A/N: I got several reviews that just say WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. So, I did. And here are the fruits of my labor. I hope you enjoy, there is a bit of Maggie action at the very end, so enjoy that. Love you guys! I'll be toiling away on the next chapter so never fear.



P.S. I PROMISE this is not a cliffie.



Chapter 13



As soon as it had begun, it ended. It was as if a hand reached out, pulled me through the now jelly-like wall, and set me down on the other side with a great suction noise. Ginny, Harry, and Hermione soon followed.

"Woah." Ginny said, pulling her hand through her hair.

"Oh no, we can't get back through." Hermione said, patting the wall.

I took a quick look around surveying our surroundings. It started in this little narrow room and tunneled down two different ways. The "walls" were comprised of a dirty brown stone and ever-burning sconces lit the pathways. There were years of cobwebs compounded in the ceiling corners. We all took a look down one tunnel and then down the other.

"Which one do we take?" I asked.

"Why don't we split up? Two of us will go in one and two of us will go in the other. We'll walk fifty paces and then turn back, meet up again, and exchange what we've learned about each tunnel." Hermione was furiously explaining the plan.

"That sounds good, one of us blokes with one of you girls. Ginny?" Harry motioned to the left-most opening and he and Ginny disappeared down it, counting quietly each step they took.

I looked over at Hermione. She was standing there, trying desperately not to look at me. It would have been humourous in any other place, at any other time, but right now I was grumpy and irritated at her obstinance.

"Are we just going to stand here and ignore each other or are we going to walk?" I asked, taking no care to mince words.

She uncrossed her arms, huffed, and marched off down our corridor counting paces under her breath.

I hastily started to follow her, "So now we're going to walk AND ignore each other? Good plan. Peachy bloody keen."

Hermione made a dangerous sound in the back of her throat and I decided that I'd said enough. We walked in silence for what seemed like a long time. I took the opportunity of her silence to study her. She was so maddening and yet, I couldn't help but be a bit turned on by her temper. She would narrow those pretty chocolate eyes of hers and her smooth cheeks would flood with color. Her lips would purse together jolting my stomach in a pleasant way and she always had this habit of thrusting her round, feminine chest out and placing her hands on her full, curved hips. Her tantrums nearly sent me over the edge. But now, as a silent polar opposite to that "battle mode" her face was nearly relaxed and somewhat peaceful. She walked with purpose and her whole body moved with a grace and beauty that amazed me. The best part about Hermione was that she was completely unaware of herself. She didn't know that she turned heads, that other men admired her from across a crowded room. She was oblivious to her attractive features and she had NO clue how she affected me.

Okay, after the incident in the kitchen, she might've had some idea.

She was muttering the numbers under he breath and I couldn't stop myself from chuckling.

"What are you laughing about?" she asked sharply.

"Oh so NOW we're speaking to each other?" I asked shoving my hands in my pockets and continuing to walk.

"Keep teasing like that and we won't be talking for very long." she said muttering '35' under her breath.

"Damn-it Hermione! I just don't know how to win with you! I don't even understand why we're bickering right now."

"First of all, don't swear," she gave me a withering look and went on, "second of all, I don't really know why we're fighting either. But I do know that I am perfectly capable of carrying my own bag, finding my OWN WAY, and I WILL BE IN CONTROL OF THIS SITUATION IF IT KILLS ME!!" we had stopped walking and she had gone into "battle stance", my heart sped up.

Then, it dawned on me, "That's how you stay calm," I almost whispered.

"What do you mean?" she asked annoyed.

"If you can take control of a situation, it can't surprise you. That's how you keep yourself from freaking out when any other person would have gone over the deep end." I felt as if all the mysteries of the universe had been told to me.

She crossed her arms and pursed her lips prettily, "That, is NOT true."

I smiled, "Yes it is."

"So WHAT!? What if it IS!?," she started to tear up, but did a very good job of keeping herself under control, "Is it so bad?"

I stepped toward her and put my hand on her arm, leaning my head over to look her in the face, "No, it's not bad. But Hermione, why can't you let someone even TRY to help you?"

"Because I NEED to do it!"

"But you don't HAVE to do it ALONE!!" I was very close to frustrated screaming. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. After opening my eyes, I let my hands slip down her arm and grasp her hand, "I WANT to help you. I NEED to help you, for MY sanity. Can you understand that?"

She gave me one of those unmistakable 'deeper meaning' stares, "But why me?"

With three words she had changed the meaning of our conversation completely. It was like someone had flicked a switch and the atmosphere transformed. We were suddenly talking about something much bigger than her obsessive need to be in control.

