A/N: Hi guys, I'm sorry that it's late. I decided that I'm not going to have a schedule for writing and publishing this fanfic, because sometimes I feel like it's a chore, and I want to write when I'm motivated. Please enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 9: The Plan Back Home
Hermione woke up the next morning in her bed at Hogwarts. 'How did I get here?' she thought groggily. "Hermione wake up", said a voice that had annoyed her for years, but she loved it anyway because it was a reminder of home. "Wake up! Breakfast is waiting" spoke Parvati Patil, violently shaking her. "Okay, okay, alright", Hermione laughed of her sleepiness and lifted herself out of bed. She couldn't quite wrap her head around what was happening. Suddenly she was back at home in her dorm. In her tower. In her castle. There was no better feeling in the world.
When she got dressed she chose between three silky robes. When se got to the door she chose between three heavy books. She met with harry and Ron, and the three of them marched off to the Great Hall without a care in the world. At breakfast she had two eggs, one glass of orange juice, four pieces of bacon, and one pancake. Owls swooped in with their majestic hoots and dropped beautifully crafted envelopes with scarlet ribbons. She leaned her spell book up against the jug of orange juice and recited its content to her two friends. "Now, on the upcoming mid-term exams you must remember the hand motion of 'Endorphia'. It's an arm starting in with your elbow sticking out, and then in a semicircular motion you travel out, extending your arm."
Hermione found it impossible not to smile. After all, she was home, and she couldn't be happier. Something hit her in the face and she sat up. Looking around her she saw a forest an umbrella tree, boulders, and a sleeping bag. "Oh Harry, I had this wonderful dream!" she turned next to her. There was no one there. Then, pain shot through her head like a bullet. She screamed as she was woken to the shocking realism of where she was. A crowd of people blew through her mind, followed by a train, a gym, weapons, judges, and fields, lonely children torn from their homes and families, humans stabbing each other, shooting arrows through the air. Two dead bodies in the sky. For a few moments in the midst of her memories, she was grateful. Grateful that she spent minutes in heaven, though not many. Then it was gone.
Snapping her head around she tried not to panic. What if he ditched her? What if he was captured? What if he DIED? 'Calm down Hermione, let's look for clues. Okay, the weaponry is still here, so is the sleeping bag, so he hasn't abandoned me or gone hunting. "Oy, Hermione!"
The rope next to her squirmed and hopped. It must have been the object to hit her in the face. It also seemed that the sun disliked her, because when she looked up it was blocking her view of above. Moving to the side, she laughed. Just like a squirrel, Harry was up in the tree holding the other end of the rope. His happiness radiated off of him. And he looked like a little boy who climbed his first tree in the summer.
I disabled the trap. Here climb up!" he laughed. Hermione did it. It was like she had been climbing all her life. It came to her with ease; she was what they called a natural in the muggle world! "This is fun!" she yelled. She was holding on to the rope with her feet sliding along the trunk of the tree. Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "Wanna do something crazy?" he grinned deviously. "Why not?" He handed her the rope and pointed to a tree 50 feet or so away. "No way!," she said, but she couldn't help keeping a tincture of delight from her voice. "Yes". There was a moment of silence. "No",. "Yes". No". "Yes". Another long pause. "Fine". After getting in position and crouching in to a squat. Hermione lifted her feet.
At first she gasped. Her heart leaped as her body fell down. The only thing she could grasp on to was the rope, but that wasn't much help. She was falling down, down, down… Then suddenly, just as she thought she would die, she flew in a curve. Her stomach swooped as if she were on an incredibly high swing on the playground, then, she laughed. "Woo-hoo!" she cried out with immense glee. Fresh air poured on to her face in buckets, and she had never experienced a more wonderful sensation! For minutes, all of her troubles and worries melted away, and for minutes she was actually having fun. She was a bird soaring through the wind. A free bird.
By the time they both got down from the tree, Harry and Hermione were laughing up a storm. How could they not, after the fun they just had? They were on the ground, eyes shut tight and mouths open wide. For the first time in what felt like ages they were having fun. In fact, they were having so much fun that they didn't even notice the man standing in front of them
He breathed deeply, but not calmly. It was as if he had just been running and was scared. When Harry and Hermione noticed him they jumped back. The man was staring right over their heads with bloodshot eyes. He wasn't blinking. His arms were bleeding, and red liquid oozed down his deep brown skin and dripped on to the moss below him. His body shuddered "hello?" Hermione said cautiously. "Careers" he whispered. "Food…" He looked scarred. "Danger". "What are you trying to tell us?" asked Harry. "Careersssss", he wheezed, and fell to the ground. The cannon fired.
