Chapter 44:
There was no means of steering; the dragon could not see where it was going. The four clung onto it's back and hoped it would not turn sharply or roll, for it would throw them all off of it's broad back, there was nothing but the scales to cling to. Nevertheless, as they climbed higher and higher, London unfurling below them like a grey-and-green map.
Alicia had worried about how they'd get out and now they had, on the back of a dragon no less she couldn't help but laugh. The other's looked at her like she was mad but she couldn't help it. Who'd have thought they'd escape Gringotts on the back of a dragon? She almost forgot about her burned and blistered skin, though the cool breeze was seriously helping to sooth the burning.
The dragon's wings beat the air like the sails of a windmill. Behind the twins, whether from delight or fear, Ron kept swearing at the top of his voice, and Hermione seemed to be sobbing.
The dragon continued to fly, it had no particular destination and seemed to just want to get away from the terrible darkness it had been imprisoned in. The fear of being thrown off, diminishing, Alicia now turned her attention to how they were going to disembark. They were much too high to jump and how long a dragon could fly depended on it's breed. The good thing was, eventually, the dragon would have to stop to rest, or drink, or eat. Alicia wasn't worried about distance, the Dragon could take them as far as it wanted too for all she cared. The further from London the better. The dragon seemed to crave cooler and fresher air: It climbed steadily until they were flying through wisps of chilly cloud. On and on they flew, over countryside parcelled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscape like strips of matte and glossy ribbon.
"What do you reckon it's looking for?" Ron yelled as they flew farther and farther north.
"No idea," Harry bellowed back.
"Water? Food?" Alicia offered "Clearance? It's gotta stop eventually." she promised.
"Would it eat us?" Ron said
"Not if we're cleaver and get away first." Alicia said, yelling over the wind.
The sun slipped lower in the sky, which was turning indigo; and still the dragon flew, cities and towns gliding out of sight beneath them, its enormous shadow sliding over the earth like a great dark cloud.
"Is it my imagination," shouted Ron after a considerable stretch of silence, "or are we losing height?"
The other three looked down, there were deep green mountains and lakes below them, coppery in the sunset. The landscape seemed to grow larger and more detailed.
"Water!" Alicia said to the others. "I wants fresh water."
Lower and lower the dragon flew, in great spiralling circles, honing in, it seemed, upon one of the smaller lakes.
"I say we jump when it gets low enough!" Harry called back to the others. "Straight into the water before it realises we're here!"
They agreed, Hermione a little faintly. Alicia watched as the dragon's wide yellow underbelly rippled in the surface of the water.
"NOW!"
Alicia swung herself, slithered over the side and plummeted feet first towards the surface of the lake. The drop seemed greater than expected and they all hit the water hard, plunging like stone into the freezing, green, reed filled world. Alicia kicked herself upwards, there were enormous ripples were Harry, Ron and Hermione had fallen. The dragon did not seem to have noticed anything: It was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred snout. As Harry, Ron and Hermione emerged, spluttering and gasping, from the depths of the lake, the dragon flew on, its wings beating hard, and landed at last on a distant bank.
The four struck out for the opposite shore. The lake did not seem to be deep: Soon it was more a question of fighting their way through reeds and mud than swimming, and at last they flopped, sodden, panting, and exhausted, onto slippery grass.
Hermione collapsed, coughing and shuddering. None of them seemed to want to move and Harry took the initiative to stagger to his feet, draw out his wand, and start casting the usual protective spells around them.
He rejoined them when he was finished and Alicia looked at them all. There were angry red burns all over the four of them. Harry less so however. The clothes were singed away in places as Hermione collected her bottle of dittany and the three dabbed it on their many injuries.
Hermione handed Harry the bottle, then pulled out three bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changed and then gulped down the juice.
"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, who was sitting watching the skin on his hands regrow, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside —"
"— no sword," said Harry through gritted teeth, as he dripped dittany through the singed hole in his jeans onto the angry burn beneath.
"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab…"
Harry pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the grass in front of them. Glinting in the sun, it drew their eyes as they swigged their bottles of juice.
"At least we can't wear it this time, that'd look a bit weird hanging round our necks," said Ron, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank, where the dragon was still drinking.
"What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked. "Will it be all right?"
"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron. "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."
All four of them started to laugh, and once started, it was difficult to stop.
"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally, hiccuping herself back to seriousness. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"
"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him?" said Ron hopefully. "Maybe they'll cover up —"
"Doubtful." Alicia managed to say before she hissed and clapped her hand at her neck. Hermione and Ron turned to her. "Gosh I'd say they didn't." and the three turned to Harry.
Hermione and Ron moved over to him and Alicia pursed her lips. She thought quickly before she closed her eyes.
The Elder Wand slashed through the air and green light erupted through the room; the kneeling goblin rolled over, dead; the watching wizards scattered before him, terrified: Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy threw others behind them in their race for the door, and again and again his wand fell, and those who were left were slain, all of them, for bringing him this news, for hearing about the golden cup —
Alone amongst the dead he stormed up and down, and they passed before him in vision: his treasures, his safeguards, his anchors to immortality — the diary was destroyed and the cup was stolen: What if, what if, the boy knew about the others? Could he know, had he already acted, had he traced more of them? Was Dumbledore at the root of this? Dumbledore, who had always suspected him; Dumbledore, dead on his orders; Dumbledore, whose wand was his now, yet who reached out from the ignominy of death through the boy, the boy —
But surely if the boy had destroyed any of his Horcruxes, he, Lord Voldemort, would have known, would have felt it? He, the greatest wizard of them all; he, the most powerful; he, the killer of Dumbledore and of how many other worthless, nameless men: How could Lord Voldemort not have known, if he, himself, most important and precious, had been attacked, mutilated?
