Chapter 12: The B Word
Hermione screamed as loud as she could.
Releasing her frustration orally was the easiest way she could think of to try to process the multitude of emotions trapped inside her skull at the moment. Despite the long winded (and deservingly violent, she added) "talk" she had just had with Ron, the anger which flared inside of her at the very thought of her ex…whatever they were made her skin crawl. Thankfully, the pillow which she had grabbed as soon as she had sealed the entrance flap to her room provided enough of a muffler such that her frustration would not alarm her friends in the other room.
Tossing her mute on her bed, she swiftly changed into her nightgown before falling onto the mattress herself. The events of the day had been simply too much for her fragile body to handle, and nothing sounded better to her than to sleep off all her worries. Sprawling out while grabbing for some sheets to wrap around herself, Hermione closed her eyes and waited for slumber to take her away into her dreams.
That was until she realized that something wasn't right.
That was until the color drained from her face as realization dawned on her.
That was until she sat up and quivered,
That was until she screamed as loud as she could...
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"LUMOS!"
Suddenly, the tent was illuminated by two bursts of shining white light. As soon as they had heard the scream, Luna and Ron shot up from their chairs and prepared for the worst, their seats falling to the floor with a thunderous crash.
"HERMIONE!?" Ron screamed, the beam shining from his small, crooked wand casting a dim sphere of light around the area surrounding her room. The shallow light of his spell disappeared just as suddenly as it had been summoned as the tent was suddenly ablaze in the glow of flames.
Ron turned around swiftly, the sudden change in brightness alerting him to the threat of incoming danger. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Luna, now fully attentive, glancing at the backside of the tent for any signs of intrusion. He did a quick scan of the area surrounding them. Indeed, there had been no signs that their privacy had been compromised from what he could see. The fire that Harry had quenched moments earlier was now burning vividly, which caused Ron to release a fraction of the breath he was holding. That meant that their lodging hadn't been torched from the outside, but it still didn't explain what had caused Hermione to cry out like she did. Eager to find out the source of the commotion, Ron motioned to head back towards Hermione's room before a gentle squeeze on his arm caused him to about face.
"Ronald, look! It's gone!"
Not wanting to waste any time, Ron quickly turned toward the direction Luna's finger was pointing to. It was one of the many plain brown counters which separated the kitchen from the dining room area, but there was something missing that had been there before. It took him a moment before he realized exactly what was absent from the room.
Gryffindor's sword was no longer on the counter.
The blood completely drained from his face. Literally a minute ago, the three of them had been staring at the precious artifact, and now it was missing. Ron marched to where it had once been, every nerve in his body prepared for an ambush. He peeked over the counter slowly, preparing a stunning spell in the back of his mind. To his relief, all that greeted him on the other side was the floor, stained black by the tracks of snowy boots.
"Harry!" Ron shouted, temporarily forgetting that any sudden noise could mean the end of him via a flurry of red and green curses. "The sword…it's gone!"
"…Harry?"
Ron's exclamation was greeted by the shrill sound of metal piercing canvas. Fearing attack, he dove under the long table they had been sitting at, grabbing Luna in midair, and hoping that the shoddy cover provided by the piece of furniture would give them enough of an advantage to draw first blood on any would-be intruders. Swiftly, he cupped one hand over Luna's pleading mouth while letting out a quiet hush, tilting his head slightly to the right so that he could take a peek at the area the slicing sound had come from. From what he could tell, the sound had come from the same area where Hermione had been resting.
Ron attempted to swallow the lump in his throat, beads of sweat cascading down his brow. The hand holding his wand struggled to keep steady as he heard slow footsteps shuffle around the room. His vision obstructed by the couch in front of him, he had no idea who was investigating the tent on the other side of the room. For all he knew it could be a throng of Voldemort's worst cronies coming to execute him and his friends or perhaps just Hermione attempting to unleash more of her rage at everyone around her.
He wasn't too keen on either of those ideas at the moment.
"It's alright," Ron heard a familiar voice utter from somewhere beyond the velvet barricade in front of him after another breathless minute. "We're safe."
