Chapter Twenty.
Returning to Knockturn Alley.

Harry was sitting in the common room in the dark, the only light coming from the nearly faded out fire. It had been two days since Ron disappeared and still they had no word from him or anyone. The order was still searching the best they could and Harry had leant Lupin the Marauder's map to help them. Security of the castle had doubled (If that was possible) and no one was allowed out of the grounds unless accompanied by two people or more. Harry had not slept in days, worried about Ron and worried about his dream coming back. Hermione and Ginny hadn't gotten much more sleep than him and were just as miserable and worn out. Mcgonagall in the great hall had announced the news of Ron's disappearance and ridiculous rumours were spreading of where he could have gone as they usually did when something like this happened. Harry found he didn't care though and ignored people questioning him not even having the strength to answer them back. Usually when things like this happened, Harry had both Ron and Hermione to help him, but now it felt like he didn't even have Hermione who now needed him herself.

"You should really go to sleep Harry, you can barely keep your eyes open." Hermione said gently. Harry and Hermione were walking through the corridors after breakfast to transfiguration.

"You don't look much better." Harry replied.

"But you haven't slept at all." Hermione said concerned.

"You look awful Potter, wondering if the Weasel's snuffed it yet?" Harry whipped around and saw Smith standing with a smirk on his face. Harry could never remember Smith saying anything this bad before and wondered why he had changed so much. Nevertheless he felt the anger fire up inside him and pulled out his wand.

"I'm not in the mood today Smith, if you carry on your making a big mistake." Harry said threateningly pointing his wand at Smith. People had now gathered around them both to watch what was going on, some of them looking scared and some of them looking eager to see what would happen next.

"Harry don't take any notice of him." Hermione whispered leaning in towards Harry. But Harry took no notice and continued to look at Smith menacingly.

"Of course…you'd be used to people snuffing it by now, it's like a daily ritual for you." Smith carried on. Harry had heard enough and without thinking shouted.

"Sectumsemp…"

"Impedimenta!" A jet of light hit him in the side knocking him over on the floor before he could get the words out and he felt a pair of hands grabbing him and pulling him up. Harry stood in shock for a moment while Hermione took him to an empty corridor. She turned to him with a stern expression.

"What do you think your doing? You know that nearly killed someone the last time you used that spell. You know what it does!" Hermione shouted.

"Why did you hex me, I don't need you telling me what I can and can't do." Harry said now feeling angry with her himself.

"Because you could have done him serious damage. You need to control your temper and stop attacking people whenever you feel like it." Hermione retorted her face now growing red from shouting so loudly. Harry thought she resembled Mrs Weasley so much at this moment it was scary.

"Oh just leave me alone Hermione." Harry snapped and turned around. They now must have been at least ten minutes late for transfiguration. Hermione walked beside him still continuing to shout.

"You've turned so reckless recently, I know your stressed about Ron, but I am too and I didn't go losing my temper. What do you think Dumbledore would have thought of you acting like this?" Hermione said harshly. Harry went quiet; he knew Dumbledore would be disappointed in him if he could see him now. He stopped walking and turned to face Hermione who was looking at him now anxiously wondering if she'd gone too far.

"Your right." Harry said knowing that if there was a next time he would definitely be doing his best to try and control his temper.

"I know." Hermione said bluntly and they carried on walking. That night after a long day, Ginny, Hermione and Harry were sat in the common room as they usually were. They usually sat in silence as whenever they tried to talk the conversation usually went back to Ron. Hermione and Ginny had been harassing Harry non-stop to sleep for the past three days now but he didn't pay any attention. He couldn't deny he felt worn out constantly but he wouldn't let himself sleep. It was like a constant battle he was having with himself. Hermione hadn't told Ginny what had happened with Smith earlier as he had asked her not to, even though Hermione thought he didn't deserve her silence and surprisingly Ginny hadn't heard about what happened either. He thought maybe he was imagining it but he kept seeing Hermione and Ginny exchanging looks and every so often looking at him. His tiredness was overwhelming him more than it usually did and he felt his eyes keep closing. I have to stay awake, he told himself. He stood up suddenly with a lot of force and saw Hermione and Ginny look up at him in alarm. But he felt powerless and fell back into the chair again. His eyes were slowly closing and his vision blurred, he reopened his eyes still fighting it.

"Don't worry Harry it's dreamless, come with us." He heard a faint voice say that sounded like Ginny's. He opened his mouth to speak back to ask what was happening but all he could manage was a groan. He felt himself being pulled up and walked slowly up the stairs being supported, his eyes now closed unaware of what he was doing.

Harry opened his eyes, it was daylight and he was in bed, still fully clothed. He looked around; no one was in the dormitory. Harry jumped out of bed and grabbed his watch. It was mid-afternoon. His eyes widened. I've missed all of today's lessons, Mcgonagall's going to kill me, he groaned to himself. He tried to remember what had happened the night before when Hermione walked into the dormitory.

"Good your finally awake." She said with a slight smile.

"What did you do?" Harry asked her not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"You needed sleep, and well, we knew part of the reason was because of what you dreamed last time. So…now don't get angry Harry, Ginny went to see Madame Pomfrey and explained the situation. She wanted you to come to the hospital wing but we knew you wouldn't so she gave us some potion for a dreamless sleep." Hermione looked at him nervously.

"And then you drugged me." Harry said now sounding slightly angry. Hermione ignored his angry tone and carried on.

"Mcgonagall said under the circumstances you missing today's lessons is ok. I've got the notes from the classes for you." She said handing them to him. "Also…I didn't want to disturb you with this before because you were asleep, but you received a letter this morning." She now reached into her robes and pulled out a small letter. Harry took it from her and opened it.

Harry
I've found a you know what. As soon as you're ready to go, come and see me. Bring Ron and Hermione.

