When her feet hit the ground, Sharlen saw only bare-branch forest for miles. Turning in a circle, she struggled to find any hint that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were nearby and, failing, began to run. After several minutes of combing the area she'd Apparated to, she began to panic.
He still doesn't want to see me, she thought frantically. Sharlen turned around, panting from running, knowing they had to be nearby. She had only risked the locator spell a few times in the past several months, worrying it could potentially be intercepted now that the Ministry was under her father's control; she didn't want to put them at risk, but too much time had passed. She turned again and ran to the top of the next hill, hoping one of them would show themselves, though she wasn't sure if they would Apparate away if they saw her. At the top of the hill, she peered out over the forest and the barren trees—nothing at all. Her shoulders fell and she resigned to return to the manor and plan her next move instead.
Whipping around to try back the way she came, Harry was standing there alone, a mere 10 feet away, looking at her with such longing—and disbelief, as if he couldn't be sure he was really seeing her. A deep gasp escaped her and tears sprang into her eyes. His aura burned a clear red out to lemon yellow, so vibrant, ending with a gold outer ring for fatigue. It took her breath away—passion and fear of losing control.
"Finally," he breathed, eyes bright. Sharlen ran to him and threw her arms around his neck and he received her eagerly. Holding her to him tightly, they sank to the ground and cried, Sharlen straddling Harry's lap, her face buried in his neck and Harry with fistfuls of her cloak. Sharlen could not stop shaking; she'd been so sure he'd never let her touch him again.
After several minutes, Harry took a deep breath and pulled back to look at her. Removing her gloves shakily, Sharlen placed her palms over his cheeks and wiped his tears away with her thumbs. Harry stared as her eyes became unfocused, pupils fading away into white, her expression unchanging. She didn't mention what she saw but he sighed longingly at her touch, feeling selfish. Thirty feet behind him, Sharlen saw Hermione and Ron had appeared, with Hermione readjusting their defensive fields to encompass them. She felt immense gratitude.
Meeting Harry's eyes again, he told her, "You're all bones now." She self-consciously tried to shift off his legs, but he wouldn't let her move an inch, one arm firmly around her ribs and the other holding her lower back. Sharlen became acutely aware of the prominence of her ribs and hip bones against him. She searched his face; he looked older, and needed a shave. And a hot meal.
"I want to kiss you," she whispered, still crying silently. With a pained look, he held her head in his hands and kissed her, hard. When his tongue found hers, she didn't feel human any longer. As they finally pulled away, the same pain was in his eyes. She felt lightheaded and insane. "Is this real?"
He ran his fingers through her hair over her scalp and behind her ear to move it out of her face as the cold wind picked up around them. "I almost can't believe it, either."
As her wet eyes swept over him, they lingered on the gray aura around his scar. "It still hurts you, doesn't it? To be near me?"
Harry nodded slowly. "Moreso now than before, but it was worst when I was wearing the locket. Ron destroyed it." She couldn't take the time to process that they, too, had destroyed a Horcrux. Nodding and biting her lip to keep from outright sobbing, Sharlen turned her eyes skyward and more tears ran down her cheeks to her neck. Harry took hold of her chin and pulled her face gently down to look into his eyes again and said, "I don't care."
Knowing he was being stubborn and was in denial, she hushed him softly and folded him back into her arms. Over his shoulder, she gave Ron and Hermione a weak smile as they came close. "Thank you for helping him," she managed, sniffling and drying her face with her sleeve.
They both nodded carefully. Hermione put a tentative hand on her shoulder. "Have you been able to find your potion? You've been taking it, right?"
Sharlen nodded weakly. "I've been able to find a brewer in Knockturn Alley," she admitted, "And my Master sends it with an owl to me periodically. Very small amounts, a few days at a time. So I don't take off."
Hermione smiled sympathetically. "It's just, you look very tired."
Sharlen nodded and looked at the ground, a confession. "I got one, Harry," she whispered, turning back to him, their noses nearly touching. She closed her eyes, a few more tears running out from beneath her lash line, unable to hide a smile. "I destroyed one of the Horcruxes."
"You did?!" all three of them exclaimed, the joy in their voices ringing through her like a warm, golden song.
She nodded, her eyes still closed. "It wasn't one Dumbledore knew about, I don't think. It may have been practice, one of the first ones."
