The tree stump exploded, but the locket remained unmarked. "Confringo!" The ground beneath the stump cratered, but the locket remained untouched.
Hermione lowered her wand, but Harry continued on, firing a succession of spells, looking almost possessed.
Hermione studied him oddly until, finally, he stopped. All goes silent except for the leaves shifting in wind above. Then, slowly, another sound came clear... a ticking. Coming from the locket.
"It's angry." Ron mumbled making Hermione shiver. Harry stepped forward and kneeled down and took the locket by its chain. It ticked. He slung it over his neck.
"What're you doing?" Hermione asked as she saw what Harry was doing.
"We have to keep it safe until we can figure out how to destroy it." Harry told his two friends, he's eyes on the tent.
"I can put it in my bag --" Harry cut Hermione off and she looked away from him.
"No."
"Seems strange, mate. Dumbledore sends you off to find a load of Horcruxes, but doesn't bother to tell you how to destroy them. Doesn't that bother you?"
Harry studied the locket, whose ticking has slowed, then walked off. Hermione eyed Ron, who returned her glance, then pushed away from the tree and walked off slowly in the opposite direction.
----
Ron lied on his cot, fiddling with the radio. Voices surface in the static briefly, then fade.
---
Harry turned the mirror shard over in his fingers, then eyed Hermione collecting flowers in the distance. She looked beautiful. Seeing him, she smiled, waved, before moving on. The radio spat static and he tilted the mirror so he can see Ron. He looked annoyed, but held his tongue and slipped the mirror in his pocket.
Noticing the locket, he slipped it from his shirt, studying the fissures in the locket's metal skin. Suddenly he winced. The locket spilled from his palm, dancing upon the chain. The skin encircling his scar constricted.
"Tell me, Gregorovitch. Tell me where it is..." An old man with pure-white hair and a bushy beard cowered in a dark corner.
"I told you! I no longer have it! It was stolen from me! Many years ago!" The old man shouted as he stayed tight to a corner.
"You wouldn't be lying to me, would you, Gregorovitch? Because, I must tell you... that will only make it worse for you..." As a bony hand, Voldemort's, extends a wand, Gregorovitch reacted with fear.
----
A younger Gregorovitch hurried toward a distant room, a lantern bobbing in his hand. "I speak the truth! I remember like it was yesterday..." Gregorovitch bursted inside, lantern swaying. Wood shavings littered the floor.
On the window ledge, perched like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair grinned devilishly, then raised his wand. A blast of light...
Gregorovitch's face stricken with terror, as Voldemort's want tip blazed with light. "Who was he? The thief?"
"Just a boy! Not of the village. It was he who took it. I never saw it again. I swear on my life." The look of terror in Gregorovitch's eyes, made Harry flinch back.
She knew the same fear that Gregorovitch felt at that one moment. "I believe you..." A burst of green light engulfed the room.
----
Harry's eyes fluttered open. He sees Hermione, beautiful in the amber dusk, standing a bit away, studying him. Olivia bent over and started to cough.
YOU ARE READING
Stay With Me
FanfictionBook 4 Olivia and Draco have their hands full, but they wouldn't change a thing that has happened to them. Will Olivia talk to Harry or will she cut him out of her life? Voldemort is back and ready to kill anyone in his way. How will the siblings ta...
