Updated within the month, as promised :) I got in a couple requests to see Draco and Ron too, so yay for that! And also, the review count was absolutely awesome. Keep this up and I'll be the happiest author in the world, I swear :3
Thanks to those that made me incredibly happy: Hopeful star, Arelbear, Ms. JasminMalfoy, DrAmIoNeLoVeR115, thaumaturge1618, CaitieWasHere, cauchy1, and EzmiTallie
Hopeful star: I don't have an update schedule, just within the month, really. I think I explained in my last chapter, but I sort of work on two stories at a time, but only one is my main update on a regular schedual story and the other is for a creative outlet. When I'm done with the one that's currently my number one, this one will move up, since this is currently my creative outlet story. But since you mentioned that you only read stories that update within less than a month, I figured that was a more than safe time to try to get the next one out by.
DrAmIoNeLoVeR115: Unforch we still have a bit to happen before they meet again, but you do get to see his point of view, so I hope that makes up for it!
Draco knew that Pansy was looking for him. Not to kill him, Merlin no, but something much worse. She was somehow sure that the two of them would win and she would marry him after.
How revolting.
And then there was Blaise! Draco was hurt- no; he was bloody well offended that his supposed 'best friend' since early childhood had decided to join that monster's coven! All to chase a girl, his off on again, hot cold sometimes girl, Daphne. And if Daphne died, he had the idiotic idea that he could somehow make Pansy fall for him after.
Pfft, the only way Pansy would love him were to be if he slit his own throat.
It was so stupid. If Blaise won, he could have any darn girl he pleased. They'd swarm him! He'd have a thousand fathers shoving their unwed daughters at him, begging him to be the one who marries 'em.
Draco angrily chopped down the heavy vines around him. He'd been the only one, as far as he could tell, to run this direction. If he had to go alone, he'd go the farthest alone he could get. He would go to the edge of the arena and camp out there.
Despite what many might think, just because he was Slytherin, did not mean by any means that he wanted to kill someone. Quite the opposite, actually, considering before all this, he'd signed all his papers to study to be a healer. Killing someone would pretty much go against everything he promised in the oath he wouldn't do.
He was quite sure he had this advantage above anyone. He'd been to a couple crash-course sessions on the weekends and had already learned common healings and what to do in emergencies, sometimes the procedures requiring little to no spell work. His best skill might not be the ability to hide, but the ability to make himself survive. He wasn't queasy at all- if it came to having to sew up his own stomach, he'd do it. Draco didn't shy away from anything.
He'd been walking all night. Maybe it was just his imagination but it had grown much colder. He hadn't been idiotic to throw away his jacket, but balled it up and pushed into his pack, and he didn't really want to get it out, but the chill was creeping up his arms.
He'd expected the chill to come at night, as it often did, but during the day? He had to attribute this to the game makers, they were messing with something. He'd eaten little and mostly focused on keeping himself hydrated. When he found a good shelter, he'd set up camp. Soon, Draco came to a cliff that slid into an overhang of a even ground. Draco scrambled down, and backed up, picturing the proper workings it would need to be perfect, but it was a good enough shelter. Untangling the ropes and vine's he'd been collecting all the while, he set his bag down, set up a simple wandless alert system, and got to work.
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Hermione continued into the forest, forcing herself to kill a couple more animals. If she could start here, she might be able to not hesitate when it came to the real thing. It wasn't that she was looking to desensitize herself to killing anyone, it was that in a moment of a fight, that one second of pause could be the end of everything…and Hermione wasn't going to let that happen.
She had split off from Ernie a bit back, but she could still hear his quiet footsteps, so that if either of them were attacked, they'd have time to call out. If they didn't have time to call out, then having another person there wouldn't help anyway.
She, in addition to her squirrel, had collected two birds (and found one of them with a nest of eggs, and figured this would be good if they could heat up a flat rock high enough to fry them) and a rabbit. The biggest animal she'd seen so far was a turkey, but she missed and it squawked, scurrying away. That had been the most frustrating; that turkey could have fed them all for at least a day or two!
