"All I want is a room somewhere!" Harry sang loudly, since the only ones there to hear him were Ron and Hermione. "Far away from the cold night air, with one enormous chair—!"

"Oh wouldn't it be love-a-ly!" chorused Ron and Hermione with Harry, the three of them skipping down the beaten dirt path somewhere just outside of Greenwich.

Hermione took up the song, looking longingly up at the few stars that weren't hidden by the dense clouds. "Lots of chocolate for me to eat. Lots of coal making lots of heat! Warm face, warm hands, warm feet—!"

"Oh wouldn't it be love-a-ly!" sang all three friends, finally finishing the song McGonagall's spell had forced them to perform when Ron had complained about the ruggedness of the journey they were now on.

"FINALLY!" Harry and Ron exclaimed happily.

"I thought that song would never end…"

"Oh, come on, Ron, the spell isn't all that bad!" Hermione insisted.

Ron snorted. "Maybe not for you, Miss Hidden Talent."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "At least you can actually sing without having to worry about breaking your glasses." On the thought, Harry pulled his glasses off and tapped the frames with his wand, muttering "Reparo!" as he did so. A dozen tiny cracks disappeared from where they had formed on the lenses during Harry's solo.

"You and Malfoy should go sing on tour together," Ron continued facetiously. "You'd give the Weird Sisters a run for their money, the two of you!"

"Stop it, Ron!" growled Hermione in a voice that made Harry turn around the make sure that Mrs. Weasley hadn't followed them like she'd threatened to when she'd picked Harry up from St. Mungo's.

Ron sighed, looking around yet again at their desolate location. "Harry, are you sure we can trust this random invisible person you met in the lunatics' ward at St. Mungo's?"

"It's not just some random person!" Harry insisted. "I knew them… I recognized their voice… I just… can't really remember their name!"

"So how do you know we can trust them? How do you know the voice wasn't some Slytherin with a grudge from school, trying to lure you off? There is a big Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match coming up, you know… what if they were trying to get rid of you before the match?"

Harry shook his head. They had gone through this whole thing so many times before, when Harry had been trying to convince them to just pack up and go with him. Ron had outright refused to go at first, saying he wouldn't trust some loony until he had solid proof that the guy was both sane and real.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Harry," Ron kept reiterating. "But you were in the psychiatric ward at the time. It's not a very credible place to claim you've talked to invisible people in."

Hermione had been curious about their mysterious helper, and kept throwing out names of people she thought would want to see the downfall of Voldemort, or of people who might have known Voldemort before or just as he was rising to power. So far she'd guessed Regalus Black, Dumbledore, and a number of Death Eaters like Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Macnair. Harry had pointed out that he had never met Regalus Black; Dumbledore was most definitely dead; and he would never trust any Death Eater the way he was trusting this person. The game would normally annoy Harry, but now he was enjoying hearing Hermione guess wrong again and again, and Harry was also determined to figure out exactly who it was that was helping them; he was sure that if he heard the person's name or something, he would recognize it.

"What are they doing here?" Harry heard, and spun around trying to see who had said it. "Master is looking for that one… but he said not to harm that one… Master wants to kill that one himself…"

"Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly. "What are you doing?"

Harry stopped looking for the source of the voice to look at Ron and Hermione, who had stopped walking to see what had him so distracted. A feeling of dread filled his stomach as an idea formed in his head.

"Did you two hear anything just now?" he asked apprehensively.

Ron and Hermione shook their heads, confirming Harry's fears: Nagini was somewhere nearby.

Well, Harry thought, at least that means we're getting close… Although seriously, who sets one of their Horcruxes to guard another Horcrux?

A small voice that Harry tried to ignore whispered in his mind, Someone who knows that the guardian is powerful enough to take care of itself and its protectorate…

"Get your wands out!" Harry instructed his confused friends. "Look around; Nagini—Voldemort's pet snake—is somewhere around here, close enough to see us."

"But Master never said anything about the friends…"

Harry spun and raised his wand quickly. "RON!"

Ron spun, raising his wand and just barely managing to blurt out a Shield Charm before a long, thick, green snake dashed out from the tall grass on the side of the road, headed for the side red-head's ankles. Instead of administering a paralyzing and poisonous bite, the snake struck the Shield Charm with a low hiss of anger before slithering back into the camouflaging grass.

Ron tripped over himself at surprise at the snake's speed. "Bloody hell, did you see how fast that thing was moving!" He picked himself up, looking all around him for the snake. "Why didn't we prepare for this sort of thing, Mr. Chosen One?"

Harry looked sideways at Ron. "We've done magical combat with veteran Death Eaters," he says in a flat voice, "and you're worried about taking on a snake?"

"It's Voldemort's snake, Harry!"

