Author's Note: Hello to everyone! Thank you all for your reviews; they are very encouraging and it's nice to hear feedback. I'm sorry for the delay with this chapter, but thank you for your continued readership. Enjoy!

Chapter Nine: Firebark Forest

Hermione (October 18, 7:54 a.m.)

Morning dawned crisp and clear, a refreshing change from the wet rain and damp cold of Hogwarts. Hermione slipped into the fur lined robe and short cape that each visiting Hogwarts student had been provided with and nervously tiptoed into the drafty halls of Durmstrang. Her mind felt as if it were wading through a pool of molasses, each thought slow and only half formed. Sleep had evaded her last night; she was too anxious and too curious to sleep. Hopefully today's event doesn't require too much thinking she thought to herself. She realized too late that wandering through the halls was an awful idea and she was now lost in the stone corridors, wondering where in the world the breakfast hall was. Sighing she leaned against a window and resolved that she would wait for someone to appear, for surely the castle wasn't completely devoid of humans. Luckily, her suspicions were correct and a scrawny, pale faced boy (most likely a first year) came tripping down the hall. After some brief persuading he led her to a dim lit, loud room under the castle. Square tables were strewn here and there in a haphazard manner, as boys and girls of all ages and size darted around the room, food in hand, chatting, screaming, even wrestling. In the very corner of the long, low room were the Hogwarts students. Hermione plopped down next to Harry with a sigh of relief.

"You made it!" Ron exuberantly exclaimed, leaning across the table to squeeze her hand rather awkwardly.

Hermione responded with a quick squeeze back before filling her plate up with anything she could grab from the center of the table.

"Where are the other schools' students?" she asked as she stuffed her mouth full of bread and jam.

"Well the DA students are somewhere in here I think," Harry responded, glancing around the room quickly. "Look there's one over there talking to that Durmstrang boy, and the Beauxbatons students 'declined to join us for breakfast' or something like that. I don't really remember what Dumbledore said."

"Lovely," Hermione replied. She hurriedly shoveled more food into her mouth, feeling her anxiety for the day mount.

After a few brief moments, the door to the room swung open and a short, squat man waddled into the room, his much too large robes trailing behind him in a haphazard fashion.

"A good morning to you all," he began in a loud voice that fought with the chaotic sounds of the dining room. "All students who intend on competing today, whether you are ready or not, need to leave the dining hall immediately. The rest of you may enjoy your breakfasts and then proceed outside at your leisure." He began to walk out the door, then whipped around, stumbling on his overly long robes.

"Ooops, almost forgot to tell you where to go," he said with a chortle. "The Firebark Forest. That's where you need to go. All of you. Competing or not. That would be all."

He turned once more and tripped out of the room, seemingly unaware that his robes had half fallen off of his shoulder, contributing largely to the amount of robes trailing behind him.

Hermione rose with nervousness shaking her hands and worrying her stomach. Harry and Ron both reassuringly smiled at her as she left the room, as if by smiling they could wipe away her anxiety. She walked through the halls shyly, unsure of where exactly she was going. The two Durmstrang competitors swept past her with as little warmth as the hall they were walking in. She quickened her step and followed them through numerous dank corridors before they finally emerged into the snowy outdoors. The weather was gloomy, as cumbersome clouds trudged across the sky, bringing with them a sharp wind and the promise of more snow. A path of rough red and black brick wound its way across the grounds, kept clear of snow by a couple of wizards in huge, furry black coats. The path led towards a forest of dark pine trees, covered in a dazzling white layer of snow. Hermione tugged her cape closer to her as the wind picked up, blowing the powdery top layer of snow right at her, where it caught in her hair. After what seemed like ages, she arrived at the edge of the foreboding forest, where every other competitor, four witches in red, and the fat man from earlier stood.

