A Distant Fantasy Of His

14) Petrichor

As they step into the forbidden woods, Hermione glancing behind them every five minutes to check whether someone is following them or not, and Hagrid keeping his footwork steady, Hermione can't help but notice a hint of mysteriousness about these woods.

"Enchanting," Draco murmurs, and Hermione smiles at him, as she was thinking the same thing a second ago.

"Step right up, you two, and keep watch for any lingering animals close by, you never can predict what sort of exotic creatures might pop in here," Hagrid says, as he looks at Hermione, who's face is as pale as ice.

"Oh come now, I'm only joking," Hagrid chuckles.

"Not very funny when we're in a dark forest, Hagrid," Draco says, furious.

Hagrid nods understandingly and pats him on the back, and continues to walk. For a minute or two, they just walk in sheer silence. There's wind howling in the forest, and Hermione shivers. The air is more than chilly, in fact, quite frosty. It's impossible to keep carrying on like this on this winter night, Hermione thinks.

"What are we going to do here, Hagrid? Sure, professor Mcgonagall said we should tag along with you as a punishment to the forbidden forest, but why exactly?" Draco asks Hagrid, craning his head to look up at him.

"Well, Draco, think of it as a lesson. What we're going to do, is know about the forbidden forest, even though you don't need to know anything about it now, I reckon it'll do you both good to learn something out of your syllabus for once," Hagrid says, panting hard.

Suddenly, there's a loud noise from the sky.

Thunder.

"Blimey, I think it's going ter rain any second now. Hmmm," Hagrid thinks, and then points at a giant tree, with crooked branches.

"There! Go sit under the tree while I fetch some wood for fire. Oh go on, don't look at me like that, I'm sure you'll be safe. I'll be back right now," Hagrid says, going off in the dark with Fang, his dog.

"Hagrid! We're not very comfortable with the idea. Can't we tag along with you??" Hermione yells behind him.

He signals them to stay put. And so they do.

Hermione goes to sit under the tree, shivering, hugging herself to produce heat. Draco rubs his palms, looking worriedly at Hermione.

"You're alright?" Draco asks, coming to sit beside her.

"Don't ask, I'm freezing," Hermione says, as she pull her robes tightly around her.

"I wish Hagrid comes faster, it's getting colder by every minute. At this rate we'll freeze to death," Draco says sighing, but after looking at Hermione's worried face, he changes his sentence,
"Ofcourse, chances of that happening are extremely unlikely," he says, grinning at Hermione.

Even though Hermione knows he's trying to console her, she still feels comforted and relaxed.

Then, it starts to drizzle a little.

"Oh no," Hermione whispers, as she pulls her robes tighter. Draco looks at the sky.

"We've got to find Hagrid. And fast. To hell with this punishment, our life is at stake here," Draco says, as he grabs Hermione's hand and pulls her. But just then, Hermione notices two beady eyes at the corner of the forest, behind the bushes. She squints her eyes to look at the creature clearly.

And then she realizes.

Werewolves.

"Draco, run!!!"
Hermione says, pointing towards the werewolf behind the bushes. The wolf howls loudly and a moment later, they hear many howls coming from all over the forest.