"Um, sorry?"
Harry didn't answer Ron as he pulled aside the tent flap and sat down on the couch, trying to hold his tongue. If he didn't, he knew he was going to say something to Ron that he would regret. Carefully, he pulled the Horcrux from around his neck and put it on the table, glad to be rid of the blasted thing. Hermione followed close behind him, but she continued into the kitchen, where she pulled out a mug and filled it with water, then drank the entire thing in one go. Ron, still standing near the door, awkwardly picked at the skin around his thumbnail.
"I mean, I don't think you can really blame me," he said. "Anyone would have done the same, wouldn't they?"
Hermione took a deep, steadying, breath, then said in a quiet voice that was far worse than a shout, "No. No, Ron, not everyone would."
"Well maybe not everyone," he admitted, looking around the tent as though searching for help and finding none. "Still, it wasn't a total disaster. I mean, you did get your bag back in the end, so really, no harm, no foul, right?"
Harry took a moment to stare at his best friend.
"Harry, back me up on this," Ron said, almost pleading. "It was a natural mistake to make, right?"
Harry paused a moment, trying to see Ron's side of things, but he kept coming back to the same conclusion.
"Not really, no," Harry said. "I know you didn't mean to have it go that badly wrong, but that's what happened, and you did it for a really stupid reason."
"Look, I was just feeling frightfully peckish," Ron said, "and we've done this before in other places, haven't we?"
Harry looked over to find Hermione literally biting her tongue to stay silent. After a moment, she lifted her head and looked directly at Ron.
"I'm not ready to talk to you right now," Hermione said. "I need some time to collect myself because I don't think I can have a rational conversation about what happened yet."
"Yeah, but it wasn't really that big of a deal, and I'm trying to tell you—"
"Ron," Hermione interrupted him, "I want time to myself so that I'm not so upset when we talk. I've told you clearly what I need, and I would hope you would respect that considering you were in the wrong. Please let me be alone until I feel that I'm ready to deal with this."
There wasn't much of anywhere to go in the tent, but Hermione went to the little nook where she slept at night and pulled the curtain closed over it, blocking her from view.
"Crikey, what an overreaction," Ron said, plopping down on the couch next to Harry. "She's being ridiculous!"
"She's not," Harry said, looking straight at him. "That was bang out of line, mate, and we really could have been in trouble. What's worse is there was no good excuse for doing it in the first place."
They had arrived at Windsor Castle the day before. It was so large that the three of them quickly decided it couldn't be searched in one day, and even then they would have to split up to do it effectively and cover more ground. Each of them took Polyjuice potion, turning into three fairly nondescript Muggles, and pretended to be tourists. Harry had taken the Round Tower area, Hermione was looking through the State Apartments, and Ron was supposed to search St. George's Chapel. Unfortunately, Ron's area had a problem.
A wedding reception was being held, and while that would normally provide exactly the sort of cover they needed (Ron even still had the suit he'd been wearing at Bill and Fleur's wedding when they'd been forced to flee, so he could dress appropriately), there had been a secondary problem. An absolutely enormous banquet table practically groaning with food was set up under a tent. A vast array of finger sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, petit fours, crudites, and plates of wedding cake were arranged for the guests who would be exiting the chapel at any moment. Ron took one look at it, then glanced nervously at the chapel where he was supposed to be using the wedding as cover to note anything odd, then back at the table.
Unfortunately, his appetite won. He started cramming the pockets of his suit with food, but he'd quickly run out of room. That's when the real problem happened.
Hermione had injured her wrist the day before while setting up the protective spells around the tent when she stepped in a gopher hole and fell. While she'd been able to fix what should have been a broken bone, it was still rather sore. Since that was the wrist that she usually used to carry her little beaded bag, Ron had gallantly offered to take the responsibility of carrying it for the day. Hermione had gratefully Transfigured it into what appeared to be a small, unremarkable black duffle bag that wouldn't look out of place for a man to be carrying.
Ron's pockets were bulging with pilfered wedding food, but he had been too tempted and grabbed even more. Throwing caution to the wind, he had opened the magically enlarged bag and started shoveling food into it, including a large portion of the petit fours and nearly all the chocolate covered strawberries. He'd been so thrilled with the haul that when he'd turned around and been confronted by a furious bride and groom along with over one hundred irate wedding guests, he was stunned to find anyone there.
"Who are you?" the bride asked, glaring at the empty plates of wedding cake. "I've never set eyes on you before in my life! Paul, do you know this man?"
"No, I don't," the groom said. "How did you get an invitation?"
