Chapter1!
Title: 'The Right Questions'
Note:
After seeing Deathly Hallows Part One twice already, I decided that the chemistry between Scabior (the attractive, long-haired snatcher) and Hermione, though practically one-sided, would be intriguing to write about.
This'll be a short-ish fic with short-ish chapters.
Set in a slight AU where after Harry, Hermione, and Ron had visited Xenophilius Lovegood they had actually managed to get away from Fenrir, Scabior, and the other snatchers just before they were about to be escorted to the Malfoy mansion and were still travelling the countryside for some time longer.
First Harry Potter fic.
….
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Enjoy!
…
…
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
The dark figure fell onto his knees with a weak grunt of disagreement.
Three other silhouettes caught up to it, their wands pointed at him.
A hurried whisper and little flash of blue light later and the kneeling figure fell over onto the forest floor paralyzed.
All three of the chasers walked up to the slumped figure, surrounding it loosely.
"Now what do we do?" Ron asked up, out of breath but still alert with the adrenaline rush from the chase.
"I don't know." Harry responded without really thinking, turning the wand in his hand nervously as he took a few steps left towards Hermione, leaves crackling under his sneakers.
He glanced at her.
Even if they'd been wandering the countryside for months because of him, his instincts still told him Hermione would know what to do, as they usually did.
He didn't know he was wrong this time.
She took a moment, staring unblinkingly down at the paralyzed man, her mouth slightly open before she found something to say:
"We need to make sure he wasn't followed. Go check ahead, I'll stay here."
"Alright." Ron agreed with a heave of breath just before he started jogging through the dark trees.
Harry hesitated before following his friend.
"You sure you're alright?" He asked Hermione, who still hadn't looked away from the motionless heap of a man.
"Yes." She answered, blinking her dry eyes and looking over to Harry for a moment, "Go help Ronald."
He gave her a moment longer of a glance and started jogging away as well.
A few seconds passed, the footfalls of her friends fading as she stood there in the dark breathing a little loudly having been unable to catch her breath until then.
She took a few steps toward the man, her wand still raised.
…
"Finite."
The previously motionless figure now turned on the ground gracelessly, sputtering coughs erupting from the form for only a moment.
The man turned over on his back lazily, letting his arms reach out to their full wingspan, his lungs could finally open wider and give him the oxygen he needed. He tiredly smiled up at the pitch-black canopy of trees dozens of feet above him. He hadn't looked at her yet, but he was all too aware of the young girl pointing her wand at him, slightly shaky about it.
He hadn't expected her to take off that jinx just now, so he found whatever scraps of manners a man like him knew.
"Thanks for that, gorgeous." His voice grunted as he finally lifted himself to his feet.
"What are you doing here?" She didn't seem to care about his thanks, or his compliment, but he couldn't be bothered by her rudeness when he was suddenly too busy picking out the orange-brown leaf bits from his long, messily tied, hair.
"What do you want with us?" She asked impatiently.
That woke him up from himself.
He looked up at the girl. She seemed to stiffen on the spot under his look. He couldn't hold back a smirk at that.
"What an interesting question…" He graded slowly. She didn't say anything. "Don't you remember who I am, girly?" He ran a hand over the top of his head, absent-mindedly slicking the long strands of hair out of his face.
She sneered at him, his smirk grew a little stronger in reaction.
"Of course I remember you." She nearly spat.
"That warms my heart." He said with a quick stab at humor, holding his ringed hand to the chest of his jacket.
"But you've been following us for days, haven't you?" She raised her voice, ignoring his comedy attempt.
Everything went quiet for a moment. She couldn't quite see in the dark, but she could swear he was smiling wider than ever now. She tried to ignore how nervous that made her feel. She forced herself to stand her ground when he took a few steps closer to her.
"Oh, so you caught on, did you?" He asked quietly. "What about your boyfriends? Do they know?" He was getting a little too close now. She held up her wand to his face.
He back away only momentarily, raising up his hands mockingly, his smile still strong.
"They aren't-" She almost argued the word 'boyfriends' before she stopped herself from being too childish, "Why have you been following us?" Her voice wavered.
"I'm a 'snatcher', darling. It's what I do." He chuckled as he said the words. She looked cute when she was nervous like this.
"Yes, but it's been days and you haven't done anything yet," she argued. "You've just been staying hidden all this time."
He suddenly felt as if she knew more than she let on.
"So if you aren't trying to snatch us, then what are you doing?" She seemed more confident now.
His smile resurfaced as he took another step closer, this time stepping to her left as to avoid the tip of her wand.
He leaned down to her slightly, testing how close he could actually get… he was surprised she let him get this close.
