Chapter 20:
The next morning, once they were all awake, Alicia, Harry and Hermione discussed what to do from then on. After what happened in Tottenham Court Road, even Alicia agreed they shouldn't stay anywhere too long, and Ron agreed, with the sole proviso that their next move took them within reach of a bacon sandwich.
"Yeah we're gonna have to start thinking about food. Even a Muggle groceries store." Alicia agreed "Stock up and duplicate."
With the four in agreement, Hermione and Alicia removed the enchantments they had placed around the clearing, while Harry and Ron obliterated all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show they had camped there. Then they Disapparated to the outskirts of a small market town.
Once they had pitched the tent in the shelter of a small copse of trees and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments, Harry ventured out under the Invisibility Cloak to find sustenance. This, however, did not go as planned. He came running back, empty handed and out of breath as he managed to get out a single word: dementors.
"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" protested Ron.
"I couldn't… make one," he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't… come."
"That's not normal… you were fine at the Ministry…" Alicia frowned as Hermione and Ron had expressions of consternation and disappointment.
"So we still haven't got any food."
"Shut up, Ron," snapped Hermione. "Harry, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday!"
"I don't know."
"Yeah, I mean nothing's changed since then, you haven't come into…" she paused "or added…"
She looked at Hermione as if expecting her to understand.
Ron kicked a chair leg.
"What?" he snarled at Hermione. "I'm starving! All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!"
"You go and fight your way through the dementors, then," said Harry, stung.
"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"
"That's convenient."
"And what's that supposed to — ?"
"Unnecessary negativity!" Alicia said interrupting them. "Something that's been added to Harry since yesterday, that'd cause negativity on him to stop the happiness that a patronus needs." she said and Hermione watched her before she turned to Harry.
"The locket." she explained and Hermione clapped her hand on her forehead.
"Of course!" cried Hermione, understanding. "Harry, give me the locket! Come on," she said impatiently, clicking her fingers at him when he did not react, "the Horcrux, Harry, you're still wearing it!"
She held out her hands, and Harry lifted the golden chain over his head.
"Better?" asked Hermione. Harry blinked as hough there was a sudden change in air about him.
"Yeah, loads better!"
"Harry," Hermione said, crouching down in front of him and using the kind of voice associated with visiting the very sick, "you don't think you've been possessed, do you?"
"What? No!" he said defensively. "I remember everything we've done while I've been wearing it. I wouldn't know what I'd done if I'd been possessed, would I? Ginny told me there were times when she couldn't remember anything."
"Hmm," said Hermione, looking down at the heavy gold locket.
"I don't think it's possession." Alicia said "It's the effect of the soul, I mean it's his soul, think how evil and negative it'll be. I think just being in contact with it for too long would put the effect on the wearer."
"But, Umbridge—" Hermione began
"Is evil, she's not gonna be brought down by it, bet it gave her a boost." Alicia said annoyed.
"Well, maybe we ought not to wear it. We can just keep it in the tent."
"We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around," Harry stated firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen —"
"Oh, all right, all right," said Hermione, and she placed it around her own neck and tucked it out of sight down the front of her shirt. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on too long."
"Great," said Ron irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"
"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it," said Hermione with half a glance at Harry. "There's no point staying where we know dementors are swooping around."
"We don't want nor do we need the hassle anything magic can bring to us." Alicia agreed.
In the end they settled down for the night in a far-flung field belonging to a lonely farm, from which they had managed to obtain eggs and bread.
"It's not stealing, is it?" asked Hermione in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs on toast. "Not if I left some money under the chicken coop?"
"Hermione, chickens will lay eggs regardless, they'd have had more tomorrow anyway." Alicia said while Ron rolled his eyes.
" 'Er-my- nee, 'oo worry 'oo much. 'Elax!"
And, indeed, it was much easier to relax when they were comfortably well fed: The argument about the dementors was forgotten in laughter that night, and Harry took the first of the four night watches.
