Chapter 21 - Hermione's Pride
"Impossible," Voldemort spat for the second time that day. "How did they manage to escape from the time chamber?"
"Now you can effect an even more permanent solution Lord," Bellatrix suggested.
"We'll see," Voldemort replied evenly. "The child has become more troublesome than I had ever imagined possible."
"Let me assist you Lord," Bellatrix said pleadingly. "Let me prove my worth…"
"I will deal with the boy alone," Voldemort snapped. He looked into Bellatrix's eyes. "I will demonstrate once and for all that he cannot fight me, prophecy or not. Besides, you have another job to do."
"Of course Master," Bellatrix said. A maniacal grin had spread across her face as Voldemort used his mental prowess to communicate her assignment.
Moving with unnatural speed Bellatrix closed the distance with the defenders who were still in shock from Harry and Hermione's arrival. She fired some kind of curse at McGonagall as she reached the top of the stairs. Ron felt himself stiffen from a paralysis jinx and the next thing he knew Bellatrix's gaunt face was mere inches from his.
"Where are the children?" Bellatrix asked in a cooing voice as she stared into Ron's eyes. "Ah, the Chamber of Secrets, how lovely."
"Bel-la-trix," Ron stammered through gritted teeth.
"I'll be seeing you later Weasley," Bellatrix said with a laugh as she ran off down the hall toward the Chamber's entrance.
McGonagall staggered back to her feet looking very much the worse for wear, but she was still able to cast a cancellation spell to release Ron. He scrambled back to his feet and ran to the edge of the drop off where Harry was starting to face off with Voldemort. He knew that Bellatrix was an avatar, that he would have no chance of stopping her on his own.
"Bellatrix is headed for the children," Ron yelled.
"Oh no," Hermione said, her voice full of dread when she heard Ron's words.
"Go," Harry said quickly. "This is truly my battle here. Keep everyone safe for me, okay?"
"I'm coming back just as soon as its handled," Hermione said, then added a silent "I love you."
"I love you too, be careful," Harry replied. At least if he failed the prophecy would be ended and Voldemort would no longer be protected by it. Then, theoretically, someone else might be able to kill him. At the least he would die of old age, grim solution though that was.
Hermione pointed her wand at the ground and propelled herself upward effortlessly. Her feet touched down lightly in front of the survivors.
Ron pointed out the direction. "She went that way."
"I'm so sorry," Hermione said, her voice cracking. She quickly dispelled the enchantments that were still holding Luna and Dumbledore in place.
"Hermione," Dumbledore said kindly. "They need you now."
"Right," Hermione said thickly. She pointed her wand at herself and flickered away in the direction Bellatrix had gone.
"Ronald, we've got to go after her, she may need our help," Luna said urgently.
"Yeah," Ron said distantly, his eyes still on the battle below. "It's up to Harry now."
McGonagall helped Dumbledore over to the ledge so he could witness the unfolding contest below. His face looked more tired than she had ever seen it. Even his eyes had lost their usual twinkle.
"Will it be okay Albus?" she asked hesitantly.
"I don't know Minerva," he replied. He tried to never second guess himself, but he couldn't help but wonder if he had done the right thing over all these years. First by abandoning Harry, then by failing to push him, and finally by letting him push himself. Now he was facing Voldemort's unfathomable power with no one to rely on but himself. Dumbledore's own defeat weighed heavily in his mind as he watched Harry prepare to attack. "I really don't know, and at this point, that's a good thing."
Hermione blinked back tears as she flitted through the halls toward the Chamber of Secrets. The level of death and destruction was overwhelming for her. She couldn't help but feel responsible for this; if only she could have figured a way out of the time chamber more quickly, or not have gone in there at all.
In the end they had been forced to waste two of their precious magical enhancing potions to muster enough force to blow their way through the beautiful work of alchemy that made up the time chamber's walls. After that they had been forced to apparate back to the edge of Hogwarts' anti-apparation field when they discovered that their portkeys no longer functioned. Hermione had never been more thankful for flight than when they were winging their way toward the school in their animagus forms.
She knew that some of the magical enhancing potion was still active in her blood and it was fortunate too. Hermione didn't see the hail of debris headed towards her until she ran headlong into it at an accelerated speed. The impact tossed her aside, but she managed to roll into a crouching position, armor already active.
"How delicious," Bellatrix said giddily. "How Potter will hate me after this day, not that he will get to live to see another. First I took his precious Sirius and now his mudblood girl."
"Sirius was a gentle soul, even to his enemies," Hermione growled. "But I won't let you hurt Harry or anyone else anymore."
"Is that so?" Bellatrix asked. "Do you think you can stop me?"
"You're just an avatar," Hermione sneered.
Bellatrix's face twisted in rage. "I am not just an avatar you stupid little girl. I am the greatest of His servants. You've never faced the likes of me before."
Hermione took two steps forward, her wand glowing with deadly intent, and suddenly her nose was flattened as she ran into an icy wall that had materialized out of no where. On the other side of the foggy obstacle Bellatrix laughed at her.
