Chapter four- Their Detention.
Hermione, Ron and Harry sat in the Gryffindor Common Room. The two boys were trying to think of ways to get Hermione out of her detention later that night.
"Bang your head against a wall. The lump on your head would be so big they couldn't possibly make you go." Ron suggested, after a few minutes of thinking.
Hermione dismissed that idea. "I couldn't risk getting another concussion. Plus Madam Pomfrey could heal it in a second and send me on my way."
"Borrow my Invisibility Cloak and hide the night out in Hagrid's place." Harry said.
"Yeah, and have to face Snape in the morning." Hermione answered sarcastically. "I don't think so Harry."
Harry and Ron looked at each other. "Well, we're both out of ideas."
Hermione shrugged. "I know I have to go. It's only one night and Malfoy and I don't have to stay together. Once we leave the castle, we can separate, then meet up and walk back inside together."
Harry nodded. "Exactly." He then looked at his watch. "We'd better get to dinner."
The three stood up and walked out of the Common Room and down the corridors leading to the Great Hall. As they entered the Hall, Hermione glanced up at the enchanted ceiling. It was full of heavy, rolling clouds and the sky was darkening quickly. She shivered slightly at the thought of being stuck in a snowstorm all night.
Hermione sat herself down between Ron and Ginny. She wasn't listening to the conversations around her, only thinking about her detention. Her eyes narrowed as she imagined Malfoy insulting and trying to curse her all night. She glared at him across the hall and met his eyes as he looked up at her at the same moment.
He smirked at her and looked away. Hermione drew in a sharp breath at his ignorance and promised herself to make his life hell that night.
"Evening Mudblood." Malfoy greeted Hermione as he walked into the Entrance Hall.
Hermione raised her eyebrow at him coolly. "You were supposed to meet me here 45 minutes ago. I nearly left without you, and you know how disappointed that would have made me."
"I'm sorry to have worried you." He said sarcastically as he walked past her. "Lets go."
They waked out the doors and across the grounds, heading for the Forbidden Forest. As they entered the dark trees, the shadows engulfed Hermione and the temperature immediately dropped. She shivered and pulled her cloak tighter about her, then she reached her hand into her pocket to grip the handle of her wand.
Malfoy led the way through the trees, walking deeper and deeper into the forest. Neither of them spoke. Suddenly a loud howl erupted from the shadows on their right. Hermione gasped and covered her ears from the terrible sound, then quickened her pace to keep up with Malfoy.
As they traveled, their path slowly became less and less identifiable and their pace slowed so they didn't accidentally wander from it. Eventually Malfoy stopped altogether and Hermione, who was looking back over her shoulder nervously, walked right into him. Malfoy tumbled forward, but found himself face to face with the trunk of a very large tree. He rebounded off it and fell into Hermione. They both flew backwards, landing on the damp ground of the forest.
"Shit!" Malfoy cursed as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his robe. "Do you ever watch where you're going?" He demanded.
Hermione lifted herself off the ground and took a step closer to Malfoy staring him in the eye. "You're the one who stopped with out warning. How am I supposed to avoid you if I can't even see two paces ahead of me in this darkness?"
Malfoy's eyes narrowed at her. "Just watch where you're going next time." He told her, turning around to look for the path.
Hermione pulled her wand out of her robe. She had to resist the urge to curse Malfoy's turned back, instead she decided she had better help him find the track. "Lumos." She whispered, and her wand immediately lit up the surrounding trees. Hermione bent lower to the ground and shuffled around, searching for the path.
"Found it." Malfoy told Hermione. She turned to see him plunge into the dark trees. Hermione rushed after him as rain began to patter down on the ground through the trees above.
They picked up their pace as the rain got heavier and heavier around them. After an hour of walking in the drenching darkness, neither had a dry spot on them.
Malfoy drew in a loud breath. "This is ridiculous!" He shouted into the night. He turned accusingly at Hermione, who was staring at him coolly, with her wand drawn and pointing at him.
"Don't you dare try to blame these conditions on me." She told him sternly. "I know you will try anything to yell at me, but I don't control the weather, so tough luck."
Malfoy's eyes narrowed at her, and then he pouted very slightly, which appeared to Hermione as an unconscious move whenever he felt disappointed. "I suppose that's true, but this really is aggravating. We've been walking for hours and haven't even reached the Glowing Oaks yet."
Hermione nodded then blinked a few times to rid her eyelashes of the droplets of water that had accumulated during their quick conversation. She looked back up at Malfoy to see him watching her curiously. "What?" She asked him.
"Nothing." He mumbled. "What do you want to do now?"
"We have to keep following the trail, or else we'll get lost. Let me lead for a while, I think we're nearly there."
