Chapter Three
He had considered going back to her.
Briefly.
But was appreciation of her body enough to put up with her incessant nagging?
Nope.
From that moment on he had walked constantly. He had been in the forest for a couple of hours, he wasn't sure exactly how long, until he came across some new terrain. He had consciously kept the stream to his left, and always within hearing distance. But when he began to notice the thinning of the trees, the difference in light and the consistency of the air he also noticed the stream curving to the right - towards him. Instead of walking into it, he followed it at an angle so that when he met it, he would be further downstream still. When that did happen not twenty minutes later, Draco was staring at sloping hills.
Loads of 'em.
The stream, had actually begun to widen, and could now be considered a small river. Looking to his right, the river stretched in this direction for as long as he could see, as did the forest. Making a decision then and there, he dived in, and swam to the other side, enjoying the coolness of the water compared to the sticky, thick heat of the forest. He waded in the shallows for a moment longer then necessary and climbed out only because he was starting to prune.
Before exploring the hills in more detail, he took a long drink from the newly titled river to quench his thirst and filled his water bottle with fresh chilled water. Silently praying that he found more before this supply ran out.
Turning around he observed the hills in front of him. To his left he could see them sloping and rolling downwards, but directly in front of him was a large, steep hill that was a mix of shades of green with random patches of shrubbery. The whole area appeared richly nourished which gave him hope of a plentiful water supply. Without a second thought he walked to the base of the hill and then upwards.
He liked walking.
At first he hadn't noticed it. But he felt surprisingly satisfied. Not because he was out of Granger's company, but the pleasure and monotony of walking seemed to appeal to an inner need that had previously been dormant. Perhaps it was the walking in a completely foreign place, without any memories to associate a feeling to.
It should have scared him. But all he felt was excitement.
A true boy at heart then.
Before he knew how long he had been walking for, or even contemplated the notion of time, he was at the top of the hill, looking down on a valley. On the far side of the valley was another hill, which most likely led to another valley, and another hill.
In the valley, was a small gathering of five trees in a circle, but that wasn't what caught his eye. The surface of the valley appeared to be shimmering. Individual flecks of sunlight appeared to be hovering in patches over the whole valley.
Draco, who was busy trying to figure out the concept of the sunlight nearly missed the blessed sight of the river curving away from the forest in the direction that he hoped to walk.
At least I will have water, if no food.
The thought didn't cheer him that much.
Only with slight hesitation did he begin his decent, and he was on level with the valley floor much sooner then he had anticipated or hoped. The floor of the valley, or better, the top layer of grass and shrubbery was in fact covered with a thin dusting of silver powder. It emitted a sense of well being and it soothed his nerves. The nearest patch of light for want of a better word was only a few metres away, and almost too bright to look at directly.
He approached it with caution, and as he got nearer, he heard a twittering.
Okaaaay…butterflies maybe…
The twittering increased as he got nearer. The fluttering began to move away from him. Not luring, but every time Draco got a certain distance it would move off again. He approached it at a faster pace. His lethargic reaction to the powder was overtaken by a need to know what It was.
After almost twenty minutes of the same strenuous process, he had reached the far side of the hill he had walked down. He sat down for a rest, and felt his eyes begin to close. The powder was all around him, so that when he laid his head back, it simply engulfed him, and sent him to sleep…
- - -
When he woke up, he thought his head was inside an empty pensive. The silver was everywhere. At first the glare was too bright for him to see past, but it began to dim around him. He could see small figures. The fluttering was everywhere, and the twittering was worse then Hermione's nagging.
All of a sudden, the lights stopped. It still surrounded him, but with a horrifying clarity.
FAERIES!
Shit.
His basic lessons in Hogwarts had been. See a Faerie Then run. He was surrounded by hordes of the things and completely drugged on their faerie dust. How the bloody hell was he going to escape?
He racked his brain for the teachings he had received on them in his earlier years, but his mind was groggy. Thinking was like swimming in custard…Faeries…not the sort that came to muggle children in the night and left money for a lost tooth. If these came to you in the night you'd be screaming.
