THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH | RON WEASLEY [BOOK FIVE]

9. COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS

They had to stay on foot, much to Ron's annoyance, as his increasingly growing hunger was beginning to give him a temper. It wasn't exactly easy to hunt and catch rabbits, she wanted to argue, but thought against it. It would have been best if they avoided arguments while on the move.

"So where next?" Ron asked them constantly, multiple times a day and every single time they decided to move, over the course of the next few weeks.

Of course, the three of them were trying to figure it out, while he was really only worried about their food supplies. It was starting to irritate Gene, even surprising herself as the feeling had become unfamiliar to her in recent times.

"He'd already made five of his Horcruxes before he went into exile, and Dumbledore was certain the snake is the sixth," Hermione said as they sat around the bench. "We know the snake's not in Albania–"

Then, to Gene's horror– Hermione froze. She looked up at Gene for a split second, before continuing on with her sentence and averting her gaze for the rest of the evening.

Gene felt sick to her stomach, unable to get to sleep that night, or the nights that followed, as Hermione had finally realised. It was only time until she did, Gene knew that.

She was the cleverest witch of their age, after all.

Gene began to make tea, hoping that she could make up for the terrible mushroom stew she had forced down their throats for the past week. Ron and Harry had given up entirely on the stew, asking for more rabbit instead, while Hermione powered through, only to be kind.

She placed a cup before Harry and Hermione each, passing by Ron who had fallen asleep, seemingly contented with his meal. Gene finally sat down at the bench with a great sigh herself, her hands running over her face tiredly.

"You should get some sleep." Harry said softly, his eyes trained on Gene with concern.

"Practically unheard of." Gene joked, a smile taking over and he did his best to return it. "Is that it?" she looked to the locket, laying across the table and Harry nodded, sliding it across.

He turned it over, frowning suddenly before looking back up at Gene, mirroring his frown because she knew why.

"I know. I felt it too." Harry said. "It's like it's– ticking, or something. Like it's–"

"Alive." Hermione finished his sentence, eying it coldly. "I hate it. It's like he's here with us." she shifted in her seat, tearing her eyes from it as though it burned to look a second longer.

"That's why we're going to kill it."

As soon as dawn broke, they were outside. They kept well away from the tent, the locket placed on top of a tree stump before they drew their wands. Gene nodded to Harry and Hermione, who raised their wands as well,  before each taking their turns to aim and fire.

Harry aimed, "Dissendium!"

The locket spun, though it remained stuck in its place, and worst of all– whole.

"Incendio!"

Hermione cast her spell, flames engulfed the locket, its metal flesh burning scarlet, before the flames died to reveal the locket in all its glory.

"Confringo!" she went again, the ground beneath the stump cratered, but the locket remained untouched.

Hermione lowered her wand, defeated, just as Gene pushed past them both, firing a succession of spells wordlessly, almost as if she had been possessed. She cried out, casting a final spell as the locket fell to the ground, unharmed. Gene panted as silence fell, except for the leaves shifting in the wind, the trees groaning with age.