A/N: Ok, I know this scene was in the book, but since things went a bit different in my story, I felt that the Horcrux wouldn't have attacked Ron the same way. In the spirit of doing justice to this change, I re-wrote a (short) version of the destruction of the locket.
I uploaded this early just because I had it ready early. Don't expect daily updates, though. Next chapter will be up soon.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. Some lines are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I do not own those either.
A Day in the Life of Harry and Ron: The Destruction of the First Horcrux
Harry sat in front of the tent, twirling Hermione's wand between his fingers, smiling slightly. Things had been a little bit better these past few days. He knew he shouldn't have been mad at her for snapping his wand, it's not as if she did it on purpose, but he had never realized how much he depended on it until he lost it. Or how much he had counted on the twin cores for his final duel against Voldemort until he no longer had its protection.
He now realized he had been angrier with himself than her.
He was shaken out of his musings when he saw something silver out of the corner of his eye. Warily, he stood, the wand held aloft, ready to strike at the first sign of danger.
The creature seemed to be content observing him from behind the foliage. Harry was about to sit back down since the creature made no move to come closer, when it shyly walked through the leaves to stand in front of him.
It was a doe. The apparition cocked its head to one side and turned around. It looked back at him as if saying 'Follow me'. Harry, entranced by it, and knowing it meant no harm, followed. He didn't stop to wonder how he knew it, or whether he was under an enchantment, but he trusted it wouldn't lead him to harm.
He followed the silver doe to a frozen lake, where he hesitated for the first time. The doe, however, made its way to the very center, and looking back at him once again cocked its head. Harry took a few steps in its direction.
The doe took a few more steps forward, turned around, and leaped. At the peak of the arch, it turned into a bright ball of light, falling languidly back to where it had stood before. The sphere hovered for a second before it sunk in the lake leaving a silver glow where it had touched the ice.
Harry made his way to where it had disappeared only to find that under the ice rested the sword of Godric Gryffindor.
It shone through the ice, the light of the Patronus giving it an eerie glow, making it look almost spectral in nature.
He pointed Hermione's wand at it. "Accio sword." He didn't feel disappointed when it didn't move. It had been a long shot, a hope born out of naïveté and he had rather expected it. "Nothing's easy, is it?" The light pulsed once, as if telling him to hurry up. "Fine, fine. We'll do it your way." Harry had to wonder as he stripped down to his underwear as to why he didn't think it odd that he was talking to a Patronus and a sword.
He muttered a charm under his breath to break the ice and dove in. The cold water made his skin prickle in pain. He swam down, noticing the sword was way farther than it had looked from the surface. He was a few paces from it when he felt it: the locket around his neck tightened the chain, choking him and driving him upwards, away from the sword. His scar began to hurt.
His air was running out. No! He screamed in his head. Can't. Fail. Now. With a last struggle, he urged his body to swim towards the sword, his fingers brushing the hilt once before the locket went all out trying to choke him. He spared a last thought to Ginny, to Hermione and to Ron before he accepted that he had failed.
Moments later, an eternity later, he was back up over the frozen lakebed, gasping for air.
In his half-hazed state, Harry thought he heard Ron's voice from behind him. "Are—you—mental?" Still gasping, he rolled over the ice to look at the person beside him. It was indeed Ron, his red hair plastered over his face, his clothes wet, his breath misting in front of him as he puffed trying to regain his breath.
"R—Ron?"
"That thing could've killed you! What were you thinking diving in there with that thing around your neck, huh?"
"It—it was you? You cast that doe?"
"What? No, I thought that was you!"
"My Patronus is a stag."
"Right. Thought it looked different. No antlers."
Harry looked at Ron while pulling on his clothes. Merlin, it was freezing! "How come you're here?"
Ron looked down, red coloring his pale cheeks. "Well, I've—you know—I've come back. If—" He cleared his throat. "You know. You still want me." He raised his head and stared at Harry. Harry stared back. An understanding seemed to pass between them. Ron had, after all, just saved Harry's life. He had abandoned him, abandoned Hermione, but he had come back. He looked down, focusing on his hands. Ron followed his gaze and seemed surprised at what he found there. Sword in one hand, locket in the other, he offered both to Harry. Harry took the locket but refused the sword. "How'd you find us?"
"It's an, um, long story. I was just about to call it a day when I swathe deer."
"You didn't see anyone else?"
"No, I—I might have seen something over there," he said, pointing to a cluster of trees at the edge of the lake. Before he could point out anything else, Harry was hurrying to where he had pointed. After checking the place and concluding someone might have been there, they walked over to a bunch of rocks nearby.
"Come here." He shook his head when Ron offered the sword. "No, you do it."
Ron looked shocked. "Me? Why?"
"You got the sword out of the pool. It's got to be you. I'll open it and you stab it."
