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Lori woke with a start, fishing her galleon from its permanent place in her pocket as its heat surged across the top of her leg.
'I'm alive, I love you' it simply read, Lori letting out a sigh of relief as she clambered out of bed and headed out to tell Harry the good news.
Instead, she found him gone, leaves imprinted where he had trodden, footprints leading away from the tent. Lori's fingers curled around her wand as she followed, having to cast light from her wand as the darkness made it difficult to see.
His tracks led to a small river, almost completely covered in a sheet of ice, with a small hole bored through it near the middle.
Suddenly, two figures breached the frozen surface, one hauling the other onto the ice with a grunt. Lori raced over, tentatively braving the ice as she saw a spluttering Harry, in only his underwear, coughing up water.
"Calidum." she muttered, Harry's shivering ceasing as his limbs warmed.
Lori slowly looked at the other boy, her jaw dropping as Ron stared back at her, the two engulfing each other in a tight hug with a smile.
"I was so worried about you!" she said, jokingly punching his arm as Harry pulled the rest of his clothes on behind them.
"Hermione?" Harry asked, before his glasses settled on the bridge of his nose.
"Are you mental?" Ron looked at him in disbelief, as Lori charmed his clothes dry, her eyes going wide at the sight of Godric Gryffindor's sword in his hand.
"It was you?"
"Well, yeah. Bit obvious, I think."
"And you cast the doe as well, did you?"
Ron shook his head, "No, I thought that was you."
"No," Harry replied, fiddling with his belt buckle, "my Patronus is a stag."
"Right," he raised his fingers into the air above his head, "antlers."
With a nod, a now fully clothed and dry Harry laid the locket on a nearby log, "Okay, Ron. Do it."
He backed away slightly, "I can't handle it. That thing affects me more than you three."
Lori linked their arms and replied with a small smile, "All the more reason."
"No," he looked down at her, "I can't."
"Then why are you here?" Harry snapped slightly, "Why did you come back? Now, I'll have to speak to it in order for it to open. When it does, don't hesitate."
Harry moved over to Lori and pulled her away from Ron, "I don't know what's in there, but it'll put up a fight. The bit of Riddle that was in that diary tried to kill me."
