Disclaimer: Don't own Harry or any character, place, or chain of events associated with him. JK Rowling owns all of that stuff. This is pure fiction, meant to harm no one.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter! Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think. Are things moving to fast? Too slow? Too much detail? Should I continue, or give it up? Let me know! I live for reviews!
Chapter Five: And The Thunder Rolls...
"Ahhhh!" Harry and I yelled as we were pelted with rain. What had begun as a clear, beautiful day had suddenly been turned into a wet, miserable experience. We were standing under a canopy at the Amusement Park waiting for my dad when the rain began. We looked up at the sky to see huge, black clouds staring back at use threateningly from the sky.
"This is yucky," I said, wrapping my arms around myself, trying to get as far away from the rain as possible. The canopy was small and there were several other people under it too. Harry nodded his agreement.
"At least we had fun before the rain started though," I pointed out.
"Yeah. It could be worse. Besides, I kind of like thunderstorms every now and again," Harry replied. More people crowded into the small space, pushing me against Harry. Eventually he just opened his arms and pulled me against him.
"More comfortable this way," he said faintly, looking off in the distance. I nodded my agreement. Suddenly I saw a familiar gray car pull up.
"There's dad! Let's make a run for it!" I exclaimed, grabbing Harry's hand. The car was just a short distance from the canopy, but the ground in between was very muddy and full of puddles. Harry and I ran across, laughing as we both almost fell on our bums in the mud. We finally made it into the car in one piece, and slid into the backseat. My dad had two towels ready for us, and we both dried off as he pulled out of the lot.
"Dad, I thought the weather was supposed to be good today. What's with the storm?" I asked as I tried to towel dry my curly hair. Over the past year or so my hair had tamed down thanks to some new muggle hair products. It is still very curly though, just not as bushy. It falls into curls down my back instead of sticking out.
"The bloke on the news said that it was some weird weather front that moved in quickly over the past few hours. They don't think it will last very long though," He informed me. I nodded and sat back in my seat, watching the rain fall against the window. Outside the sky made a huge boom that made me jump about three feet in the air. Harry laughed and patted my knee.
"It's just thunder, Hermione," He said. I just glared at him.
"It just surprised me is all," I said, folding my arms.
"Sure, sure," Harry replied. I gave him another mock-glare and settled back into my seat again. It didn't take long for us to get home, and I was thankful for a garage in thunderstorms like these.
We rushed inside, where my mom had tea waiting for us. We all sat down and drank tea together, talking about the weird storm.
"At least it didn't hit us when we were on one of the rides," Harry commented. I nodded my head, agreeing with him.
"Yeah, that would have been awful. I wonder how long it will last?" I said, sipping my tea. We continued on for a few more minutes, and then we washed our dishes and went upstairs to my room.
Boom, Boom, CRACK!
I jumped again at the thunder and lightening, shivering as the lights began to flicker on and off. I grabbed onto Harry's arm and breathed a sigh of relief when the power stayed on. Harry laughed and sat down on my bed.
"I didn't think you were afraid of storms, Hermione," Harry said, playing with the ruffle of one of my pillows. I sat down on my window seat and looked out at the rain.
"At Hogwarts storms don't really bother me. The school is so huge you can barely tell there's a storm going on, and I feel safer there knowing that a storm really couldn't do damage to the buildings. But here at home the space is much smaller, and the sounds much louder. It just makes me nervous sometimes. I mean, I'm not scared to death of storms, but I'm not thrilled with all the sound effects either," I explained. Another round of thunder came through boom.... boom.... boom...
This time the power went out and stayed out. I could still see a little bit, enough to see Harry's form standing up and coming toward me. I stood up too and he grabbed my hand. We made it to my door and entered the hallway to find it almost pitch black. After all, it was about five in the afternoon and a storm was raging outside.
"Don't let go of my hand Mione. We're going to go downstairs with your parents, okay?" Harry asked.
"Okay. Just be careful going down the stairs," I told him. He pulled me along by the hand to the staircase, and we both grabbed onto the banister with our free hand, taking the steps slowly.
"Harry? Hermione? Are you two coming down here?" My mum's voice rang out from the living room area.
"Yes mum, we're on our way," I called back. We finally made it down the stairs and into the living room. My dad had his cell phone on and was talking into it, casting a light blue glow all around him as it lit up.
"Who is dad talking to?" I asked, keeping hold of Harry's hand. Dad hung up before mum could reply to my question.
"That was your Aunt Jamie. She still has power at her house, and told us to come over if we wanted. You know how she is with storms anyway, so I think it would be a good idea. Everyone up for it?" He asked.
"Sure," Harry and I replied at the same time.
"Sounds good," My mom said. We all somehow managed to get to the side door leading to the garage and into the car without bumping into something.
"My aunt only lives about twenty minutes from here. She's thirty-five and really great. She likes to travel a lot and just got back from America a few weeks ago. She likes to read too, and she's my favorite aunt," I told Harry. He smiled at me and said, "She sounds brilliant 'Mione. Like a grown up version of you."
I grinned and looked out the window. After about ten minutes of driving the rain was getting heavier and heavier. I was starting to get nervous about being in this small car with that big storm out there. Something didn't feel right about all of this.
My dad slowed down a bit because the weather was so bad, but eventually we reached my Aunt's two story gray house. We pulled up in the driveway and made another dash for the door, which my aunt pulled open just in time for us to run in. She had laid down towels in front of the door, and we all wiped our feet and took our shoes off.
