Harry and Amelia Potter

7.17

"It was you!" Harry exclaims.

"Well, yeah. Bit obvious, I'd think." Ron scoffs.

"And the doe. That was you as well."

"No. I reckoned it was one of you." He points to Harry and I.

"My Patronus is a stag." Harry states.

"Right. Antlers." Ron brings his arms up, vaguely pantomiming antlers, but the effect is lost, what with the sword and locket.

"My Patronus is a doe." I tell him. "But that wasn't me."

"You didn't see anyone else?" Harry asks.

"No, I... I did think maybe I saw something, when I was running, over there." Harry crosses to a pair of oaks grown close together. "Anything?"

Harry shakes his head. "But I reckon whoever cast the doe, put the sword in that pool hoping we'd find it."

"And we did, didn't we?" Ron smiles.

The "we" hangs in the chill air. Harry and I eye Ron, then Harry steps forward and dangles the locket close to the sword. It immediately begins to twitch.

"See that? It knows."

"It's afraid." I mutter. Then I look up at Ron. "Do it."

"What? No. Mia, Harry. That thing's bad for me. I can't handle it." He sighs. "I'm not making excuses for how I acted, but that thing affects me more than it affects the both of you and Hermione. It made me think stuff, stuff I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse."

"All the more reason." Harry tells him.

"No. I can't-" Ron stifles.

"Then why are you here? Why did you come back?" My tone is hard, meant to wound. This stops Ron. He steps back.

"Because... because I-"

"Because you felt bad about the way you talked to us? Because you felt bad for leaving us... leaving Hermione?" I glare.

"I know I said some awful things, and I'm sorry mates. Truly, I am." He looks down at the locket. "That, thing, I know it affects all of us, but for me it's like a hundred times worse. It put thoughts into my head, whispers." He shakes his head. "I was wrong to say those things to you. To both of you. I'm sorry."

He opens his arms wide for Harry and I to give him a hug. Harry goes in for one, and as they part, they look to me. Ron opens his arms to me and I roll my eyes, reluctantly walking over to him.

As he engulfs me, I move my head above his shoulder. "You're still an arse."

"I know."

I release him. "As long as you're aware." Grinning up at him, I let out a small cough.

Ron sees the bruises around my neck and looks concerned. "Bloody hell, Mia! What happened to you?"

"Long story."

"So are we going to destroy the Horcrux, or are we going to stand around here in the freezing cold?" Harry speaks up. I roll my eyes.

Ron grips the sword with both hands. Harry nods.

"We'll have to speak to it in order for it to open. When it does, don't hesitate." Harry informs him.

"We don't know what's in here, but it'll put up a fight." I tell him, he looks confused. "The bit of Riddle that was in his diary tried to kill us."

Ron nods and then Harry sweeps a layer of frost from a flat rock and lays the locket down.

"On three. One. Two. Three."