The Blood Traitor || Oc x Oc

False Hope

The next morning, they began to pack to leave. Sera had noticed that, while they were packing, Hermione seemed to have no desire to leave. And she had a sneaking suspicion as to why Hermione didn't have the sense to depart at the moment. 

She was hoping for a familiar, red-haired boy to reappear and rejoin them on their quest. 

And Sera wasn't going to lie, she wanted Ron to be back, as well. 

Finally, Hermione made up her mind. Sera, Dante, and Harry packed up the tent. When Sera glanced over at Hermione, she noticed that she had tears in her eyes, and was wrapping her scarf around the tree trunk, letting Ron know that they had left. Harry, Dante, and Sera walked over to Hermione. They grabbed onto each other's hands, where they Disapparated, leaving their place. 

While Hermione continued to sob over Ron's unexpected departure, Sera, Harry, and Dante began to put their protection spells over their camp. Once they'd settled in, Hermione began to fiddle with a station — one that clearly wasn't a wizard station.

Harry frowned in confusion.

"It's a Muggle station," Hermione explained. 

Sera and Dante watched as a song began to come on. Eventually, Harry grabbed Hermione's hand, which she took. She smiled and let Harry lead her. 

"Want to join them?" Dante asked. 

Sera looked up. He, too, had gotten up, extending a hand to Sera. She looked rather taken aback by his sudden action. But she smiled and accepted his hand. Together, all four of them danced through the night, as though they didn't seem to have a care in the world. 

For once, Hermione seemed to have forgotten about Ron and continued to just have the fun. But once the music had stopped, she collapsed back into the chair she had been sitting in, and continued to stay motionless. 

Another long day of keeping watch followed the day after. Everyone did their own thing. Then, quite suddenly —

"Hermione, you were right!" 

Sera looked up upon hearing her brother's voice. She frowned in confusion before joining both of her friends outside with Dante lingering behind. Harry shoved the Snitch into Hermione's hands. She frowned, confused. 

"Read what it says! You were right — Snitches do have flesh memories!" 

"'I open at the close'," Hermione repeated under her breath. 

Sera gave her brother a look of confusion. "What the bloody hell does that mean?" 

"I don't know," Hermione answered in a quiet voice. She pulled the book from the Will Dumbledore had given to her. "But look at this." Sera peered over Hermione's shoulder, as did Dante. "I thought that it was an eye, at first. Isn't that what it looks like to you guys? But now that I look more closely at it, I don't think that it is. It's definitely not in Spellman's Syllabary, either. And to me, it looks as though it had definitely been inked in." 

A flashback came to Sera's mind. She remembered talking to Luna's dad at the wedding. She remembered seeing that same symbol around Xenophilius Lovegood's neck. 

"Wait a minute," she said, snatching the book from Hermione's hand. She got a closer look a the symbol, tracing her finger over the inked symbol. "Harry and I had been talking to Luna's father at Bill and Fleur's wedding and he was wearing this exact same symbol!" 

Hermione glanced up at Sera, blinking in confusion. "What d'you mean, he was wearing it?" 

Sera shrugged. "Like it was some sort of charm. I don't know if he thinks that the symbol means good luck, or what."