A/N: Hello! Thanks so much for sticking around. I really enjoy hearing what y'all have to say so thanks for dropping me reviews! It may take me a little while, but I do always respond to them. I just have like way too many things going on atm. This girl needs a break asap.

This was one of my favorite chapters to write & I hope you enjoy reading it!

Chapter Four: To the Victor, Go the Spoils

Harry landed, swayed slightly and managed to not spill any of the coffee. Which considering how tired he was, was a certifiably miracle.

He heard a shriek and turned, stepped into hole, almost toppled over into a puddle, and splashed coffee all down his front.

Hermione stood halfway across the clearing. Her face was tear streaked, she held her wand in one hand and a frying pan in the other. She was wearing her pajamas, Ron's rubber boots and Harry's sweater, half of her frizzy hair had fallen out of its bun and stuck up in all directions.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEN!" She dropped the pan in the snow and launched herself at him. Her arms wrapped tightly around his waist as she sobbed into his shoulder. "I thought you had died! How could you do that to me? Harry, what were you thinking! You can't just leave! What if the snatchers had found you-"

She held him tightly and shoved her cold nose into his neck, sniffling slightly. After a moment she stepped back, and glared at him. "Harry James Potter, where on earth have you been," she demanded, sounding very much like Mrs. Weasley.

He smiled sheepishly at her, holding out the still full cup of coffee, "I'm sorry? I brought breakfast."

She narrowed her eyes and looked at the large styrofoam cup held to her. She took it, glared at him, and then took a long sip. She turned on her heel and walked back toward the tent, "Just because you brought me coffee doesn't mean I'm not mad at you any more," she said over her shoulder.

Harry shuffled into the tent after her and dropped the duffle bag. She eyed it pointedly, "Where did that come from?"

"I swear I'll tell you everything, let's just sit down. I've had a really long night."

"And exactly whose fault was that?" she asked, sitting down at the very small wooden table next to the even smaller kitchen.

Harry grinned at her and sat down. He leaned back in the old wooden chair and took a long sip of his coffee. He may have dumped half of it down his front, but at least he hadn't dumped all it down his front. The coffee was strong, bitter and a little burnt. It was the best thing he'd tasted in months.

Hemione pulled one of the huge blueberry muffins out of the white paper bag and pushed it towards him. They sat in silence savoring their breakfast treat for a few minutes before Hermione said, "I think now is good time to tell me where you went last night"

Harry took a bite of his muffin, and mumbled "I uh- I stole a car last night."

"You WHAT?!"

"I apparated to the edge of the forest and into the nearest town," said Harry, chewing slowly, "Then a I found a car parked in one of the drives and did the thing with wires,"

"Did the thing with wires,"

"You know the thing, when you twist the wires the right way and it turns on."

"You hotwired a car. Harry, have you ever even driven a car before?"

"I mean, sure- I guess I did hotwire a car. I have now! I've driven loads. I swear I drove all over Wales last night."

Hermione stared at him, gaping, "I- I don't know what to say," she said.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes. Harry started on the second muffin. This one was banana and chocolate chip. It was even better than the blueberry.

"Okay," said Hermione finally, "I think you need to start again. There's obviously loads you haven't been telling me."

"What do you mean?"

She just looked at him, "You don't know how to hotwire a car. Someone had to teach you. So who taught you? How did they find you and where did that bag come from?"

Harry sighed, he had been hoping he would get away without having to tell her about Bucky. Unfortunately, Hermione was too sharp to get distracted by a muffin. It would have worked with Ron. In that moment, Harry missed Ron more than he could put into words.

"You're right," said Harry, "but it's a really long story."

" I don't doubt it. Most of your stories are. Better get started then. I still want to move the camp before it starts to get dark."

"Do you remember last September when I kept getting headaches?" Harry said.

Hermione nodded, "Right after we got back to school," she said, "you'd get them all the time and then they went away."

"They didn't exactly go away," said Harry, looking down at the table. He started to shred his muffin wrapper.

"What do you mean, didn't exactly go away?"

"Well they weren't actually headaches?"

"Harry," Hermione sounded deadly serious, "If they weren't headaches what were they?"

There was no good way to tell her. Not when he'd been keeping it secret for well over a year. Even if he hadn't been keeping it a secret there was no good way to say: I hear a voice in my head. I swear I'm not crazy. I promise, it's a real person and not a figment of my imagination or Voldemort.

Harry decided the only way to do it was just to do it, and he said all in a rush, "It wasn't headaches, okay. I started hearing things, this mumbling. I thought - I thought I was going crazy or Voldemort was trying to possess me. But I wasn't and he wasn't. It's- just, I can hear this guy, in my head. Sometimes. We talk to each other."

Hermione stared.

"It's not like I can hear him all the time, and I don't think he can hear me at all unless I'm talking to him."

