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// 16143
//== Time Pressure, Pt 2

// 16144
//Cool blue fires clung to the floor in small masses, surrounding a blazing pool
//that seemed to burn with a deadlier, hotter blue.

// 16145
//In one narrow circle the marble tiles were scorched and shattered by some
//explosive spell that only the most prodigious of first-year witches could have
//cast, with the last of her strength.

// 16146
//On the terrace, __still moving__ beneath the open sunlight, stood a great
//lumpy creature of dull granite-grey. Body like a boulder with small bald head
//perched on top like a stone, short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny
//feet. One hand held a tremendous stone club as long and as wide as an adult
//human, and the other hand held

// 16147
//The Weasley twins screamed.

// 16148
//Harry’s Patronus shattered.

// 16149
//The troll snorted and spun around to face them, dropping

// 16150
//into the red pool that had spread out beneath its feet, raising its club high.

// 16151
//Then a Weasley cried an incantation and the club was torn from the troll’s
//hand, smashed into its face so hard it drove the troll back for one of its
//steps, a blow that might have killed a Muggle. The troll gave a bellow of
//anger, its nose squashed and blood-spattered, and then the nose straightened
//once more, regenerated. The troll grabbed with both hands for the club, which
//shot away through the air but only barely dodged the grab.

// 16152
//“Lead it away, keep it off me,” said a voice.

// 16153
//The levitated club moved backwards from the troll, from the terrace onto the
//wide-open floor beneath the ceiling; and the troll made a great prodigious leap
//that almost brought the club into its hands. Then the troll made another great
//leap as the club moved to one side; and the broomstick moved forwards and Harry
//jumped off and ran towards where Hermione Granger was lying in a pool of her
//own blood with her legs eaten away to the upper thighs.

// 16154
//Harry’s hands tore open the healer’s kit from his pouch, grabbed one of the
//self-tightening tourniquets, wrapped them around one ragged tooth-marked stump,
//his hands briefly slipping in the blood, they didn’t tremble, there wasn’t any
//allowance for his hands to tremble. As the tourniquet formed a complete loop it
//tightened hard and more blood came out, but then the bleeding stopped on that
//thigh-stump, and Harry turned to the other. Part of his mind was screaming,
//screaming, screaming and even the part of him picking up the other
//self-tightening tourniquet heard it, but that also wasn’t allowed.

// 16155
//The two Weasley twins were shouting spells, one after another in rapid-fire
//casting that would have had Harry unconscious in sixty seconds, sometimes the
//twins shouted two spells simultaneously in perfect coordination, but most of
//the spells were disrupting in harmless showers of sparks against the troll’s
//skin. As the other tourniquet tightened itself in another pulse of blood, Harry
//looked up at a “__Diffindo!” / “Reducto!__” that made the troll’s
//vulnerable eyes explode in twin showers of vitreous humor, but the troll only
//bellowed once more, its eyes already reforming.

// 16156
//“__Fire and acid!__” Harry shouted. ”__Use fire or acid!__”

// 16157
//__“Fuego!”__ / __“Incendio!” __Harry heard, but he wasn’t looking, he
//was reaching for the syringe of glowing orange liquid that was the oxygenating
//potion, pushing it into Hermione’s neck at what Harry hoped was the carotid
//artery, to keep her brain alive even if her lungs or heart stopped, so long as
//her brain stayed intact everything else could be fixed, it had to be possible
//for magic to fix it, it had to be possible for magic to fix it, it had to be
//possible for magic to fix it, and Harry pushed the plunger of the syringe all
//the way down, creating a faint glow beneath the pale skin of her neck. Harry
//then pushed down on her chest, where her heart should be, hard compressions
//that he hoped was moving the oxygenated blood around to where it could reach
//her brain, even if her heart might have stopped beating, he hadn’t actually
//thought to check her pulse.

// 16158
//Then Harry stared at the other things in his medical kit, his mind going blank
//as he tried to figure out what else of what was there, if anything, he could
//use. The screaming in that distant corner of his mind was getting louder, much
//louder, now that his hands had stopped their frantic motions. He was suddenly
//aware of the liquid sensation where blood had soaked through his robes and the
//knees of his pants.

