a/n: Thank you everyone for your continued interest in this story and all of the wonderful reviews you have left me! I hope you enjoy this chapter as we are starting to get right into the hunt for Voldemort's horcruxes.

Chapter 14

Until he'd begun spending time with Daphne, Ron had always imagined his life would be easy. He'd probably have married Hermione, had a couple of kids and gotten a job and a house and lived just like his parents did. He might even have been happy in that life, given that he would know no better. But he had gotten to know Daphne; he'd fallen in love with her, with the way she always looked at him with a cross between exasperation and affection. With the way she could kick his ass and beat him at any of the spell work they were handed. He fell in love with the way she took charge of things, dove straight into a fight and could still smile at him afterward with a suggestive wink.

Most of all he loved her strength. He loved her for being able to ask for help when she needed it and her ability to not let what happened to her break her. She may not have been completely healed from the experience but she was well on her way. She pulled him closer when she needed it and stood on her own when she knew it was necessary. She yelled at him for coddling her and then cried when she thanked him. She visited his mother once, when she needed nothing more than a hug and a warm cup of tea and spent an entire weekend working with the twins in their shop when he couldn't be there and she didn't want to be alone.

He loved her and so he didn't even hesitate, his hand reached for the cup and he had gulped down the first mouthful before he had actually thought the process through. They had no idea what the liquid was but the fact remained the only way to get to the bottom of the basin was to drink its contents.

Afterward he didn't remember much about the experience. He remembered feeling like his body was on fire and numb all at the same time, he thought there might have been screaming but he also thought he might have been the one screaming. It was intense agony and utterly terrifying, the whole time all he could think was that he wanted to die, that he didn't want to drink, that they couldn't make him drink. Then, like a switch had been flipped, he was pleading for Daphne not to stop, to keep feeding him the potion until it was all gone.

It could have been hours or minutes later when the feelings finally lifted and Ron sagged back onto the ground, hands clawing at the sand while he waited for the world to right itself. His throat felt raw and he supposed that answered the question about the screaming. He opened his eyes and looked directly into Daphne's. His head was resting in her lap, her arms wrapped securely around him, her face was as white as a sheet and the hands around him were shaking. Crouched by his side, Astoria was crying, her hands gripping his jeans tightly.

'Did we get it?' he croaked, mouth dry and tongue feeling like he'd swallowed a mouthful of sand.

'Not quite.' Ron may have still been confused and befuddled by the potion but he would never be confused enough not to recognise that Daphne sounded angry. It was always so much easier to identify that emotion in her when it wasn't directed at him. He didn't know what she was angry about and until he sorted himself out he wouldn't be much help to her.

'Help me up.'

Between the three of them they managed to get him righted though he was still a little shaky. Every now and then his body would shudder and his knees would wobble. Two steps was an effort, there was no way he was going to be able to make the journey unaided. Daphne drew one of his arms across her shoulders and hugged him close to her side. Astoria led the way back to the little boat, sending near constant glances back to make sure they were still following and hadn't fallen.

Ron wasn't sure that hunting a Horcrux had been the best initiation into the fight against Voldemort for her but all of their research suggested that enchantments were the biggest protection surrounding the pieces of Voldemort's soul and so far, aside from a little emotional scarring, the research had been spot on.

Though navigating the three into the tiny boat had been a difficult enough experience when they were all stable, it was nearly impossible now that he was all wobbly and unbalanced. Astoria climbed in first, her small frame attempting to hold the boat steady as Ron wobbled on board. Daphne wobbled slightly and her foot landed in the water. She squeaked at the cold, lifting her foot right back out of the water and into the boat.

'There's something in there!' Astoria hissed, pointing in alarm at the spot her sister's foot had just been. They all whipped around making the boat wobble even more but there wasn't anything there. Ron shuddered again and tapped the boat with his wand to speed it across the lake. No sooner had the boat lurched forward did something leap out of the water. It took Ron a shocked moment to realise the thing gripping his arm with a cold and terrible strength was a human hand.

Astoria screamed, jerking away from the water and causing the little boat to wobble. Daphne swore, slashing downward with her wand and severing the hand that gripped Ron. He pulled the severed hand from his wrist with a disgusted grimace and flung it far out over the water.

'What the bloody hell was that?' he demanded, raising his wand and casting lumos in an attempt to see into the dark water. Something lunged toward the light and he fired a spell into the face that emerged.

'Inferri,' Daphne hissed. 'We need fire.'