Hermione hadn't noticed she'd diverged so much she couldn't hear Ernie anymore, until she realized the soft crunching was absent. Perking her ears, she strained to hear anything, but realized with a deep scowl that she could not hear a single thing. She spun back around to re-trace her steps, hoping Ernie had noticed her absence, when her foot caught on some uneasy ground and Hermione went scrabbling down a well-hidden ravine ledge. It wasn't a far fall, but it was unexpected and had a couple pokey branches.
Hermione cursed herself for being so unobservant; wincing as she glances around, for her tumble through the branches had created quite a commotion. After a minuet of silence, she breathed a sigh of relief that no one had come running to find her. She doubted Ernie could have heard, so if anyone else came, it probably was going to be someone that now considered her an enemy.
Gingerly, Hermione picked herself up off the ground, patting around for any place that she might have hurt herself. There were a couple thin scratches where tree-branches had laughed out, but it wasn't bleeding more than a slight bubble and therefore of little concern. Where she'd landed on her tailbone was already beginning to feel sore, though, which she twisted her face into a frown at the thought of. It wasn't terribly detrimental, but an awkward and very uncomfortable place to be sore, as most of the nights was spent on the bumpy or hard floor of the forest. Her hair was filled with little branches, which she did her best to comb out, and the only wound that she didn't brush off was a cut on her knee where it had presumably sliced across a rock. It was creating a darker puddle on her clothing where it bled through the cut and into the fabric.
Yanking her clothing up, she determined it wasn't deep enough that it would become a constant problem, but at the moment, Hermione had a deep worry about it becoming infected. That rock probably had not been rubbed with sanitizer before the game started.
Hermione titled her head, and to her south heard the tiny trickle of a stream. She didn't want to give the effort to summon water, as she was already feeling tired and sore from her fall and the bleeding was not helping, and she found a long stick and hobbled a short distance to a tiny creek that cut through the area.
It was well guarded and shady, and as far as Hermione could see up and down both ways, there was no one. She knew she had to be careful, for someone could jump out at any moment, as water sources were vital to survival, and people naturally flocked to them. She hoped they all realized it was the first place Pansy would look when she went on a killing spree, and that most would be smart enough to stay away. Of course the idiots that would go would only be killed sooner, leaving less people for Hermione to have to potentially kill, but she still was unsettled by the thought.
She sat on the bank and lowered herself into the water. The coldness was electrifying and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the change in temperature, but Hermione ignored it as it slowly numbed the area and washed away the blood. Reaching a hand down, she wiped away the grit and dirt around the area, softly massaging the places around the wound to alleviate the sting. In a couple moments, the feelings faded and the wound looked much better now that it had a chance to wash out.
While it was a nice feeling to get the sweat and general muck of her body, she knew she didn't have the luxury to wash her entire body. She tried to wash out as much of the blood around the knee area as she could, but it was rather a moot point as the blood had already settled. She didn't have anything to tie her wound closed with, no fabric to keep it from bleeding, and settled with the thought she'd make it back to camp quickly.
She stood, a bit uneasy, and started to head back, but took what Hermione in her head saw as a short cut.
She had just passed into a little clearing when she felt herself trip again. She looked back, expecting to see a vine that had created a foot-place or a tree trunk, but was shocked to see a person's figure. She hadn't heard the cannons go off and they were to far from the original clearing for it to still be a dead body, so Hermione figured they weren't dead.
Indeed, the person who had been sheltering in part of a hollowed felled trunk glanced up drowsily, waking from a nap. When the person spotted Hermione, her eyes went wide with terror, and she blinked awake immediately, scrambling back.
"Susan!" Hermione cried, surprised to find her alone. She'd been close with Lavender, Hermione had seen the pair talking through the game often, so she'd though. There didn't seem to be any presence of another person here, and it rather pained Hermione to see her alone.
"D…don't make it long." Susan stuttered, her hands bracing against the trunk.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, getting up and brushing herself off.
"When you kill me." Susan whispered softly, and she lowered and exposed her neck, as if resigned to the fact. Hermione felt sick to her stomach. She wasn't even going to run?
"I'm not going to kill you." Hermione whispered, her throat dry, "Why would I do that?"
"You're…not?" Susan asked, her eyes knitting together in confusion. Hermione shook her head. She was about to say something else when Susan pushed herself up and ran the other direction.
