She glanced at Draco, who was looking at her with an unreadable expression. He caught her eye, then jerked his chin towards Ron and Harry, obviously indicating that she should notify them of her presence. She frowned at him, and turned back towards the two boys.
'Ron!' she called, and then, louder, 'Harry!'
Ron turned first, and saw her, and his blue eyes widened. And then Harry turned, and when she saw his face, and sudden wild happiness that flashed across it when he saw her, her knees gave out and she sat down hard on the ground.
She saw Harry break into a run, and then he had flung himself down beside her and was kneeling next to her in the grass. She saw him through unfocused eyes — a Harry-shaped shadow, with a blur of untidy hair — and then his arms were around her, and he was crushing her so tightly to him that she couldn't breathe. She threw her own arms around his shoulders, feeling him shaking, and realized — with a mixture of wonder and horror — that he was crying. Harry, who never cried, not even when he was eleven years old, not even in situations that would have made most children bawl like babies.
'Harry,' she breathed.
'I thought you were dead,' he said, into her hair. 'I was sure of it.'
'No — Harry, I'm fine — I'm perfectly all right.'
He pulled away from her, just far enough to touch her face with his hand, running his finger over her cheekbone, down to her mouth.
'You don't know what it was like — '
'Shh,' she said, pulled his head down, and kissed him fiercely. 'I'm fine.'
In answer, he just held her tighter. She clutched him back, feeling a little of the poisonous fear that seemed to have seeped into her system along with the potion fade away. The familiarity of Harry's embrace was utterly comforting, because, she thought, how powerful could a love potion be when you were already in love with somebody else? And her love for Harry wasn't at all diminished; she knew that without even thinking about it. He was as much a part of her as he had ever been. She lifted her face up to be kissed, holding him tightly as she did so, and thought, I can beat this. This is going to be easy.
'Oh, this is just revolting,' said Ron, who was standing with Draco near the wall. They'd turned their backs so that they could no longer see Harry and Hermione, but they could still hear them, and neither of them was very happy about it.
'Love is a beautiful thing, Weasley,' said Draco, staring up at the sky.
'Not when it's your two best friends,' said Ron. 'Yech, I can hear the slobbering noises.'
'Just try to think about other things.'
'Oh, I've got lots to think about,' said Ron, and now there was an edge to his voice. 'Like you, and why you didn't come back for us like Harry asked you to.'
'No time,' said Draco, shortly.
'I don't believe that,' said Ron.
'I really don't care,' said Draco.
Ron looked irritable, but before he had the opportunity to say anything, there was a soft *pop * and Charlie Weasley Apparated into the clearing.
''Lo, Charlie,' said Ron morosely.
Draco was startled. 'It hasn't been that long, has it?'
'No,' said Charlie, who was holding something in his hand — a letter, Draco saw. It looked as if Charlie had already opened it and read it. 'But this came for you, Ron.'
'Owl post?' said Ron, reaching for it curiously.
'It's from Sirius Black,' said Charlie, looking faintly exasperated. 'He was looking for Harry. He'd no idea where you'd all gone off to, of course. I finally wrung some information out of Ginny and wrote him a long letter back, but I'd still rather Harry wrote him as well.
Where is Harry, anyway — Good Lord!' exclaimed Charlie, catching sight of Harry and Hermione over Ron's shoulder. 'Is that — '
'Hermione,' said Ron flatly.
Charlie was still staring in astonishment. 'I knew you came here looking for her, but I didn't know that Harry and Hermione were…'
He blinked. 'Harry and Hermione?'
'I take it you've let your subscription to Witch Weekly lapse,' said Draco. 'Or you'd already know about this.'
'How long has this been going on?'
'Ages,' said Ron, rolling his eyes.
'About fifteen minutes,' said Draco.
'Not the er, kissing, I meant the relationship. You know what, never mind. I really don't need to know.'
'We should really get back to the camp,' said Draco.
'Right,' said Charlie.
Nobody moved.
'You go get them,' said Ron, grinning at Charlie. 'You're in loco parentis around here.'
'Can't be scarier than a lot of enraged dragons,' pointed out Draco.
