C. M. Black: Bones of a Doe

Chapter XIV: On the road

Cassy watched through the bars of her bunk as Harry paced back and forth. She did not know how long he had been doing it, but he had made sixteen laps around the table since she had begun counting not long ago. He would march up to the tent flap, then back again to his bed, then to Cassy and Hermione's bunk-bed, before then stomping away to the far end of the tent. It was not always in that order yet he flitted from place to place with something clearly consuming his thoughts and agitating his movements to the point he cared little if he woke anyone or not.

Faint voices rang outside, their words long and tuneful. A guitar strummed as their words faded out before a second voice joined in again, higher and sweeter than the first. She was too far away to hear the words, one ear pressed against the flat, borrowed pillow.

'Harry?' hissed Hermione's voice from the darkness.

He halted and looked at her for a moment before his head turned towards the tent's entrance once more.

'Is everything okay?' she asked.

'No,' said Harry without hesitation.

'Is there something outside?' Cassy's voice made Hermione audibly jump in the bed beneath hers.

'Can't you hear it?' demanded Harry in a peculiar tone.

'Hear what?' asked Hermione.

'That,' he said.

The walls of the tent rustled at the hands of a soft breeze and a cricket chirped back to another loudly in the night. The hum of the radio had fallen quiet and the music had given way to a murmur of conversation.

'The radio?' guessed Cassy. There were no footsteps or distant howls of the werewolves Cassy had been worried about upon setting up camp.

'Exactly,' he growled.

Now sitting, Cassy peered down at him with narrowed eyes. She wiped away any remaining tiredness and ran a hand through her short hair before she swung her legs over the frame and dropped softly to the floor.

'What's wrong with it?' she asked.

'I don't like it – being able to hear voices like that. It sets my nerves on edge,' he said.

Cassy said nothing. She turned her eyes to Hermione to find the other was already there to meet her gaze.

Harry took a step forward.

'Harry,' said Cassy sharply yet he did not stop. The flaps were quickly thrown open and he stomped onto the sodden soil without reservation. Neville turned with wide eyes, his mouth open to greet them as Cassy and Hermione appeared at the doorway not far behind, however, the words never left his mouth; instead, a squeak rang out followed by a loud curse.

'Give it back,' said Neville, on his feet with his arms outstretched.

Harry had plucked the radio from the ground and swung his arm back as if to hurl it into the distant bushes. Rather than that, he slammed a hand over the dial and silenced it roughly before thrusting it back into Neville's chest.

'What was that for?' snapped Neville.

'Keep it off,' ordered Harry.

'You almost broke it!'

'Good, no one needs to be hearing that shit anyway!'

'Take it off,' demanded Hermione. 'Now.'

In the darkness, very little of Harry's vibrant eyes could be seen. The flickering fire only just touched the glass of his spectacles, it cast a white sheen across the lenses that gave his face a look of dangerous blankness.

A touch of his elbow had him flinch and it was only then, stood so close and looking now with searching eyes, that Cassy saw his face for the first time. A faint sheen of sweat covered his pale, clammy skin and the palm of her hand that was buried in his tousled hair. The back of his head was slick with it, his hair flatter than it had any real right to be for such early hours of the morning.

'Take off the necklace, Harry,' she said, quietly but with an edge that left no room for argument. For a second, he simply stared at her, his whites of his eyes red and the fragile skin beneath heavy with wary shadows. He grunted and dropped the necklace into Hermione's open palm. Then, without a further word, retreated inside and Cassy followed a step behind.

She lit the lamp on the table before she climbed onto Harry's bed and wriggled down next to him in what little room there was with him lying flat on his stomach.

'What was that?' she muttered in his ear.

'I don't know,' he said and turned his head towards her. 'I just woke up – I had this dream, but I can't really remember it and I was so angry. Then I heard the radio and, God, Cassy, it puts me on edge being able to hear other people, for a minute I thought someone was outside and then I just felt this rage at Neville and it wasn't even anything - ' He cut himself short.

