I'd like to thank Balthazar23, Antar23, werewolfXZ, damadape, TheNarratingMan, WraithNX01, Vahktang, flixus, Lynix, TripsToTheRescue, fredfred, InquisitorCOC for betareading.

Chapter 23: The Hunt

Outskirts of Brentwood, Essex, Britain, July 16th, 1996

Ten days. Ten days since Hermione and Potter had disappeared. Had been kidnapped.

Lavender Brown sighed, twirling her quill between her fingers, and leaned back in her chair. Then she glared at the sheet of parchment on her desk. Ten inches on the Switching Charm - who cared about a stupid charm when your best friend was missing? Who cared about a stupid charm, anyway?

Certainly not Lavender. The Switching Charm was just a prank spell. Used to switch out pumpkin juice with water or vinegar right before someone took a sip. It didn't really have any practical use, as her father was likely to say if she asked him about it. Well, you could probably use it to poison someone, but Lavender wasn't planning on doing that. And there were probably much better ways to poison someone than using this charm - you'd be left with part of the liquid you switched, the target might notice the spell being cast, and you had to be able to see the target.

So, even for a poisoning or a prank, the spell wasn't really a good idea, as Potter had found out in third year. Hermione had alerted McGonagall, and the teacher had caught Potter with a vial full of pumpkin juice labelled 'feathering potion' - the same potion found in Hermione's cup, which she, fortunately, hadn't drunk yet.

Lavender sighed again. Poor Hermione. Kidnapped - together with Potter. Or worse. Lavender closed her eyes and shook her head. Ron had insisted that the two were alive - but it had been ten days. Surely, any kidnapper would've contacted the Potters by now? Potter was famous, and his family was well-off or even rich - Daddy hadn't known when she had asked. Why hadn't anyone asked for a ransom yet?

Perhaps they had, and the family was keeping it quiet, to avoid endangering the negotiations?

But wouldn't Ron have told her? If he knew, of course…

She stood. Trying to do her assignment was pointless. She couldn't concentrate like this. Not with so many questions distracting her. She needed a distraction.

She left her room and went downstairs. Their fireplace was in the entrée. Which was a fancy word for a small entrance hall. Nothing as grand as the actual entrance halls in a manor, but better than having it in your living room, like the Weasleys.

She bit her lip, feeling guilty about her petty thoughts. Ron was a great wizard, and it wasn't his fault that his family was poor. Of course, if the Weasleys wanted, they could turn their corridor into an entrance hall with a few Extension Charms, but people would make fun of them - a house like the Burrow didn't have an entrance hall, after all. Just as Lavender's home didn't have an entrance hall, but an entrée.

It was important to keep such things in mind if you didn't want to be snubbed. Or worse - Lavender had heard rumours about what happened to wizards and witches who 'reached above their station', as it was called in the novels she read.

She stopped in front of the fireplace. Was this what had happened to Hermione and Potter? Potter was a half-blood, and his father was the Head Auror, but his mother was a muggleborn. Same as Hermione. And both witches weren't fond of Wizarding Britain's social structure. And they hadn't been shy about it, either - Lavender's parents had known about Potter's mum, and everyone in Hogwarts knew about Hermione's views.

Was this a way to strike at them? The Death Eaters were all dead or imprisoned, but Lavender knew that that didn't mean there were no bigots left - quite the contrary, actually, as Malfoy kept proving.

Did some Old Family have the two kidnapped?

Lavender bit her lip. It sounded stupid. Like the plot of a Roberta Randers novel. But… she couldn't help wondering if someone would do this.

She shook her head and drew her wand. A quick spell had the fireplace burning, and she threw a handful of Floo powder into it. "The Burrow!"

She would ask Ron about it.

"Yes?" she heard Ron's mum ask.

"It's me, Mrs Weasley, Lavender," she replied.

"Oh, Lavender. Call me Molly, dear!"

She pressed her lips together. Mrs Weasley kept telling her to call her Molly, but that would be far too… She shook her head. "Is Ron around? Can I come over?"

"Oh, yes, of course!"

Good. Lavender checked her appearance, cast a quick hairstyling charm, and stepped into the fire - and out of it, into the Burrow's living room. "Hello, Mrs Weasley," she greeted Ron's mum.

"Hello dear. Ron's on the Quidditch pitch."

