Disclaimer: The beginning section of this chapter comes directly from Ch. 25, The Seer Overheard, HP . All credit for the scene in the Gryffindor common room (until Harry leaves to rejoin Dumbledore) goes to JKR. There might be some slight changes to the dialogue, but nothing major.

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"What did he want?" Harry stood above them, his shoulders rising and falling as he heaved. Both Hermione and Ron had frozen at his sudden rumpled appearance. His tear-glazed eyes were wild and quickly shifted between them. Her next question betrayed her immediate anxiety over what had been spoken about during his meeting with their headmaster. "Harry… Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," He snapped before rushing up to his dorm with no explanation.

"One year… Can't we have one bloody year end normally?" Ron's grumbled complaint followed his resigned packing of the beloved wizarding chess set he had just finished arranging.

Much too nervous to converse, Hermione did the same with the various old Prophets that were spread out in front of her. She had found shocking evidence of Eileen Prince's important connection to The Halfblood Prince but had wanted to tell the two boys together…

"I've got to be quick! Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen…" Upon Harry's return, he went into a long diatribe in which he explained his dangerous plans for the evening, his sinister suspicions surrounding Draco, and Snape's presumed involvement. "...but he won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will he?"

She was overwhelmed by a nauseating mix of relief at not being ratted out and horrified by the danger her friend was about to place himself in. Her hands clenched the Marauder's Map protectively to her chest. "Harry…"

"I haven't got time to argue." He stated and turned, thrusting a wad of old fabric into Ron's hands. "Take this as well…"

"Thanks," Ron said, perplexed by the offer. "Er… Why do I need socks?"

Harry rolled his eyes at the idiotic inquiry. "You need what's wrapped in them, it's the Felix Felicis. Share it between yourselves and Ginny. Say goodbye to her for me. I'd better go, Dumbledore is waiting…"

"No!" She interrupted. "We don't want it. You take it! Who knows what you are going to be facing?!"

"I'll be fine, I'll be with Dumbledore." He shook his head and they both watched as Ron pulled the golden potion from its confines. "I want to know you lot are okay…. Don't look like that, Hermione. I'll see you later…"

Before she could argue about the unlikelihood of his apprehension for their safety being warranted considering they were hours away from the end of term, he was gone. The Fat Lady's portrait hardly made a sound as it closed behind him.

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"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hermione screamed at the top of her lungs. Another bolt of electricity ran from her wrist to her shoulder as she pounded on the wooden door. "Let us out! Snape! Anyone, please!"

"I don't think help is coming, Hermione…" Luna consoled gently from the corner, trying to distract her from the useless tailspin. "And Flitwick needs us."

She glared over her shoulder at the terrified witch, "Hurry up and Rennervate him."

"It didn't work! He… He is bleeding." Tears started to fall from Luna's pale grey eyes. "I don't know what else to do!"

Gods… How could she have been so wrong? How could she have agreed to split up? How could she have let herself get locked in Snape's office as her friends risked their lives fighting? How could Draco do this? After everything? He had promised… Just this morning he had sworn to meet her in Diagon Alley in a week's time…

The brightest witch of the age was hoodwinked by a Death Eater… A Death Eater she had known was a danger… A Death Eater who had allowed his brethren into Hogwarts!

How could she have ever been so freaking stupid?

Hermione's anger softened and she glanced down at the tiny wizard and the growing pool of bright red blood that had begun to spread out around his head.

How much blood would be on her hands by the end of the night?

"Don't move him!" She instructed when Luna went to adjust the awkward angle he had landed in. What little first aid training she had kicked in. "His neck might be broken…"

Robotically, she pulled her wand from the pocket of her cardigan and cast the healing spells that she knew. From the ghastly waxen color, the professor turned, she worried if her efforts helped at all or had done more damage. His chest continued to rise and fall though, so at least she hadn't killed him… Yet.

Back in control since her Head of House was no longer bleeding out, Luna blinked up at her from where she still perched at his side, "What do we do now?"

"I… I don't know." Hermione confessed. She had already tried every counterspell she could think of on the door before she had resorted to her temper tantrum as a way to vent her frustration. "I'm afraid Bombarda would ricochet."

