Out of Time

Chapter 60

In her scattered, frantic fumblings for her little bag, he has to squeeze her fingers twice. Somewhere distant, Hermione can only assume it's her own hand twitching, flexing in stress and fear and adrenaline.

"...Hermione?" croaks her oldest friend's voice from the floor by her knees, and she screams. It's a desperate, cracking sound around the semi-permanent lump lodged in her oesophagus.

Somewhere behind her, Ron shouts something, too. There's too much noise to hear him clearly, but it doesn't matter. He falls to his kneecaps, smacking into the stone, and grabs for Harry's shirt to pull him forward.

"Harry? Harry? Are you okay? What happened? Harry?"

The Tale of the Three Brothers had made it sound like the resurrection stone would create a poor imitation of life, but the second brother had only ever possessed that one Hallow. Harry held all three. While he's bewildered and croaky on the ground, he's nevertheless perfectly solid. Never has an academic leap of faith mattered so much and Hermione bursts into tears.

Things have grown oddly quiet in the cavern and Hermione doesn't know if it's the residual rushing in her ears. The hexes and curses impacting shields around them seem to have slowed. But can that be trusted? What's going on?

On some level she knows that if it was just her here, she'd probably be dead. She's always prided herself on being able to multitask, but this is really exceeding expectations on the multitasking front. Draco is doing all the heavy lifting on defence - but not anymore, not quite. Not since the Order had shown up. They had, hadn't they?

Looking around, all Hermione sees is the scaly bulk of a dragon, which ought to give her proper heart palpitations. It's facing outward, though. She'll take what she can get.

Ron's still almost shaking Harry in disbelief. The mere sight of Harry lying on the ground and still trying to straighten his glasses makes Hermione cry harder. She whips him forward into a hug, bypassing Ron's grip entirely until he collapses on top of both of them. His strong arms encompass her, encompassing Harry, and she thinks they're all crying.

An otherworldly roar comes from the other side of the cavern and her blood runs cold. That wasn't a dragon (which would be bad enough). That was something she can't identify, something rabid with rage.

The dragon's tail lashes the air and she flinches, although it's not close enough to make contact. Draco's legs back towards her and he casts hasty spells alongside a figure with black trousers, black shoes, and black robes flapping about.

Monochrome aside, that can be no one but Professor Snape. Had she heard right after all?

Ron helps Harry to his feet with one solid clasp and yank of the hand, grinning from ear to ear. Harry looks disoriented, which is to be expected, but he's acclimating. Even without knowing exactly how much he's been aware of in the past ten minutes, Hermione doesn't think she'd do half as well in his position.

Harry regaining his footing is causing a resurgence in attacks from the other side. That's also not surprising, but Hermione's having more difficulty realigning herself to the task at hand.

Moments ago, she killed her oldest friend - for a distinct and crucial purpose, yes, but even so. She'd hoped only the Horcrux would die, but then it seemed like Harry had really and truly died (and by her own wand). And then she'd placed all her hope in a wild myth of a rock hidden inside a battered seven-year-old snitch they couldn't even track a chain of custody for. Then, that also had seemed to fail, and those godsforsaken mine carts have nothing on this ricochet mindfuck.

She's reeling. Literally. She stands and wobbles and Ron catches her elbow.

From their circular home, the dragon is providing excellent assistance to Draco and Snape. This seems so unrealistic that Hermione wonders if she hit her head somewhere along the way, but it seems consistent with what Ron and Harry are seeing. The dragonfire is preventing any other Order members from making landfall on 'their side' of this conflict, and a handful of duels across the way are lighting the chasm in brutal colour. It's lighter in here than it was when they arrived, and she figures somebody made it that way. Does it help or hinder? If both sides can see better... then nobody can hide as well.