Chapter 20: The Hunt
They had been on the road for about four months now. The bitter cold was starting to settle, and each was thinking of the nice warm, comfy bed that was waiting for them at Hogwarts.
"So." Harry said simply, sitting in one of the armchairs.
"So." Hermione sighed. They were at a dead end.
"The locket" Harry started.
"The ring" Hermione replied.
"The snake"
"The diary"
"Something from Hufflepuff"
"Something from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw" Hermione finished.
"Malfoy had the diary."
"Dumbledore destroyed the ring"
"The snake is with him"
"We have the locket"
"Yes, but we don't have the sword to destroy it."
"And we don't know where the others are."
"I still think one is in Hogwarts." Harry put in.
"We're not going to Hogwarts, at least not yet. It's so heavily guarded now."
"Yeah, I guess you're right Hermione." Silence fell as they both thought of the same thing: That locket was the reason Ron left.
"I'll take first watch" Hermione left without waiting for Harry to reply. She needed to think.
After about ten minutes of staring out at the wilderness around her, Hermione took out a book from the beaded bag, and opened it. Two folded pieces of parchment fell out of it. Before the wind had the chance to steal them away, she snatched them up and, making sure Harry was inside and could not see her, opened them up. The first one was the caricature that Draco had done of her at the beginning of their sixth year. When it had all started. She smiled sadly as she remembered his smile, his laugh. And that kiss. She sighed, and opened the second. It was the last letter he had sent to her. She folded it neatly and put it back in the book. She bit back tears. First, she had lost Draco; he had joined Voldemort against his will. Now, she had lost Ron. He had left. He thought she chose Harry over him. He just didn't understand! Why couldn't love just be easy for once!
The night after their adventure in Godric's Hollow made Hermione wish that she were back at Hogwarts. She had broken Harry's wand trying to save them, and now he was hardly talking to her. She felt so alone. This time last year, she could have just snuck off to the Room of Requirement to be with Draco… Oh, Draco. Tears started to fall.
"Hermione?" Harry asked her as he entered the tent. "What's wrong?"
"Everything" Hermione sobbed, as Harry sat down on the bed next to her and held her. "I'm sorry for everything."
"Shh, it's ok, I know. It's hard out here."
The wind blew hard outside, and the wind swirled around the tent hidden in the dark forest of Dean.
Once Ron had returned, Hermione felt a bit better. She had Ron back, and they were off to see Lovegood in the morning. Granted she was not really talking to Ron properly to make him suffer a bit, but he was there, and his presence gave Hermione a great sense of relief. He was alive and well.
But she still didn't know about Draco. Once in a while, she would borrow the Marauder's Map without Harry's knowledge and look for his name. Most days he was in the Slytheryn common room, hanging out with Crabbe and Goyle. Other times she saw him walk on the seventh floor and vanish. When this happened, she thought back to the times they had shared in that room with the piano, when he had taught her how to play a tune, when they had spent Valentine's day there, eating, laughing, dancing. And that kiss. That one, solitary kiss.
As Hermione kept watch that evening, she started humming the tune that Draco had taught her. It was a simple melody, one that was both happy and haunting. She knew she would not see his name if she were to look on the map; it was the Easter holiday now, according to Ron. She closed her eyes and started swaying ever so slightly, still humming the tune.
Little did she know that Ron was lying awake watching her. He was listening to her hum a tune that he knew from his childhood. It was a very well known Wizarding tune, so where had she heard it? He had never spoken of it. He listened to her humming as he drifted off to sleep. He was just glad to hear her voice again.
The next morning, they went to see Lovegood. The wind blew them around quite savagely when they apparated on the hillside. All three of them walked towards the house that stood like a rook.
"What a snitch!" Yelled Ron once they had safely apparated back to the tent.
"He was just trying to get Luna back, the poor guy." Hermione was shaken, but otherwise unhurt.
"Don't you realise, though!" Harry yelled, a look of pure ecstasy on his face. "I knew it! The Hallows exist and Volde-"
"Don't!" Ron and Hermione yelled.
"-mort's after them!"
Great, thought Hermione as she hit Harry in the face with a spell to stop him from being recognised by the snatchers he had just summoned by using his name. She thrust everything she could find in the beaded bag before shrinking it and hiding it in her sock. Ron, meanwhile, had taken away all light in the room through the use of his deluminator. The snatchers grabbed them.
"What's your name, then?" One of them asked Hermione, holding her by the hair.
"Penelope Clearwater! Half-blood!" She shrieked.
"What happened to you, ugly?" One snatcher asked Harry.
"Been stung" He answered.
"Name!" Snarled the snatcher, and Hermione now realised who it was. Greyback; he was the werewolf who had bitten Lupin.
"Dudley. Vernon Dudley" Harry muttered.
"Check the list" Greyback yelled to the snatcher holding Hermione. "What about you, redhead?"
"Barny Weasley" Ron said quickly.
"Weasley? A blood traitor, interesting… Scabior, any names on the list?" Scabior was searching a little notebook.
"Nope, no Vernon Dudley on here."
"Interesting…" Greyback said again. "What house were you in Dudley?"
"Slytheryn" Harry answered. They laughed.
"Funny how they all say that. Except no one can tell us where the common room is."
"It's in the dungeons," he said quickly, "you enter it through the wall. It's full of skulls, and it's under the lake so the light's all green." Hermione was impressed as to how much he remembered from his one and only visit in his second year.
"Hang on!" Scabior said suddenly, looking at Hermione. Her blood froze. "I know your face." He looked at her more closely, then took out the prophet from his pocket and opened it. There, on the front page, was her face. "Hermione Granger, the Mudblood said to be travelling with Harry Potter." Greyback grabbed Harry's face and stared at his forehead.
"We've got Potter." He whispered.
"What should we do?" Hermione's captor asked excitedly.
"We'll take them to the Manor. Tie them up with the other two." Hermione, Ron, and Harry were pulled by the hair and tied up with the other two prisoners.
"Harry?" Whispered a voice.
"Dean!" Harry whispered back.
"Oh no, it is you! I knew you were alive!"
"Shh!" Whispered Hermione, panic-stricken. Where were they being taken?
"The Manor?" Asked Scabior.
"Yes, the Dark Lord is using the Malfoy's place as a base." Hermione's spirits soared. The Malfoy Manor! Draco. She closed her eyes. She might see Draco again. Then reality dawned on her. He would not help them. For all she knew, he might have stayed at Hogwarts for the holidays. Thoughts of Draco spiralled around her mind as she got apparated away to the Manor.