"Let's get down to business…" Hermione sang, catching Harry and Ron's attention. "… to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons? You're the spineless bunch I've ever met, but you can bet before we're through: mister I'll make a man out of you!"

Nagini tried another attack. Hermione shot out another Shield Charm before it could latch onto her throat, and Harry aimed a Stunner at the snake before it could escape into the woods but the Stunner missed its target by several inches.

In the meantime, Ron had taken up the song. "Tranquil as a forest, but a fire within… Once you find your center, you are sure to win!"

Hermione interrupted again, glaring at Ron for trying to steal her song. "You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot, and you haven't got a clue. Somehow I'll make a man out of you!"

This time Nagini made a run for Harry, but Harry was pretty sure the snake was only trying to paralyze him because it aimed for his wand instead of his body. Harry threw up another Shield Charm and shot out two Stunners, but still the snake disappeared into the forest quicker than anyone could watch it.

"I'm never gonna catch my breath," Harry gasped.

Hermione sighed, "Say good-bye to those who knew me…"

Ron shook his head. "Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym…"

Looking at Ron, Harry said, "This guy's got 'em scared to death!"

Hermione sang, "Hope he doesn't see right through me!" looking as if even she didn't understand why she was singing that particular line.

At the next attack attempt by the snake, Ron shouted "Aguamenti!" and doused the thing in water, shrugging his shoulders apologetically when Harry and Hermione had looked at him as if to say, Now what good did that do?

Nevertheless, Harry heard Nagini sing in a slightly confused hiss, "Now I really wish that I knew how to swim!" as the snake shot into the tall grass.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all chorused together, "We must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"

Harry turned to Ron and Hermione and sang, "Time is racing toward us 'til the Huns arrive! Heed my every order and you might survive!"

"You're not suited for the rage of war," sang Nagini from somewhere in the thick grass, "so pack up, go home you're through!"

Hermione sang: "How could I make a man out of you!"

The trio sang the chorus two more times, dodging snake attacks all the while. Nagini still seemed to be confused as to why he was suddenly singing a Muggle song with the people he was supposed to get rid of, but finally, at the end of the song, one of Harry's Stunners hit its mark, and the snake went down.

Ron nodded. "Alright," he said, pointing at the snake. "We've got it. Now what?"

"Diffindo!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked around for the source of the voice, but none of them could see anything. It was only when they saw footsteps appearing in the dirt, making a path towards them, that they realized who it was: Harry's invisible—and quite real—benefactor.

"So is that how you destroy the Horcruxes, then?" Harry asked when the footsteps had stopped just next to him.

"For this one? Yeah. For the others; no."

"What makes this one so special?"

"Well, you wanted to get to the other Horcrux I sent you here for, didn't you?"

"Of course!"

An arm appeared out of nowhere. The arm, long, sleeveless and Caucasian, pointed at the mess that used to be the snake. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all gagged when they saw what the Severing Charm had done to the creature; it was a slashed pile of blood and innards. Among the blood shone a glint of gold.

Harry looked at the space where the arm had just disappeared—probably gone back inside what was probably an Invisibility Cloak hiding whoever wanted to anonymously help them destroy Voldemort—and asked, "The Horcrux was inside Nagini?"

"Yes."

"Does You-Know-Who know his pet snake ate his Horcrux?"

Harry and Hermione both gave Ron the same exasperated look, but at the same time Harry was trying hard not to laugh. He didn't want their benefactor to think they weren't taking this whole thing seriously and stop helping them.

But the invisible person just laughed as if they hadn't heard such a wonderful joke in years. This sound rang a bell in Harry's mind, this time sounding off so loudly that Harry thought he actually knew who the person was… but their identity was just on the tip of his tongue!

"Yes, Ron, Voldemort knows."

Ron jumped. "How did you know my name?"

The benefactor hesitated. "I've been paying attention to you… all of you… for some time now," he answered finally.

"Like a stalker?" Hermione accused.

The benefactor laughed again. "No, not like a stalker, Hermione!" he assured her, causing the girl to lean back in surprise over his use of her name. Harry could tell Hermione was already suspicious of the person because he was disguising his voice; the fact that he knew about her—a lot about her, considering the ease with which he treated her—scared Hermione more than a little.

To ease the tension caused by Hermione's suspicion and Ron's obvious upset over the benefactor's extensive knowledge of him and his friends, Harry Summoned the Horcrux to him.

"Accio Horcrux!"

The Horcrux flew towards Harry, but before it could get too close Hermione muttered "Scourgify!" to clean the blood off of it. Harry gave his friend a look of gratitude before closing his hand around the glittering object.

It was the locket.

Author's Note:

"Love-a-ly" comes from "My Fair Lady"

"Make a Man Out of You" comes from Mulan

I'm very disappointed in all of you! Harry has never met Regalus Black! Keep guessing!