This was their first encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits; an empty one, bickering and gloom. Harry was least surprised by this, because he had suffered periods of near starvation at the Dursleys'. Alicia had been well fed but found it very rational they acted this way and tried to keep herself from snapping at everything someone said that irritated her by diving into her memories, sometimes almost literally into the pensieve. Hermione bore up reasonably well on those nights when they managed to scavenge nothing but berries or stale biscuits, her temper perhaps a little shorter than usual and her silences rather dour. Ron, however, had always been used to three delicious meals a day, courtesy of his mother or of the Hogwarts house-elves, and hunger made him both unreasonable and irascible. Whenever lack of food coincided with Ron's turn to wear the Horcrux, he became downright unpleasant.
"So where next?" was his constant refrain. He did not seem to have any ideas himself, but expected Alicia, Harry and Hermione to come up with plans while he sat and brooded over the low food supplies. Twice Alicia had made this snap at him when he'd been hungry and she'd had the locket around her neck, but seemed otherwise able to hold her tongue. Accordingly Alicia, Harry and Hermione spent fruitless hours trying to decide where they might find the other Horcruxes, and how to destroy the one they had already got, their conversations becoming increasingly repetitive as they had no new information.
As Dumbledore had told the twins that he believed Voldemort had hidden the Horcruxes in places important to him, they kept reciting, in a sort of dreary litany, those locations they knew that Voldemort had lived or visited. The orphanage where he had been born and raised; Hogwarts, where he had been educated; Borgin and Burkes, where he had worked after completing school; then Albania, where he had spent his years of exile. Alicia however cut out Borgin and Burkes and the orphanage but agreed they could at least check the orphanage if they found a way to do it carefully. These formed the basis of their speculations.
"Yeah, let's go to Albania. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon to search an entire country," said Ron sarcastically.
"There can't be anything there. He'd already made five of his Horcruxes before he went into exile, and Dumbledore was certain the snake is the sixth," said Hermione. "We know the snake's not in Albania, it's usually with Vol —"
"Didn't I ask you to stop saying that?"
"Fine! The snake is usually with You-Know-Who — happy?"
"Not particularly."
"As Alicia said, I can't see him hiding anything at Borgin and Burkes," said Harry, yet again. "Borgin and Burke were experts at Dark objects, they would've recognised a Horcrux straightaway."
Ron yawned pointedly. Harry continued with a quick glare in Ron's direction. "I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts."
Hermione sighed.
"But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry!"
"And I suggested the idea to him." Alicia said yet again "And after his reply of him having searched the castle, I told him he wasn't a sixteen year old boy. Remember Harry how he said the old could forget how to think like the young?" Alicia said "Besides the school was searched up and down many times for the Chamber of Secrets and no one found it." she pointed out.
"Yeah, Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwarts's secrets. I'm telling you, if there was one place Vol —"
"Oi!"
"YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!" Harry shouted, goaded past endurance. "If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!"
"Oh, come on," scoffed Ron. "His school?"
"Just because it's only a school to you Ronald!" Alicia snapped.
"Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special; it meant everything to him, and even after he left —"
"This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, right? Not you?" inquired Ron. He was tugging at the chain of the Horcrux around his neck.
"You told us that You-Know-Who asked Dumbledore to give him a job after he left," said Hermione.
"That's right," said Harry.
"And Dumbledore thought he only wanted to come back to try and find something, probably another founder's object, to make into another Horcrux?"
"Yeah," said Harry.
"But he didn't get the job, did he?" said Hermione. "So he never got the chance to find a founder's object there and hide it in the school!"
"Okay, then," said Harry, defeated. "Forget Hogwarts."
"No, don't forget Hogwarts, I talked to Dumbledore about how he had six years at Hogwarts, two of which he knew about and was making Horcruxes in, it would not surprise me if he was going back to check, move, or collect the last one. Dumbledore did not disagree. It'd be absolutely stupid not to check!" Alicia said "One thing I am sure of, is it's not the cup, because he didn't have that until he left, so it'd have to be what ever it is of Ravenclaws." Alicia said
"We have no proof."
