Chapter 6:

Despite her tone and argumentative nature, Alicia accompanied Ginny to her room to do as Mrs Weasley had asked. The two girls worked as they cleaned the room up until Ginny broke it.

"Are you guys really going to plan and kill Voldemort?" Alicia paused and looked at her surprise, where on earth had she gotten that idea from? The answer came to her when she remember how comfortable Harry was around her. He'd more than likely let it slip to her. She looked annoyed before sighing, it couldn't be helped.

"You've heard about Harry being the Chosen One. Voldemort's failed to kill him how many times already?" Alicia said "And all that's going on is highly revolved around Voldemort's wish to get Harry. You know what he's like about people protecting him and getting hurt for him, he wont let anyone do it." she shrugged

"So you're gonna kill him?" Ginny asked

"We gotta figure out how first." Alicia mumbled, which was not a complete lie, after all, they didn't know how to destroy horcruxes or where any of them were.

They were done rather quickly and Alicia left the room to head up the stairs to Ron's room.

"Don't let your mum catch you lying on the job." Ron jolted upwards as she walked into the room before he lay back down again.

"If you're here I don't see why I need to worry, she'll snap at you instead." he responded

"Or ignore me." Alicia shrugged as she grinned at Hermione. She was sitting in the far corner with her fluffy ginger cat, Crookshanks, at her feet, sorting books.

"You took some of my books didn't you." Alicia said as she noticed a few of her titled books in the piles.

"You brought an awful many."

"I brought them all." Alicia shrugged in response as she sat herself down to lean against Ron's bed.

"How'd you get away from your task?"

"Ginny and I finished it." Alicia shrugged "You?"

"Mrs Weasley got us to change the sheets yesterday." Hermione shrugged

"Good, she's loosing it." Alicia smirked. The door opened again and this time Harry was waling in.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing—! Oh, it's you," said Ron in relief, as Harry entered, he'd gotten up from his bed to do the work before simply laying back down on it. It was clear he'd done none of the work he was supposed to as the room was just as messy as it had been all week.

"You know you've got a wand right Ron, wont take you a minute to clean up." Alicia said. He merely shrugged, his ears going slightly red. Alicia assumed he didn't know how to do such a spell and left it at that.

"Hi, Harry," Hermione said, as he sat down on his camp bed.

"And how did you manage to get away?"

"Oh, Ron's mum forgot that she asked Ginny and me to change the sheets yesterday," said Hermione. She threw Numerology and Grammatica onto one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts onto the other.

"We were just talking about Mad-Eye," Ron told Harry and Alicia. "I reckon he might have survived."

"But Bill and Alicia saw him hit by the Killing Curse," said Harry.

"Yeah, but Bill was under attack too," said Ron. "How can he be sure what he saw?"

"I watched it happen, Ron, right in his face." Alicia mumbled.

"Even if the Killing Curse missed, Mad-Eye still fell about a thousand feet," said Hermione, now weighing Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland in her hand.

"He could have used a Shield Charm —"

"Alicia said his wand was blasted out of his hand," said Harry looking at her.

"Well, all right, if you want him to be dead," said Ron grumpily, punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape.

"Of course we don't want him to be dead!" said Hermione, looking shocked. "It's dreadful that he's dead! But we're being realistic!"

"Sorry Ron, saw it with my own eyes, he's not coming back." Alicia said solemnly.

"The Death Eaters probably tidied up after themselves, that's why no one's found him," said Ron wisely.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Like Barty Crouch, turned into a bone and buried in Hagrid's front garden. They probably transfigured Moody and stuffed him —"

"Don't!" squealed Hermione. Startled, Harry looked over just in time to see her burst into tears over her copy of Spellman's Syllabary.

"Oh no," said Harry, struggling to get up from the old camp bed. "Hermione, I wasn't trying to upset —"

But with a great creaking of rusty bedsprings, Ron bounded off the bed and got there first. One arm around Hermione, he fished in his jeans pocket and withdrew a revolting-looking handkerchief that he had used to clean out the oven earlier. Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, "Tergeo."

