So I forgot to mention this last time: Over 100 reviews! When I saw that, I was so happy! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review. I appreciate it so much :D

Anyway, here's the newest chapter. Originally, I had something else planned for this chapter but then this came to me and I liked it better. I hope you guys like it too :)

I already started working on the next chapter but I'm moving back to school soon, so I'm going to be busy these next couple of days. Things might get hectic as I settle in again but I'll try not to update too late :)

Read and enjoy (hopefully).

Oh and no, I still don't own this. Just writing to make my HHr shipper heart feel a little bit better :)

Chapter 14

Night had settled over Shell Cottage. No lights could be seen in the house. The waves were coming and going, creating a soothing background noise. The moon cast a glow on everything, adding to the calm feeling of the area.

Suddenly, three cracks pierced the air; where before there was only empty space, three people now stood. They looked weary and wet. All of them looked like they were dressed in black, but only two were: the bushy haired girl and one of the boys, whose red hair stood out even in the moonlight. The other boy wore glasses; he had begun pacing as soon as they arrived, not even bothering with his wet clothes.

The girl immediately got to work. She reached into her small bag and pulled out more stuff than should have fit. She handed several things to the redhead, who immediately started changing. Getting the other boy's attention took a little more work, but he was soon changing as well; she didn't change for obvious reasons. She wrapped a blanket around herself instead and stopped to stare at the bespectacled boy who had started pacing again.

They were both staring at him now, waiting for him to say something. He didn't, though; it was like he was lost in a whole other world. His face was set in concentration, his body tense. They could both feel the anger and frustration radiating off him.

The girl was never much for patience, though and soon, her voice was added to the noise of the breaking waves.

"Harry."

The boy kept pacing, kicking up sand around him. His companions shared a glance; the redhead shrugged.

"Harry, stop." He still didn't respond. The girl continued talking, not knowing what else to do. "Harry, talk to us. I know we can figure this out but just…say something."

He was still pacing but his steps were slower now. She took this as a good sign as she approached him. She settled a hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. He looked anywhere but her for a couple of seconds before looking her in the eyes.

"Hermione… I don't understand."

"I know."

"I was sure it was going to be there."

Hermione sighed. "I was too, Harry. You weren't wrong in thinking that."

They hadn't found a horcrux in Bellatrix's vault. They'd found other valuables, gold and silver, pearls and even some diamonds, but no horcrux. They'd made it pass the thieves' downfall and the dragon (a dragon!), all the way into the Lestrange vault. They'd achieved what some would consider impossible but it was all for nothing. To make matters worse, they hadn't been able to get the sword back from Griphook.

We're worse than when we started.

Harry had been so sure. There had been no doubt in his mind; Bellatrix had made it obvious. He had thought of the possibility of her moving it but, ultimately, he had decided that she was too proud for that. Bellatrix would have thought her vault to be impenetrable. The sword had turned out to be a fake, the goblin said so. Why move it when nobody had a clue it was there?

Hermione had thought of the possibility as well but had ended in the same mind set as Harry. She knew the death eater was proud above anything else. She didn't question her power and thought herself above everybody else. But they had thought wrong and now, they both felt ridiculous. They had both thought of the possibility but had brushed it off.

Ron's voice cut through the silence. "It was worth a shot, mate."

Hermione felt Harry tense. "Yeah? You think so? Well guess what, Ron? It wasn't. I was wrong and now, we're worse off than before. We don't even have the bloody sword anymore."

He hadn't yelled but his words cut through Ron as if he had.

Hermione shot an apologetic glance at Ron before turning to Harry. "He's right, Harry." He opened his mouth to protest but Hermione cut him off. "No, listen to me. It was worth a shot. We may have been wrong but at least now we know that it's not there. You would have regretted it more if we hadn't gone. We needed to be sure and now we are." She paused. "We may not have the sword anymore but we'll figure out another way."

Harry pulled away from her. "Another way, Hermione? There's already too little ways to destroy them! Do you remember how long it took the first time? Now, it'll probably take longer! How the bloody hell are we supposed to destroy them!"

Hermione took a deep breath, trying to reign in her frustration; she failed. "It doesn't matter how long it takes, what matters is that we'll find it! I know we will!"

"I don't know if you've noticed but we don't have all the bloody time in the world! He's getting stronger by the second and soon, nobody will be able to stop him!"

Ron stood between them, his mouth agape. It wasn't often that he got to witness Harry and Hermione fight; it was usually him and Hermione. He'd always thought that it would be a welcome respite but he was wrong. Compared to his quarrels with her, he felt like this was worse; it was even worse than him fighting with Harry. He felt like he lacked the necessary skills to mollify the situation, to make them both see reason. All he could do was stare at them and hope that something, anything, would come to him to make them stop.

