The next morning, after breakfast, Hermione felt the tent needed some rearranging. "We don't need three bunks, do we?" she concluded, looking around. "I can take Ron's old one under yours and we can use the space mine's in now for potions. It'll be easier than taking up half the kitchen and it'll give us more room." She looked through the stack of books she had piled up on the table for the right one.

Harry let her work quietly, helping where he could with moving furniture and setting things up, gathering supplies up from one table to the other, and when they were done, he had to admit it had been a smart move. With the temperature brewing potions had gotten to in the past, the new setup left a little more room for the heat to escape and distribute a little more evenly throughout the tent.

Hermione ran a hand through her hair once she was done, looking around. It still felt a little empty in Ron's absence, especially since she'd gotten so used to him being around all the time in the past few months, but with two bunks and two chairs, the tent felt like theirs. Their own little escape from the outside world. It seemed too good to be true, and there was no way it would last. But while it did, she could make the most of it.

She couldn't stop thinking about their kiss last night. She'd thought about it as she went to sleep; she thought about it this morning, and she thought about it now, when he was standing there grinning at her. But if she kissed him every time she wanted to, she'd probably never stop, which was incredibly frustrating. "There is another spell I've been wanting to work on that might come in handy," she said, trying to get her mind off things. Plus, this would be fun and she could let off some steam.

"Yeah?" Harry asked with raised eyebrows. "What is it?"

"It's a surprise," she smirked, and Harry laughed nervously. That was never a good sign.

Light, fat snowflakes were falling as they left the tent, and it only took less than a minute for Hermione to have to wipe them off her hair. It seemed too quiet for a duel, but the small amount of buildup would provide a good practice terrain. She'd never done this spell before herself, but she'd seen it used and figured it would be good to practice without having to injure anyone. Of course, she knew she'd have to in a life or death situation, but she didn't want to dwell on it. When the time came, she could make that decision. Now, however, was the perfect time to practice their arsenal to slow down attackers so they could get away. As long as they could Apparate, they'd be fine. Past the rocks, a short walk from the tent, was flatter ground with a few trees scattered about that would provide hiding spots and a place to exercise and duel without having to worry about tripping over the cracks by the edge.

"It's not going to hurt you," Hermione promised as Harry took shaky steps away from her, "so don't use your shield, okay?"

"Okay…" He pulled out his wand anyway.

"Incarcerous!"

With an audible oomph, Harry landed back-first in the snow, and when Hermione ran towards him to make sure he was okay, she could see he was struggling against tight ropes around his ankles and wrists, but they weren't budging.

"You could have warned me!" he panted.

"Well, then it wouldn't have been a surprise, would it?" After unsuccessfully pulling at them with her fingers, she reversed it with "Relashio," and the ropes unwound, settling on the ground while Harry rubbed his wrists.

"Blimey, those are tight."

"Sorry. I don't think I can adjust it," Hermione said sincerely, helping him sit up, but before she could say anything further, Harry grabbed his wand from next to him and did the same to her.

"Incarcerous!"

Hermione's scream of surprise was short-lived. One of the ropes out of Harry's wand wrapped itself over her mouth, effectively silencing her as she fought against the bindings on her wrists and ankles as well.

"Shit," Harry cursed quickly, moving towards her to at least remove the rope from her mouth. "I'm sorry! I didn't know it would do that! Relashio."

Hermione scowled as the ropes loosened and Harry pulled them off. "I don't like that at all, Harry," she huffed, wiping the snow off her sleeves. "How come yours covered my mouth?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's just… more advanced?" She didn't keep eye contact, and Harry frowned, helping her to stand. "I really am sorry… are you okay?"

"Fine," she answered quickly. "I… I don't want to do that any more today." She pulled the locket off her neck and nearly threw it at Harry. "Take this. We can practice another spell."

Harry quietly complied without pushing. Clearly something had happened Hermione didn't want to talk about. "Yeah, of course. You did a great job, though, if you want to keep practicing on me. But I won't do it to you anymore, I swear."

After taking a deep breath, Hermione nodded. "Thank you, Harry. I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize for that. It's not your fault. I shouldn't have hit you with it without you being ready."

"But that's the way things are going to work, Harry! I'm not always going to have time to react and I just felt so… powerless. I'm not good at complicated nonverbals yet. If my mouth's covered, I can't use a lot of spells even if I were to get a hold of my wand-"

"Then we'll practice," he assured her. "We'll practice your wandless casting, too. You've done it a couple times already before, right?" He rested a hand on her shoulders, lifting her chin to look at him. "We'll get there, Hermione. I know we will. I know you will. Why don't we take a break and warm up?"

