In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Look who's back

The return from Godric's Hollow had been a disappointing one for all of them. Harry's wand had snapped during the chaos at Bathilda's house, so now he was using Hermione's which meant she was using Briar's. 

Harry had told them about how Bathilda had been the snake, and that Voldemort must have planted her there, in case Harry returned. This caused both girls to be more anxious than normal. Briar couldn't believe they had let Voldemort so close to them, and now that he had, it was sure that he would be searching for them more than before.

What made Briar's life worse was the lack of Wolfsbane in her system, and with the full moon approaching, it made her increasingly irritable, which wasn't helped by the fact that now they had no leads on Gryffindor's sword

They had moved locations once again, to the Forest of Dean. Here too, the snow lay on the trees all around and it was bitterlycold, but they were at least protected from the wind. They spentmost of the day inside the tent, huddled for warmth around theuseful bright blue flames that Hermione was so adept at producing,and which could be scooped up and carried around in a jar.

Briar was getting herself into a routine of spending all day inside, before going food hunting with Hermione, and then taking the night watch. But after two nights of this Harry insisted she was exhausted so he was taking over, and Briar was incredibly relieved to finally sleep through the night

So she wasn't happy to have her sleep disturbed by Harry's voice screaming "Hermione! Briar!"

Briar heard Hermione stirring on the bunk below her, and the pair got out of bed to see what the commotion was about in the living room

"What's wrong, Harry?" 

"Are you all right?"

"It's okay, everything's fine. More than fine. I'm great. There'ssomeone here." He replied from behind the canvas 

Hermione drew Briar's wand and pushed open the divider "What do you mean? Who—?"

To both of their shock, stood there dripping wet onto the carpet, was none other than Ron. And clutched in his hand, was none other than the sword of Gryffindor. Ron gave a weak,hopeful smile and half raised his arms.

Hermione launched herself forward and started punching everyinch of him that she could reach. 

"Ouch— ow— gerroff! What the—? Hermione—OW!"

"You—complete—arse —Ronald—Weasley!" She punctuated every word with a blow: Ron backed away,shielding his head as Hermione advanced. "You—crawl—back—here— after—weeks— and—weeks—oh, where's my wand?" 

She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry's handsand he reacted instinctively. "Protego!" The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione. Theforce of it knocked her backward onto the floor. Spitting hair outof her mouth, she leapt up again. "Hermione!" said Harry. "Calm— " 

"I will not calm down!" she screamed. "Giveme back my wand! Give it back to me!" 

"Hermione, will you please— " 

"Don't you tell me what to do, Harry Potter!" she screeched. "Don't you dare! Give it back now! And YOU!" She was pointing at Ron in dire accusation: It was like a malediction, and Briar could not blame Ron for retreating several steps. "I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back!" 

"I know," Ron said. "Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really— " 

"Oh you're sorry!" She laughed, a high-pitched, out-of-control sound; Briar was now scared for Ron's life "You come back after weeks—weeks — and you think it's allgoing to be all right if you just say sorry?"