Would You Like A Hand?

26 | my turn

It was a strange feeling, being able to see the familiar space in front of her, but being unable to touch anything or move (aside from her head).

It was also uncomfortable. Hermione could already feel the ashes in her mouth and she hadn't even tried to speak yet.

"Hullo?" the witch called out, and then coughed out some ashes.

The common room was empty.

"Is it working?" Draco's voice drifted to her ears - that was strange too, hearing his voice behind her but being unable to see him.

"Yes, but there's no one here; they're probably having breakfast right now-"

"Hermione?" someone called in shock.

"Nevermind," she said to Draco.

It was Ginny, coming from the entrance of the room. The Weasley rushed over to the fire.

"Is that really you? Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!" the redhead looked like she was going to give the fire a hug, but then thought better of it.

"Ginny!" Hermione greeted, relieved to see her, "Is everyone still doing okay? The castle is still standing?"

"Everyone's... as okay as they can be," Ginny let her know, "But where are you? Harry said he'd lost you and-"

"Harry? Did he contact you? Is he and Ron there?"

"The two of them did the same thing you're doing right now. They said they were waiting for you at the ministry but..."

"What? What happened?"

"They went ahead - Harry told me to watch the fire in case you made it to the ministry and tried to floo here. They wanted to wait for you but no one knew if..."

If you were even alive.

"When did they contact you?" Hermione asked, not wanting to think about it.

"Only two days ago. That was when they left the ministry."

No, Hermione had been so close - she and Draco had arrived at the ministry yesterday.

Ginny continued, "They said they had already waited a week for you, and they didn't want to wait too long and give You-Know-Who more time to recover."

"So they headed back to the school?" Hermione frowned; that didn't make sense.

Ginny shook her head, confirming Hermione's suspicions. The young Weasley explained, "The boys said they were going to go back to the Malfoy Manor, and suggested we all go too."

"Let me guess, they wanted to floo there and if every other student did the same, you all would take the manor by surprise or something?" The brightest witch of her age hoped desperately that Ginny would shake her head again.

She didn't.

"Yes - but! The boys said they would do it in three days."

"Three...?"

"So tonight, everyone over here is going into Hogsmeade to find a usable fireplace."

"Isn't that dangerous? I would think Hogsmeade is full of undead."

"We've been trying to clear them out while you three were gone - you've been missing for more than two weeks! Maybe three now!"

She had only left Hogwarts about two to three weeks ago? It felt like years.

"So wait,"the curly-haired witch said, "Where did the boys go? Wouldn't they just want to stay here until the time comes to floo away?"

"Uh, Hermione?" Draco's voice nervously floated to her ears.