"Because...in some ways, I have love for you. I don't really know how, or in what way yet, but I feel this overwhelming need to protect you sometimes. I know that drives you mad, but I can't help it. It would kill me if something happened to you because you refused my help. Please, please Hermione..." I stepped closer to her and felt that familiar heat rise up in my chest caused by our close proximity, "let me help you."

She looked up at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Slowly she took her bag off of her back and handed it to me. I took it and the sheer weight of it nearly took out my back.

"Merlin! What did you put in this thing, stones?"

She grinned, "You know, for someone who wants so desperately to help me you sure are quick to complain."

I hefted it onto my back, "Very funny."

At that moment, Maggie stuck her groggy head out the front of my robe and yawned, "What's going on out here?"

"Nothing Maggie, just go back to sleep for a little while till we figure out where we are." I patted her head as she proceeded to wither back into my inside pocket, completely asleep. Hermione laughed.

"Come on, we have fifteen steps to go and we can turn around and go back."



*****



We walked for another ten minutes and found nothing in front of us, so we turned around and trudged back. Soon the tunnel opened back up and there we found Harry and Ginny, sitting cross-legged and pouring over the map.

"We didn't find a thing except more tunnel that goes on forever." Hermione said, leaning against the wall.

"That's alright, because we DID find something." Ginny said.

Hermione and I went and leaned over her shoulder to look at the map. There was a new addition to the "entrance" section that was glowing yellow and it ended right at a section marked "falls."

"Where did THAT come from?" I asked, furrowing my brow.

"It started fulling itself in as we were walking. We hit fifty paces at this big open space that had a slow water fall coming from nowhere, but I have a suspicion that there used to be a lot more water in there." Harry explained calmly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get moving, this is obviously the right path." Hermione motioned for us to follow her.

Ginny stood up and followed leaving Harry and I to catch up.

"She tends to charge ahead doesn't she?" Harry asked, ineffectively hiding a grin.

I elbowed him in the side, "That she does. Headstrong and maddening that one is."

"You got her to hand over the sack though, I see." Harry and I began to follow behind the girls.

"It's that old Weasley charm. I just wet over and slipped it right off of her, she never knew what hit her!" I smirked.

Harry stretched the pregnant silence.

"You had to beg didn't you?"

"Yea, mate, I did."

"I thought so. It's okay, she has that effect on everyone." he patted my shoulder.

"I think she tries extra-specially hard with me though."

Harry laughed, "You're probably right."

More silence. I sighed.

"She's worth it though." I couldn't hide my small smile.

Harry raised his left eyebrow, "Yeah?"

I nodded, "Yeah mate, yeah, she is."



*****



After about an hour and a half of walking we had traveled through the "falls" room, through an area called "the narrows" which had walking space for only one person at a time, and we'd ended up in another "room" much like the one we'd started out in. It must have been at least one in the morning when we reached this little room and we were all so exhausted we looked like the walking dead.

"We should rest." Hermione said, stopping and sitting down. Ginny collapsed next to her.

"Maybe we could sleep for a few hours." Ginny murmured, laying her head on Hermione's knee.

"I don't think it would be wise to try and go on without a little sleep. Would you two mind taking your cloaks off so I can transfigure them into quilts?" Hermione asked.

We dutifully complied and soon we were trying to settle down on the pallet made from our transfigured cloaks. Hermione and Ginny lay to the middle of the blankets, Hermione rubbing Ginny's back in a motherly fashion, and Harry and I each took one side of the girls, he on Ginny's and I on Hermione's.

During all this Maggie woke up and buzzed around for a few minutes and then came to land beside my head, "I have a question."

I sighed. "What is it?"

"Why is it okay for Hermione to sleep in the same room with you and Harry now when it wasn't okay before?"

Harry and Hermione groaned at the pixie.

"Maggie, do you trust me?" I asked her.

"Of course I do!" she said scandalized.

"Well then, right now, I say it's alright for Hermione to sleep hear with us. And it is so, just because I say it is, alright?"

She looked wary for a moment, but then shrugged her shoulders and curled up to the back of my head mumbling an 'okay' at my scalp. I heard Harry chuckle.

As she was drifting off, Ginny, never one to mince words, muttered in her drowsy haze.

"Hermione, I'm....I'm scared. Are we going to...to...to make it alright, Hermione?" she whispered groggily.

"I'm sure we will be fine. Get some rest Gin, we need you to be fresh when we start again tomorrow."

All the while she'd been reassuring Ginny, Hermione's hand had been seeking mine. When she found it, she grasped onto it as if it were a life line.

And I don't remember letting go of her hand all through the night.





SEE! I told you it wasn't a cliffie (and I even managed some fluff). Hummm....what should my reward be? OH! I know!



REVVVVVVIIIIEEEEWWWEEE!!!!!!! Thanks!