Part one of a potential two-shot! Let me know what y'all think so far!
House: Ravenclaw , Category: Themed , Prompt: Hidden cave, underestimated , WC: 1853
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Hermione Granger was not brave.
She was small, nimble, and bookish. She was fond of cleverness and logic, and she was one to shy away from the more practical dangers. Sure, she could handle a thinking challenge, but something like this? There was no way. It was laughable.
That's what Draco Malfoy thought anyway, as the two of them clambered towards the face of the waterfall, gallons of rushing white liquid forcing its way through cracks and out into the piercing night air. A small change in the wind caused them both to shiver, but Malfoy pretended he felt nothing in order to feel superior. Hermione Granger, however, did not feel this pressure, but instead felt the need to prove herself. And so, she threw her chaotic hair into a ponytail, tugged the zipper of her hoodie up higher and strolled purposefully forward (well as purposefully as one can when crossing a ravine).
She knew it was dangerous. Wasn't that the point? She had fully understood the risks of this task back at the Ministry when she had volunteered at first; and then when Malfoy had forced his way to her cubicle, asking her why, she knew it was dangerous. There was more than just the risk of falling involved here. Somewhere, in between these crinkled ridges, was the cavern holding another part of Voldemort's severed soul. She said she would help, and here she was, helping. If that cost her broken bones, bruises, or a life lost, then that was no matter in relation to the cacophony of disaster in the world at that moment.
Malfoy trailed behind her, not unwillingly, but watching her step in case she should fall. He wasn't displeased to have to her a partner in this, she was an extremely capable witch, but there was the matter of strength. He hauled himself across to the next rock, while she sidestepped to one just beside him, wobbling ever so slightly. She paused in her movements, flexing her jaw in thought.
"You okay, Granger?" he asked.
"Just thinking," she replied easily, completely unfazed by the situation. Or at least sounding so. And yet, here she was thinking again. Not doing, but thinking. "Easiest way up; what do you reckon?" Her head spun around to face Draco, tendrils of her ponytail snapping in the light breeze. He glanced back towards the waterfall, the gushing water, and the rocks that glistened from damp in the moonlight. But there was one patch which would not be so treacherous.
"Up the middle," Malfoy responded, thinking it over a second and third time.
In the far left and the far right were the two main faucets of high-velocity water, spooling out over unforgiving and uneven rocks. Through the centre it was still tricky, but they were far less likely to be overpowered by currents in this route. Therefore, slightly more favourable.
"That's what I was thinking," Hermione agreed. She spared a look for the tall man beside her, finding comfort in his company for the first time ever. Because at least he was there, just in case. Just as she was there, in case something were to go wrong for him. "Have you got the head torch?"
Malfoy patted his pocket with his free hand. "Why do I have to wear this ridiculous thing?"
"Says the wizard wearing jeans for the first time," she murmured. "We need to look like hikers, and a wand is going to unfamiliar to others if we get... Stuck. We can't afford am enquiry."
"I know. Okay."
He pulled the torch from his pocket, tucking his wand in his back pocket in the meantime. Following in Hermione's suit, he snapped the elastic over his head and clicking the button at the top. Light spilled out in front of him, pale blue in colour.
"Nox."
The bright glow from the head torches was surprisingly more effective than their wands, but Draco paid no attention to this fact. He was focused on his feet, and of the psyching up Hermione was doing. Instead of commenting on her mutterings, he began to assess the path to take him closer to the falls. The best way forward was to go with some level of confidence.
Hermione watched him carefully for a moment in her peripheral vision, then took her first step onto a rock to the left of hers, water spilling over her worn-out trainers. She was front, and intended to stay that way. It wasn't a race, but it certainly was a matter of principle; she was proving something to Malfoy. She wasn't going to be cocky about it, because that attitude causes mistakes. So, when she wobbled over the uneven surface, she corrected, ignoring Malfoy's sharp intake of breath. It wasn't easy, but wasn't that the point? There was something about the task of scaling a waterfall that made her feel a little bit alive.
But something was wrong. She'd taken a step too far, not planned the route properly. While Malfoy clutched onto a corner of a shimmering rock, steadying himself, she was stuck. She couldn't move forwards. Not safely, anyway.
"You'll have to move back to go forwards," Malfoy uttered into her thoughtful silence. "Let me help you, hang on." He shuffled around to her direction with ease, feet spread out.
"Or I could just walk into the river," Hermione suggested.
"You'd get wet, and then you'd slip."
