Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to Harry Potter and this does not (to my knowledge) contain any spoilers to Harry Potter 6 or 7. I also apologize to those readers how are able to look at the chapter titles of DVDs they've never seen and predict the whole plot; you may realize most of the plot before it happens but it's still worth reading.

A Forest Full of Truths: Chapter2 Can't Breathe, Where Are We

(The Lake)

On contact Harry lost his grip on Hermione before he could even get back up for air the fond him self being swept away by a current, it pulled him down and over until he realized he was now in an underwater cannel. He could feel himself suffocating then he remembered the Gillyweed in his pocket he shoved it in his mouth and was able to breathe. Looking around he saw Hermione ahead of him, he struggled to get to her. She can't breath, he thoughtHarry pushed his mouth to hers giving her air after a few second she opened her eyes suddenly aware someone's mouth was over hers. Harry grabbed her hand to keep her close, she calmed down after a moment and tightened her grip on him. Harry didn't know where the current was taking them, they tried to find a way up but the cannel was solid on all sides. Every minute or so Harry would pull Hermione close and give her air, finally Harry could see light above them, he pointed up to Hermione she nodded, letting go of her hand he started to swim up. After a moment he realized he couldn't feel Hermione's motions next to him looking back he saw her being pulled to the bottom, some kind of vine was pulling her down, Harry sliced the plant but Hermione was now sinking on her own. He grabbed her by her robes and tried to give her air when he realized the Gillyweed had worn off. He pushed of a nearby rock toward the surface. Hold on, please just hold on I'm almost there, he thought. As soon as he hit the surface he took in a gulp of air then pulled Hermione over to the edge but she wasn't breathing.

"No, no come on Hermione breathe, breathe." He yelled. He lowered his head to her chest but couldn't here a heart beat. "Breathe Hermione, please breathe," he began to administer CPR after a moment she woke spitting water out of her mouth. Harry pulled her up so she was half leaning on him, rapping his arms around her for warmth and to assure his self she was alive. After a minute she rolled onto her side and rapped her own arms around him, they held each other for a moment then Harry realized he had no idea where they were. The current had pulled them under ground and back up into another lake.

"Where are we, Harry?"

"I don't know, somewhere in the Forbidden Forest I think."

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"All but my ankle," Harry could see the blood staining the sand where her ankle was. They heard an awful cry from above, the beast had somehow followed them, it was circling, looking for them. Harry pulled Hermione up and half carried, half dragged into the forest after a few minutes they ducked behind a tree at the sound of raised voices. Hermione pointed to a crack in the roots Harry stuck his head in and found a small cave just big enough for the two of them. Hermione went is first crawling to the back of the cave Harry followed placing a shield spell on the entrance to prevent anyone from noticing the crack. Harry stayed by the entrance looking up to see if anyone was there he could here raised voices coming closer. Two men in dark cloaks were arguing.

"Hurry up they couldn't have gone far, find them!"

"What's the rush, their miles from Hogwarts in the middle on no where and one of them was injured they won't get far."

"These are the two most resourceful and skilled students at Hogwarts, both very skilled in defense against Dark Arts and both very strong willed to destroy us."

"They're children neither of pure blood, besides their magic won't help them here, any major spell they do will be sensed at the ministry and our spy will give us the location, we just need to wait for them to do some major magic."

"Then you can go tell the dark lord they escaped because you thought we should have stopped for a beer at Hogs Head, you can face his wrath when you tell him the boy and the mudblood got away."

"No I didn't mean..."

"Oh, shut up and start looking." Dirt came threw the entrance as one of the men turned. Harry could see his face looking down he fell back on Hermione who gripped the back of his shirt in fear, after a moment they heard him leave.

"You okay Hermione." He said looking over his shoulder but she only nodded. After an hour so Harry slowly emerged from the cave after checking the area he whistled for Hermione to follow she slowly limped out Harry had bandaged the wound as best he could but he was afraid, neither of them had any idea what it was that had tried to pull her down. The sun was behind them. It was clear they were no where near Hogwarts and it didn't look like any friends would find them soon.

