CHAPTER 27: THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD FAINTS

It was the click of the lock being opened that got Ron's attention.

After ten minutes of hoarse screaming and shouting into the darkness, Blaise had given up and sat back down on the floor, his head in his hands in hopelessness.

"I'm far too young to die in a dungeon!" he called out distraughtly, before he'd thrown himself onto the floor like a dramatic actress after her love had been killed.

A few seconds later, Ron and Pansy joined him on the floor, leaving enough gap between themselves and the Italian man, so that he wouldn't sob at them or something.

Ron and Pansy and Blaise were each feeling certain levels of hopelessness. There really wasn't any point in screaming for help; after all, it was the holidays, and who was bound to come down here anyway?

They'd sat there forever, not talking, just contemplating a future, but not being able to think up one. By the time the winter holidays finished and people came back to school, they would have starved to death, especially since the food had stopped coming since three days ago, according to Ron.

Pansy sighed at that information, of course the Weasel idiot would know that. He ate more food that she'd thought was humanly possible and still managed to remain tall and gangly. If he'd been a girl, she would have hated him immensely, but it was kind of hard to hate someone after spending so much time alone.

And she'd sort of gotten to know the Weasel boy a bit, and as much as she hated to admit it, he wasn't all that bad.

But at that precise moment, her mind was preoccupied by the thought that she never got to clear the air with Draco, after everything that had happened, she'd hoped and prayed for the chance to fix things between them, but now it looked like she was going to die in a dark, gloomy dungeon with Blaise and Weasely instead.

It wasn't how she'd imagined she'd die.

Ron's thoughts were flittering from Hermione to Harry to Ginny and his family. The fact that he was going to starve to death was something that he never thought would happen to him, and now that he was, he was haunted by the fact that he wouldn't even have the chance to make up with any of them, apologize for his mistakes or make it known how much he cared for all of them.

Blaise remained crumpled on the floor, wondering how Astoria was going to react when he never returned home. He'd hoped that she would alert someone and get a search party underway, but it wasn't uncommon for him to stay away for the nights once in a while, and she'd thought, like him, that the note had been from Hermione and Draco. She wouldn't call the Aurors or the Ministry if she believed that she would get them all in trouble.

And then he wondered if she would miss him at all. Now that he was facing death in a dungeon with people he didn't really like at all, who were both supposed to be dead, by the way, he was starting to miss her terribly. It seemed ridiculous to him now that he'd been contemplating divorcing her at all. If he ever got out of here, the first thing he wanted to do after sorting this mess out with Draco and Hermione, was to go to Astoria and apologise and try and make things work.

He didn't want the only thing that Astoria was going to remember him for, to be the fact that he was about to divorce her. It was kind of funny, how facing imminent death made you think about things like that.

And then, like Merlin or whatever wizards-gods there were in the world, seemed to hear everyone's prayers and Ron heard the lock to the door in the dungeon, click open like a miracle.

And then there was light.

When Ron saw who was at the door, he almost cried out in pure joy, praising the wizard-gods for their mercy, but due to his sore throat, he only managed a feeble, "wizard-gods..." before he lost his voice momentarily.

Filled with amazement, he shook Blaise, who'd fallen asleep murmuring about marriage, awake and nudged Pansy to get her attention, for they were indeed saved and by the saviour of the Wizard world himself!

The saviour of the Wizard world, Harry James Potter, gaped in shock at the sight that met his eyes.

There was Blaise Zabini sleeping on the floor, his skin was marred with dirt and his clothes were all wrinkled, by far the messiest he'd ever seem the rich man.

And there was Pansy Parkinson, the supposedly dead Pansy Parkinson who looked like she'd been dragged through hell, made queen of it, and then had been dethroned by a civil war by the ghosts of her past and dumped back on earth by the devil himself.

It was the third person, however, that made Harry Potter almost faint in shock.

"Ron?" Harry squeaked incredulously, before promptly fainting anyway.

Blaise and Pansy looked at each other, unimpressed by the man who'd gotten rid of the Dark Lord. "Right, the saviour of the world. So much for that, what a weirdo, at least he left the door open!" Pansy muttered.

Ron sighed at his best friend and using Harry's wand, managed to levitate him out of the door too as all of them made for the door, smiling at the sight of freedom so close.

"Freedom!" Blaise yelled, as they ran out of the dank room into the corridors outside, taking in a deep breath of freedom-filled air, and then he frowned, "why does freedom smell like smoke?" he asked in confusion, turning around to the face the others.

There was a moment of silence before Filch, Mrs Norris in his arms, ran past them screaming, "FIRE, fire in the Astronomy Tower..." and upon spotting them, hesitating for a moment to wonder why there were people at school before it was school time, then he remembered the fire and grasped the cat in his arms tighter to him and ran off screaming once more.

