WABI-SABI
(n.) the discovery of beauty in imperfection; the acceptance of the cycle of life and death
DRACO WAS RELEVANTLY SURPRISED TO SEE HIM IN SCHOOL. He had just come from the Great Hall where he had a very uneventful breakfast with Theo, Crabbe, and Goyle. Pansy had been trying to sit by him and loop her arm around his or even try to feed him — she was getting on his nerves so much even when he'd pointedly swapped places with Theo who snarled at the girl to back off.
He had been walking down the corridors to the Slytherin common room in a very pissed-off strut when he saw him. Faltering on his steps, he sent a nod at Theo to go on ahead and at Crabbe and Goyle flanking his sides to move along. With another glance over his shoulder, he rounded the corner to enter the Trophy Room where Pansy had tattled to him last year about Tessa's little rendezvous with another heir of Cecily.
"What're you doing here?" Draco asked once he was out of earshot from the rest of the school. "How did you even sneak in here when the place is crawling with Death Eaters?"
"Hello, Draco Malfoy," Sebastian Elliott greeted politely. The three-hundred-year-old man looked exactly the same as last year — a mess of brown hair, gleaming turquoise eyes, incisors a tad bit sharper than usual, and an angular face that made him appear to be stuck in his early twenties. He was garbed in fighting leathers, clothes cut close to his body. His hands were clasped behind his back as he gazed through the dusty trophies lined in racks.
Draco scrunched his nose up. "What are you wearing? You don't look very subtle if you're trying to blend in among the students, you know."
Sebastian chuckled. "I know — I'm going back to Romania where my people are."
"But what about Tessa? What about your brother? Aren't you supposed to stay here to help with the shit that's been going on?"
"I've been summoned back," he said, walking in slow gaits before the trophies again. "Before my brother and I separated last year, we have a sworn duty that our people comes first before ourselves. Before I am a brother, I am a leader and a protector."
Draco blinked and muttered, "That's a crap rule — I actually feel sorry you have to abide by that."
Sebastian sent him a half smirk. "That's the exact same thing your mate told me when I told her why I cannot simply walk headfirst into the enemy's lair to find my brother. Well, somewhere along those lines."
"And the war that is to come? It's unavoidable — you're not going to fight in it?"
He shook his head, brown hair getting in his eyes as he impatiently pushed his locks away. "No — I have been forbidden to fight by the Elders. I may have the highest position in the clan, but the Elders keep us in check and hold powers that are far greater than mine." He inclined his head lightly at Draco. "I do apologize for not being able to fight and stand by your sides."
Draco felt his shoulders deflate, he'd actually hoped the people of Cecily's heir would've been able to help. But he also knew that to join the fight would risk wiping off their existence completely from the earth.
"So why are you here then?" Draco asked.
"I came to bid you good-bye before leaving," Sebastian said. "I don't know if this will be our last meeting, but I hope you and Teressa Potter stay alive and fulfill the fates predicted by the heavens."
Draco nodded absentmindedly. "Tessa told me that a friend of yours helped you sneak into Hogwarts last year. Apparently she manipulated memories into everyone's minds to make us all believe you existed. But what about the Death Eaters? The Carrows? How did you sneak in today?"
Sebastian only grinned, mischief glinting in his turquoise eyes. "One of the perks of having poison in my blood, is that I learned I don't have to stay as human to still have it."
Draco blinked stupidly. "I don't follow."
Sebastian rolled his eyes. "What creature is perhaps one of the most poisonous in the world?"
Draco stared at him blankly for a moment before realization dawned on him. A snort left him as he covered his mouth to conceal his laughter. "Don't tell me — you can turn in to a poison dart frog?"
"Indeed I can," Sebastian said proudly, crossing his arms.
Draco put his forefinger and thumb close together with barely any space between. "Do you even get as big as an inch?" he asked, wheezing slightly between laughs.
Sebastian glared pointedly and sniffed. "Be quiet, child, I can kill you in your sleep without so much as a blink."
Draco was still laughing, hands on his knees as his shoulders shook with mirth. It's been a long time since he's laughed this hard — the last when he was with Tessa and Theo altogether. It made him feel light and warm inside, and he missed that feeling — he missed her.
Sebastian said dryly, "Laugh all you want — but if you choke, the tables shall turn."
Draco didn't choke on his own laughs. He broke off gasping in immense pain that blinded him for a moment. Indescribable agony filled him all over as he crumpled to the ground, panting as sweat trickled down his brow.
"What's wrong?" Sebastian asked, by his side at once as he held Draco by the shoulders to stable him. "Is it — ?"
"Tessa," he rasped out, hands flying up to his throat that burned. "She's in pain — she's throwing up." He groaned in torment, hands clutching his stomach as he curled to his side. "I don't know what's happening — but whatever she did hurt her a lot."
"Get up," Sebastian said, throwing Draco's arm over his shoulders. "I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey."
Stumbling over his feet, Draco grunted in pain. "You'll he caught — I'll go alone."
"Shut up and put your bloody feet to work or I'll drag you there myself," he snapped. "I'd very much prefer I didn't leave this country knowing I'd left someone's mate dying on the floor in misery."
Draco huffed as they stepped out of the threshold of the trophy room. "I'm not dying — "
"Be quiet."
"Okay."
ϟ ϟ ϟ ϟ
Tessa was gasping for air, struggling to breathe into her lungs that burned terribly. Her vision turning back to her half-perfect half-blurry sight, vertigo hit her like a tidal wave, and Tessa barely had any time to turn to the side and hurl her guts out.
