too close to the stars - H.J.P

Chapter Seventy Eight

"I can't," she shook her head at him.

"Yes you can. You can, love, I promise he'll be alright." Harry tried but he could see her inner turmoil. "Noel, please, jump off."

Noel closed her eyes tightly, and slid off with the rest of them. Landing in the cold water, she emerged back up, gasping and panting for air. The dragon did not seem to have noticed anything: It was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred snout.

Noel, Harry, Ron, and Hermione struck out for the opposite shore. The lake did not seem to be deep: Soon it was more a question of fighting their way through reeds and mud than swimming, and at last they flopped, sodden, panting, and exhausted, onto slippery grass. Hermione collapsed, coughing and shuddering.

Though Harry could have happily lain down and slept, he staggered to his feet, drew out his wand, and started casting the usual protective spells around them. When he had finished, he joined the others. It was the first time that he had seen them properly since escaping from the vault. 

They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries. Hermione handed Harry the bottle, then pulled out three bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage (Pumpkin juice made Noel sick) and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changed and then gulped down the juice.

"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, who was sitting watching the skin on his hands regrow, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside —"

"— no sword," said Harry through gritted teeth, as Noel dropped dittany on his injuries.

"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab..."

Harry pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the grass in front of them. Glinting in the sun, it drew their eyes as they swigged their bottles of juice.

"At least we can't wear it this time, that'd look a bit weird hanging round our necks," said Ron, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank, where the dragon was drinking water. "What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked. "Will it be all right?"

"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron. "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."

Noel watched Harry as he had suddenly become very quiet, the others watched him worriedly, waiting for him to open his eyes again. Knowing that he was having a vision.

"He knows." His own voice sounded strange and low. "He knows, and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," he was already on his feet, "is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

"What?" Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried. "But what did you see? How do you know?"

"I saw him find out about the cup, I — I was in his head, he's–he's seriously angry, and scared too, he can't understand how we knew, and now he's going to check the others are safe, the ring first. He thinks the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape's there, because it'll be so hard not to be seen getting in, I think he'll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours —"

"Did you see where in Hogwarts it is?" asked Ron, now scrambling to his feet too.

"No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn't think about exactly where it is —"