Chapter 29:
Inside, behind both of the glass windows, blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle's eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and slit-pupiled.
"Stab," said Harry, holding the locket steady on the rock.
Ron raised the sword in his shaking hands: The point dangled over the frantically swivelling eyes. A voice hissed from out of the Horcrux.
"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."
"Don't listen to it!" Harry said harshly. "Stab it!"
"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible…"
"Stab!" shouted Harry; his voice echoed off the surrounding trees, the sword point trembled, and Ron gazed down into Riddle's eyes. Alicia stared at it surprised.
"Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter… Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend… Second best, always, eternally overshadowed…"
"Ron, stab it now!" Harry bellowed. Ron raised the sword still higher, and as he did so, Riddle's eyes gleamed scarlet.
Out of the locket's two windows, out of the eyes, there bloomed, like two grotesque bubbles, the heads of Harry and Hermione, weirdly distorted.
Ron yelled in shock and backed away, stumbling into Alicia who grabbed his arm as she stared at them shocked. The figures blossomed out of the locket, first chests, then waists, then legs, until they stood in the locket, side by side like trees with a common root, swaying over Ron, Alicia and the real Harry, who had snatched his fingers way from the locket.
"Ron!" he shouted, but the Riddle-Harry was now speaking with Voldemort's voice and Ron was gazing, mesmerised, into its face.
"Why return? We were better without you, happier without you, glad of your absence… We laughed at your stupidity, your cowardice, your presumption —"
"Presumption!" echoed the Riddle-Hermione, who was more beautiful and yet more terrible than the real Hermione: She swayed, cackling, before Ron, who looked horrified yet transfixed, the sword hanging pointlessly at his side. "Who could look at you, who would ever look at you, beside Harry Potter? What have you ever done, compared with the Chosen One? What are you, compared with the Boy Who Lived?"
"Ron, stab it, STAB IT!" Harry yelled, but Ron did not move: His eyes were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Hermione were reflected in them, their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted in an evil duet.
"It's trying to save itself Ron." Alicia whispered from beside him. "It's lying to you, it's playing on your insecurities. Remember how upset Hermione was when you went out with Lavender. She never acted that way when Harry was with Cho, or Ginny. She never got jealous of Harry. She only cares about you." she was talking into her ear, trying to ignore the horcruxes attempts to survive.
"Your mother confessed," sneered Riddle-Harry, while Riddle-Hermione jeered, "that she would have preferred me as a son, would be glad to exchange …"
"She didn't say that! She said she'd gladly take us in, not replace!" Alicia said quickly.
"Who wouldn't prefer him, what woman would take you, you are nothing, nothing, nothing to him," crooned Riddle-Hermione, and she stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle- Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: Their lips met.
On the ground in front of them, Ron's face filled with anguish. He raised the sword high, his arms shaking as Alicia released him and took a step back.
"Do it, Ron!" Harry yelled.
Ron looked toward him.
"Ron — ?"
The sword flashed, plunged: Harry threw himself out of the way, there was a clang of metal and a long, drawn-out scream as Alicia watched the sword make contact with the two faces of the locket. The versions of Harry and Hermione had let out the scream and vanished into nothing as Ron held the sword slackly now, staring at the locket before him. Harry had whirled around, slipping in the snow, wand held ready to defend himself: but there was nothing to fight.
Ron's blue eyes were wet as he stared down at the locket and was breathing heavily. Harry stood and approached the horcrux, looking at the pierced glass winders, Riddle's eyes no longer there, and the stained silk lining of the locket was smoking slightly.
The sword clanged as Ron dropped it. He had sunk to his knees, his head in his arms. He was shaking, but not from cold. Alicia moved forwards and, sitting beside him she placed her arms around him and he leaned on her slightly. Harry crammed the broken locket into his pocket and knelt down beside Ron on his other side. He placed a hand cautiously on his shoulder and Ron did not throw it off.
"After you left," he said in a low voice, "she cried for a week."
"She cried for longer than that. She'd cry herself to sleep." Alicia whispered "We hardly spoke without you around." And Harry nodded
"She didn't want me to see. There were loads of nights when we never even spoke to each other. With you gone…"
"There was an unfillable void." Alicia finished "You really hold us together Ron." she said
"She's like my sister," he went on. "I love her like a sister and I reckon she feels the same way about me. It's always been like that. I thought you knew."
Ron did not respond, but turned his face away from Harry, Alicia releasing him as he wiped his nose noisily on his sleeve.
Harry got to his feet again and walked to where Ron's enormous rucksack lay yards away, discarded as Ron had run toward the pool to save Harry from drowning. He hoisted it onto his own back and walked back to Ron. Alicia got to her feet and offered Ron her hands in which he took to be hoisted to his feet.
"You wanted to come back right?" she said and Ron nodded as he composed himself, his eyes still slightly bloodshot. "Well we'd better not sit out here in the cold then." she smiled as Harry approached.
"I'm sorry," Ron said in a thick voice. "I'm sorry I left. I know I was a — a —"
He looked around at the darkness, as if hoping a bad enough word would swoop down upon him and claim him.
"You've sort of made up for it tonight," said Harry. "Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life."
"That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was," Ron mumbled.
"Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was," said Harry. "I've been trying to tell you that for years."
Simultaneously they walked forward and hugged, Harry gripping the still-sopping back of Ron's jacket.
"And now," said Harry as they broke apart, "all we've got to do is find the tent again."
"Oh Ron, let me dry you off first." Alicia said as she raised her wand and he looked at her. In an instant his clothes were dry again. "Last thing we need is you getting a cold." she said as she picked the blanket up off the floor from where Harry had left it.
"I'm sorry Alicia," she looked at Ron. "For what I said about you not caring." Alicia nodded.
"I get you were worried, especially as you've hardly been away from your family like this before." she said "Still shouldn't have said it." Ron smirked ever so slightly. "Truth is I always expected you to come back." she said. The two boys looked surprised and she nodded before turning.
"How?" Ron said
"Well I didn't know if you'd ever find us, but I knew you'd want to."
"Why?" Harry said
"It's how Ron is. He makes a mistake, there's no speaking for a few weeks to months and then we all make up. Having been the only one not to have a silent treatment with Ron, I noticed this. It's how it was in our fourth year and our sixth and all the times Hermione and Ron got on each other's nerves."
"You knew I'd come back?" Ron asked
"I knew you'd wanted to." She said again "But the prospect of you finding us was nothing."
They were silent as they walked through the dark forest. Finding the tent was not as difficult asHarry had thought. Ron lagging slightly behind as Harry quickened his pace, being the first to enter the tent. The tent was warm and the bluebell flames were still shimmering in a bowl on the floor as Alicia entered before Ron. Hermione was fast asleep, curled up under her blankets, and did not move until Harry had said her name several times.
"Hermione! "
She stirred, then sat up quickly, pushing her hair out of her face. "What's wrong? Harry? Are you all right?" she looked at Alicia.
"We have a bit of a surprise." Alicia admitted.
"It's okay, everything's fine. More than fine. I'm great. There's someone here."
"What do you mean? Who — ?"
She saw Ron, who stood there holding the sword. Harry backed into a shadowy corner, dragging Alicia with her as he slipped off Ron's rucksack, and attempted to blend in with the canvas.
Hermione slid out of her bunk and moved like a sleepwalker toward Ron, her eyes upon his pale face. She stopped right in front of him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide. Ron gave a weak, hopeful smile and half raised his arms.
"Ten bucks she attacks him." Alicia whispered.
Hermione launched herself forward and started punching every inch of him that she could reach.
"Ouch — ow — gerroff! What the — ? Hermione — OW!"
"You — complete — arse — Ronald — Weasley!"
She punctuated every word with a blow: Ron backed away, shielding his head as Hermione advanced.
"Called it."
"You call everything." Harry grumbled
"I just know things." she shrugged back
"You — crawl — back — here — after — weeks — and — weeks — oh, where's my wand?"
She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry's hands, Alicia looked surprised and almost turned to run away as Harry reacted instinctively.
"Protego!"
The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione: The force of it knocked her backward onto the floor. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she leapt up again.
"Hermione!" said Harry. "Calm —"
"I will not calm down!" she screamed. Never before had she lost control like this; she looked quite demented. "Give me back my wand! Give it back to me!"
"Hermione, will you please —"
"Don't you tell me what to do, Harry Potter!" she screeched. "Don't you dare! Give it back now! And YOU!"
"Alicia do something!" Harry demanded as Hermione was pointing at Ron in dire accusation: It was like a malediction, and Ron retreated several steps.
"No, she needs to get some of this off her chest, and it'll make Ron realise how his actions hurt her, which leads to how much she cares for him." Alicia whispered to Harry.
"I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back!"
"I know," Ron said, "Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really —"
"Oh, you're sorry!"
She laughed, a high-pitched, out-of-control sound; Ron looked at Harry for help, but Harry merely grimaced his helplessness and Alicia crossed her arms and nodded to Hermione.
"You come back after weeks — weeks — and you think it's all going to be all right if you just say sorry?"
"Well, what else can I say?" Ron shouted.
"Oh, I don't know!" yelled Hermione with awful sarcasm. "Rack your brains, Ron, that should only take a couple of seconds —"
"Hermione," interjected Harry and Alicia, who considered this a low blow.
"He just saved my —" Harry began
"I don't care!" she screamed. "I don't care what he's done! Weeks and weeks, we could have been dead for all he knew —"
"I knew you weren't dead!" bellowed Ron, drowning her voice for the first time, and approaching as close as he could with the Shield Charm between them. "Harry's all over the Prophet, all over the radio, they're looking for you everywhere, all these rumours and mental stories, I knew I'd hear straight off if you were dead, you don't know what it's been like —"
"What it's been like for you?"
Her voice was now so shrill only bats would be able to hear it soon, but she had reached a level of indignation that rendered her temporarily speechless, and Ron seized his opportunity.
"I wanted to come back the minute I'd Disapparated, but I walked straight into a gang of Snatchers, Hermione, and I couldn't go anywhere!"
"A gang of what?" asked Harry, as Hermione threw herself down into a chair with her arms and legs crossed so tightly it seemed unlikely that she would unravel them for several years.
"Snatchers," said Ron. "They're everywhere — gangs trying to earn gold by rounding up Muggle-borns and blood traitors, there's a reward from the Ministry for everyone captured. I was on my own and I look like I might be school age; they got really excited, thought I was a Muggle-born in hiding. I had to talk fast to get out of being dragged to the Ministry."
"What did you say to them?"
"Told them I was Stan Shunpike. First person I could think of."
"And they believed that?"
"They weren't the brightest. One of them was definitely part troll, the smell off him…"
Ron glanced at Hermione, clearly hopeful she might soften at this small instance of humour, but her expression remained stony above her tightly knotted limbs.
"Anyway, they had a row about whether I was Stan or not. It was a bit pathetic to be honest, but there were still five of them and only one of me and they'd taken my wand. Then two of them got into a fight and while the others were distracted I managed to hit the one holding me in the stomach, grabbed his wand, Disarmed the bloke holding mine, and Disapparated. I didn't do it so well, Splinched myself again" — Ron held up his right hand to show two missing fingernails; Hermione raised her eyebrows coldly — "and I came out miles from where you were. By the time I got back to that bit of riverbank where we'd been… you'd gone."
"Gosh, what a gripping story," Hermione said in the lofty voice she adopted when wishing to wound. "You must have been simply terrified. Meanwhile we went to Godric's Hollow and, let's think, what happened there? Oh yes, You-Know-Who's snake turned up, it nearly killed all of us, and then You-Know-Who himself arrived and missed us by about a second."
"What?" Ron said, gaping from her to Harry and Alicia, but Hermione ignored him.
"Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it, Alicia, doesn't compare to you getting stabbed does it?"
Alicia sighed.
"Hermione," said Harry quietly, "Ron just saved my life."
She appeared not to have heard him.
"One thing I would like to know, though," she said, fixing her eyes on a spot a foot over Ron's head. "How exactly did you find us tonight? That's important. Once we know, we'll be able to make sure we're not visited by anyone else we don't want to see."
Ron glared at her, then pulled a small silver object from his jeans pocket.
"This."
She had to look at Ron to see what he was showing them.
"The Deluminator?" she asked, so surprised she forgot to look cold and fierce.
"It doesn't just turn the lights on and off," said Ron. "I don't know how it works or why it happened then and not any other time, because I've been wanting to come back ever since I left. But I was listening to the radio really early on Christmas morning and I heard… I heard you."
He was looking at Hermione.
"You heard me on the radio?" she asked incredulously.
"No, I heard you coming out of my pocket. Your voice," he held up the Deluminator again, "came out of this."
"And what exactly did I say?" asked Hermione, her tone somewhere between skepticism and curiosity.
"My name. 'Ron.' And you said… something about a wand…"
Hermione turned a fiery shade of scarlet.
"Well I guess it makes sense. We never said your name allowed till then." Alicia said and Ron looked at her.
"You didn't…"
"We sort of reached a silent agreement not to utter your name." she said glancing at Hermione.
