Sorry this took me far too long to write. I'm facing some technical issues with my laptop, sorry if there's any mistakes in the typing.
Reading in silence had always been Hermione's go to when she was little. She hated trying to block out the sounds of the television in her front room or music playing from the radio. Going to Hogwarts had meant adapting, fast. She grew to find comfort in the chatter from the common room. As long as no one was directly paying her attention she could drown out the conversations that interwove themselves into a dull white noise.
Sitting in a still forest, with just the wind to play quiet whistles in her ears Hermione missed her old friends and her old school more than ever. Her heart ached to be in curled up by a fire, with a certain Weasley in her line of sight making her blush when he caught her eye.
But the book in her hands held some comfort, even if the stories were unfamiliar they reminded her of the books she read when she was a child. Muggle fantasy books might seem inaccurate and somewhat annoying to Hermione now but the ones written by witches and wizards brought the same feeling of home.
Hermione had read the tales of beedle the bard cover to cover- including Dumbledore's own notes- so many times she'd stopped keeping track. Instead she looked for clues in the pages, tried to use every technique her Muggle Education had taught her to find hidden meanings. But try as she might she continued to struggle with why Dumbledore had thought to leave this to her, and why he thought it would be any kind of use in their journey.
Progress had come to a stand still. Harry and Hermione both wanted to find a new lead but it was Ron, Hermione noticed, who had grown irritable. At times he was down right rude to both of them. And the radio he checked at all times kept Hermione on edge. She could pin point certain voices, and hearing Fred's voice on the radio made her chest hurt and her stomach twist. She spent hours in bed trying to muffle the sound of her tears when she should have been sleeping.
After giving up once again Hermione pulled her bag into her lap and replaced the novel with the notebook Fred had given her. It felt like a lifetime ago since she had last written a response. She looked over Fred's words, her fingers twitching to grab her pen. Just to reassure his desperate words. Just to put his mind at rest. Hermione would never do such a thing. She knew that if the book were ever to fall into the wrong hands the consequences could be worse than what her nightmares held.
"Morning." Harry said, his voice still thick with sleep as he carried a blanket into the snowy clearing. He draped the fabric around them and settled against the tree. Hermione was at a loss for what to say next. Every time Harry met her eyes over the book her stomach would twist when she had nothing new to add. No new leads, no hope.
"We should think about moving soon." Hermione said to fill the space, she wished she had something more useful. "Christmas must be any day now."
"You're right." Harry said pulling his hat over his unkept hair. "Maybe that will cheer him up."
"Bad morning?" Hermione asked, not wanting to jinx the quiet by stating outright who might be the cause. Before Harry could respond Hermione saw a flash of red hair and new she had jinxed them just by thinking it.
"You'll have to stop whispering now." Ron spat as he stomped away from them towards the boundaries of their protective spells. "The spare is awake."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry whispered keeping a close eye on his friend as Ron kicked random icy twigs that got in his way.
"I don't want to know." Hermione sighed letting her head tip back against the tree behind them. If she closed her eyes she could imagine the world around them was filled with Christmas lights, and holiday music. She could pretend she was resting during a winter walk with Fred or at Hogwarts with Ginny getting some fresh air after classes.
As evening grew nearer the trio talked inside the tent, throwing around the same ideas over and over hoping their imagination might spark the answers to their never ending questions. Hermione and Harry talked over half warm soup from the mushrooms they'd found nearby. Ron sulked at the head of the table his eyes focused on something neither of the others cared to look for.
"The sword could be somewhere in the muggle world too." Hermione suggested, "it would be an unassuming place many might look over or refuse to even consider."
"That's true." Harry replied, rubbing his eyes inn exhaustion. "What d'you reckon, Ron?" Harry asked, turning to the Weasley beside him.
"Oh you've remembered me?" Ron asked, his attention snapping back to the conversation in front of him. "Don't let me ruin your fun."
"What?" Hermione asked, too annoyed to sound polite.
