Into hiding
A/N: Hello there- Thank you for your reviews! I'm so happy you like this, seriously. Thank you for reading. Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned the characters?
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The door to the kitchen was ajar. Harry and Hermione tiptoed towards it swiftly; wands out, and ready to pounce. They didn't know how many people were in there; they didn't know who it was that had screamed-
"Now tell me!" a male's muffled voice exclaimed. For a minute nothing could be heard. Hermione gazed at Harry and he nodded, positioning himself to kick the door when the right time came.
"Kill him and be done with it-" another male replied, sounding almost bored. Harry lifted his leg but Hermione stopped him promptly, signaling herself with her index finger. "He isn't responding."
"And risk His wrath?" as the man replied Hermione cautiously leaned closer to the door and peeked through the gap; two tall men, using black robes, stood with their backs to the door. Without taking her eyes off them Hermione lifted two fingers for Harry to see, and then extended her hand to warn him not to do anything yet. She could sense Harry's frustration, but they had to know why these two Death Eaters were here, and what they were looking for.
"Unless you have Veritaserum this vermin apparently won't speak; let's kill him and inspect the rest of the house," the other told him. Hermione beckoned Harry to get closer as she pointed the tip of her wand towards one of the men. Without so much as a blink, Hermione shot a Stupefy out of her wand that hit right between the shoulder blades of one of the Death Eaters, who immediately collapsed.
"What the-?"
"Go!" Hermione exclaimed, stepping out of the way as Harry finally kicked the door open violently.
"Stupefy!" he exclaimed, and another beam of red light faintly illuminated the room before it hit the remaining Death Eater in the chest; he fell over his colleague in a heap. Both of them were wearing skull-like masks. Hermione immediately ran towards Ron, who was against the wall with his jaw slightly open. Resisting the urge to kick their faces, Harry followed suit, stepping over the unconscious men. They'd deal with them later.
"Ron? Ron, are you okay?" Hermione was asking Ron, who didn't give any signs of having heard her or, for that matter, having witnessed his two best friends take down two of Voldemort's followers. Ron's eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at the door. Harry gazed at his face, frowning, while Hermione bit her lower lip worriedly. After another minute's silence, Harry straightened his back.
"Ron, hand me the locket," he requested. Hermione looked inquisitively at Harry at this, who only shook his head and then nodded in direction of the red head, which had raised his leg as to walk, but kept it immobilized in the air. "The locket, Ron," Harry repeated loudly. Ron's leg went down and raised his other leg, seemingly about to walk, but again stopped dead in his tracks. He was acting like a bizarre marionette; in some other situation, it would've been amusing. Just as Hermione was about to ask him what was going on, Harry looked at her meaningfully, and once more nodded in direction of Ron.
"Er... Ron? Give the Horcrux to Harry," she said hesitatingly, not quite sure of what her boyfriend was trying to prove. Ron didn't move, and Harry grinned in triumph.
"Just like I thought," he stated. Hermione glared at Harry at this, but as she glanced at Ron, she gasped.
"He's under the Imperius!" she breathed, and without further ado pointed her wand at Ron and cast the Finite Incantatem on him.
"You know, love, you really need to teach me the nonverbals," Harry commented as Ron shivered and shook his head as he returned to normal.
"Maybe if you had paid more attention to Flickwick instead of slobbering after Ginny, you would know them already," Hermione coldly replied. Harry raised his eyebrows at this, surprised by the change in her attitude.
"Ouch," Ron muttered, glancing at Hermione and then at Harry, who sported a hurt look.
"What happened?" Hermione asked Ron, avoiding looking at Harry. "We heard someone screaming and a bang-"
"Yeah, before they put me under the Imperius they blew a chunk of the wall off," Ron started, signaling a burnt spot on the wall just next to him.
"What did they want? The Horcrux?" Harry questioned. If Voldemort had realized that another piece of his soul had ceased to exist, Harry frankly didn't want to imagine what the consequences would be.
"No, they wanted... Well, they wanted your wand." Ron replied.
