Chapter Twenty-Five - The Spoils of War

Harry was parched. He felt plenty of other physical and mental things but the one he seemed to focus on right now was that he really needed a drink.

He lifted his head an inch, pain shooting all the way down his spine, and he saw Ron lying beside him. Ron's head was beside Harry's bare feet, his hair tickling his toes, and he seemed to be fast asleep. Harry lowered his head back down and winced. He tried to swallow but he had no moisture in his mouth to do so. He really was thirsty.

He wondered where Hermione was. He turned his head left and right and saw that he and Ron were sprawled out on top of a bed in a small room. How they got there he had no idea, the last Harry remembered was passing out after...

"Ron!" Harry tried to call out to his friend, his voice was painful against his dry throat, "Ron are you alright?"

Harry strained to sit up a little but his body ached so badly that all he could manage was to tilt his head up against the headboard. He had been fighting, and losing the fight, with Voldemort. Ron had been hit with a terrible curse and he had no idea what had happened to Hermione after he had passed out. How had they got here, wherever here was?

"Hermione!" Harry's hoarse yell made his vocal chords feel as if they were shredded.

He could hear nothing but birdsong outside the window. Harry didn't like this, he needed to know what was going on, and he needed to know that Ron and Hermione were all right. Harry gritted his teeth and moved his foot closer to Ron's sleeping head.

Please let him just be sleeping.

Harry nudged the side of Ron's face with his toes and Ron's head rolled to one side on his pillow with a groan. Harry said a silent thank you to a person who wasn't there and prodded at Ron's head a little harder with his big toe.

"Get off," Ron mumbled as he moved his shoulder as if he wanted to roll over onto his side, he didn't manage the manoeuvre though and Harry's big toe shoved him in the back of the head again.

"Ron, wake up, something's wrong."

Ron's eyes opened and he focused on Harry without lifting his head.

"What's up?" Ron asked, still with just a mumble.

"I don't know where we are and I don't know where Hermione is," Harry croaked.

Ron's eyes were already closing as he replied.

"She's gone out to get ingredients," Ron stopped speaking, Harry wondered whether he had dropped back off again but then his friend forced his eyes open a little more and shifted with great effort to the edge of the bed, "for a potion."

Harry frowned, he couldn't quite believe it but even that hurt, and watched as Ron struggled to prop himself up on his elbow.

"A potion for what?"

Ron's eyelids became heavy again and his head began to drop.

"Ron!" Harry shouted as best he could with his raspy voice.

Ron's head jerked slightly and his eyes opened a crack.

"I shrugged," he murmured lazily.

"No you didn't," Harry said with a growing concern, "Ron are you ok?"

Ron seemed to take a laboured breath in and fight to pull himself up a little more, dragging his heavy body closer to the edge of the bed, and managed to smile over at Harry.

"I'm just tired. Are you ok mate?"

Harry winced and shook his head.

"Is there anything I can do?" Ron murmured as his eyelids drooped for a second before he forced them open wide again.

"I don't know; you don't seem to be able to do much at all."

Ron smiled again.

"Seriously Harry, what do you need?"

Harry dry swallowed again.

"Water," Harry said, sounding more pathetic than he really liked to appear in front of his best friend.

Ron gave a single nod and looked over at his wand, which rested on his bedside table.

"I'll get you some," Ron said as he leaned in towards the bedside table with determination.

Harry watched as Ron focused on the wand in its resting place and seemed to be concentrating hard on it. He wasn't making any attempt to move though and after a few seconds Harry became impatient.

"Any time Ron," he sighed.

Ron's brow furrowed and he jerked his shoulder slightly towards the wand. Harry didn't understand what he was playing at. Then he saw Ron's fingers slowly reaching out to the bedside table from the edge of the mattress where his palm rested. After one or two attempts Ron's middle finger hooked over the edge of the table and he pulled his hand off the bed and rested it on the table beside his wand. Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing and he looked back at Ron's face, his friend looked exhausted, and Harry realised why this was taking so long.

