Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. No profits involved either, just pure twisted fun. Oh, and a bit of a warning. There's a bit of R/Hr in this one. Nothing you haven't seen before, but some of you might want to keep your finger poised on the scroll down button. :)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Here goes nothing. Hermione gulped as she and Harry stepped through the portrait hole ... and were instantly transported into the maze.
The looming green walls looked even more unfriendly than before, if that was possible. She found herself clutching Harry's hand as the tangled branches went into a near-frenzy at their appearance. It was sinister, this movement everywhere from things that were normally still. The mass of tangled branches looked ... hungry.
Harry didn't seem frightened as he took in the leafy obstacles with a flinty glare. "This is usually as far as I get."
"You mean the maze stops you?" The girl suppressed a shudder as she imagined branches reaching out to grab them. Harry had once told her that the maze could do that, especially if a person fell.
"Sometimes. Most times I just get lost. Either way, I always end up here, in front of the door." He thumbed the thick wooden door embedded in the hedge behind them. "It's the only thing that never changes. Or maybe it does, which is why I always end up in front of it."
Strangely enough, Hermione was reassured by his words. So Harry had tried to get back on his own. Lots of times, by the sound of it. "When I arrived, an orb guided me through. It even passed through the hedges," she said slowly. "You sent that, didn't you?"
A faint grin hovered around Harry's lips. "After all that yelling, how could I not?" He shrugged. "I'm not sure how much of a help it'd be now, though. And it's not like I can send us through hedges. There's a huge difference between the pair of us and a tiny circle of light."
"I didn't mean we should try to glide through the maze the way the orb did," Hermione pointed out. "But we could use the orb as a guide. This maze isn't really here, you know that right? It's a construct of your mind and the Solvamus. Which means there's a part of you that knows the way through," she said with more confidence than she felt. "We just need to connect with that."
The youth looked skeptical. "Then how come I couldn't go through myself?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "But maybe it's different now that there's two of us. We have to try something."
Harry nodded. He wanted to get himself and more importantly, Hermione, out of this place. This would be a lot simpler, he thought caustically, if I knew what I was doing. A minute passed as he tried to call the orb to him.
Nothing.
Hermione didn't say anything, just glanced at him encouragingly before she turned back to scan the maze for traces of the orb.
Harry shut his eyes. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead as he concentrated on the task. He pictured the orb in his mind, everything from the light it emitted to the way it flew erratically, moving much like a snitch. Mentally, he tried to draw it in. Come on, he thought. Come on!
"There!" Hermione exclaimed as the pinpoint of light appeared and sped towards them. It hovered in front of them, dancing in the air. But even as she shouted, the witch noticed with a pang that the orb seemed smaller than before. Its light seemed muted.
Harry didn't notice. He was relieved that he'd been able to summon it at all. "Take us out of this maze," he instructed the yellow ball.
Hand in hand, the pair followed the glowing bit of light.
======
Of course it wasn't that easy.
By the time the orb paused in its flight, Harry and Hermione had lost track of how long they'd been in the maze. Two-thirds of an hour? An hour? Two?
Hermione fought her growing unease as they followed the pinpoint of light. Unlike the quick, snitch-like object she had followed in, the orb now seemed erratic, listless in its movements. Sometimes it would dart forward, but at other times it seemed content to float along, as if it was coasting on some easy-going breeze.
But this was the first time it had stopped.
"Now what?" Harry huffed. Impatiently, he reached out with his free hand, as if to grab the maddening bit of light.
"Don't!" Hermione warned instinctively, but even as she shouted the orb dodged Harry's upraised fingers and darted into a hedge. She blew out a breath in exasperation. "Well, that was helpful. What did you do that for?"
Harry bit back a retort, but he didn't answer her either. "Let's just go on. Maybe it'll come back," he said sullenly.
It was Hermione's turn to look like she was holding back a nasty rejoinder. "If we just move without any idea of where we're going, we'd just get lost," she explained slowly, as if to a five-year old. "Maybe you can try calling the orb back? Or maybe an accio ..."