True, he had not felt it when the diary had been destroyed, but he had thought that was because he had no body to feel, being less than ghost… No, surely, the rest were safe… The other Horcruxes must be intact…
But he must know, he must be sure.… He paced the room, kicking aside the goblin's corpse as he passed, and the pictures blurred and burned in his boiling brain: the lake, the shack, and Hogwarts —
A modicum of calm cooled his rage now: How could the boy know that he had hidden the ring in the Gaunt shack? No one had ever known him to be related to the Gaunts, he had hidden the connection, the killings had never been traced to him: The ring, surely, was safe.
And how could the boy, or anybody else, know about the cave or penetrate its protection? The idea of the locket being stolen was absurd…
As for the school: He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place…
And there was still Nagini, who must remain close now, no longer sent to do his bidding, under his protection…
But to be sure, to be utterly sure, he must return to each of his hiding places, he must redouble protection around each of his Horcruxes… A job, like the quest for the Elder Wand, that he must undertake alone…
Which should he visit first, which was in most danger? An old unease flickered inside him. Dumbledore had known his middle name… Dumbledore might have made the connection with the Gaunts… Their abandoned home was, perhaps, the least secure of his hiding places, it was there that he would go first…
The lake, surely impossible… though was there a slight possibility that Dumbledore might have known some of his past misdeeds, through the orphanage.
And Hogwarts… but he knew that his Horcrux there was safe; it would be impossible for Potter to enter Hogsmeade without detection, let alone the school. Nevertheless, it would be prudent to alert Snape to the fact that the boy might try to reenter the castle… To tell Snape why the boy might return would be foolish, of course; it had been a grave mistake to trust Bellatrix and Malfoy: Didn't their stupidity and carelessness prove how unwise it was ever to trust?
He would visit the Gaunt shack first, then, and take Nagini with him: He would not be parted from the snake anymore… and he strode from the room, through the hall, and out into the dark garden where the fountain played; he called the snake in Parseltongue and it slithered out to join him like a long shadow…
Alicia opened her eyes. Harry was lying on his back and Hermione and Ron were still leaning over him. The girl jumped to her feet as Harry struggled to sit up.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" She said triumphantly, pointing at Ron and Hermione who turned to her from Harry. "I knew it! I knew it!" she said again. The two looked confused
"He knows." Harry said, regaining the two's attention. "He knows, and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," he was already on his feet, "is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."
Alicia held up her hand and Harry looked at her for a moment before sharing the high five.
"We were right." she grinned
"What?"
Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried.
"But what did you see? How do you know?"
"I saw him find out about the cup, I — I was in his head, he's… he's seriously angry, and scared too, he can't understand how we knew, and now he's going to check the others are safe, the ring first. He thinks the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape's there, because it'll be so hard not to be seen getting in, I think he'll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours —"
"Did you see where in Hogwarts it is?" asked Ron, now scrambling to his feet too.
"No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn't think about exactly where it is —"
"No, he sort of did." Alicia interjected. "He thought 'He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place…'." she repeated.
"That tells us nothing?" Ron said
"It tells us he's arrogant, and it tells us that he hid it somewhere no one really knows of." Alicia said as she thought. "That narrows it down from average classrooms and hallways." she said "And that narrows the search of the castle as a whole." Ron had picked up the horcrux from the grass and Harry was pulling out the invisibility cloak. "What's more, if we manage to get into the castle, we can destroy the horcruxes with the Basilisk fangs below it remember. We don't even need the sword! Gosh could this work out any more perfect?" she grinned
"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to —"
"We need to get going," said Harry firmly.
"Our plans suck Hermione. I'm not wasting weeks planning." Alicia said
"And can you imagine what he's going to do once he realises the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn't safe enough?" Harry asked
"But how are we going to get in?"
"We'll go to Hogsmeade," said Harry,
"No we wont!" Alicia said instantly and he looked at her. "Don't you remember any of the important details? 'it would be impossible for Potter to enter Hogsmeade without detection, let alone the school.' That's what he thought." she said "We can't apparat into Hogsmeade."
"Then what?" Harry asked
"The Cave. The Cave Sirius hid in remember, it's out of Hogsmeade so we hopefully wont be detected, but close enough." she said thinking. "Hopefully we can just walk in as long as we don't apparate in."
"Alright, and then we can try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, I want to stick together this time."
"But we don't really fit —"
"It'll be dark, no one's going to notice our feet."
The flapping of enormous wings echoed across the black water: The dragon had drunk its fill and risen into the air. They paused in their preparations to watch it climb higher and higher, now black against the rapidly darkening sky, until it vanished over a nearby mountain. Then Hermione walked forward and took her place beside Alicia. Harry pulled the Cloak down as far as it would go, and together they turned on the spot into the crushing darkness.