A/N: Disclaimer: Some of the quotes in this chapter are pulled straight from book seven, as there is again some overlap between canon and the fic here. Any quotes pulled from the book are not my writing, and not owned by me.
~.~.~
Hermione and Ron flew above the battling students, opting to stay on brooms despite Hermione's discomfort, as they both knew this was the fastest way to get back to Harry.
That is, until a rogue curse hit Hermione's broom, smashing it to pieces.
Ron dove after her, locking his arms around her and slowing her fall moments before they crashed to the ground together, breaking the handle of his broomstick as well.
"Bloody hell," Ron groaned, rubbing his head as they both got quickly to their feet.
Hermione didn't have a chance to agree to the sentiment before she had to fire off a curse at a Death Eater approaching from Ron's rear.
He swore again, grabbing her hand and dragging her through the duelling couples scattered throughout the halls. They weaved in and out of the chaos unfolding around them, casting curse after curse as they made their way back to the seventh floor corridor where they had hoped Harry had returned to by now.
Hermione tripped and went down, a scream clawing its way up her throat as she realised she had tripped over the body of a sixth year she hadn't known personally but had seen spending time with Luna and the other sixth year Ravenclaws.
She stared at his glassy eyes, frozen in a look of terror.
She didn't even know his name.
The moment cost them, and she gasped as Ron let out another curse, toppling to the ground beside her as the opposing Death Eaters' curse slashed across his upper arm.
The Death Eater advanced on them, a dark chuckle escaping from behind the mask that covered his features.
"Well, well, well. A fitting end for the famous blood-traitor and mudblood friends of Harry Potter."
Hermione raised her wand, ready to defend Ron and herself, but before she had the chance to cast anything a bright red light hit the Death Eater square in the chest, knocking him backwards into the wall behind him with a crunch. He crumpled to the floor where he stayed unmoving.
She scrambled to her feet, wand still pointed at the dispatched Death Eater in case he jumped back up. She didn't look away until she was sure he was down for good, and she finally turned to thank the person who had saved them.
Draco stood across the hall from her, wand out and focus on the Death Eater on the floor as if he too was worried he might jump back up to try and harm she and Ron again.
His eyes finally dragged to hers, and she broke.
She tore across the hall, not caring that anyone might look away from their duels and see them, not caring that they needed to get to Harry, not caring that a battle was raging around them.
He was okay. And he was here.
She threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own around him as he pulled her close and buried his face in her hair, breathing deeply.
"I missed you." She whispered against his chest, unable to stop the tears dampening his shirt. "I missed you so much."
He groaned, holding her tighter as he replied, "I missed you too. So fucking much."
She pulled back slightly, sliding her hand around his neck to pull him to her for a far too brief kiss.
"I was so scared we wouldn't find each other." She said again, voice still no louder than a whisper.
His gaze softened, and he placed a hand on her cheek, brushing away a tear with his thumb.
"I will always find you." His words were soft, but fierce. Determined.
She had never believed someone more in her life.
The sound of a clearing throat sound behind them and Hermione turned to find Ron with his arms crossed.
"I don't know if you two are aware, but there is a war going on right now."
Hermione blushed, turning back to Draco as she reluctantly pulled herself out of his arms.
"I have to get to Harry. We have to finish something if we want this battle to end in our favor."
He nodded. "I'll come with you."
She smiled, and slipped her fingers between his own, locking their hands together as she turned fully back to Ron.
"Yes. Let's go."
He rolled his eyes but she was grateful that he made no further comment as the three of them hurriedly continued on their way to the seventh floor.
They dodged curses, sent jinxes out left and right, and ran up the staircases where they could in order to get them to the Room of Requirement.
They didn't pause again until the sixth floor, when Hermione tried to keep running but stumbled backwards as Draco's hand on hers forced her to a stop.
He had frozen, staring across the hall at a couple Death Eaters fighting two other students.
Students she recognized.
Blaise and Theo were fighting side by side, blocking the Death Eaters' attempts at taking them down and parrying beautifully with their own. Draco's worried gaze met hers and she pulled her hand out of his as she realised what he needed to do.
"Go, we'll find each other again."
He kissed her forehead quickly, his hand lingering only a moment longer on her cheek before he took off towards his friends, giving them the advantage in the duel. She stared at him a moment longer, not letting herself wonder if this could be the last time they saw each other, before turning to continue after Ron, who had paused at the end of the corridor when he realised she was no longer behind him.
They would find each other again.