All anger that he had for Hermione and Ginny faded away and was replaced with excitement.

"He's found one." Harry said handing the letter to Hermione.

"But…Ron's not here." Hermione said quietly.

"All the more reason to go and destroy this thing as quickly as possible then." Harry said encouragingly.

"You want to go right now?" Hermione said now looking panicked. Harry knew she didn't want to do this without Ron but he stood up and grabbed his invisibility cloak.

"Yes." He said finally, he had made up his mind. "You don't have to come." He told her. Hermione pointed her wand at him and immediately his robes uncreased and looked as good as new. He looked at her confused.

"Er…thanks." Harry said looking at her strangely. She smiled at him. Harry saw Mcgonagall and Ginny and then two of them went on their way to go to the hog's head. When Harry and Hermione arrived Aberforth smiled at them both and then frowned.

"Where's Ron?" He asked them.

"Surely you've heard? Ron's gone missing." Hermione informed him. Harry explained what had happened to Ron hastily, Aberforth looking very worried.

"Well, we will have to continue without him tonight." Aberforth said finally.

"Where are we going?" Harry said.

"Borgin and Burkes, where Voldemort worked when he left Hogwarts."

"Any idea which one it is?" Hermione said.

"I have my suspicions it's the Hufflepuff cup."

"And how to destroy it?" Harry asked hopefully.

"None whatsoever. Let's go." Aberforth said closing his eyes. Harry concentrated hard on Knockturn alley, which was where Borgin and Burkes was located and felt himself being apparated. He opened his eyes and he was standing outside Borgin and Burkes, Hermione and Aberforth appearing with a crack beside him. It was very dark and the street was very dimly lit. Despite it being at night, most of the shops seemed to remain open.

"Got your invisibility cloak Harry?" Aberforth said. Harry pulled it out and put it over him and Hermione, she seemed rather quiet. "Good, now I'm going to come inside with you, I'll stay with Borgin. You and Hermione go and get the horcrux." He instructed them.

"You're not coming in with us?" Harry asked him alarmed. "How are we supposed to do it by ourselves? At least with you there we'll have a more experienced wizard." Harry was starting to feel uneasy and less eager to go inside.

"Harry, the true test of a character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do." Aberforth said this as if it was supposed to reassure him, and Harry thought it was something that Dumbledore would have said. They walked into Borgin and Burkes and as soon as Borgin looked up from the counter Aberforth whipped out his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus." He whispered and Borgin went rigid and fell to the floor. Hermione gasped from underneath the cloak. "Don't worry, I'll modify his memory later." Aberforth told them. He paused.
"At the back of the shop there should be a cellar, one that Borgin has never been able to open since Voldemort was here. I'll deal with anyone that comes into the shop, just give me the invisibility cloak." Harry didn't ask him how he knew this but pulled off the invisibility cloak and handed it to Aberforth.

"I really think you should be coming with us." Hermione said to Aberforth fearfully.

"I want you to do this on your own. Who's to say I'll be there again?" Hermione glared at Aberforth angrily but she walked with Harry to the back of the shop.

"I think he's a coward that's what I think." She muttered to Harry sounding annoyed.

"I heard that." A voice said from behind them, Harry turned around to see Aberforth. "Sorry I forgot to tell you I'd be needing to open the door, it's why we couldn't go before I needed this." He held up a sharp pointed stick that looked as if it was made out of glass.

"Where did you get that?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, believe me it was Dumbledore that managed to find it just before he died. I just collected it." They finally reached the cellar door, which was small and black with no handle. Aberforth pointed the glass stick towards it and muttered something moving it around the door, he did this for about five minutes and Harry was sure nothing was going to happen when all of a sudden it was blasted open, knocking things off the shelves in the shop.

"I'll sort that out." Aberforth beckoned to the mess on the floor. "That was the easy part, good luck both of you." He said patting Harry on the back. Harry looked inside; it was pitch black with stone steps leading towards the unknown. Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and glanced at him. He glanced back at her and they both stepped into the darkness. They began to walk down the steps; it was very cold down there. They walked for what felt like forever, neither of them speaking. It was starting to get lighter and as they reached the last step they saw a barrier of smoke that they couldn't see through.

"What do we do?" Hermione asked timidly.

"There's nothing else we can do except walk through it I guess." Harry said. Hermione gripped Harry's hand tighter and he let go.

"Hermione I'll go through first."

"No Harry, we go together." Hermione said firmly grabbing his hand again. Harry closed his eyes and stepped into the smoke unable to see the ground. Immediately he felt himself being pulled upside down, losing grip of Hermione and hearing her scream. He opened his eyes to see below him a big pit of darkness with something down below he looked again, that was definitely the cup.

"Harry what do we do now?" Hermione said in terror. Harry remembered something and immediately fell into fits of laughter; he didn't know why he did it. But he saw Hermione look at him shocked. "Harry we are hanging upside down, if we move we fall who knows how many feet and your laughing?"

"Voldemort is such an idiot" Harry said again still fighting back laughter.

"Harry I think you've been cursed or something, just don't move." Hermione said now looking extremely worried.

"No it's just that this happened to me in the third task in the triwizard tournament. All you have to do is step off." And as Harry finished saying this he lifted his foot hearing Hermione scream at him as he did it and was immediately turned back around and was standing next to the Hufflepuff cup that was standing on a tall post. As he looked at it he saw Hermione fall on the floor next to him with a thud and he helped her up.

"Shall we take the cup then?" Harry grinned at her. He had this overconfident feeling and he wasn't sure why.

"I'm sure it's not that easy Harry." Hermione told him. Harry reached for it feeling reckless and grabbed the handle. Suddenly at least fifty dementors flew down at them out of no-where and Hermione groaned.