She was crying out in agony, a hand pressed to her sides that seemed to be on fire as she continued to vomit into the earth. With a shuddering gasp of breath that filled her greedy lungs, she sat up away from her vomit and glanced around while clutching her sides.
Green and gold covered her everywhere — the trees of the forest seemed to be wherever she looked. Turning to the others, Tessa's heart stopped when she found Ron covered in blood with Hermione on her hands and knees by his head.
"RON!" Tessa shouted, stumbling to get up as she hurried to his side. She dropped to her knees by him, wincing at the pain that shot up her side.
"What's happened to him?" Harry asked, moving closer as well.
"Splinched," Hermione said, trying to put together Ron's arm where a part of it was cut out. "Harry, quickly, in my bag, there's a small bottle labeled 'Essence of Dittany' —"
"Bag — right —" Harry reached for Hermione's bag, sticking his arm inside to search for it.
"Quickly!"
"Accio Dittany!"
A small bottle zoomed out of the bag, and Tessa quickly snatched it from the air and handed it to Hermione.
"He's fainted," Hermione whispered. "Unstopper it for me, Tessa, my hands are shaking."
Tessa complied at once and passed the bottle back to Hermione who poured three drops onto Ron's wound. Almost instantly, skin started to repair itself and patch over the wound as though it had been days and was now healing.
Tessa sighed in relief, slumping against Hermione as she pressed a hand over her side that still ached.
"Wow," Harry murmured in awe.
"It's all I feel safe doing," Hermione said shakily. "There are spells that would put him completely right, but I daren't try in case I do them wrong and cause more damage. He's lost so much blood already."
"How did he get hurt? I mean, why are we here? I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place?"
"Harry, I don't think we're going to be able to go back there."
"What d'you — ?"
Hermione drew in a ragged breath, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "As we Disapparated, Yaxley caught hold of me and I couldn't get rid of him, he was too strong, and he was still holding on when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, and then — well, I think he must have seen the door, and thought we were stopping there, so he slackened his grip and I managed to shake him off and I brought us here instead!"
"But then, where's he?" Harry asked. "Hang on. You don't mean he's at Grimmauld Place? He can't get in there?"
Hermione nodded. "Harry, I think he can. I — I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I'd already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm's protection. Since Dumbledore died, we're Secret-Keepers, so I've given him the secret, haven't I?"
Harry's silence said as much.
"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Hermione wailed.
"No, it's my fault," Tessa said as both pairs of eyes swiveled to her. "I could've burned him off or try to stop him from following after us, but he'd grab hold of me so tight that — " she cut herself to lift her shirt up to reveal her stomach and left abdominal side. Yaxley's vice-like grip on her had left a dark purple bruise that was already beginning to blossom around the ends of her rib cage at the vague imprint of a hand. She winced in pain, dropping her shirt back to cover it.
Draco's going to murder Yaxley — Tessa prayed he doesn't find out.
"Don't be stupid," Harry scolded them, "it wasn't either of your faults! If anything, it was mine." He reaches into his pocket and pulled out Moody's eye. "Umbridge had stuck it to her office door, to spy on people. I couldn't leave it there . . . but that's how they knew there were intruders."
Ron groaned agonizingly from between them, and they turned to see him wearily open his eyes.
"How d'you feel?" Hermione whispered.
"Lousy," he croaked out with a wince. "Where are we?"
"In the woods where they held the Quidditch World Cup. I wanted somewhere enclosed, undercover, and this was —"
"— the first place you thought of," Harry finished for her.
"D'you reckon we should move on?" Ron asked, looking from Harry to Tessa.
Harry and Tessa shared similar unsure looks as they mumbled in unison, "I dunno."
"Let's stay here for now," Harry offered when Ron didn't sit up.
At once, Hermione jumped to her feet and offered Tessa a hand to help her up.
"Where are you two going?" Ron questioned.
"If we're staying, we should put some protective enchantments around the place," Hermione replied before mumbling the spells to Tessa.
A hand pressed to her side, Tessa tried not to wince when she walked around the boys counterclockwise with Hermione going clockwise. She raised her wand and murmured, "Salvio Hexia — Protego Totalum — Repello Muggletum — Muffliato."
"You could get out the tent, Harry," Hermione called out.
"Tent?" Harry repeated with a blink.
"In the bag!"
"In the . . . of course." He managed to pull out the poles, canvas, and pegs. "I thought this belonged to that bloke Perkins at the Ministry?"
"Apparently he didn't want it back, his lumbago's so bad, so Ron's dad said I could borrow it. Erecto!" she added, sending the tent constructing by itself.
"Cave Inimicum," Tessa finished up with an upward flourish of her wand before she winced in pain again.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked her worriedly from where he lay.
"I'm fine, just a little bruise," she replied and showed him the hand-shaped imprint.
"Hermione, did you bring some of those cooling cream for bruises?" At the shake of Hermione's head, Ron turned apologetically to Tessa.
"That's okay," she said, patting his good arm as she went over to sit on the forest floor next to him.
"That's as much as we can do," Hermione said, also finished with her spells. "At the very least, we should know they're coming, I can't guarantee it will keep out Vol —"
"Don't say the name!" Ron interrupted with an edge in his voice. "I'm sorry, but it feels like a — a jinx or something. Can't we call him You-Know-Who — please?"
