A/N: Sorry it took so long! I've got finals going on at my university. It's looooads of fun I tell you! Also, I've recently started working as a news poster at so I've been dedicating lots of my time toward that. This chapter is a bit short because it's really an extension of the last chapter, but here it is! Enjoy!

Ginnyweasleyrules- Poor Neville! However, not too bad has happened to him so far, so this is his first big blow. Don't worry! You'll see what happened to him in this chapter!

Zarroc- Good question. What did happen? Find out!

Shana- I'm sorry that this took me forever to update, especially with the cliffhanger. Hopefully this chapter will give you the answers you're searching for!

Cappygal116- Yes, the next chapter is the end. Sorry to disappoint. As you can tell, I haven't been concentrating on it as much as I'd planned to, so it's best to bring it to an end. I'm so glad that you've like it, though!

Coolgirlc- Sorry to test your patience! Actually, this character was referred to in the book but never actually given a name. It's a VERY obscure reference. I love the theory, however. I wish I had thought of that myself, even though I don't think Percy is really evil.

Quidditch7- You are far too kind. This is not even close to JKR material. I only wish I was that talented! I'm really glad this is keeping you on your toes, it's meant to be unpredictable. However I'm afraid people will be disappointed with this chapter. It's definitely not my best. Still, give it a shot!

The End of a New Life by MyKonstantine.

Chapter 14: Running From The Truth

Hermione went to scream, but her voice got caught in her throat when the light died down and she finally saw the person that struck down Neville.

"What the hell are you doing?" She cried out in anger.

"What is necessary."

Among the chaos, Hermione could see his sleek robes, his shaggy lion's mane and his feverish yellow eyes. He stood hunched in place without as much as a grimace on his face, still pointing his wand at the spot where Neville once stood.

It was Rufus Scrimgeour.

Ginny abandoned Harry for a moment. Hermione could see the warm, lively color of Harry's flesh, but Neville was sheet-white and frozen. Ginny clasped on to Neville's body and flipped him around. Crimson blood flowed freely from his nose.

"No!" Ginny squealed. "Neville, wake up! Please wake up!"

"You bastard!" Lavender, who had been quiet until that moment, screamed out in a fury. She stood up and forced her wand out of her back pocket. Her mouth opened to scream out a curse or jinx, perhaps. Hermione would never know. Before the words came out, the Minister whipped his wand toward her and she slumped against the wall next to her dear husband.

In a panic, Ginny slapped Neville across the face. "Please, Neville! Don't do this!"

Hermione longed to rush over to Lavender and do the same thing, but she knew that any sudden movements would render her completely helpless, unconscious on the floor. Is this what had happened to all of them? Why then did Harry seem more alive than Neville?

"They're not dead, you fool!" Scrimgeour snapped in Ginny's direction. "There are very obvious signs of the killing curse, none of which the Aurors will ever be able to find. If they knew 'Avada Kedavra' was used, it would never look like an accident."

"What accident?" Ron said in a strong yet very cautious voice. He too did not move from his place.

"The one you're going to die in after I leave you all petrified and tear apart this office."

Her interactions with the Minister over the last few months went racing through her head. It all fit together so well. It was so obvious that he was up to something. Why hadn't she seen it?

"You're doing all this just to protect that bloody law?"

The Minister growled and began grinding his foot into the wooden floor. "Do you know what you've put me through, mudblood?" He yelled out. Ron began to stand up but Ginny desperately motioned for him to sit down again and he did. "When I came into office, the whole community supported me! I had Lord Voldemort within my controls until you and your renegades came barging into the picture."

Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Renegades? Harry destroyed Lord Voldemort. It was all part of the prophecy!"

"To hell with prophecies! They mean nothing!" Scrimgeour retorted. "You turned my people against me! You hid the information on the horcruxes and destroyed them without the help of trained Aurors! You defeated Lord Voldemort and thus you destroyed me! I became a joke to the wizarding community. One little muggleborn ruined my career!"

"It wasn't just her!" Ron pointed out. His voice was angry and he gritted his teeth, as if he were trying to avoid the using colorful language. "She was working with Harry and me! Your crusade against muggleborns is pointless!"