"How are you going to open it?"
"I'll ask it… in Parseltongue. Be ready, stab it straightaway!"
"No, mate! Tha—that thing affects me worse than you or—or Hermione. I—I can't!"
"Yes, you can! It's got to be you, Ron. Because it affects you worse. Face it, defeat it and move on!"
Ron swallowed and gave a short nod of his head. "Right."
"On three. One… Two… Three… Open!" The last word came out as a hiss and the locket swung open without a sound. "Stab it." The locket looked like a small window, a pair of dark brown eyes staring patiently out of it. "Stab it!" The pupils started turning red and narrowing. "Ron! Just do it!"
But Ron seemed to be frozen. He watched as the locket began to smoke and Harry had to let go, his fingers burned by the sudden heat. "Ron!" The smoke coming out of the locket seemed to creep slowly in Ron's direction, a mist so dense it couldn't rise but a few inches from the ground. Harry looked in horror as it climbed in on itself a feet in front of Ron, darkening and coalescing into a naked androgynous figure. Its skin was pale as alabaster and it had no hair.
"I have seen your heart and it is mine!" Its voice was a blend of both male and female and it seemed to echo in the empty forest. The figure leaned over to Ron, brushing its bloodless lips with Ron's. At once, it once again turned to smoke and seemed to envelop Ron finally entering him through the mouth. Harry, still on the ground crawled back a few paces when he saw Ron's scarlet eyes look back hatefully at him.
"You! It is all your fault!" Ron swung the sword in Harry's direction, his swipe a good foot over Harry's head. In a panic, Harry struck out with his feet, making Ron loose his balance and fall on his back. In the blink of an eye, he was back up, brandishing the sword in front of him. Harry took a few steps back, trying to talk some sense into him, trying to get through the influence of the locket. "Ron! Ron, listen to me! This isn't you!" He ducked, the sword once again swishing over his head, this time hitting a tree and getting stuck. Harry realized the locket must be giving Ron extra strength, because the sword had sunk a good five inches into the trunk.
Ron's distorted voice came again from his mouth. It was now a mixture of his normal voice and the creature that had taken residence in his body. "Always least loved. Always second best. In the shadows. Always behind someone else. And it's all because of you!"
"No, Ron, please!" He gripped Hermione's wand tightly, he really didn't want to curse his friend. Not when he had just gotten him back. "Ron, you know that's not true!"
"Displaced! By the woman who gave birth to me for someone else's child. Unloved! By the brothers who were always better! Unwanted! By the friends who are obviously so much better without me!" He punctuated each phrase with a tug, slowly dragging the sword out of its confine.
"No, Ron, no! That's not true! We weren't! We were miserable! We barely spoke for days!"
"Lies!" With a powerful tug, the sword came free and Ron turned to Harry, who has standing by the stone where the locket lay, its deceiving shape quiet and peaceful, ignoring the chaos it was causing a few feet away.
"Ron, no! Listen to me, please! I'm your friend and so is Hermione! Your family loves you, Ron, please don't do this!" He jumped to the left to avoid a downwards strike. "Ron! Listen to me! You're my family, my brother, you have to fight this! Just like you've fought all this years! Ron, please! I couldn't have gotten here without you."
"Lies! Lies! Lies! Liar! Liar! Liar!" Ron dropped the sword and clutched his head, thrashing and shaking. He collapsed besides the rock where the locket rested, golden in the cold air. Ron's hand rested over the hilt of the sword and he seemed to be struggling. With a heart-wrenching cry he took the sword, his blue eyes wide open and brought it down on the locket. A loud yell broke the calm of the night, the locket bleeding on the rock, the life it contained severed from its sustenance slowly seeping out. With a last flash and a puff of smoke, it died.
Harry sank to his knees beside Ron. "Ron?"
"I—I'm alright, mate, I'm alright."
"Merlin! I almost thought I'd have to curse you," he hesitated before continuing. "You—you don't really believe any of that, right?
Ron shook his head slowly. "I—No, not anymore. I used to. But not anymore. Come on. I guess Hermione would like a chance to yell."
At this, Harry had to chuckle. "Oh, you've no idea. I might even cast Muffliato on myself before entering, I'd like to keep my hearing intact."
"That bad?"
Not bothering to answer aloud, Harry just nodded.
A/N: So there you go, today's chapter. I now give you a choice: In the next chapter Harry, Ron and Hermione will be going to Malfoy Manor. There are two ways I can do this. It can be a rather short mini-chapter from Draco's POV (3rd person, as always) and I can have it up by tomorrow night (probably). Or, you guys can wait two days and I'll bump the Manor into the next (longer) chapter, where they escape and go to Shell Cottage along with other things like in the book and write it all from the trio's (3rd person) POV. Let me know what you prefer in a review!
Cheers,
C.