"Dumbledore said fear of a name —" Harry began.
"In case you hadn't noticed, mate, calling You-Know-Who by his name didn't do Dumbledore much good in the end. Just — just show You-Know-Who some respect, will you?"
"Respect?" Harry repeated incredulously but Hermione sent him a warning look.
Quietly, Tessa helped them pick up Ron and carry him inside the tent. They lowered him onto the mattress of a bunk bed as he closed his eyes tiredly.
"I'll make some tea," Hermione said breathlessly.
"I'll clean up the blood," Tessa said, wandering to the kitchen for some clean towels and water. When she finished, she silently sipped her hot tea with the others.
"What d'you reckon happened to the Cattermoles?" Ron asked after a moment.
"With any luck, they'll have got away," Hermione replied. "As long as Mr. Cattermole had his wits about him, he'll have transported Mrs. Cattermole by Side-Along- Apparition and they'll be fleeing the country right now with their children. That's what Harry told her to do."
"Blimey, I hope they escaped. I didn't get the feeling Reg Cattermole was all that quick-witted, though, the way everyone was talking to me when I was him. God, I hope they made it. If they both end up in Azkaban because of us."
"So, have you got it?" Harry asked Hermione suddenly.
"Got — got what?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"What did we just go through all that for? The locket! Where's the locket?"
"You got it?" Ron shouted, trying to sit up. "No one tells me anything! Blimey, you could have mentioned it!"
"Lie down, you prat," Tessa mumbled, pushing him back down on the bed.
"Well, we were running for our lives from the Death Eaters, weren't we?" Hermione said smartly. "Here." She pulled the locket out and handed it to Ron.
Tessa leaned over to take a closer look as well — the locket was as large as an eggs with a letter S put together by small green stones.
"There isn't any chance someone's destroyed it since Kreacher had it?" Ron asked. "I mean, are we sure it's still a Horcrux?"
"I think so," Hermione said, taking it to look closely. "There'd be some sign of damage if it had been magically destroyed." She handed it to Harry.
"I reckon Kreacher's right," Harry said. "We're going to have to work out how to open this thing before we can destroy it."
After Harry tried to pry it open or destroy it with a spell, Tessa reached a hand out. "Here, let me try," she said as he dropped the necklace onto her palm. Almost at once, something hot and fiery spread throughout her insides and she snarled viciously, throwing the locket across the tent.
Harry and Hermione shot to their feet at once as Ron shifted on his bed, all of them staring wide-eyed at Tessa whose eyes were glowing like embers.
It took a few seconds before Tessa came back to her senses, breathing heavily as she caught sight of their faces — that they were scared of her. "I'm — I'm sorry," she blurted out, embarrassed. "I didn't mean to — "
"I can feel it too," Ron said. "The locket."
She nodded fervently, still stammering, "I don't think my dragon likes it very much." She hurried back over to pick the locket she'd hurled across the room by the chain, careful not to touch the pendant.
"What are we going to do with it?" Hermione asked as Tessa handed it back to Harry.
"Keep it safe till we work out how to destroy it," Harry replied, hanging it around his neck. "I think we should take it in turns to keep watch outside the tent. And we'll need to think about some food as well. You stay there," he added when Ron tried to sit up.
Tessa shot to her feet at once, stuffing her wand in her pocket as she said, "I'll take first watch." Before any of them could argue, she left the tent and was greeted by the midday sun. Sighing raggedly, she walked over to a nearby tree and slumped against it. She hissed at the friction on her bruise, trying not to curse loudly.
For a moment, Tessa shut her eyes to make herself breathe and stay away from the depths of the water. But all she could see when she closed her eyes was the terrified faces of Harry, Ron, and Hermione when she'd snarled and chucked the locket away.
She was a fool to believe for a single moment that she wasn't a monster.
ϟ ϟ ϟ ϟ
Night fell, and Tessa was pushing around the wild mushrooms on her plate when she heard Hermione yelling out Harry's name outside the tent. She dropped her fork and hurried out at once to find Harry unconscious on the ground.
"Harry!"
Harry's eyes flew open, panting heavily as he stared up at Hermione and Tessa. "Dream," he said at once, sitting up. "Must've dozed off, sorry."
"We know it was your scar!" Hermione cried out. "I can tell by the look on your face! You were looking into Vol —"
"Don't say his name!" Ron's voice boomed from inside the tent.
"Fine. You-Know-Who's mind, then!"
"I didn't mean it to happen!" Harry said. "It was a dream! Can you control what you dream about, Hermione?"
"If you just learned to apply Occlumency with Tessa —"
"He's found Gregorovitch," Harry interrupted, eyes locking with Tessa as a dreadful look passed his face, "and I think he's killed him, but before he killed him he read Gregorovitch's mind and I saw —"
"I think I'd better take over the watch if you're so tired you're falling asleep," Hermione said coldly.
"He can finish the watch!" Tessa snapped at her.
"No, he's obviously exhausted. Go and lie down, Harry."
Tessa's hands curled to fists, opening her mouth to retaliate that she was not to be talked down like a child, but Harry has already stormed inside the tent. With a withering look sent at Hermione's way, she stomped her way inside as well.
Harry climbed up on the upper bunk of Ron's bed, while Tessa sulkily sat on the second bed's lower bunk so she was facing Ron.
In a quiet whisper, Ron asked, "What's You-Know-Who doing?"
Harry replied back in an equally hushed tone, "He found Gregorovitch. He had him tied up, he was torturing him."
