Chapter Five
Hermione Granger – if I say I wish her dead, will she vanish? She's a Mudblood, a brainy Witchy now-it-all Mudblood and she's giving me orders! No Mudblood is going to give me orders!
"You'll do as she says," Harry hisses to me in a very low voice.
I give him a glare of death but he turns to Hermione, completely ignoring me.
"Hermione, take him to the Flourish and Bolts, and feel free to curse him if he tries to do anything funny."
Oh, I'll show her funny.
"What are you doing, Harry?" Hermione asks. Her voice is irritating.
"I have to speak with Malfoy." Harry let out a deep sigh, his face full of troubles. "I'll join you in a bit."
"Alright." Hermione nodded. "I'll apparate him."
Harry nods to her, and then looking distracted down the hallway he gets up and leaves.
"Well, come on," she says to me, giving me a look of distrust.
I obey reluctantly and silently, watching her stand up to find her wand in her robes.
"Ron," Hermione says, as she takes my arm.
I stare at her hand touching my robes and I wish to wrench away my hand, to curse her.
"Yeah," Ron says quickly.
"I could use your help on this." She looks passed him as she asks this.
"Oh, right," Ron says to her carefully. "I'll meet you in Diagon Alley."
Hermione nods and in a light pull around my navel we apparate.
We land in the place I know so well as Diagon Alley, outside of the great Wizarding bank – but not a lot has changed. A few new stores, new people, but the basic set-up is still the same. I don't really know what I was expecting.
"This way," Hermione says, pointing down a road where the bookshop is located. "Ron will meet us there."
She lets me lead the way like Harry had done, and she's careful to watch my every glance as if I'd disappear if she looked away for even a moment.
We enter the bright but eerily silent bookstore, Flourish and Bolts. There's just the store clerk and one other customer inside, and immediately the clerk comes over to us.
"Anything I can help you look for?" the Clerk asks.
"Could you tell me where the Time Travel section is," Hermione asks. I watch her slider her wand a little into her sleeve so that the clerk wouldn't get suspicious.
The clerk nods and leads us over to a selection of books.
"Here you are," the Clerk says, and leaves us.
"So, what sort of spell did you do?" Hermione asks as she runs a hand down the book titles.
"I created it," I say proudly. "It's sort of a Seer spell."
Hermione doesn't flash me a surprised look when I tell her I created it, she just furrows her brow as she continues to search titles.
"Here," she says pulling down a few books. "We'll start with these."
The door to the shop opens and we both look up to see her little red-haired boyfriend coming over.
"Sit in one of those chairs," she says to me.
A rush of loathing and she does a double take as I don't bother to hide it.
"We need to get you home," Hermione says to me in a busy voice. "So go look it up, you know more of what were looking for then I do, so I'll ask you a few questions in a moment."
I pass closely by her, pretending I didn't hear - a statement to tell her who is in charge. Or maybe more me wanting to be in charge.
I sit in a chair and flip open a book, but I'm not bothering to read it right now. I'm looking for an opportunity.
Hermione approaches Ron and they speak in low voices, clearly trying to work through their fight.
They're getting pretty deep into the argument, but every shifting movement I make Hermione's eyes glance over me for the briefest second.
Ron runs a hand through his hair and then points to me, though I can't hear what he says.
"I am watching him!" Hermione says. "I'm no completely incompetent Ron! I at least can remember a few simple things."
The Clerk glances at them, as they are clearly disturbing the peace.
Hermione drops her voice, and hisses to Ron, "At least you can admit that you forgot and apologize, Ron!"
"I am sorry!" Ron yells.
"Shh," Hermione shushes him.
A stickler for the rules, a bitch in her own right – if I were Ron I'd have dumped her already. I'd have cursed her as quickly as possible too.
Now's my chance, because I've made it off the chair and she still hasn't looked at me. I quickly jump up and turn to move away from this area but I've come face to face with Harry.
Shit.
"Where are you going?" Harry says, his wand straight on me.
I raise an eye at him. "Looking for a spell to get me home, do you mind?"
"Yeah, I do. Sit down," Harry says.
I don't sit right away - taking my sweet time about it. I'm not used to following orders, especially under these sort of circumstances.
