The sun was setting, radiating a gorgeous pink glow over Hogwarts. A small breeze was settling over the grounds, rifling over the tree tops, and rippling the water of the lake. Two students were by a tree, as big as the Whomping Willow - but less dangerous - working on their homework. The shadow the tree cast, led to the lake, where one of the students was standing, looking into the sunset, with smooth pebbles in his hands.
"Ron!" called a girls voice.
The boy threw the last of the small rocks into the water, and headed back up to where his friend was sitting. Hermione had been concentrating on her home work, for the last few hours. But now, as he approached her, he saw she was putting her books away, into her bag, and pulling out another, heavy looking book.
"Have you finished all your work, Ron?" she asked, as he moved the branches away from his face, and sat down next to her.
"Er, yea. Whats that?" Ron lied, trying to distract her, by gesturing to the book, which was now on her lap. Her eyes lit up with childish excitement, and she opened the cover, leading to a blank page of parchment. Ron stuffed his unfinished work into his bag, as she flipped the pages, to the content list.
"I got it out of the Library this afternoon." she said, trailing her finger down the list of stories. There was only three:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Little Red Riding Hood
Sleeping Beauty
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?" Ron asked, reading the first line, frowning. Hermione smiled, and flipped a few more pages, to the beginning of the fairytale.
"This is a book of Fairy Tales, Ron," she explained. Ron, who never usually was interested in such things, found the book drawing him in. He began to recite the first few lines, getting more and more into it after each word. Hermione leaned her head back against the tree, and listened, whilst looking at the sunset dreamily. She found herself soundlessly moving her lips along to the story, having read it so much as a little girl, she knew it all off by heart. The way he read, was so soothing, that her eyes started to flicker shut, but she never let her concentration wander away from what he was saying. After five minutes, though, his voice trailed off, and left a silence, which wasn't even disturbed by the breeze. He eyes sprung open, and a small gasp slipped from her.
The world around them, the lake, the sunset, was whirring so fast, around and around, that she had to clamp her eyes shut. She felt the book, the heavy weight on her lap, slide off. Her hands grabbed out for it, but it was gone.
Ron, who, thankfully, was still sitting next to her, grabbed hold of her arm. His fingers dug into her skin, and she opened her eyes, and looked at him in alarm.
"Whats going on!" she yelled, but he couldn't hear a word she was saying. His eyes were closed, and his forehead furrowed, as he held onto her for dear life. She huddled her head against his, and closed her eyes again.
Minutes passed, and the whooshing sounds that had penetrated their ears suddenly stopped. Hermione was the first who braved to look. Slowly flickering her eyes open, she leaned up, and looked around in shock. They were both still sitting on the grass, and were still leaning against a tree. But it was different grass, and it was a different tree. The gorgeous sunset, which had loomed beautifully over the lake, was gone. In fact, so had the lake. Instead, they were surrounded by trees, thick rooted trees, that could only have been raised from a healthy forest. A forest, indeed, was where they had landed up.
"Ron," Hermione hissed, jabbing him in the chest with her arm, which he was still clinging onto.
His eyes shot open, and he let go of her arm in an instant, his face reddening. Then he looked around.
"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed, jumping up from where he was sitting, knocking Hermione back, to which she bumped her head rather heavily on the tree behind her. She blinked rapidly, her head swimming in pain. Getting up, she looked at him angrily, the words she was about to say, caught in her throat. She was making odd noises, trying to spit out what she was going to say. He looked at her in surprise, and jumped back, yelling.
"What the hell! What are you wearing?" Ron yelled, pointing at her with a shaking finger.
"Thats what I was going to say, to you!" Hermione snapped back, but then stopped. Looking down, all ability to talk had gone. She could see, that her usually bushy, uncontrollable hair, was now black, sleek, and braided. She could see the ends of each braid lying gently over her shoulders. She felt them and gasped, as her fingers brushed against silk material. Running her hands down her dress, she stopped at the skirt, and grasped at it. It was pure white silk, with little pink flowers embroidered onto it. She stumbled over to Ron, who caught her before she fell over, and looked at her feet. Petite, glass slippers were the reason she fell, and they were held on to her feet with a strap of the same silk from her dress.
"Wow... Ron, how am I wearing this? How are you wearing that?" she asked, in a rush of excitement. Ron looked at her, confused, then looked at his arm, which she was clinging on to. He was wearing a red jacket, he jumped away from Hermione in shock. Under the red jacket - which had golden buttons - was a white buttoned up shirt. His black trousers were gone, replaced a pair of brown, tweed ones. Unlike Hermione, Ron was not happy.
"I look like a prat!" he said in disgust. Hermione rolled her eyes, and smiled. Walking awkwardly over to him, she took the collar of his jacket, and straightened it out.