"How do you propose to stop me if you can't even pay attention to where you're going?" she said tauntingly.
Hermione vaporized the thick ice with a gesture, but Bellatrix had already accelerated away. Light spilled out of her wand as Hermione quickly checked to make sure that no jinxes had been left as traps while she wasn't looking before she ran after Bellatrix. Using the acceleration charm would be too dangerous now that her foe was aware of her pursuit. Hermione conjured a shield as she ran and hoped that she could make it to the Chamber entrance in time.
"Is the big bad Dark Lady all tired?" Bellatrix cooed. Hermione skidded to a stop as she rounded the corner and blocked the incoming curse with her otter adorned silver shield.
Hermione clinched her jaw, but didn't respond. She fired a long thin sickly orange looking spell at Bellatrix and was pleasantly surprised when it coiled around her leg. Her elation turned to disappointment when the spell wilted to the floor and dissipated.
"Potter's mudblood sure has a nasty dark streak of evil in her," Bellatrix chided mockingly. Her insanity had changed her personality slightly and Hermione found it even more disturbing. "Did the Ministry approve of that little bit of dark magic? You could have taken my leg off with that putrefaction curse."
"Do you expect to get a rise out of me like that?" Hermione asked finally as they continued to trade curses. "I know the difference between good and evil, and its not measured in what curses you use."
Bellatrix shot out a half dozen shiny red balls the size of marbles. They bounced around the hallway at a speed almost too quick for the eye to see. Hermione adjusted the red tinted eyepiece that sat on her left eye to help keep track of the bothersome attacks.
"Humph," Bellatrix said dejectedly, "You're no fun at all. How did you ever manage to hook up with wee baby Potter?"
Hermione jerked back to dodge the evil witch's incoming spell and felt one of the tiny red balls puncture her cloak, barely missing her flesh. She threw out a curse and managed to explode one of the objects, but there were still five left.
"I can't imagine he'd be any fun," Bellatrix said. Hermione tried valiantly to ignore her as she continued to prattle on in search of something that would rile her opponent. "He's not even good looking, what with those glasses, and he's so thin…"
"Looks aren't everything," Hermione said smugly. Not that she thought Harry was unattractive, quite the opposite, but arguing with the likes of Bellatrix about it didn't really appeal to her.
"I guess you should know," Bellatrix retorted. Hermione felt her jaw clench again. Bellatrix had clearly been waiting for that opportunity. "You are the very definition of plain looking aren't you? That hair…you don't even try do you?"
Hermione slashed her wand through the air leaving a bright red ribbon like streak that flew diagonally across the hall toward Bellatrix. Two of the small red balls were caught up in its path of annihilation, but Bellatrix herself easily dodged the attack. Hermione felt her hand sting and saw a thin line of blood welling up where one of the balls had grazed her. Her grip on her wand tightened and the flow of blood died down immediately.
"I guess what you were really after was his fame and money, right?" Bellatrix asked snidely.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand love," Hermione replied.
"Don't you dare talk to me about love you piece of muddy trash!" Bellatrix screamed. "Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione barely had time to throw her shield in front of her to absorb the killing curses that Bellatrix was suddenly firing in a blind rage. The little red balls dropped to the ground and Hermione realized that they took concentration to use. She snatched them up in a levitation charm and placed them in the line of an incoming killing curse.
"Your kind stole my life with Rodolphus for all those years in Azkaban and then you killed him," Bellatrix said hysterically. "You won't rest until the noble families all scrape at your feet."
Then, as quick as it came, Bellatrix had suddenly flipped back into her previous state of calm as if nothing had happened. Hermione looked at the insane woman warily as she attempted to regain her breath. Bellatrix flipping out was a recklessly dangerous Bellatrix.
"I know," Bellatrix said. She acted like some great puzzle had finally been solved. "You like power don't you?"
"Huh?" Hermione replied, befuddled.
"It all makes sense now," she continued. "You found out about the prophecy and wanted to be close to the most powerful wizard in the world, but I was already Lord Voldemort's favorite so you had to choose wee little upstart Potter, right? I'm right aren't I?"
Hermione almost lowered her guard when Bellatrix burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh you should see yourself child," Bellatrix said through fits of giggles. "You're so ambitious to cuddle up to the "Chosen One." Not that you could do better of course."
"It's ironic," Hermione replied. She pointed her wand at the floor and caused the stone to spew forth jagged spikes towards Bellatrix. "Harry has always insisted that of the two of us…I'm the stronger."
Bellatrix scowled and blocked the spikes with a thick piece of conjured stone, then banished it all to dust. "Of the two of us, Lord Voldemort is by far the strongest," Bellatrix countered. "So know that when I defeat you…baby Potter doesn't have a chance!"
Bellatrix turned and ran down the hall after a final parting curse. Hermione winced at the deep gouge that had opened up in the stone just inches from her right leg. A loose piece of cloak fluttered to the floor as the bushy haired girl raced off after her opponent.
