Expulso!' screamed Greengrass. A bang that threatened to deafen Hermione was followed by an incredibly shrill yelp from behind her. Looking back, her eyes fell on Miss Fawley, who had her wand in front of her, her curly hair even bushier than usual, as if charged. She wasn't smiling any more.

'Failure, failure, and failure. You lose, Daphne. I'm nearly impressed that you managed to get it close to working, but in the end, you simply fail with your pitiful attempts at magic beyond your abilities.' With a lazy flick of her wand, Daphne's wand shot out of her grip and into the waiting hands of the prefect. 'Your grandmother won't be happy that you're disrupting the negotiations, deary.'

Daphne, who had clearly been in the process of trying to get up again, froze. She blinked several times, before she snarled in a dangerous and gurgling voice. 'So it's you. Now, I finally understand. You're about to sign a marriage contract, aren't you?'

'Ah, so you're more than a brutish warrior princess. I'm kind of impressed.'

'You're about to be married?' asked Hermione, completely lost in the conversation.

'No, no, silly. My little brother will sign a treaty to marry feisty Miss Greengrass here. Or, in the case of her defaulting, her little sister, I guess.'

'What does that have to do with anything?' asked Hermione.

'Well, if you really want to know, the Greengrass family was, for a time, deeply connected to the Blacks, but that just won't do. Neither my family nor Daphne's grandmother wants anything to do with those lunatics.'

'So you're forcing her to cut ties?' Hermione asked in shock.

'Well, more or less. It's for her own good, but she's a bit too pig-headed to understand that.'

'Fuck you! I'll never marry the crippled brother of a megalomaniac whore!'

Fawley's eyes narrowed, and she aimed her wand at Greengrass again. 'Flipendo!'

Daphne's body jerked for a fraction of a second before she was sent crashing brutally into the wall. She screamed terribly, her voice holding Hermione's body in a cold grip of horror. Then, the voice cut off abruptly.

Hermione stood up; the hex impairing her feet had lifted. 'Oh my god! Miss Fawley, what did you do?!'

Fawley looked uncertainly from Hermione to the crumpled body of Daphne Greengrass. 'Damn! I, uh, lost it a bit there.' She rushed towards her cousin, slowly and carefully turning her on her back. She tried to reach towards Daphne's carotid but immediately retracted her fingers, hissing angrily. 'She's one tenacious customer. She bit me!' Standing up, she wordlessly stunned her cousin and headed towards Hermione. 'You alright, Hermione?'

'Yes. Yes, I'm quite alright, thank you,' she responded weakly.

'What the hell's going on here? Daphne? DAPHNE!' Suddenly, Tracey and Draco shot out of the corridor. Their eyes fell on the still form of Greengrass and then fixed Fawley with a cold glare.

'What the hell have you done to her?' shouted Tracey.

'Granger, get away from Fawley!'

'Why, look at that: a congregation of nosy midgets. I didn't do anything, Davis. Greengrass attacked me first physically and later magically. I just had to defend myself. We'd best hurry up and get her to the infirmary, though.'

Tracey rushed towards Daphne, her eyes moist and worried. Suddenly, a jet of fierce red light clashed against a shield inches before Tracey's face.

'How stupid are you, Tracey?! Don't lose your head now!' snarled Draco, his wand still outstretched.

Fawley, in contrast, flicked her tongue in displeasure.

'M-Miss Fawley?' Hermione's voice quivered a bit as she eyed the prefect's wand warily.

'Just a second, Hermione. Let me deal with this first,' the prefect answered blandly. She slashed her wand viciously, and-again-Draco tried to shield from the blast, yet this time his effort was in vain as he was gripped by some invisible force and hurled twenty feet across the corridor, his back hitting the stonework with an audible crunch that made Hermione wince.

She shrieked and jumped just as Fawley pointed her wand at the still shell-shocked Tracey. Her tackle caused the blue flames to miss Davis by a few inches. Tracey, finally coming to her senses, made use of the momentarily confused prefect and shot a clever Tripping Jinx at the pair. Fawley, however, merely shoved Hermione in the way of the incoming spell and shouted, 'Stupefy!'

Tracey fell to the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Hermione got to her knees and looked in confusion from Draco and Tracey to the prefect who was slowly brushing the dust from her robe. 'W-what's going on, Miss Fawley? They wanted to help Greengrass, why did you attack them?'

'Because they were trouble. I'll never trust a Malfoy, and Davis is a bit too sharp for some random half-blood. Simple!'

'B-but Greengrass!'

Fawley waved her hand dismissively. 'She'll be okay.'

'You attacked them without reason!' Hermione took a step back, her eyes wide with horror.

'Oh, you misunderstand, Hermione. I had reasons. Heaps and heaps of reasons.'

'I-I don't follow.'

'Think, Hermione! Sometimes, you just have to...defend before the attack. Your "friends", the Malfoy brat and Davis, would be trouble. In a few days, Madam Greengrass and my grandmother will seal the deal and then this whole farce will finally be up. Those two will have to take a little break for the time being.'

Hermione stumbled over some stones Greengrass' curse had blasted from the wall. 'Like you did with Harry?' she asked in a horror-stricken whisper.

Fawley laughed excitedly. 'That was the easy part, actually. Most didn't even need much convincing. Sure, after the elder Black's little Wizengamot display, my standing in the house has been ruined, but all that won't count come tomorrow. The Greengrass family will cease its flirt with the Blacks, and my family will finally have enough pull to rid the Wizengamot of wretched pests like the Notts and challenge those hypocritical Pillars. The Blacks have had their chance, and they've ruined it! Now it's time for a new family to take the helm!'

'No!' Hermione shook her head, crawling backwards, away from Fawley. 'No, no, no, no...'

'Yes, Hermione. But Black has a good eye for talent, I'll give him that.' Fawley stored her wand and held out a hand in Hermione's general direction. 'You don't need to grovel at Malfoy's or Daphne's feet. You just need to help me sort this out, and then we'll be set up for life. Might makes right, Hermione!'

'And what exactly, Miss Fawley,' a new voice echoed through the corridor just as a silver jet of light hit the prefect from behind, knocking her off her feet, 'does that make you?'

Harry stepped calmly over the wreckage of the half-demolished wall...