Scrimgeour stopped moving. He pivoted to face Ron, his foot still grinding on the floor. Hermione could see the splinters around his boots.

"I know you, Weasley." He said in a soft voice that inflicted more fear in Hermione than when he had been yelling. "You're thick, as is Harry Potter. Neither of you could have worked your way through the complex magical reasoning it took to destroy the horcruxes without Hermione Granger! You were worth nothing!"

"I almost died!" Ron bellowed so loudly that it echoed throughout the room. Couldn't somebody hear them? Why weren't the Aurors there?

Hermione expected the Minister to petrify Ron right there, but he didn't. Instead, he gave him a chilling smirk. "Well, that never would have happened if Miss Granger hadn't been there. You would have just stared at the paper found with the first horcrux for days before handing it over to the trained professionals at the Ministry."

Ginny, who had been holding back tears for a long while, finally let a few water droplets roll down her cheek. "You're pathetic! You can't get rid of every person who chooses to work without the Ministry! This will never work!"

A flash of light flew out of Scrimgeour's wand and Ginny slumped over on to Neville's torso.

Ron made a gagging noise but did not move. Hermione feared it would be the last time she saw the light in Ginny's eyes.

"You're wrong!" Scrimgeour yelled at Ginny's slouched figure. "I don't mind being outdone, but by a muggleborn? It's against the laws of nature! Magical people should have the outstanding magical abilities! If muggleborns don't want to represent the magical community, then I'll make them!"

"That's why you made this law." Ron stated. His eyes had not left Ginny's body since the light struck her.

Hermione wasn't ready to die. She had been stalling, but she was running out of effective ways to do so. She and Ron had to manage to stay awake, otherwise there would be no hope for them or any of the others.

"What about the half-bloods?" Hermione asked desperately. Sharp pains attacked her throat as she choked on the words. "They're part of the magical community! Why are you doing this to them?"

"Filth!" The Minister proclaimed. "Having mudblood witches and wizards running our world is bad enough! Having one parent with no magical ability whatsoever is an abomination! Part of them is prestigious wizards' blood! They should be proud to turn away from their muggle heritage and take on life as an honorable part of the wizarding community!"

"That makes no sense." To Hermione's disbelief, she did not get these words out first. Ron did. She wasn't the only one who found flaws in Scrimgeour's explaination. "Halfbloods won't just forget about their muggle family members because they married a witch or wizard! We'd have died out without the muggles to begin with!"

Hermione had heard this in the past. She knew that there was a large number of halfbloods in the wizarding world. She also knew that there were more halfbloods than there were purebloods. In fact, Hermione wasn't sure whether The Minister himself was a complete pureblood.

"It's not ethical." Hermione said aloud. She had already known this, but now she saw it through a larger frame of mind. "There's no way this could have passed through the Wizengmot or the Department of Muggle Relations! What did you do to those people?"

"It won't matter once we're dead." The Minister announced in a calm, straightforward tone.

"Once we're dead?" Ron repeated, emphasizing the odd part of the sentence.

Ron received no true answer, but as another flash of light bombarded the room and the Minister fell like a heavy piece of timber, Hermione suddenly understood.

"Oh hell."

"What the hell was that?" Ron hollered out in astonishment. "What the fuck is going on?"

As Ron's minor fit came to an end, a heavy boot clunked into the room. Thick black robes skimmed across the dust on the floor. A looming figure hovered over the motionless body of Rufus Scrimgeour. His hood covered most of his face, but Hermione could see pale gray eyes.

Who was this man? Why had he used the Minister in his plot? Since he had obviously made up Scrimgeour's motivation, what was this man's real motivation?

The man did not say a word. Hermione could not even hear him breathing as his reached upward and grasped his hood. With a quick jerk of the cloth, the hood fell back and the face that haunted Hermione for months now was finally revealed.

"Quimby?" Ron gawked from across the room.

Hermione gritted her teeth. "His name is Quisley, Ronald." Despite the fact that they were still in danger, Hermione let out a small sigh of relief once she knew the identity of the perpetrator. The last thing she wanted to do was to anger a possible psychopath and die even faster.

