On the Way to the End - Dramione

Ink soaked into the parchment with each line swiped across the rugged paper. Wrinkled fingers clutched the quill as each sentence of cursive gracefully filled the page, writing an account of everything the witch encountered during the war each day. Minerva McGonagall in her room, at her desk, opposite her bed. It was only a temporary room, for the time being, while the Order camped out at Grimmauld. It was a simple room, not clad in her decor, nothing to make it feel like home. Nothing like Hogwarts... but it would do just fine. Besides, she had much bigger things to think about than her tea corner in her quarters behind the Transfiguration classroom. 

As her quill continued its perfected penmanship, she thought back to the castle. Her home for nearly fifty years. Before working there as a professor, she attended school there. Minerva only took a break of two years after school to work for the Ministry before returning home to Hogwarts to teach. That fall would have marked her forty second year of teaching. 

Her quill paused. 

She wondered if she would get to teach another year at Hogwarts. 

Ink dripped on the page. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a crackling explosion that caused her to drop her quill, smearing the last few words and trailing ink across the bottom of the page. Minerva stood, tightening her evening robes around her waist. She grabbed her wand off of the desk, which had been sitting beside her work. Forgetting her entry, she rushed out of the room, prepared to fight another day. 

As she left her sleeping quarters, she scanned the room, quickly noting the Golden Trio all perched nearest the window looking to the street. She hurried to them. "What's going on here?" Ron asked the old Professor as she neared them. Her eyes widened at the sight outside. Without hesitation she turned, scurrying away to knock on Shacklebolt's door. 

Hermione gulped down any nerves and tightened her grip on her wand as she looked out to see Death Eaters apparating in, one after the next, right outside the deteriorating wards. As they arrived they'd point their wands to the building and continued working to break the barrier. Whatever came next, she knew couldn't be good. Hermione's mind raced as she watched the scene, feeling completely at a loss of what to do. 

Behind her, she heard the ruffling of papers and she turned to look at the commotion. Harry was using spells to pack all their notes and maps away. Furiously, sheets of paper, books and other important information from their work whizzed from all over Grimmauld, onto the table in front of him. Hermione was impressed with his quick thinking and ran over to join him. She accioed her beaded bag from her room and ran to Harry, using her wand to fly the items into it, the bottomless bag eating the contents with ease. As she worked swiftly with Harry, she did her best to ignore the sounds coming from outside. 

It wasn't long before everyone was else emerging from their sleeping quarters, asking what was going on. "What do we do?" someone asked. 

"The injured apparate out to the safe houses. Anyone who's able stays, and we defend Grimmauld. We'll reconvene the day after tomorrow at dawn at the Shell Cottage." Shacklebolt came out of his room with McGonagall following close behind. "We'll assess damages then." He explained, "Harry, Hermione, give those notes to Padma, she shouldn't be fighting now." 

The Patil twins were leaving their quarters, collecting the few belongings they had. Harry ran over to Padma and began giving her the rest of the papers Hermione hadn't already collected in her bag. Hermione went to do the same but before she could there was a massive explosion on the barrier. The ground shook for a moment and everyone in the main room shared a look, each face set with a different emotion. That was it, the barrier was broken. 

"Go!" Someone shouted and people started apparating away. Hermione watched as they disappeared around her, including Padma. Hermione shrunk her bag and pocketed it, she would just have to keep it safe until they all met again.