"What was it?" Hermione asked, stepping forward. "What did you do with it?"
Sharlen reached into her black pouch with trembling fingers, Harry releasing his grip on her briefly to assist, as she unearthed the black, tarnished silver cuff, cracked nearly in two. She held it up for them to see. "Sorceress Morgana le Fay's bracelet. It was said to keep any ailment from killing you, such as cancer or other diseases… she was a healer. My father came across it in his dealings with Borgin after he left Hogwarts." She sighed, turning it in the light. "I used Fiendfyre. It was the only thing that worked on it."
Their auras were mixed—for the most part, relief flooded through them, unable to believe their luck, but mild horror was seeping in too. "Sharlen, that's amazing," Harry said, the wonder in his voice making her bold. "I can't believe it. We didn't even know about that one."
Hermione seemed worried. "But what if there are more we don't know about?" she asked fretfully. "We're still at a loss with the ones we do have an idea about."
"I think this was the only surprise, really," Sharlen said softly. "It was careless—Bellatrix has been wearing it all along, there were no other protections put on its whereabouts. My father wouldn't have left one just lying anywhere—no, this was practice. A powerful magical object, yes, but he wouldn't need something like this to keep him alive. Besides, from how I felt while wearing it, I don't think its original powers meant much once it had been turned into a Horcrux… It didn't have meaning to him the way the others do."
"But how can we be sure this was the only one we didn't know about?" asked Harry.
"I had Lupin interview my ghost, Merope," Sharlen told them. Harry's eyebrows raised and she nodded. "Yes, my grandmother. I let her out so Lupin could ask her, but he still doesn't know about the Horcruxes. He told me she'd been watching and was sure this was the first one he made."
"But now we have a way to destroy the Horcruxes, at least." Ron held up the sword of Gryffindor.
Sharlen stood from Harry's grasp and walked closer to Ron in awe. "How?" was all she managed.
"It appeared," Harry said, standing to face the group as well.
"At the bottom of a frozen pond, mind you," Ron added lowly. "Ruddy inconvenient, don't you think? Couldn't have possibly made that any easier, surely..."
Sharlen shook her head violently a few times. "That sword is supposed to be in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault in Gringotts. Gringotts," she emphasized. The trio glanced around themselves, thoroughly riddled. "She's been bragging about it for months. I know it appears to those in need, but I don't understand how this is possible."
"Well, a Patronus led me to it," Harry added. "A doe. It showed me the sword at the bottom of the lake. When Ron returned."
"Returned…?" Sharlen asked curiously, looking up at Ron. Shame rang true in his aura and realization dawned on her face. "A great abandonment. The one we read in the cards, in the hospital wing."
"They were right," he said quietly. "I came to my senses."
Harry continued, wanting to spare his friends from bringing it up again when Hermione had barely even scratched the surface of forgiving Ron. "Why would it be in Bellatrix's vault?"
"And how do you know that?" Hermione added curiously.
Sharlen sighed, running one hand through her hair. "After the Snatchers brought me to Malfoy Manor I stayed there to regain my bearings amongst them. My father insisted. I thought I might have a better chance of getting clues of where the other Horcruxes are in that environment. And to try and protect Draco…" she trailed off, clearly angry. "He is so lost and so frightened and his father is so awful to him. He wouldn't dare beat him in front of me, so I tried to stay around as long as I could. Bellatrix has been gloating about my father trusting her enough to keep the sword in her vault."
"Well unless you have anything to contribute by means of where to find the next Horcruxes," Hermione piped up, "we're out of ideas. I was just telling Ron and Harry I wanted to go see Xenophilius Lovegood…"
"That's why I had to find you all," Sharlen interrupted. She turned to Harry purposefully. "They have Luna. At Malfoy Manor, they have Luna, and Dean. They're locked up."
The trio looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Sharlen continued, "I only just found out, met with Lupin and Kingsley to plan a rescue, and came to find you. Luna seemed insistent that I find you. I've been back and forth between there and Hogwarts."
"You've been back to the castle?" Harry asked, stepping closer to her.