"We have no proof of nothing Hermione, so what else is new?" Alicia snapped.
Without any other leads, they traveled into London and, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, searched for the orphanage in which Voldemort had been raised. Hermione stole into a library and discovered from their records that the place had been demolished many years before. They visited its site and found a tower block of offices.
"We could try digging in the foundations?" Hermione suggested halfheartedly.
"Alicia already guessed he wouldn't have hidden a Horcrux here," Harry said as his sister nodded. "He hated it here too much. Plus a muggle building right in the middle of London, it's not protected enough." Alicia confessed and Harry agreed with her.
Even without any new ideas, they continued to move through the countryside, pitching the tent in a different place each night for security. Every morning they made sure that they had removed all clues to their presence, then set off to find another lonely and secluded spot, traveling by Apparition to more woods, to the shadowy crevices of cliffs, to purple moors, gorse-covered mountainsides, and once a sheltered and pebbly cove. Every twelve hours or so they passed the Horcrux between them as though they were playing some perverse, slow-motion game of pass-the-parcel, where they dreaded the music stopping because the reward was twelve hours of increased fear and anxiety.
Despite all this and despite her temper, Alicia seemed to be able to withstand the effect the Horcrux the most, though she still made snaps and wasn't immune. She found this confusing as she believed, though she hadn't said it out loud, that Harry would be best, after all, he was always in contact with a piece of Voldemort's soul.
Maybe that's why though, the two pieces together… you've just flitted in and touched it through Harry, which is sort of like the locket… She said nothing of this to the others, the explanation was something she couldn't do, not until the time was right.
Alicia's scar continued to prickle when Harry's did but with her Occlumency being better and keeping Harry out, as well as Voldemort, she only saw things when she gave into it or wanted to. Harry however was different and he reacted to the pain enough for them to notice, mostly Ron.
"What? What did you see?" demanded Ron, whenever he noticed Harry wince.
"A face," muttered Harry, every time. "The same face. The thief who stole from Gregorovitch."
And Ron would turn away, making no effort to hide his disappointment. It was obvious that Ron was hoping to hear news of his family or of the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, but Harry wasn't some kind of television arial. Alicia's mirror had still sat beside her pensive with no call from the other side and she wondered if maybe Fred had left and forgotten his, or if they were travelling and it was in his bag… she hoped upon hope he hadn't broken it, but she'd tried calling for him and so far had received no reply. She hoped they were simply in hiding and being watched and listened to so he couldn't speak to her in fear of her safety and the others with her.
It worried her, but with Ron already so antsy, she couldn't voice these thoughts to anyone, as she didn't want to worry or make Harry feel any guiltier than she knew he did.
The girl stared at the mirror one afternoon before she reached for it. Ron watched her expectantly, not to the girl's surprise, as she held it before her.
"Fred…" she waited with low expectations. No face appeared and Ron began to slump. "George."
"Well hello Alicia." everyone in the tent perked up instantly in surprise and Alicia blinked as the one-eared George appeared in the reflection. She stared at him and he grinned back as Ron was instantly behind the girl. "You're looking well, what you lot up to?"
Harry who was walking over as well as Hermione watched Alicia worried now as she stared and her emotions began to bubble.
"George, how is everyone? Is everything okay?" Ron said instantly.
"Yeah, Bill and Fleur are at a safe house, dad's back at work, we've had to slow down the business a little… Ginny's at Hogwarts obviously." Ron let out a sigh of relief and nodded while Alicia was still staring.
"And what about everyone in the Order?" Hermione said
"So far everyone's fine, it hasn't been long since the wedding after all, everyone's keeping their noses clean." he shrugged before looking at Alicia. "You're awfully quiet?" he said.
George shunned away from the mirror, moving backwards and giving the impression the mirror had been sat on the table. They could now see his bright purple shirt more clearly, instead of just the collar. Alicia's expression had contorted into complete and utter ferocity.