Harry glanced at the girl as she trailed off. "You want me to accio the orb?" he asked in disbelief.
"Wait." She held out a hand for silence as something occurred to her. "It did this before. It disappeared through a wall and I followed."
"You mean when you stepped through the hedge?" he asked. While walking, Hermione had filled him in on the details of her solo trip through the maze.
She nodded. "That's how I found you."
He squeezed her hand, excited at the prospect of being free. "So you think beyond that wall...?"
"I don't know, Harry. The orb isn't acting the same way."
"Well, we have to try something," he aped back at her.
"I guess." She didn't like it, though. The orb was acting strangely.
He felt her hesitation. Encouragingly, he moved forward first. He stretched his free hand in front of him, expecting at any moment to encounter thorny branches, bristling leaves.
He didn't. It just got darker at some point. Then they were both through.
Only where the heck are we? Harry thought as he and Hermione swiveled around, taking in their new surroundings. There was no sign of neatly trimmed hedges. They were in the woods somewhere, in a clearing circled by tall, friendlier-looking trees. It was as if the maze had never been.
Harry frowned as he surveyed the edges of the clearing. Familiar-looking trees. Where ... oh hell! He tried abruptly to pull Hermione away.
"Harry, what...?"
But it was too late. Another pair was entering the clearing. The new pair held hands as they walked, and the way they moved easily past Harry and Hermione made it plain that they didn't see them.
Even in the failing light it was impossible to mistake the pair - him with his bright fiery head, and the her with the mass of wild curls.
"...I'd be touchy too, if someone tried to stick me," the redhead was saying. "What happened when you came back, anyway? You never said what set him off."
Hermione was blushing, but Ron didn't seem to notice. "Nothing," she said after a short pause, "he made a joke about not being dead yet and I sort of got on his case."
Ron actually laughed. "That's all? I thought for a sec it might've been because you told him about us." He said it lightly, but there was a question somewhere in his words.
Hermione stopped abruptly. "What is there to tell?" she asked quietly. "We've been going around like this" - she held up their linked hands - "and we've snogged a few times but ... well, what are we, exactly?"
A funny expression came on Ron's face at that point. It was the same look he got right before a serious Quidditch match. He started a couple of phrases, tried to start over, bungled it and finally threw out his hands in frustration. "Oh dammit, I am just absolute rubbish when it comes to words!"
"Try, Ron," his companion urged, but she was smiling at him.
"Alright, alright." The tall boy fidgeted. "I know I've been a jealous, half-witted prat this last year. Ginny says she can't even understand why you like me. But you know how much you mean to me, right, Hermione?" Ron took a deep breath. "You know I ... I'd do anything for you."
Hermione called Ron's name in a voice that was husky and soft and impassioned. She looked open and vulnerable as she pulled the redhead to her.
Their shadows melded as Ron's arms wrapped around Hermione tightly, the girl standing on tiptoe so she could better meet the boy's eager lips...
"Stop it this instant!" Hermione dropped Harry's hand as if it scalded her. The figures seemed to startle apart as she strode towards them. But even as they began to turn towards her, the ghostly pair was fading away.
Harry waited for the explosion that was sure to follow.
"You saw us? You watched us?!" Hermione whirled on him indignantly.
He didn't even bother trying to deny it, because how could he? "Yes."
"Why are we here? Why are you showing this to me now?" she demanded in dangerous voice.
He held his hands up in frantic denial. "I don't, didn't! I never wanted you to know ... This isn't for you," he realized slowly.
She eyed him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"
"I think this is the Solvamus, reminding me, taunting me. This is the day when I decided I couldn't lose you to Ron, not without a fight." Harry remembered thinking those exact words, and the large, scaly monster that had clawed at his insides at the sight of his two best friends snogging. "Hermione, get away from me," he warned, shutting his eyes at the memory.
She took a step away, but resisted the urge to flee. If this is the Solvamus, she thought quickly, that's exactly what it would want, for us to separate. "Harry, open your eyes."
He did, and his gaze on her was dark, his emerald eyes gleaming. "The Solvamus is reminding me," he continued his explanation as if nothing else had been said, "that if we leave here, I can lose you again."
