A/N: Should I start a sequel to this story, or just continue the ever-growing catalog of chapters? I am tempted to start the sequel, but desperately need some guidance. I think the three part cave chapters and the person in this chapter are enough to warrant the start of something new (XD). So, here is your job reviewers: tell me whether you think I should start a sequel and what it's name should be if I do, and that's all I need from you. Just in case I see most of you want a sequel, I am writing a summary of Something New, so that people can just jump into the sequel having read the summary or opt to read Something New. Even if they don't read Something New, I will try to make it accessible to them. I will reply to all of your reviews via email ( I LOVE THE NEW FANFICTION FEATURE!) to discuss the prospect. And tell me what you think. I have also started writing the next chapter. A change may be in order if it is to be the first chapter of the sequel.
Chapter 20:Back To Grimmauld
Ron looked at his feet and saw a vine slowly climbing up his leg. The further it climbed, the more constricted it became. Ron was quite frightened. He knew that this "thing" could cut off the circulation to his foot and he did not want that to happen. What was worse, it was climbing ever higher.
"'Mione…" said Ron, pulling his arm away from Hermione. "The plant's got me."
"Oh, you can't be serious Ron," responded Hermione, a tad peeved that Ron had pulled his arm away from her. She enjoyed the feeling of the safety that she felt in Ron's arms and wanted it back.
"Ron, you really…" she trailed off. This time, something was wrapping around her foot and now she was slightly scared. "It's around my foot now too," she said in an inquisitive tone, as though she was questioning what the plant was. She had to think this development over.
"See?" replied Ron, content with himself. Hermione had been wrong about him and now she was getting paid for it. Too bad she might die for it.
"There are more pressing matters at hand," retorted Hermione, pointing her wand at her foot. She tried a bit of wordless magic, her wand emitting a faint pink glow leapt forth from her wand and intertwined itself with the vine. After a moment, the pink light simply dissipated. Hermione looked puzzled. "What is this?"
"Hmm, let me think for a moment," said Ron, acting as though he knew the answer. "Devil's snare maybe!"
"Really! Well how about trying lumos on the plant then, if you are so sure!" rebutted Hermione, a little peeved at Ron. Really, he needed to give Hermione more credit. She was, after all, a bonafide wizard wonder child.
As Ron attempted to do as Hermione told, the vine continued to wrap its way further up his body. Like a snake coiling around its prey, this green predator silently but quickly began to wrap tighter and tighter. Needless to say, his endeavor miserably failed. In fact, it made matters worse. Apparently, the plant flourished under the light of the spell.
"Happy? Now we've wasted all that time just proving we know that this isn't Devil's Snare!" yelped Hermione, losing patience.
"Sorry, but can we just focus on getting out of this plant? This is really uncomfortable," commented Ron, trying to push down the vines. However, the vine did not smoothly slip off of his body. Instead, it tightened and buried roots from the vine into his skin. He cried out in pain.
"What happened to you?" asked Hermione, trying herself to make her way out of the vines without any magic. Then she too screamed out in pain.
"I see," she commented.
"Looks like the end to me," remarked Ron, as the vine slowly spiraled around his chest.
"Oh, really, Ron! Show some optimism. Or at least some back bone!" replied Hermione, desperately trying to think of some way to make her way out of this viny situation.
"But how can you say this is not the end! It's almost up to your neck. Well… you do still have one arm free," said Ron, struggling to be optimistic. That last part had almost been upbeat, after all. Hermione just glared at response and got back to her deep thinking.
"Hmmm," she said, thinking aloud. "This is a little difficult. I really don't get what this is."
"Uh, Hermione," said Ron, apparently now even more frightened then before.
"What is it now?" she asked in exasperation. "I was really close to figuring out something." Right then, she looked towards Ron. "Or not," she curtly added.
The plant was slowly turning Ron green. Already his fingertips a mild light green, his face began to tint greenish. It looked as though Ron might be sick, ready to vomit at any moment, but Hermione knew that matters were much worse than that mild discomfort.
"Okay. So I wasn't close," admitted Hermione. "And we may be in for our doom."
"You know you're in for trouble when Hermione admits defeat," mumbled Ron.
"I just cannot figure out what this thing is!" cried Hermione. Apparently, she had heard that, although Ron really did not want her to.
"Well, we know it is a plant. And from the looks of it, we're turning into plants too. I hope I become a buttergly, they were so tasty," remarked Ron, almost philosophically. Apparently, he still longed to have more butterglys to eat, although, theoretically speaking, as a buttergly, he could not eat himself. But that is a minor matter.
