Hermione stirred into wakefulness feeling refreshed, half remembering a rather nice dream where the three of them were frolicking around on a beach. The marked lack of fear and exhaustion that usually accompanied waking up caused alarm bells to start ringing in the back of her mind. Adrenaline flooded her system as she struggled to keep her breathing even, and body from tensing.

Her eyes snapped open and she took in her unfamiliar environment, alien scents and sounds assaulting her senses. It took a couple of seconds for her steadily panicking mind to boot up, but eventually, she remembered the events of the previous day and slumped, boneless in relief. Feeling a bit giddy with the excess adrenaline coursing through her veins, she stretched lazily, taking in the details she overlooked in her panicking state.

It was a rather beautiful morning. Having spent the vast majority of her life in gloomy Scotland, she found the warm, sunny beach rather unfairly beautiful. Harry's unfortunate shelter-like structure held up she noticed. She reached and gave the misshapen wood an impressed pat. Good for you, she thought.

Her two companions were sleeping peacefully and she was loathe to wake them. Some extra energy will do us well, she mused, thoughts starting to sour as her mind sharpened. Forcibly keeping her mind on track, she thought about the agenda of the day. Some indeterminate time later, she was still lying there, head buzzing with plans made and discarded when Harry and Ron came to.

She was actually quite wary about this moment, and rightfully so. The boys were likely to react as she did, albeit with more aggression. Ron wasn't the problem, as he would feign sleep until he could asses the situation properly. No, it was Harry's potential reaction that had her concerned. He could be rather.. explosive at the best of times. With the recent power-up, his lashing out in fear could have disastrous consequences. So she kept a close watch on her friend, waiting for signs of wakefulness. As she suspected, he gave no outward sign of waking up, but his magic started to blanket the beach, trying to pinpoint the threat. She immediately started singing their lullaby loudly, hoping the familiar melody will ground him. Ron gave up his pretend sleep, and sat up quickly, having mostly figured out what was happening. His deep voice joined hers and soon enough they felt the somewhat oppressive blanket of magic ease up.

His brilliant eyes cracked open, lips twisted in a crooked grin.

"As cliché as it might be, have we considered this might be heaven? We tried to kill ourselves, and woke up together, on a beautiful, sunny beach. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, I'm feeling practically rejuvenated. I'm even pretty sure I didn't have any nightmares, and Merlin knows that hasn't happened since I was an infant."

Ron looked at him, puzzled. "Heaven is that Christian thing, yeah? Living on clouds with little chubby winged babies with bows and arrows? Hold on, is that something that people actually believe in? We all laughed ourselves silly when Dad brought it up."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a fondly exasperated look. "Never mind mate," grinned Harry at his friend. "I could try to explain, but I don't understand it completely myself, so Hermione would have to take over, and then we'd starve to death while learning Muggle comparative religion".

"Well," sing-songed Hermione, her smile saccharine sweet, "if you insist."

The two boys wisely decided not to pursue that train of thought any further.

The rest of the morning went by quickly for the trio. Harry and Ron executed another fish-catching maneuver, that resulted in a poor unsuspecting fish sharing a similar fate as its predecessor, while Hermione got a fire going, and procured them some salt for seasoning. They didn't talk much, going about their business in a comfortable silence. A couple of hours later, having vanished the fishy remains, and put out the fire the three companions were lazing under the wooden shelter that shielded them from the unforgiving sun.

Finally, Ron broke the silence. "Right then. This has been wonderful. Really, it has. But. We have no idea where we are, or what's going on. Now, wait, 'Mi, hear me out. I'm not suggesting we have an in-depth traumatic discussion about feelings. No 'crazy talk', my solemn oath on it."

"What I am saying is that we're, against all odds, in better spirits than we have been in recent months. Hell, in recent years. Let's capitalize on that and figure out, at least in part, what the hell is going on. Who knows, maybe this is it. Maybe we're on an abandoned island, in which case, we can return to our cozy little beach, laze about, help Harry figure out his wonky magic, so he can transfigure us a castle."

