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Breaking the Chain	By : RynStar15 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 42452 -:- Recommendations : 5 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, that belongs to the glorious J.K Rowling. I don't make any money off of this writing, I simply twist her world for my own pleasure.

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Hermione woke with a start, gasping, eyes wide but unseeing. Hands pressed her back as she shot up and pain radiated through her body. Dizziness overtook her and she slammed her eyes shut, afraid she might be sick. Voices were speaking hurriedly above her, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. There was screaming, but it was far off, distant. She had to help them, whoever it was. She had to help...
She struggled back up but hands forced her down. No, she had to get up, she had to help them, help them, help-
Draco.
A ragged sound was ripped from her chest as realization barreled into her and she screamed, the agony what had happened more than she could bear. Her hands came to her face, her fingers clawing her skin against the impossible pain.
"No, no, no, no, no..."

“Calm down, dear, it’s alright! You’re safe,” a soothing voice cooed. Madame Pomfrey. She must be in the hospital wing. Hermione's aching eyes cracked open to take in her surroundings. The nurse and a Healer from St. Mungo's were standing above her, covered in blood, both looking worn and harried. She gazed around her, beds flooded the ward, Healers and assistants running around in complete chaos at the overwhelming amount of wounded that filled the room. She looked frantically for a skinny boy with black hair.

“Harry?" she croaked, lifting herself painfully to her elbow which burned at the contact. "Where is Harry?”

“I have no idea, my dear. We’ve been so busy-”

"I have to find him," she said gravelly, trying once more to rise but the witches pinned her down.

"Miss Granger, you have sustained grave injuries, we've only just been able to waken you," the Healer prattled. "You are very unwell, you must sit back so we can assess the rest of your injuries-"

"I don't CARE!" she screamed hysterically, the women jumping at her outburst. It didn't matter, all that mattered was that she got to Harry...

"Miss Granger, I know you are worried, but we've only just managed to set your bones, we have to-"

Both witches shrieked in pain at the shocks they'd recived from Hermione's skin where they attempted to hold her back, yanking their hands up to look at their burning palms. Hermione swung out of bed and stumbled into her bedside table, her legs weak. Battling against her body, she pushed passed the nurse who grabbed for her and was electrocuted once more.

Hermione's head reeled but she kept moving, her bare feet stinging on the cold stone floor, gripping bed posts to pull herself forward.

“Wait! Miss Granger, you can’t leave, you need to be tended-!”

Hermione ignored the woman and the stares from others she received at her erratic behavior and burst out of the ward. Cold smacked her as she exited and she realized she was wearing only a hospital gown, no shoes. Her bones seemed to be intact, but lashes and bruises still marred her skin, her bloody hair matted around her. Swallowing back the pain, she limped for the staircase towards where the screaming was coming from. She was terrified for Harry, for the others. She had to find them, she couldn't lose them too...

“Harry! Ron! Remus! Anybody!” she screamed. Suddenly her foot caught on something and she keeled forward, hitting the ground with her outstretched hands and scraping the skin from her palms. Hermione rolled over and turned to the object she had fallen over.

It was a boot, attached to a body which had been shoved carelessly into an alcove.

Crawling to the still form Hermione flipped it over and cried out. Colin Creevey stared up at her through glassy blue eyes. Oh no, no, no, no! her mind screamed at her. The war had been going on around her while she had slept, being tended to, and innocent people were dying all the while. Colin was still warm; he had not passed long ago. Hermione closed the lids over his eyes and vivdly recalled the silver ones which had stared back at her similarly, cold and empty.

Draco was gone.

The breath fell from her lungs. Her numb body sprang to life, every ache and pain intensified, filling her being. The pain she felt was impossible, but she had to move on, had to-

She heard a sob and turned. Dennis Creevey was tucked into a niche in the wall next to a statue of a four-armed troll. Hermione crawled to the young boy and pulled him into her arms.

“Dennis, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here!”

The boy wailed. “I wanted to go with him! He told me n-no, that I was too youn-ng but… but I followed him anyways. He found out, he always finds out…h-he was protecting me! H-he tried to h-hide me...that’s when they came-”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Hermione asked as she rocked the blonde boy, her eyes and ears focused on their surroundings, searching for intruders.

“Men, the D-Death Eaters, they c-came and-and-”

Dennis was hysterical, she had to get him out of here. Hermione stood shakily with him in her arms. He was too heavy for her to carry so she urged him forward, trying to soothe him into quieting.

“W-we can’t just l-l-leave him!” he cried, trying to stall her.

“We have to, there’s no other choice, there's nothing we can do. I’ll come back for him, but we have to get you to safety. I need you to be quiet, do you understand?”

