Chapter Ten
It was nearing 40 degrees celsius and it was only nine am. The sun bore heavily down on the back of Hermione's neck like a furnace and sweat trickled down the length of her spine underneath her now sticky tank top as she power-walked towards the entry to the Ministry of Magic. She was running late for training; she and Draco hadn't gotten back to the city until almost ten o'clock the night before and she was so completely exhausted after being awake for nearly 40 hours that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow and then slept straight through her early alarm. She had swung past the apothecary as quickly as she could for a draught of Wide-eye Potion to try and combat her lingering fatigue. When she finally got into the training rooms and dropped her bag off to her locker, all the other candidates were in the gym and halfway through warming up.
She tightened the shoelaces on her sneakers and stretched her limbs before heading into a light jog around the arena. She flashed a friendly smile to Trevor, who waved cheerfully back. Ben was casually strolling, being overtaken by almost everyone. The red-headed girl, Amelia, who Hermione felt was her biggest competitor, had broken into a flat out run, gaining a solid lead on the rest of the group. Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes at her. Luckily, they had done most of their training in separate, smaller groups, so Hermione hadn't seen much of her over the past six weeks. She was curious as to why all of them were in the gym today.
After thoroughly warming up and stretching all her limbs for a second time, Hermione felt ready for the session. She looked around, normally Draco would have called them into order by now, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Looking for your boyfriend?" Amelia sneered at her. Hermione raised an eyebrow at her and decided not to answer.
"You're just jealous, Amelia." Another girl, Jess, butted in. Jess had a friendly, open face, which was currently beet red from the warmup. It made her head look a bit like a tomato, and Hermione felt a twinge of guilt at the less-than-nice thought, as she was grateful for the interjection. "You just wish Damo would even glance your way."
"Shut up," Amelia snapped back, pulling a face.
They were interrupted by a loud growl of a noise that echoed throughout the gymnasium; a deep guttural vibration filled the air with its continuous drone. It was a haunting, resonating sound and Hermione could feel the rumble in her bones. The noises suddenly jumped in pitch and the laughter of a Kookaburra boomed, causing a small smile to sneak across Hermione's face. At once, she knew what the sound was. Dave, their personal trainer and boxing extraordinaire, walked slowly towards them from the entrance way. He was stripped bare, only donned in a traditional ochre-stained breechcloth. His dark skin was smeared with gritty white paint, handprints left on his legs and chest. His face was decorated with finely done dots, across the bridge of his nose and encircling his eyes. He was carrying a long length of circular hollowed out eucalyptus wood, his mouth pressed against the upper opening, his cheeks expanded as he breathed in more air to push through and make the throaty sound. The sound cut off abruptly and he stood there, staring at them through his dark eyes. He spoke in a low tone, his voice barely audible, but melodic all the same. Hermione couldn't understand what he was saying as he was speaking in his native tongue, Woiwurrung. She felt moved by his words, even without being able to know what he was saying. It felt powerful, and she could feel the magic flow through her veins more actively with every beat of her heart. All of a sudden, the remainder of her fatigue disappeared, and she felt invigorated, ready to take on anything.
"Good morning Candidates," Dave finally greeted in English. "Welcome to the last phase of your training. If you thought training had been hard so far, the next two weeks will be worse. We're moving from physical training to incorporate your magical training. I have invoked the ancient protection of my ancestors who will guide us through this next stage of the journey. Are you ready?"
He waited for the apprehensive, yet affirmative murmur to go through the group and then motioned to a door at the back of the gym. "Then please, go through that door to await your next instruction."
The fifteen candidates moved as one, Hermione at the back of the group, and Dave took a step forward as she passed him to place a hand on her arm and stop her. She glanced up at him, curious.
"Is everything alright, Dave?" she asked. He broke into his signature toothy grin, completely breaking the spell he had created of his eerie demeanour.
"Damo asked me to pass on a message to you." He waggled his eyebrows up and down humorously. "You two been getting pretty close, eh?"
Hermione blushed and mumbled, "It's not like that."
"Probably a good thing, the Service has always forbidden inter-agency romances. Anyway, he's been called away on a mission; left first thing this morning," Dave said, and Hermione noticed how pale his knuckles were as he tightly gripped the Didgeridoo instrument, which she took as a sign that he was worried. "They normally allow him to complete training with no interference, but in this case, the mission requires his particular skillset."
