Inside

Chapter Sixteen: Breathless

Hermione's POV

"Ah, Hermione!" Boomed Hagrid's happy voice as I made my way down to his yard, and found him knee-deep in murky mud in the place that he always grew his pumpkins for Halloween. "See you're alrigh' now, jus' in time to help me figure this out…"

"Figure what out, exactly?" I asked, looking around at the liquefied, smelly earth. "You mean you didn't do this on purpose?" I wondered, climbing onto a boulder half the size of his hut and pulled my knees up to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs and hugged them to my chest.

"Oh, no, I jus' though' I'd do some nice yard alterations. No! What kind of a person you think I am?" he shook his head. "Of course I didn' do this myself… trying to figure out who did and how…"

"And why it's so bloody deep!" came Ron's panicked voice as his head seemed to bob up beside Hagrid out of nowhere. His muddy hands flew out from the depth as he grabbed onto Hagrid's vest.

"Placement, Ron!" Hagrid told him. "I keep tryin' to tell him," he said, looking over at me with a helpless look on his face as he extended his hand to Ron. "He won't listen – look at him, barely a head showing and here I am jus' to my knees. I may be half giant, but I'm not that much taller than you lot," he sighed. "Well?" he asked, an expectant look on his face as Ron tried to balance himself on what looked to be firmer ground. His eyes were wide and his hands held out in from of him, there was not one spot on him – save his face, and even that had specks – that was not covered with mud.

"Well?" I asked back in response.

"You jus' gonna sit there all day lookin' pretty or you gonna help us out?"

I took a moment, contemplating. "Do I get an option C?"

"Get in!" he commanded, and I stood, shaking my head from side to side. Ron let out a feminine scream, and just as quickly was nowhere in sight. "Don't worry abou' that, not the firs' time it's happened. He'll surface back up, jus' give him a minute."

"You know, I think I have some leftover homework back at the castle… Maybe I should just go and-"

"Get you're butt in here, already!" Hagrid said, putting his balled fists on his hips and beginning to sound annoyed as the loud gasp indicating Ron had resurfaced filled my ears.

"This is terrible!" Ron cried, wiping the mud from his face. "We'll never find it, I'm going to die in here!" I watched as he doggy-paddled around Hagrid, and attempted once again to find a sold surface to stand on.

"Oh, you're jus' a great big baby, aren' you?" Hagrid asked him. "You seein' this?" He asked, pointing to Ron with his thumb.

"All too well," I nodded, folding my arms over my chest. "I think I ought to just watch from here, where it's safe…"

"It's plenty safe!" Hagrid sang. "Ron's jus' over reactin', wouldn' be the firs' time."

"Got it!" Ron shouted, balancing his hands again in front of him as he stood mid-stomach deep I the mud.

"Wha'? You found it! Great!" Hagrid smiled triumphantly.

"No! You crazy? We'll never find it! No, I found a good place to stand, this one feels more solid than before…"

"Honestly," Hagrid rolled his eyes. "Hermione, pet, get in here already, the longer we stand around arguing about getting your little rump in here the longer it's gonna take, and the bigger this mess is gonna get!"

"You mean it hasn't always been this size?" I asked.

"No, jus' started out no bigger than a babies little hand! I ignored it, then, before I knew it it was consumin' my whole yard, and I'm startin' to get nervous it'll sink the hut next." He told me. "So, would you please just stop being so stubborn and get in already?"

"Hagrid, I-" I was unable to finish my sentence as a scream filled my lungs and consumed my ears; a slimy hand gripping around my wrist and pulling me forward into the mud. I felt as Ron's other hand grabbed onto my waist and I fell forward onto him, the both of us splashing into the mud and Hagrid's voice saying, just before we were submerged entirely, "Take in a breath!"

"RONALD WEASLEY!" I screamed as I resurfaced, wiping at my burning eyes and inhaling a deep breath of fresh air. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST DID THAT!" I was covered, completely, in the mud. It wasn't until then, that I was totally covered in the stuff, that I realized the true nature of its smell: it took all I had to not loose my breakfast.

"Nicely done, Ron!" Hagrid smiled down at us. I cupped my hand and filled it with mud and tossed it aggressively at Ron's face.

