Submerged in the lake's frigid embrace, Hermione's world turned upside down as Atlas's body shielded her from the basilisk's searing flames. The whole lake flickered orange and red as the snake rushed over it.

Just when she thought they had escaped the attack successfully, she saw a bloody cloud forming around them. She looked at Atlas in panic and saw his eyes slowly losing focus before he lost consciousness. She tried to scream and shake him awake until she realized that she was still under water and couldn’t breathe.

Adrenaline melded with instinct as she fought her way upward, battling the weight of Atlas's motionless body. Each inch gained was a struggle, her muscles burning with exertion and anxiety. Breaking the surface felt like safety was within reach, even when the air was burning hot. Gasping, she tugged Atlas's head above the waterline, only to find the basilisk eying them again.

The giant serpent was levitating over the lake and heating up the surroundings. Hermione was trying to think of a way out, but the bubbling water under the basilisk showed that staying inside the lake wasn’t safe either.

After taking another gasp for air, she had to dive under another one of the basilisks' attacks with Atlas in her arms.

She watched the maelstrom of flames flickering on the lake's surface, trying to find a way to survive the ordeal, when she suddenly felt a strong pull from the water, sucking her deeper into the lake. At least that’s what she thought as she suddenly fell out of the water onto the lake's bottom. She saw that the lake’s water was used to form a large ball floating in the air. Just as the last drop from the lake floated towards the ball, it shot towards the burning basilisk. The snake instantly got caught in the ball, but it looked as if it wasn’t working as the water began to evaporate while the snake wasn’t shrinking. Just when the whole ball was boiling, the water started to suddenly freeze. Within seconds, the enormous amount of water was frozen solid, and the next second, the sphere of ice shattered into snow that covered the whole area. The burning basilisk had been defeated.

Hermione, still frightened by the display, tried to orient herself and find a way to escape when she heard two large griffins screeching in the sky before diving down.

She breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that Professor Scamander had come to their rescue.

She used a locomotor charm to let Atlas unconscious body fly behind her as she climbed out of the muddy hole where once the lake had been.

The once-rampant flames that had devoured the forest were quenched by the sudden torrent of snow, but the battleground remained illuminated by the spells flying around. In the heart of the chaos, Hermione's eyes darted from one skirmish to another.

She saw how Hagrid threw his crossbow away before pulling out his pink umbrella and beginning to shield himself from two witches throwing spells at him.

Professor Snape was bathed in sweat as he tried to defend himself against the wizard that had summoned the Basilisk.

Neville was still lying against the tree with a small pool of blood that had formed under him, while Harry tried to defend him against a grim-looking old wizard and a young wizard who looked like he had barely finished Hogwarts. The training he went through enabled him to barely throw one defensive charm after another, but he was clearly outmatched.

Just as the grim-looking wizard was trying to kill Harry, a ferocious erumpent assaulted him and pierced his chest with his big glowing horn, causing its face to be covered in a mist of blood.

Scamander appeared right next to Harry and seemed to check on Neville before storming off to the other attackers with a somber face. Hermione saw a griffin picking off a wizard that tried to defend against one of Scamander's attacks before biting off the wizard's head and throwing the body through the air.

At that moment, Hermione heard a loud and sinister ice-cold laughter that sent shivers down her spine before Snape was catapulted through the air and rolled a few times on the ground before he stopped moving. At that moment, she started to guess that they were fighting Voldemort himself, as she couldn’t imagine another person with the ability and motive to defeat a teacher from Hogwarts with such casualness.

Newt started to take over Snape's position and started to battle Voldemort with the assistance of his beasts. With a flick of Voldemort’s wand, the scorched trees started to aim with their roots at the griffins and the erumpent, while Scamander transformed the snow into sharp shards of ice, which he threw at the roots, cutting them down.

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The problem was thatone of the attackers, that was knocked back at the beginning of the fight by snape joined the two that were fighting Hagrid, who was trying to protect Harry and Neville. But within a few spells, Hagrid’s umbrella was in tatters, and he was shielding Harry with his body. Just when she thought that Hagrid would die, she heard loud hoofbeats and saw a rain of arrows come out of the forest. Spiking the unprepared wizards.

Around forty centaurs galloped around the area. She saw how one large old centaur pointed at her and Atlas and at Harry, Neville, and Hagrid before five of the centaurs galloped to them. She saw that Firence, the centaur they had met before, grabbed Harry and, in one swift motion, put him on his back before galloping away.

