Subterranean

"Tell me again why I agreed to this?"

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "Because it's our homework, Ron."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall Binns ever saying the bloody desert was part of our homework!" Ron exclaimed.

"You had plenty of opportunity to back out, you know."

"Oh, right, with you and your 'Don't You Even Think About It, Ron Weasley' Death Glare?" he said with a snort of laughter.

"Oh? Would you rather be in Stonehenge with Malfoy, then?"

Rolling his eyes, Ron replied, "Of course not. But don't you think you're taking this competition with him a little too far?"

"You can never go too far for homework."

"Right. And beating Malfoy has nothing to do with it, I'm sure," he said, exchanging a wry grin and amused look with Harry. Hermione had nothing further to say, thinning her lips and focusing only on the road ahead of her.

Harry wouldn't say it for fear of encountering The Wrath, but he privately thought Ron had a good point. When Professor Binns assigned the incoming Seventh Years a report on a famous magical location anywhere in the world, most people were content to stick to places within Europe. Draco Malfoy, of course, spent the entire last two weeks of school bragging about his uncle's direct connection to the ancient druids of Stonehenge and all the inside information he would get for his report. Never one to be outdone, especially not by Malfoy, Hermione responded by doing a thorough investigation of each potential site until she found one that was guaranteed to outshine the Slytherin's -- Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, USA.

As usual, she roped Harry and Ron into helping with the research, and while Harry agreed that the caverns would be fun to see, he wasn't too thrilled about their location. He'd seen enough Muggle books and shows to know that the southwestern American desert was no paradise, to say the least, especially not in the midst of summer. Hermione, however, would not be deterred, and after a lot of persuading, the Grangers and the Weasleys agreed to let the Trio go (the Dursleys, as usual, couldn't get rid of Harry fast enough).

It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have simply portkeyed to the site. Unfortunately, the concentration of magic in the area was too powerful, and it would have distorted any attempt at direct travel by magical methods, including broomstick. The nearest place with a large enough magical community from which to embark on their journey was El Paso, Texas. The witches' coven there provided the three with a Muggle car and provisions, and then they were off on their latest adventure.

The first hour wasn't so bad. They felt truly grown up as they cruised down the highway in the sleek, though aging, BMW, Hermione at the wheel, Harry riding shotgun, and Ron stretching out his long limbs in the back. Much of the entertainment came from watching Ron, who was amazed by everything from the music on the radio to the tumbleweeds rolling by. The novelty soon wore off, though, as did the air conditioner...

Harry could feel the sun beating down on his dark hair. Ron and Hermione stood arguing in front of him, while the poor car rested on the roadside.

"You of all people should know that Muggle technology isn't foolproof, Ron!"

"Exactly, which is why we have wands! You know, to fix these things!"

"We are not going to get in trouble with the Ministry over something that we can handle without magic, Ronald. You'll just have to stick it out."

"Screw the Ministry, this counts as an emergency situation. Let's just cast a bloody cooling charm!"

"Even if that worked, and I don't know that it would, we don't know how it would be affected as we got closer. Anything could happen!"

"Fine, then let's head back to the city and get a replacement."

Harry piped up. "Sorry, Hermione, but I'm with Ron here. It's an oven out here."

The look she gave the two of them was not one either would soon forget. "You mean you want to quit? Is that it? Can't take a little heat, boys? Turning back at the first sign of trouble? Never mind that if we take all that time to go back, we won't make it to the Caverns and back in time for our portkey. Never mind that unless we're there tonight, we'll miss the summer solstice, the time when the magical aura is the most highly charged. Never mind that we worked so hard to get every adult we know to trust us enough to make this trip--" her voice broke, and so did something inside Harry. He knew she had them both from the resigned look on Ron's face. The redhead reached out and put a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"All right, Hermione. We'll do it your way -- no need to get all worked up at us, you'll be hot enough without all that," he said soothingly, looking her straight in the eyes. She met his gaze, glanced quickly over at Harry's matching one, and looked back at Ron.

"Thank you. Now can we just get back in the car and get moving again? I want a breeze," she said, visibly relaxing. Ron nodded, slung an arm around her shoulders and headed back to the car. Harry watched them for a minute before following. He felt an odd pang, one that was becoming more familiar lately when he watched his friends interact...