"You think I don't know that? We all know, Harry! We're not blind!" She moved closer to him. "So we were wrong, so what? There's nothing we can do now except move on! We can't get mad every time we're wrong about something!"

"Oh that's rich, coming from you," he snapped.

Hermione looked like he had slapped her. "I beg your pardon? Yes, I don't like it when I'm wrong but I don't cry about it, unlike some! No, what I do is make sure that I'm right the next time!"

Harry opened his mouth to respond but Ron had finally had enough. "Oh, shut up, the pair of you!" He looked at Harry. "What's wrong with you? You're sounding like me! Look, mate, we know you're disappointed but we all are. We had all thought it was going to be there but Hermione's right. There's no point crying about it anymore. You're right too. We don't have a lot of time left so why are we wasting it yelling at each other?"

Harry looked away. What the bloody hell is wrong with you? You're acting like a prick, picking a fight just to fight! You know they're right, so what the hell are you doing?

Harry felt like an idiot. The whole time he was yelling at her, his mind had been screaming at him to shut up, telling him that she was right; that he was acting like a child. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and looked at Hermione.

She was still mad, that much was obvious but not as mad as before; she didn't look like she wanted to slap him anymore. "I'm sorry, Hermione." He looked at Ron.

"Ron-"

Ron waved his hand. "It's alright, mate, I know."

Harry walked towards Hermione. He had the urge to grab her hand, but he rested his hand on her shoulder instead. She didn't shy away from his gaze. "I shouldn't have said any of that. I'm an idiot and you're right. You're always right. I'm just—frustrated but I shouldn't take that out on either of you."

Her gaze remained hard for a moment but quickly softened. "You're not an idiot, at least not all the time."

Harry chuckled as Ron snorted. He looked at both of them, his face serious now. "Alright, I've wasted enough of our time. We need to figure out where the rest of the horcruxes are."

They both nodded.

"Yeah, but do you think we could talk about it tomorrow? I'm dead tired," said Ron.

Harry almost disagreed but he couldn't deny that he was tired as well. A good night's sleep would be better for all of them. He nodded as he said, "Yeah, that sounds good, Ron."

They walked back up to the cottage, the three of them yawning here and there. Ron went to Bill and Fleur's room to let them know they were in the cottage.

"I hope I don't see anything too nasty."

Harry snorted. Hermione said, "Honestly, Ron."

Ron made a 'what?' gesture with his hands. "They're married, Hermione, what do you expect?"

She only frowned in response.

Within minutes, Shell Cottage reverted back to its earlier conditions. The moonlight still made everything glow. The waves crashed against each other, again and again. No lights were seen inside the house. Everything was calm as the trio gave in to sleep.

###

"So if it wasn't in the vault, where else could it be?" asked Ron.

"I don't know but the only other place I can think of is Hogwarts," responded Harry. "That doesn't make it any easier, though. We don't even know what it looks like; what any of them look like, really."

"Well, maybe one of them, or all of them even, have to do with the Hogwarts' houses," Hermione said. "An artifact of Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw…I don't really see him being able to use anything related to Gryffindor. Only two of his possessions are really famous: the sorting hat and the sword."

"Do you know any famous artifacts from those houses?" Harry asked her.

Hermione shook her head, a frown on her face. "Hmmm, I do recall reading something related to Hufflepuff in Hogwarts, a History…" She quickly stood up and ran to her room, no doubt in search of said book.

Ron watched her go and said, "If Luna were here, we could ask her about Ravenclaw. I'm sure she would know something."

Harry nodded at Ron's words. According to Bill, Luna had left not long after the trio had. Fleur had wanted her to stay longer but Luna had politely refused. She needed to get back to Hogwarts to help.

"She may be a bit loony, but there's no denying her courage," Bill had said earlier that morning.

Hermione returned before either of them could say anything else.

She had a triumphant smile on her face. "Helga Hufflepuff had a golden cup, one that she valued very much. It doesn't mention much more than that but if it's anything from her house, it's probably that."

"Well, there were loads of golden cups in that vault," said Ron.

Harry shook his head. "If it had been there, I would have felt it." He still couldn't fully explain why he could do that but he chalked it up to this connection he had to Voldemort. If it helped them though, he wasn't about to question it.

He looked at Hermione, ready to ask her another question but stopped at the look on her face. She was looking at him with a frown on her face. "What?"

She jumped slightly. "No, nothing. Just thinking what the other horcruxes might be." She quickly looked away from him and focused on her book again. Harry frowned slightly but let it go.

"There isn't much about Ravenclaw's possessions in here, at least not enough to pinpoint one specific- oh my god!" Hermione looked surprised to say the least. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was agape, and her eyebrows had shot up toward her hair line. She looked at Harry but said nothing, the surprised look never leaving her face.

Harry and Ron cast confused looks at each other before looking at Hermione, who was still paralyzed with shock.

