Title: If You Two Don't Mind
Team: Caerphilly Catapults
Position: Chaser 1
Prompts: (Dark World Dimension) Write about a parallel world where the characters' worst fears come to life. (4) Determination, (7) "don't look at me, I didn't do it" (10) Spiders
Practice Round
Betas: Sky and Bea
A/N Set in 1st year before Hermione was friends with Ron and Harry. This story doesn't feature Harry who is at Quidditch practice when this is set (or if you prefer you can pretend he was sorted into Slytherin
Hermione put down her quill and stretched, the ink still glistening on her newly finished Herbology essay. Next to her, Neville sighed.
"It's a full moon tonight," he said.
"I know," Hermione replied, "wouldn't it be amazing to watch the Full-Moon flowers bloom?"
"Oh yes," Neville replied, his eyes lighting up, "but aren't they supposed to be deep in the Forbidden Forest?"
"It would be for academic purposes though," she said slowly, "if we went to see them bloom. What harm could it do?"
"The forest at night sounds scary." Neville's lip was trembling. "It looks scary during the day."
"It won't scare us though. We're Gryffindors; known for their brave and heroic deeds. And venturing into the Forbidden Forest for academic research would be brave." There was a determined steely glint in Hermione's eyes.
"Yeah," Neville said, finding a small seed of courage hidden deep within himself. "Yeah, let's do it."
"Excuse me," Ron said, walking up to their table. "Am I to understand this correctly? You actually want to break the rules? You?" He googled at Hermione. "You, who is always bossing everyone else around and telling them they mustn't do this or they mustn't do that because it is against the rules? Might lose house points?"
"I don't boss everybody about," Hermione bristled.
"Yeah, you do."
"Besides, this is for academic gain so I really don't see what concern it is of yours."
"What happens if you're caught? You'll 'lose all the House points you got from McGonagall for knowing about switching spells.'"
Hermione glared at Ron.
"Go away. It's none of your business."
"Nah, this I have to see for myself. Little Miss Perfect and nervous Neville going to the forest at night. I'm coming with you. It's a bad idea and I want to be there to tell you 'I told you so' when it goes wrong."
"If you think it's such a bad idea, why on earth would you come?"
"To gloat when it goes wrong."
"Very helpful," Hermione snapped. "I'm going to get my cloak."
Twenty minutes later, Hermione and Neville, with Ron in tow, stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The sun had just set, and the clouds on the horizon still had a faint red tint to them, but in the shadow of the forest, everything was dark. The tall trees stood close together and the darkness between the trees looked impenetrable. Neville gulped.
"Are we really going to go in there?" He asked. There was a noticeable tremble in his voice.
"Yes," Hermione replied, lighting her wand and striding forward.
Neville lit his own wand, hesitated a moment before catching Ron's smirk and hurried after Hermione. Ron was stunned. He hadn't actually believed Hermione would go through with it nor that Neville would follow with barely any hesitation. He lit his own wand and hastened to catch up with them.
Hermione marched ahead as they made their way deeper and deeper into the forest, following what looked like a path through the trees. She tried not to think about what had made the path. She wasn't sure how serious she had actually been about coming into the forest to see the Full-Moon flowers blossom until Ron had stuck his nose in. That boy was infuriating. Somehow, he managed to get under her skin and now here she was striding through the Forbidden Forest, at night no less, determined to prove him wrong. What was she thinking? It wasn't too late to turn around and go back to the common room. The thought of listening to Ron's gloating as he told her he knew she and Neville didn't have it in them for an adventure stuck in her craw and lit a fire in Hermione to press on. She halted only as they came to a point where the path branched, as she debated which way to go. The left-hand path looked as though it went back towards the edge of the forest near the lake. Whereas, the trees on the right-hand path looked closer together and looked as though it led deeper into the forest.
Since the Full-Moon flower thrived in dim light, Hermione supposed they would be more likely to find them deeper in the forest.
"Having a change of heart?" Ron gloated as the minutes since Hermione had come to halt stretched on.
"No! Just debating the best path to take in order to find the flowers." Hermione glared at Ron. "They thrive in dim lighting conditions, you know. This path looks as though it leads deeper into the forest. I think we should take this one."
