Chapter 7: A tent in the woods

Hermione had taken them to a forest her parents had taken her to when she was a child. It was quiet, with ancient oak trees and a babbling river. As soon as she landed Anthony and she began setting up a circle of wards. Meanwhile, Dudley and Ron dug out the tent and started setting it up, with quite a bit of arguing and head-scratching. Harry stood where they landed. In his mind's eye, he could still see that burning shop. Why had death eaters come after Madame Snape? Had Snape sold out his own mother?! Why?! He loved his mother! Harry knew that!

But did he?

He'd thought that Snape was loyal to Dumbledore.

And he couldn't have been more wrong.

"Harry?" Susan muttered worriedly with a hand on his back. Sirius glanced over. He was on high alert, wand drawn, guarding the gap in the wards that Hermione and Anthony were speedily closing. "Are you alright?" Harry sighed.

"I'm… really tired." he decided. And he was. He just felt so utterly emotionally drained. The adrenaline that had carried them out of York had completely drained away.

"Can we get a little help mate?!" Ron cried in alarm as the tent pegs began attacking him and Dudley, somehow looked enraged despite being inanimate objects. Harry sighed and walked over.

Harry sat outside the tent in the biting cold of early October. In truth, he barely noticed the cold. He was supposed to be keeping watch, but the trees all looked the same. As he stared out into the darkening forest he felt the oppressive hopelessness of their situation bare down on him.

"Hey pup." Sirius suddenly said, startling the young man

"Hey." harry murmured.

"Mind if I join you?" Sirius offered. Harry shrugged and continued staring out into the darkness. Sirius followed his gaze. "Harry?"

"I'm alright," Harry muttered slowly. Sirius stared at him with pained eyes then he sighed.

"If I had my way you'd be at Dr. Emmeline's office by now."

"It's probably blown up by now," Harry said bitterly. "Seems everywhere I go ends up destroyed."

"Harry." Sirius said worriedly, "you know that's not true."

"Don't I?!" Harry demanded angrily as he got up and started pacing in front of his godfather. "let's list it shall we?! Random coffee shop in London? Had its whole counter destroyed! Grimmauld place? Well, it's probably been demolished by now! The Ministry? They'll be replacing windows for months I bet! York went up in bloody flames! And I'm trying really hard not to think about what happened to home or Hogwarts! Can't imagine the death eaters have left either alone!" Harry raged, though his voice grew choked by the end of it. Sirius stood and pulled him into a tight hug. Harry sobbed and clung to the man tightly. "Why does everyone I care about get hurt?" he sobbed. Sirius shushed him comfortingly.

"Pup," he began, pulling back slightly, "it's not your fault. It's all because of You-Know-Who."

"No," Harry corrected, "it's because of Sybil bloody Trelawyney," he complained bitterly. Sirius chuckled.

"Well if we wanna get super particular it's whoever told You-Know-Who about the prophecy." Harry stopped.

"Hang on… who did tell You-Know-Who?" he asked. Sirius shook his head.

"I'm not sure. Susan said the tag on your prophecy indicated that the only one in the room was Albus. I very much doubt he intended to tell anyone. So someone must have been eavesdropping. Or maybe they got it out of Albus through subterfuge, though I highly doubt it. The man was better at keeping secrets than smiling." Harry nodded. He knew that well. After all, it was because of Dumbledore's perchance for secrets that he was here at all. If the man had told Harry about the prophecy or the Horcruxes years ago, they could have started searching for them together, and maybe Harry wouldn't be in some random forest, stuck with a Horcrux that he had absolutely no idea how to deal with. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his palms. He really was so very tired.

"Go get some sleep pup." Sirius said firmly, "I'll take over." Harry nodded and walked back into the tent. Ron was playing another round of chess with Dudley. It was almost domestic. Harry could fool himself for just a moment that they were six friends on a supervised camping trip.

Just for a moment though.

"Hey mate," Ron began worriedly, "you alright?" Harry sighed.

"I'm tired. Sirius has taken over the watch, so I'm heading to bed early."

