A/N Thanks for all the positive support everyone! Also, thanks to the couple of peeps who caught my 'Horcluxy' mistake...hehe...Yeah, I know it's Horcrux, and I probably wouldn't have made that mistake again, but it's good that you caught it anyway and told me, so thanks!
I'm SOOOO sorry for getting this up late, but I had a REALLY bad week and I barely got any computer time and I really didn't feel like writing much.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own NOTHING! Er...Anything...
Chapter 3
The end of the reception was bittersweet. Now, Fleur and Bill could start their lives together and everyone could get out of their hot and uncomfortable clothes. On the down side though, it was the end of Harry and Ginny's night, and the end of Harry's 'normal' life. After this, it would be the hunt for Voldemort.
As the wedding party filed out of the doors first, Fleur's shoe got stuck on a crack in the sidewalk and she fell to the ground. Her sapphire studded tiara flew off her head and landed at Harry's feet.
Fleur starting lashing out at a bewildered Bill about not catching her. Harry frowned. She really had seemed crabby all day. Probably just wedding jitters, he thought. Then, all of a sudden, she came out of her anger and walked over to Harry. Harry bent down to pick it up the tiara and when he touched it, annoyance and hate seemed to fill his body.
"Oh 'Arry! Zank you zo much for zaving 'hat wonderful tiara!" said Fleur's voice and he looked up to find her beaming in front of him. Noticing the thoughtful look on his face, her smile dropped. "Iz there zomething wrong 'Arry?"
Harry scowled and shoved the tiara into her hands. "Wouldn't you like to know!" he told her coldly and began to walk away. Fleur then rounded on him.
"How dare you!" She yelled. "It iz my wedding day! How can you be zo rude?"
Harry gaped at her. Oddly, his anger towards her had left as soon as it had come. "I'm sorry." he stuttered. "I really didn't know what made me do that."
Fleur put her nose in his face. "Do you theenk dat you could somehow have moi? And now you are jealouz because I am married?" she said scathingly.
Harry stared down at the blue crown between her fingertips and then knocked it out of her hands. Before Fleur could bend down and get it, Harry grabbed her shoulders so she stood upright.
Fleur looked at him with wonder and they stared at each other for a long time. Then, slowly, Harry released her and they both looked down at the tiara on the ground.
"I don't think you should wear that anymore, Fleur." Harry said seriously. He took off his tie and wrapped it up, as he had wrapped up a cursed necklace in 6th year. The new Mrs. Weasley looked worried.
"Do you theenk that zat crown haz been causing my rage?"
Harry nodded. "I'm almost certain. However, I don't think it's cursed. When Katie Bell was sent a cursed necklace, she almost died. You've been wearing it all night and you look fine."
He carefully handed it back to her and continued to follow the Weasleys to their Apparation spot. Fleur caught up with Bill and began apologizing for everything. Before Harry Apparated, Fleur handed the tiara back to him.
"You take it, alright 'Arry?" she said. Harry shrugged and nodded, then turned and Apparated.
All he could think about once he was back to the burrow was how odd that jumble of metal and gems actually was.
It's obviously cursed in someway, he thought. But couldn't Muriel have warned her about it? Wouldn't she have known?
He slowly put on his nightclothes, still musing on this. As he and Ron went downstairs to say goodnight, Ron took him out of his reverie.
"Did you see Hermione and me?" he asked excitedly, as they made their was down the staircase to the living room.
"What? Hermione?" Harry grumbled. Then he remembered that he had seen them snogging at one of the tables during the reception. "Yeah, I did. It's about time."
"About time!" Ron snapped. "I'm not like you Harry, I've never had a fighting chance with any of my crushes."
"Of course you didn't have a fighting chance with Lavender." Harry said as he smirked. "There was no way anyone could fight her off you."
"Oh ha ha." Ron replied sarcastically. "Cho neither."
Cho...the named seemed distant to Harry. It seemed like decades ago that he had liked her and looking back on it, he wondered why he had in the first place.
Hermione, Ginny, Charlie, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were all downstairs. Fred and George had gone back to Diagon Ally and Bill and Fleur were spending the night in a hotel for their wedding night. All of the Weasleys and Hermione were dressed for bed.
Ron plopped down in an armchair and Hermione got up cheerfully and sat on the armrest and flung an arm around his shoulders.. Ron stared at her grinning and she smiled back. Then, he boldly pulled her down by the waist so that she fell into his lap and they both began to laugh.
Harry said goodnight to everyone and when he reached Ginny he said "It's still the same night."
She sighed and rolled her eyes playfully. "If you must." she said and he kissed her goodnight.
