In the Forest of Dean
Disclaimer: Not mine
Author's note: In the end, I still didn't manage to write as much as I hoped for – but this is the longest I've ever written. Still, sorry for the short chapters! Enjoy your reading! =)
Part 1
"Are we there yet?"
Hermione shoots an incredulous look at Ron who, in turn, looks at her expectantly. True, they have been walking for hours already towards the small village she promised them, but surely he can stand one more hour of waiting after weeks of wandering around?
"I'm tired, and I'm hungry!"
Apparently not.
"We'll be there soon," interjects Neville. Good old Neville who keeps them from fighting too much. And they try not to, because he doesn't like it and Neville deserves every bit of peace they can offer him, but it's hard to not get snippy when they spend all their time together – her father once told Hermione "You only get to really know someone when you travel with them"; and it's true, and the stress and the anxiety and the fear exacerbate every feeling, but then again Ron has always known how to push her buttons.
She sighs in relief when they finally reach the village, and hears the two boys behind her do the same. They have enough muggle money left to eat a warm and fresh meal after groceries shopping, and hopefully Ron won't complain in the next few days. Hermione plans on taking them to the haunted shack outside the village, to amuse them a bit, and then Neville inhales sharply.
Alarmed, Ron and Hermione follow his gaze, but don't notice anything. Neville is looking towards the market place, where the whole village seems to have gathered, but Hermione can't see any snatchers or Death Eaters, can't sense any magic around, and she has already opened her mouth to ask Neville when a young man turns from the fish stall to the fruit and vegetables one. She remembers seeing his picture in "The Rise and Fall of the Dark Lord", above the caption stating that he and his family died the same night as Neville's parents. In the picture, though, James Potter was older than they are now, and anyway he's dead, as is his son – and what was his son's name again?
XxX
They leave the village in the late afternoon, shadows extending across the street until only the roofs are lit by the setting sun. It's getting cold, and the group is still subdued after their almost-encounter with a ghost. Hermione knows that the Potters were good friends of the Longbottoms', and she thinks that Neville has probably seen a lot of pictures of them, and she doesn't know how it would feel to be the sole survivor of two tightly-knit families.
And then Neville stops and blurts out "His eyes were clear."
That doesn't make sense, thinks Hermione, because James Potter had dark eyes on the picture she saw. Neville has probably sensed her surprise, because he continues, "That guy at the market. He had clear eyes. And he was too young anyway, he can't be…"
But he can be someone else, and though it is more probable that a muggle happens to bear a strong resemblance to the old Potter family (after all, squibs often end up living in the muggle world), Neville seems to think not of James Potter but of another dead, the one who was only one day younger than him when he lived.
And she still can't remember his name, just his tiny fist closed around a corner of his mother's shawl and wondering how anyone could be capable of murdering a baby. She was only eleven, and knows better now.
XxX
The haunted shack outside the village has disappeared, was probably pulled down some time in the last few years, and Hermione regrets it; she used to go see it with her parents, and despite all her logical thinking when she was little she hoped to one day see a ghost through the broken windows. By now she has seen countless ghosts in Hogwarts, but having to resign herself to never knowing if the building really was haunted rankles. Where do ghosts go after their haunting place disappeared?
They disapparate.
