Chapter 22:
"If somebody swapped the real sword for the fake while it was in Dumbledore's office," Hermione panted, as they propped the painting of Phineas Nigellus, taken from Grimmauld Place, against the side of the tent, "Phineas Nigellus would have seen it happen, he hangs right beside the case!"
"Unless he was asleep," said Harry
"I swear those portraits never actually sleep, just ears drop." Alicia said as she joined the three, standing behind them as they crouched before the portrait.
Hermione knelt down in front of the empty canvas, her wand directed at its centre, cleared her throat, then said:
"Er — Phineas? Phineas Nigellus?"
Nothing happened.
"Phineas Nigellus?" said Hermione again. "Professor Black? Please could we talk to you? Please?"
" 'Please' always helps," said a cold, snide voice, and Phineas Nigellus slid into his portrait. At once, Hermione cried:
"Obscuro!"
A black blindfold appeared over Phineas Nigellus's clever, dark eyes, causing him to bump into the frame and shriek with pain.
"What — how dare — what are you — ?"
"What are you doing!?" Alicia demanded her eyes wide.
"We can't have him seeing us." Hermione said
"He'll know who we are the second we've spoken. And all he can see is the inside of the tent, so what's the reason to blindfold him?" she questioned but she seemed the only one who disagreed with the measure.
"Well, well, Alicia Potter."
"I'm sorry Professor." she said "I didn't believe they'd pull such a stunt." she sent a look at Hermione.
"I'm very sorry, Professor Black," said Hermione, "but it's a necessary precaution!" she said turning to Alicia who rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"
"Never mind where we are," said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.
"Can that possibly be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?"
"Maybe," said Harry, knowing that this would keep Phineas Nigellus's interest. "We've got a couple of questions to ask you — about the sword of Gryffindor."
"Ah," said Phineas Nigellus, now turning his head this way and that in an effort to catch sight of Harry, "yes. That silly girl acted most unwisely there —"
"Shut up about my sister," said Ron roughly. Phineas Nigellus raised supercilious eyebrows.
"Who else is here?" he asked, turning his head from side to side. "Your tone displeases me!"
"He wont help us if we're rude to him Ron, no matter what he says. It's bad enough we've disrespected him with the blindfold!" Alicia believed.
"Well the girl and her friends were foolhardy in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster!"
"They weren't thieving," said Harry. "That sword isn't Snape's."
"It belongs to Professor Snape's school," said Phineas Nigellus. "Exactly what claim did the Weasley girl have upon it? She deserved her punishment, as did the idiot Longbottom and the Lovegood oddity!"
"Neville is not an idiot and Luna is not an oddity!" said Hermione.
"Where am I?" repeated Phineas Nigellus, starting to wrestle with the blindfold again. "Where have you brought me? Why have you removed me from the house of my forebears?"
"Never mind that! How did Snape punish Ginny, Neville, and Luna?" asked Harry urgently.
"Professor Snape sent them into the Forbidden Forest, to do some work for the oaf, Hagrid."
"Hagrid's not an oaf!" said Hermione shrilly.
"That was all…" Alicia mumbled "The Carrows did nothing?" then maybe Snape really was protecting the students better.
"And Snape might've thought that was a punishment," said Harry, "but Ginny, Neville, and Luna probably had a good laugh with Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest… they've faced plenty worse than the Forbidden Forest, big deal!"
"Well depends on their job but…" Alicia mumbled
"What we really wanted to know, Professor Black, is whether anyone else has, um, taken out the sword at all? Maybe it's been taken away for cleaning or — or something?"
Phineas Nigellus paused again in his struggles to free his eyes and sniggered.
"Muggle-borns," he said. "Goblin-made armour does not require cleaning, simple girl. Goblins' silver repels mundane dirt, imbibing only that which strengthens it."
"Imbibing only that which strengthens it?" Alicia said as Harry snapped at the portrait for calling Hermione simple. "As in it takes in that which makes it stronger?" she wondered
"Precisely." Alicia looked like she'd been handed everything she ever wanted and stood up grinning. "Now I grow weary of contradiction," said Phineas Nigellus. "Perhaps it is time for me to return to the headmaster's office?"
Still blindfolded, he began groping the side of his frame, trying to feel his way out of his picture and back into the one at Hogwarts.
