Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Gore, Torture, And Death

Beta-Read By HHrPie and Aani

After the game ended and Hermione, reluctantly, decided to let go of Harry's hand and stand up, the group decided to head back to their tent. As they were stepping down from the top box, every Weasley was gushing about the game. Harry was unusually quiet, though he had a goofy smile and red cheeks.

When they finally reached the ground Fred and George stopped and turned to their father and effectively the whole group in the process.

"So..."

"Dear father..."

"Do you know what this means?"

Mr Weasley just gave them a look that said, 'I'm not amused' before speaking.

"What does it mean?"

Fred and George just grinned at each other before turning back to their father.

"Since Krum caught the snitch,"

"And Ireland still won the cup,"

"We won our bet with dear old Ludo."

"So we were thinking about celebrating."

"Having a small get together at the tent."

"With our friends and family."

"Invite Lee and our old Quidditch team."

"Maybe Ronnikins or Gin Gin can also invite some friends."

"And have a small party before we go back to Hogwarts."

"And don't worry about the… supplies."

"We've got that covered."

"The only thing we need is your permission."

"And your assurance that mum won't find out about it."

Mr Weasley just looked at the twins like he was not amused by their twin talk, but relented when he could not find an excuse not to give them permission and sighed.

"Fine, you can take the big tent and I'll be in the girl's tent until the party's over, no later than midnight. But you will also let these four," He pointed to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. "Invite guests. And no firewhisky for them, only butterbeer. You two can't have more than a couple of shots of firewhisky."

"Deal." Both twins replied immediately.

"Father you can't be serious." Percy's pompous voice spoke.

"What a spoilsport, Percy"

"No wonder Mr Crouch can't even remember your name."

"It would be a miracle if anyone at The Ministry actually knew your name."

"Or actually thought you existed."

Percy just went red with anger but the twins continued before he could speak.

"Besides, if you don't like it, you can just apparate home."

"You've been boasting about it all summer."

"So please use it for something useful."

"Like to stop ruining other peoples nights."

"Fine! Have your pathetic party! Father, I'll be in the girl's tent with you until it's done!"

And with that Percy sped off to the tents. Bill and Charlie just shrugged before they and Mr Weasley followed the angry teenager, leaving the others behind. The twins turned back to the group of four before speaking.

"Ok, we'll go tell Lee and the rest of the team."

"Do you younglings want to invite anyone or are you going to follow on the footsteps of our annoying brother?"

"Of course! I'll go tell Dean and Seamus. I think Seamus has some supplies he can also bring."

And with that, Ron sped off to find the two Gryffindor boys, leaving Ginny, Harry, and Hermione alone with the twins.

"What about you, Ginny? Want to invite someone?"

"Not really, but I'm staying at the party. There's no way I will want to spend any time with Pompous Perfect Percy."

"That's our little sister!"

Fred and George turned to Harry and Hermione.

"What about you two? Anyone in mind you want to invite to the party?"

Harry just shrugged and suddenly Hermione got an idea.

"Yes, I was wondering if I could invite Lavender and Parvati?"

The twins, Harry, and Ginny gave her a confused look, clearly not expecting her to approve.

She just huffed.

"What? I can have fun too, you know?"

Harry was about to speak before the twins took over.

"It's not that you can't have fun, Hermione."

"It's just that you never choose to do it."

Hermione huffed again.

"I do have fun! I'll prove it to you! I'm going to have so much fun tonight that I'll put you two to shame!"

"You're on Miss Granger,"

"Now go get your friends."

"We don't have time to waste."

Hermione gave a harrumph and she heard Harry mumble something that sounded like "This isn't going to end well." Which only made her glare at Harry, grab his hand and pull him forcefully towards the crowd.

"Come on Harry, let's find Lavender and Parvati." She turned back to the twins and glared at them. "I'll see you back at the tent."

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Hermione blurted out the question that was plaguing her mind.

"DoyouthinkI'mboring?"

Harry turned back to look at her with a confused and quite red face.

"What?"

"Ugh! You know what I mean, Harry. You don't think I'm boring, do you?"

"No, Hermione. Of course not." He said but couldn't meet her eyes while he did.

After a couple of moments, he looked back and when he saw Hermione's glare he relented.

"Well, it's not like you're the most social person. You can't blame me for thinking that you don't like parties." He said meekly and gave her a nervous smile.

"I'm not boring! Contrary to popular belief I do have a life outside of school!"

Harry just gave her an amused look raising his eyebrows and smirked at her.

"Really? What do you do when you're not at school or doing homework?"

"Well… I like to read." Harry laughed at her which earned him a not too gentle shove. "Not just school books, but like fun books! Fiction novels and such! It's fun!"

Harry continued laughing before he replied.

"Ok, fine. You like to read, big surprise." Hermione just glared at him but he ignored it. "What else does Hermione Granger do at her home when she isn't fretting about her grades?"

"I like to watch movies and tv shows."

"That doesn't count! That's the same as reading just a different medium!"