// 16159
//From behind Harry came the sound of another bellow from the troll, and he heard
//one of the Weasley twins shout __“Deligitor prodeas!”__ and then,
//__“HELP! Do something!”__

// 16160
//Harry twisted his head back to look, and saw that one of the Weasley twins was
//somehow now wearing the Sorting Hat on his head, facing off against the troll
//which held the huge stone club in both its hands, looking somewhat scorched now
//and with one or two smoking scars across its arms, but still intact.

// 16161
//And then the voice of the Hat bellowed in a voice so loud it seemed to shake
//the walls,

// 16162
//__“GRYFFINDOR!”__

// 16163
//A pulse of power burned the air, magic feeling almost tangible even to Harry’s
//young senses, the troll jumped back a pace with a snort of surprise. Fred or
//George, with a strange look on his face, swept the Hat off his head with a
//motion smooth as a magician’s trick, and reached in with one hand and drew
//forth a hilt whose pommel was a glowing ruby, followed by a wide crossguard of
//gleaming white metal, and a blade as long as a tall child. As the sword was
//revealed the air seemed to fill with a silent scream of fury.

// 16164
//Upon the blade was written in golden script, __nihil supernum.__

// 16165
//Then the Weasley twin raised the sword aloft as though the huge blade weighed
//nothing, and screamed and charged.

// 16166
//Harry’s lips opened to say something, some long sentence like, __No,
//stop, you have no idea how to use a sword __but not even a single syllable left
//his lips before the sword sliced off the troll’s right arm through the elbow,
//cutting through skin and flesh and bone like jelly; just as the
//already-swinging arc of the stone club smashed into the charging Weasley twin
//and sent him flying through the air above the marble floor, over the gap out of
//which they’d risen on the broomstick, until that Weasley hit the wall on the
//opposite side and then collapsed into an unmoving heap.

// 16167
//The bright sword vanished down into the opening in the floor, clattering
//distantly as it dropped.

// 16168
//__“Fred!__” screamed George Weasley, and then __“VENTUS!”__

// 16169
//An invisible blow caught the troll and hurled it sideways through the air.

// 16170
//“__VENTUS!__”

// 16171
//The troll was hit again, blown to the edge of the floor and the gap leading
//downwards.

// 16172
//__“VENTUS!”__

// 16173
//But the troll had reached down and grabbed at the floor, its remaining hand
//crunching through marble to gain a firm hold. The third blow sent the troll’s
//body over the gap; but the hand remained at the edge. And then the troll was
//pulling itself back up single-handedly, roaring.

// 16174
//George Weasley staggered, almost falling, his hand dropping to his side. “Harry
//-” the Weasley twin said in a strained voice, “Run -”

// 16175
//The remaining Weasley twin took a step sideways, slumped against the wall, and
//slid to the ground.

// 16176
//Time was fractured in Harry’s mind, the world around him seemed to move slowly,
//distorted, or perhaps it was his own mind twisting and folding. He should have
//been moving, doing something, but a strange paralysis seemed to be stopping all
//his muscles, all his motions. Without any time for words, thoughts came in
//flashes of concepts: that if Harry ran away the troll would eat the Weasley
//twins as well as Hermione, that if Bludgers didn’t kill wizards then Fred
//should still be alive, that the Weasley twins were more powerful spellcasters
//than him and they hadn’t been able to hold back the troll, there was no time to
//Transfigure anything he didn’t already possess, the troll seemed too agile to
//be lured over the edge of the terrace to fall off the sides of the Hogwarts
//castle, someone had enchanted the troll against sunlight before using it as a
//murder weapon and might also have strengthened it in other ways. And then a
//mental image of Hermione running from the troll, running for sunlight, finally
//reaching the bright terrace with the troll hot on her heels, only to find that
//someone else had thought of that possibility, too.

// 16177
//The screaming horror in his mind was drowned out by another emotion.