"How's Gregorovitch supposed to make him a new wand if he's tied up?"
"I dunno. It's weird, isn't it?" A short pause before Harry said, "He wanted something from Gregorovitch. He asked him to hand it over, but Gregorovitch said it had been stolen from him . . . and then . . . then . . . He read Gregorovitch's mind, and I saw this young bloke perched on a windowsill, and he fired a curse at Gregorovitch and jumped out of sight. He stole it, he stole whatever You-Know-Who's after. And I — I think I've seen him somewhere."
"If Gregorovitch is a wandmaker," Tessa started. "And You-Know-Who is asking him for a thing — then wouldn't it obviously be for a wand?" At the boys' silence, she went on, "I mean, when you think of it that way . . . "
"I'm not sure," Harry murmured. "Maybe."
Ron whispered, "Couldn't you see what the thief was holding?"
"No . . . it must've been something small."
"Harry? You don't reckon You-Know-Who's after something else to turn into a Horcrux?"
"I don't know. Maybe. But wouldn't it be dangerous for him to make another one? Didn't Hermione say he had pushed his soul to the limit already?"
"Yeah, he did push his soul to the limit," Tessa said.
"But maybe he doesn't know that," Ron offered.
"Yeah . . . maybe," Harry said.
ϟ ϟ ϟ ϟ
Tessa was surprised when Harry returned to their tent out of breath and immensely pale. They had Apparated to the outskirts of a small market town earlier that morning when they'd all woken up for some food. Harry has offered to go out and search for something to eat, but he returned empty-handed because of dementors.
"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" Ron protested.
"I couldn't . . . make one," he panted. "Wouldn't — come."
"So we still haven't got any food."
"Shut up, Ron," Hermione snapped. "Harry, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday!"
"I don't know," Harry mumbled and sat on an armchair sulkily.
Ron kicked a chair leg. "What?" he snarled at Hermione. "I'm starving! All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!"
"You go and fight your way through the dementors, then," Harry muttered.
"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"
'"That's convenient."
"And what's that supposed to — ?"
Tessa rose to her feet at once. "I'll go get food myself — "
"Of course!" Hermione cried out, shutting all three of them up. "Harry, give me the locket! Come on, the Horcrux, Harry, you're still wearing it!"
When Harry handed the locket he was wearing to Hermione, the weary lines on his face seemed to smooth away. Tessa shared a befuddled look with Ron.
"Better?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, loads better!" Harry exclaimed.
"Harry, you don't think you've been possessed, do you?"
"What? No! I remember everything we've done while I've been wearing it. I wouldn't know what I'd done if I'd been possessed, would I? Ginny told me there were times when she couldn't remember anything."
Tessa tried to say, "Well, maybe we ought not to wear it. We can just keep it in the tent."
"We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around," Harry said firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen —"
"Oh, all right, all right," Hermione said, putting the necklace on. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on too long."
"Great," Ron grumbled irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"
"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it. There's no point staying where we know dementors are swooping around."
They moved to the woods hidden near a farmhouse where Tessa stole eggs and bread from. The night was much relaxed and cheerful compared to that morning's empty stomach. They took turns during night watches, and nobody complained about it.
The only downside was taking turns wearing the locket.
It didn't affect Harry and Hermione as much as it would to Ron and Tessa. Ron would turn incredibly unpleasant when he'd carry the Horcrux along with the lack of food, whereas Tessa — she had to wear hers over her shirt otherwise it'd trigger the beast inside if the pendant touched her skin — was snappier and more sarcastic than usual. Periods of sulkiness would come around as well with a voice in her head telling her that nobody was listening to her.
"So where next?" Ron asked.
Harry began listing again for the millionth time the places where Dumbledore had associated with — the orphanage where he'd been born, Hogwarts where he studied, Borgin and Burkes where he worked, Albania where he spent years of exile.
"Yeah, let's go to Albania. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon to search an entire country," Ron said sarcastically.
"There can't be anything there. He'd already made five of his Horcruxes before he went into exile, and Dumbledore was certain the snake is the sixth," Hermione said. "We know the snake's not in Albania, it's usually with Vol —"
"Didn't I ask you to stop saying that?"
"Fine! The snake is usually with You-Know-Who — happy?"
"Not particularly."
"I can't see him hiding anything at Borgin and Burkes," Harry said. "Borgin and Burke were experts at Dark objects, they would've recognized a Horcrux straightaway. I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts."
"I said that earlier, and nobody was listening," Tessa grumbled irritatedly.
"I listened," Ron said pointedly.
"Thank you, Ron."
Harry closed his eyes and drew in a long breath as though praying for patience to endure them and not throw something at them.
Hermione sighed. "But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry!"
"Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwarts's secrets," Harry said. "I'm telling you, if there was one place Vol —"
"Oi!"
"YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!" Harry shouted. "If there was one place that was really important to You- Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!"
"Oh, come on," Ron scoffed. "His school?"
"Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special; it meant everything to him, and even after he left —"
"This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, right? Not you?"
"You told us that You-Know-Who asked Dumbledore to give him a job after he left," Hermione said.
"That's right," Harry said.
"And Dumbledore thought he only wanted to come back to try and find something, probably another founder's object, to make into another Horcrux?"
"Yeah."
"But he didn't get the job, did he? So he never got the chance to find a founder's object there and hide it in the school!"
"Okay, then," Harry said. "Forget Hogwarts."