He was okay, as long as the sun didn't set…and that all depended on how long he had been asleep…
Blinking past the now dulled glitter of wings in his face, he saw that the sun had dipped.
He had time, but not a lot.
Yanking himself away from the faerie closest to his face, it was reaching out to touch him; Draco noticed that part of their transformation had already begun. If he could just pull himself away….
Move Draco…Just run.
But his body couldn't. Or wouldn't, the lure of the faeries was too strong, the magic of their dust too powerful.
He sat there for what felt like hours repeating 'move, just run', but he was powerless to fulfil his desire to be free.
Until the first faerie started to change.
Looking past them, he noticed that the first flickers of dusk had begun to settle over the valley. The air was thick with the sweet scent of the faeries and Draco's eyes lazily watched the first little faerie that came close to him. A small body engulfed in light with petite wings. No mortal had ever seen what faeries looked like during the day. But many people had seen more then they wished to ever see again at night time. As the light around its body began to dim, Draco could feel the strength of his conscience returning.
Its going to hurt you, therefore RUN.
The light dimmed further and Draco could make out a mouth. A small group of other faeries hovered over his head, and he could feel their faerie dust sprinkling onto his head, shoulders, knees and feet.
He automatically began to feel more lethargic.
His eyes became heavier.
''It's amazing how cute they are - Granger would love them no doubt…
Granger.
He shook his head a little to clear it, but all he could see was the glimmer of faerie dust shielding the one with the mouth. In a very small part of his brain a far away voice, said 'it's getting dark. You should move'.
Move? Why would I want to do that? He had completely forgotten why he had wanted to run. He was just so comfortable.
Faeries you fool, have you completely lost your mind?
Yes, it feels quite nice actually.
Get Up.
No.
Up.
Do I have to?
Up!
And at that moment, as Draco began to respond to his brain's commands, the first faerie lunged. Straight for his throat.
His natural reflexes saved him. His lethargic state had abandoned him.
Draco ran. He ran as fast as he could, dodging the patches of faerie lights, but as more and more transformed, they could feel the excitement in the air. They could smell his fear, they could taste his flesh.
Flesh Eaters. He remembered now. Faeries lured by day. Put their victims to sleep and then woke them up just before the first transformation so that they could hear their prey scream.
Faerie tales - the type he was brought up on were not as sweet as the muggle ones.
Sweet?
Hell on earth is what his father had described a faerie trap as.
He would have to agree.
Draco was still running. He didn't have a clue where he was going. Or what the best way to go would be. But he knew he had to keep moving. His back ached from the constant ducking and dodging of the faeries, but he could hear them behind him. No longer a gentle twitter, it was like a field of minute angry veela screaming at him. Not painful or loud, but as more joined the chase the noise levels most definitely increased.
Thank the gods for Quidditch.
He was fast, but he could never keep it up. Looking around him as he ran, he couldn't see any immediate way of escaping.
What were you hoping to see, a big net?
The river!
He was running away from it, and to do a loop round the valley again was something he didn't have enough energy for. He had one last burst in him…
Taking a huge breath, he put his seeker reflexes into use and changed direction. Into the faeries. They were so close to him that most just carried on flying, confused by the loss of their prey. He could feel some hitting his body, and bouncing off, their screams turned from excitement into rage. The others were hot on his tail again.
He was getting very close. He could hear the river. He could see the inviting gleam of its surface.
One faerie had got so close that it sunk its teeth into his shoulder but only managed to tear at the fabric of Draco's shirt. The next moment he was flying through the air, the bank of the river having met him earlier then he had planned, and then the scream of the faeries had died.
Instead of surfacing, he let the river take him downstream until he could no longer hold his breathe. Looking back, he had lost the faeries, although a cluster still collected around the point where he had vanished. He could feel the frustration emanating off them. Clinging onto the bank, he watched them as they drifted away from the river.
Goody. I lost the faeries. However, now what the hell do I do?
