Chapter Five - A Sixth Sense of Direction

Ron had been sitting by the river with his head in his hands for twenty minutes now and Hermione had been silently sitting beside him for every single one of them.

Occasionally she would rub his back in a soothing manner and in the last few seconds she had seemingly forgotten that Harry was sitting a few feet behind them and rested her head on his shoulder and put her arm around him. Harry had been expecting to see more of this sort of thing ever since Dumbledore's funeral but they were being thankfully slow in moving their relationship forward. They hadn't mentioned anything to him about things changing between them so Harry hadn't said anything to them either.

Ron finally lifted his head and looked out at the river.

"I can't stay with you two for this can I?" he said, his voice sounding raw, "I'm a liability."

Hermione looked up at him and tucked a lock of flaming red hair behind his ear.

"Don't say that, we don't know what this sleepwalking thing is really about yet, if it's about anything at all, and you shouldn't go tying yourself up in knots about it until we really know what we're dealing with."

"What we're dealing with," Ron scoffed in a way that made Harry feel a pain in his chest for his friend's inner conflict, "is my fantastic new ability to apparate into homes of Death Eaters and the like in my sleep."

Hermione tried to shush Ron as she resumed rubbing the soothing circles on his back again but Ron needed to let this out, the last twenty minutes of silence had obviously only made things worse.

"I mean what's next Hermione? Do I wake up tomorrow morning in the bath with Bellatrix fucking Lestrange?"

Harry saw Hermione's shoulders suddenly jerking up and down and her head lower, she clamped her hand to her mouth and stifled several squeaks, it was as if she was struggling in vain to suppress a convulsion. Ron looked at her for a moment before turning back to the river and letting out a resigned sigh.

"Oh just let it out will you? You'll burst a blood vessel if you keep that up."

Hermione's hand dropped away from her mouth and her head fell back as she let out a roar of laughter. Harry found himself grinning like an idiot at this unexpected levity.

"It's just such an image to have planted in my mind," Hermione gasped, her voice high pitched and the laughter still nowhere near subsiding, "it's the look I picture her having on her face."

Ron let himself chuckle at that too. He went back to his silent observation of the passing river while Hermione gradually recovered from her fit of the giggles. When she had she shuffled sideways to sit even closer to Ron, and linked her arm through his.

"We'll work something out, anti apparition wards wherever we camp and warning's or restraints to alert us when you're on the move, we'll come up with something don't worry" she sighed.

Ron shook his head.

"It just seems like a lot of hassle for somebody who doesn't really have a hell of a lot to offer Harry on this little quest doesn't it? Why go to all that effort just to include me?"

Harry was about to throw a clump of dirt at the back of Ron's head for saying that when Hermione gave him a well deserved dig in the ribs so he decided to let it go for now.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for being an idiot! You're our best strategist and you're the only one of us that can cook, if you go we'll starve and then stumble into a trap and you know it."

"Ah a trap, I know the sort of thing you mean," Ron said, teasing Hermione but also sounding fairly annoyed with himself at the same time, "that's where the Death Eaters do something to one of Harry Potter's best friends and summon him to the private residence of a secret Death Eater in the middle of the night. That the sort of trap I'm saving you from falling into is it?"

Hermione was looking at Ron as if replaying his little speech back to herself inside her head. She blinked and frowned up at Ron.

"You think Borgin's a secret Death Eater?" she asked.

"I know he is!" Ron snorted, "you should've seen the room I woke up in, it definitely wasn't a guest room I can tell you that, you know if the Death Eaters knew that room existed they'd probably kill him themselves."

Harry sat up at this revelation, so did Hermione, but Ron remained slumped. It was as if he had been so bewildered by waking up on the other side of the country in his grubbiest sweatshirt and boxers that he hadn't really registered the significance of the place he had been given the opportunity to explore.

"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked.

"Well I was looking around for letters or something with an address on so I could find out where I was and I came across this big bundle of receipts and invoices for dodgy transactions over the years."

"How do you mean dodgy? Surely every transaction with Borgin is a dodgy one isn't it?" she frowned.

Ron shifted around on the bank side to face her and Hermione mirrored his movement as he spoke.