It was the only thought keeping her going as they finally ascended the last staircase and began running down the hall, at the same time Harry rounded the opposite corner.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Harry shouted as he neared, skidding to a halt in front of them.
Hermione, in answer, just held up the fangs she had collected and shoved into every pocket she had. Harry stared for a second, not comprehending what she was showing him, until finally his face broke into a grin.
"Brilliant! And the cup?"
"Gone," Ron responded with an answering grin.
"Right, well," Harry glanced between the two of them, his smile dimming as he took in the chaos unfolding around them, "two to go. And I've figured out where the diadem is." He gave a pointed glance at the Room of Requirement.
Hermione met Ron's eyes, then Harry's before nodding.
"No time to waste then."
~.~.~
"I have a feeling you've got a story to tell us, mate."
Blaise was giving Draco a knowing smirk as they made their way through the castle, helping the students and teachers where they could. The Death Eaters who recognized them believed at first sight that the three Slytherins were here to fight for the Dark Lord, which gave them the advantage for at least the first strike. They hadn't let anyone walk away, lest they run to their lord or tell the others.
Draco sighed, glancing between Theo and Blaise. "Seems like you blokes have your own if you're here and fighting for the Order."
Theo gave a cocky grin, shooting a curse over Draco's shoulder. He glanced behind him to see a Death Eater crumple into a pile of black robes.
"You first," Theo responded.
So, for the first time in his life, Draco was open with his friends. He told them everything. About the night Dumbledore died, his reservations, his doubts, and finally, Hermione and the differences she'd helped bring forth in him.
By the end, Theo was gaping, his typical arrogant expression for once missing. Blaise, however, didn't seem surprised in the slightest.
Draco frowned at him, "You don't seem too shocked."
"After you got me out, after they..." His face fell slightly as he stumbled over what had happened to his family. "Well, you know, anyways after I got out, I apparated to a little wizarding village outside of London. I had cousins there I was hoping I could stay with. When I got to their house, it was destroyed. I don't know when it had happened, but I just... lost it. I didn't know where else to go. They were the last family I really had so..." He shrugged, though the casual nature of the gesture didn't reach his haunted, dark eyes. "Anyway, I went into the nearby forest to find a place to camp for the night while I figured out what to do next and ran into Lupin. He listened to my story, and then brought me back to the safe house he was staying at with his wife. Your cousin, actually." He pointed his wand at Draco at the last part. Draco had never actually met his cousin, Nymphadora. His family rarely spoke of her and his other Aunt, Andromeda. Though, there had been times when his mother had told him in hushed voices of her beautiful, kind sister, who had given everything up for love.
He had thought when he was younger that Andromeda had been stupid.
He didn't want to think about how similar their situations were now, and what his family would do when they realised he was prepared to do the exact same thing.
But Blaise kept going.
"So I stayed there for a while. It was mostly just us three, with other members of the Order showing up every now and then. Until one day, Hermione Granger comes strolling in with a couple muggleborns from Hogwarts and their families. Said she had a source from within the Death Eaters giving her information." He gave a pointed look to Draco.
"She wouldn't say who, but after I had seen you I put two and two together pretty quickly."
Draco's heart beat faster. He didn't know why, he had already told them everything. But he found himself caring about what Blaise and Theo thought. Hoping that his friends would like the girl he loved as much as he did.
"Hermione started coming around a lot more often, after every raid they'd come back to the house. Saving the families, then getting them to other safe houses."
He gave a small smile. "You know, I'd always known she was intelligent. Top of our class, it was impossible not to know. But during the years at Hogwarts we were so fucking blinded by our prejudice that I never could see past it to who she was. She never held it against me, though. Who we were before. And despite everything, she was kind to me. I.. well, I consider her a friend now, I think."
Something akin to relief flooded through Draco, and he couldn't help his lips turning up slightly in a small smile at the thought of Hermione worming her way through Blaise's cool exterior. Not many people did.
Of course, she wasn't many people.
The two of them glanced to Theo, who looked deep in thought as they moved quickly through a deserted hallway towards the sounds of more fighting.
"You know, she helped me once. Here. Before everything. I never understood why. Thought it was some trick at first. But she just helped me and continued on her way. Never brought it up again."
A flash of memory went through Draco's head, one he'd seen in her own mind during those first sessions at the manor.
Theo shrugged.
