22

Hermione, Harry, Neville, Luna, and Ginny ran towards a group of Death Eaters to save their friend. The Death Eater shot Ron, who was struggling for air, with a blue light. The Death Eater fell to the floor as Ginny shot a curse at the man who's hurt her brother, and he stumbled back, letting go of Ron. Hermione and Neville each grabbed one of Ron's arms and pulled him along as the group ran down the aisles of glowing crystal balls, shooting curses behind them at the Death Eaters following closely behind them.

Luna was hit with a curse that knocked her off of her feet. She fell to the ground and howled in pain as she smashed her nose off of the floor with a loud crack! Neville let go of Ron, who was, for some reason, giggling, and ran back to help her up. He dragged her as fast as he possibly could until they caught up with the group, then he let her go and she ran ahead.

Ginny, shooting her fifth Bat-Bogey Hex, hit the leader of the group of Death Eaters, who fell to the floor as bats emerged from his nose. He cried out in pain as the masked people behind him stumbled and fell on top of him, fazed by his sudden collapse. As the DA reached the door to exit the prophecy room, Harry counted down, and the lot all shot the reductor curse and knocked all the shelves down. They then ran for their lives through the different rooms of the department of mysteries, splitting up into groups of two. Hermione and Ron ran into a room that had a few desks scattered around, and in the middle of the room sat a large glass case filled with green liquid and what seemed to be human brains floating around. Ron, who was acting whimsical from his air loss earlier, as well as being struck by an unknown curse, walked straight up to the container of brains and pressed himself against the glass, giggling.

"Look Hermione! Braaaaaains," he said, slurring his words. Hermione stopped and watched Ron, unaware of what he was going to do next.

"Ron, those look dangerous," she warned. "I would back up if I were you."

Ron giggled. "You're not my mummy," he said. "My mum has red hair."

Hermione sighed. "Yes, Ronald, you are correct, I am not your mother," she replied as she walked towards him slowly. Ron reached up and put his hand into the liquid.

"Hahaha... it's so co-AH!" Ron stopped laughing when the brains in the tank's tentacles jumped out and attatched to his skin, sucking out his blood. Ron screeched and pulled his hand out, but it was too late, the tentacles had extended from the water and attached themselves all over Ron's now flailing body. Hermione ran towards him and pulled out her wand, trying to use a separation charm on the brains, but they wouldn't budge. Hermione panicked for a second before putting a protection charm on her hands and pulling a brain off of Ron's arm manually. The brain's tentacles lashed around and tried to bite her, but it bounced off of her skin due to the charm. Hermione shot a stunning curse at the brain and threw it back into the tank. It started to sink, and Hermione grabbed another brain and restarted her process. Ron was becoming weaker and paler with every passing second, and his skin had large purple and black welts where the brains' tentacles had latched on to him.

Hermione finally got the last tentacle off of Ron and threw the final brain into the tank when she heard footsteps nearby, coming from outside the brain room. Hermione pulled Ron, who was nearly unconscious, into the corner and put a concealment charm over him and pulled her wand out again in defense. The door creaked open and someone walked in. She knew those footsteps. Hermione walked towards Harry with caution, she still wasn't one hundred percent sure that it was Harry.

The he held out his wand, the tip shining. When he pointed it out towards Hermione's face, she heard a sigh of relief. Harry's face was revealed from the shadows, and Hermione relaxed and hugged him. "I was so scared that something happened to you! Where are the others?" she asked quietly.

"Neville ran off to help Luna and Ginny, told me to go on without him. Ginny broke her foot, and Luna fixed her own nose and is fine. Where's Ron?"

"Oh my gosh! Ron!" Hermione had completely forgotten about Ron. She ran over to the corner where she had hidden him and found him unconscious. "What do we do?" Hermione asked, turning towards Harry.

"Hide him the best we can, but there's not much else. Maybe a healing spell?"

"Harry, I'm scared," Hermione admitted. "What if we don't make it out of here alive?"

"Hermione, don't worry. We're going to be fine, but I need you to do that spell on Ron. You know I'm rubbish at healing."

Hermione gave a small smile and let out a breath, which could've been analyzed as a pity laugh. She muttered several healing charms over Ron, then another concealment charm to keep him out of the sights of Death Eaters who came through the room.

Harry stood back, guarding the doors, waiting for Hermione to finish with Ron, when the door that he had entered through mere minutes before creaked open, and someone entered, their heavy footsteps plaguing the silence of the dark room. Hermione remained quiet as she stood up from her crouched position and started walking towards Harry, her wand drawn in a defensive position. She had made it almost halfway to where Harry stood, when she heard the floor creak underneath her foot. The Death Eater shot a curse her way and she blocked it, cursing the squeaky floors of the ancient Ministry building.

Hermione cast a body-binding charm at the Death Eater, but he blocked it, his sudden movement causing a loud crash as he slammed into one of the desks that was in the room. Another Death Eater came running into the room, shooting curses at Hermione and Harry, who were now side by side.

"IN HERE! WE'VE GOT POT--" the death eater was shouting, but Hermione cast a silencing charm on him before he could react, knocking him off his feet as well, as Harry dueled with the original Death Eater. Harry got a nasty gash on his forehead that started to turn yellow, as if it was infected, and just before the other Death Eater could shoot another curse at Harry, he hit the Death Eater with a full body binding curse, knocking him to the ground. Hermione ran back to Harry, but turned around just in time for the silenced Death Eater, who had stood up, to make a slashing movement with his wand. A purple flame passed through Hermione's stomach, making her bleed out rapidly. She felt nauseous and fell over as Harry shot another body binding curse at that Death Eater as well. Harry ran to Hermione's side and pointed his wand at her stomach, trying a healing spell, but this only made the blood flow even faster. Tears fell from Hermione's eyes and she winced every time that she shook from her hard sobs. Hermione grabbed on to Harry weakly, who had wrapped his jumper around the wide cut on her stomach. Darkness was spotting her vision and she could see red.