"Well, um, see, I—"
The next thing Ron knew, he was being led away by security. Worse, they had confiscated Hermione's bag, and Merlin only knew what would happen when the Muggles opened it. Luckily, Harry had seen him being marched past from his spot in the Tower, and he'd sprinted to Hermione to let her know what had happened. The Invisibility Cloak was still in the bag, so getting Ron out of custody was a lot harder than it might have been, but thanks to Hermione and Harry setting off a fire alarm, erasing all of the security footage, and using Obliviate a total of fourteen times, they'd escaped, but not before Ron's appearance had completely returned to normal. While that worked in their favor in one way since the guards weren't searching for a red-haired teenage boy, any number of people could have seen Ron's real face, and it was impossible to tell if any witches or wizards were among the number.
The bag, which had been put in an evidence locker in the security room of the property, had proven even more difficult to get back. Eventually, they'd managed it, but only because Hermione used the Imperius Curse on the night watchman. He had brought the bag out to them in the woods, completely unaware of what he was doing. Then, Hermione had ordered him to set a small fire in the security room, making it look like whatever was in the bag had exploded, so that no one would think the guard had stolen it. He became the fifteenth Muggle to be Obliviated, and then they had come back to the tent, where they now were.
Through it all, Ron kept insisting that while he knew he shouldn't have done it, he'd been justified.
"We've been stealing food off and on for months now, and there was all this food just sitting there, and it looked like a perfect opportunity," Ron had said even as they were walking back to the tent, his face glum. "It's not like anyone was going to starve tonight because I took their cucumber sandwich."
Ron looked over at his friend, honestly seeming both confused by their reaction and even slightly offended by it.
"I think I need a minute or two as well before I say something that's going to get us into a real fight," Harry said, abruptly going back outside and sitting on the grass next to the tent while breathing in the night air and trying to ignore the sound of the fire brigade's siren by the castle.
By the time he thought he could finally handle the situation properly, a good fifteen minutes had passed. He went back in to find Ron still sitting on the couch.
"Right," Ron said, looking up at him. "So, are you ready to apologize to me yet?"
"For what?" Harry asked.
"For making a mountain out of a Niffler hill," Ron said. "Everything's fine. Nothing bad happened."
"Ron, Windsor Castle is currently on fire," Harry reminded him.
The curtain over Hermione's nook stirred, and a moment later she pushed it aside and strode across the room.
"I have an idea," Hermione said a little too calmly. "Would you like a story?"
Ron nervously scratched the back of his neck and said, "Maybe?"
"Fine then," Hermione said, sitting down, and Harry wondered what she was up to. "It's a fairly short one from Aesop called 'The Dog and His Reflection.'"
"Okay," Ron said, still very guarded. "Sounds interesting. And I like dogs."
"So, once upon—"
"A time," Ron said instinctively, then immediately wished that for once he'd held his tongue.
"Yes," Hermione said, "there was a dog who had been given a very large bone."
"Oh. Good for him," Ron said, smiling a little.
"Yes, it was," Hermione said. "It even had bits of meat and fat still clinging to it, and it was easily the biggest bone the dog had ever seen."
"How'd he get it?" Ron asked in spite of himself.
"Different versions say different things. Some say a butcher gave it to him, others that a cook decided to be kind, and still other don't mention how he got it at all. The main thing is he had it, and he was very happy," Hermione said.
"This is a weird story," Ron said, looking confused. "Usually the main character doesn't get to be happy until the end in these things."
"Usually, but not in this one," Hermione said. "The dog was carrying his bone off to eat it, and he walked over a little wooden bridge above a deep and fast-moving river."
"He doesn't fall in, does he?" Ron said, looking concerned.
"No, he doesn't," Hermione told him, softening a little. "Instead, he looked over the side and saw another dog in the water with a bone just as large as the one he was carrying."
"Another dog in the water?" Ron repeated. "Wait, he's seeing himself, right?"
"Precisely, though he didn't realize that," Hermione said.
"Would a dog be able to recognize their reflection as being, you know, them?" Harry asked.
Even in the tense situation they were in, he couldn't help being a little curious. The Dursleys had never had a dog, with Aunt Petunia saying they were far too dirty in her clean house. When Aunt Marge had come over with her bulldogs, their mere presence had always driven her mad, something Harry enjoyed. Maybe partly because of that, he'd always wanted a dog, but he didn't really have any experience with them other than being run up a tree by one once. And Padfoot, of course, but that didn't count.