"So what do we do?" Hermione asked squeezing Harry's arm.

"We should find some place to stay the night but I think we should move this is to close to were we came up."

"Okay but which direction." Harry looked to the sun; it was setting behind them, as there was no snow and it was warmer, the river must have pulled then south.

"That way," Harry pointed, "parallel with the sun that should be north." Hermione squeezed on his arm, he took her hand as she leaned on him and led her north into the forest. In the last rays of the sun they found another small cave in the roots of a tree, this one was much more roomier. Harry placed another shield spell on the entrance.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"It's a basic spell and not very powerful, so the ministry shouldn't sense it."

"What are we going to do about sleeping?"

"Have you ever go camping?"

"Ya, once," Hermione looked puzzled at this question.

"Can you conjure us two of those camping backpacks?"

"I can try," while Hermione conjured the bags Harry was tearing off a piece of his shirt to use as another bandage for Hermione. Once Hermione had conjured the bags Harry began to look through to see what they had; two sleeping bags, one spare blanket, a lantern, two boxes of matches, one hunting knife, one first aid kite, a compass and a guide to surviving in the wilderness.

"Hey, there's some good stuff here Hermione, hey look in this book it says how to bandage wounds so they heal quicker, let see wounded ankles page 27 here we go." Hermione leaned against the wall as Harry changed the bandage on her ankle. Now that they were safe Harry was much more careful and precise every other minute he consulted the book to make sure he was doing it right. Hermione loved how he gently rubbed her leg to check for any damage and how careful he was not to hurt her. When Harry was satisfied with the bandage he helped her into her sleeping bad. They lay silent for a long while, both unable to sleep and afraid to talk. As the night wore on Harry noticed a drastic drop in temperature. He could see Hermione shivering in her sleeping bag he threw the spare blanket over her.

"What?"

"Your cold."

"So?"

"So you're hurt and cold you need the extra blanket."

"But what about you," Harry was also shivering.

"Oh, I'm fine don't worry."

"No your not I can see you shivering, I have an idea," she tried to pull his sleeping bag closer but he was too heavy.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh just get closer," her cheeks slightly red. Harry did as he was told and pulled her sleeping bag closer. She lay in over both of them and curled up next to him. Although Harry knew it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with keeping warm, Harry blushed as Hermione rolled over and curled up even closer to him. Harry gave a nervous laugh, why did he feel so scared at having her lying next to him? He knew it didn't mean anything but he was still so jittery. It's just Hermione and she doesn't care for me like that and neither do I, I think. I mean we're friends so we can't have anything but I feel so happy around her and everyone says we make a cute couple and that we should get over our selves and go out. Ginny says I'm always looking at her even if I don't notice but we live in the same house she's my friend of course I look at her, Neville says I have so many pictures of her, but that's only because the Creevey brothers always gave him the pictures they had of Hermione on the other hand I didn't have to keep them but I did, so that doesn't mean anything. At this Harry stopped thinking about it determined to think it was nothing, that he didn't care for her that way and that she felt the same.

This wasn't any easy predicament for Hermione either. I can't believe I'm so nervous, it's just Harry but that doesn't help, I know he's not think of it like we're sleeping together but we are. I don't want him to see it like that...Do I? It was my idea and I can't say I'm complaining but I decided I would never look at him like that again he made it clear that he didn't see me like that...But that was over a year ago he could have changed his mind, no he never would but he's been acting different towards me lately. Stop fooling yourself Granger he's your best friend who you happen to be sleeping next to because it's so cold and who you happen to have had a crush on a year ago but your over it and he never thought of you that way so calm down and sleep. Neither of them slept for a few hours, both afraid of what they may do in their sleep but in the end the warmth of each other lulled them to sleep.