"But he could've found and hidden it while he was still a student or he could've had someone else do it for him," Tessa reasoned but they had all turned and started keeping their stuff. She scowled darkly to herself as she snatched the locket off her neck to switch turns with someone else.
ϟ ϟ ϟ ϟ
It was Tessa's birthday today. Or at least she thought it was. There was no telling what day it really is anymore, except that it was now autumn and the leaves crunched noisily wherever they stepped. She was lying on her bunk bed that night, hand in the air as she played with the charms on her wrist. Draco gave her a charm every year with last year being an engagement ring — she wondered what would this year have been.
"My mother," Ron said as they ate dinner together by the riverbank of Wales, "can make good food appear out of thin air."
Tessa looked to see he was wearing the locket around his neck.
"Your mother can't produce food out of thin air," Hermione said smartly. "No one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigur —"
"Oh, speak English, can't you?" Ron said, pushing around the charred fish on his plate.
"It's impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you've already got some —"
"Well, don't bother increasing this, it's disgusting."
"Harry caught the fish and I did my best with it! I notice I'm always the one who ends up sorting out the food, because I'm a girl, I suppose!" She glared at Tessa. "Why don't I ever see you do the cooking?"
Tessa sent her an affronted look. "I did! I cooked our first week in the forest, and what did you tell me? That my food tasted bad, and you reckon you'd cook better."
"I never said your food tasted bad — "
"Yeah, you did," Ron cut in grumpily. "But you're supposed to be the best at magic, so we left it in your hands."
Hermione shot to her feet furiously. "You can do the cooking tomorrow, Ron, you can find the ingredients and try and charm them into something worth eating, and I'll sit here and pull faces and moan and you can see how you —"
"Shut up!" Harry roared. "Shut up now!"
Hermione rounded at him lividly. "How can you side with him, he hardly ever does the cook —"
"Hermione, be quiet, I can hear someone!"
Tessa clamped her mouth shut and strained her ears. There was the very faint sound of grass crunching beneath footsteps and hushed voices.
"You cast the Muffliato charm over us, right?" Harry whispered to Tessa and Hermione.
"We did everything," Hermione whispered back, "Muffliato, Muggle-Repelling and Disillusionment Charms, all of it. They shouldn't be able to hear or see us, whoever they are."
Tessa rose to her feet and made to peek out of the tent, but Harry held her back at once and gestures to his ears at Hermione. Understanding instantly, Hermione pulled out four Extendable Ears and tossed it to them before bringing the ends at the entrance of the tent without revealing themselves.
"There ought to be a few salmon in here, or d'you reckon it's too early in the season?" came a weary male voice. "Accio Salmon!"
Shortly after, the sound of fish hitting skin could be heard as a fire roared to life outside of the tent. Soon enough, the smell of salmon being cooked wafted through the air as Tessa's mouth watered.
"Here, Griphook, Gornuk."
Goblins! Hermione mouthed at them.
"Thank you," the two goblins replied.
"So, you three have been on the run how long?" a new voice asked.
"Six weeks . . . seven . . . I forget," replied the first weary-voiced man. "Met up with Griphook in the first couple of days and joined forces with Gornuk not long after. Nice to have a bit of company. What made you leave, Ted?"
"Knew they were coming for me," Ted Tonks answered. "Heard Death Eaters were in the area last week and decided I'd better run for it. Refused to register as a Muggle-born on principle, see, so I knew it was a matter of time, knew I'd have to leave in the end. My wife should be okay, she's pure-blood. And then I met Dean here, what, a few days ago, son?"
"Yeah," a familiar voice replied.
Tessa staggered on her feet at the recognition. It was Dean Thomas.
"Muggle-born, eh?" the first man asked.
"Not sure," Dean said. "My dad left my mum when I was a kid. I've got no proof he was a wizard, though."
"I've got to say, Dirk," Ted said after a moment's pause. "I'm surprised to run into you. Pleased, but surprised. Word was you'd been caught."
"I was," Dirk said. "I was halfway to Azkaban when I made a break for it, Stunned Dawlish, and nicked his broom. It was easier than you'd think; I don't reckon he's quite right at the moment. Might be Confunded. If so, I'd like to shake the hand of the witch or wizard who did it, probably saved my life."
"And where do you two fit in? I, er, had the impression the goblins were for You-Know-Who, on the whole."
"You had a false impression," Griphook said. "We take no sides. This is a wizards' war."
"How come you're in hiding, then?" Ted asked.
"I deemed it prudent," replied Gornuk. "Having refused what I considered an impertinent request, I could see that my personal safety was in jeopardy."
"What did they ask you to do?"
"Duties ill-befitting the dignity of my race. I am not a house-elf."
"What about you, Griphook?" Ted asked.
"Similar reasons," Griphook said. "Gringotts is no longer under the sole control of my race. I recognize no Wizarding master." He said something in Gobbledegook as Gornuk laughed.
"What's the joke?" Dean asked curiously.
"He said," Dirk replied, "that there are things wizards don't recognize, either."
"I don't get it."
"I had my small revenge before I left," Griphook explained.
"Good man — goblin, I should say," Ted added hastily. "Didn't manage to lock a Death Eater up in one of the old high-security vaults, I suppose?"
"If I had, the sword would not have helped him break out," Griphook said as Gornuk and Dirk laughed.
"Dean and I are still missing something here," Ted said.
"So is Severus Snape, though he does not know it."