Ron came up to bed not long after him, and giddily couldn't stop talking about Hermione. Harry didn't even have to tell Ron to be quiet, because he was so tired that he drifted off to sleep totally oblivious of everything around him.
Harry woke up to the wonderful smell of eggs and bacon wafting through the house. As he leaned up in his bed. He put on his glasses and saw Ron's pajamas lying on a heap in the floor.
After getting dressed himself (and putting Ron's pajamas in the hamper), he also went down to breakfast. Strangely though, nobody was in the kitchen.
"Ron?" Harry called out, and Ron came from the living room.
"Oh, hey mate! Have a good sleep?"
"Erm...yeah. What time is it?"
Ron checked the watch that he had gotten for his seventeenth birthday. "Just 'round ten-thirty." Harry gaped at him like a goldfish and shook Ron's shoulders.
"WHY DID YOU LET ME SLEEP IN SO LATE!"
"Well, since when do wake up early?"
"Well, since when do I wake up late?"
"Mum put me up to it, okay!" Ron replied angrily. "She said that you needed your rest because of the Ginny thing and your daft adventures starting, and everything else."
"Is your Auntie Muriel here?" Harry asked hurriedly
"Yes, she went to the hotel to pick up the crown, but since Fleur said you had it-" Ron replied, totally confused.
Harry didn't let his best friend finish the sentence and he ran around the house looking for Muriel.
She was outside with Molly Weasley and they were both admiring the garden. When Harry came dashing towards them, Muriel turned around and gave a short sigh of annoyance.
"Oh, Harry dear!" Mrs. Weasley said, giving him a motherly smile. "Is something wrong?"
Harry shook his head then turned to Muriel. Before he could get a word out though, she took a step towards him and gave him an exasperated look.
"Do you have the tiara, boy?" she asked. Harry glared slightly at being called 'boy' but answered 'yes' very quickly anyhow.
Muriel was impatient. "Well where is it?" she cried.
Harry said, "I'll tell you in a second. But first, you need to tell me where you got it from."
Auntie Muriel rolled her eyes in an 'If I have to' sort of way. "I believe I got it at an auction about...a decade and a half back. I can never remember times. It was bloody expensive as well. 400 galleons if I'm not mistaken."
"Did you ever wear it?"
"Once, when I first got it." she replied tersely. "The only reason I bought it to begin with was because I was getting re-married."
Harry let these words sink in. If it was cursed, she probably wouldn't remember. Also, does the charm only come out at weddings?
"Is that all?" she asked icily. Harry nodded and led the way to Ron's bedroom where he was slept, trailing a few paces in front of her. Before she walked in, he quickly unwrapped the tie from the crown and let it fall to the ground. That's when he noticed it.
In the middle of the tiara, on the back, was etched the letter 'R'. Harry's mind flooded with thoughts at this now. Rowena Ravenclaw? Four items of the four founders…and there are sapphires on it. And if this was a Horcrux, Voldemort's soul would definitely cause someone to be angry.
No! his mind yelled. What about Marvolo's ring? It burnt Dumbledore's hand.
But, he reasoned, Riddle's diary didn't. And Nagini probably doesn't burn everything that she touches either.
The next thought was the most upsetting however. Muriel's coming to take back something that could be a Horcrux.
Harry wished that he knew some kind of replicating charm. But there was someone in particular in the house that most likely did.
He shoved it into a drawer and then walked out of the room just as Muriel was in the doorway. "Well?" she asked.
"Um..." he answered. "It's not in there. But I have some hunches where it is. How about you go wait in the living room and I'll look for it?"
Muriel held up her hands. "Fine, but whatever you do, don't use a Summoning Charm! IT could tear that crown in half…" she warned and trudged down the stairs. As soon as she was in the living room, Harry ran back to the drawer, wrapped up the possible Horcrux again in the tie, and sprinted to Ginny's room.
Unfortunately, Hermione wasn't there. Harry got on the spiral staircase and peered into the living room. Ron and Hermione were sitting on the couch very close to each other, and Muriel was beginning to sit down. Both of his friends looked highly embarrassed and they went into the kitchen without even saying a word to Ron's auntie.
"Pssssst!" Harry hissed. Ron looked up at him from the floor and tapped Hermione on the shoulder to show her. "Come up here!" Harry mouthed and they began to tiptoe up the stairs.
Once all three were back in Ron's room, Harry closed the door and held out the crown. Hermione gasped and reached for it. Harry quickly yanked it away.
"Don't touch it unless you want to yell Ron and me into oblivion." Harry said sternly. "Do you know any charms to make replicas?"
