Isolation

Chapter 41: Snape

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Nervously shuffling her feet, Hermione watched Ron as he stepped forward and yanked out seven fangs from the skeletal remains of the Basilisk. It was so cold and quiet down here; too quiet, like the silence was surrounding her, engulfing her, suffocating her. It was eerily still and isolated in the Chamber, and yet somehow Hermione knew that there was chaos swarming above their heads, and it only seemed to make the silence worse.

Reaching inside her bag, she removed Helga's Cup, stroking her fingers over the engraving until Ron held out one of the fangs for her to take.

"Come on," he said, eyeing her expectantly. "You should do this one."

"I don't know, Ron..."

"It will be fine," he assured her, prying the Cup from her hands. He placed it on the ground at their feet and handed her the fang. "Go on, Hermione."

Frowning as she reluctantly crouched down, she took a deep breath as she tightly gripped the fang, raising it above her head before bringing it down to stab the Cup. A breeze of dark energy rushed up, blowing back her hair, and then the Cup bled a thick, black fluid, before it seemed to shrivel up like a dead flower. Another gust of wind seemed to whirl around her, but then it faded, and the room was still again.

"That's it?" she mumbled. "I was expecting...I don't know, but I was expecting something bad to happen."

Ron shrugged. "Well, that's another one down. We should go and find Harry; let him know the Cup has been destroyed and that we have the fangs."

Nodding, she rose to her feet, wiping her dusty hands on her jeans. "I wonder what's going on up there now."

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Draco growled when Theo almost tripped him up for the third time, catching his ankle with his foot. They had squeezed past the last of the evacuating students - escorted by a grumbling Filch and Madam Pince - around five minutes ago, back at the entrance of the tunnel. Their small party had certainly earned a few confused looks and whispers, but they'd just kept marching through the tunnel, led by Tonks, who seemed to grow more panicked with every step.

Glancing behind him, Draco's eyes lingered on Miles and Tracey's joined hands, and if it was possible, his ache to find Granger intensified, like a physical pull on his chest.

He looked at Blaise and Theo then, who both seemed as anxious as he was to get to the end of this sodding tunnel. He understood Blaise's eagerness, but Theo's reasoning seemed more complicated than that; a mixture of many motives, such as vengeance for Ted's death, the need to confront his father, and even redemption.

But then maybe they were all here for redemption on some level.

Finally, he saw a door appear, and he practically shoved Tonks forward, desperate now, and almost light-headed as his breathing accelerated. Tonks pushed the door open, and Draco was momentarily blinded by the welcoming light as he dropped down into the room, closely followed by the other members of 'The Enlightened' as they all paused to absorb their unfamiliar surroundings.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Theo.

"The Room of Requirement," said Tonks. "Quick, look around for the exit. It's probably-