"Blackbird"
Chapter 7
It was lucky for Hermione and Draco that in their first week of traveling, they had excellent weather conditions. Every day was fairly warm and sunny, and the two were perfectly comfortable sleeping under trees alongside the deserted road at night. However, on the sixth afternoon since their disappearance from Hogwarts, they found themselves in a terrible thunderstorm in the middle of the countryside, very far from the last town they had been in and not knowing how close the next town was.
"Didn't you bother to buy a map?" Hermione shouted through the racket the heavy rain was making.
Draco glared at her. "No. We don't have that much money left, but if it means that much to you, why didn't YOU buy a map?"
Hermione threw him a dirty look but didn't say anything.
They trudged on through increasingly deep puddles in silence, each hoping against hope that a town would come into sight soon. They watched the bright flashes of lightning across the dark grey sky, each closely followed by an earthshakingly loud crack of thunder. They both jumped when, across a field to their right, they saw a lightning bolt strike a tree, which immediately went up in flames.
Eyes wide, they both watched in horror as the tree burned in large orange flames. After a minute or so of watching intently, Hermione recovered, letting go of Draco, whose arm she hadn't realized she'd been holding onto. Draco also wrenched his gaze from the burning tree and turned to look at Hermione, who was looking shaken. Silently, they both looked at the burning tree before looking at the very tall trees that lined the road they were walking on. Hermione gulped.
"Well, isn't that just terrific." said Draco sarcastically. "I mean, as if we didn't have enough problems already, now we're soaking wet, in the middle of a thunderstorm, and walking on a road lined with very tall trees."
Hermione looked to her left, where she saw what looked like the edge of a forest across a small field. "Well, we could try that forest over there." She said, pointing at the line of trees.
"Great. LOTS of very tall trees."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "How daft are you, Malfoy? If we're in that forest, instead of along a deserted road surrounded by empty fields, the lightning's less likely to hit US and more likely to hit the top of a tree, which we'll be able to see and then can move away from it if necessary." She said. "Not to mention it will almost undoubtedly be drier in there. We can rest until the storm passes."
Draco shrugged his approval and headed towards the field on their left, still casting weary glances up at the threatening sky.
They reached the woods safely but the rain was still pouring down and Hermione and Draco were both cold and incredibly wet. Under the trees the ground was drier and as they progressed deeper into the forest, only a few raindrops managed to reach them through all the leaves and branches. They stopped to rest after half an hour of walking.
Hermione looked around at the dark, thick woods around her and shivered. "It's so dark in here." She said, to no one in particular.
Draco sat down on a log and started rummaging through his pack. "Not much food left." He commented, pulling two bananas out and handing one to Hermione, who sat down beside him. "This can be our..." he paused to look at his watch. It read four-thirty. "Dinner." He finished, peeling his banana.
Hermione looked into her own pack. "I've got...a couple muffins...that can be breakfast." She leaned back against the trunk of a tree and started on her banana. They were both done rather quickly, as they had been very hungry. In the silence that followed their meal, Hermione decided to ask something that had been bothering her since they had left. "So, are we just going to wander around, going from town to town with everyone in the magical community looking for us? Or is there really somewhere we're headed?" She waited to see how Draco would react with apprehension.
Draco didn't speak at first. In truth, he had been wondering the same thing himself. When he had decided to run away, it had seemed like the only choice. He had thought it would be easy to run away and figure things out later; that solutions would present themselves with time. None had. "I don't really know..." he said, "I suppose we'll wander around until people have given up on us, and then we can...I dunno, get jobs and change our identities if we have to." He finished uncertainly, shrugging.
Hermione frowned. Deep down, she had known that Draco didn't have anything planned out, but she had still been hoping that he had at least an idea of where to go or what to do. She sighed and closed her eyes. "I never imagined that I'd spend my seventh year this way."
Draco thought he heard a touch of regret in Hermione's voice. But then, he himself had doubts about his decision. He looked over at her and realized that she didn't look sad or regretful; she actually looked somewhat content, hopeful even. It was then that Draco wondered why she had been so eager to leave. She'd had everything he ever thought she could have wanted-- she was at the top of her class, Head Girl, not to mention the fact that this year was N.E.W.T. year, and she would miss them.... "Hey, Granger?" he asked, "Why did you...what made you want to leave Hogwarts?"
Hermione's eyes flew open and she looked over at Draco. He was looking at his hands and wore an expression as if he had just been deep in thought. Sensing her gaze, he looked at her and he seemed merely puzzled, not as though he wanted to annoy or upset her. "Why do you ask?"
Draco shrugged. "It just seemed...unlike you."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Did you ever really know what was like me?"
Draco gave a small laugh. "No, not really."