"Is that you, Harry?" Ron yelled back forcefully.
"Of course it's me, you bloke!" the voice shouted back at him. "Who else would it be?"
Ron did not allow himself the luxury of relaxing. As a matter of fact, he tensed up even more, inadvertently putting more weight on the blonde haired witch under him, making her gasp against his hand. "I've seen more than enough possessions today to know not to trust what I can't see. How do I know it is really you?"
"Ron, I know I said to be overly cautious, but even this…"
"PROVE IT!"
"Alright, alright! Your name is Ronald Bilius Weasley, son of Arthur and Molly Weasley. Your favorite quiddich team is the Chudley Cannons, your biggest fear is spiders, and sometimes while you are sleeping you mumble about Madame Rosmerta, and from the way it sounds, your mum wouldn't be too proud of the dreams you have about her."
Ron cringed, his face turning beet red. He felt his other hand jiggle as Luna giggled into it for a moment before restraining herself.
Harry's face suddenly came into view from above the sofa, a grin on his face.
"But you know, I promise I won't tell Madame Rosemerta if you two want some alone time to finish whatever the heck you two are doing down there. You do realize we have private rooms in this tent, right?"
"What the ruddy hell are you on about?" Ron asked, his expression a mix of offense and bewilderment.
The black haired teen simply pointed at him. He was obviously amused about something that Ron was unaware of.
Taking a look underneath him for the first time since his desperation leap for cover, his eyes met Luna's blue orbs. Something in the far back of his mind was captivated by her eyes, but these foreign thoughts dissipated as soon as he felt the vibration of Luna's words as they came out of her mouth mumbled into the palm of his hand. It was almost as if she wanted to say something to him…
"What was that?" Ron asked her. (Despite it being the obvious thing to do, he didn't lift his hand off of her mouth so that he could hear her clearly.)
With a sigh, Luna caught Ron's attention by moving her eyebrows up and down. As soon as she held his gaze again, she moved her pupils downward towards her legs, hoping that Ron would get the signal.
It wasn't until Luna repeated this motion several times until Ron cautiously followed her gaze downward. It was then that he realized why Harry found the scene so comical. Somehow, after practically tackling Luna on his way under the table, he had winded up on top of her, straddling her hips between his own knees. Aghast, Ron once again turned his gaze back to Luna's face, her gaze directed sideways as she started to blush. Indeed, Ron's face somehow turned a deeper shade of scarlet, a prospect that Harry found hard to believe as his friend's face had never quite dulled back to normal after turning crimson from the Madame Rosemerta comments. Ron's head reminded him of a pimple that was just about to burst.
By now, Harry lost all composer and was convulsing in powerful fits of laughter. Embarrassed, Ron shot up from on top of Luna. Unfortunately, in his humiliation he had forgotten that they were still under a short dining table and his head smashed into the bottom of the table with a resounding thud! This in turn caused him to plummet back downward, his bottom slamming into Luna's stomach, causing her to wheeze as the little amount of air that Ron had allowed her to breathe in careened out of her at an alarming velocity.
Barely able to stand up through his latest round of giggles, Harry somehow managed to squeak out the incantation that allowed him to shift the table just enough so that his two companions could escape from their own tangled bodies. As soon as the table noisily glided past them, taking the benches that surrounded it with it, Ron rolled off of Luna as she finally was able to rejuvenate her organs with a fresh supply of oxygen. Ron held out his hand and helped the young witch back to her feet.
"Sorry about that," Ron mumbled, his hands on his hips. He was trying his best not to come into eye contact with either Harry or Luna, his face still glowing red in embarrassment.
"No problem, really," said Luna, brushing the dust off of her robes, her breathing still a bit jagged. "I don't mind, when you are on top of me, but next time you mount me please try to be a bit gentler."
Ron's face paled as he turned to look at Luna, who was already half-way across the room, breezing past a hysterically laughing Harry without much acknowledgment of the entendre she had just uttered. It took Ron a moment to regain his composure, and even longer for him to wait for Harry to regain his.
