Chapter 14- Hunted * Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me. * AN- So sorry this took so long to get up. With having to set up a new computer and then not being able to get the modem working. Anyway here it is. * Sirius had gone home the previous night; "You're wasted here Hermione," He had said, "Your talents are too good to be wasted, they don't appreciate you. Oh well, be sure to visit me soon and look after yourself!"

With him went Voldemort's runes and they were now locked up in a secure volt at the auror headquarters in London. No longer Hermione's concern; or so it would seem.

Yet ever since they had found the runes, Hermione had the constant feeling of being lost and under some sort of spell. Maybe it was juts paranoia but Hermione couldn't help looking over her shoulder every now and again.

One fine evening Hermione, Ginny and Ron were walking back from a restaurant. Although still hot there was a refreshing breeze; the sky was a lovely deep blue colour with not a cloud in sight. The moon was a glistening pearl amid a sea of winking diamonds.

Despite the tranquility Hermione felt as if she was being watched, stronger than ever.

"What's the matter?" Ron asked, sensing she was on edge.

"Nothing," She lied.

He looked at her with concern but said no more.

They stopped to buy ice-cream in a bust muggle square. Ron and Ginny chatted happily (if not a little too loudly) about how clever muggles were to get on without magic.

Still Hermione felt haunted. She was wearing a deep crimson, knee-length muggle dress and pretty sandals. She had caught a section of her glossy curls back with a clip leaving the rest to spill down her elegant shoulders. She looked very nice.

Well Ron at least thought so, as he wondered over what was bothering her. What the confused, scared, apprehensive look in her charming chocolate brown eyes was, what shadows plagued that pretty face of hers. She was lost in her own thoughts. His sister on the other hand was bright a bubbly apparently oblivious to her friend's mood.

Ron was jolted out of this contemplation when Hermione let out a gasp.

"What is it?" Ginny asked.

"There!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing into the crowd.

Ron followed her gaze but couldn't see anything unusual, "What is it?" He asked her.

"We were being followed, it was a wizard, black cloak, wand out, when I seen them, they disaparated." She said, her eyes wide with fear.

"Did you see their face?"

"No, they had their pulled right down over their face," Hermione said.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" She snapped.

"Come on," Said Ginny, uneasily, "Let's get back."

* Ginny sat alone in the guest room that Hermione had given her, a face swimming in her memory.

Bespectacled green eyes, messy black hair and a lightening shaped scar. A face so dearly loved, but lost.

Harry. Ginny was still terribly lonely without him and although she'd had several boyfriends since Harry's death, none of them had lasted long. Life just wasn't the same without Harry.

A salty tear leaked down her pale cheek.

Seeing Ron and Hermione so obviously in love but simultaneously in terrible denial only brought back the pain of Harry's loss stronger than ever.

Smiling Ginny remembered the countless plans that she and Harry had concocted to bring them together each one ending in disaster. She would give anything, anything, just to be able to that again with Harry, to laugh with him again, to cheer him on in Quidditch again, just to see him again. Anything.

* An hour later Hermione sat in the garden. The smell of the blossoming jasmine plant was sweet and strong. Who had that cloaked figure been? Whose eyes had been hidden under that hood? Was it a deatheater wanting to know what the rune tablet said? What would happen next?

"I thought I'd find you here." Ron said sitting down next to her on the garden bench.

"Oh."

"That was a deatheater following us tonight." Ron said grimly.

Hermione looked up at him, "How can you be sure?"

Hermione knew the answer but she didn't want to admit it.

"All the circumstances Hermione. They wanted you, because you know what the runes said."

"I know." She whispered.

"But what do we do now?" Ron asked.

"You're the auror," Hermione said shaking her head.

"You used to be one of us." He muttered a weird wistfulness in his voice.

"But not anymore. I only had few years of experience, you've had much more, and I working in wartime the situation is very different now."

"Working as an auror has never been as good as when you were one too," He said, his cerulean eyes shining.

There was an awkward silence as they contemplated their situation. Hermione was hunted and Ron felt an obligation and a need to protect her. Loosing her again would destroy him.