Ron turned back from the opening and smiled at Hermione, her eyes lit up with excitement.
“It worked didn’t it?” Hermione bounced with pleasure as she still waited in the stairwell.
“Yeah it did,” Ron grinned back at her. He turned to examine the opening and the damage. Half of the wall of the Burrow was missing and Ron suspected that it lay about his feet all around him. He could feel a slightly cold breeze coming through the hole. His eyes scanned the debris, wondering why the Burrow had not completely fallen as he had feared early. Ron had been careful not to tell Hermione his fear, and he had not even let himself think about it until now, but there was not much to worry about anymore. The damage was done and the Burrow stood….but for how much longer.
“Come on Hermione let’s get moving,” Ron instructed as he held out a hand to help her over. She had already left the stairwell and had climbed behind a huge pile of debris to look out the back window.
“What happened to the Erumpent?” Hermione asked her face held a great deal of concern.
That thought hadn’t crossed Ron’s mind, but thinking back he did notice that the Erumpent was no longer there with in his vision. One more thing to worry about, he thought to himself as he forced a smile for Hermione. Comfort her, was all he could think. “We’ll be alright.” As he said this, Hermione glanced up at him, and he knew she didn’t believe him. He waited a second for her to question, but instead she climbed down what was left of the kitchen table.
The Burrow let out an eerie groan as the whole house began to sway. Sunlight suddenly spilt onto the floor and seemed to tremble at their feet. With a huge cracking noise, the house again angrily grumbled. Ron looked to Hermione whose eyes were wide with fear. Another loud crack erupted and the floor above began to descend upon them. Without waiting a second longer, Ron scooped Hermione up in his arms. He ran towards the huge opening, dodging debris on the floor along with floorboards, furniture, rugs, clothes, bedding and clutter that dropped from above.
Ron felt a scratch down his back as the bed frame barely missed squishing them to death. It stung badly as he ran forward and out of nowhere a tea cup set that his Dad had kept under his bed hit him on the top of his head. The china shattered loudly about his feet. As he continued to run forward, it dawned on him that it must have been his parents’ bed that grazed his back. His knees began to give away as the floorboards beneath him groaned and shuddered. The floor was going to break underneath his feet.
Hermione tensely clung to Ron, as she looked past his shoulder and watched the huge bed frame with the bedding drop through the main floor to the basement. A few falling floorboards and other things had hit her head as Ron had carried her yet none if caused the alarm that the bed fall through the floor did. At that moment Hermione was afraid they wouldn’t make it out alive. The floor around where the bed had disappeared seemed to fall with the bed and as though there was a huge monster sucking everything down into the basement. Hermione let out a scream as the floorboards quickly disappeared like sand down a hole.
Ron lurched forward shakily, as his knees continued to give out with the shudder of the Burrow. It was Hermione’s scream that finally made Ron determined to escape, he leapt forward as the last floorboard disappeared from under his feet. He had only been two feet away from safety when the bed had come crashing through, and his leap landed them on the ground. Ron’s footing was lost and he dropped Hermione. They both tumbled to the ground as the Burrow behind them caved into the basement. A huge black dust cloud blew past them as the last of the Burrow sunk into the ground.
Sitting up slowly, Ron rubbed his newly skinned elbow, and then gently touched his wounded shoulder as he examined what was left of the Burrow. He arched his back thoughtfully and felt the pain of the scratch he had received from his parents’ bed. Without finding out if he was okay himself, he looked to Hermione who sat up dizzily a few feet away from him.
“Hermione? Are you alright?” Ron asked as he crawled over to her and sat next to her.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Hermione said groggily. “Are you okay?” She added as she put up a hand to stop her head from spinning.
“I’m good, I think. That one was close eh?” Ron excitedly chattered. “We were almost a goner there. Did you see those floorboards? They just disappeared from underneath my feet.” He began to laugh and then continued on, “I couldn’t believe my parent’s own bed might have killed us.” He laughed again.
Hermione shakily glanced at Ron. She was so confused by this chatter and laughter. She didn’t feel like laughing, she didn’t want to talk and all she wanted was to be safe and away from this place. Ron continued to babble on as though it was a great adventure. Hermione had never seen him do that before. Slowly as the adrenaline in her body calmed down, her mind began to think clearly. She quickly understood that Ron had been so frightened that his only reaction was to laugh. What had he been so scared of? Usually they were always in frightening situations, and he had never acted like this before, Hermione thought to herself. As she watched him it came to her that he had been scared for her.
“Ron, its okay, everything is fine,” Hermione gently told him. He looked at her and smiled, it was as if he needed to hear those words because his chattering suddenly stopped.
“It sure was close though?” Ron smugly answered as he stood up. He didn’t understand his own flood of talking that had emitted forth, but he felt better and his mind became keener. It suddenly occurred to him to wonder about the Erumpent. Quickly he scanned the surrounding area, but didn’t see the creature in sight, yet something stuck out like a sore thumb. In the distance behind the Burrow was a nest filled with silver eggs that glinted in the sunlight. Ron decided that they must have earlier overlooked the eggs when they were in the tower or did not notice it at all. Now it was obvious to Ron what had provoked the Erumpent, the mother to those eggs. He didn’t know what creature it was but he knew enough that they urgently needed to find the door and quickly.
