You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

-George Lucas

"EXPULSO!"

The locket shot into the air and fell back to the ground with a dull thump. Hermione tutted and looked through the spell book she was holding, biting down on her lip. They were still at Hermione's parents house. The protective enchantments actually seemed to be working and no one had bothered them. Not even Death Eaters, and Lydia was convinced that there were probably some patrolling the area. She and Ron were sat on the decking in the back garden, watching Harry and Hermione try to destroy the locket. Lydia didn't think that they would get very far, but it made them feel like they were doing something.

Ron had been in a bad mood since they had come back from the Ministry. His arm still hadn't healed properly and, with it being his wand arm, he hadn't been able to do much. The Horcrux hadn't been helping, either. After going through so much to get the locket, the four of them were terrified of losing it and wore it in shifts. It seemed to affect everyone differently; Ron sunk into an even worse mood when he was wearing it, Harry and Hermione became very weak and tired and Lydia didn't feel too different, which worried it her. There was no denying that she was unhappier when she was wearing it, and she found it harder to do magic, but it didn't affect her in the same way as it did the others.

"Do you think it's weird?" Lydia had asked Harry one evening, "that it doesn't bother me so much?"

"I don't know, it's probably because you're already so much of a twat already," He shrugged.

There was another explosion and Lydia jumped. Both Harry and Hermione had tried to blow the Horcrux up at the same time to no success. Lydia related her and on her chin as she watched them. Part of her wanted to tell them to give up, but she knew that they had to try, despite how arduous the process was becoming. Ron kept on prodding an old beat up radio with his wand, and muttering under his breath. It took everything in Lydia to not stun him.

"Have you tried confringo?" Lydia asked, "or Incendio?"

"Incendio!" Hermione cried.

Fire curled around the locket but then sputtered and died. Hermione sighed and returned to her book. Harry was still trying to destroy the Horcrux. Lydia tried to shout for him to stop, but gave up when she realised that he would sooner destroy the Horcrux than actually listen to her. She wondered why Dumbledore had never actually told them how to destroy the Horcruxes. He had left them with little to no instructions and the thing that they had to do wasn't exactly easy. It was the exact opposite of easy, actually, Lydia thought as Harry waved his wand over and over again.

They lasted at Hermione's house exactly a week. One morning, Harry had shook them all awake, shouting about Death Eaters on the street. Lydia leapt from where she was sleeping on the couch and peeked through the curtains. Two Death Eaters were stood on the other side of the street, looking quite bored.

"Do you think we need to leave?" Lydia asked.

"Not yet," Hermione said, running a hand through her hair, "We can stay a while. The enchantments will keep them out for now. Besides, we can't go anywhere yet," she glanced at Ron who sat at the kitchen table, looking over a chess board.

"How are we going to get out to get food?" Harry asked.

"We'll just have to use the Invisibility Cloak," Lydia said, "And try and get as much as we can. That way we hopefully won't have to go out again,"

"Are we ever going to go out again?" Ron asked moodily, "or are we going to spend the rest of our lives in this damn house?"

Harry opened his house to retaliate but Hermione put her hand on his arm and shook her head, "Don't start arguing. He's struggling,"

"Yeah, and the rest of us are doing just fine," Harry snapped, storming from the room and slamming the back door behind him.

Ron looked quite satisfied with himself and turned back to his chess board. Hermione shook her head and tightly shut the curtains. Lydia sighed and followed Harry out into the back garden. She found him sat on the decking, staring directly ahead of him. She sat down next to him in silence. If he realised that she was there, he didn't look over and acknowledge her.

Lydia didn't try and say anything to him, and instead just rested her head on his shoulder. They didn't have to say anything to each other, because they both knew exactly what the other was thinking. Maybe it was a twin thing, maybe they were both just equally depressed about how depressing their lives really were. Lydia knew that he was grappling with the feelings he felt for both Ginny and Draco, and though she would never say it to him, Lydia was quite sure that whatever Harry felt for Draco was more genuine for whatever he felt for Ginny.

She knew how unhappy he had been in sixth year, and she still kicked herself for not being there for him, but in the weeks when he and Draco were together, she could see how happy he was. There was a light in his eyes that she hadn't seen for years and, on the rare occasion that she was in the Great Hall, his roaring laughter was the loudest noise of all. And that had all disappeared when he and Draco had broken up.

In fifth year, or even fourth year, he and Ginny might have been the perfect couple, but now, they were the direct antithesis of whatever the perfect couple was. They were too different, too distant and were at completely different points in their lives. Ginny had her entire life ahead of her. Harry could only have a matter of months, and Lydia felt like Draco would understand that better. Not that it mattered anymore, anyway.

