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Chapter 1: Left Alone
Leaves rustling.
Birds screeching; their wings fluttering madly as they tried to escape.
The furious wind blowing madly as it stripped her of her strength and courage.
Hermione felt and heard these things only as she pelted through the forest, her heart racing, tears of fright and shock flooding down her dirty cheeks.
It was the fourth this week, and it was by far the biggest and the worst. The once proud forest housing millions of creatures now no longer stood with pride. Most of the trees were uprooted, bent in awkward angles, their leaves rotting horribly on the ground; the forest was dead.
Hermione struggled to run. Her breath came in short jagged pants as she slowed down to a stop, surveying her surroundings around her.
She was lost, wandless and friendless. She was alone in this god-forsaken forest.
The sudden sound of hurried footsteps reached her ears, and she snapped around, blindly hoping that it was a member of the Order, or someone she knew.
It was someone she knew alright, but she wished it was someone she did not hate.
At first she did not recognise him. His hair was matted with leaves, twigs and dirt, the blonde barely showing; his normally pale skin was likewise coated in brown and black, and his eyes, normally so haughty and arrogant looking was reduced to nothing but one of fear and anxiousness.
His grey eyes caught her own brown ones at the same moment.
"Malfoy?" She whispered.
---
The prime minister, for the first time, found himself staring hopefully at the dirty old portrait that hung permanently in his office. There have already been too many casualties, on both sides.
The number of 'natural' disasters that hit every country on the globe couldn't be counted with his fingers or toes. There were simply too many. And they were all too strong.
He paced around, not bothering to sit at his comfortable leather chair behind his desk. Even now, hours and hours later, he could still feel the trembles and shakes he had experienced before.
It was a nightmare.
Floods, hurricanes, tornados, wild storms, earthquakes, avalanches... all of these catastrophes had occurred almost simultaneously, and the people had barely enough time to recompose themselves before another disaster stroke. Millions of homes, buildings, forests have been destroyed. Mountains became valleys; villages buried; islands drowning in water, he found it hard to recognise even his own street.
The fire in his fireplace suddenly turned bright green, and a tall man gracefully dusted his robes as he stood in front of the prime minister.
Turning to look at the minister of magic, the prime minister recognised the same look on the other man's face; he saw it every morning in the mirror. It was etched with worry, sorrow, grief- not a flicker of hope remained on that weather beaten face.
"You requested a meeting?" The Minister of Magic asked, his voice uncharacteristically rough.
"Yes, I did. I have a proposal to make." The muggle gestured for the wizard to make himself at home, though he himself still paced on the thread-worn rug.
"A proposal, prime minister?"
"Yes. I think it is time for muggles to know about the existence of magic folk. I believe it is a time for unity. The forces of nature are fighting up against all of us. We need to help each other in order to survive." The Prime Minister knew that the other man was just as busy as he was, so he did not waste any time cutting the chase.
"You think it wise to spring this information on grieving, shocked muggles?" There was no doubt, the Minster of Magic thought him as crazy. He thought he was kneeling over from the pressure and the pain.
"Yes." The Prime Minister said firmly, "I do. If we cannot co-exist on this planet if everybody knows the existence of each other, we will crumble. I think both sides have faced enough pain, it is time we get to the bottom of this matter and unite."
The Minister of Magic sighed deeply. He saw the logic in his words, but still... how would the muggles react? How will the wizarding folk react? They needed to unite together to fight this through, but can magic folk live side by side peacefully with non-magic folk?
He nodded hesitantly, "I see your point. Have you discussed this with any of your colleagues?"
The Prime Minster shook his head. "I needed your permission first, and I need evidence."
The Minister of Magic stood up abruptly. "I will give this proposal serious consideration. I agree that it is time muggles and wizards unite. But I will need a vote on this."
The Prime Minister watched as the man stood into the fireplace and disappeared.
He hoped the wizarding community supported him, without each other, the human race- and all the other living, breathing creatures- will die.
That was certain.
---
Ron's red hair stuck up wildly as he thrashed in his brother's arms.
"LET ME GO!" he shouted, his face screwed up in worry and anger.
Percy held him strongly. "The wind is still raging out there, Ron. Hermione is a clever witch, she will be fine."
Ron struggled against his brother, his eyes welling up as he thought about Hermione, all alone, wandless and probably-he choked- buried under tonnes of earth.
