A/N: I know! I haven't updated in awhile, I'm sorry! I've been so busy with my story for the local contest. Speaking of which.. it won Grand Champion as well as First Place! :D
Anyway, I'll try to update all of my stories as best as I can.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, I would be both rich and famous, which I am not.
May the odds be ever in your favor,
~*Writergurl24*~
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Ch. 4: Complications
Hermione gazed up at the night sky, watching the replay of Blaise's drowning. Mixed feelings arose in her. She was still confused as to why Malfoy had taken the knife for her, but she couldn't say she regretted that he did. She wondered if it was some sort of trick that he was playing on her. Maybe he was trying to earn her trust just to betray and kill her.
There came a slight rustling to her left and she looked over to find the Ferret Prince himself awake. His blonde hair was mussed up, much to her amusement, and he looked like hell. He groaned and held a hand to his wound.
She stood and made her way to the supply of healing herbs that she kept and proceeded to retrieve the objects he would need to re-dress his wound.
"Here, you can re-dress your own wound," she muttered, thrusting the leaves and sap towards him. He took it and gave her a look.
"I saved your life and you don't seem to care," he mused, taking the supplies. He peeled off the blood-soaked leaf and began to apply the new one.
"Oh, I care. Excuse me for not trusting you after you've terrorized me my whole childhood. And now you suddenly think that after taking a knife for me everything will be fine and dandy? I don't think so," she snapped.
"Someone's got her knickers in a twist," he said smugly. She glowered at him.
"Don't think for a second that you have any effect on my knickers," she snapped, turning away and beginning to spread marigold juice on her own wound.
"Someone seems defensive," he sneered. She turned around, her eyes blazing with anger. A small tongue of flame sprang to life on her hands, provoked by her anger.
"I am a millisecond away from cremating you, Malfoy. Shut your overly large mouth and maybe I'll let you live," she snarled. He backed away, his hands held up in surrender.
"All right, all right," he muttered, putting his hands back down and proceeding to remain silent.
Hermione went about arranging the moss and leaves on the floor of her makeshift bed underneath the tree's roots, trying to get comfortable for the night. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in Merlin knew how long, so she was ready to sleep. Malfoy crawled into the crevice and lay next to her, his body turned away. She made sure there was as much room as possible between the two of them before falling asleep.
The morning dawned, gloomy and cold and Hermione awoke in her makeshift bed among the tree roots. She began planning for the day in her head. She would go out and find some food, redress her wounds and then maybe go on the offensive… She stopped, a feeling suddenly engulfing her. Something didn't seem right… She pushed the feeling to the back of her head and continued planning her day.
She rolled over and came face to face with a sleeping Draco Malfoy.
Her plans, at least of going on the offensive, were now invalid. She couldn't go on the offensive while trying to treat her wounds, as well as his. Maybe if she finished him off here… but no, she couldn't do that. He had saved her life for Merlin knew what reason, and it was only fair for her to return the favor.
She sighed in annoyance and got up, making her way out to the small pool of water that sat next to the large tree. She kneeled beside it and began washing her face and her hair. She combed her fingers through the long, curly strands, trying to detangle the bushy mess.
When Malfoy crawled out from the tree roots, his hair disheveled from sleep, she was sitting, trying to dry her hair in the invisible sun.
"Granger," he said, greeting her curtly.
"Malfoy," she greeted him with a slight nod of her head.
He made his way to the pool and began to wash up as she had. Hermione stopped, an epiphany revealing itself to her. She was certain why she had felt the feeling that something wasn't right this morning. She stood to her feet and looked around, trying to quiet her breathing and tune her ears to her surroundings.
"Granger, what—" Malfoy began, but she shushed him, putting a finger to her lips. He quieted, controlling his breathing too.
It was then that she heard it, the dreadful ring of silence. No birds chirping. No animals making their way through the brush. No crickets. No cicadas. Even the wind seemed to be keeping a low profile, not stirring the leaves at all.
