Leaving the tent, I found Harry sat with his legs to his chest looking out at the forest we were camping in. The sun was up now, the grey sky stretching endlessly as snow carried on falling. Sitting next to him, we were silent for a few moments.
"Cole said you need to eat breakfast," I said, holding out a pack of crisps Cole had found in his backpack he conveniently took with us to the graveyard. Cole had taken upon the role of camp chef, managing to find us all fruit and crisps for an odd assortment of breakfast. "I don't know how old these are though... so..."
"I haven't seen a pack of crisps in weeks," Harry shook his head with a wry smile. "Trust Cole to bring junk food on this extended camping trip."
"I always wanted to go camping," I mused. "But Jenna was always afraid of bugs eating her to let us go."
"Trust me; a few weeks sleeping in that thing, you'll never want to go camping again." Harry shook his head, pulling the packet of crisps open.
We were silent for a few moments, and I looked out into the forest. The five of us were back together, and yet there was something that felt fundamentally odd about it. Only a week ago I was stuck in Hogwarts with Draco at my side.... Now he was locked up somewhere half-dead while I ran around with my brother.
"Hermione said she broke your wand." I said to Harry, and he nodded sadly, pulling out the broken pieces. "It's too bad, that wand's been through everything with you."
He sighed deeply, tucking the wand into the pouch around his neck. "Everything is so useless and unhelpful recently, we can't even destroy a horcrux we've had since September."
"Can I see it?"
Harry nodded, and he pulled the locket out of his pocket and spilled it into my hand. It was large locket with an ugly green face and a large golden S on the front, and even just in my palm I could feel the dark power radiating through it.
"Keep it, I don't care." Harry grumbled, and he laid back in the snow with a defeated sigh. "I thought Dumbledore had left us a secret path, but no of course he wants us to wander around in the dark with no bloody answers."
"Yeah, well we'll find those answers soon, okay?" I said, reaching out and tapping his knee. "I mean c'mon, I came back from the dead, we can find a way to destroy a pesky horcrux."
"I really missed having you around." Harry said, a tiny smile was on his face now.
***
We took it in turn to do watches in the night, and soon enough it was my turn. Huddled up in three jumpers and two pairs of tights I sat at the entrance of the tent looking through the album Draco gave me two Christmases ago by wandlight.
Flipping to the photo from the Yule Ball, I felt my eyes water at the sight of our first kiss in the snow, much like the heavy snowfall from outside. Closing my eyes I thought of our screaming argument that ended in declarations of love and kissing under glittering stars glistening with snow.
Draco had called it cheesy and overdramtic, but I think that was why I loved that moment so much. It was just like something from a story, and gave me hope that maybe somehow Draco and I could find our happy ending.... Three years ago to the day, who would have thought?
And now, he was locked up somewhere with a wounded neck with my little sister and I was being reminscient in an old tent. We were both underneath the same sky, so close but so far away....
A twig snapped, and I jumped, almost dropping the book. Lifting my wand up, I couldn't see anyone, but bushes were rustling and there was some sort of noise outside the barriers. Not wanting to be the stupid person who shouted 'who's there' in horror movies, I headed back into the tent.
Harry and Hermione were asleep in their separate bunks, Gennie and Cole curled up around each other like twine on the other bunk. Shaking Hermione, I told her about the noises outside.
"We should probably move sites now then," she said sleepily, stretching her arms, and hitting Harry's foot in the bunk above to wake him up. "I swore I heard people moving outside earlier as well."
Once I'd managed to prise Gennie and Cole from their too close for comfort slumber, we all began packing up our things at a hurried pace.
"You never know, the dark might be playing tricks on you," Cole said sleepily, poking at the quiff that had formed in his hair from sleep. "But better safe than sorry though."
As the snow fell down thicker than ever, half an hour later we all huddled under the invisbilty cloak and apparated under Hermione's guide. Slamming hard onto frozen earth, my head span from the impact.
"Where are we?" Gennie asked, fiddling with the horcrux around her neck. We were taking it in turns to wear it, Gennie even taking up the task despite being possessed by one six years ago.
"The forest of Dean," Hermione explained as her and Cole began unpacking the tent. "I came here once with my parents."
Snow was just as thick here and it was frostbite inducing cold, but there were many more trees to shelter us from the wind. We spent most of the day inside the tent finally getting a chance to relay our separate stories from the past four months apart—though Gennie of course avoided the subject of Azkban entirely—under the hazy blue flame Hermione had produced.
