Chapter 31

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As the days turned into weeks, and autumn arrived, we began hoisting up the tent in mulch of dead leaves instead of grass, every morning.

"Yeah, let's go into Albania," Ron said sarcastically one evening. "It shouldn't take long to search an entire country."

"It can't be in there, he had already made five Horcruxes, and Dumbledore is sure that the snake is the seventh," Hermione said. "The snake would always be beside Vold-"

"DIDNT I TELL YOU NOT TO SAY HIS NAME?" Ron snapped loudly. I widened my eyes. I had never known Ron to be so angry.

"Fine, the snake's with You-Know-Who, then - happy?"

"Not particularly," was the reply.

"He couldn't have hid it in Borgin and Burkes, they would have recognised a Horcrux," Harry said.

Ron yawned pointedly.

I glanced at Harry's reaction. He closed his eyes slowly and opened them again, exhaling loudly, seeming to fight the urge to go hit Ron. I couldn't blame him, when Ron was hungry, he can be a foul git.

"I still reckon he hid it in Hogwarts," Harry ploughed on.

"But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry," Hermione sighed.

"Dumbledore told me that he never would have known all of Hogwarts secrets! I'm telling you, if there's any place that Vold-"

"OI!" Ron called loudly.

"FINE! YOU-KNOW-WHO!" Harry shouted back at Ron. "If there's one place that's really important to him, it's Hogwarts!"

Ron scoffed loudly. "Come on, his school?"

"Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that he was special, it meant everything to him, and even after he left-" Harry began.

"ARE YOU SURE we're talking about You-Know-Who and not you?" Ron enquired. I nearly gasped.

"You told us that he asked Dumbledore to give him a job after he left?" Hermione said quickly, taking advantage of the furious silence between the boys.

Harry turned to her. "Yes."

"But he didn't get the job, so it would have been unlikely for him to find the object and find it in the school would he?"

Harry signed, defeatedly. "I guess you're right."











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"My mother," Ron began moodily another night. "Can make food appear out of thin air."

I glanced at Ron, and sure enough, he was wearing the locket. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Ron was always in the worst mood when he had to wear it. I've worn it quite a few times, and it does make you feel down and really depressed, but it affected Ron the most out of all of us.

"No she can't," Hermione interjected, like I knew she would. "No one can, it's the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gramps Law of Elemental Transfi-"

"Speak English, would you?" Ron snapped.

"It's impossible to make food out of nothing. It can summon it, if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity, but -"

"Well don't bother increasing this, it's disgusting," Ron snapped, shoving away the plate of fish that Hermione and I spent a while at, trying to make it edible.

"Harry caught the fish, and Skyler and I tried to make it into some sort of food, I realised that it's always Skyler and I left to sort out the food, because we're GIRLS!" Hermione snapped coldly.

"No, it's because you two are supposed to be the best at magic!" Ron retorted angrily.

Hermione, who was sitting beside me, jumped up, spilling the contents of her plate on the floor. I sighed and with a wave of my wand, cleaned it up.

"YOU can do the cooking tomorrow, Ron. YOU can find the ingredients and try and charm them into something worth eating, and I'LL sit down and pull faces and moan and you can see how you-"

"SHUT UP!" Harry roared. "SHUT UP NOW!"

Hermione glared at him. "How can you side with him-!"

But I knew what Harry was talking about. I also heard voices.

"Hermione, be quiet, we heard something," I whispered.

"Hermione, are you sure you cast the Muffliato charm over us, right?" Harry whispered.

"Yes, I did everything," Hermione said, and she began whispering the charms out to herself.

We all heard the louder commotion, and we edged towards the entrance of tent. I couldn't help but think of the worst, we're caught.

Hermione grabbed her beaded bag and pulled out four Extendable Ears, and handed one to each of us.

Within seconds, we heard the conversation.











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"Harry!" Hermione cried.

"I know!" Harry said, punching the air like a little child. I couldn't help but giggle, even though I knew that he had a very legitimate reason to do so.

"The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made items only take in what makes them stronger, and you destroyed the diary with a Basilisk fang, but you also stabbed the Basilisk sight the sword - Harry, the sword is impregnated with Basilisk venom!" Hermione gushed.

"And Dumbledore didn't give it to me because he needed it, to use it on the locket-"

"- he must have realised they wouldn't let you have it if he put it in his will -"

" - so he made a copy -"

"- put the fake one in the glass case -"

"- and he left the real one, where?"

I laughed loudly at Harry and Hermione. "Do you guys practise this in your spare time?" I snorted.

Hermione smiled, but then turned serious. "Think, think! Where would he have left it?"

"Definitely not Hogwarts," I said quickly, trying to be of some sort of help.

"Hogsmeade?" Hermione suggested.

"The Shrieking Shack?" Harry asked. "What do you reckon, Ron?"

"Ron?" Harry asked again, turning around when there's no answer.

Ron was lying on his bed, staring resolutely away from us.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" He said.

"What?"

Ron snorted as he sat up. "You three carry on, don't let me spoil your fun."

Oh no, another Ron + Locket mood, I thought.

Harry looked at Hermione and me. We both shook our heads and shrugged, unsure as to what we could have done to insult Ron.

"What's your problem?" Harry asked.

"Problem? There's no problem," Ron said, not looking at us, his voice a dangerous calm. "Not to you anyways."

The rain began to sound heavily around us.

"We'll, you've obviously got a problem," Harry said, his temper cutting short, I realised. "Spit it out, would you?"

Ron stood up quickly. "Alright, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to jump up and down in happiness now that there's another damn object that we need to find. Just add it to the list of stuff that you don't know."