"Susan wait!" Hermione called after her, but an arrow of pain shot through her knee, and she watched the girl running in the other direction. Did Susan think she was lying? Had Hermione really become so distrustful? Hermione didn't know.
Hermione noticed Susan's jacket and a Hufflepuff blanket- Susan's carry in, evidently- left behind. A worse person would take them both, but Hermione's eyes softened. She saw no food anywhere, and no weapons to kill anything. Feeling generous, Hermione left one of the birds on her jacket. She figured Susan would be back for it, and while she'd been trying to get away, hadn't realized she'd left either of them.
When Hermione returned to the camp, Ernie gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank Merlin! I thought something had happened." He said.
"There wasn't a cannon." Hermione pointed out.
"Yeah, but someone could be torturing you somewhere." Ernie said.
"My gosh, Hermione," Hannah said, looking up, "Did you have a wrestling match with Mother Earth?"
"Slipped down a ravine." Hermione winced, and pulled up her pants leg, "Do we have something for this we can spare?" She questioned. Ernie gave a teasing click of he tongue.
"I don't know Hermione." He said, a glimmer of mirth in his eyes, "We don't have room to spare for clumsy people."
Hannah laughed, "if that was the truth, you wouldn't even be talking to me." Which was the truth; Hermione had never met a more accident-prone person in her life. Which, now that she pointed it out, was truly the worst quality someone could posse in these games.
"So what did you bring for food?" Elizabeth asked, looking up. Hermione held up the squirrel, rabbit, and bird. She gave a tiny gasp- she'd forgotten all about the eggs! Oh, how she hoped they weren't broken, that would not only be a waste of food, but it would coat the inside of her bag terribly and she'd never clean everything off. She gave a sigh of relief as she unwrapped them…somehow; they'd all made it out okay, with only a few cracks.
But because of these cracks, it was a choice made in union they would eat those first, so that they didn't spoil. Having fried eggs almost made it feel homey, as she remembered poking her head just above the height of the countertop to see the eggs on the frying pan sizzling away.
It took them a couple tries to find a rock and a spell that would be able to be used to their needs, but soon they had a good-looking meal in front of them.
"I found Susan." Hermione said conversationally as they ate. Both Ernie and Hannah paused mid-bite and stared at her.
"Is she okay? Was she dead? Arg, stupid question, no cannon." Hannah reminded herself, "Was she alone?"
"I think she was okay." Hermione frowned, trying to think back to any tells that meant she wasn't, but couldn't find any, "Alone, yes."
Ernie and Hannah exchanged sour grimaces. "I thought for sure she'd pair off with Lavender, or maybe Wayne." Ernie said in a low tone, and then realized with a shocked look why Wayne would not exactly be the best partner "Oh, well, yeah. Never mind."
"I feel bad…" Hannah murmured quietly, glancing back up. The pair of Hufflepuffs seemed to share a conversation between their glances, one neither Hermione nor Elizabeth was partial to. The remaining girls frowned at each other, and although Hermione felt bad for Susan too…she didn't like where these looks were headed.
"Hufflepuffs stay together." Hannah whispered passionately, "We haven't done the best job of that. If we can, we should."
"No." Elizabeth said, shaking her head, "There are four of us already. That's a lot." Elizabeth pointed out, "We cannot risk bringing someone else in. Especially someone so lowly ranked."
"It's a house thing." Ernie said, scratching the back of his neck, "Loyalty. I mean, I can try to ignore it but it's hard." He admitted, "I maybe don't want to as much."
Hermione locked her jaw, poking at the remainder of her eggs, suddenly not hungry. How, on one hand, could she preach and pretend like she wanted this to not be the games they were and all that, but on the other feel queasy when such additions were being made? Would she care if Ron joined her? No, she might even feel elated. But Susan…Hermione sighed, rubbing her eyes.
"She might not even be where I found her, not now." Hermione grumbled, "She ran off when she realized I wasn't there to kill her." She said.
"Oh." Hannah deflated a bit, "Maybe she'll be there tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.