"Hermione!" a girl Hermione recognized as Lisa Turpin shouted at her.
"Stay back," Hermione yelled in reply. She lifted her wand and reflected a hasty spell off of a cornea shield.
"We don't know what to do anymore," Lisa replied. "There are no more messages and we can't stop an avatar."
Hermione bounced another spell off of her shield and replied with a swarm of tiny flames. "Go back to the moving staircases," Hermione said. "Ron and Dumbledore should be there, but be careful, Harry is dueling Voldemort."
Lisa paled considerably, but nodded and motioned for her unit, what was left of it, to move out. The collection of battered students, mostly Ravenclaw, moved away from the scene as rapidly as their condition would allow.
"You can't save them," Bellatrix raved. She turned and continued to run toward the Chamber entrance.
"You can't save anyone."
Hermione gave chase, aware that the bathroom entrance was almost within sight, and fired off every curse she could think of in an attempt to slow Bellatrix down. As the dark witch disappeared around the corner Hermione decided that there was no choice left. Bellatrix couldn't be allowed to harm the students. With grim determination Hermione pointed her wand at herself and accelerated blindly to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Hermione touched something and the world around her exploded. The force of the magical blast propelled her violently against the hard walls of the bathroom. The Chamber entrance, which had been concealed by a cluster of sinks, was now a gaping hole surrounded by rubble. Hermione picked herself up as the smoke and dust cleared only to see Bellatrix rising from the rubble on the other side of the room.
"Bravo," Bellatrix said mockingly. "You got here a little quicker than I expected and managed to catch me up in my own jinx."
Hermione swung her wand, like someone might swing a ball in the muggle game of bowling, and unleashed a vertical line of magical energy that ripped apart everything in its path. Bellatrix disappeared behind a wall of dust that was kicked up in the attack's path. Hermione swung her wand again and again until the other half of the room was too obscured for her attacks to have any hope of success. She crouched behind her shield and waited for Bellatrix to make the next move. As total silence settled on the room Hermione heard sobbing coming from a nearby pile of debris.
"Myrtle?" Hermione whispered tersely. The ghost of the young girl floated out hesitantly, as if she were afraid of getting caught up in the crossfire despite her nature.
"Y-y-you," Myrtle sniffed unhappily. "My bathroom is all wrecked."
"Myrtle, get down to the teachers and tell them to try to find some way to get the students out of here," Hermione ordered sternly.
"It's hopeless," Myrtle replied. "I've lived here for fifty years you know. There isn't any way out that a person could get through."
"Tell them to blow the walls down," Hermione said.
"It wouldn't work," Myrtle said. "The walls aren't strong enough. That kind of shock would collapse the entire area and kill everyone. There isn't enough room here for me to share with that many people."
"How is that possible?" Hermione asked. The castle should be much stronger than that.
"The Founders didn't build the Chamber, just Slytherin," Bellatrix said. Hermione felt her armor absorb a killing curse. She berated herself for carelessness and quickly rolled aside. "Oh, don't look so surprised. You're the bookish one aren't you? I guess you could say I'm just like you."
"Is that supposed to make me angry?" Hermione asked. Secretly she hated Bellatrix making the suggestion, but if she had learned anything from Harry's fight with Bellatrix nearly two years ago, it was that rising to the woman's taunts would only be counter productive.
"It's just a fact," Bellatrix said with an exaggerated shrug. "This castle is a marvelous work of art. Did you know that it can repair itself? In a few months, a couple of years at most, all this damage will be gone."
"Then why is the Chamber falling apart," Hermione asked.
"Only the combined power of the Founders could create something as magnificent as this," Bellatrix replied as if it were obvious. "Slytherin's addition was his little secret…"
"And he didn't have the ability to make anything quite so durable," Hermione finished.
"Or maybe he did and chose not to," Bellatrix said tauntingly. "Who knows what powers the great Slytherin possessed. Perhaps he could see into the future and knew that one day you would foolishly try to hide a bunch of mudbloods down there."
"Maybe he'll show up and save you right now," Hermione said with false sweetness.
"Unnecessary," Bellatrix retorted tersely, her eyes flashing with indignation on behalf of Slytherin.
"Well, I'll be wishing you well," Myrtle said awkwardly. "If you die I guess could stay here, but you have to promise not to get between Harry and I."
"We'll talk later," Hermione said hurriedly in a completely flabbergasted tone.
A giant milky white half sphere, the battering charm, suddenly materialized from the end of Bellatrix's wand. Hermione cast her strongest shield charm and braced herself for the almost unimaginable impact. She was driven back into the wall, which buckled under the pressure. Hermione felt like she was about to be squeezed in half; her ribs popped and the air was driven forcibly from her lungs before the spell finally dissipated.
Hermione saw lights swimming through her vision as she peered out of the partial crater that her impact had created in the wall. Any normal human would have been killed and as it was her magical genes had only barely preserved her. She saw another milky white half sphere rushing toward her, but this time she managed to respond in time with a battering charm of her own. The two spells collided and released their energy in the form of an ear splitting explosion. Hermione groaned and got back onto unsteady feet, her strength returning as she tightened her grip on her wand again.
