Something was clawing its way out of her throat, scratching with talons up from her belly—

She was shaking, vomiting. Heaving, curled over.

When she opened her eyes, all she could see was the horror on Charlotte's face.

If I get this to Charlotte, Ginny will know within a few weeks.

All I do is get whispers and notes to Charlotte. The rest is in her hands.

She knew too much. She knew everything. And even Cho, who couldn't possibly have access to as much information, knew she needed to die before being interrogated.

The things that Charlotte knew could lead the Death Eaters straight to the True Order — to Ginny. However she got her information out, whoever was working both sides for her.

Fiendfyre, Basilisk Venom, Sword of Gryffindor.

Charlotte had gotten the keys to killing Voldemort to Ginny.

She'd failed Harry and Ron again. The True Order would have to start from scratch, crippled and bleeding. If Charlotte's information got out—

There was a gasping sound from somewhere. A girl was sobbing.

Hermione could only see Cho's dead eyes, the mutilated bodies, and Susan Bones's bloody face.

A girl was sobbing.

Look at me.

Was it Charlotte?

"Look at me."

Hermione's mind bent over backwards and somersaulted down. She was sitting on the floor of Draco's bedroom, sobbing and gasping.

His hands were on her face.

"Look at me."

Her mouth tasted like burnt flesh.

Her eyes focused, her mind slowed.

A lake with still waters.

A boy brushed a curl away from her eyes. His shirt was torn with claw marks.

"What do you need?" he asked. "Tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you."

She blinked once, and found Draco holding her, his long fingers tracing her jaw.

"I need you to get Charlotte out," she whispered, her voice thick and raw.

He didn't move. He brushed a thumb through the tracks of her tears.

"I can't remove her. Her tattoo. The suspicion—"

"Obliviate her."

"There's no time to search her mind." He searched her eyes. "I'd have to destroy half her memories. They'd know her mind was tampered with."

A stone dropped in her chest. The room spun as she searched for an impossible solution, and then ground to a halt. "Then kill her."

She heard her own voice come as an echo, bouncing through time and space to join her on Draco's bedroom floor.

"Make it look like the same pill that killed Cho."

She felt the splinter of her soul crack off and drift away, as if she herself had been the one to cast the Killing Curse.

Draco's eyes flickered.

"She knows everything about the Order," she whispered. "And she knows about me. She knows I was passing notes to Ginny."

He blinked once, and stood. Moving to the fireplace, he called out for the dungeons at Edinburgh Castle, and she caught the hard set of his jaw before the green flames engulfed him and took him away.