"Well hello you lot. Wonderful weather we're having, is it not?" She said, her brown eyes sparkling. She pushed back a strand of her short brown hair and looked at Harry.
"You must be Harry. It's nice to meet you, finally," She said, glancing over at me. I blushed a bit but smiled as Harry shook my aunt's hand and returned her greeting.
"Why don't we all go into the living room? There are lots of warm blankets there, and I could fix something to eat if you would like," Aunt Jamie said, leading us into the living room. Harry and I took a seat on the couch and declined her offer of food. My parents went into the kitchen with her though to make some sandwiches.
Outside the wind began to get worse, howling against the house. The blinds to the nearest window were open, and I could see the wind was blowing the limbs of trees so hard that some of them looked ready to break. The rain began to pelt down faster and harder, and suddenly the thunder began again too.
Boom
Boom
Boom.
I glanced at Harry and was about to say something when the lights flickered on and off, on and off, before finally going off for good.
I sighed and felt for Harry's hand. "This is getting old. Something about this doesn't feel right Harry. This storm coming out of nowhere, the power going out at my house and then at my aunt's...what do you think is going on?" I asked.
"I don't know, but I'm starting to think this storm isn't just a coincidence," Harry told me, squeezing my hand. I stood up, pulling him up too.
"We better go into the kitchen with my family in case something happens. Do you have your wand?" I asked Harry as we felt our way into the kitchen.
"Yes, I grabbed it when we went back to your house. You had better get yours out too."
I nodded and stuck my hand in my pocket, fishing out my wand quickly.
"Harry, Hermione? Is that you?" My aunt's voice came from somewhere around the sink, I think.
"Yes, it's us. Mum, dad? I think that maybe there is something weird going on here, but I'm not sure. We all really need to stay together right now, okay?" I asked. Suddenly a small light filled the room as my mom and dad lit two candles. I saw that there were four more on the table. They lit those too and we carried them into the living room, leaving two in the kitchen.
"Why do you think there is something weird going on, Hermione? Could we be in danger?" My dad asked me, a worried expression on his face. I looked at Harry before turning back to my father.
"I don't know dad, I-" I never got to finish what I was saying as I heard six distinctive "Craaack's" coming from behind us. My aunt screamed as Harry and I whirled around to see five death eaters in white masks standing behind us. We both pulled out our wands and held them ready.
"Good evening Mr. Potter. Lord Voldemort sends his greetings," the closest death eater hissed. I could feel Harry tense beside me.
"Don't you mean Tom Riddle? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot he doesn't like being reminded of his un-pure blood, " Harry retorted. The death eater tensed, his wand tipping down a bit.
" I will kill you for insulting his name in my presence Potter. But first I think I'll kill your little mudblood and her family to make you suffer. Crucio!" He yelled out, pointing his wand at me.
"Get down!" I screamed, ducking the curse.
"You three, get behind the couch NOW!" I yelled at my parents and aunt. I didn't have time to see if they did as I instructed. Instead I turned my attention back to the death eaters.
"Stupefy!" I screamed, pointing my wand at the death eater to the left of the speaker.
"Impedimenta!" Harry called out, taking down another death eater.
"Incarcerous!" I cried, causing ropes to appear around the two death eaters we cursed.
"Crucio!" Another death eater yelled, and Harry jumped to the right just in time to miss the curse.
"Crucio!"
"Imperius!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
Unforgivables were being flung at us left and right, but when the killing curse was used my heart stopped for a second. Then I realized that Harry had dove out of the killing curse's path and in doing so, he cracked his head on the ground. I jumped at the sound, but couldn't move to help him because of the remaining death eaters.
"Impedimenta! Expelleriamus!" I screamed, pointing my wand at the tallest death eater. He froze and his wand came flying to me. The other death eaters flung curses at me, but I managed to out-maneuver them.
"Incarcerous!" I called out again, leaving the frozen death eater with ropes tightly binding him like the others. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Harry struggling to get up, finally finding his feet. He turned towards me and I saw a huge gash in the side of his head near his temple. Red blood was trickling down the side of his face, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I glanced back to see that my family was okay, and that distraction cost me.
"Crucio!" One of the death eaters called out, and I immediately fell to the ground writhing in pain. I screamed and crawled on my hands and knees, hearing the sounds of Harry battling the death eaters but unable to help because of my pain.
"Petrificus Totalus!" I heard him yell, and my pain stopped suddenly. He had hit the death eater that cursed me, therefore breaking the curse.
I managed to stand back up on my feet and grip my wand. Only two death eaters were left, the ringleader and a smaller death eater. My body was screaming at me, the after-effects of the curse ringing through me. I refused to give in though, and stood my ground.
"Expelleriamus! " I called out shakily, pointing my wand at the smaller one. I grabbed his wand as it flew to me and yelled out, "Petrificus Totalus!"
CRAAAACK!!!
The familiar sound of someone apparating filled the room. I couldn't turn to see if it was friend or foe, because even as Harry called out, " Stupefy!" to the last death eater I collapsed to the ground, my world going black.
A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed! I even received a death threat if I didn't up update soon! *Sniffles* I feel like a real writer now. Sorry for another cliffie....actually, not I'm not, lol. Anyway, I'll probably be updating again tomorrow sometime, so keep checking back. Let me know what you think! R/R!