"Ron what's wrong with you?"

Ron managed another weak smile as his fingers crept along the table towards his wand, dragging his limp arm along behind.

"I'm just really tired, I'll get it in a minute, don't worry."

Ron's fingers curled around the wand and his hand slipped off the bedside table, which in turn pulled his arm off theside of the bed, and Ron fell off the edge of the mattress and onto the floor with a deep thud. Harry couldn't see him, he tried to lean forward to see if he was ok but he still couldn't bring himself to sit up properly.

"Ron are you ok?"

"Just gimme a second," Ron's voice murmured from the floor, "I'm getting to it."

Soon Harry saw Ron's back moving along the side of the bed, he must've been crawling very slowly on his hands and knees, and then he saw Ron's hand strain to pull the rest of him up to lean against Harry's end of the bed.

"There," Ron said proudly, "what did I want to come down here for again?"

Harry smiled at his weary friend and felt bad for ever telling him he needed a drink at all, but then he remembered that he really did more than anything in the world, and he gasped while pointing to his own throat.

"Water please."

"Oh right," Ron sighed and looked at his wand arm, which hung, limp at his side, "I just need to..."

Ron bit his lip and his face set with determination as he jerked his shoulder again, attempting to manipulate his lower arm up onto his lap, and then took several deep breaths before lifting his wand arm up onto the bed. Ron smiled at Harry again, he assumed he must've been looking worried for his friend, and angled his wrist at Harry before his face fell and he let out a discouraged huff as his head dropped.

"I forgot the fucking cup!" he groaned into the mattress.

Harry grimaced through the pain in his arm to reach out for Ron to tell him not to worry and that he would wait for Hermione to get back when Ron's head lifted again and Harry saw that familiar determination return to his blue eyes.

"There's one on the floor over there, lemme just..." Ron angled his wand at a point on the floor that Harry couldn't see, he could see that Ron didn't seem to have the strength to lift his wand and was using the mattress to rest his wand upon while he aimed, "...Accio cup!"

Harry heard a dragging sound and saw Ron's head drop again. The redhead grumbled something before looking up and trying again.

"Accio cup!"

Again there was a dragging sound and Harry tilted his head and saw a small chipped cup dragging along the floor towards Ron before stopping after a few inches. Harry saw Ron's eyes' falling closed again and he realised how much effort the simple summoning charm was taking out of him.

"Ron seriously, I'll wait for Hermione," Harry began just as he heard a door opening and footsteps getting closer.

"Ron!" Hermione appeared at the open door and looked down at Ron, slumped on the floor leaning against the bed, with a livid but worried expression on her face, "What did I tell you?"

Ron lifted his head and forced his eyes open a little.

"What?"

Hermione dropped to her knees and took Ron's wand out of his hand.

"Stay in bed that's what I said, don't move, do you remember?"

Ron barely managed a shrug and his eyes began to close again.

"You said a lot of things."

Hermione huffed and she looked over at Harry and tried to smile.

"Welcome back Harry, I hope you're not to uncomfortable."

"I've been worse off," he wondered if he was lying, "and it's my fault, I asked Ron to get me some water. I didn't know he...what is wrong with him?"

Ron's head jerked up again and one eye opened.

"I told you, I'm just tired."

Hermione scowled at Ron and reached into her coat pocket to pull out the silver hoops. She forced one of them up Ron's arm and the other onto herself.

"Right, now you have to stay still until your potion is brewed and no complaints!"

Ron's open eye closed and he made a half-hearted grumbling sound while Hermione sighed and produced a brown paper bag from her other pocket and set its contents down on the bed.

"I can't believe you got out of bed, I can't believe you survived getting out of bed," she hissed at Ron, who was either asleep or ignoring her, and she started reading the instructions on the side of one of the small glass bottles she had just taken out of the bag, "I told you that you barely had enough energy to keep your own heart beating but no, don't listen to Hermione, get out of bed and do magic. What do I know?"