"Well there's the borderline stuff that he has on display in his shop and that gets written up in the books he has to show the ministry inspectors whenever they ask to see them but these receipts are for stuff that's either illegal or nicked."

Hermione seemed impressed that Ron had picked up on something anybody else in those circumstances would have just passed over without a second thought.

"How could you tell just from receipts and invoices, they couldn't have mentioned that items were illegally obtained, that's just carelessness for stupidity's sake?"

"Well," Ron leaned forward, "there was a recent one with Mundungus' name on it and it accounted for a hell of a lot of stuff bearing the Black family crest."

Harry's eyes widened, that dirty little thief Mundungus had sold Sirius' stuff to Borgin. He felt his insides boil as Hermione glanced around the bank side, Harry slid down into the shadows before she spotted him, he didn't want them to stop this conversation to spare him having to think of Sirius again.

"So that's where he palmed off all the things he looted from Grimmauld Place?" she asked when she was sure they were alone.

Ron nodded.

"The thing is why would he write all that stuff down and keep records as far back as Hagrid's Hogwarts days? If anyone from the Ministry found any of that stuff Borgin could get life in Azkaban, reason enough to burn it all don't ya think?"

Hermione looked rueful.

"Not if he kept it all for the purposes of doing as many deals as it took to keep him out of Azkaban. He could sell out all kinds of big customers to keep his freedom and he could also do quite a good business in the line of blackmail."

"Sneaky fucker!" Ron said with a shake of the head.

Hermione slapped him on the arm for his language.

"Seriously though, that's quite sharp of old Borgin really. The amount of paperwork I saw there looked like it covered every illicit transaction he's ever made." Ron said, almost seeming impressed with the nasty old codger, "I reckon if someone got their hands on those records they could probably tell you exactly what Death Eater owns what stuff right now."

Hermione saw it as soon as the words left his lips, Harry had bristled with excitement at the same moment, but Ron shook his head and turned his to look back at the river before his head snapped back to Hermione and his eyes widened with the realisation of what he had just said.

"We...he probably...records..." he sputtered.

Hermione's face was alight with the enormous smile that had broken across it.

"You're nearly there Ron, keep going" she beamed.

"A horcrux could've passed through him over the years and he...he's...he would have it written down!" Ron was almost shaking, as he finally understood what he accidentally pieced together.

"And you thought you were no good to us on this mission" Hermione laughed.

Ron's face fell and he put his head back into his hands.

"I can't remember the bastard's address!" he exclaimed with despair, "I read it and I can't remember it."

Hermione pulled his hands away from his face and smiled at him.

"You don't need to remember anything other than what that room looked like Ron. You've been there once and you can go there again and in exactly the same way you got there in the first place."

Ron seemed to understand what she was saying to him and almost let himself smile too.

"I can just apparate back there."

Hermione laughed and nodded before resting her hands on each of Ron's cheeks and forcing him to look her in the eye.

"With me and Harry of course, you can take us side-along apparating with you so we can investigate properly, safety in numbers has worked well enough for the three of us so far hasn't it?"

Ron finally smiled a real smile. Harry was about to appear to them as if he had just shown up so he could join in with this great news, they finally had a place to start looking, when he noticed Hermione moving her face closer to Ron's and he stayed frozen in his spot in the shadows.

"You know what this means don't you Ron?" she said, the excitement that was in her voice now mellowing into a contented sigh as she spoke, "This means it's not inevitable that whoever took you to Borgin's is on Voldemort's side after all. You could have a guardian angel."

"Another one?" Ron asked her, his ears pinking up as he tried to suppress the grin that was creeping upon his lips.

Hermione leaned in and Harry forced his eyes shut. Now he understood what it must have felt like for Ron to see Ginny kissing him all those times. As he lay in the shadows, trying not to listen to any of the sounds his two best friends were making, he wondered if this was the karmic punishment for breaking the sacred rule of friendship.

Thou shalt not snog your best mate's little sister.

The three of them had apparated inside Mr Borgin's secret den, Ron gripping Hermione's arm with one hand and Harry's with the other and the two of them holding their wands in preparation just in case Borgin was home when they showed up.

"Quick," Ron hissed as they saw that the room was empty, "hide just in case somebody heard us arrive."

