A/N: Another relatively late chapter, which was mostly my and my muses' faults. We're all horribly and unfairly busy with school. *nods* Hugest apologies, and we all hope that you'll like this one. ^^ Not very long, ends with a cliffy, and we'd all appreciate and love reviews/critiques and threats of, y'know, "continue or there will be a very messy accident involving a sledgehammer" and whatnot. =D Hugs, and enjoy. --Aria
Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to us, because if it did, Draco and Hermione would long have gotten together before now.
HAPPY 2004! *throws confetti*
Chapter Five
"Malfoy? Malfoy, where did you go? " Hermione's hurried whisper echoed eerily in the Forbidden Forest, where it seemed the only other sounds were her scattered breathing and wary footsteps. "Malfoy, if you don't answer me I swear I'll -- "
However, her threat was doomed to be forever unfinished, as her foot caught in a cleverly hidden root, causing her to fall forward. A cry of surprise escaped her throat, but was stopped short as she noticed the ground had stopped rushing toward her. Two arms were holding her, she realized, ending her descent. Turning her head, she was arrested with the sight of Draco Malfoy looking at her with an amused smirk on his face.
"Nice one, Granger," he taunted, righting her as he spoke.
Ripping herself away from the embrace -- he was much too close to her, of course -- and turning away haughtily, she huffed accusatorily, "I wouldn't have tripped if you hadn't wandered off!" Picking up her wand, which she'd dropped in her fall, and whispering a quick "lumos!" she kept on. "Come on, we have to find that Thestral."
Nodding in agreement, Draco matched her stride and walked next to her. Silence reigned for a few uncomfortable minutes, in which both parties pretended to be excruciatingly busy looking for the Thestral. Finally, he spoke softly, "You're welcome." Caught off guard, she paused and replied, "What?"
"Didn't your parents ever teach you any manners, Granger? It's only polite to say 'thank you' to someone who saved you from falling flat on your face."
Miffed, she didn't say anything right away. He'd hurt her pride, he could see quite plainly; while she was grateful, she was creature of dignity and wasn't comfortable thanking someone she hadn't seen in so many years. It didn't help that the two of them hadn't exactly been the best of friends the last time they had met. After a moment, she grudgingly said, "Thank you, Malfoy."
"See, was that so hard?"
She glared. "Yes."
Giving a small smile of amusement, he resumed glancing about for the creature, and Hermione took his lead. A movement in the bushes behind them betrayed the presence of another living being. Both young adults whipped around, wands out at the ready.
"It's too small to be the Thestral, if it can fit in a bush," Hermione stated, still not removing her eyes from the bushes. The shrubbery was swaying horribly. She almost wished whatever-it-was would lunge out and attack them; the waiting was nail-bitingly unnerving.
"That doesn't mean it's not dangerous," answered Draco, taking a few wary steps backward. Hermione did the same, assuming that they would just make a break for it, seeing as it could be dangerous and it was only disrupting their true mission.
"Turn and run on three, okay?" Draco said in a low whisper, never stopping his backward paces, "One . . ."
"Two . . ."
"Three!"
Both turned, preparing to flee. However, they never did get around to the actual fleeing, as they had come face-to-face with a giant, and very angry, Thestral.
"Draco . . . " Hermione's eyes were large, and she couldn't tear them away from the beast before front of her. It was suddenly very easy to remember just how humongous the creature was when it stood, head tossing, flanks heaving in front of you. In the newly birthed night its muscles rippled healthily, sheathed by black skin. One thing for sure, it had been feeding well. Her stomach lurched. Under the circumstances she didn't want to think about what it fed on.
"Shh, shh . . . don't talk."
Their wands were in front of them, but neither of them could even think of using them. They were too shocked; it appeared the Thestral had been very intent on finding them as well. They were the perfect epitome of hunters being hunted. It snorted and steam billowed from its nostrils, as the witch and wizard stood, dumbfounded.
Finally gathering a hint of her usual wits, Hermione bellowed "STUPEFY!" at the top of her lungs, and watched as the spell left the horse-like creature almost completely unaffected. It seemed to pause in its breathing for a moment, but then the spell wore off and once again it was glaring at them mightily, visibly more agitated than before.