Tessa stopped breathing as she stared wide-eyed at Ron, Hermione, and Harry.
"Didn't you hear about that, Ted?" Dirk asked. "About the kids who tried to steal Gryffindor's sword out of Snape's office at Hogwarts?"
"Never heard a word," Ted replied. "Not in the Prophet, was it?"
"Hardly," Dirk said with a chuckle. "Griphook here told me, he heard about it from Bill Weasley who works for the bank. One of the kids who tried to take the sword was Bill's younger sister."
Tessa stifled a gasp when she realized Ginny was still rounding up the D.A.
"She and a couple of friends got into Snape's office and smashed open the glass case where he was apparently keeping the sword. Snape caught them as they were trying to smuggle it down the staircase. And you didn't hear this from me, but," Dirk lowered his voice as he murmured, "the Malfoy kid tried to sneak in as well but got caught. Snape tried to keep it quiet, especially because Malfoys were under You-Know-Who's command."
"Oh, that's because Draco Malfoy is dating Tessa Potter," Dean said knowingly. "Rumors are that they're engaged. I'm not too surprised if he's conspiring with Ginny and the others."
"Ah, God bless 'em," Ted said. "What did they think, that they'd be able to use the sword on You Know-Who? Or on Snape himself ?"
"Well, whatever they thought they were going to do with it, Snape decided the sword wasn't safe where it was," Dirk said. "Couple of days later, once he'd got the say-so from You-Know-Who, I imagine, he sent it down to London to be kept in Gringotts instead."
The goblins started to laugh again.
"I'm still not seeing the joke," Ted said.
"It's a fake," Griphook wheezed out between laughter.
"The sword of Gryffindor!"
"Oh yes. It is a copy — an excellent copy, it is true — but it was Wizard-made. The original was forged centuries ago by goblins and had certain properties only goblin-made armor possesses. Wherever the genuine sword of Gryffindor is, it is not in a vault at Gringotts bank."
Tessa was gripping Harry's wrist so tightly by now she was sure she'd cut off his blood circulation.
"I see," Ted said. "And I take it you didn't bother telling the Death Eaters this?"
"I saw no reason to trouble them with the information," Griphook said smugly as they all laughed.
Tessa baited her breath and waited for someone to ask about Draco or Ginny.
"What happened to Ginny, Draco Malfoy, and the others? The ones who tried to steal it?" Dean asked after his chuckles died down.
"Oh, they were punished, and cruelly," Griphook said. "Except for the Malfoy boy — Snape has a good word with him, but he wasn't punished much."
"They're okay, though?" Ted asked quickly. "I mean, the Weasleys don't need any more of their kids injured, do they?"
"They suffered no serious injury, as far as I am aware."
"Lucky for them. With Snape's track record I suppose we should just be glad they're still alive."
"You believe that story, then, do you, Ted?" Dirk asked. "You believe Snape killed Dumbledore?"
" 'Course I do," Ted said proudly. "You're not going to sit there and tell me you think the Potters had anything to do with it?"
"Hard to know what to believe these days."
"I know Harry Potter," Dean said defensively. "And I reckon he's the real thing — the Chosen One, or whatever you want to call it. And Tessa, his sister — she's been there with Harry since day one, and if she says he's who he is, then I believe her."
"Yeah, there's a lot would like to believe they're that, son," Dirk said dryly, "me included. But where are they? Run for it, by the looks of things. You'd think, if they knew anything we don't, or had anything special going for them, they'd be out there now fighting, rallying resistance, instead of hiding. And you know, the Prophet made a pretty good case against them —"
"The Prophet?" Ted scoffed. "You deserve to be lied to if you're still reading that muck, Dirk. You want the facts, try the Quibbler."
Someone was choking suddenly — perhaps Dirk had swallowed a fish bone.
"The Quibbler?" Dirk rasped out. "That lunatic rag of Xeno Lovegood's?"
"It's not so lunatic these days," Ted said. "You want to give it a look. Xeno is printing all the stuff the Prophet's ignoring, not a single mention of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in the last issue. How long they'll let him get away with it, mind, I don't know. But Xeno says, front page of every issue, that any wizard who's against You-Know-Who ought to make helping Harry and Tessa Potter their number-one priority."
"Hard to help siblings who've vanished off the face of the earth."
"Listen, the fact that they haven't caught them yet's one hell of an achievement. I'd take tips from them gladly; it's what we're trying to do, stay free, isn't it?"
"Yeah, well, you've got a point there," Dirk said. "With the whole of the Ministry and all their informers looking for them I'd have expected the Potters to be caught by now. Mind, who's to say they haven't already caught and killed them without publicizing it?"
"Ah, don't say that, Dirk."
The men outside finished their meal, extinguished their fire, and trudged away from their tent until their voices disappeared.
Harry was spluttering, "Ginny — the sword —"
"I know!" Hermione exclaimed.
"And Draco," Tessa started, her heart swelling inside her.
"I can't believe he did that," Ron admitted.
Hermione stuck her arm inside the bag again, pulling something large out with difficulty. "Here . . . we . . . are . . ." The empty portrait of Phineas Nigellus appeared before them as they propped it at the side of the tent. "If somebody swapped the real sword for the fake while it was in Dumbledore's office, "Phineas Nigellus would have seen it happen, he hangs right beside the case!"
"Unless he was asleep," Harry said.
Tessa snorted. "You and I both know he'd never sleep though something like that."