"His particular skillset?" Hermione repeated questioningly. "What is his particular skillset?"
"That's classified." Dave said, dropping his grin now to look serious. "Let's just say, if the agency had someone else that could do what he can, they would have gotten someone else to do it. He's the only person for the mission, which is why they've pulled him back early."
"Is...he's not in any danger, is he?" Hermione asked, her eyes going round. Her heart began to beat rapidly at the thought of Draco hurt and she felt a little sick.
"Couldn't say."
Hermione took a step closer to him, flickering her eyes to the group walking away and back. "Please Dave, tell me he's ok."
Dave gave her a sympathetic look. "Honestly, Hermione, I'm sorry, but I can't say. It's classified. I'm not trying to be a dick, I promise."
She let go of the breath she didn't realise she was holding and stepped back, nodding. She didn't like his answer but knew that she'd have to accept it. "Ok."
"Come on, you'll enjoy this." Dave nodded towards the door at the back of the room. "They probably won't, but you should get a kick out of the challenge."
When they walked through the door together, Hermione gasped. It was like they stepped into an entirely different world. She knew they were probably still in a room attached to the gym, but it had been enchanted to look like the deep interior of a fairy forest. She had the romantic notion that this was their very own version of Narnia and tried to contain her smile. She loved those stories growing up. The sky was a deep golden hue, signifying sunset, even though they had just left morning behind them in the previous room. The ground was covered in a slippery, emerald green moss, mottled by the knots and thick roots of the thick trees. Hermione suddenly shivered. She still had the thin layer of sweat covering her body, and this room was at least fifteen degrees cooler, a swift chilly gust swirled through the tops of the trees, making her body temperature plummet.
"Welcome..." Dave announced, then paused to build the suspension. "To Fae Grave Glen. Today, we will be doing a challenge that involves all of you. The aim of the challenge? The last one standing, wins. You will all be enchanted, so no one knows who anyone else is. This will help avoid any unnecessary alliances or favouritism towards other candidates. All you need to focus on is surviving. You are the most important person in this challenge."
He paused and looked at the group. They were an uneven group, with nine men, but only six women. Hermione had never even taken proper notice of them. She hadn't bothered to speak to them, to get to know them, to bother having a friendly chat. The only person who routinely said anything to her was Amelia, and that was usually something nasty, which she just ignored. If Draco had been good for anything while they were growing up, it was to give her a strong backbone to ignore insults and harsh words. They were all so different, of varying ages between 20 and 37, and from what she could see, from different cultural backgrounds. The latter was not really surprising, given the multitude of cultures occupying Australia.
A few members started to murmur words to each other, and Dave held up a hand to silence them. "You need to give this all you have, do your absolute best. Because at the end of this, whoever places in the last six places...you will be cut from our training program."
"What?" snapped Amelia, who placed her hands on her hips. "We've all been training like crazy for the last six weeks and now six of us won't go any further?"
"Are you worried, Amelia?" Hermione couldn't help but chide her. She had held her tongue for so long, but Dave was a great personal trainer and didn't need his decisions questioned by anyone. "Think you're not up to being the best?"
Amelia narrowed her eyes at Hermione and sneered. "I am the best. You're only here because you're a Z-grade celebrity who's shagging the trainer."
The tips of Hermione's ears burned red. An embarrassed sort of rage exploded in her chest and she bit her bottom lip from reacting harshly. She didn't realise that Amelia knew who she was before she came to Melbourne, but that knowledge was almost like an invasion of privacy. This was her new start, where no one could use her name as an excuse for her achievements any longer. When she spoke again, her voice was low and dangerous. "How dare you? I applied and got in, just like everybody else. I didn't meet Damien until the day I arrived here, and not that it's any of your business, but I am not shagging him!"
The other candidates were looking back and forth between Hermione and Amelia, as if they were expecting them to withdraw their wands at any second.
"You applied and all of a sudden, my brother, who's application had been accepted, was withdrawn. You came along and just because you're well known over in Pomgolia, you get special treatment here. You make me sick," Amelia finished with a snarl. There was an awkward pause and the silence hung like a long held-in breath.
Hermione screwed her face up in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about? Damien told me that only ten positions had been filled when I applied."