Without waiting for an answer, Hermione turned and led them off down the right-hand path. Land-sakes, but that boy was irritating. Hermione stomped on, thoroughly annoyed. She could have decided that she didn't know where to find the flowers; could've said she didn't want them to get lost and be unable to find their way back. But no! Ron had to goad her again and now she had made another hasty decision. What was wrong with her? Normally, she was very rational but that seemed to disappear whenever Ron opened his mouth. She strode on for another ten minutes until they came to a fork in the road. Hermione stopped so suddenly that Neville walked into her.
"Ompff…sorry Hermione," Neville said as he regained his balance.
"Sorry Neville," Hermione replied. "I should've warned you."
"I'm not sure which way is best…" Hermione hesitated. Now. They could turn back now. She didn't know what to do. She could just say 'let's go back to the common room'. They might still have time to make it back to the common room before curfew. "I…don't think…"
"Losing your nerve?" Ron smirked as he noticed Hermione's hesitation.
"No," Hermione found herself saying. "I just don't know what way leads deeper into the forest. Both look as though they do. Help me decide instead of just standing there with that stupid smirk on your face."
"Oh, all right," Ron said, coming to stand beside Hermione and looking down both paths. "The one on the right looks as though it curves off down a slope further on, see? We've just been climbing up a slight slope so maybe the left one?"
"Seems reasonable," Hermione said. "Let's go then."
And she was off again, striding down the left-hand path with the same determination as before, Neville and Ron hurrying along behind her, trying to keep up. Hermione was cursing herself again for letting Ron get to her like this. They marched on for another fifteen minutes as the path became more and more overgrown and difficult to navigate in the faint light of their wands and Hermione slowed her pace. Should they just turn back? The path was getting harder to follow. It was like the forest was giving her an excuse to turn back. The path curved around behind a large boulder and opened onto a moonlit clearing in a slight hollow of land. Strewn across the hollow clearing were hundreds and hundreds of Full-Moon flowers!
"Wow!" Neville breathed beside Hermione. The flowers were not yet open and their stems glowed a light lunar grey in the moonlight. Hermione looked up and could see the light of the full moon beginning to peak above the treetops. They had found them just in time. The flowers would start to open when the light of the full moon touched their petals. They stood in silence on the edge of the clearing as the full moon rose higher and higher into the air. The first rays of moonlight fell upon the flowers at the edge of the clearing and slowly the flowers began to open their petals revealing the iridescent white innards of the petals. As the moon rose higher more and more of the flowers opened, until the whole clearing was full of the brilliant gleam of Full-Moon Flowers. The surrounding forest seemed darker by comparison as the light of the moon and the flower's petals reflecting the moonlight was bright enough that they could make out the house colours on their robes.
"Wow!" Ron said as he looked out at the clearing. Hermione shot Ron a smug look.
"This is worth it," she said, kneeling down beside Neville to look at the flowers more closely. She noticed that the centre of the flower was the same lunar grey as the outside. She breathed deeply and inhaled the flowers' lemony perfume.
"It certainly is a sight to see," Ron remarked.
Hermione and Neville were still kneeling on the ground peering at the flowers, oblivious to their surroundings, when Ron thought he heard a rustling amongst the trees. He whipped around and peered into the darkness of the trees. He raised his wand but it was so dark that the light barely penetrated the darkness. He strained his ears. Was it just the wind blowing the leaves of trees? Or was that the sound of footsteps moving across the forest floor? He stared into the darkness of the trees and could swear that some of the darkness seemed blacker and it was moving? He blinked and the darkness beneath the trees seemed to be all the same once more. Must be his mind playing tricks on him.
"Guys," he said to Hermione and Neville, "I think we should head back now."
But Hermione and Neville didn't appear to have heard him. They were discussing the magical properties of the flower petals when a loud CRACK rent the air. They both jumped up and looked at Ron.
"Don't look at me, I didn't do it."
Hermione and Neville both crept forward beside Ron and held their wands aloft with trembling hands. This time, Ron was certain that something beneath the trees was moving. Large patches seemed darker than others and they seemed to be growing larger.
"Guys, I think we should head back," Ron whispered and to his relief, Hermione and Neville nodded.
