Phoenix

Into the Woods

When I regained consciousness, I kept my eyes closed. I didn't remember being captured, but who knew what happened after I blacked out. I felt a somebody lying next to me, and grass tickling my neck. The sound of footsteps shuffling in the dirt let me know that only one person nearby was awake.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?"

I shot up quickly, and saw that the person pacing was Hermione. She was frantically looking through her bag as she walked.

I looked next to me and saw Harry's unconscious body. I checked his pulse, and it was normal. I silently rose to my feet and walked over to Hermione, my feet crunching only slightly in the leaves. Hermione had dropped to her hands and knees, leaning over something.

"Hermione, whats wrong?" I asked as I moved beside her.

Hermione gasped and fell back. "Kendra, you scared me! Don't ever do that again!"

As she dusted off her robes and stood up, I saw blood on her hands. Breath caught in my throat as I looked behind me and saw Ron's motionless body. Blood drenched the whole of Ron's left side and his face stood out, greyish white, against the leaf-strewn earth. The Polyjuice Potion was wearing off now: Ron was halfway between Cattermole and himself in appearance, his hair turning redder and redder as his face drained of the little colour it had left

I dropped to the ground and pushed aside Ron's sleeve. A large chunk of flush was missing from his arm as if cleaned by a knife. It wasn't life threatening, but he was loosing blood quickly.

"Did he splinch?" I asked absentmindedly as I tore off his sleeve for easy access.

Hermione nodded. "Hand me my bag."

I picked it up from where she had dropped it one the forest floor and handed it too her. She took the bag quickly, her face white and hands shaking.

The leaves crunched behind us. I turned and saw that Harry was awake. He looked worse for wear, with dark circles under his eyes and leaves in his hair. All in all, he was alright.

"Oh God," said Harry, looking over my shoulder. "What happened?"

"He splinched, then fainted." Hermione pulled two bottles out of the bag. "Kendra, can you open these? My hands are shaking too much."

Harry and I each took a bottle and opened it. We each handed a bottle back to her, and watched as Hermione took it and poured three drops of the potion on the bleeding wound. Greenish smoke billowed upwards and when it had cleared, the bleeding had stopped. The wound now looked several days old; new skin stretched over what had just been open flesh.

"Wow," said Harry.

"It's all I feel safe doing,"said Hermione shakily. "There are spells that would put him completely right, but I daren't try in case I do them wrong and cause more damage ... he's lost so much blood already ..."

"How did he get hurt? I mean," Harry shook his head as if to clear it.

"Why are we in the forest?" I asked.

"And why this close to Hogwarts?" asked Harry. "Aren't we bound to get caught here?"

Hermione took a deep breath. She looked close to tears.

"Harry, I don't think we're going to be able to go back to number 13."

"What d'you –?'

"As we Disapparated, Yaxley caught hold of me, and I couldn't get rid of him, he was too strong, and he was still holding on when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, and then – well, I think he must have seen the door, and thought we were stopping there, so he slackened his grip and I managed to shake him off and I brought us here instead!"