He watched Harry stretch lazily. He was always vaguely cat-like, but right then the resemblance was uncanny. Green eyes squinted at him, unnatural Avada green faintly glowing. Really, Ron thought, that doesn't diminish the likeness one bit. He continued watching partly enchanted by the green-eyed boy's unconscious grace but mostly amused at the rare display of indulgent laziness.

Having finished with his stretch, with one last jaw-splitting yawn, Harry stood slowly, unsuccessfully trying to arrange the oversized sack pretending to be a robe. Giving it up as a bad job, he bowed gallantly to Ron and repeated the action to Hermione.

"Your wish is my command. By all means, let's go brave the world. One caveat though." His tone changed from playful to firm. "We stay together. Don't even think about taking the Cloak to go exploring on your own. We are vulnerable alone. I'm the only one with any combat magic right now, and I am as likely to kill us all than I am to protect us."

The other two nodded complacently. They no more wanted to split up than he did. It's been years since they voluntarily spent any significant time apart.

With that, the easygoing atmosphere of before vanished. Having grabbed their preferred Hallow, they fell in the practiced 'Mission' mindset, moving in a tight triangle formation. Harry took point, with Ron and Hermione close behind him. With one last look at the idyllic beach, the Golden trio set off into the lush forest.

They were moving as silently as possible through the unfamiliar terrain for about half an hour when they started noticing faint signs of civilization. The trees were showing signs of damage, some broken, some scorched. They started feeling uneasy by what the surroundings implied. The distinct lack of wildlife didn't help, so by the time they reached the first charred remains of an outpost, they were already fairly unnerved. "Code-fucking-yellow" snapped Harry. The other two nodded grimly. They were hoping it was just paranoia talking, but their instincts were honed by years of bloody conflict, and they knew the signs well.

They continued on, moving as carefully as they could, but by all accounts, they were the only ones there. An hour in, the signs of violence were growing, and they started spotting knives strewn about on the forest floor or buried deep in tree trunks. Harry couldn't take it anymore. "Suggestion", he bit out quietly. "Power surge or no, a Homenum Revelio cant hurt us, and it would do wonders for my nerves. Thoughts?"

After a tense couple of seconds, they nodded their agreement.

Face grim he cast the spell, uncaring of the amount of magic channeled. That was not a wise move, he thought through a mind-numbing headache that he got for his efforts. Merlin fucking wept. He grit his teeth and swayed at the sudden dizzy spell.

"Good news, we are the only living humans in the area. Bad news, you can, in fact, hurt yourself with Homeneum Revelio, as I've just discovered. The Morgana forsaken spell covered about two kilometers in each direction. I could probably keep going, but as I'm currently our main line of defense, I suggest a small rest. Agreed?"

Ron and Hermione, relieved about the lack of immediate danger, but nonetheless worried about their reckless leader didn't bother replying. Nodding, they let Harry slump against them and moved to settle themselves on the forest floor.

They exchanged worried looks. "This was no natural disaster" breathed Hermione tightly. "While most damage appears elemental in nature, the knives tell a different story. My guess is battle magic. I read oriental War Mages use Muggle style weaponry in tandem with battle magic. Vigilance would serve us well."

Ron hummed in agreement, mind working furiously. His task being strategy rather than tactics, he wasn't too comforted by the lack of people. Unquestionable, if completely recent signs of battle painted a grim picture. Lack of people could just mean everyone was already dead. He firmly shut down that distinctly morbid train of thought. Dead violent people are better than living violent people, he thought sardonically. Let's not borrow trouble.

Harry's bout of dizziness passed soon enough, and the three were on their way again. Movements less careful now that they knew they were alone in the area, they focused their not inconsiderable attention at taking in as much of their surroundings as they could. Their sharp eyes zeroed in at every grim sign of battle. A knife pinning a scrap of cloth to a tree. Whole batches of trees cut down as if with a giant blade. Multiple sights of explosions caused by what had to be a muggle type of grenade or some such explosive.

They were so occupied by observing their immediate vicinity that they missed a tall tower appearing on the horizon. Hermione was the first to look up and spot it. She inhaled sharply which was enough for two heads to snap toward her. She pointed mutely at the tower, aghast at the implications.