"Thank you!"

She saw Ron on his broom as soon as she stepped through the back door. He was just flying around, not doing anything related to Quidditch training or doing any acrobatics. Well, not any real acrobatics. So, he probably was brooding - or 'clearing my head', as he'd call it.

Smiling, she walked towards the pitch. Which was, she couldn't help thinking, one of the only signs that the Weasleys were an old pureblood family. Not an Old Family, of course. But it was almost impossible to get permits for a private pitch these days - Dad had tried. Too many muggle aeroplanes or something was the official reason. Whether that was true or not, the fees and bribes were too high for Lavender's family.

Once she reached the pitch, she cast a quick Amplifying Charm and yelled. "Ron!"

He jerked on his broom, looking at the house, then down. As soon as he saw her, she waved, and he dived towards her.

Unlike the first time he had done this, on her second visit to the Burrow, she didn't scream and jump out of the way. Ron wasn't the demon on a broom that was Potter, but he was an excellent flyer and brought the broom to a stop right next to her. "Hello!" he said with a wide smile.

With him sitting on the broom, she just had to lean over to kiss him, so she did it.

"So… want to fly a little?" he asked after they ended the kiss.

Lavender nodded.

"The Cleansweep Three in the shed is good - Bill fixed the slight wobbling issue, so…"

She just mounted his broom behind him and hugged him.

"...or we can fly like this," he finished. "Hold on!"

She tightened her grip on him, and they took off.

They didn't talk much in the air. Just flew around, at a reasonable speed. Together.

The Burrow, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon, Britain, July 16th, 1996

"You said Bill fixed the Cleansweep Three?" Lavender asked later when Ron was putting the broom back into the shed.

"Yes."

"I thought he was in Egypt." Last she heard, Ron's oldest brother - who was married to Fleur Delacour, a Veela and Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion! - was working as a Curse-Breaker in the Valley of the Kings. They had married right after she had finished school, but that was normal for Curse-Breakers, Ron had told her.

"Ah, yes." Ron smiled in that slightly embarrassed way that meant he had done something wrong. "He visited a little while ago."

"You didn't mention that yesterday," Lavender pointed out.

Ron sighed. "I feel like Hagrid."

"Huh?" He felt like Professor Hagrid?

"I meant, I shouldn't have said that," Ron explained.

She blinked. "Oh. That was supposed to be a secret?"

"Sort of." He grimaced. "Please don't tell anyone."

"It's about Potter and Hermione, isn't it?" It had to be!

"Yes."

"Are they in Egypt? Or are they cursed? Trapped in a tomb?" She gasped at the thought.

"What? No. Well, we don't think so." Ron shook his head.

"So what do you think happened to Potter and Hermione?" She leaned forward and frowned at him.

"Well…" He looked towards the house. "This absolutely can't get out, OK?"

She nodded.

"We think that the Portkey belonged to a pirate. One working with the Barbary Coast pirates," Ron whispered.

Lavender gasped. "The Barbary Coast pirates? Oh, no!" That was… that was horrible! Everyone knew about the pirates and what they did to their captives!

"We're - well, the Potters and their friends, and Bill - are looking to contact the pirates," Ron went on.

"To ransom them back?"

"Yes." Ron nodded, but he looked...

"You don't think it'll work," she said.

"What? No, I just don't know…" Another sigh. "If the pirates want to ransom them, why didn't they contact the Potters already?"

Lavender pressed her lips together. That was a good question. Or a bad one. She had asked herself that, after all. The pirates had to know Potter - he was in all the newspapers! And they had to know that the Potters could pay a ransom! If they didn't want gold… She shook her head. If the pirates didn't even want to ransom Potter, then what about Hermione? Her family were muggles; they couldn't pay a ransom! That meant… She sniffled.

She felt Ron's arms around her, hugging her, when she started to cry.

"Bill's in Algiers, looking into things. Not alone, either. He knows what he's doing. And Fleur and her family are helping. This will work out," she heard him say.

But she didn't believe him. And she didn't think he believed it himself.

Unknown Island, July 16th, 1996

"Incendio!" Harry Potter whispered, pointing his wand down. A moment later, the enlarged piece of string on the ground started burning. It burned really well. And quite quickly.

"I think that wasn't slow enough," he commented as he extinguished the fire with a quick Water-Making Spell.

