After days and days of walking Harry felt like he was the only person on the planet who had ever been stuck between two bickering couples. They never stopped fighting with each other. What made it worse was Hermione and Ron never would admit they liked one another, so they would constantly send pricking jibes behind, in front, and even over Harry's head. Inuyasha and Kagome were a different story, they would bicker but neither of them knew what they were fighting about. One would make a joke and the other would find it offensive and then the shouting would begin. Or what was the worst of all was when each couple would fight in one huge brawl. The girls would fight against the boys and Harry as always was stuck in the middle. He did get in trouble once when his opinion was asked of. He had been enjoying a particularly nice afternoon with the anti-yelling plugs Fred and George had given him when he was hit across the shoulder.
"What?!" Whenever he was forced into their fights it was always to give his opinion. He hated doing it because it always ended up with one side hating him and the other carrying a disgusting smugness about them for the rest of the day.
"I asked you if it is a good idea to find the nearest town and ask for directions." Hermione said her hands on her hips; she had suspected he had been using some sort of Weasley Wizard Wheezes to drone out the fight.
Personally Harry thought it would cause too much notice if a group of teenagers walked into a town and said "how do you do I was wondering if it would be too much of a trouble to tell us what part of England are we in?" He chuckled quietly at the thought of trying to get Inuyasha to stay behind to wait for them to return, or, he laughed even harder, having Inuyasha walk up with them into the village.
"Well?" Hermione wore a dangerous look on her face; Harry looked around and found the same hazardous look wearing all over Kagome as well.
"I think," said Ron loudly before Harry could open his mouth, "that it could be too risky to just waltz into a town and ask 'please are we in England or Scotland?'" Harry snorted, and Ron looked smug. Harry chanced a glance over at the girls; both of them looked less than pleased. Hermione was turning a violent shade of pink.
"Oh, come on Hermione, what if Voldemort is hiding out in the very village that we walk into?" Harry tried to make her see some sort of reason as to why they couldn't ask for directions.
"Well then we would know if we were on the right track!" She yelled and stormed off; Kagome followed her looking less angry as Hermione as if Harry had made some sense in the argument. Harry turned all around to see where Inuyasha had been, usually when it came to arguments; he was the loudest and the most out spoken. Ron caught him looking all around and took a hold of his elbow.
"Our furry friend decided he needed a higher perspective." He said as he pointed up to the treetops. The forest had been getting more and more dense as the days had moved on. Harry had no idea where the last Horcruxes would be but he had a good feeling something would be discovered on this road.
An odd sensation covered the boys. It felt as if the wind had stopped, the noise deafened, and the different smells of the forest were completely snuffed out. Harry turned to Ron and both of them started glancing around to try and find out where the terrible nothingness was coming from.
A rustling in the bushes startled them, it came from farther back in the trees and it was steadily moving closer. As it grew nearer the sky darkened and the wind that was kidnapped seemed to let lose with a horrible howling. The trees bent and snapped under the weight of the newly released storm. Just as the creature was about to make an appearance Harry pulled out his wand.
"Damnit get that thing outa my face!" Inuyasha yelled, the last thing they needed was excess noise so Harry lowered his wand even though the only thing he wanted to do was to curse the being that was standing across from him.
"There's a shield near by, I just thought you would want to know, but you better leave it to me. I can handle it with my Tetsaiga, I wouldn't want you to break your sticks." Before Harry or Ron could do anything Inuyasha leapt off and was gone in seconds leaving only the bushes protesting his departure.
Harry looked at Ron who shrugged his shoulders and then they went off in the direction the Hanyou had gone. They heard a defiant yell and then an explosion so bright the trees themselves turned into toothpicks blocking what little light they could. The heat was searing, Harry thought the hair on his head would be burnt off because of the temperature. He tried to close his eyes but the blast was so strong even his eyelids brought him no comfort. And the wind, oh the wind, the trees closest to the demolition site had no control but to fall and allow the foliage behind them to try and stand against the mighty power.
As quickly as it had come, it left. Every thing around the two boys seemed in entire shock that such a thing could happen within their forest. The silence that followed was unlike the silence before, where one felt there ought to be noise, this was a silence where one felt noise never existed. Harry wondered whether or not he had ever even moved before, if he had been here all his life. Was he like the trees around him, and what was this thing next to him opening and closing his mouth.
"We should go." Ron whispered, during any normal circumstance Harry would not have been able to hear him, but this was different. He nodded and took a step toward the blast site.
What they found was unlike anything they had ever seen. They knew they were close even before they saw anything. The air became dense. The ground became black, and when Harry looked back the trees facing him seemed to be so dark as if they were painted with tar. As they moved on, puddles of an oily substance began to appear everywhere. And then, just as suddenly as the blast had come, they came upon the dreaded area.
A dome covered an area that was roughly fifty feet across. Harry could see through it but there was most certainly a wall surrounding the stretch of land. The stuff, Harry couldn't think of any other word, surrounding it was like the flames in the Goblet of Fire, the magical object that chose the champions for the Triwizard Tournament in his fourth year. It was blue and it moved as a flame does, rapidly and it never seemed to be the same thing twice. Harry was about to reach out his hand to touch the stuff when Ron called out to him.
"Harry, over here," Harry turned and saw Ron kneeling over the body of Inuyasha. His battered sword was lying over a few feet away from him. As Harry neared he saw, with some dismay, the hanyou's chest was gently rising and falling. As both boys were leaning over the body the air became dense again. It seemed as if the forest had awoken from its shock of the blast and now was threatening to take down the dome itself. The wind whipped the branches but oddly enough the breeze never reached the three figures on the ground.
"It must be some sort of runoff magic from the dome." Ron said, his voice different from when they last spoke on the path with the others. When Harry thought of the others he realized something with great dread.
"Ron," Harry knowing full well the color had gone from his face "Where are the girls?"