The wand siphoned off most of the grease. Looking rather pleased with himself, Ron handed the slightly smoking handkerchief to Hermione.

Alicia watched him, surprised at how fast he'd moved and acted and Harry turned to her with the same look on his face.

"Oh… thanks, Ron… I'm sorry…" She blew her nose and hiccuped. "It's just so awful, isn't it? R-right after Dumbledore… I j-just n-never imagined Mad-Eye dying, somehow, he seemed so tough!"

"Yeah, I know," said Ron, giving her a squeeze. "But you know what he'd say to us if he was here?"

" 'C-constant vigilance,' " said Hermione, mopping her eyes.

"That's right," said Ron, nodding. "He'd tell us to learn from what happened to him. And what I've learned is not to trust that cowardly little squit, Mundungus."

Hermione gave a shaky laugh and leaned forward to pick up two more books. A second later, Ron had snatched his arm back from around her shoulders; she had dropped The Monster Book of Monsters on his foot. The book had broken free from its restraining belt and snapped viciously at Ron's ankle.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as Harry wrenched the book from Ron's leg and retied it shut. Alicia was lying on the floor laughing, too busy clutching at her stomach to help.

"What are you doing with all those books anyway?" Ron asked, limping back to his bed.

"Just trying to decide which ones to take with us," said Hermione. "When we're looking for the Horcruxes."

"Oh, of course," said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. "I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library."

"Ha ha," said Hermione, looking down at Spellman's Syllabaryas Alicia snickered some more. "I wonder… will we need to translate runes? It's possible… I think we'd better take it, to be safe."

"I'm taking all my books Hermione, don't you dare leave a single one of them behind." Alicia said to her.

"You're not gonna need them all Alicia." Hermione said looking at her surprised

"Not to help us maybe but I'm gonna need something to do by the day."

"You wont have time, we'll be on an adventure." Ron said

"You're mad if you think we'll be off going through hard spells and investigating caves every single day, it's not going to be nearly that easy." Alicia said, surprised by his confidence in how easy he thought it'd be. "You realise this quest could take years right?" she said and Ron shrugged it off. Hermione sighed in agreement as she dropped the syllabary onto the larger of the two piles and picked up Hogwarts, A History.

"Oh take that one." Alicia said

"For you to read? Don't you know it off by heart?" Ron asked

"No, but remember, one of the Horcruxes will be something of Ravenclaw's, where better to look up about Ravenclaw then in the history book of her school?" Alicia asked. Hermione instantly put it in the 'going' pile.

"Listen," said Harry.

He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance. Alicia looked annoyed at him.

"I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.

"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.

"As we knew he would," she sighed, turning back to the books. "Alicia do you think we'll need Fantastic Beasts?"

"Definitely, travelling around the country and the world in chaos who knows what we'll run into." Alicia agreed, the two ignoring Harry.

"Listen!" said Harry again.

"No, Harry, you listen," said Hermione. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago — years, really."

"But —"

"Shut up," Ron advised him.

"— are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.

"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming Travels with Trolls onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose.

"I've also modified my parents' memories so that they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That's to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me — or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you." Alicia looked at Hermione with the utmost horror. Her own parents?

"Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I'll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don't — well, I think I've cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."

"Hermione…" Alicia whispered to her, but she dropped her gaze, hadn't she done the same?

Hermione's eyes were swimming with tears again. Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around her once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact.

Harry looked at Alicia and she gave him another disapproving annoyed look.

"I — Hermione, I'm sorry — I didn't —"

"Didn't realise that Ron and I know perfectly well what might happen if we come with you? Well, we do. Ron, show Harry what you've done."

"Nah, he's just eaten," said Ron.

"Go on, he needs to know!"

