A/N: Welcome to my story! It's been here for quite a while, but I've decided to correct it, since it's... well, very first-drafty. This chapter is already corrected, so enjoy... As for later ones -if they have the A/N's, saying that they're safe to read, it means that I've re-uploaded them :)

I hope you'll like the story, although I still have many things to correct :) If you find some inconsistencies -let me know, but you can be almost sure that I already know about them :)

Hermione dodged another spell that had been sent in her direction, and immediately countered the attack. Her muscles screamed from exertion, while sweat trickled down her forehead, mixing with blood covering her face. She didn't even know if the blood belonged to her or someone else. It was nearly impossible to tell, considering the number of lifeless bodies lying on the ground, all of them massacred and violated.

"Stupefy," she yelled with force, but the movement of her wand came a bit later, along with the incantation chanted in her head. It turned out to be enough to break the Shield charm casted by her opponent in order to stop her spell.

He fell on the ground with a loud thump that almost disappeared amid the roaring sounds of the battle. Hermione felt relief washing over her body, when once again, she managed not to die. She knew though that she had to keep moving. Her friends were still out there or so she hoped. There was nothing of bigger importance, than saving Ron and Harry -especially the latter. As long as he lived, there still was a chance that somehow they'd get to see yet another day, that maybe they could somehow stop the unimaginable force and cruelty of Voldemort's army.

Her legs were nearly giving out, unable able to hold her weight anymore, but she knew that if she stopped, she would be as good as dead. Various curses and jinxes constantly flew over her head, and only sheer luck prevented her from being hit by one of them. She didn't have time to dwell on it, though. She kept going, ignoring the blurriness of her eyes and the darkness that threatened to overtake her any second. None of those things truly mattered.

The Great Hall took her breath away, but this time it didn't have anything to do with its undeniable beauty. The floor was covered with bodies, staring back at her with their empty eyes, filled with nothing but a void that only death could bring. The sight, stretching before her eyes, was the most dreadful thing she had ever seen. Her eyes filled with tears, making her vision even more blurry, but it didn't matter anymore.

She had failed. It was too late and everyone had died. Voldemort had officially won and there was nothing she could do, except for staring at the dead body of her best friend and the silhouette of Tom Marvolo Riddle, standing over him and laughing hysterically.

"No... Please, no..." she whimpered, allowing her legs to finally give way.

She collapsed to the floor, making Lord Voldemort notice her arrival. He opened his arms, as though he wanted to welcome her into his embrace.

"Ah, finally, the last missing part of the Golden Trio. I'm delighted that you decided to join us. I was just looking for something I could give as a reward to my lovely Bellatrix here. What do you think, my dear? Is that mudblood sufficient?"

Dark Lord's high-pitched voice was cold and terrifying, but it still wasn't enough to make Hermione feel anything, but the overwhelming pain, eating up her soul. 'So Ron is dead too?' she thought with agony, while her sobs got louder and more desperate. Oh, Merlin... How did it happen? How could both of her boys be dead, after all that happened? After everything she'd done to save them, how could they just leave her here alone?

"Oh, yes, my Lord, this filthy mudblood is the perfect gift for me."

Hermione forced herself to tear her eyes away from Harry's dead body and face the woman, who caused her so much pain. She could almost feel the scar on her forearm burning, just as though it recognized its maker. How could it be that this vile woman, this messed up lunatic could still be alive, when everyone Hermione cared about was gone?

Even though just a second ago she felt completely dead inside, she knew that giving up wasn't an option. She would die fighting and doing everything in her power to take that bitch with her, even if it meant getting out of her own grave, which seemed to be ready for her even now.

Hermione stood up and clutched her wand fiercely, shutting off the pain consuming her body. She had to hold on just a little longer. Maybe the Death Eaters had a massive advantage, but the castle wasn't dead yet and there still might have been someone, who could help her.

"I am going to kill you, Mudblood. But before I do it, I'm going to have so much fun with you".

Bellatrix's laughter had always sounded as it was coming straight from hell, making everyone want to run for their lives. This time it was different, though. Hermione felt as a new surge of power washed over her half-dead body, making her determined to give this bitch a decent fight.