"Alright mate. Sleep well." Ron said with a slight frown. Dudley stared after him a moment longer. But Harry refused to meet his gaze. Dudley shook his head slightly and turned back to his pieces. He'd have a chat with Harry in the morning.

But when Harry woke up in the morning he pushed all the uncertainty of yesterday from his mind. The group settled down at the table and laid out everything they had to hand, including the locket. There was something about it that made him uneasy. It was heavy in his hands, far heavier than he thought it ought to be, and sometimes he swore he could hear it whispering to him.

"First things first," Hermione declared, "we're going to have to get our food situation sorted. I think there's some fish in the river, so we've got some protean at least.

"I can go and see if I can find some rabbits as well." Susan offered. Harry frowned.

"We can't go tromping around the forest hunting, it'll draw too much attention."

"I'm not going to be 'tromping'." Susan reminded him before she shrunk down and disappeared under the table. Then she flew up and made a screeching noise. Harry smiled. She really was such a beautiful goshawk.

"Just be careful," Hermione said sternly. "You're a rare bird after all. The last thing we want is some muggle conservationist getting a hold of you." the hawk nodded slowly before ruffling her feathers and hopping up and jumping onto Harry's shoulder, then cooing and rubbing her cheek against his hair. Harry laughed and brushed down her back. Then she fluttered back down to her chair and transformed again.

"On to the next order of business," Sirius said as he looked down at the locket. "What do we do about that thing? Something tells me we shouldn't leave it for long."

"Can… can you feel it too?" Harry asked in shock. Everyone else blinked at the pair.

"The aura of evil? Oh hell yeah." He said firmly. "I think part of it is canine instincts."

"It almost feels alive." Harry said, sounding oddly reverent, "sometimes I think I can hear it." But when he looked up Sirius was ashen.

"Er… Harry? What are you talking about?" He asked. Harry blinked.

"I… I thought you said you could feel it?"

"Evidently not like you can," Sirius remarked quietly. Harry frowned.

"It's probably cause of his connection to You-Know-Who," Ron said astutely, "he's always been able to sense where he was. And since this is part of his soul, I'm not surprised about the idea of whispering. Remember the diary? At least you can't write in it!"

"It was pretty horrible what happened to Ginny," Anthony remarked with a grimace. "I definitely don't what that to happen to any of us."

"Well I don't think it's strong enough to do that," Harry said matter of factly. "It's been established that I can feel it a bit different than everyone else. Now that I know that I can tell you that the diary… was a lot stronger than this. I didn't realize it at the time, but it sort of… pulsated with magic." He picked up the locket, turning it around in his hands and nodding. "this one… all it can really do is exhibit that aura."

"Huh," Susan remarked with a tone of horrified interest, "I wonder if it's because it's newer."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Well, you said the diary was You-Know-Who's first Horcrux. And this one is a couple years later. At that point, he'd already made three more. Maybe the newer the Horcruxes are, the weaker they are."

"Maybe," Hermione said then she turned to the library case and pulled out a few volumes, "I'll have to do some research, though I'm not sure I'll be able to find the answers. Horcruxes are so obscure I can't even find info in any of the wretched books Sirius' family collected; beyond a few scraps anyway."

"Which is probably good." Sirius muttered with a pale face, "can you imagine if they had? I wouldn't put it past my mother to do something so despicable. And the idea of her still being around." The man shuddered in horror.

"Back to the matter at hand," Dudley reminded, "how do we destroy it?"

"I… don't know," Harry admitted with a wince. "Dumbledore never got to that part. I know I destroyed the first one with a basilisk fang…" Sirius blinked.

"Well, that's easy enough. We'll just get a chicken's egg and a frog." He said plainly.

"We're not hatching a basilisk!" Anthony cried out in alarm. His mother worked in the department of the regulation of magical creatures. He'd always been very sensitive about treating animals properly, and avoiding unnecessary contact with the most dangerous ones. "they're a class XXXXXX dangerous creature! That, I'll remind you, can kill with a look!"

