A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews, ale-weasley. I really appreciate it. If other readers could review so I can get more feedback...

Tiring search

Harry dropped the stuff in his hands and ran back to where Hermione and Annora had sunk to their knees next to Ron.

"What happened, is he alright?" Harry's voice took on an almost hysterical tone.

Neither Hermione nor Annora answered, their attention focused totally on Ron.

Harry looked from Hermione to Ron, and was shocked by what he saw.

When Ron had fallen, Harry had thought that he had passed out. But, looking closely, Harry could see that Ron's shoulders were shaking. It looked like he was crying, but Harry couldn't be sure, as Ron's hands were covering his face.

"Ron," Hermione whispered, crawling closer to Ron and rubbing his back, "What's wrong?"

Looking at Hermione, Harry could see that she was a total loss about what was wrong with Ron. He could also see that Hermione, much as she always did when Ron was hurt, had a frightened expression on her face. He looked over at the other girl, Annora, and saw that she had a similar expression on her face. Harry had just looked down at Ron again when he heard Annora gasp and walk a few feet away from them, looking down at the ground.

Harry got up from his crouching position and walked over toward her. "What is it?"

Annora didn't say anything, and instead pointed.

"It's just a rock," Harry said, looking down at the ground where Annora was pointing.

"No it isn't. It's a pogrebin."

"A what?" Harry asked confused. It looked like a rock to him.

"A pogrebin is a magical creature that causes its victim to slip into a state of despair and, in turn, the victim will be overcome by this feeling and begin to cry, much as Ron is doing," Annora said, nudging the 'rock' with her foot.

Harry was surprised to see it move. Apparently it had been crouching, because when Annora nudged it, it sprang to its feet. The pogrebin had a hairy body, which up until now had been hidden by its smooth, large grey head.

"How do we help Ron then?" Harry asked, taking out his wand.

"You could hex it with a stupefying charm," Annora said, bring her leg back and kicking forward forcefully, sending the pogrebin flying through the air, to land just out of sight, "But kicking it works just as well."

Harry looked at her, somewhat impressed. However, he turned his attention back to Ron when he heard Hermione exclaim "Ron!" loudly and wrap her arms around him.

Ron seemed to be regaining himself, and looking a little embarrassed. "What happened?" he asked as he rubbed his hands across Hermione's back in a soothing manner as she cried happy and relieved tears on his shoulder.

"You were crying," Annora said bluntly. Ron's ears turned red. "Because a pogrebin had been following you for a while, probably since we left the inn, as it takes several hours to really have an effect on a person," she finished, taking pity on Ron's obvious embarrassment.

Hermione's tears began to subside and Ron got to his feet, grabbing Hermione by the elbows and lifting her up as well.

"Let's get back to the inn, if you're alright," Harry said, walking back to pick up the things he had dropped earlier.

The others made sounds of agreement and they soon arrived back at the inn.

"Okay, we should gather up our things and get going. Mrs. Weasley will have gotten up by now, so she's probably seen the note. We don't have much time if we are right in assuming the Order will look for us here first," Harry said, as he shoved his dirty clothing into his bag as shrinking it as Ron and Hermione did the same.

"I'm going to the loo before we leave, can you shrink my trunk Hermione?" Annora asked, as she walked out of the room.

Hermione nodded, more to herself than anyone else, as Annora had already left the room and couldn't see her.

"This is the next place we are going," Harry said, passing a picture of a different inn around so that they would know what it looked like, as they were going to apparate to it.

They passed the picture around until Harry had the picture once more in his possession. "Let's go," he said as he apparated with a crack.

Ron followed and reappeared a second later about two feet away from Harry.

Hermione and Annora appeared right next to each other seconds later, Annora grasping Hermione's arm.

"Whoa," Annora said, letting go of Hermione, "I almost fell."

"It's alright," Hermione said. "Let's get the room."

"I'll go pay for it," Harry replied, heading over toward the counter where a tall, gaunt man with grey hair and a bread was standing, staring at the newcomers.

Ron, Hermione, and Annora were sitting at a table, drinks in front of them, when Harry returned.

"They didn't have butterbeer so we had to get something else," Ron said to Harry, motioning toward the fourth cup on the table.

Harry nodded and sat down at the empty seat next to Ron.

They sat in silence, each staring down at the contents of their cups.

The silence was only broken when Annora took a sip from her cup, grimaced, and exclaimed loudly.

"I am so sick of drinking this stuff, it tastes awful!"

"You've had it before?" Ron asked.

Annora looked up quickly at Ron and the others at the table. "Oh, yeah, it's a specialty were I live, my mum really likes it. I don't."

Ron nodded and looked over at Harry.

"So, how many rooms did you get?"

"Two this time, since we plan on being here for a while," Harry answered, pushing his cup away and looking up at Ron and the others.

