A/n: So apparently, something went wrong when uploading this. For all of you guys still sticking around and reading, I owe you big time. Let me make it up to you with two new chapters at once, I guess.

Also, I just hit 100 followers on this which is CRAZY! Thanks so much!

And as always, huge thanks to my beta Libby for solving all my problems.

CHAPTER SEVEN

When Hermione woke, Minerva was gone.

Slowly, she sat up, her body immediately shivering when the blankets fell from her torso.

It was day, birds were distantly chirping, Hermione guessed it must be around seven or eight in the morning.

Hesitantly, she let her legs slide out in the cold as well, until her toes touched the floor. Curling them to get the heat moving through her body, she stood up and got dressed. When she was done, she untangled her hair as best as she could and bound it together at the nape of her neck. The birds had gone silent.

When she came into the kitchen, Minerva was already dressed and had made tea. Her bandage was gone, though she had let her hair stay in the braid, the tips curling at the ends.

"Good morning," the raven haired witch said, looking up when Hermione sat down at the kitchen table opposite her. "I hope you slept well?"

Hermione nodded and let her gaze wander over the table and kitchen. Behind Minerva on the sideboard lay six apples, all of them mostly green, but Hermione's mouth started to water still.

"Serve yourself." Minerva's gaze had followed her own. "I stumbled upon an apple tree further down in the field, this morning. They aren't entirely ripe yet but still better than nothing."

Hermione stood up and after a moment of hesitation chose a smaller one, sinking her teeth into the fruit before even having sat down again. It was sour but still a blessing for her grumbling stomach.

"I also found a small path down at the entrance, which leads up north into the fields. I think it's our safest bet."

Relieved, Hermione nodded again. At least they had a plan now.

"How is your head doing?" she said, gesturing to the bandage lying to her right.

"Better. Much." She smiled a small smile. Her hands travelled up and down her arms, her eyes holding contact with Hermione's. Through the window, the sun was shining, warming Minerva's back.

"Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day," she said.

''

The sun was burning on Minerva's shoulders, she was getting hotter and more uncomfortable in her clothes with every minute, even though she had taken off her woollen outer pieces of clothing a while ago and tied it around her waist. Thank Merlin she hadn't been wearing anything too uncomfortable yesterday, although she would prefer to get rid of her clothes altogether, given she would have been granted the luxury of a cold shower. Ahh, the priorities of un perdu, a lost person. The more primal the problems, the more primal the solutions. Funny how fate sometimes slapped them in her face, like she had nothing else to worry about except a shower. But what use, dreaming of something so unreachable while wandering through land, so deserted it seemed like no person had ever laid their eyes on this earth that literally breathed its freedom.

She almost slipped on still wet grass, the shadow side of the hill she had been climbing first up and then down in a disdainful process over the last 10 minutes or so. Time really became relative with such sportive activities, and the only clock to go by was her pulse, her heartbeat echoing in her own ears. She had always been a walker but climbing and descending endless hills in the unforgiving summer sun took all the energy she could bring up.

Hermione behind her was having the same problems and so when they reached an alley with a couple of trees that were throwing shadows in the high grass to their wooden feet, Minerva felt like it was her responsibility to suggest a break.

After a couple of seconds of consideration, Minerva joined Hermione and sat down in the grass, leaning onto the trunk next to the brown haired woman. They each had an apple in silence, both enjoying the cooling breeze that caressed their hot faces.

Turning to Hermione, Minerva noted that the other witch had closed her eyes and for a couple of seconds she thought that she had fallen asleep, but then her fingers moved and she opened one eye, blinking through the sunlight that broke through the canopy in spots, smiling when she saw that Minerva was looking at her.

"It's beautiful here, isn't it?"

She closed both of her eyes again, letting her hands glide over the stalks of the grass beneath her fingers, soft wind blowing through her hair.

"Yes. Very."

Minerva closed her eyes too, breathing in the scent of summer.

"I ran away once." She said, keeping her eyelids still closed because she didn't have to check if Hermione was listening. She knew that by now the younger witch would have opened her eyes, interested, keen to know more, ever the perfect student, an unprecedented learner. A smile on her face.

"I don't even know why it came into my head just now, because it was quite cold and the air was impossibly heavy with rain, even for Scotland. Nothing like today." She added, more whispering than talking.

