Braving the Past

Chapter 61: The Locket

Dim light filtered through Hermione's closed eyelids. She vaguely remembered surrendering to sleep when the clue had been too much to decipher. Their fire had long died out, leaving a cold ash pile in its wake.

When she opened her eyes, her heart gave a painful jolt. Standing directly to her right, not ten feet away from her, was a masked death eater. Though she remembered casting protection spells when they'd arrived at the hill, Hermione couldn't keep from holding her breath, fearing he would hear it. His shoulders were hunched as he took in his surroundings from atop the hill.

Hermione stared wide-eyed as he turned in her direction. His eyes glanced over their cold ash pit and prone bodies as if there was nothing there for them to catch on. Though she was lying among the tall grass, the wind still blew her frizzy hair into her face. She didn't dare move to brush it away.

A second death eater appeared with a crack next to the first. Hermione's heart pounded so heavily she could feel each pulse through her entire body.

"Not a soul," he said. This one was unmasked, but she didn't recognize him. His hair was almost as red as the Weasley's. Almost.

"Someone was here," the first criticized. "The cabin's all made up. Unless your report was false and you didn't actually wreck the place? The Dark Lord would be disappointed."

"I didn't say that!" the other growled. "I said no other members of the Order are there now. Whoever it was -"

"Are you suggesting they fixed it just so they could leave?"

The second squared his shoulders, seeming to reach his limit with whatever authority the first was trying to claim. He got up close to his masked face. "Go and take a look yourself, then. Bleeding place is empty, but it don't mean they're not around here somewhere."

The first death eater gave a hum and took one more slow look around before apparating away with a crack that echoed across the hills and down the bluffs. The second glanced around, then spit on the ground and took off after him.

Hermione let fresh air in with a gasp. She turned her head to find Draco laying perfectly still, silver eyes open and intense.

"They couldn't see us," he said in a raspy voice. "How did they not see us?"

Hermione lifted a shaking hand to her hair. She breathed out slowly to settle her nerves before answering.

"Protective charms around our camp. It's how Harry, Ron, and I avoided detection all those months while we hunted horcruxes."

His face still looked paler than normal. Some dark blood had leaked through his leg bandage, but it didn't look fresh.

"I'm fine, Granger," he said, noting her appraisal. "But we won't avoid detection here forever. They're suspicious."

Hermione sat up and shook her head at herself. "I can't believe we didn't think to revert the cottage back to what it was! I should've known better than to leave it clean."

"What's done is done." Draco's face tensed as he straightened as well, carefully adjusting himself against the boulder behind him. "I believe we have a riddle to solve."

She sighed and looked down the hill to where the cottage sat. She couldn't see the death eaters, but that didn't mean they weren't still inside. Or even more scouring the area. Her body ached down to her bones, but she forced herself to stand.

Anxiety twisted in her gut. A deep fear that there was something else she was missing. If they stayed here, they might be found out, but what if the other groups had gotten laid up, too? What if they needed the clue from Professor McGonagall?