My Deepest Erised (Draco x Kaiye x Harry love triangle)

Part 26 - The Camping Trip (Part 2)

We walked for what seemed like hours.

The forest was right next to us, yet we never seemed to arrive at its part that Snape considered "safe enough" for camping.

My legs and shoulders ached for the moment I could set down my bag and sit down, but I started coming to terms that it might just never arrive.

I mostly walked with Hermione, as I didn't feel comfortable talking with the boys while Malfoy was with them. For some reason, he seemed even more intimidating than usual on that day, so I just pretended that I didn't have to spend the night in the same tent he did. And ignoring my problems at least gave me some peace of mind.

The Forbidden forest gave off a very strange vibe.
Even though it looked like a normal forest on the outside, you could definitely tell just by looking at it, that it was far from normal.
It didn't seem to dawn on me that, apart from staying with Malfoy, I would have to stay with scary creatures and hope they don't kill me in my sleep.
Once again, ignoring my reality seemed like the best option to me.

"Everything okay?" a voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked to my side and saw Harry walking next to me. Before I could tell him that it was, he continued: "You're pressing your nails into your palms really hard."

I followed his gaze to my hands and instinctively, I immediately relaxed them.
I didn't think anyone would notice that ugly habit of mine, especially not then, when even I wasn't aware of it.

"This forest is freaking me out a bit," I admitted part of the truth.

"That's fair," Harry nodded, "It's not the most ideal place to spend your weekend camping trip at."

He smiled and I followed, trying to have the same positive outlook he had.

"Besides, please don't tell me you're stressing that much because of that. I saw what you did at the duel. You're not some poor little thing that needs to worry."

"Thanks, Harry," I muttered, still not too convinced. Everything that happened at Hogwarts was a different story - it was in a controlled environment - had anything bad started happening, one of the teachers would've called the whole thing off.

"As evil as Snape seems, he wouldn't let anything bad happen to us. I won't even mention Hagrid."

That was true though, and I knew it.

"Okay," I scratched my face, "I guess you're right."

"The only thing I would be worrying about are those clouds," Harry said, looking up at the sky.

The greyness that stood above us did look a bit concerning, but rain was the least of my problems.
Funny how we had such a different outlook on problems.

"It's just water, we'll be fine," I tried to help cheer him up, after he already helped lighten up my mood.

"I'm sure you will - I look like a wet dog when I get wet," he laughed.

"You do not! I saw you in the rain that one time," I said, remembering the time we hung out on the hill and it started raining.

Mentioning our past brought my thoughts back to our kiss, and judging by the look on his face, it brought Harry back to the same thing.

"Yeah...that was fun," he said, and I started blushing.

I didn't say anything, trying to stop my thoughts from running wild.

"We're here!" Hagrid announced and everyone let out a loud cheer.

We turned a sharp right and started entering the forest.

Even though it was already dark outside, the forest was even darker. Hagrid and Snape had their wands up, emitting light from them so that we could see and follow them easier.
The rustling of leaves and random little creaks followed the sounds of our footsteps, my heart jumping at every single one of them.