"Yeah, I guess… we should cast water repellant charms once we dry off so our clothes don't get soaked. I'm going to have to change." The back of her legs were wet with melting snow; luckily, he'd only gotten most of the snow on his jacket, which he hung up as soon as they got inside.

While she was in the bathroom changing, Harry made them some tea to help calm Hermione down and warm her up. He couldn't put a finger on the look in her eyes as he tried to get the ropes from her mouth. It wasn't fear, necessarily, not of him at least, but her eyes widened before she looked away, and he knew there was something else going on in there she was desperately trying to hide. It was harmless, and she knew that. He kind of enjoyed when she did it to him, now that he thought about it. Obviously he didn't like being tied up, but he'd much rather it be her casting the spell than a Snatcher.

She came out in a new pair of jeans, smiling softly when she noticed he'd made tea. Instead of sitting across from him like usual, she pressed herself against his side, her head on his shoulder. "Well, that was the most pointless duel we've ever had," she laughed.

"No it wasn't. We practiced a new spell, and now you know how to tie me up if you ever get tired of me."

"There's an idea," she teased. "I still think we need to work on our shields. I know Protego can block physical hits, but if we're fighting more than one person, we'll be attacked from different angles. And it can't block Unforgivables."

"Well… luckily, the Death Eaters are more likely to turn us in than kill us, so there's that."

"Way to look on the positive side of things, Harry," Hermione grinned, linking their fingers.

They didn't talk about it for the rest of the day, but they did take a couple times to duel until they were exhausted and sweating regardless of the outside temperature. Harry had suggested they practice dodging spells, too, instead of just using the shield, which Hermione reluctantly agreed to. Even though they were in great shape thanks to their exercises, their first instinct was to use their wands, and Harry had to be careful to cast a little slower so he wouldn't actually hit her with anything after this morning's ordeal. Eventually, she caught on.

"Harry, you don't have to go easy on me!" she panted as she came around from the back of a tree.

"I'm not!"

"You are! I know you're faster than that, Harry!"

"I'm trying to give you a chance! You're supposed to start off slow, remember?"

He barely had time to throw up a shield before a stream of light flew towards him, followed by another, and another. He glanced behind him for a place to hide, but there was nothing. He angled his shield to the left and ran behind a tree, panting to catch his breath once the barrage finally stopped. But he knew better.

"Homenum Revelio," he muttered, and even without the wand motion, he could feel the smallest tug to his right. Harry ran, shooting a tickling jinx over his shoulder in Hermione's direction, which flew back at him without a word from her. He ducked next to a boulder, grinning to himself. She'd be proud of that one, but he knew she'd get to him if he hesitated to congratulate her. When he peeked out from his hiding spot, he didn't see anyone, or any trace of where Hermione had been. She must have covered her footsteps. Brilliant.

"Reducto!" The rock exploded behind his back, sending fragments across his face and neck as he sprinted behind another tree. He could barely get a shot in before there were more spells coming at him. In another moment of quiet, while he assumed she was catching her breath as well, he made a run for it. Wrong move. "Incarcerous!"

He cursed again as he fell, face-first this time, onto the ground with a crunch. Glasses or nose, he couldn't tell. Maybe both. In a few seconds, Hermione was on top of him, flipping him over and gasping at what she'd done. "Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to fall on your face!"

But Harry was laughing. "That was amazing, Hermione!"

Hermione chuckled, undoing Harry's binding and quickly fixing his glasses. "Oh, your nose. Episkey. Sorry!"

After the light-headedness subsided from having his nose fixed, he smiled again. "You're fantastic."

She carefully pushed his hair to the side, making sure everything else was okay. "I will admit, it was very… exhilarating."

Some of her hair had fallen out of the ponytail onto his face, and he couldn't help but pull her down for a kiss. Their lips and noses were numb from the cold, and Harry was pretty sure his nose was still bleeding a little bit, but Hermione didn't seem to care. She kept her nose away from his so she wouldn't make it worse, but pulled back rather quickly to stand. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up. I think that's enough for now. Next time, I'll run and you see if you can hit me." She smirked, reaching down to help him up.

"That's a deal. I hope you know I'm holding you to it."

"I would hope you would," Hermione laughed. She had to hold onto Harry for a second as he threatened to fall from the blood rushing to his head. "I'll get you a blood replenisher when we get back in."

"Thanks." By the time they got back to the tent, Harry's hand was covered in more blood than Hermione thought it would be, but she sat him down in the first chair and summoned a rag and a bottle of dittany.

"It's because you were active, I think. More blood pumping. But you'll be okay." A stopper-full of the dittany soaked the rag, and she held it up to Harry's nose. "Keep the pressure on it for a few minutes. I'll get your potion."