"We can check tomorrow." Hermione agreed, feeling a bit relieved, as she had more time to deal with the fact that Susan, who was basically almost a deadweight would-
No, that was mean. She should be glad that Susan joined them. Perhaps there was some trait that had gone unnoticed by everyone that would be useful here. And it was one more classmate, one more friend, Hermione would get to spend more time with. How could that be a bad thing, she asked herself.
When they finished, they realized that now they had little to do. Ernie gave a grin, as if he'd been waiting all day for this moment. He dug around in the pocket of his pants.
"Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?" He asked.
"What are you talking about-," Hannah began to ask, but then hit herself on the forehead, "Merlin, don't tell me the one item you brought into these games was a card game?" She cried.
"Actually, multiple games." He corrected, pulling out a shrunken deck of cards and licking his lips in concentration as he re-sized them, "I realized that in watching previous games, there must have been a whole lot of down time of doing absolutely nothing. I for one am not going to sit bored." He declared.
"But snap needs wands." Elizabeth reminded him, "And as you can see, we have none."
"Ah, but we all know wandless magic." He replied, "Should make it more interesting."
"Great. It's like a camping trip. With a bunch of animals actively trying to kill us everywhere." Hermione said sarcastically. Ernie was already shuffling the deck, and responded without looking at her.
"You got it!"
The three girls looked at each other. Hannah was still shaking her head, Elizabeth looked a mix between confused and concerned, and Hermione wasn't really sure what she thought of it. As the moments ticked by, Hermione saw that there really was not much she could do.
"Are you going to join me? Can't play by myself!" Ernie said from the ground. Hannah sat first, then Elizabeth, and finally- after a long while of contemplation-Hermione.
Secretly, Hermione was glad there were such distractions. For if they were on defense instead of offence, Ernie was correct. There really wasn't much at all anyone could do. On one hand, if they were a less confident team at times, perhaps they'd be trying to disguise themselves or dig and or create a shelter capable of hiding them away and withstanding attacks. But Hermione was sure that at nearly any intrusion she could at least give everyone time to escape and hurt those ones that tried to kill them.
True, she had problems with killing people. But that didn't mean she wasn't afraid to break a few bones or make them bleed a bit.
The game wore on for a long time, and when that had sucked the fun out of itself, Ernie had a regular deck of cards that didn't explode to continue to satisfy them. As the day rolled around, soon, even that became weary. It was okay, though, because it was getting dark enough to worry about their surroundings. Watch times were dolled out and the bed sheets were arranged. Water was cast from Ernie's fingertips into the tin bucket, and gulped greedily. A light dinner was eaten to keep stomachs from growling, and then, it was night all too soon for Hermione's liking.
Hannah was the first watch, but Hermione wasn't much tired, unlike Ernie and Elizabeth who were both asleep by the time their heads hit the pillows. Hermione had tried to sleep, but found the continual sounds of the night much too annoying to let her sleep. Groaning, she got up to go and talk to Hannah.
She found Hannah sniffling on a tree branch.
"Hannah, are you okay?" Hermione asked, and Hannah jumped, obviously expecting her to be asleep.
"Yeah," She tried to say bravely, but Hermione gave her a look of disbelief, and her façade fell from her face, "I'm just, well, a little down." Hannah murmured sullenly.
"Oh." Hermione realized sitting next to her, "Do you miss-,"
"My parents? Of course, yeah." Hannah jumped in, treading over her words, confusing Hermione. She had been about to say Cedric, which of course Hannah probably knew that so why-
Hannah grabbed her for a hug, which on the outside looked to be comforting, but she leaned in to whisper, "Not here. I just don't want anyone to know. If I die…But Cedric sent me a trick, a spell to see if there's camera's around. If the air shimmers blue, there's someone watching."
She hugged Hermione for a moment more that seemed appropriate and drew back. She let out a little cry, but underneath it, Hermione heard the spell, and saw her right hand raised slightly. Hannah's eyes looked up and Hermione followed slowly, and saw a glimmering blue trail like fairy-dust in the sky.