"I'll let you rest a while," Bellatrix said with false sweetness. "Auntie Bella just can't wait to see all those adorable children."
"Get back here," Hermione yelled as Bellatrix disappeared down the hole that led to the Chamber of Secrets. "We're not done yet, Bellatrix!"
Hermione shot a stream of fire down the pipe before jumping in after it. Most of the students were back behind the point where the flimsy walls had collapsed around five years previously, so there was no one to witness Hermione's arrival except Bellatrix. The pipe expelled a powerful gout of fire that clung to the floor with magical tenacity in preparation for her arrival. Hermione's tattered cloak billowed in the updraft the intense flame created and more flame continued to pour out of her wand.
Bellatrix dropped all pretenses of subtlety and began exchanging powerful shield breaking curses with Hermione. The dark witch slowly retreated down the tunnel as the exchange continued so that she could get to the students. Hermione winced as sparks erupted from each blow that glanced off of her defenses, but there was little more she could do. Bellatrix was indeed the most powerful avatar she had ever seen. Wearing her down before she reached the students was impossible.
"It's a good thing you didn't try anything," Bellatrix said as they reached what remained of the collapsed wall. With a flick of her wand great iron pillars rose out of the ground to help prop up the ceiling. Another flick and the loose debris vanished. Hermione felt terror clench her heart as the entire student body of Hogwarts year four and under was instantly exposed.
Bellatrix laughed dementedly and turned her wand on the masses of small forms huddling in the dank passageway just outside the door to the main chamber. The various professors who had come with them as a last line of defense placed themselves between their charges and the invader.
"Leave them alone," Hermione shrieked. She accelerated in a flash, intent on striking Bellatrix with her armored arm. To her shock the wily dark witch somehow managed to dodge Hermione's rapid movements. Hermione was at point blank range though and in her rage she could only think of swinging again. Bellatrix dodged several more blows before accelerating back out of reach.
"If you wanted to trade positions you should have just said so," Bellatrix said. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she was now between the students and harm.
Flitwick, Hooch, Trelawney, Prince, and Sprout were all there, their wands at the ready. "Should we help you Miss Granger?" Flitwick asked. Concern was evident on all their faces as they regarded their best student whom they had seen little of for nearly an entire year.
Hermione, her back still turned to them, dipped her head. "I'm sorry Professor," she said quietly. "You would just get in my way now. I can't afford any distractions against her. That means I can't worry about the other students either."
"Miss Granger," Madam Prince said haltingly.
"Please!" Hermione exclaimed. "Protect the students. Can I entrust them to you?"
"Don't worry about it," Flitwick said confidently. "Stop her. We'll take care of everything else."
"Thank you," Hermione replied softly. The tip of her wand ignited as she raised it toward Bellatrix.
"You know, you're really unlucky to have ended up as my opponent," Bellatrix said in a consoling tone. "Fire is your specialty element, right?"
"So what if it is?" Hermione asked guardedly.
"My specialty is a subset of your Headmaster's favored element, water," Bellatrix explained. "In other words, my most powerful elemental spells are ice based."
"Fire melts ice," Hermione said with a smirk.
"Not this ice," Bellatrix promised. Hermione cast a huge plume of bluish green flame toward Bellatrix. There was a flash of white and then a crunching noise as a long bluish green icicle fell to the ground in a thousand shattered pieces.
"You can freeze fire," Hermione exclaimed with shock.
"Its about time the mudblood beaver got her comeuppance," a familiar voice in the back shouted.
"Stupefy," Flitwick bellowed. "Would anyone else like to join Mr. Malfoy?"
"Don't you dare hurt my nephew," Bellatrix shrieked. A flash of green light slammed into Hermione's armor a few scant inches away from Flitwick's face.
"Sorry Miss Granger," he said sheepishly. "Thank you for that."
"She's bloody insane," Hermione whispered to the nearby teachers. "Try not to say anything, especially about her family, or she's apt to bring this place down and kill us all."
They nodded solemnly as Hermione walked back toward Bellatrix slowly. The deranged woman seemed to have calmed herself down from her outburst and was all business once more.
"Is there anything more beautiful than a snowflake?" Bellatrix asked randomly. "Each one is so perfect and unique."
Hermione didn't know what to say to that, but the relevance of Bellatrix's muse was soon revealed as she cast a dense hail of gigantic snowflakes. Hermione couldn't tell if they were beautiful or unique, but she could tell that they were hard razor sharp pieces of ice with four fine points that would cut up anything they touched.
What was worse is that Hermione didn't dare dodge them. Despite her warning that she couldn't be distracted by the helpless lives behind her she couldn't forget them either. Hermione cast a torrent of her hottest flames in as wide a pattern as she could to be sure of catching all of the icy projectiles. A sizzling sound accompanied by a small quantity of steam attested to the effectiveness of her defense.