"But Harry's a parslemouth." Sirius pointed out smugly, "he'll be able to talk to it! And worst-case scenario we can always blind the thing."

"That's animal cruelty!" Both he and Hermione cried in horror.

"We're not hatching a basilisk," Susan said with a sigh. "It takes upwards of a year, and something tells me we don't have that kind of luxury of time. The country wouldn't be worth saving by then." The group grew a bit forlorn as she said that. The severity of the situation settled in their stomachs making them feel heavy and tired. Then Hermione huffed and pushed the melancholy away.

"I'll make that my first research project. There must be something on destroying them! Or at least more on destroying them then creating then."

"We shouldn't leave it lying around in the meantime." Dudley remarked, "this thing kinda reminds me of The One Ring."

"Oh my god, You're right!" Hermione cried in shock, "it definitely does! Do you think Tolkien knew about Horcruxes?!"

"Probably not," Dudley said with a chuckle, "seeing as he was a Christian muggle in the 1910s yeah?" Hermione blushed.

"Right."

"Sorry," Susan said with a smile, "catch us ignorant wizards up. What is 'The One Ring' and who's Tolkien?" Hermione gave a horrified gasp and turned back to the library trunk and emerged with four books and slammed them on the table.

"Please for the love of Merlin educate yourselves!" she said in disgust.

"'The Hobbit'?" Ron read the top title with intrigue, "what's a hobbit?"

"Oh wow," Dudley said with a grimace. "I haven't even read the books but even I know what a hobbit is."

"You haven't read the-" Hermione began indignantly before he tapped the book's cover and suddenly the book duplicated itself and landed in front of everyone else. "assigned reading! By the end of this trip, you'll all have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit." Ron looked at the book in newfound distaste. He never did his assigned readings, so he probably wouldn't bother now. Anthony chuckled indulgently and cracked the book open and began reading right away.

"But I've already seen the movie," Dudley argued, "surely I don't need-"

"You're reading that book Dudley Dursely!" Hermione snapped. The burly teen huffed then straightened up again.

"We shouldn't let the locket out of our sights regardless. But I don't like the idea of wearing it."

"Why not?"

"Well if it is anything like The One Ring," Dudley began worriedly, "it'll be able to influence us. Make us do things we normally wouldn't, or make us paranoid and possessive of it. Trust me when you get to the bit about Gollem you'll know what I mean."

"I don't think that's entirely accurate," Hermione argued. "At the end of the day, The Lord of the Tings is still fiction after all." Suddenly Susan picked it up and dropped into around her neck.

"We'll wear it for now. But maybe we should take turns, just in case it does have that kind of power." She said.

"Works for me," Ron said. Then he picked looked down at the book and made a face. "I'll read it. But only cause you say it might have something about Horcruxes in it." Harry laughed and cracked it open as well. He remembered liking the little snippets of The Lord of the Rings he could hear through his cupboard. It was worth a shot. And it wasn't as if they had anything better to do.

Two days later Ron was fiddling around with the radio, and periodically glancing at the paper he'd nicked from the ministry the week before.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked with a frown. The bursts of sound followed by static were getting on his nerves. He scratched at the chain around his neck and growled. It was really bugging him today.

"There's this ad here," Ron said, tapping the last page with a frown. "Caught my eye. And I think…" he trailed off as he leaned towards the radio again. "I think... " then he pulled out his wand and tapped it once "Belgrade." then there was a pop of sound and a familiar voice poured out.

"-llo to those just joining us. Welcome to Potterwatch, your one-stop shop for all things Potter-related."

"Fred?!" Harry cried in shock.

"Guys!" Ron shouted excitedly. Sirius and Dudley came from the bedroom, groggy from a nap. Susan poked her head into the tent from her watch and Hermione looked up from her book. Anthony was last, emerging from the kitchen in Hermione's pink apron.

"What's going on?" Anthony asked, holding a cooking spoon covered with a tomato sauce.

"Come listen!" Harry cried in awe.