Harry babbled on, "And he doesn't speak English all the time. Well, a lot of the time he speaks Russian and I can't understand Russian. I didn't even know he could speak English until the summer."

"Harry, why didn't you tell anyone? That isn't good! You're not supposed to hear voices! How do you know its- its not some kind of trap?"

The like it was with Sirius went unsaid.

"I mean I didn't at first. It really freaked me out," said Harry, "But it didn't feel like a trap?"

"But why didn't you tell Dumbledore? He could have done something," asked Hermione, she gripped the edge of the table.

The look she was giving him was exactly why he hadn't told anyone. But he wasn't sure if he could tell her that or not. In the end he decided it couldn't hurt.

"I didn't tell anyone because they would look at me exactly how you're looking at me now. Besides, Dumbledore already knew Voldemort could send me visions in my sleep and there was nothing to be done about that. What was he going to do about some foreign mumbling in my head?"

He was quiet for a moment, "I didn't want it to go away. I like it."

"You like it?"

"Last year was awful and it was a kind of nice distraction? We didn't figure out we could talk to each other until after I got back to Dursley's. I figured out he could speak English on the train home and I don't know. I was bored."

"You were bored, so you decided to try and talk to the voice in your head," Hermione said flatly, "How exactly did that go? What does that have to do with you stealing- oh Harry no, don't tell me the voice in your head told you how to steal the car."

"His name is Bucky," said Harry, "he helped me steal the car. He walked me through how to get it to turn on and he made me recite which pedal was the gas pedal and how to put the car in reverse three times before he let me try and drive it."

"Oh Harry," said Hermione.

Harry continued, "I guess I picked a bad car because it had less than a half tank of petrol and we didn't have any muggle money. So he told me about the house he'd stayed at before. He said I could find a bag in the house that would have clothes and muggle cash in it. So I followed his directions and I went to the house and I found the money and I came back here."

"What else was in the bag,"

"Nothing! Just clothes and cash. I found these boots in there too- they made getting back to the car a lot easier. My trainers were wrecked."

"Tell me what else was in the bag. I know when you're lying to me."

Harry looked down at the table. He was quiet for a long moment, he could feel Hermione's steely eyes on his head.

"There were guns in the bag. He told me to leave them behind," he said.

Hermione stood up suddenly, and started to pace around the tent. "I- I can't sit and listen to you any more- I just- well we might as well start packing up the tent," she said.

She thrust an arm full of sweaters towards Harry, "Fold these," she looked angrily at the duffle bag, "you might as well put them in there."

Harry dropped the tangled pile on the table, and started to fold them. Hermione bustled around the tent, avoiding his eyes and hurriedly put things back where they belonged so they would be able to collapse the tent without making a mess.

"You're mad at me," said Harry.

Hermione stopped, her hands full of sleeping bags, she turned to him, and said, "You know what. I am. I am mad at you. I am so unbelievably mad at you I want to scream. But I can't because we're hiding and if I do they'll hear us."

"I know it sounds crazy, I do. But he's not going to hurt us. He just wanted to help me. He only did what I asked."

"Who is he? Why did he know about some house in Wales that had a bag full of money and guns in it? Is he in some kind of gang?"

Harry shook his head, he had pulled the duffle bag onto one of the chairs and started to fill it with the sweaters "not a gang, no. He works for people who are part of some kind of government?"

"That sounded like a question then like an answer. What government did he say he works for?"

Harry really didn't want to answer that. But there really was no way around it. "He doesn't know."

"How can he not know?! He works for them."

"I think there's something wrong with him," Harry said finally, he couldn't meet Hermione's eyes.

"Wrong with him, how?" she asked, voice high and tight.

"He- doesn't remember things very well, and sometimes, well most of the time he doesn't know where he is or how he got there." He looked up, and Hermione looked so worried, he added, "he's getting better though. He knows when he's speaking English now."

"Harry. He's just crazy. You never should have listened to him."

"No-! He's not! He's not just crazy, because that means I am too. And you know I'm not 'mione. They do things to him. He won't tell me, but I know. After he goes quiet, when he comes back, he can't remember things, things we talked about. Even if it was just the day before. It takes a long time before he stops forgetting things. It's not his fault. None of it is his fault."

Hermione met Harry's eyes, and she deflated. "Fine. Okay," she took a very deep breath, "Since you both went to all the trouble to get the car we might as well use it and go to the market. God knows I would love to get some tea, and- and some shampoo, and a cookie."

Harry knew that this wasn't Hermione backing down. It was just she had learned when to pick her battles, and now was not the time. They still had to break down the rest of the camp site and take down the wards before it started to get dark. It got dark early in February.

Even though he knew she would bring it up again, probably when it was least convenient for him. He was glad they were going to stop arguing. He'd only wanted to make things easier for them both.