Harry dove behind a thick dusty curtain while Ron pulled Hermione into what seemed to be a wardrobe as if was full of very old but regal looking robes and closed the door. They held their breaths and waited. Harry fought against sneezing as what felt like a century's worth of dust billowed from the curtain and drifted down on top of his head. He didn't know if Borgin lived alone or if he had a house elf or any family at home who would come investigating a strange sound in this room. That was, of course, assuming that anybody but the three of them and Borgin himself even knew that this room existed at all. The silence seemed to last the duration of the afternoon although it could only have been two or three minutes.

"Ron?" Harry hissed across the room, pulling back the heavy curtain and peering across to the wardrobe Ron and Hermione were hiding inside, there was no response, "Ron!"

The door of the wardrobe opened a crack and Harry saw a shock of red hair poke out as he heard Ron's whispered reply.

"What?"

"I think we're the only one's here."

Harry began to step out from behind the curtain and dust himself down as he spoke and couldn't help but arch his eyebrows as his two friends squeezed out of the wardrobe looking a little flushed. He didn't want to think about what had been going on in that cramped space so looked around the room for some kind of distraction.

"Where are these papers then mate?" he found his voice sounding very business-like and almost like Percy's when he was talking about his beloved Mr Crouch...that was, of course, when Percy was talking to any of them at all.

"Oh yeah," Ron cleared his throat and strode over to a large wooden desk surrounded by about fifty pigeonholes, all full of different paperwork, "it's all here, the stuff I was telling you about I mean, but I never really got around to investigating the rest of this place. I was a bit confused at the time."

Hermione marched over to the desk and sat down with a smile that reminded Harry of the way she would sit down to take a written test during her O.W.L.s and began to speak in a similar manner to the way Harry had just spoken to Ron. Something had definitely been going on in that wardrobe, Harry thought to himself.

"Right well we're going to have to go through every record Borgin ever made as we can't be exactly sure when Voldemort created his first horcrux so this will take some time."

She sounded so efficient that it almost distracted Harry from the flush that hadn't yet dispersed from her cheeks.

"Yeah, well don't forget that we know the locket was bought from Borgin before Voldemort got his hands on it so don't let that transaction distract you when you come across it Hermione" Harry said as he set about emptying the contents of the closest pigeonhole and fanning through the scrolls of parchment and loose papers that were crammed inside.

Ron was stepping over a stack of broken artefacts that looked an awful lot like the stuff the fake Mad-Eye Moody had all over his office throughout the fourth year and crouching down to dust of something large and flat with his sleeve. Harry thought it was a foe glass; Ron seemed to flinch and look behind him before looking back at the object and putting it back down. He stood up and seemed to be shivering, Harry wondered if Ron had seen the face of Voldemort.

"Alright there Ron?" he called over to his white-faced friend.

"Fine," Ron said, almost as if it was a programmed response rather than the truth, "it's just a...saw a spider."

Ron crouched down again and continued to rummage amongst the dark objects that were stacked somewhat precariously in the darkest corner of the room.

Their investigation went on until the sky began to darken outside and Hermione was not longer able to read without a light.

"We don't want to risk it Hermione," Harry warned her as he squinted at the parchment in his hand, a request for a pint of unicorn blood and crow's feathers to be handed over at an agreed meeting place by an anonymous but loyal customer so the scroll said, "if Borgin sees a light on in here he'll hex us into next Tuesday."

"A bond of blood?" Ron's voice seemed to reading something aloud as he held two silver hoops in the palm of his hand.

Hermione spun around in her seat and called over to him urgently.

"I've heard of that, be careful with those Ron, the only witch or wizard capable of breaking the bond is the one whose blood rests on the shackles."

"Don't fret Hermione, it says here they've never been used," Ron examined the two hoops, each about the size of an orange, and called back across the room to her, "maybe we could use..."

"No!" Hermione snapped firmly, "We will not bind you by blood just to stop you sleepwalking Ron."

"It's just an idea" Ron shrugged.

"I said no!" she hissed before turning back to the papers she could no longer read and letting out a growl of frustration, "I'm still only half way through this bloody lot and still nothing."

Harry and Ron shared a glance that expressed the same thought.

Blimey, Hermione swore!

