Frankly, I knew the time difference was wrong and just overlooked it because I liked my story as it was. So, if it bothers you, don't read. Or, don't think about it. And yes, Carina is in Gryffindor (how else would she share a dorm with Lavender, Parvati and Hermione? It seemed kind of obvious to me), but sits at the Ravenclaw table with Luna, because Luna is her best friend. So thank you to Hufflepuff Legend for establishing that. Also, as for her missing a year (because as I said, I tend to overlook the time difference so the plot will fit how I want it), she stayed in the Black Library and read a lot, and by no means is stupid. She's very clever, really, and she's definitely grown up since then. And thank you for the suggestion, Denis Burbis, I'll keep that in mind! I don't reckon I need a beta, but thanks for that anyway as well. Here's the chapter!

They moved a few days after. Ron was in a sling, and Carina still moved with her walking stick, but they had managed to set up camp somewhere else in another forest, and this was how Carina found herself listening to Dirk Cresswell, Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and two goblins named Griphook and Gornuk speak together. They were on the run, and had caught some salmon and established a small camp of their own, though she doubted it would last long.

"Hardly," Dirk was answering to one of them. "Griphook here told me, he heard about it from Bill Weasley who works for the bank. One of the kids who tried to take the sword was Bill's younger sister."

Carina noticed how Harry glanced toward Hermione and Ron, both of whom were clutching the Extendable Ears as tightly as lifelines. She herself was doing much of the same thing as she edged slightly closer, feeling her chest clench. Luna. It had to have been Ginny, Neville, and Luna who did it—there was no other option, no other kids that crazy who could have assumed they would need the sword.

"She and a couple of friends got into Snape's office and smashed open the glass case where he was apparently keeping the sword. Snape caught them as they were trying to smuggle it down the staircase."

A couple friends...I was right. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach and swallowed, worried. But is she—are they, I suppose—alright?

"Ah, God bless 'em," said Ted. "What did they think, that they'd be able to use the sword on You-Know-Who? Or on Snape himself?"

The answer she heard after that did not matter. None of it mattered until she heard Dean ask, "What happened to Ginny and the others? The ones who tried to steal it."

"Oh, they were punished, and cruelly," said Griphook carelessly.

Carina clenched her fist tight around the string of the extendable ear.

"They're okay, though?" asked Ted quickly, "I mean, the Weasleys don't need any more of their kids injured, do they?"

"They suffered no serious injury, as far as I am aware."

Carina found herself exchanging a fleeting, relieved look with Harry and leaned heavily against her staff, still listening intently.

"Lucky for them. With Snape's track record I suppose we should just be glad they're still alive."

"You believe that story, then, do you, Ted?" It was Dirk now. "You believe Snape killed Dumbledore?

"Course I do," said Ted. "You're not going to sit there and tell me you think Potter had anything to do with it?"

"Hard to know what to believe these days," muttered the other man. "Could've been that Black girl, for all we know."

"I know Harry Potter," said Dean. "And I reckon he's the real thing—the Chosen One, or whatever you want to call it. And Carina…" He paused. "I don't know her as well. I definitely didn't after she got out of Azkaban. But I do know the night Dumbledore died, she was right there with all of us, leading us into battle. She couldn't have done it. I don't think she would have."

Carina felt a small surge of gratitude to the boy. She hadn't expected him to defend her, not at all. Would I have killed Dumbledore?

She thought for a moment.

No. I definitely didn't like the old man, but we could've used him for the war effort if Snape hadn't gotten to him, and if he hadn't have picked up that stupid ring and put it on. She rolled her eyes. Idiotic old geezer.

"Yeah, there's a lot would like to believe he's that, son. Me included. But where is he? Run for it, by the looks of things. You'd think if he knew anything we don't, or had anything special going for him, he'd be out there now fighting, rallying resistance, instead of hiding. And you know, the Prophet made a pretty good case against him…"

Ted scoffed at that and suggested the Quibbler, causing Carina to smile faintly and Dirk to splutter about how it was utter nonsense, thus evoking her irritation. But, as they went on to discuss what to do next, the others pulled in their extendable ears.

She sunk painfully to the ground when Hermione pulled out the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black, and cast a spell to blindfold him.

"I'm very sorry, Professor Black," said Hermione. "But it's a necessary precaution!"

"Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"

"Never mind where we are," said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.

"Can that possibly be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?"

"Maybe." Harry knew full well that this would keep Phineas Nigellus's interest. "We've got a couple of questions to ask you about the sword of Gryffindor."

"Ah," said Phineas Nigellus, now turning his head this way and that in an effort to catch sight of Harry. "Yes. That silly girl acted most unwisely there."

"Shut up about my sister," said Ron roughly, Phineas Nigellus raised his eyebrows.

