Title: War Within a Breath
Author: Muddgutts
Rating: R
Ships: H/Hr
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Chapter 7
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With one hard kick of his legs through the cool water Harry reached the edge of the pond. As he waded towards the small beach near the big tree he caught sight of her. He slowed his pace and drank in the glow of her body. The midday sun bleached the color from everything in the woods behind the pond except under the big tree and Hermione had claimed that space. She lay on her stomach with her feet pointed into the air reading a book. Her body was still a little wet, which cause her oversized t-shirt to stick to her back. Harry could clearly see the shape of her body through her two-piece vermilion colored bathing suit. His groin swelled causing his eyes to flutter closed, and a small groan to pass his lips.
Quickly Harry padded over to Hermione's blanketed area and dropped to his knees on the soft grass. Hermione smiled as she looked over the rims of her sunglasses at him. Closing the cover of her book she pushed it off the blanket onto the grass. Harry gently reached out to her, dripped water onto her warm skin and placed his palm on her forearm. The water pooled and ran off in little rivers.
Their eyes locked as Hermione rolled onto her back and Harry lay down next to her on the blanket. The wetness of his body and the heat of hers caused their bodies to stick together. Hermione smiled coyly at him pressing her hips against his crotch and asked softly, "What's this all about now?" Her fingers slide over the wet skin on his chest down to his swimming trunks.
Harry's eyes closed slowly and his hips ground into hers as he spoke. "Well what do you expect? Look what you're wearing, or should I say not wearing." Lifting the wet t-shirt up just high enough Harry slipped his hand underneath and started caressing her abdomen. His fingers ran upward over her ribs causing Hermione to arch her back.
Her lips parted in shallow breaths as she lifted her face to his, "Do you like it?"
Harry tenderly squeezed her left breast and nodded, 'Yes.' The rhythm of her breathing and the pounding of her heart mesmerized him. There was something so gentle but strong about her. Maybe it was the fact that she was so reserved most of the time that the vision of her so relaxed with herself, with her body that excited him. No matter how much he touched her it was never enough. It didn't matter how long they kissed, or rolled around in the grass, he needed more. Her fingers and tongue were just as greedy as his. He was dying of thirst and she had become his wellspring.
A hot wind blew suddenly from the south rustling the leaves in the trees. Harry tilted his head to the side and through the leaves the wind sounded like a voice calling his name. Hermione placed her hand on his face and turned his head back to her. "What is it?"
Harry shook his head and strained his ears to hear, "I don't know? For a second I thought it was," he stopped as the wind blew again.
"Harry. . ."
"There, did you hear that?" he said as he sat up looking through the trees.
Hermione looked around too for a second then turned back to him, "I don't know what your talking about Harry, I don't hear anything."
"Help me, Harry. . ."
This time Harry didn't bother to ask if she could hear the voice. He could, and he was going to find it. Harry jumped to his feet and started walking into the woods. Hermione's voice echoed off the trees calling him back to her.
"Harry, don't go there. You don't know what's out there." Hermione was begging him now. "Please Harry, stay with me, where it's safe." Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Harry walked through the underbrush of the forest. The wood deepened and the sky shifted to night before his eyes.
"Harry, please I need your help. I'm so weak. . ."
"Where are you? Who are you?" he cried out as he ran. His feet followed the path as it curved and dipped deeper into the earth. The path started to thin as it reached a large cluster of trees. Harry's throat tightened and his skin crawled at the sight before him. There, strung between two trees, was the veil from the Department of Mysteries. There was no arch, but it was the same curtain he had seen before. It fluttered in the wind and the whispering voices were no longer whispers. Their voices screamed in pain, calling for someone, anyone, to set them free from their prison. The air became thin and hot and hard to breath. The closer he got to the veil, the more Harry's chest tightened like a vise around him, but the sound of Sirius's voice beckoning to him to come closer lured him in.
"Harry, please help me! I'm dying in here. You have to set me free."
His feet carried him forward towards the veil, but as he stood before it he stopped. Another voice cried out his name from behind. He turned and there was Hermione lying on the ground curled in a fetal position clutching her chest, just as she did last year in the Department of Mysteries.
"Hermione!" he shrieked and tried to run to her, but a hand grabbed his arm, holding him back. He tried to shuck it off, but the hand wouldn't give and as he turned to see who it belonged to he screamed. A lone withered arm was coming out from inside the veil through the thin slit between the curtains. It was gray and thin and reminded him of the arms of the Dementors he had seen before. The more he struggled the harder it pulled him closer into the veil.
"NO! Let me go! Sirius, don't!"
Harry woke in a fright thrashing his arms around struggling to escape. His books and inkwell were knocked to the floor. Black ink splashed all across the kitchen floor. The sound of the breaking jar brought him back to the moment, and he realized it was only a dream. He sighed deeply and rested his head in his hands. "I think I'm going mad. I have to control these dreams."
"Harry . . ."