"I concur," Hermione agreed. "We would need far too much string to set a fuse that would let us travel forward before the fire starts."

"How did they make slow fuses?" Harry asked.

"Slow matches were treated with a chemical," she explained. "But I don't know which one - and even if I did, I probably wouldn't know how to obtain it."

He reached out and patted her shoulder - he knew how much she hated not knowing something that they needed. Or not knowing something, period. "Then we'll have to come up with a different timer."

"Or we find a way to start the fire from afar," she said.

"That'll be tricky," he told her. Harry knew that he had good aim, but the distance the distraction would require… He doubted that he'd be able to make it.

"Yes, I suppose so." She bit her lower lip. "Banishing wouldn't work, either. Although… Oh. I think I have an idea!"

"Yes?"

"Summoning. We make an iron ring and put an iron plate on it, above the fuel for the fire. Then we start a smaller fire on the plate. Then we can summon the plate, dropping the fire onto the fuel." She smiled. "Your Summoning Charm should work over quite the distance, right?"

Harry nodded. He wasn't quite sure how far he would manage - it had never come up - but it was probably their best option for their distraction.

"Good. I'll start making the iron rings and plates from the wood we have."

"I'll check the sky," he said.

"Careful."

"Always." He grinned at her, but as soon as he stepped outside the shelter, he grew serious. The pirates searching for them might have disillusioned themselves to avoid catching the wyvern's attention. He cast a Human-presence-revealing Spell, but that spell's range wouldn't help much with spotting a pirate on a broom. Worse, the pirates were almost certain to use the spell themselves, so if he could detect them, they could detect him. Especially if Harry climbed up into the jungle canopy above, to have a clear field of view of the airspace over the island.

Should he risk it? The pirates hadn't been disillusioned when they had been searching for them before, but that had been at night, and they were in a group. Dad had taught him that if you were in a group, disillusioning yourself was an invitation to catch friendly fire. Even the Human-presence-revealing Spell wouldn't help much there since there was no way to tell friend from foe if everyone was disillusioned. Mum kept planning to create a spell to deal with that but, so far, nothing had come of it. In any case, the light spells that the pirates had used would've given them away anyway. But they didn't need such spells during the day.

He looked up. There were a few gaps in the foliage above him, but they were small, and he was too far away, standing on the ground, to see anything but a tiny piece of the blue sky. And if he climbed or flew up, a floating marker would be visible above the canopy before he could detect anyone.

Instead of climbing up, he moved to the edge of the jungle. If he stayed under the trees, hidden in the underbrush, the spell's marker would be hidden under the canopy as well. And from the right spot, he should still be able to see part of the sky above the island, at least.

He told Hermione about his plans, assured her that he would be careful, and used the pole to fly towards the beach without leaving tracks a dog could find, though he had to fly above the underbrush for that.

And, once at the edge of the jungle, he had to hide on the ground anyway - there was no way around that. If the pirates brought a dog to this part of the shore… Well, Harry hoped that they could implement their plan before it came to that.

At least the part of the sky he could see from this spot was clear. So, either the pirates were still wondering about the wyvern, or they were disillusioned.

He hoped for the former. They needed more time to prepare their distraction. And their attack on the village.

Though even with more time, Harry was well aware that their chances wouldn't be good. But it was better than nothing. Better than being caught for certain.

Hermione Granger put her wand down and checked the plate she had just transfigured from wood into iron. It looked even enough - as it should, since she had checked it after carving it. Still, double-checking never hurt.

Satisfied, she put it on the stack with the others. Half a dozen plates, half a dozen rings - which looked like spring forms for baking, now that she thought of it.

Now all that was left was the tinder and kindling for the fire and wood for the slow-burning fire. The latter wasn't too hard - they had experience with burning wood now - but the former… if she could conjure paper, it would be far easier; parchment didn't catch fire as easily as dry paper. Although… she eyed her bed. The grass she used to pad it should be dry enough by now.

She checked and found she had been right. Perfect. Now she only needed kindling. And cutting wood into fine sticks and pieces wasn't hard.

Hermione was about done with enough kindling when Harry returned. "We need more grass!" she told him. "We need the current padding of our beds as tinder."

He blinked for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Also, unless we're ready this evening, we need to relocate, I think. We left a trail on foot back to the village, after all."