"So, you just thought that the guy who literally lies to everyone about everything as a job just happens to tell you the truth all the time?" Amelia rolled her eyes, which she did so dramatically that it made her look a little childish. This comment stung. Hermione had thought long and hard about Draco and whether he was being honest. She felt convinced that he was being genuine with her, that he had always been himself with her. She remembered the day before, how he had helped her get to the hospital without complaint, how he had just been there for her...had it all been a performance?
"You're making no sense," Hermione declared, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. "If all the positions were already filled, why would they withdraw your brother and not Trevor?"
"Hey!" Trevor protested.
"Sorry," she muttered insincerely, flickering her eyes to his pouting face. She knew he wasn't really upset by her words, if anything he would have agreed with her.
Dave slapped his hands together loudly and they all jumped. "I think you two can pick this up some other time. For now, we are here to train, all of us. It doesn't matter if you think someone else doesn't deserve to be here – you've all gotten in...most of you have given this training your best shot."
There was another pause, and everyone struggled not to look over at Trevor again.
"You are to only use category 2 spells and aim to stun. Once a person has been stunned, they will be removed from this scenario. Keep in mind, we will be marking you on this, any stunners sent that don't hit their target will incur marks being taken away. Make sure you only use well-aimed spells. Nebulus," Dave said, waving his wand. A heavy-set mist spilled out of his wand and filled the forest around them, causing visibility to dim. "Praetexo. Morticorfus."
Hermione shivered again as the spell hit her, like a splash of freezing cold water to her face. She looked around at the other candidates and noticed with a start that all of their faces had been blurred. She squinted, trying to bring their features back into focus but to no avail. She realised that this must be the enchantment that Dave had mentioned, so they couldn't know who anyone was, and marvelled at the simplicity of it. She then saw that all of their outfits had been altered and they were now all wearing matching black slacks and shirts. They all looked identical, besides the obvious differences between the men and the women.
"Any questions?" Dave asked the group.
Someone put their hand up. When they spoke, their voice was garbled, like a radio not quite tuned into the correct frequency. "How long are we doing this for?"
Dave stared stonily at them. "Until there's only one left standing...I thought that was pretty explanatory. Now...I'm going to give you two minutes to get to a starting point. Go."
Hermione spun on her heel and ran, slipping her wand into her hand as she went. This felt like a Muggle game she had played once or twice before called Laser Tag and she started mentally cataloguing all the spells she could think of that could help her with this. There were fast footfalls closely behind her and she ducked around several trunks to try and lose the tail. The forest seemed to go on forever, branches flicked out and scratched at her arms, but she paid them no mind. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to see that she had lost her follower. A loud foghorn echoed throughout the trees and Hermione took this to be the start of the session. Now that she had distance on her side, she looked around and found a tree that was wrought with knots all the way up its mangled trunk. She ran towards it and leapt, hitting the tree and climbing it in one fluid motion. Her muscles flexed as she moved gracefully, reaching and pulling herself upwards. Her cardio and weights training over the past weeks had paid off and she easily scaled the tree. It wasn't an extraordinarily tall tree, but the branches were thick and gave her the advantage of being able to travel tree to tree without being seen. Her feet moved of their own accord, finding the next safe spot to step. She felt a bit like Tarzan and smothered a smile at the thought.
A gasp below alerted her to someone shuffling next to the trunk of the tree she was climbing through and she paused, trying to work out who it was and where exactly they were. Hermione took aim with her wand, gripping a smaller branch with her left hand for balance and sent a stunner towards them. She pulled a face as the spell went wayward and missed, instead hitting the mossy floor nearby with a thwap. The person underneath them spun around at the sound, their blurred face turning left and right to find the source. She internally cursed, knowing that this meant she was already losing marks. Deciding to forget about staying high, she placed her wand between her teeth and bit onto it lightly to hold it in place, then manoeuvred herself to be just above the other person. As she had practiced with Dave and Chief before, she jumped from her position, straight onto the person below and knocked them to the ground. Their wand flew out of their hands and they rolled several times to get away before getting back onto their feet. Hermione did not let them react before darting forward, bringing her elbow up and plunging it sharply into their ribs. They heaved over from the unexpected blow and looked around for their wand.
"Stupefy!" Hermione cried and this time she hit her target with a flash of red light. They collapsed to the mossy floor in a heap and she didn't hesitate to speed away again. A loud ding suddenly rung out, signifying the first stun of the session. Hermione felt a fleeting moment of satisfaction as she continued forward several yards. She slowed her pace has she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Someone had just ducked behind a large tree, waiting for Hermione to get close enough for them to attack. Hermione just grinned, flicking her wand forward and saying "Opungo!"
