Rosalyn and Hermione had spent about a month in the Forest of Dean. They fished, gathered and hunted to try and get food, and it had kind of worked. Well, they hadn't starved yet.
They had also been a few more places, looking for horcruxes. They had been to Wool's Orphanage, the place where Voldemort had grown up. It'd been demolished long-since. They'd tried Borgin and Burke's, Voldemort's first workplace, and then some shops in Diagon Alley (under the invisibility cloak).
None were successful.
Anyway, with no new leads, the days grew shorter, and the weeks seem to pass like seconds. One day, when Rosalyn and Hermione were sitting outside in a comfortable silence, an almighty crack resounded in the air. Hermione and Rosalyn jumped and turned to each other.
"Snatchers?" Rosalyn asked, looking around everywhere.
She didn't find any snatchers, but she did see a figure of a single person about two hinder metres away. That figure was running, coming towards them.
Rosalyn was too shocked to respond until she realised that it was Harry. Her twin brother.
What the hell-?
Hermione had stood up by now, joining Rosalyn near the protections' boundaries.
Harry was very close to them by now, whispering as he went. "Rosie? Hermione?"
Rosalyn was just about to walk forward and reveal herself to Harry when Hermione grabbed her shoulder. "No!" She hissed. "If that's a death eater, the first thing they would've done is disguise themself with polyjuice!"
Rosalyn suddenly smirked, heading over to Hermione's bag where she found some parchment, a quill and ink. From there, she wrote a message. "What are you doing-?" Hermione stopped when Rosalyn showed her.
By what names did Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and James and Izzy Potter go by at school?
Hermione shared her grin. "Brilliant, Rosie!"
Rosalyn nodded. "Wingardium leviosa."
The paper levitated in the air. Rosalyn sent it right at Harry, who had started to walk away. The parchment, still wet with ink, hit him on the head, and he turned round, as if expecting to see someone there.
Rosalyn watched him read it, praying that he would know the answer.
He did. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Scarlet and Prongs!"
Rosalyn didn't hesitate, stepping out from the protections. Hermione had to go back inside to make lunch. She crossed her arms and said to Harry, who could barely believe his eyes. "Where's Ron?"
Harry looked down. "We... we ran into some snatchers a couple weeks ago, they got him and not me... he told me to run so I went... I haven't seen him since."
Rosalyn looked down, then she ran at her brother, hugging him. "I'm so, so sorry," Rosalyn told him. "But why did you leave?"
Harry looked down. "Listen, when I had that horcrux round my neck... I saw you overshadowing me. It's like fourth year all over again, but this... that made me see horrible things, Rosie, and I was just scared..."
Rosalyn sighed. "I should never've reacted that way. To Ron as well."
Harry sighed. "It's alright, Rosie, we deserved it."
Rosalyn couldn't help feeling guilty.
☆☆☆
But now, one night a few weeks later, Rosie was wrapped up in blankets, on watch duty. She had been watching, trying to keep warm for about two hours now, when suddenly, something happened.
Up ahead, a bright ball of light formed. Rosalyn stared at it for a second, wondering if this was a trap, before it formed into a doe.
A silver doe.
It was definitely a patronus, Rosalyn realised, after a minute of just staring at it. She quickly walked towards it, wanting with all her heart to call out to whoever was conjuring it, however, if this was a death eater, and the doe was a trap-
However, the doe turned on its heel and galloped slowly off. Rosalyn followed it, her feet crunching on frozen leaves and snow.
At some point on the journey, Rosalyn felt a chill down her spine as she stepped outwith the protective charms. Now she could be seen by anyone.
Why was she trusting this doe? She wondered as she walked through the woods. It really could be a trap, but she didn't really think about that as she was pulled in by the silver doe.
Finally, the doe stopped, cantering gracefully down a hill and stopping over the top of a frozen lake.
From there, it faded to a silver orb that almost begged Rosalyn to come over there. She did.
"Lumos." Rosalyn ran to the frozen lake that it was above, watching the orb sink down through the ice and into the water. It darkened immediately.
Rosalyn precariously walked on the ice, going to the place where the orb had sunk into the water. She rubbed the snow off the ice and was shocked as to what she saw.
The sword of Gryffindor.
Rosalyn almost fell backwards in shock. The sword! The sword! The one they'd been looking for for ages!
The one that could destroy horcruxes.
"Accio sword," Rosalyn pointed her wand at the ice. It didn't yield, nor did the sword come to her.
Weighing up her options, Rosalyn walked off the ice and sat down on a nearby log. She had to get the sword. Had to. It was one of the only things that could destroy horcruxes.
She began to strip off, sweater after sweater, down to a sports bra and shorts. And the locket. Walking back onto the ice with practically blue feet, she started to shiver. She couldn't imagine what the water would feel like.
"Diffindo," Rosalyn muttered to the ice, and a pretty neat circle cracked above the sword.