"Who else is here?" he turned his head from side to side. "Your tone displeases me! The girl and her friends were foolhardily in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster."

"They weren't thieving," said Harry. "That sword isn't Snape's."

"It belongs to Professor Snape's school," said Phineas Nigellus. "Exactly what claim did the Weasley girl have upon it? She deserved her punishment, as did the idiot Longbottom and the Lovegood oddity!"

"Neville is not an idiot and Luna is not an oddity!" Hermione defended at the same time Carina growled, "Shut up, you miserable old man!"

"Where am I?" Phineas Nigellus started to wrestle with the blindfold again. "Where have you brought me? Why have you removed me from the house of my forebears?" He stopped, a sly smirk appearing on his lips. "Wait a moment...was that my granddaughter I heard?"

"Never mind that! How did Snape punish Ginny, Neville, and Luna?" asked Harry urgently.

"Professor Snape sent them into the Forbidden Forest, to do some work for the oaf, Hagrid."

"Hagrid's not an oaf!" said Hermione shrilly, and Carina could not help the own near identical smirk to Phineas Nigellus's from appearing on her face.

As their interrogation went on and the portrait was finally put away, they were extremely satisfied that they now knew the sword could destroy horcruxes.

So, as Harry and Hermione debated back and forth inside the tent, Carina propped herself up to sit on the table and listened amusedly, often chiming in that the Shrieking Shack would be too obvious, and to offer her opinion that it would appear to them on their own time, possibly, or that they would find it when they least expected it.

They were so immersed in their three-way conversation that they did not notice that Ron was laying in his bunk, not looking at all happy.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.

"What?" said Harry, obviously confused.

Ron snorted as he stared up at the bottom of the other bunk. "You three carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."

Perplexed, Harry looked to Hermione for help, but she shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as he was, and then he turned to Carina, who knew exactly what was going on.

"What's his problem?"

"Other than that he's a jealous prick?" remarked Carina, raising a brow. "Or should I go on?"

"Jealous? What for?"

There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.

Ron sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself, or she was sure that's how the others saw it.

"Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."

"I don't know?" repeated Harry. "I don't know?"

"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here—you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."

"Ron," Hermione said, but in such a quiet voice that Ron could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was beating on the tent.

Carina did not speak again. Not yet, though she could feel her irritation rise. So what if his arm was mangled? She had gotten splinched, too, and was missing part of her side, for Merlin's sake!

"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for."

"Yeah, I thought I did too."

"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" Harry was angry, she could tell. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?"

"We thought you knew what you were doing!" the other boy shouted, standing up. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"

"Ron!" said Hermione, this time clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but again, he ignored her.

The boys continued.

"Take off the locket, Ron," Hermione repeated, her voice high in a way that made Carina know she was very upset. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."

"Yeah, he would," said Harry, who, Carina knew, did not want to hear excuses for such a thing. "Do you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? Did you think I wouldn't realize? Carina is the only one here who hasn't complained about this whole thing!"

I don't want brought into this. Said raven haired witch crossed her arms.

"Harry, we weren't—"

"Don't lie!" Ron whirled on her. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than this!"

"I didn't say it like that!" she cried.

The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been. The sword of Gryffindor was hidden somewhere they did not know, and there were four teenagers in a tent who had no idea what was coming next.

"So why are you still here?" Harry fired off at Ron, standing straight in defense.

"Search me," the other boy shot back.

"Go home, then."

Carina wished he would. They did not need such an ungrateful boy here, they did not need someone who wasn't ready to risk it all to be sure enough that the war would end. He was nothing but trouble at this point and causing Hermione unneeded distress, and all she could do was watch.

"Yeah, maybe I will!" shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happened to her in there...well, I do, alright? Giant spiders and mental stuff —"

Rat's...fart? Carina shuddered inside, and outwardly she suppressed a snort. Idiot. I want to just...

"I was only saying she was with the others, they were with Hagrid-"

"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, 'the Weasleys don't need another kid injured,' did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I did!"

"Not bothered what it meant, though?"

To hell with not getting involved!

"Ron!" interrupted Hermione, forcing her way between them. Carina stood as well and made her way to Harry's side as swiftly as she could, heart pounding in her ears. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scared, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant."

"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way—"

The Grangers, lying dead on the floor, tortured to death.

James and Lily Potter, in much the same position, having sacrificed themselves for their son.

And Sirius Black, falling through the veil, once alive gray eyes unseeing as he was swept up and away.

They were orphans.

Carina saw red, and the next thing she knew she had discarded the staff and forced herself to stand up nose to nose with the boy.

"Our parents are dead!" she snarled, eyes flashing. She had had enough. She would not stand for this.

Kill, growled the wolf in the back of her mind. Vengeance. Must punish him.