"And Hermione thinks I'm the immature one…"
"So what happened? Have you seen Gryffindor's sword anywhere?" Ron asked, panicking once again as the idea reappeared in his brain. As he pivoted to see Harry in his entirety, he saw his best friend brandishing the artifact in his hand, holding it between his thumb and index finger while waving it in the air. The red head frowned.
"What the bloody hell are you doing with that thing?"
Harry looked at the sword, then back at Ron seconds later, shrugging. He ran his free hand through his hair as he thought, trying to piece together the events of the last few minutes.
"To be honest, I really don't know. It all happened really fast…I heard Hermione scream and all of a sudden…it was like my body operated before my mind could tell it what to do. I was almost to the door by the time her scream finished, the sword flying into my palm before I had even thought about summoning it, much less taking out my wand."
He grabbed his wand out of his shirt pocket, waved it around as if to show Ron that he was telling the truth, and put it back into its original resting place.
"By the time I had reached the door and you guys had used your lumos spells, the flames had spontaneously increased to their normal intensity, as if…" Harry sighed, shaking his head in confusion. "Call me crazy, but I think the tent was helping me…helping us, I mean…did you or Luna ignite the fires more and I hadn't noticed?"
Ron shook his head, confirming Harry's suspicions. He ran his hand through his hair again, the familiar pain of his scar blending with the headache raging through his skull.
"Weird stuff," agreed Ron, walking with Harry towards Hermione's curtained room, a gaping hole in the wall where Hermione's doorway used to be. It seemed as if the canvas had been thoroughly shredded in a flurry of powerful swings and jabs.
"Bloody hell, mate! Why didn't you just unzip the door?" asked Ron as he kicked around the hundreds of scraps that littered the floor, trying to estimate the damage.
Harry was once again unable to answer him at first. "I don't know…it just seemed faster to do it this way. It was almost…instinctual."
"Well whatever it was, let's hope we can patch this up somehow later or Hermione is going to have to deal with quite the lack of privacy around here," said Ron with a smirk. Harry was still deep in thought, obviously trying to organize the jigsaw of questions which had suddenly developed within his mind. "Geez mate, haven't seen you so worried about anything before. You can calm down, you said she was alright," Ron added absentmindedly, brushing past Harry to join Luna inside Hermione's personal quarters.
Harry rolled Gryffindor's sword in his hand as he stood outside of the bedroom, thinking about the whole ordeal. Through all of his years at Hogwarts, he had learned a variety of spells to push the boundaries of his physical abilities, but he had never witnessed anything like what had just happened. The way his body reacted without his permission…the way he had performed without thinking, making all the right decisions before he even realized there were decisions to be made. It simultaneously amazed and frightened him. Vague memories of articles on unconscious magic were scattered somewhere in his memory, probably from some ancient assignment he had ignored during his younger years, but he could recall nothing of pertinence.
The only person who would know such information was sitting in the next room.
Sighing and making a mental note to ask Hermione about it later, he turned around and proceeded into the now wide-open bedroom which his best friend had claimed as her own.
The scene inside the room sickeningly reminded Harry of a hospital. Hermione stared at the hole Harry had just walked through, eyes unblinking and face pale. She was hugging her legs, her chin resting on one knee as she leaned back on the headboard of the mattress she was sitting on. Luna was also on the bed, prodding her wand into Hermione's stomach with an air of deep interest.
"Luna!" yelled Harry, much harsher than he had intended to. "What are you doing to her? Cut that out!"
"Just trust her mate," Ron said from a leather armchair at the side of the bed as he frowned, shaking his head at Luna's peculiar actions. "Don't ask, just trust her."
Luna jabbed Hermione in the stomach a few more times, little tufts of air being released from her lungs in tiny gasps as the younger witch continued her examination. Despite being Luna's pincushion, Hermione showed no signs of ever returning from her shocked state.
With one final poke, Luna brought her wand up to her nose and narrowed her eyes. Harry sat on the bed on the side opposite of Luna, who was presently twirling a loose strand of hair and mumbling to herself. The way she constantly turned her wand made it seem as if she was reading some microscopic text off the narrow piece of wood. Harry watched on curiously until the tip of the wand spat out a tiny green spurt of right.
