Chapter Seventeen - Strangers In The Night
With two cracks Harry and Hermione apparated beside a lock keeper's cottage in Llangynidr, a Welsh village near the town of Abergavenny, and rushed for cover in some nearby bushes. Harry took in his surroundings; anxiously searching for anybody who might have seen them appearing out of thin air at the canal side, and relaxed when he saw that there was nobody around. Hermione let go of her tension too, her body loosening up and her emotions pouring out, as she burst into tears beside him.
It had been an emotional farewell at the Burrow. She had been torn between accompanying Harry and staying behind with Ron. They had both insisted that she choose the other and she had become something of a wreck. After talking to Ron for quite some time she made the decision to go on with the mission with Harry, a decision which pained her more than Harry wanted to know, and she put the hoop on his arm and told him he would be restricted to the Burrow until she came back to him. They had hugged, she had told him she knew how much of a struggle it was for him to allow that level of physical contact and that she was proud of him for keeping his positive attitude, but Harry had seen how reluctant she had been to let Ron go and hadn't been able to watch any longer.
He felt just as guilty as she did, they had done what they both promised him they would never do, they had left him behind. To make matters worse, they had left him behind to face the next awful night alone. Well he wasn't going to be alone, his parents would be there for him and Harry knew that Fred and George would take it in turns to watch him overnight, but he would be without them. Harry had vowed never to let Ron out of his sight after that night he woke in the Black grave and here he was, so very soon after making that declaration, doing just that.
The horcruxes had to be found and destroyed as soon as possible. Not just because Voldemort had to be stopped before any more innocent people were murdered, not just because he knew that the horcruxes were now at risk and was probably protecting them or creating new ones to replace those already destroyed, but because he needed to end the constant messages being delivered to him via Ron's gift. Ron only had a month, give or take a few days and the strength of his will, before the psychological damage became irreversible and his best friend was lost forever. Thirty consecutive nights of somnambulism was all Harry had to get this done. He knew that his horcrux guide from beyond the grave would only leave Ron when the job was done and he had to get that guardian angel of his out of his friend as soon as possible.
Hermione was recovering from her tearful outburst now, fingering the silver hoop that floated around her forearm thoughtfully, and got to her feet with a sniff.
"We'll see him again soon," Harry smiled as he put an arm around her and squeezed.
"Yes," she nodded, forcing a smile onto her face, "we'll get this done in no time and he'll be fine. His mum knows how to deal with his oracle abilities and his dad was great with him last night wasn't he?"
Harry nodded and the two of them began to walk alongside the canal.
"He might not even get a visit at all tonight, they might know that I'm not there and leave him alone, and if that happens we'll have more time. They've given him a break before haven't they?"
"I'm sure they know about the damage consecutive episodes do to an oracle, they wouldn't want to risk him I'm sure, us being away might actually be the best thing for him."
Hermione had meant that statement to be a positive one but it made them both feel awful. Ron's only chance at peace, a slim chance at that, was being away from them.
The walked in silence for several minutes before Hermione spoke again.
"So we've Nagini, something of Griffindor's, and Voldemort himself to destroy before this is all over."
"Right," Harry nodded.
"So we're probably looking for the Griffindor horcrux here aren't we?"
"That's what I'm thinking."
"Got any idea where to start?" she frowned as the stopped at a second lock.
Harry looked at the building beside the lock and broke into a grin.
"We start at the best place for unreliable tales of dead people walking the street at night."
"Where's that then?" Hermione huffed.
Harry pointed over her shoulder to the black and white, Tudor style building behind her.
"The pub of course!"
A man with more teeth in his mouth than hairs on his head had been slurring at them for hours now. His name was Ivor and he had been spinning yarns to Harry and Hermione as soon as he heard them asking the barman if he had heard of any ghost stories about the town. Ivor had begun telling all kinds of tall tales, in between trying to buy Harry a pint of beer every five minutes or so, ever since.
"You sure you don't want a pint?" Ivor slurred, almost slipping off his seat as he leaned forward.
"No, really I'm fine thanks. What was that you were saying about the Welsh mummy thing?"
"The calico kid!" Ivor said, raising his empty glass in a kind of toast.
"Is that what it's called?" Hermione said, ducking the drunken Welshman's arm as it came back down to set the glass on the table again.
"It's what I call 'im Minnie," Ivor shrugged.