Really, Lydia would love nothing more than to tell Harry all of this, but they really weren't in the correct situation to do so. Lydia wouldn't even let herself think about George, because when she did, she felt her heart become heavy again and her mind would wander to places that she didn't want it to. What would he do if she died? Who he find someone else? That's what she would want him to do, she would hate the thought of him being alone for the rest of his life. But, deep down, her mind roared with jealousy at the thought of some other girl being with George...of him buying flowers for her and knowing exactly what to say to make her laugh when she was sad.

Even worse, she thought about what would happen if he died. The fact that she was only seventeen didn't escape her, but she couldn't imagine being with someone who wasn't George. She couldn't imagine waking up in the morning and thinking about going on a date with someone else, walking down the street a hand in hand with someone else or having someone else sliding a not quite engagement ring onto her finger.

Then, of course, there was the paralysing thought of leaving Harry behind. There was no denying that her brother was clever and more than capable of looking after himself, but she often thought about that one time in second year when he and Ron had gone into the Forbidden Forest for the first time without her and Hermione and they had nearly gotten killed by Acromantula. And then, of course, there was the time in third year when he managed to transfigure his right arm into a cactus trying to jinx Crabbe. The memory still brought tears of laughter to Ron and Hermione's eyes.

Lydia hated the thought of not being there for Ron or Hermione. Ron had been Harry and Lydia's first friend in the Wizarding World and had been one of the quickest Gryffindors to accept her despite the Slytherin thing. And as much as she loved Harry and Ron, and as much as she knew Hermione loved Harry and Ron, her and Hermione often found solace in each other when Harry and Ron got too much for them to handle. The two of them had very quickly learned that time alone with each other was the best remedy when Harry and Ron were being so...male.

"What do you think dad would tell us to do if he were here now?" Harry asked, finally breaking the silence.

Lydia sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"He'd probably tell us to stick together," she said.

"Because that's all we have, isn't it? Each other,"

Lydia nodded, "Yeah. That's all we have," she sighed, "have you realised that it's probably just going to come down to me and you? That there's going to be times when even Ron and Hermione can't help?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. It's just going to me and you against him. As always,"

Lydia bit down on her lip to stop herself from crying. Just behind them, she could hear Ron still prodding the radio and muttering under her breath. She had no idea what she was doing, but Hermione kept on telling them to lay off him because he was injured. She didn't know about Harry's morals, but Lydia was more than happy to jinx anyone, regardless of how injured they were.

"What is he doing?" Harry muttered, looking behind them at the house.

"My head in," Lydia said, "or maybe his own head in. I don't know," She looked up at her brother, "We'll manage it, you know. We'll kill him, somehow,"

"I know," he said quietly, "I know,"

Back inside, Hermione was still pouring over all her books.

"What do you think he could have chosen from Gryffindor?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Harry shrugged.

"Hey, you don't think that it could be the sword, could you? Why else would Dumbledore leave it me?" Lydia asked eagerly.

Hermione bit her lip.

"Maybe...but I don't know why he didn't just destroy it whilst he had it..." said Hermione, "He already destroyed the ring, didn't he - oh my god,"

"What?" Harry asked.

"Basilisk fangs!" Hermione exclaimed, "That's what Harry destroyed the diary with!"

"Sometimes I feel like we all forget that I killed a massive snake when we talk about the Chamber of Secrets. I was only twelve, you know," muttered Lydia, "Nearly died I did, but sure, Harry stabbed a diary,"

Hermione waved her down. Lydia rolled her eyes and dropped down onto the couch as Hermione paced up and down the living room, wringing her hands together. Harry watched her go, not saying anything. Lydia felt as though all they ever did was hit brick wall after brick wall and Ron was doing nothing to help them. If it weren't the fact that he actually needed it, Lydia would have happily snapped his wand in half it meant that he stopped poking that damn radio.

"Where are we going to get basilisk fangs from?" Harry asked, "They aren't exactly easy to come by...I doubt they'd even be on the black market. There's only one Basilisk in Britain and its in Hogwarts,"

"Friendly reminder that I killed-"

"Maybe we'll have to go back to Hogwarts," Hermione said, interrupting Lydia. "Though, at this point, it could be suicide,"

"At this point, anything we do is suicide," Lydia pointed out, "Can I remind you all that there's a massive group of Death Eaters outside?"

"There's no way we would be able to get into Hogwarts, anyway," Harry said, "Now that Snape is Headmaster, Voldemort-"

"Don't say the name!" Ron said.

"What?" Harry said exasperatedly.

"It feels wrong to say it. It's like...disrespectful to say it-"

"Disrespectful? Ron, he killed my-"

"Never mind, Harry, just don't say it," Hermione said quickly.