"Do you think we'll have enough money to last until the end of the week? It would be nice to stock up on a few tinned things,"

Harry pulled the wad of cash out of his coat pocket, "I think we can get a little more than some tea and tins.

"That's a lot of money," she said breathlessly.

"Then we should be able to use it for a long time. I told you it was worth it."

"I don't trust him, Harry," Hermione said later, after they had collapsed the tent and were working together to pack it up as quickly as possible. Harry paused, holding on to one of the tent poles, "You don't have to, you just have to trust me. You do trust me, right?"

She looked up at him, she was sitting on the damp moss, rolling up the tent canvas, "Of course I trust you."

"Then don't worry about it."

It took them almost another hour to finish disassembling their camp, wards included. Once Hermione lowered the final ward, they started walking towards the muggle hiking trail. The car was only about an hour's hike away and since weather was mostly agreeable for a day in February they have decided to just walk.

Apparating meant they would have to tuck the tent and duffle bag into Hermione's expandable beaded handbag, "Next time I have got to take something with a longer strap," she said, fumbling with the delicate gold chain attached to the bag, after stowing away the rest of her books.

The tiny bag was a life saver. It could hold anything and with the powerful featherlight spell Hermione had cast on it in the summer it hardly weighed anything. But the tent was heavy and cumbersome and had a tendency to fall all the way to the bottom making it an absolute nightmare to get back out again.

"Next time-" said Harry, "There isn't going to be a next time. I'm not doing this twice. Someone else can be the savior of the wizard world, thanks."

Hermione laughed and tucked her beaded bag into the pocket of the utility jacket she was wearing. It was about three sizes too big and came almost down to her knees. She had found it in the duffle bag and insisted on putting it on immediately. "Look at all the pockets! I can carry so many things, and it's wind proof- I can fit three sweaters under it."

She was almost as excited about the jacket as she had been about the coffee. The walk to the car passed quickly. They were both in good spirits and were happily taking turns listing all the things they could get from the shops later that evening.

"Hermione, do you know how to drive?" Asked Harry, they could see the trees thinning out ahead of them.

"I mean, my parents taught me," she said, "but I never got round to taking the test. There just wasn't time."

"But you know how,"

"Yeah I suppose I do, why?"

The dirt car park was empty except for the silver Volvo Harry had parked there that morning.

"I was thinking it might be better if you drive us to the shops. I did okay last night, but there weren't any other cars, and I don't know if I'd be able to park it properly."

She sighed, and held out her hand for the keys, " I suppose I can do it then, do you know where we're going?"

"There is no key, I'll show you how to turn it on. Not really, but there's loads of signs. I was able to make my way back here just fine. Isn't Bristol somewhere around here? Maybe we should get out of Wales for a while."

"I don't think that's a good idea. We're far enough away from London and the Ministry people out here won't be looking for us,"

"Yeah but everyone knows we're in the Forest of Dean," said Harry.

"So we got further into Wales," said Hermione matter-of- factly, "We should put a notice me not charm on the car. Just a light one, so no one looks at it too hard and realizes it's stolen."

"Right, into Wales." Harry swung the duffle bag off his shoulder and stuck it in the back seat, Hermione threw the tent on top. They sat in the car with the heat running.

"Oh, the seats are heated! That's lovely."

They both looked at the forest. "If we leave Ron isn't going to be able to find us." Said Harry.

Hermione set her jaw and put the car into drive, "If Ron was going to come back he would have already. We can't wait around for him forever."

Hermione drove for a long time. She was a much better driver than Harry, and he was very glad he wasn't responsible for parking at the Tesco they found. Harry handed Hermione a small pile of folded bills, "We'll get whatever we want yeah- and then next time we'll worry about some kind of budget."

Harry had never been so excited to see a Tesco's before. All he could think about was fresh bread and strawberry preserve and coffee. Even if they had to get instant.

Much later, they had parked the car under a bridge for the night and sat cross legged in the back on a pile of sleeping bags. Hermione was still wearing the utility jacket and a pair of fleece lined tights she had picked up at the shops as well as a pair of very fuzzy socks. The two of them gleefully looked down at their spoils for the evening. Crusty bread, cheese, sliced apple and some cubed ham. It was the nicest dinner they'd had in ages.

"Where do you think we should go from here," asked Harry he cut a very thick slice of cheese and took a big bite.

"Well, I saw a visitors center on the edge of town. We should stop and get a map. Then we can look at the camping areas around Wales. Maybe we can find a hostel in a bigger town and take a real shower."

"What do we do about the Horcruxes?"

"Keep doing what we've been doing? I don't have any more ideas now then I did yesterday. I'm sure we'll think of something. We can't keep camping forever."

He hoped they thought of something soon. He felt like they were running out of time.