Curious and Curiouser

18: Answers At Last Part I

Please comment and let me know what you think!

This one's a really long chapter and I'm posting it in parts so I have more time to edit and work around a plot hole that popped up. I'm fairly certain I took care of it but please let me know if you notice something amiss. :)

Thank you for reading!

The effect was instantaneous, Hermione's wand grew hot as she fought to maintain the charm that was on the verge of collapse, her feet sliding forward on the smooth stone floor. She figured Kinglsey would have tried to keep the charm up since dropping it would release the dementors again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry widen his shield charm to include Ron. The moment the latter had connected the fang to the wall of the charm there had been a blinding flash of light that had forced her back a few steps and then blackness. The torches lining the walls had all flickered out of existence. The only lights in the room were the slight dusky glow from the Helerean charm itself and Blaise's lit wand tip.

She was trying to make eye contact with either Harry or Ron, She needed to tell she was going to drop the charm- whatever was going to happen would happen when she stopped funneling her magic through to it.

Her arm hurt, she could feel beads of sweat collecting on her forehead. Her vision was starting to blur. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, the blood was rushing to her head.

She could feel herself getting light headed- she spun wildly in an effort to let Harry and Ron know that she was going to drop the charm. She doubted she would be able to react quick enough to protect herself from the backlash if the Room wasn't able to.

All she could do was hope that Harry or Ron had correctly interpreted her weird little spin and wave as she was pulled closer and closer to the center of the room.

She closed her eyes in an effort to relieve some of the pain in her head. It didn't help. One she counted to herself, as she prepared to stop pushing her magic through her wand, two, her wand was shaking with the effort it was taking to hold this charm up against the attack from the basilisk fang, three!

She heard Ron's voice call out her name and Harry yell 'Protego!' as she fell backwards into the darkness.

****

It was surreal in Draco's opinion, watching Granger fall backwards onto the hard stone floor, by the light of Blaise's lit wand, it all seemed as though it was happening in slow motion. The moment she hit the floor Potter had dropped the shield charm and Weasley had tossed a small object at him before rushing across the room to Granger's side.

Draco saw Harry fumble slightly with whatever Ron had tossed at him and suddenly the room was flooded with light from a blue-white orb that hung in the air above them.

He walked a few paces behind Potter and Blaise as the other two made their way over to where Wesley was kneeling over Granger.

He watched with mild disinterest as Weasley pulled out his wand and muttered 'Eneverate!', pointing it at Granger's limp body.

The brown haired witch groaned slightly before rolling to her side and pushing herself up to her knees. She only wasted a second to push her hair out of her face before saying, "I'm gonna need to see your lots' memories, and then compare them to Blaise's," she paused, nodding in the direction of the former Slytherin, "need to see if this is similar to what just happened here, that flash would be pretty indicative-" She had opened her mouth to keep talking but Ron cut her off.

"Merlin, calm down 'Mione," The red haired man said, "are you alright? You just passed out, we ought to take you to St. Mungo's,"

Again Granger shook her head impatiently, "I'm fine Ron, I'm fine, I think I only passed out from exertion, listen, Cassie and I really ought to check Blaise's memory- just make sure we're going about this the right way,"