"I know, I know." Hermione said, grateful for learning this spell. She was quite aware that she'd be watched at nearly every moment, yet it was mostly in the back of her mind. She didn't think that with every move she made, people back in London and around the world saw and commented. It was just unhealthy to think like that, and made someone loose sight of the true purpose. On one hand, who cared what the public thought of her in these games that she was so rudely forced into? On the other hand, there were things Hermione would rather the world- especially her parents- not see. She didn't want her parents to have to watch Hermione maybe kill someone…that would shatter her parents. She hoped to keep them as well as she could, even thought it was slightly impossible thought.
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Ron's dreams took him back to his third year at Hogwarts, before everything went horrible. Before it all ended and hell began. Back when things were, well, except for the current whispered mentions of Voldemort, almost good.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled, startling Hermione, "Where's Harry." He must have looked frantic. He was pale, he was shaking, and he was terrified. Hermione, who had lost track of time in the common room and read some book all night, jumped at his tone.
"Well, I'm not the one sleeping in the same room as him." She said, frowning and tucking a bookmark into the page, "Why?"
"He must have snuck out last night! You were here all night, you had to have seen him." He pressed frantically, searching around as if Harry had left a breadcrumb trail.
"Unless he had his cloak, then no…I wouldn't have. The only person I saw was Percy come through. He looked flustered, but I mean, Percy always looks flustered." She said, "Ron, I don't know if this is as big of a problem as you think it is. Harry probably just wanted time to think alone." She said, coming over and rubbing his shoulder.
"You don't understand. Harry was acting really weird last night." Ron said, clenching his fists.
"Funny?" Ron could almost see Hermione's stomach drop, "What do you mean, 'funny'?" She demanded sharply.
"He was freaking out about you-know-who. He kept saying he was the key, that he had to do something. I thought he was just joking or something! I didn't think he was serious, not totally, or that he'd do something-,"
"You think he did something tonight?" Hermione's eyes widened, "Oh, no!"
The common room was beginning to fill and Fred and George came down, looking highly confused.
"Aye, any of you two seen Oliver or Harry? We're supposed to practice for Quidditch, and Oliver always comes and wakes us up at ungodly hours." Fred asked.
"And now that you say, Lee hasn't slept in his bed either." The twins exchanged similar frowns.
"Not good."
"We were just talking about Harry not being in his bed either. And, well…" Hermione bit her lip, glancing uneasily at Ron, "We think he did something stupid."
"Let's fine Percy. He's a right pain in the ass, but he's perfect for times like this." George suggested.
"Hermione saw Percy leave at around 1 AM." Ron said, shaking his head, "I don't know if he can help."
"Maybe he's with Dumbledore already." Hermione offered up, "And maybe this is just a big misunderstanding!"
"And maybe Snape washes his hair daily." Fred scoffed. As more people came, more confused questions began to bounce around about upperclassmen that weren't in the beds. Most of them the bravest and most foolish or eldest, seemingly.
"We need to talk to someone." Hermione finally decided, pushing herself off the chair and going to the door, "Are you coming?" She asked, turning around.
The halls were filled with loud and confused questions. Seemingly, the missing Gryffindors weren't the only things to be concerned about. The more they heard, the more Ron's blood ran cold. An attack gone wrong, Voldemort running amuck, the Ministry was attacked-
"What are you four doing? Didn't you hear the announcement?" McGonagall snapped behind them, coming from behind a corner.
"We're looking for Dumbledore! Harry's missing!" Hermione cried.
"Oliver too, with Lee." The twins added.
"And Percy, otherwise I'm sure we would have heard." Ron finished. McGonagall's lips pursed into a thin line, and she looked down at the ground.
"It would be best to go back to your common rooms." She said with a deep and saddened sigh, "And be ready."
Ron couldn't phantom what that meant, and was about to argue for Harry's sake when he saw the broken look in McGonagall's eyes. This stopped him in his tracks.
The Gryffindor common room was heavily crowded and filled with people yelling questions. Ron, Hermione, and the twins sat in the front, looking at each other with unease, silent. It was an abrupt announcement, around lunch, that all students were to quietly make their way to the Great Hall.
And there Harry was- on his knees, a Death Eater pointing a wand at his head. About twelve others sat in identical positions, of them bleeding heavily.
"Harry!" Hermione all but cried out, but Fred reached forward and slapped a hand over her lips to keep her from drawing attention to herself.