"Are you saying you don't like movies?"

"No! I love movies even if I've only seen a couple. But still, I was expecting something else than the usual 'I like to watch movies, read, and listen to music'" He finished with a mischievous tone.

"Fine! I also like to go to the park in the afternoons."

"And what do you do at the park?" He said with a grin on his face.

Hermione looked at her shoes before answering in a small voice.

"Read."

Harry started chuckling a bit.

"I didn't quite catch that, what did you say?"

"You heard me perfectly well!"

"True, but my point still stands. You don't really have a social life."

Hermione just gave one last sigh of surrender and made to look down at her feet but stopped when Harry spoke.

"Still that doesn't mean you're boring. I mean, sure, you are boring most of the time." He teased her which caused Hermione to glare at him "But liking those things doesn't make you boring. I mean, look at me. While I love a party every now and then I much rather a quiet night inside doing stuff like what you said you do. And I am certainly not boring, so not liking parties doesn't make you boring by default. Liking boring stuff like school and homework makes you boring. Remember how you said you had some 400 pages to read so you wouldn't be joining the celebrations last year"

"You're impossible. You know that don't you?" She said with a small smile crossing her face

"I know, but you still stick by me anyways." He smirked at her which only caused her to roll her eyes in response but she was unable to stop her smile from turning into a small grin.

"Prat." She said while she swatted his arm

They continued searching the large crowd for the next 15 minutes in vain. Hermione was about to give up when they finally spotted the two girls.

"Lavender! Parvati!"

"Harry! Hermione!"

"Hey guys!"

"Hey! So… umm, we are going to have a party back at our tent. We were wondering if you wanted to join us?"

Lavender and Parvati looked at each other before turning back to Hermione.

"When you say party… you mean like an actual party, right? Not like a study get together or something like that."

Hermione just huffed while Harry just exclaimed "Vindication!" which made both girls giggle and Hermione shove him playfully.

"Yes Lavender, it's a party. The twins are the ones hosting it and the-"

"The twins!" Lavender said and looked back at Parvati while grinning. Both girls just squealed with excitement before turning back to Hermione. "Of course we want to go! Let me go ask my parents for permission." And with that Lavender sped off to her parents.

Hermione turned to look at Parvati. "Don't you have to go ask your parents, Parvati?"

"Oh, no. I came here with Lavender. No one in my family likes Quidditch much so they didn't want to come, and since Lavender knew I really wanted to come here but my family didn't she invited me to come with her and her family."

"Oh, great then! So… why are you excited that the twins are the ones organizing the party?"

"Are you kidding me, Hermione?" When she saw Hermione's blank face she just rolled her eyes and continued. "Fred and George throw the best parties ever! I've heard rumours of course of parties they throw over the summer when their parents aren't home and it's said they are amazing! We've always wanted to go to one, and if the Quidditch after parties are anything like their parties I can't wait!" Parvati squeaked and Lavender arrived a couple of seconds after she finished.

"Ok, my parents said it's fine as long as we get back to our tent by midnight." She turned to Hermione and gave her a small, almost unnoticeable smirk, before continuing. "Could you two escort us back to our tent before then?"

Hermione just glared at Lavender. She wasn't dumb, she knew that if Harry and she escorted them to their tent they would have a nice walk under the stars back while they headed back alone the two of them. Though that thought make Hermione give an involuntary small smile

"Sure Lavender," Harry said with a smile before Hermione could berate the girl for her plan. "You'll just have to guide us to your tent."

"Sure! Don't worry about it. Let's go then" Lavender exclaimed and as soon as Harry turned away she winked at Hermione.

The four of them headed back to the tent while talking about the cup and what they thought of the match and after ten minutes they finally reached it. When Harry opened the tent up to let the girls go through and when Hermione saw the inside of the tent she couldn't help but marvel at the sight.

Lee, Fred, and George were behind a small table that seemed to be a makeshift bar with a couple of bottles of firewhisky and a lot of jars of butterbeer. The Quidditch team took over a section of couches that surrounded a circular table while Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Ginny were at the opposite end of the tent playing with muggle cards and occasionally drinking from their butterbeer jars.

There was loud party music and everyone was laughing or talking loudly and excitedly. She turned to look at the twins and they winked at her and grinned, clearly proud of their party.

"Harry! Finally! We've been waiting for you!"

Hermione turned around to find Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet, as the girls rushed towards Harry and each gave him a hug before greeting the other 3 girls.

"Waiting for me? Why?"

Katie just rolled her eyes at him and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards their spot in the tent. Hermione gave a small and unnoticeable huff before following Harry and the other three girls, while Lavender and Parvati went to join the others.

"Come on, we're taking a shot of firewhisky as a team!" Angelina told Harry as soon as the seven teens sat down while motioning at Fred and George to come join the group.

"Wait, what? You guys do know I've just turned 14, right?" Harry said while giving the three girls a smile, something that made Hermione's stomach slightly turn at the sight.

