A/N Alright, here's the second part. Please don't say there's not enough romance yet, because I didn't want to put all the parts in different genres, and the end IS going to be quite romantic ^_* Well, be sure to review, that's what keeps me writing, and thanks SO much for all the great reviews last time! Oh right, and this will be R/H, so if you really don't like that I wouldn't read it...for those people who wanted H/H, I'm really sorry! Okay, you've been warned. I'll be quiet now.
"I don't see anything here," Harry muttered, tossing another book into the growing stack.
"There's got to be something!" sniffed Hermione. Whenever she couldn't find something in the library, she took it rather harshly.
"Well, what's the nearest forest?" said Ron as he closed another book.
"Don't be stupid, Ron, that won't help us. Besides, it's just behind the...the..." Hermione drifted off, "You're so smart! Each flock has one territory and one lair, so there must be one near Hogwarts!" She grabbed several of the books from the table and then raced out the door.
"And what are we supposed to do about this?" said Harry.
"Search me," said Ron, shrugging.
"Hang on, do you know anything else about vampires?" Ron asked, his eyes darting over his parchment, "I'm still six inches short!" he sighed, letting go of the end. It rolled up with a snap, almost catching his fingers.
"I don't know how Hermione's doing it," said Harry as he dipped his quill back into the ink, "Really, we have enough work as it is, and she insists on raising that horse."
"Pegasus," Ron corrected.
"Right."
Hermione burst through the door, her face flushed. She collapsed in between them, fanning herself with one hand, and supporting many books with the other, "I was just in the forest," she gasped, breathing heavily.
"Are you mad?" Ron asked, standing up quickly, "What, d'you have a death wish or something?"
"Don't be silly, Ron, I only went in a little ways. I found something out about the Harpies anyway, and I just wanted to check something," she handed him a scrap of paper. A single sentence was scrawled across the top.
Harpies will only eat their meat fresh.
"That's just great, a real breakthrough," said Harry, rolling his eyes.
"Don't you see?" she said, exasperated, "if Harpies only eat fresh meat, then they have to have a way of preserving it." This didn't get the reaction she expected, Ron and Harry just stared at her as if she was speaking another language. She grimaced, "And the only way of doing that would be to freeze it. Any ideas how they could do that?"
Ron stared at her.
"They'd have to encase the Pegasus in ice!" she sighed, "And in every forest, there's one means of ice..."
"Oh right," said Harry.
"That makes sense," said Ron, grinning.
"So I thought we'd head down there after lunch," she continued casually.
"Hermione, we have Potions after lunch," said Harry.
"Well I happen to think that this is far more important then any class. But if you don't care about those Pegasus, all getting eaten by some horrid monster..." her eyes flashed threateningly at Harry.
"I know when I'm beaten," he sighed.
"Ouch! Get off my foot, Hermione!"
"Well, I can't see you!"
"Shut it, both of you."
The air was so chilling that it stung as it whipped by. The sheer cloak covering them wasn't nearly enough to block out the cold, and the soft snow had frozen into a pearlescent sheet of ice that coated absolutely everything. Every step was difficult, and Ron kept losing his balance and pulling them all down with him.
"Really Harry, we're outside, can't we take this off?" said Hermione.
"I guess so..." replied Harry, sounding very unsure.
Harry cast off the cloak and folded it up. He tucked it into his pocket and they all walked charily down to the lake. It was coated in a heavy layer of ice. Hermione cautiously stepped onto it, testing how firm it was.
"It's really thick! Come on," she called, "Look at this," she said, giggling suddenly. Beneath her feet the ice was tinted blue, and with every step she took the ice beneath her changed to another color. Ron stepped out awkwardly, followed by Harry.
For a few moments they all stood still, just watching the ice beneath them. It flowed seamlessly into a dazzling raiment of colors, starting dark and clear in the center and then rolling into the pure ice blue that made up the lake. Hermione shook herself, snapping them all back into reality. "Okay, let's go," she glided across the ice, doing urbane twists and turns.
"Nice moves," called Ron, as he clumsily edged across the ice.
"I bet," quipped Harry.
"Shut up!" Ron flushed a brilliant shade of pink.
"Come here," said Hermione. She was bending over a patch of ice towards the center of the lake. A cloud of gold and silver was hovering in the air above it. "This is really curious. That's what was over the snow as well," she murmured.
"Should we dig into the ice?" asked Ron as he bent over it.
