Emma Potter; Going to War

102: Hogwarts [Pt.2]

"Are we seriously doing this?" Ginny hissed in my ear, as we silently crept through the forest. 

The light was fading, creating new shadows and dark patches around me. Eyes glimmered from tree hollows. The wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot. I moved faster, ignoring the briars that caught at my jeans, the damp leaves that grimed my skin

I lifted my face, letting the light and shadow dance across my skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. I inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of my feet sliding through the leaves.I lifted my face, letting the light and shadow dance across my skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. I inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of my feet sliding through the leaves.

The trees stood utterly still, statues in a living museum where no leaf dared to fall.

All around me I can hear the noises that during the day I don't even notice but by night seem to be magnified by the thousands. Croaking and chirping frogs, deep ones and the kinds that make that whirring whizzing sound that gets louder and then stops leaving a sudden silence. Chirping crickets, many different kinds, from all sides seem to be closing in, I hear them everywhere I turn. I think I even hear a howling somewhere in the distance. 

I turn back to look at her, "it's too late now, the train would nearly be there, by now."

"No, not that. I meant are we seriously going to war?" Ginny put emphasis on the word "war" like it was a big deal. Which it was, obviously. But I had come to terms with it ages ago, because I knew about it ages ago. I suppose, Ginny hasn't. I cast my eyes ahead, "yeah, we are."

"Now we really need to be quite," hissed Draco, glancing around warily. "We need to disapparate exactly outside this forest range."

"This is the fortieth time you've explained it to us," said Ginny, rolling her eyes. 

"That was for your sake," scoffed Draco. 

"My sake? I'm not stupid!"

"You certainly act like it."

"Why you blonde prat!" said Ginny, taking out her wand.

"Both of you shut up!" I said, stepping between them. "We don't have time to bicker, we need to be one hundred percent on guard now. Just. . .I don't know, put your stupid rivalry on hold until the war is over. Or at least until we get to Hogwarts! And Ginny, no magic!"

"Alright, alright" said Ginny, stuffing her wand back in her pocket. 

"We're here," said Draco, looking up at the darkening sky. 

"Ems, we need the invisibility cloak." said Ginny, turning to me. I was a step ahead of her, pulling it from my bag. Mr Weasly had dropped it off; Moody's cloak. I threw it over all of us, and Ginny grasped my hand, and reluctantly took Draco's. 

"After three, alright?" I said. 

"One. . " whispered Draco. 

"Two. . ."breathed Ginny, squeezing my hand tightly. 

I closed my eyes. "Three."

My feet touched road.  I saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart I remembered, with piercing accuracy, how I had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore; all this in a second, upon landing — no, no, no. Not now. Now was not the time.