When All is Lost (Book 1)

4. Entering the War

Back in the common room, Hermione was sitting in a corner practicing her arithmetic, sipping from a glass of butterbeer that they had brought back from Hogsmeade every now and then. "I can't believe her." Ron said as he sat down next to Harry. "What do you mean?" Harry asked, looking over at Hermione. "Practicing arithmetic on a weekend." Ron answered. "Ron, Harry, we'd better be getting to bed shouldn't we? The first task starts tomorrow morning." It was Hermione, who had packed away her book, ink and quill and looked really quite tired. "I completely forgot." Harry said, who was now sprinting up the stairs to the dormitory. Hermione and Ron looked at each other curiously, and followed behind him. When they walked into the dormitory breathlessly, Harry wasn't there. "He wouldn't be at the owelry..." Hermione questioned herself, and then ran through the door up to the owelry. When Hermione arrived in the owelry, Harry was sitting on the windowsill with Hedwig on his shoulder. "Harry?" Hermione whispered, tip-toeing through the hay and trying not to wake any of the owls. "Would you just leave?" He said, in a very surley voice. "I'm not going to leave until you tell me why you are pouting in the owelry at 12:00 at night! You're 16 years old Harry, and if you really want to write to Sirius, let me just tell you that he is NOT still awake crying with his owl waiting for a letter from you!" Hermione didn't know what had come over her. She didn't mean to act out, she was truly worried about what would come of this behavior. "LISTEN! If you just opened the door a bit more you'd see why I've been sitting here! I" Harry burst out screaming at her which made Hedwig nip at his face. Hermione looked at him and shook her head, but she opened the door. There, in true life, standing smiling, was Lily Potter. Hermione smiled like she had never smiled before, but then Harry said, "I know that she's here Hermione, I know. But if you'd just push her aside..." "Harry, I don't think that..." Hermione said, but when she pushed her mother aside, Bellatrix Lestrange was standing behind her with her wand raised. "If I want her, she gets you." Harry sounded off, as though he had rehearsed it. "Hermione pulled out her wand, but Lily pushed it down. "Hermione, you cannot defeat me." Bellatrix said in her sly voice. "Don't say my name!" Hermione screamed. Bellatrix pushed Hermione down. Lily bent over her, as Hermione looked like she was in coma. Apparently alarmed by Hermione's screams, Ron came running into the room with his wand out. "You?" He said hoarsely. "Yes me you idiot boy!" Bellatrix answered. "Harry?" Hermione had awoken shakily. "No, it's me Hermione." Lily answered. "Mum? This is..." Hermione paused. "Malfoy?" Hermione jolted up and motioned for her mother, Harry, and Ron to pull out their wands, and they did. "Well, I suppose me, a death eater, comes as a shock to you doesn't it?" Malfoy sneered. "It doesn't! I told them about every death eater that I saw two years ago! He tortured you, I can't believe you're still alive." Harry said, getting up and locking Hedwig in her cage as though there weren't two death eaters at his back with their wands raised, and as though he just found out that his mother had just come back to life.

Harry moved back to the window, but then pushed everybody out of his way as Sirius's body fell in, not moving when it hit the ground. "Sirius?" Lily stared down at him, as though expecting him too to be dead or locked in Azkaban. Sirius started to move, and Bellatrix's hand started to tremble. Sirius moaned like he was in pain, and Harry could have sworn he saw Bellatrix say in her breath, "Save him.". Lily started to cry, and Harry felt very uneasy. Hermione turned to her and comforted her. "Mum,I'm sure he's fine, look at me." "Hermione, just go nap that Daily Prophet from the owl over there." Hermione got up, and saw on the front page, Mass Murdurer Sirius Black caught and kissed by dementors. Hermione didn't look up. She had tears in her eyes. Lily hugged her, and she dropped the paper, and started to cry. Harry was zoned out thinking about the fact that they were all surrounded by two deadly death eaters, but when he saw a picture of dementors on the front, he scooped up the paper. He suddenly looked around him. Hermione's crying... he thought. He walked over and tapped her on the shoulder, careful not to lose his gaze on Malfoy. He expected her not to react, or to get up, but instead, she raised her wand and yelled Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. Taken aback at this gesture, Lily pulled Harry down and Hermione back as though expecting someone to try and kill them. "Mum." Harry said, standing up. "Stop it." But she didn't look unhappy at him for being upset, or unhappy that they were surrounded by death eaters, or unhappy that her husband's soul had been sucked out of his body. Both death eaters were dead. "Hermione! That was, that was..." Ron seemed too happy to find the right word to describe how much he liked what Hermione had just done. Then they heard quick footsteps behind them. Lily stood up along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and stared at the door. Suddenly, Hermione whispered, Lumos, and then put out the spell. "What was that for?" Ron asked. "In case they check what spell I had previously used, even if I did kill the death eaters, that's an illegal curse, especially for underage wizards." Hermione answered, and she put her wand in her robe."Sirius Black!" Professor McGonagall gasped when she arrived at the door. "Death eat-" But she stopped, supposedly thinking that Harry, Ron, and Hermione did not know that Lucius Malfoy was a death eater. "Lily?" Snape whispered, as he stared into Harry and Hermione's mother's eyes. "Severus." Lily said, in a much more surly voice. After Professor McGonagall had muttered a few instructions to the other teachers, she walked back over to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lily. "Lily Potter? I don't... but..." Professor McGonagall was too astonished for words, but then, seeing Hermione's wand handle sticking out from her robe, leaned to her ear and said, "Ms. Granger, did you and the others know that..." Hermione knew what she was going to say, and suddenly, she felt like she had to retort. "Lucius Malfoy was a death eater? Yes, I've known for two years, all of us have." She answered loudly so that all of the teachers heard. Then, Harry heard a familiar clunk in the hall. "Moody." He said to himself. And sure enough, Alastor Moody walked right into the owelry. Harry, and apparently Ron and Hermione too, had had enough for one night. They worked their way through all of the teachers, and walked out of the door. When all of their heads hit their pillows, they could hear rustling students climbing into bed and talking about them. In the morning, Harry felt more scared than usual. Hermione was the first to wake up, the first at breakfast, and the first at the lake. Harry and Ron however, took their time and waited until they had five minutes to get to the lake. As a plump witch Harry, Ron, and Hermione had never seen before announced their names, Hermione winced when she said that her last name was Granger, and Harry could hear her whispering under her breath, "Black, Hermione Black." When Dumbledore gave an okay signal, everybody dove in. Hermione went straight to the bottom, being the one with the most gillyweed. Ron went to a side reef, being that he had a limited amount of gillyweed, and Harry looked in the shallows, as he had a very small amount of gillyweed. They heard one of the girls from Durmstrang scream, and they immediately swam down to see what went wrong. Sitting on the side of a statue of a merperson, was Hermione, who had been clawed at and badly injured by the merpeople. Harry knew that this would be very bad for Hermione, and if Malfoy or any of his friends found out, she'd be ruined. He stared at the merpeople until he finally found the one that was holding a sharp spear which had blood on the end of it. He sent red sparks into its face and it immediately dropped the spear. Harry pulled Hermione to the side, and gave her a look of empathy. He then left Hermione and a minute later she was by his side. She pointed to an old sack, and Harry knew that their belongings were in it.