"FIRE, fire in the Astronomy Tower! Run for your lives!"

Ron, Pansy and Blaise looked at each other, each aware of the fact that it was no coincidence that the Tower was on fire. Whoever had kidnapped them was doing this, and if they wanted to help Hermione and Draco in any way at all, there was no point in running for their lives.

Nodding at each other, all three turned on their heels and ran straight for the Tower, the unconscious body of Harry Potter floating along behind them, muttering about hallucinations and ghosts.

.*.

Crystallex, locking the door behind her, walked towards the Astronomy Tower that her Lord had just destroyed to draw the attention of the mindless fools who'd gathered around the school, hoping to catch Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy.

The press and the ministry officials and even the Aurors, they thought that they could actually manage to evade her master and make themselves famous by capturing the woman thought to be committing all the heinous acts, but they were fools.

The man behind it all was far smarter than all of them combined, and once he had all the pieces he needed, the plan to rid the world of those that didn't deserve to live would begin. No longer would she have to hide in the shadows of people like Draco Malfoy or Harry Potter, or that blasted Hermione Granger.

Crystallex hid behind the statue of the Lord of Waterbury, waiting patiently for things to fall as they should. The plan was perfect, so much more than she could've come up with on her own, and she found herself glad that she'd chosen to ally herself with those with power.

A gaggle of Aurors hurried past her, their wands at the ready for anything as they headed towards the Astronomy Tower, as if believing that Hermione Granger had done that too.

She glanced at the watch on her wrist, and looked up in time to see Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Ronald Weasley and a floating Harry Potter, following after the Aurors that had just run off towards the Tower and smiled to herself.

Good, now that they were all out of the dungeon, they would be the bargaining chip needed later on, though why Potter was out cold was a mystery. She hadn't ensured that Professor Slughorn knew about them in the dungeon, and the Blaise's ropes were loose, for Potter to be unconscious!

Crystallex waited patiently for Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy to appear, as she knew they would. When all was said and done, it was pretty obvious to anyone that Hermione was smart, she was clever, and she would know that the explosion was supposed to bring her here, and that it was probably a trap, but she would be willing to take the risk to get close to the Master.

Hermione wanted to finish this properly, or die trying, so she would head towards a trap without thinking twice about it, that's what Crystallex had been told, and that's what she believed. She could hear faintly the Aurors trying to put out the fire in the Astronomy Tower, but Hell's fire was hard to put out.

It was yet another spell on the list of spells that her Master had stolen as part of the plan, and none of the idiots at the Tower knew the counter-spell for it. It would keep them occupied for a while at least.

A man and a woman ran past so suddenly that Crystallex almost had whiplash and she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shrieking in surprise. The two of them were wearing Auror uniforms, but in dark blue colours, both with alarmingly red hair.

More Weaselys? No that wasn't possible, that wasn't supposed to happen yet...which meant...Crystallex narrowed her eyes and cast a full-body bind on the both of them. both of them fell to the ground, the man cursing loudly as he toppled over, and Crystallex thanked her luck that neither of them had shielded themselves.

She scuttled out from behind the statue and removed the glamour charm on them, sighing happily when indeed Hermione and Draco were revealed to her.

Even on the floor, helpless in a body-bind hex, Draco was glaring at her with such vehemence, Crystallex felt her heart flutter.

He hated her so much, it was exciting! Torturing him would be so much more fun that she'd originally thought. He would be begging her for mercy soon enough, pay back for the way he'd treated her at school. She could hardly wait to hear him scream for mercy.

"Well, well, look what I happened across in the hallway! Isn't this fun?!" she clasped her hands together and smiled down at the two of them. Draco continued to glare at her with all the anger he could muster, but for some reason, Hermione Granger looked far too calm for her liking. Why was the witch worried or freaking out? She was caught, and not by the ministry either, by the people behind everything going on, why wasn't she afraid?

"You should be afraid for your life, Hermione Granger. You're going to die soon." Crystallex crouched down to whisper into Hermione's ear. "Oh don't you worry, Draco. Once the Master has Hermione Granger's blood, he'll give you to me! We're going to have so much fun together! I'm going to kill you slowly, and I'm going to enjoy it so very much! You're going to scream for help and I'm going to enjoy watching the hope leave you. You'll both get what you deserve in the end, a painful, torturous death." Crystallex giggled at the image in her head.

Hermione rolled her eyes, this girl had a few screws too lose in her head, "doesn't that wound you deeply, Hermione Granger? I'm going to have Draco all to myself and I'm going to kill him slowly and painfully. Doesn't it irritate you that there is nothing you can do about it?"

Hermione ignored the jab at her, as if this prissy little girl could manage to lay single finger on Draco in her presence. She wondered briefly to herself how long she was supposed to wait until the one who was ordering around Crystallex came along. The floor of Hogwarts wasn't all that comfortable.

