The Fallout by EveryThursday (reposted)

Thirty

Day: 1466; Hour: 6

Hermione doesn't know how they made it to the side of the building, but she doesn't waste time thinking about it. Angelina is at St. Mungo's by now as long as Ginny's violently shaking hand dug out the right Portkey. Lavender grimaces every time she moves too much from the Cruciatus she took, and Justin is still twitching from the two that hit him, though he refuses to leave. Hermione's arm is bleeding from some curse that only skimmed her, and she can feel her blood thumping under the Phoenix band she wrapped around it. That's all she knows from the short survey she took on the group, and when she asks about their health, they all reply "fine".

"Why are they all recruits? Wouldn't they send the--" Justin starts, his voice raising each time his body jerks.

"I don't know. We need a way in. Door is suicide, take us out one by one." Harry sounds angry, because that is what he needs to be.

Their backs are all pressed against the metal of the building, lined up like a firing squad. It's the safest way, as their backs aren't exposed, and their fronts are fairly protected by scanning eyes and raised wands. "Why haven't more come out? If this is a training--"

"A way in," Harry reminds Ginny of their priorities. "Did anyone see windows?"

"There's none on this side, but there has to be something," Justin whispers, his free hand soothing circles on his hip, trying to ease the nerves still twitching with memory.

"The vent!" Hermione is so excited by this that she almost forgets where they are. "There's smoke coming from the roof, and if something is coming out, it's likely something can get in."

"I didn't see smoke." Lavender looks up at the sky.

"Could have been mist, it was raining--" Ginny cuts herself off, and Hermione realizes that the strange weightlessness that takes over her is not from blood loss, or the twenty-four hours without sleep, but from Harry levitating her.

"Genius, Hermione. Even if there's nothing up there, it gives us a position for..." Harry's voice fades away as she rises out of earshot.

She turns, squatting with her wand raised, but she doesn't see anyone on the roof when her eyes clear the wall. She grabs the ledge and brings both of her knees to the floor before signaling for Harry to break the spell, throwing herself away from the ledge. The roof is clear from what she can see, and there are three wide cylinders raised up from the steel. She looks over the ledge of the roof and meets Harry's eyes, gesturing over her shoulder and giving him a thumbs up. Hermione runs toward one of the cylinders, then feels the rust stain her hands with a strange texture as she grabs the rim, peering over.

"What is it?" She jerks forward at Seamus behind her, and they both freeze as her wand hits the steel, a hollowed, hard sound echoing out around them.

She waits until there isn't any reaction around them before speaking, but Seamus keeps his wand moving across an empty roof. "A vent. It has a huge fan in it, but I think we can fit through the gaps. It's not spinning. We're going to fall, though, and I don't know how far down or into what."

A sound like thunder stops Seamus from replying, and they both look up toward the sky before the screaming starts. Seamus gets to the ledge before her, casting something at the ground, and she can see the back of Dean's head appear before Seamus wraps his arms under the other man's. He digs his heels down and throws both of them back, and she can hear them grunt behind her as she looks down at the field.

Three people are running across the field in the front of them, two more coming from the left, and another is falling through the sky. Hermione stuns one of them before she is yanked back, stumbling over her feet. Dean makes sure she is balanced before letting go of her arm.