Chapter Six

Grave Encounter

Harry, Ron and Hermione set up camp in a wood near the neighborhood. Hermione started the fire as Ron and Harry conjured up tents. The flames burned in Hermione's eyes like lasers, dancing nastily. Through the crack in the fire, she saw Harry crouch down, staring blankly ahead.

"I'm starving!" Ron announced, breaking Hermione out of her reverie. "What's for eating?"

Hermione rummaged through her bag and found the large box holding Mrs. Weasleys food with a refrigeration charm. "How's chicken grab you?"

In response, Ron grabbed a chicken leg and began to tear at it. She handed one to Harry, who took a small bite in a mechanical sort of way.

"Well, um, that was interesting wasn't it?" Hermione said nervously.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Yeah it was."

"I can't believe your mum punched your uncle," Ron snorted.

Harry cracked a smile at this. "Would've liked to see that."

"Wouldn't we all?" Hermione said wryly.

"Didn't find out too much though," Harry noted.

"There's probably something in the papers," Ron said through a mouthful of chicken.

Harry went over and gathered some papers. He looked at them for a while. "I can't make head or tails of this. Hermione, you're the problem solver, you try."

He plunked the papers in Hermione's lap. She scanned over the letters, looking for some sort of pattern, trying to remember all the books she'd read. Eventually, something clicked.

"It's the Hobgoblin Code!" She explained.

"Wha-"

"A code invented by Pesuis Placardia in 1602 to pass on important information to a general that turned out to be something regarding him and his lover, it has been used in many forms by wizards due to the charm that allows only the person it's meant to find see what it really says. Any outsider will have to break the code using intense mathematic and deductive skill and complex spell work." Hermione said in one breath.

Harry and Ron stared at her.

"Do you remember EVERYTHING you read?" Ron asked.

"You can do it can't you?" Harry asked. "Break the code? You're good at that sort of stuff."

"I'll try," Hermione sighed. "It'll probably take forever though."

"Just see what you can do. Maybe if we see the Order again, we'll ask them to help."

"All right. And for the record, Ron, yes, I do."

They spent the rest of the night with Hermione working on the code with Harry looking over it too, until Hermione said she was breaking her concentration. Finally, they went to bed, Hermione in a separate tent from Harry and Ron. She tried to sleep, but too many thoughts went through her mind and she started working on the code again in the solitude of her tent. Around midnight, she heard rustling outside and peeked through the crack in her tent flap to see Harry walk away into the dark. She snuck out and shook Ron's tent until she heard a muffled yelp.

"Get up, Ron, Harry's going somewhere."

Ron moaned and crawled out of the tent. "What-? Hermione, he's probably just gone to take a leak or something."

"Don't be disgusting, Ron. Come on."

Ron grabbed her arm to lift himself up and Hermione felt the familiar warm tingle she got whenever he touched her. She couldn't help smiling as he rubbed his eyes and said, "Alright, alright, I'm up. But if you walk in on him taking a leak, don't blame me."

"Ron! Stop putting bad images in my mind!"

They walked quickly along the path and soon heard rustling up ahead.

"It's him," Hermione hissed. "Try not to make any noise."

They crept along behind Harry, who was rubbing his neck in an annoyed fashion, all the way into the neighborhood. Harry seemed to wander around aimlessly for a while and just as Ron whispered something about him probably just taking a walk, Harry said, "There it is," and turned into a small graveyard.

"Oh…" Hermione said with understanding. "He's going to look at his parents graves."

They followed Harry into the graveyard. He walked along, scanning the graves and finally stopped at one. He looked around, but Hermione and Ron were already hidden behind a large tombstone. Harry crouched down, staring at the graves. He didn't cry. Harry rarely cried. In fact, Hermione couldn't remember ever seeing him cry, except at Dumbledore's funeral, and even then, she hadn't been sure, as he looked away. He just stared at it, biting his lip.

"Maybe we should go," Hermione whispered.

"I think we should stay," Ron whispered back. "Just, you know, to make sure everything's okay."

Hermione nodded. It was heartbreaking to watch her best friend stare at his parent's graves as if hypnotized and she didn't want to leave him alone, even if he thought he was anyway.

Harry sat there, for maybe a half hour, then took a deep breath and got up. He crossed his arms uncertainly and finally said, "Goodbye." Then he turned and trudged away.

Ron and Hermione stood there for a moment.

"I kind of want to see-" Ron said.

"Me too," Hermione agreed.

So they padded over to where Harry had sat, next to two small tombstones.

One said "Lily Evans Potter: Loving Mother, Courageous Woman," while the other said, "James Potter: Devoted Father, Strong Protector," along with the years and both had in small letters: they looked death squarely in the eye and sacrificed all they had for the one they loved. Rest In Peace.

Hermione shivered and Ron put his arm around her. She rejoiced in the warmth he provided and leaned her head on his shoulder, which really didn't require her to move it much. They spent a few minutes in silence before Ron said, "Oh, shit, I have to get back before Harry does!"

So they scrambled through a short cut in the woods and were barely seated by the fire when Harry arrived, claiming they had woken up in the night and gone out to get some warmth.

The next day, Harry, looking rather pale from his late night said, "Okay, we need to get down to it. We have to figure out where the Horcruxes are."

There was a brief silence.

"So, um, where the hell are the Horcruxes?" Ron asked.

"I have no idea," Harry admitted.

"Maybe you do," Hermione said suddenly. "Voldemort put the Horcruxes in places of his past before right? Hogwarts, the Gaunts, the Cave…. all places Dumbledore showed you from Voldemort's past. So what we need to do is list all the places Voldemort went that we know of."

"Brilliant!" Ron said as Hermione got out a piece of paper.

"Okay, so list every place you know of."

"Well…" Harry said, "It all started in Little Hangleton…then Voldemort was born in that Orphanage…what was it called…" Harry screwed up his eyes in memory. "I don't think it had a name!"

"That's all right," Hermione said, marking the list. "We know a Mrs. Cole worked there, and that Tom Marvolo Riddle was registered and it was in London, I'm sure we'll be able to find it…"

"Okay…then he went to Hogwarts…and he'd go back to the Orphanage on summers and…he went to the Gaunts once…then he worked for Borgin and Burkes…and went to Mrs. Smiths house…. then he quit and that's about it I think."

Hermione read out the list.

Little Hangleton

Orphanage

Hogwarts

Borgin and Burkes

Mrs. Smith's House

"Alright then, we should check all those places."

"It's probably not in Little Hangleton, because Dumbledore already got one in there, right?" Ron said.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't hurt to check, and we might find out some stuff to help us even if there is no Horcrux."

"Okay then," Hermione said, taking a deep breath. "Let's go to Little Hangleton."

"Everybody has talent. What's rare is to follow that talent to the dark place it leads,"-Erica Jong