"Not if I kill you first," she stated, forcing her voice to sound as tough as possible.

She may have even succeeded, but it didn't seem to make any difference to Bellatrix, who watched Hermione with a predatory smile. It took her only a quarter of a second to raise her wand and cast the first spell. She was so quick, that Hermione barely got out of the way in time, ducking to her left and immediately casting a counter-attack.

It took only few minutes to know that Bellatrix was going to be the winner of the duel. She was unbelievably fast and nowhere near as tired as the girl she was fighting against. Few more spells were enough to break Hermione's defenses and send her flying through the wall of the Great Hall with a scream of pure agony. Her eyesight went black for a second, as pain once again invaded her body, this time with twice the force. She couldn't even breathe, not speaking about getting herself up and returning to the abandoned fight.

That's it. This is how I die, she thought to herself and felt tears rolling down her cheeks in an act of powerlessness.

She had failed once again, unable to avenge the death of her friends, unable to do anything to reverse the outcome of the battle. Her eyes fluttered open and she forced herself to stare at the body lying next to her. A girl... Younger than her, violated and left for everyone to see. Hermione closed her eyes, terrified and defeated. She started to feel glad that death was coming for her, because she couldn't imagine living her life after seeing all these horrors, that were now embedded into her mind for eternity. She wanted to die.

Bellatrix's footsteps grew nearer and Hermione noticed that Voldemort apparently couldn't be bothered with watching her die, as he stayed inside the Great Hall, basking in his glory over Harry's dead body. Even though normally Hermione would see that as a chance for her to change the outcome of this very uneven duel, she didn't care anymore. She couldn't bring herself to do so. It was so much easier to just close her eyes and wait for the inevitable.

Her ears told her that the mad woman finally stopped and picked up Hermione's wand, lying next to her hand. A cracking noise that followed was just as painful as hitting the wall of the Great Hall and making a hole in it. Her wand... Her precious wand, a symbol of her being a witch, snapped in two pieces by the woman that she hated the most.

"Now, little Mudblood, I'm going to have fun with you. But not until I tell you exactly what I am going to do to you. First, I'm going to make you feel so much pain that you're going to lose that brilliant mind of yours. Then, I'm going to cut each piece of your filthy body and then feed it to the wolves. Or the werewolves... I've heard Greyback going on and on about how much he'd like to taste your filth," she said with excitement and Hermione couldn't help, but to shiver uncontrollably.

How could someone be so cruel, so disgustingly evil? Her brilliant mind couldn't find an answer to that question for a very long time, but now she really wished it had. Maybe then she could have saved them all, being able to predict the actions of someone who was as mad as a hatter.

"Leave her alone!" A furious voice sounded in the hallway, causing Hermione to open her eyes immediately.

"Ron?" she whimpered almost inaudibly and started to wonder if she wasn't dead already.

Although she wanted to move and see if she was right, she seemed unable to do so. Everything hurt and the floor was slippery from the blood surrounding her.

"Hermione, get up! You fucked up bitch, get away from my girlfriend!" The voice yelled again and this time, Miss Granger had no doubts that it belonged to Ronald Weasley.

"Ron, you have to run, she'll kill you..." she tried again, her voice sounding a little bit stronger, but not enough for him to hear it.

However, it managed to capture the attention of Bellatrix, who kicked her in the stomach, making her gasp for air and cough up blood.

"Quiet, Mudblood. You and I are not finished. I guess you'll just have to wait till I've killed that Blood Traitor of yours."

Ron however seemed to have a different opinion on that matter, as he cast the first spell upon the woman. Even with the pain dulling all of Hermione's senses, she could tell that the boy was doing much better than she had, causing Bellatrix to break a real sweat. He tried to do everything to drag her away from the Great Hall, in hopes that Hermione would get up and run for her life.

His sacrifice almost made her smile. Tears rolled down her cheeks once again, when she realized that his actions were all for nothing, as she wasn't able to move and the darkness was slowly embracing her. She knew that it was the end, but she didn't want to go until she'd seen him for the last time. I have to get up, she thought to herself and groaned out loud, trying to hoist herself up. Why did it have to be so difficult?