'You had a bad dream last night too,' said Cassy softly. 'That necklace, I think it does things. Dark magic effects those around it, it has an alluring nature by default, but what that is is something far worse simply because of the soul contained, part of the darkest Lord in recorded history. I don't think we should be wearing it for long periods of time.'

'I need to go and apologise to Neville,' he said.

'Yes, you do.'

Slytherin's necklace was often strung up on a bedpost most nights or, when Harry felt particularly threatened, in his moleskin pouch Hagrid had brought him for his birthday. They wore it during the day and it was not until Cassy's turn that she felt it. She could feel the metal as it weighed heavily around her neck, the little heart inside the closed locket beating strongly against her own. It was a repulsive sensation, so powerful and out of rhythm with hers but the longer she wore it the more the differences seemed to fade and it was only her continued inspection of the dark piece that kept her mind aware of it at all.

There was a wonderment in the Horcrux that Cassy was reluctant to admit to her friends. It held life, a false life, part of a person's life they had willingly parted with in the search for a chance of a second life, yet it was almost as though that life was its own. The dreams it gave Harry were nothing like anything Cassy had ever witnessed before. They were not visions, not pained and reluctant but angry, raging fits that left his mind seething and his magic pulsing for a fight. Although Cassy had yet to figure out what it did to her, if anything, she was undeniably curious and some parts eager and reluctant all at the same time to discover it.

She concentrated on the thump inside the metal whilst the rain drizzled down outside in an autumn haze. The tent flaps were pulled open and she sat with her knees pulled up in the entryway, woollen gloves on and a small jar of fire Hermione had conjured during her first watch for company. She tapped the Horcrux against the jar just out of curiosity and yet found herself slightly disappointed when the flames did not react although she had really expected no less. The Sneakascope on her other side made no noise. It had not all night and no blurry images of flashed on its cloudy surface. There had been no one in sight since they had set up their camp.

They remained there for several more days before Harry decided it was time for them to leave. Travelling, he said, was the easiest way to keep anyone from finding them, accidentally or not; no one had disagreed with his decision, though he felt the need to defend himself all the same. They moved farther west towards Wales. Neville was more familiar with the area, his mother having grown up not far away and his maternal family having had him to stay numerous times before his days at Hogwarts.

They were nestled in the crook of a valley, towering mountains jutted up from behind dark, full trees. Birds sang in a way they had not near Cassy's home, so flooded of life everywhere they turned. The food options were better there too, more plentiful with various mushrooms and berries and streams of fish and rabbit burrows. It was peaceful and that only made Neville cling to the radio more.

Cassy gagged on a bit of stew. The meat was tough and the vegetables – exactly what they were she did not know for she had not paid the slightest slither of attention to the cooking – were too soft whilst the broth was bitter and hot. Whatever she had held between her teeth gave an alarming pop before flooding her mouth his a cool, thick liquid. She turned quickly half intending to spit it out on the grass.

'Are you alright?' asked Neville.

He sat beside her, spoon in hand.

She waved her hand at him whilst she willed away the watering of her eyes as she swallowed.

'Sorry,' he said. 'I know it's not great, I'm trying to do something I've seen my aunt do but she never told me how - '

'It's fine, Neville,' said Cassy.

'Really? You're a funny colour.'

Her stomach churned.

'I'm fine. It's fine,' she said.

'You ate a fisheye, didn't you?'

'Why were there fish eyes in there, to begin with?' she cried.

'There wasn't supposed to be,' he said quickly. 'I thought I might have dropped one in but then I couldn't find it again - '

'Neville!'

Despite herself, Cassy laughed when Neville threw his head back and chortled at the sight of her horror. She swiped at him and he threw up his hands and insisted he was only joking. He held up a pouch of stone-like berries he had picked from the undergrowth of the river. Cassy curled her nose and demanded he eat one and prove it; when he refused, she was very much determined to make him.

Their laughter brought out Harry and Hermione and the four settled down for dinner inside not long after.

The rain continued to fall as the days continued to pass. What was a week soon turned into six and October was nearing its end; the air cooled further and on some days a thin layer of frost tipped the grass where the due drops used to lie. The beautiful orange and red leaves had all fallen from the trees, the branches then bare and the crisp colours trodden into the undergrowth to become sullied and invisible beneath layers of dirt and rain.

