Hermione's adamant and absolute refusal to explain anything to them about Ginny was driving both Harry and Ron mad. They spent the next two days pestering her with questions but she refused to budge.

"No! If you can't work this one out for yourselves then I'm afraid there is no hope for either of you!" She crossed her arms and glared menacingly at the both of them as they stalked behind her through the drawing room. They were all anxious, and agitated enough to keep pacing.

Giving up, Harry flopped down onto the sofa. "Well, explain to me why she stole your cat then!"

Hermione stopped at one of the bookshelves and picked up a knickknack, one of the few that wasn't dangerous, and put it back carefully on the shelf. "I don't know, but I do know that her behavior was so odd before she left that I am certain Ginny had a plan." She turned to them, her gaze steady and sure. "I am also positive that she played us to perfection and that we fell right in with her scheme. Whatever she is doing is only going to help us."

"But none of it makes any sense!" Ron groaned as he kicked at a large dust ball. "And what about the Horcruxes? How can you be sure that Vol-Voldemort didn't move them?"

Hermione's eyes showed her pride, the same that Harry had felt before at Ron overcoming his fear, but like him, she didn't comment on that. "I can only assume that because the new locket was untouched when Harry and Dumbledore got there, that Regulus set the traps back up after he…" her voice trailed off as her eyes went wide.

Harry had had the same thought. How did Regulus get back out of the cave if he had drank the poisoned water?

"He had someone else along, didn't he?" Ron said flatly. "Regulus, I mean. Do you think he let them drink the water?"

Hermione's lip trembled as she nodded. "That seems likely. He could have thrown the person in with the Inferi too and no one would have known."

Harry's mind flashed back to all of the horribly disfigured faces that he'd seen in the lake and shuddered. "Why did he do it, then? Why get that Horcrux if he was evil enough to kill someone to get it?"

"It isn't about good and evil, Harry," Hermione said in resignation. "Voldemort is an evil beyond anything we've ever seen before and he is a danger to all people, even the ones who call him 'master'. If Regulus was as smart as he seemed to be then he would have known that. Voldemort had to be gotten rid of."

Something still didn't seem right. "Then why keep the Horcruxes a secret? Why wouldn't Regulus tell someone about them so that they could continue the work."

Hermione's face turned thoughtful as she contemplated this. "There isn't anything to say that he didn't tell anyone about the Horcruxes. But if you were going to turn Voldemort in, Harry, who would you have gone to?"

"Dumbledore, of course," Harry answered instantly and like that, so many pieces fell into place.

"It confirms the theory on which I have been working…" Dumbledore had said about Slughorn's memory after Harry had finally gotten it from the old Potion's master. But that didn't mean that someone else hadn't given Dumbledore the idea to look at Horcruxes as a possibility. Where had Dumbledore gotten the idea, in the first place, to believe that Voldemort was creating them? He had said that the diary was a Horcrux and he'd recognized it but why should he?

It didn't mean, however, that Regulus had told Dumbledore about the locket because if Regulus had told Dumbledore, why did the old headmaster still go to the cave? It made no sense and yet, if Regulus had merely hinted to Dumbledore about what Voldemort was doing then it would have put Dumbledore in a position to act.

Except for the prophecy, of course. Harry shook his head and looked up at his best friends. "I don't know what happened and I don't suppose it really matters now. What I do know is that Ginny is living with that git and we still don't know how to destroy that necklace."

"Bill will be here soon," Ron comment absently as he stared out the window. "He said he'd be here first thing this morning in his return owl."

It didn't matter how long it took Bill to get here… the bottom line was that today they were probably going to risk their lives to destroy one of the Horcruxes. Harry walked over to Hermione and slid the notebook from her hands. On the first page was a list:

-Diary

-Locket

-Ring

-Cup

-Snake ?

-?

-Voldemort

He studied Hermione's neat script and softly closed the book before handing it back to her. Only two of the Horcruxes had been destroyed so far and it had taken Dumbledore's life to get this far.

How far could he, Harry, really get?

As he looked around the room he also had to wonder at how many of them would die before he had the chance to kill Voldemort? It was nearly the end of September already. The only thing that had gone right, so far, was finding the locket.

Their trip to Albania had been fruitless and possibly damaging, if they couldn't trust Charlie's friend.

