Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter sixty-nine

"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry yells as the three of us approach the tent pitched up inside the forest, almost completely dry from the fire that we lit last night and sat in front of, listening to Ron's extended apologies and catching each other up on what has been happening.

I see Hermione's head pop out of the tent and upon a quick look over of her face, I can see the stress and the tiredness that lies in her eyes. "Is everything alright?" She asks, her voice fairly hushed and concerned, until she realises who is standing with us. "Everything's fine because... look who's here," I answer, pushing Ron forward slightly, hoping that Hermione doesn't injure him too badly when she goes off on him as I have predicted she will.

Just as I imagined, she immediately storms over at Ron, throws a large handful of leaves in his face, picks up his backpack and lobs it at him, calling him an arse in the process. "You show up after weeks and you say 'hey'?" She snaps, her eyes full of irritation and anger now, heavily contrasting how she looked when she first emerged from the tent. 

Then, she swiftly turns around to Harry and demands for her wand, Harry stumbling backwards and fumbling in his pockets, searching for Hermione's wand. Ron asks why he's got her wand and whilst she snaps back saying that it's none of his business, I see her eyes fall on the split locket in my hands. 

I raise it up to show her, adding that it was Ron who managed to destroy it, a cheeky yet proud smirk emerging on his face. "He destroyed it?" Hermione repeats, to which I nod and step back slightly, as she looks at Ron and demands to know how he got the Sword of Gryffindor.

After a minute or so, I get the feeling that they'll be talking for a while, so I turn to Harry and whisper that maybe we should head inside the tent. He agrees almost immediately, so we head inside the tent and leave the two equally emotional young adults outside to hash everything out.

I sigh and lay down on one of the bunk beds, sinking into the mattress as Harry lies down beside me, taking my hand in mine. "Are you okay?" He asks out of the blue, which makes me turn to look at him in confusion, needing some clarification. "We didn't really get to talk last night about what you saw when the locket opened, so I just wanted to make sure that you're feeling alright."

My cheeks warm with a blush at his concern, so I reassure his worry and tell him that I feel alright. "At first, all these negative feelings and thoughts came crawling into my brain, completely overwhelming me and I felt like my heart was going implode, but then something clicked. I don't know what it was, but something inside me kicked in and made me realise that what I was seeing and hearing was not true, in the slightest. I know I have a family with the Weasleys, I know that Cedric always loved me and doesn't blame me for his death, I know you all cherish me as a friend and I know that you love me. So yeah, I'm good."

Harry smiles and tucks my hair behind my ear, with his hand ending up on the side of my right cheek as he pulls me towards him. He presses several sweet kisses onto my forehead and as I look back up at him, my lips find his own. Practically as soon as I pull away from him, we both hear Hermione and Ron walk back into the tent.

Within about ten minutes, Harry has been gifted a new wand from Ron - who disarmed a Snatcher a few weeks ago - and as a group, we've decided to track down and visit Luna's father, Xenophilius Lovegood.

-

"How can I help you, Mr Potter?" Mr Lovegood asks, glancing at the four of us sat in a slightly deformed circle shape. Upon our arrival at the Lovegood home, Mr Lovegood welcomed us in and after assuring us that Luna would be back fairly soon, he prepared us some tea and sat us all down.

"Well, actually," Harry starts, looking at Mr Lovegood with a fairly serious expression on his face, "it was about something you were wearing around your neck at the wedding, it was a symbol." Mr Lovegood nods his head ever so slightly and after pulling out a chain from underneath his stained white shirt, he reveals the symbol that Harry was talking about. 

"We were wondering what the symbol actually is," I add on, as Mr Lovegood was looking slightly perplexed at us all, but my comment doesn't seem to make much of a difference as the confusion in his face grows. "What is it? Well, it's the sign of the Deathly Hallows, of course," he answers.

"The what?" The four of us simultaneously reply, the confusion in the room growing thicker and thicker by the second.  "The Deathly Hallows," he repeats, looking at us as if we're all growing horns from our heads, "I assume you're all familiar with The Tale of the Three Brothers?"

All of us, except Harry, say yes. 

There is a distinct moment of stillness and silence, until Hermione states that it's in the book that Dumbledore left her. I open my beaded bag and after a quick fumble around, I pull out the leather-bound, worn away book and hand it over to Hermione, who quickly flicks through the pages until she lands on the desired chapter.

"There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight," Hermione starts but is cut off by Ron, who claims that Molly would always say midnight, quickly retracting his comment when Hermione shoots him an annoyed glare.

"There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight," Hermione continues, reciting the familiar childhood story of 'The Three Brothers', Harry paying close attention to the details.