Hermione had entertained the hope that the duel wouldn't devolve into a brutal battle of elements since they were fighting in an unstable tunnel near a bunch of children, but Bellatrix was just getting started. She swung her wand in an underhanded motion and caused great sickles of ice to skim along the ground toward Hermione. Instead of using fire as a response Hermione conjured up thick iron barriers nearly a meter tall to absorb the blows.
"That won't work," Bellatrix said shrilly as the first icy blade swept through the barrier as if it weren't even there. Instead of cutting into the metal it simply encased it in a thick sheet of ice. Hermione leapt aside frantically to keep from becoming a block of ice herself. The students and professors also had to dodge a couple of the blows.
Hermione conjured up her most fearsome attack, the Life's Bane elemental fire, and began firing a rapid stream of projectiles at Bellatrix. Some of the shards fell to the ground covered in ice; others pulverized themselves against the icy fragments that Bellatrix defended with. Hermione recast her otter emblem shield charm and was surprised when Bellatrix cast an emblem shield charm of her own. Most avatars had the symbol of a snake on their shields like Voldemort since the bulk of their powers came from him. Bellatrix on the other hand had a penguin decorating the front of her charm.
"Surprised?" Bellatrix asked. "I told you I'm no normal avatar. My own power is still greater than those I acquired from Lord Voldemort."
Hermione put all her magic into a fire technique she had studied that was known as Baby Dragon's Breath. Like snake's venom, dragon flame is stronger when the creature is very young. For a moment Hermione thought the attack would be successful when Bellatrix threw her shield between herself and the fire. No mere shield charm could block a tightly focused high level elemental attack like that.
"I'm disappointed you think so little of me," Bellatrix said when she saw the look on Hermione's face. "Didn't you know that someone who has truly mastered an element can incorporate it into their shield charm?"
Bellatrix's shield glinted as the last of the rolled off of it with a hiss as it was extinguished. Hermione didn't even have time to let that piece of information settle in before she was trying to vaporize a new round of frozen attacks. Great stalactites rained down from the ceiling, snowflakes twirling in like buzz saws from all sides, and sharp pointed tridents of ice erupted from the floors in an all out attempt to impale her.
Hermione tried to focus her response at first, but as the attacks became more dense and multidirectional she had no choice but to respond with indiscriminate destruction. An aura of fire blossomed around her wand that sent out waves of heat in every direction. Bellatrix's attacks cracked or melted under the drastic changes in temperature. The sheer volume of water being vaporized caused a thick wet blanket of fog to settle into the tunnels.
"Got you!" Bellatrix screamed in delight as she emerged unexpectedly from one of the cloudbanks. Hermione twisted as quickly as she could, but Bellatrix's attack nicked her armored arm and that was enough to cause it to coat over in heavy ice all the way to her shoulder.
"How do you plan to move now?" Bellatrix asked as Hermione struggled to stand. She got, for the first time, the distinct impression that the older woman was toying wit her.
"Like this," Hermione replied tartly. She tapped the ice with her wand and it fell off into a dozen chunks.
"What was that, some kind of nullification spell?" Bellatrix asked.
"Actually, it was an air spell," Hermione replied as she touched the point of origin for her armor. The ruined piece detached and what was left of the silvery metal fell away from her shoulder. "I used harmonics to break the ice, like a singer can break fine crystal with only her voice."
"You really are the cleverest witch of your age," Bellatrix said with a touch of genuine admiration. "But clever only gets you so far."
"You can say that about any quality," Hermione retorted. She took another small triangular piece of metal out of her belt and affixed it to her left shoulder. It rapidly expanded out into another set of silvery armor.
"Brimming over with nasty little tools aren't you," Bellatrix said disgustedly.
"I thought you liked cleverness," Hermione replied. She began conjuring up a ball of corporeal Life's Bane fire. The huge fog bank wasn't getting any better. Instead it had started to condense. Hermione wriggled uncomfortably when her heavy rough robes started to itch as they became waterlogged. Only her armor covered left arm, which had lost its fabric when Hermione had vibrated the ice off of it, remained dry.
"Cleverness is what you can do with a wand," Bellatrix said sharply. "But you're like a muggle. Always plotting and scheming to create some little tools to help you cheat."
"I guess we have different definitions of cleverness then," Hermione said as she unleashed her ball of fire. Tentacle like whips erupted from its roiling surface and lashed out at Bellatrix. One by one they were flash frozen and cast down to the ground before any of them got close to even her shield. The final tendril was frozen all the way back to the source, which also froze, but didn't fall to the ground.
Hermione grumbled as another round of attacks connected with her armored arm again. As the frozen metal crumbled away she didn't bother to take out another since it would only be targeted again. Instead she took the opportunity to use what fire was left inside the ball that Bellatrix had believed she froze solid earlier. In the confusion of shattering ice the tiny fist sized drop of Life's Bane fire managed to hit Bellatrix's shield directly.