"Yes," she admitted breathlessly. "Checking on Dumbledore's grave, now that the Death Eaters have taken over… I think two Horcruxes are hidden there in the school, and I've been searching, but I have no idea where to find them—and the students who are left have made it quite difficult…" She trailed off, rubbing her arm where the Dark Mark was absentmindedly. "They really hate me very much, but I have to keep going back and looking. And making sure my Master is not being too horrible to them." She looked into Harry's face and saw only pain there. "Many of the Gryffindors and others that were in Dumbledore's Army have taken to staying in the Room of Requirement—Ginny's there, Ron, she's okay—"
Harry interrupted her by pulling her back into a fierce hug. "Thank you for checking on everyone," he muttered against her hair. "That means everything to me."
"You've been in contact with Lupin all this time, then?" Ron asked curiously. She could see his eagerness for news in his aura.
"Yes," Sharlen whispered, "since Dumbledore's murder. We've been meeting to relay information. Well, me to him. I don't want to know anything the Order is doing in case I'm tortured for information. We meet once a month in Knockturn Alley."
Hermione asked, "Have you seen You-Know-Who?"
Sharlen nodded and said quietly, "Yes, many times. He comes to me often. He will start showing me to more Death Eaters."
"Well now we definitely need to see Lovegood," Ron added. "We have to find out a way to get Luna out of there."
"It's too dangerous for Harry to go anywhere near Malfoy Manor," Hermione snapped.
"Why do you want to go see him? Luna's father?" Sharlen asked Hermione. She held up her copy of Beedle the Bard and pointed to the sign of the Deathly Hallows.
"This symbol was on a grave in Godric's Hollow," she said. "It isn't a rune, I have no idea what it means but it keeps popping up and Dumbledore left this to me in his will. It's been inked in."
"Ignotus Peverell's grave, right?" Sharlen said. Hermione's eyes widened.
"Yes! How did you know?"
"The Peverell brothers were the original owners of the Deathly Hallows," Sharlen said simply. "He was buried in Godric's Hollow."
"The Deathly-what?" the trio chorused together.
"The Hallows, the—why were you going to ask Lovegood about the Deathly Hallows?"
"He had the symbol around his neck at my brother's wedding," Ron submitted. "Harry noticed it, and Viktor Krum had a cow about it..."
"Well I don't know what kind of clue it is, but it's all in the tale of The Three Brothers," Sharlen said like it was obvious. "If it's worth anything, my father believes the wand is real. So does Snape."
"Can anyone explain to me what's going on?" Harry interrupted shortly.
"Read it," Sharlen told Hermione. She walked a few paces away while Hermione read the story aloud to Ron and Harry, looking out over the forest, trying to figure out why Dumbledore would find this significant to their cause. It occurred to her for the first time that she hadn't ever given the Hallows much thought. Whenever they had come up, they'd be spoken about—very briefly—with extreme reverence.
She furrowed her brow, digging through her memories to try and recall a time her father had spoken to her about her inability to use a wand, when he returned to power. "It's no matter," he had said, twirling his bone-white wand in his hands, "Severus and I will see to it that your magical ability extends beyond the limitations of common wandlore. That you are a force to all but my own wand, and the Elder of my destiny."
Did Dumbledore believe, as well? While she was trying to piece together all she knew about the dead headmaster, Harry was saying something about his own Invisibility Cloak.
"But what does this have to do with the symbol?" Hermione mused, looking up at Sharlen.
She turned around and took the book from Hermione, tracing over the symbol with her index finger. The trio watched carefully. "The Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in the world," she said, tracing the straight line down the middle. "The Resurrection Stone," she continued, referencing the circle. "The Cloak of Invisibility," she finished with the outer triangle, and the trio brought their eyes up to meet hers in sync. "Together they make one the Master of Death."
"You don't think…" Harry muttered, still staring at the symbol.
"I dunno," Ron answered.
"Rubbish," said Hermione, closing the book. "This is a children's tale!"
"I saw that symbol in Gregorovich's wand shop. I saw Him torturing Ollivander, killing Gregorovich," Harry added, and Sharlen turned back around, knowing he was talking about her father. "Marvolo Gaunt thought it was a Peverell family crest on that black ring of his. It must be related to the Elder Wand." Sharlen listened while the three of them discussed Harry's Invisibility Cloak, and how it was far superior to others and, potentially, a Hallow itself.