"You think… you have the audacity… to answer the mirror with just a 'well hello'… after ignoring my calls for weeks!" Her voice was shaky with anger and ended up in a shout for the last word. "I've been absolutely terrified! I thought something had happened. Something was wrong! Where the hell is Fred!?" she demanded instantly as George chuckled lightly.
"Well, we've sorta been running around, we can't all be hold up in a secret house after all." George said nervously.
"And this is exactly why you should answer me when I call!" If not for the rational side of her brain Alicia might have thrown the mirror away in her anger. "We're not at Grimmauld Place any more. We haven't been there since September second! Yaxley, a Death Eater, got into the protection charms."
"How?" George said surprised. Alicia looked at him defiantly.
"I'm surprised you're not aware of what happened." she said "And did Lupin not tell you the place is unsafe?"
"Haven't really spoken to him much." Alicia huffed. Harry, Hermione and Ron were watching her, all fearing her rage too much to speak. "So… what happened with Grimmauld Place?"
"Yaxley got in after he grabbed a hold of Hermione." Alicia said
"How'd he find you?"
"We broke into the ministry." Alicia shrugged and George gapped at them.
"That was you!?" he demanded shocked and the three behind Alicia nodded with her. "Dad was telling us about it! Someone broke into the Ministry and attacked Umbridge and Yaxley and then freed a heap of muggle-borns!"
"Well we weren't going to leave them in Umbridge's hands." Alicia rolled her eyes
"I never would have guessed!" George grinned. "We thought they were just rebellions wanting to free the muggle-borns, is that why you did it?"
"God no."
"Why then?"
"Can't tell you." Harry said "Sorry George."
"Well did you at least do whatever you meant to?" he wondered
"Right, go all that way and cause all that trouble just to fail?" Alicia scoffed "Of course we succeeded. But no one knows that, just let them continue thinking it was about the muggle-borns."
"Wait till Fred finds out."
"Speaking of…" Alicia said annoyed
"He went out to get some food. We don't stay still much. I don't think we've thought about the mirror much cause it was still in his bag."
"Feel like throwing some food our way." Ron grumbled and the two girls rolled their eyes
"Why are you moving around?" Harry wondered
"You're not on the run are you?" Alicia sighed
"Narr, we're helping Lee out with an idea." George shrugged "It's only temporary." The four shared a look. "It's nothing dangerous don't worry. So where are you guys now?"
"Camping." Hermione said quickly and the three looked at her. "Sorry George but it's better you don't know."
"Not that it matters." Alicia said "We don't stay in the same place for more than one night." she explained. "After we were attacked by Death Eaters, after the wedding, we decided it was best."
"And you're just pitching a tent and camping?" George said and the four nodded. "Brilliant."
"It's not all it's cracked up to be." Alicia said, glancing at Ron on her left. "But it's enough."
"I'm glad you're all safe. And I am sorry Alicia, we weren't trying to ignore you. For a while after our last chat we didn't touch the mirror cause we were being watched. We didn't want anyone listening in and knowing anything." he explained "After that though things got busy and we were helping Lee… kinda slipped our minds."
"Glad to know my boyfriend cares enough to check in on me." Alicia grumbled irritatedly, her arms crossed.
"I'll get him to call you back at some point."
"Some point likely meaning several weeks! If he doesn't call me for Christmas…!"
"I'll confiscate all his gifts till he does." George smirked
"You just want them instead." Alicia said and George nodded
"Hey not a bad idea." the girl rolled her eyes but smirked slightly.
"Seriously George, we don't know anything that's happening in the outside world, some insight would be nice." Harry admitted
"Yeah before we murder each other… too long in one person's company is dangerous." Alicia admitted
"Alright, we'll do our best, but no promises, we're not gonna lead people to you after all."
"Dunno if you could but no more silent treatments!" Alicia snapped "And you can tell Fred, I hate him." and she put the mirror down upside down before storming off to her bunk. Hermione, Ron and Harry blinked surprised before sharing a look.
Hermione sighed, seeming the only one to understand the girl's madness.