He nodded and hiccupped. Hermione draped an arm around him and dragged him through the hallways towards the seventh floor, pressing her hand against his ear and flattening his other tightly against her body to keep him from hearing the screams and commotion. She pulled him through a tapestry and down another corridor.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t our favorite Mudblood.”

Hermione whipped around, shoving Dennis behind her. She saw out of the corner of her eye as Dennis tugged his wand out from his robes. Hermione kept herself as a barrier between him and the one man she hated almost as much as Voldemort himself.

“Hello, Lucius," she said with a calm she didn't feel. "I’m surprised to see you.”

He cocked an eyebrow as if in question and Hermione’s heart twisted painfully in her chest as she was reminded of Draco. He looked so much like his evil sire...

“Alone, that is,” she finished. “Where is your backup?”

He looked as if he had swallowed a lemon. “Such a cheeky little chit,” he drawled. “But I can fix that.”

“Don’t you touch her!” Dennis yelled, trying to get around her but she held him back.

“Dennis, no-”

“Ah, now, who is this chivalrous young man?”

“Dennis Creevey!” he stated bravely as Hermione elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.

Lucius laughed and threw his head back. “Do you know who I am, boy?”

“No, should I?”

“Dennis, be quiet! Stay out of this!” Hermione urged as she struggled to keep the boy in place, causing her to do a small dance number.

“Let the boy speak, Miss Granger, where are your manners?" he drawled. "Now then, I think I ought to teach this young man a lesson about how to address his superiors. Crucio!”

“No!” Hermione screamed, throwing a shield in front of the boy who had escaped from her grasp. The shield shattered and Hermione threw Dennis back with another spell. Keeping a shield over him with her right hand, she turned to Lucius who was staring at her in disbelief at her wandless magic.

“Leave him out of this. This is between you and me. Or are you so low that you can no longer fight with equals but only pick on yet another fifteen-year-old?” Hermione sneered.

“You’ll pay for your insolence."

"I've beat you once before, Lucius," she stated, referring to the night at Ministry. "But I'm no longer a child. This time I won't be so kind as to allow you to be taken to Azkaban. I will kill you. Now let. Him. Go."

Lucius glared at her in fury, never one to handle his pride being besmirched. "I will allow the boy to leave, you must stay.”

“Deal.” Hermione kept the shield in place but turned to the frightened teen. “Dennis, get out. Go back to the room where we used to practice, ask for a safe room. Remember what you learned in DA, keep your wand at the ready. Can you do that?”

The small boy nodded, eyes darting to Lucius. “But-”

“No, Dennis. I’ll be fine. He won’t hurt me. Now, go!”

He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the small, secluded hallway. Hermione turned back to Lucius who looked as angry as she'd ever seen.

“How very gallant. You Gryffindors are all the same. I don’t know what my son saw in you.”

Hermione stared at him, deadpan. He knew, Voldemort had known...which meant Draco had only said those things in the field to protect her, that what they'd shared had been real. Though it was what she had wished for, it only made the pain of losing him that much worse.

A cold smile tugged at the older man’s thin lips. “Yes, I saw it right away. My son is weak. He has no sense in the art of deception. His romantic heart was open for all to see. You seem to have bewitched him. But a young boy will do as young boys do. He will forget all about you soon enough once I tell him of your betrayal.”

“You can’t,” Hermione snapped, watching the flicker of confusion in his eyes.

“I assure you, I can.”

“No,” she seethed. “You can’t. You can’t poison his mind any longer! He’s finally found a place where he’s safe from you, safe from your tyranny!”

Lucius paled as she shook violently, her body fighting against her words. “He’s dead. Your precious master killed him.”

Hermione felt heavy, pinned to the ground with the weight of the truth, watching as Lucius’ face fell.

“No…”

“Yes.”

"You lie!"

"You know I don't. You feel it as I do."

His face contorted. “Crucio!”

Hermione didn’t have the strength to stop him. She welcomed the pain that coursed through her body, cradled it to her broken heart. When the spell lifted momentarily she pushed herself up on her elbows to look up at Lucius.

“How does it feel to know that you killed your own son?" she grated out. "That, because of you, he was dragged to his death? That the lord you so revere killed your only heir? HOW DOES IT FEEL?"

She could actually feel the muscles being ripped from her bones, teeth slicing into her skin, molten lava being poured into her veins. Tears soaked her cheeks but not from the pain in her body. The pain in her soul overtook that of her physical being.

When it ceased again she rested her forehead on the cool stone, exhausted, listening to the panting of the man above her.