"How old were you?" Hermione asked and Minerva let her head roll to the side to face Hermione´s, her eyes just a crack open, and just enough to see the hazy outline of Hermione's face and hair against the green of nature around her.

"About 6. Can you imagine that?" She gave a light and throaty laugh, noticing Hermione´s cheeks colour but the young witch didn't say anything. She seemed delighted, though.

"I had squishy knees and impossibly many freckles, and like every six year old, only mischief on my mind." Hermione, who had started to make little wreaths out of the flowers growing next to the tree, smiled knowingly. "And I was so rude!" Both started laughing and for a moment the flowers in Hermione's hand were completely forgotten.

"Really?" She asked amusedly.

"Oh yes." Minerva nodded to emphasise her words. "Terribly." And they smiled at each other again.

"Why did you run away?" Hermione inquired, her dark brown eyes inspecting her from the side.

"I had had a fight with my parents. They didn't want me and my friend to go to the fair all alone yet, because they thought we were too small, which was of course correct. When they forbid me to go, I was infuriated. So I took matters into my own hands and I arranged for my best friend, who lived on the farm next to ours, to meet me at dawn the morning the fair was set to come to our town. We hadn't even walked half a mile when it started to pour down worse than I´d seen in all my life. We thought the world was going to drown. Not far away there was a little barn, in which we hid all afternoon, and then when the rain stopped in the evening we went back home and as it turned out, no-one had even noticed we were gone. In the end it didn't matter much, though. It was one of the happiest days of my childhood."

"She was your best friend, wasn't she?"

"Oh much more than that. We were like sisters. We spent every minute of the day together."

"What was her name?"

"Her real name was Cecilia Boyce, everybody knew her as Celia. And she hated it when I called her Silly."

"Well that's understandable."

"Yes, you'd think. I still did it, all the time. And oftentimes she had to smile, too. And when she didn't anymore, I knew it was over."

"What happened?"

"Surprisingly, it wasn't Hogwarts. Even when I was here over the school year, we kept sending each other letters. The old librarian here liked me so she let me use her phone, which was the only one in school. But when my visits back home became less and less… well, she wanted to know why. And then, in my sixth year at Hogwarts, I was home for the Christmas holidays. It was all very spontaneous. At first I didn't think I'd go but then a friend from school convinced me to show them Scotland, so we apparated back on very short notice. We were in town Christmas shopping, when I saw her. She wore a red coat with her hair curled up and she looked so beautiful, so different. But of course that wasn't the problem, or at least not why she never wanted to talk to me afterwards. You see, I was kissing someone before I'd noticed her and it was really just a silly kiss, but I did, and all the time Celia had thought that it was her who…"

Minerva trailed off but she didn't need to finish her sentence for Hermione to understand, the meaning was perfectly clear. She had expected this to come ever since Minerva had started talking about their run-away. They must have been impossibly close until it happened: Celia had fallen in love with Minerva.

Hermione's thoughts were racing. She couldn't even begin to imagine what this new maybe-revelation could mean and what it might change, about a hope that she might have been furnishing in a part deep hidden in herself that seemingly lived a life on its own. Oh but how much she wanted to hear the words.

Her eyes were fixed on Minerva's face and she couldn't bring herself to look away. She was so fascinated by her, totally flabbergasted… bewitched, almost. She would have smiled at the silliness if her heart wasn't so incredibly serious.

Minerva though, although she held their eye- contact upright, was obviously still occupied by the memories of Celia. She looked so fragile, almost like she was mourning. After a long pause she finally raised her voice and spoke again.

"She walked all the way into town, just to see me, and I kiss someone else." She whispered, her eyes a bit too watery to be deemed normal. Sensing Hermione inspecting her, she sheepishly wiped her eyes and smiled apologetically at the younger witch.

"It's not at all like me to get so sentimental." She shook her head and wiped her eyes again although they had all dried already. "It's stupid, but I think that is one of the things that haunted me the most in my adult life, even though it was so long ago, and I don't really even know why it feels so monumental, looking back. I mean, she broke my heart, but I broke hers first, so I can't really blame her for that."

"I think it's perfectly normal. You lost someone that you cared about… who wouldn't be sad. And maybe you would have lost contact either way, but not knowing how things would have turned out if you hadn't hurt her like that, that must be difficult to accept."

