Save The Date (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Eighteen

   "Why do you have that?" Ron asked.

Pansy arched an eyebrow. "After all the horrors he had to go through the last couple of years, I wanted to make sure I could keep an eye on him."

Hermione could understand that, although she couldn't say she was as sympathetic to Malfoy's plight as pretty much everyone else she knew. "And it pulled you towards Malfoy?" she questioned.

Pansy nodded, walking them around several logs that had been piled up together. "At first I thought it was a bit of a joke, that he and Potter were hiding out in the forest of all places, but then I just kept on walking, and when I discovered them unconscious and freezing it didn't seem so funny after all."

Hermione shivered, despite the layers of clothing she had on. "I'm glad you found them," she admitted in a small voice."

"Me too," Pansy agreed in a tone lacking its usual rancour.

"But what were they doing all the way out here?" Ron asked. They were so deep in the forest now the weak November sunshine was struggling to permeate the canopy, and the gloom put Hermione's nerves on end. "Were they fighting?" Ron carried on. "They seemed to be getting along alight lately – you know – for them."

Pansy tutted. "Shall you explain it to him darling," she asked, fluttering her eyelashes as Hermione. "Or I?"

Hermione frowned at her. "Um, what?" she said.

Pansy huffed and looked back in front of her again. "For someone so clever you are rather dim at times."

Hermione bristled, but she had no idea what Pansy was referring to, so decided not to respond. Instead, they trampled on in silence for some time until what looked like a clearing appeared up ahead, distinguishable from the ring of pale sunshine that was lighting the grass on the ground.

Sensing this was it, Hermione quickened her pace, dragging Ron along and then letting him go altogether as the three of them entered the glade.

"Here we are," Pansy said, opening her hands in a slightly hopeless gesture.

Hermione turned in a circle, taking in the half a dozen or so trees that lined the grass. "They were just here?"

"On the ground," Pansy explained, indicating the spot with her wand. "In front of these two trees, like they had just collapsed. I couldn't wake them up, so I summoned McGonagall, and she came with Pomfrey." She rubbed her arm and moved to look at some of the other trees, lifting her free hand to touch the bark. "I thought there might have been something on here last night, but maybe it was the moonlight playing tricks?"

She didn't sound convinced though, so Hermione stood from where she and Ron had been inspecting the grass and cast a quick Lux spell.

The result was immediate.

Images blossomed into life on each of the trees; not terribly strong, but clear enough to make out in the weak sunshine and the light from her spell.

"It's a heart," Pansy said in surprise, withdrawing her hand quickly from the bark.

"And a bonfire?" Hermione said, peering around at the several trees. There was a prayer mat, a colourful egg, and the two by Ron detailed a Christmas tree and a Jack-O-Lantern. "What does it mean?"

The three of them stood and stared for a little while as Hermione turned over the possibilities in her mind.

"Well," she said eventually. "I guess this represents Christmas and Halloween," she said, pointing at the more obvious pictures. "So I guess that's Valentine's?"

"That's Guy Fawkes night," added Ron eagerly. "And Easter."

"Look at this," Pansy murmured, and made her way back a little into the trees.

Even if the images had not grown more defined for whatever reason, they wouldn't have necessarily noticed the other markings as they would have been to their backs. But now, as they fanned out and made their way back into the woods from the glade, it was clear to see that the trees were all organised in rings around the clearing, and each one of them had a different picture on the bark. Hermione spotted fireworks and a daffodil, a shamrock and a frying pan, even what looked to be a portrait of Shakespeare and another of a face laughing so hard it was crying.

"I think they're all holidays," she said, looking back the way they had come. "Do you see?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "But what's the fish for?" He had ventured into the third ring of trees, and as it was gloomier again, he lit his wand to see better. "Or a teddy bear, or a bunch of vegetables-"

As soon as he held his wand up towards the tree with the vegetables, a gust of wind tore so fiercely through the woods that Hermione was pushed forward, and she tripped on her own feet, sprawling to the ground. But she looked up just in time to see the vegetables become startlingly clear, like the colours had intensified tenfold, and then suddenly the image swung open like a door.

And dragged Ron towards it.

"Accio Weasley!" Pansy's voice cut through the gale, hauling him away from the hole in the tree, and Hermione scrambled to her feet, her own wand raised.

"Colloportus!" she screamed, slamming the door back shut and locking it tight.

The three of them retreated into the centre of the clearing, all breathing heavily from the shock. "What the Hell just happened?" Ron demanded, clutching at his chest.

Hermione shook her head and looked at Pansy. "I'm not sure," she said.

But it didn't bode well for Harry or Malfoy.