Setting up camp as quickly as possible, Hermione dealt with Harry as he screamed and shouted whilst I set up the border, layering on the defensive spells as our disguises started to wear off. Once the charms and protective spells were cast I then turned, seeing Hermione still struggling with Harry who was still screaming from the tortuous agony he was suffering. Shrugging out of my coat, I gently moved Hermione aside then pressed my wand to Harry's scar to murmur under my breath, easing the pain so that he stopped lashing out wildly until he was more or less asleep, reduced to a hoarse muttering as Hermione then cleaned up his injuries, a bite on his arm, then sponged away the sweat as I rubbed my face. "He knew we'd go there."
"Yes, it seems we walked straight into the trap." Hermione agreed in a quiet whisper, the both of us trembling.
"I'm so sorry, I should have…I should have checked more thoroughly. In fact, I shouldn't have let either of you go in the first place. I should have looked for the bloody sword myself. You could have been killed…"
"But we weren't. We escaped, and now we have to think of something else." Trembling as she was, Hermione was doing her best to remain calm and reasonable. "How did you know something was wrong?" I scoffed slightly, still berating myself for not listening to myself sooner and insisting that we left the first moment something had felt even remotely off.
"Instinct. Though I didn't listen to them at first. I just wanted so much for Harry to catch a break, for something to go to plan, and look where it got us." That's the last time I ignore my instincts. From now on, they were going to be my ultimate guide. As Harry rested, Hermione revealed that she had managed to grab his wand, but it was now broken in two. Harry would be devastated, and when he awoke and explained everything that had happened with Bathilda and the snake upstairs, he then requested it. It was difficult seeing the look of loss in his eye when Hermione handed the two pieces over, barely held together by the phoenix feather inside, and even when she repaired it, the wand was unable to do even the simplest of spells, breaking once more when forced.
Harry was crushed, but did his best to try and hide it, choosing to go and sit outside in order to take the first watch even though there wasn't any need. I didn't know what to say to him to make him feel better, though I could understand how he must feel. If my wand broke, I'd be just as distraught. This wand was my lifeline, almost like a companion. I would feel just as broken were anything to happen to it. I wanted to stay with them longer, but the Order needed me back, and all I could do was promise them that I'd return once I was able, but I didn't know when that would be.
I wanted nothing less than to leave the two of them alone, seemingly so defeated, and when I last looked over my shoulder I saw Harry holding his portable pensieve in his hand, watching and listening to one of the many memories of his parents I had gathered for him. With my heart wrenching itself in my chest, I turned and disapparated out of sight, returning in order to help however I could in fighting back against Voldemort.
Meeting up with dad first, we got to talking in one of our hiding places, catching up with one another, but when I mentioned Voldemort by name, something happened. There was a sharp crack of sound but for the first few moments, I didn't react, because I'd assumed it was Kreacher or Dobby coming to check in with me. Instead, our cave became flooded with wizards calling themselves snatchers, and the moment they recognised who we were, all hell broke loose. "It's the Blacks! Get them! Get them!" Dad was on his feet and had thrown himself in front of me in a heartbeat, blocking the bombardment of spells as I then recovered myself, leaping from my chair with a shout, sending a powerful repelling jinx which flung all of the snatchers out of the cave. "Fawkes! Orion!" Yelling for them as I waved my wand, everything in our cave shrunk and flew into my bag in order to be packed up, Orion being the last to fly in where I then zipped him up carefully as dad continued throwing stunning spells at our attackers.
We got out of there as fast as we could, Fawkes grabbing onto my shoulder as I grasped dad's arm and we escaped in a gush of fire to a different hiding place where I immediately set up new boundaries to keep us safe. "What in Circe's name was that?! How did they find us and break through the barrier? My protections spells were flawless, they shouldn't have been able to apparate inside!"
"I don't know Mia, I don't know. Are you alright? Were you hurt?" Once assured that we were both fine, we tried to puzzle it out, contacting Moody to tell him what had happened, and after gathering some information from my resources in the Ministry, it became known that the name Voldemort was taboo. It made so much sense, and I kicked myself repeatedly for not realising it sooner. Anyone who speaks the name summons snatchers to their location, negating any protective spells around them, leaving them vulnerable for the taking. Snatchers were a recent thing, groups of pure-blood supporters who were looking for easy gold by hunting down muggle-borns and blood-traitors on the run, which now added to our workload as we in turn, hunted them.