They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the rain fall on the treetops above. Then Hermione spoke, in a voice barely above a whisper, "My parents died in June. It was a car crash on their way home from work. Since I'm not yet of age, muggles put me into foster care. The first family I went to was okay, but they already had foster kids and after a couple weeks I went to another home. They were okay too...but they were moving to a smaller house and couldn't take me. And then the last one was...was not okay." She paused, becoming very interested in a dead leaf next to her on the log. "My foster mother was nice, but her husband, when he came home, was always drunk. He didn't really know who I was. Some nights, he thought I was his wife, sometimes his daughter, home from college. Either way he wasn't...agreeable." She gave a mirthless snort of laughter. Blinking back tears, she said, "I guess on the night we ran away I realized that even Hogwarts didn't feel like a home when I didn't have anywhere to call home outside of it." She sat up on the log and played with a twig in her hands.
Draco looked at her thoughtfully. He never would have guessed that this bookworm know-it-all he had known for seven years was keeping so much bottled up inside her. Then again, he never had cared much for her feelings...Draco felt a stab of guilt as he thought about the times he had been less than friendly towards her. All of the sudden she looked so sad and helpless--she had never been like that before, she was always so confident.
Draco surprised them both when he put a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. She looked startled, but smiled when she looked into his eyes. "You know, Malfoy," she said, "you're not at all like you used to be."
"I'm glad to hear it." He said.
Hermione and Draco both realized at that point how close they were to one another. But somehow, this didn't seem awkward, as it once would have. To the contrary, it seemed as though finally something might come from their relationship besides hate. Without even realizing what was happening, the two closed the distance between them until their faces were less than an inch apart. On a sudden impulse, Hermione swiftly moved her hand to the back of Draco's neck and pulled him into a kiss that became passionate very rapidly. Draco slid his tongue easily into Hermione's accepting mouth while she slid her hands smoothly over his chest and around his neck.
The pair slowly leaned back against the tree trunk behind them, still in a heated embrace, when THUD! They slipped off the log and landed in a pile of damp yellow leaves. Both looked around, startled by the sudden fall and still panting slightly. Hermione was the first to break the silence--she burst into a fit of giggles.
Draco looked at her in confusion and then a smile stretched across his face. Hermione had landed on top of Draco and she paused her laughing fit to lean down and kiss him again, briefly.
As the forest around them grew darker and night fell, Hermione and Draco spent their time laughing, talking, kissing, and--for the first time--truly enjoying each other's company.
AN: Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Hope you enjoyed!
Chapter 7
It was lucky for Hermione and Draco that in their first week of traveling, they had excellent weather conditions. Every day was fairly warm and sunny, and the two were perfectly comfortable sleeping under trees alongside the deserted road at night. However, on the sixth afternoon since their disappearance from Hogwarts, they found themselves in a terrible thunderstorm in the middle of the countryside, very far from the last town they had been in and not knowing how close the next town was.
"Didn't you bother to buy a map?" Hermione shouted through the racket the heavy rain was making.
Draco glared at her. "No. We don't have that much money left, but if it means that much to you, why didn't YOU buy a map?"
Hermione threw him a dirty look but didn't say anything.
They trudged on through increasingly deep puddles in silence, each hoping against hope that a town would come into sight soon. They watched the bright flashes of lightning across the dark grey sky, each closely followed by an earthshakingly loud crack of thunder. They both jumped when, across a field to their right, they saw a lightning bolt strike a tree, which immediately went up in flames.
Eyes wide, they both watched in horror as the tree burned in large orange flames. After a minute or so of watching intently, Hermione recovered, letting go of Draco, whose arm she hadn't realized she'd been holding onto. Draco also wrenched his gaze from the burning tree and turned to look at Hermione, who was looking shaken. Silently, they both looked at the burning tree before looking at the very tall trees that lined the road they were walking on. Hermione gulped.
"Well, isn't that just terrific." said Draco sarcastically. "I mean, as if we didn't have enough problems already, now we're soaking wet, in the middle of a thunderstorm, and walking on a road lined with very tall trees."
Hermione looked to her left, where she saw what looked like the edge of a forest across a small field. "Well, we could try that forest over there." She said, pointing at the line of trees.
"Great. LOTS of very tall trees."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "How daft are you, Malfoy? If we're in that forest, instead of along a deserted road surrounded by empty fields, the lightning's less likely to hit US and more likely to hit the top of a tree, which we'll be able to see and then can move away from it if necessary." She said. "Not to mention it will almost undoubtedly be drier in there. We can rest until the storm passes."
Draco shrugged his approval and headed towards the field on their left, still casting weary glances up at the threatening sky.
They reached the woods safely but the rain was still pouring down and Hermione and Draco were both cold and incredibly wet. Under the trees the ground was drier and as they progressed deeper into the forest, only a few raindrops managed to reach them through all the leaves and branches. They stopped to rest after half an hour of walking.