KatieBell turned towards Harry with puppy eyes.

"Please, Harry. It's probably the last time the whole original team will be together. Please."

The other two girls and the twins also gave him their best puppy dog eyes to try to convince him while Oliver Wood laughed at his team.

Harry seemed to finally relent as he just rolled his eyes at their antics and laughed at them.

"Fine, fine. But just one! I don't want to get on her...," He jerked his head towards the direction of Hermione which made her huff and cross her arms defensively in front of her chest. "bad side."

"I really don't think it's a good idea, Harry," Hermione spoke and Harry turned to look at her and gave her an apologetic smile before the twins spoke.

"What did I tell you, Gred." Fred said with a voice of mock disappointment while shaking his head. "She's not going to let Harry take the shot. She's no fun at all."

"You're forgetting it's six against one, Forge. Surely, with the six of us, Harry will be convinced to join his team for one last hurrah."

"I can't believe you two!" Hermione exclaimed at the twins. "Your father told you specifically that the four of us," She motioned to herself, Harry, Ron, and Ginny. "Are not to drink anything other than butterbeer."

"Yeah, but you're forgetting one thing Hermione."

"Rules are meant to be broken." He winked at her and turned to Harry, offering him a shot glass with firewhisky.

Harry looked at Hermione and at his Quidditch team back and forth until he finally gave a big sigh and an apologetic look at Hermione before grabbing the drink from Fred's hand.

She watched as the whole Gryffindor team stood up in a circle, raised their glasses to the centre, they all exclaimed "Gryffindor!" and proceeded to drink from the shot glass. Immediately after everyone drank from their glass, most of them started coughing and making faces of disgust.

"Shit! It burns!" Harry cried out which caused the whole team to laugh.

"Harry! Language!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry just quirked an eyebrow at her and started laughing.

"Excuse me? I remember you swearing like there was no tomorrow the night Remus attacked me."

The whole Quidditch team looked baffled at the thought of Hermione Granger swearing.

"T-tha-that was different! I was under a lot of stress! You almost died!"

"I wouldn't say I almost died, it was barely even a scratch!"

Hermione just shoved him and rolled her eyes before she stood up and left the team to go sit with Lavender and Parvati, muttering under her breath how stupid boys can be sometimes. When she reached the two girls she found them smirking at her, but Hermione ignored them and joined in the conversation with the boys.

She didn't know how long she spent there, they were playing card games designed to make everyone drink as much as possible. By that point, Ron and Seamus were really drunk, especially since they were drinking firewhisky, much to Hermione's chagrin, while the rest of them were barely tipsy owing to the Butterbeer.

Hermione and the other two girls, deciding they've had enough to drink for the night, stopped playing and sat down by some couches at the corner of the tent. Lavender and Parvati were talking to each other but Hermione tuned them out and focused on Harry. He seemed really happy and relaxed, happier than he had seemed to be all summer and she felt a pang of jealousy that the three girls of his Quidditch team could make Harry feel that way instead of her.

Suddenly, Harry looked directly at Hermione and gave her the lopsided grin that she loved to see on his face. The three girls followed his gaze and then turned back to Harry, shoving him playfully and saying something Hermione couldn't quite catch which made Harry flush and the three girls started laughing at him.

Hermione was brought out of her musings when she heard Lavender yell her name.

"Hermione!"

Hermione jumped a little bit and blushed sheepishly.

"Sorry! You were saying?"

Lavender gave her an impish grin before speaking.

"No, Hermione. Please, why don't we talk about Harry since you seem so preoccupied with him."

"No!" Hermione hissed with as much authority as an extremely blushing person could muster.

"You're boring." Parvati chuckled.

"You were saying?" Hermione asked again, trying to steer away from Harry completely.

"We just asked you if you were as excited to return to Hogwarts as we were."

Hermione beamed at the two girls. As much as she loved The Burrow it was nothing compared to how she felt at Hogwarts.

"Yes! I'm so excited for classes to start again!" Both girls rolled their eyes at Hermione's over-academic antics. "But I am going to miss my parents," Hermione added in a rueful voice. "I didn't get to spend much time with them this summer."

"You've never told us about your parents before, Hermione," Lavender said while Parvati nodded absentmindedly.

Hermione blushed a little at that.

"They are dentists and didn't let me eat sweets that much. They'd die if they found out how many sweets I eat while at Hogwarts" Parvati and Lavender gave her a sly grin which she ignored.

"Before Hogwarts, I used to spend a lot of time with them. One of them has always stayed home to take care of me or play with me. We'd go to the movies and for ice cream on Fridays and every Saturday stayed up late watching TV." Hermione reminisced wistfully. "As much as I love Hogwarts and spending some time in the summer with my boys, I really miss the days when it was just me, my Mum and my Dad."

"I understand what you mean, I love going home during vacations! I miss the food the most, though" Parvati said wistfully.