She wanted to thank the two centaurs that appeared to help her and Atlas, but they were glaring at Firence in disgust and grumbling about not being common mules. The smaller centaur wanted to pick up Atlas until he saw his burns.

“Is he even alive?” asked the larger one with anger in his voice. “Killing their own foals. How low can wizards sink?”

Tears streamed down her face, her emotions in disarray. “No, he is alive, he isn’t.. he can’t, noo…”

The centaurs ignored her and carefully picked Atlas up, being careful not to touch his scorched skin. “Calm down. He is still breathing. Even if just barely,” commented the larger one, who carried him away in some weird kind of princess carry before the smaller one offered the still-crying Hermione a hand.

When she accepted the hand, to her surprise, the centaur pulled her up and placed her on her shoulder and not his back, like Firence had done with Harry.

When the centaur started to gallop away, she saw Voldemort fighting Scamander, his beast, and the centaurs.

Voldemort was furious about the centaurs' arrival and used a large shockwave to clear the area around him. The shockwave threw a few weaker centaurs on their backs, and the smoldering trees crashed to the ground, even the griffins were struggling to not fall from the sky. With maniacal laughter, he summoned a small storm of ash, ice, and dirt, and with a devasting explosion, he vanished from the place. As Hermione was carried away in the scene, she was overtaken by a corporal patronus in the form of a Thunderbird flying past them.

A few minutes later they arrived at a clearing where Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall were already treating the wounded.

“Albus, can’t you do something. Isn’t there a way? Maybe with the stone.” said McGonagall in dismay.

“No, Minerva. We are too late. There is no magic that can bring back the dead.” Dumbledore spoke with a resolute tone that left no room for discussion.

Hermione was horrified. “Dead?” she mumbled, and saw pictures of Atlas' burned flesh appear in front of her eyes again. “No, I have seen him still breathing; he can’t be dead.” She tried to console herself.

“Miss Granger, are you hurt anywhere?” asked the worried McGonagall when she saw her arrive.

Instead of answering, Hermione crumbled and sobbed as she hugged Professor McGonagall. With the imminent danger out of the way, the situation crashed down on her.

The old witch just hugged her and said that everything would become okay in a voice that made it clear that she was struggling too.

“He needs to get to the infirmary immediately or he will die too. He wasn’t burned by normal flames and needs treatment as soon as possible. The only thing I could do here is remove the water in his lungs, so he at least doesn’t have to feel like he is drowning the whole time,” said Madam Pomfrey to Dumbledore, who flicked his wand. Two house-elves appeared besides him and apparated with Atlas away.

“Minerva, please bring back the other students to the castle; I will take care of the rest,” said Dumbledore, looking exhausted and tired.

McGonagall just nodded and pulled Hermione behind her. “Harry, we need to go. It's too late for him; I’m sorry. You will get your time to say goodbye, but it's still dangerous inside the forest,” said McGonagall to Harry, who was crying over Neville's body.

Hermione stared at Neville's crops in shock. She had just thought he had hit his head and was unconscious, but now that she saw it up close, she saw that his skull got cracked and dented in an unnatural way.

“No, I will stay with him! I can’t let him lay here alone!” yelled Harry, not looking up.

McGonagall crouched down and patted his back, only repeating how sorry she was but that he needed to follow her for now.

The way back to the castle was like they were in a trance. Even picking up Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Ron didn’t make them snap out of it.

When they arrived in the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey gave them a potion to calm down before she started to treat Atlas.

Seconds after she had drunk the potion she fell asleep.

When she woke up again and removed the curtains, she saw that Harry was sleeping in the bed to her right. On her left, she heard coarse screams, and when she looked over, she saw that Madam Pomfrey was removing the last bits of Atlas' burned flesh.

When she sat up, Madam Pomfrey warned her without looking up. “Stay there. He will survive, but I need to concentrate, so please wait.”

Half an hour later, watching Madam Pomfrey remove piece after piece of burned flesh and apply an ointment, she was allowed to sit by his bed as long as she didn’t touch any of the places where he was burned.

Madam Pomfrey also gave her a few ointments for the blisters on her arm, which she hadn’t noticed until they were mentioned.

Harry had also woken up at that time, but after making sure that Atlas was safe, he asked about Neville and was allowed to sit on the bed where Neville lay behind curtains.

After some time, she saw Dumbledore coming into the infirmary, and after whispering something to Madam Pomfrey, he went to Nevill too.