DEVOTED | dramione ✓

| Twenty-two

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22

D A R K N E S S

W I T H I N

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"YOU'RE ALIVE AFTER ALL," someone says in a sour tone.

She turns to meet the intense eyes of Barnabas Nott, who sneers at her presence.

The room is a cell in the dungeon, most like, seeing as how a barred door stands vigil at the other end of the room, but it is large enough to house several unruly students. It smells of rot and mildew, probably because of the old, moth-eaten cots in the corner, but it also smells of grown men who don't yet know what a shower is.

Hermione wants to cover her mouth, but she has more important needs to worry about. Like how she can escape now, with a werewolf at her back and one of the maddest Death Eater at her front. She fingers her wand in her hand as she stalls for time.

"What are you doing here?" She stares down Barnabas, whose glare is almost as strong.

"I could ask you the same thing, little miss," he says, shifting where he stands. "The Dark Lord wouldn't like me discussing plans with the enemy, now would he?"

"Well," she says, slowly lifting her wand. "I need you to step aside. I have my own business to attend to, if you don't mind."

She flicks her wrist, sending a red bolt toward Barnabas, who moves out of the way, just in time. The bolt strikes the wall behind him, sending a plume of dust and rumble around the room. He then lifts his own wand and sends a electric blue streak to Hermione, who narrowly escapes with a minor scrape on her arm.

Her eyes meet his.

"I will not let it end this way," she says in frustration, finally gaining the momentum to move this battle in her direction. She slings a spell at him, unaware of just which one at the moment, before watching it send him to the ground in a heap. She stares at him for several long moments, then she hears the deafening howl of a wolf in the tunnels.

Hermione leaps over Barnabas and enters the dungeons with the agility of a cat before taking off down the corridor at full speed. She makes it into the main section of the building, only able to tell because of the large front doors. She runs to them and pries open the enormous pieces of wood. She reveals a broken bridge that leads to nothing but a black pit.

Her vision blurs as she stares down the gaping hole in the earth, so she turns back for the castle. Her eyes fall on a huge wolf with gnarled fingers and grotesque claws. Its face twists as it snarls at her. Its jaws snap shut loudly, sending saliva running from its shining teeth to the floor.

Her heart pounds in her chest, but she won't let that stop her from winning even this battle.

The wolf lets out a howl and Hermione uses the opportunity to attack.

"Stupify!" She watches as the bolt strikes him directly in the torso, sending him sprawling back. For a moment, it strikes her that she didn't use an Avada against him, and then she is preoccupied by the moving mass of fur regaining his footing.

Remus stands once more. This time, he charges her, and she has no where to go but down. He plows into her, taking them both into the darkness of the pit.

As they fall, Hermione points her wand in the air, hoping this spell won't be her last.

"Arresto Momentum!"

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