Valentina never prepared herself for so much loss in one lifetime.
Let alone in a lifetime she has barely grown old in.
But with loss comes love.
Now the question is: how far will that love go?
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•┈••✦ ❤ ✦••┈•
"Hermione!" I hear Harry's voice shout in my dreamless sleep. "Valentina!"
I groan and roll over, only to hit against another body and my eyes fly open as I jolt up.
"It's just me," Monie said, and I sigh as I look down to see her waking up. I completely forgot that we shared a bed last night to make us warmer while we camp in a new, freezing location. "Did you hear Harry?"
"Yeah," I mumble and swing my legs over the bed, putting my boots on. "I swear we can never sleep in."
She laughs and scoots over the bed, sitting beside me as she puts her shoes on and I slip on a jacket.
"Girls!" Harry shouts again and I groan.
Monie offers a hand out to me as she stands and then we walk out of the tent, the cold wind slapping my face. "Is everything all right?" Monie asks.
"It's fine," Harry said as we run up the small hill. "Actually, you know, it's more than fine," Harry points behind him as we get to him, and I look to see Ron smiling at us.
"Hey," he chuckles, and I give him a small smile.
Monie marches up to him and pulls his bag off his shoulder. "You," she shoves him, and I watch amused. "Complete," she then throws a handful of leaves at him. "Ass, Ronald Weasley! You show up here after weeks," she hits him with his own bag, and I start laughing. "And you say 'hey'?" She then spins around and faces us. "Where's my wand, Harry? Where's my wand?" I almost forgot she had to give Harry her wand since his got broken.
"I don't know," Harry answers and she starts to storm up to him.
"Harry Potter, you give me my wand," she demands as she backs him into the tree
I stop laughing and back away toward Ron. "Did you miss us?" I muse while giving him a smile.
He looks at me with a small smile and then looks back at Harry and Monie. "How come he's got your wand?"
"Never mind why he's got my wand!" Monie exclaims and whirls back around, walking toward me and Ron. "What is that?" Ron lifts up the destroyed horcrux and my mouth flies open. No way these two destroyed it while we were asleep. "You destroyed it. And how is it that you just happened to have the sword of Gryffindor?"
"Where?" I exclaim and Ron lifts up the sword he was hiding behind his back. "Holy shit," I mumble as I look at the silver sword.
"It's a long story," Harry said.
"Don't think this changes anything," Monie seers and starts to storm away.
"Oh, of course not," Ron said and lifts up the Horcrux. "I only just destroyed a bloody Horcrux. Why would that change anything?" Monie turns back around I rub my temple at her pissed-off gaze. "Look, I wanted to come back as soon as I left. I just didn't know how to find you."
"Yeah, how did you find us?" Harry questions him and now I'm curious too because if Ron can find us then surely one of the boys know where I am.
"With this," Ron pulls out the deluminator. "It doesn't just turn off lights. I don't know how it works, but Christmas morning, I was sleeping in this little pub, keeping away from some snatchers. And I heard it."
"It?" I ask him, feeling the heaviness in my heart that the boys still can't find me. I only hope Mattheo found the rose I left for him.
"A voice—Your voice, Hermione—Coming out of it," Ron breathes and I can't help but smile while looking between him and Monie.
"And what exactly did I say, may I ask?" Monie sasses.
"My name. Just my name. Like a whisper. So, I took it, clicked it, and this tiny ball of light appeared. And I knew. And sure enough, it floated toward me, the ball of light. Went right to my chest, straight through me. Right here," he presses his hand to my chest, "And I knew it was gonna take me where I needed to go, so I disapparated and came to this hillside. It was dark. I had no idea where I was. I just hoped that one of you would show yourself. And you did," he breathes and looks at Harry.
"Now that was adorable," I said happily and the three of them shake their heads at me. "What? It was fucking cute."
"Glad to see you're still the same," Ron jokes and I shove his shoulder.
"That's true, Ronald. Now go get cleaned up," I push him toward the tent as Harry laughs at me.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ
"I just realized, you need a wand, don't you?" Ron asks Harry as I walk into the tent, leaving Monie to read outside. "I've got one here," Ron pulls a wand out of his bag, and I sit on the steps near him. "It's a blackthorn," he hands Harry the black wand. "Ten inches. Nothing special, but I reckon it'll do. Took it off a snatcher a couple of weeks ago. Don't tell Hermione this, but they're a bit dim, snatchers. This one was definitely part troll, the smell of him."
Me and Harry laugh and then I watch as Harry points his wand at the small fire in the jar. "Engorgio."
The three of us jump back as the tiny fire burst into a huge flame and Harry yells another spell to put it out.
"What's going on in there?" Monie yells from outside the tent.
"Nothing!" The three of us respond at the same time.
I throw a shoe at Harry that hits him in the shoulder. "You idiot," I whisper yell at him.
Monie walks into the tent and the three of us stand up, acting as if Harry didn't just nearly burn down the tent. "We need to talk."
"I feel like I did something wrong that I don't even know about," I mumble and Ron snorts.
"I want to go see Xenophilius Lovegood," Monie tells us.
"Sorry?" Harry asks.
Monie opens her book and shows us a letter while pointing to the drawing of that triangle again. "See this? It's a letter Dumbledore wrote to Grindelwald. Look at the signature. It's the mark again. It keeps cropping up. In Beedle the Bard. In the graveyard in Godric's Hollow."
"It was there, too. Outside Gregorovitch's wand shop," Harry chimes in.
"But what does it mean?" Ron asks.
"Look, you've got no idea where the next Horcrux is, and neither do I. But this—This means something. I'm sure of it," Monie said to us gently.
"Yeah," Ron walks up to Monie's side. "Hermione's right. We ought to see Lovegood. Uh, let's vote on it. Those in favor?" Ron lifts his hand up and I look at him like an idiot as Monie walks away.
"I mean, A for effort," I tease Ron and pinch his cheek. "But give the girl some time."
He swats my hand away. "I'm trying," he grumbles and I laugh.
"Love is a painful feeling," I tell him as I lay on my bed.