"Probably not," Hermione said. "There's a thing called the mirror self-recognition test that Muggles came up where they put a dot on an animal and then put them in front of a mirror. If the animal looks in the mirror, sees the dot, and then tries to rub the dot on themselves, realizing it's on them and not on some other animal that it thinks lives in the mirror, it can be a sign that they're self-aware. Not a lot of animals can do it, though. Most of them are primates or dolphins, and humans, of course, but I don't think there's been a case of a dog pulling it off."
"So the dog really thinks it's seeing another dog with a bone in the water," Ron said.
"Yes," Hermione said. "That's when he did something stupid."
"Other than assuming a dog can breathe underwater?" Ron asked.
"Quite a bit worse than that," Hermione said. "The dog wasn't satisfied with the beautiful bone he had and decided he was going to take the bone away from the other dog so he could have even more."
"Well, that's jolly rotten of him," Ron said, frowning. "Greedy little thing."
Hermione gave him a pointed look and continued, saying, "So the dog growled, then unclenched its teeth from around the bone so he could bark at the other dog in the water. The moment he did, the bone slipped from his mouth and fell with a great splash into the river below."
"I really should have seen that coming," Ron said, wincing.
"It was carried away in the swift water, and the dog was left with nothing at all because he had tried to take more than he needed," Hermione said. "That's the end of the story."
Ron paused for a long moment before saying, "Aesop is kind of depressing sometimes. At least he doesn't have a thing about feet, though."
"No, he doesn't possess Andersen's tendency towards foot issues," Hermione said, "but did you get the point?"
Ron stayed silent, then looked at Harry.
"Uh, give a bloke a little help here?" he asked.
Harry rolled his eyes, then said, "How much food do we actually have right now, Ron?"
"With what Dumbledore hid for us? A lot," Ron admitted.
"More than we've ever had before, and it will stay good for months," Hermione said. "We didn't need any more that we've got."
"We were stealing food before because we didn't have anything at all," Harry said. "We didn't have much of a choice, but it was dangerous since it could attract attention, and that's what happened when you started taking food we don't even need."
"Oh," Ron said, then suddenly his eyes got bigger. "Wait, I'm the dog in this, aren't I?"
Hermione nodded.
"What's worse is you risked us losing everything we had, too, since you were carrying all our supplies," Harry said.
"The food, medicine, books, everything that wasn't still in the tent was right there," Hermione said. "I always carry it with me because it's safer than leaving it sitting here even with all the enchantments we use to hide the tent and keep Muggles away. If we weren't able to get it back this evening-and the only way I could come up with to get it was to cast an Unforgivable Curse, which means I could technically get a life sentence in Azkaban-what would we have done?"
"We still would have had the tent?" Ron said hopefully.
"And how would we have carried it without the bag to put it in?" Harry pointed out.
Ron deflated as realization set in, "Okay, maybe you're not overreacting."
"Really, Ron, I'm trying to understand, but I can't figure it out," Hermione said. "Why would you start grabbing food off a wedding buffet when we already have it?"
"I guess I'm just so used to needing to scrounge to make a decent meal that when I saw all that food, I sort of, I don't know, panicked or something," he said, shrugging. "I see now it didn't make sense. I'm honestly sorry. I won't do anything like that again."
Harry looked at him and, after a pause, slugged him in the arm.
"I get it," Harry said. "It's alright."
"We're all under stress," Hermione said, "and that horrid Horcrux isn't helping matters at all. That might have been part of it, too."
She was probably only giving Ron the benefit of the doubt, but Harry silently thought that she might just be right about that. It would have been a perfect plot to get them all captured. The stupid thing seemed nearly sentient sometimes, and worse, it was figuring out their weaknesses. Ron's had always been food and not thinking things through. Hermione's was putting too much trust in what she knew. And Harry realized that his weak point was being rash when someone he cared about was in danger. Of all their faults, that one would easily have the worst consequences if the Horcrux tried to use it.
"So, did anyone find anything useful?" Ron said as he opened the bag, grimacing as he started pulling out sandwiches and desserts. "Any sign of Tommy?"
"No, but I didn't finish the Round Tower," Harry said.
"I didn't get through the State Apartments either," Hermione said. "I think we might have to go back again tomorrow. Of course, that's if they're open after the fire."
"I don't think I'd better go," Ron said. "I'm a little too infamous."
"Probably wise," Harry said, but he glanced over at the Horcrux lying on the table, glowing with a sickly green light. "I don't think we should leave that here, though."
He pointed at it to avoid using the word and calling attention to it. It already felt like it was eavesdropping on them.