She remembered using this spell against Ron before when they were at school, her cheeks burning as she remembered the heartache she had felt at the time, and her chest felt tight with the mingled heartache she felt now, and just as in her memory, a flock of birds were conjured and sped as one through the forest to find their victim. A sudden strangled cry of alarm reached her as the birds attacked, pecking and clawing, and the other candidate rushed out of their hiding spot, waving their arms erratically, and ran right into Hermione's line of view. She smirked, sending another stunner spell forward, and the candidate fell forward, unconscious, the flock of birds landing on their back, still pecking at their shirt.
Another ding rung out, followed by a third, which Hermione guessed was caused by someone else in the forest.
"Three down, eleven to go," she murmured to herself as she flew through the forest, her calves beginning to feel warm as the blood pumped through her muscles. She no longer noticed the temperature difference, her body adjusting easily as the adrenaline filled her. Another ding echoed around her. Ten to go. She wondered briefly who had been taken out of the running already and wished vehemently that one was Amelia. Stuck up cow, she thought savagely.
Someone was running behind her again and she quickly threw a glance backwards to see how far they were. Only about ten paces behind. She looked around and slightly changed her course to the left, noticing a small cliff a few metres away. She put a burst of speed on, planted her foot on the edge and jumped over. Her feet slammed into the ground, landing heavily, it had only been a small drop and she immediately scurried backwards, pressing her back against the rocky wall. The person who followed her also jumped, landed and then continued forward. Ding. Nine to go.
"Incarcerous!" Hermione cried. Thick ropes sprung forward and wrapped themselves around the ankles of the other candidate. They fell heavily with a thud and an 'Oof!' Realising what had happened, they wriggled fiercely, trying to free their legs from the entanglement. Hermione ran forward, aimed and stunned them. She kept running. She could hear shouts to her right and decided to take a closer look.
Two of the candidates were in full arm to arm combat, their wands laying forgotten on the floor nearby. Blows upon blows were exchanged as they wrestled furiously.
"You'll pay for what you did!" A warbled voice erupted from one of the fighters. "You absolute bloody bastard!"
"Get off, you muppet!" The other fighter replied, their voice just as distorted.
Hermione stopped running and stared at them. This didn't seem to be part of the challenge, this seemed entirely too personal. She shrugged, deciding not to interfere just yet, and noticed their wands lying on the ground. "Accio wands!"
They flew through the air towards her and she caught them, then pocketed them in the waistband of her black slacks. She decided to have some fun and suppressing a giggle, hit both fighters with a cheering charm. The spell was instantaneous, and they both stopped fighting. There was a pause, then one of them snorted, causing them both to break out into fits of laughter. They fell on each other, hugging and chortling, completely forgetting what they were fighting about. Another ding, and Hermione counted - eight to go. Well, six, as soon as she was done watching these two in amusement. She raised her wand when, out of nowhere, two flashes of red light flew over Hermione's shoulder and hit both of the laughing candidates, who grew immediately quiet as they fell to the floor. She spun around and saw someone leaning against a tree, their arms folded. She must have run straight past them without noticing.
"You ruined it, I was enjoying watching them fight." The mangled voice said. Hermione pulled an annoyed face, then realised that the other person wouldn't see her features clearly enough to distinguish her feelings.
"What were they fighting about?" Hermione's voice sounded strange to her own ears.
"Who cares?" The other voice replied. They pushed themselves away from the tree and took a few steps forward. "Anyway, we better get on with i-"
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione yelled, interrupting them. They flew backwards, their wand arcing through the air. Hermione caught it, then threw it away. The other candidate slowly got back to their feet and menacingly cracked their neck.
"You shouldn't have done that."
They ran forward, and Hermione changed her stance to a defensive one, bringing her clenched fists in front of her face for protection. She knew she could have just casted a protection spell, but she had only really been fighting Draco up until this point and wanted to see how she went against someone else. Just as they reached her, she shifted her weight and dodged an incoming fist. She spun around, facing the other candidate and punched them in the side twice before bouncing back. The other candidate growled. Hermione guessed them to be one of the women, since they were similarly built, but couldn't tell who it would be.