"Yeah, your parent's cooking is brilliant." Lavender agreed

At Hermione's questioning look Parvati continued, "Don't get me wrong, the food they serve at Hogwarts is great, but it doesn't hold a candle to the food my Aai, Baba and Ranty Dadi make."

"Ranty Dadi?"

"Oh she's a house elf. She's been in our family for a long time. She practically raised my Baba, I mean my Dad. And I call her Dadi, which basically means grandma. My Dad's mum was from Punjab and she brought Ranty Dadi with her when she married. You should see them sometimes. She is all of 2 feet tall but he still follows her every order, especially in the kitchen. My parents own a restaurant, you should come visit sometime. Maybe with Harry on a date." She said with a sly grin on her face.

Her face burned up as Lavender was about to get up when Lavender grabbed her hand and pulled her down before changing the subject.

"I also miss my parents when I'm at Hogwarts. They were always so great with me, giving me everything I wanted just to make me happy. I honestly don't know what I would do without them. I wish Hogwarts had more vacations so that I could see them more often."

"How do you guys do it? You two always seem like you don't miss home while you're at Hogwarts." Hermione asked the two girls.

"Well… while we do miss our parents and our home, we also really enjoy our time at Hogwarts. And I have Padma to talk to if I ever feel homesick. While we're there we send letters to our parents constantly and while we do miss them, we don't let it ruin our time at Hogwarts." Parvati gave Hermione a small smile.

"Exactly!" Lavender exclaimed. "If we focus only on how badly we miss our home and our parents we're missing the happiness we can have in the moment. You need to learn to enjoy the moment, Hermione. Not worrying about the uncertainty of the future or how much things are changing, if you don't focus on your happiness at the present, will you ever truly be happy?"

Hermione knew that they were right. In a way, Harry and Ron have always tried to get her to stop worrying about the future but she never could. Worrying was just a part of her at this point, but she couldn't help but think about Lavender's comment.

She knew that if she always worried about the future instead of enjoying the present she would never truly be happy. She wouldn't be able to enjoy her moments with Harry or anything else while at Hogwarts or even away from it. She knew that if they hadn't pulled her out of her shell all those years ago, she probably would have been miserable at Hogwarts. The brightest witch with the best marks of the school? Definitely. But all of that was shallow compared to the happiness she felt at just being around her boys and now her new friends.

Hermione once again looked over at her two first friends and gave them a fond smile, both of them oblivious to it, enjoying the party too much to pay attention to it. She saw Harry glance over at her. He turned back to Katie and said something before she pushed him up and he started making his way to her. Lavender and Parvati gave her a wink before getting up and moving away as Harry reached them.

"Hey you." He greeted her with a warm smile

"Hey there." She replied with a smile of her own

"So… did Miss Granger finally let loose and drink or did you berate everyone who did?"

Hermione giggled. "I wouldn't say I let loose per se."

Harry gave her a quizzical look before it turned into an amused smile.

"Is Hermione Granger drunk?"

"Of course not!" Hermione snapped but couldn't hold her giggles. "I'm only a bit tipsy, that's all."

Harry just rolled his eyes at her but kept a smile on his face.

"That's what people who are drunk always say."

Hermione playfully smacked him on the chest with the back of her hand before she giggled again.

"What about you, Potter? Are you also tipsy like me or are you like our dear Ronald." She turned to look at their friend only to see him standing on a table and nearly shouting.

"There's no one like Krum!" he slurred in his drunken voice.

"Krum?"

"Dumb Krum?"

Ron ignored the twins and exclaimed. "He's like an eagle flying on his broom! Graceful and majestic in the search of the snitch! He's so much more than an athlete! He's an artist!"

She heard Harry laugh and couldn't help but also join him and everyone else at the party.

"I think you're in love, Ron!" Ginny exclaimed and laughed with everyone else.

"Shut up!"

Fred and George stood on the table, each of them grabbed one of Ron's hands, and sang loudly.

"Viktor I love you!"

"Viktor I do!"

"When we're apart my heart beats only for you!" Both chorused and the whole tent rolled over in laughter, leaving a blushing Ron standing on the table.

Hermione turned back to look at Harry and saw that he was already looking at her. He looked as happy as she had ever seen him and she couldn't help but give him a big and genuine smile. She was extremely happy that Harry finally found a taste of the teenage life, the life he should have had, and she wished she would get to see Harry this way more often.

Unfortunately those fond thoughts were interrupted when she heard an ear piercing shriek full of agony and what sounded like a riot outside of the tent.

In that instant, she saw Harry's expression completely change, darkening and hardening, and she felt herself sober up immediately as her heart broke a little at the sudden transformation of his features.

How could you have been so stupid! You knew this was too perfect to be true! You've been waiting for the other shoe to drop all day, Potter! And what did you do!? Go to a party!? Have fun!? You should know by now this was never meant to be your life!

Harry mentally sighed and he felt his eyes shine with pure determination. He chanced a look at Hermione and saw how scared and concerned she seemed. He turned to Fred and George and when they looked back at him, he jerked his head in Hermione's direction and they seemed to understand because Fred started moving towards them.

