Chapter 73

Hermione opened her eyes to hushed voices outside her door. She frowned. ‘It’s locked, I guess that says enough.’ a silent whisper could be heard. Hermione listened closely, lifting her head up from the ground. ‘It won’t hurt to check.’ ‘Alohomora.’ she heard before the door slowly opened. ‘Hermione?’ she heard before two arms were wrapped around her. ‘Blaise?’ ‘You okay?’ he asked looking at her face after having pulled away. Hermione nodded. ‘Oh Hermione! It’s so good to see you!’ Seamus said wrapping his arms around her before pulling away and then being met with Dean’s arms. ‘What are you all doing here?’ Hermione asked. ‘We’re here to take you back to Hogwarts.’ Blaise smiles down at her before noticing the chains. ‘Have you been like this the past days?’ Blaise asked. Hermione nodded. ‘Come here, let me help you.’ Blaise said kneeling down in front of her. ‘Alohomora.’ he said again and with a flick of his wand the chains unlocked and fell to the ground. ‘Is it just the three of you?’ Hermione asked hopefully. Blaise shook his head. ‘Draco, Ginny, Ron, Harry, Neville, Luna and George are here as well.’ Dean told her. ‘Oh no.’ Hermione breathed getting up, but almost immediately falling back down. ‘Oh, watch out!’ Seamus said, quickly coming to her side and taking an hold of her arm while Blaise took her other arm in his hands. ‘Have you eaten?’ Blaise asked looking down at her. ‘Not much.’ she sighed. ‘We’ve got to find the others and get the hell out of here.’ Hermione said desperately. ‘Do you know who’s keeping you here?’ Dean asked. Hermione shook her head. ‘I only saw Pansy and…… I know this must sound crazy, but I also saw Fred.’ Hermione said softly. Blaise shook his head. ‘We haven’t figured out how that’s possible, so we’re not judging.’ Blaise said giving her a small smile. Hermione returned the smile. It was nice seeing someone smile after days being kept prisoner in this room. ‘Come on, we have to go.’ Blaise said, wrapping his arm around her waist, giving her some support while Seamus did the same thing on the other side of her. They led her out of the room and up a stone stairs. When they got upstairs Dean turned around to look at them. ‘What do we do now?’ Dean asked. Blaise shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Perhaps it’s better to split? Someone take Hermione and the other two go find the others so we can all get the hell out of this place.’ Blaise suggested. Dean nodded. ‘I’ll take Hermione, you two go look for the others.’ Blaise said. Seamus nodded and slowly let go of Hermione. ‘I’m fine.’ she said, letting him know it was okay. Seamus nodded again. ‘Please be careful, and really quiet.’ Hermione pleaded. ‘Of course, don’t worry about us.’ Dean said. ‘Where’s George?’ Hermione whispered when Dean and Seamus had silently run away. ‘He arrived in Dufftown when we arrived here. He had appareted right after he had received the letter Ginny had send him.’ Blaise told her quietly. Hermione sighed. ‘Why are you all putting your life’s at risk?’ Hermione asked softly. Blaise stopped in his track and looked over at her. ‘Hermione, don’t be stupid. You would do the same thing for all of us if it was the other way around.’ Blaise said. Hermione slightly nodded before they walked on.  She was silently begging for the safety of all of her friends who were in the house right at that moment. How could they be so stupid? ‘We have to cross the living room to get to the front door.’ Blaise whispered. ‘Where is the living room?’ ‘We’re almost there.’ Blaise told her quietly. Hermione nodded as they slowly walked on. ‘Blaise.’ Hermione said softly. Blaise gave her a quick glance. ‘Yeah?’ ‘Thank you.’ she whispered giving him a smile. Blaise gave her a smile. ‘You can thank me when you’re save back at Hogwarts.’ Blaise told her quietly. That’s when someone took an hold of Hermione’s free arm and pulled her back. ‘Where did you think you were going?’ Hermione looked over her shoulder and saw “Fred” was holding her. ‘Please, just let me go.’ she silently begged. “Fred” shook his head. ‘Expelliarmus.’ “Fred” said, flicking his wand before catching Blaise’s just drawn wand. He aimed his wand at Blaise and motioned him to walk further. ‘Go on.’ “Fred” smirked. Blaise gave Hermione a quick look before he turned and walked towards a door. ‘Open it.’ Blaise raised his hand and opened the door before they walked in. ‘Pansy! How is it that I found this wandering around the hallways?’ “Fred” yelled. ‘What are you talking abo-‘ Pansy started as she entered another door across the room before she stopped in her track and stared at Hermione and Blaise. ‘What!’ Pansy said. ‘Why are you yelling! I’m trying to take a nap!’ a male said coming from behind them. Hermione turned to see Rodolphus brushing his hand through his hair. ‘Oh well, we’ve got company.’ Rodolphus said looking at Blaise before his eyes travelled down to rest on Hermione. Hermione couldn’t bear to look any longer at the man that had been keeping her prisoner and she looked down at the ground. That’s when she saw something moving in the corner of her eye and before she knew it she heard someone scream “Stupify” and Pansy being knocked back against the closed door she had closed after she had walked into the living room. Pansy was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground. Just a few feet away from Pansy was Draco standing, his arm outstretched, his hand clenching his wand, now aiming it at “Fred”. Draco had come down from the stairs on the opposite side of the huge living room. ‘Let them go.’ he demanded. Rodolphus and “Fred” started to laugh, but their laughter slowly died down when they saw Ginny, Ron, Neville and Luna walking down the steps of the stairs at the other side of the room. All pointing their wands at them. Dean and Seamus appeared from the door behind Pansy followed by the only person missing,  George. Hermione looked up at “Fred” who was holding her and saw a slight frown appear on his face, before he quickly recovered himself. Right beside “Fred” she saw Rodolphus smirk. ‘I see you brought your book club.’ Rodolphus said. ‘Let them go uncle and nobody will be hurt.’ Draco demanded. ‘Oh dear, dear Draco.’ Rodolphus said shaking his head. ‘These people have killed your aunt, have killed your father. They’ve killed many of our brothers and sisters. They’ve killed your family.’ Rodolphus said, stepping forward as he spoke. ‘They killed your people.’ Rodolphus said. Draco shook his head. ‘These are my people. These people you see here, they are my family now.’ Draco said. Rodolphus shook his head while giving him a disgusted face. ‘You’re a disgrace-‘ Rodolphus spat. Draco started to laugh, interrupting his uncle midsentence. ‘As if I care.’ Draco laughed. ‘They’ve brainwashed you.’ Rodolphus sighed. ‘You’re on their side?’ Rodolphus asked. ‘Well, alright then. Guys come and help me out here.’ Rodolphus said and at that moment around 10 black dressed figures appeared out of nowhere. ‘I would’ve loved to see you slowly die from inside out after I had slowly and painfully killed your girlfriend Draco, but you don’t give me any other choice.’ Rodolphus sighed drawing out his own wand. ‘I would’ve liked to see this ending a different way, but now I’ll just have to live with a quick dead for you and all of your “friends”.’ Rodolphus said. ‘What are you waiting for, kill them.’ Rodolphus said and that’s when hell started. Everything happened so fast. Hermione threw herself against Blaise, throwing him to the ground while pulling Fred with her to the ground as the curses flew across the room.  Hermione took an hold of Blaise’s wand, which had fallen on the ground and rolled it over to Blaise. Blaise took an hold of it and jumped up, immediately knocking someone back after having yelled “stupify”. Hermione looked behind her and saw Fred laying there, totally confused by the thing she had just done. She had saved his life. ‘Where’s my wand?’ Hermione demanded. Fred shook his head. But Hermione had noticed the quick glance he had given the bookshelf on their side of the room. Hermione got up from the ground. Thankfully the adrenaline was rushing through her body, otherwise she would never have gotten up by herself. She made her way to the bookshelf as quickly as possible and immediately spotted her wand in a glass case. She smashed the glass to the ground and took her wand from the shatters on the ground. ‘Expelliarmius, Petrificus Totalus!’ she shouted, aiming her wand at the Death Eater that had aimed at her just as she had gotten up. She felt the adrenaline warming her body up, giving her just the energy she needed to fight. She knew this wouldn’t last for ever, so she had to act quick. ‘Fred?’ she heard behind her. She turned to see George walking up to his twin. ‘Remember me? I’m George, your twin.’ George said holding his hands up in the air. “Fred” looked at him with a confused look, but the innocent look quickly disappeared and was replaced by a devilish smirk. “Fred” raised his wand and aimed at George. Hermione quickly raised her wand and aimed at George as well. ‘Avada Kedavra.’ Hermione sighed relieved when she saw George was knocked aside by the flick of her wand and green light shooting from “Fred’s” wand missed George just by a few inches. George looked up at his twin in utter surprisement before he jumped up and started to shoot at “Fred”. Hermione quickly duck to the ground as a bright green light came rushing her way. She got up and said ‘Stupify’, while aiming her wand at the figure in black right across the room. Immediately followed by an ‘Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus.’ aiming for the guy standing across from Ginny, who wanted to shoot her in the back. ‘Piece of shit.’ Hermione muttered. She saw everyone was occupied by at least one or two Death Eater’s. It seemed like they kept coming. It seemed like when one was down, two came back in his place. She saw Ginny being knocked back against the wall, but she crawled back up with a painful face as she held her right arm tightly with her left hand. Hermione wanted to run over to her as for the fact that another Death Eater was coming her way, but Harry quickly stepped in front of Ginny and knocked the Death Eater out. Across the room she saw Dean with a big cut on his forehead and right next to him Seamus with an open wound on his leg, which you could clearly see through his ripped jeans. Hermione took in a deep breath before shooting at the Death Eater that was aiming for her before knocking another out that was trying to get rid of Luna. Luna gave her a thankful smile before she aimed her attention on the next Death Eater. ‘I can’t do this!’ Hermione heard George say. Hermione snapped her head to the side to see what was going on a few feet away from her. ‘I can’t do it Fred. If someone has to end up dead, you have to kill me. Because I can’t kill you.’ George said. Hermione gasped. What was he doing? Why didn’t he just knock him out. George let his wand fall to the ground and looked over at “Fred” who was still aiming his wand at George. ‘I can’t do it.’ George said. ‘Just make it quick.’ George pleaded. “Fred”  frowned. He reached up to his head with his free hand and blinked a few times. ‘George?’ That’s when Fred flew back against the frame of the door and fell to the ground, unconscious. George and Hermione both shot a look at Neville. ‘What?’ Neville said. ‘I couldn’t take your drama, okay, now go on!’ Neville said. Hermione smiled. George looked over at her and gave her a wink before grabbing his wand from the ground and walking over to his brother’s body on the ground. Hermione looked up and saw the floor was now scattered with black figures. Ron and Harry both took care of the last two.  Hermione looked around and saw all of her friends were still standing. Ginny had a firm hold on her right arm, probably broke or something. When Hermione looked over at Ron she saw him looking down at his leg, where a piece of shattered glass was sticking out. Harry walked over and quickly pulled it out before the wound would be worse. Seamus and Dean still had the same injury as they had a few minutes ago and it seemed like those were the only injuries they had, so that was something good. She sighed relieved, but as she scanned the faces she noticed she missed someone. She missed Luna. She saw Draco making his way over to her, there was probably something wrong with his foot or leg, because the walking wasn’t looking for smooth,  but when he was just a few feet away from her Rodolphus walked in, holding the tip of his wand against Luna’s head as he walked into the room. ‘Drop your wands, or she’ll die.’ Rodolphus said. Hermione saw Blaise and Neville looking over at her. She slightly nodded before putting her own wand down on the ground. She saw the other’s follow her example after hers was down on the ground. She stood back up straight and looked at Luna. Of course he took Luna. She’s the most innocent of them all.  Hermione shared a desperate look with Draco before she turned back to Rodolphus. ‘You can have me, but you have to let Luna and all the others go.’ Hermione spoke up. ‘No.’ Draco said. Rodolphus smirked. ‘I’ll take you up on that offer.’ Rodolphus said. Hermione nodded and stepped forwards, but Draco took a step in her direction and stretched his arm out. ‘She’s not staying and none is anyone else.’ Draco said. ‘You’ve got a death wish don’t you nephew.’ Rodolphus smirked. ‘Fair enough, your wish is my command.’ Rodolphus said before quickly aiming his wand at Draco and speaking up. ‘AVADA KEDAVRA!’ Rodolphus shouted. Hermione ran as quickly as she could and threw herself in front of Draco. ‘NO!’ Draco shouted. The curse hit her right in the chest. She was knocked back and fell on the ground a few feet away. Draco stood there, wide eyed, as Rodolphus himself fell to the ground with his eyes open in shock. He hadn’t expected the curse to come back at him when he tried to kill his nephew. Draco recovered himself and ran to Hermione who was lying on the ground, with her eyes closed. ‘Hermione, please don’t be dead.’ Draco said. ‘Please don’t be dead.’ ‘Please.’ he begged, tears rolling down his face.