Chapter Twenty-One:

"'Mione, you can't move your knight that way."

"What?...Oh, sorry. I just don't understand chess, Ron." Hermione knocked over one of her chess pieces in defeat.

"You're the most clever witch in Hogwarts, and you can't play chess? You've seen me play with Ha-...sorry. Never mind this. Let's go down to Hagrid's." Ron suggested.

Hermione pointed to the window. Outside dark grey clouds formed, threatening to dump buckets of rain at any given moment. "I don't fancy a walk in that."

"Ok then..." Ron thought. "Are you hungry? Because I'm starved."

"Ron! We just had dinner an hour ago."

"Oh, yeah."

There was a long moment of silence between them.

"You think he's ok?"

"This is Harry we're talking about. He always finds a way out of trouble." Hermione said, not sure if she believed her own words or not.

"I'm still mad at him for running off with Loony."

"Well, maybe if we had been more understanding...listened when he tried to tell us..."

"Oh, come off it! He's been telling her everything all year. He left us in the dark. We're his best friends, 'Mione." Ron turned crimson with anger. "And if he told her that bloody prophecy-"

"Ron!" Hermione stood up and snatched one of the chess pieces out of his hand. He had been squeezing it rather tightly. She set the piece down onto the chessboard, where it fell to it's knees, coughing furiously. When it had caught its breath, it stood up and waved a fist at Ron in a threatening manner. Ron frowned at it and turned to Hermione.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to go down to the kitchens to see if Dobby can nick me a few pastries or something." He turned to leave, and Hermione reluctantly followed.

Harry had lost track of all time. They could have been walking for minutes, days, weeks...he did not know. He glanced sideways at Luna. Her hair was matted with twigs, thin scratches littered her face, and her robes were in complete shambles. She wore Harry's scarf after losing her own. After giving it to her, he regretted it. It was cold. Bitter cold. But Luna still shook, and her teeth chattered so he figured she needed it more than himself. Harry wondered about his own appearance. It couldn't have been much better than Luna's. He had lost most hope a long time ago. Now his only source of determination came from Luna. All he had to do was look at her from the corner of his eyes, and he could see the perseverance that shone out from her.

Their surroundings had changed immensely. The wood was beginning to thin, leaving the two friends feeling vulnerable and exposed. True, the wood had a great feeling of forbiddingness, but the trees served as a security blanket from the sky ahead, and camouflage around them. They had seem virtually no other life since the Snorkacks. Though a few crows could be heard in the tree tops some distance away. The absence of life around them was disconcerting, though what was worse were the remnants of life.

On occasion they would pass a clearing where many logs sat in varying patterns. They looked as though they might have served as benches and seats for some sort of gathering place. Circles of stones and figures made of sticks were placed around and near the logs. Great piles of ashes, which Harry assumed were from fires sat among the stones. It was evident that some form of rituals took place in the forest at one point in time. Harry hoped that they were not recent. Whenever Luna and he had passed a ritual ground, they would immediately grow silent, perking their ears to pick up the slightest sound. They rarely stopped to sleep, though their bodies demanded it. He had suggested that they sleep in shifts, but this plan was stopped once both of them fell asleep at the same time. Harry wanted out of the woods. Finally, not knowing how long it had been since their departure from Hogwarts, he got his wish.

Harry had not seen anything like it. They were walking in a field. Not a field of grass, but stones. There were pebbles, rocks, even stones as big as boulders, which covered the ground so that not a patch of dirt was visible. On occasion they would pass a weak and dying shrub. The field was not entirely flat. When Harry looked ahead, he noticed that the ground sloped gradually. He looked at Luna, who looked back with uncertainty, and he knew she too feared what was on the other side of the hill. They stumbled over the rocks, but urged each other to keep going, helping one another to their feet when they fell. Panting, they reached the top and cautiously peered above the summit.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Things are getting a bit dull, don't you agree?"

Harry sighed with relief. The both stared down at a small, brick house. It looked like it had been deserted for many years.

"Are we going in?" he asked.

Luna bit her lip, "well, it looks like it could use some refurbishing, but I do not think I can carry on through these rocks all night. I am so tired."

Harry looked down at a stone next to his right hand, which was turning from yellow to a greenish color. "So am I, Luna. I'm beginning to think we'll never get to Remus. Maybe we should have let it be. We're lost now, and now Snape has got us to look for too." Harry imagined Snape rummaging through piles of rocks, looking for Harry, ready to strangle him or force down a vial of lethal potion down his throat. "Hopefully he won't bother..."

Luna slapped Harry across the face. He put a hand to his cheek, where a hand print was faintly visible. "What are you saying, Harry? This is Remus. Do not let those thoughts even cross your mind. We will find him, we will. We've come to far not too.

Harry sighed, "please, no more encouragement speeches. Just do the tracking charm before the moon sets. Say...how much time before the full moon?"

Luna shrugged. They both knew time was scarce.

With a quick mutter of Comperio lupinus, a purple light shot out of Luna's wand. Harry's eyes followed it, expecting it to carry on into the distance until his eyes could see it no longer. It did not. Instead, it halted at the front door of the small brick house, almost beckoning them to enter.

A/N:

Just to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. Just moved into a new house, can't find a thing. To top it all off, I just realized I have to start thinking of college this year. Someone find me the fountain of youth, and I'll stop with excuses and find more time for Harry Potter.