The Hearts Eclipse

Chapter 12: Mountains and Valleys

The sun was high overhead, casting a brownish-green hue through the trees. The shade may have appeared cool, but it offered little protection against the midday heat. The thick foliage under the canopy seemed to have stopped all traces of breeze. Warm, moist air clung to the skin, and the trek out of the valley was steeper than it had appeared. Hot days, cold nights and vicious terrain. Time and fatigue had long worn away the thrill of escape, and had left them with nothing but the bleak reality of the situation: they still had a long way to go. For two days, Harry had traded off the lead with Draco, neither wanting to be the one to make the cruel decision to veer south up the mountains as the valley had trailed off slowly to the west. Finally, on the third morning, Harry had made the call, which had permitted Draco to partake in his favorite activity: complaining. For once, Harry grudgingly felt that Draco had a right to complain. After three days of trudging through the local landscape uninterrupted, Harry had to admit to himself that he was becoming sick of it, too. Not that he was going to let Draco know. Still, despite Harry's own fatigue, it seemed that Draco was faring far worse than he was.

Harry sighed deeply as he used the trunks of saplings to pull himself up a steep incline, and glanced over at Draco, whose face was shining with exertion. The greenish tint from the trees only made Draco's poor coloring appear worse, and the dark circles under his eyes made him look physically abused. Harry suspected that even if Draco had been less fatigued, he still wouldn't have had an easy time climbing a mountain. He really wasn't the outdoor type. Harry was still feeling the after-effects of his captivity, and was more than willing to maintain a slow pace. Which, in a mixed blessing, gave Draco just enough wind left over to talk. He was rather good at talking, Harry supposed, depending on one's point of view. When Draco had finally exhausted his complaints, which took the better part of an hour, he returned to his seemingly interminable list of random topics. "When I was six years old, my nurse told me there were fairy rings up north here."

"Really?" Harry asked automatically, knowing that Draco was going to elaborate regardless. It had become a pattern over the past two days. Draco would begin with a grandiose pronouncement about some obscure magical thing. Harry would then feign nonchalance, but would really listen intently as Draco revealed yet another fascinating titbit about the wizarding world. There was surely a lot to learn; things far beyond the transfiguration tricks Harry had memorized and completely different from Hermione's world of books and parchments. There was an entire depth of the magical world which Harry hadn't realized existed. It was about seeing everything in terms of magic first, physical second; something that Harry still hadn't fully grasped, even after more than five years in the wizarding world. The perspective was enthralling, and Harry found himself wishing that he'd been raised like that, to understand things in a way that he knew he'd never fully grasp now. He could almost understand why some people would want so desperately to ensure that all wizards and witches were raised by wizards and witches, and the desire to keep Muggle influences away. Almost.

If nothing else, he could listen to Draco now, and try to learn what he could. Besides, talking seemed to keep Draco going. "Well, she really told me that, but I always figured Matilda was just an old bat. She liked to tell stories," Draco explained as he ducked under a branch. "Fairies like warmer climates than this, and I've never heard of a reliable sighting of a true fairy ring. Hence the term 'fairy tales', if you ask me."

"And you brought this up why?" Harry asked neutrally.

"Don't really know – watch your head – but I guess the landscape here looked like how she'd described it, and it just reminded me."

"Aha!" said Harry as he dodged another low branch.

"What?"

"If the landscape is making you think of fairy rings, then you must be starting to like it." Harry smirked back over his shoulder at him as Draco batted the branch out of his way.