Hermione tried not to look cross at his use of her new knick name. Ivor couldn't seem to get his tongue around the name Hermione and had re-christened her Minnie, much to her annoyance.
"Calico?" Harry frowned.
"He wrapped in it, that's why the young 'uns call him a mummy but it ain't bandages he's wrapped in it's strips of calico, he don't wear anything but those calico strips."
Harry and Hermione shared a meaningful glance before Ivor jumped up from the table and stumbled backwards over to the bar.
"Brains my son, another pint of Brains and one for the boy too, he's over eighteen I can vouch for him."
The Welsh beer that Ivor was drowning himself in was called Brains and Harry wasn't sure that it really did a hell of a lot for your real brain. The barman seemed to know that Harry wasn't old enough to be drinking just yet but complied as they were keeping the troublesome Ivor quiet in the corner of the pub with their questions.
"And something for Minnie, what do the young ladies drink these days?"
"No I'm fine with my fruit juice," Hermione spun around on her seat to send a pleading look at the barman, "nothing for me thank you Ivor."
"Wine!" Ivor said with a flourish, "Ladies drink wine, she'll have a glass of your finest wine and she'll have it with a cherry!"
Harry almost laughed at Hermione expression of exasperated confusion. He looked over to the barman to try and contain his amusement only to see him sniggering at Ivor's request for a cherry in a glass of wine.
"No thank you Ivor, I don't..." Hermione began.
"It's ok Min," the barman teased, "I'll do you a Bucks Fizz, sparkling white wine and orange juice, you can even have a cherry in it."
"That's what she's having!" Ivor declared happily, "A Fucks Bizz!"
Harry clamped his hand to his mouth and tried to hold in the laugh, he had really needed this, although Hermione wasn't amused at all. As Ivor carried his and Harry's pints of beer to their table the barman caught Hermione's eye and held up a bottle of orange juice. He poured it into a wine glass and dropped a cocktail cherry into it before putting his finger to his lips and calling out to Ivor.
"There you go Ivor, Minnie's Bucks Fizz with extra wine."
"Ah good man!" Ivor declared and Hermione smiled a thank you to the clearly entertained barman.
When they were all settled back around the table Harry tried to bring the conversation back to the calico kid.
"So have you seen him then, the calico kid?"
"I've seen everything my boy," Ivor slapped Harry on the back heavy handedly, "drink up, it'll do you the power of good. Better than that shite you get in London I can tell you."
Harry picked up his pint.
"I'm not from London..." he said nervously as Ivor put his finger on the bottom of the glass and tipped it towards Harry's lips.
He had to drink to stop the liquid spilling all down the front of him. It didn't taste like he had expected, he didn't like it but he didn't dislike it either. He still preferred butterbeer he thought.
"So back to the mummy," Hermione said, taking a sip of her faux Bucks Fizz so Ivor didn't try to pour it down her throat for her, "do you believe it's a real spectre or just a myth?"
"No no no, I've seen him with my own eyes! He's followed me home many a night. Except the nights I didn't go home, then he just went off by himself."
Harry frowned at this.
"So he always goes the same way every time you see him then? He's always walking the same way you go home?"
Ivor nodded and put his elbow on the table and pointed a finger into the air.
"Except...when he's walking...back."
Ivor's elbow slipped off the table and he fell onto the floor. Hermione tried to help him back onto his chair but the barman was making his way over to them and shaking his head.
"No more for you tonight Ivor, time to go home now."
He took Ivor from Hermione and guided him to the door. Harry jumped to his feet and pulled his coat on, indicating for Hermione to do the same, and ran after Ivor as he swayed at the exit to the pub.
"I'll see him home alright, we've got to go now anyway haven't we Minnie?"
Hermione scowled at Harry momentarily for calling her that but played along all the same.
"Yes we're going, um do you know of somewhere we can stay overnight? A Bed and Breakfast or a guest house or anything?" she asked the barman.
"Not around here I'm afraid, there's just no call for it, nobody comes here unless they know someone who lives here."
"Ah well never mind, we'll sort something out," Harry smiled as he struggled to steer Ivor out of the door."
Hermione grabbed the backpacks and followed them out onto the towpath.
"You two be careful down by that canal with him, he's knocked people in before!" the barman called after them.
"Oh great, that's all we need," Harry grumbled as he let go of Ivor, "alright then, which way is home?"
