A/n- Written for The Ultimate Battle Competition! This is an idea I'd been toying with for a long time, and I finally managed it!
Disclaimer- Yeah, sure!
In The Forest.
They walked in silence, her hand clutched in his.
They'd been walking together for so long now that their strides matched each other and their footsteps were aligned.
They walked in between lanes of drying up trees; the approaching winter had leaves falling like rain. Slowly they navigated through the leafed ground mixed with some snow that survived still from the light snow fall last night.
Their fingers intertwined, they would've made a perfect picture of a happy couple strolling carelessly in a park.
But there was nothing happy or careless about Harry Potter and Hermione Granger as they walked down the woods towards the stream for a place to rest their tent.
Looking for a piece of land they could call home for the next few days.
She held on to his arm with both her hands, one holding his and the other around his elbow, while he held a wand in his other hand.
A wand that didn't belong to him.
For anyone watching from a distance, they would make a picture of complete serenity. They would seem almost happy, but not completely, as if there was something missing.
As if there was someone missing.
They both knew in their hearts that they were missing a piece of the puzzle that was them; they were missing a certain redhead, who completed their triad of foolish bravery.
They didn't look alarmed, troubled or on guard. They walked without making an effort to not make noise as they crunched dried leaves under their feet.
It was as if they didn't expect the world to find them here, didn't expect anyone to be watching. It was as if they didn't expect trouble.
Little did they know that trouble was expecting them.
The slight wind made her hair fly; it also bought a chill with it that made her huddle a little closer to him.
She looked above, her brows furrowing as she saw the clouds in the not so distant sky.
The sky was slowly growing darker, even though it was mid afternoon; it appeared as if night was approaching fast and hard.
Somehow, it seemed appropriate, because just like the sky their lives too were taking a turn for the dark.
"It looks like it's going to rain," she said, softly. So softly, she wasn't sure he heard her until she saw his chin drop in a nod.
"Let's get settled before it starts," he said, and after long days of silence and single-word whispers, it felt comforting to hear his voice.
The voice he used to speak with, the voice that had teased her, calmed her down.
A voice that felt like home to her.
The slight breeze had now taken a thunderous form, it blew faster by the second and the temperature was dropping fast. They both walked a little faster, shivering in their three sweaters and a cloak each.
Her hair was now out of bounds making her regret her decision of leaving them free. She unconsciously tightened her hold on his hand and snuggled closer as he instinctively leaned a little towards her.
They reached a little tree-less land near a water pond, though the pond was frozen because of the cold.
The temperature kept on dropping through the whole time they spent trying to pull the tent together, it was hard to be apart enough to pull it out of the back, the numbness that spread through her veins when he let go of her was something she would think about for a long time.
They had only managed to pull up the tent when she felt the silence asphyxiating her, she felt the lack of sound claw at her chest, and she was astonished to find that this suffocation was nothing new.
She had no control over herself as she spoke, "The cold arrived so suddenly, didn't it?"
He looked surprised to see that she was talking about something as mundane as the weather when their lives were on a downwards trajectory.
"Ye...Yes," he said, with a little smile, "Too bad we can't blame this one on Voldemort, too."
She laughed, but her laugh was cut short by a voice from behind them.
"Then it's a good thing you won't be feeling it for a very long time, isn't it?"
They turned around, all signs of humour disappearing to find three men, dressed like hunters standing in front of them, with a huge grin on all their faces, as if they knew they were going to win.
Hermione dishearteningly realised that they were probably right, because all of them with three wands, and them with only one were extremely awful odds.
In a sudden flash, Harry was in front of her, with his wand out, protecting her. Hermione knew it made sense, considering that he was the one who holding her wand, but she still felt helplessness in her bones at her inability to protect herself.
The men in front of them had smiles on her faces; they didn't have their wands out, and looked mildly surprised that Harry chose to fight.
And that was when Hermione realised that the odds weren't as bad as she'd assumed.
Hermione realised that even though they had more wands, she and Harry had something they apparently lacked, intelligence.
To prove to them that Harry and Hermione weren't going down quietly, to use Dumbledore's words, Harry yelled out at the snatcher in the middle, "Stupefy,"
He hadn't realised what was happening and the snatcher fell down on his back when Harry's powerful curse hit him.
He didn't get up again.
The one on the right was faster, he pulled out his wand to fight Harry, while the third one still struggled to get his wand out of his cloak pocket.
Hermione was pretty sure he never had to before.
To Harry's and the snatchers' surprise, Hermione ran to the left towards him, and kicked the wand he had just pulled out before he could even hold it correctly.
Hermione then kicked him in a very sensitive area between his legs, like her mother had told her to do if someone ever bothered her in the wrong way.
She would have to thank her mother, if she ever got to see her again.
But unlike her, Harry wasn't having much luck.
Hermione was surprised to see that the snatcher still held his wand, she soon, realised, as the curse Harry very narrowly managed to divert a curse towards a tree, turning the ebony coloured branches to a charred black.
She soon realised why.
The wand wasn't working for Harry, it hadn't chosen him of course, and Hermione realized how right Olivander had been all those years ago.
Harry looked at her, tensed because he too, had realised this, then he did something she never expected him to do.
He threw the wand in his hands towards her and ran towards the forest. Hermione realised he trusted her to save them, and for the first time, she realised how well they worked together.
She caught the wand, and before the stunned snatcher could do anything, she actually stunned him, running behind Harry towards the tent.
"Come on," he screamed at her, managing to take a hold on the tent.
She took his hand and they apparated to another forest far, far away.
That was her best memory from the time she spent with Harry in the forest.
A/n- I'd love to know what you thought about this!