"It is," Sharlen said quietly. "Dumbledore told me it was the first time I met him," she admitted sheepishly, guiltily. Inside, she felt stupid; her father had only ever cared about the wand, so the other two items barely registered as important even after being told she knew where one was. Harry seemed all too willing to forgive this overlooked information.
"You think my father… is after the Elder Wand?" Sharlen said dryly.
"I do now," he answered.
The four of them were quiet for a long time, thinking. Sharlen reached for her flask and took a swig.
"What Horcruxes do you think are at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked finally. "Do you know what they are?"
"I know they'll be small and valuable, and likely belonging to the original founders, same as you know," Sharlen muttered with a shrug. "I've searched high and low. The ghosts won't speak to me, the professors want to hex me, and Snape is in this perpetual stony silence as if I don't even exist." She looked at the ground. "I'm afraid they might not be there anymore, if they ever were. Or that they're separated, like all the others were."
"So you helped with the enchantments on the locket," Ron recited, trying to play catch-up, "but you don't know where all of them are."
"I helped with the Gaunt ring enchantments as well. My father felt it a familial duty that I take some part in their protection," Sharlen added, "And I knew about the diary, I just hadn't seen it in close to a decade. It makes sense that there wouldn't be one made from anything related to Gryffindor, since the sword of Gryffindor can destroy them—but I think it's definite that he would have used something from the other three founders. That leaves Ravenclaw, and the Hufflepuff cup."
"But we don't know where they are," Harry said slowly, confirming. Sharlen nodded sadly.
"But I'll keep looking, and asking," she assured him hurriedly. "No one's looking for me, no one knows me. I'll keep looking."
"We need to move on from here," Hermione said, looking suspiciously around the Forest of Dean again. "We've been here too long. We must keep moving."
"I'll go back to Hogwarts," Sharlen said sadly, "and I'll try to do more research on what the items could possibly be. If I can sneak into the library…"
"Here," Harry said quickly, reaching for Hermione's beaded bag and pulling out his invisibility cloak. He handed it to her, insistent. "Take this. It's only a matter of time before someone there does hex you."
"You're right, but I can't take this, especially if it's a Hallow," she said honestly. Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes a little. "It's important that you have it. I'll go as an owl, but first I must get information to Lupin about saving Luna and the others. I'll find you all again if I learn anything new."
She turned to go but Harry grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. "Please stay," he said desperately.
Sharlen's heart broke for him. "This isn't where you need me," she said quietly. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "You need me out searching, behind enemy lines. Use me, Harry, I've been telling you all along. Use me."
"I do need you here," he said earnestly, pulling her up against him. His isolation had truly worn on him. She let out a shaky sigh, ill-equipped to deny him. "Please, don't leave me."
Sharlen put a hand behind his neck and pulled him down to her, their foreheads touching. She closed her eyes as they went white, the vision of Harry and Hermione alone in a cold, snowy lane outside a graveyard overtaking her. "I will always come back. I will find you."
Hermione couldn't stand to watch the two of them. "We can stay one more night," she said suddenly. "Please. At least rest a while."
A wave of cold longing rippled through the core of her. "I haven't missed a night yet. That's when he comes, if he does," Sharlen told them quietly, thinking of her father. "If I'm gone and he visits…"
"It doesn't have to be all night," Hermione reasoned. "We have a little food, and we can plan our next move. And try to figure out what to do about Luna and Dean."
"I completely forgot!" Sharlen exclaimed, stepping back from Harry and taking out her black bag. She reached in almost up to her shoulder and took out the chicken, fruit, and bread, the trio moaning happily at the sight of it. Sharlen smiled as she passed it all out. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to see me, so I thought if I brought food…"
"You could bribe us?" Ron said around a mouthful of chicken leg. "Yeah, that absolutely would have worked."
Sharlen hesitantly agreed to stay into the night with them as the sun started to set and a new chill set into the forest, shivering with happiness and disbelief that Harry was happy to be near her again. She convinced Harry to let her go hunt as an owl to get more food for them, and took off as they built a new fire and settled in to talk about what new information Sharlen had brought them. The three of them were so happy to see the first bunny she brought, and Ron was nearly done skinning it when she brought a second. They let them roast over the fire.