Hermione looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well, there are several Transfiguration spells, but I'm not sure I know one that makes tiaras." She stood up and began pacing the floor. "I knowI've read about them somewhere!"
Ron smirked. "You've read about everything somewhere."
She bopped him on the head lightly and resumed walking the cramped bedroom up and down. Then, a light seemed to glow through her eyes and she grinned. "Hand me something worthless." She instructed Ron.
Ron gestured around the room glumly. "Take your pick."
Hermione's cheeks turned slightly pink and she grabbed a Quidditch action figure from one of his shelves.
"You can't Transfigure Jacob Montgomery! He's the best keeper the Scottish team's ever had!" Ron yelled, outraged.
"Boys…" growled Hermione as she handed Ron the miniature Montgomery and took a pair of maroon socks from under his bed and shoved it in his face. "These?"
Ron smiled. "Much better." He replied, tightening his grip on the player. As Hermione carefully placed the socks and tiara next to each other on the bed, he continued. "I love you and all, Hermione, but if we're gonna make this work, you can't threaten to kill my action figures…"
Hermione threw a shocked and hurt look from over her shoulder, but as she turned back to the spellwork, Harry noticed that she was fighting not to laugh. She then tapped each of the items with her wand, so a bright blue beam came out of each and the beams turned into one at her wand's tip. Holding the wand still she said. "Bimiras!"
The maroon socks then shape-shifted into an exact replica of the may-be-a-Horcrux tiara. Harry took the fake one and held it in his hands, not feeling any surge of anger at all.
"Wrap the real one back up and I'll take this down to Muriel. I don't think she'll even know the difference."
"Harry!" Hermione called, before he walked out. "I'm not sure how long that spell lasts." She said, biting her lip. "Who knows if Muriel will wake up tomorrow and find a pair of Ron's socks?"
"She never looks at it, she'll never know." Harry said simply and carried the 'tiara' back down to Auntie Muriel. Within five minutes, she was off.
Harry sighed in relief as he saw Muriel Apparate and he headed back upstairs to Ron and Hermione. Ron was still gripping Montgomery and Hermione was wrapping up the real crown in her handkerchief.
"Hermione," Harry said, looking her in the eyes, "once again, you're a lifesaver."
"To be your best friend," she replied kindly, "you have to be."
Ron quickly sat next to Hermione and put an arm around her. "Yeah…and uh, you're really pretty too Hermione." He said, giving Harry a suspicious stare.
"Are you sure you haven't been having any more Amortentia?" asked Harry, snorting.
"I wouldn't know." Ron replied, winking at Hermione. She gave him a smile and handed the tiara back to Harry. "I already did the Secret Revealing Charm, but nothing really happened. I think you should talk to a member of the Order to see how to tell if Voldemort's (Ron twitched) soul is in it. You don't want to go thinking you've destroyed all the Horcruxes and go fight him when you really haven't."
"I'm sure it's a Horcrux tho-."
"Harry…" Hermione said sternly, just like she used to do when Harry first started letting Ron copy his homework.
"Fine!" sighed Harry, and he placed the crown in his trunk and shut it. Then, he sunk back on the bed he slept in. "What now?" he asked.
Ron shrugged and dropped his arm from Hermione's shoulders. "I reckon that we should wait for Lupin to come over tonight. Mum's having the whole family, plus Lupin and Tonks over for a special dinner. Celebrating us leaving, Fleur and Bill's wedding, and a belated birthday to you all in one I think."
"Won-Won's right." Hermione agreed and Ron scowled at being called Won-Won. "You should ask Lupin, and maybe Tonks since she's an Auror. They ought to know all about Horcruxes."
Harry nodded let out a deep breath when he looked around in thought. No smell of Amortentia.
"Hey Hermione." He whispered. "Do you smell any more of that love potion in here?"
Hermione and Ron both frowned. "Come to think of it," Hermione replied. "I don't. It probably just wafted out. It's been about three days after, and it's strong smelling stuff."
Harry still looked curious and Ron said." I haven't been brewing it up, and there's none in the room. I already checked."
Both friends looked back at him and Ron continued. "And after tonight, we go to Godric's Hollow, just like you said."
Harry didn't reply, but kept his eyes fixed on his to best friends. Best friends for six whole years. And he had never appreciated how really precious those six years were.
A/N I tried to make up my absence by making a long chapter. If you want me to shorten the chapters, by the way, I will. I could have well split this up into two, but I decided to keep it all in one. After all, the real book will have long chapters. Also, sorry about all the sp/grammar mistakes. I write these fast and I think a lot of them I don't notice. Sorry! Next chapter within the next couple weeks! I can't promise anything, except that I will try to have it up by August 16th:o)