nowhere | dramione

If You Go Down To The Woods

Harry and Ron pitched up the tent behind me as I cast our usual protective enchantments to accompany the pre-existing ones in the Fourbe Woods.

"Protego totalum," I muttered when Ron came and stood beside me. "Salvio hexia," I continued, but he was still stood there watching me. "Muffli- yes, Ronald?"

"Sorry, Mione, it's just..." he looked at me and smiled, "You look really beautiful today. And every day, of course! I meant, the way the sun's coming through the trees, it makes your eyes glow an amber colour." He gazed into my eyes and I felt my cheeks begin to redden. "Actually, they look more like honey. Not that bottled Muggle stuff, proper honey, all golden and glistening."

Unsure of how to respond, I laughed. Not a mean laugh - of course not! - but what I hoped was kind laugh, so that Ron would know I was flattered. Sort of a flirtatious laugh like people do in books. "Thank you, Ron. The sun makes your eyes look lovely as well." I looked back into Ron's eyes and studied them. "They're swimming pools of a perfect bright blue. It's as though -" I cut myself off. If I look too carefully for too long, I might fall in, I could've said, if I was in a book. But I wasn't. "Your eyes are lovely. Very lovely."

Ron stared into my apparently honey-brown eyes and I into his ocean-blue ones as we leant closer towards each other and Ron's eyelids began to close as he leant in to kiss me.

I coughed abruptly and pulled away sharply. "Muffliato," I said as I returned to casting the charms and spells to avoid looking back at Ron. "Cave iminicum."

"I... sorry, I'm really sorry, I thought that-" Ron stuttered. I heard the rustle of leaves underfoot as he turned back to the tent. Why had I pulled away? I liked Ron, didn't I? Didn't I? Shouldn't I?

I always assumed that I did - although perhaps that was because I was determined to prove the people who thought Harry and I would become a couple wrong. I did like Ron, but in that moment I realised I liked him in the same way I liked Harry: platonically.

Finishing my work, I sat beside Harry outside the tent. He slung his arm round my shoulder and gave me a weak hug. After a long stretch of silence, he said, "We'll do it, Hermione, I know we will."

"Do what?"

"Y'know, find the horcruxes, avenge Dumbledore, defeat the Death Eaters and... him, kill Snape, kill Malfoy-"

"Harry!" I cut him off. "Yes, he is horrible, but don't talk about killing him, he's not even an adult yet."

"Neither are we, yet the entire fate of the wizarding world rests on my shoulders." He watched a squirrel run up a nearby tree and turned away, but before he did I could've sworn I saw a glaze of tears in his deep green eyes.

"Our shoulders, Harry," I began gently, "You're not alone. You have Ron and I, and Ginny, Neville and Luna and the everyone back at Hogwarts. Not only them, but your parents and Sirius and Dumbledore and Mad-Eye and so many others who have died or will die for the cause."

Harry snorted, "What use are my parents now?"

"Don't be like that. They died for a better future for you and the next generation. They're heroes, Harry, and you will be too. You're a revolutionary, the Chosen One, but remember, no hero works alone."

"What about Spider-Man?" he suggested defiantly.

"From those comics? Umm... the radioactive spider?" Harry suddenly burst out laughing.

"You're right," he said, "Sorry, Mione. You and Ron are the radioactive spider to my Spider-Man."

Harry and I laughed together some more before we realised it was getting darker by the minute. "I'll keep watch, Harry, you go inside and get a bit of rest. Ron can switch with me when I get tired."

"Okay then," Harry stood up and opened the tent flap then paused, "And Hermione - thank you. Y'know, for being there. I don't know what we'd do without you."

I smiled and gave Harry a tight hug. "That's why I'm here," I shrugged.

*

Shivering, I pulled my mum's old cardigan tighter around me, careful to still keep a good grip of my wand. The cardigan used to be purple, but was now a faded lilac with loose seams after years of wear. I buried my nose in the wool and sniffed deeply. If I focused hard enough, I could catch a whiff of my mum's old floral perfume that my dad used to buy her for Christmas and her birthday. I remembered Christmas with my family and my last birthday which had been spent at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville had planned a mini-party for me in the common room which - somehow - Luna managed to attend.

I remembered how happy I had been the day I got my Hogwarts letter, relieved that there were others like me, that I wasn't some freak of nature, that there was a place I could go where I'd fit in and make friends. I thought of Ginny, Neville and Luna at Hogwarts right now, trying desperately to keep Dumbledore's Army alive, to boost morale, to thwart Snape and the Carrows. And here we were: the Chosen One, the 'brightest witch of her age' and the Gryffindor King, in the middle of nowhere.

I itched my cheek and was surprised to feel the wetness of tears. Furiously, I dried my eyes.

"No, Hermione," I hissed to myself. "You are helping, don't be stupid. This is your duty."

Drawing in deep breaths, I stood up and began to pace around the tent. In the Muggle world, my mother and I used to take walks to the park and the local woods to clear our heads. "Lumos maxima," I murmured, further illuminating my wand as I stalked around our clearing, assuring it was empty. "I'll only be a moment, boys," I muttered to the tent as I carefully stalked down the brightest muddy path, further into the woods. 

Now I was out of range of our strongest charms. "I'll be fine, you boys'll be fine. Its just to clear my head."

As I went to take another step, I heard a whisper that made me turn around so quickly, I heard my neck crack.

"You'll be fine, will you, Mudblood?"