Hermione looked around at the dark, thick woods around her and shivered. "It's so dark in here." She said, to no one in particular.
Draco sat down on a log and started rummaging through his pack. "Not much food left." He commented, pulling two bananas out and handing one to Hermione, who sat down beside him. "This can be our..." he paused to look at his watch. It read four-thirty. "Dinner." He finished, peeling his banana.
Hermione looked into her own pack. "I've got...a couple muffins...that can be breakfast." She leaned back against the trunk of a tree and started on her banana. They were both done rather quickly, as they had been very hungry. In the silence that followed their meal, Hermione decided to ask something that had been bothering her since they had left. "So, are we just going to wander around, going from town to town with everyone in the magical community looking for us? Or is there really somewhere we're headed?" She waited to see how Draco would react with apprehension.
Draco didn't speak at first. In truth, he had been wondering the same thing himself. When he had decided to run away, it had seemed like the only choice. He had thought it would be easy to run away and figure things out later; that solutions would present themselves with time. None had. "I don't really know..." he said, "I suppose we'll wander around until people have given up on us, and then we can...I dunno, get jobs and change our identities if we have to." He finished uncertainly, shrugging.
Hermione frowned. Deep down, she had known that Draco didn't have anything planned out, but she had still been hoping that he had at least an idea of where to go or what to do. She sighed and closed her eyes. "I never imagined that I'd spend my seventh year this way."
Draco thought he heard a touch of regret in Hermione's voice. But then, he himself had doubts about his decision. He looked over at her and realized that she didn't look sad or regretful; she actually looked somewhat content, hopeful even. It was then that Draco wondered why she had been so eager to leave. She'd had everything he ever thought she could have wanted-- she was at the top of her class, Head Girl, not to mention the fact that this year was N.E.W.T. year, and she would miss them.... "Hey, Granger?" he asked, "Why did you...what made you want to leave Hogwarts?"
Hermione's eyes flew open and she looked over at Draco. He was looking at his hands and wore an expression as if he had just been deep in thought. Sensing her gaze, he looked at her and he seemed merely puzzled, not as though he wanted to annoy or upset her. "Why do you ask?"
Draco shrugged. "It just seemed...unlike you."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Did you ever really know what was like me?"
Draco gave a small laugh. "No, not really."
They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the rain fall on the treetops above. Then Hermione spoke, in a voice barely above a whisper, "My parents died in June. It was a car crash on their way home from work. Since I'm not yet of age, muggles put me into foster care. The first family I went to was okay, but they already had foster kids and after a couple weeks I went to another home. They were okay too...but they were moving to a smaller house and couldn't take me. And then the last one was...was not okay." She paused, becoming very interested in a dead leaf next to her on the log. "My foster mother was nice, but her husband, when he came home, was always drunk. He didn't really know who I was. Some nights, he thought I was his wife, sometimes his daughter, home from college. Either way he wasn't...agreeable." She gave a mirthless snort of laughter. Blinking back tears, she said, "I guess on the night we ran away I realized that even Hogwarts didn't feel like a home when I didn't have anywhere to call home outside of it." She sat up on the log and played with a twig in her hands.
Draco looked at her thoughtfully. He never would have guessed that this bookworm know-it-all he had known for seven years was keeping so much bottled up inside her. Then again, he never had cared much for her feelings...Draco felt a stab of guilt as he thought about the times he had been less than friendly towards her. All of the sudden she looked so sad and helpless--she had never been like that before, she was always so confident.
Draco surprised them both when he put a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. She looked startled, but smiled when she looked into his eyes. "You know, Malfoy," she said, "you're not at all like you used to be."
"I'm glad to hear it." He said.
Hermione and Draco both realized at that point how close they were to one another. But somehow, this didn't seem awkward, as it once would have. To the contrary, it seemed as though finally something might come from their relationship besides hate. Without even realizing what was happening, the two closed the distance between them until their faces were less than an inch apart. On a sudden impulse, Hermione swiftly moved her hand to the back of Draco's neck and pulled him into a kiss that became passionate very rapidly. Draco slid his tongue easily into Hermione's accepting mouth while she slid her hands smoothly over his chest and around his neck.
The pair slowly leaned back against the tree trunk behind them, still in a heated embrace, when THUD! They slipped off the log and landed in a pile of damp yellow leaves. Both looked around, startled by the sudden fall and still panting slightly. Hermione was the first to break the silence--she burst into a fit of giggles.
Draco looked at her in confusion and then a smile stretched across his face. Hermione had landed on top of Draco and she paused her laughing fit to lean down and kiss him again, briefly.
As the forest around them grew darker and night fell, Hermione and Draco spent their time laughing, talking, kissing, and--for the first time--truly enjoying each other's company.
AN: Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Hope you enjoyed!