"Jolly good. That's everyone then," said the man, resting his pudgy hands on his round belly and turning to look at them all. "Alright, here's how today's event is going to go. Each team will be place at a certain location in the forest. The forest is divided up into four different parts, each with a different...shall we say 'theme.' Each team will be placed in one of these four parts. The goal is to get to the center of the forest, where L'Arbre du Lumière awaits you. Hanging on this tree are a number of different candles, each burning with a different colored flame. You must retrieve one of these candles. In order to win this event, you must gain the most points, which will be awarded based on the quickest to the tree and if the correct candle is taken from the tree. Now the question is, how do you figure out which candle is the right one? Here is where it gets complicated. In each of the four sections, there is a different tree, decorated according to the theme of that section. If you defeat the obstacle surrounding that tree, you will receive a riddle and the answer will help you towards figuring out the color of candle which you are to retrieve from L'Arbre du Lumière. When you have reached your section, do not begin until you hear the starting bell. It is to be emphasized that the point of this competition is teamwork and friendly competition, not winning. Now if there are no questions, you will be taken into the forest by one of these gorgeous witches standing next to me." He roguishly winked at the witches in red, who stared impassively back.

Each of the witches stepped up to a team of students and Hermione quickly found Draco and stood next to him. The witches held out both of their arms, but only the students from Durmstrang seemed to have any idea what was going on. They each grabbed an arm of one of the witches and with a crack, they had Disapparated. Tentatively, Hermione grabbed the arm of the witch nearest to her and Draco did the same. With a flash, they were gone and uncomfortably being stretched and jostled against each other until it suddenly stopped and they were standing in the middle of a desolate expanse of forest. The witch shook off their hands and then left them with another crack. The trees surrounding them were ragged and black, so black that they looked almost charred, juxtaposing the unbroken, clean snow gently blanketing the trees and ground.

"So what's our strategy?" Hermione asked, her voice strangely echoing in the silent forest. She drew her wand precautionarily against the silence.

Draco was silent for a few moments. He turned and walked a few steps away before turning around and replying "Strategy?" His voice sounded frayed and scratchy, as if it had been a long time since it was last used.

"Yeah, as in what are we planning on doing for the next hour?"
"Whatever it takes to win," he said, his voice hard and strong once again.

"That's not very helpful," Hermione snapped.

He didn't reply. They both stood shivering in the snow, watching their breath in the chilled air. The forest was eerily quiet, no birds, no animals, no voices, only the sound of the wind rustling mysteriously through the trees. And then everything happened at once. A bell rang faintly in the distance, Hermione's muscles tensed, and noise exploded from every possible side. The wind went from a faint rustle to a thundering barrage of sound. The snow and wind were blowing from every direction, cutting into her with cold and noise and pain. She fell to the ground with a cry and felt Draco next to her do the same. Her hands were numb, her hair was whipping around her face, her body was shaking so violently that she could hardly pick up her wand from where she had dropped it.

"Ebublio!" she screamed as loud as she could, slashing her wand in a sharp circle.

As suddenly as it had started the wind stopped. She and Draco were encased in a purple bubble resting lightly on top of the snow, keeping out all wind, snow, and noise. Hermione knelt on the snow, shivering and panting, trying to regain control of herself. When her breathing had slowed, she slowly looked up at Draco.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

He nodded, a wild, panicked look in his silver eyes. All stiffness and distance was erased in his fear, replaced only with a raw and nervous exterior.

"What are we going to do?"
He gazed at her for a moment, breathing heavily and then sat up.

"That's a great question," he replied.

"Well we need to find the tree with the riddle first. They wouldn't just put us in the middle of nowhere and expect us to find a random tree without a clue right? Think. Think. What clues do we have?"

"Aren't the trees supposed to relate to the theme of our section?" mumbled Draco.

"You're right!" she exclaimed. "So the tree has to have something to do with snow or wind or storm. Now how do we find a tree themed like that?"

They were both silent in thought for a few moments before it hit her like a rock to the head.

"If all the trees in this forest are black, wouldn't one that's say, snow themed be white?"

Draco slowly nodded at first, then exuberantly.

"I think I know the spell too. Let's try it. Alba Situ Revelare," she said, raising her wand and slashing it towards the ground. Instantly, a golden trail shimmered across the top of the snow leading out into the forest.

"Does this bubble move?" Draco questioned, as he hesitantly poked the hard, purple bubble surrounding them.

"I think so. It shouldn't leave until I perform the counterspell."

They both took one step forward, minds moving in unison. The bubble moved slightly forward with them. Then they took off, almost running, stumbling across the snow, following the glimmering trail. The trees rushed by in a blackened blur, the snow hit the bubble and blurred their vision, the sound of their feet rushing across the snow fell softly in Hermione's ears. Hermione kept her eyes fixed on the trail beneath them as it twisted across the snow. The trail abruptly stopped and Hermione looked up, straight at the only white tree they had seen up to that point.