"Anyway. I've been stuck here. It's been hell. The fucking Carrows... well, I ran into that Longbottom and Weasley girl once, at the beginning of the year, they were in the middle of putting up a Dumbeldore's Army banner. And I dunno, just something about that fire. I normally can't stand that bloody self-righteousness those fucking Gryffindors have but... I saw that in the face of all the pain they were suffering at the hands of those monsters that they stationed here, they were still fighting, still trying, and it just broke something in me." He shrugged, again. "I don't know why, but I helped them. And I started helping wherever I could. And when I heard from my father what was coming, when he threatened hell to pay if I didn't fight for the Dark Lord, I knew that it was time. And I didn't want to be on the wrong side of things when it all went down, so I stayed and started fighting for the school. The Order."
Draco stared at his friend for a moment, the healing bruises that were too old to have been sustained in this battle. He looked to Blaise, his normally cool eyes blazing with a fire Draco had never seen before. And he imagined how he must look, to them.
He felt, for the first time, despite the years of friendship, that this was possibly the first time they were truly seeing each other. Who they really were, underneath all the bullshit their families had submersed them in to cover everything else about who they may be without the hate.
And he liked what he saw.
He grinned at his friends in a genuine, wide smile he didn't think he'd ever let anyone see before.
"Well then. Let's raise some fucking hell."
Their answering, savage grins was all the yes he needed.
They took the remaining steps out of the hall into the battle raging beyond, and began fighting.
~.~.~
Hermione was gasping for air as she slammed into the hard stone of the hallway outside of the Room of Requirement and slid into the opposite wall with a force that sent her breath again whooshing out of her body.
The doors to the room behind them slammed shut, cutting off the Fiendfyre that had come so close to killing them, along with the dying screams of the two people trapped inside.
Crabbe and Goyle had followed them in, in some misguided attempt to try and snatch them to make their master happy.
They hadn't made it back out.
Hermione tried not to feel the guilt, the guilt that they hadn't been able to save them despite it being their own fucking idiotic idea to set off Fiendfyre.
But she couldn't help it. She couldn't help feeling guilty that they had left them to die. Couldn't help feeling the oily, dark shame from creeping through her body like a poison.
Later. There would be plenty of time for her to sink into her guilt later.
She forced herself to look at Harry, who was staring at the two broken pieces of the Diadem, now leaking the same, thick dark liquid that the cup had been.
Another one down.
One to go.
Shouts from the other end of the hallway dragged her attention away from him, and they found Percy and Fred battling hooded figures as they backed down the hallway towards where the trio was trying to catch their breath.
The three of them didn't think, didn't speak, before launching into action, joining their friends as they fought the Death Eaters that had made their way up here.
The three of them hit the masked Death Eater that had been about to curse Fred with stunning spells at the same time, and watched as he crumpled to the ground, Fred turning to grin at them before he shot back some remark to Percy that Hermione couldn't hear.
Before she could say anything, she heard a voice call her name from the other end of the hallway. She turned, wand up, trying to determine the source of the voice, but before she could the space around them detonated.
Ringing.
There was just ringing in her ears.
And she was moving through the air.
She caught glimpses of the space around her, as she moved.
Pieces of the castle wall rained down around her.
Red hair.
A blur of blonde.
Flashes of green and red light.
Stars in a velvety dark sky.
Black, unruly hair.
And then she was hitting stone, her head ricocheting off the wall behind her hard enough that she saw stars before she crumpled to the ground.
Breathe.
Air in and out.
Breathe.
She couldn't open her eyes, could barely hear the vague, muted shouts over the ringing in her ears, couldn't focus on anything but the screaming pain in her body.
She forced a shuddering breath past her lips and couldn't help the whimper at the pain that tore through her as the breath forced her aching chest to rise and fall.
But she could feel pain which meant she was alive.
She located her heavy limbs and forced them to move, forced herself to sit up despite the throbbing pain with every shaky movement.
She opened her eyes finally, as she was able to get herself into a sitting position to catologue her injuries.
She raised a shaking hand to gently prod her legs and arms, wincing at the pain but relieved that nothing seemed to be broken. It would just be bruised to all hell later.
The worst was her head. She could feel the liquid sliding down her scalp to her neck and when she touched the wet spot, a hiss forcing past her lips as she did so, her fingers came away stained with blood.
She would likely have a concussion, but as long as she could make it through tonight she could get that healed. She'd seen her friends receive concussions often enough from the more brutal quidditch matches they'd endured and Pomfrey never had a problem fixing them right up.
She was hurt, but she would be okay.
She searched through the settling dust, the ringing finally dimming enough so she could hear the panicked shouts above it.