“This is your fault, Mudblood. Yours. You soiled his mind, made him believe he loved you, made him weak. You killed him, you killed my son! I will kill you, Mudblood, I will make you pay. You will feel the pain you deserve. Crucio!”

Hermione felt withdrawn, as if she were standing above her body, watching herself being tortured by the father of the man who held her heart and had stolen it when he had left her behind, when he had shoved that liquid down her throat and switched their roles, killing her soul. She hated them, both of them. Father and son.

With a yell Hermione fought off the curse, pushing it into the castor. Lucius fell to the floor, his wand clattering to the stone and rolling as he shrieked in pain. With one hand keeping the spell on Lucius, the other brought his wand to her. Snapping it lazily, she threw the fragments at the writhing man and released the spell. She stood and towered over him where he lay gasping, his usually perfect hair escaping its bind. He looked at his broken wand in horror.

“How does it feel,” Hermione asked again, her voice unwavering, dangerous. “To be beat by a Mudblood?”

She bound his hands and feet together and watched as he tried to fight against the bonds, enjoying this very Muggle seizure on the haughty Pureblood.

“You are nothing!” he screamed frantically.

“You're right," she conceded. There was nothing of her left now that Draco was gone. "And yet I beat you, Lucius. You are below even that."

He cried out in pain as she raked those invisible knives that had carved into her hours previously to mar his pristine face. "I should kill you,” she said almost indifferently.

“Go ahead," he sneered. "Or is the filthy Mudblood too afraid?”

She grinned evilly. “No. No, Lucius, I am not afraid. Not anymore. You simply do not deserve such a simple end.”

His eyes grew wide with fear and she gloried in it. Silencing him, she cast a spell that would make him feel as if every centimeter of him were on fire. His eyes bulged, his body contorted with pain. Casting a Disillusionment Charm on him, she left him there to suffer until his mind snapped, to hurt every bit as much as he'd made Draco.

She limped down the halls, keeping alert to any noise. The roar of the fight grew with every step she took until she nearly plowed into a masked Death Eater. She took him out quickly, moving on, using the walls to carry her wrecked body.

The battle was upon her. Whipping around a corner she was stuck by a spell and sent flying to the floor with a rib cracking thud! Groaning, Hermione rolled to her knees only to have someone blasted into her side. Hermione grabbed the screaming girl as they tumbled back to the floor. She recognized that voice, that hair. It was Luna.

She turned the poor girl in her arms to assure herself she was alright when she was suddenly ambushed by a pair of thin arms, the blonde hugging her tightly.

“Hermione! You’re alright!” Leaning back, the younger girl looked Hermione up and down. “And you’re practically naked. You know, the Malthermacles could crawl onto your skin and you could catch a cold wearing that little in the winter. Here, take my robes.”

Hermione hurriedly thanked the girl as she shoved her arms into the warm clothing, feeling seeping back into her frozen body. She looked up just in time to throw a Death Eater into the wall when he charged at them and felt a small satisfaction when he slid down the stone and slumped on the floor, unconscious. She watched as an Auror swooped down upon him and Apparated away.

"Where are they taking him?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, they have a room for captives," Luna said calmly, eyeing her again. "You know, you look awful, Hermione."

"I'm fine, Luna," she said, knowing the girl meant no harm in her words, and struggled to her feet with Luna's help. "Do you know where-"

“Watch out!”

Hermione turned, seeing a Death Eater lunging at her. Hermione threw up a barrier over herself and Luna before cursing the robed stranger who screamed in agony as she hit the ground. The mask fell off and Bellatrix Lestrange looked up at her, her face covered in painful welts.

“You!”

Before Hermione could react the witch’s claws were on her throat, choking her. Long, dirty nails dug into her tender skin and she watched as Luna tried to curse the woman seemingly uselessly. She gave up and tackled her, sending the three of them to the ground in a heap of screaming and, in Hermione's case choking, witches.

Hermione tried throwing Bellatrix off with a curse but they seemed to just rebound off of her. She tried to warn Luna when a familiar Death Eater lunged at them. Luna screamed as her dirty blonde hair was grabbed by Alecto Carrow and she was thrown off and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor where the disgusting woman tortured her, her pitiful cries reverberating through the hall.

Changing tactics and using her body instead of her magic, Hermione kicked and punched the mad woman who was heaping insults on her. She screamed as Hermione caught her in the kidney with a well placed blow and Hermione rolled so she that had the upper hand. Decking Bellatrix in the face, Hermione put her in a fast Body Bind before she regained composure. Wild eyes looked up at her as Hermione felt herself being lifted much as Luna had and she was tossed like a rag doll across the hall where she smashed jarringly against the wall.

