Look at the Stars

"Fred! George! Did you have anything to do with this?" Mrs. Weasley screamed.

"Oh, no, no. . . I swear," they both said.

Mrs. Weasley seemed to believe them, and this made her even more frantic. "A portkey! In the wedding cake! This is the worst thing imaginable! I knew those delivery men who unloaded the cake seemed odd, insisting on setting it up themselves! And now my baby is gone. . . who knows where!" She burst into tears.

The silence that had filled the room was easing up, and hurriedly whispered conversations spread through the crowd.

"I've got to go in after them," Hermione said to Sirius.

Sirius looked at her determined face. He couldn't ask her not to go; he couldn't ask her not to be the dedicated friend that he'd fallen in love with. "I'm going, too," he said.

Hermione held his hand and they touched the cake.

*~*~*~*~*

When the world stopped squeezing them and they emerged on the other side, they found themselves in almost total darkness. "Siri--"

A light came on, and a rough voice, coming from a darkly robed figure, sounded across what they could now see was a small cave. "I thought you would follow them. Ah, in fact, I planned it this way," he growled.

"Sadis Oscuro?" Hermione timidly asked.

"Yes, one of many names I use," he murmured in an oddly familiar accent. "And you, Hermy-o-ninny, you, too, shall DIE!" he screamed cruelly, stepping into the light that now bounced off his rugged hawkish nose.

"Krum," Sirius said, touching his wand, "I'll KILL you before you touch her!"

Viktor Krum lifted his hand, which was already holding a wand, "Back off, old man! EXPELLIARMUS!"

Sirius was thrown viciously against the cave wall, and his wand rattled off into a dark corner. "SILENCIO!" Viktor yelled. Sirius's mouth was moving, but no sound came out. He silently winced in pain as he struggled to stand back up and kept slipping on the damp rocky floor.

"And you, Hermy-o-ninny, I'll be back to take care of you--after I finish off your friends." With that, Krum exited through a small opening in the back of the cave.

Hermione knelt down beside Sirius and kissed his forehead. She looked into his narrowed eyes. "Sirius," she said, stroking his hair, "I have to go back and do what I can to help my friends." Sirius nodded painfully. "I know you would do the same," she added. Sirius's eyes were wet with tears of pain, and Hermione gently wiped his eyelashes with her thumb. "I could die in there, and I don't want to die," she said, leaning closer, "without telling you that I love you." She gently kissed his lips and left the room, leaving Sirius stunned and broken on the cave floor.

*~*~*~*~*

Hermione shook as she slid through the tunnel. She saw a dim red light around the rocky corner, interrupted by the shadow of Viktor Krum's pacing body. She heard him muttering angry words, apparently at Harry and Ginny. Mustering all her strength, she pulled out her wand and slipped around the corner as quietly as she could. As the sharp heel of her dress shoes hit the hard rock of the small chamber where Viktor stood, taunting Harry and Ginny, Viktor turned and glared at her. "You only make this more difficult on yourself, Hermy-o-ninny. I might have let you go if you'd cooperated."

"My name is Hermione. And I will not stand idly by while you kill my friends." Harry and Ginny were tied to the wall behind her, the heavy ropes ripping apart their wedding clothes and winding tightly through metal loops in the wall.

Viktor laughed. "So be it, foolish girl."

"Expelliarmus!" Hermione yelled.

Viktor dodged the spell and cackled as he pinned Hermione's wand arm behind her back. "Silly, silly girl," he said. "You should not have come back. I might have spared you, if you weren't insistent upon staying with that old man. But you killed all the love I ever had for you, and I must have vengeance against you as well as against Harry Potter, who killed my master. How shall we kill you?" he pondered, "I'll get you out of my way first. Petrificus totalis!"

Hermione wrestled out of his grasp, and Viktor tried to conceal his shock as she continued moving. "You did not dodge that spell. You must have some sort of. . . protection. . ." he said, eyeing her necklace. "I recognize this. . . protects the wearer with a love charm. I guess we'll see if that man loves you enough to protect you from this!"

Hermione closed her eyes in fear. Could Sirius possibly love her enough to protect her from whatever curse Krum fired at her?

"Avada Kedavra!"

Hermione tensed for one awful moment, then she felt a warmth radiate from the gemstone all around the surface of her body. The curse bounced back to the ground.

Krum pursed his lips angrily. "I see I cannot touch you. I will not be able to kill you--until after I kill Mr. Black. But I know how these necklaces work. The second you try to attack me, your protection will fall. All you can do is watch as your friends DIE!" He laughed evilly, revealing just how sadistic he'd become since he'd visited Hogwarts as an 18-year-old.

Hermione glanced at Harry and Ginny, who had apparently been silenced, hanging on the wall. As Viktor turned toward them to fire a curse in their direction, she aimed her wand at Viktor, "Expelliarmus!" She knocked him against the wall. His head crashed against the rocks, and he fell, unconscious onto the floor.

She wasted no time in cutting Harry's and Ginny's ropes, but just as they were free, Krum's eyes blinked. He dizzily jumped back up. "You will not escape. Petrificus totalis!" he tried again. This time, with Hermione also attacking, the spell worked, but not before Hermione had stunned him with her wand. Both fell flatly to the floor, and Hermione lost consciousness.