Chapter 10: Breaking Ranks
The next day the Elementals and the Trio were on the move. Ron still wasn't strong enough to apparate though so they had to go on foot. A week later they were still on the move. Staying in one place for more than two nights just seemed too dangerous. Anyway they were all sitting in the tent listening to the radio. Ever since the incident at the ministry all they were hearing was names of missing and deceased witches and wizards the whole thing was extremely depressing.
"I can't believe all of these people are gone." Chelsea declared.
"I know it's awful." Amelia agreed.
"So we know of three horcruxes; but what do they have in common?" Samantha asked.
"Well, the ring belonged to Tom's grandfather, the diary that belonged to Tom himself and this which belonged to Tom's mother." Harry said looking at the locket.
"It's scary to think that this is a part of Vold…" Hermione began.
"Don't." Ron interrupted. "It's taboo, "You-Know-Who's" name. That's how they're tracking people now." Ron explained.
"How do you know that?" Jimmy asked.
"I heard some bloke in the ministry talking about it." Ron replied.
"So what are we going to call him? I don't know about you guys but I'm sick of saying "You-Know-Who" and "He-That-Must-Not-Be-Named"." Bethany declared.
"Yeah I am too." Chelsea stated.
"Well, we all have talked about how creepy it is that he has no nose, so we can call him "No Nose". Samantha suggested.
"Now that name I like." Jimmy stated.
"Well, his last name is Riddle…We could call him the Riddler like the Batman villain, but he doesn't confuse us with riddles…" Chelsea declared.
"I think we could still call him that. It's fitting." Samantha stated.
"What are you all talking about?" Ron questioned.
"Well, there's this villain in Batman known as the Riddler, and he stalls Batman with all these riddles, but Batman solves them all in the end." Jimmy explained.
"Who is Batman?" Hermione asked.
"He's a super hero in a cartoon." Bethany stated.
"Well, cartoons, movies, video games, and several comic books." Samantha added.
"Does he have any super powers?" Harry asked.
"No, but he's still pretty cool. He's got some awesome gadgets." Jimmy stated.
"Ok, what else can we call him?" Amelia questioned.
"Well, I have an idea for a name. There's a whole story behind it though." Samantha said.
"Ok, we're listening." Chelsea said.
"Well one time, some of my other friends and I were making up a spinoff of book/movie series we have in our world that we are now ironically living in. All we really did was come up with names; old No Nose was named Lord Vincent." Samantha declared.
"That sounds so familiar it's funny." Bethany said with a laugh.
"That's not all, instead of having a pet snake named Nagini, his pet was a giant butterfly named Spaghetti." Samantha stated.
The rest of the Elementals were nearly dying of laughter after hearing this.
"Oh my God, a giant butterfly?!" Bethany said through tears.
"And you named it after a form of pasta?" Amelia asked.
"The names sounded similar." Samantha stated.
Once the Elementals calmed down a bit they continued.
"Ok, anything else we could call him?" Samantha asked.
"I have a suggestion…oh wait never mind." Chelsea said.
"No way, you have to tell us what it is now." Jimmy stated.
"Yeah come on Chels spill." Amelia said.
"Ok, well I was going to suggest that we call him Tommy Pickles since he's bald, barefoot, and obviously because his name is Tom." Chelsea declared.
"No way, Tommy Pickles was awesome." Samantha stated.
"Yeah he was my favorite Rugrat." Bethany stated.
"I'm sorry, it just made sense." Chelsea replied.
"Well, we could call him Tommy Boy, it's similar enough and it's still funny." Samantha suggested.
"Ok, I like it." Jimmy stated.
"Me too." Amelia added.
"Ok, will somebody explain to us what a Rugrat is?" Harry questioned.
"Well the Rugrats was a children's' television show that was popular when we were toddlers and when we were in elementary school, and it was about babies, and one of the babies name was Tommy." Amelia explained.
"You guys must have lived in quite a strange world." Ron stated.
"Well, any world is strange." Samantha stated.
"What does that mean?" Harry asked.
"Nothing, you really wouldn't get it anyway." Samantha stated.
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One week later
The Elementals and the Trio had moved again, and this time they were surrounded by water and stones. Currently Ron was trying show Hermione how to skip a rock. Chelsea and Jimmy were skipping rocks as well and they were quite good at it. Well, having control over Earth and water did have its advantages.
Harry, Samantha, Bethany, and Amelia were watching the whole thing from their spot next to the tent.
"Why don't you guys come and skip some rocks with us?" Chelsea asked.
"We don't want to." Bethany replied.
"Why?" Jimmy asked.
"You guys are cheating." Samantha declared.
"How exactly are we cheating?" Chelsea asked.
"Yeah, what makes you think that we would do such a thing?" Jimmy added.
"Oh come on Jimmy one of your rocks just did a backflip; and as for you Chelsea, moving the water around to make your rock skip is not something that you can easily hide." Samantha stated.
"Oh come on Samantha like you've never cheated." Jimmy said.
"Even if I did Jimmy, you can't prove that I did." Samantha declared.
"Shit, she's right." Jimmy stated.
"Of course I am." Samantha replied.
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When the middle of November came more than half of the eight Gryffindors had come down with the cold. So Samantha, Chelsea, and Jimmy, the only healthy ones, had to take care of all of them. It wasn't fun though. Who would enjoy and tent full of sneezing and coughing?
