Okay, so it's August 13 and I'm starting this chapter…my GOAL is to get it finished today, but it's a Harry chapter (finally…that's hopefully a good thing haha) SO the bad part of that is that I have a harder time with Harry chapters. Mainly because I try to kick out the annoying perfectionist that lives inside me because there's no way I'm going to get Harry "perfect" …this is why I like working with JKR's less-developed characters…like the next gen…it is SO much easier to try to develop your (mostly) own character than to take a well-developed character of someone else's and mimic the behavior and actions of that character in your own writing, you know what I mean? ANYWAY I'm done ranting. In case you haven't figured it out, I tend to ramble a LOT. Enjoy :)

Harry's POV

Harry landed hard on the dirt ground, gasping to take in as much air as he could. A sharp pain ran through his arm. "Ginny?" he called out, lying flat on his stomach.

"I'm fine," his wife called back.

Harry slowly stood up, ignoring the sting in his left arm, brushing dirt off of him as best as he could. He was in a clearing of a forest. Harry could see Ginny sitting with her back up against a tree, wiping sweat and dirt off of her face, to his left. Standing to his right were his two best friends, Ron and Hermione. They were covered in dirt, but appeared otherwise uninjured.

"Thanks for asking if we were fine, mate," Ron breathed heavily, gesturing to himself and Hermione.

Harry cracked a guilty smile. "Ginny comes first," he said sheepishly.

"That's our new motto, is it?" Ron grinned.

Ginny walked up to the trio, a toothy grin on her face. "If we're going have a motto, it needs to be something catchy. Who's going to remember 'Ginny Comes First' anyway? And it's not true by any means," Ginny defended.

"What about 'constant vigilance'?" Hermione suggested, her smile the biggest of all.

For a moment, the entire group was silent. Harry hadn't thought about Mad-eye for a long, long time. Harry hadn't thought about many people. It had seemed to numb the pain to simply not think of them. His eyebrows furrowed.

"Wow," Ron breathed. "Forgot about that one."

Ginny sighed and, seeing Harry's expression, gave his left shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Agh!" Harry cried out. Pain surged through his arm and Ginny pulled her hand away as though his shoulder were on fire.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione's motherly expression didn't waver.

"Landed on my arm wrong, I think," he said. "No big deal. I should be fine in a day at the most."

"You're sure?" Hermione asked.

"Positive," Harry said.

More silence ensued. Why was this so awkward for them? They were best friends. It should have been easy to talk. Hermione spoke. "We should talk about the.… Well, about the you-know-what."

Ron nodded, as did Ginny. The group sat down in a circle in the middle of the clearing. "We know it isn't in any of the places he's hid the previous seven."

"We don't know that for sure, Ron," Harry said. "Those places were all crawling with Death Eaters. They could have been protecting something. And there's still the possibility that it could be in Hogwarts."

"That's true, it could be in Hogwarts. But it doesn't make much sense that he'd hide them in the places we'd most obviously look. So it isn't very probable that they're in any of the places he's used before, like Ron said," Hermione explained. "We haven't done enough research to know where to look."

"Research?" Harry almost laughed. "What, do you think we're just going to find a biography of Tom Riddle to help us along our way?"

Hermione blushed. "That's not exactly what I meant."

"I'm listening," Harry said.

"Memories," said Hermione. "Dumbledore showed you Tom Riddle's memories, didn't he?"

Harry nodded. "A few of them."

"If we start looking there, it might be a bit easier."

Harry chuckled. "Merlin, Hermione. And to think I've been doing this for six months and haven't found a thing. You've got the brains here, that's for sure. It didn't even cross my mind to look through memories."

Hermione's expression darkened. "Harry, what exactly have you been doing for six months?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I spent some of it in Azkaban, to tell you all the truth. I wasn't in a cell, don't worry," he added when he saw their shocked expressions. "I was talking to prisoners. Trying to get information about him. When that failed, I took Teddy Lupin with me to houses of old victims."

Ginny seemed uncomfortable. "Harry, Teddy Lupin is nineteen years old. He shouldn't be involved in anything about You-Know-Who."

"His whole existence involves Voldemort, Ginny!" Nineteen years later, the Weasley girl still cringed at the name. "Remus and Tonks were killed in the war, in case you'd forgotten. That's how Teddy got where he is today." Harry could tell by the tear streaking down Ginny's face that she hadn't forgotten anything about the war. His face softened and he reached for Ginny's hand, squeezing it lightly. "I'm sorry," he said. "To be honest, though, it isn't my call as to what Teddy chooses to participate in. He's of age."

"I know," Ginny said softly. "I know. Go on."

"I figured that a victim's home would be the perfect place to hide something—who would think to look there?"

"You did, obviously," Ron pointed out.

Harry rolled his eyes. "And obviously I was wrong."

"And that's what you've been doing for six months?" Hermione inquired.

Harry nodded matter-of-factly. "That doesn't matter, though. I've made very little headway, so our best bet is to just start from the beginning. Most of the memories Dumbledore showed me were of Tom Riddle's mother and grandfather. The Gaunt family. But the Gaunt ring was already destroyed as a horcrux, so I doubt the object relates to them."

"What about Riddle's father?" Ginny suggested.

Harry shook his head. "Tom despised his father. He lived in an orphanage before he went to Hogwarts. As far as I know, he wasn't too fond of it."

"It's still not a bad place to start," Ron put in.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted suddenly, pointing to the other side of the clearing.

There, in their black cloaks and white masks, stood three Death Eaters.

"Stupefy!" Ron shouted.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Reducto!" Harry wasn't sure who'd used that spell, but he was terrified that it would hit him. Disintigrating didn't sound particularly fun to him. Luckily, the spell hit no one.

Spells sprang from wands on either team, and within minutes, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had defeated their opponents.

"We need to get out of here," Harry said quickly, grasping Ginny's hand.

Ron nodded. "Gri—"

"Don't say it!" Harry interrupted. "If there're any more, they'll hear where we're going."

The four joined hands and, taking a deep breath, disapparated.

WOOHOO I actually finished this chapter. Not very long :/ and it didn't accomplish much…and it took me like four hours JUST to write three pages. Not even three pages. That's pretty sad. Yeah haha did NOT have fun with this chappie. Hope it's enjoyable still….R&R please!