When Was The Last Time You?
Chapter Fifty Five: When Was The Last Time You Were Teased?
A Tale By: In The Shadows I Dwell


"You know how easily and suddenly these things happen, beginning in playful teasing and ending in something a little warmer than friendship. You squeeze the slender arm which is passed through yours, you venture to take the little gloved hand, you say good night at absurd length in the shadow of the door. It is innocent and very interesting; love trying his wings in a first little flutter."


I felt a lump rise within my throat, almost as though something was constricting my airway. I clutched my bag tightly to my chest almost as though I feared losing it, however there was nothing of great value within it, the only two valuable items I had were my wand and the ring which Draco had given to me. I stood there helplessly contemplating my situation. I was without food, water or shelter. I was standing alone, in the centre of a large clearing. The little voice in the back of my mind told me that this wasn't right, that there was something strange and unsettling about the eerie coldness that enveloped the campsite. From the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white light which vanished as quickly as it had first appeared. I closed my eyes and began to turn slowly on the spot, ready to Apparate if need be, however I felt a force slam against my body causing me to topple onto my back with a tall figure atop me. I could not see anyone, I could hear them swearing violently under their breath as they pulled themselves to their feet.

Within the blink of an eye I had pulled my wand from within my pocket and had it facing the place which I assumed the person who had punished me over was standing. "Who's there?" I asked sharply, careful to show no fear. "Reveal yourself or you shall regret it."

"Don't point that thing at me!" I heard a familiar voice cry as he pulled the invisibility cloak from over his face revealing a bright read head of hair, his face covered in familiar freckles. "I don't need another injury."

"Ron?" I asked quickly, not lowering my wand at all, if anything I held it just as steadily in my hand. "What were you doing?"

"Well I couldn't just let you leave. But we couldn't take any of the defensive spells away. Mind you, you did deserve a good scaring after the way you treated us." He noted a distinct note of pride within his voice.

"If that's how your going to treat me I may as well go back to the castle, it is safer, warmer and not to mention vastly more interesting than random gibber jabber in the middle of a clearing." I said proudly.

"Oh, yes, is darling Draco waiting for you?" Ron sneered.

"Yes, he is." I replied. "Now, if you don't mind take me to Harry so I can sort this mess out."

As he turned around I placed my wand against the nape of his neck. "Never turn your back on a potential enemy. What if I were a Death Eater masquerading as Hermione Granger? Would you know? Would you be able to tell?" I asked. "What did Professor Moody tell us constantly in our Fourth Year during his Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons?" I asked.

"Constant Vigilance." Ron replied standing a little straighter. "Can you stop poking that into the back of my neck?"

"Sure." I said lowering my wand as I picked up my bag before following Ron towards the far corner of the campsite, which still to me seemed empty enough. As he walked he muttered under his breath viciously, the only words I made out were: 'Can't she take a joke? I was only teasing her.' I for one was not feeling overly welcome after that slight incident. There was nothing that implied that Harry or Ron was staying there, no smoke from the chimney of the tent, no traces of magical activity at all.

"We're camping right here." Ron said gruffly pointing to a place between two trees that looked completely empty. As I walked a little closer I could sense the magic they had used to conceal their hiding place, the wards that kept unwanted attention away from this place, the wards that ensured the muggles who ran the campsite would never come close to seeing this place. I looked up at Ron who was standing looking at me as though he thought it was odd that I could not see something that was clearly right before his very eyes. "Are you coming in?" He asked.

"I can't see it." I replied.

He walked forward grabbing my left wrist and dragging me towards the space quickly, I still could not see what I assumed was the tent, however I had a feeling that the entrance was right before my very eyes and I still had managed to miss it. The second I stepped over the threshold my surroundings changed. The pale yellow walls of the old tent swam to life around me, the old musty furniture appearing out of thin air. Harry was sitting at the large table in the dinning room pouring over what seemed to be a map. I smiled at him as I walked inside, however I stopped Ron still had a hold of my left arm and was standing completely still behind me.

"Let me go." I hissed.

"Since when have you been engaged?" He asked looking simply outraged.

"Since none of your business." I replied snappily.

"Engaged?" Harry asked standing.

"Engaged." Ron replied his tone incredulous.

"You don't understand, you have it all wrong. As usual." I added in without thinking.

"Each time I see you I think to myself over and over again that leaving you behind was the biggest mistake I ever made. We leave you for what seven months and in that time you make friends with Draco Malfoy. Sure, that's alright on a deeply disturbing level. The next thing we hear, you dating him. That's not alright. The next thing we know, you're engaged to him, and that is possibly the worst case scenario I could have ever thought of. Merlin, I would have preferred you... Have you lost your marbles?" Ron cried letting go of my hand, cutting off his own sentence.

"You have preferred me what?" I asked. "Dead? Injured? Captured? Tortured? What would you have preferred Ron?" I cried.

"I would have preferred you end up with me!" He cried grabbing his mouth as though the words had poured from his mouth without any prior warning.

"This? Again?" I asked. "The time for that has long come and long past and your still complaining about it and trying to destroy everything I built in your absence. Perhaps if you stopped being a typical boy you may have stopped jumping to conclusions for long enough for me to tell you I am not engaged."

"You're not?" Ron asked, his voice softening in relief.

"No." I replied. "I'm not. If you had of waited just a minute longer perhaps you would not have jumped to such a ridiculous conclusion. I know it seems that way, but it's more of a declaration of his love and to me that means more than a simple engagement ring."

"That rings worth more than everything my family owns." Ron noted.

