A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Some eagle eyed reviewers have asked about the taboo - let's just pretend like it doesn't exist in this one? It won't be a plot point, at least. So I am going to let them let the Voldemorts fly, haha! I am really excited for the next chapters! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty (!) and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-one soon!
The week after the horcrux was destroyed felt like a weight had been lifted from all of their shoulders. Theo had promised that having something go there way for once would give them a sense of accomplishment, and he had been absolutely right. Everything seemed a little bit lighter now that another part of Voldemort had been killed.
Hermione had even been convinced by the two boys to break into a grocery store overnight when they stumbled by a little village to get some food. While they didn't have any muggle money to pay them back with, she still left a small stack of sickles and galleons, hoping that the shopkeeper in the morning would realize that they were real gold and silver, and maybe find some place where they could get money for them.
Reviewing their haul of food when they returned to the tent filled the trio with giddy joy, stomachs clenching at the sight of so much food. Theo happily tore into a brightly colored package of beef jerky, moaning when he took his first bite. Grabbing one of the Cadbury chocolate bars next, he sunk into one of the chairs by the cast iron stove. "Muggles might be onto something with all this food," he said, sounding content and impressed. "This seems better than any Hogwarts feast."
"We should try not to eat too much," Hermione said, between delicate bites of cheese and day old baguette. "So we don't get sick."
Harry slumped into the chair across from them, digging into a packet of crisps. "Agreed. And we don't want to blow it all in one night," he agreed. "Who knows when we will be able to get anymore food. Fuck, I forgot how good crisps were. I never want to eat another rabbit again."
Theo got a mischievous look on his face, before reaching behind him to pull something out of the pocket of his jeans. He waved a narrow bottle of whiskey at them. "I got us a little extra," he grinned at the two Gryffindors. Elegant fingers twisted off the top, before taking a long pull from it. "Salazar, that burns on the way down," he coughed out, before tossing the bottle to Harry. "Careful Potter, that'll put hair on your chest."
The other boy ran his fingers through his hair, looking at the whiskey skeptically.
"What?" Theo questioned, with that classic Slytherin drawl. "Afraid you'll catch lycanthropy? Don't worry, Hermione hasn't gotten it yet." He rolled his eyes.
"That's not it, Nott," Harry countered with a roll of his own eyes. "Just wondering how you found the cheapest whiskey possible in the whole store." He removed the cap, before taking a pull of his own.
He passed the bottle onto Hermione, who took a delicate sip, sputtering and coughing when the brown liquid hit the back of her throat. It really was terrible, but it chased away the cold and filled her with a bit of euphoria, for a while anyway.
The three of them spent the evening passing the bottle between themselves until the whiskey was all gone and they were all a little bit drunk. Hermione's eyes were growing heavy while Theo's fingers carded through her hair, lulling her to sleep. Looking at her friend, she wondered if Harry was lonely and said it out loud before she could stop herself. "Do you miss Ginny, Harry?"
Her best friend blushed brightly, but shook his head back and forth. "No, I just hope she's safe, wherever she is," he explained, looking down at the hands in his lap. "It would be nice to have someone...like the two of you do...but, Ginny's not that person for me." He looked like he wanted to say more but ended up holding back, so Hermione didn't press. Instead, she just let the feeling of Theo's fingers send her off to sleep, her eyes too heavy to keep open for a second longer.
...
She woke up suddenly, dry eyes snapping open to stare at the fabric of the tent's ceiling. Realizing that none of them had even managed to make it into the bunk beds not even ten feet away was a bit embarrassing, but she had other things to worry about at that moment. Like what it was that had woken her.
There was a noise coming from the clearing. Sitting up with a gasp, she hissed at Theo and Harry to wake up, trying to ignore the throbbing in her head. Of course the one night that they let go for a little bit and didn't keep watch would be the night that something went wrong with the warding, letting in an intruder. Merlin, she could smack Theo for plying them with cheap whiskey!
Wand drawn, she crept towards the entrance to the tent, gasping in surprise at what she saw. "Ronald?" she asked, looking at the friend who had abandoned them, standing proudly in the clearing, smiling like nothing was wrong. "How did you get back here?"
"The thing Dumbledore gave me," he said with a grin. "I don't really know what happened, but a ball of light came out of it, and I just...apparated and it brought me here...but, that's not important. Look what I have!" he said waving the sword in his right hand eagerly.
"Is that...the sword of Gryffindor?" Harry asked, still adjusting to the bright sunlight.
"Yes!" Ron announced cheerfully. "I found it just out here in the middle of the forest, almost right away after I left you guys. I've been trying to find my way back to you since then. I regretted it almost immediately, I swear."