"Well," Luna said, putting her wand back in her pocket as she placed the back of her hand on Hermione's forehead. "She seems to be alive…"
Harry's jaw dropped. "What do you mean seems…"
"Mate, we've been there. Just…" Ron sighed as he smirked and shook his head. "Never mind. If you don't trust Doctor Lovegood over there check for yourself."
Luna brought her hand back as Harry crawled closer to the center of the bed so that he was kneeling in front of Hermione, who had yet to show any sign that she recognized he had even entered the room.
Putting the sword he was still carrying to his side for the moment, Harry waved his hand in front of Hermione's line of sight, hoping that she would blink. However, the motion seemed to have no effect on her. He sighed, wishing that her bloodshot eyes would show some sign of life.
"Hermione, it's me, Harry. Can you hear me?"
There was no movement in the room as they waited for Hermione to respond. After a moment, she turned her head just enough to look into Harry's eyes. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
"Can you tell me what happened here? We heard you scream…are you alright?" Harry inquired calmly, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder as she continued to stare at him, a bit of color returning to her face but her expression the same as it had been when he had first slashed his way into the room.
Hermione's pupils darted from side to side, back and forth between Ron, Luna, and Harry. Her lower lip quivered as if she wanted to speak, but no sound exited her mouth. Apparently frustrated, she buried her face into her knees again and mumbled something to herself.
Harry turned at first to Ron, and later to Luna, who both returned his helpless look with an equally helpless shrug of the shoulders. Frowning, but determined nevertheless, he snuggled up to Hermione and put one of his arms around her huddled form. He brought his lips only centimeters away from her right ear.
"Hermione," Harry whispered. He felt her shiver as the warmth of his breath brushed against her cool flesh. "Whatever it was, you are safe now. We're all here now. I'm here now. All you have to do is just tell us what happened. Can you do that?"
Picking her head back up and taking a deep breath, Hermione nodded slowly. Harry smiled as he pulled away from her. "Now what's wrong?"
Hermione twiddled her fingers a bit as she tried to regain her cognitive abilities. Her mouth shaking in minuscule opening and closing motions, she was finally able to utter a few soft syllables.
"B…b…"
"B…B-what Hermione? Come on, just let it out."
"Boggart? Did you see a boggart? That has to be it, she saw a boggart!"
"Bellatrix? Was she here?!"
"Was it Blibbering Humdingers?"
"Blibbering Humdin…you can't be serious, Luna!"
Luna shrugged at Ron, who was staring at her in disbelief.
Harry silenced both of them with a glare before returning a comforting glance toward the girl on the bed. It was then that Harry realized that Hermione was staring right at him, her expression now serious. He tilted his head curiously, as if to ask her what was wrong. Making sure that she had Harry's attention and ignoring everyone else in the room, she mouthed one word to her companion.
Bed.
As soon as Harry received Hermione's message, his body set itself into motion. Using his right hand as an axis, Harry picked up the sword with his free hand while simultaneously spinning off the bed and onto his feet, his wand firmly grasped in his other hand as he completed his rotation. He pointed both weapons at the bed, a signal to his two companions to follow suit.
"What's wrong, Harry?" asked Luna as she circled around the mattress to join Ron and Harry on the left side of the bed.
"She said 'bed'," Harry cried, instinctively checking his surroundings for any signs of danger. "There is something wrong with the bed. Hermione, can you get off? Are you stuck?"
The once almost lifeless Hermione sighed, shaking her head. "Sometimes," she thought to herself, "I'm surprised how Ron-like Harry can be"
"The bed is harmless, put those things away before you hurt somebody."
Stuttering, Harry slowly put his wand away, Luna and Ron following suit right after him. He was glad that Hermione had regained the ability to talk, but now he was even more confused about the situation than ever. The conflict of emotion was displayed perfectly in the awkward half-smile that he gave Hermione.