"Harry, d-don't worry about m-me," she said. "G-go save Siri--" the darkness took over Hermione's vision and she could no longer feel the sickening pain in her stomach.

Harry grabbed Hermione's body and lifted her up to bring her with him. He dragged her along to where Ron hid, and laid her down again for a moment to try and shake him awake. Ron moaned lightly and his eyes softly fluttered before squinting to see Harry. "Ron, come on, I need your help to carry Hermione," Harry explained quietly. Ron sat up and groaned as he stood up, grabbing Hermione's other arm and putting it over his shoulder, wincing.

"Harry, I swear to God, if she's dead--"

"If she's dead, I don't know what I'll do with myself Ron. Trust me, I know exactly how you feel," Harry retorted. The boys pulled Hermione into a separate room and hid her in a storage closet behind a stack of boxes, putting a concealment charm over to make sure that nobody could find her so she would stay safe. Harry and Ron locked the closet with the strongest locking charms that they knew and put a scratch on the door to remind them where she hid before running to find the others.

Cedric stumbled to stand up. Tonks had just entered the room where he had been cast into a full body binding curse and was left behind by the other Order members, and had set him free. He nodded at her in thanks and ran towards where Sirius and the Order left to, Tonks and Remus following closely behind him.

The Order and the Death Eaters were in full battle when they arrived. He looked around and saw Harry fighting alongside Sirius, and Ron fighting nearby. Cedric scanned the large room, but could find no trace of Hermione. Panicked, Cedric started running around the room, looking for her, dodging several spells and curses. He found Luna, bleeding profusely from her nose, hiding behind a toppled bookshelf. She was shooting curses at Death Eaters from behind, sending them into body binds or knocking them out. "Nice one, Luna!" Cedric grinned as he passed. She had hit a Death Eater square in the back with a leg-locking curse, then, in his state of surprise, hit him with a bat-bogey hex. Luna seemed to not have heard Cedric in her stage of concentration. She was hitting Death Eaters left and right with disarming spells and others alike.

Still searching for Hermione, Cedric found an dark corridor and entered. He heard a low croak from the corner. Casting the light-giving charm, Cedric moved towards the source of the sound and found Ginny with someone unconscious on her lap, their head down, hair sticky and soaked from blood. Whether it was their own was unknown.

"Ginny, what happened?" Cedric asked. "Who is that?"

Ginny's body was covered in blood from the person who rested on her, and her face streaked with tears. "Ce-Cedric!" she gasped. "I-I-I don't know what happened," she cried. "Harry and Ron, they asked me to watch her, make sure she's alright. I-I-I think she's dead."

"Who's dead? Ginny, who is dead?" Cedric asked frantically.

"H-Hermi-ione"

Cedric sank to his knees next to Ginny and Hermione. He turned Hermione's body over but regretted his decision immediately. The entirety of her shirt and pants were soaked in blood, even though someone had removed their jumper and tied it around the cut. "No no no no no," Cedric whispered deliriously. "I can't-- I can't do this. Please, Hermione, dont die. I need you. I couldn't live myself if you die. Please, wake up!"

Cedric stood up and looked at Ginny, who was still crying silently. "Who did this?" he asked with a look of murder.

"I- I don't know. A Death Eater," she let out through deep breaths.

Cedric didn't take a second look at Ginny before running back into the battle, shooting curses at every Death Eater that he saw. If Cedric wasn't being held back by his morals, he would've been using Unforgivables on every one of them. Cedric eventually was stuck in a duel with a man he recognized from the Daily Prophet, one of the Death Eaters from the mass breakout: Rabastan Lestrange. Lestrange and Cedric fought, shooting curses back and forth at each other, Cedric moving closer with every spell until he was about four feet away. Right after Cedric dodged another curse that came his way, he ran at the Death Eater and punched as hard as he could right in Lestrange's face, knocking him to the ground, his wand scattering away, Cedric hit him with a full body-binding curse and left him, stiff as a board, in the middle of the battleground, kicking his wand far in the other direction.

Cedric wasn't sure how he ended up fighting next to Harry and Sirius, but there they stood, Cedric's back to theirs, shooting curses at their enemies. Almost at once, most of the Death Eaters stopped moving and tried to escape, but found that they couldn't. Cedric watched as they panicked and were handcuffed magically, and he looked around for the cause of the commotion. Dumbledore had arrived! Cedric turned around to tell Sirius and Harry, but Harry was on the floor as Sirius continued to fight his cousin. Cedric could recognize her from the Black family tree, her black wild hair and wrinkles caused from her time in Azkaban almost acted as a disguise, but Cedric could recognize the heavily lidded, murderous eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange anywhere.

Bellatrix shot a curse at Sirius but he retaliated, shooting a hex her way. She sneered at him and laughed as she shot a blue curse at him. It hit Sirius square in the chest and he stumbled back into a black veil. Harry, who now stood, tried to grab him, but Sirius fell, the light leaving his eyes, all the way through, and he didn't come out the other side.

Cedric grabbed Harry's arm, Remus grabbing the other, as they stopped Harry from going after Bellatrix, who had escaped through a fireplace before she could be captured. Cedric sobbed as he let go of Harry, who fell to the ground in agony. Cedric had lost his two favourite people within the span of twenty minutes.