She wasn't able to comprehend a single thought afterwards. The other candidate launched themselves at her, punching and swiping and scratching, trying to do anything that would hurt. Hermione spun and dodged and weaved herself in and out of the incoming stream. Without realising, she began to smile broadly. Her body knew exactly how to react and where to step. She felt like she was dancing.
And then she caught an elbow to her face. Her nose gave a sickening crunch.
She cried out, taking several steps back, blood now pouring over her lips and down her chin. She spat to the floor and whipped her wand out.
"Enough then," she said. The other candidate laughed bitterly. They dived to the side, having seen their wand and gripped it tightly.
They rolled and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Just as Hermione shouted, "Protego!"The spell bounced off an invisible shield. The other candidate got back onto their feet. "Expulso!"
"Hey!" Hermione yelled as she dived out of the way. The spell singed the top few strands of her hair as it soured above her head. It hit a tree behind her, and with a huge force, the tree exploded, sending shards of splintered wood in every direction. "Are you out of your mind?! Dave said Category 2 spells only!"
The other candidate paid her words no mind as they shouted again, "Expelliarmus!" The spell hit her with a force, and she felt her wand wrenched out of her grasp as it flew to the caster. This made her angry. She yelled in fury and stood again, not even thinking about magic. She broke into a sprint and could hear the other candidates gasp of surprise as she planted a foot into a tree, spun around and brought the full strength of her power down in a roundhouse kick to the jaw. The candidate dropped like a stone. Hermione retrieved her wand and for good measure, muttered, "Stupefy." The spell hit the already unmoving body with a jolt. Ding.
Five to go. She wiped her face on the bottom of her shirt, attempting to clean some of the blood away. The pain in her nose throbbed, but she ignored it.
Ding. Four to go.
"Homenum Revelio," Hermione muttered, needing to get an idea of which direction to go. This spell wasn't classed as a category 2, but as it wasn't a hex aimed at someone's head, she thought it would be accepted. She felt a whoosh of warm air wash over her from her right side and she turned to walk that way.
Ding. Three to go. The numbers were quickly dropping now. Hermione coughed and spat another mouthful of blood on the floor. She felt that the flow from her nose was stemming.
She heard voices and paused. Pointing her wand at her feet, she waved it and said, "Tacet Grabidus."
This was a handy little spell she had picked up from her time at the ministry, invented by a Wizard who worked for the Department of Magical Creatures. It renders the footsteps of a person silent, so as to be able to sneak up on potential creatures for observing. It also served her purpose in the challenge, so no one would hear her coming.
She snuck forward, keeping low. At hearing her name, she froze.
"Do you think that Granger girl has been stunned yet?" One voice asked. There were two candidates, sitting quite idly next to each other, both completely unharmed as they rested their elbows on their knees, flicking leaves about with their wand.
"No way, I reckon her and Amelia will be fighting it out any second now."
The first candidate shifted. "It wasn't nice that she called you out."
"Ah, she was right. But thanks anyway, Ben."
Hermione rolled her eyes. She didn't know how they did it, but Trevor and Ben had obviously figured out who the other was and decided to sit out of the way and attempt to wait the challenge out. She stepped out of her hiding place, hands on hips and stood in front of them. "I obviously was right though, look at the two of you."
They both jumped.
"Shit!" Trevor said, scrambling to his feet and holding his wand out. "Where did you come from?"
"We're literally training to be spies, Trevor. I'm doing sneaky spy things," Hermione said flatly. "Why are you guys even here still?"
"Expelliarmus!" Ben shouted suddenly, taking Hermione completely by surprise. Her wand flew forwards and she stumbled backwards.
"Seriously?" She exclaimed. She brought her hands behind her, grabbing the two wands she found earlier still tucked into her waistband and brandished them, one in each hand, pointing them at Trevor and Ben. "Stupefy!"
Red jolts of light shot out of the end of each wand, hitting both Ben and Trevor in the middle of their chests. Trevor fell sideways, toppling over Ben in a crumpled heap. She threw the spare wands to the floor and went to find hers as two more dings rang overhead. With a lurch, she realised that there was only one other candidate left and for a moment she had the swell of hope fill her chest, inciting her with glee that she was so close to winning. The thrill of coming out on top was like a drug, she was addicted to it. She took one step forward, and a flash of red light hit her from behind causing everything to go black as she slunk into unconsciousness.
"Ennervate."