"It's ok Hermione, we can come back tomorrow and finish up..." Harry found himself on the receiving end of her temper now as she turned on him with livid eyes.

"I would've lost my place by then, I have a system Harry and it's not the same as Borgin's. We will have to put everything back exactly the way it was so as not to tip him off that anybody was here in the first place and then come back and start all over again tomorrow and we just don't have time for any of that nonsense Harry, we just don't!"

Harry had backed away as if his stressed-out friend was spitting fire at him with every word.

"Alright, alright, I get you. We can't come back tomorrow and we can't finish up here today."

"No we can't," she said as she turned back to the enormous pile of paperwork in front of her with a determined look on her face, "so we'll take the last of it with us."

Ron's eyes were wide.

"Are you saying we steal it?" he asked, unable to believe that this was goody-goody Hermione Granger speaking those words.

"All of this is illegal anyway, what's Borgin going to do, report his invoices for stolen goods as stolen?"

Harry found himself laughing at this logic and took a step toward her, holding his arms out with his palms up.

"Load me up then and let's get out of here."

Hermione grinned and lifted a stack of papers from the desk and piled them against Harry's chest.

"Yeah, good luck apparating like that mate" Ron snorted from the far side of the room.

"You're doing it too," Hermione said with her hands on her hips.

Ron looked to an amused Harry with a shrug of resignation.

"Would you believe that's her asking nicely?"

Harry nodded.

"Of course, I know her too well."

Ron stumbled over the junk in the corner, which was so poorly lit by this time Harry couldn't see anything other than Ron's pale skin and red hair, and something crashed to the floor and smashed.

"Oh very stealthy Ronald," Hermione huffed as she picked up a stack of papers for him to apparate with.

"I can't bloody help it, it's a mess over here," Ron grumbled as he crossed the room and almost buckled as Hermione thrust his load into his arms before he was prepared for it, "and where exactly are we apparating to may I ask?"

"Back to the cave of course," she said as she gathered the last of the paperwork in her own arms.

Ron groaned at this news and Harry, although he had expected to be spending another night on the uncomfortable rock of the cave floor, met his eyes and gave him a grimace of sympathy.

"Oh not another night in that bloody hole please, my back can't take it," he whined.

"Well you don't exactly sleep there do you? You're up an away after a couple of hours so you've no right to complain."

Harry could see Hermione's face falling as she said the words but she didn't seem able to stop herself. By the time she had completed her sentence she looked as if she had just seen a baby seal getting clubbed to death. Harry turned to Ron but he wasn't there long enough for Harry to read his expression as he disapparated.

"Oh no," Hermione said, he voice sounding small and broken as she disapparated after him.

Harry gripped his bundle of papers as firmly as he could and followed suit.

He set his bundle down beside Hermione who was crouching before the three stacks, trying to assemble them back into some sort of order, with her head down. Harry glanced around the cave. A fire was lit and their backpacks were all there, leaning against the wall of the cave, but Ron was nowhere to be seen.

"Um, where's...?" Harry began.

Hermione sniffed and kept her head down, concentrating on the task at hand.

"Ron's just gone for a walk."

Harry nodded to show he had understood but she didn't see as her hair was hanging forward hiding her face, Harry thought that Hermione wanted to be left alone for the time being and left it at that.

Note to self: the sleepwalking thing is a more sensitive subject than Ron had originally let on.

He didn't know whether he should go out and find Ron or not. One part of him wanted to, he needed to tell him that Hermione didn't mean it and to remind Ron that he had said many a thoughtless thing to her over the years but then there was another part of him that knew what it felt like to need to be alone because of feelings of guilt and frustration. Ron was feeling guilty for worrying them and Harry still hadn't forgotten what he had been saying down at the river bank about his presence on this journey being worthless. Harry hoped that Hermione would find something to help them track down one of the horcruxes, at least then they would be able to show Ron that he had made a valuable contribution other than that of chef so far.

He also wanted Hermione to find some lead in their search for the very same reason she did. They needed to prove that Ron had been led to Borgin's secret room in his sleep by a force that was on their side and that this wasn't another one of Voldermort's tricks.

Harry wouldn't be able to bear it if something more sinister was toying with his best friend. Hermione had to find something in those papers.

She had to.