"It's worth more to me than mere money. It's the value of the gesture itself. It was his grandmother's ring. He gave it to me, to me Ron. If you can't understand how much that means to me then need a reality check. Did you think I would get engaged to him to avoid trouble? To make my life easier? No, if he asked me to marry him right now, at this very second I'd say yes. Because I love him. That clearly means nothing but an absolute confirmation of my lost sanity. Just be prepared because one day you might have to face up to the fact that I love him." I said before turning to Harry. "I hear you're having Horcrux troubles?"

"That's the understatement of the century." Harry mumbled, clearly pretending not to have overheard anything.

"I haven't got long. I have about three days to sort this out or else someone's going to notice that I'm not actually ill. There's only so long D… He's going to be able to cover for me without Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvarti or realistically anyone noticing." I said careful to avoid saying Draco's name in the hope that I could avoid another outburst.

"It depends how long it's going to take for us to obtain the Sword of Gryffindor." Harry replied truthfully, looking up at me.

"That's going to be slightly problematic." I replied.

"I know. That's why we need you help." Ron replied grabbing the small beaded bag from a coffee table near his left leg. "We have the portrait of Phineas Nigellus he's been able to tell us a little about the Sword and it seems as though it really can destroy Horcruxes, Dumbledore used it himself to destroy the ring. We also know that Snape is rarely in his office and you've been called there for a number of meetings regarding an upcoming ball? Would you mind elaborating upon this?" Ron asked taking a seat pulling the portrait from within the bag. "We took this from Grimmauld Place."

"He can see where you are." I noted immediately realising that nothing stood between the portrait and Snape. "You have to cover his eyes. He can't be allowed to see anything!" I cried. "He could be used to relay your surroundings to Snape."

"Calm down Hermione, it's not like from a description of what he saw Snape's going to figure out we're hiding in the Forest of Dean." Ron said laughing.

"That's another thing. Don't mention your location in the presence of the portrait." I replied covering the eyes of the portrait with a black blindfold using my wand. "He's loyal to Snape, you need to be careful."

"We'll take that into consideration." Ron said casting the portrait aside carelessly.

"We need you to get that Sword. It's the only thing that we can think of that will destroy the Horcruxes."

"There are other ways." I whispered. "I'm not willing to try them. They're all so dangerous. But what if we could obtain basilisk venom? I know it's going to be expensive and difficult to obtain but what if, just maybe we could get our hands on it to destroy these Horcruxes?" I asked. "I know it's just a quick resolution but what if we could destroy these two and have them out of the way."

"It's not going to work out long term though. We can't carry it, it's just too dangerous." Harry noted. "It torn right through my skin."

"I know. But, and this is a large variable, if we could obtain it we could destroy the Horcruxes. That of course is the ultimate goal."

"She is right." Ron replied. "She needs to get back as quickly as possible."

"And to think not even three days you were considering forcing her to stay." Harry piped up.

I simply glared at Ron before outstretching my hand. "Give it to me." I said. "I'll wear it for now, I have not had to wear it yet, I doubt it can affect me so quickly."

"No." Ron replied grabbing the locket around his neck and clutching it tightly. "You're not having it."

"Ron, give it to her." Harry replied tiredly. "The time for this childish behaviour is long past. We have to do what's best."

"How can anything be for the best?" Ron cried. "We're in the middle of The Forest of Dean? We're not at Hogwarts, we are hiding Harry. Hiding! That's not a good thing!" From the corner of my eye I could swear I saw a movement in the portrait that he had earlier cast aside.

Harry looked at me desperately as if to say this is how he always became when it came down to removing the Horcrux. I walked over to him and wrenched it from his grasp, the chain clasp opening and falling into my hands. "We could have avoided that." I said calmly reclasping the chain around my own neck, I could feel the weight of the object bearing down upon me, almost as though it weighed more than an object of its size should.

"It's getting dark." Harry noted. "We need to get food."

"You don't have any do you?" Ron asked, clearly thinking longingly of the magnificent Hogwarts feasts.

"No sorry, leaving last minute did not enable me to steal large quantities of food from the Great Hall, Ronald." I replied sitting down. "How about I go find something and we can sort this out now and be done with it?"

"Sounds like a plan." Harry replied. "I'll um, come with you." He said hastily grabbing his coat from atop one of the couches.

"Okay." I replied placing my bag upon the floor and following him from within the tent.

I followed him into the forest in silence, only the sound of our feet crunching against the leaf matter upon the ground to be heard. Harry was the first to break the silence. "He's downright unpleasant isn't he?" He asked.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but yes, he is." I replied. "I mean, perhaps he used to be slightly obnoxious at times, but now he's just unpleasant to be around entirely. Do you think it's the Horcrux?" I asked.

There was a soft crunching from ahead of us, slightly to the left. "Did you hear that?" Harry asked softly.

All I could do is nod in reply as the soft white glowing appeared for the first time in the distance. "What do you think it is?" He asked.

I focused for a moment before replying the strange glowing figure becoming more clear as it came closer to us. At first I thought it was a trick, but I realised my eyes were not deceiving me. "It's a doe…" I replied.


Dedicated To: Dreaded Fate – For being my second super reviewer.

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Author's Note: The support I've received in the past few weeks has been phenomenal! More than fifty reviews in a week! I almost cried of excitement and probably will if we reach 200! In other news, big things are happening in the last chapter, Part Three is almost complete at 6,000 words. I'm also looking at having someone do a trailer because the other one was deleted so I'll keep you posted on the progress of that. The end is drawing so much nearer and a lot is about to start happening. So keep up the reviews!

Songs of the Chapter:
The Bird and the Worm – The Used.
Diary of Jane – Breaking Benjamin.