Considering I hadn't slept properly since that wonderful night with Draco back in Hogwarts, I crashed out after our mesley dinner of half a baguette and half crushed oreos.
But of course, nightmares danced into my sleep.
I was back in Hogwarts, and Hollie was staring at me with wide eyes, the body of Warren Hastings at her feet. And then I was whispering to her: I don't know you anymore.
Her face dropped and she began screaming after me, and everywhere was aching because oh my god how did I not realise what I'd said to her. Why had I not realised that was the worst possible thing to say to her?
But then I was running with Draco, Hollie's screams in my head and then she was in front of me, hands coated in blood and tears on her face.
"You're why I'm like this," she whispered. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be hurting people. I wouldn't be a freak!"
"No—Hollie, it wasn't me—"
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT YOU DESTROY EVERYONE YOU LOVE!" She screamed and everything was blurring around me, Hollie was dancing around me doing a chant: "All Rory's fault, all Rory's fault, always Rory's fault...."
"No!" I screamed, covering my ears, but there was still screaming. All my fault, all my fault.... It was all my fault that my sister was a monster, how didn't I see this before?
Hands were on my face and Sam was in front of me, screaming as well: "May 2nd! May 2nd! Listen to me!"
But then I collapsed, whispers of blame and dates pounding in every inch of my body.
Jerking awake I was covered in a cold sweat. Sitting bolt upright, I tensed up as if Sam or Hollie were about to appear to yell at me. Bile rose to my throat, was it really all my fault Hollie was like this?
Maybe if I stepped in, or told somebody.... Maybe if I stopped being so selfishly concentrated on Draco I could have stopped her.... I should have taken her with us.... All my fault, all my fault.
Desperate to find some sort of relief from my thoughts, I stumbled out of the bunk almost falling down the small ladder. Once on the ground I bundled on two jumpers and my trainers, jumping as Gennie let out a little whimper in her sleep.
For a second I stared, but then instintcivley Cole wrapped himself around her, and Gennie's face slackened.
Opening the tent flap, the cold air hit me, snowflakes curling my hair. Frowning, I realised Harry wasn't out here. Wasn't it his shift? Crunching in the snow, I looked left and right, only to see my brother trailing outside of the protective barriers.
"Life can't be simple with him around, can it?" I said to myself, and pulling my wand out, I adventured into the darkness in search of my brother.
I was only a few feet out of the barriers when I saw what had caused Harry to leave his post. There, floating in front of him was a large silver animal—a patronus. Recognising the shape, my heart leapt.
"Draco?" I called into the darkness, and there was no reply, only a rustle of leaves. Hearing my name called, I dared to hope, and I sped up. "Draco?"
"Rory?" my heart sank, of course it was Harry, who'd just appeared into view, stopping when seeing me. "What are you doing up?"
"I could ask you the same thing, it's freezing out." I said, hugging myself as I reached him. "But I guess it's because of the patronus. Is it..?"
"It's a doe, I thought it was you." Harry said, and my heart sank realising that yes it was a doe—but not mine. The patronus stared into my soul, and I shivered as it turned away and galloped away from us.
Harry and I exchanged a look, and making a conscious decision we both began hurrying after the doe in the dark forest. Something inside me told me this was not a trap, this was something to be trusted.
Deeper and deeper we travelled into the forest, until the patronus turned to us again. I went to call out to see if its owner would appear, but the patronus vanished out of view.
"Shit, is this an ambush?" I whispered to Harry, holding up my lit wand. But spinning it around no lights flew at us, there was only a faint rustling of trees and the gleam of a light behind me. Turning, I saw a small frozen pond. "What the—"
A large silver cross was inside the pond. Harry dropped to his knees and swore. I felt like I was about to faint. The sword of Gryffindor was in the pond.
"What is happening?" I spluttered. "It was in a pond in the Forest of Dean all a long? Geeze, why didn't we look there before?"
Harry ignored me pointed Hermione's wand at the sword and murmured, "Accio Sword." It didn't move, but I wasn't expecting much. Harry began pacing around the pond, muttering to himself. Then he turned to me. "I'm going in."
"What? Harry—what?" I spluttered as my brother began stripping down in front of me. Looking between him and the pool it twigged. "You are bloody stupid, you know that?"
"Yeah well when I freeze to death in there remember to say I told you so, okay?" Harry said, teeth chattering as he stood in front of me in his underwear, tossing me his pouch. I gave him a doubting look. "Rory, I'll be fine—diffindo."