He decided the best thing he could do was to sleep near the bank of the on the far side of the river. Although the forest had ended quite a lot further upstream, there was still a thin spread of trees around the river bank, which offered him protection.
He didn't stop to consider what else he needed protection from.
Climbing out of the water, he collapsed not far from the lip of the bank. His earlier faerie induced tiredness hit him and within moments he was fast asleep.
In the whole faerie escapade, he never once noticed or felt the eyes watching him.
- - -
Christ.
It wasn't a prayer.
Hermione was truly lost. Agreed, she didn't have direction anyway, but she was sure she had been walking in circles, or squares, or just the same long windy path for hours.
As a way of keeping herself occupied, and from keeping the panic within her at bay, she was picking roots, plants and fruits that she recognised. She planned to make a sort of broth. She would boil them in water; the roots she hoped would offer a substantial meal and the fruit would add flavouring. It was a medical remedy she was sure would work. She knew all the components, she had the ingredients. She just needed a place to stop next to water so that she could fill her cauldron…
Cauldron.
Ah…Problem.
Okay, don't panic. We can just make one.
Since when did I refer to me as 'we'?
Looking around, she saw no immediate substitute for a cauldron. In times of despair, Hermione did what she did best. Searched for answers in a book.
However, in times of extreme despair, she sat down and talked to herself.
'Okay. Just relax Hermione. All you need is a clue. Just one small clue on where to go and you can figure it out'.
At the base of a large was where Hermione sat. The roots were so large that they protruded out of the ground and acted as a makeshift seat. With her head in her hands she suppressed the sobs that were threatening to erupt. Along with the need to run screaming in any possible direction.
Her concentration was broken by the rustling of a large bush. Very close to her. A low growl began to come from within the branches.
Great you're lost and now you're going to get eaten. Wonderful.
Although her panic had reached dangerous levels, and her fear had rocketed, she couldn't move from the base of the tree.
The bush was violently shaking now, and the growl was clearly angry. Completely entranced Hermione leaned closer and then pulled back in shock with a loud gasp.
Out of the bush had tumbled a small dog like animal. It was really only a puppy, and it had been tangled in the confines of the bush. The pup had jet black fur that appeared almost blue in the light with three white paws and a white muzzle. However, when it peered at Hermione, it had crystal blue eyes, and its 'bark' didn't resemble that of any canine. A series of chirps and clicks which meant nothing to Hermione emanated from the pup and as it turned sideways, she noticed it had two tales, one on top of the other.
Okay, so not your regular household dog.
Wagging its two tales, the pup came up to Hermione, completely without inhibition. It obviously found the new comer appealing. Slightly more nervous then the animal, Hermione reached down her hand to stroke the pup, and was met by its tongue happily lapping at her hand.
Instantly forgetting her fear in the presence of the new animal, she focused entirely on stroking the dog, which she found to be calming, and it's chirping merry.
Hermione didn't know how long she spent stroking the pup, but she was taken completely by surprise when it suddenly yelped and ran away from her, back into the bushes that it came from.
Her fear rapidly escalated to its original height when she saw two of the biggest 'dogs' she had ever seen walking on the same path that she had come form. Retreating into the roots of the tree, she felt as though she was standing in the middle of a field screaming of her whereabouts. The 'dog's' however hardly glanced at her. They were clearly of the same breed as the pup, as they both had two tales and one had the same jet black fur as the pup, although it was the same colour all over. The other, the bigger dog who's shoulders easily came to Hermione's chest was snow white, and his (the dog exuded a male dominance) hackles were raised. Clearly, they were not happy.
To her astonishment, they stopped in front of the bush, and both started to chirp, something that Hermione felt weird about - they just seemed to large to, well, chirp.
Amazingly, the small pup that she had been stroking came out of the bush looking dejected, to what must have been its parents. Without looking at the pup, further, the male 'dog' carried on walking while the female (Hermione just made assumptions) nuzzled the pup none too gently before following suit.