Hermione watched as the dark witch realized what had happened to her shield and hurried to throw it away before the fire could connect with her flesh. In that moment when Bellatrix was preoccupied Hermione reached into her hat and took out three long silver rods and threw them into the ground in a rough triangle surrounding the older woman. Black lightening raced from the tip of each rod and combined with each other directly over Bellatrix's head before crashing down on her.
The room shook from the force of the blast of elemental power impacting all at once. Hermione had constructed those sentry wards with the help of Harry for just such an occasion as this. His black lightening spell was far stronger than anything she could do with that element.
"Good show!" Flitwick squeaked excitedly. "I do believe you've done it Miss Granger."
"I never had any doubts," Trelawney spoke up shakily. "I remember the first time I saw you Miss Granger, I remember the Sight taking hold of me, and, uh, well done."
Trelawney trailed off as the other professors sent rather scathing looks her way. Hermione bent over exhaustedly and tried to catch her breath. The fog had started to clear all around and the children had erupted in nervous chatter. She was thankful that none of her cuts were serious enough to start bleeding again as she loosened her grip on her wand for a moment.
Hermione stood back up and arched her back painfully. She pointed her wand at herself in preparation for an acceleration charm. There was no time to attempt any recovery spells at this point; Harry needed her. However, before she could leave Hermione's vision suddenly blacked out and she felt a sharp pain lace through her entire body. She tried to move and realized that she was no longer standing, but instead lying flat on her back. She tried to breathe only to become aware that there was a thick sheet of ice covering her face, indeed her whole body.
"You bloody little wretch," Bellatrix screamed at her. She tottered out from behind the remains of an earlier ice attack that she had been hiding behind. The right half of her face was horribly burned from Hermione's lightening attack, but somehow she had survived.
"You tried your hardest with your muggle-like abominations," Bellatrix ranted. "Your `armor' and your potions and your wards. You make me sick. You can't even fight like a real witch."
Bellatrix leaned down and pushed her hand through the ice covering Hermione like it was nothing more than water. She plucked Hermione's wand the rest of the way out of her hand and tossed it aside.
"Now don't die on me," Bellatrix said soothingly. She banished the ice from around Hermione's face so she could breathe again. "I don't want you to join my worthless cousin until you comprehend how you were bested, not to mention provide a little restitution for my beautiful face."
Hermione looked desperately to where her wand had landed just out of reach. She tried to stretch her left arm toward it, but it was no use.
"My final strategy began as soon as our little duel of elements started," Bellatrix said condescendingly. "As you destroyed my ice it left behind water vapor all over the entire area. The ground, the walls, and ultimately you were all covered in near freezing water. It was only a matter of flash freezing anything to cover this entire area in a sheet of ice.
Hermione looked over and realized that everyone else was also covered in ice. Apparently Bellatrix had fixed their breathing problem too though because they didn't seem to be dying.
"Oh don't worry about them," Bellatrix cooed. "I want them to watch me work on you first. You know what they say about education, example makes the best instructor."
Hermione's eyes flickered over to the barely out of reach wand again as she tried to will it to come to her.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix shrieked gleefully.
Horrible socket wrenching, joint popping, nerve-searing pain tore through Hermione's body. It was the most awful Cruciatus Curse that she had ever endured.
"It's bad isn't it," Bellatrix said softly as she continued to twist the wand. "I told you that I'm no ordinary avatar. Even Lord Voldemort himself acknowledges my superior mastery of the Cruciatus Curse."
Hermione tried to writhe in agony, but the ice didn't even allow her that much respite.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix called out again as the first curse began to wear off.
"Uhh…gaah," Hermione choked out, unwilling to scream.
"Crucio!"
Several of the younger children began to cry and the professors looked away from what was happening.
"Crucio!"
Hermione felt blood began to gush out of her nose and eyes as the pain began to translate into real physical damage.
"Crucio!"
With great effort Hermione kept the pain from crossing through her link with Harry. No matter how much it hurt, she could never forgive herself if her ordeal distracted Harry at the wrong time.
"Crucio!"
Hermione saw images flash through her head. No pleasant memories of her life like people always claimed happened when one was about to die, but ghastly images of the war.
"Ginny," Hermione moaned as she saw her friend's lifeless body impaled on Barg's spiky shield.
"The mind is starting to go so soon?" Bellatrix asked as she continued to chuckle to herself. "Crucio!"
Hermione felt her extremities tingle as her nerves began to overload from the pain. The Cruciatus Curse prevented the victim from becoming unconscious when used properly, but there was only so much someone's physical form could endure. Hermione blinked her blood filled eyes and saw the fuzzy outline of a rat sniffing around her wand.
"Crucio!"
The rat latched onto the wand with its strong mouth and pushed the handle into Hermione's hand. Hermione's eyes came into focus sharply and her brain suddenly registered something shocking through the haze of pain. One of the rat's paws was silver.
With a scream of pure agony as she reached into her magic Hermione blew Bellatrix off of her in a ball of flame. Her rage fueled wave after wave of fire that turned all the ice in the passageway into steam. Hermione waved her wand and banished the steam to completely correct her previous mistake.