"I seriously hate getting sick." Bethany said before going into another coughing fit.
"Don't we all?" Ron asked.
"Will all of you stop complaining?" Samantha said.
"Yeah, we're doing the best we can." Chelsea stated. "Jimmy could you go and grow me some more herbs please?"
"Sure I'm on it." Jimmy said exiting the tent.
"Why do you have him growing you all these herbs?" Harry questioned.
"I told you Harry. There's only so much that I can do with water alone. If I wasn't able to keep making my remedies and there was a situation where one of us gets seriously injured or sick, I might not be able to fix it completely. Also, it would take longer for you all to get over this cold." Chelsea explained.
"Here Chelsea." Jimmy said coming back in the tent with a handful of herbs.
"Samantha, why aren't you doing more to help?" Amelia asked.
"I can't breathe." Samantha replied.
"What?" The Trio asked in shock.
"I have asthma." Samantha stated.
"Do you need your inhaler?" Jimmy said moving toward their back packs.
"No, just give me a minute." Samantha stated. "Ok, I'm fine now."
"Flu season really sucks." Amelia declared.
"No shit." Samantha said.
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Two weeks later
Harry was sitting in a chair in the middle of the tent while Hermione cut his hair.
"Hey Jimmy, want us to get rid of all that hair on your head?" Bethany asked.
"And how to you plan on doing that?" Jimmy asked.
"We can buzz it off." Chelsea declared.
"We don't have a power outlet though." Jimmy countered.
"Well that part is simple; we can use Bethany as a human outlet. All she needs to do is send a small surge through the wires." Amelia explained.
"Well alright, but if I get shocked then you're all going to be very sorry later." Jimmy threatened.
"Yeah, whatever."
A few minutes later
"Oh my God." Hermione suddenly said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute." Hermione stated running over to her book on the table.
"It would be a whole lot better if you told us now." Samantha stated.
"The sword of Gryffindor is goblin made. " Hermione declared.
"So?" Chelsea asked.
"Dirt and rust can't damage it. It only takes in what makes it stronger." Hermione added.
"And when Harry destroyed the diary in the Chamber of Secrets he used a basilisk fang." Amelia added.
"Then he killed the basilisk with the sword so…it's impregnated with it." Jimmy stated.
"So it can destroy horcruxes." Harry declared.
"There's only one problem though." Samantha said.
Suddenly the light went out and somebody was standing next to the table.
"The sword was stolen." Ron's voice said.
Then the lights went back on.
"Yeah I'm still here, but go on, don't let me spoil all the fun." Ron declared.
"Well, if you got something to say then say. Don't be shy. Come on spit it out." Harry stated.
"Ok, but don't expect me to be grateful…because there's another damn thing we've got to find." Ron uttered.
"I thought you knew what you signed up for?" Harry questioned.
"Yeah, I did too." Ron muttered.
"Well what part of this isn't living up to your expectations? Did you think that we were going to be staying in a hotel and finding a horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back home with your mum by Christmas?" Harry asked.
"I thought after all this time that you would have a plan." Ron stated.
"I told you everything Dumbledore told me…and in case you didn't notice we have a horcrux." Harry stated.
"Yeah, and we're about as close to destroying it as we are to finding the rest." Ron replied.
"Please Ron, take off the horcrux." Hermione said walking over to him. "You wouldn't be saying this if you hadn't been wearing it all day." Ron just pushed her away.
"Do you know why I listen to that radio every day? I'm listening and hoping that I don't hear mum's name, or Ginny's, or Fred's." Ron hissed.
"You think we're not listening too Ron?!" Amelia standing from her spot from the table.
"You think I don't know how it feels, how any of us feel?" Harry yelled.
"You don't know how it feels! You're parents are dead! As for you five, your parents are in another dimension! You don't need to worry about them!" Ron yelled.
"You think we don't know how it feels Ron?!" Bethany said raising her voice.
"You couldn't be more damn wrong." Jimmy yelled. "You're right they are in another dimension, but that doesn't mean that we can't be worried!" Chelsea said.
"We have had no contact with our parents for seven years Ron. You see your parents when, during the holidays? So that's not a lot, but it's a lot more time that you get with your parents than we've had in the seven years we've been here!" Samantha yelled.
"We have no idea what's going on in our world Ron. Our parents probably think we all went missing in London. Do you have any idea how it feels when you can't tell your parents where you are and that you're safe, for seven whole years?" Amelia yelled.
As the Elementals yelled at Ron the atmosphere in the tent began to change. The wind began to howl, the ground began to shake. Samantha pulled out her lighter and began fidgeting with it, but the flames grew bigger than the lighter should have been able to produce. Bethany seemed to have an immense of static surging through her; her hair began to stand on its own, and the static on her clothes was actually visibly showing itself. Chelsea tried to drink a cup of water but it keep moving around and it even splashed her in the face a bit.
"You know what, leave, why don't you?!" Harry yelled.
"Fine." Ron said. Then he looked at Hermione. "What about you? ...Are you staying or are you going?" Ron questioned.
"I'm staying." Hermione said sadly.
"Fine…I see how it is." Ron said before walking out.
Everyone just stood where they were completely silent.
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Hi again. I apologize for another delay, but I leave for college on Sunday so I've been getting ready. As usual, special thanks to my coauthor DevilDragon8 for all these awesome ideas. More one-shots are coming so keep your eyes open for that. See you in the next chapter!