As soon as Fred reached Hermione, Harry stood up and went to the entrance of the tent, as he looked outside he was welcomed to a truly horrible sight. He saw the whole campsite burning, some people running for their lives and others trying to help the ones that were injured. He looked to the other tent and saw Mr Weasley, Bill, Percy, and Charlie quickly step out. Mr Weasley yelled at Harry to go back inside.

The five of them entered the tent only to see everyone looking frightened, but Mr Weasley addressed the whole tent taking charge before anyone else could ask what was happening outside.

"You need to go! Right now! Go to the outskirts of the campsite, you'll be safe there." He turned towards the older teens. "Could you look after them," He jerked his head towards where the younger teens were. "While we go help the ministry out?"

All the older teens nodded and everyone started to make their way out the tent but Harry spoke up before anyone left.

"Mr Weasley, what's going on?" Harry asked him.

The Weasley patriarch looked conflicted for a second before he spoke.

"I'll tell you later, Harry. Right now you just need to get to safety!" He turned to look at his older sons. "Wands out, let's go help the others."

Bill and Charlie immediately grabbed their wands but Percy was left fumbling in his robes looking for them. After a couple moments, he spoke to Mr Weasley.

"Father, my wand, I-I I can't find it!"

Mr Weasley just sighed.

"Stick with your younger brothers, we'll look for it once all of this is over."

And with that, Mr Weasley, Bill, and Charlie left. The older teens looked at each other before Oliver Wood finally spoke up

"Ok, come on then!"

They all left the tent and immediately started heading for the outskirts of the campsite. Harry could see tents burning, there were so many people running and screaming that it was hard to move through the crowd. He could see the group starting to split up and was ultimately left with Fred, Angelina, Ron, Hermione, and Lavender.

People were pushing against each other and it was incredibly hard to see what was going on. He felt someone hit him in the back of the head and dropped to the ground, as Hermione's hand went flying out of his grasp. He tried to get up but felt people trying to walk over him, it took all of his strength to get up and he tried to get out of the way of the riot that was surrounding him.

He managed to step in front of what looked to be an abandoned tent and was glad to be out of there and in a relatively safe position. He felt extremely lightheaded as his vision started to become blurred. Throughout this, he heard a terrified voice shout his name but he couldn't spot where it was coming from.

After a couple of moments he gathered himself and tried to stop his head from spinning, deciding he'd try to follow the voice, but he realized that he couldn't hear it anymore. He wasn't keen on following the crowd in case he got trampled again, so he decided to go through the tents behind him and into what looked to be a dark and eerie forest

He began running through the burning tents while trying to avoid the blazes of fire coming out of them, while he did so, he spotted the crowds of people not daring to go through the tents to find safety, instead opting for the safe route through the small paths formed in the campsite. After over a minute of running, he finally managed to get away from the chaos of the campsite and into the forest and felt relieved for a second.

Suddenly, he heard an ear piercing shriek and he immediately started running towards it through the forest, managing not to trip in the harsh environment. It didn't take him long to reach the screams since they were pretty close by, but when he did he felt himself paralyze in shock.

There, on the ground, was the muggle that helped them reach their spot on the campsite earlier that day. Towering over him, was a figure dressed in black robes with a hood and a mask covering the face of the attacker, launching a red spell from his wand to the man on the floor and holding it.

Harry could hear the cloaked figure laughing as the man was squirming on the ground and screaming in pain. He recognized the curse immediately, having had nightmares about it every night for the past two and a half weeks, it was the cruciatus curse

The man stopped screaming and the figure in black looked up from the man and directly at Harry. As soon as he was facing him, the masked figure began to laugh loudly.

"Potter! Oh this is perfect! I couldn't have asked for more!" The cloaked figure spat before turning back to the man who was shaking on the ground. "I don't need you anymore, I've found myself a new toy to play with! AVADA KEDAVRA!"

"NOO!" Harry shouted but it was too late, the flash of green erupted from the cloaked figures wand and hit the man square in the chest.

He couldn't tear his eyes from the man's empty, dead eyes. There was a terrible feeling in his gut as those eyes accused him of not saving him. He wondered what happened to the man's family. Were they dead too? Were they being still tortured somewhere?

He heard the cloaked figure laugh. It was a mirthful laugh, full of glee. In that moment, Harry felt something inside him snap. He felt an all consuming rage emerge from his chest. The rage that he felt towards the cloaked figure who tortured and killed that man right before his eyes and only laughed in response. He glared defiantly at the man and in a quick movement he pulled out his wand from his robes and pointed it at the cloaked figure.

"You're going to pay for that!" Harry screamed at the figure but it only started laughing at him.

"What are you going to do to me, Potter!" The man spat and Harry could've sworn he recognized the voice of the person beneath the cloak but couldn't quite place who he was. "You're just a pathetic child who is in way over his head."

