Chapter Nine

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

The long winding road was silent, lined with sinister abandoned shops. It had been a while since anything had disturbed this peace, but the crack like a whip set the buildings on alert. Three teenagers appeared in the foggy street, all wearing long black cloaks and loose shirts and pants.

Hermione looked around. "Wow. This place is totally abandoned."

"Looks like Borgin left," Harry nodded, pointing at the shop, which lay silent.

"He probably flew the coop after that whole thing with the Vanishing Cabinet," Ron acknowledged.

The three of them crept forward.

"Stand back," Hermione said, "Alohomora!" The door burst open and they went inside. The place was in complete disarray. A lot of the artifacts were broken and strewn on the floor.

"Looks like he left pretty quickly," Ron said.

"Okay," said Harry, looking around surreptitiously. "We have to look around for anything that looks suspicious. Feel, see, and hear anything odd, we have to check it out. I don't know exactly how Dumbledore felt Voldemort's magic, but I think we can do it too, if we try hard enough."

Hermione and Ron nodded and split up.

Borgin and Burkes was a lot bigger than it seemed. There were lots of little rooms everywhere, full of odd things, like glowing keys that Hermione knew better than to touch, not to mention a room of old files, which tried to lock them in, but Ron was quick enough to get them out. However, they didn't have any indication of any Horcrux hidden anywhere.

Finally, they called it a night, and set up camp in one of the emptier rooms. Harry sat, his brow furrowed in worry as Hermione worked away at the old letters they'd found in Godric's Hollow. She was reasonably sure now the first letter was D…or P. Her head began to hurt, as it tended to do after working with this code for any length of time.

"The thing is," Harry muttered, "how do we know if a Horcrux is near us? How do we know if we're even in the right place? This is like a wild goose chase! I wish Dumbledore-"

Harry broke off suddenly.

"I do too," Hermione replied. "It's okay to miss people, Harry."

Harry looked annoyed. "I know that! Give it a rest, Hermione, just because I don't like talking about it all the time, doesn't mean I'm not dealing with it!"

"Talking about things is important," said Hermione angrily.

"I deal with it differently than you do okay? Some people like to talk about the dead person and that's how they deal with it, but some people prefer not to and they deal as well! So stop pressing it."

"He had a point, there," said Ron, who had been watching them argue while chewing contentedly on a chicken leg.

"Have it your way," snapped Hermione and she returned to her code, annoyed with them both.

They spent the rest of the evening in silence, Hermione working on her code, Harry staring at the wall (brooding, more like, Hermione thought angrily) and Ron contemplating his chicken leg.

They continued their search the next day…and the day after that…and the day after that. After about a week, Harry announced that is they didn't find anything tomorrow, they were off. He looked slightly depressed as he said this and Hermione was upset too, that they had to cross this off the list so soon. She brooded on this while heating some potatoes for them with her fire lit wand. Suddenly a crash startled her and she dropped her wand spinning around.

"Sorry, I tripped over my huge feet again," Ron mumbled, getting up.

"They are not huge," Hermione said consolingly, as it was her instinct to comfort people when they insulted themselves.

"That is the biggest lie I have ever heard you spout, and you've spouted some pretty big ones."

"Excuse me? When have I lied?"

"Let's see…the troll, Umbridge-"

"Both times to save your and Harry's hides!"

"I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just speaking factually."

"Well, honestly, your feet are fine, you're just abnormally clumsy."

"Hey!"

"I'm just kid-"

"HERMIONE! RON!" screamed Harry, who had just walked in. "ARE YOU BLIND? THE BLOODY ROOM IS ON FIRE!"

Hermione and Ron whipped around to see Harry was right, the firelit wand Hermione had dropped had caught on a blanket and now the fire had spread across the whole room.

"Oh my God!" Hermione scrambled for her wand, but couldn't find it, and had to withdraw her hand rapidly when the fire burned it. She backed up against the wall as the fire raged, eyes wide with fright.

"Aguamenti!" Harry said firmly and a stream of water erupted from the wand, putting the fire out. Ron followed suit and Harry kicked Hermione her wand and she helped as well. Soon, the fire was out.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione squealed, mortified at her foolish mistake.

"It's okay," Harry said

"Yeah, it was partly my fault because I startled-Hey, that's odd…" Ron broke off.

"What?"

"There are burn marks all across the wall-except for that space," Ron pointed out, "And I could swear the fire was raging over there."

Ron was right. There were burn marks all along the walls consistently, except for one large corner of the room.

"That is odd," Harry and Hermione followed him over. Hermione reached out and touched the corner and felt a slight chill go down her spine.

Harry touched it an apparently felt the same chill, he looked confused for a moment and then his eyes lit up.

"This had to be where the Horcrux is!" He exclaimed. "The fire didn't burn the space because it was protected my magic, and we can feel the magic as well!"

"Brilliant!" Hermione gasped. "How do we open it?"

"Last time it needed blood," said Harry, taking out his wand.

"What are you do-Harry!"Hermione cried as Harry slashed his wand across his arm leaving a long deep gash. He smeared his blood on the wall, ignoring Hermione and Ron's exclamations.

"Didn't work," Harry muttered. "He must have changed it for this one…" He tapped his wand on his arm and said "Episkey!" the cut healed instantly.

"Well, I'm glad we tried anyway," Ron said sarcastically, obviously startled by Harry's sudden bout of self-mutilation.

Harry rolled his eyes at Ron and said "That's how Dumbledore got us in last time. But looks like we'll have to figure out another way to get in. Hermione…do you know how we could figure out what the spell is?"

"That's very advanced magic Harry…I don't think I could do it…" but Hermione rummaged in her bag anyway, looking for a book to tell them how.

"Dumbledore said Voldemort would want us to weaken ourselves…so maybe the spell is something like that…"

"Or maybe it's something only Vo- You- he can do," Ron said.

Hermione dropped her book as blinding flash of insight clubbed her over the head. "Harry! Try speaking Parseltongue!"

"What?"

"Yeah! That's how you got into the Chamber of Secrets remember? I bet he doubted anyone who could speak Parseltongue would ever find this thing, 'cause the gifts so rare!" Ron cried.

"Okay…" Harry closed his eyes and screwed up his face. After concentrating for a few seconds he let out a long evil sounding hiss.

Suddenly, the floor dropped out underneath them.

"This wouldn't be an adventure if there weren't a few minor hazards"- Malicia Grim, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett