Warcry

Author's note: English isn't my native tongue so please forgive me if I do make minor mistakes. I didn't plan on releasing this story when I wrote it so it's custom made for my taste. I do hope though that someone else enjoys it too. I already wrote about 16.000 words but it'll take me some time to spell check them so I won't upload all the chapters that I have finished at once.

"We have to go!" Chris shouted, grabbing Hermione by the hand and pulling her with him. They ducked under spells that were flying all around them.

Chris ducked and took cover behind a toppled over cupboard. He pulled Hermione protectively into his arms. "Look at me" he said and gently but insistingly pulled her head to face him.

"Stay down. I'll be back in a minute. Promise me to stay here" he told the frightened Hermione. Her whole body was trembling. This was the first time he saw her that frightened.

She opened her mouth twice to speak and said "I want to help."

"You are in no condition to help, Hermione" he said and looked down at her bleeding leg. She was loosing too much blood.

"Just stay here" he said.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back down when he tried to get up. "Be cautious" she said.

"I'll try" he answered, jumped up from behind the cover and sent spells flying to the attackers. One Death eater crumbled dead onto the floor. The other tripped over the dead body while ducking a spell. Chris trained his wand on him.

"Move and die" Chris said warningly. Chris couldn't see the Death Eater's reaction behind his mask. Was he frightened? Was he planning something? Chris didn't know.

"Stand up. Slowly" said Chris while he quickly closed the distance to the Death Eater.

The Death Eater stood, but not long. Chris punched him straight in the face, broke his nose and sent him crashing onto the floor, unconscious. This was completely unnecessary and risky to boot but it still felt good. He or someone of his 'friends' did hurt Hermione. Chris used his wand to put the Death Eater to death. No ministry. No holding cells. There was no other way. He had learned that the hard way and in this times of war, you better learn from your mistakes or you'll never be able to learn again.

Then he removed the mask. He didn't know the guy. He heard movement from the door and trained his wand at the direction in an instant but it was just Tonks.

"I think we got them all" she said and lowered her wand when she saw that Chris had taken care of the other Death Eaters.

Chris nodded and rushed to where he had left Hermione. Her eyes were closed. "Hermione" he said. "Hey, Hermione" he repeated and then she moved.

"For gods sake, don't give me a shock like that. I thought.. Well, how are you?"

He didn't wait for an answer and looked at her leg again. The improvised bandage made out of his sweatshirts sleeve was soaked in blood.

"Tonks" he shouted and she was by his side in an instant. She was an auror. She has to know some healing charmes.

"Can you help her?" Chris asked Tonks who had already started looking at the wound under the bandage.

"I think so" Tonks said and muttered a spell, then another. The first stopped the blood flow and the second cleaned Hermione's leg of the blood. The wound was gone. Magic.

"I really have to learn some of those" Chris said.

"Your leg will still hurt a bit for a while" Tonks said to Hermione.

"Can you stand?" Chris asked her.

Hermione nodded slowly and took Chris hand that he held out to her to get up.

"Can you make us a portkey?" Chris asked Tonks.

"Already done" she answered and pulled a handkerchief out of her coat.

All three grabbed the handkerchief, then Tonks tapped it with her wand and they were gone.

Chris held Hermione tightly to keep her from falling when they landed. Tonks wasn't so lucky, she tumbled and fell backwards on her ass.

"Ouch. Damn, you could have helped me too you know?" Tonks said.

"Sorry" Chris said.

Tonks waved him off and stood up. She went around the room and checked the box that was standing in a corner. It was dusty. She opened the lid and cursed.

"Damn, there's not much in there" she said.

Chris nodded. "We are running out of safe houses. This must be one of the worse ones."

Tonks threw something at him, he catched it with one hand, with his other arm he still supported Hermione. It was a shrink wrapped loaf of bread, magically sealed and conserved.

"Anything else?" Chris asked.

Tonks shut the lid and turned, holding some chocolate bars, a jar of honey and two bottles of lemode.

"Nice" Chris said but didn't mean it.

Tonks went through the old and dusty cupboards and found a half empty bottle of whiskey and a full bottle of Wodka.

"Here comes the good stuff" commented Chris.

Tonks chided him. "You're underage."

Chris drew up an eyebrow. "Doesn't keep people from trying to kill me."

Tonks nodded sadly and opened the bottle of Wodka. She took a big gulp and handed the bottle to Chris.

He took two smaller gulps and made a grimasse. Then he held the bottle to Hermione's mouth. She tried to decline but Chris insisted. "A bit Wodka won't hurt and it'll act as a pain killer for your leg."

After hesitating for a moment she drank and spit half of the Wodka out before she started coughing.

"It's a bit hard the first time. Try another sip" Chris said.

Hermione drank again and she managed not to spit the Wodka out this time but still coughed after swallowing but a nice warmth began to spread through her tummy.

She took another gulp and after the third one she could already feel the pain ebbing away the a bit.

Chris took the bottle from her and carefully helped her to sit down. On the floor, since their safe house was just a single room with a bordered up window, without any furnishing besides the cupboards, a stove that they couldn't use because they didn't have something to cook and the now empty chest that had held the bread and the other stuff. The resistance had enough money to buy enough supplies to feed the country for a whole year but what can you do with all the money in the world when you can't go into a store without getting killed by death eaters on sight. You'd think they wouldn't notice. They couldn't be everywhere, right? But they did manage to make it look like that often enough.

He gave Hermione the bottle back and stroked a string of hair out of her sweaty face. "We'll get him back. I promise. It's just a matter of time until we find him."

She nodded and gave him the tiniest smile.

Chris got up from the floor and went over to Tonks who stood leaning against the counter, biting into one of the chocolate bars.

"You still haven't told her?" she asked.

"Shut it Tonks" Chris hissed.

"Told me what?" Hermione asked.

Chris glared at Tonks for a moment and then looked at Hermione. "Nothing. She's just teasing me. Drink up."

He turned back to Tonks. She bend down to whisper in his ear. "You love her. Tell her, or you'll regret it."

"Mind your own business Tonks" Chris said. He was harsh to her and you would think they were enemies when you saw them bickering, but they were best friends, regardless of the big age difference (Tonks was already 23).

He took the Whiskey bottle that sat on the counter behind Tonks, opened it and took a huge gulp.

"God that stuff is gross" he said and closed the bottle again, putting it back on the counter.

Then he removed his Shirt.

Tonks drew up an eyebrow. "Are you coming on to me?" she asked. Then she drew in a breath and touched Chris naked side. "Damn, how can you even stand?"

"Adrenaline rush" Chris said.

"Tough guy, eh?" Tonks said shaking her head. She pressed on a point in his side and Chris cursed. "Damn Tonks, that hurt."

"A broken rip - no, two rips. Damn Chris, you should have let me take care of those back in the death eater's hideout."

"I didn't want to risk staying there any longer than necessary in case of backup Death Eaters."

"You took the time to let me help Hermione" Tonks said.

Chris didn't say anything to that. "Tell her" Tonks said again.

"No. End of discussion."

He felt another hand on his naked flesh. Surprised he turned around. Hermione stood, favoring her healthy leg, touching his blueish side were the broken rips were.

"You shouldn't stand" Chris said to her.

"Those are my fault" Hermione said, still touching Chris skin with the tip of her fingers, sending a shudder down Chris spine. In a good way. Which was in a bad way.

"You saved me" she added.

"You can pay me back later. Now sit down or I'll make you."

Hermione frowned but sat back down obediently. Her leg did hurt. She even took another sip of the Wodka she still held in one hand.

"She'll get tipsy when she keeps drinking that much" Tonks said. "Can I really leave you too alone or will you take advantage of her?" she asked playfully.

"I'm too shy for that" Chris said, knowing she was just teasing him.

Tonks looked over to Hermione. "He really is, so it's probably going to be okay. Well, I'm off then."

"Don't get yourself killed" Chris said and hugged her. Now the two looked like best friends. Tonks hugged him back and then kissed him on the cheek. "You too. I'll be back tomorrow and then we'll see if we can find a place where we can use magic to mend your broken rips."

Chris nodded. Tonks went out through the door. No magic. Tough life. Since the Death Eaters took over the ministry they were able to trace back every use of magic and they especially looked for those kind of magic not originating from one of their fellow Death Eaters. That's how they managed to kill off the bigger part of the resistance so fast even though they were all in hiding. Most of the Wizards and Witches, the pureblooded ones at least, weren't comfortable at all with living as muggles. They just didn't know how, took magic too much for granted. Many of them were among the first ones to die.

Chris took another sip from the bottle of whiskey and took them down with him when he sat down opposite Hermione.

"Does it hurt much?" she asked.

Chris shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Can't do anything about that now."

"It matters to me" Hermione said.

Chris sighed. "I'll manage. But yeah, it hurts something bad."

Chris took a knife from his pocket and grabbed his sweat shirt from the floor beside him. He cut it open on the side and thus made a small blanket out of it.

"That damn place doesn't even have a fireplace, it'll get bloody cold."

"We'll manage" Hermione said, imitating Chris' voice. He laughed and Hermione gave him another one of her tiny smileys. He couldn't remember when it was the last time he saw a big one on her face.

"Leave some of the Wodka for tomorrow. You'll have a headache when you wake up. Drink the rest of the Wodka and it'll go away after a couple of minutes."

Hermione nodded. "I think I read that somewhere."

"That reminds me" Chris said and stuck his hand in the big pocket of the now blanket former sweater. He pulled a thin book out of it. A children's story. The tales of Beedle the bard.

He laid it onto Hermione's lap. Her eyes widened.

"Where did you.."

Chris lips showed a sly smile. "Grabbed it back in the Death Eater's house. Didn't have time to look through the books for something specific. I just thought you'd like to read a bit for a change."

Hermione threw her arms around him, saying "Thank you" three times in rapid succession and Chris growned in pain because she touched his ribs.

"Oh god" Hermione said and pulled her arms back. "I'm so sorry."

"I.. It's okay" Chris said with closed eyes, trying to shut out the pain.

He opened his eyes again and they were a bit glassy.

Hermione smiled apologetically. Then she looked at the thin book in her lap. She gently touched the cover as if it was a treasure.

"I can't believe you did that for me." She looked up. "Stupid idiot. Risking your life for something trivial like that."

She looked scornfully at him for a moment but when she looked back at the book she couldn't hide a smile and this time, Chris thought it remembered him of one of the big smiles he knew. At least the shadow of one.

"Well, happy seventeenth birthday Hermione" he said.