The forest seemed to be empty of prey.
"The game, it must be messing with us. Taking away a food source to see how we survive," Hermione said, cursing quietly. She only hoped the game hadn't made the fruit disappear too. She mentally kicked herself for not stockpiling the food. She had suspected something like this would happen.
"We've got to go look for food," Hermione declared. "I'm not sure when the game will bring the animals back, so we need to stockpile as many fruits, vegetables, and edible plants as we can."
"Granger, I can't exactly go prancing through the forest with this injury," he argued, gesturing at his stomach.
"Then I'll go alone. You can stay here," she said, beginning to make her way to the entrance of their camp.
"But, Granger, what about... I mean, Blaise and Millicent have probably re-entered the game by now and they'll be looking for you," he said. Hermione through she detected concern in his voice, but she knew that couldn't be right. Draco Malfoy would never be concerned about her.
"I'm a big girl, Malfoy. I can handle myself," she retorted.
She made her way out of the camp, but stopped when she heard footsteps behind her. Draco limped up to her, holding his wound gingerly.
"I could be of some use if you need to find a body of water or something," he grumbled. Hermione sighed in annoyance.
"Fine, come along, then! But if you collapse in the middle of the forest because your wound can't take all the 'prancing', don't expect me to help you," she snapped.
"Whatever," he muttered, "let's just get started already."
She began walking at a brisk pace, pulling ahead of him in annoyance. He easily caught up to her in a moment, and that made her even more mad, but she just kept walking. She stepped lightly on the ground, walking silently so as not to give away their location. Beside, her, Malfoy was trampling through the brush, probably scaring off prey from miles around. She stopped and touched his shoulder, signaling him to stop walking too.
" What is it now, your Highness?" he asked sarcastically.
"You're bumbling through the forest. I bet every prey for miles around knows we're in here. I know you're hurt, but could you at least try to be quiet?" She hissed indignantly. He sighed in annoyance.
"Merlin, Granger," he retorted sourly. "Fine, I'll take my trainers off. Happy?" he growled, stripping off his socks and shoes.
"Yes, I am," she snapped. "Oh, I might as well too, then."
She pulled off her shoes and socks. Once they were both barefoot, they began walking through the forest much more quietly. Hermione knew that Draco's wound was causing him to step a little heavier than normal and he was still making noise, however minimal, but she was grateful that it wasn't as loud as it had been before.
After a few minutes, they came across a coconut tree, which, to Hermione's delight, was loaded with the fruit itself, ripe and ready for harvesting. Draco walked forward and began clumsily shimmying up the tree. He made it up about a foot and then fell back down, his wound obviously deterring him from climbing.
"Don't be stupid, Malfoy. Let me climb. You're injured," argued Hermione.
"Granger, if I can tromp through the forest with an annoying, buck-toothed know-it-all, I think I can climb a tree," he retorted defensively.
"It's different! When you climb, your wound will be rubbing against the bark and could open and then there's a possibility of infection and that could lead to blood poisoning...," she trailed off.
"Well fine, then. If you're so clever, why don't you go and do it?" he snapped.
"Maybe I will!" she retorted, turning and facing the tree. She grasped a branch with both of her hands and began shimmying up the tree as Malfoy had. When she was not very far off the ground, a dreamy voice floated from the trees to her right.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Hermione pulled herself up onto a low branch and studied the area in which the voice had come from, trying to discern the speaker. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she just couldn't quite place who it was...
"Why not?" she asked curiously.
"Once you get to the top and grab the coconuts, you're going to fall. You'll end up breaking your leg, just a minor break, but still detrimental," murmured the voice.
Luna Lovegood stepped out from behind a tree and Hermione almost recoiled. Luna looked like a wild woman. Her platinum blonde hair was in snarls, embellished with a few leaves and twigs. Her clothes, a cardigan and blue jeans, were torn and dirty in several places. Dirt was smeared on her face, contrasting sharply with her pale skin.