The frustrating truth was that Harry just didn't know what was going to happen and he couldn't control whether his best friends were killed or not. He had wanted to leave them behind but…

Harry sighed in resignation as he ran his hand through his messy hair. The truth was that he hadn't really wanted to leave them behind. Ron and Hermione had been with him through most of the adventures in his life and leaving behind now would seem wrong somehow.

A gentle hand landed on his shoulder and Harry jumped as he turned to face Hermione. Her expression was concerned and thoughtful. "Bill's here and Ron's gone down to meet him at the front door."

He shook his head and tried to clear away the intangible thoughts that were plaguing him. Harry looked down into his friend's face and smiled a bit at her compassion. She and Ron were always watching his back. "Thanks, Hermione."

She nodded and one side of her mouth curled up into what he realized was a truly beautiful smile. "Always."

Grinning back, he slung an arm around her shoulder and felt better than he had in a long time… since at least Dumbledore's funeral, anyway.

Ron and Bill came in through the drawing room door and Hermione ducked out from under his arm to go shake Bill's hand. "Thank you for coming and…" she hesitated a few seconds before saying, "I have a few questions for you."

Surprise registered momentarily on Bill's badly scarred face before he inclined his head. "By all means; I am at your disposal." Bill sat down on the couch and spread his arms along the back, while crossing one leg.

Hermione sat in the chair across from him and reached behind her to grab her notebook from the table. She flipped it open to a page that she had book marked. "My first question is about your Occlumency skills."

They had discussed this in detail the night before. If they were going to seek help from anyone in the Order then that person had to be able to guard their thoughts. It wasn't that they intended to tell anyone what they were up to, exactly, but if someone wanted to figure it out, Occlumency would make it more difficult.

A confused smile cracked Bill's lips. "I am trained in it, of course. As a Curse Breaker it is standard for us to know how to guard our minds. Often other country's Curse Breakers will try to use Legilimens on us to find out where the next big find is located. Because I am an Occlumens I have a natural defense against the invasions of others."

Hermione swallowed hard and Harry frowned. He knew she was gearing up to ask something difficult, but the next question should not be that hard.

"And Bill… would you be willing to die to protect your brother?" Her tone was strained, but she did not look away from him.

Bill did not flinch either. He looked between her and Ron, who had gone pale. "I would."

Closing her eyes, Hermione let out a long breath. "We need you to make an Unbreakable Vow to Ron that you will not reveal any of what we are about to tell you to anyone."

Uncrossing his leg, Bill leaned forward and studied her eyes. "It's that serious, then? I'm not being asked here to help with some prank, am I?"

Hermione's lip trembled slightly as she shook her head. "I'm afraid not, no."

Bill looked between them now, finally landing his gaze on Harry. "I want to say that you three are just kids and shouldn't need to be thinking about Occlumency or about your brother betraying you but…" he stood and walked over to Ron, clapping a hand on his shoulder, "we do not live in times that are conducive to a normal childhood and you are not ordinary kids. So Ron, give me your hand."

Ron stuck out his hand as Hermione stood, her wand raised. Harry watched in amazement, but he could understand now why Hermione didn't tell them about the vow. He could imagine that Ron would have insisted that they could trust Bill. It was probably hard to the youngest Weasley boy to have to question his oldest brother's loyalty.

Even as he watched the brother's clasp hands and Hermione's wand touch the tops of their hands, Bill spoke. "I swear to never reveal to anyone what I am told in this room today." Ron nodded and a brilliant red strand shot from Hermione's wand, wrapping itself around their entwined hands.

After a moment the red faded and the two men let go. "Now," Bill turned to Harry. "What is this about?"

Harry grabbed the locket and held it up, showing it to Bill as the slippery chain slid through his fingers. "We need to destroy this."

One of Bill's mangled eyebrows raised as he studied the necklace. "You want me to destroy one of Slytherin's artifacts?" Hermione gasped in surprise, but Bill shook his head. "I have been studying relics for nearly ten years, Hermione. I would be a poor treasure hunter if I couldn't identify it."

"Well it isn't really that simple." Hermione began as she took the locket from Harry. "We want what is in it to be destroyed. There was another one that was destroyed by Basilisk venom, but that isn't going to work on metal and quite frankly it is nearly impossible to find Basilisk venom."

"Yes, I can see that as being a problem." He held out his hand for the locket and Hermione handed it over. Taking out his wand he began to run silent spells over it as the three friends took a step back from Bill. They had experimented on it before and they had the scars to prove it.