Disoriented, she fell to the floor, momentarily stunned. Her brief lapse cost her and she felt yet another Cruciatus Curse administered to her tired body. Screams ripped from her throat, her voice cracking.

When it stopped she didn’t have the energy to move. She looked at her hand which had settle directly before her eyes, her left cheek flat against the stone. Her nails were broken and jagged, bleeding from where she had gripped the floor so hard. She could see every line and detail of her hand, the little pieces of dirt of the grey floor. She felt every ache, every muscle, every bone and inch of skin on her body. Someone yelled her name but she didn’t look up. She was tired, so very, very tired…

“Hermione! Hermione, oh Merlin, are you alright? She’s not moving! Someone help me!”

Hands were on her, rolling her over. She allowed herself the movement of her eyes which centered on Ron’s face. She wanted to say his name but couldn’t.

“Hermione, can you hear me?” She closed her eyes, exhaustion stealing her will. She wished she couldn’t. She wished she was far away from this place, somewhere where she and Draco could be, away from all this pain...there was so much pain...

“Hermione, look at me! Look at me!”

“Ron, look out!” someone yelled.

Ron fell forward, covering her body with his own. Then he was pulling her up, cradling her to his chest, hefting her into his arms. He was running, weaving between people. Hermione opened her eyes, taking in the scene before her.

She watched as an Auror she had seen several times but could never remember her name fell to the floor, her dark eyes wide and blank. Ron leapt over another nameless body, someone else who had given their life for this cause. Another innocent person who would never see the end of the war, never jubilate in freedom.

There had to be freedom at the end of this long, dark, endless tunnel. There had to be, there was no other choice. And here she was, an able body being carted around by her friend because she had given up.

Draco never gave up on you. What gives you the right? You can help, you can still fight. Don’t give up now! All these people gave their lives and not so you could surrender now, before it was over. Be strong. Like Draco...

“Ron,” she croaked, lifting her hand to his chest. “Ron, put me down, I’m alright.”

“No, you’re going back to the hospital wing, you shouldn’t be here,” he snapped, not looking at her, dodging spells and racing away from the fight.

“Yes, I should! I have to be! Ronald Bilius Weasley put me down right this instant!”

Shocked, he placed her carefully on her feet, holding her by the arms when she swayed. “I’m fine. The fall just stunned me for a moment. I’m alright now.”

“Hermione, really, you should go-”

She looked up into his worried countenance. “Ron, what did we always tell Harry? We’re all in this together. So let’s stand by our words, let's get back out there.”

She watched his struggle, knew how much he feared for her, but finally gave in to a promise the two of them had made together in their first year, realizing even then that their friend would need them by his side.

“You’re right,” he finally relented. "Damn it, you're always bloody right, Hermione."

She smiled and reached up to wipe blood from his cheek, happy when she noticed it wasn't his.

"Have you found Harry?" she asked and his face fell, taking the small bit of her heart still left with it.

"We tried, but no one can track You-Know-Who," he said, crestfallen. "Remus said that the fight was between them now and the best way to help him was to keep fighting."

Hermione nodded, heartsick. "Then we will."

Grabbing her hand, Ron turned back towards the hall they had just left and the two of them dove into action. It wasn’t long before they were separated, before Hermione was so immersed in fighting for her life and the lives of those around her that she stopped thinking, stopped planning. She took blows and gave them, liked to think she gave more than she took. Once, she was Stunned and someone leapt over her with the counter-curse but she couldn’t wait to see who it was and thank them because she was too busy dodging a Killing Curse and throwing her own at a Death Eater who had Dean Thomas on his knees.

At one point Hermione stumbled over Mad-Eye Moody lying on the ground. She didn’t know if he was dead or just knocked out but she Banished him to the hospital wing before turning on Travers whose mask had fallen off and dueled him to the ground.

She ended up outside. How, she wasn’t sure. The battle raged as the moon rose overhead and rain pelted the fighters on the ground.

Back to back with Fred Weasley they dueled the Carrows. Fred refused to kill but Hermione was relentless, an evil overtaking her. Amycus was soon on the ground, fallen from her Unforgivable. Fred Stunned Alecto, sending up green sparks. Kingsley descended upon them and gave them a quick nod before grabbing the screaming woman and Disapparating with her.

Fred clapped a hand on her shoulder and dove at a Death Eater who was dueling Lee Jordan, bashing him on the head with a stone which had appeared in his hand. Hermione was about to turn back when an arm grabbed her around the throat and a wand tip was pressed to her temple.

“Know where your precious Potter is?”

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

A/N:
DaFossil and MumofTrips: Yeah, it's only going to get worse, lol. Enjoy!! Let me know what you think of where our story has taken us!

XOXO
RynStar15
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Breaking the Chain