"Are you sure you're asking the right questions?"
She only gave him a sideways look, displaying her own version of aggressive curiosity.
He leaned into the darkness between them closer, she didn't pull away but her eyes only grew more hateful. She knew this man had trouble staying out of her space, but she didn't like it.
"Shouldn't you be wondering how I've been following you?" He pointed out slowly.
A moment later he could tell she was about to say something, he cut her off readily.
He leaned in much closer with a quick motion, "But, more importantly, the right question for me is: Why have you been letting me follow you?..."
…
She could feel the air of his words against the side of her face, she nearly shuddered.
A few seconds of silence passed between them, he could hear her breathing… it was a little too fast… she was a lot more nervous than she let on, but she was too stubborn to let him see that. He was starting to like her more and more.
She parted her lips as if she was about to say something, he was almost interested in what her answer might be, but he would never know what it was going to be.
"Hermione?" A younger male voice called from the forest behind him.
Before he could turn around to see which of the boys were running up, ready to hold up his arms and accept their arrest as he figured they would do, he noticed his feet weren't on the ground, the trees were rushing past him, the wind was roaring in his ears, and there was a sudden impact of the leaf-cushioned ground against his back.
He laid strewn on the ground for a few seconds, staring up in shock.
He finally got his bearings after a few seconds more.
A little annoyed by how easily he's been shoved around these last few minutes he sighed gruffly as he found his footing again, but he forgot his annoyance soon enough.
"Hermione!" A second voice called the girl's name.
His body, trained by years of sneaking around, immediately found an appropriately sized tree to hide behind. He pressed his slightly sore back against the bark, listening to the voices several meters away.
"What happened?" He recognized the voice of the Dark Lord's scarred nemesis.
The snatcher's hands curled into fists, the expression on his sharp features hardened, ready to spring into a sprint as soon as that girl told those two boys which way he'd gone.
"He-uh… he must've been protected by an anti-jinx…. He got away." The girl's voice explained falsely with a slightly shaky voice.
"What, really?" The ginger boy asked, worry in his voice. "I thought a snatcher would've been too dim to think of something like that."
"We should get back to the tent." The scarred boy suggested carefully.
The man hadn't really been paying enough to the ginger's words, or any words afterward, to feel insulted; he was too busy thinking about what that girl had just said.
He leaned the back of his head against the tree, looking up at the leaves.
Why would she do that?
Why would she lie like that?
Was she insane?
What's in it for her?
His hands loosened, but his features only grew tenser with suspicion and confusion.
There had to be a reason.
He heard the three sets of crunchy footsteps fading into the direction of their tent.
His posture lost its tension as he guessed he was free from capture again that night.
He tightened the burgundy scarf around his neck just as the wind picked up, the leaves flipping around the barely moonlit ground, burying the tips of his boots.
He looked over the sight in front of him, the dark winter forest. Snow hadn't fallen yet, but the wind was cold enough, a few leaves spun to the ground slowly. Everything farther than ten feet was pitch black. It was like the world just stopped… it mind as well should have… there was nothing out there for him anyways.
He craned his neck to his left, looking after the sounds of the footsteps. Still leaning on the tree he rolled onto his left shoulder.
He could see the faint glow from the little enchanted tent half a mile away.
The small world seemed a little bigger in that direction.
He pushed himself off the tree silently, tugging at the cuffs of his jacket to cover his icy palms with as much sophistication a man of his caliber could portray.
"Guess there isn't much else to do…" He made an excuse for himself as he started walking in the direction of that glowing tent, already scoping the area for any comfortable patches of leaf-cushioned roots to rest on. He considered himself lucky to be able to see the tent this time. He had sneaked inside the perimeter of the group's protective enchantments before they had been completely put up.
He slid his hands into his pockets as he walked closer thinking about why he was here.
He felt like an idiot for being here, but he wouldn't admit that to himself.
He just needed to keep an eye on the big prize till he got a new team.
…
Besides, he owed that girl now… he couldn't leave it at this.
His expression hardened again.
…
He found a good spot, a tree that had tall sloping roots. He slid down against the tree to sit gently on the natural chair. He leaned against the tree, looking up at the starry bits of night-sky he could spot between the canopy leaves. He watched his icy breath form little steam clouds above him.
He closed his eyes.
He listened to the garbled radio from the tent play some static-laced music. It didn't fit his taste, but it was better than silence. He heard the three inside the tent talking for a long time. A girl's laughter rang out for only a spare moment. He hadn't heard that sound from her before.
A smile pulled weakly at the corner of his lips, it disappeared only a second later.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Please review if you'd like to read more.
:)