Chapter 37
The Extra Darkness
Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.
It was early Christmas morning, Ron was in Shell Cottage, listening to the radio.
"There was an attack happened in Godric Hollow last evening, a man and a woman were killed in Godric Hollow, they were both Polyjuice Potion disguised middle aged people."
"Their actual identity are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."
Ron gasped, and he could not bear to think what had happened during his fight with Harry and Hermione.
It's not like I am not having the time of my life here, you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside every night, I just hoped, you know, when we have been here around a few weeks, we have achieved something.
These words were the things that he had thought about, right after Hermione had told Harry that the Sword could destroy Horcruxes. He couldn't bring himself to think any further with what Harry had said to him.
I thought you knew what you signed up for.
It was true, indeed, after all, he did promise that he would go with Harry to hunt the Horcruxes, but he only made the promise because he thought that Harry knew what he was doing, and it turned out that Dumbledore didn't left him with any clues on how to destroy a Horcrux.
After he left Harry and Hermione, he had decided to not go back to the Burrow since he didn't want his parents and his siblings to shout at him for leaving his two best friends on such a vital mission like this.
He was relieved that Bill had at least understood what he was thinking, but he didn't know whether Bill would go mad at him and drive him out of the house if he had heard that Harry and Hermione were killed.
He decided to hide his feelings about this.
Breakfast was silent, and it went very quickly.
After Ron went back into his room, he sat down, and he have no idea what to do right now.
The morning passed without anything odd happening, as soon as the clock turned eleven, an owl landed by the window in the living room, carrying the Daily Prophet.
Bill opened the window, and the owl flew in.
Bill detached the Daily Prophet from the owl, and the owl flew away.
As soon as Bill glanced at the Daily Prophet, he gasped when he saw the news that Harry and Hermione were dead.
He didn't know if he should be angry at Ron about this or not, given that Ron had left Harry and Hermione.
"What is it?" Fleur asked Bill.
"Harry and Hermione were both killed," Bill said.
"This is not good news," Fleur said. "Ron had left them."
"Don't know what will my parents think when they hear about this," Bill said.
/Scene Break/
"Oh no!" Arthur said as he received the Daily Prophet.
"What's wrong, Dad?" Fred asked.
"Harry and Hermione were both killed," Arthur answered.
Fred and George gathered around Arthur, and they looked at the contents of the Daily Prophet.
"How come Ron was not mentioned?" asked George.
"Maybe Ron had gone missing or something," Fred answered.
A moment later, Molly arrived into the living room.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Harry and Hermione were both killed by You-Know-Who," Arthur said blankly.
"Harry and Hermione what?" said a voice.
Arthur looked around, and saw Ginny.
"They were killed by You-Know-Who in Godric Hollow, Ginny," Arthur said.
Ginny gasped.
"Tell me that this didn't happen," she said hopefully.
"The Daily Prophet had said that they were disguised as middle aged people when they were killed," Arthur went on.
"What about Ron?" asked Molly.
"His name didn't appear in the prophet," Arthur said.
"How come Ron was not mentioned anywhere in the prophet?" Molly asked. "Ron was supposed to be with Harry and Hermione, right?"
Arthur didn't know how to answer this question, so he shook his head.
"I received a letter from Bill, saying that they didn't want to come back here for Christmas," Molly said.
"And what does this have to do with Ron not being mentioned in the prophet?" asked Fred.
"Both of you have a point. It seems that there is a possibility that Ron may be in Bill's house," Arthur said. "Or else if he was with Harry and Hermione, he would have been mentioned in the prophet too, regardless of what happened to him."
"Why did Ron leave Harry and Hermione then?" Ginny asked with a streak of tears in her eyes.
The Weasleys fell silent.
"I will go to Shell Cottage with George," Fred said.
Molly could not think of a better idea, so she nodded.
Fred and George turned on the spot, and apparated to Shell Cottage.
/Scene Break/
"Fred, George, you both scared the crap out of me," Bill said.
"Is Ron in here?" Fred asked.
Bill nodded.
"Let him come here at once, I want to have a word with him," Fred said.
Bill nodded, and walked into Ron's bedroom.
A moment later, Ron arrived and saw the twins.
"Fred, George, what are you both doing here?" he asked.
"Explain yourself, Ron, what happened? Why did you left Harry and Hermione?" George asked.
"Harry didn't seem to have any plan whatsoever," Ron said.
"Did you start a fight with him?" Fred asked.
"I did," Ron answered. "I cannot tell you what we were doing, but we need to find something to destroy an object."
"What object?" asked Fred.
"A locket," Ron said.
Fred and George both shook their heads.
"What did you need to find to destroy the locket?" George asked.