It took one step forward.
Draco broke his own rule and choked out, ". . . we're in trouble."
Another step. Both of them began to move backwards slowly, racking their brains for a powerful enchantment that might be the key to the creature's undoing. Nothing came to mind; it was the worse possible moment to panic. The sheer size of the Thestral was terrifying; the simple power it emanated, the dead, blank eyes intent on them both. Hermione cast a glance at Malfoy, whose face was focused steadily on the horse-like nightmare. She opened her mouth, preparing to tell him that they should make a break for it while they could, yet in her inattention, her foot found another root, and for the second time that night, she tripped.
Turning painfully in the air and landing on her stomach, Hermione groaned and sat up as best she could. Her ankle was already beginning to throb, and she had just fallen! Using an arm to keep her upright, she clutched her ankle. Tears welled up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. "Draco!" she cried out, letting go of her injured ankle and reaching out blindly.
A hand grasped her outstretched, fumbling one and a compassionate face entered her view. "Hermione! Are you okay?"
She never heard his question, however. Instead she screamed out "Draco -- watch out! The Thestral is coming!"
Never letting go of her hand, Draco whipped around, wand out and at the ready. The Thestral was coming toward them, not particularly fast but still menacing, gaining speed and momentum with every hoofbeat. Disregarding her previous attempt, Draco cried out a strong "STUPEFY!"
The spell shot like a Muggle bullet out of his wand, hitting the Thestral straight on. It paused, motionless for an agonizing moment, and Hermione feared it would start after them once again. It jerked and struggled suddenly as the yellow jet of light engulfed it further, wrapping it in deadly embrace, but with a ringing neigh it fell, stupefied as the spell suggested. The heavy mass of muscle impacting on the ground sent tremors quivering through the undergrowth and to where Hermione lay.
Glancing up at her counterpart, she knew she looked mystified, and not without cause. "How did you do that?"
He was staring at his wand, a similar stunned expression on his own visage. "I have absolutely no idea." Shaking his head as if it clear it, he brought his eyes down to her, "Are you able to walk?" He asked, noticing she was now slowly rubbing the much-abused ankle.
"I don't think so . . ." she admitted, looking quite ashamed. "It might be easier just to levitate me. We have to get to the school fast and tell Dumbledore about the Thestral right away." Casting an uneasy glance at the Thestral, Hermione continued, "While it was a brilliant spell, I'm not sure it will last long on a beast as strong as that one."
Nodding and softly whispering the spell she'd requested, they headed back toward the school, each mulling over the events that had just happened.
---
". . . and then Draco" -- he could tell she was beginning to get used to his name -- "sent a Stunner at it and for some reason it fell over. It was not as if his Stunner would have been stronger than mine . . ."
"Odd," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "Very, very odd."
They were in the Headmaster's office ("Hershey's Cookies and Cream!") with a very anxious Minerva McGonagall hovering at Hermione's shoulder almost as if she were worried a Thestral would spring out of midair and attack her again. Draco shook his head wryly; what a pair those two made. Pomfrey had healed Hermione's ankle in a trice, and they sat at chintz armchairs before Dumbledore's fireplace.
"Yes, odd, but what does it mean?" Draco pressed. "The Forbidden Forest has always been dangerous, but the school has never been openly attacked before."
"I'm worried," Hermione said softly, "that the Thestral might decide to move beyond the fringes of the forest and enter the more popular grounds." She had drawn her knees up to her chin and had encircled her arms around her legs, rocking back and forth. Draco noticed the way the firelight toasted her dark curls into an almost-auburn shade.
"Yes, that thought has crossed my mind." Dumbledore's blue eyes were still sharp, though, fastening on Draco. "Are you very sure that you were doing nothing unusual at the time? You weren't touching anything, thinking about anything?"
"Nothing, sir." Draco leaned back onto the cushions, drumming his fingers against the chair as was his habit when thinking. Hermione was chewing her fingernails; really, it was as bad as her picking at her sleeves, he thought distractedly. "I suppose it was the effect of a couple of Stunners all at once, or something like that. And I suppose the students can't be guinea pigs when the Thestral shows itself another time, could they?"