"We have a long list of news today, so settle in. Firstly, we can, at last, confirm the rumours that Harry Potter and a band of allies we've been collectively calling 'The Motley Crew' did indeed infiltrate the ministry last Wednesday!"

"Infiltrate?!" another voice cried with a laugh. "Rapier I think you mean decimate! Every window in the place was shattered! Not to mention that god-awful statue was blown to literal dust! And a good thing too! It was an eyesore!

"George!" Ron said ecstatically.

"That is true Stiltskin." Fred replied, "and not only that! But the report has come in that both Dolores Umbridge and Pius Thickness are out of action. Permanently."

"Now I'm not one for celebrating such things. But I think for the first time I will have to crack one open and toast to the dementors for a job well done and death well deserved. Hope your rotting in hell, Ms. Umbridge." Fred said darkly. Harry blinked in shock.

"The dementors attacked her and Thickness?" he asked. Susan shook her head.

"I guess," she whispered, "I didn't exactly stay in there once my Patronus fell… can't say I'm surprised though. She was the one keeping them at bay after all. Probably wanted revenge."

"On a sadder note," George began, sounding melancholy, "there were other casualties during The Crew's excursion. Dave Patterson of the maintenance team was killed helping the rest of maintenance and several captured muggle-borns escape during the attack. Thankfully all others managed to escape." Ron sat back in the chair with a slack face.

"Not Dave…" he whispered in horror. "He seemed like a great bloke."

"In addition, Julie Pentegast of the department of mysteries. She was killed for helping Harry Potter and Susan Bones escape the department of mysteries." Susan stood up, eyes dimmed, and turned back out of the tent. Harry stood up to follow her when he froze.

"Now, regarding the burning of York. I have an eyewitness here who would like to settle the score. Please join me in welcoming Princess"

"Thank you Mr. Stilskin." came the haughty voice of a very familiar elderly woman, "but I believe we agreed my codename would be Madame?"

"Madame Snape!" Hermione cried in awe

"Madame is too generic!" Fred cried.

"It's got to be something people will remember!" George agreed. The woman harrumph then cleared her throat.

"The Burning of York was the final act in what has been a long-term plan by the death eaters to pressure me into providing them with my research on an elixir known as Polyjuice Potion. I have been conducting a decades-long search for ways to extend the potion's duration and to shorten its brewing time. I have of course been staunchly against providing my research to anyone. I had intended to sell my finished patents to the Auror Department before they became puppets to this new regime. But the death eaters and their over pompous master decided they deserved it, with or without my permission. Of course, in their over zealotry, they managed to burn it and my entire shop to the ground! Rest assured, I am far from pleased. And if they thought that I would comply before they destroyed my hard-won property, well! I certainly won't be now!" Eileen finished with a snarl. Harry felt almost sorry for anyone who thought they could bully that woman.

Almost.

"Well thank you very much for your time, Princess." Fred cried. There was a sound of a stick hitting the table

"Madame!" Eileen snapped angrily

"Right," George said with a slight waver. "On to the next order of business-" Harry didn't stay for the rest. He'd taken too long as it was. He rushed out of the tent and looked around. There he found Susan, sitting against a tree, rubbing her cheeks and sniffling. He sat down and pulled her into his arms.

"I really liked Julie." she finally choked out, "she was so sweet… one of my mum's best friends."

"I'm sorry," Harry murmured.

"Why are you apologizing?" Susan demanded with a touch of irritation. "It's not your fault Harry. You didn't kill her. The death eaters did."

"But I-" he began but Susan's eyes were hard and he huffed. "I'm just trying to offer some sympathy." Susan sighed.

"I know." she murmured, "but I really hate that you feel like everything is your fault." she buried her face into his neck. Then she tisked and pulled the locket over his head. "You've been wearing this all day, haven't you?"

"It's my turn to," Harry argued though he was grateful for it to be off. It was itching like crazy.

"I suppose, but you always get so melancholy when you wear it."

"I guess it just reminds me of how little progress we've actually made," he muttered as he glared down at the locket with a scowl. But it stubbornly remained.

