Bonfire
Harry stood, frozen at the edge of the forest. The source of the strange light was now fairly obvious. A huge bonfire, burning white hot with magical energy, stood scant yards away from him. The intense heat was beating down on him in waves and he could almost feel his eyebrows singeing. However there was no one in sight, so who conjured the fire? Actually scrap that, he thought, why would they bother to conjure a fire?
Carefully, so as not to alert anyone of his presence, he began to skirt round the blaze, all the while searching the forest for any signs of life. The fire was twice as wide as he was tall, and at least three times as high, it must have taken some time to build, or at least, he amended himself, to have found all the wood and levitate it here. Gradually he became aware of a presence in the forest. He could feel that someone was there, watching him, waiting. But waiting for what? Casually he pretended to scan the trees once more, but all the while concentrating all his attention on the spot where he felt the mystery intruder was. Was that…? There, just there he was almost sure that -
A sudden shout behind him made Harry whip round. Someone was running towards him from the castle. Not wanting to take any chances, he raised his wand into the guard position and started to search for a spell that would help him if he was attacked. As the figure ran into the aura of light cast by the flames, Harry grinned, momentarily forgetting his worries about the figure in the forest, and lowered his wand. It was Hermione.
His grin vanished when she came within hearing range.
"Harry WHAT do you think you are doing?! Are you completely out of your mind, wandering around outside at night, especially at a time like this, you could get into trouble! Not just from school either - don't give me that look you know exactly what I mean. What's the matter with…" Suddenly she stopped and all the colour drained from her face. For a second Harry thought she might faint, then he noticed that her eyes and gone wide and were staring fixedly at a point just above his left shoulder.
Dreading what he might find, Harry slowly turned around and discovered himself staring into a pair of tortured, unforgiving red eyes.
****
Hermione emitted an odd squeaking sound and reached out to Harry for reassurance. His hand was cold and slightly sweaty, but she clasped it tightly anyway and drew closer to him. Her brain seemed to have jammed somewhere between realising who was before them and fear for Harry's safety. Oddly she felt nothing for herself, or perhaps it wasn't so odd, as Harry usually came first in her life. Finally she found her voice and, saying the first thing that came into her head, whispered, "how did you get here?"
Those merciless eyes slid from Harry to Hermione and his mouth twitched in what she supposed was amusement, but looked more like a pained grimace. "Hermione," he laughed, "I should have thought that would have been obvious, I took the Knight Bus!"
Harry blinked and seemed to come out of a trance. Raising his wand he said quite calmly "Hermione, get behind me."
****
He hoped she wouldn't cause a fuss, but he needed to do this on his own. He had always known he would have to face this alone. To his surprise and not inconsiderable relief, she simply kissed him on the cheek and breathed, "Harry I once told you that you were a great wizard, I meant it you know," before stepping away from him.
Slightly comforted by her words he turned to face the tall figure standing smirking beside the huge bonfire.
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