"Oh, all right. Harry, come here. You too Alicia, though you don't need the convincing." Alicia got up and went after Ron to the door where they realised Harry hadn't moved.

"C'mon."

"Why?" Harry asked, following Ron out of the room onto the tiny landing.

"Descendo," muttered Ron, pointing his wand at the low ceiling. A hatch opened right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet. A horrible, half-sucking, half-moaning sound came out of the square hole, along with an unpleasant smell like open drains.

"That's your ghoul, isn't it?" asked Harry as Alicia looked curious.

"Yeah, it is," said Ron, climbing the ladder. "Come and have a look at him."

Alicia went up the stairs first and Harry followed Ron into the tiny attic space. The ghoul was fast asleep in the gloom with its large mouth wide open.

"But it… it looks… do ghouls normally wear pyjamas?"

"No," said Ron. "Nor have they usually got red hair or that number of pustules."

It was human in shape and size, and was wearing what was clearly an old pair of Ron's pyjamas. Ghouls were also generally rather slimy and bald, but this one was distinctly hairy and covered in angry purple blisters.

"He's me, see?" said Ron.

"No," said Harry. "I don't."

"Well I don't see you but I get what you've done Ron, very clever." Alicia confessed, looking at the ghoul.

"I'll explain it back in my room, the smell's getting to me," said Ron. They climbed back down the ladder, which Ron returned to the ceiling, and rejoined Hermione, who was still sorting books.

"Once we've left, the ghoul's going to come and live down here in my room," said Ron. "I think he's really looking forward to it — well, it's hard to tell, because all he can do is moan and drool — but he nods a lot when you mention it. Anyway, he's going to be me with spattergroit. Good, eh?"

Harry merely looked at him with confusion.

"That's rather clever Ron." Alicia said "How'd you— did you get the idea from when we were last in St Mungos and that portrait said you had spattergroit?" she asked grinning and Ron nodded.

"Brilliant." she grinned and Ron grinned back before looking at Harry.

He hadn't seemed to grasp the concept.

"Look, when we four don't turn up at Hogwarts again, everyone's going to think Hermione and I must be with you two, right? Which means the Death Eaters will go straight for our families to see if they've got information on where you are."

"But hopefully it'll look like I've gone away with Mum and Dad; a lot of Muggle-borns are talking about going into hiding at the moment," said Hermione.

"We can't hide my whole family, it'll look too fishy and they can't all leave their jobs," said Ron. "So we're going to put out the story that I'm seriously ill with spattergroit, which is why I can't go back to school. If anyone comes calling to investigate, Mum or Dad can show them the ghoul in my bed, covered in pustules. Spattergroit's really contagious, so they're not going to want to go near him. It won't matter that he can't say anything, either, because apparently you can't once the fungus has spread to your uvula."

"And your mum and dad are in on this plan?" asked Harry.

"Dad is. He helped Fred and George transform the ghoul. Mum… well, you've seen what she's like. She won't accept we're going till we've gone."

"Damn Fred for not telling me." Alicia cursed and Ron and Hermione laughed. "Anyway, she'll have to accept it when we drop off the radar." Alicia said frowning. "And as soon as Harry and I are seventeen she can't really do much to stop us, all we need to do is run for the boundary and apparate, even if that'll really upset her." Ron nodded.

The muffled sounds of Mrs. Weasley shouting come up and reached them from four floors below, causing them to turn slightly towards it.

"Ginny's probably left a speck of dust on a poxy napkin ring," said Ron. "I dunno why the Delacours have got to come two days before the wedding."

"Fleur's sister's a bridesmaid, she needs to be here for the rehearsal, and she's too young to come on her own," said Hermione, as she pored indecisively over Break with a Banshee.

"Well, guests aren't going to help Mum's stress levels," said Ron.

"Nothing's really gonna help." Alicia said "Except the wedding being over, then she'll go back to worrying." she sighed.