"Fine," Harry said, "Now that Snape is Headmaster, You-Know-Who will have full control of the school. I imagine he will have closed up all the secret entrances. He would have managed to find them all out,"

"What about the Vanishing Cabinets?" Lydia suggested, "It goes straight to the Room of Requirement, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but Malfoy knows about that, doesn't he?" Hermione said, "We'd get found out. It's not like we're best friends with him, is it?"

They spoke about every possible way to get into Hogwarts, but each suggesting seemed more ridiculous than the last. Dumbledore had put a million and one protective enchantments on Hogwarts the previous year, and Lydia was certain that Voldemort would have used the Dark Arts to his advantage and put more on that they could never take down. They entertained the idea of trying to contact Neville, Ginny or Luna for all of three seconds, until they remembered that the post would definitely be being checked. They still had the DA Galleons, but they would only display the time and date of a meeting.

"We definitely should have taken a leaf out of dads book and become an Animagus," Harry muttered as midnight neared, "I bet we'd have been able to sneak in then,"

"No, we wouldn't," Hermione said, "You're Animagus form is usually the same as your patronus. You two would have been recognised immediately. Me and Ron on the other hand..."

"Ah, yes, a Jack Russell and an Otter, something you see everyday at Hogwarts," Lydia said.

"To be fair, it's not the weirdest thing that someone could see at Hogwarts," Hermione reasoned, "Not that that matters, anyway. We can't go back to Hogwarts. It's too silly. We must think about something else-"

There were two knocks on the front door and everyone became very still. Harry dropped to the floor and crawled over to the window, looking out onto the drive. He swore and dropped back down the floor, and turned back around to them, his eyes wide.

"I don't want to freak anyone out, but there is a Death Eater knocking on the door," Harry whispered.

"Is he delivering Pizza?" Lydia asked.

"Obviously not," Harry said, "why in the name of Merlin would he be delivering pizza?"

"I don't-"

"BOMBARDA!"

Hermione screamed. Lydia dived across the room towards Ron and dragged him up, shoving him towards the back door. Harry waved his wand and all their belongings flew back into Hermione's bag. The door to the living room burst open and two Death Eaters barged in. Lydia flicked her wand and the couch flew towards them, catching them both in the stomach.

Not waiting to see if they were coming after them, they ran out into the back garden and jumped over the back wall. Once they were out of the range of their protective enchantments, Hermione grabbed them all and they Apparated away. Lydia got a brief glimpse of another Death Eater and then they were stood in the middle of a field, alone again.

"Is your arm OK, Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," he mumbled, though Lydia thought he looked a bit pale.

"Lydia, put the tent up, would you?" Hermione said, throwing the beaded bag at her, "I'll put these enchantments up,"

"The tent?" Harry asked, frowning.

"It's in the bag,"

"It's in the-"

"Accio tent,"

The tent that the boys had stayed in at the Quidditch World Cup zoomed out of the bag and landed at Harry's feet, who was staring at it open mouthed. Lydia flicked her wand at it and it sprang up, settling itself into the ground. Ron lead the way in as Hermione moved around them, muttering the protective enchantments.

They only lasted here two days, moving again to the outskirts of a small market town where they lasted just one after Harry encountered some Dementor. So they moved again.

And again.

And again.

It wasn't ideal. Not being able to stay in one place meant that they couldn't plan anything. Ron was becoming moodier and moodier, and Lydia didn't miss the whispered conversations he had with Hermione about how they knew nothing, how Dumbledore had told Harry nothing. And Lydia agreed with them, but she never said anything. The only way they were going to do this, if that she and Harry stayed on the same team. They could do anything if they were on the same team, their past proved that.

And it wasn't as though Harry wasn't trying to find the Horcruxes. They visited a village that Voldemort had reportedly lived in for a while, but found nothing. They went to the village where Tom Riddle had killed his family, but found nothing and even went as far as going to the orphanage where had been brought up, but found that it had been knocked down and replaced with offices.

Hermione suggested that they dig around in the foundations but Harry shook his head.

"If it were here, I would be able to feel it,"

The one place that kept on cropping up in their long discussions was Hogwarts. It made sense to Lydia that Voldemort would leave a Horcrux there. That had, after all, been his first home and the first place he had felt genuine happiness, if he could feel such an emotion. But, as Hermione kept on pointing out, there was no way they would ever be able to go back. Lydia didn't like to think about the fact that one of the Horcruxes could be there because it would be practically impossible for them to get it. She kept on wondering if Voldemort somehow knew that they were looking for Horcruxes and had purposely hidden one of them somewhere he knew they would never be able to get to.

"The other Horcruxes don't matter if we can't find a way to kill this one," Ron kept on unhelpfully pointing out.

"There must be something I'm missing," Hermione kept on saying over and over again.

"I know what I'm missing," Lydia muttered, "my will to live,"