Marooned - Fred Weasley

Chapter 70: Lost in the Woods

"Excuse me, we make a living out of acting like twelve year olds," Fred defended himself and his brother with an indignant tone and hand pressed against his chest.

George and Fred were wearing their knitted jumpers with their initials on them, it just so happened Sarah and Selena had packed one for themselves as well. The four were facing each other and they mirrored each other's outfits, it was endearing.

"Yeah, okay, go gather some tree branches for tonight's fire," said Sarah authoritative to the both of them and they eagerly made their way out of the tent, exchanging excitedly on making a contest out of it.

"I'll bet you a Cauldron Cake one of them comes back with a splinter," waged Selena, shaking her head endearingly at the two ginger-heads walking down the hill.

"It would surprise me if they didn't," Sarah answered with a smile wide and the two girls took care of those seeds for the rest of the afternoon, got a small plant to grow out of the ground, if they did the same thing for the next couple days, they might start to eat whatever vegetable it made.

_

"Who wants to start?" asked Harry, his wand drawn, everyone else doing the same except for Ron who had his arm bandaged.

"I'll do it," offered Sarah, taking a step forward. The locket was set over some leaves, a faint screech seemed to come from it like it was alive or something. Which made sense and was terrifying at the same time, to think there was a piece of Voldemort's soul attached to that object.

Sarah pointed her wand at it, "Incendio." A great fire erupted from it, a fire that would have destroyed any other object, it darkened the leaves around the locket, they became carbonized and everyone winced from the smell of burning dirt.

"You couldn't have chosen another spell, love?" spoke Fred nasally, pinching his nose. She simply shrugged and sent them all an apologetic look. When she walked closer, the locket was indeed on fire, but it slowly faded away while it remained intact.

"Damn it," she muttered under her breath, Harry took a step forward and sent it flying a few feet away from them, it wailed, but nothing happened. They all formed a circle around it and bombed it with defensive spells, all doing nothing but destroying the leaves beneath their feet.

Selena told them all to step away and said angrily, "Bombarda Maxima." It blew a great hole in the ground, and after the dust set, they opened their eyes to find the Horcrux resting without a scratch at the bottom. Harry sent a chain of numerous spells, each with more frustration and conviction than the one before, until he seemed to have given everything he could, nothing was helping. He made it fly out of the hole and put the Horcrux around his neck.

"What are you doing?" asked Hermione shrilly.

"We need to keep it safe until we find a way to destroy it," Harry answered her, tucked it beneath his shirt.

They'd spent a full hour trying to destroy it, without getting anywhere. And in total, they had been wandering around this forest for a few weeks, now. The leaves were falling down, the ground was covered with brown and golden, suggesting they might be in early or mid-October already.

"Seems strange, though, mate. Dumbledore sends you off on this mission to find the Horcruxes but doesn't actually tell you how to destroy them," said Ron bitterly, "Doesn't that bother you?"

Harry sighed, his gaze sweeping over all these people who'd ended up here with him, because of him, "Of course it does, Ron. But it doesn't do us any good to whine about it."

Everyone averted their eyes from them, sensing some built up tension they definitely didn't need atop it all. Fred, George, Selena and Sarah walked away, leaving Hermione and the other two to sort this one out by themselves.