"'Again?'" A brown brow rose. "You honestly think you 'have' me here, now?" Hermione snapped frostily, still angry over the discovery that Ron and she had been spied on. "Your bloody drug is keeping both of us trapped here! This," she waved her hand around, "is nothing but cheap illusion! Is that all you want, Potter, more pathetic dreams about how you can shag me?" she scoffed. "Because you don't need me for that, Harry! You might as well summon your dream girl so you can do Merlin-knows-what to each other."
Harry was obviously taken aback by her outburst. He shook his head, visibly trying to clear his thoughts. "Hermione ..."
She watched him. The knot in his brow, the way he rubbed his temples was familiar. She'd seem him do much the same after a Voldermort-laden dream.
"I know this is difficult," she relented quietly, "but this is still your mind, Harry. The Solvamus is weaker now, that's why it's resorting to dirty tricks. Don't fall for it. Take us back."
"Even if I do, it's still here, in me," he said despairingly. "I'll wake, and then what?"
"Then we'll see," Hermione answered evenly. "When I, er, left to come after you, Lupin was going to find help." She wondered how much time had passed. What if Lupin hadn't returned yet? What if she woke in a room alone with Harry? She remembered laying her wand down next to the bed. The first order of business would be to grab it as soon as she came out of her trance. Assuming Harry did not regain consciousness first. "Wouldn't you rather find out than stay stuck here?"
It was a gentler form of the challenge she'd issued earlier. The Gryffindor youth favored her with a wry look. The look said that he understood perfectly that she was goading him, and that for now it was working.
"Think of Hogwarts," he told her finally, a tenacity in his voice that hadn't been there before. "Picture the entrance to the maze where you first arrived."
She shut her eyes, fixing the place in her mind.
"Got it?"
She nodded. She felt one of his hands slowly wrapping around her hers as his other arm came around her shoulders.
She tensed as he whispered near her ear, "If we can get through this, if we wake up in the real world, will you still go out with me, Hermione?"
After that stunt? The nerve! Unless - what if it wasn't about sheer gall and effrontery? Harry's fighting the Solvamus. The potion is showing him what he could "lose." What if what Harry needs right now is hope? Hope enough to let go of the illusion and return to the waking world.
Hermione opened her eyes, and met clear, familiar, uncertain green. "I told you I would," she said.
The happiness that flooded into his gaze was blinding. He held her tightly. Then - "Appareo."
For a second nothing happened. Then everything turned black again.
======
They woke slowly, to a world bright with the orange flare of near sunset.
Harry regained consciousness a few moments ahead of Hermione. The first thing he felt was her hand wrapped tightly around his...and it was moving?
He opened his eyes quickly, his vision a blur but enough to see Hermione floating almost parallel next to him. A levitation spell? Now that she was stirring, though, it was disturbing the spell and she was starting to sink. That was the movement he'd felt.
Without another thought Harry pulled her to him so that she would not hit the floor. With his other arm he guided her body so that she landed safely on the mattress, right next to him.
And that was how Hermione woke up, facing Harry, on his bed, with his arms loosely wrapped around her. The first thing she saw was his eyes, gazing at her in concern. So much for strategy. But for some reason it didn't worry her.
"I guess we made it." He smiled at her. "Are you okay?" He touched her forehead tenderly, drew an errant curl away from her face.
"I'm fine. And unless you've got this setting ingrained in your head, I think we have, made it I mean," she quipped. "That was some move, apparating us away. How'd you know it would work?"
"I didn't." He grinned at her. "I'm glad it did, though." His expression grew solemn. "Hermione, I ... thank you for coming after me."
"Harry," she rolled her eyes, "we've talked about this before. We don't keep track. No thanks needed, though it's nice to hear every now and then."
"No, this is different. I - I was ready to give up." The admission was obviously difficult.