"Why would Professor Snape do this?"

"To protect Malfoy…"

"From the Death Eaters?"

"From himself." Her declaration was accompanied by a quick kick to the unyielding blockade that caused her to hiss in pain.

"I don't understand, wouldn't Professor Flitwick be able to help him?" Luna asked.

"Not if he would only get in the way, Luna… It's the same reason we were tricked. He took out three opponents in seconds."

"Oh…" The poor witch's eyes darkened with Hermione's implication.

She spun back to the ancient door and started to beat on it again. Futile as the venture was, it gave her something to do. "Flitwick is hurt! Let us out of here!"

Bang!

"Open!"

Bang!

"This!"

Bang!

"Door!"

Bang!

"Now!"

"Hermione…" Luna did her best to cut off the violent outburst.

Bang!

"You disgusting loathsome git!"

Bang!

"I HATE YOU!"

"Hermione, stop." Luna's arms suddenly wrapped around hers in a vice-like grip to stop the impotent attack. "Come on, you've hurt yourself."

She fought against the witch but it was just as ineffectual as her screeched pleas for freedom. The adrenaline rush faded rapidly without the raging fuel of pain and she collapsed to her knees enveloped in her friend's comforting embrace. Her mind struggled to comprehend how her deepest fear had been brought to life. "Wake up… Wake up… Wake up."

Luna ignored her sobbed denials of reality and rocked back and forth. After a few moments, she began humming a wizarding tune that Hermione couldn't hear over her cries of anguish but rather felt the paced vibrations on her back.

It didn't help, she was in a nightmare. One she would never awaken from…. He had made his choice.

After what felt like an eternity, her sobs slowed into whimpers and the hot sting of pain from the wound on her hand came into sharp unbearable focus. Instead of doing anything to ease the burn, Hermione watched as her blood seeped from the jagged gash on the side of her palm. The oozing maroon liquid was the reason…

Too dirty…

She was too dirty…

Soiled from conception…

No matter what she did to prove herself…

No matter how long she scrubbed…

There would never be a hope of getting clean enough for him…

And in the process of trying, she had destroyed what little good there had been…

A groan tore through her chest and Luna switched tactics, shushing her pathetic mewling. "Shhhh…. It will be okay. Someone will come by shortly and free us."

Hermione used the little bit of energy she had left to pull away from the girl, "Friend or foe?"

Luna glanced at the door apprehensively before her resolve strengthened, "Friend."

"I hope you are right…. Otherwise, all three of us are dead." She wondered if they were staring at the same knot in the wood.

"You think so?" The other witch's tone of voice was too cheery for the macabre subject matter. "I would wager that we would survive for a time. At least until Lord Voldemort has tortured any useful information from us."

"Such fun to look forward to."

"If we are alive we can fight."

Luna's conviction bolstered something inside of her and Hermione straightened up from her stooped positioning to look into the set of pale silver eyes. "If we are alive we will fight… But let's hope Hogwarts' possession doesn't come down to two teenage witches and an unconscious Charms Professor."

At the mention of the downed wizard, Luna crawled over to him and assessed his condition.

Hermione refused to look behind her unless it was absolutely necessary. The first in an unending line of very real consequences she was sure she would be forced to face throughout the night…. How many of her friends had ended up the same way or worse off? Who's deaths would she be forced to reconcile?

Ginny? Ron? Neville?

Teachers had, obviously, been notified of the breach…

McGonagall? Sprout? Filch? Slughorn?

The Order was already there to reinforce the defense of the castle…

Lupin? Tonks? Mr. Weasley? Mad-Eye, even?

How many would she find out later were by his hand?

Why hadn't she turned him into the Ministry after Dumbledore's bleak acceptance? Love? Look where that had gotten her… Trapped… In so many ways. She felt the urge to scream well up inside of her again. Rather than waste the valuable energy, Hermione took stock of the contents of the office and a plan began to form.

Just in case, whoever opened the door that had been magicked shut behind them was, in fact, a foe.