Hermione stood up slowly, still holding her head, she could feel a few big bruises and it gave her a bit of a headache. Her mind was still in awe about how much love Ron had showed for her without him even knowing. It had meant a lot to her, but she reminder herself that if they didn’t escape it wouldn’t really matter if they were dead. Swallowing hard, Hermione started thinking about what was before them. She knew that Bellatrix had put them in sort of prison for the time being, but there had to be a way to get back into the strange series of doors. Hermione wondered if Bella would have left another door or portal to get back, but it could be anything and anywhere or destroyed with the Burrow. Hermione hoped against the last as she searched the landscape for the familiar door that they had seen several times through. She first spied the Erumpant that had wandered far off in the distance as though it was sulking. Hermione knew that it wouldn’t be a threat to them anymore. As she continued to search, her eyes fell upon something silver, but she looked past that at a large brown wooden door. Hermione bubbled up with excitement as she pointed out to Ron, “Look there’s the door! We can get out here!”
Ron’s eyes grew wide with amazement. He hadn’t seen the door behind the eggs since the eggs were enough to catch his attention and make him worry. His mind worked quickly as always but he didn’t know what it was that was worrying him.
“Let’s go!” Hermione happily moved forward.
“Wait!” Ron called out firmly. Hermione stopped and frowned at him. “Don’t go over there, I think there is something dangerous.”
“What?” Hermione asked alertly looking around.
“There are silver eggs over there in a nest by the door….”
“Silver eggs?” Hermione repeated confoundedly.
“Yeah, silver eggs,” Ron replied with a shrug. “I can’t remember what animal lays silver eggs.”
“It’s an Occamy! Ron, we have to get out of here quickly,” Hermione answered shrilly.
“Wait aren’t those the fifteen foot snakes with…like…wings?” Ron questioned thoughtfully. He had heard many rumors of them when he had gone to Egypt, several wild stories about the dangers of the Occamy, which killed his desire to ever see one.
“Yes, Ron,” Hermione impatiently answered as she searched the skies above. “I don’t see it, but we have to get out of here before it returns.”
Ron glanced at her doubtfully, “At the rate we’ve been going, I doubt that we could make it without some serious injury.”
Hermione rolled her eyes and angrily through clenched teeth, “Ron, lets get moving!”
He shrugged in reply and held out his hand. Hermione annoyed, sighed, yet she took his hand. Ron knew that she was upset, but he did have a point, and even though she was right, he was worried for her safety. With a quick grin and a wink at her, Ron began to run forward. Hermione grinned as she ran behind him still holding his hand.
They rounded the collapsed Burrow in no time at all. With the large field and garden behind the house, the two wondered if they could make it out past the eggs and into the door before the Occamy returned. The green tall grass licked their legs with wet dew as they ran forward. Hoping against all the odds, they scrambled over the fence and into the back weedy overgrown field.
Hermione tried to keep an eye on the sky for the Occamy, but she couldn’t keep up with Ron and watch the skies, so she eventually gave up. With Ron ahead of her she knew that at least the creature was not coming from the front. She tried not to worry about the Occamy, but as they came closer to the silver eggs, her mind began to panic. Hermione knew that Occamy never stayed far from its nest, and was also known to burry itself in the ground, yet it was a creature who hunted. Hermione wished against the odds that the Occamy was out hunting and not hiding under the ground around the nest.
Ron ran forward, his mind strictly on the door ahead of them. He would get Hermione through this one without a scratch. The nest lay only a few feet ahead of them and the silver eggs glistened in the green weedy field. Ron didn’t bother to look for the mother of the eggs, only hoping that they could escape through the door before anything happened. In a matter of seconds, Ron was running right past the eggs, he could have reached down and touched one, but he didn’t want to, the door was only ten feet away. Just as Ron was sure they would make it alive, a whoosh of air confirmed what he feared, that the mother wasn’t as far away from her children.
Hermione screamed out as the twelve foot Occamy swooped down at them. She instinctively released Ron’s hand and dived to the ground beside the large nest, as the creatures two legs viciously swung at her. Hermione jumped to her feet as soon as the creature was gone. She noticed that Ron was standing also, but that he’s sleeping robes were a bit wet like unto her own. He didn’t wait for her to say anything, but grabbed her hand and pulled her forward towards the door.
The Occamy would come swooping down on them again, but Ron hoped that they would make it through the door before it came back. They ran forward towards the door and covered five feet before the next attack came. Ron wasn’t sure how smart the creature was, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. As the whoosh sound came again, he pushed Hermione to one side while diving into the ground on the other side. The sharp talons pierced the earth between them and then were gone as quickly as it came. Ron didn’t want to think how quickly that attack could have easily impaled them. Instead he jumped to his feet and pulled Hermione to her feet, the door was so close, they had to make it.
Ron’s hand touched the handle he quickly turned it and yanked open the door. The whoosh of the Occamy’s wings warned them of it’s decent upon them. Ron turned to see the strange creature charging forward at them barely hovering above the ground. He could feel the anger of the creature as it speedily made its way forward to kill them. Ron pushed a stunned Hermione through the door and then quickly leapt forward shutting the door behind him.
Hermione had been frozen with fear when Ron had pushed her through the door. The menacing stare of the Occamy had stunned all her facilities. Her body was still tense as she fell through the air. In a strange blur she could see a woman with a body in tow, but like a flash it was gone, and Hermione was surrounded by water. She quickly swam to the top just in time to see Ron fall from the sky and into the water.
The Forgotten Adventure by Naomi Evans
Chapter Notes: Thanks for being patient everyone! -Naomi