The unspoken truth hung between them. Then I'd die, she thought. Malfoy studied her features, half of them cast into dramatic shadows from the head-torch.
"Come this way."
He held out a hand, which she took, albeit reluctantly.
Neither of them mentioned the aching spark that rushed between their clasped fingertips, because they both suspected it was charged with adrenaline and fear. Fear they pretended wasn't really there. Draco's chest was tight and heavy, while Hermione ignored the lunch in her navel, not dissimilar from that associated with apparition.
They were too close, she noticed. The wind was practically a breath between them. It wasn't safe and she was still holding Malfoy's hand. She let go, veered too far to the right, and suddenly his arm was tight around her waist.
"After you, Granger," he muttered, letting go. She shifted around, stepping out onto the next rock, heart thumping uncomfortable against her rib age. And they weren't even at the climbing part yet.
Tired, limbs aching, and feet protesting, they stood at the base of the waterfall.
"Don't stare at my arse," Hermione instructed.
"Only if you stop being such a tease," Malfoy countered. She rolled her eyes in response.
Once she managed to ignore that Draco was behind her, it was easier than she had expected. The rocks weren't as slippery as they should have been, and her hand found the grip without thinking too much. She didn't look down, too frightened that she might lose where she was going. Instead of suffocating her, the damp air loosened her lungs and opened them up. It was a good feeling, especially coupled with the adrenaline coursing through her. And yet, tension was thick around them. It was a palpable thing.
It was cold. Hermione began to notice her fingers more, and how very stiff they were in every movement, even with the gloves she was wearing. Soon they would be nothing more than senseless extremities, no more useful than attached twigs.
But she was close to the summit. So damn close.
"Hermione!"
Her hand had fallen from the edge, water pouring over it and making the surface too shiny to hold onto. It splashed into her face, choking her, but she could see the horizon! It was there, just so close! Blood doused the rocks from the open cut on her palm, turning the water a sickly red, a tear in her gloves. The smell itself was foul, coppery.
But then her foot slipped.
The rock lip beneath it crumbled away, shattered by hydraulic pressure. She wasn't aware whether she was screaming or not, but she was holding on. She knew that much. With her left hand, and her left leg, she was holding onto anything she could. Because there was nowhere for her to go. Clinging on, because her life really did depend on it.
"Hold on, Hermione!"
"What the bloody hell do you think I'm doing?"
"There's somewhere you can out your foot. Look, to your right a bit - no, further along." Found it. "Okay?" She didn't think that required a response, crawling half-ashamed over the final rocks and into a shallow pooled that filled and emptied continuously. Malfoy leaped over the top, showing off, and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.
Although they may have been standing on top of a waterfall, the view that met them was even more impressive. An expanse of rock, moss threaded around the harsh landscape, glistening in the moonlight, and shimmering from the sudden burst of pale blue from their head-torches.
"You can take that thing off," Hermione told him, admiring the scene before them. "You look ridiculous."
"Knew it," he muttered.
"Lumos."
"Any idea where it is?"
"It's a hidden cave, Granger."
He watched her retreating back as she stormed off into the darkness, wand aglow, muttering, "We're supposed to work together, you prat."
The comment made him smirk.
Malfoy didn't dare to think of her hauling herself up the waterfall, and consider her strength; how his entire body had seemed to seize up when she lost her grip. Maybe Hermione Granger was brave. Maybe she was strong. Maybe she had always been these things, and he had known this in the back of his mind - the smallest, and the quietest corners of it. But he knew that he had completely underestimated the effect she had on him.
She was a small beacon of bobbling light in the distance.
Clouds silently rolled over the two explorers, as if moving the bedclothes of the slumbering night sky. The evening was a restful one, in which the campers slept soundlessly down in the lush valley, and no birds skittered between the crinkling caverns as they would on any other night perhaps. Being further away from the quiet was fortunate for their surroundings. The murmurings of the explorers were not heard by those around them. Not that they would have understood anyway.
"Accio Horcrux!"
"That was your big idea?" Hermione asked, incredulous. "Did you even listen to what Harry said?
"Worth a shot. Now I'll try the proper stuff."
"Proper stuff, who even are you?"
"Shh!" She began to splutter and shout in earnest, indignant, but Malfoy pressed his hand over her mouth. Voices. Her eyes widened. They were coming from just over the next set of rocks, humming and chuntering unrecognisable words. Draco hissed, "Stay here."
"Like hell," Hermione responded in kind, pushing past him to find a good enough vantage point.