"What part of don't talk to them, just bring them to me, did you not understand, you worthless piece of flesh? You're wasting my precious time, the full moon is in thirty minutes and your chit chatting with them?"

Hermione swivelled her eyes to stare at the new character that had seemingly appeared from nowhere. Was he the mastermind behind this all, or just another puppet?

Crystallex visibly shook in fear, bowing her head in apology, and Hermione almost felt sorry for the girl, if not for the fact that only second ago she'd been threatening her and Draco's life.

Hermione scanned his form, this new man who'd appeared. He was tall, almost taller than Draco, his hair was black and he had extremely good teeth and that was the only thing that Hermione could identify of this profile, since the rest of his face was covered by a grotesque looking mask with horribly bright red patterns.

Had this been the face that all the people who'd died, all the people she'd lost, and that others had lost; Dennis and Susan and Dean, Ron and Pansy and even Kingsley and Kurt, and all the others, had this grotesque mask been the last thing they'd seen as they'd faced their death?

These two people were going to harm her and Draco. They were probably going to kill more people and blame more innocent people, and throw the world into more chaos.

Her body began to shake with anger, and she stopped pretending to be under the pertificus charm that Crystallex had cast. It was bad enough that the other girl had actually presumed that hiding behind a statue meant no one would see her, but to think that she'd caught Hermione off guard, was ridiculous.

Draco, seeing that she was no longer pretending, stopped pretending too, glad that Hermione had cast a silent shield on them just at the spell had been cast. Of course, he'd acted along with her and pretended to be under the curse too, but he couldn't help but be impressed by her.

If the whole Auror thing didn't work out, she had a future in the muggle moving pictures at least.

Deciding not to take a chance, Hermione stealthily grabbed her wand and cast a "stupefy" at Crystallex, watching in satisfaction when Crystallex gave a shriek as she was thrown backwards against a wall. In moments, she was knocked out cold and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap limbs and hair.

The man with the mask had already cast a shield over himself and he glanced at Crystallex with disgust, shaking his head at her like he couldn't believe her audacity to faint in front of him.

Then he looked over at Hermione, his lips pulled into an eerily wide smirk, "but, oh my, Hermione Granger, you've gotten even better at magic, haven't you? I guess they don't call you the smartest witch of our age for nothing, huh?" the man looked her up and down, licking his lips slowly and Hermione scowled in revulsion.

Draco raised his wand higher, aiming at the man's head, his eyes flashing. No one was allowed to look at her like that, she was his. Forever and ever.

The man chortled, looking dramatically over at Draco, "oh don't you fret, Malfoy. I haven't forgotten about you at all, though I must say, it took me a couple of days to figure out why exactly it was that you were suddenly following Hermione Granger around like a fool, and imagine my surprise when I figure it out! You're in love with her! You have been since third year, haven't you, Draco? Ever since she slapped you in the face!"

He stopped smiling and stared at the two of them like they were a piece of scum of the earth, "what a twisted love story you two have!"

It was like those words had been the cue, because before either of them could react, the man threw a hex towards Draco that would definitely hurt him quite a bit. Hermione managed to reflect it in time, but she knew she couldn't block it from hitting her.

As fast as she could, she sent Draco an apology from the depths of her heart and threw to him a simple chain necklace. The moment Draco, on reflex, caught the silver chain in his hand, the world spun around him and he was gone.

Disappeared into thin air, and then Hermione found herself being thrown back against the wall with the spell that had reflected off to hit her. Her head smacked against the bricks and she winced in pain, biting her lip to stop herself from crying out.

At least the portkey had worked. Draco was safe now, at least from the trouble that was going to occur here. She felt her wand be ripped from her grasp, and then she was petrified, properly this time, her body completely unmoving as the man came up top her and crouched down, eye level with her. His eyes were an alarmingly dull shade of blue that did nothing to make her feel better about the situation.

His mask really was horrible, and she didn't even want to imagine how it felt to see something so terrible before dying.

"How sweet of you, Hermione! Saving your precious boyfriend before yourself! But you forget one thing, my little fake-mudblood, he's needed in the plan, so I'll find a way to get him back, no matter where you sent him. And before midnight as well, so your little bravery right then, was for nothing." And with that the man grabbed Hermione's arm tightly, and apparated with her.

As the world spun around her with the familiar sensation of apparating against her will, Hermione mind whirled at his action. How was this possible?

You couldn't apparate within school grounds, unless you broke those wards somehow, and she'd never managed to figure out how.

Hermione ground her teeth together, angry now. He'd done the one thing she'd never been able to figure out.

Oh, he was going to pay!

And that was the last thing Hermione could actually remember thinking before she found herself thrown onto a dungeon floor, her arms and legs, cuffed to the wall and the world went black.