The man raised his hands in a mock gesture of surrender before continuing. "Come on Potter! Show me how I'm going to pay for that! Give me your best shot!"

"REDUCTO!"

Harry shouted moving his wand back and then forth and a blue light erupted from his wand and crashed into a shield the cloaked figure lazily put up and rebounded

He moved to the side to dodge it before moving his wand in a wave motion before shouting

"FURUNCULUS!"

He didn't wait before slashing his wand.

"IMPEDIMENTA"

He finished it with another reducto, hoping at least one of them would hit.

His hopes were dashed as the figure effortlessly shielded against his spells once again.

"Is that all? Is that how The Great Harry Potter is going to make me pay for killing a filthy muggle." The figure drawled before he began to laugh mirthfully again and Harry decided to use this opportunity to once again send a reducto at the man but the curse was once again intercepted by the shield.

"Pathetic! And to think people actually compare you to The Dark Lord! Well not anymore!"

Harry reacted purely on instinct when he suddenly saw a blue spell flying directly at him.

"PROTEGO!"

He barely managed to slash his wand and cast a shield before the spell shattered it and hit him, sending him flying, crashing harshly on the trunk of a tree. He immediately felt extremely lightheaded again, his vision was clouded by spots and he felt his ears buzz. He felt his ribs crack when the explosive spell hit him and he also felt his back scream in pain at him as he crashed into the tree.

He could feel his body was about to pass out, but willed it into staying conscious. Suddenly, he felt someone grab his face harshly and pulled it upwards, forcing Harry to look directly at the mask of the cloaked figure.

"I'm going to kill you Potter! But that doesn't mean I can't have my fun before I do so. It's time you learn to respect you betters, Potter!" He finished and Harry could almost picture his malicious grin behind his mask.

In an instant he knew who this man was.

"Malfoy!" He groaned out.

The cloaked figure he now knew was Malfoy just laughed and as he dropped Harry's jaw from his hand, Harry felt his body crash on the ground again. He was trying to pick himself back up to stand against Malfoy before he heard him cry out.

"CRUCIO!"

Harry suddenly felt an unbearable pain course through every inch of his body. This pain was unlike what he imagined the cruciatus curse would feel like, and unlike in the dreams he could actually describe how he felt. It was as if his insides were burning. His bones, his organs, his veins, his very blood felt like it was on fire.

He squirmed on the ground and screamed in agony. His screams were so hoarse and loud that he could feel his throat hurting as they drowned out Malfoy's laughs.

At this point he didn't know how long it had been since Malfoy had cast the curse at him, but it had felt like an eternity to him. He was almost convinced that the pain would never stop, that Malfoy wouldn't let go of the curse and it would kill him.

After what felt like another eternity, he finally felt all the pain stop at once. Harry was shaking in the ground uncontrollably in a fetus position, whimpers of pain escaped his lips, and he felt as tears of pain started leaving his eyes involuntarily even though he had tried everything to hold them back.

"The Great Harry Potter!" Malfoy continued taunting. "So weak! So pathetic! So useless!" He began to laugh again while Harry was crying and shaking pathetically on the ground. "I'm not going to kill you yet, Potter! Not until you beg for death! So… are you going to beg Potter?"

Harry spit at Malfoy's shoes, not trusting his own voice from sounding hoarse and pathetic. Immediately after he did he once again felt that unbearable pain. He squirmed, yelled, and shook on the ground for another eternity before it stopped.

"Come on Potter! I'm getting bored! Beg! Beg for death!"

Harry again spit at Malfoy's shoes.

"Have it your way, Potter! Ossium Effringo!"

Malfoy shouted and sent a spell directly to Harry's hips and he screamed in pain as he felt them break painfully. Unfortunately for him, Malfoy wasn't done just yet.

"Ossium Conrigo!"

As Malfoy cast that spell against his hips, he felt as the bones slowly started healing themselves, and shifting into their original position. The pain was even worse than when he felt his bones break and the process was extremely slow. He screamed until his throat faltered and he couldn't produce a sound anymore.

"Ossium Effringo!"

Again, he felt his hip bones break painfully, his face contorted in extreme pain and even as he opened his mouth to scream, he couldn't hear anything more than small and almost unnoticeable moans of pain. He could hear Malfoy laughing at him trying and failing to scream, basking in Harry's suffering.

Malfoy sent a bludgeoning hex directly to his face and continued laughing.

"Beg, Potter! Beg for de-"

Malfoy was interrupted when there was a loud bang of sound from the sky. Both of them turned to look upwards and Harry saw a large green skull with a snake coming out of his mouth. Harry immediately got an extremely eerie feeling about it and decided to stop looking at the symbol and turn his attention to Malfoy.

Harry thought that if Malfoy didn't have his mask he would've seen his face completely pale since his posture was one that conveyed shock and extreme fear at the same time. After a couple of moments, he watched Malfoy apparate away and as soon as he did, Harry passed out.

"MORSMORDRE!"