"No, you don't. You look like a prince." she commented, examining the buttons. "Are they really made of gold?" she added.
He ignored her, deep in thought.
"Where are we?" he said. She shrugged, glancing around. "I mean, are we in the Forbidden Forest, or what?"
Hermione's eyes shot back to look at him. Being in the Forbidden Forest was not good. Filled with creatures which could kill you in a second, it was a fatal mistake to enter the forest, without at least Hagrid by your side.
"Maybe we should find a way out of here?" she suggested, pulling her skirt up a bit, stopping it getting dirty from the earth. Ron was about to answer, when a loud howl sounded through the tree's. He stopped, and choked on his words. Recovering quickly, he grabbed Hermione, and started to run. "No maybe about it!" he yelled.
After a few minutes of non-stop running, Hermione finally couldn't take it anymore, and yelled for Ron to stop.
"My feet!" she groaned, slumping against a tree, out of breath and in pain. "These shoe's were not made to run in."
Ron did not seem to want to wait around. In fact, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet in impatience. Hermione sighed and closed her eyes, breathing heavily, trying to regain her strength. Before she knew what was happening, Ron had grabbed her by the waist and legs, and hoisted her up. He was carrying her, like you would a baby, and she screamed in surprise. After five minutes of her yelling at him to let her go, he finally let her down. She grasped onto a tree, and straightened herself up, wincing in pain as she put weight on her feet. And they started again.
A long while later, the vast amount of trees started to thinned out. They could see sun light, which streamed strongly through the branches of the surrounding trees. Ron wouldn't let Hermione stop again, until they reached the last few trees. If it hadn't been for the beautiful dress she had on, she'd of crawled the rest of the way. Leaving Hermione to catch her breath, Ron walked to the end of the forest, and cautiously walked out onto the tree free field.
He didn't know what to think. They were safe from the forest now, but, as he looked around, it was very clear that they were no longer in the grounds of Hogwarts. He peered over to where the field cut dead. A massive wall stopped the green flow of grass, and Ron could see a distant outline of turrets behind.
"Where on earth are we?" Hermione said, joining him. She was limping, and holding the two glass shoes in her hands. Her eyes traveled over the field, and her heart dropped. "We're no where near Hogwarts, are we?" she muttered.
Ron didn't reply, he seemed to be lost in concentration, squinting into the distance. Suddenly, he jumped backwards.
"What? What is it?" said Hermione in surprise. He still didn't reply, and she turned around, nearly tripping over the hem of her skirt as she did.
A large man, carrying an equally large axe, was approaching them, quicker then they felt necessary. Backing away, Hermione gasped, and Ron had to blink a couple of times. The man was uncannily like... Hagrid.
"Snow White!" said the humongous man, as soon as he got into ear shot. He thankfully lowered the axe, and slowed his pace, out of breath. Hermione found Ron's arm, without taking her eyes off of the stranger.
"Er... Hagrid?" said Ron nervously, but the man ignored him. He stopped, and looked straight at Hermione.
"Snow White, you must not be here." his eyes were pleading, "You know you shouldn't. If the Queen were to find out... she'd have both our heads!" he spluttered out, leaning against the end of the axe for support.
"I'm... I'm sorry, I don't quite... understand?" Hermione said in confusion. She looked at Ron for support, but he seemed to be lost in thought again. Shoving her arm into his chest, he whimpered, and looked at her startled. As the man regained his breath, she leaned over to Ron.
"I think Hagrid's gone mad, Ron." Hermione hissed, looking worried.
"He called you Snow White." Ron pointed out, as if that explained everything.
"Exactly my point, Ron" she snapped back. Before Ron could say anymore, the man started talking again.
"I mean, fair maiden, that the Queen wanted your heart so she knew for sure you were dead. And instead i gave her the heart of a pig. She must never see you again." he said, stumbling back and taking a deep breath again.
Hermione was thoroughly confused now, and she looked over to Ron yet again, and he was giving her the same thoughtful look.
"Right... Well, er, I'll go?" she suggested.
"Yes, through the forest," he said, as relief flooded over his face. She slowly began to back away, dragging Ron along with her. Once out of earshot of the man, who seemed not to want to move until he was sure she had gone, Ron turned to her.
"That was weird-" Hermione said, but Ron cut into her sentence.
"You're Snow White." he said weakly. She glared at him.
"Hogwarts must be back through this way." she said, pulling her shoes back on, uncomfortably.
Ron stared at her in disbelief. "Hermione, didn't you hear what any of that?" he asked.
"I worry about Hagrid sometimes," she continued, ignoring Ron. "It's like he's living in a fairytale."
Ron was quiet for a moment, and followed her slowly as she started to move back over to the trees. "The problem is, Hermione... I think we are too," he said quietly.