"Luna!" Hemione exclaimed, sliding down from the tree and embracing her friend, who warmly returned the hug.
"What, you're going to trust this nutcase?" Draco asked rudely. "How did she know that you were going to fall?"
"Oh, I saw it," Luna said before Hermione could reply, as if that were the most obvious thing.
"You saw it?" Draco asked skeptically. Luna nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Oh, yes. It was dreadful. She had just grabbed one of the coconuts before losing her balance and falling. She landed at an awkward angle and it was pretty obvious that her leg was broken," she explained.
Hermione was puzzled. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought as she tried to understand what Luna was saying.
"But that didn't happen," Hermione argued, wondering if Luna had spent a little too much time in the sun.
"Oh, I know. Not yet, anyway," replied the blonde mysteriously.
"Not yet? Granger, she's off her rocker, she-" Hermione cut Draco off.
"Your power... do you the power of seeing into the future or something?" she asked cautiously. Luna nodded again.
"Oh, yes. It's come in handy quite a few times already. Just a few minutes ago, I had a vision that I would run into Cormac McLaggen if I continued the way I was going, so I went a different way," she explained, gesturing back the way she had come.
"What an interesting ability!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Wait, don't tell me you believe this nonsense, Granger? She could be spouting off a lie just to get us to trust her or something," Malfoy whispered heatedly. Hermione shot him a glare.
"Of course I believe her. Why would she need to lie? I already trust her. Maybe you don't, but I do," she snapped.
"You're going to be faced with your worst fear, you know," Luna murmured in her dreamy voice, directing the comment toward Draco. "Both of you. It will happen before sunset and it's the only way you can get food."
They both stared at her, their perplexity and confusion showing on their face.
"Well, I'd best be off. I sense something approaching, so I think I should run. You probably should too," She said in a cheerful tone as always, before darting to the left and sprinting through the trees. They both stared after her.
A rustling jarred them out of their reverie. Hermione froze and turned her head toward the source of the noise. The sound of twigs cracking and leaves crunching signaled the approach of something large... something very large. From the makeshift path that Luna had come from, a strange creature appeared. This creature had the head and forelegs of a lion, the body of a goat, and its tail was a very long, very vicious-looking python. Hermione gasped, recognizing the monster. It was a-
"Chimaera!" Hermione screamed, grabbing Draco's arm and beginning to sprint away from the creature, into the forest. "Do you believe her now?!"
"Oh, come on, Granger," he yelled back as they ran. "That was obviously a coincidence. There's no way that Lovegood could've-" he cut his sentence short and yelped in pain. Hermione glanced over her shoulder and found that he had stopped running and was now frantically patting at his head, trying to smother a tongue of flame that was quickly singing and burning his blonde hair. She snapped her fingers and the flame disappeared, leaving quite a large amount of his hair singed.
"My hair!" he moaned, pulling at his blonde tresses. "It's disfigured!"
"Oh, stop being dramatic," Hermione snapped, rolling her eyes. "It'll grow back. At least now we know that the Chimaera can produce fire...," she trailed off, her eyes growing wide. "That's it! Fire!" she exclaimed.
"What're you on about, Granger?" grumbled Draco, obviously still miffed about his singed hair.
"The opposite of fire is water!" she said excitedly.
"No, really?" He muttered sarcastically. "Your point is?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, come on, Malfoy. You can use your water ability to make sure it doesn't spit flames while I kill it with a fireball or something," she explained quickly.
"I'll admit, that's not a bad plan. It's worth a shot," he grumbled.
From behind them, they heard the Chimaera tromping through the brush, following their makeshift trail. This time, instead of running, they both turned and faced the creature as it emerged from the depths of the forest. Hermione flexed her fingers, making a tongue of flame dance to life in her palm. She glanced at Draco out of the corner of her eye and saw he did the same thing, making a ball of water form.
The Chimaera advanced on them, growling deep in its throat and baring some of the largest fangs that Hermione had ever seen. Its snake tail moved to face the two and hissed, showing off another set of fangs that Hermione knew to be venomous and fatal, should it bite.