"The Sword of Gryffindor," Ron replied. "But we were living in a condition of lack of food, and my backside freezes every night."
"We do face problems in our lives, Ron," Fred said. "You decided to go with Harry, right? Now you abandoned him, and he and Hermione ended up on getting killed."
"Don't tell me that it was my fault that Harry and Hermione got killed by You-Know-Who," Ron said.
Fred shook his head again.
"I am not saying that, but it was wrong that you left Harry and Hermione," he said. "Plus that your action had wasted our efforts."
Ron didn't know what else he should say, after all, if the Death Eaters had managed to find him, they would most likely force him to go back to Hogwarts, and if he refuse to go back to Hogwarts, there would be a chance for him to be arrested. He knew that Fred and George had already made efforts to hide him from the Death Eaters, and now, his misstep had made Fred and George's efforts pointless.
There was only one thing he knew that he should say which he thinks may justify his action.
"I wanted to go back to them after I had left, but I ran into a gang of snatchers, and couldn't go anywhere," he said. "I escaped from them successfully, but when I went back to where we had been, Harry and Hermione were gone."
"Fair enough," Fred said. "Except now we have to consider what we should do."
Then he and George disapparated.
/Scene Break/
Ron knew that everything was too late. He was devastated of Harry and Hermione's fate, and he knew that he would also be in trouble from the rest of his family.
He had no idea whether he should reveal anything about what they were doing to his family, but he was not convinced of whether or not they will help him to fulfill the task that Dumbledore had given Harry.
He hoped that he would not see anyone else in his family for the day, especially Ginny, who would end up on blaming him.
He did not know what he should say to Bill, although he was quite relieved that he could still live with them.
Running away would surely not be an option, since it would help no one. As of now, he was the only one who knows about the task that Dumbledore had set for Harry.
The thing that he had feared, however, did happen.
After breakfast on the following day, there was a knock on the door, and Bill went to open it.
It was Molly and Ginny.
"Mum, Ginny, what are you two doing here?" he asked.
Ron knew it was his mother and his little sister who came to visit Shell Cottage, and he desperately wanted to look for a place to hide himself.
Before he could do that, however, Molly and Ginny appeared.
"Ronald Billius Weasley!" Molly shouted. "What do you think you are playing at?"
"What?" Ron asked, and then he regretted saying it, since he knew that they must have heard about Harry and Hermione's death.
Ginny looked at Ron, and a livid expression surfaced on her face.
"You left your two best friends, and they got killed in Godric Hollow!" Molly roared. "Harry never expected you to go with him on this journey, but you insisted, and then you left him!"
"You better think of a reasonable excuse for leaving them, Ron," Ginny said firmly.
Ron sighed. Things had turned out just as he expected a few moments ago.
"Harry didn't know what he was doing," he said. "We found something to destroy, but we have to find ways to destroy it, and we have to find the object that can destroy it."
"Did you guys even make any progress?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, but it was just the object itself, we also had to find the means to destroy it," Ron said. "Anyway, before I left, I asked Hermione whether she stay with Harry or not..."
"And Hermione chose to stay with Harry didn't she?" Ginny interrupted.
"Yes," Ron said. "Then I was in the sensation that she chose Harry instead of me, so I left."
Molly and Ginny both shook their heads.
"Anyway, I wanted to go back after I left them, but I went straight into a gang of snatchers, and I had to talk fast to prevent myself from being dragged into the Ministry," Ron said.
"And how did you escape from them?" Molly asked.
"I told them I was Stan Shunpike, and they had an argument about whether I was Stan or not," Ron said. "There were five of them, and they took my wand. Two of them then got into a fight, and while the others were distracted, I managed to hit the one who hold me in the stomach, grabbed his wand, disarmed the one that held my wand and Disapparated. Then I was heading back to the place where we had been, but they were gone."
Molly and Ginny both fell silent.
"So you think this is a good excuse for us to let you off?" Molly asked.
"What else can I say?" asked Ron.
Molly and Ginny both shook their heads again.
Ron looked at his mother and Ginny hopelessly, and he knew that they wouldn't be happy with him. Thoughts came up from him that his mother and sister had considered that it would be all right for him to be captured by the Death Eaters, and given the choice of either going back to Hogwarts or being sent to Azkaban.
/Scene Break/
Severus Snape had heard about Harry and Hermione's deaths, he wasn't too pleased. As soon as he confided this news with Albus Dumbledore's portrait, Albus sighed.
"Can you tell me how far they had progressed on doing the mission I had given them, Severus?" he asked.
"I wasn't watching them, so no," Snape replied.
"Harry was supposed to die, but if Voldemort killed him, he should be able to come back, since Voldemort took his blood a few years ago, and Lily's protection was inside him, Voldemort had taken a bit of the protection from Harry," Dumbledore said. "In this case, while Voldemort survives, Harry will also be alive."