"We all knew it wasn't going to be easy." Susan reminded him with a weak smile. And Harry felt his heart swell. That was one of the things he loved about Susan. She always managed to smile, even when things seemed so bleak. He placed a kiss on her temple and hugged her again. As long as he had Susan he was sure everything would be fine.

Harry sat outside again, watching the trees with apprehension. He always got nervous whenever Susan went out. It was just so nerve-wracking. What if a hunter came along and decided she was the perfect prize? Or what if she really was caught by muggle conservationists? Would they be able to tell she wasn't really a goshawk when they ran tests on her? He was just so worried. Then suddenly a white streak dove out of the sky. And Susan appeared at the edge of the campsite. She leaned down and picked up her prizes. Two lean rabbits, not quite into adulthood, but with enough meat on their bones for a soup or a casserole if they stretched it out a bit.

"Susan!" Harry cried happily. The girl chuckled.

"You don't always have to wait for me, Harry."

"I get nervous when I don't," Harry muttered as the girl finally came within reach of a hug. "And besides, it's kinda tense in there right now."

"Let me guess, it's Ron's turn again?" she muttered darkly. Harry flinched. It'd been a few weeks since they'd started camping, and therefore a few weeks since they'd started passing the locket around. True to Dudley's predictions, it did have a habit of bringing out the worst in them all. But of the seven of them, Ron was the worst. Sure, Dudley and Sirius got cranky and had a habit of sullenly glaring at things that displeased them, but Ron had a habit of loudly declaring the things that were upsetting him, usually things no one could really control, and complaining none stop. "I swear to Merlin if he makes one complaint about the rabbits I'll rip out his eyes with my talons." Susan declared darkly. Harry flinched.

"Come on, you know it's not his fault."

"We need to stop wearing that thing, Harry. It's going to make us tear each other apart." Susan insisted. Harry sighed and rubbed his face.

"I know, but where else can we keep it? We can't just leave it lying around. It's likely to get lost again. And who knows where it'll end up this time." Harry argued. He'd finished reading The Hobbit and The Fellowship and was now halfway through Two Towers and was getting a firm idea of just what Dudley had meant. While it wasnt completely accurate (the locket didn't make people invisible after all) he could see a lot of parallels. And suddenly he began to wonder if Mundungus taking the locket hadn't been a coincidence at all. What if the locket had wanted to be stolen? It would make it safer, at least from Kreacher. And now he was so paranoid of the thing just disappearing one day. Susan and he marched into the tent. Ron was fiddling with the radio again, cursing under his breath as he listened for the little blip that told him he'd found the right frequency. He was almost constantly trying to tune back into Potterwatch. The show happened at irregular intervals every few days and had featured a quickly growing cast. Fred, George, and Eileen had been joined by Kingsley, Arthur, Moody, and even Jim Burtons, who'd managed to link up with the order along with Steve and Reg, who were all calling themselves 'The Maintenance Team'.

"We're cleaning this place up," Jim declared ecstatically, "one death eater at a time!"

Now Harry didn't mind listening to Potterwatch. It made him rather hopeful for the future. But Ron's contents fiddling gave him a headache on the best of days.

"Can you turn that thing off?" Harry finally gripped with a rub of his face. The ginger threw him a dirty look. Then he spotted the two rabbits in Susan's hands and scowled.

"Can't you ever find anything else?" he complained. Susan's face hardened.

"Why don't you go out and hunt something?" she demanded coldly. Ron scoffed.

"Well sorry but I'm not the one who can turn into a bird and go flying off to who knows where. Just seems like after all this time you should be better at it is all," he said with a sneer. Susan took a very deep breath through her nose and marched into the kitchen where Hermione was making a mushroom soup.

"Don't talk to her like that," Harry said angrily. "She busts her arse every day to keep you fed. The least you could do is show a little gratitude." Ron didn't say anything, just glowered and turned back towards the radio. Harry grit his teeth as the static filled the tent again. Then he turned towards the kitchen. Sirius was already skinning and gutting the rabbits, tossing the bones into a pot that simmered almost none stop making a stock that Hermione added to almost everything. It was almost comforting to him.