Hermione pointed her wand at the canvas. "Er — Phineas? Phineas Nigellus? Phineas Nigellus? Professor Black? Please could we talk to you? Please?"
" 'Please' always helps," came the sneering voice of Phineas.
"Obscuro!" Hermione cried out as a black blindfold wound itself around Phineas's eyes.
"What — how dare — what are you — ?"
"I'm very sorry, Professor Black, but it's a necessary precaution!"
"Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"
"Never mind where we are," Harry said.
Phineas froze at the sound. "Can that possibly be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?"
"Maybe," Tessa snapped.
"And Miss Potter, of course — the fugitive siblings with a ten thousand Galleon bounty on each of your hands."
"What can I say? I'm an expensive woman," Tessa mused humorlessly.
"We've got a couple of questions to ask you," Harry said, "about the sword of Gryffindor."
"Ah," Phineas hummed, "yes. That silly girl acted most unwisely there —"
"Shut up about my sister," Ron growled defensively.
Phineas Nigellus's eyebrows flew to his forehead. "Who else is here? Your tone displeases me! The girl and her friends were foolhardy in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster! I didn't expect that much from the Malfoy boy," he clicked his tongue, "how disappointing."
"They weren't thieving," Harry said. "That sword isn't Snape's."
"It belongs to Professor Snape's school. Exactly what claim did the Weasley girl have upon it? She deserved her punishment, as did the idiot Longbottom and the Lovegood oddity!"
"Neville is not an idiot and Luna is not an oddity!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Where am I?" Phineas repeated. "Where have you brought me? Why have you removed me from the house of my forebears?"
"Never mind that! How did Snape punish Ginny, Neville, and Luna?" Harry asked urgently.
"Professor Snape sent them into the Forbidden Forest, to do some work for the oaf, Hagrid."
"Hagrid's not an oaf!" Tessa cried out indignantly.
"And Snape might've thought that was a punishment," Harry added, "but Ginny, Neville, and Luna probably had a good laugh with Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest — they've faced plenty worse than the Forbidden Forest, big deal!"
"What we really wanted to know, Professor Black," Hermione started, "is whether anyone else has, um, taken out the sword at all? Maybe it's been taken away for cleaning or — or something?"
Phineas Nigellus paused for a moment and sniggered. "Muggle-borns," he said. "Goblin-made armor does not require cleaning, simple girl. Goblins' silver repels mundane dirt, imbibing only that which strengthens it."
"Don't call Hermione simple," Harry chided.
"I grow weary of contradiction. Perhaps it is time for me to return to the headmaster's office?"
Just as Phineas started to edge his way out of the portrait, Harry blurted out, "Dumbledore! Can't you bring us Dumbledore?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Professor Dumbledore's portrait — couldn't you bring him along, here, into yours?"
Phineas seemed to be sneering at Harry's direction of voice. "Evidently it is not only Muggle-borns who are ignorant, Potter. The portraits of Hogwarts may commune with each other, but they cannot travel outside the castle except to visit a painting of themselves hanging elsewhere. Dumbledore cannot come here with me, and after the treatment I have received at your hands, I can assure you that I shall not be making a return visit!"
Tessa and Harry shared crestfallen looks as Phineas tried to leave again.
"Professor Black," Hermione tried, "couldn't you just tell us, please, when was the last time the sword was taken out of its case? Before Ginny took it out, I mean?"
Phineas snorted. "I believe that the last time I saw the sword of Gryffindor leave its case was when Professor Dumbledore used it to break open a ring."
Nobody said anything — they had all frozen at what he'd just said.
"Well, good night to you," he drawled before leaving the portrait.
"Wait!" Tessa shouted. "Have you told Snape you saw this?"
Phineas Nigellus stuck his head back inside. "Professor Snape has more important things on his mind than the many eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore. Good-bye, Potters!"
He disappeared from the portrait after that.
"Harry!" Hermione cried as she hurriedly stuffed Phineas Nigellus's portrait back into the bag.
"I know!" Harry shouted, rising to his feet and punching the air.
Tessa went over to sit next to Ron, whispering, "Wow — can you believe that?"
Ron had a scowl on his face as he regarded Harry and Hermione. He merely grunted in response to Tessa, although he did send her a glance.
"The sword can destroy Horcruxes!" Hermione ecstatically said to Harry. "Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthen them — Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!"
"And Dumbledore didn't give it to me because he still needed it," Harry replied back enthusiastically to her, "he wanted to use it on the locket —"
"— and he must have realized they wouldn't let you have it if he put it in his will —"
"— so he made a copy —"
"— and put a fake in the glass case —"
"— and he left the real one — where?"
The two stared at each other for a moment, and Tessa worriedly glanced at Ron. She opened her mouth to perhaps voice something out, but Ron nudged her wordlessly with his shoulder to keep her quiet. He discreetly shook his head at her, his face darkening by the second at Harry and Hermione.
This was not good. This was not good at all.
"Think!" Hermione whispered. "Think! Where would he have left it?"
"Not at Hogwarts," Harry said, pacing again.
"Somewhere in Hogsmeade?"
"The Shrieking Shack? Nobody ever goes in there."
"But Snape knows how to get in, wouldn't that be a bit risky?"
"Dumbledore trusted Snape," Harry reminded her.
"Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords," Hermione said.
"Yeah, you're right! So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Tessa?" He looked around for a moment and then realized Ron and Tessa we're simply sitting on the lower bunk, staring up at them.
"Oh, remembered us, have you?" Ron said sardonically with a chuckle.
