I must become a lion hearted girl, ready for fight before I make the final sacrifice. Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl, frozen in the headlights. It seems I've made the final sacrifice.
Nothing could be better than the treat she had received from those dear snatchers her master had employed to find and bring forth all those who would choose to hide from his rule. In truth most were taking to the Ministry of Magic to face persecution, however, the little piece of dirt before her was far more precious to simply be taken to the toad in pink to face an inquiry. No. The Golden Girl of the trio, Harry Potter’s most important asset - the brain of all his plans. Darkened eyes glimmered with amusement, seeing the fear slowly ebb into her eyes. Delicious. Completely and utterly delicious. Oh how the Dark Lord would praise her if she got the information she needed, the whereabouts of the itty bitty Potter baby.
“ Something wrong muddy? You seem a bit, pale.”
{ Her eyes and tone were teasing reveling in the fear evident before her. Pleasure shot up her spine while her fingers produced her wand removing it from its holster, tapping it against her pale lips.}
She had not calculated the possibilty of the three being separated like this. She’d been caught, but then did that mean Harry and Ron had as well? She hoped that was not the case– she hoped that they had managed to escape. Because if anyone needed to survive this war, it was Harry Potter. She was positive about that fact.
Breathing in a shallow breath, her eyes did not leave the woman despite how badly she wished to look away. Her wand had been taken away, or lost, but whichever it was, she did not have it. Right then, she was merely helpless, though she wished to not think about it. The bigger picture did not look very bright for the young witch.
She knew better than to speak carelessly – especially with her. She would hold her tongue unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Brilliant,” came a voice from off to the side of the Gryffindor common room. “Absolutely brilliant — care for another?”
The Weasley twins were keeping busy, their attention buried in a line of first and second year volunteers being paid for their work. A few orange boxes littered the vicinity, pulled open so that their contents were available to the testers as they went. The boys were carefully observing the results alongside Lee, their best friend, as they went about studying each and every tester and the sweet they were trying to guarantee consistent reactions.
“I don’t reckon we’ve had a better run all term,” said one of the twins. “Good thing, too, ‘cause we’ve already got about ten pre-orders stackin’ up —” Fred said, examining with a proud grin one of the first years sporting an immobile jaw, clenched and humming frantically as though to express he was unable to open his mouth.
“Reckon we might want to hold off on the sale of those Lock-Jaw Taffies, though… ‘less you fancy givin’ the purple end to him the old fashioned way —” said George, looking over at the tester with a faint hint of disgust.
While Hermione appreciated the fact that the boys seemed to have some sort of plan for after school, she did not particularly enjoy the commotion going on during her reading hours. She set aside a couple of hours a day, depending on if she had time, to read a book. Favorably, she would read at least five books a week, depending on if she had lots of homework or not– but with all the ruckus, she hadn’t been able to get past the first line.
With a huff, she stood up and made her way to the twins, arms crossed in an annoyed demeanor. “I don’t suppose you two could take your business else where, could you? I’m trying to read.”
It was her look that had a smile gracing his lips.
“Funny, I thought you might have forgotten.”
“But alright, Hermione. I’m game. Happy camping. What sort of plan have you got in your head, then?”
She had missed that smile of his. Oh, so much more than she had realized. She reached over to give him a playful shove with her hand, shaking her hand at his comment. “I didn’t forget. Merely misplaced the piece of information, that’s all.”
Hermione then tilted her head, her body turning away from him as she found a seat on the couch. “Hmm, there is one place that I fancy going. It was one of my favorite spots as a kid. Quite secluded, but there was a nice, small lake that would be nice for swimming in. There’s a couple of beautifully large trees that make for nice shade, too.”
Was it wrong that nearly the entirety of their last year was spent camping?
“Hermione…? Yes, of course, I’ve gone camping. Minus the…. ahhh … insane amount of daily fear we were going to be found and killed… Ron leaving after the worst row, best months of my life, actually.”
She had to resist the need to roll her eyes at her friend’s obviousness. ”Obviously, Harry– but I mean actual camping. I use to do it all the time when I was younger with mum and dad, so I thought it might be fun with it being just you and me. It’ll be under much more happier circumstances this time.
–and we won’t have to worry about someone trying to kill us.“
He tried to hide the triumphant smirk that spread across his face, hiding his mouth against his sleeve as she moved to sit next to him. Maybe he should have been a Slytherin, because it was extremely easy sometimes to convince Hermione to help him.
“Oh, c’mon Hermione, we weren’t supposed to win last year either but then we did coz of me and you and Harry. And Neville, even! ‘m sure me failing one lousy quiz isn’t gonna put us out of the running.”
She looked at him – clearly he didn’t pay attention in lessons. “Professor Snape is not someone to be messed with. Did you see what he did to that poor girl last week in Hufflepuff? Honestly, I was convinced she was going to flood the whole room with how much she ended up crying– and that was for simply talking out during class. Now imagine if you failed his quiz. He doesn’t even give Slytherins the benefit of the doubt - which frankly, I don’t blame him as they can mostly be quite ghastly to deal with, but still.”
She paused, allowing herself to take a few deep breaths. She had rambled on quite a bit there and completely forgot to breathe.
“Point is, you shouldn’t expect something extradanariy to happen again to earn those points. If Snape takes away fifty from you because you’re sleeping during class, then I am certain we’ll be doomed.”
It occurred to him that this meant something to her, this need to go celebrate something good. While he might not give a bloody damn about it, he saw how much she worried.
“Where do you want to go?”
She instantly smiled when the male had finally agreed. While he may not see the point, she did and she was so sure that he would end up having a good time with her. If anything, he would get out of this blasted house – that was something.
“Somewhere that only has good feelings.”
She thought about it for a moment; quite a few of their favorite spots had been tainted. The castle was not yet entirely rebuilt, Hogsmeade wasn’t at all the same either. The burrow had mostly good memories but there was some negative mixed in there, too. They couldn’t go to either of their homes because in truth, what was supposed to be their homes did not feel as such. Both were empty and rather depressing.
“What about.. we go somewhere in Britain. Somewhere away from all things magical.”
His mind stuttered at her last few words. With face averted, Harry shut his eyes for a moment, reminding himself that she was not someone he should be turning to. Ron needed her more. Especially now. He had no right to infringe on her time.
“I do trust you, Hermione.”
And I need you, too. Harry left the last left unspoken.
She watched the chosen boy in front of her - yes, she had lost a lot, but it was different for him. Because he had not started out with much in the first place and then after finally gaining something to call his own– it was essentially ripped right out of his hands. Whilst he had her, it was more than likely not enough to fix the broken soul within in. But she had to try. She must.
“Good. I would assume after all this time, it should be that way. If it wasn’t, I would be quite hurt. If it’s not obvious, I trust you.”