While Ron and Hermione cooked the rabbits, Harry brought Sharlen into the tent. They lay down together and entwined, knowing they had so much to tell each other but unable to keep their lips apart. Sharlen felt breathless with it, her heart pounding brightly. The more she focused on the strength in his hands as they moved along her skin, up her sides to her shoulder blades, the deeper the ache between her legs. She kept trying to let her mind wide open, but she was out of practice, visions fighting to take over.
Harry followed on top of her as she moved onto her back, the weight of him better than she ever could have remembered. The visions were mundane things so far—snatches of his life as a Muggle without her, a few Hogwarts classes, Potions—as he kissed down her jaw to her neck, her collarbone. She bent her legs up to secure him between them, holding him fast with her thighs. But as he pulled the neck of her shirt down to expose her left breast, she saw Hogwarts with Dumbledore's white tomb by the lake. The grounds looked dark and empty. She struggled not to chase it and see what would transpire in the vision, partially afraid of what she might see, and partially out of her mind with happiness to have Harry on top of her.
Before long, his hot mouth on her chest, she had to pull herself up and stop him. "I'm out of practice," she told him sheepishly, running her fingers over her scalp as the visions faded. "I'm not able to open my mind around current company. It's too dangerous."
Harry sat up and drew her into him, keeping her securely in his arms. "It's okay," he told her, nuzzling her hair, breathing her in. She felt his heart hammering against her. Sharlen could not stop shaking. "You have to keep your mind closed at all times?"
"It's been a long six months," she told him honestly. "You start."
And Harry told her everything that had happened from the moment he walked away from her on the Hogwarts grounds when she told him who she was. "I ran into Trelawney on my way to see Dumbledore," he recalled. "That's when I found out Snape was the one who really turned my parents over to your father. About the prophecy. And I was already livid with him over who you were, so I was out of control with rage before we went to try and get the locket."
He told her about leaving the Dursleys', how Mad-Eye died in the Death Eaters' ambush, how his wand had reacted instinctively when facing Voldemort. The wedding, the cafe, breaking into the Ministry to find Dolores Umbridge, struggling to destroy the Horcrux. Ron leaving. Godric's Hollow. Seeing his parents' graves, which brought tears to his eyes, and hers. Ron's return and the doe Patronus that led them to the sword of Gryffindor.
At several points, Sharlen had to stop him from giving up too many details. "It's not safe for me to know too much," she insisted. Harry grinned and pulled her in firmly to kiss her neck. Sharlen closed her eyes, gripping his shirt as she breathed, "It's not safe."
Hermione called them outside when dinner was about finished, and Harry took Sharlen's hand to help her up off the bed.
The trio asked Sharlen what she'd been doing since Dumbledore's funeral, and she spared no details while they ate. Meeting with Moody and going through Auror training, watching them at King's Cross Station, the Death Eater meetings and the fall of the Ministry, her failed attempts to get into the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts and everywhere else she had searched, how falling ill led to discovering the Horcrux Bellatrix kept safe all this time—they sat with rapt attention. She felt like a giant weight was being lifted from beneath her ribcage as she talked, and she was so grateful just to be near them, all of them safe for the time being.
"It's wild you were able to get in to the Chamber of Secrets," Ron said around a mouthful of rabbit.
"Parselmouth, too, I suppose?" Hermione asked.
Sharlen nodded. "You can think of Nagini as like my bratty, spoiled little sister."
"I understand your draw to the Room of Requirement," Hermione said, ching the subject back, "It is a possibility… if he knew about it."
"They must be staying in there," she said finally, regarding the Room of Requirement. "I couldn't think of where else to keep looking, honestly." She sighed. "I don't feel like I've been able to do much of anything to help you guys. It's been one failure after another."
"You saved my family at the wedding! You destroyed a Horcrux we didn't even know to look for!" Ron exclaimed. "You kept the Snatchers off our trail!"
"It's not your fault, about Scrimgeour," Hermione said quietly as Sharlen stared into the firelight. "You were surrounded by dozens of wizards vastly more experienced than yourself, and they had the element of surprise."
"I was too easy on them, all of them," she protested quietly. Harry pulled her closer against him, his head firmly planted on her shoulder as she sat in his lap. "I keep replaying it, in my dreams. Almost every night, I see him die. When we were attacked in Little Hangleton, Kingsley was right to scold me for it, for not being ruthless enough. I didn't want to needlessly kill if I could prevent it. The night Dumbledore died…"
She stopped and sighed, feeling nervous with their eyes on her. "The night Dumbledore died, I was out of control with panic. I didn't know where you were, Remus would have been outnumbered, I was burned very badly… I didn't think, I just reacted, and three men were killed. The training gave me better control over my reactions, and I just figured it would be better to take someone to justice than to kill unless you had to."
