::17::
"What was that...that technique?" Hermione asked shakily as she straightened up the pillows and blankets on one of the bunk beds.
At Sai's insistence, they had dragged the canvas outside where Hermione had set fire to it. Shrill screams had echoed into the night, before gargling out into nothing. They had watched it burn in the snow with solemn eyes – tearful eyes on Hermione's part – only departing back for the tent as the ashes had drifted away in the wind. There had been things to do; moving camp and conjuring the usual customary barriers and protections, for one. Hermione had also repaired the hole in the tent while Naruto and Harry worked to pick up the stray kunai and shuriken and straighten up the overall destruction in the tent. They had turned a still unconscious Karin loose in the woods, her memory of the latest battle and her mission to track them wiped from her memory.
Naruto glanced toward Sai who was lying on one of the beds. Normally, Sai was a peaceful sleeper. Truth be told, Naruto wasn't even sure if the dark haired ninja dreamt. But now, he was lying on his uninjured side and his brow was furrowed as if he were thinking of something disturbing. "I don't know." Said Naruto quietly. "I've never seen him use it before."
"He's always been so...in check of his emotions." Hermione said as she fiddled nervously with her wand.
"He doesn't have any emotions." Said Naruto uncertainly. "But...he was trained to be that way." He tried to say it as if it wasn't Sai's fault...which was strange for him because he had never tried, nor wanted to make excuses for Sai before.
"Umm...guys..." Said Harry nervously. Naruto and Hermione turned toward him where he was sitting on the bottom bunk. "I...I sort of neglected to mention this before...but I think it might be bad..."
Hesitantly, Harry shrugged out of his jacket before gingerly pulling his sweater off his body.
Naruto's eyes widened. "Holy shit!" He exclaimed as he and Hermione raced toward him.
"Harry!" Hermione cried. "Why didn't you..." She cut herself off. It would be dumb to ask why he didn't mention anything earlier – there had been no time.
The locket had stuck itself over Harry's heart, practically burning into the skin. Now, the skin around the locket was all red and blistered. Hermione grimaced as she gingerly touched the skin. Harry flinched.
"Sorry." Hermione apologized. "I know it must hurt but...it looks as if I'll need to...cut it away."
Naruto's eyes were ready to bug out of his head. She couldn't be serious. But Harry simply gave a small nod of his head, as if he knew this would be inevitable.
They agreed it would be best if Harry lay on the ground, with Naruto holding his legs in case he should buck.
"Here..." Said Naruto sheepishly. "In case you need to bite down something...for the pain." Naruto handed Harry his wand, which had been broken in half during their fight with the Oto ninja. Harry stared at it for a beat before he swallowed past the lump in his throat and took the wand from Naruto, giving him a short nod of thanks but not meeting his eyes.
Aunt Petunia had always snapped at him it was no use crying over spilled milk. So he put one of the broken halves between his teeth and nodded to Hermione to tell her he was ready.
She had to use a servering charm to carefully cut away the locket from his skin. It did indeed hurt and he clamped his teeth down on the wand so hard that he thought his teeth would break, but the pain was bearable. It felt nothing like the burning, spitting pain that he got when Voldermort was near. When it was done, Hermione quickly pulled the locket away and thrust it into Naruto hands before quickly sprinkling some Dittany over the blisters. Naruto quickly cast the locket away, an almost frightened expression on his face. As soon as the drops touched Harry's skin, he instantly felt a lot better; his thoughts clear from the suffocating madness and bloodlust the locket had forced on him.
As the morning light seeped into the tent, chasing away the darkness of the night, Naruto, Harry and Hermione curled up on the floor, falling asleep instantly.
They woke around mid-afternoon, feeling alert and very hungry. Sai, however, was still asleep although Naruto was relieved to find that he was sleeping normally once more, his face blank and untroubled.
Feeling better, although his chest still throbbed, Harry volunteered to go find them some food. While he was gone, Hermione brought the Bingo Book out of her jacket pocket. "So you had that thing on you the whole time?" Naruto asked.
Hermione nodded. "Like the locket...I thought it would be safer that way...so no one would be able to get it..."