As Ron started licking his lips, obviously wanting to satiate his hunger, Hermione continued to persist in her attempt to decipher what exactly this plant was. As she struggled to think, one word kept reappearing in her head: plants. Problem was, she had never heard of any plant able to do anything quite like this. In desperation, she looked around the room for some clue to the identity of the mysterious predator. She gazed towards the enigmatic fountain once more and saw her reflection. Here too, she could see something wrong.
This time, things were different. She could view her bemused expression, but none of the vines now hugging themselves snugly around her neck. That in Hermione's mind pointed to something wrong. "The vines have no reflection," she thought, trying to connect the puzzle that Voldemorte had left for them to solve.
The vine made its way into her mouth, beginning to crawl down her throat as though it was a simple tunnel. Needless to say, it was extremely excruciating pain as the vine scratched its way towards her stomach, besides, she couldn't breathe and that was very uncomfortable in itself. She was about to run out of air as well. She could feel herself begin to become light-headed, separate from the world around her.
With every ounce of her remaining strength, she raised her wand and thought the only spell she knew that could be able to stop the flowering creature.
For a moment, the world seemed to pause, putting everything on hold. Then the world began to spin, never stopping. Soon, it flipped over once or twice, just for good measure. After feeling sufficiently ill, the world stopped moving.
Hermione and Ron were still there. The plant wasn't…
Within a second, Ron began to breathe easily and his skin slowly transformed back to its natural color. Hermione quickly began to morph back to her old self and soon could think clearly once more.
She looked around the room and saw a few trees standing around, with some sparse vines as undergrowth. She still couldn't see Harry or Draco, but at least that awful plant was gone.
"How did you get that awful plant to disappear?" inquired Ron. At the moment, he was happy to be alive.
"I'm a genius, aren't I?" said Hermione, beaming positively. Ron just grimaced and shook his head in response. "To start, that wasn't a plant at all. But I really don't want to go into the details yet. I'm sure Harry and Draco will want to know too."
"That's true," remarked Ron, nodding in response to Hermione. "So where the bloody hell are they?"
"Merlin only knows," replied Hermione. " I just hoped that they faired better than we did."
Right then, both of them heard a distinct owl hooting in the distance. Instead of sounding like a normal, soft, melodic sound, this sounded like a mad utterance of vile wickedness. It was hard for them to explain it, but they could feel that that sound did not come from any ordinary owl.
"Let's not stick around to find out what that is," remarked Ron.
"Right. Let's just head for the entrance. Maybe they're already waiting for us there," said Hermione with purpose. She grabbed Ron's hand and jogged ahead, pulling him along behind her. Within a few minutes, they had reached the noticeanly less green entrance. Instead of the emerald green that had inundated everything before, the area seemed to be a slight pasty green. Still startling, but perhaps a little more welcoming, the two quietly waited for their friends, hoping that nothing was wrong. Before they knew it, the heard the owl's hooting approaching.
"Run!" screamed Harry, appearing between two trees. Hermione was appalled at his appearance, he was torn apart, bleeding all over his body. Despite her worries, she heeded Harry's plea and ran with Ron back into the dark hallway.
Upon their entrance, Draco and Harry rushed through, and quickly tried to close the door. Just before the door slammed shut, Hermione glimpsed the demon bird darting towards the door. A loud thud resounded through the grim hall: the bird was still trying to get in. It was not giving up.
"Wow," said Ron.
"No kidding," replied Draco, rolling his eyes.
"But we got it," remarked Harry, his face beaming. Before Hermione could forget, she quickly waved her wand and treated Harry's wounds. With some typical Hermione spell work, she had Harry looking as good as a new Firebolt.
"So, what exactly happened with you guys?" inquired Hermione, resting against the wall. Harry looked at her for a moment and sighed.
"A lot," Harry said, trying to keep his summary as short and understandable as possible. Hermione, however, wanted some more detail on how he got those nasty cuts.
"Harry," Hermione briskly said, trying to get Harry to say more than two words.
"Fine," sighed Harry, shaking his head. He looked towards Draco and grabbed his hand. After a tight embrace between their hands, Harry commenced his short description. "Draco and I went off into the forest searching for Ravenclaw's bracelet. After a few minutes of walking, we encountered that owl-type bird and saw something around its leg. So I tried a simple summoning charm on the bracelet, and that's when the plant and the bird went after me. So there I was, slowly being constricted by a vine and pelted by this bird. It just kept swooping down and scratching me really hard. Draco saw me in trouble and tried to help, but the green plant wrapped him up too. Before I knew it, I was about to pass out . Thankfully, I realized I was free- that plant had disappeared."
