Chapter Five:

They found themselves in a forest. It was starting to get dark, but Harry could still make out the others. He also saw that Hermione wasn't bleeding anymore and she was conscious, but very pale. Ron was kneeling beside her, stroking her sweat-dampened hair. Draco was huddled together, muttering "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Harry sighed. With Hermione out, Ron busy caring about her and Draco's brain gone boiling, it was up to him to put up their tent and protection spells.

Ron and Harry carried Hermione into the tent, lay her down and put Dittany on her wounds. Although it was probably too late to actually heal the and stop the skin from scarring, Harry hoped it would do some good.

Harry left Ron with the slowly recovering Hermione and went outside the tent to have a quiet moment. That moment didn't last very long, however, since Draco decided to join him after a few minutes. "What are you doing out here?", he asked, sitting down beside Harry. "Baking a cake", Harry replied dryly.

For a while, neither of them said a thing. Then Draco let out a sigh. "I'm so screwed. I should never have listened to you. My parents are going to be tortured. I failed them." He buried his face in his hands. "You're an asshole." Harry rolled his eyes. "If I'd've known what kind of drama-queen you'd turn out to be, I wouldn't have brought you along."

Draco glared at him. "Hey, orphan boy, you might not believe it, but some of us actually have a family they can worry about." Harry dug his fingernails into his palms to stop himself from slapping Draco. "You know, you don't have to be such a jerk all the time I have people I care about. Ron's whole family is in constant jeopardy and Hermione had to erase her parents' memories to stop the Death-Eaters from coming after them. We all have to deal with this stuff. Stop pretending you're something special."

"Sorry", Draco mumbled quietly without looking at Harry. He stood up and went into the tent. Harry stayed until it got too cold.

He was unable to sleep that night. It wasn't because Ron was snoring so loud it could bring a forest down or that Hermione was wincing in pain in her sleep or that Draco rolled around the whole time. He was lying awake because he couldn't stop thinking about Ginny.

Where was she? Was she still in Hogwarts? What went on there? He sighed. It wasn't helping that Draco kept kicking him in the side in his sleep. Actually, Harry wasn't even sure he was asleep. Maybe he just liked kicking him.

Finally, he decided this just wasn't going to work, so he went out of the tent to look at the stars. He closed his eyes. It could have been so simple. Just a guy in love with a girl. Why couldn't the have a normal relationship and grow old and get married? Or not. They didn't have to grow old together. They didn't have to do anything right now. They could just be together.

Only they couldn't. Because nothing ever seemed to work out for him.

Harry slept under the stars that night.