Charms

The final battle was a mêlée. The extent to which each side was prepared did not matter. War was a fickle and unpredictable mistress. She did not care for the unrefined plans and cheap devices of humans.

"Once the battle starts, everything goes wrong. You plan stratagy and tactics ahead of time so they don't go as wrong as they could," Mad Eye Moody had said once, when the younger members of the Order had become bored with waiting - as typical of youth, they had wanted action, and they had wanted it immediately.

It was a balmy August day when Voldemort attacked. Hermione, in her pale cream Graduation robes, was distracted by the trickles of sweat that ran down her face - she had felt sorry for Snape, who was forced to come decked out in full Death Eater garb.
In the centre of what would have been the very place where so many of Hogwarts' brightest were to make their ascendance into adulthood, Voldemort stood, throwing curses at the members of the Or of the Phoenix, and those students and parents who had not fled to relative safety at the first sign of unrest. However, with the battle gradually shifting into the Order's favour, his fragile grasp on sanity finally let go. His curses were thrown randomly, yet still had deadly effect.. He did not care who was stuck, just as long as he caused pain. One of those hapharzard curses went flying towards Draco Malfoy, who was poised on the fringe of the conflict. He was torn between fighting for his family, or for his love. He didn't even see the Avada Kedavra flying towards him. Hermione did though. And despite the fact that the Slytherin was a right royal snot, and as nasty as the world was old, he was still a Hogwart's student. And she had a sneaking feeling that left in the hands of one of her best friends, he would become a very different, much nicer person.

So it was with a feeling of hope that she had sent a sheild towards him - he was just one more person to keep a magical eye on, but thanks to her love of complex subjects that required several simultanious threads of thought, she was prepared for this. However, Hermione was sheilding so many people from harm that her action was overlooked by many.

However, one person on that battlefield did notice. One person swiftly killed their opponent, and many others besides.

There were many gasps of astonishment when members of the Order discovered Severus Snape's unconcious body. They were even more astounded when they saw which Death Eater was covered in the blood of his fellow Death Eaters due, in the most part, to the multitude of painful and bloody curses he had sent their way.

Draco was the first to run forward from where he was anxiously watching the Medi-Wizards working on Hermione - completely disregarding the Malfoy Code of Honour*, and launch himself into his fathers weary arms.

*(Diktat 239: A Malfoy does not run wildly. Or at all, unless it is completely necessary. Whenever possible, fly, or get others to carry you.)