Written for The Houses Competition
House Hufflepuff
Category: Drabble
Prompt: He/She/They should not have buried it in the woods.
Word count: 500
Beta: Aya
She should not have buried it in the woods. She really shouldn't have. Burying it in the woods meant that she was now lost in said woods looking for it without a clue where it had ended up. She rather needed it in a few hours. The plan had been a nice day in the forest clearing she had found and hidden that all important item that would hopefully change her life forever.
Except she had come to check that everything was in place and now couldn't find that clearing. Which meant that the plan had gone completely askew. Which meant stress and anxiety. Which meant bad things to her general well-being on top of all the stress and anxiety she was dealing with.
Today was not going to be the good day she had hoped it would be. It really, really wasn't. Shaking herself and vigorously rubbing her head to help with the stress, Hannah trudged onward while desperately searching for any clue as to where her clearing had gotten to. Unfortunately, the tree that had a branch alignment of several 'U' shapes appeared to no longer exist.
Tired of wandering around aimlessly, she cast tempus to see what the time was. Then stared gobsmacked at the floating numbers that declared she had spent the whole morning getting lost in the woods and that it was now time for Neville to arrive. Dear Merlin, how had that happened?
With a sigh at the lost cause that was her little clearing, Hannah started off to where she had arranged to meet Neville. She stopped almost immediately after realising that she had no idea where she was. At all. This day was not good. Hannah didn't like this day. Slowly turning in a circle, Hannah scanned for any sign that would tell her where she was. She catalogued the plants, the grass, the 'U' shape tree branch alignment, the undergrowth-
Her eyes snapped back to the tree that had her elusive branch alignment and she stared at it disbelievingly. Over three hours wasted searching desperately for that tree and here it was, just standing there. Hannah let out a shaky breath and quickly made a decision. No way was she leaving this tree and the accompanying clearing to disappear again.
"Expecto Patronum," she incanted before sending off her patronus to find Neville and bring him to her. Meanwhile, she stalked into her clearing and quickly checked that it was still there. It was, good. Now she just had to give it to Neville. She rubbed at her head again, stress coming through. A gentle hand caught hers on its way down and she looked into the smiling face of Neville Longbottom.
She calmed and returned his warm smile. Anxiety gone now that she had found her clearing and its hidden secret along with Neville's presence. They had a nice picnic and when Hannah fetched the small ring from its hidden hole, Neville had smiled brilliantly and not hesitated in saying, "Yes."