Trouble at the Tent 2
The first indication something wasn't right was a silvery ghost like doe in the nearby woods, that she felt compelled to follow.
The second was Ronald Bloody Weasley standing, perfectly dry with steam still rising from his warm clothing, saying he'd pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the bottom of the frozen over pond behind him. It's not like they hadn't moved a dozen times and intentionally not keyed the idiot into the wards after he left them. So of course, Harriett had embraced the red-headed glutinous prick like a long-lost brother…
"Ron!" Harriett exclaimed in surprise, "How'd you find us?" Either her attempt at keeping her shock and anger out of her voice worked, or Ron really was just that clueless.
"Hey, Harry," the youngest Weasley male she knew replied, "I just followed that Silver Doe."
"You didn't cause that?" she asked, scanning the area for others.
The idiot tried to act shocked, but really had no skill, "I thought it was you?"
"My Patronus is a Stag, Ron…"
"Oh yeah, I thought it looked different… no horns."
Harriett sighed and said, "Antlers…" softly.
"Huh?"
"Never mind, how come you're here?"
Ron shifted uneasily, "Well, I've… you know… I've come back. If… you know… you still want me."
'Is he seriously asking if the love potions are still active?' Harriett thought to herself. "Well since you're here, let's take care of this thing," she said pulling the Locket from around her neck.
"You're still carrying that thing? I thought you'd leave it in the tent."
"Never mind that," Harriett said bending down to wipe snow off a fairly flat-topped rock while keeping an eye on him, "let's just take care of it."
Ron tried to hand her the Sword, "Here, Harry." He probably thought he was being subtle while tilting nearly sideways to check out her bum as she'd been bent over.
With an unpleasant shiver she couldn't blame on the cold, and thinking fast, Harriett shook her head, "No, Ron… Dumble-dore taught me that there's a special magic in some kinds of acts. You being here… I think it means you need to be the one to destroy the Locket." 'while I keep Hermione's wand trained on you, you traitor.'
The clueless gut appeared confused, "But he… ah… yeah, okay."
Harriett focused on the snakelike S on the front of the locket for a moment as she slipped behind Ron, then whispered in Parseltongue, "Open."
"What are you doing?" Ron asked panicked as he heard her speak.
"The Horcrux is inside the Locket, Ron." Harriett said in an exasperated tone very similar to Hermione's when trying to get the moron to do homework.
"I've seen your heart," a voice hissed from the Locket, "and it is MINE!"
"Stab the Locket, Ron," she pushed his shoulder trying to get him to act.
Ron's blue eyes flashed red as he gazed down at the necklace, "I…"
"Such pain and jealousy, so delicious," the Locket continued, "your fears of being least loved by a mother wanting a daughter, tossed aside by friends that love each other instead of you, always second best, eternally overshadowed."
"Stab it!" Harriett screamed in his ear, then noticed that his eyes were no longer flashing red, but literally glowing that evil color.
With a rush of black wind, the locket stilled and Ron stiffened as if pulling in a very deep breath.
"Stupefy!" Harriett whispered as Ronaldmort began to turn. With a great sigh, Harriett picked up the Sword and bound the idiot in tightly in ropes, levitating him behind her before making her way back to the tent.
"Hey, Hermione!" She called out to her new girlfriend as she entered the tent with Ron's stunned, bound, and floating body behind her. "I've got good news, GREAT news, bad news, worse news, and a new project for us, which do you want first?"
The bushy haired witch lifted her head out of the book she'd been reading at the table and raised an eyebrow at the sight before her, "Interesting..."
"Good news... we have a way to destroy the Horcruxes now," Harriett said, indicating the Sward looped through her belt. "The great news is the Locket's not one anymore." Hermione got up and rushed to Harriett for a deep and lingering embrace. "The bad news... the gut's back."
"So I see."
"Which brings up the new project... finding out how he's tracking us and preventing it from working any longer so we don't have to worry about more uninvited guests."
"I think that just became priority number one," Hermione answered before kissing Harriett, "I really don't want him listening to what we do at night. What's the worse news?"
"Oh, the idiot's possessed. The Horcrux went into him…"
"Am I bad for thinking 'Two birds, one stone'?" the bushy haired witch asked the messy haired one.
"No more than me, Love… no more than me…"
A reworked and extended version of "Trouble at the Tent"
- some lines pulled directly from book 7, chapter 19... others paraphrased...
