A/N: Hello! First things first – Happy Birthday hahaha-evil and WhirlyBlue! That's cool you both have the same birthdays. So here's my present to you both, whether it's worthy of that I don't know.
So this has pushed time up a bit. But hopefully you should be able to work out what they did in the days in between.
Unknown Territory
Hermione looked once more at the map in the pockets of her robes, she was flying a rickety old broom they'd found by Hagrid's hut, and she had a funny feeling that it was not a normal broom. The four of them had set of from Hogwarts after dinner, the night sky had been very cloudy for the whole journey and they were hidden from sight. The only problem with all the clouds was that they kept getting lost, luckily Harry, thinking ahead had got them all maps. Hermione saw a flash of ginger hair below her and leant forwards slightly on her broom, Ron grabbed it by the tail as she zoomed off out of control.
"Hermione!"
"Oh thanks Ron," she arranged her robes, "Whose idea was this anyway? I can't fly to save my life,"
"It's not your life we're saving." Harry flew out of dark cloud, his robes damp from the light rain that was beginning to drizzle from the clouds above them, "Come on, hurry up, have either of you seen Ginny?" they shook their heads. Harry sighed and disappeared again leaving only a shout behind him, "Find out where we are you two, and wait for me above that pole."
He flew off, leaving them alone over a moor area, they could make out seven villages dotted around the edge on sloping hills, acres of desolate farmland lay in the middle, and a miserable fog was lain over the fields. A tall telephone mast stood by one of the villages, flashing a small red light every few seconds.
"Great, we have no idea where we are, and yes look, it's starting to pour," Ron grumbled.
"Come on, look on the map, I think we're somewhere west of London, here," she pointed to somewhere on the map, Ron glanced down but before he could look both Hermione and the map went spiralling out of sight.
Hermione screamed, holding on to her broom as tightly as she could, the map would have to go. She leant back and the broom steadied, looking back Ron was only a small speck in the distance, wavering in the strengthening wind. She felt a hand across her back and was about to scream again when she saw it was Harry; he pulled her onto the Firebolt and flew upwards, she held her broom in one hand and clasped onto Harry's robes with the other.
"Sorry Harry, I got taken by a big gust of wind, you know I can't fly very well. But I found out where we are," she settled herself back on her own broom and he passed her his map, she pointed to the area. Ron flew over to them, closely followed by Ginny who was extremely wet.
"OK, we're all here now, we just need to fly a little to our left and there should be a big road, we just follow that and it'll take us straight to London. Now can you please stop fooling around?" Harry led them to the road and they flew silently over it, reaching London half an hour later. Hermione looked at her watch, it was two in the morning; they might make it. The Tower of London came into sight, with its many towers and high walls, they knew they were near.
They flew down into a small park; all was silent except for a few animals scuttling along the drains. They were almost invisible in their dark robes as they walked quietly along the road. "If you see anyone just pretend to be drunk or something," muttered Harry. Under the blare of an orange street light a man staggered towards them, he held a bottle between his gnarled hands and was singing incessantly, Hermione looked down, aware of his stare.
"Which one of you was it then?" he pointed a finger at Harry and Ron, "Who knocked her up?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, sorry," Harry looked puzzled, but continued to walk on.
"She's at least two months gone if you ask me, good luck to you girl," he waved at Hermione and wobbled off leaving the other three standing around her, staring.
"What was that about?" asked Ginny,
"I don't know, I never met him before." Hermione muttered, was it that obvious she thought? Was she showing already?
"This way," Harry pointed and led them down a dark street. He looked at Hermione, who was scurrying ahead, her hand brushed against her abdomen and she held it there for a second, before looking around herself anxiously. What was she doing? That old man seemed to think she was pregnant, but that was stupid, or was it? He put it to the back of his mind for the moment and concentrated on the task ahead.
As they got to the doors of the station Harry pulled his Invisibility Cloak out of his robes, they squeezed under it, clasping their brooms. "I think we're getting too big for this," muttered Ron as he found Ginny's elbow stuck under his armpit. They performed an unusual sort of salsa from the door across the hall, avoiding the cleaners. Eventually they reached a flight of stairs that led down to the Tube, carefully they went down the stairs a step at a time until they reached the platform. They walked to the end and threw the Cloak off; they clambered onto their brooms and flew down the tunnel.
"Lumos." They each whispered, holding their wands out in front of them, silently they glided through the tunnel which was lit slightly by very dim lights along the bottom of the walls, until they reached a large sign.
Closed due to disrepair. Please follow diversion signs
They pushed passed the sign and continued down another tunnel, this one was completely dark and Hermione could hear scuttling creatures below her, seeing a pair of luminous eyes more than once. There was a rising smell, a rotting smell that seemed to be getting closer, she thought she heard voices and could make out a very dim light at the end of the tunnel. They slowed down and as they approached she looked down and saw enough to give her nightmares for a very long time.
Piles of corpses were rotting in the tunnel. Men, women and children. Muggles, Squibs and Wizards. Half-eaten faces. Skinless bones. Flies and rats. Behind her she heard three gulps and sharp intakes of breath. As they got closer they bodies became fresher, and towards the mouth of the tunnel lay a wizard they all knew, his gnarled wooden leg lay beside him, and his electric blue eye was still spinning wilding in its socket. Alastor Moody's body lay with the many others who had died trying to face this evil, they may have been different in life, but they all faced the long dark eternity of this tunnel.
Along the platform there were a few shapes, scattered out, these people were alive, but they were shivering wrecks, huddling inside their clothes, their heads down. Hermione's eyes scanned the platform frantically, her heart racing. A way up the platform she spotted a man hunched over something, his dark robes drawn around him and his black hair not quite hiding his pale face. He looked up.
A/N: That was hard. On me and you. I'm afraid I'm just so terrible at getting to the point. Oh well. Something's definitely going to happen in the next chapter.
By the way, should I change the genre? Cos this is currently Romance/Angst, I mean the romance is obvious but maybe not the angst? I don't know, anyone? Until the next time…
