so i guess its a prologue? lol oh slay me.
d/c: not mine
Neither Harry, Ron, nor Hermione noticed the large brown owl fly over them late that night. It was Ron's turn to stand watch and, as usual, he had slowly lowered his chin down to his chest, and fallen asleep. The bright blue fire Hermione had conjured when they made camp had died out, but she had had the mind to place a warming spell around them just in case.
They've been traveling for over a week, having snuck out of Bill and Fleur's wedding celebrations as soon as Molly Weasley had fallen asleep. Only Ginny knew they were leaving. They didn't tell her what they were looking for, but she understood they had to go. It was unlike her to stay behind without a fight, but she had sat quietly as she watched them pack, only managing to laugh when Hermione freaked out that she had lost her checklist—only to be told by Ron that she had gone over it five times already and threatened to make her leave the books they all knew she was smuggling with her.
"But what if I forget something!" she argued.
"You're Hermione! You never forget anything!" they retorted.
She had stormed off, but tried to hide a smile as she left.
They had decided to travel the Muggle way to avoid detection. They knew the Order would come looking for them as soon as they discovered they were missing. But the train rides had been trying at best. Ron's gaping mouth and confused expressions were enough to draw stares from the people around them. They tried to take a page out of Moody's book and tried to backtrack and take long, roundabout routes to shake off anyone who might have been following them, but finally gave up because they were just wasting time getting themselves lost.
Exhausted with the train system, they finally arrived at their destination. The walk was a long one but Hermione refused to get on the broom if she could help it. So it was early morning by the time they reached the edge of a curiously dense outgrowth of trees. Non-magical people would have just walked on by without giving it a moment's thought, but these three knew better. The certain hum of Anti-Muggle spells and wards nearby were hard to miss, especially at such high concentrations. They were too exhausted to tackle them just yet, deciding to wait until it was dark again.
And so, the three friends made camp outside Malfoy Manor.