Manacled by Senlinyu

Chapter 57: Flashback 32

There were bodies everywhere.The Death Eaters were casting curses at the Resistance members who were trying to get the injured away. Dementors were floating overhead, Kissing anyone they came across.

Hermione glanced around with horror.

"Go back to Grimmauld Place! Your job is to stay in the safe houses, Granger." Kingsley snarled at her; his expression furious when he realized she was standing beside him. He cast a shield around them.

There was a scream of rage that Hermione recognised as belonging to Ron.

"Get back to the safe house, Granger," Kingsley said over his shoulder as he moved toward the sound.

Hermione prepared to apparate but, just before she vanished, her eyes landed on a boy lying on the ground. His stomach was torn open, likely by a hag or a werewolf.

She knelt down and checked his pulse. Too late; he was already dead. There was a wand in his hand. A Resistance fighter. He couldn't have been fourteen.

A witch beside him had a necrosis curse crawling up her leg. She seemed to have passed out from the pain. There was another body on top of the witch; a young man who'd fallen across her. Hermione rolled him over to see whether he was still alive too.

Instantly he sprang forward. Hermione felt fangs sink into her shoulder as he pulled her to the ground. Hermione cast a dark curse without pausing to think.

The vampire crumbled.

Hermione staggered to her feet, levitating the injured witch into her arms. She glanced around for anyone else within reach.

A man two feet away appeared to have been attacked by a dementor. Hermione moved towards him to check whether he'd been fully Kissed. His soul was still intact, but he was hypothermic and in need of chocolate.

An icy sensation came over her. She looked up sharply to find several dementors closing in.

Hermione took a deep breath and cast a patronus. A flash of light shot from her wand, but her patronus failed to corporealise.

As her patronus drove away the dementors, she pulled the wizard's arm over her shoulders and readied herself to apparate.

She sagged under the weight and cast a quick lightening charm. As she did so, there were several cracks of apparition. Hermione gripped the bodies more tightly as she looked up.

Four masked Death Eaters had appeared less than ten feet away. One of them was facing her. He instantly whipped his wand forward.

Hermione's eyes widened, and she set her mind to Grimmauld Place. Destination. Determination. Deliberation.

She felt the curse collide with her chest as she vanished.

She reappeared in the street outside Grimmauld Place, dropping the witch and wizard and falling forward with agonised gasp.

She was vaguely aware of swearing, and someone grabbing her and dragging her up the steps into Grimmauld Place. She was flipped over and stared into the faces of Padma and several of the Resistance guards in charge of Grimmauld Place security during skirmishes. Hermione shuddered and tried not to sob.

"What spell? What spell?" Padma's eyes were wide and panicked as she leaned over Hermione. Her wand was shaking in her hands.

Hermione gestured wordlessly towards her chest. Padma ripped Hermione's shirt open and gasped.

The acid curse had struck Hermione squarely in the sternum. It had been powerfully cast. The boils were already burning deep into her bones and across her chest up to her collarbones.