"Uh - Hermione? I'm really sorry, but I don't think I'm going to be able to fly - especially on a dragon - right now. Maybe after I get some rest..." Matilda said quietly, looking down. Hermione could see how much she resented not being able to be active or have control. She could also see how pale Matilda still looked, and how even after a good night's rest she wouldn't be able to fly. And Hermione couldn't say that she didn't feel relieved that she herself wouldn't be forced to fly after all. "But there's a Floo station in the city, it's not too far, only about half an hours walk."
"Great! Which way is it?" Hermione asked, happy at the thought of not having to let her feet leave the ground, especially since it was growing steadily darker. She wondered if Ryan had managed to find and immunize the dragons yet, for sunset would surely be soon.
"Well, after you pass the largest Poplar tree opposite the Trainee Hall, you head straight on until you reach the old bear mound, then take a left at the singed rock shaped like a kneazle. Then you start to see some buildings and civilization and you're basically there!" Matilda dictated, closing her eyes to picture the route in her mind.
"I see..." Hermione furrowed her brow, trying to recall all the directions. "So - where is the trainee hall? I've only been here a month," she explained apologetically.
"Well seeing as I've been asleep for most of the journey, I have no idea where the trainee hall is from here! Or even where 'here' is for that matter!" Matilda snapped, rolling her eyes at Hermione - which she did not fail to see.
"Well, excuse me! Might I remind you whom is helping whom here?" Hermione retorted, glaring down at Matilda, who had raised herself into a sitting position. "Fine - if you're going to be that way I'll just leave, you can find your own way to London!"
There was a minute of silence in which both women stood and sat respectively, both with their arms crossed and there stares elsewhere. Eventually Matilda relented, turning to face Hermione's back.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "But I just hate being so helpless. I mean - I'm usually out fighting dragons, risking life and limb, flying around flames. I'm not used to not even being able to walk by myself for fear of falling. Look, the town is always due north from the centre, so if we head that way we should be okay."
Hermione accepted the apology with a nod of her head, and turned back to face her companion. "Okay - so which way's north?" She let out a sigh as Matilda shrugged. "Well, it's not that big of a problem - where's the North Star?" Again, Matilda shrugged.
"I was always more into Quidditch and Care of Magical Creatures than Astronomy!" she said defensively.
"Well I've done five years of Astronomy, and got a good grade in my OWL, so hopefully we should manage," Hermione told her, looking up at the stars that were beginning to reveal themselves.
"You know, there's more to life than just getting grades," Matilda said softly, but either Hermione was too busy concentrating on the constellations to listen to her remark, or she simply chose not to hear.
"Aha! No, wait..." Matilda found it very had not to laugh at Hermione's face as she squinted up at the stars. "It's hard - I'm only used to the positions from England!" Hermione burst out after Matilda's third laugh-turned-cough. "Look, is that the Big Dipper?"
For the first time since she had been diagnosed with Dragon Pox, Matilda found having to stay on a stretcher useful, as she could look up at the sky with ease, not getting neck ache from craning her head backwards, or being pricked with twigs and brambles from lying down on the ground to get a better look.
"Which one's that? The one that sort of looks like a rabbit, or the one that looks like a pan? Or is it a wheelbarrow?" Matilda asked, turning her head from side to side to try and decipher the stars glistening down upon her.
"The wheelbarrow one." Hermione closed her eyes, trying to remember nights at the top of the Astronomy Tower, or the evening she had spent before her OWL revising the planet movements. "If I'm right, then we have to line up Meerkat? No - Merak - and the one above it, you see on the far side of the wheelbarrow? Well, if we align those two points, then it should point to the north star, which points north!" Hermione announced triumphantly. And the boys had told her that learning the positions of all the different stars was about as useful as being able to predict which colour hat Neville would wear by how many tea leaves were left after an hour (a load of codswallop), or knowing the name of the leader of the fifth goblin rebellion (Ugg the Unafraid - although Hermione had to admit that hadn't come in useful yet)!
She was smiling the whole walk there.
"Are we there yet?" Matilda asked. Hermione shot her a glare, before looking around them again.
"How should I know! I've never been here before! I'm just following the star!"
"Isn't that a song?" Matilda asked, with a grin. Hermione scowled, Matilda could have been a Weasley for her ability to wind Hermione up, and for the amount she enjoyed it. "Where are we now?" Matilda continued in a singsong voice. Hermione took a deep breath.
"We are in a forest. We are next to a tree. In fact, we are next to a lot of trees. And we are right in front of a Loch - oh dear." Hermione held out her wand to see exactly how big the Loch was, and was not too pleased by what she saw.
