The Final Year, Harry Potter Year 7

27. The Final Hiding Place

Lilly's POV
Let's see, Hermione was crying, Ron was cursing his head off, and Harry was holding on tight to the dragon, while I was trying to heal the dragon a bit. I tried to heal him with my water powers a bit and it kinda worked.
Eventually we flew over the countryside.
"What do you reckon it's looking for?" Ron yelled as they flew farther and farther north.
"No idea," Harry bellowed back.
I whispered in their minds, "He's scouring a good place to land. He's getting weak."
"Is it my imagination," shouted Ron after a considerable stretch of silence, "or are we losing height?"
I yelled, "Be prepared to jump on my word! Straight into the water before it realizes we're here!"
They agreed, Hermione a little faintly, and now I could see the dragon's wide yellow underbelly rippling in the surface of the water.
"NOW!"
I slithered over the side of the dragon and plummeted feetfirst toward the surface of the lake; the drop was greater than I had estimated and I hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing, green, reed-filled world.
Everyone kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting.
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. As Ron, Harry, and Hermione emerged, spluttering and gasping, from the depths of the lake, the dragon flew on, its wings beating hard, and landed at last on a distant bank.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I struck out for the opposite shore.
The lake did not seem to be deep: Soon it was more a question of fighting our way through reeds and mud than swimming, and at last we 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 us. When he had finished, he joined us.
Hermione and Ron had angry red burns all over their faces and arms, and their clothing was singed away in places. They were wincing as they dabbed essence of dittany onto their many injuries.
I handed Harry the bottle, then pulled out three bottles of pumpkin juice I had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of us.
We 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 he dripped dittany through the singed hole in his jeans onto the angry burn beneath.
"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 we 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 still drinking. "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."
All three of them started to laugh, and once started, it was difficult to stop.
I replied trying to get over my laughter saying, "The dragon will be okay, I've tricked its mind to make it want to go to Romania, to Charlie."
"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally, hiccuping herself back to seriousness. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"
"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him?" said Ron hopefully. "Maybe they'll cover up —"
And as if on cue, Harry passed out.
I sighed using the towel and clothes we had to make a pillow. After a bit too long, I touched his forehead and pulled him into the present.
Harry struggled up, shivering, vaguely surprised that he was still wet to his skin, and saw the cup lying innocently in the grass before him, and the lake, deep blue shot with gold in the failing sun. "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" —Harry remembered the killings — "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 —"
"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione as Ron caught up the Horcrux and Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to —"
"We need to get going," said Harry firmly. "Can you imagine what he's going to do once he realizes the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn't safe enough?"
"But how are we going to get in?"
"We'll go to Hogsmeade," said Harry, "and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, I want to stick together this time."
"But we don't really fit —"
"It'll be dark, no one's going to notice our feet."
I said, "I got that covered, I'll be floating around invisible, just be safe, I'll be there."
Harry nodded and Hermione huddled under the cloak with Ron and Harry.
They disappeared with a crack and I followed shortly after.

Thanks for reading! Vote please! :)
-Lilly :)