"Superb," Bellatrix said sarcastically as she stood back up from Hermione's attack. "No one has ever escaped me after I started working on them."
"No one's perfect," Hermione replied, her voice filled with naked rage.
"What do you expect to do now?" Bellatrix asked. "You're barely standing anymore as it is."
"You know me," Hermione said as she dug into her hat. With one quick motion she downed the contents of a tiny vial. "I'm full of cheating muggle tactics."
Everyone watched in awe as Hermione's power transformed itself before them. Back in the time chamber the shock of using the powerful magic enhancing potion had nearly knocked them out from the overload. Had they been depending on the potion for an advantage in a fight they would have probably been killed. Hermione considered that it was fortunate that they were forced to take the potion then so they would be able to control their reaction to it now. Her cloak and bushy hair billowed out violently from the reaction as her ambient magic levels swelled.
"Well now," Bellatrix said smoothly. "Considering how I got much of my power…that's not as much of a cheat as you might imagine."
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked sharply.
"I'll never tell," Bellatrix said impishly. Her expression twisted with rage as she sent forth a hail of golden sparks. Hermione had been preparing for another elemental assault and barely had time to accelerate out of the way. Reflexively she looked over her shoulder and saw to her horror that several students had been caught up in the attack.
Flitwick charged forward. "We don't exist," he yelled as loudly as he could. "Nothing exists except her."
Hermione swallowed and blinked back tears as she whirled around to face her enemy. Her body was still numb from the torturous effects of the Cruciatus Curse, but with her magic bolstered by the potion she felt much relieved.
"How you must hate me for that," Bellatrix said tauntingly. "I can see it in your eyes, just like when I killed Potter's godfather. Will you try to return the favor like I just did to you?"
Hermione twisted her wand and a dozen beams of pure white light descended on Bellatrix from all directions. However, instead of piercing her, the beams were caught up in black shadows that emanated from Bellatrix's body. The shadows enveloped the light and then arched out across the distance between them to attack Hermione. Hundreds of tiny flaming darts erupted from Hermione's wand in an attempt to beat back the shadowy attack. Despite months of research into the blackest of the Dark Arts Bellatrix's attack was still unknown to Hermione.
"You look surprised," Bellatrix said happily. "You should be. The Dark Lord created this spell personally as a counter to your annoying light manipulation tactic."
"What is this stuff?" Hermione muttered to herself as she used wand propulsion to leap away from the onslaught of dark material.
"I was afraid you would figure out how to counter this spell," Bellatrix said conversationally. "Its really quite simple."
"There's nothing simple about dark magic of this level," Hermione snarled back.
"You are clever," Bellatrix congratulated.
Hermione choked back her response and tried to concentrate on countering the dark blob before it caught up with her. She had already tried the counter to the soul drainer curse, which was the only spell she knew of that even remotely resembled this nightmarish attack. In desperation Hermione twisted her wand again and summoned more beams of bright light.
"I told you, this won't work," Bellatrix said as she summoned another group of inky black shadows to counter the light spell. There was a sickening squelching noise punctuated by cracking bones as the metal rods hidden within the light spell drove effortlessly through the incorporeal shadows and skewered her body.
Bellatrix coughed up blood, but she still managed to flick her wand and banish the metal spikes impaling her. "I…never would have guessed," she said weakly. "You didn't counter my spell though."
"I countered you," Hermione replied.
"I guess you did," Bellatrix said wistfully. Some of her wounds stopped gushing fluid as she clamped down on her wand, but she looked very pale and weak.
Hermione flicked her wand and caused the ground to erupt around Bellatrix. The entire passage quaked from the force of he upheaval so much that Hermione feared for a moment that she might have brought the entire place down on them after all. She didn't have time to ponder on it as Bellatrix started exchanging curses again.
Hermione felt her shield throb slightly with every attack, but decreasingly so. Bellatrix was rapidly tiring in what had become an extended war of attrition between the two witches. Hermione brandished her wand boldly; each sharp breaker curse throwing sparks off of the barrier shield that Bellatrix had erected around herself. The shield cracked and Hermione braced herself for the hail of magical shards that inevitably followed.
Hermione raised a barrier shield of her own just as the tale tell cracks in Bellatrix's defenses gave away what was coming next. With a wave of her hand the shield shattered and the jagged shrapnel it produced was sent flying down the passage. Hermione gasped as she realized that she was not the intended target. Screams erupted from behind her as the students were struck by everything that the professors could not manage to block in time.
"This is between us," Hermione yelled futilely. "Leave the children out of it."
Bellatrix was breathing heavily. "I know I can't win anymore," she said.
"Then surrender," Hermione said forcefully.
"If I surrender you'll just go help Potter," Bellatrix replied. "Besides, I was sent here to do a job. Even if I can't win I can still finish the task my Master entrusted to me."
"But some of those kids are on your side," Hermione said pleadingly. "Draco is in there."
"What is it that the muggle armies call it?" Bellatrix asked softly as she swayed drunkenly on her feet. "Collateral damage."