"I shall have to see whether he came back to life or not," Snape said. "I'll check it with the Dark Lord."
"You can do that, but be careful," Dumbledore said. "Don't tell Voldemort what I told you."
Snape nodded.
Then he walked out of the Headmaster's office.
/Scene Break/
Voldemort, meanwhile, was in Little Hangleton, and he was overjoyed that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were killed.
All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door.
Voldemort went and opened it, and found that it was Snape.
"What do you want from me, Severus?" he asked.
"I just want to check Harry Potter's body, that's all," Snape said.
Voldemort led Snape in, and Snape looked at Harry.
"I'll tell you whether he is dead or not," he said, and he pointed his wand at the fake Harry, and said. "Crucio!"
The fake Harry didn't move, nor did he twitch in pain.
"He's dead," Snape said. "We will meet again later, unless if you want something from me right now."
Voldemort shook his head.
"You may go, Severus, I'll call you when I need you," he said.
Snape walked out of the house, and apparated back to Hogsmeade, then he made his way back to Hogwarts.
As soon as he reached the Headmaster's office, he looked at the Dumbledore in the portrait.
"Did Harry come back to life?" the Dumbledore in the portrait asked.
"No, I've checked with the Dark Lord, Harry Potter is dead now," Snape replied.
"That means he must have chosen to go on," Dumbledore said.
"Does this really matter?" Snape asked.
"It matters," Dumbledore said. "Since I had no idea how far Harry and his friends had progressed on completing the mission I had given them, I don't know if there is any chance for the mission to be completed."
"I do not expect you to give me any information on this," Snape said. "You had made it clear to me about this before."
"I did, but now circumstances change, so I had to let at least you and someone else in Hogwarts know about it," Dumbledore said.
/Scene Break/
Harry and Hermione, meanwhile, were helping to prepare for Christmas dinner.
"This Christmas is going to be wonderful, our first Christmas as a married couple," Hermione said.
The Christmas dinner was ample, there were loads of delicious dishes, and Harry helped himself to potatoes, bacon and egg pie, as well as turkey.
"Have you both thought about what job you want to apply yet?" Sirius asked Harry and Hermione.
"We will see," Harry said.
After dinner, everyone was sitting on the sofa, and they watched the television until nine o'clock, when Harry and Hermione went to Harry's room and they slept together.
/Scene Break/
Ron was in a quandary, he did not know how he would be able to complete the task that Dumbledore had left Harry. Although he knew that the Death Eaters would still believe that he was seriously ill with spattergroit, his two friends had been killed by Voldemort, and even if no one had discovered where he was, it would not be much of a big deal anymore.
As the days passed by, he began to think what he should do as Bill began to shun him, and hardly talk to him anymore. He tried to tell Bill that he wanted to go back to Harry and Hermione as soon as he had left, but Bill told him that while his explanations were reasonable, they don't do any help with ending the war.
Fleur, on the other hand, did not know what to say to Ron, she knew that Ron's family must have already knew what had happened, and she was sure that Ron would be shunned.
She frequently saw Ron threw things in his room, and she could hear him sobbing and weeping, and sometimes when she and Bill were out of the house and came back home later in the day, she could see a good amount of empty Firewhiskey bottles placed beside the rubbish bin. When they entered Ron's room, they could see that Ron was blue in the face, and unconscious, and they both knew that Ron must be drunk. Bill made a potion, and revived Ron from drunkenness.
Bill told Ron that he would no longer purchase anymore Firewhiskeys since he knew that Ron would most likely consume them all.
Ron didn't know what else he should say, he nodded, and he began to think what he should do.
He cried and cried as the last day of December arrived, and it would surely be a sad New Year because of Harry and Hermione's deaths.
He did not know how on the name of Merlin would this war end.
/Scene Break/
Filius Flitwick had talked to Dumbledore's portrait in Snape's office, and he had managed to discover the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and he gave it to Snape.
Right after Snape destroyed the Diadem with the Sword of Gryffindor, he decided to visit Gringotts vault to see if he could find another Horcrux. The only problem he have got, was the fact that the Goblins may not allow him to enter someone else's vault, and he did not know which vault might contain another Horcrux.
He also knew that he had to keep the information that Dumbledore had given him to himself, since it would be a problem if it leaked out to the Death Eaters, it could easily put him in danger.
/Scene Break/
Ron, meanwhile, had managed to get into the Leaky Cauldron, and he got drunk. As soon as he exited the Leaky Cauldron, he got caught by a bunch of Death Eaters who had randomly arrived there and knocked into him, and they revived him, and took him to Malfoy Manor.
End of Chapter