Of course, I do not own anything in this story except for Michael 'Lenan' Shanahan and Hailey. Even after rereading the book, I'm not exactly sure how long Hermione and Harry were looking for the horcruxes without Ron, and I'm certainly not sure how long a period it was between Ron's return and the battle of Hogwarts. So, I'm going to wing it, probably inadvertently extending it to build on Michael's character.

Some of Harry's dialog and the description of the location and horcrux in the very beginning of this chapter are copied right from 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. The story is an alternate to the original, therefore there will be miniscule amounts copied from the book.

/. /. / CHAPTER 2: A Confrontation With Tacky Jewelry

/. /. / NINETEEN YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS AGO; FOREST OF DEAN

Harry led the way out of the tent, using Lenan's wand to produce light. Lenan walked behind him and Hermione brought up the rear, her wand pointed at the newcomers back. After walking about ten minutes, Harry saw the place: a flat rock lying in the shadow of a large tree. "Here." He said without hesitation, brushing snow from the rock's surface. He pulled the Horcrux from his pocket; it twitched in his fingers and he laid it on the rock, eager to sever his connection to it. Lenan approached the rock as Harry held out the sword. "You retrieved the sword, you are the one to wield it." The stranger suddenly looked nervous, his eyes moving from the sword to Harry's face.

"I was in Ravenclaw... the sword is meant to aid a Gryffindor..."

"But you were the one able to get it from under the ice." Lenan hesitantly took the sword. "I'm going to open it and you stab it. Straightaway. Whatever's in there will put up a fight. The bit of Him in the Horcrux I destroyed tried to kill me."

"How are you going to open it?" Hermione's voice was soft. Fear became the ruling feeling in the air as the small object twitched and scratched on the stone. The trustworthiness of Lenan seemed secondary to the horrors the small locket would bestow upon them. Lenan held the sword loosely, his eyes on the locket.

"I'm going to ask it to open, using Parseltongue," said Harry. He looked at the serpentine S on the locket, inlaid with glittering green stones. The words of a snake seemed suddenly obvious.

"Tell me when..." Lenan's voice sounded firm, but he was breathing hard, preparing himself for the worst. His grip on the sword hilt tightened and he gave it a few little shakes up and down, testing the weight.

"On three." Harry's eyes lowered to the locket, concentrating on it hard. Hermione took a step back, her securely pointed wand at Lenan forgotten about as Harry's marked off the counts. She took a deep breath as the foreign sound slid from Harry's mouth. The golden door of the locket flew up and open with a click. Harry crouched down, holding the locket steady on the rock. "Stab." He spoke forcefully and Lenan lifted the sword high above his head, the point angled over the eyes of the locket. A voice hissed from within it.

"I see your heart, and it is mine."

"Stab it! Harry shouted.

"I see your dreams and I see your regrets."

"Stab it Lenan!" The tall man seemed oblivious to Harry's presence as he starred down at the locket, the point of the sword still hanging over the slit-pupiled scarlet eyes.

"Unloved by an unready mother . . . unknown by a murderous father, following in his footsteps . . . the only love you will have you killed . . . you escaped your punishment . . . a cowardly dog unable to face his nemesis . . ."

"Lenan, stab it now!" Harry bellowed. Lenan's grip on the sword faltered and the locket reacted. Lenan stumbled back as smoke erupted from the eyes, filling the space between him and the stone the Horcrux rested on. Harry snatched his fingers from the locket as the metal burned white hot. Hermione took several steps back, horrified as the girl from the photos emerged from the fog. Her throat had been torn out and blood, glistening in the strange light the fog seemed to emit, soaked down the front of her. Her eyes were blank white; pupiless. Her face was gaunt and ashen. Lenan let out a little sob, falling to his knees before her.

"Why do you get to live on, unpunished and unscathed? You will never amount to anything. You are a worthless coward. You're the one that should be dead."

"I'm sorry!" Lenan yelled out, sobbing. She smiled cruelly.

"I see why your mother abandoned you now. You're just like your father. You make me sick, filthy beast. You're a monster. Ugly, deformed...," she bent forward a little, grinning with sharpened teeth, "heartless." She dragged out the last word, lingering on the 's' on the end. Lenan's face filled with anguish and he stood shakily.

"Do it, Lenan!" Harry yelled. Lenan looked toward him, and a chill moved through Harry as if Dementors had appeared. The look of loss and pain in Lenan's eyes was all consuming.

"You sometimes wonder why the Dementors never came for you in the cell. Never came to kiss you, like I did. You know the answer... you have no soul to take." A terrible scream rang out as Lenan ran through her, plunging the sword into the horcrux and into the rock beneath it. Harry, knocked backward by the end of the spell, stood quickly and looked to Lenan. His hands were still on the sword hilt and his head hung between his arms. Slowly, Harry approached him. His shoulders rose and fell with his ragged breathing. Hermione stood a few yards away, still staring where the girl had been; she looked like she was going to be sick. Harry spoke softly, the mans past seemed suddenly clear with the words the dead girl had spoken.

"How old were you?"

"Five..." His voice cracked a bit. He kept his face down-turned. "I tried to keep it under control for as long as I can remember...but that one day... she came in, trying to help... I don't remember it... I woke up the next morning beside her."

"You were in Azkaban. "

"I turned myself in." Harry placed a hand lightly over Lenan's white knuckled grip on the sword hilt and the man looked up suddenly, his eyes red and puffy once more. He yanked up sharply, freeing the sword from the stone and relinquishing it to Harry. "I'm sorry... I understand if yeh still don't trust me. I come with baggage, and," he reached up, fingering a sharp canine tooth, "a significant threat."

"Hermione and I are friends with another werewolf." He flinched a little at the word. "He was one of our professors at Hogwarts. He was a close friend of my Dad's." Harry picked up the broken Horcrux, still warm to the touch and smoking slightly. Hermione approached cautiously, staring at Lenan. She hadn't noticed the teeth before, nor the barely there point of the ear. The honey yellow eyes made sense now. Those eyes moved to her, full of pain.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not some unholy beast, hell-bent on killing anything within ten feet." His voice softened. ". . . She was an accident."

"Perhaps we should head back to the tent. Someone might have heard the scream." Harry spoke carefully, wanting to break the tension between his friend and the newcomer. Lenan hesitated, then moved along with Harry's encouragement. Hermione followed, her wand forgotten in her pocket.

/. /. / POST SCRIPT AUTHOR'S NOTE:

P.S.A.N. : I know this chapter is very short compared to the first one, but as in my other stories, I like to break up the chapters where it feels appropriate. The next one takes place back in the tent, so instead of going straight there, we end in the woods for now.