3.
The woods was every bit as dense as she remembered. Hermione had a rough time of it until she stumbled onto one of the many deer trails that crossed the forest. Without magic to clear the way, the members of the taskforce would be sticking to the trails as well. Hopefully Hermione would find Harry on one. Either that or she would be eaten by Nargles.
The fading twilight did little to help Hermione along her way. The thick canopy of the trees let very little light in. She had excellent night vision, but it was going to get very dark before the moon rose.
Stumbling over a tree root, Hermione fell to her hands and knees. While her jeans protected her knees well enough, her palms were scraped painfully. Picking herself up and shaking off the pain in her hands, she continued along the deer trail. In around twenty minutes, she emerged on the far side of the woods, skirted the forest until she found another trail, and headed back into the dark.
Luckier on this pass, she practically ran into one of the Aurors crouched on the trail in front of her. The Auror spun towards her and automatically drew a wand.
"What are you going to do, poke me in the eye?" Hermione whispered.
"Hermione?" the answering voice whispered back.
"Ron?"
"Yeah, what are you doing here? It's dangerous and, while you have a mean right hook, you aren't trained in hand to hand."
"I have to find Harry. It's important. Why are you couched here?"
"There's a clearing ahead on the trail. I was waiting for the moon to rise so I could see if the Death Eaters were using it."
Brushing past her ex-husband, Hermione strode out into the clearing and peered around herself.
"All clear," she said over her shoulder in a slightly louder tone of voice.
"You fool woman," Ron hissed. "What were you thinking? What if you'd walked straight into those Death Eaters?"
"I didn't. Look, I don't have time to waste. I have to find Harry before moonrise. We've got a bigger problem than the remaining Death Eaters."
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"At some point after moonrise, we're going to be attacked by Nargles."
"You've got to be taking the piss." Ron threw his hands up and then chuckled. "Nargles? They don't even exist."
"They do exist, they're just rare."
"You're as loony as Luna, you are. Even if they existed, what harm could a little thing like that be to a human?"
"Look, Ron, I don't have time for this. You know me...you lived with me for years. Do you think I'm insane?"
"No, of course not."
"Do you think I'm intelligent?"
"You're smarter than Harry and me put together."
"Then listen to me. That Goblin book I was translating has an account of a rare event, one that hasn't happened in hundreds of years. Those readings I took of magical creatures in the trees? They weren't Bowtruckles, they were Nargles. Sometime tonight after the moon rises, those Nargles are going to go into a frenzy and eat every animal--that includes us--that they can find. They have very sharp teeth and there are hundreds of them. The book said they could strip a Goblin to the bone in thirty minutes. Now, they can eat the Death Eaters, and I say good riddance. But we have twenty Aurors wandering in this wood with no magic. If we can't get Harry to drop the dampening field, they're all going to die."
"All right. Yeah. All right. I'll help look for Harry. Anyone I run into, I'll tell them to do the same."
Peering around the clearing in the dim light, Hermione found another deer trail and headed toward it. Pausing halfway there, she turned back to her ex-husband."
"Ron?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for listening to me."
"Hey, if Hermione Granger says there's wizard-eating Nargles, then there's wizard-eating Nargles. Stay safe, all right?"
"I'll try. You too."
That said, she turned back towards the trail and made her way into the darkness. She could make out the trail, but she found herself walking awkwardly. With every step, she raised her foot farther off the ground than she was used to in order not to trip on the uneven terrain. After another fifteen minutes walk, she found the young Auror, Jude, and told him the same story as she told Ron. When she got his promise to look for Harry, Hermione struck out in a new direction and kept walking.
Soon, even the dubious assistance of the twilight was gone and she found herself creeping along using only the sensation in her feet of the bare dirt of the trail to keep herself on the path.
Stopping in confusion, she felt around with her foot but couldn't tell where she was. The trail had vanished. It was unclear whether the spongy stuff she stood on was dead leaves or grass. Hermione crouched down to feel it with her hands. Grass. She must be in another clearing. Not knowing which way to go, she sat on the ground in defeat. It had seemed practical to grab a knife before she'd rushed out of her apartment. Why hadn't she thought to bring a torch? The darkness was getting to her. Anything could be in this clearing, Death Eaters or Nargles or God knew what.
As she sat contemplating her next move, the clearing around her burst into a diffuse, cool light. As much as she was relieved to be able to see, she turned her face to the sky and silently cursed the moon. If she was right, and the Nargles were getting ready to swarm, it would start any moment now.
The clearing she sat in was empty. Rising to her feet, she found a new deer trail and went back under the trees. It was still too dark for her to feel confident, but at least the moonlight through the trees let her follow the faint line of the trail as it wound through the wood.
Her present trail led to no new Aurors, or to Harry. It seemed forever since she had spoken to Jude, though she guessed it had been less than an hour. A strange sound began to rise in the trees above her head. A creaking sound, like trees groaning in a strong wind, but there was only the lightest of breezes blowing. Five minutes later and the creaking was joined by sharp squeaks and trilling wails.