"Why?" Ron said, instantly aggravated again. "You think I'm going to muck things up again? I'm not that stupid."
"I didn't say you were," Harry said, not even looking at him but keeping his eyes on the locket, which was now a good deal brighter than it was a few seconds ago.
Harry said nothing, but he motioned Ron and Hermione towards the tent flap. Hermione glanced between him and the locket, then nodded once, and Ron, still seeming put out, clomped out the opening first. Harry and Hermione joined him a second later.
"There's something wrong with that thing," Harry said.
"Really? And here I thought it was this season's trendiest fashion accessory," Ron said bitterly.
"No, I understand," Hermione said. "I saw it too. Ron, the second you got upset, it started to get brighter, like it was drawing energy from you."
"It did?" Ron said, shooting a disturbed look towards the tent.
"Yes," Harry said. "Did you feel anything?"
"No," Ron said, then stopped, thinking. "At least, I didn't think so. But when I got angry just then, it felt like… I don't know…"
"Was it like the anger wasn't just inside you, but coming in from outside, too?" Hermione said.
"Yeah," Ron said. "Yeah, that kind of sums it up."
"I've felt it," Hermione said, surprising Harry and, from his expression, Ron.
"I would have thought it was affecting you least of all," Ron said. "You don't seem like you're coming unglued, well, except when I interrupt you when you're telling a story."
"No, that's not what I mean," Hermione said. "I've been having dreams about my parents for the last few weeks."
"You never said anything about it before," Harry said.
"I thought they were only dreams, things like wanting to talk to them, wishing I could see them, running away and letting someone else do all this," Hermione said. "And I admit, I do want those things, but this felt like…"
"Like you were looking at them through a magnifying glass," Ron said. "It doesn't create the stuff, but it makes it worse."
Hermione nodded.
"We've spent too much time with it," Harry said. "We've been carrying it around for so long that it knows exactly where our weak spots are. And what's more, I think it's listening to us. We need to change priorities."
"You want to stop looking for the next Horcrux and destroy this one first," Hermione said.
"Yes," Harry said. "Maybe it's lucky we haven't found one yet. This is what things are like with one of them. Can you imagine if we were toting two of them about with us?"
All of them shuddered involuntarily.
"You're right," Ron said. "Okay, so how do we do that?"
Both of them looked at Hermione.
"If I knew that, I would have told you already," Hermione said crossly. "I've gone though all sorts of sources, but I'm just not finding anything feasible."
Harry felt a little deflated, but at least they were all agreeing again.
"Keep looking," Harry told her. "Please."
She nodded, then said, "I do have one idea. You really think its listening to us?"
"I do."
"Does either of you know sign language at all? Even the alphabet?" Hermione asked.
Harry and Ron shook their heads.
"I have a book on it somewhere in my bag," Hermione said. "I'm going to put it on the couch when we go back in. The alphabet is printed on the inside front cover. I don't know if it will work, but if there's a problem, we might be able to sign to one another so that it doesn't know what we're saying. And it's probably better if we don't mention out loud what we're trying to do."
"It's worth a try," Harry said.
"Okay," Ron agreed.
"So, should we still try going back into Windsor Castle tomorrow? Using different appearances, of course," Hermione said.
"I think it's worth a go," Harry said, "but like Ron said, maybe it would be better if he stayed here."
"I don't want to be by that thing alone, though," Ron said. He looked embarrassed, but he finally said, "I think it gets under my skin worse than it does with you two. I don't like the idea of it prodding at me while you're gone."
Harry mentally agreed. It wasn't really Ron's fault, but that's the way it was.
"Okay," Hermione said. "I'll wear it tomorrow, then. I'll just be extra careful."
"Thanks," Ron said, smiling with relief and gratitude.
"Fine," Harry said. "We'll try again tomorrow, and if it doesn't work, we'll go someplace where we can hopefully get rid of that thing for good."
They walked back into the tent. The Horcrux was no longer glowing so brightly, and Harry wondered if it was because they had been gone or because their mood had improved. Hermione went to her bag, rummaged through it, then pulled out a book that she left on the couch.
"I think I'm going to turn in," Hermione said, quickly casting a Preserving charm over the food Ron had taken. "No point in letting it all go to waste."
Within a few minutes, the lights were turned off, and the tent was quiet. Even the Horcrux seemed to be sleeping, its glow barely discernible. Harry rolled over on his couch and tried to think about what he would do when this was over and he could finally go home. The thought that he had no home grated against him, but the Horcrux remained dim. At least, he thought as he began to drift off to sleep, that proved it couldn't read his mind.