// 16178
//Harry stood up.

// 16179
//On the other side of the room, the enemy had also risen, the unregenerating
//stump of one sword-cut arm still bloody.

// 16180
//__intent to kill__

// 16181
//The troll grasped its fallen club in its remaining hand, and gave a huge
//bellow, smashing the club into the floor and sending marble chips flying.

// 16182
//__think purely of killing__

// 16183
//The troll began to lumber towards where George had fallen, a thin string of
//drool trailing from the side of its lips.

// 16184
//__grasp at any means to do so__

// 16185
//Harry took five strides forward, and the enemy gave another bellow and turned
//away from George, its eyes focusing squarely on him.

// 16186
//__censors off, do not flinch__

// 16187
//The third most perfect killing machine in nature bounded towards him in leaping
//steps.

// 16188
//__KILL__

// 16189
//Harry’s left hand already held the Transfigured diamond from his ring, his
//right hand already held his wand.

// 16190
//__“Wingardium Leviosa.”__

// 16191
//Harry’s wand directed the tiny jewel into the troll’s mouth.

// 16192
//__“Finite Incantatem.”__

// 16193
//The troll’s head blew off its spine as the rock expanded back into its old
//form, and Harry stepped aside as the Enemy’s body crashed where he’d been
//standing.

// 16194
//The enemy’s head was already beginning to regenerate, the ragged stump of the
//jaw and spine smoothing over, the mouth completing itself and replacing its
//teeth.

// 16195
//Harry bent down and picked up the troll’s head by its left ear. His wand jammed
//through the troll’s left eye, plunging through the jelly-like material and
//passing through the wide socket in the bone. Harry visualized a
//one-millimeter-wide cross-section through the enemy’s brain, and Transfigured
//it into sulfuric acid.

// 16196
//The enemy stopped regenerating.

// 16197
//Harry threw the corpse over the edge of the terrace and turned back to
//Hermione.

// 16198
//Her eyes were moving, and focused on him.

// 16199
//Harry scrambled down beside her, ignoring the blood soaking more of his
//already-soaked robes. __You’ll be all right, __his brain formed the
//sentence, but his lips wouldn’t move. __You’ll be all right, we’ll find
//some magic to fix all this, put you back to normal, just hold on, don’t -__

// 16200
//Hermione’s lips were moving, just a tiny bit but they were moving.

// 16201
//“your… fault…”

// 16202
//Time froze. Harry should have told her not to talk, to save her breath, only he
//couldn’t unblock his lips.

// 16203
//Hermione drew in another breath, and her lips whispered, “Not your fault.”

// 16204
//Then she exhaled, and closed her eyes.

// 16205
//Harry stared at her with his mouth half-open, his breath caught in his throat.

// 16206
//“Don’t do this,” said his voice. He’d only been two minutes late.

// 16207
//Hermione suddenly convulsed, her arms twitching into the air as though reaching
//up for something, and her eyes flew open again. There was a burst of
//__something__ that was magic and also more, a shout louder than an
//earthquake and containing a thousand books, a thousand libraries, all spoken in
//a single cry that was Hermione; too vast to be understood, except that Harry
//suddenly knew that Hermione had whited out the pain, and was glad not to be
//dying alone. For a moment it seemed like the outpouring of magic might hold,
//take root in the castle’s stone; but then the outpouring ended and the magic
//faded, her body stopped moving and all motion halted as Hermione Jean Granger
//ceased to exist -

// 16208
//No.

// 16209
//Harry stood up from the body, swaying.

// 16210
//No.

// 16211
//There was a burst of flame and Dumbledore was standing there with Fawkes, his
//eyes filled with horror. “I felt a student die! What -”

// 16212
//The old wizard’s eyes saw what lay upon the ground.

// 16213
//“Oh, no,” whispered Albus Dumbledore. Fawkes gave a sad, mournful croon.

// 16214
//“Bring her back.”

// 16215
//There was silence on the terrace. Fred Weasley had risen up into the air at a
//gesture from Dumbledore’s wand and was floating towards them, surrounded by a
//reassuring pink glow.