Harry coughed and caught her attention.

"It was my fault Hermione, I really needed a drink, and I don't think he was completely with it when you were telling him...could his heart really have stopped?" Harry wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that question.

Hermione swallowed and summoned a saucepan from the kitchen and began to pour the contents of the bottle into it.

"Voldemort hit him with an energy draining hex, it weakened him so quickly, I restored as much as I could but he really needs a strengthening solution before I can let him move around. I think we should take him back to St Nectans Glen to meditate again as well, just to be sure."

"Voldemort," Harry remembered, "how did we escape? Did you manage to do anything to him?"

Hermione shook her head glumly.

"You were both so badly injured, I just threw all the defensive spells and restraining charms that we'd been using on Ron at him and apparated us all out of there. I thought I'd lost you both, you were so still and Ron was barely breathing, I just saw this cottage and dragged you inside."

Hermione levitated the saucepan in mid air and lit a floating fire beneath it before reaching out for the cup on the floor and filling it with water from the tip of her wand. She held it out to Harry's lips and he drank greedily.

"I'll just get the potion started and then I'll finish healing you," she held up an ointment with the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes logo on the label, "I picked this up from Fred and George. They wanted me to transport you both to the shop for them to take care of but..."

Hermione's gaze turned back down to Ron who was definitely asleep now.

"He can't even stand let alone apparate, not even side-along," Hermione suddenly choked back a sob before pouring the contents of another bottle into the saucepan, "I really thought he was dead for a while back there. I couldn't find a pulse for so long. It was just weak though, it was there the whole time, he'll be fine when he takes this."

Hermione refilled Harry's cup and he drank deeply before she set about rubbing the ointment on his chest. Harry felt a little uncomfortable about this, what would Ron think if he wasn't too exhausted to process thoughts right now, but soon Hermione withdrew her wand and pointed it at the thickly applied ointment and flicked her wand in all directions. Soon the ointment was spreading itself all over Harry's body, seeping into his pores and burning into his muscles and bones. He began to feel more comfortable now and could just about manage to sit up in bed.

"Thanks Hermione," he sighed.

"Thank Fred and George," she grinned on seeing his newfound comfort.

Harry watched as she turned her full attention back to the makeshift caldron as she added more ingredients to the strengthening solution and began to stir the contents with her wand.

"So did we find anything out last night other than we're completely unprepared to fight Voldemort?" Harry asked.

Hermione turned to him with surprise.

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Oh Harry," Hermione said sadly as she sat beside him on the edge of the bed and pulled Ron's drooping head into her lap, "he's too clever for us all, it's impossible to destroy Griffindor's horcrux."

Harry smiled at her with confidence.

" You know what Griffindor's horcrux is?" she nodded sadly and Harry forced a confident smile on his face, "Nothing's impossible Hermione."

She lowered her head.

"This is."

The waterfall at St Nectans Glen thundered in the background, Hermione and Ron were sitting opposite each other, legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation, and Harry went over the hopelessness of their situation.

"In...and out...and then you say vivificus when you breathe out..." Hermione was instructing Ron on how to do the recharging spell, as he had no memory of doing it the first time.

Fawkes.

Fawkes couldn't die.

Fawkes would burst into flames and then become a hatchling again; there was no death, no end, no way to destroy Voldemort's soul where it rested within the bird. That must've been what Voldemort did when his wand twitched during that meeting with Dumbledore Harry witnessed in the pensive. He had made Griffindor's phoenix a horcrux. Harry wondered who had died so he could do that.

"Now alternate the two phrases with me ok?" Hermione's voice bought Harry back to the lakeside and he saw Ron nodding his head, " Right so in...vivificus...in...corroboro...in...vivificus..."

Ron and Hermione did this together for almost two whole minutes before Hermione's eyes opened and she hissed something under her breath. Ron's eyes opened and he blinked the bright light of the sun out of his eyes as he rubbed Hermione's arm.

"What's the matter?"