"Does it really matter at this point?" Ron's voice began to squeak with panic.

"You do not know my real name." The man Hermione had known as the Minister's Assistant named Quisley told them in a slow, calculating voice. "You never will know."

His wand hand began to rise up slowly. He was torturing them with anticipation and Hermione knew it. She had to find a clever way to stall. What kind of questions would a man like this answer without getting angry?

"So, you're a Death Eater then?" Hermione grimaced as she spoke, trying not to spit out the words in a combination of fear and anger. "Is this your revenge on behalf of Voldemort?"

"Death Eaters are weak fools!" His voice boomed. "They do not work for their own causes, but for the causes of the Dark Lord. They are blinded into following only his instructions. I stand alone."

"And what causes are you working toward?"

"The security of the wizarding world." He answered quite simply. No further explanation came to them. "You've gotten in the way of my cause for far too long."

"They're going to catch you." Ron growled in a husky voice. "They're going to catch you whether you like it or not. They're going to throw you in Azkaban and leave you to rot."

Hermione clenched her eyes tightly and pressed her knees against her body. She already knew what was about to happen.

The bright flash of light could be seen through her closed eyelids. The loud thumping noise could easily be heard as Ron slumped over on to the floor.

Hermione was alone. She was their only hope for survival.

"What did we do?" Hermione cried out in a panic. "What did we ever do to you?"

"You stood in my way."

Hermione Granger, the most brilliant witch in the history of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let a tear slip down her cheek as she sat huddled in a corner, surrounded by the unconscious bodies of her friends. All was lost.

"Dear, dear." The man sighed in the most unsympathetic voice Hermione had ever heard. He began to walk toward her and slowly crouched down by her side. "It's better this way. All your hardships will be gone soon."

He reached his hand up and caressed her face. Hermione recoiled at the feeling of his touch. It made her skin burn with rage.

Suddenly, she knew what she needed to do.

"Incarcerous!"

The thin white rope came shooting out of Hermione's wand faster than she expected and she felt herself being thrown back. The man had put his guard down. He hadn't expected it at all.

Hermione knew that the ropes could be broken quite easily. If she was going to escape, she had to do it now.

Leaping up, she regained her balance and ran for the door. She could hear the man grunting and struggling behind her. Doing everything in her power not to turn around, Hermione ripped open the door and began her escape.

Once outside the door, she hesitated. Should she seal the door and run for help? No, she decided. She'd rather be in danger than let her friends die just because she sealed them in a room with a murderer.

Leaving the door alone, she rushed down the hall, screaming for help. After only a few steps, she heard the door burst open with such force that it must have been torn to splinters.

Bodies lay scattered on the floor throughout the hallway. Hermione felt sick as she leapt over the raggedy body of Kingsley Shacklebolt. The Aurors had come for them, but the man had been in the hallway, stunning every single one that came to the scene.

Now, he was coming after her.

Hermione was relieved because she had insured the safety of her friends, but she still had to worry about herself. If she never managed to find help, her whole escape would have been pointless.

A shot of light crashed into the wall behind her just as Hermione turned the corner. She could feel a heavy wind as a chunk of the wall zoomed by her ear.

Her body was starting to wear out. Her chest heaved and she tried to take in as much air as possible as she jetted down the stairs. She didn't know exactly what floor she was on, but she had to find the Aurors Department.

He was getting closer to her. She could almost feel him behind her now. If she hadn't been bouncing all around the hall, she was sure he would have hit her by now.

"Hermione!" A shrill voice called out from a distance.

Hermione looked up to see the figure of a lanky woman in front of her. She tried to make out the details of the woman's face and body, but her eyes had blurred in exhaustion.

"Get down!"

She could barely hear the other woman's words. Her reaction was far too slow. By the time she had turned around to see how close the man was, all she could see was a bright stream of light shooting toward her.

Hermione didn't duck, but she did hit the ground as her world went black.

The next chapter is the end. That doesn't mean that all is lost!

We'll find out what happened to Hermione and the others and we'll dive deeper into the life of the man!

Be sure to tell me what you think of the chapter! What do you think is going to happen?