"So… your name came from the deluminator? How?" she asked
"I dunno. But I took it out," Ron went on, looking at the Deluminator, "and it didn't seem different or anything, but I was sure I'd heard you. So I clicked it. And the light went out in my room, but another light appeared right outside the window."
Ron raised his empty hand and pointed in front of him, his eyes focused on something neither Harry nor Hermione could see.
"It was a ball of light, kind of pulsing, and bluish, like that light you get around a Portkey, you know?"
"Yeah," said Harry and Hermione together automatically. Alicia glanced at them listening.
"I knew this was it," said Ron. "I grabbed my stuff and packed it, then I put on my rucksack and went out into the garden.
"The little ball of light was hovering there, waiting for me, and when I came out it bobbed along a bit and I followed it behind the shed and then it… well, it went inside me."
"Sorry?" said Harry, sure he had not heard correctly. Alicia however snorted slightly.
"It sort of floated toward me," said Ron, illustrating the movement with his free index finger, "right to my chest, and then — it just went straight through. It was here," he touched a point close to his heart, "I could feel it, it was hot. And once it was inside me I knew what I was supposed to do, I knew it would take me where I needed to go. So I Disapparated and came out on the side of a hill. There was snow everywhere…"
"We were there," said Harry. "We spent two nights there, and the second night I kept thinking I could hear someone moving around in the dark and calling out!"
"Me too." Alicia said "And I had a small feeling it might've been Ron." Hermione looked at her "I didn't want to say anything incase I was wrong… didn't need the aftermath that'd come from that. But you woke us all up and we left in the night in worry." she said to Ron. "We were worried someone was out there."
"Yeah, well, that would've been me," said Ron. "Your protective spells work, anyway, because I couldn't see you and I couldn't hear you. I was sure you were around, though, so in the end I got in my sleeping bag and waited for one of you to appear. I thought you'd have to show yourselves when you packed up the tent."
"No, actually," said Hermione. "We've been Disapparating under the Invisibility Cloak as an extra precaution. And we left really early, because, as Harry says, we'd heard somebody blundering around."
"Well, I stayed on that hill all day," said Ron. "I kept hoping you'd appear. But when it started to get dark I knew I must have missed you, so I clicked the Deluminator again, the blue light came out and went inside me, and I Disapparated and arrived here in these woods. I still couldn't see you, so I just had to hope one of you would show yourselves in the end — and Harry did. Well, I saw the doe first, obviously."
"You saw the what?" said Hermione sharply.
They explained what had happened, and as the story of the silver doe and the sword in the pool unfolded, Hermione frowned from one to the other of them, concentrating so hard she forgot to keep her limbs locked together.
"But it must have been a Patronus!" she said. "Couldn't you see who was casting it? Didn't you see anyone? And it led you to the sword! I can't believe this! Then what happened?"
Ron explained how he had watched Harry jump into the pool and had waited for him to resurface; how he had realised that something was wrong, dived in, and saved Harry, then returned for the sword. Alicia explained how she'd felt Harry suffocating and drowning and had run to see Ron pulling Harry out.
Ron stopped, not taking back over as they reached the part of opening the locket, and Harry cut in. "— and Ron stabbed it with the sword."
"And… and it went? Just like that?" she whispered.
"Well, it — it screamed," said Harry with half a glance at Ron. "Here."
He threw the locket into her lap; gingerly she picked it up and examined its punctured windows.
Deciding that it was at last safe to do so, Harry removed the Shield Charm with a wave of Hermione's wand and turned to Ron.
"Did you just say you got away from the Snatchers with a spare wand?"
"What?" said Ron, who had been watching Hermione examining the locket. "Oh — oh yeah."
He tugged open a buckle on his rucksack and pulled a short, dark wand out of its pocket. "Here. I figured it's always handy to have a backup."
"You were right," said Harry, holding out his hand. "Mine's broken."
"You're kidding?" Ron said, but at that moment Hermione got to her feet, and he looked apprehensive again.
Hermione put the vanquished Horcrux into the beaded bag, then climbed back into her bed and settled down without another word.
Ron passed Harry the new wand.
"About the best you could hope for, I think," murmured Harry.
"Yeah," said Ron. "Could've been worse. Remember those birds she set on me?"
"I still haven't ruled it out," came Hermione's muffled voice from beneath her blankets, but Harry saw Ron smiling slightly as he pulled his maroon pyjamas out of his rucksack.
Alicia yawned and smiled.
"I think we could all do with some sleep." she said and the two boys nodded.