Written for the Quidditch Fanfiction Competition: Round 12. Prompts used were: Warning sign, A blessing in disguise.
At this time of night, the forest is silent, as it usually is. Ron watches it from his window, as he usually does. It's not ten meters from his house, and at this distance, he can see the garish yellow of the border surrounding the trees on all sides. They're there for the safety and viewing pleasure of the tourists, for the rich and posh, who swarm around their city at all times of the year.
The Forest of the Lost is the name of the forest. It's a mysterious place, and years and years of its existence have caused legends and myths to spring up. They say that all lost things in the world eventually find their way there. They say a wise old wizard conjured it up, with unknown reasons. All of it is speculation though, and it only fuels its popularity around the world.
It sprung up some decades ago, a fully matured forest simply appearing one day at the edge of the city. One day there had been empty space, and the next, it had appeared and it has been there ever since. It was a bit odd though. There had been no expeditions into the forest to date. Probably for some high up government thing.
It's forbidden to go into the forest. But every day, after all his chores are done, and all his work is finished, he returns to his attic room, and he watches it.
At the outlying edge of the forest, the leaves of the trees rustle in an unseen wind. It really is like magic, Ron muses to himself. Although the government likes to insist that it's simply a scientific phenomenon, and nothing more.
He knows better though. He can feel the forest calling to him, and he doesn't know how much longer he can resist it.
-X-
It's a cloudy day, gray and depressing, when he steps into the forest.
The back of his mind rebels against him. Turn around, it screams. What about your family, it asks.
I'll be back in a second, he manages to convince himself. I just want to take a look. One look, and then I'll go back to my mundane world.
Ron only takes a couple of steps forward when something shiny catches his eye. In the grass, half hidden behind a bush, lies an object. He crouches down to pick it up, and to his surprise, he can recognize it.
It's a watch, and it's unmistakably a Weasley watch. It looks exactly like the one he lost when he was six. The dull gold of the watch, the intricate 'W' engraved on the back… there's no mistake.
Ron frowns at it. It's disturbing that it's here. Because he lost it abroad while they were in Egypt.
He slips it into his pocket. If he's looking for a warning sign for him to get out, this is it.
Ron turns around; expecting to see the bright yellow of the boundary peeking out from the trees, but it's not. Behind him are just trees upon trees upon trees.
Magic, he thinks.
-X-
Ron manages to survive. There are, amazingly enough, fruit trees of all kinds growing in grooves everywhere. Mushroom litters the forest floor, and there's somehow a river always nearby.
This is definitely magic, he decides.
It's almost like Eden. A perfect place with every provision. A perfect dream, but deadly when you look closer.
But, unlike Eden, there is no way out. Ron's searched and searched. Everywhere he goes, it's the same. There is no way out. He's stuck here forever, possibly.
But that thought is too much to bear, so he keeps searching. He searches and searches and searches and then one day, he finds something.
It's a girl. She sitting by a particularly thick tree, tracing images and words into the dirt. Ron's eyebrows raises at the sight, and he slowly walks closer to her. He's about five feet away when she jerks her head up to look at him. For a moment, the two of them just stare at each other.
She's a small girl and looks about his age, with wild curly brown hair, and brown eyes. When she catches sight of his face, various emotions cross her face rapidly. Shock, disappointment, and then happiness.
She springs up, running up to him. "Ron!" she calls, smile spreading across her face.
He looks at her, confused. "Who the hell are you?" he asks bluntly.
She stops short, then examines his face carefully. Before, her face had been an open face, but now it's like stone, and he can't read it.
She steps back. "Sorry," she says flatly. "Wrong person."
Ron's eyebrow raises, but he nods.
"Okay," he says. "Well, my name really is Ron. What's yours."
"Hermione."
"Where do you live?"
"Outside."
He sighs frustratingly at her one worded answers.
"Why won't you work with me? You're the first person I've seen here."
"Because I don't want to."
With those words, she turns and leaves the clearing. Ron walks to where she was sitting earlier. In the dirt are three people, two male and one female. The drawings, quite frankly are terrible. The girl has curly hair that extend to uneven lengths, one boy has glasses that are different circle sizes, and one boy towers above the other two by about three head lengths.
-X-
"When are you going to stop stalking me?" Hermione asks, eating her meal and eyeing him.
"I'm not," he says, and it's a lie. "I just happened to come across the tree again and cause it looked familiar, I stayed. I didn't think you'd come back too."
"Liar," she says immediately.
"Not," he shoots back.
She rolls her eyes at him, but leaves him alone after that with only a, "Stop being such a glutton."
-X-
Ron stays. He likes this place, with the large tree and the presence of another person. Hermione hasn't tried to make him leave since that first day, although she didn't speak much to him either.
That was fine. He doesn't mind that much.
The girl is a bit strange though. Not in her personality, or her habits, or anything. It's strange how she can almost read his mind. He's never had anyone who could do that before, except maybe Harry. But that's only because of their childhood spent together. It's very disconcerting to have a complete stranger read him so easily. Ron's never liked being vulnerable, so he doesn't quite know how to react when she makes comments on things he does, or is about to do.
The day she finally smiles and laughs in his presence though, Ron decides he doesn't really mind.
It's a nice laugh, light and girly and uplifting. It's a very nice change from her serious demeanour and biting words, and he likes it a lot, especially because he was the one that caused it.
It's as he settles down next to Hermione that he realizes how much she's changed. She had really opened up to him, and although they were prone to arguing, he liked being in her presence.