Minerva smiled gratefully and took Hermione's hand to squeeze for just the tiniest fraction of time, before letting go again. Brushing off the dirt from her clothes, she stood up and held out her slender hand expectantly, to drag Hermione to her feet as well.

"Come on, little one. We should get going if we want to reach the village by nightfall."

''

Even when the sun sank lower and lower and the heat had suddenly disappeared and been replaced by a moist and cold air, Hermione still hadn't stopped thinking about what Minerva had said earlier. She still couldn't make sense of it all. Had she been in love, really in love with Celia? Or had Celia's love not been returned? And who had she kissed? A boy? Or possibly, another girl? Did the kiss ruin their friendship because Celia had been jealous that someone else had taken her place as Minerva's most important companion, or because she wanted to be the one to be kissed by the black haired witch? But really heartbreak couldn't mean anything else, could it?

The older witch had not said another word on the matter since they had resumed their travel. Although, she hadn't been awkward around her either, as Hermione had thought initially. They had been chatting vividly, or at least as vividly a swift pace allowed. They had laughed plenty and Minerva even had the grace to laugh at Hermione's clumsy jokes, even more so, she seemed to genuinely enjoy herself in Hermione's company, which the brown haired witch marked as a full success given that she had never been much of an entertainer and oftentimes felt awkward talking to people.

They had busied themselves exchanging little riddles that they knew by heart, and then making up their own when they couldn't think of any more. They talked about exotic plants, the best pastry they had eaten in their respective lives. Hermione recalled the time she had visited the Pyramids in Egypt when they talked about ancient mythology and Minerva told her about her first days at the ministry when she had been a young Hogwarts graduate in 1953. Despite the circumstances, it turned out to be a very pleasant day.

But through it all, the thought about Minerva's story earlier just wouldn't escape Hermione's mind. Of course it could be interpreted many ways, but Hermione was sure that it had been meant in only one particular way. And if it was indeed true that Minerva had even only once been interested in girls, it could possibly change everything for the brown haired witch.

A cold breeze made her drag her coat tighter around herself and her stomach grumbled too, despite the apple she had eaten not even twenty minutes ago.

Slowly, she was getting more and more worried that they wouldn't reach the village in time for the night and the thought of sleeping outside didn't really excite her much. In fact, it didn't look all too well for a warm and dry night, heavy dark clouds were looming on the horizon.

Hermione, who had been walking slightly behind Minerva, quickened her steps to catch up with the black haired witch, her clothes now bellowing behind her from the strong wind.

"Minerva, do you think we'll be there before the sun goes down?" She asked, her breathing heavy. The older woman stopped then, turning around and Hermione almost walked into her.

"I don't know Hermione," she said, trying to keep loose hair out of her face. Before them lay miles and miles of pastureland, the same view as they had had for hours now. They had hoped to come across a bigger street where they would maybe even get picked up by a car but so far they had had no luck. The distance was bigger than they'd both imagined and to hope that the town was just tucked behind the next hill had proven to be fruitless many times already.

"It's hard to tell. Maybe if we keep this tempo up, but if those clouds should indeed carry rain or in the worst case scenario, a thunderstorm… I don't want to get your hopes down but arriving in time might become difficult."

Together, they continued walking again, Hermione thinking hard about the possibilities they had.

"What if we try to find another house instead?"

"I think the chances that we find one rather than the village aren't very high. If we change course now we could end up more lost than we already are," Minerva said resigned, pursing her lips as she did so, seemingly unsatisfied with their options as well.

"So basically, we're fucked?" Hermione almost didn't say it but the words slipped off her tongue before she could stop them.

"Exactly, my dear," Minerva said, stepping up a gear.

''

It didn't take long before the first drops fell. Hermione and Minerva were almost running at this point, neither one very keen to get stuck in a thunderstorm in the middle of the fields. In the distance they could already hear the thunder rolling.

Hermione had taken the lead and, with a few meters head start, and was frequently turned around to see how Minerva was doing. The change in weather hadn't done any good to her exhausted body and her head had begun to throb again. Although she hadn't complained, Hermione knew that hunger and thirst must have exhausted her energy resources hours ago.

"Come on, I'm sure the village is just behind the corner," Hermione shouted against the wind in an attempt to cheer her up but was almost entirely drowned out by another thunder rolling, this time much louder and much much closer.