Bellatrix moved her wand in a circular motion that wedded fire to air in a massive attack that Hermione would not have believed one so injured as her to be capable of. If she succeeded casting a firestorm that big everyone in the passage, except for Hermione and maybe some of the professors, would be reduced to ash. Hermione twisted her wand for a third time and this time the beams of light connected with Bellatrix. Her face twisted in agony, steam poured off of where the light penetrated her, but still she cast her spell.
Hermione wanted to scream as she threw herself between the students and the oncoming inferno. Fire was her element, it was what she knew, if anyone could stop it Hermione knew it must be her. She threw out another series of wards, but there was no time to set them up properly. Though they might hold back some of the flame it was up to Hermione to nullify the rest. She conjured a great watery shield that she knew with her power still probably wouldn't be enough.
The passageway erupted with steam for a second time within the span of a few minutes. Bellatrix staggered in place as she attempted to mount a new series of attacks just in case Hermione had managed to foil her last attack. She grinned ruefully as she saw the mass of vaporized water that she no longer had the power to flash freeze.
A hail of small silver disks erupted from the cloud a split second before Hermione swept the air clean. She had no way of knowing that Bellatrix was unable to repeat her earlier trick. Hermione's left arm was already welling up with great blisters from the scalding she had suffered in order to stop the firestorm. Bellatrix jerked repeatedly as the silver disks tore through her battered form. Still, somehow, impossibly, she lived on.
"I guess I only have one more thing I can do," Bellatrix said in a raspy voice. She pointed her wand straight up and launched a battering charm. The spell slammed into the unstable ceiling, which caused the Chamber to shake in protest. She started to cast another one as Hermione accelerated to stop her. Even with no armor on Hermione's fist still sent the dying witch sprawling.
Hermione kicked her wand away and intended to stun her when Bellatrix suddenly went rigid. Hermione jerked back from here to avoid breathing in the harmful toxins as green smoke poured out of her mouth.
"Don't worry little one," she whispered to Hermione as she died. "This is only for the moment."
Hermione decided that she must have still gotten a whiff of whatever poison Bellatrix had used on herself because when she came to a few seconds later she was already swarmed by the professors.
"Are you all right Miss Granger?" Flitwick squeaked again. His tone suggested that he had previously asked that same question several times.
"Y-yeah," Hermione said weakly. She reached into her hat and pulled out a full range of restorative potions.
"This place seems unstable," Professor Sprout said. "Shall we start moving the children out?"
"Move them where?" Hermione asked tersely as she downed potions. "Death Eaters are still running the halls, Voldemort…I have to go now."
"You're hardly in any condition," Madam Prince said with a motherly tone.
"I've been far worse than this," Hermione said as she stood up quickly, her grip tightening on her wand just noticeably. "Harry needs me now."
No one moved to stop her as she jogged over to the opening and used wand propulsion to make the journey back out. She was almost winded by the time she got to the top despite having her magic do most of the work. As much as Hermione wished to use the acceleration charm she would be in no shape to help Harry if she got ambushed by an avatar along the way. Hermione realized belatedly that her eyepiece had fallen off or been destroyed at some point during her fight with Bellatrix. After looking both ways down the hall outside Myrtle's bathroom the old fashion way she jogged off back toward the third floor enchanted staircases where she had left Dumbledore and McGonagall.
She had not gone very far when she heard the sound of spells being exchanged. A quick look around the corner revealed three Death Eaters who appeared to be on the losing end of a conventional wizard duel. Her first stunner knocked out the tallest wizard, but the other two were more difficult to subdue.
Hermione dodged a beam of green light and responded with two of her own. She stepped over the bodies and levitated the unconscious Death Eater behind her after wrapping him up with some conjured rope. As she walked toward the other side she saw Lisa Turpin's body laying prone, her eyes staring lifelessly into the distance, and felt her heart skip a beat painfully.
"I told her to go this way," Hermione thought to herself regretfully.
"Hermione," Ron called out. "We were trying to get to you when we were ambushed by these guys."
"What about Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Can't you just do your mind thing?" Ron asked.
"We cut our connection off to avoid distracting each other accidentally," Hermione replied. The last thing either of them needed was traumatic feelings from the other. "Update me as we go, Harry may need me."
"Right," Ron said. Luna fell in on the other side along with the other survivors. "I haven't been able to check the Marauder's Map in a while.
"Check it now," Hermione exclaimed. "Hurry, I need to know if I can use an acceleration charm or not."
Ron fumbled around as he hurriedly spread the map out on the ground and activated it. Hermione's eyes flittered back and forth with the crisp concentration that she had honed during years of studying. Some of the closest passages had activity in them, but her keen mind found and memorized a more twisting route that had the virtue of being unobstructed.
"Find some way to evacuate the children. If Harry and I don't survive you're on your own," Hermione said emotionlessly. She flickered away under the effects of the acceleration charm leaving her friends standing there feeling more alone and depressed than they had ever felt before.
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