The pup, glanced once at Hermione, gave a feeble 'cheep' and then followed its parents, both tails tucked between his legs.
- - -
After her encounter with the pup, Hermione felt as though her head had cleared somewhat, and she could think calmly.
She needed meat.
Or fish. Or anything that wasn't berries. Or roots, or plants, or fungi that she wasn't even sure about.
She had sat on the tree root for at least an hour, and then stood up with new resolve, determined to succeed and to eat something. She only had a few hours of sunlight left so she needed to be quick. Looking around she needed to make another decision.
Left or Right?
The canines (she had stopped calling them dogs – they just weren't) had gone right. This meant they probably knew how to get food and water in that direction.
This means I follow them…
Hermione walked for what seemed like hours. Her side had never completely recovered from the cramp that woke her up. And her mind was working overtime attempting to find a source for the whispering, but she had achieved nothing.
Maybe you are going crazy after all…
However, she picked up on something else while she was thinking. No two tailed canines digging into roast beef. With mash potato and carrots. And a dollop of gravy on top.
Disappointing that.
Regardless of the first hurdle in her way, she was still determined to eat. Deciding to stay on course, she followed the path until she got to a brook. Using her common sense she decided that it must lead to something larger and so she followed it downstream. Eventually it widened and the pace of the flow sped up, until it was joined by another much larger river.
Automatically she noticed the difference in the aquatic life. Whereas the fish had been comparable to the common minnow in size and speed in the small stream, here they were large fish, but completely unrecognisable to Hermione. Some had large whiskers; some had wide, flat, expressionless faces but the one thing that caught Hermione's attention every time was their colours.
As a little girl, she had been lucky enough to be taken by her parents to exotic countries. She knew she was lucky, and she didn't take one minute of it for granted, but one of her strongest memories was the aquatic life she had seen. Whether she had been in a tourist's submarine, or snorkelling, she had seen a lot. Small sharks with the silkiest skin or the most beautiful fish of all sizes in their schools, with colours that reflected the light in the water all around her that she had seen for days afterwards when she closed her eyes.
But even they had been dull in comparison to this.
The fish's scales weren't just radiant. They were luminous. They emitted their colours from deep within their pores, and it shone in the water around them. However, although all were dazzling, some were obviously brighter then others, and Hermione noticed, they were generally the bigger more powerful fishes.
Hunters.
And she watched in morbid fascination as one of the so called hunters ensnared a smaller fish, the size of a large salmon, in a cul-de-sac in the bank and waited until the prey was confused before going in for the kill. While illuminating the groove in the bank, the hunter, watching the prey, opened its mouth to revel a set of fangs that the blinded victim had no chance of stopping.
Wow. And men say women abuse their looks.
But the fish had given her an idea. Not her greatest by far. But she had the chance to eat fish and she was damn well going to try anything.
Lying on her stomach, near the cul-de-sac with her hand poised above the water surface she waited for another hunter to come along, but one of smaller physical bulk, she didn't need to get into a fight with something with fangs that size when all she had were her hands. Plus, she needed them. However, she lay there for more then twenty minutes and half the time she wasn't even paying attention to the type of fish in front of her, because she was still mesmerized by their beauty.
But then she noticed a large-ish fish, which was heading in her direction and was most definitely on the prowl for its own dinner. Bracing herself, she steadied her arm just as her target began to focus on a fish of its own. Its colours began to become stronger, and its stroke more determined. It cornered its prey in the cul-de-sac, and that's when Hermione sprung. Half its body out of the hole in the bank, Hermione grabbed its fins and yanked it out of the water and threw it on the bank behind her.
Whooping in her own success she went over to it as it flapped and wriggled madly trying to find its way back to the water. Bending to pick it up to put it out of flapping distance from the water it sank its fangs into the flesh below her thumb, and hung on.
Yelling in pain, Hermione attempted to pry the mouth off her hand, but that only made the fish deepen its fangs. Without thinking she ran to the nearest tree and slammed her fist, fish first into its trunk. Yelping in pain and relief, she inspected her hand as the fish fell to the floor no longer flapping. It had left two small puncture marks in her hand but she wasn't sure how deep they were.