Hermione froze for a moment. "That was days old." Could a dog track them after days had passed? After it had rained?

"Do you want to take the risk?" Harry asked her, shaking his head as if he was anticipating her answer already

She sighed. "No, I don't."

"And no, you shouldn't have thought of that already." He smiled, but the words still stung.

No, not the words - her failure. "I should've thought of that," she said.

"I didn't think of it, either - and I have some experience with dogs."

"You have a dog at home?" she asked. He hadn't mentioned that before, had he?

"Sometimes."

"'Sometimes'? Do you dog-sit?"

"In a way. At least, that's what Mum calls it." He grinned.

She frowned at him. He was hiding something. Playing word games. And she didn't like it. "Stop twisting words."

"Sorry. A friend of the family visiting often means there's a dog in the house."

This was a very weird way to word it - Harry was still hiding something. For a moment, she thought about pushing him, but then she dropped the thought. They had more important things to worry about. "I don't think we can be ready tonight. We need to have the fires ready so we can start them right before the sun sets. Otherwise, the pirates won't see the smoke in the darkness. And we need to travel close to the village before we start as well."

He nodded. "And we can't start the fires too early, or we won't be able to hide in the darkness for our attack."

"Timing will be a challenge."

"Yes. So, we'll have to do it tomorrow."

Tomorrow? Hermione wanted to disagree. They needed more time to prepare. To test their devices. To plan and ponder. At least, that was what she was telling herself. But those were excuses. To start tomorrow meant just one day until they risked everything. Their freedom and their lives.

She nodded anyway. She might be afraid, but she wouldn't let that stop her. They had no choice, anyway - the pirates wouldn't delay their search for much longer. Unless they had already started. "You didn't see anyone, did you?" It was a stupid question; Harry wouldn't have been so calm if he had spotted a pirate.

He shook his head. "No. But if they're disillusioned…"

"We should still see their brooms unless they disillusioned those as well," she said.

"That would be hard," he told her.

"But not impossible." She was aware of the difficulty of disillusioning a broom - they had covered that when they had gone over the Disillusionment Charm; too many other spells interfered with the charm - but it had been done. Presumably, Aurors, or at least special teams, had access to such brooms.

"They don't need to use Disillusionment Charms; just colouring the things blue would help a lot."

She blinked. Right. Camouflage. Like aeroplanes. And with a simple Colour Change Charm, it would be easy to paint a broom the exact colour of the sky.

Harry was smiling, and she suppressed a scowl. She should've thought of that - she was the muggleborn, after all.

Harry Potter swished his wand and looked at the mound of grass at his feet. It looked large enough to replace the grass they'd use as tinder. Not that they'd be using beds, anyway - they'd be back to sleeping bags stuffed into a hole in the ground.

A sleeping bag stuffed into a hole in the ground, he corrected himself with a silly grin. If Hermione agreed, of course. Which he hoped she would. Even though she had looked annoyed before he left the shelter to gather the grass. Well, she looked cute even when she was annoyed, and she was annoyed pretty regularly, with herself or with him, so he better get used to it.

As he gathered the grass in his robes, he tried not to think about whether or not Hermione would stay with him after they got off the island. He had more important things to worry about - like the gang of pirates searching for them. Any moment, they could descend on them. If they were searching for them - they didn't seem to have searched for the French witch the wyvern had killed. Then again, the French witch hadn't killed the wyvern...

He looked at the sky, or what he could see of it through the thick cover of leaves and branches above them. The sun was setting in a bit. They had barely enough time to move to the south-eastern part of the island before night fell.

He entered the shelter. "Hermione? I've collected the grass."

She rose. "Good. I'm not quite finished with the kindling, but we can do that once we arrive in the area." She looked around. "We should vanish the furniture. That way, the pirates won't know how many of us are here once they find the shelter."

"Good idea," Harry agreed. "Or… We could add more beds. Make them think there's more of us."

"An entire group, stranded here?" She frowned a little. "Wouldn't that look suspicious?"

He shrugged in return. "How could they tell? And it won't tell them anything more than vanishing everything."

"They might suspect that we want them to think that there's more of us than us two," she pointed out.

"I don't think they'll think that far. But if they do, they probably would suspect us anyway." They must have found their hideout near the village, but if they thought that that was just a forward post or something...

"Let's at least vanish the cutlery."