He's so earnest, she thought. "Don't ever do that," she said. Her voice caught as she realized he meant it. "Don't ever give up. We rely on you so much, Harry. It's unfair and I'm sorry, but we do. You're our hope." For some reason she was nearly crying. It was for him, she realized, for the boy she'd met nearly seven years ago. That boy had deserved every happiness, as all children did. But somehow Harry had never gotten it. Voldemort had seen to that.
Voldemort had slowly stripped away every refuge Harry had. And now, between Voldemort and Snape, even Harry's very being was threatened, and the man that he was trying to become was in danger of being destroyed. Even that. Even that you couldn't leave alone, you bastards.
"Don't say that," Harry begged, alarmed by her tears. "Don't apologize. Because you're my hope, don't you realize that? I should've told you years ago." He rushed on, realizing that this might be his only chance to speak to her so freely. "Whatever I've been through, whatever else happens, if I can come back to you, if it means that I can keep you and our world safe, then it's worth it. I won't have a future where you can't shine, Hermione," he said fiercely. "I won't have a world where people think they can call you names, and not have hell to pay. Not if I can help it."
"If anything's unfair," he continued, his voice becoming bleak, "if anyone should apologize, it's me. You're in danger because you've chosen to stay by me. You're a smart girl, haven't you figured out yet that you're on the losing side?" he tried to joke.
She brushed her fingers against his cheek. "I'm on your side, Harry," she said, and her eyes were utterly serious. "You're not alone in this. You never are."
Her declaration took his breath away. He choked out her name, and then what could he do, but take his hope in his arms, and kiss her?
It wasn't like the kiss in the library. That had been about need, and feelings breaking to the surface. This was ... this was about hope, and a fierce determination to survive this latest test.
Harry's hands cradled Hermione's face as their lips pressed together, their eyes fluttering shut as the gentle kiss quickly began to escalate.
Hermione's hands slipped into Harry's hair when she felt his mouth open and his tongue peek out to taste her lips. At her touch, Harry deepened the kiss, his tongue lightly tracing her teeth. He explored her mouth and darted in quickly when she made a sound, to graze her tongue.
Hermione thought she would lose her mind. She leaned harder into him, opening her mouth a bit more. She felt him shudder when she met his tongue with hers, and his hands slid from her cheeks to her neck, holding her closer, tilting her head back.
He took more of her, more of her tongue swirling against his. There was no part of her mouth that he would not taste, now that she allowed it. He could lose himself so easily in her lovely, wet mouth. He wished that they could stay like this forever.
Of course, fate was never that kind.
Hermione's hands slowly unclenched from Harry's hair. She touched his cheeks, cradled his face. Slowly she withdrew, her hands holding him gently in place. Harry made a sound of protest at the back of his throat, but it was a lost cause. He only had time to suck lightly on her bottom lip before completely losing contact with her mouth.
He wanted more. He was going to dart in, and try to capture her mouth again, when she spoke.
"I trust you, Harry," she said. She was still holding him, and she was gazing into his eyes. "Now that I know that you're fighting, and fighting so hard."
It blew him away, stopped him in his tracks. "You know you shouldn't," he replied breathlessly.
She didn't try to argue with him. She simply stood up. She found her wand on the floor, where she'd dropped it, and slipped the length of wood into her pocket. She watched as Harry began fumbling for his glasses.
The familiarity of it drew a smile from her. And just as she'd done many times before, Hermione found the much-abused pair first, and handed them to Harry.
"Hermione, I'm serious! You can't mean it," he said almost desperately as he put them on. "The potion didn't work, don't you understand that?"
His words gave her pause as she remembered. The antidote they had all pinned their hopes on had failed. What if this, or tomorrow, is the last day?
"It's alright, Harry. I haven't gone mad, or stupid," she assured him. "I trust that you're fighting. I think that you won't hurt me. But if I ever see otherwise, I will deal with it." Her brows drew together. "And so help me, if you ever spy on me like that again, you'll think Ginny's bat bogey hex is nothing but a pile of fairies' pixie dust-"
"I didn't mean to, honest!" he interrupted quickly. "I was just walking around because we'd argued. Then you and Ron came into the clearing ..." The memory made his face darken.
"... and you decided to stay and watch," Hermione continued, ignoring his dour expression as she looked upon him with decidedly chill eyes.