"Maybe we should go upstairs and start trying to open the box," Hermione suggested several minutes later.

The others nodded in agreement and followed Harry to his and Ron's room.

When they entered the room, Ron and Hermione settled down on one of the beds, Annora on the chair at the desk, and Harry sat down on the other bed after closing and locking the door.

Harry picked up the box and set it down on the bed in front of him. Taking his wand out, he tried the basic 'Alohamora' charm.

"Some how I knew that wouldn't work," Harry said, still a little disappointed that it hadn't worked.

"Let me try," Hermione said, walking closer and pointing her wand at the box, "Distraho! Aperio! Effringo!" Hermione made a sound of frustration. "None of them are working."

"Maybe we have to do something else, maybe it isn't just closed by a locking charm," Annora suggested.

"Maybe," Harry said, looking down at the box. "Let me try to unlocking charms first."

Hermione showed Harry the wand movements for each of the charms.

"Distraho!" Harry exclaimed, before moving on to the next charm and changing the wand movement. "Effringo!" Letting out a frustrated sigh when nothing happened, Harry went on to the next one, "Aperio!"

"No," Hermione interrupted, "You're doing the wand movement wrong."

Hermione corrected Harry's wand movement and stood back as he tried again.

"Aperio!" Everyone sucked in breathes of shock and surprise when the box snapped open.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked angrily, looking at Harry as if he had cheated.

"I did what you said to do!" Harry replied defensively.

"But how did you get it to work when I couldn't?"

Trying to stop the rapidly forming argument, Annora spoke up with a thought. "Maybe it's because Harry's parents are the ones who performed the charm. Spells can sometimes be linked with parentalis charms, or ancestor charms. They are especially popular on heirlooms, so that only family members can get to them."

"Of, course. Why didn't I think of that? I knew there had to be a reason why Harry could do it and I couldn't," Hermione said before clapping her hand over her mouth and blushing.

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry smirked before walking over to the now-open box.

They had only been looking through the stuff in the box for about an hour, when Harry came across a smaller box. This box, luckily, did not have a locking charm.

The others attention was drawn to him when Harry sucked in a breath.

"What is it, Harry?" Ron asked, looking up from the pictures in his hand.

"Look at this you guys," Harry said motioning them over. As they crowded around him, Harry showed them the piece of parchment he had found. "It looks like its notes, about…"

"Horcruxes," Hermionelooked at Harry inshock. She then reached out,taking the parchment out of Harry's hand and looking at it more closely.

"What does that mean?" Annora asked.

"This must have been your parents' job Harry, or at least their side job," Hermione said, giving Harry the parchment back to him and looking in the smaller box again. "There are more pages in here." Hermione drew out a stack of pages. "There must be at least twenty pages of notes here!"

Annora walked over to look at the pages with Hermione.

"It looks like there is a map here, too," Annora said after taking some of the papers from Hermione and shifting through them.

"What is it a map of?" Ron asked, as he and the others looked up from the notes they were reading.

"I'm not sure," Annora said, looking closely at the map and then passing it over to Hermione.

Hermione looked intently at the map and then shuffled through the notes in her hand, suddenly she gasped loudly.

"Oh, if this is what I think it is…" Hermione said, looking back at the map.

"What?" Harry asked.

Hermione didn't respond and instead looked back at the notes and then at the map once more.

"Hermione," Ron said impatiently.

"It looks like this is a map of Ravenclaw's ancestral home," Hermione answered looking up at the others, an expression of wonder on her face.

"Did you hear me?" Hermione asked, looking at the blank expressions on their faces.

"Yeah we heard you, Hermione, we just don't understand what the big deal is," Ron answered.

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh, "The big deal is that Ravenclaw's home has been lost for centuries. No one knows where it is located anymore; it was like it vanished into thin air."

"So, why would my parents have a map of it?" Harry asked, rubbing his head. He felt a headache coming on.

"From the notes, it looks like your parents knew about the Horcruxes and were looking for them," Hermione began, but was interrupted by Ron.

"We know that already."

"Yes, Ron, but, it looks like they were able to track one down. They believed that it was still in Ravenclaw's home."

"But, why would it be there?" Harry asked, "Wouldn't Voldemort have hidden it somewhere else like he did the locket?"

"Well, it could have been hidden in Ravenclaw's home, couldn't it? Like I said, no one knows where the house is located."

"Until now," Annora said, looking at the map.

Hermione nodded in agreement and looked up at Harry and Ron. "We need to go here first. It's the best lead we have right now. We should plan on heading out that way tomorrow. We won't be able to apparate since we don't have a clear impression of what the place looks like. We'll just have to follow the directions on the map, it may take longer but it will be safer."