Minerva couldn't answer, she was busy focusing on her steps. They were climbing an elevation that had already become muddy by the rain that was now fully pouring down on them. When the older witch threatened to lose her balance on a particularly slippery part, Hermione rushed to grab her wrist just in time before the other woman could fall.

Just that second the first lightning illuminated the sky above them, accompanied with another grumble of thunder and both women were startled so badly they almost fell off the side of the hill together, if Hermione wouldn't have held their balance.

"Thank you," Minerva breathed when the sound had ebbed away and Hermione let go of her arm, although the worried look on her face still stayed, even after they had begun to get moving again.

When she had finally reached the top, a gust of wind very nearly blew her back down again. In front of her was a wide plateau, but it was already too dark to distinguish more than a few shadows.

Next to her, Minerva had reached the top as well, completely exhausted. She desperately needed a short break. Blindly, she reached around Minerva's back to comfort her while scanning the landscape again for something, evidence that they were on the right path, when she saw the car.

Far down, two tiny light cones were breaking through the darkness and rain, it came nearer and nearer and when another lightning bolt struck right that second, she realized it was a real asphalted street that it was driving on.

"Minerva, a car! It's a car, oh thank Merlin!" She exclaimed, half dragging the other witch behind her, urging her to hurry. Though soon enough her relief turned into panic when she noted that the car was moving too fast, they wouldn't arrive in time. It made her run even faster and Minerva started to run too, but just after the first steps it became clear that Minerva couldn't keep up with her, she was so tired and in addition, the muddy surface made just walking extremely difficult.

"Hermione, I'm not fast enough," Minerva shouted and let go of Hermione's clothes that she had been clutching before. "Go!" she screamed when Hermione turned around and didn't move an inch, not wanting to leave the raven haired witch behind. She couldn't, not if she was so uncertain on her feet. But it was all useless if they didn't catch that car.

Throwing a last look back to the now completely soaked and muddy Minerva, still hurrying, even if not running, towards her. And Hermione ran, as fast as she could.

She could hear her pulse in her eyes, her feet acted on their own, her mind completely focused on the car, the light, still a couple of yards away. Another lightning shed sudden illumination on the scenery and for just a moment she hoped that the people in the car might see her, but as soon as the light had come, it was gone. While she had been able to distinguish her surroundings, though, she had seen a shadow of what she believed to be a house at the end of the road, still, her attention was back with the car, their only chance, within a moment. If she ran faster than she ever had, she could still make it.

And then there was an incredibly loud sound behind her that even drowned out the thunder, and a muffled cry. Minerva had slipped on the hillside and slid down almost exactly to where Hermione was standing.

Shocked, Hermione stood rooted to the spot, willing Minerva to move, to breath, the scream, just do something except lie there in a puddle of dirt.

"Minerva!" she called and started to rush back when Minerva laboriously pulled herself into a standing position and panic was written across her face, as well as pain, but her eyes weren't fixed on Hermione, they were focused on something behind her.

"Hermione, the car is getting away! It's getting away!" And when Hermione still didn't move, she limped a few feet, grabbing the younger witches arm to finally come to her senses and yelled with the last energy she had left: "GO!"

Like a maniac Hermione stumbled forward and she started waving, as the car neared their location at the side of the road. She could now see that it was blue and inside were a man and a woman, vividly chatting, laughing, and not paying to what was happening outside at all. Hermione was so angry she could have cried. Breathless and with her last remaining power, she quickened her steps again and ran as fast as her tired feet could carry her, but it wasn't enough. With a whoosh that let the water fly in all directions, the car rushed past her, only meters away.

Hermione screamed, waved but it was all for nothing. When she finally reached the asphalt, the car had gone, its backlights slowly disappearing into the dark. Exhausted, Hermione let herself fall to her knees and sobbed. All the effort had been for nothing. And the likelihood of another car coming by at this hour, in the thunderstorm…

Angry tears rolled down her cheeks but she didn't even notice, her skin was so wet that they just mixed with the rain, hot with cold, and disappeared on the swimming pavement.

But she couldn't stay here, she had to go help Minerva, who probably couldn't even properly walk. What would she say to her? It was all Hermione's fault that they'd missed the car, and that they were here and everything else too.

And then she remembered the shadow down the road. Could it really be a house? Could they really be that lucky?

Standing up, she turned around and breathlessly, anxiously, awaited the next stroke of lightning.