In wide-eyed horror, Hermione watched as Luna assisted Ron, then Ginny, in climbing onto the invisible beasts. Flying was nerve-wracking enough without the added factor of being unable to see exactly what she was riding. How could she control something she couldn't see? Terrified tears stung her eyes as something caused her robes to shift against her arm. The fear and adrenaline from their encounter with the centaurs had yet to wear off, making her hands tremble.

"Hermione," Harry's sharp voice clipped out, bringing her back to the situation at hand. He sat hovering just to her left, fixing her with an angry glare. Luna stood by her, arm extended to assist, and gave her a sympathetic look. Harry huffed again behind her as she continued to stare at Luna's outstretched hand. "Come on! We don't have time for this!"

Hard as she tried to contain it, a sob clawed its way up her throat as the tears burned down her cheeks. Hermione gritted her teeth in a failed attempt to stem the tremors that wracked her body.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Luna's soft, melodic voice asked. It was then Hermione realized her breathing was uneven, panicked. Briefly, she wondered if she was on the edge of a panic attack. The tightness in her chest certainly wasn't normal and neither was her tunneling vision. She had to do this.

A hand from behind squeezed her shoulder gently. Harry's voice was softer this time as he called her name, pulling her around to face him. Having slid off his thestral, he grabbed her hands and bent his head to meet her downcast gaze. "It's okay. You don't have to go."

"Of course I do," she bit back, more tears running down her face. Her eyes blazed into his despite the fear and terror. "Of course I'm coming with you."

His hands tightened around hers for a moment before he mounted his thestral again and extended a hand back to her. "Ride with me, then. It'll be just like Buckbeak."

She looked back and forth between his outstretched hand and his apologetic eyes. Blinking back the rest of her tears, Hermione nodded her head and placed both her hand and trust in Harry's, letting him pull her onto the invisible creature. Once seated, she immediately wrapped her arms around his waist as she had two years ago and buried her face in his back. If she didn't look, perhaps the flight would be over before she knew it. She was very wrong.

The thestral unfurled its wings, nearly sending both her and Harry off its back. A small squeak escaped her as her grip on him tightened, and she questioned every decision that led to this moment. As the group took flight, she pondered exactly how she found herself thousands of feet off the ground on the back of an animal she couldn't even see.

Hermione was almost certain the entire mission was foolhardy. Something about the situation felt off. The trap of it all, whether Sirius was there or not, was so blatantly obvious, she couldn't understand how Harry didn't see that. Despite her better judgment, however, she went along, prepared to stay by Harry no matter how sure she was that he was dead wrong. He was the only person able to get her to ignore logic and reason to follow anywhere.

"Alright, Hermione?" he called back to her, giving her arm a gentle squeeze. She shook her head and pressed closer as he leaned further over the neck of the thestral. "I'm sorry for how I acted earlier. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"It's okay," she mumbled into his back, focusing on the scent of his robes instead of the wind attempting to pull her away and send her flying through the open night.

"It's not. You were just trying to help. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be stuck in her office." Hermione hummed her acknowledgment, afraid if she opened her mouth again, words weren't the only things that would be coming out. "You're the bravest person I know, Hermione."

She gave a choked laugh. Her? Brave? As she clung to him like her very life depended on it? Nothing about the last five hours felt brave. She had been terrified as she marched into the Forbidden Forest. Frozen with fear as she even thought about flying to London on a thestral. She didn't feel brave in the slightest.

"You are," he told her. "You walked straight through the forest wandless. You attempted to negotiate with a herd of centaurs as they held arrows aimed directly at us. And you're facing one of your biggest fears of flying without even being able to see what you're riding."

Even the mention of the thestrals sent her stomach plummetting back to earth. "Don't remind me," she groaned.

The pair rode in silence the rest of the way to London. When they touched down, Hermione clung a moment longer to Harry, attempting to regain control of her breathing. Finally, she untangled herself from him, letting him slide off the thestral's back. With a gentle hand, he helped her down and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Thank you," he whispered just for her before leading the five of them towards the entrance of the Ministry of Magic. Whatever happened, Hermione hoped the sinking feeling in her stomach was simply her body adjusting to being on the ground again.

A/N: In order to procrastinate on NaNo, I wrote this instead. Thanks to possumcuddle_627 (be sure to check her stories out!) for both enabling me and beta reading!

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