"Dumbledore! Can't you bring us Dumbledore?" Harry suddenly said.
"I beg your pardon?" asked Phineas Nigellus.
"Professor Dumbledore's portrait — couldn't you bring him along, here, into yours?"
"Harry it doesn't work that way?" Alicia sighed.
"Evidently it is not only Muggle-borns who are ignorant, Potter. The portraits of Hogwarts may commune with each other, but they cannot travel outside the castle except to visit a painting of themselves hanging elsewhere. Dumbledore cannot come here with me, and after the treatment I have received at your hands, I can assure you that I shall not be making a return visit!"
"I wouldn't blame you." Alicia mumbled as she sighed and Phineas redoubled his attempts to leave his frame.
"Professor Black," said Hermione, "couldn't you just tell us, please, when was the last time the sword was taken out of its case? Before Ginny took it out, I mean?"
Phineas snorted impatiently.
"I believe that the last time I saw the sword of Gryffindor leave its case was when Professor Dumbledore used it to break open a ring."
Hermione whipped around to look at Alicia who's mouth was in a triumphant grin as Harry stared at her too. None of them dared say more in front of Phineas Nigellus, who had at last managed to locate the exit.
"Well, good night to you," he said a little waspishly, and he began to move out of sight again. Only the edge of his hat brim remained in view when Harry gave a sudden shout.
"Wait! Have you told Snape you saw this?"
Phineas Nigellus stuck his blindfolded head back into the picture.
"Professor Snape has more important things on his mind than the many eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore. Good-bye, Potter!"
And with that, he vanished completely, leaving behind him nothing but his murky backdrop.
"Harry!" Hermione cried.
"I know!" Harry shouted. Unable to contain himself, he punched the air and then grabbed Alicia in a hug, spinning her. "You were right! The sword!" he grinned at her and then began to pace up and down the tent. Hermione was squashing Phineas Nigellus's portrait back into the beaded bag; when she had fastened the clasp she threw the bag aside and raised a shining face to Harry.
"The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthen them — Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!"
"And Dumbledore didn't give it to me because he still needed it, he wanted to use it on the locket —"
"— and he must have realised they wouldn't let you have it if he put it in his will —"
"— so he made a copy —"
"— and put a fake in the glass case —"
"— and he left the real one — where?"
Alicia sat herself down before her mirror. Ron had moved as well and was lying on his lower bunk staring at the one above him, glaring at it. Alicia had picked up her mirror to look at it.
Alicia had made a guess about the sword and was glad she was right. They knew how to destroy Horcruxes, but the real sword was either missing or Snape was trying to get it to them, a problem he'd had since they'd left the Burrow no doubt. She wondered if Phineas, now knowing they had his portrait, would change that, but it didn't stop the words from going through her head.
"… the Weasleys don't need any more of their kids injured, do they?"
What if something had happened?
Harry and Hermione were still going.
"Think!" whispered Hermione. "Think! Where would he have left it?"
"Not at Hogwarts," said Harry, resuming his pacing.
"Somewhere in Hogsmeade?" suggested Hermione.
"The Shrieking Shack?" said Harry. "Nobody ever goes in there."
"But Snape knows how to get in, wouldn't that be a bit risky?"
"Dumbledore trusted Snape," Harry reminded her.
"Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords," said Hermione.
If it was indeed Dumbledore who swapped them. Alicia thought
"Yeah, you're right!" said Harry. "So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Ron?"
Harry looked around and saw Alicia in her chair and Ron lying in the shadow of a lower bunk, looking stony.
"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.
"What?"
Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.
"You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."
Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was.
Alicia wondered if he worried what she did. Ginny being punished, his family likely have had another sibling injured… and here Harry and Hermione were talking only about the sword. Not only that but Ron had the horcrux around his neck.
Alicia felt the anger increase as she realised this and looked up at the two boys, away from her reflection which she'd been staring at.
"What's the problem?" asked Harry.
"Problem? There's no problem," said Ron, still refusing to look at Harry. "Not according to you, anyway."
There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.
"Well, you've obviously got a problem," said Harry. "Spit it out, will you?"
Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself.
"All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."
"I don't know?" repeated Harry, "I don't know?"