Naruto shook his head. "You really are brilliant."
Hermione flushed and looked away. "I think we need to talk about why the wanted this book back so badly."
Naruto frowned and shrugged. "Well...we're in the book, but we probably could have already guessed we would be in it."
"Maybe that's it!" Hermione said hurriedly as she sat down and began flipping through the book. "Yes...that has to be it..."
"What's 'it'?" Asked Naruto confusedly.
"Look at how many Muggle-borns are listed in these pages." Said Hermione excitedly as she flipped through for Naruto. "How many of these people do you think know that they are in any danger? How many do you think know they are being watched? How many Order members do you think know they are being tracked?"
"Uhhh…not many would be my guess." Said Naruto, scratching his head.
"Exactly!" Said Hermione excitedly. "They must have been worried that we would exploit the information in this book and that's why they wanted it back. Especially since," And at this, there was an excited gleam in her eye, "The security statuses are constantly being updated."
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "What?" He asked.
"It's a lot like those coins I charmed for the D.A meetings." Hermione explained. "Do you remember?"
Naruto did. He had remembered Hermione spending her time in the Common Room with her wand out and a bunch of coins scattered around her. And he also remembered how when she had given one to Sakura and Naruto later that night, Naruto had yelled out loud when a date suddenly appeared engraved on the surface. He nodded his head yes.
"The book operates by the same principle." Hermione said, flipping it open. "See this crossed out part and then this bolded section next to it? That was something that had since been changed."
Naruto looked down at Hermione's pointed finger. Underneath a picture of Mad-Eye Moody, Naruto looked down where it said 'Security Status'. Sure enough, what had been previously written there had been crossed out and in bolded letters next to it, 'DECEASED – KILLED BY THE DARK LORD' was written.
"I thought perhaps maybe it was a coincidence…that maybe Umbridge had did that herself before we stole the book. But then a few weeks ago I noticed that this status had changed since I annotated it."
Hermione flipped farther through the book before handing it back to Naruto. There was a picture of an unfamiliar wizard on the front and below, the security status had been checked in red by Hermione. But now, the words were crossed out and the words 'DECEASED – RESISTED CAPTURE AND KILLED BY SNATCHERS' were in bold beneath them.
"So…" Began Naruto. "As long as we have this with us…we'll know if anyone else is in danger?"
"We can do better than that, Naruto! If we could somehow make this information public, do you know how many lives we could possibly save?" Hermione asked.
"Lots, I'm sure…" Said Naruto. "But how exactly are we going to make this public? We're sort of, you know…on the run." Said Naruto.
Hermione frowned. "Well, I haven't thought of that yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something." Hermione took the book back and began flipping through it once more.
As Harry found, it was nearly impossible to scrounge anything worth eating without a suitable wand.
He had used the Reparo spell on his wand before he left, despite Hermione's protest that it wouldn't work and gosh, didn't he remember what happened to Ron's wand? He did remember but he was still trying his hardest to forget about Ron.
The wand held up well enough until he tried to use a summoning spell where it promptly broke in half again. Now, he was left scouring the forest floor looking for eatable berries and mushrooms along with the half a loaf of bread he managed to steal with the help of the Invisibility Cloak.
When he finally returned at dusk with enough food, he was still in a sour mood which Hermione and Naruto seemed to pick up on. They were both silent throughout dinner although Harry suspected Hermione had something she wanted to say to him. He took himself out of the line of fire by volunteering for first watch.
"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Harry bellowed, thrusting his arm out ferociously. The tip of Hermione's wand burst with willowy smoke that quickly dissipated in the cold morning air.
"Arg!" Harry yelled, ready to cast the wand out into the snow. How could he really expect Hermione's wand to work for him? It wasn't his!
Harry fell down into the snow, burying his head in his arms. He felt like something inside him had broken. Of course he was no stranger to physical injury and he had the scars to prove it, including two new ones. But the loss of his wand seemed to strike a chord deep within him and he didn't want to admit that it was the loss of the twin cores. He didn't want to admit to himself that he had been counting on his wand protecting him from destruction against Voldermort.
