Harry, Danny, Hermione and I feel that it is best not to stay anywhere too long, and Ron agrees, with the sole proviso that our next move takes us within reach of a bacon sandwich. Hermione and I therefore remove the enchantments we have placed around the clearing, while Harry, Danny and Ron obliterate all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show we camped there. Then we Disapparate to the outskirts of a small market town.
Once we have pitched the tent in the shelter of a small copse of trees, and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments, Harry and Danny venture out under the Invisibilty Cloak to find sustenance. This, however, does not go as planned.
"But you can make brilliant Patronuses!" protests Ron, when Harry and Danny arrive back at the tent empty-handed, out of breath, and Danny mouthing the single word "Dementors".
"We couldn't...make one," Harry pants, clutching at the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't...come."
The expressions of consternation and disappointment make Harry and Danny look ashamed.
"So we still haven't got any food."
"Shut up, Ron," snaps Hermione. "Harry, Danny, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday!"
"I don't know," says Danny.
They sit low in two of Perkins's old armchairs, looking more humiliated by the moment. I am afraid that something has gone wrong inside them. Yesterday seems a long time ago: today they might have been thirteen years old again, the only ones who collapsed on the Hogwarts Express.
Ron kicks a chair leg.
"What?" he snarls at Hermione and I. "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," says Harry, stung.
"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"
"That's convenient," says Danny.
"And what's that supposed to - ?"
"Of course!" I cry, clapping a hand to my forehead and starling all of them into silence. "Harry, give me the locket! Come on," I say impatiently, clicking my fingers at him when he does not react, "the Horcrux, Harry, you're still wearing it!"
Hermione and I hold out our hands and Harry lifts the gold chain over his head. The moment it parts contact with his skin he looks free and oddly light.
"Better?" asks Hermione.
"Yeah, loads better!" Harry says.
"Here," I say, crouching down in front of him and using the kind of voice I associate with visiting the very sick, "you don't think you've been possessed, do you?"
"What? No!" Danny says defensively. "He remembers everything we've done while he's been wearing it. He wouldn't know what he'd done if he'd been possessed, would he? Ginny and Misty told us there were times when she couldn't remember anything."
"Hm," says Hermione, looking down at the heavy locket. "Well, maybe we ought not to wear it. We can just keep it in the tent."
"We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around," Harry states firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen - "
"Oh, all right, all right," I say, and I place it around my own neck and tuck it out of sight down the front of my shirt. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on too long."
"Great," says Ron irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"
"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it," says Hermione, with half a glance at Harry and Danny. "There's no point staying where we know Dementors are swooping around."
YOU ARE READING
Dawn Rivera
Fanfiction"One is the lock, one is the key, one is the sacrifice the world shall shall grieve." Dawn has wanted to go to Hogwarts ever since she was a little girl, and nothing her older sister Gertrude says will discourage her. Little does she know that the m...