Although Hermione enjoyed this tale, she interrupted Harry to explain. "Yeah, right about when I was going to die, I had deduced what it was. In all actuality, it wasn't a plant at all. And I think that's the same for that bird. When I didn't see the reflection of that thing in the water, I knew it wasn't any normal entity. Normal plants are reflected in water, so I knew that it couldn't be what it seemed. So I tried a spell from Dumbledore's book and needless to say it worked. I think that the plant was much more than a simple piece of flora. From what I've seen, I think it was actually an extremely powerful piece of dark magic, concealed underneath a green facade. Dumbledore really knew what he was doing."
"No kidding," remarked Ron, trying to put in his two knuts. "I was almost sure we were goners when…"
Hermione piped up before Ron could finish his sentence. "So, errr, Harry, what did you do next?"
"Well," said Harry, thinking for a moment. "It took me a few seconds to regain my composure, and after that, it's all a blur. I just remember grabbing the owl on one of its wide swoops down at me and being able to easily take off the bracelet from its leg."
"That's very interesting," remarked Hermione, quite intrigued by this piece of information. "It appears as though that owl was affected by my magic. And, I think you had something to do with the bracelet coming off so easily."
"What does she mean by that?" questioned Draco.
"All it means is that my mother's love may have played a role as well. I had never thought of that. And thanks Hermione, we owe you one."
"You're most welcome. That's what I'm here for. Now that we have the bracelet, shouldn't we be on our way?" remarked Hermione, standing up straight and beginning to walk.
"Why can't we just Apparate?" asked Ron, grabbing Hermione's hand and turning her around.
"Because we may end up dead! If I'm not mistaken, this cave may have protections on it against apparition. Otherwise, it would be a virtual breeze to get the horcrux," remarked Hermione, sure of herself.
"Yeah, Hermione's right. We should just walk back out of here," said Harry in a commanding tone.
"But," protested Ron, but was immediately interrupted by Harry.
"Ron, if you want to die, by all means, apparate. But I think we will just walk," said Harry, and Draco nodded. They began to walk ahead, hand in hand, and were soon followed by Hermione. She reached for Ron's hand and tugged him along as they walked back through the cave.
After quick the excursion through the hall, they passed by the rotting corpse of the hydra and were soon outside. Once more, they saw the sunset, bordered by blossoming clouds. It was a most wondrous sight: the sky was blanketed with various shades of red and purple, as though beauty had danced upon the sky and left behind a mix of color. They rested for a moment and basked in the romance. Harry and Draco simply stood there, holding hands, sharing the moment together.
"As much as I would like to stay," said Hermione with an understanding smile, "I think we had better get back to the house. I think Mrs. Weasley will be quite worried as it is."
Although Harry and Draco acted as though they hadn't heard her, Hermione simply grasped their hands as well as Ron's, and the world began to spin.
The Apparition was over within a minute and all four of them looked around them as darkness began to bathe them. Immediately, the door opened on an ecstatic Mrs. Weasley.
"It's great to see you all! I'm so happy nothing happened!" she said, a tear flowing down her cheek. She scurried over and hugged them all, her arms sweeping them in. "Now, there is someone here to see you Harry, and I don't want you to be upset."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"Well, you'll see. Please, just don't overreact. Promise me," Mrs. Weasley said.
"I don't see why, but okay. I promise." Harry said, eager to find out who this person was.
"Good, now why don't you come in to have a bite to eat! We have some more of the butterglys!" said Mrs. Weasley, trying to cheer them up.
"I love those," cried Draco, making Hermione giggle. Mrs. Weasley simply smiled, and led them back inside. As they entered the dining room, Harry instantly became enraged.
"It's you!" he cried, pulling out his wand.
"Now Harry…" said Mrs. Weasley, trying to remind Harry of his promise. She was interrupted before she could finish, however.
"Hello, Mr. Potter," said the man sitting at the table.
"How could you even consider coming back here after all that you have done!" bellowed Harry, vehement at the prospect of eating dinner with Dumbledore's killer.
"Now really, things aren't always what they seem," said Severus Snape, slightly amused. "I wouldn't expect you to see them though."
"Harry, please don't do anything," cried Draco, grabbing Harry's wand and pulling it down. "Severus saved my life. Please, just give him a chance!"
Harry had to contemplate this development. Maybe things weren't quite what they seemed…
A/N: YAY! Another chapter, another day. I am sorry this took so long to write but I think I am glad I wrote it now. That chapter had a lot of story pieces to get through and now we can have some fun with Severus, Harry, Ron, and maybe even Ginny XP. Who knows about Ginny though. It all depends on the feedback that I receive from my awesome audience. And remember, I update when the reviews make me! So review and I just may update! That's what's happened the past two times, anyway, so I think it is a trend. Reviews make me feel obliged to update! So use your power! And tell me what you think and I am sorry for the wait. Until the next time!