"Yes."

They quickly made four more crude bed frames. Hermione dropped some strings from their robes - easily mended - and dried grass on the frames. "Just in case they check them thoroughly," she said.

"You think they'll investigate like Aurors?" Harry asked. Criminals rarely did, according to Dad.

"It can't hurt," she replied, sounding a little defensive.

"Right." He nodded. "But let's go now." He stepped outside.

The sun had almost set in the meantime - the sky was almost dark by now. That would slow them down. Then again, it would also slow down the pirates - if they even kept searching at night.

Harry grabbed the pole and held it out to her. "You fly!" he told her, smiling.

She huffed, but with a hint of a smile. "As usual."

"Yes. We should…" He trailed off. What was that?

"Harry?" Hermione whispered.

He held his finger in front of his lips and cocked his head. That had sounded like…

...the faint crack of a twig. Followed by a curse. From the direction of the beach. But far too close.

"They're here," he whispered.

Hermione gasped, her eyes wide, but a moment later, she flicked her wand, and the pole rose between them. "Let's go!"

He nodded. They had to leave at once. But… "Stay close to the ground at the start," he told her. "If we're too high, any markers from the Human-presence-revealing Spell will float above the canopy." But flying through the underbrush meant they would leave a track dogs could follow…

"East towards the hill, then we fly higher and head towards our destination," Hermione whispered as she mounted their improvised broom - she had understood his plan right away.

Good. He mounted the pole behind her, keeping his wand at the ready.

Another twig. Another curse. Closer this time. "Fly over the wyvern's grave," he whispered.

Without a word, she directed their ride towards the patch of earth covering the carcass. That might throw off the dogs. And maybe some of them would break through the top and end up impaled on the remaining spikes.

They're pirates, he told himself, they deserve it.

They had been stupid, wasting so much time after their first escape from the village, acting as if the pirates wouldn't find them for days! As if they had all the time in the world to prepare their plan! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

Hermione Granger clenched her teeth at her own ineptitude as she guided the pole through the underbrush. At least this time, she had managed to cast a Shield Charm beforehand, so she wasn't leaving parts of her skin and clothes behind.

She flew them over the former spike trap, then turned east towards the hill. It was still too bright to risk breaking cover, so she kept flying through the underbrush, weaving between the trees barring their way. She still expected bright cones of light to stab at the ground, like before, and dogs barking in hot pursuit.

Neither happened, and they reached the edge of the jungle without seeing or hearing anyone. Had Harry been deceived by some animal? No, she had heard the cursing too, hadn't she? Or had that been her imagination?

She brought the pole to a stop, hovering inside a dense bush. "Did you see them? Did we lose them?" she whispered.

"I don't know," he replied.

She looked over her shoulder. They had left a pretty obvious trail of broken twigs and branches through the underbrush. But she couldn't spot anyone behind them. She craned her neck, looking up, but she couldn't see much through the branches and leaves above them, either. Although… Had that been something moving above them? Someone? Or was it just a bird? Or a figment of her imagination? "I think I saw something in the sky. I'm not sure, though," she whispered.

"What?" She felt Harry move. "I can't see anything."

"I didn't see what it was," she said. "But if it was a pirate searching for us…"

"They might have gone on," Harry said. "They must not know where we are, or they would be here already."

She bit her lower lip. They had thought that before.

"We should've prepared traps," Harry muttered behind her. "That would've delayed them."

"Only if they fell for them," she pointed out.

"Even if they see the traps before triggering them, they would have to proceed more cautiously because there might be more traps," he countered.

That was correct. Provided they were dealing with rational people and not reckless ones. "Do you think we lost them?" she asked. "Should we go up? If we're in range of a Human-presence-revealing Spell…"

She heard him curse. "If we stay here much longer, they'll find us for certain - and they'll be in range. Get us above the underbrush!"

She swallowed but did so, guiding the pole upwards until they had left the underbrush. Then she started to fly south, following the edge of the jungle, towards the south-eastern corner of the island. Just as planned. Maybe...

The canopy above them blew up. She shrieked as splinters bounced off her Shield Charm and a large branch barely missed them as it crashed into the underbrush below, but pulled the pole to the side, accelerating out of reflex.

"They found us!" Harry yelled.

