2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

14 | GOBLINS

ACT FIVE, love
CHAPTER FOURTEEN, goblins

         Early the next morning, Iris woke up to find Harry walking back inside the tent. She gave him a curious look that he ignored as he sat down with her and Hermione to plan what they were going to do next. 

They felt it was best not to stay anywhere for too long, and Ron agreed, with the sole proviso that their next move took them within reach of a bacon sandwich. Hermione and Iris therefore removed the enchantments they had placed around the clearing, while Harry and Ron obliterated all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show they had camped there. Then they Disapparated to the outskirts of a small market town. 

Once they had pitched the tent in the shelter of a small copse of trees and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments, Harry ventured out under the Invisibility Cloak to find sustenance. This, however, did not go as planned. He had barely entered the town when an unnatural chill, a descending mist, and a sudden darkening of the skies made him freeze where he stood. 

"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" protested Ron, when Harry arrived back at the tent empty-handed, out of breath, and mouthing the single word, dementors. 

"I couldn't . . . make one," he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't . . . come."

Harry looked more shaken than Iris had seen him in a long time. 

"So we still haven't got any food." 

"Shut up, Ron," snapped Iris. "Harry, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday." 

"I don't know." 

He sat low in one of the old armchairs.

Ron kicked a chair leg. 

"What?" he snarled at Iris. She rolled her eyes. "I'm starving! All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!" 

"You go and fight your way through the dementors, then," said Harry, stung. 

"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!" 

'"That's convenient." 

"And what's that supposed to — ?" 

"Of course!" cried Hermione, clapping a hand to her forehead and startling both of them into silence. "Harry, give me the locket! Iris, take yours off too! Come on," she said impatiently, clicking her fingers at him when they did not react, "the Horcruxes, you're both still wearing it!" 

She held out her hands, and Harry lifted the golden chain over his head while Iris unclasped the sapphire necklace. She felt a weight lift off of her shoulders, and the world seemed a little less gloomy than it had before. 

"Better?" asked Hermione them. 

"Yeah," said Iris.

"Loads better!" added Harry.

 "Harry, Iris," she said, crouching down in front of them and using the kind of voice Iris associated with visiting the very sick, "you don't think the pair of you've been possessed, do you?" 

"What? No!" Harry said defensively. "I remember everything we've done while I've been wearing it. I wouldn't know what I'd done if I'd been possessed, would I? Ginny said there were times when she couldn't remember anything." 

"I don't think I'm possessed either," said Iris. 

"Hmm," said Hermione, looking down at the heavy gold locket. "Well, maybe we ought not to wear these. We can just keep them in the tent."