Dad and I took particular pleasure in this, taking out entire packs of them by purposefully speaking Voldemort's name and having them come to us only to be taken by surprise and stunned, tying them up before shipping them off to be held whilst their minds were wiped of seeing our faces and kept under lock and key so that they couldn't do anyone any harm. Dad found this practice exhilarating, grinning all the while as we worked together, though my mother disapproved of his encouraging me to act so recklessly.
It was only when term started again that I heard from Kreacher once more, having agreed to limit our correspondences over the holidays as not to become too obvious, where he appeared with a crack and came running to me, sobbing. "Mistress! Mistress! Kreacher has failed in mistress's instructions!" He howled, throwing himself onto my foot and started to hit his head against me though without causing himself pain, because he was still forbidden to hurt himself. "Young Mistress's friend, the Lovegood girl, she has been taken! Kreacher failed to protect her like mistress asked, Kreacher has failed!"
"Kreacher! Please calm down and tell me everything, what have they done with Luna?" Snivelling, Kreacher informed me that his sources confirmed Luna had been taken after returning to platform nine and three quarters in order to go home for the Christmas break, and had not come back to school since. Kreacher was quite inconsolable, believing that he had failed my order to look after my friends so I assured him that I wasn't angry, and that I had only instructed him to look out for them whilst they were at school, so he hadn't failed my orders at all. This eventually comforted him, so I calmly instructed him to go back to Dobby, tell him what had happened, and to see if he could find out where they had taken Luna. If I could find her, I could rescue her.
Making sure that this wasn't given as an order, I also told Kreacher that it was alright if he couldn't find her, that it wouldn't be his fault, and I would keep on searching. Nodding his head, he bowed quickly before disappearing again whilst I took to pacing. Now I was worried for Luna, and my concern for her safety made me fret about Harry and Hermione, so I decided to check in on them. To my surprise, I found Ron there as well. "Ron! How did you get back?"
"With the deluminator Dumbledore left me." He grinned at me, looking a great deal more cheerful than when I'd last seen him. The whole story came pouring out, how Ron had got waylaid by snatchers, escaped, then gone looking for Harry and Hermione again but couldn't find them. It was only on Christmas day he'd heard Hermione's voice coming out of the silver instrument, and he'd clicked it to find an orb of light which helped lead him back to them. Then Harry chimed in, also looking thrilled to have his best friend back, telling me all about the silver doe and the sword of Gryffindor being found at the bottom of a pond whereby he'd jumped in but was almost drowned by the locket pulling him under but Ron had rescued him. It was then left to Ron to destroy the Horcrux after Harry told it to open using Parseltongue.
That wasn't even the end of it, Hermione then moved into view in order to tell me about their visit to Luna's father in order to ask him about the sign he'd worn at the wedding, which turned out to be a symbol to represent the Deathly Hallows. I knew the story after Ron had elaborated on the title, having grown up as a child hearing my mother read it to me before I went to sleep. Hermione was convinced the story was utter nonsense, though Harry disagreed, informing me that his invisibility cloak had to be from the story since it had lasted so long and had been passed down from generation to generation, and he was convinced that Dumbledore had hidden the Resurrection Stone in the golden snitch he'd been left, as the stone had been the same one that had adorned Marvolo's ring.
"Well? What do you think Mia?" He asked me rather hopefully as I mulled it all over.
"You can't possibly think there's any truth to this Mia. It's complete nonsense!" Hermione insisted, but I was leaning towards Harry's side.
"Actually, there are a lot of coincidences which do seem to fit together. Besides Hermione, the three Hallows might not be literal, but they might have a place in history. Three powerful objects passed down through the familial line, it happens a lot. You should see all the House Black heirlooms I have in my vault at Gringotts." I said to her though she huffed indignantly. "You seem to forget that in the magical world, Hermione, pretty much nothing is impossible."
"You can't bring people back from the dead!"
"Probably not, or we just haven't figured out how to do it correctly yet. You never know. I might try and figure it out just to prove you wrong." I joked, making Ron chuckle lightly though he quickly silenced himself as Hermione shot him a look. "Listen, you three just focus on the task at hand. You've destroyed one Horcrux which is excellent, but there are still three more. Keep that sword on hand, and if you see that snake again, make sure to swing for the head." I told them all before promising to find out all I could about Luna and her father and try to rescue them both before I had to get going.
It made me happy to know that the famous trio were back together again, it just didn't seem right with one of them missing. Considering Ron's attitude had a miraculous improvement, I had no doubt that they would pick themselves up and keep on going, whilst I continued to handle things on the outside. Tricky as it was, the knowledge that we were another Horcrux down instilled me with confidence and hope, as we were now one step closer to finishing Voldemort off for good.