Fear (Sequel to Love: ADS)

Chapter 17. The Path to the Temple

I steadied myself against the trunk of a particularly gnarled oak, trying, and succeeding, in fighting down my nausea. "So you have no idea why aurors are after us?"

Harry shook his head, breathing hard.

"You are an auror! You didn't get a memo or something?!" I ran a hand through my too long hair. "Oh god, this means I'm a fugitive. You're a fugitive." As I rambled, Harry started pulling things out of his pack. "Oh my god."

"Here." Harry tossed a package of biscuits at me, before throwing me an oversize muggle hoodie.

"You have an extension charm on your pocket?" I asked, slipping into the hoodie. "Brilliant. What else have you got in there?"

"Anything we could possibly need." he replied. "I have a pair of jeans that we can transfigure for you, too." He pulled out a pair of pants and I slipped them on underneath my hospital gown, which I was leaving on under my hoodie for warmth. It was very warm. "And," Harry paused to pull out a pair of shoes, "some hiking boots. Your welcome."

As I put them on, Harry looked around. "This is as close as I could get us to Wistman's wood. There's some kind of magical interference around here. I don't know how anyone hasn't found it. There must be some kind of repelling charm on it, I suppose."

I tossed the biscuits back. "Save them for later." I said. "I think I might vomit if I eat one right now."

Harry shrugged and put them back in his pocket. "Suit yourself. Anyway, this is the official boundary of Wistman's wood. So, Mr. Temple's Chosen, lead the way."

I walked toward the edge of the forest. "The book said that the path of winding twists would lead us to the temple, right? I don't see any path-" Before I could finish my sentence, a deep rumbling came from the forest, and the two larger trees directly in front of me parted.

"If I had to guess," Harry said, "I think that'd be the path the book was talking about."

I stepped into the woods. The canopy was thick, and barely any moonlight showed through. After my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see a glimmer of something on the ground. I sighed. "Harry, I'm seeing a magic blue path."

"Great." Harry said, sounding surprisingly enthusiastic. "Let's follow it."

Keeping my eyes on the ground, I followed the glowing line through the forest. It turned at seemingly random intervals, leading us through the gnarled oak trees. We must have walked for about four hours before Harry started yawning after every other word of his stories. I was getting sleepy too.

"You want to set up camp here?" Harry asked the next time we passed anything resembling a clearing.

"God, yes." I responded. "Don't suppose you have a tent in that magic pocket of yours?"

"I may carry a lot of things around with me, but I don't have a tent, no. I do have a couple sleeping bags, though." He started pulling things out of his bag. "And a tarp. And some pillows. You want anything to eat?" He offered me a slightly crushed granola bar.

I took it gratefully. "Thanks."

"No problem." he said, levitating the tarp and tying the edges to the low hanging branches above us. A makeshift roof.

~

The next morning was not pleasant. One, because I was cold, despite the small fire Harry had made and the heating charms he had cast, two, because my legs hurt from walking for hours the night before, and three, because I had the most god awful headache. It was like someone has stuffed cotton through my ears and into my brain, and then started pounding on the side of my skull with a sledgehammer.

Also, it was raining.

When Harry finally forced me out of my sleeping bag and back onto the trail, I was having trouble stopping seeing the blue everywhere. It was easy enough to find the path when only it was glowing, but Harry was lit up brighter than a goddamn sun, and the trees were entwined with tendrils of blue as well.

The further we went, the worse my headache, and the brighter the path.

It was past noon before Harry and I stopped again. My headache had long since turned migraine, and honestly, I was ready to start bawling. All I wanted was a nice warm bed at Hogwarts, with a nice hot cup of tea, a good book, and Hermione. Was that really too much to ask?

"So the book said the temple was between the hands of god." Harry said, interrupting my pity party. "Any idea what qualifies as the hands of god?"

"I'm certain we're getting close." I said, massaging my temples. "What I'm worried about is the 'turned to dust if you aren't worthy' bit, and the 'being bound to the temple' bit."

"Yeah." Harry said amicably. "I can see why you'd be worried."