Ivor was already staggering off up a slight hill to a road that ran parallel to the canal. Harry took his backpack from Hermione and they both struggled up the hill after him.
"Dim bendith..." Ivor began to sing up at the stars as he swayed down the road.
"Come on, even if the calico kid doesn't show up we can't leave him in this state," Harry grumbled.
Hermione sighed and they followed Ivor's very slow progress along the road. He was bellowing his Welsh song as he went but nobody seemed to be bothered by it, none of the curtains even twitched as they passed by small cottages and houses along the way.
"...Gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae..."
Harry noticed that there was an ominous icy chill floating on the breeze and looked behind them into the mist. Then he realised something.
"It wasn't misty just now."
"What?" Hermione shivered as she turned around to look back the way they had come, she gasped when she saw the encroaching fog.
They looked back and could barely make out the shape of Ivor as he was enveloped in the grey cloud that was swelling around them all. Harry and Hermione ran to him, they were grateful for his singing as it made him harder to lose track of.
"...caneuon! Bore da Cerys, bore da..."
"Ivor keep it down for a minute," Hermione whispered as she gripped his arm when they reached him, "Harry listen, do you hear that?"
Harry knew what she was talking about, it didn't seem to be a sound though, more of an audible feeling in the air. It was as if the fog swirling around them was sighing. The three of them peered into the thick grey gloom and Ivor spoke clearly, his slur seeming to have left him for the moment.
"Here he comes, the calico kid, he's come to see me home."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other nervously and Ivor took a step away from them and called out into the mist.
"I'm here old friend, let us stroll to the church together before we part ways again until tomorrow night!"
Harry desperately shushed Ivor but he was striding off into the freezing fog, almost vanishing from sight immediately, and he grabbed Hermione's hand so he didn't loose her too and they ran after him. Harry felt his clothes growing damp as he ran through the thick cloud and saw two figures ahead of him. One was zigzagging along in a clumsy drunken manner and the other seemed to be half dragging its feet, half gliding ahead of him.
"Harry," Hermione whispered as she clutched his hand tightly, "it's an inferi. This is the inferi Ron spoke about in his attack this morning."
Harry shushed her and they followed the pair as the continued on along the roadside. Just as the fog thickened to the point that Harry was afraid that he would choke on it the two figures separated at a fork in the road. Ivor weaved across the road and began fumbling with a key at the door to a small bungalow the inferi picked up speed and broke out of the icy mist and into a dark wooded area. Harry and Hermione followed him, deciding against lighting their wand tips in case it alerted the inferi to the fact it was being followed. Harry wasn't entirely sure that the thing didn't already know that anyway but remained cautious regardless.
The trees groaned and twigs snapped under their feet. Hermione's fingernails were digging into Harry's hand the further into the woods they followed the inferi but he didn't dare yelp with pain. The inferi stopped and crossed a marshy area without it's sickly grey coloured-feet touching the ground once. There was a fallen limb of a tree lying across the marshland, it looked as if it had been severed by a lightning strike, and Harry shook off Hermione's grip on him and raised his wand. Hermione's wand was up too, ready for an ambush, while he stepped up onto the limb and tested it for strength. It seemed to be supporting his weight well enough and he began to edge his way across.
"Harry be careful!" Hermione whispered as he went.
He was about to reassure her that he was doing fine when a hollow voice drifted back towards him from within the trees.
"Caligo!"
The incantation was almost sighed by the leaves and the groaning trees themselves in an eerily slow echo. It was then that Harry felt it, the overwhelming dizziness spinning his head around on the inside. He was losing his balance, he was losing his ability to even stand upright, it was some kind of vertigo spell and he could fight it off.
"Corrigo!" Hermione yelled as her spell hit him in the back.
He came to himself immediately but was already in mid-fall and couldn't do anything to stop himself from squelching down onto the marshy ground beneath. It was a strange feeling, the earth under his body wasn't soft but it wasn't solid either. He tried to slowly ease himself up onto his hands and knees and crawl. Again Harry heard the woods sighing another spell that hit him from every direction.
"Seputus!"
His hands were pulled down into the pliable mud beneath and he felt his knees being swallowed up as well. The mud was turning into murky water and he was sinking into it, still unable to free his hands and knees from the earth where they were held with some kind of suction. The water was up to his chest and he couldn't get up from all fours. He turned to see a fearful Hermione frantically searching her brain for a spell to help him. He was about to call out for her when the water reached his chin and began to cover his mouth. He held his breath and begged her with his eyes to think fast.