"How's it going?" Harry asked casually. Hermione looked up.

"Seems alright. Once we add a bit of the zucchini and rabbit it should be pretty good… it would be better with cream."

"We'll have to make do." Harry insisted, "how much flour do we have left?"

"Not much. We'll have to plant more wheat soon.." Hermione admitted as she opened the sack they'd been using to hold their flour. When Hermione had shown Harry the wheat seeds he'd been floored. But the ingenious idea to make their own flour had been surprisingly effective. Harry had been making bread regularly with their whole-grain flour and its deliciousness received general consensus.

Well, almost general consensus.

Ron complained that it was too crunchy.

"Do we have enough of the sourdough for tonight?" he asked.

"Oh yes. More than enough.'' Hermione assured him.

"Good. Do you need me to make more pasta for tomorrow?"

"No. I still have some dried from last week."

"Do you need me to do anything?" Harry offered with a chuckle.

"Yes," Hermione said as she stirred the pot. "You can go set the table." Harry chuckled and grabbed the utensils to do just that.

"Dinner 's almost ready!" he shouted in a summons. Ron huffed and pushed the radio to the end of the table as Harry set a spoon in front of him. Anthony and Dudley marched into the tent with a crack of their necks and a shaking out of their limbs. They'd been practicing magic. Dudley was getting quite good at dodging spells. Course his own spells weren't exactly all that powerful. He had finally managed to trip Harry with a stunner a few days ago though!

"What's for dinner tonight hun?" Anthony asked with a cheeky grin. Hermione smacked him with her oven mitt.

"Rabbit stew." she declared, "courtesy of Susan."

"So the same as the last four days?" Son snarked coldly. Hermione scowled at him. Harry felt a vein throb.

"Just eat it." he snapped as he slammed the bowl on the table with a bit more force than necessary, a bit of it sloshing over the side. Harry took a few bites and smiled. It wasn't five-star restaurant fare, but it was warm and tender and Hermione had added just the right amount of spices. Harry had been teaching her how to cook and she'd been getting better and better by the day. He was about halfway down his bowl when he looked up and scowled. Ron was acting like a petulant child, scooping the soup up and pouring it back out again with a disgusted look on his face. "Just take a damn bite you arsehole!"

"What the point?" he drawled bitterly "I'll probably sick it up later anyway. It's manky."

"Well maybe if you helped out for a change!" Harry snarled, climbing to his feet. "Instead of sulking around fiddling with that stupid fucking radio!"

"Do you wanna why I fiddle with the radio every god damn day?!" Ron demanded, rising to his feet as well, chest heaving. "Because I'm terrified that one day I'll turn it on and my entire fucking family will be dead!" Harry sighed.

"Ron… I get that,"

"No, you don't!" Ron snapped cruelly, "because you don't have a real family!" Harry flinched back as though Ron had slapped him. Then Susan stood and actually did slap Ron. The sound echoed around the tent rather loudly. "The F-"

"Shut up!" Susan snapped furiously. There was a moment when the tent descended into stunned and awkward silence.

"You can't-" Ron began angrily.

"Shut up!" Susan repeated, eyes glowing with rage. Then she extended a hand. "Take it off."

"Fi-"

"No!" She roared. "You don't say anything till I say you can! Now take that bloody thing off!" Ron stared at her, looking sullen but simultaneously a little afraid. Then he complied, laying the locket in her hand. She threw it away without a second glance.

"Susan!" Harry cried in alarm.

"Leave it!" The girl snarled as held up a finger, as if daring Harry to ignore her previous warning to Ron, despite not letting the ginger out of her sight. Ron seemed to relax before her eyes. And a lot of anger melted away to reveal a hot face of shame. "Now apologies to Harry." She said sternly. Ron wouldn't dare meet his eye.

"Sorry mate." He choked out in a whisper. Harry blinked at his friend but didn't say anything.