"You know," Harry began as he watched Hermione, "I'm not surprised at all that you're so good. I'll take a broken nose if you feel like you can defend yourself."

"I told you not to go easy on me." Even though he couldn't see her face, he could tell she was smiling. "Because I'm not going easy on you."

"Obviously. Did you do that shield nonverbally? I didn't hear anything."

"I did! I was so excited, but I didn't want to get ahead of myself," she giggled as she rummaged through the potions until she found the one she was looking for. "It happened so quick, I didn't even realize I hadn't said anything until it was coming back at you."

"I'm so proud of you, Hermione. That's amazing."

"Also, I'm sorry for tying you up again." She unstoppered the bottle and handed it to him. "Here, a quarter of this should be fine."

"I don't mind, really. I told you you could." The potion was disgusting, reminiscent of the Skele-gro he had to take second year, but he drank a couple gulps of the vial before handing it back.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you enjoyed it," she smirked.

Harry grinned back. "You tying me up? Of course I do."

Hermione raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything further, putting the vial back in their stash with the rest. Of course she'd overheard the girls in her dorm discussing their… sexual adventures, some of which involved some sort of restraint for one of the people involved. She never had anything to contribute, but she listened. Hermione had never been one for ignoring learning, even if it was something that made her a little uncomfortable. She'd never understood the appeal for lack of opportunity, but now, especially now that she couldn't stop kissing him, she realized why it would be easy to let instinct take over. And Harry's comments definitely weren't helping.

She didn't want to talk about what had happened in the forest that morning, but as terrified as she was of being helpless and unable to defend herself from a Snatcher, now that she thought of Harry using that on her in other contexts, it was… alluring. That had scared her, too. It went against everything she stood for, everything she'd trained for, and for Harry to be able to reduce her into submission that easily was distressing. Though, she supposed the majority of it was due to the locket still trying to get into her head, because the thought of the tables being turned and Harry being the one tied up was just as appealing. And there she was, getting hot and flushed again. It was embarrassing, so she decided to push it to the back of her mind again as she started on dinner. They'd become accustomed to eating larger breakfasts and dinners before and after their exercises and eating light for lunch, and since they'd been used to making extras, it had just been easier to cook more at a time, store it in the cooler, and reheat it the next night or two. Plus, it cut down on clean-up time, which was a bonus when they were so tired.

By the time they sat down to eat, Harry's nose had stopped bleeding and he was feeling much better from the potion. She offered him a Calming Draught just in case, but he refused.

"I don't want to use potions if we don't need to, Hermione. It's okay. But thank you. I appreciate it."

"Have you found anything else out about the Snitch?" She noticed he'd been playing with it a lot lately, if nothing but fidgeting with it in his hands.

"No. I don't understand. You said they have flesh memories, but… it's not reacting to me at all."

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah, of course. Accio Snitch." It flew into his hand, and he reached over so Hermione could take it. She put her fork down, scrutinizing every inch and looking over it. She even shook it a little, thinking that whatever was inside might roll around.

"It doesn't make sense. There's got to be a reason it's helpful. There's got to be a reason Dumbledore left it to you. And what would be special about the first one you caught? None of the other ones would have any sentimental value to you?"

Harry's eyes widened. "The first one? Hermione, I didn't catch it." She frowned in confusion. "I almost swallowed it." He quickly took it back from her, bringing it to his lips. When he pulled it away to look, something was carved into the metal. "Look - 'I open at the close'. What do you think that means?" he asked, turning it around to show her.

"I'm not sure… but if it 'opens', that means there is something inside of it. At least metaphorically if not physically. It is Dumbledore, after all," Hermione grinned.

"You were right."

"You say that like you're surprised."

"Oh, not at all. Just stating the fact."

"I'll look through my books again, see if there's something on how to open them. I'm sure there has to be some kind of literature on it. Someone has to have made a manual or something. We can't be the first ones to try to get into a Snitch."

"You know, Hermione, you'd think," Harry laughed. "But that seems to be our normal, doesn't it?"

"I was trying to be optimistic, okay?" she laughed back. "But you're right. We probably are the first ones to open it. Well, us and Dumbledore. Maybe I can look through Rita Skeeter's book again." She'd been a little shocked that the Weasleys of all people had a copy, though Molly assured Hermione when she asked to borrow it that she hadn't bought it - Rita had "graciously" sent them a copy as a "gift" so they'd "finally know the truth".

"How many times have you read that thing?"

"Too many," Hermione groaned. "It's like reading the worst news reports over and over again. I thought I'd had enough of her with the Triwizard Tournament. Bulgarian bonbon. I'll never let her live that down."

"Well, he seemed happy to dance with you at the wedding."