After nearly ten minutes, and no giant bolts of lightning, Hermione asked, "Any ideas?"

"What would happen if I put this locket on?" Bill probed without looking up at Hermione.

"Uhm… I think, although I am not sure, that it would suck the life out of the wearer and that they would die." Hermione's expression was pained as Harry and Ron gaped at her. "What!" She growled out in annoyance. "It was obvious after what happened to-" she shut her mouth and looked nervously at Bill. They had agreed, although it was a close thing, that they were going to respect Dumbledore's wishes about not revealing the true nature of what they were doing to anyone. Mostly Harry had insisted. He had promised Dumbledore not to tell anyone and he was going to stick to that, for as long as he could.

"Ginny," he supplied helpfully and then laughed at their amazement. "I can put two and two together, you know. Right, so this locket is just like that diary that nearly killed Ginny, which you," Bill looked over at Harry, "destroyed with Basilisk venom."

Harry groaned silently and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Bill set the locket down on the ground. "Okay, well then this is simple. We have to activate the necklace and then I am going to melt it."

"Melt it?" Hermione exclaimed as she stepped forward. "I don't understand how melting it will destroy the… it."

He shrugged. "I'm not sure that it will… but by activating the curse, or whatever it is that is in there, it will separate the curse from the object enough that if I can destroy the integrity of the necklace that it will be permanently separated."

"But won't the… uh… curse, go into something else?" Hermione asked him, looking skeptical.

Bill lowered his wand. "It is a bit more complicated than that. When a curse is taken from an object, it can't just transfer itself to another object. A curse isn't smart and it can't think enough to do that."

Hermione turned deathly pale. "This one is."

Bill's shoulder's tensed and he nodded. "Well that changes things a bit. Is there anything else that I should know?"

"Uh…" Harry hesitated only for a moment. "One of these objects is the reason that Dumbledore lost his hand."

Harry expected Bill to be surprised but instead his jaw tightened as he bent down and picked up the necklace. "That changes things a bit more. It is still the same principle that the object has to be activated, as Dumbledore obviously knew because it was his hand that was injured."

"I'll put it on," Ron offered but both Harry and Hermione protested instantly.

Bill shook his head. "No, I am going to put it on and when its effects begin, I want you, Hermione, to summon it from my neck. After that I want the three of you to melt it."

"How do we melt it?" Harry questioned, feeling extremely uncomfortable that it was because of him that Bill might be strangled by the locket.

"The spell is Confervefacio," Bill told them. "Gold is a very soft metal and it should be enough if it is melted. If I am conscious when you get the necklace off I will use some other tricks of the trade on it. Hopefully it will completely destabilize the gold." He unclasped the locket and held it up, his wand in his hand. "Here we go then."

With that he put the necklace. For five heart stopping seconds nothing happened. Then Bill grabbed for his neck and his face began to turn blue.

Hermione didn't wait. "Accio Locket!" she shouted forcefully but the locket barely moved.

"Bullocks!" Ron yelled. "All together, then. Ready, GO!"

"Accio Locket!" The three yelled at once. This time the locket nearly came off but at the last second it fell back against his chest as Bill groped helplessly at his throat. His face was now a violent shade of purple.

"Try again!" Harry growled and he raised his wand, feeling desperation overwhelm him. "Accio Locket!"

The others followed behind him, yelling their own spells. Bill fell to his knees, but the locket would not release its hold on him.

"Damnit! It won't work with magic!" Without really contemplating why he did what he did, Harry ran to Bill and fell to his knees at his side. Harry grabbed the locket and tugged with all of his might. He almost thought that it would work and then it gave a bit before snapping with a deafening I crack /I the chain broke and he fell back, throwing the locket to the floor.

Ron and Hermione were on it instantly. "Confervefacio!"

The gold had already begun to melt into a puddle by the time Harry joined in. Not long after that Bill, although unable to speak, was waving his wand at the puddle of liquid metal on the floor. A bright light shot out from his wand and the gold vaporized into a spray that threw them backwards.

Harry felt his world go black.

OoO

"Harry? Wake up, Harry," a mild, gentle voice commanded him. "It's over."

He didn't want to wake up. It was comfortable in the darkness and he felt, although he didn't know it for sure, that a blinding headache awaited him when he finally opened his eyes. "No…" he moaned. "Don't wanna."

