"So...what really happened on the Tower, mate?" Ron asked.
Hermione slapped his arm. "Don't be so insensitive!"
Ron looked at Harry ruefully. "Well. Dumbledore and I...we went to collect a Horcrux of Tom Riddle's...and-"
"What's a Horcrux?" Ron interrupted, his gingery eyebrows raising up to his forehead.
"Ron, now's not the time..." Hermione nudged him gently.
"I'll explain later, Ron...But then, when we came back, Dumbledore hexed me with something...and I had to agree to everything he told me to do, and I had to stay below the Astronomy Tower, so if something happened to him...I wouldn't...I wouldn't..."
"You wouldn't be able to save him." Ron stated quietly, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Yeah. And then Malfoy appeared at the top of the Tower."
Hermione flinched at the name.
"Hermione, I think you were right about him. He didn't seem to want to actually kill Dumbledore. He threatened him, and disabled him...but he never killed him...
"Dra-...Malfoy didn't do it?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"No! It was Snape." Harry spat.
"Snape?"
"Snape killed Dumbledore." Harry said again. "Not Malfoy."
Hermione raised her voice. "But Dumbledore trusted him! It couldn't have been Snape!"
Harry turned on her, enraged. "Could you stop being such a know-it-all for once! Dumbledore. Is. Dead. Nothing you can do, or analyze can bring him to life again. Snape...Snape killed him."
"That coward..." Ron said spitefully.
"All I have left of him..." Harry lowered his voice. "Is the Horcrux."
Ron looked inquisitively at Hermione, who shook her head, and then to Harry, who seemed to have forgotten that he hadn't enlightened his friends about the whole Horcrux situation.
"Voldemort's split his soul into 7 pieces." Harry started.
"How?" Ron asked.
"Murder." Harry answered simply. "And as Voldemort's soul splits, he can almost...store it away in different items. Dumbledore and I have already destroyed the first two..."
Hermione looked as though she'd remembered something. "Tom Riddle's diary!" she exclaimed, looking to Harry for confirmation.
Harry nodded vigorously. "Dumbledore's destroyed another Horcrux...a ring I believe...But tonight, we both needed to search for it. So...we found this..." He pulled a necklace out of his pocket.
"That's the Horcrux?" Ron stared skeptically at it.
Harry nodded again.
"We should open it." Hermione said. "It might give us a clue about how to destroy it."
"Alright." Harry said. "Step back, you two." He opened the locket fearfully, and slowly, expecting the worst.
And then he frowned. And then he threw the locket down angrily. And he cried desperately, "It's a fake!"
Hermione picked it up, carefully.
"To the Dark Lord,
I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.
R.A.B."
"Who's R.A.B.?" Ron asked foolishly.
Hermione shot him a look.
"I don't know..." Harry said. "But I'm going to have to find out."
"We are going to have to find out." Hermione said defiantly.
Ron nodded. "Yeah, mate. You don't have to be alone."
Harry sighed. "Look, guys. I don't want you to have to risk your lives to fight my battles. Dumbledore's assigned me the task-"
"We wouldn't be your best friends if we wouldn't." Ron said simply.
"I'm not going for 7th year." Harry said, looking over to Hermione triumphantly.
Hermione grinned. "Neither am I." She hooked her arms in Harry and Ron's.
Harry smiled, the first time in ages, and he looked at his best friends affectionately.
And they stayed like that, for a while, just enjoying each other's company.
'Almost like a farewell to our past lives...saying goodbye to our childhoods...' Hermione thought morosely to herself.
'But, at least we've been fortunate enough to have a childhood...' she thought again, as she remembered her accidental encounter with Draco Malfoy in the bathroom.
Author's Note/Disclaimer: Of course since this is fanfiction, I don't own the characters or the setting, but in this chapter I also don't own the note from the locket, which I quoted directly from Deathly Hallows. The dialogue from this chapter should also be pretty similar to the dialogue from the movie/book, but I didn't quote it directly so if anything sounds exactly the same, I didn't do it on purpose. :)