She was on the ground, and her muscles spasmed and felt badly torn as she forced herself to sit up. She was in a large cage filled with more than a dozen other people, including a few she recognised vaguely.
It was nightfall, and the only illumination was torchlight, flickering orange. She could smell blood and Dark Magic. The screaming kept going on and on. There was laughter too. Cruel, taunting, hysterical peals of laughter.
She looked around and realised she was at Hogwarts. There were dozens of huge cages crammed with people scattered across the grounds of Hogwarts around the base of the Astronomy Tower. The screams were coming from the tower.
She looked up.
Hanging fifteen feet above the ground Molly Weasley was screaming, sobbing, and writhing where she hung from her wrists. Arthur screamed in agony beside her. A curse was slicing him apart, bit by bit.
“Please! Not him!! Hurt me! He doesn't understand!! Please don't do this to him!” Molly's voice was broken as she begged.
There were pieces of meat dangling from chains around Molly. Hermione squinted in the low light.
Severed arms.
A torso.
George's head.
Her throat contracted, and she doubled over and vomited so violently there was a tearing pain through her back as her body convulsed.
She looked up again as she wiped her mouth.
Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George were all dead, in pieces that dangled from the chains. Ron was still alive. Barely alive. Tonks was dead, her organs hanging down from her body. Remus hung beside her, so mangled he was surely dead too.
Above the Weasleys, Remus and Tonks, there was another figure. A skeletal corpse.
Hermione's fingers spasmed as she gripped the bars.
“Is — is that Harry?” she choked out.
“Yes,” a girl nearby said dully. Hermione thought her name might have been Mafalda. “When You-Know-Who stopped using Killing Curses, he cast a spell, and Harry started rotting. He put him up there — so we'd all see it happen. And all his closest friends too. They've been torturing them for hours now.”
Arthur's screams were growing fainter.
“Please!! Don't hurt him. Arthur. Arthur.” Molly kept sobbing and begging as she tried to reach him.
Hermione's fingers twitched, and she tucked her chin down and looked away from the tower.
Her cloak was gone, her necklace, her bracelet. She'd been stripped and redressed into a thin grey dress; even her hairpins and hair ties had been removed. Draco's ring still glittered on her hand.
“Malfoy!”
The blood in her veins ran cold, and she stiffened and turned. There were crowds and tents interspersed among the cages. Death Eaters, guards, and Ministry Officials were mingling and drinking. A Death Eater stepped forward and shot a curse up at the bodies hanging from the Astronomy Tower. There was drunken, braying laugher.
A few men were leering into the cages.
“You're sweet. Perhaps the Dark Lord will give you to me as a favour,” a Death Eater was crooning as he tried to grab one of the prisoners through the bars.
“Malfoy!”
Hermione looked for Draco. She saw Lucius approaching instead.
“We thought you and the others might miss the whole celebration,” a ragged voice called out.
Hermione huddled low to the ground and averted her eyes as Lucius came closer. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion. She held her breath and strained to hear.
“The Dark Lord required my presence,” Lucius said, his voice was an unnerving, caressing drawl. “There was — an unexpected situation.”
Hermione felt her throat close. Draco.
The other voice dropped lower. “Sussex?”
“Indeed,” Lucius said quietly. “The Dark Lord is keen to keep it quiet. Only his most trusted.”
Hermione slumped in relief. Not Draco.
“Is it true then? Everyone?” The ragged voice was persistent.
“Did I not just say it's being kept quiet? Do you want to know what the Dark Lord does not wish to be known?” There was a singsong quality within the softness of Lucius' voice. “When he is concerned about spies in our midst? I should hate for him to learn you were heard prying. I still shudder to think of what happened to poor Rookwood last week.”
“I didn't — I only meant to — polite inquiry was all I meant by it. Look! I save something for you. There were plenty who wanted to finish him, but I said you deserved the honors. Look, he's still alive.”
Hermione glanced up and saw Lucius and the other Death Eater looking up at the Astronomy Tower.
Arthur had gone still, and Molly's screams had turned to quiet sobs.
“Still a few of them alive.” The ragged-voiced Death Eater shot a curse at Remus, and Remus' body jerked and then went limp again. “That one won't die. No matter what we throw at him. Regrown his organs twice now.” He sniggered. “Then there's the mum. She screams louder for her spawn than when you crucio her. But I saved the best for you. Potter's best friend, the one who was always with him. I made sure no one killed him.”
“How very thoughtful you are, Mulciber.” Lucius crooned the words as he studied the Weasleys overhead.