Hermione blinked. The room slowly came into focus, the outline of a figure hovering over her becoming more and more solid with each blink. She could see the man who had awoken her was smiling behind his bushy ginger beard.
"Wotcher, Chief," Hermione said hoarsely. Her voice had been returned to its normal state.
"Well, well, if it isn't our little feisty Vixen," he replied, using the code name they had previously given her. The corners of his eyes crinkled with mirth. "What a bloody performance you just put on."
"I bet I look a right mess," Hermione said. "Please tell me it wasn't Amelia who won."
Her eyes looked up at him imploringly and Chief laughed. "Actually, it was Fen."
"Fen?" Hermione repeated, surprised. Fen was one of the few women candidates, a mixed-race beauty who hadn't spoken a single word to Hermione the entire time they were training. From what she gathered from the others, her father was Frisian, hailing from the coastal parts of the Netherlands and north-western Germany; and her mother was Japanese. Both cultures were easily identifiable in Fen's features and by her small frame, although she was raised in Australia from birth, so it would be hard to see unless you knew what you were looking for. She was quite tall, as thin as a waif, with smooth ivory skin and high cheek bones. Her eyes were almond shaped, with dark irises peeping through long, black eyelashes. Hermione had always admired how she looked, and now she also admired her skill. "I didn't know she had it in her."
"You two were pretty evenly tied in terms of marks, she just managed to stun you first. Can you sit up? The Healer is just over there, so we can go get your nose fixed up." Chief helped her to a sitting position and Hermione rolled her head clockwise to stretch her neck, feeling the clicks as she did so. They were back in the gymnasium, and afternoon light flooded the pitch. The heat hit her like a train, and she picked at her singlet top as it stuck to her, noticing it had been transfigured back to its original state. The Healer gave her a thorough examination, fixing her nose, which was very unpleasant, and checking for any other injury.
"Go get yourself cleaned up," Chief yelled to the entire group, all of whom were lounging around, looking quite forlorn. "Then report back here and we'll announce who is going through and who can head home."
Hermione showered, washing all of the blood, dirt and sweat off her body. What a crazy challenge it had been. She played every move over in her head. The thrill of the chase, of the hunt, of the task, still ebbed through her veins and she craved more. She didn't know when she had become such an adrenaline junkie, but it felt so good to physically achieve something and not just sit behind a boring desk doing boring work in a boring life. Even though Ron's betrayal hurt, she knew leaving was the best thing for both of them. And if she was honest with herself, she did miss him as her friend, even if she didn't miss him as a lover. She wondered why showers always make her think of Ron.
After she dried off and redressed, she went back to the gymnasium and stood next to Chief and Dave. The rest of the candidates were still in the changing rooms.
"Any day now," muttered Dave, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Patience really isn't your thing, is it?" Hermione joked.
Dave gave her a pointed look. "I just don't like waiting."
"We've been going over the results of the challenge," Chief butted in, changing the subject. "How did you manage to stun two candidates at the same time?"
"Yeah," Dave agreed. "You did some kickass moves out there, I've never been more proud."
He faked wiping a tear away and sniffed loudly. Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh that, it's just something I picked up over the years. I managed to get two wands when two of the candidates were fighting – no idea who they were by the way, your enchantments worked perfectly. Anyway, I'm actually ambidextrous. I can use either hand as a wand hand. I learnt how to do it in school so that I would be able to constantly write notes, even when one hand got sore. Then I just applied it to my work over the years."
Both men wore identical looks of astonishment.
"I didn't know that was a thing," Dave said incredulously, looking at Chief and back at Hermione. She shrugged, still smiling.
"That could come in very handy," Chief said. Then he barked a laugh. "Ha! Handy, get it, Dave?"
Dave groaned. The rest of the candidates finally filed through the door and joined them.
"Alright, quiet down everybody. Thank you for participating in our last one standing challenge. Most of you did very well, a few of you did outstandingly. Six of you did not make the cut." Dave folded his arms as he spoke to them. "We would like to acknowledge a few favourite moments of ours, as a bit of a 'special mention'. If we had prizes, we would be handing them out."
"First, to Amelia," Chief said. "Who did quite outstanding spellwork to increase her stealth, enabling her to sneak up on others."
Amelia raised her chin, smirking as she flicked her gaze over to Hermione triumphantly. Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes again.
