a/n...I really, really enjoyed writing this next chapter. It's quite long, sorry about that, I just didn't know where to split it and got lost writing it. There is going to be some really dark themes in this chapter, and some implications of non-con situations.
Chapter 22
"The Forest is huge, Granger, you really don't think we'll be ale to walk through the whole thing, unscathed, towards Hogwarts?" Draco asked, looking rather incredulous.
He had woken up about an hour ago, and Hermione had wasted no time in laying her idea out to him. She wanted to aparate to the North-west end of the Forbidden Forest- the closest you could aparate to Hogwarts, and hike south-east towards the castle. She had a feeling the Resurrection Stone was closer to the castle than not, but she saw no way to aparate closer.
"We have the cloak. It could hide us from most of the inhabitants of the Forest, and it's not like we can't defend our selves," She countered back. She was nervous, too, but she had to do this. Days were slipping by her, bland and unfulfilling, and hope was becoming so fickle to her that she feared an long period of inactivity would become a permanent state.
"I'm sure there is a great many things in that Forest that could smell us and hear us, even if they can't see us. What about all the poisonous plants? I don't suppose you have a host of potions in that bag that could counter all of those potential pitfalls." Draco replied, arching an eye brow. His usually cool and unaffected attitude was wavering, his mind bringing him back to a long forgotten memory of being in the Forest during first year, as a form of detention. He shuddered.
He had her there. They were woefully unprepared for this, she knew that, but what were there options? Keep aparating to different parts of England in hopes by some miracle things would work them selves out? And in the mean time, all the Order members would die in captivity. No, thank you. Hermione thought to her self.
"Then don't come. My offer still stand from before. I'll let Order members know where your alliances lie, now, if I come across them." She answered him seriously.
"What are we even bloody looking for? Must I just follow you around the whole time hoping you are able to find what ever it is with your own eyes?" Draco said, rolling his eyes.
Hermione saw the logic in that. She supposed there ws no point in hiding it from Draco any longer, if he was to be with her when she found it, anyways.
She gulped. "I'm looking for the...for the Resurrection Stone. I believe Harry was in possession of it, and dropped it in the Forest when You-Know-Who called for him to return to the Castle.." She trailed off. Draco was looking at her with a bemused expression.
"You mean..like...the stone from that old children's book?" He asked, grinning condescendingly at her. "Granger, that isn't real. Are you sure you don't mean the Sorcerer's stone?" He asked, pointedly.
"I said what I meant." She snapped back, feeling frustrated. She had known this was going to happen. "I have Harry's indivisibility cloak, which was being held unto by Dumbledore until Harry came to Hogwarts. It was left to him by James. His father...from like, 18 years ago. You don't think it's weird that It still works?" She asked, hoping he'd see sense.
"It's probably a family heirloom, made with powerful old magic. If you're implying it's the cloak from The Deathly Hallows, you've lost it." Draco said, good humored-ly.
"That's what i'm going to the Forest for. Take it or leave it," She said plainly. She could see Draco wasn't going to be swayed.
"You really, truly believe it's real and it's there?" He asked, leaning closer to her. There was small breeze that ruffled his hair, and brought a low smell of flowers to Hermione's nose.
"Yes. So does you-know-who. He was after all three of them, in turn, in order to 'conquer death'. Dumbledore knew that, and passed that information to Harry, Ron, and I." She explained, leaving out that he had actually left them the children's book itself to guide her.
Draco seemed to be thinking about it. Please, just trust me! She yelled internally, anxious to get things started.
Draco drew in a deep breath. "Can you make a patrounous?" He finally asked.
"Yes. An otter," She answered back.
"Good, cuz the Hogwarts grounds are lousy with them, and i'm sure they go into the Forest from time to time." He answered back, resigned.
"So you're coming, you agree to help?" She asked, hopeful.
"Yes, well, what are my options? I've killed Astoria's father. My ship with her has sailed. You're going, so i'm going." He answered back sadly.
The noose around Hermione's heart got a little tighter. She truly didn't know how Draco felt, and could offer no sympathies about it. Not that he wants them anyways. She thought, sourly. "Shall we, then?" She asked, reaching her arm out. Better to aparate together, so there was no chance of being separated.