"Fine." Malfoy stepped out of her way and Hermione felt his eyes follow her as she walked passed. She raised her wand, identified the trail and began to make her way along it. After another half-hour of walking and arguing, Hermione began to notice a strange emerald glow from ahead of them.
"Can you see that Malfoy?" She asked him.
"I'm not blind." Malfoy answered bluntly. "I noticed it about 10 minutes ago. It keeps getting brighter and brighter."
They picked up their pace and reached the trees within 5 minutes. Hermione stepped out from behind a pine trunk to see hundreds of massive Glowing Oak trees spreading out before them. The beautiful emerald glow that radiated from the Oaks had a slight warmth to it, and Hermione and Malfoy immediately took shelter from the rain under the closest tree.
"They're so beautiful." Hermione breathed, looking around her in awe. Malfoy raised his eyebrows at her and rolled his eyes.
Malfoy pulled a small, empty leather bag out from inside his robe. "We have to fill this whole bag with the bark. Snape told me that he wants the bark from the trees growing in the middle of the patch, they're supposedly stronger."
Hermione sighed. "Let's get in there then." She walked around the large trunk of the tree and headed into the glowing forest. She weaved in and out of the trees, moving closer to the center of Oaks. Once she could no longer see the normal trees of the forest, Hermione selected a medium sized Oak and began to tear a strip of bark from its trunk. Immediately, an ear-piercing scream ripped through the forest around her. Hermione jumped back from the tree in shock to find the scream die away, echoing slightly through the trees.
"Malfoy!" She yelled out to him. A few moments later Malfoy came into view and made his way over to her.
"What did you do?" He demanded, sending her a hard glare.
"I began pulling the bark off this tree, then it screamed as if I was putting it through unimaginable torment." She defended herself. "If they all do that, then our job has just been made a lot more difficult."
Malfoy looked from her to the tree. "I don't believe you." He stalked over to the Oak Hermione had begun to strip and continued to pull the bark off. The scream was even louder then the time before, making them cringe and sending chills up both their spines.
But Malfoy did not stop.
He continued to pull the bark until he had a strip the length of his forearm. He pulled out a small dagger from an inside pocket of his robe, which made Hermione's eyes widen in surprise, then he hacked off the remaining bark still connected to the tree.
The scream did not die away straight off this time. Hermione had to cover her ears from the increased anguish the scream projected. Eventually it had faded away.
"Malfoy! You incredibly insensitive bastard! How could you keep tearing the life out of that tree when you could hear its pain echoing so loudly around you?" Hermione's fists were clenched so tightly they were turning white.
"Bloody hell, Mudblood, calm down." He walked over to her coolly and lifted up the strip of Glowing Oak bark. "This is what we came here for, so this is what I'm going to get. I didn't predict that these bloody trees would scream, but we most certainly can not walk back into the castle without this bag full." He raised one eyebrow at her. "You know that Snape would kill us."
Hermione breathed in deeply. "Yes, I do know that. But it's such a terrible noise."
"Deal with it." Malfoy sniffed, then he turned his back and walked over to another Oak and began to peel a length of bark from it. Hermione glared angrily after him, then stomped off in the opposite direction to get away from the screeching that was echoing around her.
After walking grumpily for a few minutes, Hermione found a nice little clearing in the middle of the Oaks. In the center was a small pond with a river running slowly out of it and leading into the trees. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see if Malfoy was close, but he wasn't. She walked over to the river then followed it into the trees. It trickled prettily, and Hermione soon forgot about being angry with Malfoy.
She walked along it for a few minutes when she realized that up ahead there was something that wasn't glowing emerald. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Every time she looked at it, it seemed to waver slightly and become unfocussed under her stare. Hermione realized that it must have a spell cast on it so people would not notice it.
Hermione moved closer and realized with a slight amount of surprise that it was a cabin. She wondered why someone would have built it in such a hidden area, and still felt it necessary to cast an enchantment on it. It seemed abandoned, and Hermione wanted nothing more then to see what was inside.
"What are you doing, Granger?" Malfoy's voice asked from directly behind her. She jumped and spun around to face him. He was standing with a large load of bark in his arms and appeared more then annoyed that she held none. His eyes moodily shifted from her face to the cabin behind her and immediately filled with interest. "What have you found?"
"Oh, it's nothing." She dismissed it airily, although she was already making plans to come back the next night and check it out. "I see you have enough bark to keep the potions storeroom full for a few years. It's late, so we'd better be getting back."
"Late? It's already three in the morning. If we don't hurry, we'll miss breakfast."
Hermione's eyes narrowed at the hint of humor in Malfoy's voice. He turned around and began to make his way back through the forest. She glanced once back over her shoulder at the mysterious cabin, then followed after him.