So now the three of them were back on the highway, trying to ignore the sweat trickling down their temples and the backs of their necks. Ron tried to beat the heat by riding with his head out the window for a while, but that ended when he nearly swallowed a passing bug. Now he had resorted to complaining about how hot he felt every so often, much to Hermione's annoyance. Harry had half a mind to tell Ron to shut his mouth for Hermione's sake, but the complaints were the only conversation to break up the monotony of the drive and take his focus off the heat.

He sighed, louder than he meant to, because Hermione glanced over at him, concern on her face. "Harry?"

He winced -- she wasn't supposed to hear that. "Nothing."

Normally, she might have pressed the issue, but the combined heat, her focus on driving, and perhaps a sense that he really wouldn't say anything made her drop the subject with only a slightly reproachful look.

The truth was, Harry had a lot on his mind these days. Aside from the usual Voldemort and school issues, something had happened with his best friends, and he wasn't sure how he felt or what to do about it. Ron and Hermione had emerged from a spectacularly failed relationship with a changed friendship. This, of course, was expected -- the whole affair had ended in such a disastrous blow-out that Harry worried that they'd never be able to mend and return to the way things were before. Much to everyone's surprise, after tempers cooled, the two were able to spend time together with Harry again civilly, and their former incessant bickering morphed into something calmer -- a friendly, platonic-flirtatious banter, contradictory though it sounded. Their spats didn't cease entirely, of course, but they rarely appeared except under pressured circumstances. A year ago, Harry would never have believed it could happen, but the two had become better friends in the past six months than they had in the past six years.

Harry was happy for them. He was, really. But if he was so happy, then why was he so confused?

"I can't take it anymore," Ron mumbled from the back, yanking his shirt over his head.

Hermione glanced at him in the mirror. "Hope your mum's Sunblock Charm covered that bony back of yours."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Bony? I seem to remember someone taking great interest in running her hands over that back at one point."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, counting the vertebrae was the only thing that kept me sane during someone else's pathetic attempts at romantic dialogue."

He let out a bark of laughter. "You just don't appreciate my poetic talents, that's all."

She smirked. "Talent is hardly the word I'd use to describe it."

There was that pang again.

"Time for another hit," Ron said, once again rolling his window down all the way and sticking his head out of it.

Harry looked over at Hermione. In contrast to the semi-angry huff she would have been in a few years ago, she was the picture of relaxation, sitting back in her seat in a white tank top and denim shorts, eyes and a corner of her mouth slightly smiling.

He must have been looking longer than he intended, because she looked over at him again. "Harry, really, what's wrong? And don't you dare say nothing," she said, cutting off his headshake. "I know you better than that."

Well, why not? "I was just thinking about you and Ron." She waited patiently while he paused to figure out how to phrase what he wanted to say. "Just...you know, how things are so different between you guys now."

"It's strange, I know. I quite like it, though."

"Oh, yeah, so do I, but -- well, I mean, it's great to not have to break up your fights anymore -- well, not as much, anyway -- so, yeah, I like it, I think..." Oh, this was not working at all.

"But?" she prompted.

"I don't know, I guess I..." Then it hit him. "I guess I'm just jealous, you know? Of what you have. Sort of wish I could have that kind of closeness with you. And Ron," he added hastily.

Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "But...we do have that, Harry. You and I have always been close, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but it's not the same thing that you and Ron have."

"Oh, Harry, I wouldn't want to have that with you!" Harry's jaw dropped. "What I mean is, you and Ron are different people, and so my relationship with each of you has to be different because of that. It just wouldn't be right. I love what I have with you, Harry; I'd never do anything to -- well, to weaken it."

Harry sat in semi-stunned silence for a moment, greatly relieved, but no less confused. It was time for a tension-breaking joke. "Good, now I won't have to go through a passionate romance with you that ends in an angsty break-up."

Hermione didn't laugh. She bit her lower lip, and then opened her mouth to answer him. Her words were soft. Ron chose just that moment to come back inside the car, complaining loudly about a gnat in his eye, so Harry couldn't be certain, but it sounded to him like she'd said, "Who says we'd break up?"

The sun continued to beat down on them relentlessly from a clear, white-blue sky as they continued towards the Caverns. The desert had an ethereal beauty to it, Harry supposed, though it was hard to appreciate it as the day progressed and the temperature grew steadily higher. Its shrubbery-topped dunes stretched as far as the eye could see in any direction, save where the road cut through them and where the mountains jutted out from the ground. The peaks were a distant testament to the waters that had flooded the region in primordial times, their horizontal, sculpted layers the only sign that moisture had, however inconceivably, once been plentiful in this arid region.

