Between Fine Lines

Twelve

The next morning in the tent was quiet. Hermione and Regulus sat at the table having breakfast when Ron finally came out of the area where his bed was. Harry was just getting himself up, but Ron had all his things packed, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

"Mate... what are you doing?" Harry questioned, standing there as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Ron dropped his bag down with a thud, looking at his best friend. "I'm leaving," he stated simply, gaze darting to Hermione and Regulus, who sat watching the scene before them quietly. "We can't just stay here forever, hoping Sirius turns up soon. We need to find the sword; we have to start destroying horcruxes. I want to go home to my family," Ron informed Harry bitterly.

"You don't think we all want to go home?" Harry questioned as he pushed his hair from his face, putting his glasses back on so he could see everybody properly. "Ron you can't just leave, we're supposed to do this together."

Ron picked up his bag. "We have now turned into Hermione and him, and me and you, there really isn't much of an us anymore. It's clear Hermione doesn't want me here either," Ron looked over at the brunette, Hermione watching him from over her coffee mug, a frown on her face.

"I've done nothing but support you and Harry for the last six years, Ronald. The one time I want something for myself, it's a whole issue," she informed him. "I never said I wanted you to leave, but I'm not going to stop you from going either."

Ron left early that afternoon.

The quietness of the morning stayed within the tent during the afternoon. Harry, besides himself that his two best friends were fighting and he could not fix it, Hermione, who had dived back into her text to see what else she could find to help them in their hunt and Regulus sat quietly, writing a letter to Sirius he would never send, inevitably trying to decide what he would say to his brother when he saw him again.

"How do you think we'll know?" Hermione questioned sometime in the evening as she and Harry were making dinner while Regulus collected more firewood. Harry looked at her with confusion and she gave a small giggle, realizing she had not been clear. "About Sirius, how do you think Remus will tell us he's home?"

"Oh..." Harry thought about it while he chopped vegetables for the soup they were going to attempt to make. "I suppose through the radio, right? They've all got their code names-I've figured most of them out. I've got one too, so hopefully they'll use it to direct the information properly and then we will know and we will go to Grimmauld Place."

"What about Ron?" Hermione questioned, chewing on her bottom lip as she scooped the vegetables into the broth. "Do you think he'll be alright?" Sure, she was utterly mad at the tosser, but that didn't mean she wanted him to get hurt-or worse.

"I have been thinking about that this afternoon... I know he won't just go home, it's too dangerous-The Burrow is being watched, I'm sure of it." Harry gave a sigh. "I might go after him, drag him back to Grimmauld Place."

Hermione turned to look at her friend, "What about Regulus and I?" she questioned. "You would stay here... don't give me that look, it would just be a few days. I would get to Ron, we would get back to Grimmauld and then once we checked it out, made sure its safe and still in possession of Remus while Sirius has been gone, I would send word."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry, mulling over the idea of it all. Ron had really set them off any kind of plan they had barely even scraped together and it aggravated her, even more so because he had no idea that she had Obliviated her only family to keep them safe. "You could use the bracelet, find him faster," Hermione reminded Harry gently.
"I almost forgot about these, I barely feel it on my wrist," Harry chuckled, playing lightly with the braided bracelet between his fingers, spinning it lightly on his wrist. "The intention was to make them plain enough that nobody would find them interesting, I just wish I would've been able to figure out the spell to send your location to other bracelet wearers," Hermione sighed.

Harry nodded, "These are still brilliant though, simple spell and I can find any one of us, I never would have thought of anything like this. Like in fifth year, when you thought of the coins for DA. We would be lost without you Hermione," Harry insisted honestly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Just promise me you'll be careful," Hermione insisted, pulling him closer to hug him tightly. "And don't do anything stupid. Find Ron and get to Grimmauld."

"Trust me Hermione, the more trouble I can avoid during this war-the better."
Harry left the next day after Hermione had skillfully cloned the radio, not wanting to leave him without one. She knew that Harry couldn't just leave Ron to hunt for the sword of Gryffindor all on his own, and the standstill they had ended up in due to poor timing of Order Mission's was not something they could have prevented.
Did it piss Hermione off any less about Ron leaving though? No.
The next afternoon, she and Regulus were outside, gathering berries and she couldn't help but rant about Ron and his behavior. She was just so infuriated over how selfish Ron had been, to go off on his own, to leave them all, results be damned. He never had any patience for as long as she had known him, but this wasn't some game of chess or a quidditch match-this was war! People were dying, going missing, getting kidnapped and tortured. Now was not the time to be selfish.

Hermione did not realize that she had wandered out of the privacy wards, too busy muttering under her breath about 'that stupid redhead' until a voice caught her attention.

"Well what do we have here?"

Hermione snapped her head up from the bush she had been examining, her hand immediately going to her pocket to grab her wand...she had left her wand in the tent. She could see it, because they were her wards, the smallest glimmer she could tell was Regulus just standing on the other side.

"I'm just picking berries," she informed the three snatchers in hopes they would just carry on, maybe assume she was a muggle and pay her no mind.

"And you were talking-is there somebody else here?" one of them asked, his eyes trained on her. Hermione shook her head, staring directly behind the snatchers head to where she was sure that Regulus was standing, hoping he would take the hint to not reveal himself. They had important things in their tent, notes about horcruxes, plans to destroy Voldemort. "No. I'm camping by myself-get out of the city a bit."

"I can smell the magic on her. Definitely a witch," one of the other snatchers had begun to circle her and Hermione gripped the basket she was holding a little tighter, tempted to use it as a weapon. "What's your name, witch?" The first snatcher, who appeared to be in charge a bit more than the other two pulled a scroll from his pocket.
"Penelope Clearwater.... Half-blood," she lied, her eyes still gazing just past the snatcher's head as one of them ripped the basket of berries from her hands, tossing it to the side.

"She's not on the list... what do we do with her?" The snatcher that had been circling her, reached up, curling a piece of her hair around his dirty finger.

The main snatcher studied Hermione for a moment as she stood tall before them, his eyes narrowing as he analyzed her-and then he saw it. He turned his head to look behind him, but saw nothing. "What are you looking at?" he questioned curiously and Hermione narrowed her eyes back at him, raising a brow and letting out a scoff so pompous, it would've made the oldest pureblood proud. "I'd rather look at a dead unicorn than you," she informed him, forcing herself to now hold his gaze.

"Let's take her back to the manor- I don't think she's telling the truth. If there's somebody out here, they'll come looking for her, and we can snatch them up too." Hermione tried to struggle at this, successfully punching one of the snatchers closest to her in the face. She tried to reach for his wand as he stumbled, but the other two were quick to whip out their own wands, pointing them at Hermione.
"Oh... definitely a feisty one. I can't wait to see what they do with you."
As they grabbed a struggling Hermione and apparated away, the wandless magic she had cast to keep Regulus behind the wards finally broke, panicking at exactly who 'they' were.