"Accio diadem," Hermione cried out in desperation. But the Room of Requirement would not surrender its hidden objects that easily. Ron and Harry looked at her with worry written on their faces.

"We should split up. Look for a stone bust of an old man wearing a wig and a tiara,'' Harry explained to the other two, ''It's standing on a cupboard and it's definitely somewhere near here…"

After Ron and Hermione gave each other a quick nod, they spun on the spot and took off to adjacent aisles, leaving Harry behind them. Hermione's eyes scanned the piles of junk as she ran forward, her heart rapidly beating in her chest. Reaching a dead end, she sped back to reunite with Ron, hoping he had better luck with their search for the horcrux.

Hermione finally spotted him up ahead with his back turned to her. As she rushed towards him, the wall of objects to his left began to topple down and threaten to crush him. She screamed helplessly, coughing as the cloud of dust that was blocking her sight now invaded her lungs.

But all of a sudden Ron came bursting through the chaos with a triumphant look and his wand in his right hand. She breathed a sigh of immense relief.

''Did you really think something like that could stop me?'' He gave her a small smile and hugged her. ''Let's go before something else comes falling down.'' With that, they went back to find Harry.

As they turned the final corner, they saw Harry being cornered by Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione immediately fired a Stunner and Ron followed with a Body-Bind curse, but both spells missed their target by centimetres as Malfoy pulled his companions out of their path at the last minute.

"The mudblood! Kill her," Hermione heard Crabbe shout. She saw a green light approaching and quickly dove out of its flight. Ron fired back a yellow spell. Goyle was now viciously attacking Harry.

Malfoy was yelling, "Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" But Goyle wasn't listening to him. Without his wand, which he seemed to have lost, the situation was out of his control. He was desperately ducking away from spells.

Hermione ran past him to Harry, who had successfully stunned Goyle.

"The diadem fell so it has to be around here somewhere. I can sense it so I've got a better chance at finding it. You need to help R…" Harry stopped talking when he saw huge flames reaching up to the ceiling.

"Oh no,'' Hermione said, her face turning pale. ''That's fiendfyre.'' She saw Ron and Crabbe running towards them. Dread spread over her. It is impossible to extinguish the flames with a simple Aguamenti and she doubted Crabbe had the power to control them, either.

"Like it hot, scum," roared Crabbe as he ran, unaware of his lack of control over the flames. Then, before Hermione could realise what was happening, Crabbe had tripped Ron and the flames were encircling him, eating him alive. Even as Harry pulled her away from the fire, she couldn't bring herself to look away. Ron's screams and Crabbe's laughter were echoing in her ears.

"Hermione, we have to run!" Harry's voice shook.

She gave in but she knew they weren't running as fast as they should have been. Just ahead of them, Malfoy was trying to pull an unconscious Goyle towards the door.

Looking back, Crabbe had almost reached them. He had a deadly grip on his wand and a bloodthirsty look clouded his eyes. "Mudblood," he yelled.

At the same moment Crabbe cast the unforgivable Killing Curse, Harry threw a curse over his shoulder.

The curses collided and the fiendfyre had them all trapped. An immense white light threw them all backwards: Crabbe into the flames, Harry towards one of the last spared patches from the fire, and Hermione vanished from sight.

Harry spotted two old brooms and quickly mounted one, throwing the second to Malfoy, who managed to drag Goyle with him. He gave Harry a thankful nod and flew with Goyle towards the door. Harry lingered and frantically tried to find Hermione. He had lost a friend and was not willing to lose the other one, too.

When he couldn't find her, he was forced to leave as the fiendfyre licked the ceiling above his head and threatened to trap him as well. With a last push of speed he steered through the door to safety. As the door to the Room of Requirement shut behind him, everything on the other side was destroyed.