Harry swore viciously. He was hoping against hope that this was just a small-scale skirmish and that there would be no casualties. That tower was a sure sign of a settlement of some sort. That he could detect no humans.. The three friends went bone white.

"Occlumency," croaked Ron. "We need to occlude and we need to occlude well. This story does not have a happy end."

Shaken by the unvoiced possibilities, the three decided to take a break and meditate. If their conclusions were even partly correct they would need all the emotional stability Occlumency provided. Granted, that wasn't a long-term solution, but vastly preferable to the alternative.

A couple of hours later they were feeling confident enough that they were occluding as well as they were likely to be, and set their course towards the tower. If they were intimidating before, now the three were downright terrifying. Eyes cold, faces blank, they moved aggressively, not bothering with stealth but focusing on situational awareness. Nothing would take them unawares as they set about their task.

It was late afternoon when they sighted the tall walls ahead. By that point the landscape was almost completely ruined, the battle likely growing more fierce as it neared the settlement. The walls were around 15 meters tall, made out of gleaming white stone, and would present a beautiful if intimidating image, if not for two things. One was the lack of structural damage to the walls, considering the utter devastation around them. Strangely enough, they seemed to not serve a defensive purpose at all, because instead of the typical gates that would close if the occasion struck, these gates consisted of a single, huge Archway, more than 10 meters tall. The second, rather more alarming fact was the smell. As they neared the settlement the wind blew in their direction and brought with it the unmistakable smell of death and decay.

Even though they were steeling themselves for this since the first sign of battle, the trio slammed down their Occlumency barriers as hard and fast as they could the moment they sensed that Merlin be damned smell. Their PTSD was no laughing matter, and they knew things wouldn't get better from there.

Hermione took a deep breath. Her face twisted in revulsion for a brief moment but immediately smoothed back into unreadable lines. "That was a mistake", she intoned, voice dead, all emotion hidden deep inside. "The smell is a problem."

Harry and Ron were pale as ash but showed no outward sign of disgust or anger to anyone that didn't know them as well as she did. The signs were there if you knew to look for them. Harry's eyes were glowing eerily, Ron's gaze was sharp enough to cut, his freckles cast in sharp relief against the paleness of his skin. The only sign of Hermione's inner turmoil was her hair, noticeably frizzing with excess magic she couldn't help but radiate.

"Bubble-headed charm, or do I need to get creative?" Harry's voice was deceptively mild, green cat-eyes gleaming in the dusk. "Are you going to decapitate us?" asked Ron flatly.

There was a pause, and a series of "Serpensotia"-s later they had hundreds of test subjects and scouts besides. Fortunately, Occlumency seemed to do wonder for Harry's focus and he quickly got the hang of the charm, with only minimal losses to his reptile army. Turning to his frozen companions, he nodded. With the same measured tone, he pointed his Wand at his dearest friends heads and incanted "Respirobulla". He repeated the same action on himself and felt the familiar sensation of being surrounded by cool, artificially perfect air. "Much better," he noted clinically. The other two didn't bother replying, just went back into formation behind him.

He turned to the snakes who, having sensed the tense atmosphere as well as the scent of death in the air, were quiet and attentive, waiting for instructions. sS"Scout the area ahead. Only report back if there is something that requires our immediate attention. Otherwise, your aim is to asses whatever you can about the settlement ahead. Time is not crucial, but aim for reasonable swiftness."Ss

The snakes turned and set about their task immediately, not wanting to risk the Speakers ire. The sooner they finished the task the sooner they would be dismissed from this cursed place.

Harry took a moment to strengthen his Occlumency barriers and looked at his companions. "We don't have to go in," he whispered softly, emotion leaking into his voice. "I can burn it all. It wouldn't even be a hardship. We don't have to see.. whatever is in there."

"We do though," said Hermione, not unkindly. "You know we do." Harry looked at Ron, who only shook his head and twisted his lips in something that could have been a smile. Harry closed his eyes, forcing down his rage and desperation. "So be it."