--Incendio--

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Don't sue, I'm poor. EXCEPTION: I own the Witches of Trane, the Crystal Orb, the flying carpet idea for the story (kinda), the idea that the forests of Albania are next to the Dead Sea and the Door of Serenity.

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CHAPTER 17: Confundus Charm Saves the Day (Chapter rated PG-13)

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Hermione and Draco were walking through the forest, pushing aside intruding branches. Hermione was still very nervous about the zombies, and looked behind her shoulder every 5 seconds to check that they weren't being followed. They were going as fast as they could, considering the circumstances, with the light of Hermione's wand to guide them.

Their kiss was on Hermione's mind as well, and they were holding hands. She thought about how Draco confessed his love to her. She chuckled lightly, thinking about it.

"What?" he asked, still moving branches away for them to have a clear path to walk through.

"Nothing, just thinking?" she replied.

"About what?" he wasn't looking at her, but she knew he was listening.

"About what you said earlier. It sounded funny, coming from you."

He smirked. "How should I have said it?" he said. "Should I have scooped you into my arms?" He did that, with one arm behind her back, and the other behind her knees. She was in charge of moving the branches away now. "Then maybe I could have held you close to my chest, assuring you nothing would ever harm you and that we'd be together forever." He smirked even bigger. Hermione giggled. "Hermione, I promise nothing will ever harm you and we'll be together forever." Hermione laughed, and Draco ducked under a large branch coming out a tree. "Then, we could have kissed passionately, forgetting the world around us, and then I'd shag you pretty good." Hermione gasped playfully, and slapped him. He leaned in, his lips puckered, mocking himself, ready to kiss her. She pushed him away and laughed, squirming in his strong arms. "Get off me! Come on! We have to keep going!" But he wouldn't stop. Then, Hermione turned her head to the side of her that wasn't Draco's chest and stopped squirming. She gasped, unable to breathe.

Draco sensed her stillness, and peeked one eye open. "What?" he asked, turning to look in front of him.

He stared, amazed. "Hermione," he whispered, cautiously putting her down, "I believe you."

There was an army of Zombies in front of them. They were moaning and screaming and wearing torn and battered clothing. 'They want to kill us!' thought Hermione. 'Zombies! We're going to die!' Then she remembered the wand in her hand.

Summoning all of her power as the Zombies inched closer and closer by the second, Hermione held her wand out in front of her. There was a powerful gust of wind, and her brown, wavy hair blew back. She looked fierce. The zombies stopped for a moment, then after she did nothing, continued moving.

Then she struck with a powerful Blasting Curse, which blew one entire section of the zombies away. They all flew forcefully into the air, then came crashing down in various places. They stopped moving for a second, but then got up again.

"Any more brilliant ideas?" shouted Draco, scared.

"I'm working on it!" Hermione yelled back, angry that he could be such an ass at a time like this.

"Evanesco!" she shouted, hoping that the vanishing spell would work. It did, but only for a few Zombies. There were rows and rows of them. Hermione knew this wouldn't work. The Zombies were approaching them, and Hermione and Draco backed up until they were against a tree, and could not escape.

"What should we do?" he asked her, eyeing the zombies.

"Shut up! I'm trying to think!" she said, searching her mind for more spells. She tried many more spells, but the only effect they took was pushing the Zombies farther away from them, or getting rid of a few. Hermione knew she couldn't do this all night; her energy was beginning to fade.

In one final, feeble attempt, Hermione recalled what she read from a Magical Evil Creatures book once. 'Zombies are only repelled with the Confundus charm.'

So she tired it. She screamed the incantation with every ounce of energy she could muster.

The zombies stopped, to her and Draco's surprise.

They looked confused, and Hermione screamed with delight. Draco whooped in the air, and they hugged, jumping around. The zombies walked off. Hermione was thrilled. She did it! She remembered.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you." said Hermione after they celebrated a bit.

"That's okay, I'm used to it." said Draco sheepishly.

They started walking again, this time with a little more pride.

"Your father was really a horrible man, wasn't he?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah..." said Draco.

Hermione looked at Draco out of the corner of her eyes. His light skin looked gray in the darkness, even with the light of her wand. His blonde hair and light complexion stood out in the dark forest. His eyes were steel blue and intense. He was at least 5'10, and still growing, with broad shoulders. His, or Ron's shirt, was torn in a couple places, and she saw a little blood in some of the cuts. His face was also cut up, but not too bad. The scars from a couple days ago were still there. He was wearing faded jeans, which were torn at the knees. Hermione couldn't figure out if they were already like that, or if he made them like that.

Then she imagined herself. She had wavy brown hair, and boring brown eyes. Her skin was darker then Draco's, and she was certainly shorter and plumper. She was about 5'5 or 5'6, and weighed about 120 pounds. She wasn't fat, just a little curvy. Her hair was increasingly less frizzy then her first year, though, and she was proud of it. She was done growing. Clad in a black sweater and jeans, she felt pretty boring. She knew she was also a little scratched up, but didn't care. She had more important things to think about.

Finally, the way in front of them seemed a little clearer. Hermione gasped and laughed, and started to run forward to the light. Draco followed her.

But it wasn't leading to an open field where they could walk to somewhere safe, like they thought it would be. It was a cliff, with a raging river with rapids underneath. Hermione groaned, and sat on the dirt that was surrounding the edge of the cliff. There was no where left to go, except back into the forest, where she didn't want to go. Draco sat next to her and sighed, looking out at the river, and the ground at the other side of it, where there were, in fact, green rolling fields. It looked like it would be the edge of the world if they didn't see something on the other side.

"What do we do?" asked Draco, angrily.

Hermione shook her head and put it in her hands, taking a deep breath.

"We need to sleep and eat. I can conjure up some snacks from what I remember from school, and we can take turns taking watch over the night. We've been traveling for days. We just need to stop and rest for now, and then we can tackle this in the morning."

Draco sighed and nodded. "Okay, you're the one with the wand and the power. Make us some food, chef."

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Cool chapter, huh? I was done with it like half a hour after I posted chapter 16, but decided to wait until my good real-life friend Laurel (random llama127) posted her new story. So here it is! Enjoy it and review please.

random llama127 - Thanks! Too bad I didn't make them up though. I couldn't guess them either. :X Haha. I love Secret Window!! Yeah I won't get back to the door until next chapter. :-) Enjoy.