Sitting down, she dipped her feet in the below zero water, and tried to stay calm. "I must be mad," she said to no one but herself, just before plunging into the water.
The cold immediately had an effect on her body, but she didn't care. She swam down towards the sword, not able to think about anything but it.
Getting the sword was relatively easy. She swam down, outstretched her hand and grabbed the ruby encrusted hilt. That was fine.
Then, she kicked her legs and tried to swim upwards, she needed air, she needed to breathe-
Suddenly, the locket started to throttle her. She flailed and kicked, her hair flying in her face. She was going to drown, or die of hypothermia, this was the end, and it wasn't even to Voldemort-
Finally, Rosalyn got to the top of the ice, where the crack had been, the hole, but it had frozen over again- she kicked and punched at it, using her whole body-
"Diffindo!" She heard a muffled shout of the spell, but she was too focused on the fact that she was about to die.
She felt herself getting dragged out of the lake, coughing and spluttering. She looked up to see Ron.
"Why the bloody hell-" Ron said slowly, picking up the sword from where it lay on the icy lake, gesturing to the locket on Rosie's chest "-Didn't you take this off before you jumped?"
Rosalyn payed no attention to this question. "It was you?" She asked him. "And you sent the doe, as well, then, did you?"
"No, I thought that was you," Ron told her.
"No, mine's is a fox," Rosalyn reminded them.
"Right, yeah," Ron murmured.
As Rosalyn got all her clothes back on and wrung out her soaking hair, Ron just stood there awkwardly, trying not to think about the last time they were all together.
"Is Harry back?" Ron asked her, scared for the answer. "We got split up by the snatchers- and I told him-"
"To run, yeah," Rosalyn said boredly. "Harry came back a few weeks ago, saying the exact same thing."
Ron nodded. A few seconds later, Rosalyn was ready, and the locket was gonna be destroyed.
"Okay, Ron," Rosalyn said, holding up the locket and pointing at the sword that Ron still had. "You're gonna destroy it. It's had the worst effect on you, and it just seems right."
"No!" Ron protested. "I can't handle it! It affects me more than you three!"
"All the more reason," Rosalyn said icily.
"No, seriously, I can't!"
"Then why are you here?" Rosalyn asked him seriously. "Why did you come back?"
Ron shifted awkwardly, neither wanting to answer. "Now, I'll have to speak to it in order for it to open, when it does, don't hesitate. Whatever's in there will put up a fight; the bit of Riddle that was in that diary tried to kill me."
Ron nodded. Rosalyn stood on one side of the locket, him the other. "One..."
Ron braced himself.
"Two..."
He raised the sword above his head...
"Three!"
She hissed "open" in parseltongue, forcing the locket open.
It was like it'd been holding a storm inside it all this time, or a gale, for a terrible force of black smoke came out and blew Rosalyn back, Ron, on the other side, too. Then a voice spoke, a cold, high one.
"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."
Ron lay on the floor, sword forgotten, as a load of spiders scuttled towards him. He backed away.
"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears, everything you desire is possible, but everything you dread is also possible..."
"Ron, stab it! STAB IT!" Rosalyn yelled.
"Least loved, by the mother who craved a daughter... least loved, by the girl who prefers your friend..."
"Ron, kill it!" Rosalyn roared.
The big storm of black smoke formed into three figures that looked silvery pale. Rosalyn, Harry and Hermione.
"We were better without you," fake-Rosalyn spat. "Happier."
"Who could look at you, compared to Harry Potter, the boy who lived?" Fake-Hermione said pettily.
"Your mother confessed that she would've preferred me as a son," fake-Harry smugly input.
"Ron it's lying!" Rosalyn bellowed.
"What woman would take you...?" Hermione said, her voice echoing. "You are nothing... nothing... compared to him."
Fake-Rosalyn faded away as fake-Hermione and fake-Harry started to kiss. It wasn't the sweet kisses Rosalyn and Neville had shared, however, this kiss was hungry, and it angered Ron to no end.
Rosalyn watched him make the decision in his eyes. He stood up, anger fueling him, and raised the sword above his head. Running at the locket, he slashed the sword down on it, breaking it. Destroying it.
Ron breathed heavily, dropping to the ground. Rosalyn sighed. She now knew the real reason that Ron had left. Rosalyn, still breathing heavily, struggled to get up, but once she did, she looked up and decided to tell him.
"Ron... Hermione doesn't like Harry," Rosalyn told him as he lay on the frozen forest ground. "She... she cried for weeks after you left, and I'm sure it wasn't because of Harry, Ron... It was because of you."
Ron smiled slightly. "I... I found the scarf that one of you left us, but we ran into some snatchers, not the ones that split us up, other ones, and they stripped us of a lot of our belongings..."
Rosalyn grinned. "C'mon, Hermione won't believe it when she sees you."
Well, yes, Hermione couldn't believe it when she saw them, but not necessarily in the good way.