After getting over the shock of the harassed-looking man dying before them, Harry and Hermione were pacing their camping space (ignoring the dead body at their foot). "What did he mean? Was he trying to tell us something?" "Did he know who he was talking to, or that he was talking to someone at all?" "Is this a signal of some sort?" "What are the careers?" At that last question Hermione had asked, Harry perked his head up. "Careers… I've heard that before, but where?" He was half speaking to himself half to Hermione. "Maybe it's a group from the government of this place Panem" Hermione spoke, staring at the ground. "That's it!" he yelled. "What, the government's clique?" "No. I remember where I heard that name. When we were training with the other tributes someone was talking about the careers. I think it's a group of people Hermione!"
His stomach grumbled. "Speaking of food, we haven't had anything to eat all day!" He walked over to the tree which had held their trap. "Wait, we disassembled it when we swung from the trees, heh heh". "Oh no! What are we going to do?" Hermione asked. "Well, I guess we are going to have to go hunting the old fashioned way!"
Back in District 5
Ron had been staring at the television screen all week. Not once had he left the confines of Gryffindor house's couch. Shocking sights weaved into his brain, and he was unable to suck them out. He saw children, age 12 and alone in the woods, scared, praying that someone will come rescue them before they are murdered. Animals are hunted and eaten raw, humans turn on each other one by one, and they commit such acts that would make one's insides churn. He has seen things that no one should have to see for as long as they live. He's seen kids who are slaughtered and feasted upon by those so desperate to survive. Rope after rope are dangled from the trees and painted red by the lifeless body hanging from it. One man stripped of his weapons and shot in the arm was forced to kill others with his own bare hands. Among all of the monstrous events, Ron saw Harry and Hermione. He held his thick salty tears in when he would see their faces, painted over with fear. As soon as the games began and children were killing each other and running for weapons, something was taken from them. Their innocence, their feeling of safety, and their childhood. It was all ripped away by the sound of a buzzer, by the scarring sights that would haunt them for the rest of the games, and for the rest of their lives. Monsters were created in that arena, and happiness was devoured as fast as blood seeps across the ground.
When Harry and Hermione had left, the Hogwarts students were bought 5 houses, one for Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and professors. There was one living room where they would watch the games. Ron hadn't slept in days. He stayed awake on that couch, watching his friends be swept in to a world of pain and misery. Students and Professors would talk to him, but he hadn't said a single word since the reaping. The others were nervous too, but Ron lived on that couch, hardly blinking. He watched when Harry and Hermione arrived at the boulders next to the umbrella trees. He watched when they swung from trees, having fun. He watched when the man who had been beaten and wounded by the vicious pack of bloodthirsty careers showed up at their hiding space, and died right before them. He wished that he could run right in and tell them everything. Who the man was, who the careers were, and that they had food. But he seldom wasted time on impossible desires. He knew what the world was like, and in a place and time of horror, there were no bargains
Ron also saw that the mentors of the individual tributes were sending down medicine or food in little parachutes for those who murdered. He had come to the logic that Hermione and Harry never received one because they were cooped up under their tree moving only meters from their sleeping bags. There was one meaningful girl who had skill with a bow and arrow, but he wasn't focusing much on anyone but his best friends.
What puzzled him the most though, was the question of why they were even there in the first place. Scrimgeour had said that Hogwarts and the wizarding world was not safe because of You-Know-Who, but how was the muggle world any different? How was Hogwarts all of a sudden not safe, when You-Know-Who has been alive for two years? Why did they leave the wizarding world, why couldn't they have just moved schools or dwellings? Why did there have to be a death lottery where they went? And why, most importantly, were Harry's chances of dying increased immediately where the wizarding government sent them?
If no one was going to give him answers, then he was going to find them himself. So, carefully and conspicuously, Ron Weasley stood up and walked out the building.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! As I've said before it makes me so happy to be writing this and even more happy that people are enjoying my work! Every time I get a notification for a new follower it makes my day. This is my second life, and without you, it would never be here. So thank you so much and the next chapter will be here soon! I'm planning to have it ready by the end of January, sorry! I'd rather post a great chapter that took longer to post than a bad one that comes every week.