Could finally make one out in particular.
"NO!"
The word was laced with enough desperation, enough pain that she was moving to her feet, running towards it, pushing her protesting limbs to move down the hallway.
No.
She had reached the end of the hallway.
No, no, no.
She didn't want to accept what she was looking at.
No.
Red hair bent over a limp body cradled within his arms.
No.
The world stopped. Everything stopped. It all narrowed down to the chest which was no longer rising and falling.
No.
Blonde hair cascaded in waves over his arms, moving only with the rocking of his body as he held her. In the dust that had settled over everything, it's near white hue had turned grey.
Lifeless.
Like her.
Luna.
Gone.
Fred clutched her to him like she was the only thing that mattered. Like her delicate frame was the source of all light in his universe. Light that had just been extinguished as quickly as blowing out a candle. One of her dainty hands was resting on his shoulder, as if moments before it had been cupping his cheek and had only fallen once the vibrant, beautiful, rare soul that was Luna had faded. Her cheeks sparkled with silvery light where his tears had fallen, giving her a nearly ethereal look as the water sparkled with the lights from the curses flashing around them and the moon shining high above.
Shining on her because part of the castle wall and ceiling was now missing, ripped away from the rest of it by some rogue curse.
The voice that had called her name had been Luna.
The flash of blonde had been Luna.
Luna. Lovely, good Luna had seen her friends about to die and had ran into the danger to save those she loved.
To save the man that she could have loved. Maybe already had.
Luna. Who had painted their faces on her ceiling because to her, they were home.
Luna. Who had experienced death and pain and darkness and still shone like the brightest star.
Luna.
Ron was trying to pry Fred's hands off of her, trying to get him to move. Percy stood next to them, murmuring something to Fred to try and get him to stand.
Harry stood on the edge of their little circle, staring at Luna's wide, unseeing eyes.
Shouts were moving towards them, the bright lights flashing as people duelled all around them were moving closer.
Hermione sunk to her knees, crawling to where Fred sat.
"Fred," She said quietly. His broken stare met hers and she couldn't help the tears that finally began to spill. Her voice broke as she said, "You can bring her with us, but we need to move. If the Death Eaters make it to us while we're here, what she did will be in vain. We -" She stumbled, swallowing before she continued. "We need to move."
He stared at her for a moment longer before nodding, numbly. He stood, carrying her so gently that the fractured pieces of Hermione's heart broke further.
Finally, they moved.
Hermione's heart ached with every thump, as if every beat was echoing her dead friend's name.
Luna, Luna, Luna.
They hurried down the hallway, ducking behind a tapestry that led to a quiet hall where Fred could mourn in peace, in solitude, before he found the strength to continue.
Percy met Ron's eyes. "Go," he said, "I'll stay with him. Watch over them."
Ron nodded, his gaze already back on his broken brother and broken friend.
The trio met each other's gazes. It wasn't over yet.
They had to move on.
They had to finish this.
~.~.~
"Fuck, they just never stop coming do they," Blaise groaned as he sent another curse flying toward another hooded figure, knocking it to the ground.
The three of them had been making their way through the castle, ascending a level at a time as Draco searched for Hermione again.
There hadn't been enough time for him to say everything he had wanted.
Hadn't been enough time to hold her before they had been pulled apart again.
He and his two friends fought their way through hall after hall, helped where they could, and moving on when they couldn't.
Draco had no idea how much time had passed, couldn't focus on anything but the next step, next move, as they kept going.
They stumbled to a halt at the end of a hallway where a witch was fighting off three Death Eaters on her own. Red hair flew around her as she pivoted gracefully, evading and striking, like she was born for this.
But he could see she was slowing.
Blaise, Theo, and Draco nodded at each other before sending stunning spells towards the three Death Eaters fighting Ginny Weasley.
They fell to the ground, one rising above them to come slamming back down as Draco and Ginny's spells hit him at the same time. A sickening crunch told Draco he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, if he ever did.
Her brown eyes met his, so similar to the pair of brown eyes he had been searching for, and he saw confusion knit her brows together as she took in the three Slytherins who had helped her.
Her wand stayed raised, at the ready, but it lowered slightly as her eyes met Theo's.
"Hey Red," Theo said with a grin, his own wand held loosely at his side. Her eyes flicked to Blaise and Draco and he said, "They're with me. Let's go, we'll fill you in as we move."
She moved hesitantly towards them, and fell into step alongside as they continued their path through the castle.
Towards Hermione.