"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, tossing Defensive Magical Theory into the bin without a second glance and picking up An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Harry, and I understand why, but… well… shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"

"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," said Harry.

"I don't think we should." Alicia said and the three looked at her, Harry with betrayal and surprise, she was frowning. "It's not a good idea, the only way I'd agree to it is if we could go before our birthday, we wont be expected to before we're of age but after that…" she looked at Hermione who nodded, understanding.

"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow?" Hermione asked. "He might expect you to go back and visit your parents' graves once you're free to go wherever you like?"

Harry had nothing to say as he realised she was right but tried to find an argument regardless. Ron spoke up first, evidently following his own train of thought.

"This R.A.B. person," he said. "You know, the one who stole the real locket?"

Hermione nodded.

"He said in his note he was going to destroy it, didn't he?" Harry dragged his rucksack toward him and pulled out the fake Horcrux in which R.A.B.'s note was still folded.

" 'I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can,' " Harry read out.

"Well, what if he did finish it off?" said Ron.

"Or she," interposed Hermione.

"Whichever," said Ron, "it'd be one less for us to do!"

"Yes, but we're still going to have to try and trace the real locket, aren't we?" said Hermione, "to find out whether or not it's destroyed."

"Well for that we need to find out who R.A.B is…" Alicia mumbled "God you know it's been bugging me, like I should know the answer, it's been a while since that's happened." she said looking frustrated.

"And once we get hold of it, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" asked Ron.

"You have to destroy it beyond all repair." Alicia said and they all looked at her

"How do you know?"

"I asked Dumbledore," she shrugged "And that was really all he said about it, not very helpful but it'll stop us using useless things like normal hexes, they wont work."

"I've been researching it." said Hermione,

"How?" asked Harry. "I didn't think there were any books on Horcruxes in the library?"

"There weren't," said Hermione, who had turned pink. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he — he didn't destroy them." Alicia was smirking and the two boys looked from her to Hermione.

Ron sat up straight, wide-eyed.

"How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"

"It — it wasn't stealing!" said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron with a kind of desperation. "They were still library books, even if Dumbledore had taken them off the shelves."

"Yeah but you don't borrow them really, they weren't in the library." Alicia said looking cocky while Hermione looked at her annoyed.

"Anyway, if he really didn't want anyone to get at them, I'm sure he would have made it much harder to —"

"Get to the point!" said Ron.

"Well… it was easy," said Hermione in a small voice. "I just did a Summoning Charm. You know — Accio. And — they zoomed out of Dumbledore's study window right into the girls' dormitory."

"But when did you do this?" Harry asked

"Just after his — Dumbledore's — funeral," said Hermione in an even smaller voice. "Right after we agreed we'd leave school and go and look for the Horcruxes. When Alicia and I went back upstairs to get our things Alicia was talking about where we should start and what we should do, at that point it — it just occurred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be… and we were alone in there… so I tried… and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I — I packed them."

"She wouldn't let me take them despite the fact that she was fluffing about what she'd done the whole way down to the train." Alicia admitted.

She swallowed and then said imploringly, "I can't believe Dumbledore would have been angry, it's not as though we're going to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?"

"Can you hear us complaining?" said Ron. "Where are these books anyway?"

Hermione rummaged for a moment and then extracted from the pile a large volume, bound in faded black leather. She looked a little nauseated and held it as gingerly as if it were something recently dead.

"This is the one that gives explicit instructions on how to make a Horcrux. Secrets of the Darkest Art — it's a horrible book, really awful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library… If he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Voldemort got all the instruction he needed from here."

"Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if he'd already read that?" asked Ron.

"He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven," said Harry. "Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Horcrux by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think you're right, Hermione, that could easily have been where he got the information."

"And the more I've read about them," said Hermione, "the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that's just by making one Horcrux!"

Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond "usual evil."

"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.

"Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile,

"What?" Alicia snapped at her suddenly. Instantly her mind went to how she held a part of Harry's soul.