Over the next three hours, the flat desert turned into a mountainous one, and then to canyons. Finally, just as the heat was getting truly oppressive, they arrived at the Caverns. Here, the rock formations were more distinctive and the vegetation a little thicker, though that was relative. By this time, Harry had joined Ron in shedding his shirt, but now they put them back on and headed into the blessedly cool Visitor's Center with warmer clothes in hand -- the temperature inside the Caverns was 56 degrees Fahrenheit year round. They also had a full array of notebooks and cameras to perform their research. Harry and Ron changed quickly in the restroom, then wandered around the Center while they waited for Hermione.

After fifteen minutes, Harry was starting to get worried. Ron brushed it off, saying that she was a girl and naturally would take longer to change, but Harry thought that wasn't very like Hermione, the most excited of any of them about the Caverns. He went to look for her and noticed a sign over a section of the gift shop. Smiling, he changed direction and headed towards it. Sure enough, a familiar bushy brown head was facing away from him.

He crept up silently and tapped her on the shoulder. Hermione jumped and let out a small shriek. "Harry! Don't startle me like that!" she said upon recognizing her assailant.

"Ron and I were wondering where you'd gotten to."

She blushed lightly. "Er, yes, well, I got a little distracted..."

He smirked. "Yes, I thought I might find you here," he said, eyes wandering over the literature section of the gift shop. "Shall we go, then?" They rejoined Ron and headed down into the Cavern entrance.

Harry felt the temperature drop immediately after passing into the chambers. The three managed, through careful timing and subtle misdirection, to find and pass through the ordinary seeming rock wall that was in reality a passageway like the entrance to Platform 9 '. After ducking quickly through the wall, they found themselves in a low, narrow passageway. Their handheld flashlights were their only illumination -- no Muggle electricity had found its way down here, and the ancient wizards who had used the cave and the modern ones who protected it would never allow the dense magical aura to be tampered with by any outside influence.

The Caverns, as the Trio had discovered in their research, were not only a beautiful and popular tourist attraction, but they were also the site of a magical wellspring. The ancients saw such spots as their magic's source, and thus they revered them. Modern wizards knew better, of course -- magic didn't come from any physical location. While they knew the so-called sources were really just intense concentrations, wizarding scientists still had no firm idea of why the concentration happened. Some pointed to ley lines and the stars' positions, while others focused on magnetic fields. Still others claimed they were ancient battlegrounds that had become supersaturated from all of the magic used there. And just as in the Muggle world, some pointed to extraterrestrials. The trio -- well, Hermione, really -- planned to make their own conjecture through studies of the ancients' treatment and usage of the Caverns.

As they descended (for the path was slowly but surely sloping downward), Harry could feel the increasing dampness and chill, and the claustrophobic space brought him straight back to the cupboard under the stairs. He began to wonder if they had accidentally taken one of the decoy pathways used to throw off ill-meaning visitors, despite all of their careful research. He was just weighing the odds on what horrendous punishment awaited them at the end, when suddenly the passage ended and they emerged into an enormous cavern.

The moment was far from glorious, though it was a huge relief to be unconfined once more. With only flashlights, they couldn't do much more than light the floor ahead of them so as not to trip over stalagmites or other rock formations, which only reflected a dull, tan rock color in the artificial beams. "What now, Hermione?" he asked.

"We have to locate the keystone so we can get the proper illumination. Unfortunately, none of the books I looked in said where it would be..." Her worried face looked unnatural in the flashlight, all sharply defined angles and shadows.

"Nothing to do but look, then, is there?" Ron said cheerfully. He'd become much more upbeat since getting out of the desert heat.

"Right," Hermione nodded. "The logical thing would be for it to be somewhere in this room, so we should each take a section."

"What about the passageway?" Ron pointed out. "We turn on the lights right when we're entering a room, right? Seems to me these ancient wizards might do the same thing."

Hermione looked skeptical, but shrugged. "Worth a try, I suppose. Why don't you go and search that way, Ron? Harry and I will look in here." Ron saluted and took off. Hermione immediately got down to business. "You know what we're looking for, right?" she asked Harry.