And this forest… this mysterious, magical forest. He first thought of it like a trap, a cage. But now, he thinks it's relaxing. There isn't the pressure of siblings, or grades, or careers here in the forest.
He never searches for the exit anymore.
And, as he drowsily drifts into the throes of sleep, he wouldn't mind if he stayed here forever.
-X-
Ron cautiously creeps toward a particularly thick part of the forest. He had just been walking around when he heard a muffled noise, and rustling sounds. Then, the bush next to his moves and he whirls around and braces himself.
A dishevelled head pops out, and it's familiar, but Ron can't quite put his finger on it. The teen's eyes light up when they land on him, and he pulls the rest of his body out of the underbrush.
"Thank God!" he exclaims. "I've been wandering here for days, but you're the first person I've seen. D'you happen to know where the exit it?"
Ron stares at him for a moment, then gathers his wits.
"There's, um, there's no exit," he says frankly. "Me and Hermione, another person here, tried looking, but there is none. We think the forest is magic, actually."
The boy frowns. "There must be a way out," he argues.
"Nope. None."
The boy stares into Ron's eyes, and he keeps his gaze level with him.
Finally, he sighs.
"I'm stuck here then," he sighs. "My name's Seamus. What's yours?"
Ah, Ron remembers him now. He had seen him around the city sometimes, and in school, but they hadn't talked.
"My name's Ron. I've been here for a while," Ron says. "A couple weeks, maybe a month? It's hard to keep track of time here."
"I just recently got lost here," Seamus murmured. "Should'a listened to my mum."
"Do you know how my family's doing?" Ron asks, after a prolonged silence. "We come from the same city, right? We're the Weasley's."
At Seamus' blank look, Ron elaborates.
"We have a really big family," he says. "I have six siblings."
That elicits a reaction from Seamus. His eyebrows furrow, and he tilts his head to the side, thinking.
"I know of the Weasley's..." he says. "But, they have only six children. You'd have to be the seventh, if you have six siblings."
Ron's world seems to tilt on its axis, and stop.
"W-what?" he stammers. "That's not possible…"
He backs away from the boy, who's still staring at him concernedly.
"No… that's not possible."
A slow realization flares at the back of his head. It's something that's been in the back of his head for a while now, but he hadn't fully thought of it before. The watch that he'd lost when he was six… the very same watch he found that didn't have his permanent marker drawings anymore.
Ron stumbles backwards through the forest, turning and running back to Hermione. He has to get to her, he thinks. He lets his feet lead him. It's a familiar path, and his feet will take him to where the girl is.
They're both in danger. How could he have been so daft? He'd always assumed, like everyone else, that no expeditions had been made into the forest. But he'd been so so wrong. Of course people would want to explore the forest.
They had simply been erased from the world, and no one knew it. This forest is magic, he knew for certain now, and it had been… he doesn't even know. Is it feeding off people? Killing people? Erasing them?
She's sitting by the large tree they made their home. No… she's not sitting. She's sprawled there, and when she looks up, her eyes are full of realization and pain.
"We have to get out," he says, skidding to a stop beside her and crouching down.
Hermione looks at him, and her forehead is creased, her eyes troubled. "It's too late already," she says. "I can feel it Ron. I'm starting to fade. Don't you see? It's been happening to us for a while now. The forest… it's alive, and it's erasing us from existence. I didn't figure it out until just now."
She holds up a picture, and he takes it from her.
"I found it a while ago," she explains. "This is… was, a picture of me and my sister."
He looks at the picture. There's only one person in it, a young girl of about ten, with freckles and frizzy, brown hair. Just like Hermione's. But she's the only one in the picture. There isn't any sign of Hermione in it.
Ron lowers the picture, then clenches his fist. He places his hands on her shoulders. "I won't accept it. You have to get out."
She smiles at him, heartbreakingly, terribly, then lowers his arm from her. She shakes her head, wild hair flying across her face.
"This forest… was a blessing in a disguise," she says. "I got to meet you again, after all."
"Again?" he asks.
She lets out a weak laugh, and he clutches her tightly to himself.
"We… knew each other before," she says, eyes unfocussing. "Before I entered the forest. We were best friends, did you know? Argued all the time, like there was no tomorrow."
Ron's brow furrows as a memory occurs to him. "In the beginning…"
"In the beginning, I tried to convince myself you weren't the Ron I knew. I tried, really. Because how could my own best friend forget me? In the end, you really were the same people. For all my intelligence, I sure can be daft sometimes, huh?"
Ron stares at her as she tells her story. He can't remember knowing a Hermione before the forest, and that thought is the scariest of all.
"But I'm really happy I got to see you once more," she says. "I never got to tell you that I loved you."
"Don't say that. I'm going to get you out!" he says insistently. "You can tell me you love me when we get out!"
"I'm not going to get out of here Ron," she says. "Please, just stay with me for now."
Ron's throat constricts. He shuffles closer to her, one hand coming to circle her shoulders, the other drops down to the ground, tracing something over and over again.
"Wait for me," he says. "I'll come after you. Wait for me, okay?"
She says nothing, and the forest takes her.
-X-
Ron blinks. Then, he stands up and looks around. He could've sworn he was with someone just now, but it's just him.
Something catches his attention at the corner of his eye. In the dirt, written over and over again, is the word Hermione.
If anyone is confused about anything, please let me know! I know I didn't explain things very well...