"Wand?" Harry echoed, perplexed. Ron agreed with his head, but Hermione didn't say anything. Her brow was furrowed in concentration.
"Yeah, that overrated tree branch that you use to cast spells," Ron said with a half smile. When Harry raised his eyebrow as a reply, his friend raised his mockingly. "Anyway, I didn't tell them, so they put the Imperius on me," he added with a shrug. "From what I could hear, Moody's- Er, Crouch's classes in fourth year finally paid of..."
"Why would Voldemort want my wand?" Harry muttered, glancing back at the collapsed Death Eaters. Ron shuddered at the mention of the name, as usual, but also peered down at the Death Eaters with an incredulous expression.
"I'd say something about nonverbal spells, but Hermione might stick my wand up my nostril," Ron's whisper was almost conspirational to Harry, who pursed his lips. "What're we going to do with these two?"
"Throw them away somewhere, I guess, and we better hurry." Harry replied, turning around to look for the locket, near the wall where it lay, lifting it up and pocketing it. The thought that the object in his pocket was nothing more than an ugly locket was invigorating.
"What if we Obliviate them, too?" Ron suggested. "It'll buy us some time to go into hiding-"
"Well, Ron, aren't you a bright little bulb today? I'm amazed," Harry told him, patting him on the shoulder.
"Hey, don't take it out on me," he said in a low voice, scowling. "It's not my fault if you guys fought or something... Incidentally, what were you two doing?" Ron asked in a mutter, helping Harry Reparo the kitchen.
"Um... Celebrating," Harry said, blushing at the memory. "We didn't fight-"
"Ollivander," Hermione's clear voice resounded in the kitchen, making both boys turn around.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Ollivander," Hermione snapped. Harry decided to ignore the tone of her voice and try to decipher what she was trying to tell them. Ollivander was the maker of wands, yes. He had told Harry how curious it was that he should be destined to have the brother wand of Voldemort... And, honestly, besides curious, it had been lucky- If in that graveyard they hadn't-
"Priori Incantatem," Harry mumbled to himself, widening his eyes.
"But Ollivander was kidnapped, remember?" Ron told them. "Last year..." he trailed off, and then opened his mouth as he connected the ideas. Hermione nodded at both facts mutely.
"Maybe Voldemort forced Ollivander to tell him how it could be avoided, and they obviously wanted to either destroy Harry's wand, or take it to Voldemort himself," she said.
"Wow, Hermione..." Ron said, shocked. "Where would we be without you?"
"Well, for instance, you Ron wouldn't be able to even cast the Leviosa, and you'd probably still be eating Lavender's face," Hermione lightly replied, moving to raise one of the Death Eaters by the ankle with her wand. Ron winced at the comment. "As for Harry, well, maybe now that he won't get high with Ginny's perfume anymore..." she trailed off. Harry blushed crimson at this.
"How did you know that?" he asked, mortified, angry, and quite hurt by her sarcastic manner.
"My sister's perfume?" Ron asked, frowning.
"She told me," Hermione replied to both Harry and Ron as she took the man's mask off with disgust; she didn't recognize the face- he looked quite young. "Recognize this one?" she asked. Harry and Ron leaned over to look at the man and then shook their heads.
"No," they said in unison. Harry lifted the other Death Eater just like Hermione had done, with the exception that he had to say the incantation, and also took the mask off.
"These must be new," Harry said, examining him. "Nice career choice, idiots," he added as he let the man fall to the floor. Ron grinned.
"Okay, let's get out of here," he said, pointing at the Death Eaters to disillusion them. "We'll obliviate them later," he added, once the floating bodies were camouflaged. Harry and Hermione nodded and in silence they left the kitchen and went into the living room, repairing things that were broken or out of place, with the idea of making the house look as though no one had ever entered it. Once outside the house, Hermione reinforced the Confundus over the house `just in case', and they quickly began waking towards the nearest apparition point. Using Harry's Invisibility Cloak wouldn't have been of much help, because of the still unconscious Death Eaters dangling in the air, and the rest of Harry's and Hermione's personal belongings were safely (shrunk) resting in their pockets.
