Disclaimer: I don't own anything you may recognise. This is applicable to all the chapters of this fic.

Chapter One

Prompt No. 59 – 'Try Again'

It wasn't so much the fact they were running through Hogwarts in the middle of a full out battle that really got to Hermione, but more that they were running towards a bathroom to try to find a gigantic dead snake from which to gather fangs from. She had always tried to see reason in most of the situations they had been in over the last few months but as she felt herself be dragged along after Ron she couldn't shake the feeling of absurdity from her and felt that if she ever did get out of this situation alive she'd be lucky not to be mad.

Of course, she was used to it all now, and she did understand the logic in what she and Ron were doing but after everything that had happened it felt as if she were working in a daze, not really thinking about what it was she was doing, as if her body were separate from her mind and thoughts and was acting of it's own accord.

They managed to reach Moaning Myrtle's bathroom within a few minutes and ahead of Hermione, Ron burst in without a moments thought. Hermione followed a little more tentatively. No doubt that a trip into the Chamber of Secrets would be without some sort of problem. Problems seemed to follow them everywhere these days, not forgetting that the majority of them were life threatening.

Being in danger had become such a regular part of her life Hermione was used to feeling her heart thud in her chest and sick feeling of fear grip hold of her. It had become normal a feeling as being cold or annoyed or embarrassed or happy…

Ron was now over at the sinks apparently searching for something. Hermione wandered over, the urgency had now slipped from her and she gazed around the grubby bathroom wondering where Myrtle was. Perhaps she had left…get away from the war…or help fight. Hermione didn't know which option she preferred and was broken from her extremely irrelevant thoughts by Ron's optimistic shout.

"Found it!" Hermione walked over to where Ron was gazing down at one of the taps. A small etching of a snake was visible on one side. The tap seemed to glint in the flickering light of the nearby wall candle.

"Now what" she muttered staring at the snake as if it was going to move at any second.

"That's the problem," Ron said, grimacing at her and Hermione could see his mood deplete a little "You need to speak Parseltongue to open it". Hermione's heart sunk.

"What?" she asked, pushing her hair back. How on earth were they going to get in now? She wondered if Ron had thought of this when he suggested the Chamber of Secrets but kept the thought to herself as she stared at the tap trying to think of what to do. Perhaps they should go and find Harry she thought numbly trying to think of a solution.

Ron broke her from her thoughts again.

"I think I can do it". Hermione looked up at him.

"What? Really?" She frowned. How could Ron speak Parseltongue? Ron continued,

"When Harry opened the locket. He spoke Parseltongue then. I think I can say it now"

"Do you think so?" asked Hermione. In reality she didn't know how someone who had never spoken a language like Parseltongue could pick it up within such a short time but she didn't let Ron hear her thoughts. Perhaps there was a slim chance of it working…

Ron looked at her.

"Shall I give it a go?" Hermione paused for less than a split second before nodding her head.

"Try it".

Ron turned his attention back to the tap and stared at it. Hermione could see him trying to psych himself up as he rolled the words over in his head.

His first try sounded much like any Parseltongue Hermione had heard before but nothing happened. She glanced up to Ron.

"Try again" she whispered, not wanting to break the feeling of tension that had seemed to settle over the pair of them. Ron tried again, but again nothing happened. Hermione repeated herself but the third attempt merely caused Ron to sigh in frustration and slump back, dejected.

Hermione took a couple of steps further.

"Just try again Ron, one more try" she paused, still looking at him "I'm sure you can do this". Ron looked up at her and offered a half smile. Hermione looked at him. They had to get this to work. She knew it could work, that it would work. They just needed one more try… Ron nodded to himself as he turned back to the tap.

"Try again" he murmured to himself, and with a last heartfelt glance at Hermione that made her heart feel as though it were on fire he spoke the Parseltongue again.

Two agonising seconds passed before the sink sunk back into the wall. Hermione leapt up and spun round to face Ron, grinning.

"You did it" she breathed elated. Ron himself was grinning.

"Now we've just got to go down there, find the big dead snake and collect it's fangs. Piece of cake". Hermione just rolled her eyes at him, but inside her heart was thudding with excitement and a sudden ferocity she had never felt before.

Ron peered down the hole the sink had revealed, and with an excited smile on his face turned to look at Hermione.

"Let's go".

A/N: This fic is going to consist of a collection of oneshots, each based on a prompt from a table from 100promts (the link to which can be found on my profile page). Thank you to my beta spinkle22! Any reviews are much appreciated - Elle xx