"I don't want to know," Hermione replied wearily. "Pass me that coffee, Draco."
Their fingers brushed just as he leaned over to pass her the cup of steaming coffee from the table next to his armchair. There was a thud and a crash as Hermione leapt out of her seat, knocking the armchair over, crying out; the pocket of her robes was afire, flames laughing garishly as they cavorted on her robes. No one seemed to particularly care that the coffee cup lay in shards on the carpet.
There was pandemonium in the room for a few heartbeats, yells of surprise and leaping up from chairs, before Draco regained his head somewhat and yanked Hermione's robes off her; she was wearing a red, thickly warm red cotton dress underneath that had thankfully not caught the flames. He flung the robes into the middle of the room and hauled Hermione back a few steps.
"Stay where you are!" Dumbledore ordered, sending a jet of water at the fire. "Don't move!" Strangely enough it didn't seem to spread at all, remaining only on the pocket of Hermione's robes. Draco watched mutely, grasping Hermione's wrist loosely, an awkward tableau as Dumbledore sent a second jet of water at the flames together with McGonagall. A third splay of water and the fire gave up with only a wisp of smoke to mark its presence.
"What the hell just happened?" Hermione gasped.
"What did you keep in there, Hermione?"
"Oh, Merlin, my book!" Dumbledore bent to the charred robes and sifted through the ashes. McGonagall had frozen, as well, but watched intently as he held aloft the shrunken pentagon-carved book Hermione had been puzzling over. "This book, Hermione?"
"Yes, that."
"It's not burned," Draco said sharply. "It doesn't seem touched by the flames at all."
Dumbledore flipped the pages, and his brow creased. His blue eyes were lost in thought as he spoke. "Hermione, was there anything in this book besides the poem? You told me in passing that the book was completely blank except for the puzzle."
"There was nothing, Albus," Hermione said a bit waveringly. She hadn't stirred.
"Well, come and take a look." Dumbledore held the book out and Hermione walked over to peer over his shoulder. Draco leaned over the other side and McGonagall was trying to see the pages over both of them. It occurred to him how ludicrous they looked, but all thoughts of that disappeared as he stared at the heavy parchment paper.
In the forest, incomplete inklings had seemingly bled through cracks in the paper; now, they were fully formed. Draco's breath caught as he skimmed through the page. This is it! Hermione held the answer all along!
"Do you know what language this is?"
"What?" Hermione's eyes met Draco's slowly, over Dumbledore's head. "What do you mean, what language this is? It's in perfect English."
Outside, it began to snow.
---
It wasn't hard to get through the bars into Madeleine's cage. Sirius slid through and transformed back into human. It had been harder and harder to hold on to the human part in his brain whenever he was in dog form. It worried him, gnawing with a relentless tooth. If he continued like this, mentally and physically starved… One day he would lose all humanity. One day he would be taken over by wildness and savageness, with the need only to live, and to hunt. Sirius shuddered at the thought.
Yet now was not the time for thoughts such as those, not when Madeleine was so near. He walked a few steps forward, casting a wary eye about the dirty cell. Where was she? A movement from the corner of the room caught his attention and he turned toward it in instinct. In the shadows, a feminine form moved, watching him watching her. It would have been awkward, had the two been so intent on ignoring the tension in the air.
"Sirius. What a pleasant surprise. Please excuse the mess, I didn't see the need to clean for guests."
"Haven't changed, have you Maddie?"
"No, I don't think I have. Have you?" she moved into the dim light now, a small smile on her face. Truly, she was glad to see a familiar face. Perhaps this would result in some form of reconciliation between the two of them?
"If I have, it was for the worse." He spoke suspiciously; she probably believed what they said about him, he thought. He longed for her contact, but what not talk to someone who believed him capable of murdering his best friend.
She raised an eyebrow. It appeared, to her, that her old flame was being quite defensive. She smiled. "There's no need to act as though I'm going to bite you, Sirius. I know you didn't kill Lily and James."
"You do? How can you know?" Did she have any evidence, he thought hopefully. Could she help him shorten his stay?
She shrugged, dashing his hopes. "I just do."
Aria's A/N: Now review! *prods with her scythe* =D