The ice cracked like a bullet and the surface broke chunks of dark ice ruffling on the surface. "If you don't get that bloody thing in less than two minutes I will actually kill you."
"If you do, please do that with fire." Harry said, and then before I could protest he jumped into the pond.
Staring in disbelief I watched as he went down the at least six feet deep pond, and through the blurry water I could see his shape moulding and rippling as he groped for the sword. Seeing his hand tense over the shape, I relaxed. He would be fine.
A few moments passed and then everything went wrong—Harry was thrashing out in the water, kicking and hitting against the side of the pool.
"HARRY!" I screamed, and I quickly began undressing as fast as I could to get him out of there. "I'M COMING, STAY CALM!"
"Why are you stripping?" a voice said beside me, and I screamed as I turned and saw non other than a bedraggled Ron Weasley stood next to me. "I know you haven't seen me in ages, but I figured you were with Malfoy and—"
"Never mind that, get him out!" I shrieked, and Ron swore as he finally twigged that Harry was drowing in front of us.
Ron leapt into the pond fully clothed and grabbed Harry around the waist, and throwing the sword at me yanked him from the pond kicking out. Ripping the locket from his neck, he threw Harry down onto the floor, panting.
"Are -- you -- mental?" Ron panted as Harry scrambled to his feet, swaying and staring at his best friend in disbelief. "Didn't you take the thing off before you dived?"
"He stripped off in a minute, I didn't even notice." I shook my head in shock, pulling my third jumper back on. Harry began dressing again, shivering and staring at Ron the whole time.
"It was y-you?" Harry said at last, his teeth chattering.
"Well, yeah," said Ron, looking slightly confused. "Rory was going to strip down before she saved you, I sped the process up."
"Y-you cast that doe?"
"What? No, of course not! I thought it was Rory doing it!"
"It wasn't mine! I was following it myself."
"How come you're here?" Harry said blankly, and I remembered Harry telling me him and Ron had a filthy argument which caused him to leave.
"Well, I've -- you know -- I've come back. If --" He cleared his throat. "You know. You still want me."
There was a very awkward pause. "But I don't understand. How did you get here? How did you find us?" I spluttered.
"Long story," said Ron. "I've been looking for you for hours, it's a big forest, isn't it? And I was just thinking I'd have to go kip under a tree and wait for morning when I saw that dear coming and you both following."
"You didn't see anyone else?"
"No," said Ron. "I don't think so—so how did the sword get in there?"
"Whoever cast the Patronus must have put it there." I said, swinging the sword experimentally in my hand. "Do you think this is legit? I've always wanted to have a sword."
"One way to find out, isn't there?" said Harry.
The Horcrux was still swinging from Ron's hand. The locket was twitching slightly. Harry knew that the thing inside it was agitated again. Somehow it must have sensed Harry wanted to destroy it and had tried to strangle him as a result.
Ron lay the horcrux on the floor, and I held the sword out to him. "No—you should do it." Ron said.
"No, you should—you saved Harry and got the sword out. It's like destiny." I said, and Ron reluctantly took the sword. "Harry, open the thing. Ron—stab it straight away."
"How are you going to open it?" asked Ron. He looked terrified
"I'm going to ask it to open, using Parseltongue," said Harry sounding oddly confident.
"No!" said Ron. "Don't open it! I'm serious!"
"Why not?" asked Harry. "It'll be a damn good Christmas present for us."
"That thing's bad for me!" said Ron, backing away from the locket on the rock. "I can't handle it! I'm not making excuses, for what I was like, but it affects me really bad—I can't do it!"
"It's supposed to be you who uses it. Please just get rid of it Ron." Harry pleaded.
Ron held up the sword, though his hands were shaking. "Tell me when to swing."
"One . . . two . . . three . . .open." the last word came as a snarl, and the locket doors swung open.
Behind both windows were the dark and handsome eyes of Tom Riddle, as enchanting as they were dangerous. Then a voice hissed from out the Horcrux.
"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."
"Don't listen to it!" Harry said harshly. "Stab it!"
"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible...."
"Do it, Ron!" I shouted as the sword point trembled.
"Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter . . . Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend . . . Second best, always, eternally overshadowed . . ." the eyes glowed scarlet in the locket.
Out of the locket's two windows, out of the eyes, there bloomed like two grotesque spots the heads of Harry and Hermione, weirdly distorted.
"Your mother confessed," sneered Riddle-Harry, "that she would have preferred me as a son, would be glad to exchange..."
