Moments Before the Rescue Team Arrived...
For the longest time there was nothing.
No footsteps. No voices. No movement.
Nothing.
The silence wrapped itself around the room like a suffocating blanket.
For Hermione Granger, silence had always been dangerous.
Most people feared screams. Crashes. The sounds of battle.
Hermione feared silence. Because silence was what came before disaster. Silence was what she remembered from the war. Long nights inside a tent. Harry asleep nearby. Ron gone. Darkness pressing against the canvas.
Every muscle in her body tense as she listened.
Waiting. Always waiting.
Listening for the crack of Apparition. Listening for Snatchers. Listening for Death Eaters. Listening for something that would tell her whether she would survive until morning.
Sometimes she would sit awake for hours. Her wand already in her hand. Eyes fixed on the darkness. Heart racing. Certain that at any moment something terrible was about to happen.
Most nights nothing did.
But that somehow made it worse.
The waiting. The uncertainty. The not knowing. That was the true torture.
Even after the war ended, it never fully left her.
She rarely spoke about it. Rarely admitted it. But sleep had never come easily afterwards.
There were nights she would lie awake staring at the ceiling for hours. Listening. Waiting. Sometimes until her body simply gave up and exhaustion dragged her under.
Harry knew. Ron had known too.
They had both found her asleep over books countless times.
Found her curled up in armchairs. Found her sitting at kitchen tables long after everyone else had gone to bed.
The silence had never stopped haunting her.
And now...
Now she hated it more than ever.
Because this silence felt wrong. Dangerous. Final.
Hermione sat chained to the wall and stared into the darkness.
Where was Sloane? What was Euan doing? What was his plan?
Every possibility seemed worse than the last.
Had he hurt her? Had he taken her somewhere else? Was she alive?
The thought made her chest tighten painfully.
Hermione squeezed her eyes shut.
No.
Don't think like that.
But the thoughts wouldn't stop.
What if they were too late? What if Harry and Draco never found them?
What if—
A small whimper escaped her throat before she could stop it.
She tilted her head upwards. Staring at the ceiling. Blinking rapidly. Refusing to cry. Because if she started crying she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop.
"Sloane's tougher than she looks." Theo's voice cut through the silence.
Rough. Shaky. Painful.
Hermione turned towards him. Theo was slumped against the wall. The lashings he'd received earlier had taken a terrible toll on him.
YOU ARE READING
The Hollow Beneath Hogwarts
FantasyThe Hollow Beneath Hogwarts When the war ended, Hogwarts was supposed to be a place of healing. Instead, it became a place haunted by grief. Sloane Sage arrives at Hogwarts carrying scars no one can see. After losing her family in the war, she dedic...