"But if they're trying to kill you…" Ron said carefully.
Sharlen nodded. "I know now. I can't be afraid to kill in defense. That's really what I failed at, as an Auror. You have to understand when not to use excessive force, and when to destroy someone. And if I had destroyed Yaxley that night, you would still be able to stay at Grimmauld Place, with Kreacher."
"That's also not your fault," Harry protested, kissing her temple. "Any number of things could have gone wrong in the Ministry, it was pure luck we didn't get apprehended. Yaxley or no Yaxley."
As the four of them talked around the fire, Harry excitedly began fitting all the pieces of the Hallows together, much to Hermione's dismay and Ron's hesitance. Several times Harry frightened Hermione talking about the Resurrection Stone, and though she vetoed the entire idea, Sharlen stood behind Harry, helping to follow the trail it now seemed Dumbledore had set. Harry deduced that the Gaunt ring had contained the Resurrection Stone, and in a fit of exasperation, pulled out the Golden Snitch Dumbledore left him in his will and exclaimed that the ring must be inside and that now he potentially had two of the three Hallows.
"This must be what He's after," Harry said excitedly, beaming around. "He's not after a new wand. He's after a very, very old one!"
Hermione kept insisting, becoming more and more frantic, that the Hallows could not be real and that they needed to focus on Horcruxes. It wasn't long before Sharlen fell into a fitful sleep, despite her best efforts to stay awake. Harry was leaning against a large, fallen tree trunk with Sharlen laying on his chest, curled up between his legs with a blanket over her. He held her close to him, sinking into the familiar warmth and weight of her like a hot, welcomed bath. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched her quietly for several minutes once they were sure she was asleep.
"When's the last time you think she's eaten? I'm sure the Malfoys' have plenty of food, right?" Ron asked quietly. Her face was very thin, her cheekbones more pronounced than they'd ever seen them at Hogwarts.
Hermione shook her head. "I'm sure her priority was making sure she had that potion. Maybe she's been hunting only as an owl; less conspicuous. Or she may just be too wound up to even think about eating..."
"Malfoy's always been horrible to her," Harry said quietly, looking up from Sharlen to meet his friends' eyes. He was remembering their fight at Hogwarts and all their tortuous interactions that year. "If she felt the need to stick around and protect him, things must be really bad at their house right now."
"I'm sure dear old Lucius has had a right hard time of it since You-Know-Who's been back in power," Ron muttered. "Bloody coward, isn't he?"
"Sharlen has a part to play too, though," Hermione reminded them. "That's the only place she has any power. They're probably very afraid of her there."
Harry looked back down at Sharlen and held her tighter. "She told me the end of last year, after Dumbledore died, that she didn't anticipate surviving this war. That she knew she would likely die if He did."
"But why?" Hermione asked, louder than she meant. "If we kill him, she can start a new life. Things will be different."
"Because she's a traitor," Harry said, carefully moving her hair out of her face. "And he'll kill her for helping me."
The next morning, Sharlen woke up inside their tent and took a second to recall where she was. Harry had a tight grip of her even in his sleep, and as she lifted her head from his chest he started, his grip relaxing slightly. He'd become such a light sleeper. She looked down at him on the camp bed, Ron and Hermione keeping watch outside. "How did we get in here?" she asked, disoriented.
"I carried you," he said softly.
"I can't believe I stayed all night, they're going to wonder where I am," she remarked, rubbing her eyes, referring to Bellatrix and the Malfoys. He'd undressed her when he brought her in to sleep, she realized; she moved her legs beneath the comforter to wrap around his, both of them down to underwear and t-shirts. Harry kept a hand on the small of her back as though if he stopped touching her, she would disappear again. "I haven't been able to sleep very much since the Ministry was overtaken."
"You needed it," Harry told her.
"I just feel so safe with you," she admitted sadly. Her eyes flitted to his scar. "But it hurts you to be near me."
"No," he said through slightly gritted teeth.