Slowly, they started to make their way back down the path but the rustling in the trees behind them seemed to grow louder. Something was following them.
"Run!" Ron bellowed and the three of them broke into a sprint down the path.
They hadn't got far when something immensely hairy came out of the forest onto the path in front of them. Hermione, Neville and Ron each collided with one of its eight huge hairy legs and landed on the ground with an "ompf". They looked up and saw a spider the size of a carthorse standing on its eight, huge, hairy legs blocking the path. Eight eyes and a pair of shiny black pincers glittered in the light of their wands.
"Argh!" Ron screamed, trying to scramble to his feet but before he had found his footing, two of those huge hairy legs hoisted him up into the air. More gigantic, hairy, black spiders had emerged from the trees and grabbed Hermione and Neville. Their pincers were clicking loudly and with horror Hermione realised they were talking to each other.
"Take them to Aragog," the gigantic spider holding Hermione was saying. Hermione tried to scream but couldn't. She could hear Neville sobbing and Ron sounded terrified.
The spiders started to move back into the forest when a blinding flash streaked through the trees and the spider holding Ron dropped him to the ground where he landed with a sickening crunch. Another flash of light and another and the spiders holding Hermione and Neville dropped them into a pile of leaves. More blinding flashes and Hermione could hear the rustling of the spiders fleeing back into the darkness of the forest. She scrambled to her feet and helped Neville to his as the black-robed figure of Professor Snape came into view.
"What are you doing out of bounds late at night?" He asked before spotting Ron still lying on the floor of the forest. He rushed forward to examine Ron. He seemed to be alright but unconscious. Professor Snape muttered some incantations under his breath and soon Ron was floating on a stretcher. "Well?" Professor Snape asked dangerously, turning back around to look at Neville and Hermione. Neville squeaked in fear.
"We came to watch the Full-Moon Flowers bloom," Hermione said quietly, looking at her shoes.
"And this was your idea, Miss Granger?"
"Yes, sir."
"I see. You will follow me now. We need to get Mr Weasley to the hospital wing to be checked over. You'd better hope there is nothing seriously wrong with him."
"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall said, with cold fury in her voice when Hermione and Neville found themselves in her office after Ron had been taken to the hospital wing. "Students are forbidden to go into the forest for good reason. Not to mention being out past curfew and encouraging other students to go with you. These rules are in place for the safety of our students. They are not guidelines to be tossed aside when it suits you. I expected better of you, Miss Granger. I dread to think what would have happened if Professor Snape had not found you on his way to collect the Full-Moon flower petals for his potion. You could have been killed, and worse, you would have gotten two other students killed as well. As it is, you are lucky that Mr Weasley has escaped with only a concussion and a broken leg. I am taking fifty points from Gryffindor, each, for Mr Weasley and Mr Longbottom." At this Neville made an odd squeaking noise, like a mouse being trodden on, but Professor McGonagall continued as though she hadn't heard him.
"As for you, Miss Granger. You leave me with no choice. Your blatant disregard for school rules; putting yourself and others in immense danger. Danger that would have led to their death if it weren't for Professor Snape. I have no choice but to expel you from Hogwarts."
"Expelled?" Hermione gasped. The room around her seemed to lurch horribly as it felt as if the world had dropped out beneath her feet. She was falling and falling and falling. She couldn't breathe. Professor McGonagall's words, 'expel you from Hogwarts', echoing in her head. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked furiously trying to keep them from falling. No, it couldn't be? She couldn't be made to leave the first place where she felt like she fit in, could she? Growing up, not knowing that what she could do was magic, she had never fit in with the other kids at school. She'd been laughed at, called a freak. None of the kids ever wanted to play with her. She was never invited to birthday parties. At Hogwarts, she finally felt like she fitted. Suddenly, everything had made sense when she had discovered the magical world and now it was about to be torn away from her. She would lose it all.
She dropped to the floor sobbing as the reality of returning to the Muggle World dawned on her. Knowing that the Wizarding World existed but would now be forever beyond her reach. Her wand snapped in half and not allowed to use the magical talent contained within her. It was too unspeakable for words. Losing the magical world because of her own foolish pride and determination to prove Ron wrong was worst of all. She gasped, great shuddering breaths as she sobbed.