"Second, to Charlie, who managed to stun someone from twenty-five metres away! What aim! What Precision!" Dave raved. "He's got those cowboy skills, I tell you."
"Another to mention is Fen, our winner of the challenge," Chief continued. "She managed to place secret trackers on five of you, allowing her to easily follow and stun you."
There was a mild grumble at this.
"But finally, my most favourite thing about the challenge," Dave said, building anticipation. "Hermione's use of other category 2 spells to help increase her success with stunning. The way you used a flock of birds to attack someone, oh, just brilliant!"
"Hey, I wondered who did that!" Jess spoke up from the group, throwing Hermione an amused glance. "It took me completely by surprise!"
Hermione grinned awkwardly and screwed up her face. "...Sorry?"
"Don't be," Jess exclaimed. "It was a great idea, well done."
"Now," Dave interrupted. "To those who will not continue the rest of training."
He waved his wand and a golden strand flew out of its tip, rising above his head and spelling out the list of names.
1. Anna
2. Jeremy
3. Luke
4. Cheryl
5. Ben
6. Trevor
Hermione threw a glance over her shoulder and saw Amelia smirk widen in gratification at getting through. Trevor laughed loudly.
"Guess that's me done then! It's been fun while it lasted guys."
Chief waved down the murmur that broke out, wishing Trevor and the rest condolences. "Now, I have a few last-minute notes to give those who did not pass. First off, Ben and Trevor, it was a challenge, not time for a sit down."
They both looked slightly abashed.
"Luke and Cheryl, you do not take personal quarrels into a challenge," he continued, sternly. Hermione guessed that these two were the ones she found fighting. They both still had smiles on their faces regardless of the chastising, remnants left over of her cheering charm.
"And one more thing to note," Dave said, finality in his tone. "I instructed the use of category 2 spells for each other. One of us did not listen and could have potentially killed someone."
Hermione knew he was talking about the curse that exploded the tree.
"I know who it was, they know who it was, if they disobey a direct order again, they will be dismissed immediately. Understood?"
The group nodded. Hermione glanced around, trying to find a guilty face, but couldn't place one. Obviously they didn't feel very guilty about what they did.
"All right then. Let's call it a day for today, go home and rest. And goodbye to those who didn't make it through."
Hermione sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, staring up at the full moon passing overhead. It was the first day in six weeks that she hadn't spoken to Draco and she felt his absence more aptly then she cared to admit. She wondered where he was, what he was doing, if he was safe. Her mind was awhirl with different scenarios, each one as precarious as the next, placing him in difficult situations that he couldn't escape from. She wanted to tell him all about today and how powerful fighting had made her feel. How being his sparring partner had taught her so much. How completely at ease she now felt since moving. Chewing on her bottom lip, her mind travelled, thinking of Ron and how much had changed since she had last seen him.
With a sigh, she felt her heart unclench and release the painful feeling she got whenever she thought of him. What he did was a dick move, but there was a tiny part of her that was glad that he had found happiness, even if it wasn't with her. She reached over to her bedside table and picked up some parchment and a quill, dipped it in ink and began to write.
Dear Ron,
I hope it's okay that I'm writing to you. Harry told me about your upcoming nuptials and baby and after a few weeks of thinking about it, I want you to know – I'm happy for you. I'm sorry that it didn't work out between us, and that you had to keep your relationship a secret for so long. I wish you a lifetime of happiness with Millicent. I know that you will make a great father, I've been telling you that for years.
Yours truly,
Hermione.
She stared at the paper, at her word 'father'. Her want for a family of her own multiplied by ten when Harry and Ginny had James, four years before. And then came Albus, who was now two and a half. And finally, little Lily Luna who was born earlier in the year. Every child that was born made her relationship with Ron even more strained. He refused to talk about it, not marriage, not children. He was afraid that they would end up like his family, too poor to support a family. That was his excuse that he used, every time. She would see his side, concede defeat, and try again another time.
She fell backwards onto her mattress and counted the months it had been since Lily's birth. She would be about eight or nine months old now. With a start, she realised that this coincided with the start of Ron's relationship with Millie. Lily must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. They did have a huge fight about it, Hermione had left for the whole weekend to get over it, staying with Ginny under the pretence of helping out around the house.
She sighed. She wished she could talk to Draco and get her mind off Ron.
A hundred and fifty kilometres away, a blond head looked up at the moon, thinking of honey coloured eyes and wishing he was home.