His head shot up from the table and Harry quickly looked around the room. There was no one around, but he was sure he had just heard someone say his name. "Someone, that's a laugh," he thought as he rubbed his temples with his fingers. "That wasn't just anyone's voice it was Sirius's. Now I know I'm mad."
"Harry, come to the door please. I need your help."
This time Sirius's voice carried through the window of the kitchen. Harry jumped to his feet and dashed to the window. The overgrown ivy on the side of the house obscured the view, but he could just make out a shape near the fence. A cloaked figure struggled to keep his balance along the fence, clutching his side, and as he reached the corner the hood of the cloak fell back slightly and Harry could see his face. It was Sirius Black, his godfather.
~*~
"No Ron, I'm not telling you that. So just stop asking," Hermione said, growing weary of Ron's curiosity.
"What's the big deal?" Ron asked as he shoved his backpack with his foot. "It's not like I won't find out anyway."
Hermione was starting to become annoyed. One minute they were talking nicely and it seemed like things among the three of them would go back to being normal. Then out of the blue Ron was right back on the topic of the other morning again. Her eyes drilled into him, and she spoke in a flat tone. "I'm not going to tell you what we said to each other or who said what to whom first. I'm not going to have you start this whole thing over again because you have this misguided notion that Harry 'stole' me from you."
"Ah ha, so he did say something to you first! I knew it," he said.
"I didn't say that! God, sometimes you're such a prat, you know that?" Hermione huffed and got up off the bed. She grabbed her backpack from the floor and started walking to the door. "Listen Ron, you can go on thinking whatever the hell you want. I've tried to be nice and not hurt your feelings, but you just don't get it." She made a quick motion with her hand between the two of them and said, "You and I are not going to happen. Not now, not ever! We're friends and that's it, okay? I love Harry, and nothing you say, or do is going to change the way I feel."
Ron jumped to his feet ready to argue with her, but she held her hand out to stop him. "No! You're going to wait and hear me out. You and Harry are best friends. You're the closest thing he has to a brother, and right now he needs you. We're all he has, and let's face it, Ron, you and I aren't the best friends in the world." Ron looked a little hurt by this, so she corrected herself. "Yes we're friends, but it seems like we fight every ten minutes, and quite frankly that gets a little boring. Do you really think we could have a halfway meaningful relationship without killing or hating each other in the end?"
"Whoever said anything about that, for Merlin's sake? I just like you, I never said I wanted to marry you!" Ron said, blushing.
"Ron," she said pausing to collect herself leaning against the door. "With everything that is going on in the world do you think I want to go off on dates to Honeydukes, or the Three Broomsticks? We may not even make it back to Hogwarts this year. I can't hold back my feelings for Harry anymore, and he feels the same about me. So we're going to give this a try while we still have time." Hermione extended her hand to him. "Come on Ron, can't you just be happy for us? We need you, and you need us."
Ron's jaw tightened and his eyes closed as his heart ached. He knew there was nothing he could do to change her mind when she set her heart to something. If this was what she wanted then he would accept it for her sake, and Harry's too. Harry was like a brother to him, and Ron knew he would be miserable without him as a friend. Fourth year taught him that, and he didn't care to repeat it. Slowly he got to his feet and looked at Hermione as if it was the first time he had ever seen her. She was an incredible girl and it saddened him, only because she was determined to be with the one she loved and that person wasn't him. For some reason there was a sense of peace inside him, and for the life of him he didn't know why. Maybe it made him happy just to see her so happy.
Whatever these new emotions welling inside of him were he didn't have time to dwell on them for long. As clear as day the piercing cries of Buckbeak the hippogriff could be heard echoing through the roof above. Ron and Hermione looked at each other with the same look of concern. They both moved quickly to the door, and Ron grabbed the doorknob and looked up the stairway. Neville was looking up the stairs as well from the landing to the girls' room one flight down. Hermione pushed her way past Ron out into the hall. The sound of a struggle traveled down the dimly-lit stairway.
"What's Buckbeak so upset about?" Ron asked.
"Maybe he's scared because Professor Lupin is in the room above him tonight," Hermione said, taking a step onto the stairs leading upward. "Maybe he can sense the transformation." She continued up another step when the whole staircase shook violently. Hermione grabbed on to the railing before she fell backwards. "Woo, what was that?"
Neville darted up the stairs to them, but Ron stopped him and pointed to his ear. "Shh, listen-what is that? Do you hear it?" Neville stared up the stairs trying to listen for what ever Ron had heard. Over the sound of voices, lots of voices, a steady thumping noise came from Buckbeak's room.
"Who's up there with Buckbeak?" Hermione asked Ron and Neville, drawing her wand. Luna and Ginny had now joined them on the landing. The thumping sound grew louder and louder.
Ginny said in a rather shaky voice, "It could be Harry, or Moody. Where are they, anyway?"
Before anyone could guess the location of their missing friends the door to Buckbeak's room exploded outward into the hall. Buckbeak came crashing through the door, smashing into the opposite wall. The wall sagged inward dropping plaster and fragments of old wallpaper down around him. His hindquarters struggled desperately to gain traction on the dusty old floor as his clawed front legs pulled him towards the steps. Blood ran freely down his back and wings from small puncture wounds of some kind. Just as Buckbeak got back on his feet a horde of hobgoblins poured through the doorway after him, slashing and stabbing at the retreating beast.