// 16216
//“Harry -” the old wizard began. His voice cracked. “Harry -”

// 16217
//“Have Fawkes cry on her or whatever. Hurry up.” The voice that spoke sounded
//perfectly calm.

// 16218
//“I, I can’t, Harry, it’s too late, she’s dead -”

// 16219
//“I don’t want to hear about it. If it was me lying there, you’d pull some kind
//of amazing rabbit out of your hat and save me, right, because the hero isn’t
//allowed to die before the story’s over. Well, she’s the hero too, so whatever
//you were saving for that extra-special occasion, just go ahead and use it now.
//I promise I’ll pay you back.”

// 16220
//__“There isn’t anything I can do! Her soul has departed, she’s passed
//on!”__

// 16221
//Harry opened his mouth to scream out all his fury, and then closed it again.
//There wasn’t any point in screaming, it wouldn’t accomplish anything. The
//unbearable pressure rising inside him couldn’t be let out that way.

// 16222
//Harry turned away from Dumbledore and looked down at where the remains of
//Hermione Granger were lying in a pool of blood. Part of his mind was hammering
//at the world around him, trying to make it go away, wake up from the nightmare
//and find himself back in his Ravenclaw dorm room with the morning sun shining
//through the curtains. But the blood remained and Harry didn’t wake up, and
//another part of him already knew that this event was real, part of the same
//flawed world that included Azkaban and the Wizengamot chamber and

// 16223
//No

// 16224
//With a fracturing feeling, as though time was still torn to pieces around him,
//Harry turned away from Dumbledore and looked down at the remains of Hermione
//Granger lying in a pool of blood with two tourniquets tied around her
//thigh-stumps, and decided

// 16225
//__No.__

// 16226
//__I do not accept this.__

// 16227
//__There isn’t any reason to accept it, not when there’s magic in the
//world.__

// 16228
//Harry would learn whatever he had to learn, invent whatever he had to invent,
//rip the knowledge of Salazar Slytherin from the Dark Lord’s mind, discover the
//secret of Atlantis, open any gates or break any seals necessary, find his way
//to the root of all magic and reprogram it.

// 16229
//He would rip apart the foundations of reality itself to get Hermione Granger
//back.

// 16230
//“The crisis is over,” the Defense Professor said. “You may dismount, Madam.”

// 16231
//Trelawney, who had been sitting behind him on the two-person broomstick that
//had just blazed through Hogwarts burning directly through all the walls and
//floors in their way, hastily pulled herself off and then sat down hard on the
//floor, a pace away from the red-glowing edges of a newly made gap in the wall.
//The woman was still breathing in gasps, bending over herself as though she were
//on the verge of vomiting out something larger than she was.

// 16232
//The Defense Professor had felt the boy’s horror, through the link that existed
//between the two of them, the resonance in their magic; and he had realized that
//the boy had sought the troll and found it. The Defense Professor had tried to
//send an impulse to retreat, to don the Cloak of Invisibility and flee; but he’d
//never been able to influence the boy through the resonance, and hadn’t
//succeeded that time either.

// 16233
//He’d felt the boy give himself over fully to the killing intention. That was
//when the Defense Professor had begun burning through the substance of Hogwarts,
//trying to reach the battle in time.

// 16234
//He’d felt the boy exterminate his enemy in seconds.

// 16235
//He’d felt the boy’s dismay as one of his friends died.

// 16236
//He’d felt the fury the boy had directed at some annoyance who was likely
//Dumbledore; followed by an unknown resolution whose unyielding hardness even he
//found adequate. With any luck, the boy had just discarded his foolish little
//reluctances.

// 16237
//Unseen by anyone, the Defense Professor’s lips curved up in a thin smile.
//Despite its little ups and downs, on the whole this had been a surprisingly
//good day -

// 16238
//**__“HE IS HERE. THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY STARS IN
//HEAVEN. HE IS HERE. HE IS THE END OF THE WORLD.”__**