"It should be working by now, what am I doing wrong?"

"Nothing," Ron smiled at her, "you're doing nothing wrong, it's probably me. I bet it's my fault, don't be so hard on yourself Min."

Hermione allowed herself to smile at this, she seemed to have accepted Minnie as a term of endearment without complaint now, but she still looked bitterly disappointed. Harry walked over to the two of them and crouched down.

"Y'know maybe the spirit did something more, we don't know what his side of the spell was like, how about we put Ron to sleep and let the spirit take him through it again?"

Ron raised his eyebrows with hope at Hermione. She gave a nod and pointed her wand at Ron.

"Lay down and breathe deeply...and no arguments this time please."

Ron did as he was told without a word and after Hermione was satisfied that he was in the right physical state she sent him into a deep sleep. They didn't have to wait for very long before Ron's eyes opened and he sat up. With out a word he crossed his legs again and resumed his meditation, Harry looked at his watch; they had half an hour before Ron's body would throw off the spiritual invader. He had half an hour of restorative magic. On top of Hermione's strengthening solution Ron should make a full recovery.

Hermione sat back with Harry and they made small talk while watching the energy forming around Ron's head and then spread to his whole body.

"They're restoring strength to all of him," she sighed with relief.

"Yeah, I can't believe I'm actually glad Ron's got his little unconscious visitor."

They smiled at each other before Hermione turned around to look right at Harry, who mirrored her movement, and she narrowed her lips to such a degree they almost disappeared altogether.

"Ok so you're behind me one stage as far as this Fawkes thing goesaren't you?"

Harry's eyebrows knitted together.

"How do you mean?"

"Well when I first heard I dug in my heels and said no, nothing's impossible, just like you did when I told you, and then I resigned myself to the fact that he'd outsmarted us and there was no way to kill a phoenix. That's the stage you're in now isn't it?"

Harry nodded.

"So what stage are you in then?" he asked her.

"I'm confident that there is always a way and if every book I read tells me there isn't I'll make one myself. I will not be told there's nothing I can do to stop him. I will not accept that Harry."

Harry smiled at her confidence, if anybody could do this Hermione could, and they watched Ron cleanse himself for the next twenty-five minutes in silence. As Ron expelled a toxic cloud of green smoke his eyes opened and began to breathe normally, the energy dispersing around him, Harry looked at Hermione.

"Is he finished d'you think?" he asked.

"Harry?" Ron called out.

Harry and Hermione ran to his side and Harry gripped Ron firmly on the shoulder to let him know he was there.

"Wormtail wasn't there, last night he wasn't there, and neither was Nagini. They're together." Ron's distant whisper was clear as a bell to Harry, "We've got to find the rat."

With that final word Ron's eyes closed and his body slumped. Harry still had hold of his shoulder and managed to hold his friend up while Hermione waited several seconds to be sure it was safe to wake him up before doing so. Ron's weight shifted and Harry felt him holding himself up now as he let out a cough and his eyelids fluttered open. He blinked at Hermione, whose face was staring at him expectantly, and gave her a smile.

"So did I do it right that time?"

She grinned and nodded.

"Perfectly Ron, how do you feel."

Ron shrugged.

"Well I used to use my hands," he gave a mischievous smirk as Harry gave a tut and shoved his friend over.

"You're funny Ron, I'll save that laugh for when I'm having a really bad day," Harry stood up and watched as Hermione did the same, bending to offer Ron and hand up, "seriously mate, are you ok now?"

Ron slapped Harry on the back.

"Much better, thanks you two."

Hermione snorted.

"I don't know what you're thanking me for, I didn't do anything."

Ron pulled her into a hug.

"You got me here."

That seemed to make Hermione feel a lot better and Harry proceeded to tell Ron about his final message before passing out again.

"Hunting down Pettigrew, sounds like just the quest I could really enjoy."

Harry was in full agreement on that. He turned to Hermione at the same time Ron did.

"So where do we start Min?"