Plunk, plunk, plunk. The rain was falling harder and heavier; it pattered on the leaf-strewn bank all around them and into the river chattering through the dark. Alicia felt Harry fill with dread as Ron said exactly what Harry had feared.
"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," said Ron, "you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."
"Ron," Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was now beating on the tent.
Alicia said nothing. She'd guessed this might test them. Frustration, worry, bitterness, the Horcrux, lack of food, it was all weighing on them.
"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for," said Harry.
"Yeah, I thought I did too."
"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defence now. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?"
"We thought you knew what you were doing!" shouted Ron, standing up. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"
"Ron!" said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.
"Well, sorry to let you down," said Harry, his voice quite calm for the emotions Alicia felt coming from him. "I've been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux —"
"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them — nowhere effing near, in other words!"
"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione said, her voice unusually high. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."
"Yeah, he would," said Harry. "D'you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my and Alicia's backs? D'you think we didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?"
"Harry, we weren't —" Hermione turned to Alicia but she had a stern look on her face that gave no surprise and no leeway for argument.
"Don't lie!" Ron hurled at her. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than —"
"I didn't say it like that — Harry, I didn't!" she cried.
The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet, and cold. The sword of Gryffindor was hidden they knew not where, and they were three teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.
"So why are you still here?" Harry asked Ron.
"Search me," said Ron.
"Go home then," said Harry.
"Yeah, maybe I will!" shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happens to her in here — well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff —"
"I was only saying — she was with the others, they were with Hagrid —"
"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I —"
"Not bothered what it meant—" Ron was cut off and a smack sounded over the top of the rain and the rushing river. The ring glittered on Alicia's raised hand and Ron's cheek began to turn red as he looked perplexed. Alicia's eyes were glistening with tears as she glared at Ron.
"How dare you." she whispered sadly "How dare you!" her rage increased "How selfish you are! You think you're the only one who cares about anyone! You think you alone are caring and thoughtful or give a damn about what's going on outside this wretched tent—" Ron turned to her.
"I have been staring at that mirror thinking of nothing but what could be happening on the other side of it! What could be happening to the people I care about. I may not be a blood relative but your family are the closest thing I have to a family!" Alicia bellowed at Ron who backed away as she had her wand in her hand and pointed it at Ron. He was holding his cheek.
"You didn't care about what he said!" he responded
"SINCE WHEN DOES A PERSON HAVE TO SPEAK TO SHOW EMOTION!" Alicia shrieked "Just because I don't bug Harry every time his scar twinges or treat him like some television. Just because I'm capable of keeping myself from blowing up at everyone at every singe thing! I heard what he said! He said a Weasley got hurt! That could be Fred! My Fred if you didn't recall!" She waved her ringed hand with the bracelet on her wrist in his face. "And you have the audacity to think no one else cares about anything!"
"Alicia! Stop!" Hermione said as she forced her way between her and Ron, Harry behind his sister and watching with surprise. "Ron!" Hermione turned to him. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scarred, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant —"
"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you two, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way —"
"Our parents are dead!" Harry bellowed.
"And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron.
"Then GO!" roared Harry. "Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and —"
Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own.
"Protego!" she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her, Alicia and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time.
Alicia's wand had been in her hand the entire time but she knew better than to act out as such. Hermione had done better.
"Leave the Horcrux," Harry said.
Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you staying, or what?"
"I…" She looked anguished. "Yes — yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help —"
"I get it. You choose him."
Alicia scoffed. "How terrible childish you are." she said but Ron was already leaving the tent.
"Ron, no — please — come back, come back!"
Hermione was impeded by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it Ron had already stormed into the night. Harry stood quite still and silent, Alicia didn't move either, both were listening to Hermione sobbing and calling Ron's name amongst the trees.
After a few minutes she returned, her sopping hair plastered to her face.
"He's g-g-gone! Disapparated!"
She threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry.
Alicia twirled her wand and wove it over Hermione, drying her so she wouldn't get a cold. Harry however stooped, picked up the Horcrux, and placed it around his own neck. He dragged blankets off Ron's bunk and threw them over Hermione. Then he climbed onto his own bed and stared up at the dark canvas roof, listening to the pounding of the rain.
Alicia watched them both and then sat herself back in her chair and before her mirror, praying something would come from it.