Hermione stood her ground, glaring at the creature, refusing to retreat. Furious that she wasn't being as frightened as she should, the Chimaera opened its mouth and spat fire at her.
In that split second, Draco flung his ball of water, forming a high pressure jet of water that collided with the stream of fire, dissolving it. Draco didn't stop once the fire was gone, however. He thrust his hand forward, forcing the jet of water to shoot into the Chimaera's mouth.
Hermione took her cue as the Chimaera began to sputter and choke on the water. She aimed for its snake tail, which she guessed could probably spit poison as well as inject it, and flung her fireball at it. The fireball hit dead on and a flame danced to life, devouring the snake. She conjured another fireball, aimed it at the monster's chest, and shot it. The flame caught onto the Chimaera's fur and began spreading rapidly, greedily devouring the monster. The Chimaera gave a roar that was garbled by another mouthful of water and began twisting and turning, its hungry eyes now replaced with a panicked look.
In no time, the fire had eaten away at the monster's fur and was now licking its skin, greedily tearing its way through muscle and sinew. Hermione averted her gaze, the reek of burned flesh filling her nostrils, giving her a brief flash of déjà vu as she remembered Millicent's death. Though she knew it was just a game, the very concept made her stomach queasy. She leaned over and vomited on the forest floor.
"Blimey, Granger. You're a big, brave Gryffindor who faces off with Voldemort and the Death Eaters and here you are, spewing sick because you can't handle a monster burning," Draco sneered.
"It reminds me of Millicent...," she grunted, wiping sick from her lips.
"Oh, right, your first kill," he muttered.
She straightened up and took a breath.
"Let's just continue. Maybe we can find food in a less... dangerous place," she grunted, beginning to make her way back into the forest. Draco caught up to her and they walked in silence for a few minutes.
"What'd you think of Loony's prediction that we'll face our greatest fear?" he asked casually, kicking aside a rock.
"Luna, her name is Luna," Hermione growled, picking up her pace so that she walked in front of him.
"You didn't answer my question, Granger," Malfoy chided, easily keeping pace with her.
Hermione gritted her teeth and kept walking briskly.
"I think we'd better keep an eye out whether it's true or not," she muttered through clenched teeth.
"Fair enough," Draco agreed.
They continued walking through the forest, both growing increasingly frustrated when they couldn't find any other signs of food.
"We're going to starve to death in this damn arena," Draco growled in frustration. He kicked at a fallen log and then yelped out in pain, letting out a stream of profanities.
"If I'm going to starve to death, I'd rather it not be with you," Hermione muttered under her breath.
"Wow, I'm flattered, Granger," Malfoy snorted.
Several sparks of fire leaped off of Hermione's hand, conjured by her angry disposition.
"Just shut up, Malfoy."
"Touchy, are we?"
Hermione opened her mouth to deliver a sharp retort, but stopped, her words stuck in her throat as she stared ahead.
"Granger, what-" Malfoy started, but Hermione held out her hand, signaling him to be quiet. She pointed to the fronds of a palm tree, which rose up far above the others. The first thing that was quite noticeable about this particular palm tree was the extremely large coconuts that grew on it.
"You've got to be joking. Granger, that tree is huge. It would take forever to climb and if we fell...," he trailed off, his tone implying the repercussions.
"It's better than starving to death," Hermione grumbled.
"But it's-" Draco began to argue, but Hermione cut him off.
"If it makes you feel any better, I can climb up for find a way to get the fruit down," Hermione proposed.
"Fine," muttered Draco.
With that, they began making their way forward toward the towering tree.
As soon as they stepped out of the brush and neared the trunk of the tree, they were greeted with a nasty surprise.
Hermione froze. There before them were two creatures. One, with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, and the other was a huge snake with three heads.
"A Sphinx and a Runespoor," Hermione breathed.
"Great," muttered Draco, "Remind me not to follow along with your ideas in the future, Granger."