Sharlen lay back down next to him and gently touched the wisps of his hair that fell over his scar. "You are the best friend I've ever had, you know," she whispered to him.
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," he whispered back, pulling her closer still. He ran his hands up her spine and over her ribs under her thin T-shirt, trying to soak in how soft her skin was. So he could remember. He watched her eyes go white as the vision hit her; again, she didn't offer what it was.
"How could you?" she said. "I don't blame you for any of that. It was too much to ask, us being who we are."
"What I said to you…" Harry murmured against her forehead, closing his eyes. "I can't live with it."
Sharlen thought for a second, gripping his shirt. "It was too much to ask," she said again. "I mean that. I can live with it now that you really see me."
"We'll come out of this together," he said, face serious. Sharlen felt dread spreading inside her. "At the end of this, we'll be together."
She thought of Ginny and the kiss they'd shared, and the others they had undoubtedly had since she and Harry hadn't been speaking, and willed her eyes not to fill with tears quite so rapidly.
Outside the tent, Ron stood from his seat next to Hermione at the fire site and moved to go wake them. Hermione put a hand on his arm and beckoned him away from the tent, back toward the site of their campfire. "Give them a little more time," she said softly, amused.
Ron shrugged, nodding. "Yeah, I get it."
Harry watched Sharlen closely, his hands in her hair. "They'll want to move on soon," he muttered, jerking his head back in Ron and Hermione's general direction.
Sharlen squeezed her eyes shut, her legs gripping his tighter as though to banish the reality that she couldn't stay here with him much longer. The heat of him between her legs, his hands on her skin—she couldn't walk away from it. She moved on top of Harry, straddling his hips with her hands on his chest. "I don't know when we'll see each other again," she whispered. "Let me try. I need as much of you as I can get."
Harry pulled her face down to kiss him, his hands sliding up her hips and sides to remove her shirt. Sharlen pulled it off the rest of the way over her head, Harry's hands on her breasts as she removed his shirt as well. As he sat up, grabbing her ass to pull her closer against him while his mouth explored her breasts, Sharlen focused on her breathing, and his breathing, opening her mind as much as possible to the current moment. She focused wholly on every movement of his hands as his fingers pulled her underwear aside and teased between her legs, of the strength in her own as she reached down to hold him. How hard he was as he slid inside of her.
They kept their moans and gasps muffled against each others' skin, Harry's mouth against her throat while she bit his shoulder. He held her hips tightly as she moved on top of him, forcing himself deeper inside her, their chests always touching. When they finally released, her body collapsed upon him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as they fought to slow their breathing. Harry's strong arms held her close against him, wrapped firmly around her back.
Ron gave them about ten minutes before he called them from the opening of the tent and said they were about ready to move on. The two got up slowly and Sharlen turned away from Harry, grabbing her shirt from the ground wordlessly. She lay it flat on a nearby table and began transfiguring it, mumbling something about keeping her apparel different to not draw attention to herself.
Behind her Harry came closer, staring at the scars across her back and sides from when the Snatchers cut her with the cords and the large patch of completely white skin from her left shoulder to her neck caused by the dragon fire. He recalled vividly the night of Dumbledore's death, seeing the wound fresh in the hospital wing, her collapse to her knees when he shouted the news at her. He ran his fingertips over the scars lightly, tracing them, and she shivered before putting the shirt back on.
Harry turned her around, having seen the Dark Mark more clearly now in the daylight. He looked up from it and she sighed, hating it in her skin. "He thought it was overdue," she explained in barely more than a whisper. "To 'remind me where my loyalties were born to lie.'" Harry held her face in his hands and brought his lips down to meet hers.
They finished dressing in silence, watching each other, both reluctant to part. Pulling her black sweater over her head, the two gathered their coats and walked out to help Ron and Hermione disassemble the tent. Once it was securely back inside Hermione's beaded bag, they turned to say their goodbyes.
"Shouldn't we tell her where we're going next?" Ron asked, but Hermione shook her head.
"It's better she not know."
"It's true, so it can't be tortured out of me," Sharlen agreed. "For you," She said as she handed Hermione another bottle of Dittany. "Just in case." Hermione hugged Sharlen, who nodded to Ron over her shoulder. "Take care," she told him. He nodded meaningfully and walked forward to embrace her as well.