"Oh my God! Buckbeak, RUN! Come on boy!" Hermione cried out to him, taking a step backwards and bumping into Neville. "Everyone get back into the room quick!"
Luna, Ginny moved closer to Ron and Neville and the questions started to fly.
"What are those things?!"
"Hobgoblins!"
"How did they get in the house? I thought no one could get in?"
Dodging a spear that flew just over his head, Buckbeak gave a strong kick with his back legs right into the chests of two hobgoblins. Their bodies went limp as they went soaring through the air and crashed into the advancing invaders behind them. A large hobgoblin with a curved short-sword pushed his way through the broken doorway swinging his blade at the hippogriff's wings. With one strong flap of his wings Buckbeak came sailing down the steps towards the group of teens. Hermione dove to the floor as Buckbeak flew over her head, missing her by a few inches. Ron pushed Ginny and Luna into the boy's room, and Neville jumped in behind them. Buckbeak landed hard on the floor at the bottom of the steps, smashing into the wall and knocking the coat rack over.
The largest hobgoblin at the top of the stairs pointed his sword at Ron and Hermione and yelled, "That's them! Kill them all!" The hobgoblins started charging down the steps towards Ron and Hermione, weapons drawn. The blades of their weapons were covered in blood and the look of murder flashed in their eyes as they spilled down the rickety old staircase.
Ginny and Luna scrambled to the back of the room behind the beds, and Neville motioned for Ron and Hermione to follow them, but Hermione was already on her way down the steps towards the kitchen calling Harry's name. Ron grimaced and grabbed the doorknob and slammed the door shut.
"Seal it," he cried and then darted down the steps after Hermione.
"Harry! HARRY! Where are you?" Hermione called, but when she reached the ground floor with Buckbeak she got her answer. On the floor trailing from the kitchen, a set of footprints outlined in black ink led out the front door. They had the distinct shape of Harry's old trainers. The hippogriff was clawing at the front door, and gave a soft chirp. Hermione looked out the side window and almost fainted at the sight before her. There was Harry walking across the front grass towards a person hunched over in the street. Harry moved slowly and calmly as if in a trance, and when the dark figure in the street turned his head Hermione saw his face. It was Sirius Black-but it couldn't be. Sirius was dead. She wanted to believe with all of her heart that it was really Sirius, but she knew it couldn't be. Dead was dead, and there's no coming back. Not in the muggle world or the wizarding.
Ron jumped down the last flight of stairs next to Hermione, landing with a loud thump. "Hey! Wake up, we're going to have company," he yelled at her, sending a stunner up the stairs at the hobgoblins. "Did you find Harry? Where is he?"
Hermione broke from her thoughts and said, "He's outside, come on, we have to help him quick."
"What? What the blazes is he doing out there?"
"There's no time to explain. Just get on Buckbeak, we're going after him!" Hermione yelled, jumping out of the way as a hail of short black arrows whizzed past her. She gave the hippogriff a quick bow and he returned it weakly, then she climbed onto his back trying to avoid the cuts and bruises. Ron was backing up slowly towards them, but continued to throw spell after spell at the advancing hobgoblins.
Most of the hobgoblins stopped at the door that the other teens had locked themselves inside of and were trying to break it down. About six of the battle-frenzied hobgoblins continued down the steps towards Ron, who deflected wave after wave of arrows with his protection charm, but it was no good. He couldn't stop long enough to mount Buckbeak.
"Come on, hurry, Ron-get on!" Hermione yelled to him as she cast a banishing charm at the closest hobgoblin. It hit him in the chest sending the hobgoblin over the railing of the stairs to the hard floor below. For a second he lay there stunned, but pushed himself up and retrieved his dagger.
Without even turning to look at her Ron slapped Buckbeak on the arse. "Go! I'll catch up!"
Screeching loudly, Buckbeak knocked the front door open, and as Hermione tried to call out to Ron they flew off into the air. Hermione held on for dear life as Buckbeak circled into the sky high above number 12 Grimmauld Place. The moon was very bright and illuminated the ground below fully. Down in the back yard of the house a battle raged as Moody and an unknown Death Eater dueled, deflecting spells in all directions. The ground was pocked with blast craters, and a large wall of thorns was summoned to cover the back of the house blocking the door. The thought passed Hermione's mind quickly of stunning the Death Eater from up here, but the distance was too great. Passing over the roof Hermione noticed the unmistakable outline of the window to Lupin's room. It was smashed in, and the room was dark and motionless. "This is bad, real bad." Hermione said as her nerves caused her whole body to shake.
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AN: I'm sorry for all the cliffhangers in this fic, but that's just the way I write. I have to keep you on the edge of your seat. ^_^ I'm also very sorry this one took so long to post. Well that's enough of my babbling. Please review if you like. Your comments are always helpful. Thanks for reading.
Muddgutts