His words were just a little bit too convenient for Hermione's liking. Leveling her wand towards his face, she couldn't stop the mistrustful frown on her face. "Why did you have to save me from the troll in first year?" she asked, knowing that only Ron and Harry would know the real reason she'd been in the bathroom that Halloween to begin with.
"Oi! 'Mione! What are you playing at?" he asked, taking a step back in confusion.
"Answer the question," she demanded.
"I said that...that you were a bloody nightmare and that it was no wonder you didn't have any friends," Ron answered, his good mood completely evaporated, remembering the awful things that he had once said about her.
Hermione relaxed then, confident that it really was Ron. "Sorry, it just seemed a little suspicious is all," she tried to explain, not wanting it to see like she was doubting him. "You just showing up out of the blue like that."
"Well, it's alright," he said, an inkling of hope rekindling itself. "I've got the sword, so we can finally get rid of the locket, right? You said that it would have basilisk venom in it still...since Harry used it to kill the one in the Chamber of Secrets?"
Hermione was impressed that he'd been paying enough attention to her excitedly shared research to store that away for future use. It would be helpful to have the goblin-made sword so that they could dispatch any horcruxes that they found in the future. They couldn't just rely on Theo to use fiendfyre to kill every one of them, not when she saw the toll it took on the werewolf.
"We actually managed to get rid of it last week," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck, awkwardly. "Well, I say we, but Theo really did the heavy lifting. He used fiendfyre to take it out."
Ron's face began to turn an ugly shade of red. Throwing the sword down on the ground, he didn't bother hiding the hurt in his eyes. "Well, I guess you bloody well didn't need me anyway," he snarled, feeling insecure now that his chance to swoop in and play the hero had evaporated before him. "I thought you said it was too dangerous."
"I said that we could use it as a last resort," Hermione said, unable to properly describe how desperate the three of them had been for something to just go right for once.
"I don't know why I even came back in the first place!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air, ranting away.
Hermione was distracted by Theo grabbing her wrist. "We aren't alone," he said suddenly, gaining her attention immediately. "Greyback is here," he added, looking around the clearing wildly, wondering where the older werewolf was lurking. She looked up at her boyfriend and saw real, wild fear reflected in his eyes for the first time since they'd been on the run.
Barely having time to process what he'd said, their wards began to cackle at the edges, before falling down. A group of snatchers appeared from behind the trees, with one stepping forward. "Oh, look at what we've found here," he said eagerly, showing off a mouthful of dying teeth. "What would you four be doing out here in the woods?"
"Run!" Theo shouted, before grabbing Hermione's hand and pulling her along behind him. She was immediately stumbling, but still making it along through the forest next to her boyfriend, too concerned with getting away to worry too much the scratches she'd be left with. The werewolf was really quite fast with his long legs, but Hermione was able to keep up, running on pure adrenaline pounding through her veins. She couldn't hear anything, the sound of blood rushing through her ears was deafening.
She was staring ahead, focused on the light streaming through the trees that she didn't even notice the raised root until it was too late. Her foot snagged on it and her hand was ripped from Theo's, before she fell down hard on the ground, her face shoved into the leaves. Hermione tried to scramble up so that she could keep going, only to be lifted up by her hips.
At first Hermione thought it might be Theo come back to get her, but then she was hauled against a much larger body than her boyfriend's. Looking down at the arms that were tight around her middle, Hermione couldn't stop the scream that was wrenched from her throat. "Theo!" she cried, until a grimy hand was clamped over her mouth.
Wild eyes found the Slytherin coming back for her. Even though she would have prefered he save himself, there was a selfish part of her that was glad he came back for her. Seeing the stricken look in his dark blue eyes, Hermione didn't have to guess who had a hold of her.
She tried to kick him, but the man just chuckled deep in his chest before shoving his face into the curve of her shoulder. "You still haven't marked your mate, pup," Greyback's voice cut in the silence, making a shiver of fear up Hermione's spine. He ground himself against her, enjoying the way Theo bristled at how the other werewolf was handling her. "Do you need your alpha to show you how to handle her?"
Theo was practically growling at the sight of Hermione struggling in Greyback's arms, but before he could do anything, the other snatchers were showing up, easily grabbing Theo. Harry and Ron had been easily contained as well, struggling fruitlessly against their own jailors.
"How did you manage to get both of them, Fenrir?" the man asked, wearing the sword of Gryffindor on his hip.
"I'm better than all of you combined," Fenrir drawled with a smirk, still not letting Hermione go, laughing at the murderous look in Theo's eyes.
"Well, you might have got two of them, but I think I got the big prize," the other snatcher said with a smirk. Walking over towards Harry, he pushed back her friend's fringe, showing off the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. "I think it's time to take this lot to the higher ups, collect my prize," he added, with a shark like grin that had Hermione's stomach sinking in fear.