Hermione nodded at her. "but it would be excruciatingly painful."

"Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.

"Remorse," said Hermione. "You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"

"No," said Ron, before Harry could answer. "So does it say how to destroy Horcruxes in that book?"

"Yes," said Hermione, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, "because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that I've read, what Harry did to Riddle's diary was one of the few really foolproof ways of destroying a Horcrux."

"What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?" asked Harry.

"Oh well, lucky we've got such a large supply of basilisk fangs, then," said Ron. "I was wondering what we were going to do with them."

"It doesn't have to be a basilisk fang," said Hermione patiently. "Like Alicia said, it has to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and it's incredibly rare —

"— phoenix tears," said Harry, nodding.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."

"But even if we wreck the thing it lives in," said Ron, "why can't the bit of soul in it just go and live in something else?"

"Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being."

Harry and Ron looked confused as Alicia contemplated.

"A soul in a human doesn't need the body to survive, but a horcux soul needs it's host as protection." she thought.

Harry and Ron just shared another look and Hermione hurried to explain.

"Look, if I picked up a sword right now, Ron, and ran you through with it, I wouldn't damage your soul at all."

"Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure," said Ron. Harry laughed.

"It should be, actually! But my point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched," said Hermione. "But it's the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can't exist without it."

"That diary sort of died when I stabbed it," said Harry looking at Alicia who nodded, remembering ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the screams of the piece of Voldemort's soul as it vanished.

"And once the diary was properly destroyed, the bit of soul trapped in it could no longer exist. Ginny tried to get rid of the diary before you did, flushing it away, but obviously it came back good as new."

"Hang on," said Ron, frowning. "The bit of soul in that diary was possessing Ginny, wasn't it? How does that work, then?"

"The soul in the diary sucked on Ginny's soul to fuel it as Ginny poured a bit of her soul, her secrets, her desires, into the diary." Alicia remembered and Hermione nodded.

"While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don't mean holding it for too long, it's nothing to do with touching it," she added before Ron could speak. "I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You're in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux."

"I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?" said Harry. "Why didn't I ask him? I never really…"

"He did it rather quickly." Alicia said thinking "remember, he told us he injured his hand not long before coming to get us, he didn't have to go looking for some rare dangerous thing like venom of a Basilisk, and I don't think he'd be able to get down into the chamber to get one of those fangs anyway." she thought "He's have to have either known some people, had some really good magic, or, already have had something destructive enough on hand…"

Everyone was watching her as she thought and she stopped, looking at the three.

"What?" she asked

"Well, did you figure it out?" Ron asked. She looked at them.

"Are you just sitting there waiting for me to hit an answer?" she asked and the three nodded. "Come on give me a bit more time wont you, it usually takes a bit more than that for me to get the answer." she confessed.

They all sighed but didn't push the answer before the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Hermione shrieked and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art; Crookshanks streaked under the bed, hissing indignantly; Ron jumped off the bed, skidded on a discarded Chocolate Frog wrapper, and smacked his head on the opposite wall; and Harry instinctively dived for his wand and Alicia simply turned around in surprise before becoming annoyed. She was looking at Mrs. Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.

"I'm so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm sure you all need your rest… but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help."

"Oh yes," said Hermione, looking terrified as she leapt to her feet, sending books flying in every direction, "we will… we're sorry…"

"All you had to do was send a reminder memo." Alicia said rolling her eyes and Hermione looked at her terrified as she hurried out of the room after Mrs. Weasley.

"It's like being a house-elf," complained Ron in an undertone, still massaging his head as he, Alicia and Harry followed. "Except without the job satisfaction. The sooner this wedding's over, the happier I'll be."

"Yeah," said Harry, "then we'll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes… It'll be like a holiday, won't it?"

"More like a camping trip." Alicia said thinking "It's sort of the same isn't it?" she asked

Ron started to laugh, but at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs. Weasley's room, stopped quite abruptly.