"What? Hermione, what is it?" Harry urgently asked.

"Well, don't just stand there blubbering like a fish! Tell us!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione quickly glared at Ron before saying, "Professor Snape!"

Harry and Ron only looked more confused than before. Hermione huffed. "Oh, honestly! Don't you two remember what Griphook said to us before we left?"

It didn't take long for Harry to catch on to what she was saying. "About Snape taking the real sword?"

Hermione nodded vigorously. "What if that wasn't the only thing he took?"

Harry's mind reeled as Ron said, "Hold on, are you saying that Snape took the horcrux from that vault? That's crazy!"

"Yes, it is, because if that is what happened, then that means that Snape knows about the horcruxes!" She looked at Harry. "He knows Harry!"

Harry shook his head. "But how? Nobody knows about them except us, Dumbledore, and You-Know-Who. How would Snape find out about that?"

Harry felt weak calling Voldemort by his nickname but once things had calmed down Ron had remembered something crucial: Voldemort was using his own name as an attack. He had somehow triggered his name to find anybody who dared speak it aloud. A lot of people had been found that way, but it didn't take long to figure out how Voldemort was doing it. This had shaken Harry more than he thought it would. How many times had that name been on the tip of his tongue when Ron was gone? He couldn't bring himself to think of what would have happened if he had said it.

"Yeah, Snape's brilliant and all but he's not Dumbledore," stated Ron.

"Well, of course not. He couldn't have gotten the information from You-Know-Who. That's information he wouldn't trust anybody with. Giving Bellatrix one of them to protect probably didn't bring much danger; she would never question one of his orders. She probably felt more honored than anything else. It obviously wasn't us and that only leaves one person…" A worried expression settled on her face as she looked at Harry.

Harry couldn't believe it. "Dumbledore? You think Dumbledore told Snape about the horcruxes?"

"Harry, think about it. Dumbledore trusted Snape. There must have been moments during Dumbledore's own search where even he required some help."

Harry shook his head as he stood up. "Yeah, he trusted Snape but I don't think he trusted him enough to tell him about something so dangerous."

"Harry, Snape took the sword out of the vault; that much we know for sure. Then the sword magically appears out of nowhere once we realized what we could use it for. Doesn't that seem too much of a coincidence to you? He took it out of the vault to help us, just like he took the horcrux out. He knows, Harry, I'm sure of it."

"Have you forgotten something, Hermione? Snape killed Dumbledore. He was never on Dumbledore's side! He just pretended until his moment came. So why would he do anything to help us?" Harry could feel the frustration growing in him.

Hermione sensed it too but he needed to hear this. "Dumbledore had a reason for trusting Snape. It's like Ron said: Snape is not as brilliant as Dumbledore. He wasn't an idiot, Harry. Do you think he wouldn't have known if Snape was betraying him?"

Harry glared at her. "I'm not saying he was an idiot but sometimes Dumbledore could be a little too trusting of people."

"Yes, I agree but even Dumbledore must have had his limits."

Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe it; he just couldn't. He had been there when Snape had killed Dumbledore in cold blood. He never saw any remorse in the man's eyes as he stared at the headmaster.

"Hang on a minute. Let's say Snape did take the horcrux out; how would he have know what it was? If Dumbledore told him, he can't have known more than us," said Ron.

"Snape isn't as brilliant as Dumbledore but he is smarter than us, Ron," answered Hermione.

Ron couldn't believe it either. "This is mad! Snape has hated Harry ever since his first day at Hogwarts. Why would he ever help him in anything?"

"I don't have any other answer than to help Dumbledore." She turned to look at Harry. "I know this sounds crazy, Harry. Trust me, I know, but in a weird way, it makes sense."

I saw him kill Dumbledore. I saw him. His mind answered back. Maybe you don't want to believe it because you don't want to have any reason to feel grateful towards him. Hating him is so much easier to you. He frowned.

"Harry?"

He looked up at her. The worried expression had returned. He sighed and said, "I don't know, Hermione."

Silence overtook them then. None of them could believe this turn of events. Hermione felt a little crazy herself for saying it but deep down, she knew it was true. She could only imagine the war being waged in Harry's mind at the moment.

Hesitantly, Ron spoke up, "Well, if this is true, we know our next location then."

Hermione gravely nodded as Harry quietly said, "Hogwarts."

And there it is. So what do you guys think? I'm sure some of you were expecting the break in to Gringotts bank. That's what I had been planning but then this came to me and I went with it instead. Oh and the Voldemort's name thing. I remember that was in the book and I felt like I need to explain why Harry keeps calling Voldemort 'You Know Who'. It felt weird not having an explanation because Harry always uses Voldemort so I just felt like I needed to state it even though most of you probably guessed why. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it.

Thanks for reading :) Reviews are awesome!