The Power He Knows Not (Harmione)

Chapter 2 - The Wooded Trail

The sun broke through the morning mist hanging over the Burrow and warmed the small hearth room. As it grew brighter, Harry stirred in the chair he had fallen asleep in only hours before. As he opened his eyes, he couldn't remember having slept so well, even though he knew he'd pay for it now.

"Ouch," he muttered to himself, rubbing his sore neck. He had fallen into such a relaxing sleep even the increasing pain in his neck from sleeping upright in a chair all night hadn't manage to wake him. He closed his eyes and tried to rub the pain away from his neck. He felt his heart nearly jump into his throat as his hand collided with someone else's.

Startled, Harry leapt from the chair and spun around to see who was behind him.

"Hermione!" Harry gasped. "You nearly scared the life out of me."

"I didn't mean to frighten you," Hermione replied, looking a bit dejected. Apparently noticing Harry was still dressed from the night before, she asked, "Did you sleep in this chair all night?"

"Well, I... er," Harry stammered, looking at Hermione, suddenly remembering what had brought him downstairs in the middle of the night.

"Harry, we need to talk," she said quickly. "Let's go for a walk," she suggested, motioning her head toward the door. Harry followed her into the morning dew, and they set off for the wooded trail leading out of the garden.

A quiet walk, just the two of them, was not a new experience for Harry and Hermione. They had walked around the lake together at Hogwarts several times. The most memorable of these meanderings came only last year. This time, however, it was different. They had known each other for years, yet this was the first time they both seemed to be at a total loss for words. Harry broke the awkward silence first, clearly trying to stave off the time he would be required to discuss the inevitable.

"So, what did you want to talk about Hermione?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

She continued to walk beside him but couldn't bring her eyes to his. "Well, I was just thinking. Yesterday seemed a bit strange to me. You were very quiet from dinner until I turned in for the night. You didn't seem to want to look at me. I was just wondering if I had done something to make you angry?" she asked, with a guilty look on her face.

Harry had the clear impression this was not what she wanted to talk about at all, yet this was her attempt of discussing the events of yesterday without actually having to say anything. He thought it was quite a clever strategy and was unable to control a faint smile.

"No, I'm not angry about anything. I've just had an awful lot on my mind. I've just been a bit down this summer, that's all." He was only speaking the partial truth.

Hermione looked up at him with a compassionate expression and asked, "How have you been dealing with Sirius?"

Harry was almost surprised at the candor in which she asked the question. Given this particular subject, everyone seemed to be prancing around him as though not wanting to remind him he had witnessed the death of his godfather only weeks before. He looked back at her and began recounting the last two weeks. The images, the dreams, and the thoughts that plagued him all summer became the focus of the conversation. He stopped short of telling her about his conversation with Dumbledore and the prediction concerning him and Voldemort. It almost seemed unnatural for him to stop talking to her. That was one thing that was so incredibly easy for him to do; it always had been. Following Harry's lead, Hermione began telling him about the short holiday she'd spent with her parents in Switzerland.

He listened to Hermione rattle on about her summer and thought about the times they managed to communicate without words. He remembered Malfoy's threat on the Hogwarts Express about "dogging" Harry throughout his fifth year. While Harry and Hermione both seemed to understand the play on words and the implied threat toward Sirius, Ron had continued on blissfully unaware.