He also felt anger, indescribable anger at Dumbledore. He wanted to believe that Dumbledore had a plan, a path laid out all along for him, that he didn't just leave him groping in the dark. But the trip to Godric's Hallow just proved him wrong yet again.
Growling, Harry clutched the wand tightly in his hand, his knuckles growing white. "BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"
Harry felt as if his chest were going to explode as suddenly, he felt like something was trying very hard to release himself. He felt his hand and his wand grow white hot and he almost dropped it if he hadn't seen the smoke pouring out of the tip of his wand, growing steadier and denser, as if it were compacting and morphing into something. He saw the shimmer of his glasses and the glint of his green eyes briefly before it vanished with a poof and Hermione was left standing in its wake, coughing and waving her hand.
"Harry, what on earth were you doing?" She asked.
"Hermione." Said Harry stiffly as she sat beside him.
"Do you mind if I talk to you about something?" She asked tentatively.
Harry considered saying yes for a beat, but quickly changed his mind as he didn't want to hurt her feelings. "No."
Wordlessly, Hermione brought out the book from underneath her arm. Even in the darkness, he caught a glimpse of the title: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.
Sai woke up feeling…different. He didn't feel sick; he had no left over side effects from the Fuinjutsu he had used and his head felt clearer than he had in days, but somehow he felt different. It was as if he was seeing the world through new eyes. Had he felt this way when he had last used the jutsu? He couldn't remember the last time he had used that jutsu.
Sai sat up slowly and with a pause, swung his feet off the bunk bed. He was still in the same clothes he remembered last being in, but he could feel the sweat and grime still stuck to his body. He desperately needed a shower, but that was a luxury that wasn't available to him.
Naruto had been sitting on the floor, studying some sort of picture frame and trying to pry it open with his hands when he noticed Sai was awake. "Sai!"
Hermione was sitting some feet away, curled in one of the armchairs with a book. She glanced his way, but there was a sort of sad expression on her face before she turned back to her book.
Naruto got up and moved toward him as Sai slid of the bed. Naruto put a hand out, as if he meant to help him but then quickly retracted it, feeling awkward. "How do you feel?"
"Fine." Said Sai simply as he glanced around the tent. It looked as if nothing had happened. "Where is Harry?"
Hermione's head perked a little at Harry's name, but she kept her nose in the book. Sai got the feeling something may have happened between them, but he didn't know where that feeling came from.
Naruto nodded his head toward the tent entrance. "He's on watch."
"How long was I asleep?" Sai asked.
Naruto scratched his head. "Two days? We moved camp twice since the…uhh…attack."
Two days? Sai couldn't ever remember sleeping for that long. What had happened to him?
"Harry's sort of insisted being on watch all the time." Naruto added, his voice sounding nervous. "I don't know but," He lowered his voice a little, glancing quickly toward Hermione, "I think him and Hermione had a fight or something. Neither of them will talk about it."
"I should take over for Harry, then." Said Sai, moving toward the tent flaps.
"Whoa, wait, Sai, are you are?" Naruto asked. Again, he brought his hands up as if to help Sai, but then quickly brought them back to his sides as if he thought better of it. "You just woke up. Maybe you should still take it easy?"
Was Naruto concerned about him? Had Naruto ever been concerned about him? It brought a light feeling to Sai's chest. He put a hand to his heart. "I think the fresh air might do me some good." Sai explained.
With a reluctant nod of his head, Naruto stepped back, allowing Sai outside.
The air was bitingly cool, but at least it allowed Sai to forget about his dirty sweaty skin. The sky above was impossibly dark, making the shadows of the looming trees around them more foreboding. The moon was pale and barely offered any light, but judging from its position, it was close to midnight.
But as Sai took a few steps away from the tent and looked around, he came to his most startling conclusion. Harry Potter was nowhere to be seen.
Harry touched the frozen surface of the pond. The darkness of the forest was more imposing now that the doe had disappeared, but Harry was scarcely paying attention to his surroundings anymore. The Sword of Gryffindor! It was here! Right in front of him! But how had it gotten here? Who had put it there and why didn't they want to confront Harry?
A snap of branches alerted Harry and he spun around, suddenly on guard when Sai jumped down in front of him from the darkness of the trees.