She felt like it took her hours to change position, but when she finally did, she saw Ron casting one spell after another with such force, that Bellatrix couldn't do anything except for shielding herself with panic forming in her dark eyes. Hermione knew that the woman was losing, but it simply didn't seem to be enough. All it would take, was one mistake and Ron would be dead, just as Harry and everyone else. I couldn't save Harry. But him -I can save, she thought, pushing herself off the ground and doing everything in her power not to fall down once again.

Her wand lied on the ground, broken and completely useless, but Hermione knew that she wasn't called the brightest witch of her age for nothing. Mustering all of her remaining strength, she focused on that one, simple incantation that was the signature of her fallen friend, and slowly raised her hand.

"Expelliarmus," she merely whispered, but it was enough to disarm a completely surprised woman.

She watched as Bellatrix's wand flew right into her own hand. As soon as it came to contact with Hermione's skin, it forced her to flinch, when the burning sensation spread throughout her arm. The wand was undeniably evil and definitely didn't suit her, but in that moment, she needed evil.

Ron's spell brought Bellatrix down and Hermione watched with relief as her body fell to the ground, immobilized. She knew though that it wasn't enough. Bellatrix Lestrange didn't deserve to live, not after what she had done. Hermione wanted nothing more, than to kill her with her own wand wielded by the hand of a Mudblood.

"Karma's a bitch," she whispered and raised the wand at the motionless woman.

"Hermione, don't!" Ron yelled, and in a blink of an eye, he found himself by her side, grabbing her wrist with his own hand. "You can't do this. I know she's evil, but if you kill her, you can't go back from that, not ever."

She looked at him, her eyes filling with tears once again.

"Voldemort's back in the Great Hall. If you want any chance at defeating him, she has to die."

"What about Harry?" he asked with sadness in his hazel eyes. "What about you?"

"There's no way I'm going to make it, Ron. I should be dead already," she choked out and watched his eyes go watery.

"No, 'Mione, don't say that. You're going to be just fine. We're going to defeat him together, alright? You're not going anywhere."

The boy's voice sounded strained and panicked, and she couldn't blame him. They had just found the courage to confess their feelings to each other. They were supposed to have a happy life after it was all over. And now, everything was lost. If she wasn't so bloody tired, she probably would panic as well.

"It's alright, Ron. Just promise you'll kill him for me," she whispered and turned her gaze to Bellatrix, whose body started to twitch, when her paralysis started to wear off.

She felt the boy let go off her hand. Muffled cries came out of his mouth, as he held her close, while she prepared herself to cast that one last spell. Summoning all the hatred she could muster, all the pain that Bellatrix had caused her, she forced herself to say those two words, that she had never wanted to use, not ever.

"Avada Kedavra," she whispered, watching as a stream of green light erupted from the wand and hit Bellatrix's body, making her freeze again, this time once and for all. It felt almost cleansing to watch the fear that appeared on her face, right before she died, but watching her eyes fill with void felt even better. It made her smile to know that one of her biggest enemies was now dead.

Her smile faltered quickly, though, as she collapsed right into Ron's warm embrace, letting darkness finally take over her body. She heard his cries, she also heard Voldemort's scream, when he realized that Bellatrix was not coming back from the corridor, and her crazy laughter was no longer to be heard.

Hermione felt as her back came to contact with a hard, cold surface and Ronald's hands left her body. He had to fight -not everything was lost yet. She might be dying, but there was still a chance that at least one person from their Golden Trio would live to tell the story of their bravery and sacrifice. She wanted nothing else. Not anymore.

Well, except maybe going back in time in order to change its course. It was too late for that, however, cause, even though the Time-Turner she snatched from Dumbledore's office was covered with her shirt, lying safely between her breasts, she didn't have enough strength to use it. If only she had thought about it earlier... Maybe Harry wouldn't be dead, maybe Ron wouldn't have to face Voldemort alone.

The last thing she felt was a tingling sensation on her chest, before the darkness embraced her completely.