Senses

Chapter 64

Hermione woke to the sickening feeling of the world moving without her. Her tongue tasted of ash and blood and the skin on her face burned. A deep groan raised her head from her chest, her body curled impossibly small behind something heavy and metal.

Her ears picked up nothing but her own ragged breathing and when she managed to push open her eyes she found darkness that seemed unnatural. A weak grunt pushed her body upward against the stone wall behind her, the movement causing the heavy shield that she'd apparently taken refuge behind to fall forward with a deafening clang. The noise made her entire body jolt with pain, a vertigo-inducing effect as she tried to orient herself.

The entire room was laid in ash, like macabre snow. The air was thick with haze but her spacial awareness told her that the space she found herself in now was not the same volume she remembered it to be. A slow breath into her seared lungs pushed her further to her feet. Her stance swayed as she tried to come to terms with the time she'd lost. It was impossible to tell, at least an hour, maybe more.

Her weak cough echoed through the heavy silence before a small light at the far end of the space slowly came to form. With all the strength of the lion whose house she hailed from, she pulled herself straight. A small glance down made her pause, however, the large shield that had protected her from the raging fire seemed to call out to her, as if the room itself had provided it for her.

Another shaky breath lowered her down to take hold of the handle. She pulled, expecting it to be massive in weight, only to find herself stumbling backward into the wall as it came up with ease. It weighed barely more than a textbook and seemed to adjust to her body mass. The silver steel with blue markings shining through the dust. It looked like an old crest of some sort, something she was sure she should have known but simply didn't have the mental capacity to process.

Another shudder rocked her frame as she began to walk through the soot. Her eyes solely focused on the meager light straight ahead. The room seemed to shift around her, turning what should have been a fifty step journey into that of only ten.

Her thoughts turned to Severus then. The time she had lost. Was he still alive? Was the war over? Had anyone survived? Tears washed away the burn in her eyes as more and more of her thoughts turned dark. She felt like a coward. Like she had run away, instead of merely revealing herself. What had she possibly hoped for with what she'd done? How much blood now laid on her hands?

Another shaky breath brought her before the light and her hand found a latch. It didn't remind her of the door that usually led out of the room. It was smaller, older. Her arm pulsed as she turned the handle before a large gust of cold night air infused with flames rushed past her face.

Her eyes went wide as she took in the sights before her. Hundreds of feet in the air, she found herself looking out from the school at an impossible angle. Large plumes of smoke billowed out from various places along the grounds. Distant screams and war cries filling the night air. The war wasn't over.

"Severus..." Hermione's heart pulsed as she tried to look through the chaos down below. Like ants skirmishing for a single grain of sugar, it was nearly impossible to make anyone out clearly. What should she do? What could she do?

A stern look pressed her lips tightly together. She had wanted to fight, to bring an end to all this. A sharp flash flickered in the corner of her eye and she found herself stepping out onto the small ledge for a better look. She knew she had to fight. It was everything she had been training for, everything they had worked towards.