Ron spoke the words that everyone else was thinking. "You screamed because you were afraid of the bloody be...ow!" he said, his comment interrupted by the force of Harry's foot crushing his toes as quietly as possible.
"Erm…I mean, what exactly about the bed, Hermione?" Ron continued, scowling at Harry for the searing pain in his foot.
After sending Ron a dirty look, Hermione turned to address Harry and Luna, continuing her ignorance of Ron's existence. "Look at this bed. Does something strike you as out of the ordinary?"
The three standees spread out around Hermione's bed, each investigating the piece of furniture closely. After several minutes, the trio, sharing the same confused demeanor, gave up their search.
"Alright Hermione, we give up. What's wrong?" asked Harry, sitting down next to her on the bed.
She sighed, shaking her head.
"Here. Lie down next to me."
Hermione moved over as far as she could before sliding down the mattress so that she was laying down completely, her toes several inches from the end of the bed. She tapped the right side of the bed with her hand, signaling Harry to follow her previous order.
Determining that there was no other choice but to trust Hermione, Harry too let his body glide down the smooth sheets until his head hit one of the several pillows scattered across the sleeping area. He turned his head towards his bedmate, waiting patiently for the next instruction. Harry saw that she was staring right at him, eyebrows raised.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Notice anything?"
"Well…I guess it's a bit less comfortable than I remem---"
"No, Harry. Don't you find it weird that, in a tent which creates individual rooms with single beds for every person who is living in it, that two fully grown teenagers can both lie down quite comfortably and with plenty of personal space…in the same bed?"
Harry thought about what Hermione had just said, a burst of anger spreading through his body. Here he was thinking that she was about to be killed, and all the while she was complaining that her bed was too big? Harry had had the unfortunate opportunity to hear Hermione scream in terror more times than he would have preferred in his lifetime, and by far her most recent screech had been the most chilling of them all.
And yet here she was, frozen in fear from the size of a mattress.
Harry scooted up so that he was now sitting, leaning on his two hands which were sprawled behind his back. He glared at Hermione.
"You mean to tell me Hermione that all that commotion was because there is this minuscule detail about your room which, by the way, many people would consider a good thing, bothered you so much that you had to scream about it? Do you know the kind of panic you sent all of us into back there?"
Hermione shot upright, scowling at Harry. "Are you honestly telling me that you have no idea what this means?"
It was Harry's turn to scowl. "Yes, I know exactly what this means Hermione, it means that nothing is wrong. Absolutely NOTHING is…"
Only seconds after the words had left his mouth Hermione was in motion. Before Harry could react, he felt the weight of Hermione's body come crashing on top of him, causing both of them to fall back onto the surface of the bed. Hermione's elbows were buried in his ribs, holding him into place.
"Hermione, what are you…"
"All of this means something is wrong, Harry! Very wrong. When the tent rearranged itself, it should have created four separate rooms for each person. But look around! Two chairs, two dressers…two EVERYTHING, Harry! And the bed…it's clearly for two people," Hermione said, her grip on Harry's shoulders tightening as fear crept back onto her face.
Harry gulped. "So that means…"
Hermione nodded. "Yes Harry. This isn't my bedroom, this is our bedroom."
A/N: Hmmm, this chapter was actually a wee bit shorter than I intended. Oh well. Sorry it took so long to update, that should be about the average time it will take me to write a new chapter since the proofing process is a bit longer since my beta no longer lives with me and since I'm back at school now. Hope you all enjoyed it. Remember when I said this part of the story would be a 3 chapter arc? Haha, yeah…that was a lie, as there are at least TWO more chapters…wait, maybe three…gah, I don't know anymore…we'll see how time goes, but I already know what to write next so keep checking for updates!
Oh, and I guess I should addendum here: I apologize for overly dense Harry. It is a bit over the top, but hey, it got him in bed with Hermione, did it not ;)
And as a special note, thank you to everyone who voted for me in the competition! Getting third place was more than I
could ever ask for, especially with my first fic ever! You guys are the best and thank you to all those other great
Harmony writers out there for being the inspiration for me to start writing my own.