The others agreed and they headed downstairs for some lunch. They spent the rest of the day relaxing until they would have to leave in the morning.

Although they had previously planned on staying at the inn longer, they had gotten information about the location of the first Horcrux sooner than they had thought they would.

Once they had all woken up the next morning and gone downstairs to get breakfast, they ordered plenty of ham and pickle sandwiches and packed them for the trip.

They checked out of the Inn and headed out soon after. They knew where one of the landmarks on the map was and were able to use the Inn's fireplace, which was connected to the Floo network to get to it, but still estimated that it would take at least two days to get to the village near Ravenclaw's home.

Later that night after plodding through a swamp for ten hours, they came upon a clearing.

"This is a good place to stop for the night," Harry said, dropping heavily to the ground, glad that he could rest his feet, at least for a while. "Tell me why we can't fly on brooms again?"

"Because we need to stay hidden. Even with a disillusionment charm we would be too vulnerable up in the sky. The trees make it harder for us to be followed," Hermione answered, sitting down next to Annora.

"Right," Harry replied, taking a drink of water from his water bottle.

Ron sat down next to Harry and pulled out his own water bottle. "We should rest for tonight and start again tomorrow morning."

The others agreed and soon they were putting up their tents magically. They had decided not to apparate back to an inn every night because it would be too much of a hassle.

"So do the notes say anything about what the Ravenclaw Horcrux is?" Harry asked Hermione as he led the others through a thicket of tall plants.

"It didn't say," Hermione said in a disappointed tone. "I spent hours last night, after dinner, looking through that part of the notes trying to find some mention of what it might be, but I couldn't find anything."

"You and your reading," Ron smirked. "Did you sleep at all, Hermione?"

"Of course I did."

"Only because I made her go to sleep a little after midnight," Annora cut in.

Hermione blushed. "I was getting ready to go to sleep anyway."

"Yeah, right," Annora smirked.

Five more hours of trudging through the forest finally paid off when Harry stopped and motioned to a clearing ahead of them.

"Is that the valley on the map?" Harry asked, turning to Hermione who had been carrying the map.

Looking down at the map, Hermione turned it sideways and back again. "It seems like it. We need to turn to the right here and follow alongside that river."

They all nodded and continued on.

After about another hour of walking, they were all tired and wishing they would find what they were looking for soon.

"What if the house is unplotted and we just can't see it?" Ron asked.

"I hope not," Hermione answered, wiping sweat off her forehead and looking down at the map again. "We should be close now."

"I am so hungry," Ron commented taking out a sandwich from his bag and taking a large bite out of it.

Harry, Hermione, and Annora followed Ron's lead and dug sandwiches for themselves out of their own bags.

Soon after they had all finished their sandwiches, Hermione suggested that they take a break for a minute while she checked the map.

Harry agreed and sank down on a nearby stump. "How close are we?"

"There should be a clearing just up ahead," Hermione said, sitting down on a large rock next to Ron and resting her head on his shoulder.

Ron wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he whispered in her ear.

Hermione nodded, kissed Ron on the cheek, and got up from the rock. "The map makes it look like we should be there before dinner time. We can rest more once we get there, maybe."

The others nodded and got up as well.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, Hermione?" Ron asked again, studying her face closely as Harry and Annora walked ahead of them.

"Yeah, my legs hurt though. I'm not used to exercising like you guys are."

"I can carry you," Ron suggested, smiling at her.

Hermione returned his smile. "That's sweet Ron, but I don't think so."

"If you're sure…"

Hermione nodded.

"Well, can I hold your hand at least?"

Hermione smiled again and held out her hand. "Sure."

Ron clasped her hand with his and brought it up to his lips, kissing the inside of her wrist. "I miss being able to snog you," Ron pouted.

"Me too," Hermione admitted softly.

They were interrupted when Harry called their attention to the clearing they were coming upon.

"This must be it," Harry said, walking forward. "Is that the house?"

"It's really there?" Hermione exclaimed running forward to see the house for herself.

"Whoa," Ron said, coming to stand behind Hermione. "It's huge!"

Actually huge was an understatement. It was by far the biggest house any of them had ever seen or imagined. Although it wasn't quite as large as Hogwarts, it wasn't far from it.

The castle – as there was no other appropriate word for it – was made with grayish white stone. Four cylinder-shaped towers were situated at each corner and the arched windows had scenes made of stained glass in each of them.

The river ran along one side of the castle. On the other side was a garden filled with bushes of pink, red, and yellow roses. Situated in the middle of the garden was a fountain with an eagle statue, water pouring from the tips of the wings and tail.

As they looked at the grounds and castle in wonder, they failed to notice the elder woman approaching them.

"I've been waiting for you four to get here. I'm glad to see that you have finally arrived. Why don't we go up to the house and get out of the heat?"