"Concavo!" he heard her shout, not sounding entirely sure of herself as she did, and he felt the mud and the water pulling away from him and clinging to the sides of the deep hollow in the ground that was now forming around him. He could stand and move, there was no more water rising around him, but eight feet high walls of mud and slime now surrounded him.
"What did you do that for?" Harry cried out.
"It's the best I could do!" he heard her hiss back at him, "Given the urgency of the situation I did the first thing I could think of. You're alright aren't you?"
Harry was filthy and trapped in an eight feet deep slime hole but other than that...
"I'm fine."
He looked up to see Hermione looking down at him and shaking her head.
"I didn't have time to think, sorry."
Harry huffed and gave her a smile.
"I didn't drown in sludge so I'm happy enough for the moment."
She was about to smile down at him when the trees seemed to bend in on Hermione and groan another incantation.
"Hermione, look out!" Harry hollered up at her but it was too late.
"Adficto affligo!"
There was an awful cracking sound and Hermione screamed, she fell out of Harry's sight but Harry could still hear her cries of pain.
"No, what are you doing to her? Hermione what's happening up there?" he bellowed.
"Harry," he heard her agonised screams and they made him feel sick and helpless, "my arms...my arms are broken, I can't use my wand!"
Harry desperately scanned the high walls of slime around him for some kind of foothold he could use to climb out and help her but he could see nothing.
"Hold on Hermione, I'm coming, I just need to find a way out."
His last word was drowned out by her new scream of panic.
"Harry the inferi is coming back! It's coming towards me. I can't hold up my wand, help me!"
He racked his brain for a spell, how could he get out of this magically made hole in the ground? There must be a way. Hermione was defenceless and injured up there and he had to do something before the inferi got to her.
"Aggero!" he yelled as he pointed his wand at the ground and held it on the spot.
The earth beneath his feet began to pile up into a heap and grow bigger and bigger. Quickly he jumped upon the mound as it piled higher and higher until he could not longer concentrate the spell on the same spot and made a jump from the top of the heap of earth to the edge of the hole. It was slick from the mud and water, a green slime oozing through his fingers as he began to slide back downwards into the hole, when Hermione threw one of her broken arms out toward him. Instinctively he grabbed it and pulled himself out of the hole, Hermione screams ringing in his ears and making his eyes water at the pain he was causing her. As soon as he was fully out of the hole he scrambled along the ground to see the awful sight of Hermione bowing over her broken forearms, the silver hoop the only thing that remained the shape it was supposed to be.
"Oh Godric," Harry winced before pointing his wand at her arms and trying one of the few healing spells he knew, "Episkey!"
Hermione's arms seemed to straighten, there were now no longer corners where there shouldn't be, but her bones still didn't seem to have healed and she was still in considerable pain.
"Can you use your wand?" Harry asked her as he tried to put it into her hand at the sight of the approaching inferi.
She tried to grip the wand but cried out in agony.
"It hurts!" she whimpered.
"It's ok, I'll hold it off, don't worry."
Harry stood before her and pointed his wand at the inferi.
"Depulso, detineo, oppugno!"
The three defensive spells hit their target and seemed to have taken some small effect. Harry turned and bent over, trying to lift Hermione up and support her weight but this involved holding on to her still painful arm and causing her to scream with agony once again.
"I'm sorry Hermione but we've got to get out of here right now!"
She was breathing heavily and choking back anguished sobs which made what she then said to him all the more amazing to Harry.
"We came here for a reason Harry and we're not leaving until we find what we need."
"But..." he gaped at her as she grimaced in pain and held up her wand arm and aimed at the inferi.
"Contineo profundum!" she cried through the wave of discomfort.
The inferi flew over their heads and down into the hole that Harry had just crawled out of. Harry looked down and saw that the hole was deepening further than he could see and the inferi was still falling. Hermione was crying with the effort as she raised her wand again and pointed it down at the hole
"Aggero contego!" she managed to say before feinting into Harry unprepared arms.
The hole filled with soil and a magical seal seemed to form over it. Harry sank to the ground with Hermione's limp and drained body. He needed to get her out of there but she was right, they had come there for a reason and she hadn't gone through all that for him to leave empty handed. He raised his wand and lit the tip. Scanning the still groaning trees he could see nothing that seemed out of place. He thought about what Hermione would suggest right now. Suddenly he remembered a spell Neville had bee telling him about in Herbology once. A spell that helped you find water or edible plant life when in unfamiliar territory. It was all he could think of right now so he gave it a go.
