"Hermione?"

Hermione folded the letter and quickly shoved it in her pocket. She had read it a thousand times. After Dumbledore's death. After Bill and Fleur's wedding. Going to the ministry. Getting the locket. Even after Ron left.

He hadn't come back yet. She wished he would. She remembered it clearly.

'Oh, remembered me, have you?' he said.

'What?'

Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.

'You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun.'

Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was.

'What's the problem?' asked Harry.

'Problem? There's no problem,' said Ron, still refusing to look at Harry. 'Not according to you, anyway.'

There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.

'Well, you've obviously got a problem,' said Harry. 'Spit it out, will you?'

Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself.

'All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know.'

'I don't know?' repeated Harry. 'I don't know?'

'It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here,' said Ron, 'you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something.'

'Ron,' Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was now beating on the tent.

'I thought you knew what you'd signed up for,' said Harry.

'Yeah, I thought I did too.'

'So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?' asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defence now. 'Did you think we'd be staying in five star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?'

'We thought you knew what you were doing!' shouted Ron, standing up; and his words pierced Harry like scalding knives. 'We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!'

'Ron!' said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.

'Well, sorry to let you down,' said Harry, his voice quite calm even though he felt hollow, inadequate. 'I've been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux –'

'Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them – nowhere effing near, in other words!'

'Take off the locket, Ron,' Hermione said, her voice unusually high. 'Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day.'

'Yeah, he would,' said Harry, who did not want excuses made for Ron. 'D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D'you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?'

'Harry, we weren't –'

'Don't lie!' Ron hurled at her. 'You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than –'

'I didn't say it like that – Harry, I didn't!' she cried.

The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet and cold.

'So why are you still here?' Harry asked Ron. 'Search me,' said Ron.

'Go home then,' said Harry.

'Yeah, maybe I will!' shouted Ron, and he took several steps towards Harry, who did not back away. 'Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happens to her in here, well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff –'

'I was only saying – she was with the others, they were with Hagrid –'

'– yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, "the Weasleys don't need an- other kid injured", did you hear that?'

'Yeah, I –'

'Not bothered what it meant, though?'

'Ron!' said Hermione, forcing her way between them, 'I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scarred, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant –'

'Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you two, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way –'

'My parents are dead!' Harry bellowed.

'And mine could be going the same way!' yelled Ron.

'Then GO!' roared Harry. 'Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and –'

Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.

'Protego!' she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backwards a few steps by the strength of the spell. Harry felt a corrosive hatred towards Ron: something had broken between them.

'Leave the Horcrux,' Harry said.

Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.

'What are you doing?'

'What do you mean?'

'Are you staying, or what?'

'I ...' She looked anguished. 'Yes – yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help –'

'I get it. You choose him.'

'Ron, no – please – come back, come back!'

By the time she had removed her Shield Charm, he had already stormed into the night. Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to her sobbing and calling Ron's name amongst the trees.

After a few minutes she returned, her sopping hair plastered to her face. 'He's g – g – gone! Disapparated!'

She threw herself into a chair, curled up and started to cry.

Hermione turned towards Harry and put on a brave face. She'd had enough. There would be no more crying over Ron or Draco. No more wishing she was somewhere else. With someone else. There was a war. And she was going to fight it.

Whatever it takes.

"Yeah Harry?"

Draco hurried through the manor, trying to get away from the ballroom as fast as he could. The Dark Lord had taken over his house and that room seemed to be his meeting room.

He hurried to his bedroom and opened the door to three of his friends lounging on his bed and the floor.

"What are you three doing here?"

Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott jumped around the sound while Pansy Parkinson just smiled, having already seen him.

"Draco darling, I've missed you! What say we get out of here?"

Draco stared at her in mock-disgust before laughing. "Please Pansy darling. You're a taken women. Blaise would have my head should I leave with you."

Blaise scowled at their conversation before turning serious. "What did he talk about?"

Draco's expression darkened. "My punishment. And my father's. I wish Potter would hurry up and defeat him already."

"Whose side are you on Draco? You're a Death Eater who doesn't want to be one, doesn't kill and wants the Dark Lord dead", said Theo.

Draco sighed. "I don't know Theo. Did you want to be one? Did any of you?"

Blaise, Pansy and Theo had been Marked before the start of school. You-Know-Who had been increasing his ranks, preparing for a fight soon.

All three shook their heads and the room plunged into silence. Pansy was the one who broke.

"Break's almost over and then back to Hogwarts. Are the Carrow's coming back?"

Draco nodded. "Yeah"

"Well then. Time to pack a lot of healing potions"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Hermione turned around suddenly to see a piece of paper like her letter from Draco, in the hands of the Boy Who quickly checked her pocket to find it empty. It was the letter.

"Tell you what?"

It had been a few days since she read the letter but she knew all of it anyway.

"About you and Malfoy?"

Hermione ducked her head, tears threatening to leave her eyes.

"I'm sorry Harry. I'm so sorry. I thought- I thought you might hate me. You remember how Ron was with Krum. Can you imagine if he knew about Draco? I thought you might not be my friends anymore"

"We would never Mione. We love you and clearly Malfoy does too. I can see you like him too. I get it but if he hurts you, it'll be the last thing he ever does"

Hermione laughed. "He won't. Thank you Harry."

"Anything for you, Mione. You're like the sister I never had."

Hermione smiled brightly for the first time in days and hugged her best friend hard. "And you're like the brother I never had"

Harry smiled, then frowned. "Ron's going to be mad when he finds out about this. Be patient with him okay?"