Hermione heard the banging on her apartment door, but she didn't move to answer it. She considered placing a Silencing Spell on the door with her new wand, but decided against it when she heard Harry's voice.

"Hermione, please open up! You haven't been to work for a week, we need to talk!" Sighing, she dragged herself to the door and flung it open, glaring at Harry. He took in her bedraggled appearance, and started to say something but quickly changed his mind. "Can I come in?" He asked instead, gesturing the interior of the room. Hermione threw up her hands defiantly and motioned for Harry to enter.

"He's not with you, is he?" She asked fiercely. Harry didn't have to ask to know who she meant.

"No, Ron's still at work, putting in a lot of overtime. I think he's obsessed with catching...well, he's not here, anyway." Harry sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to him. Hermione hesitated for a moment, and then collapsed beside Harry.

"Harry, what are we going to do? What can we do? I can't stand the thought of him out there, hunted, innocent..."

Harry ran his hands through his dark hair in exasperation. "I'm not sure. I've run through a lot of scenarios, some pretty crazy..."

"So you have a plan!" Hermione sat up, hope glimmering in her eyes for the first time.

Harry laughed without humor. "Well, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a plan, but for the moment, its all we have. There's too much evidence stacked against him, and now with Ron's personal vendetta..."

Hermione waved her hand dismissively. "Please just tell me what you're thinking. It was your crazy plan about escaping on a dragon that got us out of Gringotts, remember?"

Harry smiled wryly. "Yeah, I know. Well, there's still some major details to be worked out, but we can start here..." He filled her in on the details, and Hermione's face changed from hopeful to skeptical and then back to hopeful.

"It's worth a shot, Harry! And I don't see that we have another choice, with the Pensieve destroyed. When can we get started?"

"I get out of work at 5 today, we should still have some daylight. Will that give you enough time to get ready?" Hermione's look told him that that was the least of her concerns.

"Of course. I'll meet you back here by 5:15?"

Harry stood up and nodded. "Sounds good. I'll see you then..." He gave her a quick hug and left the apartment. She heard the soft crack of his Disapparation a few moments later and sighed to herself. She wished that she had a way to contact Scabior to let him know what the plan was, but then decided that it was better to say nothing until they knew if it would work or not. She didn't want to get his hopes up, or put him through the certain emotional strain, if the outcome would not be his freedom.

"I'll do whatever I can..." She whispered to the air, and then headed in the direction of the shower.

OoooOOoo

Hermione checked the clock and groaned. It was already close to 5:30, and she had had no word from Harry. When another fifteen minutes went by, she decided to go by herself. She told herself that Harry must have been delayed at work, but she knew that it wasn't like him not to send her a message. She checked the window one last time for an owl, and then with a sense of foreboding, clutched her wand and twisted into nothingness.

Hermione felt her feet hit the ground, and quickly pointed her wand in front of her. The light was fading rapidly, and that only added to the loneliness and fear she felt.

"I don't even know where to start..." She muttered to herself, staring around at the gloomy Forbidden Forest before her. She tried the Accio charm half-heartedly, knowing that it most likely would not work in this case. A few minutes went by and nothing happened, confirming her thoughts. She whipped her head around as a branch cracked behind her, and then breathed in relief when a squirrel ran by and then up a nearby tree. "Okay, Hermione, its not the best plan, and with Harry not here it's pretty much impossible, but its the only one we have. So stop jumping at shadows and get busy...its going to be a long night." She told herself firmly. She lit her wand, and held it low, sweeping it over the ground and under bushes.

Two hours later, Hermione moaned in frustration and exhaustion. There were twigs stuck in her curly hair and her eyes were beginning to hurt from straining to see the small object by her weak wandlight. The nagging thought of what had happened to Harry kept taunting the back of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to push it away. One more hour. She told herself. One more hour, then I'll go find Harry...

A sudden rustling noise to her left startled her out of her thoughts. She swung her still lit wand in that direction, and felt her heart skip a beat as she could just make out a large shape. Hermione took a step back, thoughts of werewolves and other horrors instantly on the forefront of her mind.

"Who's there? Identify yourself!" She called out, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Hermione? Where are you...its me!" Hermione dropped to her knees in relief as she recognized Harry's voice.

"Harry! I'm right here!" She called, and he moved quickly in the direction of the wandlight.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry..." Harry said as soon as he reached her. "Ron wanted to get a drink after work to discuss the case and his latest theories, I couldn't get away. I didn't want to risk sending you a message with him right there, the last think we need is for him to get suspicious. I had a hunch you might come here and start searching...now that I'm here, maybe it will go a little faster?" He said the last line with a teasing lilt to his voice, and Hermione had to resist the urge to curse him.

"Feel free, Harry." She said through gritted teeth. "Yes, the fact that I've never even seen it would tend to make it a little challenging to find, don't you think?" Taking note that her appearance and tone meant that she was definitely not in the mood for joking, Harry gulped and nodded.

"I don't think that this is the right place, the clearing was bigger, the trees around the outer edges were larger and more spread out..." He lit his own wand and led the way through the forest. "I'm hoping that when I get close, I can somehow call it to me..." Hermione followed wearily, relieved that Harry was all right and was now leading their mission. The next half hour passed in relative silence, save for Harry's mumblings "This might be the way...no...wait...I'm sure it was through here...maybe not this way..."

A strange clicking noise suddenly greeted them as Harry parted a couple of branches. Hermione didn't recognize it, but felt Harry freeze in front of her. "Harry...?" She started to ask, but he jumped back and pulled/dragged her with him.

"Hermione...shhhhh...oh no, how could I forget..." The clicking noise was joined by more, until a chorus seemed to surround them. Hermione looked fearfully from side to side, but couldn't make out anything in the lurking shadows. Just when she was about to ask Harry what the clicking noises were, one of the shadows suddenly moved forward and took on a more definite shape, answering her unspoken question.

Hermione gasped as a creature she had only seen in The Monster Book of Monsters emerged before her, clicking its enormous pincers menacingly. "Harry!" She managed to squeak out. "Let's apparate, now!" Harry tore his eyes off of the creature.

"I know this is the right place...Accio Resurrection Stone!" Hermione started to tell him that the Accio spell wouldn't work on it, but a dark, cracked stone suddenly zoomed out from under some growth and into Harry's hand. He grasped it tightly, took Hermione's hand, and Apparated them both away from the forest just as the pincers closed on the space they had occupied a moment before.