"A white stone that looks like a tortoiseshell. Say the magic words, and we'll have light."

She smiled at him. "Right. Good to see one of you was paying attention to me."

"I always do," he replied, looking her straight in the eyes. Both of them froze for an instant, then turned away simultaneously to begin the search.

Maybe it was just the humidity, or the fact that they were walking beneath meters of rock and earth, but Harry found what would normally have been a comfortable silence between them to be almost as oppressive as the burning summer heat on the surface. He kept sneaking glances at Hermione when her back was turned to him, and he had a good feeling that she was doing the same. He thought back to that ill-timed moment in the car. Did she really say...? And if so, what did that mean? And most importantly, how did he feel about it? He sighed again, and it echoed eerily through the room.

"Should I even bother to ask?"

She could always tell. "It's just...confusing."

"Yes, I know. It's hard to find your way through the maze of formations in here. You can hardly tell if you're moving forward or retracing your steps."

"And it doesn't help that we can't use magic at all to help figure it out."

"Or that it's impossible to plan your way in advance. You can try, but once you get into it, it never seems to--"

"--go as you planned?"

Now it was her turn to sigh. "Exactly."

Silence again.

"Maybe we should just forget it."

Hermione dropped her flashlight in shock. "Harry, how could you say such a thing?"

"Gee, I don't know," he answered sarcastically. "Maybe because I have a Dark Lord and a host of his minions after my head? Because everyone who doesn't want me dead somehow expects me to save the world? Because I've got a thousand things to worry about and the last thing I need is another confusing, consuming mess!"

Tense silence.

He wasn't facing her, but he could picture her worried expression in detail.

"Harry..."

"Just forget it, I'm sorry I brought it up."

"No, I won't forget it. You're not the only one who's confused, you know."

He finally lifted his head and shot her a curious look. "What are you..."

"It's rough for all of us these days," she continued. "You more than anyone else, yes, but when it comes down to it, we're in this together, and there's no way out by ourselves. We just have to stick to it, because that's the only way we'll be able to...find the light," she finished lamely.

"I think I'm even more confused now."

"So am I."

"What do you think we should do?"

"For once in my life, I honestly don't know."

"Maybe Ron..."

"Ron's doing his own thing. This is just you and I."

Silence still thicker, as each of their gazes was fixed on the other despite the darkness.

She was right, of course. She was always right. Thinking too much always confused Harry more; instinct was his usual method of action, and so instinct he would follow. Without breaking their locked gaze, Harry took three strides towards her--

--and fell flat on his face. "Oof!"

"Harry, what happened?" she said in mild panic as she hurried over.

"Tripped over something..." he sat up and shone the flashlight at the site of his misstep. He blinked. "Hermione, you will never believe this."

"Don't tell me you--"

"I did."

Finally reaching him, she knelt down and put a hand on the chalk white keystone. "Only you would spend forever searching for something only to find it completely by accident."

"Oh, I don't know that I had anything to do with it. I think that it was the one who found me. If I had any say in the matter, all this searching wouldn't have been necessary."

"But would it be as amazing if you hadn't gone through the search?"

"Well, no, but it would've been a lot simpler."

"Since when do we do anything the easy way?"

They chuckled softly.

"Well," Hermione said, "Shall we?"

Harry blinked in confusion. "Shall we what?"

She sighed in mild exasperation. "Say the spell and turn on the bloody lights, of course!"

"Oh, right, that. Yeah, let's do it."

They placed their hands on the shell-patterned stone and recited the old Indian incantation together. For a moment, nothing happened, but Harry hardly had time to wonder what they'd done wrong when suddenly, sparkling, shimmering specks of light surrounded them. It looked like all the stars in the sky had decided to take up residence in the cavern with them, their bright pinpricks surrounding every stalactite, every drapery, every column, evoking a magnificent array of blues and purples and pinks reflected from each crystal in the calcite deposits. It was a dynamic spread as the lights silently twinkled like the stars they were modeled on, giving the room an otherworldly glow.

Neither Harry nor Hermione could speak, or hardly even breathe. Minutes passed before Hermione finally found her voice.

"It's like..."

"Magic?" he finished, grinning at her.

She smiled back, as brightly as the lights surrounding them. As Ron ran back into the cavern, shouting in amazement, Harry decided that maybe he didn't mind the heat so much after all.