Shit. Need to be careful with this; I can't really be dealing with infection out here.
Looking down at the now dead fish she scowled.
I almost can't wait to eat you. Payback ya' bastard.
When had her thoughts become so malicious?
Ha! Three days with Malfoy and look what happens to you. You're as mean and evil as he is.
I am not that bad!
Not that bad, just look-
Girls! Come on!
Ah, the voice of reason. Shaking her head slightly, she looked at the task in front of her. She would need a fire, and something to gut the fish with. Something sharp.
She remembered on her first day with Draco, looking up at the trees and seeing some with leaves that looked razor sharp. However, having more important things to think about she hadn't questioned it. There was no way she was going back to where they had started. Firstly she would never find it, and she was still in the same forest, so there had to be another tree like that one.
Picking up the fish and holding it away from her, she went in search of the trees that she would need, but never leaving the river too far behind her.
At first she hadn't noticed it, too focused on her task. But after a while she had felt as though she was being followed, but when she looked around, the path she was on was completely empty. Once or twice she had turned and seen one of the bushes near her move but had put that down to the not quite gentle breeze blowing in the forest. Frowning she walked on, and then heard a most definite twig break that had no connection to her own feet. Sweeping round she, once again caught a small bush move to her left, and heard a giggle? No, it was more of a chirrup. Going closer to inspect, she bent down and was greeted with the small gleeful face of the pup that she had met earlier beaming up at her. Eyes alight with mischief and both tails wagging madly, banging against the branches of the bush making it shudder continuously, it gave a small hopeful cheep, making Hermione smile. She stepped back to give it room and it bounded out and ran around her in circles, every so often making a move as though to stand up on its hind legs to greet her again.
Looking round, she didn't see any bigger dogs, and she could do with the company so she bent down, patted the pup on the head and continued her walk in search of the trees.
It wasn't long before she found a tree that resembled that of the one she had seen previously, with its leaves on relatively low branches which she would have to climb, but that she could reach.
"Don't even think about eating it". She said to the pup as she put the fish down on one of the roots of the tree along with her outer robes. Underneath she was wearing a sweater, jeans and trainers. After all, she hadn't planned on anything out of the ordinary happening to her on a detention with Malfoy and Snape.
That was your first mistake Granger. I mean come on you go to Hogwarts.
Placing her right foot on a low knot in the tree she lunged upwards for a branch, but with a yelp, pulled her hands back last minute and staggered backwards, practically falling on her bum as she hit the floor. Looking at the hands, they were slightly torn by the leaves, and small trickles of blood had begun to make their way down her hand. Although this was a good sign of how sharp they were, it also meant she would struggle greatly in trying to even get one. She looked around the base of the tree in the hopes that some had fallen down.
"No, of course not. That would be too easy". The pup looked up at her enquiringly but said nothing. He sat and watched Hermione make another attempt for the same branch, but at a slightly less populated area. This time she grasped it successfully, and swung her leg wide of the drooping leaves. She swung the rest of her body up, and only just caught her jeans enough to make a small tear. Straddling the tree she carefully reached down and even more cautiously, felt around the top of each leaf. There didn't appear to be any sharp edges, so she could pluck them off and drop them at a distance from the pup and her robes. Slightly amazed at the pup's restraint, it hadn't even bothered to go over and inspect the falling leaves; she clambered down after dropping a good number for her experiment with the fish and some for the rest of her journey.
Smiling at the pup, she collected the leaves in the folds of her robes, wrapping them up so that they wouldn't hurt her, and she balanced the dead fish on top. Walking back towards the stream, she hummed, with the pup bouncing along at her feet, dropping back every so often to inspect something, but then bounding to keep up with her.
Tonight might not be so bad she thought, and allowed herself a small smile.
- - -
That's three chapters now. Of course I'm writing more, but it would be really helpful if you could review, even if it's to tell me to stop writing!
Review, Review and Review!