Each day they would try to destroy the Horcrux, but nothing ever happened. Sometimes, the barest of scratches may have tainted the gold surface but it would soon heal to look as perfect as before.

'Why would Dumbledore not tell us how to destroy it?' asked Neville. It was a question they had all posed at one time or another.

'We need to break the container beyond magical repair, right? So, if we...' Harry trailed off and shot a spell at the locket that was half-submerged by the decaying leaves. He shot another and another but again the dents simply popped out. 'Any ideas yet?'

'Don't say it like that. I'm trying,' said Cassy sternly.

'You've just been looking at that necklace all day,' returned Harry.

Cassy scowled at him before she returned to rearranging the tiny scribbles she had drawn out into some semblance of a code. As much as she had researched the meanings of the symbols, nothing had made sense to her yet. She was certain they had to mean something; after all, Dumbledore would not have handed her something that bore no importance to their quest.

Harry sighed loudly.

'Stop letting your temper get the better of you, you only feel worse for what you say,' she said.

As soon as Harry turned on his heel towards Cassy, Neville scrambled up and disappeared inside the tent with a jumbled excuse.

'I haven't said anything wrong, though, have I?' he challenged. 'You've not been putting much effort into helping so far.'

Cassy paused for a second. Then, she continued to draw.

'Oh, good. There you go pretending you're back in a world where time stands still for your little hobbies.'

'Feeling vicious today, are we? I would normally tell you to take the necklace off but this is all you,' she said with a far-away tone that suggested to Harry that she really felt she had better things to do.

He barred his teeth and she barred hers back.

'For your information, not that I'm sure you deserve to be privy to it, I have been trying to figure this necklace out, yes, but I have also been looking for clues as to where my father might be. I have been looking for news of potential Order activities to see if my cousin is alive, if her husband returned to her or gallivanted off on a self-decided pilgrimage. I have been trying to figure out a way to contact the Weasleys to see how they do and how my grandparents are fairing now they are shoved away in a little house so far from everything they have ever know simply due to their misfortune of being related to me.' A haughty tone overtook her voice. 'However, yes, I have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the Horcrux, but unless you happen to have a Basilisk fang with you, then I suggest you turn to finding the others like the rest of us have.'

Cassy stood swiftly and strode into the tent without another word. The tent flap closed but did not quite quell the whispers that flowed from within; the exact words eluded him but the urgent and secretive tone did not.

It was hardly the first time he had heard quiet voices, voices that fell silent when he passed or changed topics to blatantly that it only made that hand of paranoia cling to his sleeve that little bit firmer. He had asked Cassy about it once and only once, for the mere notion that they all held doubt in him was shot down without being allowed a moment to ruminate. It was not quite convincing, though he knew Cassy had not lied to him. They might not openly doubt him, his abilities or his quest, but there was something growing between the four of them.

So, he had asked Hermione. When the question was asked, she did not respond immediately as Cassy did and Harry knew then that he had been right; there was a problem.

'It's not that we don't trust you, Harry,' she had told him tentatively, 'it's just that – it's just we thought you'd have more of a plan.'

Cassy had told him once that Dumbledore had allowed him to tell them this grand secret for a reason, yet with the way they whispered and their stagnation of ideas, he began to think otherwise. Dumbledore had left them with nothing.

Their travels continued in much the same way, an argument between silences and laughter. Neither Cassy nor Harry quite managed to apologise for their words. It was a relief to Neville and Hermione that they both had the same method of dealing with their frustrations and would often isolate themselves at random intervals with little to no warning. Harry had always been so open with his emotions, unable to contain them through years of being blamed and punished no matter what he did by his relatives, he had simply not developed the ability to be a coherent liar and, for the most part, had very much given up trying. He had always been more likely to say what he felt, but when it came to Cassy he had always attempted to be more tactful, whether not to upset her or simply because he knew she would give as good as he did if he struck the wrong nerve. So, more often than not, he sulked somewhere within sight of the tent until someone went to collect him and had taken to doing the same with Cassy.

