Chapter Text
Hermione was walking along the dimly lit corridor on the deepest level of the ministry. She was deep in thought about her newest project, to improve upon the wizarding world. Her head was full of useful things that she needed to get done. In her ten years here they had made a lot of progress in changing things for the better, but there was still a lot to do.
Some part of her thought that was always going to be the case and a happy little shiver ran down her spine, immediately she felt guilty. This shouldn’t be fun, she was righting terrible injustices and paving a way into the future for her people, but…
Suddenly the soft buzzing of the wards around her went silent and her inner monologue was interrupted. In the blink of an eye she drew up a shield. Just in time for a bluish purple spell to crash against it and to try to burn through. Hermione fought it, but she nearly buckled under the power. She frowned, she wasn’t familiar with this one. It didn’t seem like a curse.
She started to hear chanting, a chorus of sorts, not just a single caster and not here but from a far. Not a spell then, a ritual.
Hermione swallowed as she renewed her efforts. She couldn’t hope to win against an entire circle. Her only hope was to call for help and hold out as long as she could.
Her hand closed around the coin on her necklace and gasping with the effort it took to split her focus she send an emergency SOS to Harry. Then she had to put all her power back into renewing her wobbly shield. It was not going well.
She held on as long as she could, but in the end the shield broke and the spell hit her. It was like a wave crushing over her. Her last frantic thought was, that she knew the signature behind that magic.
Then everything went dark as the spell consumed her and She disappeared. Just in time to be witnessed by a horrorstruck Harry Potter. Frantically he checked the coin on his necklace, but the silvery otter patronus on it continued to swim in playful circles around the stag and the little terrier.
She is alive, Harry thought relieved, then clenched his jaw in determination. Within minutes the entire ministry knew what had happened. Aurors and Unspeakables were swarming the corridor to find out what had happened and where Hermione Granger had disappeared to, but they could not locate her.