"Well, I - yeah," he gave up, slumping against the bed.
"What were you thinking?!"
The boy flushed. He remembered his thoughts exactly.
"Harry?"
His hands balled into fists by his side. "I thought," he said in a low tone, "that you were the hottest thing I'd ever seen in my life. I wanted it to be me, Hermione. I wanted you to say those words to me."
To his bewilderment, her glare settled into ... amusement? "So let me get this straight. You wanted me to call you 'Ron?'"
She grinned.
Harry was confused for exactly two seconds. Then he barked a short laugh, and for the instant that it lasted she joined him.
"I completely walked into that one, eh?" he chuckled.
"Yes, you absolutely did," she said gleefully. Just as she'd hoped, the humor dissipated the tension between them.
"So this date," Hermione casually asked after awhile, "what did you have in mind?"
The boy gaped at her in astonishment. Then he was stammering, "Um. D-dinner, coffee, cinema, a club? Whatever you want."
Not dinner. Hermione wondered if Harry caught the shudder that she tried to suppress. "Coffee sounds good, or maybe a club? I haven't gone dancing in awhile."
A picture rose in Harry's mind, a normally serious brown-haired witch laughing and carefree as she spun in Viktor Krum's arms. He struggled to drag his mind back. Focus, you git! This is your chance. Tomorrow it could be you, making her happy. Behave, dammit! "Dancing it is." He frowned. "Though if you remember, I've got exactly two left feet."
"How could I forget?" Her smile was again genuine. "Oh don't worry, it's not like we're going to a ball. I was thinking a muggle club. I noticed that there was one near here."
"A muggle club?" he asked in surprise. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"
"Can you imagine a place Voldemort would less likely be at? All those sweaty, dancing muggles?" She glanced at him quickly. "You've never gone?"
"Er, no." It's not like he ever got to go anywhere when he was with the Dursleys.
"Then that's what we'll do," she decided with a gleam in her eyes. "That club had a line going in. We're going to have to dress for it," she said absently.
"D-dress how?" Harry stammered, suddenly nervous.
"Oh boys have it easy," Hermione scoffed. "A nice shirt and jeans, and you're done."
"What's done?" Lupin asked as he entered the room. "Merlin, Hermione, you did it!" he marveled as he stared at the youth, who was very much awake. "How are you feeling, Harry?"
"Better, but not Solvamus-free. I'm not, am I, Professor?" Harry asked quietly.
Lupin sat down next to him. "No, I'm afraid not," he answered gently. He heard Hermione gasp. "But we've not completely failed. There's still good news. Maybe I should let the healer explain."
A tall, elderly man with a neatly trimmed, grayish beard entered the room, the very picture of a dignified wizard. His attention was completely focused on Harry, his gray eyes piercing under fierce, bushy eyebrows.
"This is Monsieur -"
"Faveure!" Harry snapped, leaping out of the bed. He clenched his fists as every muscle in his body seemed to tense. "Don't you come near me!"
"Harry, what...?" Hermione looked at Harry and at the newcomer in consternation.
"He's the one who told the others to bind me! Oh yes, I heard!" he spat out. Suddenly there was power surging in the room, they could all feel it. "Well, I'm not drugged and barely conscious now. You just try it!" he snarled.
The old wizard seemed unperturbed by the wild accusations and half-threats. He simply stood still and spoke gravely, his words rolling with a light French accent. "Monsieur Potter, you are in danger. You must let us treat you."
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Author's Note: It amazes me, the amount of support that I've gotten. Thank you, all. Consider me duly encouraged. :) So what do you think of this one?
I re-worked the outline of "Biding" recently (for about the third or fourth time), and to those of you who wanted to know how much longer this story is going to be, let me just say that I don't think we're going to reach a chapter thirty. Of course, that could change (since it already has a couple of times).
Lastly, it looks like Alrune's HP Fan Fiction awards site is open again. Check out http://home.earthlink.net/~sonorus/ and nominate your favorite stories. There are lots of categories. Thanks for your email, AJ!