Chapter Eight

Centered and Sane

After their discovery they searched the Gaunts to be safe. It was nothing but old ruins. They checked out the main town as well, finding nothing but more suspicious looks, then finally the Graveyard.

Hermione was cautious about bringing Harry in the graveyard. The description of the damage to the graveyard by the bartender had reminded her it was in this very town her best friend had been kidnapped, tortured and tied up as Voldemort rose from the undead. Where Cedric Diggory had died. She could still remember how Harry had looked returning from that, clutching Cedric's body and the days that had followed. She didn't want Harry to have to go in there. She shared an uneasy look with Ron, who looked concerned as well. Harry didn't miss it and glared at both of them. They stopped outside the edge of the place. Harry leaned against the iron gate, staring blankly in.

"I really don't think there is anything in there," Hermione said.

"Yeah, we should skip it," Ron said nonchalantly.

"There might be some kind of clue," Harry said in a monotone.

"Why? I mean, what kind of clue could there possibly be?" Hermione said nervously.

"You agreed that we should check everywhere," Harry said, pushing the gate open.

The graveyard exuded an eerie silence as they ventured into it. Hermione looked around, but saw nothing but head stones.

Harry led them to a large gravestone cracked directly down the middle. It read "TOM RIDDLE". Near it was burnt circle in the earth. Harry stood there, staring at the gravestone for a second. Then suddenly, he started shaking really badly. He wrapped his arms tightly around himself to hide it and backed quickly away from the grave, stumbling slightly. "YouknowwhatyoutwoarerightIdontseeanythingLet'sgo," he said very quickly, his breathing shallow.

He turned around and began walking very fast and Ron and Hermione were forced to jog to catch up with him.

"Harry, are you all right?" Hermione gasped.

"Fine, let's just get out of here," Harry muttered, pushing the gate open. "This place is…creepy."

He closed the gate behind him, muttering to himself "It's okay…it's okay…it's okay…"

Hermione looked at Ron, who shrugged, and they hurried to catch up with him before he walked too far away.

That night as they set up camp outside Little Hangleton, Hermione wrote another letter to her parents.

Dear Mum and Dad,

Hello! We've left Harry's Mum and Dad's house, and are now officially on the hunt. We found some papers and some information about Voldemort, but not much otherwise. I hope you two are doing all right. We've set up camp now, Ron's making dinner (God help us all), Harry and I set up the tents. I've just written a letter to Ginny, she's probably worried and Ron's useless when it comes to letter and Harry is too nervous to write to her, so I suppose it's up to me. Harry's a bit upset right now, I think, though he'd never admit it, he's been a bit shaken up ever since we got to Godric's Hollow and today didn't help much, he was in a place he'd rather forget (sorry to be so ambiguous) and I TRIED to stop him, but honestly, he's so stubborn. Crookshanks had fun roaming while we were off searching; he brought a lot of dead spiders and is making a point to eat them in front of Ron, I think, because Ron hates that. Oh, here comes Ron now. I can tell he burnt dinner, even though he just had to CONJURE it, honestly, now he's trying to get me to make it. Now he's trying to read the letter to see if I've written anything bad about him, so I just elbowed him in the stomach and now he's whining that I gave him a bruise. Well, I imagine you don't want a play by play of me abusing Ron, so I'll just sign off now.

I love you both and I'll write again soon. Don't worry about me.

Love from,

Hermione.

"Ron, honestly, I'm finished, you can stop trying to read."

"I was NOT whining."

"You were whimpering. How can you burn sandwiches anyway?"

"It's Harry's fault. He bumped me and I dropped them in the fire."

"It's all right, I made dinner," Harry called. He gave them their sandwiches.

"See, Harry knows how to cook," Hermione admonished.

"Loads of practice with the Dursleys," Harry said, biting into his ham sandwich. "So, we leave for Borgin and Burkes tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Hermione said

"What if we don't find a Horcrux in any of these places?" Ron asked.

"We'll figure something out," Hermione sighed.

"We know where the snake is at least," Ron said.

"No we don't, because we don't know where Voldemort is," Harry reminded them.

"The Order will figure that one out," Ron said confidently.

Hermione checked her watch, "Wow!"

"What?"

"It's September 1rst! Hogwarts has started!"

"If it's open," Harry said.

"That's right, I wonder if it is," Ron pondered.

"We could pick up the Daily Prophet somewhere," Harry mused.

"Or the Quibbler, if we want a reliable source," Ron said.

"The sad thing is you're actually serious," Hermione sighed, poking the fire.

"I'm always serious," Ron yawned.

"And I'm the Queen of England," Hermione snorted.

"And I'm going to bed," Harry announced. "'Night."

"Harry, it's six P.M."

"I have a headache, so I'm turning in. See ya." Harry climbed in the tent.

Hermione watched the tent flap close. "I tried to get him not to go in the graveyard."

"Yeah, you did," Ron said solemnly.

"I don't like this, Ron," Hermione shivered. "I hate this whole thing. He thinks he has to be alone, but he doesn't! And we've got that stupid Prophecy hanging over our heads, and why does it have to be him? Us? We're seventeen Ron, well, I'm almost eighteen, but we're kids! It shouldn't have to be this way!"

"It's okay, Hermione, he's not alone, we're here," Ron said. "And we're staying, no matter what."

"I know," Hermione muttered. "But he doesn't."

"He does, it'll just take a while," Ron said. "It doesn't matter."

Hermione grunted in frustration. "I wish we could just…be together…and just be friends and have fun, nothing else. All I ever wanted was for everything to be okay for us. Just, to be normal, it's all he ever wanted too, I know."

Ron put his hand on her shoulder. "Tell you what. After this is all over, and we defeat You Know-er…V-Voldem-mort, we'll sleep for a while and then, we'll take him and go on a trip or something, go around to France and all those other countries that have weird food and stuff and we'll just let him be happy and we'll all hang out and have fun and relax and…we'll talk to him about everything and he can get it all out and…does that sound nice?"

Hermione smiled at Ron. "That sound fantastic, Ron."

"We'll just grab him and take him and he wont be able to do anything about it…and we'll go to that place where they eat snails."

"France."

"Right. I'll eat a snail. Then we'll go somewhere where it doesn't rain all the time. Like a beach or something. What's a good beach?"

"I don't know. There are lots of them. California or some place in South of here."

"California! I'll put on an American accent!"

"Please don't."

"And then we can go to Romania and annoy Charlie! And Egypt and annoy Bill! And we can go to Ireland to see the Irish Quidditch Team! And Australia to see kangaroos! And my cousin Ellen and annoy her! And…"

Hermione began to laugh as Ron went on and on about all the places they could go and all the people they could annoy and suddenly, the future didn't loom so hopeless after all.

"Reflect as if you have all of time, even though time is short"- First Test , Protector of the Small Quartet, by Tamora Pierce