"Hermione," Harry says interrupting them. "Have you found anything?"
"Oh, I gave him a few books to look at," Hermione says, nodding to the books on the table in front of me.
Harry turns to the books and picks one up. "Alright, then let's get moving on this."
"Right, of course, Harry," Hermione says giving Ron a small look, and then went to join us at the table.
She sits by Harry, pulling out a parchment and quill.
"Alright," she says to me, dipping her quill into ink. "Go through the spell, one step at a time."
I stare at her. Why did I have to divulge my secrets? This is my brilliance, something I worked so long and hard to earn; I couldn't just unveil it to a mere girl like this Muggle.
"Why don't you just let me figure this out?" I say. "I just need to figure out what flaw there was in my spell, and from there I can work out the kinks."
"Just tell her," Harry says wearily. He looks exhausted, as if he's got this massive burden on him.
I shake my head. "If you really want to help me figure this out then you can find me a spell that will help me evaluate my spell from an objective position."
"There's no such spell," Hermione says. "There's the Prior Incantatus spell, but it only replays the last spell you used, it won't show you the details."
"That we can work with," I say. "Get me the spell information."
Hermione quickly nods and rushes off to go find a book.
"How did you learn to create spells?" Harry asks curiously.
"Practice," I mutter. "I'm not the greatest wizard of my age for nothing."
Harry suddenly freezes, looking at me in as if I've grown extra arms and legs.
"What?" I say, frowning.
"You-you..." Harry trails off for a moment, clearly unable to make a coherent sentence.
"Yes, me?" I say. Harry doesn't say anything, he's still gaping at me so I turn to Ron. "Ron, could you tell me why Harry's looking at me like that?"
"I dunno," Ron says concerned. "Harry, what's up mate?"
"Brilliant," Harry says softly.
"What is?" Ron asks before I can.
"The souls, Ron," Harry says, glancing from me to Ron.
It takes a moment but the realization Harry just had dawns on Ron as well. I still have no clue.
"Do you think?" Ron says. "He'd know?"
"He will," Harry says.
"Will he tell us?"
They're looking at me as if they're hungry lions.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" I ask.
Harry opens his mouth to say something and is interrupted by a loud pop as Malfoy appears in front of the table.
"Potter!" Malfoy says hurriedly.
Harry's face falls in horror. "Malfoy! Get out of here! What are you-"
"We found it," Malfoy said. "Come home, now."
Malfoy disappears from the spot and Harry stares dumbfounded for a moment.
Found what exactly? A spell to get me home?
"Ron, tell Hermione to purchase any books she might need, I'll reimburse her," Harry saysquickly. "We have to get home."
Harry takes my arm quickly and we apparate.
I land back at Harry's house in confusion.
What was going on? And what did I have to tell them?
Malfoy is standing waiting for us – or Harry more precisely. He has his arms folded across his chest and a smug look on his face.
"I told you I was good, Potter," Malfoy says in tones that make my confusion grow.
"Where?" Harry says, ignoring the tones.
"Mundungus sold it to an old collector, we tracked him down," Malfoy says, keeping his eyes on Harry. Malfoy held up a locket, completely ordinary, mundane – or would have been, if I didn't immediately recognize it.
My heart stopped, everything froze, my eyes narrowed and everything was focused onto this one object.
Did they have any idea what this was...What that locket is to me? What are they going to do with it? And what bleeding desire did they have to have been searching for it?
Harry snatches it from Malfoy, and I watch him eye it carefully.
"Why-" I start to say.
Harry's eyes fly wildly to me, and he holds up the locket as if taunting me.
"Do you know where the other two of these are?" Harry asks.
Other two? A moment of fiery fear and nerves. Ginny told me about the diary, how it had been destroyed.
How did they know about my Horcruxes? How the hell did they know?
I shake my head as if I have no clue what he's talking about.
"I have no idea," I say.
Harry doesn't believe me, I can tell by the look in his eyes.
"If you want to get home, Tom," Harry says. "Then you're going to tell me what sort of objects your two other Horcrux's resemble."
This is when it hits me – They are trying to destroy me. Destroy me for whatever I had done in this time.
Now, it's my turn to get the answers, I want to know why and how this is happening, and I want to know immediately.