Tessa flinched at what he said as Harry sputtered, "What?"
Ron snorted. "You two carry on. Don't let me or Tessa spoil your fun."
Tessa sighed heavily. "Harry, Ron was just — "
"What's the problem?" Harry asked, ignoring her.
Tessa scowled at being interrupted.
"Problem? There's no problem," Ron huffed, looking away from Harry. "Not according to you, anyway."
Rain started to fall heavily outside on the tents, the sound echoing loudly through the rising argument.
"Well, you've obviously got a problem," Harry said snidely. "Spit it out, will you?"
Ron sat up straighter despite Tessa trying to hold him back. "All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."
"I don't know?" Harry repeated incredulously. "I don't know?"
"Ron," Tessa tried to speak gently, holding him by his good arm. "Let it go — please, we can talk about this after we've all calmed down."
Ron shook his head at her. "No — aren't you tired of always being outspoken by them?" He laughed bitterly at Harry. "It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here, you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."
"Ron," Hermione spoke up quietly, but he pretended not to hear her over the loud raucous fall of the rain.
"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for," Harry said angrily.
"Yeah, I thought I did too." Ron scoffed.
"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations? Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?"
"Harry," Tessa said, trying to get him not to adhere to Ron's jibe.
"We thought you knew what you were doing!" Ron shouted, shooting to his feet. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"
"Ron!" Tessa said, getting up as well and holding his arm he'd moved to reach for Harry.
"Well, sorry to let you down," Harry said. "I've been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux —"
"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them — nowhere effing near, in other words!"
"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione said. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."
"Yeah, he would," Harry retorted. "D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D'you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff ?"
"Harry, stop it," Tessa said, putting a hand between him and Ron. "You two need to calm down and talk about this again later — Ron, give me the necklace, and Harry, go cool off — "
"No," Harry intervened. "I wanna talk about this now. I want to know what they're whispering about me behind my back."
Tessa's nostrils flared. "Do not interrupt me again — "
Hermione went over to them desperately. "Harry, we weren't —"
"Don't lie!" Ron yelled at her. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than —"
"I didn't say it like that — Harry, I didn't!" Hermione cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"So why are you still here?" Harry asked Ron.
"Search me," Ron snapped.
"Go home then," Harry retorted.
"Harry, that's enough," Tessa snarled.
"Yeah, maybe I will!" Ron shouted, struggling against Tessa's hold as he tried to approach Harry. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happens to her in here — well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff —"
"I was only saying," Harry started defensively, "she was with the others, they were with Hagrid —"
"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I —"
"Not bothered what it meant, though?"
"Ron!" Hermione wedged her way between them. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scarred, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant —"
"Oh, you're sure, are you?" Ron sneered. "Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you two, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way —"
"My parents are dead!" Harry bellowed.
"And mine could be going the same way!"
"STOP IT," Tessa shouted heatedly at the two of them.
"Then GO!" Harry roared at Ron. "Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and —"
Ron suddenly pushed past Tessa in a jerky movement, and before they could see it coming — Hermione raised her wand and shouted, "Protego!"
A barrier was created between Tessa and Ron, and Harry and Hermione. It was a force so strong it knocked Tessa backwards and tripped over the side table.
"Tessa, I'm sorry — !" Hermione whimpered from the other side.
"NO!" Tessa roared lividly at her, allowing Ron to help her up to her feet. She was wincing in pain, leaning against the side of the tent when Ron suddenly made to walk out. "Ron, where are you — ?"
"Leave the Horcrux," Harry said as Ron yanked the chain off his head and tossed it into a chair.
Ron turned to Hermione. "What are you doing?"
Taken aback, Hermione blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Are you staying, or what?"
"I . . . Yes — yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry and Tessa, we said we'd help —"
"I get it. You choose him."
"Ron, no — please — come back, come back!"
Ron stormed out of the tent as Tessa hurriedly went after him. Rain fell heavily outside, drenching her at once as the thick droplets blurred her vision. "RON, WAIT!"
The figure up ahead slowed down, turning to face her as he said, "Tessa, I'm sorry — I know I promised, but I can't do this anymore — "
She was breathing raggedly, shaking her head as she wiped the raindrops from her face. "Ron, please don't go — we need you." A wild idea crossed her mind. "Let me go with you — "
"No," Ron said at once, crossing to reach her as he gripped her wrists firmly. "You can't leave them. You need to stay with Hermione and your brother."
"But I — "
"Stay, Tessa," Ron said before letting go of her wrists and walking backwards. He Disapparated before she could even reach for him once again.
"RON!" Tessa shouted, wiping the water away from her face as she spun around the darkness trying to find for him. Her imperfect vision hindered her from seeing properly, only adding to her frustration as she cried out in aggravation.
There was the crunch of leaves again, and Tessa whipped around to find a figure approaching from the distance.
Blinking rapidly and squinting in the darkness, she called out, "R-Ron? Is that you?"
The person approached, looking straight at her as he walked right through the shields and protection charms. Brown hair, turquoise eyes, and sharp incisors.
"Sebastian?"
"Hello, néos drakaina — I've been looking for you."
A/N
I really enjoyed writing the first scene with Draco and Sebastian especially where Draco just laughs about the other being a dart frog barely even an inch big
And SEBASTIAN's appearance in the end??? What's that about??? What do you think will happen in the next chapter?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Any favorite scene/s?
Thank you for reading, please don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts!