Just Like Magic (Cedric Diggory and Hermione Granger Fan fiction)

Chapter 26: Hopeless

With Sirius' return members of the Order appeared all around us giving us the chance we needed. Our training had worked and we were prepared for everything. The fight was a blur and I spent the whole time acting on instinct. Cedric and I fought side by side and took down several Death Eaters. We were winning and the air seemed to be filled with it until I heard the heart wrenching cry of my best friend.

I turned just in time to see Sirius disappearing underneath the archway and Lupin clutching Harry to stop him from following. The fight stopped and all the Death Eater disappeared as our group stood and watched as Harry fell to pieces.

"No." I whispered shaking my head. Cedric put his arm around my shoulder and I fell into his embrace sobbing and unable to take my eyes off the scene. "No."

I saw Harry's gaze turned towards a door that wasn't there previously and I saw a smirking Bellatrix Lestrange skip out of the room. Harry tore out of Lupin's grip and ran after her. Cedric with a kiss on my head followed him.

"Cedric!" I screamed as Tonks grabbed me to stop me from following.

The door closed and disappeared after him leaving me banging against a wall at a desperate attempt to get to the men I loved. I refused to give up until Tonks grabbed me and turned me to face her and slapped me across the face.

"Snap out of it!" She ordered. "Dumbledore's on his way. They'll be okay. But we need you to be here right now."

"Thanks, Tonks. I needed that."

My hand held the cheek she had slapped and I shook my head to snap out of it. Losing it wasn't going to save Harry and Cedric. I needed to be smart and find a way to get us out of here so we could help them. Then I remembered what sent Harry on his suicide mission.

"Professor Lupin!" I called and he turned towards me. "What happened with Sirius? What is this archway?"

I looked upon the archway confused as to where Sirius had disappeared to. It was a tall stone pointed archway that looked so ancient, cracked and crumbling it seemed amazing the thing was still standing. The archway was hung with the Veil; which appeared as a tattered black curtain, gently fluttering and swaying very slightly as though it had just been touched.

"It's a Veil-a barrier between the land and the living and the land of the dead."

Through the blurring archway I can make out the ghost of Sirius trying to get out. Low murmurs can be heard but it's all inaudible. Lupin is studying the arch as if looking for a button that will release his friend.

"Is he dead, Professor Lupin?"

His face falls. "You can't travel freely between our worlds. They've trapped him. Bellatrix's curse didn't hit him. He fell in avoiding the curse."

"That means there's got to be a way to get him out. Since he's not dead he can't exist with the unliving. I remember coming across that in my studies."

He pats my shoulder. "If anyone can figure it out it's you, Hermione."

The hope is loss in his voice and I know that while he doesn't doubt my researching abilities he doesn't believe it will bring his friend back. But I have to do this for Harry. Harry, my friend who has already lost so much deserves one person of whom he could call home. While I knew me and Ron were his quasi family we weren't exactly what he needed.

"I'm going to find a way to bring him back, Professor Lupin."

He nods and just then Ron screamed that he had found the exit out of the Death Chamber. We race out of there wands at the ready to find the Ministry in shambles and Harry lying on the floor convulsing as Dumbledore pleads over him.