"Shh…shh…" George added, dragging her over where the Gryffindors sat, "Oh, Merlin," He whispered, "Percy's up there."
"And Charlie…" Ron added, like someone punched him in the gut.
"Where…oh, god!" Fred's eyes widened at the state of one of their older brothers, his face so blood-filled and cut up it was hardly recognizable. He squirmed forward to see his siblings, frowning, and a Death Eater slapped him back into position. He cussed in their direction, spitting out excess blood from his lips.
"There's Lee and Oliver…" Ron added weakly. There were others that he recognized, some that had finished school already. In fact, Harry was by far the youngest and his tiny, thin body seemed so much more fragile in comparison.
He looked around and saw all the teachers being held by knives and wands too.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Hermione whispered painfully, "He..he can't be…"
"I don't know." Ron frowned, "I don't see him."
He was probably biding his time, Ron figured. In a moment he'd swoop through the windows and save everyone. He had to. He couldn't just let Voldemort win! This didn't happen! The good guys always won. That's how it was supposed to be!
Ron felt bile rising in his throat every moment that passed that the knives were pressed more to a throat, the wands were driven further into the back of the head of a brother or a friend.
There was a rustle of fabric, and Ron's heard lifted as he saw the telltale gleam of a specific Dumbledore robe. He forced all his anger down when he realized that it was a tall and pale man wearing it instead. The man was bald, and his face was almost see-through, all the veins bright against alabaster skin. His nose was inverted, and his eyes gleamed.
"Whose-," Hermione began to ask, but Harry suddenly was thrown on the ground by an unknown force, grabbing at his forehead.
"Oh no." Ron's eyes widened in realization. There was barking and someone grabbed Harry up by the back of his shirt, roughly forcing him into his position, silencing him as Lord Voldemort strode up to the stage.
"Well, well look at all of you. So innocent so confused." He smiled as if he was apologetic, "Look before are your friends and maybe even family. Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix misguided them. They were told that they could not fail, that they could defeat me tonight." He said, and looked back, "Where is your precious Dumbledore now to take your fall?"
The silence was deafening. The robes he wore yelled the answer. He felt Hermione's shoulders quiver beside his, and he turned to see silent tears trekking down her face.
"You have been overtaken. I am stronger. And those that defy should be punished. You don't want to see this? Too bad, you should have been quicker to notice your classmate's intents." He said, and turned raised his hand. He was about to give the order when his dark glare scanned the room, and then, he got a twisted smile.
He made a motion and all the Death Eaters lowered their wands, looking unsure, but did so anyway. All the people on stage looked at each other with lidded gazes, and Voldemoret paced at their feet.
"I am a forgiving man, and I wish this to be known to. You were so quick to be ready to kill me, to kill members of society that follow me…will you be as ready to kill each other? Instead of killing you all now and having it done quick, you all will compete against each other, killing each other off until there is one left. That singular one will have his or her crimes expunged, forgiveness given, and riches received. And you all with watch," He turned to the students, "To remember what you failed to do to me." He said.
"That's bullocks! We'll never do that!" Charlie cried, struggling to his feet, but he was quickly beaten back down.
Voldemort laughed, but it was harsh and lifeless. "On the contrary, I quite think you will."
The dream dissolved and Ron felt something rubbing against his foot. He frowned, slowly fading out of his slumber.
"Colin, stop." He grumbled, and when it continued, he gave an exaggerated mutter, "Really, Colin, you'd better knock that out right now!"
The rubbing was more continued, and Ron angrily woke up to tell off his friend.
Not as far away as either camp knew, Hermione was still sitting with Hannah talking quietly when an ear-splitting scream pierced the silence.
Ernie jolted awake.
"Blimey, was that…?" He trailed off, frowning in confusion.
"Ron." Hermione jumped up, as she could recognize his scream anywhere, and shivering, turned to her teammates, "And there's only one thing in the world that makes Ron scream like that."
Her team was silent with confusion, and Hermione grabbed her largest knife she could, looking around the dark forest with careful glances, "Spiders."
I'm so mean, leaving you with that cliffhanger like that XD
Well, you know if you review, it gets written faster. Just sayin. So really, if you enjoyed, drop a review. It seriously makes my whole day.