"What?" he asked, wiping the mud I threw at him from his face. "Like you were going to do it yourself."

"No!" I told him. "No, I wasn't!"

"Well, then, good on me."

I kicked my feet furiously, trying to find a solid surface for them to rest on. "Now that I am in here," I said, glaring at Ron as I struggled to find a place to steady myself on. "What is it were looking for, exactly?"

"It's called a Vengeance Stone," Hagrid sighed. "Or, Justice Rock, as the users of it like to refer to it as."

"Vengeance Stone? I've heard of those before, though I don't know much about them."

"You?" Ron asked, baffled. "You, something you don't know much about?"

Ignoring him, I went on. "What is it, exactly?"

"Well, abou' what it sounds, basically," he shrugged. "Someone has a grudge agains' a person, they go out and get a Vengeance Stone. They have to charge it, of course, but once its planted it is darn near impossible to find…"

"Fine," I sighed, defeated. I was already submerged in the stuff, I might as well do what I could to help. "What does it look like?"

"Aha, that there is the key," he said, kicking his feet around slowly as he walked around in it. "It looks like a rock, or, stone, whichever term you prefer."

"A rock," I said. "We're looking for a rock?" I asked. "We're looking for a rock in a place filled with nothing but mud and rocks?"

"Hence the difficult part," he nodded. "Now you know why we needed an extra pair of hands."

"A rock!?" I asked again. "That's it? Just a rock, no specific shape? No difference in texture, color, size?" I wondered, trying to get as much information I could before going in blind. "There must be more than that… surly it can't just be a rock. I mean that just doesn't make sense."

"Well, there migh' be somethin', but I could be wrong…"

"Which is?" I asked, beginning to paddle around. "Even if its wrong, it's better than looking for a rock in a sea of mud and rocks…"

"There was somethin' I read, somethin' about sayin' it could be hot or cold. And not jus' that, but hot 'nough to melt through your hand, or cold 'nough to turn your bones to ice."

"Wonderful," I breathed. "I think I preferred the regular rock theory better…" I mumbled to myself.

"Honestly Hagrid, what'd you do?" Ron gasped, clearly only resurfacing again.

"Nothin'!" Hagrid complained. "I didn't do nothin'! People jus' don't like me, s'all."

"Well, obviously Hagrid, you did do something… You must have," I said, feeling the stones with my bare feet, having decided to take my shoes off. Where they were was a different story…

"I swear! I didn' do anythin'!"

"Hagrid, people don't just melt your yard over nothing. There must be something you're not telling us."

"'Right then, I suppose, maybe, I might have upset Slytherin a few weeks ago…" he said ashamedly.

"There's something new," Ron said under his breath. Hagrid raised his head and glared over at him.

"Because they've always been so pleasant, then?" he growled.

"What!?" Ron shouted.

"You're not helping…"

"You're the one who said I overreact!" He pointed out. "You don't see me destroying people's yards with a Justice Rock, do you?"

"Aha!" Hagrid declared, pointing at him. "Justice Rock!"

"Vengeance Stone, same difference!" Ron complained. "My point is, Hagrid, what the heck did you do!?"

"What I did doesn' matter now, does it?" Hagrid wondered.

"Never said it did!" Ron told him, splashing around. "What part of Harry, Hermione or myself have never come across anything other than noisy to you?"

"Gotta point there," Hagrid agreed, but remained silent still.

"Well?" Ron persisted. "What was it?"

"Wha' was wha'?" Hagrid asked, all innocent like.

"What you did to upset Slytherin!" Ron complained.

Hagrid, shaking his head and looking down hopelessly, looked over at me. "Awfully quie' over there, Hermione."

"Just doing what it is I was forced in here to do, which is looking for the rock, which is exactly what you two aren't doing," I told them. "Honestly, in all the time you two spend bickering we could have found it by now.

"Now, Ron, will you please just drop it and try to find the blasted thing? I want to get out of here…"

"Just as much as me," Ron told me from across the murk. "I'd be able to focus better if he'd just fess up already…" I could tell he meant for his last part to only be for his ears, but Hagrid and I heard it just as well as everything else he was saying.