"We have word on Ginny, though," the amused voice told him.

Harry's eyes popped open and sure enough, the light from the room was enough to cause a searing pain to shoot through his brain. "Ginny?"

"Interesting how that's the only thing he'll respond to," the voice he now recognized as belonging to Remus said. "Yes, we have an article from Witch Weekly that a very irate Mrs. Weasley just sent over. It seems that Ginny was spotted in Diagon Alley with a Mr. Theodore Nott and that the reporter followed them to his home… where she stayed. Although it isn't quite as sinister as it first appears. I believe that Mr. Nott lives with his elderly father and an aunt."

Harry brought a shaking hand up to his head. "I don't understand."

Remus grabbed him behind the shoulder and helped him sit up. He noted that Bill, Ron and Hermione were already up although they also looked very dazed. Bill had a nasty bruise that encircled his entire throat. He opened his mouth to speak but Harry saw Remus shake his head from the corner of his eye. "Don't try it, Bill. I'm taking you, right now, to St. Mungo's. I believe that it damaged your vocal cords, although I am confident that the necklace is gone."

"You're sure?" Ron croaked out.

Bill nodded and pointed to a blacked spot on the floor.

Hermione sighed in relief. "If that's all that is left of it then I think we got off lucky." She got slowly to her feet and went to her notebook where Harry saw her cross something off. "So was Mrs. Weasley very angry over Ginny?"

"I do believe that her exact words, from the owl to Bill, was that she couldn't believe any daughter of hers would willing be seen with a boy like Nott and that she and Mr. Weasley were going to bring up the matter with the Ministry." Remus' eyes twinkled a bit at the identical looks of horror on Harry and Ron's face. "When Bill handed the letter to me, I was more than a little stunned as well, but at least we now know why Percy was at Kings Cross station."

Hermione blinked in surprise while Ron asked, "What do you mean?"

Harry had to agree. He couldn't understand how one had anything to do with the other.

Remus looked over at Bill and the red haired man nodded. "It seems that the senior Nott has applied to the Ministry for custody of Ginny, citing that she was being starved and neglected."

"WHAT!" The three yelled together in horror. "But Ginny was starving herself!" Ron shouted in outrage.

Remus could only shrug. "Arthur found out this morning that Percy had heard about the application and tried to suppress it. He managed to bury it until this past week when Percy's replacement found it on his desk and re-filed the petition. I believe that Percy went to the station to try to talk her out of living with Nott."

Real grief spread over his face. "The Order knew that there would be an attack and we were prepared, even keeping the parents out and putting in Aurors dressed as parents. I believe Tonks had changed herself into a child to keep the Death Eaters in the dark but no one had warned Percy and he used his clout with the Ministry to get into the station. Despite how high up in the Ministry he was, he hadn't been warned about the attack."

Harry looked over to Ron and Hermione, then to Bill. His gnarled face didn't show any expression at all as he met Harry's gaze. Slowly he stood and walked over to the table, grabbing a scrap piece of paper. Bill got Hermione's quill from her and scribbled something on the paper before walking over to Remus to leave for St. Mungo's.

Hermione picked up the paper and let out a nervous giggle before handing it to Harry. It was short, simple and to the point.

Kill the bastard.

Harry swung his head around quickly but Bill and Remus were already gone. Don't worry, Harry thought savagely. I will.

A/N: My yahoo group is having issues right now… namely that it won't allow in anyone under 18. I am working to fix that and I promise that there is no reason why anyone under 18 shouldn't join. I would let my children in and I'm a very particular mother, I can promise you that! So be patient and hopefully we will have it fixed soon.

IMPORTANT! I tried to actually make a strike through the Diary and Ring on Hermione's list and fanfiction's program won't let me... so it looks really weird but it's the programs fault (for once) and not mine. Sorry about that!

Many thanks to JPx and Wolf's Scream for beta'ing for me! You two are awesome.

AND last, but certainly not least, THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING! You will be proud, I have written chapter 15 already, which is the delay on replying to reviews, but I will get to those soon. As a general rule the reviews help an author post faster, not that it matters to me since the next chapter is already done, but as a favor to me, go review someone else's story and make their day.

Oh and just so you know… if I ever write something that you don't like, please feel free to tell me. I'm not a big ogre and I can take criticism, I promise!