"Where are we going to go now?" Ron wanted to know.
"Let's go to the cave that Sirius used in fourth year," Harry said.
"Don't you think that going to Hogsmeade is too risky?" Hermione asked.
"Let's apparate in the outskirts... We'll dump the minions somewhere around there," Harry replied. Hermione shook her head.
"So we'll leave two obliviated Death Eaters in the middle of Hogsmeade? Do you think they'll have a drink in the Three Broomsticks and then leave?" she argued heatedly.
"Do you have a better idea?" Harry barked back.
"Er, guys-" Ron started to say, but was amiably ignored.
"Any idea I might have is better than leaving two Death Eaters near that village!" Hermione retorted, quickening her pace.
"Let's hear it then! What brilliant plan are you going to come up with now?" Harry told her, moving forwards to keep up with her.
"Don't talk to me like that!" Hermione said loudly.
"Harry, Hermione-" Ron was again interrupted, this time by Harry.
"Oh, so you can make me look like an idiot and I can't defend myself?"
"I did nothing of the sort! If you don't want to face the truth about Ginny and you, that's not my problem-"
"Exactly! That's not your problem!" Harry exclaimed. Before Hermione could reply, hit, hex Harry, or all of the above, Ron decided to put his foot down.
"GUYS!" He shouted, making Harry and Hermione stop walking (weren't they almost jogging by then? Really...) and turn around to look at him. "Why don't we just let the Aurors in the Ministry deal with the Death Eaters?" At the fierce look in Hermione's eyes, Ron continued speaking before she opened her mouth. "Let's contact someone like my dad or professor Lupin- That's what the Oder is for, right?" he said.
"And how exactly are we going to contact them?" Hermione asked.
"I'll apparate with them to the Ministry," Ron replied, puffing out his chest proudly. Harry snorted.
"You'll lose more than an eyebrow," he told Ron. Hermione glared at Harry.
"Well, at least he's saying something logical!" she told him shrilly.
"Oh sorry, did I hear you suggesting something about what to do with the Death Eaters?" Harry shot back. Ron rolled his eyes and murmured two consecutive Finite Incantatum on both Death Eaters, so they first became visible again and then fell to the floor. As Harry and Hermione kept fighting like cats and dogs, Ron kneeled down next to the unconscious men and put his hands, respectively, on each of their shoulders.
"Honestly, guys," Ron said, and again Harry and Hermione peered down at him, this time in surprise. "Anyone could've taken these two and you wouldn't have even noticed," he added. They at least had the dignity to look guilty.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said, biting her lower lip. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"We'll both go," Harry said, making Hermione purse her lips.
"Nah, I'll be alright... Harry, mate, I think I understand you now..."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"With the bickering," Ron said, shaking his head. "Bloody annoying... You two go ahead to the cave, I'll go there after I leave this two in the Ministry..." and with that he closed his eyes tightly and with a loud POP Ron and the two Death Eaters disapparated from the sidewalk, leaving a fuming Harry and Hermione alone.
Without speaking a word to each other they both disapparated at the same time, and a few seconds later found themselves on the outsides of a now desolated Hogsmeade. The shops and bars were closed, and no one was walking in the streets. Harry looked sadly at what had once been such a cheery place and now seemed a ghost town; Hermione sighed and shook her head, turning around and starting to make her way towards the cave. Harry snapped out of whatever sadness he was feeling and quickly followed her; both still sharing that tense, angry silence. Twenty minutes later, for they had got lost once, Harry and Hermione found themselves stepping carefully inside the tunnel that lead into the cave.
"Why do we keep going to the places which remind me of Sirius?" Harry muttered.
"This was your idea," Hermione sentenced as they reached the heart of the cave.
"Hermione, would you mind explaining to me why are you acting like this?" Harry angrily questioned. Hermione's brow furrowed and she looked away.
"It was your fault. If you hadn't kissed me-"
"I didn't see you refusing," he told her.
"That's not the point! Ron could've been killed, Harry! If those Death Eaters had not been so clumsy..." Hermione retorted with a shiver. Harry let out a huff as he raised his arms in annoyance.
"How could we have known? It wasn't our fault!" he exclaimed. Hermione turned around and walked towards one of the walls of the cave, crossing her arms.
"I was so scared," she said barely above a whisper. "We all could've been killed; they were about to murder our best friend..." she trailed off. Harry relaxed, understanding what she was trying to tell him, and walked towards her. "I was so relieved, and I felt so guilty, Harry!" Hermione squeaked, turning around to face him. Her eyes were glassy. "I love you two too much to lose you..." she whispered, lowering her eyes. Harry lifted her chin with his index finger gently.
"It won't happen again," he told her. Hermione shook her head.
"And how do you know that?" she asked, her voice trembling. "I don't know what I'll do with myself if... if..." her voice died down at this and she sniffed, concealing her face with her hair. Harry let out a sigh and hugged her, kissing her hair in a vain attempt to comfort her. He couldn't pretend that it hadn't shocked him how close Ron had been to death, either. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to make you look like an idiot," she communicated to his shirt. He smiled.
"I'm sorry, too. Your brilliant plans are, well... Brilliant," he told her, making her chuckle hoarsely. She broke the hug and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smiling.
"Glad to see your eloquence is still in one piece," Hermione told him.
"I try." he said, before leaning in to kiss her softly. Kissing Hermione, he had discovered, was so different from kissing other girls. Cho had always been crying; Ginny was... well... er... she was aggressive and pushy, but Hermione... Kissing her made him feel as if he was a fish that had been caught in a net, and was suddenly thrown back into the water. He wondered if she felt the same?
"So I take it you guys are okay now?" a known voice asked, making them part. Ron was staring at them, smiling very slightly.
"How did it go in the Ministry?" Hermione asked him, grinning. Ron shrugged as he walked towards his friends.
"To make it short, complete madness. Scrimgeour almost peed on himself... And he almost blew every blood vessel in his body when I told him that we were planning to Obliviate them. Said that they could provide very useful information of You- Know- Who's whereabouts and all..."
"Well, what did he expect us to do?" Hermione questioned, frowning. "If you hadn't had the idea of taking them to the Ministry..." Ron nodded and yawned, sitting down on the floor of the cave. Harry and Hermione followed suit.
"So what's the next Horcrux?" Ron questioned. Harry retrieved the locket from his pocket, opening it again and eyeing it.
"Dumbledore said something about Hufflepuf's cup and Nagini..."
"Nagini?"
"Voldemort's pet snake," Harry clarified, raising his eyes to look at Hermione and Ron.
"Well, Nagini will certainly be our last objective," Hermione stated. "I think we should talk to Dumbledore's portrait; maybe he can tell us something useful..."
"Term starts in two months," Harry said.
"I know. I wonder if they'll let me go to the library?" Hermione asked no one in particular.
"Why wouldn't they?" Harry asked. "You'll be Head Girl-"
"Harry, honestly- Do you think I'll return to Hogwarts?" Hermione wanted to know. At Harry's shocked face, Hermione raised her right eyebrow. "I could actually be offended, you know."
"But- But what about your N.E.W.T.s?" at Harry's question Hermione pouted, apparently under the impression that he was pulling her leg.
"You matter more to me than exams," she answered, sounding wounded.
"Sorry," Harry told her. Hermione agreed with her head.
"Don't worry."
"I'm hungry," Ron announced. "Let's see if there's something open in Hogsmeade."
"I don't-" Hermione started.
"We can't die of starvation, Hermione... We need the energy!" Ron cut her off, making Harry laugh.
"I second that," he said. Hermione gazed at them both in disbelief.
"You're hopeless."
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A/N: Well, there you go. Hope you liked this chapter... I felt a sort of guilty pleasure writing the H/Hr fight... Is that wrong? Hehe... Anyway, please leave me a review to let me know what you thought of this chapter!
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