Chapter 29: The Red String of Fate and the Shrieking Shack Slide part-2
Hermione, acting as the anchor, felt the corresponding tug forward.
"Ah!" she screamed.
They slammed into each other with a dull thud. Harry crashed into Hermione's back, his arms instinctively wrapping around her to stop them from falling.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know!" Harry panicked, pushing himself off her. "I slipped! I tried to walk forward and something pulled me back!"
"It is the wind," I suggested helpfully from behind. "Strange eddies around the Shack."
"Right," Harry muttered, adjusting his glasses. "Just... stay close then."
They started walking again. This time, they tried to navigate a patch of ice. Hermione stepped to the left to avoid a rock. Harry stepped to the right to avoid a branch.
The distance opened up again. Five meters.
Yank.
This time, the force was lateral. They were pulled sideways toward a central point between them.
Harry slid left. Hermione slid right.
They collided again, this time chest-to-chest.
Thump.
Harry's face buried itself in Hermione's scarf. Hermione's hands grabbed Harry's lapels.
"It keeps happening!" Hermione cried, looking terrified. "It is like we are magnets!"
"Maybe we should hold hands?" Harry suggested, his face bright red. "If we hold on, maybe we won't crash?"
Hermione hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. Strictly for safety. Hand holding. Nothing else."
They clasped hands. I watched, suppressing a laugh. The "Red String" was forcing the romance plot faster than any love potion.
We continued down the hill. The path became steeper. To our left was a steep embankment leading down to the fence of the Shrieking Shack.
(Time to spice things up,) I thought.
(Thermodynamic Control: Lower the temperature of the path surface by ten degrees.)
The snow beneath their feet instantly turned into a sheet of black ice.
"Careful," I called out.
Too late.
Hermione's boot hit the ice. She lost traction immediately.
"Harry!"
She slipped. Because they were holding hands, she pulled Harry down with her.
They hit the ground. But they didn't stop. The hill was steep and the ice I had created was frictionless.
They began to slide.
"Ron! Help!" Harry yelled as they gathered speed, sliding on their backsides down the hill toward the ominous, jagged fence of the Shrieking Shack.
"I am coming!" I shouted, jogging leisurely after them.
They slid fast. Spinning. Tangling.
They hit the bottom of the slope.
Crash.
They slammed into the rotting wooden fence surrounding the Shack. The wood was old and brittle. It didn't stop them; it broke.
Harry and Hermione tumbled through the broken fence and landed in a deep snowdrift on the other side.
But the fence had taken a toll.
Hermione's jumper had caught on a jagged nail as she went through. The nail held fast. The jumper did not.
As she tumbled into the snow, the jumper was ripped clean off her body, left hanging on the fence like a flag of surrender.
Harry landed on his back in the deep snow. Hermione landed on top of him.
But the "Red String of Fate" wasn't done. During the tumble, they had separated slightly. As they landed, the elastic force snapped them back together.
Hermione was pulled violently toward Harry.
She landed straddling his chest.
She was wearing her boots, her socks and... nothing on her upper body but her bra. Her jumper was on the fence. Her shirt had been unbuttoned by my "Poltergeist Proxy" earlier and had apparently been lost somewhere in the snow during the slide.
(...cough...)
The winter air was freezing. Hermione gasped, the cold hitting her exposed skin.
"My clothes!" she screamed. "Where are my clothes?!"
Harry was lying in the snow, looking up.
He saw the grey, stormy sky. And framed against it, he saw Hermione Granger, shivering violently, wearing a white lace bra that was doing very little to hide the effects of the freezing temperature on her anatomy.
"Oh my god," Harry whispered, his eyes bulging.
"Don't look!" Hermione shrieked, crossing her arms over her chest, but it was too late. The image was burned into his retinas.
She tried to scramble off him. She tried to crawl away into the snow to hide.
But she moved more than five meters away.
Twang.
The Red String activated.
"No, no, no!" Hermione yelled as she felt the invisible tug.
She was dragged backward through the snow. Harry, acting as the anchor again, was dragged forward.
They collided in the middle of the snowdrift.
This time, the collision was horizontal. They rolled together, limbs tangling.
Harry ended up on top of her. His hands, seeking purchase in the snow to stop the roll, landed on warm, soft skin instead of ice.
He was pressing her down into the snow. His chest was against her bare chest.
(...cough...)
The heat between them was palpable, melting the snow beneath them.
"I cannot move away!" Harry shouted, panic in his voice. "Every time I try to back up, I get pulled back into you!"
"It is a magnet curse!" Hermione sobbed. "We are stuck together! And I am naked! In the snow!"
I finally arrived at the broken fence. I looked down at the scene. It was chaotic, embarrassing and absolutely perfect.
"Are you two alive?" I called out, leaning on a fence post.
"Ron! Toss me your cloak!" Harry yelled, not daring to lift his head from Hermione's shoulder for fear of seeing something else—or letting her freeze.
"Right! Catch!"
I unclasped my heavy wool cloak and threw it down.
Harry caught it with one hand. He pulled it over both of them, creating a makeshift tent in the snow.
Under the cloak, I could see the frantic movement as they tried to organize their limbs without touching anything inappropriate (and failing miserably).
"System Alert," the voice chimed. "Incident recorded. Type: The 'Magnetic Snow Crash'. Upper body exposure in extreme weather conditions. Forced physical proximity via 'Red String'. Target: Hermione Granger. Victim/Beneficiary: Harry Potter. Rating: SS-class. Reward: Skill 'Gravity Well (Minor)' and one hundred attribute points."
.....
You can read the advanced chapters of all my novels at patreon for only 2.99$/ month at ultimate patreon tier
https://www.patreon.com/c/Vidhifate
...