"I don't know?" Harry repeated. "I DONT KNOW?"

Oh no. Hermione and I both shared a look. We had accepted the fact that the boys fought often, but this argument seemed different.

"It's not like I'm having the time of my life here, my arm still mangled, no food, freezing my backside here every night. I just hoped that, after a few weeks of running around, we would have achieved something!"

"Ron," Hermione said in a quiet voice, trying to calm the boys down.

"I thought you knew what you signed up for!" Harry said.

"Yeah, I thought so too," was the reply.

"So what part of this hasn't lived up to your expectations?" Harry said angrily. "Did you think that we were going to stay in five star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Hoping to get back to Mummy by Christmas?"

"I thought you knew what you were doing!" Ron shouted. "I thought you had a real plan!"

"Ron!" Hermione said, her voice louder.

"I'm sorry for letting you down," Harry said, his voice a strange calm. "I've been straight with you since the start, and I've told you what Dumbledore told me, and in case you haven't noticed, we already found a Horcrux!"

I watched all this, sitting down, in horror. These guys were best friends, since the age of eleven. Even though I didn't see them grow up together, I couldn't bear to watch them fight.

"Yeah, and we are as near as getting rid of it as we are to finding the others - no where effing near, that's what!" Ron shouted.

"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione said, walking over to Ron and tried to take it off. "You wouldn't by saying all this if you aren't wearing it!" She cried as he pushed her away.

"Yes he would," Harry said, glaring at Ron and Hermione. "Do you think I haven't noticed both of you guys whispering behind my back? D'you think that I didn't guess that you were thinking all that stuff?"

My eyes widened. I, in fact, didn't notice much of what Hermione and Ron did, I was usually in my own world, which, of course, included Draco.

"Harry, we didn't-" Hermione began.

"Don't lie," Ron shouted at her. "You said it too, you said that you were disappointed, you said that you thought that he had more to go on-"

"I didn't say it like that!" Hermione cried, tears running down her face. "Harry- I didn't."

"So why are you still here then?" Harry asked Ron, with such a deceptive calmness to his voice that it chilled my bones, and I stood up.

"Search me," Ron snarled back.

"Go home, then" Harry replied in his same tone.

"Maybe I will then!" Ron shouted, and he took several steps towards Harry, who didn't back away, but kept his head high, as if daring Ron to hit him. Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and tried to pull him back, but he shook her off. I walked closer to the two boys.

"Guys, come on -" I began.

"Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you didn't give a rat's fart, did you? It's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care about what happens to her in there, well I do, giant spiders and mental stuff -"

"I was only saying - she was with others, with Hagrid--"

"-yeah, I get it, you don't care. And what about the rest of my family. 'The other Weasley's don't mean another injured kid'. Did you even think of what that means?" Ron snarled.

"Ron, it's a good thing, that means nothing new has happened to Bill, or Charlie, I'm sure that all it meant-" Hermione said, squeezing herself between the two boys, trying to ease Ron back, who no doubt, seemed to want to attack Harry first.

"O, you're sure, are you? Well then, I won't, would I? You never understood the meaning of the word 'family', Harry, YOUR PARENTS ARE DEAD!" Ron roared, silencing everyone.

I gasped audibly. This was Harry's best friend, for seven years.

Harry grasped his wand, and Ron, seeing Harry's reaction, grabbed his own, but before either one of them could shout a spell, my wand was in my hand and I shouted, "Protegro!"

An invisible barrier pushed Ron and Harry back a few steps, but they glared at each other, their eyes full of corrosive hatred. Hermione looked between the two, at loss for words.

"Leave the Horcrux," Harry growled.

Ron wrenched the chain away from his head and threw it, at full force, to me. I didn't expect it, so the locket hit me, and I fumbled to catch it.

"Don't throw it at her," Harry snarled.

Ron smirked, and ignored Harry. "What are you going to do, then?" He asked, looking at Hermione.

"What do you mean?" Hermione replied.

"Are you staying?"

Hermione looked like she was in pain. "I...... Yes, Ron, I'm staying, we promised that we would help -"

"I get it," Ron interrupted her, and then looked at me. "Both of you choose him, don't you?"

I didn't answer, and Ron began storming through the tent, towards the entrance.

"Ron, no-wait! Ron, please come back!" Hermione cried, rushing after Ron, into the pouring rain.

Soon Harry and I were left alone in the tent. I looked at him, his eyes defeated, then I turned and rain out into the rain. A small distance away, I saw Ron, walking resolutely away, and Hermione rushing after him, calling out his name.

"Ron!" I called, running after them. "RON!"

It was too late, he had already Dissapparted, with a loud crack.

Hermione stood still on the spot, her face in her hands. I walked to her, wiping the rain out of my eyes, and tugged her back towards the tent. Her sobs shook me. I knew how she felt, even though the situations were varied. Draco sent me here for my safety, with the bonus that I could help defeat the monster that has power over him, but Ron abandoned Hermione, in a way. Either way, we were both without the person we love.

Of course I knew how she felt.

We entered the tent, our clothes dripping all over the floor, our hair plastered to our faces.

"He's gone," I explained, though Harry probably knew that. "Dissapparated."

Hermione sat heavily in the couch and started sobbing, trying to be silent but failing.

I sat down beside her, patting her back, and muttering words of comfort.

"He will come back," I kept whispering, even though I knew that the possibility of him coming back, or if he did, him trying to find us, was near zero.

After a few minutes, Harry appeared with a large blanket, which he draped over Hermione and I. With a small sympathetic smile at me, he turned, his face neutral, and laid down on his bed, fully clothed.

We were all broken-hearted now, not just me.

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