"Invenio horcrux!"
Nothing happened.
"Invenio Griffindor's property!" Harry demanded, knowing that was a little too optimistic of him but giving it a try anyway.
Still nothing. He heaved Hermione up a little more as she had bee sliding down while he was concentrating on his unsuccessful spells.
"Invenio...help?" Harry huffed half-heartedly.
The trees shifted and some solid soil at the base of a large trunk began to bubble as if it was boiling coffee, the trees roots thrashed around beneath the surface and after a short while a figurine floated up to the surface. As soon as the six-inch tall figure of a robed man broke the surface the earth was solid and the soil compacted just as firmly as it had been before around the statue's base. Harry pointed his wand at the object and summoned it. It pulled itself out of the inch of soil that still held it and flew into Harry's hand. He put the object in his pocket and got a better grip on Hermione, his priority was to get her out of there right now, and he turned to carry her back the way they had come.
He froze as he saw Ivor standing in his path, Harry recognised the look on his face immediately, he had been put under the imperius curse.
"You destroyed the calico man, the woods will destroy you."
Ivor raised his arms up to the trees and bellowed.
"The dark lord commands to you retrieve what has been stolen from you and hold the thieves and their bounty until he arrives to deliver justice."
Harry gripped his wand, he didn't want to curse Ivor, he was a muggle and it wasn't his fault he had been possessed but he didn't know what to do to get himself and Hermione out of there before Voldemort arrived. Harry wondered briefly that if this wasn't a horcrux sight, why had it been so strongly guarded and what the hell did he have in his pocket that meant so much to Voldemort anyway?
His curiosity would have to be put on hold for the time being as the trees groaned and the leaves hissed another incantation at him from every direction.
"Plaga pulpa, sectus pulpa!"
Harry felt as if a thousand punches had struck him at once and fell to the ground. As Hermione landed on top of him the second wave of the curse hit and she bore the brunt of it, cuts slashing at her flesh wherever bare skin was visible, Harry rolled himself on top of her but the worst had been done already. He looked over to Ivor who had also been beaten and slashed by the invisible army and didn't seem to be moving.
"Oh no," Harry groaned as he dragged Hermione over the forest floor to Ivor and felt for a pulse.
Harry's fingers were pressed against Ivor's neckbut there was no need to feel for a pulse, his fingertips sank deep into a cut into the man's jugular and warm blood stained Harry's hand. Harry cursed loudly and lay the bloodied Hermione on the ground, pointing his wand at her.
"Mobilcorpus!"
Hermione floated up and Harry clutched his side as he began to run with her floating ahead of his. On of the blows had caught him in the ribs and he thought that several of them were probably cracked. He ran on through the discomfort and wove their awkward way through the threes until they came back out into the open again. The fog had completely dispersed now and Harry could see the canal a little way away. There was an abandoned-looking long boat moored there and it was the only plan he had to get the two of them out of there so he went for it.
Hermione was levitated onto the deck and Harry severed the rope before pushing the boat out and jumping on board himself. He dragged Hermione over to the doors, which were locked but that was no obstacle for him, and after magically unlocking them and heaving Hermione through he ran back out onto the deck and attempted a concealment charm on the whole boat. It was a big thing to do and he wasn't sure he could but they were sitting ducks otherwise.
"Dissimulo!"
In the distance he heard multiple cracks of apparating Death Eaters and possibly Lord Voldemort himself and dove in through the door and closed it behind him, feeling the vessel slowly drifting along with the current. He grabbed Hermione again and lifted her, with his aching bones and battered and bruised skin screaming at him with displeasure all the while, onto a cushioned seat. He felt his ribs sending a sharp pain through his chest and gasped before pointing his wand at Hermione and trying his healing spell on her one more time.
He would've liked to stay conscious for long enough to see if the spell had made any difference but he couldn't manage to fight his weakened body's need for rest any longer and passed out on the nearly bald rug beneath him.
The last thing he thought before the blackness took him completely was that the lump in his pocket was digging into his side quite uncomfortably.
A/N Now readers who have followed my previous work will know that action is my weak point so any comments on this chapter will be especially useful.
I hope I'm at least getting better at it!