"There it is!" she exclaimed. They moved to the tree, as close as possible without actually bumping into and started to search for some sign of a riddle. Nothing. They couldn't find anything.

"I knew this was too easy," Hermione said with a sigh. "I just wi-"

She was cut off by a large shape falling from the sky and hitting their bubble, with not a sound.

"What the hell was that?" Draco practically screeched from where he had fallen to the ground.

"Probably the obstacle guarding the riddle," Hermione excitedly replied.

The shape on the ground twisted and writhed, then exploded into a dripping, swirling mass of color. The rainbow whirled with the wind and seemed to grow larger and larger as the snow hit it. Finally, it twisted itself into a small paragraph of words written across the air, barely visible through the bubble and the snow rushing by. It read: "Only one color, but not one size. Stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. Present in light, but not in rain. Doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What am I?"

After a few moments, the words scrunched together into a small whirling ball of color, then burst into a powder that was swept away by the wind before it hit the ground.

"Only one color, but not one size," Hermione repeated. "That's not a helpful line. Stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. Present in light, but not in rain. Doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What could that be? What? Present in light, but not in rain. Stuck at the bottom. Not one size...Maybe...? No. How about..? No that's not it. What do you think?"
"I don't know. Aren't you supposed to be the smartest witch of our age or whatever? Well, I always knew it would be up to me, the truly smartest wizard of our age, to save our team. Ok, maybe it's the color yellow. Present in sun, but not in rain. Right?" Draco replied with an air of humor and sarcasm.

"No. I don't think the answer is a color itself. Wait. I think I have it! A shadow. It's always one color, but it's constantly changing sizes. It's stuck to the bottom of a person, yet it can easily fly. It's only present with a light, which rain will block out. It doesn't hurt anyone and it can't feel pain itself because it's just a shadow. Which means that the color has to be grey!" Hermione spouted in one large blurb.

"Now all we have to do is find the center tree. 'L'Arbre du Lumiere,'" Draco pretentiously replied.

"Point Me!" Hermione whispered and waved her wand.

Her wand spun in her hand and pointed straight past the white tree. Draco and Hermione glanced once at each other, then sprinted (as quickly as one could sprint through snow) in the direction the wand faced. This time the journey was short and they pushed through a thick layer of black branches laden with snow into a large open clearing that was perfectly circular. In the center stood a towering oak tree that severely contrasted all the neat lines of trees around it. This tree was covered in a frosty layer of snow and was all white. It had dozens of thin candles floating in its branches, most of which were white with normally colored flames. But there were others: cerulean and amber and dusty violet candles, all burning with gorgeous, leaping flames. The entire clearing was quiet and blocked in by a thick layer of trees, keeping away all the wind and cutting snow of their section.

"Finite Incantatem," Hermione whispered with a wave of her wand. The bubble disappeared.

Hermione was spellbound by this ethereal, central tree. The candles weren't just in the leaves of the frosty tree; the white, flickering candles were spiraling down the elegant, long trunk, whose roots sprawled outwards in twists. She took a few steps towards the tree, unable to look away. She heard a sharp breath from beside her and looked at Draco. He was gazing at the tree with such awe and longing in his silver eyes that she felt compelled to stare at him rather than the tree. He glanced over at her and they both smiled, so wrapped up in the beauty of the tree that the competition was forgotten. Hermione felt something strange within her, a curious little tug in her heart that warmed her to the core. The odd moment was broken by a scream that rent through the air, shattering the silence. Draco and Hermione dashed towards the tree and circled it, searching for a grey candle somewhere, anywhere. And then there it was, high up, flickering quietly among the rest of its vivid friends.

"Accio Candle," Draco cried and the candle flew into his hand, still burning. A crack whipped through the air and a witch in red appeared, offering her arms to Draco and Hermione. They took the arms and with another crack, they disappeared, leaving the white tree sitting quietly in the lonely, white clearing.

Author's Note: The spell "Alba Situ Revelare" is Latin for "White, Situation, Reveal." Also "L'Arbre de Lumiere" means "Tree of Light" in French. If you have any questions on the chapter, feel free to PM me. I know this chapter was a little confusing, and I would be happy to answer your questions.