"Who wouldn't prefer him, what woman would take you, you are nothing, nothing, nothing to him," crooned Riddle-Hermione, and she stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, kissing him.
"JUST DO IT RON!" I screamed, and Ron finally swung the sword, and it plunged into the locket and a long drawn out scream came from the locket.
The scream finally died out, and the sword clattered to the floor, just leaving the three of us. Staring at the locket, I picked it up—it was smoking slightly. Ron collapsed on the ground on his knees, clutching his head and shaking.
"After you left," Harry said, "she cried for a week. Probably longer, only she didn't want me to see.... I love her like a sister, and she feels the same. I thought you knew."
In the silence, I spoke up: "Just so you know Ron, I prefer you over Harry any day." Harry glared at me half-heartedly but I carried on. "And for the record—I've wanted Romione to get together since like fourth year. So has everybody to be honest.
Ron didn't reply, he just turned his head away and sniffed loudly before picking up his rucksack. "I'm sorry," he said in a thick voice. "I'm sorry I left. I know I was a -- a --" he looked around as if a swear word would appear in thin air.
"You've sort of made up for it tonight," said Harry. "Getting the sword, finishing off the Horcrux, saving my life."
"That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was," Ron mumbled.
"Yeah well I was stood here like a prat when you just jumped in without hesitation." I said, patting his shoulder. "You're amazing Ron."
And then at the same time, the three of us walked forward and hugged each other, even though Harry and Ron were still sopping wet. "Ew, first thing when we get back to the tent is drying you both off before you turn into ice lollies."
It didn't take us long at all to find the tent, especially considering Harry and Ron were talking like nothing had happened for the whole journey. Zipping the tent behind us, it was beautifully warm inside, the flames shimmering in a jar on the floor.
Going over to Hermione, who was fast asleep under many covers, I lightly shook her awake. Looking at me through sleep blurred eyes she sat up. "Rory? What's happened, are you okay?"
"Brilliant," I said. "You won't believe who's here."
Hermione noticed Ron, who was dripping onto the carpet, the sword in his hand and a goofy smile on his face. Hermione slid off her bunk and walked towards Ron as if in a trance. Ron held his arms up, as if expected a hug.
Instead, Hermione launched herself at him, lightly punching every inch of him she could reach as he cowered away from her.
"Ouch -- ow -- gerroff! What the --? Hermione -- OW!"
"You -- complete -- arse -- Ronald -- Weasley!" she spoke each word as she landed soft punches onto Ron, who began backing away from her.
All the noise inevitably woke Gennie and Cole up, Cole falling out of the bunk entirely with a crash. Gennie pulled the covers up, and looked at Ron as if she was in a dream. Cole, being Cole grinned widely.
"Ronald, my other half, it's been forever mate!"
"Not a great time, mate!" Ron said, backing away from Hermione as she carried on shouting.
"You -- crawl -- back -- here -- after -- weeks -- and -- weeks -- oh, where's my wand?" Hermione shrieked.
She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry's hands and he reacted instinctively. "Protego!"
The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione. The force of it knocked her backward onto the floor. After spitting hair out of her mouth, she jumped up again, Gennie stumbling out of bed to hold her back.
"Hermione!" said Harry. "Calm --"
"I will not calm down!" she screamed. I'd never seen her look so manic. "Give me back my wand! Give it back to me!"
"Hermione, will you please --"
"Don't you tell me what do, Harry Potter!" she screeched. "Don't you dare! Give it back now! And YOU!"
She was pointing at Ron in dire accusation: It was like a malediction, and Harry could not blame Ron for retreating several steps.
"I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back"
"I know," Ron said, "Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really --"
"Oh, you're sorry!" She laughed a high-pitched, out-of-control sound; Ron panicked and looked around for support, but even Cole looked stunned. "You came back after weeks -- weeks -- and you think it's all going to be all right if you just say sorry?"
"Well it's a start, right?" Cole said, lamely coming to Ron's deafeat. "Everybody makes mistakes right--everybody as those days."
"Cole could you stop making lame pop-culture references for half a second, that would be great," Gennie said through gritted teeth as Hermione tried to break free of her grasp.
Cole's face fell. "Well excuse me for trying to be a little sunshine and raise the dismal mood—"
"Well, what else can I say?" Ron shouted
"Oh, I don't know!" yelled Hermione with awful sarcasm. "Rack your brains, Ron, that should only take a couple of seconds --"
"Hermione," I began, thinking Ron was being attacked at now. "He just destroyed—"
"I don't care!" she screamed. "I don't care what he's done! We could have been dead for all he knew!"
"I knew you weren't dead!" bellowed Ron, drowning her voice for the first time taking several steps forward. "Harry and Rory are all over the prophet with Gennie too, looking for everyone! There's a bunch of mental stories and rumours—it'd be front page if you were dead! You don't know what it's been like--"
"Ron, seriously, shut up if you value your life." Cole said, cowering away from the shriek that came from Hermione.
"I wanted to come back the minute I'd Disapparated, but I walked straight into a gang of Snatchers, Hermione, and I couldn't go anywhere!"
"What the hell is a snatcher?"
"There are gangs everywhere," Gennie said in a dead voice, Hermione pushing her off and sitting in a chair. "They round up muggle-borns and blood traitors for money and toss them into Azkaban after torture from Umbridge—the bitch."
"Yeah," Ron backed the story up. "and I came out miles from where you were. By the time I got back to that bit of riverbank where we'd been ... you were gone."
"Gosh, what a gripping story," Hermione said with the force of a blunt knife. "Meanwhile we went to Godric's Hollow and find Rory, Gennie and Cole in a graveyard; almost get killed by You-Know-Who's snake before he turned up and almost got us!"
"What?" Ron said, gaping from her to Harry, but Hermione ignored him.
"Hermione," said Harry quietly, "Ron just saved my life."
Hermione ignored him. "How did you find us tonight? I'd like to know so we don't get visitors from people we don't want to see."
Ron glared at her, then pulled a small silver object from his jeans pocket. "This."
It was the deluminator that Dumbledore had left for him. "It's not just for lights. I was listening to the radio on Christmas day, and I heard you...."
"Didn't know you have a radio show, Hermione, I should tune in next Saturday." Cole snorted. "Great lie though Ron, I must admit."
"I didn't mean like that!" Ron exclaimed. He waved the device around. "It came from this!"
"And what exactly did I say?" asked Hermione sarcastically.
"My name....And you said ... something about a wand...."
Hermione turned bright red, and I guessed that she'd been talking to Harry about that very thing when I was out cold from the snake bite.
"So I clicked it. And the light went out in my room, but another light appeared right outside the window. It was this ball of light, so I packed my things and went outside and the light went inside of me."
"How sweet," Gennie said, rolling her eyes. "Doesn't explain how you got here."
"Yeah, well then I apparated and I was on the side of a hill. I guessed you were around somewhere so I started calling out."
"That's who I heard!" I said triumphantly. "You scared the crap out of me, Ron."
"Well, I stayed on that hill all day," said Ron. "I kept hoping you'd appear. But when it started to get dark I knew I must have missed you, so I clicked the Deluminator again and I ended up in the woods. And then Harry and Rory appeared. Well the doe did first."
"A doe?" Hermione and Gennie said in interest.
The three of us explained what had happened, and the others listened intently, Cole looking as if we were reading him an exciting bed time story.
"-- and Ron stabbed it with the sword."
"And ... and it went? Just like that?" Cole whispered.
"Well, it -- it screamed," said Harry with half a glance at Ron. "Here."
He threw the locket into her lap; gingerly she picked it up and examined its punctured windows. Hermione and Gennie both examined it, sitting on her bunk to poke and prod at it.
"It's good to see you, mate." Cole said, approaching Ron and giving him a big bear hug from behind, and Ron looked relieved that somebody was happy to see him.
"You too," Ron said, and Cole gave him another wide grin before crawling into his bunk with Gennie kissing the back of her neck to try and make her not be mad at him. It seemed to work as I saw a small smile on Gennie's face.
"Well c'mon, that was the best reaction you could have gotten from her," I said to Ron quietly as Hermione was motionless in her bunk, turned away from us.
"Yeah," said Ron. "It could've been worse. Remember those birds she set on me?"
"I still haven't ruled it out," Hermione said from her bunk, but Ron was grinning like crazy as he took his pyjamas out of his rucksack.
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A/N I really like this chapter because I'm Romione trash they are like one of my OTP's not going to lie
I changed the cover for a bit of a change, and it was made by @surprisedbyjoy and it's very awesome, everyone agree?
Just so everyone knows: As of right now, there will be 44 parts (incl epilogue) in this book meaning there are 18 chapters left.
The Malfoy manor chapter will be 3/4 chapters time and Draco, Hollie and Camille will all be there....