Harry hurriedly finished his breakfast at the Burrow kitchen table, hoping to get outside to help Ron and Mr. Weasley construct the tent as soon as possible. He was making an effort to avoid Bill and Fleur as he helped with their wedding preparations. Harry was wracked with guilt over Mad-Eye's death, and wanted to avoid hearing any further details about what had happened that awful night. He felt guilty because not only had Mad-Eye died protecting Harry, Mundungus' panicked flight had left Mad-Eye completely alone as he was attacked by Voldemort and half a dozen Death Eaters.
It occurred to Harry that, while he was often present at the deaths of his close friends, rarely had he been able to act in their defense in the critical moments. Cedric had been struck down before Harry could even react. In the Department of Mysteries, Harry had been busy helping Neville when Bellatrix killed Sirius. And just a few weeks earlier, Harry had been unable to do anything, paralyzed by Dumbledore's Body-Bind Curse, as his confidante and mentor was murdered by Severus Snape in the Astronomy Tower.
All these thoughts tempted Harry to yell in frustration, but he stopped himself when he saw Mrs. Weasley hurriedly helping Ginny prepare food for the wedding. Harry's stomach lurched whenever he saw Ginny these days. He had found it difficult to talk to her since he'd broken up with her at Dumbledore's funeral, and Harry sensed that Ginny thought he was being overprotective. Harry had no doubt that Ginny could protect herself; during D.A. meetings, Ginny's mastery of the defensive spells Harry taught had been surpassed only by Hermione's. But Harry refused to allow Ginny be yet another casualty of Voldemort's endless quest to get to Harry. He knew that if Ginny were killed because of him, that would be a blow he would not be able to recover from.
But as Mad-Eye popped back into Harry's mind, another sickening thought occurred to him. What if Ginny was killed while Harry was gone hunting Horcruxes? Harry hadn't yet given much thought to exactly where the remaining Horcruxes were located, but the remote location of the cave that protected the fake locket made it possible that the other Horcruxes were many miles away from where he sat in Ottery St. Catchpole, perhaps even outside Britain. The possibility of Ginny battling Death Eaters while he was off on this secret mission suddenly struck Harry as unbearable. Perhaps he had been unable to save Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, and Moody, but Harry resolved to himself that Ginny would not meet this same fate.
As Harry watched Ginny place a charm onto an eight-foot tall wedding cake, in his mind there was no alternative: Ginny would have to hunt Horcruxes with him.