"Now apologize to Hermione." She declared. Ron stared down at the scuffed-up table with red ears.

"Sorry." He murmured, trying to keep his voice as small as he felt.

"Now sit down and eat your goddamn soup." Susan finished as she sat down herself. Ron did just that, curling up slightly and eating very slowly. Harry craned his neck to see where Susan had thrown the locket. "I said leave it, Harry!"

"But-" he began worryingly when his girlfriend sent him a withering look.

"I would like just one night when that thing isn't totally fucking with our emotions, alright?" Susan drawled. Harry flinched then nodded. The rest of the meal had been awkward and quiet. The minute it was over Ron made a b line for the bed, refusing to look at anyone. Harry meanwhile went over and picked up the locket and dropped it over his neck.

"Pup," Sirius began worriedly.

"We can't leave it lying around," Harry argued. "And I'm the least affected out of all of us." Harry insisted before he stuffed it under his shirt, keeping it out of view.

"Alright." Sirius murmured worriedly before he tried for a bit of levity, "but the second you start losing hair and calling it 'my precious' all bets are off!" Harry laughed loudly.

When he went to bed it was late, Dudley and Anthony were snoring away in their own cots while Sirius took over the watch from Harry. Ron was sitting up in his bed waiting for him.

"Hey mate," he began almost silently. "I… I'm sorry."

"You already said that," Harry murmured. Ron flinched.

"I know." He said slowly. "I didn't mean say those things... it's just that goddamn locket… sometimes I think it gets into my head and whispers stuff at me like you say it does to you. Makes me see all the worse case scenarios and brings out everything that I hate about myself."

"What do you hate about yourself?" Harry asked. Ron let out a deep breath.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm just not good enough," Ron admitted. "I'm not smart like Anthony and Hermione, or brave like you and Sirius, or strong like Dudley or Susan… I'm just me."

"That bullshit!" Harry said angrily, a bit louder than he intended and flinched as Anthony rolled over in his cot and made a noise. "Ron you're amazing! I'll remind you that you were the one who planned the trip to the ministry!"

"A fat lot of good that did," Ron murmured. Harry scoffed.

"Oh come on! If it hadn't been for your plans we would be way worse for wear I'm sure. It was a lot better than going in blind. You're plenty brave! You managed to infiltrate the ministry all on your own!"

"It was only for a job interview." Ron insisted, though with rapidly pinking ears. Harry snorted and shook his head.

"Ron, you're my best mate. I love you, I really do, but sometimes you can be really thick." Harry insisted with a snicker. Ron scowled and swiped a pillow at the thin teenager.

"Can you two stop acting like a couple of grade-schoolers and go to bed?" Dudley grumbled into his pillow tiredly. Both Harry and Ron froze then sputtered as they tried to hold in snickers. As Harry climbed up into the top bunk Ron cleared his throat.

"Harry mate… I'm sorry bout what I said about you not having a real family… you do. You really do." Harry smiled.

"Thanks mate."

"Seriously guys, shut up! You can be emotionally-stunted knobs in the morning!" Dudley said a little louder. Harry and Ron sputtered themselves to sleep.

A/N: Honestly, it is astounding what one Hufflepuff is capable of when pushed to their limit.

Thank God and Merlin for Susan Isobel Bones.

ILoveGeorgeEads & Rori Potter: As you can both see, Eileen lived! And she hasn't lost any of her tenacity!

Aslan's Princess: I decided to not leave Eileen's survival floating for too long. The Crew needed some good news, and knowing that Eileen lived was pretty good news.

I am willing to say that shell be back again someday.

As you can see, they are indeed much more intelligent this time.

Personally, I always felt like Hermione was really dumbed down in the last book.

You'd think she'd been a little more competent, what with all her books and cleverness.

As for the foreshadowing...

That would be WAY too many spoilers for my taste.

You'll just have to suffer through not knowing I'm afraid...

Thanks again!

See you next week!

Don't forget to keep on reading!

-TTC