Breaking away, Sharlen turned to Harry. He took her hands and she noticed his eyes were wet. "When will we see you again?"
"I'll come back when I have something to report," she reiterated. "It's too risky for me to keep trying to find you otherwise. And you should leave Luna and Dean to me—I'll go back to Lupin after Hogwarts. We'll think of something."
Harry nodded and pulled her in for a hug. She could tell his scar hurt to be near her, and it had the entire night. He was putting on the bravest face for her. "Be careful," he insisted. Sharlen took a deep, shaky breath. She didn't know when she'd see him again.
"I will. I'm on your side," she reminded him.
Harry reached into the moleskin pouch around his neck, tucked under his shirt, and pulled out the amber pendant on the long, delicate gold chain he had once torn from her throat. Despite herself, Sharlen brought a hand to her mouth. Harry undid the clasp and brought it up around her neck, guiding the pendant down to rest at the base of her sternum. She collected the pendant in her free hand and looked up at him with eyes full of tears. "It was my mother's," Harry said, watching her carefully.
Sharlen let out a shaky sigh, her heart heavy and aching. "Are you sure you want me to have this?"
Harry nodded. "It belongs with you. To keep you safe." He pulled her in and kissed her forehead, her mouth still covered with her hand.
Harry walked away from her to join Ron and Hermione. Sharlen watched them silently.
Hermione grasped hands with the boys. Then they were gone.
Since she'd been gone all night, Sharlen went back to Malfoy Manor to see the state of things and make sure she hadn't been missed. She Apparated into her room and looked around; it seemed largely undisturbed. She reached for the doorknob and found the door was unlocked and slightly ajar. Her heart leapt to her throat and she closed her eyes, brow furrowed. Slowly, she opened the door and slipped from the room.
Coming down the stairs quietly, the house was nearly vibrating with the silence. Peering around corners, Sharlen made her way into the dining room where she found her father sitting at the table with a very battered-looking Malfoy family; Bellatrix looked up, a cut on the side of her head, gripping her wrist where Sharlen knew the copycat bracelet was. Draco's bottom lip twitched involuntarily every once in a while. All of them bore signs of being tortured and the air in the room was thick with fear and hatred.
Her immediate fear was that Wormtail had told him of their discussion. Suddenly it was as though she hadn't seen Harry at all.
She found it hard to swallow. "Father—"
"You've returned," he said simply, red eyes flashing. He stood and took careful steps toward her. "And how was your time away in the outside world?"
"Father, I was only out with Piotr," she said as pleasantly as she could, smiling. "We were just out hunting for the night, just around the grounds. Nothing to worry about." Voldemort's face remained still and unforgiving, his eyes narrowed into slits. Sharlen's face began to fall. "Father, I'm sor—"
"You deliberately disobeyed me."
Sharlen closed her eyes and saw Harry's face. "I did. I apologize."
"I confess myself… disappointed," Voldemort hissed in his high, cold voice. "Your lack of loyalty to my instructions further shows me you aren't ready to be out. You still need constant surveillance."
Sharlen shook her head and tried to avoid pleading, but the cold fury in his red eyes and the calm of his presence told her he was beyond rage. Seeping fury. She couldn't tame her fear. "I don't, I assure you. I'm back safely, I just… I can't be kept here every hour. I really can't."
"I believe you'll find you can," he said with a grin. "You forget how powerless you truly are. You've grown too bold."
She felt the tears fall before she knew they existed. "I feel powerful because I'm yours," she cried, lying as doom rushed into her limbs. "I need my freedom, My Lord. You chose to give me wings. I can't be caged like this."
"Pretty birds like you," he whispered, raising his wand and making a circular motion, "are safest in cages." Sharlen watched his wand tip fearfully as a shimmering, dark blue liquid swirled from it, expanding into a large globe that glittered between them. He urged it forward with his wand and Sharlen felt rooted to the spot as it rolled toward her. At its touch, it began to engulf her, sucking her in, and she craned her neck and face away from it as her hands, elbows, and shoulders sank inside.
She let go a final, frightened gasp as the blue globe filled her mouth and nose and she feared she would suffocate, but she realized she felt no need to breathe. She opened her eyes and the room had a dark blue caste while she was inside, getting sleepy and unable to move her gaze from Voldemort's as everything went black around her.
