Moody brought them back to the resistance base, which was an abandoned old bunker somewhat away from inhabited areas. This was probably built during the second world war, Hermione realized as she walked trough the long, badly illuminated hallway. She peered into the open rooms which housed two to four people on double beds.
When they stepped into the room on the end of the hallway there sat a young, long bearded wizard at his table. "Harry?" Hermione wondered.
"Hermione?!" He jumped off his table.
Two old friends walked over and embraced each other.
"I leave you to it than." Moody weaved at Harry and left the room.
"If it wasn't for your scar, I have to admit I wouldn't be able to recognise you."
"It's the beard I know." Harry smiled.
"Not only that, your face changed… you look thinner." Hermione noted.
"Just older I suppose. You look about the same though." Harry smirked.
"Liar…" Hermione punched his shoulder with a smile. "What of Ron? Is he here?" Hermione asked.
Harry's expression turned serious. "No…" He bowed his head. "I have no idea where he is."
"Wouldn't it be great if he was here, the trio… remember?"
Harry nodded as they both stared into space. It was a quaint thing to say, but Hermione knew there was no going back. All that seemed like another life now, and lived by another person. Though they easily fell back into a friendly banter, Harry was now a stranger in some sense. While before Hermione knew almost every daily trouble of her two best pals, now there was a big chunk of time missing. What has Harry been trough and how has it changed him? That surely couldn't be summed up in a sentence, or even a dozen, Hermione realized.
Meanwhile Pansy stood in the back of the room unnoticed, observing the two friends lament. She didn't want to intrude on the reunion, but now Harry had finally noticed her. "And who is this? Is that…" Harry motioned to the third person in the room.
"Pansy." She muttered timidly.
"Parkinson?!" Harry muttered confusedly. "Butt why…"
"Yes… She helped me escape that labour camp near Rose's inn."
"So you where there the whole time?! Had I known…" Harry started apologetically.
"How could you know…" Hermione waved it off.
As they stood for a silent moment, Harry's eyes went back to Pansy. He recalled her as the mean girl who tried to give him up to Voldemort.
Pansy recalled that very same event. She felt guilty so she stepped over to Harry and shook his hand. "I'm sorry about the way I behaved back at school."
"It's the past, forget about it." Harry said with a smile that didn't seem all that genuine. Pansy got the impression that he was still uneasy about her presence. It also didn't slip past her that Hermione failed to introduce her as her girlfriend. Perhaps it was more difficult to divulge that to Harry, still… Pansy never figured that Hermione would chose to omit their relationship to her friend after proudly announcing it the first chance she got.
Harry asked someone to show Pansy to their room, but then he asked to speak to Hermione alone. Pansy wasn't happy about this, but she didn't show it on her face, she went to the room to lay down on the lower part of the double bed, cross her arms and mope. She really hated being excluded.
Hermione came to their room about an hour later.
"What did you talk about for so long?!" Pansy pounced on her right away.
Hermione didn't respond, she silently shut the door behind herself and went over to lie on the bed above.
Pansy noticed a tear in her eye. "What is it? What happened?"
"Nothing." Hermione mumbled wiping the corner of her eye.
"Tell me what's wrong! I want to know!" Pansy snapped.
"It's just sad…"
"What is!?" Loosing her patience Pansy shouted out.
At that Hermione lost her patience as well. "I'll tell you, ok! Just give me a moment of peace, will you?!" She snapped back.
"Fine!" Pansy rushed out slamming the door shut. Then she leaned on the very same heavy, metal door and started wiping the tears that came quietly pouring.
The hallway got very busy just than, so everyone that passed by her took a long look at the distressed new girl. Pansy was aware of the glares, but going back in there to hide wasn't an option. Hermione clearly didn't want her there, and she didn't want to divulge what had happened between her and Harry so Pansy quickly gathered herself and started walking trough the hallway. She had to get out of this damn bunker, it was suffocating her.
Moments later, washed over by guilt Hermione tore away from her thoughts and emerged form the room to look for Pansy, but she was nowhere to be seen. Hermione felt too drained and bogged down by despair to go look for her right now so she returned to bed.
Pansy walked a few hundred yards until she found a nice spot on a coarse stone wall to sit on. The fresh air helped, but also the distraction of observing a group of people emerge from the bunker to carry equipment and board a large enchanted, flying bus that was parked on the grassy road. This helped take her mind of Hermione.
When observing wasn't enough, Pansy stepped over to the group. "So what's all the commotion about? Where are you lot going?" She asked peering inside the buss.
"We're off to scout out the Black Keep." Young man at the wheel said. "You're the new girl, right? Wanna come along?" He offered.
"Sure, why not." Pansy said stepping in, but she paused right after. "It's not dangerous is it?"
"Usually not, it's just a scouting mission."
"Ok, than." Pansy said. She sat in the back of the bus, away from others so she could stare out the window and think.
As the bus lifted up, Pansy watched the ground grow distant. It stirred a familiar, excited feeling inside her. She recalled the first time she flew to Hogwarts on an enchanted chariot. However, the happy memory only comforted her a short while. When Pansy's mind came back to Hermione and what had just happened, tears again collected under her eyelids. She wiped them off and tried to shut them down.
By the end of the ride Pansy figured her eyes must look a bit red, but luckily nobody could peer inside her mind. The buss landed behind a large rock so it would be hidden from view, then the group with Pansy in tow started walking trough the rocky landscape. The ground was dark and scorched, sans of any vegetation beside a few leafless weeds. After some time they broke onto a vast clearing. To Pansy the area looked like a dried up lake or a crater in the middle of which stood the towering and menacing Black Keep.
"Here we are!" The group leader announced. "Now take your usual positions."
Pansy watched as everyone hid behind a row of large rocks and took out their binoculars. Pansy didn't have one, but then again she didn't need it, she could see perfectly fine that the huge structure was empty.
"Where are the Death Eaters?!" Someone finally roared.
"Is it empty?" The group leader questioned aloud.
"That can't be!" Two others uttered in unison.
Rest of the scouting party just gazed at each another in confusion.
"Maybe they're all inside?" Someone suggested.
"I'll go and have a look." Pansy stepped over the rocks and into a vast open area that stretched all the way to the keep.
"Hey! New girl! Get back here right now! They'll see you and come after all of us!" Someone shouted from behind the cover.
"Who will? I don't see anyone there?" Pansy argued before she spun on her heel. Then she started heading toward the large, menacing structure. After a few minutes of walking she turned to see that nobody followed her. Perhaps they where still there behind the rocks, perhaps they left, Pansy didn't really care. She figured this was probably a one way trip.
Walking over the black desert ground that surrounded the keep she thought about everything that happened between her and Hermione since it all begun. Their relationship was initiated by chance and prolonged by necessity. Somehow it became a dream, but then the dream turned into a nightmare… as all dreams do, Pansy thought. She knew what she was doing by wilfully putting herself in harm. If the Death Eaters where in there, maybe they'd capture her, then maybe Hermione would show up and rescue her. No… that was another dream, Pansy realized with a desperate smile across her lips. She knew they'd probably kill her on sight, especially if she appeared to be attacking them. She didn't have a wand, but she picked up a dry branch that looked like one.