"Of course he was. It's not that I don't like him at all…" Hermione suddenly paused and rested an elbow on the table, hand in her chin. "How long have you fancied me, Harry?"

Harry almost choked on his food. "What?"

"You heard me. I'm just curious."

"Years, apparently," he muttered.

"Apparently?"

"Well, Ginny said I'd been looking at you some sort of way for a while. But I never noticed it," he shrugged.

"Well then how did she?"

"That's what I'm saying!" He paused. "I guess… when we were pretending, you know, it just… came so naturally that after a while, it didn't feel like pretending anymore. I… think it's been there, but with everything going on and me kind of… keeping you in the friend zone, I never really saw you that way."

"I know how you feel. I thought it was just me really being dedicated, but at Slughorn's party, when you were dancing with Ginny and I was just… standing there, it felt… wrong. I was jealous."

"So you breaking us up had nothing to do with Cormac?"

Hermione shook her head softly. "No, I just wanted to get you away from her. Not that I don't think you and Ginny would have worked out or anything, but-"

"I don't think she had feelings for me. Or if she did, she doesn't anymore."

"She was watching you, though, if she knew how you look at me. That means something."

"Maybe since she thought I liked you, she didn't stand a chance."

"And… does that change anything?"

Harry took a deep breath. "I don't know if I can answer that, Hermione. I mean, I feel like I'm still getting over her in a way. And to be honest, it's kind of hard to tell if I'd feel this way about you if we hadn't been traveling together for months. Consciously, at least."

If Hermione was offended in any way, she didn't show it, only nodded. "I know. I've thought that, too. But I've always admired you, Harry. It's not like I haven't found you attractive for the last four years. And honestly, I didn't have any reservations about how I felt for you at all."

"I just… don't think I want this to be just in this tent. I'm scared that when it's all over, it'll be different, and I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't make it different, then." She reached over and took his hand. "I'm not going to force a label on this, Harry. That's the last thing we need to be worried about. Why don't we just… enjoy this? Enjoy what we're doing now, and when it's all over, we'll figure it out from there, okay?"

"Yeah." Harry squeezed her hand softly. "That's probably the smartest thing to do."

"But right now," Hermione promised, "the only thing that's going to stop this is one of us dying. Or Ron coming back. I can't imagine he'd want to watch all the snogging."

"Better make the most of it while we can, then, right?" he smirked. Hermione rolled her eyes, but she had no objection later when they were doing just that on the bottom bunk.

They'd eventually broken apart and cuddled for a little while, listening to the radio with Hermione's head resting on Harry's chest. His heartbeat was comforting, a reminder that this was real and they really were in their own little world within these tent walls, like here, they were untouchable. Of course, she knew that wasn't true, but she could pretend every once in a while and it made everything a tiny bit less hopeless.

Hermione had also never had a relationship like this before, and she was a little frustrated at herself for not being able to say no any time Harry wanted to kiss her, which seemed to be a lot. Not that she was necessarily complaining, but it was just new. For someone to want to kiss her all the time, no matter when the desire started. And if they ended up as a product of nothing but teenage desperation and opportunity, so be it. She felt strong and beautiful and wanted. Having Harry's hands on her lit a fire she wasn't sure she'd ever feel, but he never pushed. And for some reason, though it had only been two days, it seemed like they'd been doing this forever. Like Ron hadn't even been in the picture. She blushed at the thought of what they'd be doing had it just been the two of them in here for months, wondering if it would ever be a reality and torn between wanting that for them and not wanting it, because it would mean the war would still be going on. People were still going missing.

"What are you thinking about?" Harry's voice asked above her as his fingers made lazy drawings on her shoulder.

"Nothing," she hummed.

"That's a lie, Hermione."

"How do you know?"

"Because I can feel your heart beating faster."

"My brain's a mess, Harry. I blame you," Hermione teased with a sigh. "Half of the time, I'm thinking about You Know Who and the other half the time, I'm thinking about you."

"Only half? I'm hurt."

"You should be getting less than that, you know. You said we can't get distracted, but you're not doing a very good job of preventing it. We should probably go to bed, though."

"I know. I wish these beds were bigger. Wait, we can make them bigger."

"I can, yes. Doesn't mean I will. It's only been two days and you're wanting to sleep together already?"

"Hermione, I've been sleeping ten feet away from you for months."

"It's different, though. The other night was… nice, but I think if we start sleeping in the same bed, it'll lead to… other things."

"Is that a promise?" Harry teased.

"Go to bed, Harry. That locket's making you too confident again."

He just laughed as Hermione moved so he could crawl out of bed and into his own above her. "Night, Hermione."

"Night, Harry."