'Great idea,' Ron muttered sarcastically, 'being that we're in a wooden boat in the middle of a lake.'

Daphne smacked his arm lightly, almost subconsciously, and tapped the boat urgently with her wand. 'Next time the phoenix gets the inferri.'

With the boat travelling even faster it looked like they might make it to the shore but no sooner had Ron had the thought than a dozen bodies pushed up against the underside of the boat, launching them into the water. Astoria shrieked as she hit the water but Ron didn't have the energy for it. The water closed over his head, filled his ears and nose, stinging him with its chill. He dare not open his mouth to cough, eyes darting from side to side in an attempt to locate either of the Greengrass girls or the inferri.

Something grabbed his ankle and then he was being dragged further under the water. He aimed a cutting curse toward his feet but if he hit one of the corpses or not it didn't release its grip. Lungs bursting for air he kicked and thrashed, trying to dislodge the strong grip on his ankle. Something shot passed him, lighting the darkness around him and causing his mouth to open on a yelp. Water rushed in as the bright light charged toward his captor. The sudden release of his ankle coincided with another hand grabbing his wrist. This one was warm and he immediately started kicking, helping the hand to pull him to the surface.

His head broke through and he gulped much needed oxygen, coughing and sputtering to get rid of the water in his lungs. Shaking the water from his ears and eyes he found himself looking up at Astoria, shivering and soaking in the boat, one hand gripping his wrist, the other, holding tight to the side of the boat. Daphne floated next to him, gripping the side of the boat with her wand raised and fire bursting from its tip.

'Move!' Ron barked, tapping his wand against the boat to set it back on its course toward the shore. He kept his eyes moving over the water as the little boat dragged him to shore, all but running out of the water once they were close enough to the shore to stand.

The three of them stood for a moment on the sand, huddled together and more than a little freaked out. Ron's ankle was beginning to hurt and he didn't want to think what it must look like under his boots and jeans. Astoria's right arm was bleeding from five long gashes that Ron didn't need to ask to know came from fingernails. Daphne appeared unharmed but Ron was willing to bet she would have nightmares when they eventually got to bed.

With little point in drying off until they were back on the beach outside the cave, they hurried back along the shore to the doorway hidden in the wall. At least no one had to cut themselves this time, Astoria was bleeding enough for the wall and a quick smudge of her arm was all it took. None of them really wanted to get back in the water but with a small groan of protest Ron led the way back through the waist high salty water. The further away from the cave they got the more his ankle screamed at him in protest and by the time they began to drag themselves out of the water and onto the beach it wouldn't hold his weight anymore.

'We better take the portkey,' Daphne croaked, teeth chattering. 'I don't think either of us are up to carrying you.'

One emergency portkey (a radish necklace that had once belonged to Luna) later and the three were dry and wrapped in blankets in the hospital wing being treated for cold, curses and injury. Whatever had been under the inferri's fingernails was turning Astoria's arm a disturbing shade of grey, Ron's ankle was broken and Daphne had once more torn open the wound on her chest and it was bleeding through her fresh bandages. It was a sad comment on how used to the wound she was that she hadn't even noticed until Madam Pomfrey had dried her off.

'I best see Harry,' Daphne announced, once she was satisfied Ron and her sister were alright and Madam Pomfrey had done all she could for her cursed chest wound. 'He needs to know what we found.'

'What did we find?' asked Ron as he pushed off the bed and tentatively placed his weight on his sore ankle. It had taken a few whispered words of healing to heal the break but it was still tender and he probably shouldn't have been walking on it.

Daphne frowned at him with disapproval but he gave her a winning smile and she relented with a roll of her eyes. Offering him a shoulder to keep him steady and waving goodbye to her sister who looked to be in for a fun night, Daphne led the way out of the hospital wing and toward the ADADA offices.

'It was a fake,' Daphne told him, her pace slow and awkward with her boyfriend hobbling along. Ron made an effort to speed up and hold most of his own weight. 'Someone beat us to it.'

'Someone else is hunting horcruxes?' Ron's disbelief was palpable. It had taken some serious research in some very dark places to find even a hint of a reference to horcruxes; most people wouldn't even speak of them. He couldn't imagine someone else had just stumbled across the information.

'We know someone else is,' Daphne reminded him.

'What? Dumbledore?' Ron was incredulous, 'I don't see that old man getting to the bottom of that basin.'

'No,' Daphne agreed, 'someone else did, someone with the initials R.A.B.'

