Finally the trees were thinning, beams of moon light were reaching the forest floor cheering, slightly, the dreary atmosphere they had become accustomed to over the past 6 days. Only meters ahead was the mouth of the forest, opening to the unknown lands beyond. The group was elated to at last be out of the darkness; to begin on the next leg of the journey. "Well, this's were I'll be leavin' yehs."

"Thank you, Hagrid," Hermione said solemnly, a slight aire of anxiety in her voice.

"Goo' luck," The massive man replied as a tear ran down his cheek. He turned to leave, but then quickly turned back to engulf them all in a huge hug, nearly lifting them from the ground. Please be careful, the lot 'a yeh, I'll never forgive me self if anythin' happens tah any of yeh."

"Oww," Ron was the first to complain. Hagrid released them; they fell to the ground in a heap.

"'Fore I go, here 'Arry take this. Might come in handy; just incase yeh know.." He handed Harry a small dagger in a leather sheath. "Dumbledore was holdin' it for yeh. Usa be yer father's. He wan'ed to give it to yeh when the time was righ'." He began to weap harder at the mention of Dumbledore.

"Thanks, Hagrid." Harry took the weapon with a forced grin.

"Goo' bye." He wiped the tears from his eyes and disappeared back into the forest.

Hermione and Ginny were tearing now too. "Women." Ron scoffed, though there was a sad, nervous sound to his voice as well.

"Well…" Harry said looking at the vast, mountainous land before them, "Let's go." He was ready for anything now, he knew this was the right thing to do. He began to walk across the open field they stood at the edge of, the others followed him.

"We should probably try to make it to the base of those mountains in the distance. Find shelter there when the sun comes up, decide what our plans our for after that; prepare ourselves a little." Hermione said.

"Good idea. I don't like this field, keep up the pace. Being out in the open like this is dangerous," Harry's reply only made the atmosphere more tense. They walked this way in a nervous silence, fearing that any sound could bring trouble.

---

They reached the base of the nearest, smallest mountains just as the sun was peaking over them. There they found refuge under a small overhang of rock protected bye the surrounding trees and boulders, there was a small stream running by. They sat down on the cold hard ground; all were asleep within minutes.

"'Mione? 'Mione…Hermione!" Ron shook her to wake, trying not to wake Harry and Ginny (whom he noted were sleeping much to closely).

"What?" Hermione was annoyed at being woken up so harshly. 'She's so beautiful when she's agrivated,' Ron thought, smiling. He began to pull her up.

"Come on, come on."

"Oh no, what's happening? What's wrong?" She was scared now, upon realizing where she was and the situation she was in. The dewy air told her it was only a few hours after she'd fallen asleep. The sky though was not bright as it was when they arrived it was a dark, menacing grey.

"Shhhh," Ron coaxed, "everything is fine. Come with me."

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked tripping on the stones that littered the ground making it difficult to walk the pace Ron was dragging her at.

"I need to talk to you," He said sitting her down on a boulder near the stream; a shy sincerity had fallen on his voice.

"About..?" she replied sensing this honesty.

"Well, I—I don't know how to tell you this—I…" He was very close to her now. She didn't mind. 'Why can't I just tell her? Why does she have to be so bloody gorgeous? Does she feel this way?' Many questions passed though his mind but in the end, instinct won over. His stomach did summersaults and his head grew light as his lips hit hers. She backed up slightly at first, surprised and confused, but then leaned in again accepting this strange new feeling that had erupted inside of her. Both succumbed to these new feelings and began to move closer. The kiss became increasingly passionate, hands started to wander; minds forgetting every pain and worry in the world.

"You scared me! Thank god I found you, I thought you'd been taken by…" Hermione and Ron jumped apart quickly. "Oh—oh wow. I'm—um—sorry?" Harry said very confused. A smug grin was appearing on his face.

"Hi, Harry." Hermione was suddenly very interested in the spot on the ground near her feet. She wiped her mouth with her hand. Ron wouldn't look at Harry either; he was rubbing the back of his now crimson neck which matched his disguisable ears.

Harry was beaming. For the first time in weeks he seemed sincerely happy. "Sorry," he said simply as turned and walked away.

"I'm sorry, I—I shouldn't have."

"No—It's…" Hermione tried to say but Ron was already almost caught up with Harry. She sighed and followed.

Ginny was still asleep when they got back to there 'camp'. "When Ginny wakes up we need to start discussing how we are going to do this. I have my ideas, but I know Hermione has hers," Harry was looking through his bag. He pulled out a small book, the binding badly broken and some pages hanging out; as well as a rolled up, yellowed parchment that looked to be a map. The noise had caused Ginny to stir. "Oh good, we do really need to get going." Harry was very anxious.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked sleepily.

"We need to have a plan," Harry replied, sitting down next to her. Ron and Hermione did the same. "First off, no running off without telling everyone where you'll be." He looked at Ron and Hermione who looked away acting as if nothing happened.

Ginny looked from Ron to Hermione, then back to Ron, he eyes gleaming with understanding. She laughed slightly. "Ooh, alright," she said with a sly wink, "Understood."

Ron's ears were once again a bright red. "Oh let's get on with this," he said sourly glaring at Harry. It was Harry's turn to laugh.

"Well then…" He began to explain his plans to end the war that Voldemort started.