Hermione heard a voice cry out and almost immediately heard a loud bang coming from the sky. She turned to look at it and saw it, the dark mark. She had read that the dark mark was usually cast as a symbol of victory from the death eaters. This caused her to panic, Harry had been missing for over half an hour and she had been frantic about it all the time.

As soon as she realized he was missing, she had tried to go find him but was restrained by Fred and Angelina. She had tried to fight their hold over her but by the time they let her go it was already too late, there was no way she could have found him, especially with the whole crowd of people. She wanted to cry and yell at Fred and Angelina for stopping her from trying to reach Harry but decided to do that later. She needed to be focused to get to safety and breaking down wasn't an option.

The five of them managed to get through the forest and find a place away from the campsite where they would be safe, it had been quiet for the past 5 minutes until that voice cried out and cast the dark mark.

She looked around and saw the four of them looking at the sky with fear plastered all over their faces. The five of them stood there in shock for a moment before Hermione heard several loud cracks and saw multiple wizards with their wands trained upon the group.

"Down!" Fred shouted and grabbed Hermione's hand before ducking, bringing her down with him.

She saw that all of the group managed to crouch and as soon as they were all down she heard the wizards cast a spell she didn't recognize and red spells erupted from their wands at exactly the same time. Hermione stayed there crouching, eyes closed, hands covering her face, before she heard a voice yell.

"STOP! Those are my sons!"

She opened her eyes and saw Mr Weasley, with Bill and Charlie behind him, rushing towards them. He harshly pushed some of the wizards aside to open a space so that he could reach them. As soon as he did, he grabbed Fred and Ron to a hug.

"You've been found at the scene of the crime!" A wizard called out. "Who did it! Who conjured it!" He jerked his hand up and pointed to the mark

"Barty, they're just kids! They weren't the ones that cast it! For Merlin's sake these are Harry Potter's friends!"

The wizard looked undeterred by Mr Weasleys comments and was still pointing his wand at the group of teens. Suddenly, Hermione gasped.

"Mr Weasley, do you know where Harry is?"

The Weasley patriarch gave her a look that answered her question before he spoke.

"Wasn't he with you?"

Hermione tried to stifle a sob as the image of Harry dead on the ground appeared in her mind, but failed, she felt tears begin to form in her eyes and was trying to push them back but wasn't able to do it.

"H-He was with us. But w-we got separated in the commotion."

She saw all of the wizards suddenly get grim looks on their face and Mr Weasley looked like he aged a couple of years in a few seconds. Mr Weasley went to talk to the other wizards for a few moments before he returned back to the teens.

"We'll find him, Hermione. Right now you just need rest. Go ba-"

"No! I'm not resting until we find him! I'm coming with you!"

Mr Weasley looked like he wanted to deny her request but faltered by the glare she gave him.

"Ok, you can come with me. But you're staying close to me at all times." Hermione nodded and he turned to look at Fred. "Could you and Angelina take the kids back to the tent and then try to find the others while Hermione and I look for Harry?"

Fred gave his father a serious nod before turning back to Angelina and huddling with her. Mr Weasley started to walk towards the campsite and Hermione was about to follow him but stopped when she felt someone grab her arm gently. She turned to find Lavender, tears falling from her eyes, before she encased Hermione in a hug and whispered to her.

"He's going to be fine Hermione. You'll find him."

Hermione felt some tears leave her eyes before she backed away from the hug and gave her a watery smile.

"Thanks Lavender. We'll see each other soon."

Lavender gave her a smile and nodded before she went back to the other teens. Ron, still drunk since nobody could do magic outside of school and help him with a sobering charm, gave her a smile and a nod which she returned. Hermione then turned back and ran to catch up with Mr Weasley, but could hear one of the wizards asking the others to stay and answer a few questions before leaving to find the others.

They spent close to half an hour of searching on the outskirts of the campsite before Hermione gave a yell that betrayed the desperation she felt for not being able to find Harry. Mr Weasley looked at her sympathetically.

"We're going to find him, Hermione. Harry's strong, I'm sure he's alright."

"But what if he isn't! What if someone attacked him! Or-" Hermione gave a sigh of surrender as she finally let those dark thoughts cross her mind.

"You have to believe that he's going to be alright, Hermione. There's not much we can do until we find him." Mr Weasley said in a resigned tone.

"I know, that's what I hate about it. I hate feeling this useless, I hate myself for not doing anything to find him before you showed up."

Mr Weasley stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Hermione, and knelt to be on her eye level.

"Hermione," Mr Weasley spoke with the sternest yet earnest voice she had ever heard from him. "This isn't your fault. There's nothing you could have done about it." He gave her a smile before he continued. "I'm sure he's going to be alright. Come on, let's go looking near the campsite to see if he's alright."

They continued looking for another couple minutes before they found a forest near the campsite. Hermione and Mr Weasley made their way through most of it and decided that maybe they should check the campsite to see if Harry had returned there. It was when they made their way through a shortcut that would lead them to the campsite that they finally spotted Harry.

