Harvest Moon

Hermione pulled her foot out of the crack in the rocks while Harry and Draco sat panting for breath to one side of her. They had made it this far in one piece. Unless one happened to count Harry losing an inch off of his hair and at least a year off of his life due to the swinging axes. Or the sacrifice of Draco’s shirt because he wedged it into one of the cog mechanisms controlling the walls that would surely have squashed them into jelly otherwise. Other than those things along with a myriad of bumps, bruises and scrapes, they had all gotten off relatively lucky up to that point.



Hermione now stood looking at the final two obstacles to their goal. A badly frayed and rotting cargo net, then a zipline to a huge old door.



“Seems like this last bit should be easier, eh, Granger,” Draco said, finally catching his breath.



“You know as well as I do, things are rarely what they seem,” Hermione said thoughtfully, still studying the cargo net.



“True enough,” Draco said. “Think it’ll hold us?”



“I’m not certain,” she said. Turning to the ghost with them. “Angus, how long has it been since those ropes were replaced?”



“Hmm. I’d have to say . . . a good fifty years or so. Give or take a bit, lass,” Angus said. “Still, bein’ tha it’s damp down here it woulda caused more damage and rot than normal, ye ken?”



“I ken very well, Angus,” Hermione said. “I’ll go first.”



Both men shrugged at that statement, having already had the argument with her on several occasions along this trek. They had lost every time so there was no point in rehashing it.



“Lead on, Dr Jones,” Draco said with a smirk.



“Are we filming Hermione Granger and the Caves of Doom yet?” Harry asked.



Draco grinned a bit. “Careful, Potter, I could start to like you if you finally manage to get a sense of humor.”



Hermione turned away as she started to smile. It felt good to be doing this with Harry along. It reminded her of the hunt for the Sorcerer’s stone during their first year at Hogwarts. The fact he and Draco weren’t sniping at one another only added to her good feeling. However, she could not lose focus at this late point. This was only the beginning. They still had to find Lucius and get out alive. She very much doubted that Lucius’ brother would make those things easy for them to do.



“Harry, you go after me since you’re the second lightest, then Draco can come along after,” she said.



“I’m not certain I’m happy to have Malfoy behind me whilst I’m crawling along a rickety cargo net,” Harry said.



“As though I’m thrilled to be looking at your bulbous bum, Potter,” Draco said sneeringly but it lacked the vemom of the past.



“Are you insinuating that I have a big arse, Malfoy?” Harry said, eyes narrowed.



“As Luna says, “If the man panties fit”, Potter.”