The next morning, Harry woke up to the beautiful chorus of birds singing. He wondered where Hermione was, but he then remembered that she was no longer there with them. She was gone, somewhere Harry did not know, and he felt the perfect one to blame. Instead of letting her stay behind, he could have forced her to come along; maybe she would've been alive and journeying with him, Ginny, and Ron right then. But then again, what was he thinking? She most likely would have died, no matter if she stayed behind or continued through the Chamber.

Harry's solemn thoughts were interrupted by Ginny kissing him softly on his cheek.

"We should be going," she said. She looked back at Ron, who was lying on his bed, arms spread apart and his mouth wide open, with a bit of slobber rolling down. "Who's going to wake him up?"

"I suppose you," said Harry, laughing at the sight of Ron's form of sleeping.

"Ron!" exclaimed Ginny, tugging at him. "Ronald Arthur Weasley, wake up!"

"SPIDERS!" yelled Ron, shooting upright immediately, eyes wide open.

Harry and Ginny laughed at the occurrence, but Ron seemed to think opposite.

"Spiders are weird," he retorted, "and if you're saying you like those bloody creatures, you're weird, too!"

Ginny and Harry giggled once more.

The three walked outside to witness the forest with freshly covered snow. They set up the tent magically, and headed out through the forest, searching for whatever could be a possible Horcrux.

"What was the clue again?" Ginny asked Harry.

"'Look through the forest, look through the trees. You'll eventually find something no one else sees,'" recited Harry.

"Well, she was obviously talking to you," said Ginny, with a small tear in her eye, "so you should be the only one that may be able to see it. So, tell us if you see anything."

The day wore on as the three searched through the depths of the forbidden forest. Harry thought the forest couldn't be that large; they would eventually have to climb some sort of mountain. He remembered staring in awe when he was in his first year at Hogwarts at the tree-dotted mountains on the horizon.

Afternoon came along, and made the air in the atmosphere a bit warmer than the freezing morning temperatures. The dull, white snow was becoming boring to Harry, until he suddenly saw something red and gleaming near the trunk of a tree. He stopped in his tracks, and continued to walk towards it.

Ginny and Ron stopped.

"What are you doing, Harry?" asked Ron.

"I think he's found a Horcrux," said Ginny.

Harry bent down and stared at the red gleaming stone. He knew what it was, he had seen it before. It was the sorcerer's stone.

"What do you see, Harry?" Ginny asked.

"Bloody hell, I see nothing," said Ron.

"But we're not supposed to see it, Ron!" replied Ginny. "Only Harry is."

"Another Hermione," muttered Ron, but a depressing look came across his face less than a second after he had said that.

Harry picked the stone up, grasping it tightly in his hands.

"It's the sorcerer's stone," he said.

Ginny gasped. "Is that supposed to be...the Horcrux?"

Harry looked down at the stone and wondered. Was it supposed to be the Horcrux?

"There's only one way to find out," he said, taking the sword of Gryffindor out.

Just before Harry hit the sword to the stone, he remembered the awful pain he had felt when destroying the Horcrux the previous day. Could Ron or Ginny do it for him?

"Ron, you do it," he said, holding out the sword for Ron to take.

"N—no, I couldn't," said Ron shyly.

"Don't worry," reassured Harry. "Go on. You do it. Trust me; it will be fine."

Ron grudgingly took the sword of Gryffindor out of Harry's hands, and held it up. Wincing, he threw it back, and smacked the stone with it; nothing happened.

"Oh, sorry about that," said Harry, and, talking in Parseltongue, said, "Hello."

In response, the top of the stone levitated into midair, revealing a small heart that was beating.

"All you have to do, Ron, is destroy the heart with the sword," instructed Harry.

"It's okay, Ron. You can do it," said Ginny in response to Ron's look of fear.

Ron dashed the sword at the minuscule heart, but, instead of the heart beginning to bleed, it broke into two. Harry's scar suddenly had a sharp pain, and he clasped his hand to his forehead.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Ginny asked. "You look terrible."

He began to lose conscious, and had a strange tingling sensation in him. Blackness surrounded him, as his conscious was emptied into a thoughtless atmosphere.

Harry opened his eyes. He saw Ron looking even more terrified than the night he and Harry had the encounter with Aragog and his descendants, and Ginny looked concerned.

"You're being possessed!" said Ginny.

"What?" asked Harry. He'd never been possessed before. He now knew what it felt like.

"I suppose the demon seemed to had exited already," she pointed out.

Ron was speechless, still grasping tightly onto the sword.

"Ron," said Harry, "are you...alright?"

Ron dropped the sword in the snow, and his anxious face dissolved into a look of anger.

"Blimey, you people are crazy!" he exclaimed.

"What?" asked Harry. "What are you talking about?"

"You bloody well know what I'm talking about!" Ron continued. "You — you — you freaks dragged me into this bloody forest, and I think you're bloody crazy!"

"Calm down, Ron," said Ginny.

"NO! I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" he roared, his voice echoing through the many acres of the forest. "I'M LEAVING YOU CRAZY FOOLS!" He snapped his fingers, and with a loud crack, Disapparated.

"No!" cried Ginny, but she was too late. "Now it's only us! What'll we do?"

Harry stared down at the sorcerer's stone, which was destroyed. One more Horcrux destroyed; there couldn't be many more to go. Where would the other one be? Was Ron really any help to them anyway? Harry knew he would feel different without Hermione, and now even more different without Ron, also. It's like he was left lonely in the cold snow, and all he had left were memories of his parents and his love Ginny. He was seriously considering going back and canceling the journey.

"I think we shouldn't go on," said Harry.

"Well, we found the clue in the forest already," replied Ginny. "There couldn't be much more."

"I guess."

"We could stay at Bill and Fleur's for now." She had a look of disgust as she said "Fleur."

"That sounds fine," replied Harry.

The two held each other's hand tightly, and Disapparted, having the minor suffocation and pain. Harry knew this would be either the beginning of quite a long journey, or the end of a wonderful saga, destined to be taken over by Lord Voldemort.