"Alrigh' already!" Hagrid gave in, tossing his hands into the air. "I made 'em stay an extra twenty minutes in class… I told 'em if they lef' early or before my express permission tha' I'd take fifteen points from Slytherin, each student that disobeyed… Nobody did…"

"HAGRID!" Ron and I shouted in unison.

"Wha'?" he asked innocently as he kicked his feet around, putting more distance between the three of us. "They were goofin' aroun', they weren' doing their work!"

"Hagrid, they never do their work in your class!" I pointed out. "Why couldn't you have just let it go? Everyone knows how stubborn the lot is; trying to reason with a Slytherin is like trying to get beef steak from a chicken."

"She's a point," Ron agreed. "Hagrid, what were you thinking?"

"I'm jus' tired of them walkin' all over me!" Hagrid complained, moving his legs in stronger, faster strokes. "I jus' wanted to give 'em the discipline they had comin' to 'em, is all… Never though' they'd retaliate on me like this…" the sadness in his voice was heartbreaking; Hagrid loved his yard, he loved the outdoors. Doing this to him, taking away the one thing that was totally and completely his, his life and his love, was a new level of low. I made it a point to dig deeper and harder with my feet.

"We'll find it, Hagrid," I promised him. "We won't leave until we do, and if anybody tries, I'll hex them," I said, pointedly looking over at Ron. He said something under his breath, which this time I did not hear, and was glad of, seeing the look on his face was enough.

Hagrid nodded his head with a small smile. "Knew I could count on ya, Hermione."

"Let's just keep looking, alright?" I nodded. "We're not going to find anything getting all sentimental." I hissed as a piece of mud flew into my eye, and rubbed it away.

Hagrid nodded again. "Right."

Draco's POV

I watched as Hermione and Ron splashed around in the mud; most likely searching for the Justice Rock Pansy had planted there a few weeks ago after Hagrid gave us the ridiculous order to stay twenty minutes after class. I told her she was going too far by melting his entire yard, and she had spat back at me: "It'll only last until his hut sinks, then it'll stop. Besides," she added, "it isn't as if you actually care for him."

No, she was right, I didn't care for him, and the fact that he and Weasley had my Hermione searching around in the mud with them just added on to my non-feelings all the more: they were going on eight hours, did they really think they'd find it? And if so, wouldn't they have thought they'd find it by now? Honestly, what was keeping them in there so long?

I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my hand on my knees, balling my fist and biting my knuckle softly. The way Weasley was being with my Hermione… I didn't like it. He was too close to her, too friendly. I knew they were friends, but watching as they tossed mud at each other and laughed and pulled and pushed at each other… It kindled the small fire of jealously I had inside of me, making it feed and grow and become hotter and stronger. She was mine, not his. She was mine, only mine, and he was playing with fire…

"It's there!" I heard her cry. "Hagrid! Hagrid, I think I've found it!"

"Wha'?" he asked. "Blimey Hermione, it's taken all day… this better be it this time…"

"It is!" she proclaimed triumphantly. "It is! Come over to me, feel it, it's warmer, feel it?" she asked. "It must be a hot stone… but how are we going to get it? It'll melt off our hands if we try to touch it, and I don't know about you, but I am awfully fond of my hands…"

"Aye tha'," he agreed as they came into clear view, and I made my way down to the mess Pansy had created. Weasley was nowhere to be seen.

"How are we going to- Draco!" Hermione sang happily, looking over at me. "Oh, I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life! Stay here!" she told Hagrid, and began paddling her way towards me. I couldn't help but smile. The sun was almost all the way down, and it was getting very dark outside. I held my hand out to pull her from the mud.

"Wha' is he doin' here!?" Hagrid bellowed, beginning to move from his place.

"Don't you dare move Hagrid!" Hermione shot back at him. The feeling of her hand in mine warmed my entire body, and I lifted her easily out of the muck. I pulled her to me and ran my hands over her arms, hair and back, trying to wipe off what mud I could.

"Enlighten us, then?" Hagrid persisted. She looked up at me, joy clear in her eyes. "Wha' is he doing here, and why are ya lettin' him touch ya?"