As if in response, spells flew past them, hitting trees nearby and the ground below. One of the trees toppled, blown apart, and Hermione tilted the pole, barely evading the falling wood.

"Reducto!" she heard Harry yell, but the spells kept coming - there had to be several pirates behind them!

For a moment, the spells stopped - she must have broken the pirates' line of sight - and she quickly turned west.

A moment later, more of the jungle canopy exploded - behind them this time. No splinters reached her, but she heard Harry curse. "Faster!"

She gritted her teeth and focused on moving the pole faster. There was a thick tree ahead, which would provide…

Something hit her Shield Charm, and she felt her spell shatter, the force pushing her down - into the underbrush. Branches and twigs tore at her, and she closed her eyes, raising one arm to protect her face, urging the pole to the side.

"Stay low!" Harry yelled. "They're tracking us with their spells!"

Hermione shook her head but pushed on, crashing into a denser bush. She couldn't recast her Shield Charm and keep the Levitation Charm going. The next spell would hit her! If she didn't catch a thicker branch to the head before that.

She heard Harry cast more spells behind her while she forced the pole to fly west, then south in an attempt to lose their pursuit.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

Where were the bloody pirates? Harry Potter couldn't see any of them. There! A red spell - a Stunner? He couldn't tell - flashed by. He sent a Stunner back, but he didn't expect to hit anyone - the pirates were on real brooms, not levitated poles, and moving far too quickly to be hit.

Another part of the jungle canopy blew up, and he flinched as a bunch of splinters hit his Shield Charm. If any of them got past and hit Hermione… He quickly looked at her. She didn't seem to be hurt. Good.

Then he winced as they plunged into a particularly dense bush. Her Shield Charm was gone; this must hurt her.

He recast his own - he couldn't cast any spell at their pursuers if he couldn't even see the sky. Or the area behind them.

They couldn't escape like this, though. It was too bright - too easy to follow their trail. And if they flew too high, the markers from the damn Human-presence-revealing Spell would point at them.

And he didn't think they would last long enough until nightfall allowed them to lose the pirates in the darkness. They needed another plan. And it was up to him - Hermione was too busy flying them.

But he had no idea. He was a duellist, not an Auror. And Aurors generally chased criminals; they weren't chased themselves.

Think, Harry, think! What would Uncle Peter do? Fool them into chasing a decoy, transform into a rat and hide, of course. Just as he had told Harry once.

They couldn't transform into rats, but they could create a decoy. Probably. But they couldn't hide - the pirates' spells would find them.

They broke through a sort of hedge, and Hermione took a sharp turn to avoid a small clearing. Harry kept his wand trained on the sky. If he spotted someone... He gasped when a floating marker appeared overhead and sent a Stunner up without hesitating.

His curse hit - he saw the tell-tale signs of a Shield Charm shattering - but Hermione took them through another bush before he could follow up with another spell.

And the damned pirates blew up more of the jungle. They only cast the Blasting Curses at the trees above them, though - never at them. Even though a few such curses cast near them would talk them out.

The pirates obviously wanted to capture them. To interrogate them. And to...

He clenched his teeth. He wouldn't let them. He'd rather die.

If only the pirates would drop into the jungle to chase them. Harry could hit them then. Or drop some trees into their path. But they stayed in the sky, above the trees, chasing them. Herding them.

"We have to change course!" he snapped. "They're herding us."

Hermione didn't reply but she took another sharp turn, towards the beach. And back towards the shelter. That might buy them some time, But it wouldn't be enough - it was still too bright.

He just couldn't hit the pirates on their brooms. It was impossible to aim at disillusioned people moving that fast. And even if Sirius had taught him the Blasting Curse he would still have to hit something near a disillusioned enemy with it - and there was nothing in the sky to hit at all.

He blinked. Nothing - unless they put something up there. Hermione's birds! No - she couldn't cast another spell while guiding their ride. It was up to him. And he couldn't conjure birds. He could transfigure things into rats, but rats couldn't fly. He could…

Sirius's aiming exercises! Skeet casting, as his godfather had called it. It had been a while, but… it was their only hope.

He needed a projectile. Anything would do. The enemy would have to be very close to get caught in the explosion of a Reductor Curse, unlike a Blasting Curse's explosion, but it was all he could think of.