"What's wrong with you?" she snapped back.
"I'll have you know that I am deathly afraid of Runespoors," Malfoy retorted in a heated whisper.
Hermione stopped and stared at him, her eyes wide. She had just realized something.
"Granger? I know I'm a hell of a sight, but you can stop staring now. It's starting to creep me out," Malfoy said, smirking. Hermione scowled and shook her head.
"I wasn't staring at you. I just realized something. Luna said that we'd both face our worst fears in order to get food...," Hermione whispered, trailing off.
"Blimey...," Malfoy whispered. "That's bonkers. How could she have known...," he trailed off.
"I dunno. Let's just find a way past them, get the food, and get out of here," Hermione whispered determinedly.
"Whatever, let's just make a plan."
"Fine, here's the plan: we split them up and fight them individually," Hermione whispered confidently.
"What? Granger, are you mad?" Draco whispered defiantly.
"No, Malfoy, I'm not. See, when they're together, they're stronger. When they're separate, however, they are weaker," she reasoned.
"Yeah? Well, so are we. If we split up now, we'll have no chance of defeating them," Malfoy argued, his voice rising.
"Just listen to me," Hermione pleaded. "Luna said we'd face our worst fears in order to acquire food. If that's true, then we need to face our own fears by ourselves," Hermione explained.
"Fine," grumbled Draco. "It's a better plan than I have. We might as well go along with it."
"All right, well... good luck," Hermione whispered before ducking out from behind the bushes. She clenched her fingers, making a fireball dance to life.
"Hey, you old bimbo! Over here!" Hermione yelled, waving her fireball about, hoping to catch the attention of the Sphinx.
She caught the attention of the Sphinx all right, but also of the Runespoor.
"Malfoy, don't just stand there! Do something!" Hermione screamed, backing away from the tree, diagonal to the bush she had emerged from.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Draco pelting the Runespoor with balls of water, trying to attract its attention. It turned on him, slithering in his direction. He stood completely still, his hands beginning to shake. Hermione had to look away from Draco because the Sphinx was rapidly advancing on her.
Soon enough, she was back in the forest again, feeling as if she were trapped because of the plethora of trees surrounding her. She continued backing up until she felt the rough surface of the tree bark pressing into her back. The Sphinx padded up to stand in front of her, then to her surprise, sat down and started to speak.
"In order to proceed further, you must answer this riddle correctly:
First a beam of sunlight,
Then the middle of the end,
Together they make a king's might,
And the water the clouds send."
For once in her life, Hermione was unsure of the answer.
Draco pelted the Runespoor with water balls frantically, backing away into the makeshift path they had come from. It was several minutes before he realized that the only thing he was doing was annoying the creature. Every time a ball of water hit it, all three heads would hiss furiously and pause for a moment to regain their bearings before advancing once more.
He stopped suddenly, a flashback of his childhood parading before his eyes.
Draco made his way into the mansion, having arrived back from his fourth year at Hogwarts. The Crabbes had picked him up from King's Cross and were willing to drop him off at Malfoy Mansion. After all, the Crabbes' estate was not far away from Malfoy Mansion.
He paused before the grand staircase, hearing voices come from the basement below him. He hesitated, dropped his bag to the floor and crept down the stairs to the basement, the voices growing louder. He stopped at the foot of the stairs and peeked around the corner curiously. What he saw was an image that would haunt his memory forever.
His father sat on a chair, his arms and legs bound to it with tendrils of dark magic- the binding spell. Draco's eyes slid to a creature that stood before his father, a gigantic snake with three heads that hissed and spat at Lucius, its posture tensed as if it were waiting to attack. Behind the Runespoor stood the figure of a man that made Draco shiver in fear. The Dark Lord. He kept talking, obviously trying to worm information out of Lucius.
"You will find the location of the Order of the Phoenix or I may just let my little pet here feed on your flesh. You know that Runespoors are classified as highly dangerous by the Ministry of Magic?" hissed Voldemort. The Runespoors three heads hissed in unison as if affirming Voldemort's comment.