"Bloody hell, Sai." Said Harry, feeling like Ron and then feeling like crap for doing so. "How did you find me? What are you doing here?"
"I came to relieve you from your watch." Sai explained, glancing downward toward the pond. "You were missing."
Harry wasn't sure if was exactly a good thing he had been followed so easily. He should probably ask if Sai was feeling well enough to go hopping through the trees, but there were more pressing matters. "Did you see anyone else?"
Sai looked at him quizzically. "The forest is empty. What's down there?" He asked, pointing toward the pond.
Harry quickly led Sai over and together the knelt at the surface. "It's a sword." Said Sai curiously. "How did it get in there?"
"It's the Sword of Gryffindor." Said Harry excitedly. "And someone must have put it here for me to find."
Sai frowned. He didn't think he should tell Harry how suspicious this all sounded. It could have been a trap. He quickly spun around and pulled out a kunai, senses alert for anyone who could have been approaching. Harry jumped in surprise at Sai's movement.
"Can you get the sword out?" Sai asked, eyes still looking over the forest.
Harry pointed his wand at the sword. "Accio sword." He said. But nothing happened, just as Harry suspected.
"It won't work." Harry explained. What was it that Dumbledore had always said? Only a true Gryffindor could pull the sword from the hat. It would come in times of need. "I have to…I have to be in trouble."
Sai was feeling different. He wanted to say how ludicrous that sounded, but he kept his mouth shut. "How do we get it out?"
What made a true Gryffindor? They were daring, brave and chivalrous. Harry sighed. Yes, he expected it would come to this but that didn't make the task any easier. "I'll have to get it out myself." Harry explained. Slowly, he began to strip off his many layers of clothing. At least with Sai here, he didn't have to contemplate if someone was going to attack him while he was submerged in the water.
Still on guard, Sai turned to Harry. "You'll freeze in there." And because he was feeling different, he said, "Let me do it instead."
"You can't." Said Harry as he kicked the shoes off his feet, toes curling against the cold. "Only a true Gryffindor can retrieve it. You were a Slytherin."
Sai didn't like the idea of this. It was already cold out here and the water was likely much colder. The chances of Harry dying down there were high, but the chances of him catching hypothermia once getting out were higher. It was a long trek back to the tent.
But they needed the sword to destroy the Horcruxes. It wouldn't matter how many they found if they couldn't destroy them in the end. As it was, the locket was still gleaming against Harry's bare chest as he took his last shirt off, accompanied by a nasty looking scar that Sai didn't remember being there before.
Harry pointed his wand at the ice. "Diffindo." The ice splintered and cracked, drifting away to display the black water underneath.
"It should take approximately a minute for you to reach the sword and another for you to break the surface." Sai explained. "If you aren't back in two minutes I'll have to come after you."
Harry nodded nervously. "I'll…er…try to swim fast." And with that, Harry plunged into the water.
Sai was timing it in his head. Harry still had half a minute to resurface. Plenty of time. He wasn't very accustomed to waiting for others and being on edge while waiting. But Harry was only a wizard and not a ninja. And maybe Naruto was right – Harry was his friend.
A crash of breaking branches and snapping twigs ripped Sai from his thoughts and he quickly leapt forward.
"Bloody hell, I finally – "
Sai landed on the intruder with an oomph and his kunai pointed at their neck…until he got a good look at who he was sitting on. "Ron?"
The ginger haired male had been in mid yelp when he finally opened his eyes and squinted at Sai, trying to see him. "Sai? Blimey, I thought I was following Harry."
Harry!
Sai sprang off Ron and darted toward the pond. The surface was as still as a mirror, with no sign of Harry anywhere underneath. Sai let out a huff of air which frosted in the cold as he bent down to take his shoes off.
He heard Ron approach from behind him and peer over his shoulder. "What's going on? Why are you getting undressed?"
Sai didn't have time to answer Ron's questions. He pulled his jacket and his shirt off, the night air stinging his skin. "Harry went to get the sword. He should have surfaced already." And with that, he plunged into the water.