Sighing, Draco reached his own arm out, and they cracked through the quite landscape of Arundel, two lost souls trying to find some sort of light and point in the world.
They re-materialized in some tall grass, in a noisy world. The first sound to hit Hermione's ear was an impossibly loud sqauking noise, as if from a giant bird, but no bird was visible. The second sound was a chorus of bugs, chirping and buzzing around her as if all screaming out at once for attention. She heard a faint sound of hooves galloping, and she quickly registered the possibility of Centaurs somewhere close. With Firenze gone from the pack, she didn't know how they would feel about a witch and wizard gallivanting about. I'll deal with it when I get to it.
Draco was still holding onto her hand, Staring at the thick wall of ancient tree's in front of them. Since she couldn't aparate them directly into the Forest, she had aimed to land as close to the perimeter as possible, with Hermione identifying huge Sycamore tree's alongside stately Oaks and jagged Pine tree's, as they sat in awe of them in the tall grass. It was hard not to feel intimidated. The air around her some how felt heavier, and her nose was filled with the pungent smells of the Pines looming overhead. Goosebumps spread down her arms and legs.
Draco was sitting impossibly close to Hermione, absolutely still with what must have been nerves, or fear, or the edge of panic. The longer we sit in one place, the easier we will be found out. She pulled the cloak out of her bag, and pulled it over them with flourish. Draco didn't relax.
"So, do we just walk in?" Draco asked cautiously, still holding tightly to her hand.
"Yes. But we stay close to each other so the cloak doesn't expose our ankles. I think it would take maybe a day and half to make it through most of the Forest," She answered, feeling a little over whelmed at the size of the Forest. Of course, her calculations didn't factor into them running into any hitches, but she saw no reason to say that out loud. The less they talked the better, seeing as many thing int he Forest had large, capable ears.
"Let's get going than, or do you plan a holiday sun bathing in this open field?" Draco snapped back, pulling her up as he stood.
Even it was mid afternoon, as soon as the pair entered the forest, the light around them seemed to dull into late evening blue tones. The forest floor was dark, and the foliage over head was dense, it seemed to become night around them. Hermione was afraid to cast Lumos as she didn't want to draw attention to themselves, but she couldn't deny that the dark made her uneasy. They were walking slow, in order to keep the cloak safely over them, and it only added to her unease. Should they have to run, one of them, or both, would become visible. She didn't like that idea at all.
To their left, they heard a pronounced slithering sound that stopped them both in their tracks. Draco's chest was so close to Hermione's back that she could feel how his wild heart beat matched her own. She swallowed, afraid to breath, afraid to make any sound that would give them away. Suddenly, in front of them, a long, thin red snake appeared, and slithered up a sparse Sycamore tree. Hermione blanched. It hadn't reacted to their presence at all, thankfully.
The two began to walk again, very slowly. There was no path way around them, so they were trying to pick through the tree trunks and exposed roots that littered the Forest floor haphazardly, no small feat with how dark it was growing around them. Draco's breath was warm on the back of her neck, and she struggled not to tell him to breath away from her. She supposed she had no choice, he was so much taller than her that if he were to back up, the bottom part of his legs would be exposed to the Forest.
Two bugs, glowing faintly white, flew uncomfortable close to Hermione's face, causing her to stop short, and Draco's full weight plowed into her, causing her to fall forward, out of the cloak, and splay across some hard exposed roots in front of her. Panic seized her, but just as quickly Draco was pulling her up and recovering her with the cloak.
"Watch it, Granger," He growled, low in her ear, but he didn't sound cruel, just concerned.
Her heart was beating madly in her chest, and she could feel blood dripping down her shin, where the skin had been scraped deeply by the tree root. She didn't have time to fus with it.
The heat of being under the cloak, and so close to each other, was causing them to sweat. Hermione felt so uncomfortable in her own skin.
Still, they continued to pick there way through the Forest, which had become wretchedly dark around them, with only a few sparse rays of golden sunlight making it through the thick tree top above them. Shrieking could be heard in the distant, and the hairs on the back of Hermione's neck stood up.