He was laying down on the ground looking as close to death as she had ever seen him. Hermione immediately ran towards him, ignoring Mr Weasley's protests to stay back. When she reached him she saw that his shirt was also covered in blood. His face was heavily bruised and bloodied, his nose and jaw broken. She tried to touch his chest to look for a heartbeat but immediately stopped when she felt his ribs broken.

After seeing Harry's broken body she couldn't hold it any longer and began sobbing and crying uncontrollably. He was on the ground, blood everywhere looking more broken than she'd ever seen him, she was sure that he was most likely dead and that thought paralyzed her completely.

Mr Weasley rushed to her side and tried to calm her but couldn't, he immediately reached to Harry's neck and after a few seconds he gave a sigh of relief. He looked back towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder, she looked up at him and saw him smiling sadly.

"He's alive, just barely but he still has a pulse."

Hermione just started crying more. Tears of joy, of relief, of sadness, escaped her eyes as if she had an endless supply of them.

Amidst her cries and sobs she didn't realize when Mr Weasley sent some sparks to the sky nor when some wizards arrived and spoke to him and left with Harry. It was only when he knelt down and grabbed Hermione's shoulder gently again that she turned her attention to him.

"They've taken him to an infirmary tent at the campsite, they should be able to fix him up there." He sighed for a moment before he turned his gaze to her. "I'd like you to go back to our tent, you ne-"

"No! I-I'm not leaving him! H-he needs me! I'm not leaving him alone again!"

Mr Weasley just gave a sad sigh before he continued.

"I imagined you would say that, I was just hoping that you could get some rest after what happened tonight."

"I can't! I can't rest while he's like that! I can't sleep while my best friend is as close to dead as he's ever been! I'm not leaving him!"

Mr Weasley gave her a smile and if Hermione didn't know any better, she would've thought he looked rather proud for a moment. He stood up and offered her his hand which she took.

They walked in silence with a wizard leading her and Mr Weasley to the tent where Harry was at. It only took about twenty minutes for them to reach the infirmary tent and step inside. There, she saw many people with a lot of different injuries, some looked better than Harry while some to her shock, looked worse; something she didn't even think was possible. Hermione also saw some bodies with a sheet covering them, and she audibly sobbed at the thought of how close Harry came to being one of them.

They moved past most people and reached a bed that was closed off to the majority of the public. She looked at Mr Weasley and when she saw him nod at the curtain Hermione opened them and stepped inside hastily. The mediwitch there looked like she was about to send her out but stopped at the glare she gave her.

"It's ok, she can stay in here. She's a friend of his." The wizard informed the mediwitch and she only huffed in response.

Hermione immediately sat down on the chair next to the bed and grabbed her best friends hand while looking attentively at his face. Harry was already looking much better, she could tell that his nose and jaw weren't broken anymore, all the blood had been cleaned and the bruises had been removed. Hermione saw multiple potions in a table near him, one of which was Skele-Gro which seemed to have already been administered to Harry while he was passed out. He seemed peaceful, almost sleeping instead of unconscious, but when she watched him she could only see the image of how she had found him earlier, broken and close to dead.

"How is he?" Hermione heard Mr Weasley ask the mediwitch.

The mediwitch gave a long sigh before she spoke. "It's a miracle he's still alive. He had a lot of broken bones - ribs, hips, and back, internal bleeding, a head injury which caused a concussion, his vocal cord where extremely damaged by screaming, and…" The mediwitch faltered for a second before continuing. "...And he was under the cruciatus curse for nearly half an hour."

Hermione gasped and sobbed as the mediwitch said this. She had started to silently cry when she heard all of the injuries he had endured, but when she heard that Harry had been under the cruciatus curse, and for half an hour, she couldn't hold it anymore.

"I've given him Skele-Gro for his bones, fixed up his vocal cords and head injury, gave him blood replenishing potions, and a potion that will help him deal with the after effects of the cruciatus curse. There will be no lasting damage in the long term, but his body will involuntarily shake at moments for the next few days. As long as he continues taking the potion he should be fine, but if he had been tortured with it for any longer the after effects might have been permanent." The mediwitch said solemnly.

"Oh, Harry!" She said and began to cry, leaning her head on his shoulder, partly to muffle the sounds of her sobs but mostly to feel him alive. She needed to feel him, to reassure herself that he hadn't left her, that he was still there.

Mr Weasley placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder before turning to leave the room with the mediwitch, leaving her alone with Harry.

When they left, Hermione broke down completely as she never had done before. She didn't even try to regain her composure, to stop the tears from coming, to try to act strong for Harry, she knew that she couldn't do it, not right now.

She wasn't sure how long she cried and sobbed until she finally fell asleep.

As much as Hermione tried to focus on the fact that Harry was still alive and well, her mind wouldn't let the image of Harry nearly dead and fractured in the forest. That was the image that haunted her nightmares when she finally managed to fall asleep.