"Y-y-yes, M'Lord," Lucius stammered, his fear-filled eyes staring in terror at the creature.
Draco shook his head, trying to get the scene out of his memory. Rage boiled up in his stomach as he thought about the many years that Voldemort had blackmailed and threatened his family to do his biddy. Seven years of fury reached its boiling point within him and he thrust his hand forward, creating the largest ball of water that he ever had and let it envelope the monster, giving it no mercy, drowning it.
When he saw the monster within the ball of clear water stop squirming, he let the sphere of liquid fall to the ground with a crash, drenching the vicinity. He collapsed onto the ground, his energy having been exerted from the kill.
"What is your answer?" the Sphinx asked sharply.
"Give me a moment to think it through, please," grumbled Hermione. "A beam of sunlight... Oh, what's a synonym for beam?" she asked no one in particular. She felt very stupid, as if the answer were right in front of her and she simply could not see it.
"A beam... A beam... Oh! A ray! Is that it?" she asked frantically. The sphinx was silent, its cold, calculating eyes staring at her.
"Well, I'll move onto the next line. What was that again?"
" Then the middle of the end," the sphinx recited calmly.
"The middle of the end?" Hermione asked rhetorically, puzzled. "How can there be a middle of the end? That makes no sense at all. What are the next two lines?" she asked, feeling that this was going very wrong. She was the smart one, so shouldn't she know the answer?
"Together they make a king's might
And the water the clouds send," the Sphinx repeated.
"A king's might... water the clouds send...," Hermione murmured, thinking out loud. It was a few moments, but at last the pieces finally started fitting together.
"Oh! A beam of sunlight is a ray and the middle of the end... that must mean the letter 'n'. Put them together and you have a homonym, reign for a king's might, and rain for the water the clouds send. Am I correct?" Hermione asked tentatively.
The Sphinx looked at her with its cold eyes before blinking, standing up and moving aside.
"You have answered the riddle correctly," the creature declared. "You shall pass."
With that, the creature began to fade away, lines of static pulsing through its whole body like a television channel with a bad connection. In no time at all, it was gone completely.
Hermione glanced around for Draco, now aware that it was eerily silent. She crept back down to the makeshift path that they had come from, having seen him back away into it while fighting the Runespoor. She walked for a few minutes before coming upon Draco, who was curled up on the forest floor, breathing heavily, hardly able to move.
"Malfoy? she asked in a one word inquiry, kneeling next to him.
"I did it," he said, panting for air. "It's gone."
"I answered the Sphinx's riddle correctly. It's gone now," Hermione declared.
"Good. I guess Loony was right about us facing our worst fear."
"You're in no condition to retrieve the coconuts. I can get them," Hermione offered. Malfoy grunted and gingerly stood to his feet, staggering slightly.
"Fine, but it's a long climb, so... be careful," he muttered.
Hermione thought she detected concern in his voice, but she shook that thought aside. Draco Malfoy would never be concerned about someone else other than himself, much less her.
"I can't promise anything, but I'll try," she murmured.
They made their way back to the clearing with the palm tree. Hermione let out a breath of air before finding some foot holds against the tree, balancing her weight against it, and beginning to climb.
It took nearly twenty minutes, but at last she reached the top. She proceeded to separate the coconuts from the tree, letting them drop down to where Draco was waiting below to catch them.
"Hey, Granger, you'd better come down here. There's something you should see," Malfoy called up to her. With a puzzled look, Hermione began climbing down, able to see two vague figures.
"'Mione? What're you doing here? And why are you with Malfoy?" asked a familiar voice. As soon as she reached the base of the tree, she recognized the figures immediately.
It was Harry and Ron.
Hey guys! Sorry this chapter is so late and I'm so sorry I haven't been updating regularly! My senior year has been incredibly busy. I really hope you enjoyed it and I will try to update more often!
Creatively yours,
~*Writergurl24*~
