Be mine again

28.

The wind blew harshly in their faces as they stared at the landscape facing them. 

Things weren't going as well as they had expected but they were going better than Harry had. Well for the most part at least. One of the things the raven regretted however was caving in and allowing Hermione and Ron to accompany him on his journey when he had clearly wanted nothing to do with them. 

Ron had caught him sneaking out in the middle of the night after Snape had been announced as the new headmaster of Hogwarts. The news had shocked the students to the core and they had all looked at each other with worry. Because they could all feel it, they could all feel how bad things were going to get this year. 

Ron had been appalled when Harry refused to take him along. But Harry didn't care and turned around before leaving the room. But upon walking down to the common room, it was with a heavy sigh of frustration that Harry came face to face with Hermione. The girl had been doing some late night studying and had been on her way up to her room when she encountered Harry.

"What's going on?" She had asked with a suspicious glance between the two boys had Ron had followed after Harry, whining loudly like a two-year-old after his mother. 

Shaking his head, Harry had walked around her to leave but was put under the petrificus totalus until he finally agreed to take them both along his journey. 

Reasonably enough, Harry had not spoken more than a few words to them since they had departed and that was two months ago. Hermione and Ron tried to get closer to the raven but in vain, there was some sort of barrier between them, separating them from their best friend in a way that left them stumped. 

Ron and Hermione were still confused to this day how Harry could change so much. They had never been convinced that Harry truly had travelled in time. But they had to admit that there was something off about the raven that they couldn't quite pinpoint. 

Hermione had secretly performed spells on Harry over the past year and a half to try and determine if the boy was cursed. She found nothing yet. But if he wasn't cursed and he hadn't gone mad, then that meant he was telling the truth from the beginning, right? But it couldn't be. Hermione refused to believe that Draco Malfoy of all people was Harry's future. 

How could that be possible? They had spent their whole lives at Hogwarts hating each other. She just couldn't get her head around the idea. She knew that they seemed to have become somewhat friendly with each other as of late and that in itself was too odd for her to imagine more. Seeing Malfoy behave normally around Harry was something she'd never thought she'd ever see. 

Ron on the other hand was pissed off every single time he'd catch Draco and Harry talking to each other like they were the best of friends. He didn't know what was going on through his best friend's head for him to befriend a Malfoy of all people. Especially after everything that ferret had put them through. He had spent years insulting them and getting them into trouble and yet Harry was being kind to him?

What a joke. 

Moreover, Harry was hanging out less and less with them and more and more with the Slytherin trio. As if Malfoy alone wasn't enough Harry just had to go and make more friends in this god awful house, Ron thought bitterly. Much like Hermione, Ron couldn't wrap his head around the situation at hand. But Harry refused to listen to reason and stopped talking to the blond. 

What more could they possibly do about it? 

Harry truly thought the journey would take less time than that. They had only found one of the horcruxes and they still had a lot of them to find. He was tired and annoyed most of the time as the other two constantly tried to talk to him when all he wanted was to be left alone.