"What? What is it?" Matilda asked in all seriousness. In fact, it was that more than anything that scared Hermione, the fact that Matilda obviously knew what the Loch meant, and it was bad enough to stop her being a rather persistent thorn in Hermione's side.
"You tell me!" Hermione noticed how her voice had gone a few octaves higher. "Okay, I see some mud, a lot of water, a rather large log and some flies. What does that mean?"
"Oh, okay, that's not so bad," Matilda said, trying to sit up properly, but failing. Seeing that, Hermione immediately felt guilty for getting annoyed with her; the Dragon Pox was obviously taking effect. "Um - exactly how much mud is there?"
"Not too much," Hermione said optimistically, not really wanting to take another look at the rather dark, dungy, ominous looking Loch. The noises coming from it weren't too comforting either.
"And how big is the log?"
"Quite long, about 50 feet or so? It dips under in places, but I'm assuming it's all the same log, as you can see parts of it through the water. We could probably jump from one to the other, but it might be slippery..."
"Aha." It was clear Matilda was trying to mask the negativity of whatever she knew, but was failing in her attempt to sound upbeat. "Well, the good news is that the mud is not, in fact, a huge nest of rabid sea-slugs." Hermione nodded, but she had an inkling of what was coming next... "And the bad news is that we won't be able to make our way across on the log. Because it's not a log. It's a sea serpent."
"Oh. A sea serpent. I see." Both the girls were making a remarkable effort to stay calm, but both decided that less is more in their speech, for if they said more, the calm tones in their voice that they fought so hard to keep were very likely to turn hysterical. "So," Hermione stated. "We need to get across the Loch. However, there is a sea serpent in there who will likely as not eat us if we try to cross its path. The sea serpent is rather large, and so avoiding it will be near impossible. We don't want to be eaten, however we do need to get across the Loch. What do we do?" The way Hermione said it, it sounded more like a logical puzzle one might find in quizzes or game-shows. However, this was rather more serious than winning five points for Gryffindor in the end of term quiz.
"Actually, it's a common misconception that sea serpents are dangerous. In fact, there have been absolutely no known cases where they've eaten anyone!" Matilda explained, her light tone contrasting with her darkened expression.
"Oh, that's good. So we could make it across safely then?" Hermione asked, though when she looked over the murky waters, and the sea serpent which seemed to be edging closer to them all the time, it didn't look very appealing.
"No. You see, the sea serpents don't eat you, they knock you off balance and send you down to the bottom of the Loch, where you will either be suffocated my seaweed or attacked by Grindylows. And, whilst there haven't been any known cases where they've eaten anyone, there have been five unknown cases..." Matilda drifted off, her voice starting to quaver.
"I'm sorry - what was your point again?" Matilda shrugged. "Right... So, how do you docile a sea serpent?" Matilda shrugged again, much to Hermione's exasperation. "I thought you said you were good at Care of Magical Creatures! Remember - Astronomy wasn't really your thing, you were always more into Quidditch and Care of Magical Creatures!"
"Yes, well, school was a long time ago! I was always better at practical than theory..." Matilda tried to justify herself, ignoring Hermione's piercing glare.
"And you don't call this practical?" Hermione basically shrieked, not unaware of the still approaching sea serpent. Its head was now emerging from the green slime, and its even greener eyes did not look happy to have been awoken by this hysterical screaming.
"No - I call this a nightmare!" Matilda retorted, lying back down properly and closing her eyes.
"What are you doing? Sleeping is not the answer!" Hermione yelled, to no avail. "Wait - maybe it is..." Hermione grinned suddenly, as she was stuck with an idea. The sea serpent couldn't do them any harm if it was asleep - except for snoring at them, which she decided they could take. Concentrating hard, she used all her effort to charm it into a bewitched sleep. Hermione remembered when the spell had been used on her in her fourth year for the second task of the Triwizard tournament. She felt immensely glad for her thirst for knowledge that had inspired her to learn the spell herself after it had been used on her.
Once she was satisfied that the sea serpent wasn't going to wake up - not for a good few hours, at least - she tentatively trod on it's back, and waving the stretcher along behind her, proceeded to make her way across the Loch.
I hope we get to somewhere with the Floo network soon, she thought, attempting to smile at Matilda as she saw her wake.I used up too much of my energy on that sleeping spell - I don't know what will happen if I have to do it again...
Escaping Fate - Alongside Certain Death And Other Such Predicaments by Oppungo
Chapter Notes: Many, many thanks to Kasey (hogwartsduchess) for betaing!