Her eyes seemed to pick up on some light source in front of them, and she registered a faint blue light glowing from behind a dark Beech tree some twenty feet ahead of them. As they got closer, she realized it wasn't coming from behind the tree, but from the actual tree. There seemed to be some kind of algae growing on the bark, and some faintly glowing spores seemed to be floating in the air around it. Hermione didn't like the look of it, and was craning her neck to see if there was a way they could get around it. But, she realized disconcertingly, the tree line behind the Beech all seemed to be glowing faintly with the same algae on it, and the air itself was swirling with the floating motes of spores. They vaguely reminded her of fairy lights, but smaller, and more present.
She saw no option but to walk through them. Draco seemed to tense even more behind her. He saw it, too.
They climbed around the Beech tree cautiously, Hermione noting that with the glowing algae-like substance, at least they had more light to see by.
The air over here seemed much more charged, and Hermione scalp started to prickle sup. Suddenly, she felt Draco lean his mouth close to her ear and hiss "Filthy Mudblood!" causing her to stop walking. This time Draco didn't crash into her.
"What the fuck, Draco?" She asked,not caring if she was being loud. She hadn't heard Draco call her that in years and the words filled her with rage. I've been helping this prat!
"What, Granger?" He spit back at her, eyes searching her face.
"Why the fuck did you just call me that?" She spat back, feeling her blood boil.
"I didn't call you anything?" He said back, puzzled.
"You just called me a..a filthy mudblood! What gives?" She spat back at him, her voice starting to raise.
"No, I didn't! You're losing it Granger," He replied, incredulously. He actually looked a little stung by her acusation. Maybe you did imagine it, She thought strangely. She doubted it, somehow.
"Fine," She snapped back, turning around to continue their trek forward. That fight would be pointless, anyways.
They started to maneuver between two huge oaks, when Draco snapped his head towards her.
"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean, Granger?" He yelled in her face, causing her to slump back against one of the giant oaks.
"What's what supposed to mean?" She asked back, confused.
"Don't talk about my bloody parents like that. Just don't talk about them at all," He snapped at her.
"I didn't say anything at all!" She snapped back. Why would she? Her mind was on other things.
Draco turned away from her, shaking his head, and they began climbing between the tree's again.
Hermione's throat was getting tight, and her skin was beginning to itch. I hope it isn't this weird algae-stuff. She thought grimly.
"Ron is dead, and I've known to whole time," Draco whispered in her ear, and she whipped around toward him, her hands reaching out and grabbing him by his robes.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She seethed in his face, feeling her hands shake with anger. Tears were fighting her eyes but she blinked them back, not wanting to cry. "Why would you keep this from me? After everything the Order has done for you?" Somewhere, deep in Hermione's psyche, she felt that something was off about the situation. It didn't make sense that Draco would be saying this stuff to her, or accusing her of saying things to him. But a bigger part of her psyche seemed to be shadowed over with doubt, and a desire to fight and be confrontational. That part of her psyche was open to believing her ears.
"Keep what from you, Granger?" Draco spit back, anger welling up in his voice.
"Ron dying, you absolute arsehole!" She yelled back, the tears finally falling down her face.
"I don't know anything about that bloody gits where abouts of life/death status you physco, let go of my robes!" Draco shouted back at her, trying to back away.
His head snapped up, his eyes flashing dangerously at her. "You take that back right now Granger!" he roared, grabbing her arms and ripping them away from her robes.
"The Death Eaters raped Luna, and I would have, too, if I had been there!" Draco seemed to yelled in her head, but his mouth hadn't moved. He must be using Legilimency on her, Hermione realized, her whole body seizing with revulsion. Fear over took her. They were all alone out here, had that been his plan?
That same small part of her pschye that had been trying to get her to see the trap they were in, was gone now, completely drowned out by the dark shadow that had filled Hermione's mind.
Her blood running cold in her viens, she grabbed for the cloak, and took off running away from Draco, desperate to get away from him and the awful things he was saying to her.