The water was about as cold as he suspected it would be, but that didn't stop his lungs from screaming in protest and his skin from burning as he pushed toward the bottom with powerful strokes. He found Harry near the bottom, within reach of the sword. His back was to him and his pale skin was glowing eerily in the light. Harry's feet weakly kicked out as Sai grasped him around the torso and began to pull him upward.
Sai's teeth were chattering when he broke the surface of the water, his eyes wide and his entire body screaming. He saw Ron's frightened face go pale when he saw Harry and he quickly scrambled to help pull Harry out of the pond and into the snow.
"Bloody hell!" Ron cried. "His face is blue!" Then his eyes went round. "The locket!" He shouted, diving for the locket that looked to be squeezing the life out of Harry. Sai quickly grabbed his abandoned kunai from the ground and pushed Ron off of Harry.
"I'll get the locket." He commanded. "You need to get the sword!"
Ron shook his head, taking one last look at Harry before he looked down into the pond. He must have steeled his resolve because Sai soon heard a splash of water. Meanwhile, he slipped his kunai in-between the locket chain and Harry's skin and pulled. The chain broke away easily and Sai pulled it away, the locket burning his skin before he tossed it away.
He laid his ear against Harry's chest. As he suspected, he wasn't breathing. He was by no means a medic and with The Land of Fire being landlocked, there wasn't much need for him to practice CPR. But as Sai began giving chest compressions, he hoped this worked. Behind him, he heard a gasp of breath as Ron surfaced and tossed the sword into the snow before pulling himself out of the water.
On his fifth chest compression, Harry finally began spitting up water before taking a huge breath as he rolled over onto his side. Sai gave a sigh of relief before he quickly retrieved his own clothes and began putting them on.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Ron snapped as he pushed his wet hair away from his face. "Are you completely bloody mental diving in with that thing?"
Harry turned his head so fast Sai was surprised he didn't get whiplash. "Ron?" He asked weakly.
Sure enough, Ron was standing there, looking down at him and completely soaked to the bone. Harry couldn't believe his eyes.
"You scared me half to death!" Ron complained, his voice squeaking. "When Sai pulled you up and your face was all blue like that…"
Harry put his fingers hesitantly to this throat although he couldn't really stop himself from grinning. Ron was back. He came back... "The locket…"
"Was choking you!" Said Ron as he picked up Harry's discarded clothes and handed them to him.
Harry quickly grabbed them and began the process of redressing as quickly as he could. "Wait, the sword – "
"I got it." Said Ron, taking the sword from Sai who had retrieved it and the locket from the snow. "Sai dragged you out so I got the sword…" He shook his head as he stared at the sword like he could hardly believe it. "Completely and utterly mental. Who would have put this down there…?" He muttered to himself.
Harry had finished dressing and he rubbed his hands up and down his arms, trying to shake the chill out. He still couldn't believe that he had almost died down there in that pond; that the locket had almost choked the life out of him. He still couldn't believe that Ron was really here. "Why are you here?"
"Oh." Said Ron, his face looking sheepish as he turned to Harry again. "I…Well…I've come back, that is…that is if you still want me…"
Harry shook his head. "How did you find us?"
"Long story." Ron sighed. "It's a big bloody forest isn't it? Never thought I would really find you until I saw that doe and you chasing it. But by the time I got here, you had already dived in."
"Did you see whoever cast the Patronus?" Harry asked hopefully.
Ron shook his head, sinking Harry's hopes. "I thought I might have heard someone running through the underbrush before I got here, but maybe I was imagining things." Ron turned to Sai. "Did you sense anything."
Sai shook his head, slightly disappointed. "Magic is harder to sense than chakra. And I was already focused on finding Harry. Whoever it was left by the time I got here."
Harry made his way over to Sai and plucked the locket from his grasp. He could feel twitching erratically; it must have known the end was near. He held it up. "Then maybe it's time we get rid of this thing once and for all."
Harry found a boulder to lay it on and they all peered at the locket. "I don't know," Said Ron nervously as he flexed his fingers to bring the warmth back. "How will we even open it?"
"I'll open it with Parseltongue." Said Harry instinctively.
Ron grimaced but didn't protest anything else. He tried giving the sword to Harry, but Harry shook his head and pushed it back. "I think it's got to be you."