"It's- It's fine, Hagrid," she told him, spinning around to face him. "I will be right back!" and off she was, racing into the woods with determination clear in her bounds. I watched the empty place where she had been only moment ago, and closed my hand, keeping in the warmth from her own as long as I could, until I could be holding her again.

"Got it!" came her voice as she reappeared, a long, thick stick in her hand. "Just give me a moment…" she plopped down on the ground, laying the stick horizontally in front of her. She placed her hands on the wood and mumbled a few unintelligible whispers, and I watched as the wood shifted shape, flattening out and expanding at one end like the hollow of a bowl, at the other a fist size knob appeared. She stood, a triumphant smile on her lips, and bent down to pick up the stick she had created.

"How'd you do that?" I asked, walking over to her and looking at her handiwork. "You didn't even have your wand…"

"No, well, as it turns out," she said, lowering her voice and leaning into me. "Finding out you weren't muggle born has more than a few perks." With a smile and a wink, she jogged over to Hagrid, this time staying on the surface of solid ground, and dipped the bowl end of the stick into the mud. "Okay, I think I've got it; the stick is really heating up fast, I think the mud is masking the true heat. Get out."

"Wha'?" Hagrid asked.

"I am going to try to lift it out with the stick, and if I remember anything about these things they are very specific: Once they have been charged they only work in the place of origin, meaning, once I pull it out of the mud all the ground will solidify and go back to normal."

Brilliant, I said to myself, crossing my arms over my chest. Beautiful, brilliant… mine…

She waited as Hagrid climbed out of the mud, wiping his hands over her legs. "This better be it," he added, standing beside her.

"It is," she told him with confidence. "I know it is. Are you ready?"

"Jus' do it already," he nodded. "Oh, WAIT!" He boomed, but was too late. Already Hermione had plucked the Justice Rock from the mud and held the stick above the mud, now completely solid dirt. Just in time to hear the loud, panicked, gasp of Weasley as his head appeared at the far end of the yard, emerging from the last few seconds of mud.

"Drop it again!" Hagrid said. "Drop it again! Do it, Hermione!" she did, but, as I knew would happen, nothing did. The ground remained firm and solid.

"RON!" Hermione screamed, dropping the stick and running towards him. "RON! Oh, Ron!" she had dropped back to her knees beside him. "Are you… are you alright? Ron… I am so sorry! I completely forgot you were in there still…"

"Oh really?" he moaned, "I hadn't noticed… Ow… ow…"

"Oh, Ron, I'm so- Hagrid!" she cried. "Hagrid, grab a shovel, you're going to have to dig him out!" Hagrid nodded and went running off towards his hut.

"What!?" Weasley bellowed. "What!? Dig, dig? Dig? Can't you just magic it to mud again and pull me out?"

"Ron, I'm afraid it's not that simple…"

"Not that simple? Oh, bloody hell… I hate it when you say that…"

"Well, look at it this way: this way I don't have to get back at you anymore, cause I already have… just now… by nearly burying you alive…"

"Get back at me!?" Weasley complained, moaning in pain. "For what!?"

"Pulling me in the mud in the first place?" he rolled his eyes and leaned his head back. "HAGRID!" he bellowed. "THAT SHOVEL ANYTIME NOW!"

"Got it!" he panted as he emerged from his illuminated hut and jogged towards them.

"STOP!" Hermione demanded, and Weasley screamed.

"Wha'?" Hagrid asked as he held fast in his place.

"You've almost stepped on him!" she told him. "The light from your hut, it messed with your vision."

"Oh, sorry there, Ron…" he muttered.

"Just get me out," he complained. "Now, just get me out…"

"Righ'," Hagrid nodded, and Hermione stood and looked down at Weasley, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Ron, I am really, really sor-"

"Just go," he told her. "You found the damn rock, now Hagrid can dig me out…" and you can lie there being useless, as always… Hermione stood hesitantly, and Weasley forced his head back to look up at her. "Honestly Hermione, if I come out of here I might kill you… so just go…"

"Ron, I'm-"

"Think ya migh' wanna listen to him, Hermione," Hagrid nodded vigorously. "If one of my bes' friends forgo' about me, and nearly buried me alive…" he let it hang at that, and Hermione began sauntering backwards away.