While Hermione circled around a batch of trees that had grown too close together to fly through them, he cast a cutting curse at the closest branch, then summoned it. A few more Cutting Curses netted him four roughly even pieces. He kept two jammed between his stomach and Hermione's back and took the other two in hand. "Fly closer to a hole in the canopy!" he snapped.

"I hope you know what you're doing," she snapped back. But she was turning towards the hill again.

Then another part of the canopy exploded behind them, and Hermione turned again.

Harry took a deep breath, then banished first one, then the other piece of wood through the hole in the canopy, into the sky.

And sent two Reductor Curses after them.

His first curse hit the piece and detonated. Harry saw the sparks of a shield shattering. Then his second curse hit, and he heard a scream. And something invisible crashed through the branches and leaves behind them.

"We've got one!" he yelled. "He crashed!"

"Should I turn around?" she asked.

Before he could answer, the canopy above them exploded, followed by the ground behind them.

"No!" he yelled.

The pirates weren't trying to capture them any more.

Hermione Granger clenched her teeth and held her breath, trying not to scream as the jungle around them seemed to disappear in explosions. How many pirates were there? A dozen? All of them?

And how could they escape them? She ducked her head, urging the pole to go faster, forcing her Levitation Charm to move more than ever.

It wouldn't be enough. Not nearly enough. Actual brooms were faster. She was just a student.

Another explosion, closer, showered her with clumps of earth. Mostly - something hit her arm, and she winced at the pain that followed. A quick glance showed her that it had only been a glancing blow - but one that left a bleeding tear in her skin.

She flew them under a toppled tree, through a bush that left more of her skin scratched and bleeding. She almost crashed into a rock, barely managing to veer off - which saved them since an explosion swallowed the area behind the rock a moment later.

They had to survive until the pirates couldn't see them in the night any more. And they wouldn't make it.

She was crying with frustration and fear as she flew around another massive tree. But the next explosions were further away. "They're casting blindly," she snapped.

"Yes," Harry replied. "We need to hide!"

But they couldn't hide. Not when the pirates were blowing up the jungle.

"We have to fake our death!" she said.

"How? We can't fake our bodies!"

"Temporarily!" Long enough to get away and hide for real.

"How?"

That was the question. And she couldn't plan while guiding the plank they were riding through the jungle. "Think of a way!" she snapped.

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder! And faster!"

She felt more than she heard him chuckle in response since the next explosion was closer than before. They're casting blindly, she reminded herself. It's just blind luck.

But luck would run out sooner or later. It always did. No one was lucky forever.

"Get us back to the hill!" Harry yelled.

She hesitated a moment. Then she turned around. They just had to be lucky. Any direction was as good as any other, with the pirates randomly casting Blasting Curses into the jungle.

"Incendio! Incendio! Incendio!"

"Are you setting the jungle on fire?" she yelped, weaving through three close trees.

"We need the smoke!"

That would likely render their planned distraction harder. She snorted against her will - as if that plan would work any more. They needed to survive this first, anyway!

She flew them towards the hill, taking a curved approach. Harry kept casting his spell.

"Stop! They'll be able to follow the smoke!"

"That's the idea!"

"What?"

"Just fly us towards the hill. And be ready to dig!"

To dig? Oh no! This was crazy. They'd die!

But she didn't have a better idea.

And the explosions were coming closer - and it was getting harder to avoid the holes in the jungle. They were running out of time.

She changed direction and flew straight towards the hill. "Almost there!"

"Alright! Accio torn branch!"

"You want me to dig a hole?"

"A cave, straight into the hillside! Then summon me once the smoke covers everything."

Her eyes widened. "No! You won't! No!"

But he had jumped off already.

She almost stopped and turned around. But he was counting on her to do her part. It was their only chance.

But if they survived this, she would make him suffer for sacrificing himself as bait once again!

Clenching her teeth, she guided the plank towards the hillside, staying inside the jungle. The last part… she needed cover for that. Smoke.

Behind her, more explosions tore up the jungle. And she heard Harry's voice, amplified.

"Get some, you bastards!"

Hermione started setting the jungle on fire as well, putting everything into her spells. If she was too slow…

She shook her head, tears running down her face as she prepared to rush towards the hillside.

Then she pointed her wand ahead at the hill.

"Evanesco!"

Behind her, she heard Harry's voice again.

"You'll never get us alive!"

Then an explosion swallowed everything.