"And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron, not cowering from her glare.

"Then GET OUT!" The raven haired girl clenched her fists by her sides, teeth bared in a snarl. She could feel her canines sharpen, and knew that she was only barely withholding shifting and tearing his throat out. "Leave! You spineless coward, you damned bloody prick–"

Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but Carina had her wand in her hand in a flash. However, before either boy could draw theirs, Hermione had raised her own.

"Protego!" she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron and Carina on the other; all of them were forced backward a few steps by the strength of the spell, and Harry and Ron glared from either side of the transparent barrier as though they were seeing each other clearly for the first time.

Carina felt her entire body tremble; she could not feel the pain in her side she was supposed to be feeling, not at this moment.

She could feel the hair on the back of her neck raise when she realized she was alone with Ron, stuck away from the others, and did not even bother stopping herself from lunging at him.

Due to her slamming into his arm, he staggered and let out a yelp of pain. In his anger, he did not draw his wand and instead threw her away from him; she let out a howl of fury and rushed him again, this time shifting as she went.

She could not see clearly, did not remember anything until she found herself opening her eyes and staring up at Harry, who had crouched by her side and had a hand buried in her fur. His face was deathly serious as he watched the tent door, and watched Hermione come in, looking devastated and a little broken, hair sopping wet and plastered to her face.

"He's g-g-gone! Disapparated!"

She threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry. Carina, now feeling rather drained and in pain now that the adrenaline had worn off, nudged Harry's arm with her nose and struggled to her feet. Carefully, she limped to the chair and rested her chin on the edge and let out a whimper; it hurt too much to shift back, and she could not stand the sight before her.

The poor girl before her raised her head, and the red rimmed eyes made the wolf's heart clench. She whined and raised her front paws onto the chair; with some difficulty, she scrambled up beside Hermione and curled into her side.

Hermione stared down at her, and then suddenly enveloped her into a large, tight embrace, face burying itself in her fur. Carina could feel the tears soaking into her fur, and feel the body beside her wracking with sobs.

She whuffed softly, and then tilted her head back to lick Hermione on the cheek, resting her large head in the older girl's shoulder.

They stayed there like that for what she was sure must be at least an hour, and during that time she had heard Harry go stomp about outside, obviously knowing he would be of no use here. He had not come back yet. Since the adrenaline had worn off, her side still hurt, but at least at the moment it was more of a mild throb than the sharp, stabbing pain it had been when she finally regained control of herself.

The grip around her neck finally loosened, and Carina carefully shifted back; she twisted some so that Hermione was curled up into her side—her left, thankfully—and the arms around her neck slid to her waist and fell around her hips, which was a safe enough place as the bookworm huddled closer. She shook again, and for awhile, there was silence, until there was a murmur into the side of Carina's neck, "Y-You almost tore his arm to shreds. He'll have to heal it again."

Carina hummed in acknowledgement, though she could not bring herself to feel any remorse. For once, her heart was not pounding, her fingers were not trembling; she felt at ease, despite the obvious tension there had been before, and made to get up.

"Rina?" Carina angled her head to see that Hermione had lifted her own. She raised a brow at the older witch. "Please, stay."

The raven haired girl frowned, but nevertheless stayed where she was and nodded. She had been about to get up and get something, but she could do it from here, if her strength had not yet depleted.

Experimentally, she raised her hand and flicked her fingers; a mug slowly floated onto the table a few feet away, and she could just barely see it fill to the top with water. Furrowing her brows, Carina concentrated hard.

Come on, you stupid thing...come on, just work for me now…

A packet of hot chocolate tipped itself into the mug, and she could see it start to prepare itself; a spoon plopped in and began to stir, marshmallows popped in, and the mug was then floating toward them, ever so slowly…

It finally landed in Carina's hand, and she felt triumphant as she pressed it into Hermione's instead. It was warm, and well prepared, and the brunette accepted it with a small, grateful smile; the younger girl managed a tired one back.

"Thank you."

And then, the mug was placed on the small coffee table by the chair, and Hermione curled into her side again, burying her face in tousled raven hair.

Carina leaned back in the chair and tilted her head against the back of the chair, staring at the ceiling as she let out a breath. She could feel Hermione's even breathing, but somehow she knew the other girl was far from asleep, and she was proved right a moment later when the head in the crook of her neck slid to her chest. But still, she did not move, and instead wrapped an arm around her hurting friend, closing her eyes.

She was exhausted.

~~~xxx~~~

Thud-thud

Thud-thud

Thud-thud

Steady breathing, strong heartbeat.

Thud-thud.

Thud-thud.

Familiar warmth, indubitable security.

Thud-thud.

Hermione Granger listened, and could feel her eyes begin to droop. In this moment, never had she been more thankful for a friend like Carina Black.