"Me?" Ron squeaked. "No, I can't – "
"You're the one who pulled the sword out." Said Harry, turning to face Ron. "If Dumbledore has taught me anything, it's that there's a certain magic to this stuff. It has to be you."
"No, no." Said Ron, shaking his head as he took a step back from the locket. "I'm serious, Harry, you do it. You don't understand. This thing has been…bad luck for me. I mean, I'm not trying to make excuses for how I behaved, but this thing just made everything worse. What I said, what I did…I mean I was thinking about it, but…I just can't do it, Harry."
"The chances of us contracting hypothermia are going to be significantly higher the longer we stay here." Said Sai, politely stepping forward before either Harry or Ron could say anything more. Already, he could see the cold settling into his skin and bones and the clothes he was wearing wasn't doing anything to help.
Harry turned to Ron pleadingly. "It has to be you. You've got the sword and I know you can do this, Ron."
Ron gulped and he looked frightened, but hearing Harry's swords seemed to add to his resolve. He nodded his head at Harry and raised the sword in his hands.
"It'll try to fight," Harry warned him, "Just like Tom Riddle's diary. But you can't listen to it. When I open the locket, just stab it straight away."
Ron gave a shaky nod of his head. Harry held the locket steady against the rock before he glanced at Sai, giving the ninja a look that told him to be ready. Sai nodded and subtly shifted toward Ron.
Harry turned back toward the locket and took a deep breath. "One…two…three…open."
The last word came out as a hiss and at once, the locket flew open, revealing an eye. It was terrible in its beauty and for a moment, Harry was transfixed by it.
"Stab it, Ron."
That was Sai speaking, reminding them both of the task at hand. Harry broke his gaze away from the eye and steadied the locket upon the rock, bracing it for the blow of the sword. Ron held the sword high above the locket, the point of it swinging above the eye. Ron's face however, looked utterly terrified.
The eye suddenly swung to meet Ron's gaze and he froze.
I have seen your heart, Ronald Weasley, and it is mine.
Ron let out a shallow gasp as the words hissed out from the locket and even Sai took an uncertain step backward. "Don't listen to it!" Harry snapped. "Stab it!"
I have seen your fears; I have seen your dreams. All that you dream is possible, Ronald, but so is all that you fear…
"Ron!" Harry cried, "Stab it now!"
Loved least by the mother who always craved a daughter, loved least now by a girl who prefers another…
The locket quivered with fear but its gaze remained pointedly on Ron's. The sword in Ron's hand trembled and the eye turned sinister and scarlet.
"RON!" Harry bellowed.
Two figures erupted from the locket, startling Ron who gave out a shout and backed away. The smoky figures formed, giving way to two familiar faces before even Harry had to pull away as the locket grew white hot.
"Why even come back?" the figure of Naruto sneered, his arms wrapped around Hermione. "We were better without you, happier without you. You, your stupidity, your cowardice were a burden upon us…"
"How could you ever expect to compare?" the figure of Hermione mocked as she ran her hand along Naruto's neck. "What have you done? What have you ever done, Ronald?"
The sword dropped as Ron stood, staring transfixed at the sight before him.
"It's not real, Ron!" Harry shouted. "Stab it, stab it NOW!"
But it was no use, Ron couldn't stop staring as the terribly beautiful, yet terribly frightening version of Hermione issued insult after insult from her lips, her hands raking savagely through the terribly ferocious version of Naruto's hair bringing him closer and closer until…
There was a high pitched squeal from the locket as Sai stabbed a kunai straight through the eye, causing the imaginary figures of Naruto and Hermione to explode in a cloud of dust.
"Do it now, Ron!" Harry shouted.
There was a wild look in Ron's eyes before he picked up the sword. With an anguished yell, he brought it down with a crash, completely splintering the locket. There a keen wailing sound before it died off completely, leaving the forest completely silent.
Bingo Book
Undesirable #8
Kingsley Shacklebolt
Status: Pureblood, Known member of the Order of the Phoenix
Family: Unknown
Security Status: MISSING after breaking the Taboo. Working on tracing him.