You Need Chapstick!
Chapter 2
A/N: this chapter was written for the sole use of Astronomy. Please thank my dear friend and astronomy expert, Laume, for this. Hope you enjoy! And yes, more to come than this; I can't very well let you all leave without knowing what happens to Voldemort's wand, can I? Or can I?
Nothing is more silent than the center of the forest when every living creature is asleep for the night. Wild owls pass by without making a sound and even the crickets won't chirp to break the spell. The night was ice cold as the weather was heading towards winter, but the sky still held the glow from the summer nights. This was the atmosphere in which Hermione Granger appeared out of thin air and gasped for breath.
Hermione's eyes flashed at every dark spot around her and she surveyed her surroundings. When she was fully satisfied that she was quite alone, she let out a relieved sigh and fell to the ground. How thankful she was to get away alive from Voldemort's torture! And then she looked down at her hand and a new sense of dread filled her stomach- she now had his wand. Nothing could be worse than this: she was as good as dead where she stood.
However, Hermione never gives up hope. If Harry had taught her one thing in life it was that you could survive anything despite the circumstances. Analyzing the gravity of her situation, Hermione felt that her best bet was to run. There is no real way to track a wizard's wand and as she didn't know where she was, she believed it to be impossible for herself to be found as long as she kept moving. Getting back onto her feet, Hermione held out the wand in front of her.
"Lumos!" she whispered and the tip of the wand glowed light green. It was as bright as it would have been with her wand, but it still worked. The light revealed a thick cluster of trees all around her stretching all the way to the sky where the only light source from above was the moon peering at her between branches. With great haste, Hermione set off in another direction, not quite sure exactly where she was quite yet.
It took nearly forty-five minutes for Hermione to reach an empty clearing where she could look around more clearly. It was evident by her environment that she was a long way from any civilization. The only light besides her wand was the lights appearing in the sky- wait, that's it! She didn't take Astronomy for nothing, did she? Hermione looked into the sky and found the brightest constellation- Orion. The constellation was located in the middle of the sky and above it was Polaris. Canis Major was to the south-west of Orion and the constellation Taurus was to the north. That means she must be facing south! However, as useful as that information is, that still didn't tell her what she wanted to know.
"This is dead useful," Hermione groaned sarcastically.
It was then that the most unlikely thing approached her- a thestral. She had never seen one before, but instantly recognized it from the pictures in her magical creature's books. It's black scaly body and wings glistened in the moonlight just as it would on a snake or a lizard. Hermione moved toward it cautiously and held out her hand. The horse-like creature backed away, but after a moment, it took a step closer to see Hermione better.
A shiver ran down Hermione's back as she remembered that thestrals are often considered bad luck and that only those who could see them had also seen someone die. Hermione racked her brain, trying think of who she had seen died, but she couldn't remember. So much had occurred since the war began and everything just seemed like a blur of words. In the blur of memory, though, another fact came into light: thestrals had an accurate sense of direction and that was exactly what needed. If only she could get him to trust enough to let her mount it…
The thestral sensed Hermione's desire and backed away. "Please, please, take me home!" Hermione cried. "I've been tortured and freezing and I lost my chapstick…please!" The thestral looked at her curiously and finally deciding that she wasn't a threat after all, walked towards her so that she could touch it.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Hermione whispered as she pat its scaly body. The creature bent down low enough for Hermione to climb on and once she felt secure, the huge wings on either side of her picked her up into the air.
Even though Hermione felt this was her only chance of survival, she couldn't help feeling apprehensive about flying. She was never as good as Harry and Ron and every time she mounted a broom, she would always get sick to her stomach. She had always concluded that she was never made for flying. So, to keep her mind off of the ground that was moving fast below her, she turned back to the stars above her that was distinct in the bluish-black night.
The stars were more crystal clear then ever and as she examined each one's brightness, she began to notice something different. While Orion's constellation was commonly in the middle of the sky, it was also a little to the south and Polaris as well as the Big Dipper were also shifted away from the horizon by twenty five degrees than they would be normally. This meant that Hermione was not only in the Northern Hemisphere, but she must be somewhere very far north- like northern Europe or Canada. This news brought a flood of new hope. At least she wasn't trapped in the middle of the rain forest in Brazil or the jungle in Africa!
Lights appeared in the distance and Hermione was relieved to see some signs of human life. Soon, the thestral passed the lights and moved on over many cities and Hermione even spotted the Eiffel Tower which signified that she had apparated somewhere to the east of France as she was hoping that the thestral would be taking her back to England. Hermione felt much more at ease and even began to drift off into an exhausted sleep. Although she was still freezing cold, she knew that in matter of hours she would be at the Burrow. Nothing could be more comforting news than that.
"Good thing I paid attention to Professor Sinistra in Astronomy," Hermione said to herself. "Or else I would be really lost."