Voldemort was quicker and already poised to strike.
The curse struck Harry in the chest, and his green eyes went blank.
Voldemort wasn't done. His face contorted with rage.
“
There was screaming now. The Resistance screamed Harry's name, over and over. Hermione gave a low sob, torn from deep in her chest, gripping the canvas of the tent in order to keep from dropping with despair onto the ground.
“Harry!” Ron threw himself towards Harry.
A scarlet curse shot out from among the Death Eaters and struck Ron. He flew through the air and crashed into the Astronomy Tower with a sickening crunch that Hermione could hear across the field.
Other Resistance fighters were moving towards Harry too, as though they didn't know what to do but try to reach his body.
Run. Hermione wanted to scream it, beg it, plead it. Leave the dead behind.
Run.
“A
Hermione started to flee but flinched as she heard another “A
She looked back one last time and watched Voldemort walk over, casting the Killing Curse on Harry a sixth time. Voldemort's right hand was extended, his wand hanging from his fingertips, but his left hand was pressed lightly against the centre of his chest.
The gesture was strangely human. As though he were injured but trying to hide it.
There was still a horcrux left. Harry's plan would have worked, it should have worked, but there was still a horcrux left.
Hermione's eyes swept across the battlefield. The fighting had resumed, but the Resistance had lost. They were too shocked and despairing as they tried to defend themselves.
Hermione's hand twitched forward. Then she set her jaw and slammed her occlumency walls into place.
You can't save them. Someone has to find the last horcrux. She turned and bolted towards the apparition point.
As soon as she was away from the disillusioned tents, she was spotted. Several spells shot past her as she made for the treeline.
A curse grazed her shoulder, but her cloak blocked it. She flung herself into the forest. As she reached the anti-apparition marker, a Death Eater suddenly appeared, blocking her path and catching hold of her arm.
Hermione twisted and broke free, driving her elbow into his diaphragm and flinging herself past the disapparition point.
She was vanishing as she felt herself crushed under a body.
She reappeared and choked as her lungs filled with water. She was face-down in water. Her lungs burning as she tried to fight free. There were stones digging into her as the Death Eater's weight pinned her underwater. She pulled her head up, choking and gasping. The water and blood roaring in her ears. A hand gripped her hair and wrenched her head further back. Her hands scrabbled through the water, she snatched up a rock and twisted her body to smash it into the Death Eater's head before he drowned her.
She managed to strike him once before the rock was knocked from her grip.
A moment later everything went black.
Chapter End Notes
This chapter contains several lines and paraphrased excerpts of
Also, Manacled now has a Facebook Group.
Two notes: First, regarding my making a summary of the first twenty-five chapters before the present chapters resume, I have decided to create one. However, in order to avoid breaking up the story unnaturally, it's an external googledoc, found here. However, the readers who have reread say that the recontextualization of the flashbacks makes rereading the story an entirely different experience.
Second: Manacled now has a Facebook group discussing theories. It's a closed group called Granians and Paper Cranes.
July 2003
She woke with a start and found herself lying on a low, makeshift bed, Draco leaning over her.
She jerked back and then stilled and looked around, realising she was in his safe house in Whitecroft. She looked back at Draco, and everything came rushing back. She drew a sharp breath and felt as though she were being crushed to death. “What — What happened?”
His mouth twitched as he straightened and stared down at her. His expression was a mask, but she could see the restrained rage in his eyes.
“Despite”—the word was bitten out—“your reassurance to me yesterday, you were at Hogwarts. When I discovered it, I tried to grab you, and you proceeded to apparate into a creek. I had to stun you; I thought you might drown yourself before you realised it was me.”
She sat up gingerly, still slightly sore and dazed. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the remaining grogginess. “You were masked; I didn't recognize you.”