Harry, on the other hand, was dealing with the shock of returning and finding that Hermione had disappeared by sitting on the hard wooden chair, biting his lip in frustration.
"We need to find her," Harry said suddenly, jumping to his feet. He couldn't bear the thought of them just sitting around when she needed them. He needed to do something. Anything.
Ron stood still, breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself. "I'm going," he said roughly, brandishing his wand. Percy stood by and let him rush after Harry, he scribbled a note and rushed out after them, the door banging shut as he did.
---
"Don't you have a wand, mudblood?" Malfoy asked, the horrible name coming out of his mouth as easily as he would mutter a spell.
Hermione ignored him, still attempting to make the wood burn. She gripped the dry stick between her hands and tried to rub it against another to create sparks.
"Look, neither of us wants to be with each other, but at least answer me!" Coarse hands shook her rather violently. Hermione shook his hands off, tears threatening to flow again as she did so.
"Leave me alone." She whispered, no longer having the strength to retort back.
But Malfoy wouldn't give up.
"You're a mudblood, yet you don't know how to set up a fire? I thought you had to do this every day?" He drawled, obviously enjoying watching her in discomfort.
She leant back onto a trunk of a fallen tree, wishing that he would just go away and leave her alone. She cursed herself for being foolish, leaving her wand behind when she decided to take a walk through the forest, even though all these disasters were happening on a daily basis. She hated herself for being so stupid; she was Hermione Granger, for god's sake. She was the brightest witch of her year.
At least, she thought she was.
She bit the inside of her cheek and tried to ignore the sounds of her stomach rumbling.
To her surprise, Malfoy threw a berry at her. She picked it up and looked at it carefully. She peeled its skin off and rubbed it against her skin. She didn't feel anything, but to be on the safe side she decided to wait ten minutes before rubbing the fruit against her lips.
"Eat it, it's not poisonous," Malfoy said, popping one of the red berries into his mouth. "I've been living on these for the past weeks."
Suddenly grateful at him, Hermione seized the berry and devoured it hungrily. It was sour, but edible, with a hint of sweetness.
Like Malfoy, she thought, I guess he could be nice.
A thought suddenly occurred to her, "why're you here?"
He turned to look at her. Hermione froze at the sight of his eyes. They were a pair of empty, cold and emotionless eyes. His muscles around his mouth tightened, as did his whole body.
"Butt out, Mudblood." He said harshly, before getting to his feet and walking away.
Hermione heard him thrash angrily, upsetting piles of leaves and snapping twigs as he wandered aimlessly around, stomping his feet in frustration.
She saw it happen before he heard it.
The ground trembled; the forest litter shuddered; Mounds of earth was falling seemingly from the sky. The first of the earth hit mere metres away from her. Hermione, shaking, sprang to her feet and looked for somewhere to hide.
It didn't take her long to find a perfect spot. There, lying almost out of side was a small cave. She darted towards it, dodging the earth as it fell.
Just as she reached it, she glanced back. To her horror, she saw a large piece of earth struck Malfoy in the head. Without a second's hesitation, Hermione abandoned all thoughts of leaving him to die and battled her way across.
"M-Malfoy!" She shouted, seeing him fall down, hard.
She shook him roughly, and when he didn't respond, she draped one of his arms around her shoulder and dragged him towards the cave.
Gods he is heavy! Hermione thought, panting with the effort. He better be grateful.
She dropped him, rather forcibly onto the damp ground. He stirred feebly.
He spoke the words Hermione was thinking without knowing it.
"We...need...to get ...to Hogwarts," he mumbled, his hands touching the wound on his forehand gently. Blood matted his fingers, but the wound wasn't big.
Hermione took off her cloak and ripped a small portion of it. She wrapped it around his head, to try and stop it from bleeding any further. "I know," she whispered, looking out to see the earth still raining down. The cave walls echoed the thunderous sounds, she shivered.
"Just so you know, we're even now, Mudblood." Malfoy said, returning to his former self.
Hermione gritted her teeth, "I know," she repeated. But this time her tone was forceful, and it showed her anger and frustration.
"Good, because we'll be staying the night together if this carries on." He said, his eyes showing no sign of amusement.
Hermione wasn't amused either. But what choice did they have?
"I know." She muttered.
It was going to be a nightmare.
So? Was it good? Bad? Atrocious?