"We should talk about something else." Ron said standing abruptly from his seat.
"Like?" Harry prompted when it was clear Ron was just going to stand without continuing.
"How about this?" Ron threw a small book onto the table in front of them.
"What is that, Ron?" Harry asked, Ron was red with anger, Hermione turned pale in fear. "Hermione what is that?"
"Where did you get that?" Hermione asked, as she pulled her notebook towards her flipping through the pages as though something might of changed since she'd last held it in her hands. Her eyes caught flashes of words that Hermione wanted no one other than Fred to read. The last person who she wanted to see her private conversations had probably seen it all.
"Your bag." Ron stated.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Harry snapped.
A silence fell over the friends, Hermione continuing to flip through in panic of what else Ron might have done. She was too scared to flip to the last page.
"It appears Ronald has gone through my things." Hermione said, a well of relief spilling within her stomach when she saw Ron hadn't written anything of his own.
"Tell him what it is." Ron snarled through gritted teeth.
"It's a notebook." Hermione stated, struggling with tears pooling in her eyes. "Fred gave it to me, it lets us write messages back and forth."
"She's been hiding this from us. She could have found out if my family was okay this whole time. She could have told them we were alive, they could have been helping us get somewhere for once rather than talking in circles." Ron ranted.
Harry looked back and forth between the two.
"Hermione? Did you say anything to Fred since we left?" Harry asked turning away from Ron's angry face.
"No, I-I- I couldn't. What if they caught him and tortured him for information? It's best no one knows anything." Hermione said, her voice only just audible over the rain that had began to plink onto the roof. Harry relaxed back into his chair.
"Okay, good. Why did you bring it Hermione, if you didn't plan on using it?" Harry asked.
"Um…I'm a rather logical person Harry, but even I'm not sure. Maybe so I could read past messages, or just to feel like I had a part of him nearby." Hermione rubbed the tears than ran down her cheeks.
"You can't be taking her side on this, Harry? Bloody hell have you lost it too?" Ron shouted.
"Take off the locket, Ron." Harry said struggling to remain calm. "Maybe you'll start thinking rationally."
"You don't think I'm rational? Why did you even want me here? To be a spare in case you want someone to get in the way. Oh wait that already happened or have you two already forgotten." Ron said, gesturing to his arm still hanging in a sling.
"Come on Ron, get it all out. Why don't you tell us what you really think?" Harry snapped in response.
Hermione wanted to go back to bed and hide, she wanted to turn back time and be in her bedroom back home where nothing was wrong. She wanted her friends to be arguing about something trivial like their lack of food and not the notebook she'd brought along despite her instincts to leave it home.
"Okay, fine. I didn't think we would be gone this long, without any kind of food. I didn't think Dumbledore had left you with nothing to work with and I didn't think I would still like Hermione after all this time." Ron was shouting at the both of them as he paced back and forth. His eyes landed on Hermione as he finish, he watched as she brushed at the tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Sorry if this isn't the five star experience you were expecting. I didn't know you thought we'd have an easy time of it mate but this is life without mummy around to do everything for you." Harry threw back, standing from his chair.
"Ron, you need to calm down." Hermione said as she sniffed back the last of her tears. "You can't bring up liking me after all this time. It's not fair, you've had a girlfriend for longer than I have been dating Fred."
"For once can we not talk about you fucking Fred. I was talking about me and you."
"What did you expect me to say Ron?"
"Bloody hell. I don't know, how about, Ron I still have feelings for you too. Ron I made a mistake. Ron I should have been spending time with you and not becoming some warped version of myself with Fred."
"Then I would be lying." Hermione stated simply. "And you know that, we've talked about this before. Why is this still something on your mind?"
Ron thought for a moment, trying to slow down his erratic breathing, angry tears pooling in his eyes.
"We've spent a lot of time just the three of us in this tent. I thought things had changed. At first. It doesn't even matter." Ron grabbed his coat from the corner and stormed from the tent, throwing the locket over his shoulder, not looking back.