Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

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Harry wasn't happy at all with his conversation with Lupin and Sirius. They weren't exactly clear of why Lily would marry someone like James when she hated his guts so much then Lupin proceeded to order Harry into trying to convince Snape into continuing with his lessons, but Harry had a lot of doubts that he wouldn't be able to convince Snape in letting him have lessons again. 

But he did become happy when he saw Fred and George out in the courtyard with Umbridge yelling at them that they had the nerve to turn a corridor into an entire swamp. Then he watched as Fred and George claim they were done with Hogwarts then summoned their brooms and as they were getting on, they proceeded to tell people where they could buy a portable swamp at their establishment of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes and that they had discounts on products for Hogwarts Students, who were trying to get rid of Umbridge or 'This old bat' as George put it. 

Umbridge tried to order people to try and stop Fred and George, but they were already in the air when she gave the order. Then Fred and George turned and looked directly at Peeves before the both of them ordered him to give Umbridge hell for them. And Peeves, surprising since he didn't like taking orders from anyone, lowered his hat to his chest and gave them a salute before Fred and George went vanishing off into the sunset. 

Harry and Ron were chatting how thrill they were to see what was going to happen now that probably tons of students were going to be using the twins' products to disrupt Umbridge's classes and drive her insane. However the mood changed when they noticed Hermione wasn't anywhere to be seen. 

"Do you know where Hermione is?" Harry asked Ron while they darted their eyes over the common room where she wasn't sitting reading a book or doing her homework. 

"No, I've been with you." Ron told him. 

"Ginny, is Hermione in the girls dorm?" Harry shouted across the room to Ginny who was sitting at the fire place. 

"Not that I know of." Ginny told him. 

"Where on earth could Hermione be?" Ron asked, itching his head. 

"I'm sure she'll be back soon... I mean nothing bad could have happened to her... right?" Harry asked, despite the doubt creeping up in his throat. 

"Let me out! Can anyone hear me? Let me out!" Hermione called out as she slammed her fists against the wall. Hermione soon realized that it was no use as she pushed off the wall. She looked around the corridor, wondering why the hell did Barty bring her here? What was down here? Hermione thought as she lifted her wand. 

"Lumos." She said. Light flood down the hallway as it revealed all the dust and cobwebs that lined the walls. Her eyes darted onto the side where she sat torches nailed into the walls as well. 

"Confringo!" She shouted. As soon as one torch lit, she watched as the others lit up one by one until it reached the end where another door was standing, waiting for her. Slowly, she proceeded down the hallway with her wand outstretched. Upon reaching the door, Hermione darted her eyes down to see a large padlock on the knob. 

"Alohomora!" She said with a wave of her hand. However, she could sense it did nothing. She cursed under her breath while she tried to figure out what the plan was. Her eyes quickly took sight of a strange statue in the corner near the doorway. It was another dragon head but it appeared to be placed on top of two dials with unique carvings that she didn't quick recognized. Hermione reached over and began turning the dials to see what they would do. As she turned the top dial, it went left while the bottom one turned to the right. 

Hermione shifted the dial until she moved the head towards the door. She was taken aback the moment the head pointed directly to the door, a flood of flames spewed from the dragon's mouth and onto the lock. She watched as the lock melted away. When the flames stopped, the door opened to reveal another corridor. Hermione hurried into the room until she found a stairwell. She scurried downward, one hand pressed onto the railing while the other (with her wand)held out in front of her. When she reached the bottom, she found yet another door, but this one didn't look locked. 

Carefully, she walked over towards the door and lightly pushed it forward. Her mouth dropped as her eyes took in the sight of the massive room. The walls had been carved into to the shape of dragons as their heads shifted their heads around towards her like they couldn't imagine a human being amongst them. The ceiling had floating ambers crystals bobbing along as it lit the entire room with a warm, fiery glow. Another thing Hermione took in was the excessive heat the collided against her face. She turned around to see two giant dragon statues positioned into attacking stances with their mouths wide opened were spewing lava from their lips and were pouring it into the moat that wrapped around the room. In the center, there was a small table with something on top of it. 

After pulling her shirt over her mouth and nose, she proceeded towards the table. Her eyes narrowed when she saw it was a small glass vital of a thick, crimson-red liquid inside it. She picked it up and lifted towards her face. She didn't know what was inside it and knew it was foolish for her to drink something without knowing what was in it, but seeing as there is no other way out, she had no choice. 

Twisting the lid of the vital opened, she tossed the lid onto the table before pressing the vial to her lips and swallowing the liquid in one gulp. Hermione coughed violently while she shook her head at the strong metallic flavor. At first nothing seemed to happened... until a violent surge of pain rushed through her system. It happened to so fast, Hermione found herself onto the ground in a blink of an eye. 

Her body twisted and jerked around like a fish out of water, panic seeping into her heart as she felt an unbearable heat flooding through her veins like she was being cooked alive. Tears flooded into her eyes as she felt her throat clamping shut like an iron hand was wrapped around it. Hermione could feel her heartbeat slowing down while her sight started to turn fuzzy... then to black.