She turned around and met my gaze. I took her hand into mine as she reached me. "Let's go get you cleaned up," I sighed as I pulled her against my side, and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

"I can't believe I just did that…" she moaned, burying her face into the crook of my arm. "I could have buried him alive, I could have killed him."

"Yes," I agreed, pulling her closer still as we walked up the darkened path to the castle. "That is the general meaning of burying someone alive; killing them." She let out a little moan and a whimper, followed by a laugh.

"What is it?" I asked, looking down at her and nearly tripping over an uprooted plant.

"Nothing, I'm just…" she sighed, burying her face deeper into my side. "Tired. You have no idea how long I was in there… and I smell like I died…"

"I've smelled worse," I told her truthfully.

"Really?" she asked hopefully. "What were you doing?" The memory came flashing back to me. The damp, dark, closed off sewer, the rot and decay of the dead animals…

"Trust me, you don't want to know."

"Fair enough," she shrugged. "Besides, knowing your past, or what I think I know of it, anyways, it is probably in my best interest if I don't." I hugged her closer to my side and touched my head down to hers.

"Smart woman," I whispered softly, lifting my head away from hers and focusing back on the pathway and approaching castle.

"Really though," she said. "I look like something that came out of the Deep Lagoon."

"What?" I asked, confused. "The deep what?"

"Deep Lagoon… it's a muggle thing," she laughed.

"But you're not," I reminded her.

"I know," she nodded. "But that doesn't mean I wasn't raised as one; I still remember everything."

"Yes I suppose that's true," I agreed, leaning my head down to her once more, but before my head was able to make contact with hers she pulled herself away from my arms and jogged up the stairs to the castle. I looked at her as she put her hands on her hips and stood patiently waiting for me at the foot of the Grand Doors. She let out a long, exaggerated sigh, and jutted her hip out to one side, only adding onto my desire and longing for her. She was so unbelievably sexy and breathtaking, I thought to myself, even covered from head to toe in thickly caked on mud…

"I am going to go take a shower," she told me as I made my way to her. "There's no way I am going into the Great Hall for dinner looking – or smelling, for that matter – like this." Her face was all but dried clean of the mud, and her lips were so pink, so full, so tender looking… just begging…

"Wait," I told her as she turned towards the Grand Doors and took her hand into mine. She looked up at me expectantly, patiently waiting for me to go on. I took a moment to just drink her in. "When I first got down to the mud-pit," I decided to call it, "you said my name, and that you hadn't been so happy to see anyone in your whole life…?"

She smiled and looked down, gently pulling her hand from mine. "Oh, yes, well… you really have no idea how long I was down there. There were more than a few times my mind was able to thoroughly convince me the world had ended, and the last remaining survivors were myself, Ron and Hagrid. I thought we were looking for the cure to save the world, and then I saw you, and remembered we were just at Hagrid's, looking for the Vengeance Stone. Seeing you made me remember there was still life outside the mud."

"I'm your savoir then?" I wondered, subtly taking a step towards her.

Her smile widened. "Well, I wouldn't go that far," she chuckled, a curious look on her face. "But yeah, you did get there at the right moment, little brother."

"Hey!" I said teasingly, putting my hands around her waist and pinching softly. She began to wriggle and squirm as a series of girlish giggles filled my ears. "I may be younger," I told her, backing her up to the side of the castle and pinning her there, still tickling her gently, "but I am taller than you are, and not even a year younger than you. Barely, at that." I added, leaning my head in towards hers.

"Draco," she gasped, pressing her hands against my chest and gathering small fistfuls of my shirt. "Please… stop… please… I can't… breathe…!" I slowly pulled my hands away from her sides, and watched as she steadied herself against the wall, her hands still against my chest, and tried to regulate her breathing. "Thank you," she gasped.

"You're so beautiful," I told her, running my hand over her hair and down the side of her face.

"What?" her voice was almost all the way back to normal as she looked up at me, "Draco…" she was unable to get another word in as I quickly placed my hands on opposite sides of her face and leaned my lips towards hers, kissing her deeply.

TBC