The end of October brought difficulties. Harry could see the permanent frown that marred her pale face from dawn until dusk and even then she looked restless as she slept. He had laid next to her that night, curled around her and she relaxed into his embrace and slept still for the first time all week. She had awoken with complaints on her lips of a numb arm from lying in one position all night, though Harry had blamed that on her unnatural need to roll about so much all the time; he often had to lay an arm across her to get get to stay still but once she had acclimatised to the new, additional weight she then began to shift again unless he put his hand directly over her face but she was never very impressed when she awoke to that.

She turned to him, her face an inch from his own. Her eyes softened from their narrow stare at his exclamation of her sleeping habits. Her hand tugged gently on the loose sleeve of his sleep attire.

'I am sorry, you know,' she whispered, her words almost lost in the darkness of the early morning, 'for making you feel like I'm not supporting you. I'm struggling more than I should be.'

'No, you're not,' he murmured back immediately. 'You're holding it together as always and I'm the one adding pressure.'

'I didn't want to add more pressure to you by talking about it,' admitted Cassy, 'especially not when I didn't know how I felt about it all at the beginning.'

They lay in silence and listened to the faint whistle of the wind through the trees outside.

'I love you,' she muttered against his lips.

'I love you, too,' he returned. 'I didn't mean what I said. I'm just so angry, all the time. I have nothing to show for this entire stupid journey and I have no idea where to go or what to do.'

'We'll figure it out.'

If Neville or Hermione had heard their hushed conversation from their perch outside the tent, neither mentioned it.

It was a week later, a week of no progress and a week further confined to just the four's unending company of one another, that Hermione trudged across the uneven rock towards Harry with her little storybook in hand.

'Cassy trying to teach Neville how to foxtrot to the radio. She's really keen,' said Hermione without a greeting. She sat on the ledge beside him and curled her toes into her trainers at the harsh wind at the cliff face.

Harry did not grin as she had expected. His lips quirked with a small, lopsided twitch.

'It's Sirius' birthday,' he told her.

'Oh.' Hermione grimaced.

'Was there something you needed?'

Hermione stopped fiddling with the small tear in the corner of the book's cover.

'I think I know why we were left the sword,' she announced with a hopeful smile, tone forcefully upbeat.

'Really?'

'In second year, you stabbed the Basilisk with it,' she said.

Harry was quiet for a moment before his eyes lit up wildly. 'The venom! Cassy said – the venom from the fang destroyed the diary, so - '

'The sword should be impregnated with venom too,' continued Hermione excitedly.

'Brilliant. Hermione, you're brilliant.'

She flushed and began to ramble, although Harry was hardly listening to her words anymore. All of his thoughts kept screaming in joy; they had a way to get rid of the Horcruxes. Dumbledore had left them a way to destroy them, he just could not state it in his will. He had left them clues after all.

He sobered suddenly.

'But, Hermione, Scrimgeour sad the sword is still at Hogwarts,' he said.

The smile slid off Hermione's face too. 'I know. Snape probably knows what it's for, as well. There is no way it's leaving his sight.'

'I think there'll be a Horcrux there too,' he said, thoughtful and determined. 'Voldemort always - '

There was a roar of noise. The gentle whistle of wind spun angrily around them, deafening them to all but the sound of low, echoing cracks. Harry had only a second to turn his head before a blur of a wand crossed his vision and then it was gone, his eyesight blurred beyond comprehension as Hermione ripped his glasses from his face. The flesh of his brow began to swell, encroached down into his eye-line and further masked the distorted figures that now stood tall only a few feet away.

There was a far-off shout and a flash of colourful light.

'Go! Go now!'

Harry immediately began to struggle from Hermione's vice-like grip on his arm.

Cassy.

Short chapter, but left it on a nice little cliffhanger for you!

I had this edited and saved for ages to be published but I kept forgetting. I'm working and now doing a course while applying for another course, so it's not been on the top of the to-do list. The next chapter shouldn't be so long, because Christmas is coming and that means time to write!

Thank-you to everyone who has reviewed. As always, it means a lot.

Thanks!