It was the Nargles, it had to be. No matter how much she'd wished her research was wrong, the small beasts were beginning their mating frenzy. Anyone who stayed in this wood without the benefit of magic was bound to be hurt or killed.
Hermione had tried her best, but she'd run out of time.
It wouldn't do any good to stand here in the middle of the trail like a frightened rabbit, she had to keep moving. Her only chance now was to find her way out of the wood as quickly as possible and convince the Aurors to listen to her. If that failed, she swore she'd petrify them one at a time and turn the damn stones off herself. True, they were highly trained Aurors, but they'd never suspect such treachery from her. She'd have a fair chance of disabling the dampening field if she could find her way out of the forest.
Her plan in place, Hermione continued down the trail as fast as she could in the dim moonlight. Twice she fell in her hurry, but she got back up and kept going. The main problem was that the deer trails wound around through the wood. There was no way of telling which way would bring her to the outer edge of the trees the fastest. All she could do was keep her feet moving and hope for the best.
Hermione splashed into the water before she realized it was there, so focused she had been on the ground in front of her feet. She'd found the pond. It looked eerie in the moonlight, a flat mirror of the sky above with tendrils of mist lifting from it here and there. The trail she'd been hurrying along ended at the water's edge. The deer must use it to come to drink. She needed a new trail.
Looking around, she spotted one of the abandoned cabins near the edge of the water. Surely there was an old trail that lead to the cabin she could use to find her way out of the wood. The creaking above her in the trees had reached the level of all-out screeching. If she wanted to live, she had to get out from under the trees.
Halfway to the cabin, something fell from the trees above, landing on her shoulder. The small shape screamed in her ear and sunk sharp teeth into her neck. Screaming herself, Hermione tore the Nargle from her neck with one hand and threw it away from her as hard as she could. It rolled across the forest floor, bouncing over tree roots, before it fetched up against a tree trunk. Springing to its feet, the odd little creature ran towards her on two legs, shrieking and waving it's long arms over its head.
Hermione's hand was on her wand before she remembered it would be useless. As the tiny savage ran towards her, she raised a foot and brought it down on the insane thing with all the force she could muster. Lifting her foot, she examined the Nargle's broken body on the forest floor. It was dead.
Before she had any time to be relieved, a dozen more Nargles fell to the ground around her. No choice but to flee. The cabin should offer some shelter from these crazed beasts. Leaping over the nearest Nargle, she sprinted towards the dubious safety of the old cabin. Ten feet from the cabin's front door, she tripped over an unseen stone and hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her.
The screaming of the Nargles grew closer as she struggled to take a breath. Just as she sucked in a wheezing stream of air, strong hands grabbed her. In a purely reflexive action born of fear, she batted the hands away.
"Get up, you stupid woman. Do you want to die here?"
The gravelly voice was familiar, but Hermione couldn't place it. She allowed the hands to pull her to her feet, and then she was being dragged by the hand to the door of the cabin by a man in a dark cloak with the hood pulled up. All she could tell about him was that he was much taller than she was and he was trying to save her life.
He didn't release his tight grip on her hand until he had slammed the cabin door shut behind them. Three of the bright green Nargles had followed them inside, and the tall wizard stomped them under his black boots before flinging them into a fire burning in the hearth of the one room cabin.
"Give me your cloak." His voice was demanding. The tall man held out his hand as if expecting to be obeyed.
His face was hidden in the shadows under his hood. The sound of his voice was distracting her. It was at once familiar and unfamiliar. Though her initial reaction was to argue with the gruff man, he had just saved her life. With a sigh, she unclipped her cloak and handed it to him.
Striding to the door, the man knelt to stuff the fabric of her cloak into the crack under the door where several of the slender Nargles were trying to gain access.
"There. That should help, at least for a little while." Throwing back the hood of his cloak, the man strode to the only window of the small cabin and peered outside. "Now, would you mind telling me, Madam, why you were wandering alone in the forest on the first Nargle mating period we've had in several centuries?"
The voice made more sense now. A familiar voice made more rough by a throat injury. She knew this man. He looked much the same as he had the last time she had seen him, except that his face was a little more lined and he had a large steak of silver in his jet black hair. And, of course, he wasn't lying on the floor bleeding to death.
Her mouth fell open in shock. The man who had saved her life was none other than Severus Snape.
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A/N
I am having so much fun! It's been far too long since I played with Hermione and Severus. I hope you enjoyed this 3rd chapter, and there's 2 more to go.
My campaign on Kindle Scout was flagging. I've never exactly been a social butterfly. Thanks to you and my friends in the costuming world, it's perked up quite a bit. I thank you. My campaign ends 12/15/2016. If you enjoy my writing, and want a chance at a free e-book of Descending, stop by Kindle Scout check it out, and nominate it if you like what you see. You can find it in the romance section. If it's chosen for publication, everyone who nominates it gets a free advance copy. Free books! Nothing wrong with that.
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