"No, Pegasus are only born in the snow, not in the ice. But only a Pegasus can make dust like this..." she held out her hand, catching some of the dust in her palm. It was cool against her skin, and soft to the touch. After shimmering for a moment, the lucent gleam seemed to fade from the dust and it turned grey. "I've never seen anything like this."
Suddenly, a crisp screech filled the air around them. It felt piercing and cold to the senses, and bitter to the ears.
"What is that?" stammered Hermione, her eyes darted from the ice to the sky above. For a split second, the sun elapsed into darkness. They could make out the sharply defined silhouette of some sort of bird, cut against the sky. Its eyes locked with Hermione's for a brief moment and she felt her entire body freeze up. A cold sensation crept down her spine and she felt herself going rigid.
"Hermione! Snap out of it!" Ron gasped, shaking her by the arm. She was pulled back into awareness, but she still felt stiff and cold. She wanted to sleep...to sleep forever...
"That must have been...I mean..." Hermione's voice trembled, "A Harpy."
There was no need to speak at all. Hermione was absently stroking the Pegasus whom she'd named Chera. Ron was flipping through a text, though he wasn't reading a single word. And Harry was inattentively thumbing through his notebook, his quill poised at the top of a fresh piece of parchment but nothing written. A fire flooded the room with light and warmth, but it seemed cold and distant. Ron silently closed the book and drew his knees up to his chest. Something about the very form of the Harpy was just...nightmarish.
Chera let out a soft yawn and drew her wings close to her body. She stumbled over to a chair and curled up again.
Hermione was still stroking the spot where she'd been. She didn't seem to have realized that the Pegasus was gone. "Ron..." she whispered softly.
"Mmm..." murmured Ron. His voice was caught in his throat.
"I'm...I'm just..." she started desperately, "I'm scared."
He edged closer to her, "Why?"
"When that thing looked at me, I felt so cold and alone. All I wanted to do was rest and never wake up," she made a vague gesture in the air, "I want to save the Pegasus from that. No one should ever have to experience such... I don't know where to start, and I'm scared of...what might happen," Her voice was so soft and choked with tears that she didn't sound like Hermione at all.
"Me too," sighed Ron, "I think we all are."
Harry glanced up, "They are scary looking," he said quickly, snapping into awareness.
Hermione bit her lip, "I want to help them all," she whispered, "We have to help them somehow. But those Harpies...they look like they could just...just..."
"Kill us," muttered Ron darkly.
"Right," she choked out.
"Let's go to bed," yawned Harry, "We'll think clearer in the morning."
"Just think about it," Hermione continued distractedly, "Right now another one's being eaten, another one's being trapped in that frozen sleep, another one's dying. At this very moment..."
"Hermione, Harry's right. Come on, you need some rest," said Ron.
"That Harpy almost froze me just by looking at me," Hermione said, twirling her hair about her finger.
"Get up," urged Harry.
She stood up abruptly, heading back to her room in a daze. Everything seemed so shadowy and dark...
Hermione sighed, and sat down on her bed. She opened her mouth as if to relay another fact about the Harpies and Pegasus.
"I feel horrible, how am I supposed to sleep when so many innocent lives are ending right now?" she began. She felt herself lapsing into tears, "And, everything's just so...so..." she wiped her eyes, "It's so hopeless."
"It's not completely hopeless. Mind, I don't know how much of a chance we stand against those Harpies, but we'll try. Hermione, you never know until you try," said Ron.
"We've been up against a lot worse then those," added Harry.
"But at least we knew what we were facing! Even if we found a way to save those Pegasus, I really doubt we could reach them," said Hermione.
"Yeah," sighed Ron, "How are we supposed to get beneath that ice?"
"Oh Ron! Are you a wizard or aren't you?" Hermione sighed, "We'll just do a simple melting spell. That's the least of our worries."
"Listen Hermione, I was in the lake last year and I didn't see any..." Harry began.
"Of course! We can use that stuff Harry used to breath underwater," exclaimed Hermione.
"You can only breath for an hour, and you can only get it from Professor Snape's office," said Harry edgily.
"Then what are we waiting for? We'll get it first thing tomorrow," said Hermione.
Harry made to disagree but Ron kicked him, "Right, first thing tomorrow," he agreed.
They left for their beds, leaving Hermione alone with her thoughts. Somehow she felt a sense of foreboding that unnerved her, yet she felt relief coursing throughout her as well.
"Curious..."she yawned, before drifting off into a peculiar partial slumber.