Chapter 24
Shadowy shapes swam in and out of view in Hermione's subconscious, their faces never fulling forming. She wanted to reach out to one of them, but her arms wouldn't move. She was completely paralyzed, save her mouth, but when she opened it to scream, no sounds came out. Filthy mudblood echoed in her head and she wanted to run away from the sound, run anywhere. The other foul words that had been spoken to here rose up, a wretched chorus in her mind. How does this mudblood survive, but I must lose one of my sons? It should have been her! If i were you, i'd kill myself before Draco has a chance to get to you! The voice rose and fell at the same time, a hideous kaleidoscope of the malicious words that had driven her to horrible, body racking sobs on the Forest floor.
Her eyes snapped open as a pair of hands shook her roughly. Above her was Draco, his face so close to hers she could feel his breath on her skin. Fear seized her, and she moved to get away from him.
"Bloody stop, Granger," He said sternly, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"Get away from me!" Hermione yelled, trying to roll away from his grasp.
"Can you give me one bloody minute to explain before you go charging off into this sodding Forest again and risk both our lives," He hissed at her, refusing to let go of her shoulders. "The fungus that was glowing every where, I didn't think any thing of it when we first saw it, but I recognize it now as Impius Cogitationes. It's an old form of magic, used to fill some one's head with madness and drive them insane. I think it was making me hear your voice and you hear mine. I've dealt with it before, at the Parkinson Estate. Some of their cellar dungeons are coated in it, and I've gotten some on me before."
"How did you snap out of it?" She asked, suspiciously.
"I got some on me before, like I mentioned, at the Parkinson Estate. Pansy knew the counter-curse, but she messed with me a bit and let me suffer. I heard..I heard my mother's voice this time, but it was the exact same things she was saying last time, and I remembered her saying it at The Parkinson Estate so I kinda..I dunno, snapped out of it. I heard you screaming to high hell, so I found you. I pulled you away from the trees, you hit your head, got knocked out, and now where here." He finished, throwing his hands up.
Hermione took a few steadying breaths, and digested what Draco was telling her. She could still hear him threatening to kill her, but she was listening to it now through a more logical, and calm, set of ears. The voice in her head sounded manufactured some how, and she could definitely tell the difference between the organic voice in front of her, and the removed one in her head. She felt so stupid, now, the pieces coming together of how she had been tricked. Get your head in the game idiot girl! She shouted at her self internally.
"What did you hear me telling you?" She finally asked, after a few minutes of self reflection.
"I heard you say...that my parents deserved what they got, for being snakes. I heard you say that I was a coward, and didn't deserve to live." He answered hesitantly, not meeting her eyes. "You?"
"I heard you say that-that Ron was dead, and that-that..." She struggled to form the words to tell him about Luna.
"That what Granger?" He prompted curiously.
"That the Death Eaters r-raped Luna, and you would have, too, if you were there..." Hermione felt a tear roll down her cheek.
"To be frank, it does happen sometimes..." Draco answered, his voice colored with shame. "Not from me!" he quickly added, eyeing Hermione's sharp expression. "And it isn't like...out in the open. It's not celebrated. Some of the older Death Eaters see it as their right or something...And some of them see it as horrible, and condemn it. " He looked down again. Hermione wondered if his father had ever been apart of it and shuddered.
"That's vile," She grimaced, thinking of all the Order members in captivity.
"I know. But right now we need to figure out how to get around those trees. And I don't want to stay in one spot around here and your incessant screaming probably alerted everything in the Forest to our presence," He said, starting to stand, and reaching his hand out to pull her up.
"Thank you for pulling me out of there," Hermione said quietly, cheeks burning red. She hated to be the damsel in distress, but it was some how becoming very frequent as of late. I need to be better. I will be better. She mentally promised herself.
"Thank you for not casting me out," He answered back simply. He threw the cloak back over them, and they started to trek more west now, to see if they could avoid the part of the Forest covered in Impius Cogitationes. Hermione hoped to never come across it again.
"Did Pansy ever teach you the counter-curse?" Hermione whispered under the cloak, as the started to move their way between two large Sycamore trees.
"No," Draco answered wistfully. "She's always been an egotistical git, who strived to be better than me. She would never willingly teach me something she knows."
Hermione said nothing, just busied her self stepping across some fallen branches. After a few minutes, she could hear the sounds of faint galloping again, accompanied by a muted neigh sound. She really hoped that they would not come across any centaurs while in the Forest, as she couldn't be sure how they would feel about them being here, possibly drawing the attention of Death Eaters or Dementors.
She hadn't seen Firenze since the battle, and didn't know what his fate had been, but she recalled his heard banishing him. She shuddered.
She was so distracte dby her own thoughts that she failed to notice a shining spider web in their path, and walked right into. She raisedher arms to try to pull some of the web off the cloak, and Draco pulled close to her, shuddering.
"I bloody hate spiders," He hissed, pulling some lose web off his side of the cloak.
"Me, too." She whispered back, scared to come across any of the Acromantula she knew had a colony somewhere deep in the Forest.
The environment around them was gloomy, with deeper hues of blue penetrating the spaces around them, as the day grew later and later. Strange sounds pierced through the solidarity in the Forest, owls hooting, bugs chirping. Hermione could faintly hear the same sqauking sound she had heard earlier in the day, and was relieved to hear that it sounded much further away. She thought she could hear a muted clicking sound, like sharp nails clicking across wood, but she couldn't be sure. They passed more shining spider webs, but were careful to avoid stepping in them.
They hiked along the rough terrain in silence for the next few hours, trying to give the part of the Forest with Impius Cogitationes a wide, cautious arc. It was getting much harder now, as the blackness of night settled around them, and they moved much slower. Hermione knew there were werewolves rumored to be living in the Forest, and felt very grateful they had come here when the moon was waxing. She hadn't even thought to chart the moon before hand, so some luck there was with them at least.
The clicking sound Hermione heard earlier had resurfaced, louder now, and seeming to come from both sides of them. She tried not to let it worry her. They were under the cloak, after all, and working to be as quiet as possible.
"Do you hear that clicking noise?" Draco whispered into her ear after some moments. She did hear it,and it was getting louder around them.
Before she could answer, a low, grating voice spoke from a branch above them.
"Kadmiel, I can smell them and hear them but I am unable to see them," the voice from above them said, causing them both to freeze in their tracks.
"Urijah, I believe them to have some sort of ability to hide their appearance," A new, even lower voice spoke. Draco had drawn his wand silently behind Hermione, and she followed suit. "It is not matter. I can hear their every move."
A spider scurried down an Oak that was two the pairs left, as big as a car, eight eyes flashing as a stray beam of moonlight illuminated it's hideous face. The skin on Hermione's neck prickled and her breathing grew ragged. Draco stood tense and ramrod straight next to her, trying not to breath or make any movement at all.