The ADADA offices were abuzz with activity. Emmy and Abby were putting Stephanie through her paces, teaching her the very difficult art of not dying while facing more than one opponent. Snape, lip curled in distaste, was bent over Luna's desk looking at something that Ron really hoped wasn't a Quibbler article. Thankfully, Luna's enthusiasm seemed to be about some dead language or other because Hermione kept interjecting with words that definitely weren't English and didn't seem to be improving the potions master's mood.

Harry was deep in conversation with a head bobbing in the fireplace, crouched so he was at eye level with the grizzled and scarred face of Mad-Eye Moody. Whatever they were talking about didn't seem like good news and Ron wondered who else had died in the fight. Jesse and Ginny were having just as intense a conversation, talking animatedly and constantly jabbing at locations on the maps on the back wall with angry or frustrated gestures. Daphne helped Ron onto a couch and moved to speak with Harry. She greeted Mad-Eye briefly but once he'd noticed her Harry had no time for his conversation with the Auror.

'We'll talk more later,' he told floating head. 'Tell me,' he spoke to Daphne, words urgent for good news. 'Tell me everything.'

With Ron's help, Daphne told Harry everything, from finally locating the cave and having to use blood magic to get in, to the potion concealing the locket and the fight with the inferri. When she got to the part about having to force Ron to drink the last of the potion she pulled a heavy silver locket from her pocket and held it out to Harry.

'It's a fake,' she repeated. 'Someone else got there first and left a message for Voldemort to find.'

Harry opened the locket carefully and pulled out the small slip of paper folded inside. He read the words three times, trying to look beyond them to the identity of the horcrux thief. 'R.A.B?' he murmured. 'Do we know anyone with the initials R.A.B?'

'Did someone mention my brother?'

Harry whipped around so fast he almost clobbered Daphne with his elbow. His mouth fell open in surprise and relief washed over him letting him breathe easy for the first time in a week. His godfather stood in the middle of the training mat apparently having arrived by portkey in the middle of Stephanie and Abby's practice, they were both lying flat on their backs at his feet. He looked healthy and happy, not like someone who had been missing for a week and feared dead.

He looked really happy.

'Where the hell have you been?' Harry demanded, moving forward to embrace his godfather even while his tone was heavy with anger.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and Harry wasn't sure whether he looked guilty or embarrassed or both. He looked around the room taking in his audience as though unsure he wanted to answer. 'I, er, might have eloped with Ruby?'

Harry blinked. He blinked again. A cushion sailed passed his ear and smacked into Sirius' face. Harry glanced around to see Daphne looking at his godfather with a bemused look on her face. Exasperated, Harry slumped into a chair a silly grin creeping onto his face.

'You didn't?'

'I did,' Sirius admitted, silly grin matching Harry's.

Harry laughed and Ginny bounded up to offer Sirius a hug and some congratulations. Then it seemed everyone (not Snape) wanted to get in on the congratulatory hugs, asking loads of questions about how he had managed to run away with someone elses fiancé and why he hadn't thought to let anyone know.

It was only when Harry was settled opposite his godfather down in the kitchens for a bit of cake and tea to celebrate that Sirius remembered the conversation he'd arrived in the middle of.

'What were you saying about R.A.B?'

Harry filled him in on their locating one of Voldemort's Horcruxes (Sirius whistled his appreciation at Hermione and Remus' research skills and Stephanie's thieving) and how when Daphne and Ron had retrieved it they had discovered someone had placed a fake in its place. He pulled the locket from his pocket and showed Sirius. He took it with a look of interest, opening it and pulling out the piece of parchment.

'Do you know anyone with the initials R.A.B?'

'Yeah,' Sirius replied, his voice strangely quiet. His eyes were glued to the note and Harry noticed his hand shake slightly. 'Regulus Arcturus Black was my brother.'

Stunned, Harry could only stare at his godfather as the newly married man stared at the note, emotion filling his eyes. When he looked up at Harry he had a strange lost expression on his face that Harry hadn't seen since he'd escaped from Azkaban.

'My brother really did die at Voldemort's hand,' Sirius croaked. 'He was trying to stop him.'

Harry knew how much this information meant to Sirius, the knowledge no matter how late it came, that his brother had turned his back on Voldemort and died trying to do the right thing. More and more, light was pushing though the dark history of the Black family and it meant more to Sirius than he would ever admit.

Harry leant across the table to grip Sirius' shoulder. They sat in silence, enjoying the cake and the knowledge that they had taken a very real step today in winning the war against Voldemort.

And Sirius had gotten married. The mere thought blew Harry's mind.