Dementor's Kiss

Chapter Six - The Forbidden Forest

~Hasn't been checked~

It wasn't easy getting up the next morning, not even the sound of the forest around them was enough motivation for them to drag themselves from the mild warmth of their tent out into the frosty morning air. With sleeping bags wrapped around their still clothed bodies, warm hats pulled down over their mussed up hair and fingers jammed into rainbow coloured gloves, the group made a strange sight when they were all sat around the depressingly-small fire. Huddled together like penguins at warmth, no one was speaking as they tried to conserve their energy and warmth. Hermione stoked the little flame with a stick that she had picked up from the tree line but it wasn't doing much good considering it was soaked through; she sat back helplessly, giving up on the fire that refused to grown.

Almost as if she had sent out an unspoken plea for help, Seamus leaned forwards as drew his wand from his pocket.

Everyone watched him skeptically, knowing of his incapability to do any spells without blowing things up on the first few times and then the pieces slid into place. Seamus muttered a spell under his breath, his mouth forming the first words that had been uttered that morning, and there came a short blast from the end of his wand, followed by an explosion. A sudden hissing came from the camping stove and the crowd looked on, half-amused when the smoke cleared to show the little flicker had formed a steady flame, licking away at the bottom of the pan.

Seamus sat back proudly and a murmur of 'well done's went up around the circle, which he absorbed modestly.

Hermione leant forward once more, her fingers deftly unwrapping the packaging and slipping the silver packets into the water, that was already bubbling from the sudden heat of Seamus's blast.

Ginny watched this all with a reasonably calm demeanour. Her soft eyes watching her friends in a caring way, worrying that this silence was a sign that they were all beginning to give up on the inside. She'd hate for that to happen; they were still together weren't they? They were still alive, that was something to be proud of - they had made it this far.

By the time Hermione was handing the small packets of rationed food out, the group was slowly beginning to talk. It was only a few words at first but as they began to eat more and feel warmer, they all began to talk a nit more openly. Seamus and Dean were laughing about the things that went right in the war, like blowing up the bridge, and from there Neville went on to retell his tale of leaping from the bridge and clinging to life by the tips of his fingers.

From there many tales came from the lips of Ginny's friends, tales of their heroic adventures both with and without Harry and Ron. Luna told them all of her time trapped within the Malfoy mansion, a story that made Ginny destroy any pity that she had been feeling for the Malfoy boy as well as any belief she had had that he could possibly have changed. No one could do things like what Luna had been forced to go through.

George, Seamus and Dean took their turns and they told them all of their many adventures with Fred, putting on the Potterwatch station and gathering intelligence on what was going on in the wizarding world. The way that they spoke about Fred brought back to life their fallen friend, they portrayed him in a light that let him shine again in this world even though he had long since left it. Their words have life to the image of Fred that they all had in their heads, they gave back his voice and his laugh as they told tales of the pranks that he had helped them pull on the death eaters and, when the spoke of his last few hours, they blessed him with a heroic bath of gold light that showed how proud they were of the man.

No one expected Hermione to be the one to speak up next, no one had really expected her to talk at all considering her stories were all about the people she had lost. If Ginny had to guess she would say that Hermione still had that pride inside of her and the fact that George, Seamus and Dean were able to talk about Fred must have made her want to do the same about her loss.