Chapter Thirty Two
"It's really nice here." Hermione said with a smile drinking in the late November sunshine.
The tent was warm today, the whole day was unusually warm in fact, something all three of them were enjoying. They were camping on the edge of a small wood, with a large stream, possibly more of a river, running along the bottom of a steep embankment.
"You know I'm sure there are fish in that river." Hermione said after a moment, shielding her eyes from the sun, "We could try catching a couple, fresh fish for dinner?"
"We could… or we could just magic them from our crackers and not risk drowning." Draco smirked and glanced over at the glaring Hermione.
Draco had already thought about doing some fishing, he'd been a few times when he was younger but they didn't have any equipment with them.
He was surprised with how much Hermione had tanned over the last few months, Harry's skin was also several shades darker. He, on the other hand, had managed to burn once and was now back to his normal, porcelain pale self.
"Why are you glaring at Draco?" Harry asked Hermione, flopping down on the grass between them.
"He was being a pain." Hermione smirked, "We should totally dump him somewhere."
Draco snorted a laugh, "Don't get ideas above your station Granger, never forget you are the third wheel here." he pulled Harry in a hug and pulled his tongue out at Hermione.
Harry laughed loudly, hugging Draco back. Hermione was about to return the insult when the first few drops of rain fell.
"Nooooooo." Hermione sighed, flopping her head back, "We've not had a good day in so long!"
"Well we could try to move to somewhere sunnier, but it is Britain… in winter." Draco smirked.
"You are in a really snarky mood today!" Hermione laughed, pretending to huff at him.
They grabbed their books and hurried into the tent as the rain started falling with more force. Harry sat in the doorway watching the rain fall as Hermione and Draco, loudly, debated their latest lot of research.
Harry had tried to join in, and he knew he wasn't stupid, but his studying abilities were not even close to Draco and Hermione's; there was a very good reason that they were always top of the year.
He had started training them, like he had in the DA, again though. It made him feel a little more useful and prepared for what was coming. Harry wondered when… if this was all over he should look at teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts as a career, but in many ways he'd had his fill of curses and fights already.
"We really could do with getting a message to Mother." Draco said, breaking into Harry's mindless thoughts.
"No." Harry said, blinking quickly, "How on earth would we be able to do that?"
Draco gave him an awkward smile, "I don't actually mean that we should contact her, I was just thinking that she could help; she's with Aunt Bellatrix, she could at least find out if there was a Horcrux in the vault."
"She's with the Death Eaters!" Harry snapped, realising the second the words left his mouth they had come out wrong, "I…"
"She's risking her life to help us!" Draco snapped back, jumping to his feet, "How dare you?!"
"Draco, Harry didn't mean it like that." Hermione said, trying to stop the rising tempers.
"Just because you miss her doesn't mean that you can go and-" Harry took a deep breath, everything was coming out wrong, "I miss my family as well-"
"I wasn't saying we should actually contact her for goodness sake!" Draco huffed.
"Shh…" Hermione said loudly.
"No, look there's no-" Harry started earning him a smack from Hermione.
"Shut up." Hermione hissed, "Listen."
Harry stopped talking and listened to the rain falling outside, rubbing his arm where Hermione had slapped him.
There was someone out there.
Draco, Harry and Hermione all froze, scared to even breathe too loudly.
"What do we do?" Harry whispered, "If we try and move they'll hear us for sure."
"How did they get here?" Hermione asked, "I didn't hear a pop."
"I'll go see who it is…" Draco said his face growing even more pale.
He grabbed his wand, gripping it tightly and took several deep breaths. He pulled the tent door open very slowly, trying his best not make a sound and sighed in relief.
"Well?" Harry whispered, as Draco crept back towards them.
"It's Dean Thomas, you know the Gryffindor?" Draco said, keeping his voice low still.
"I know him, he's in my year. What on earth is he doing here?" Hermione asked.
Draco shrugged, "I'm sorry I lashed out Harry, I didn't mean to."
Harry shook his head, "It was my fault, I should be more careful with what I say, foot in mouth disease. I really didn't mean anything against Narcissa."
"Yes, yes we get it; you love each other." Hermione hissed, rolling her eyes, "Can we please focus on the fact that there are people right outside? There is no way that all those footsteps are just one person, and Dean wasn't one to roam around all by himself."
The three of them walked slowly towards the entrance. Hermione was right, Dean wasn't alone. There was a far older wizard with him, with dark hair that had recently started to go grey. There was also a goblin looking very ragged, and very much less than happy.
The elder wizard built a rough fire while Dean magically caught a few fish.
"Not a bad place." the older wizard said scratching his stubbly beard, "Food is good."
Dean nodded, looking hungrily at the fish that was taking its time to cook over the feeble fire, "Been a very long year. I'm not exactly used to having to be on the run the whole time."
"I'm lucky to be on the run." the older wizard sighed, "They were carting me off to Azkaban when I managed to escape."
"Never thought I'd be sitting in the middle of a forest with two muggle borns." the goblin grumbled, "Never thought I'd be sitting here at all."
"Oh Griphook." Dean said, rolling his eyes, "It could be worse. You've not even told us why you did run off."
"Gringotts is goblin domain." Griphook said forcefully, his large eyes shinning with anger, "At least it should be."
"I remember going to Gringotts for the first time, the goblins scared the hell out of me." Dean said, thinking back, before realising that it probably wasn't the best thing to say, "Just because I'd never seen them before. And I'm not a muggle born."
"Why are you on the run then?" The older man asked, picking at the fish.
"Well, me Dad ran off before I was born so we don't know if he was a wizard or not." Dean shrugged, "So I might be muggle born, might not be. I don't think it really matters to them."
"I'm sorry Dean." the older man said gently.
Dean waved his hand dismissively, "Don't look at me like that Dirk, I never really cared about it. Maybe a bit when I was little but it just is what it is. And me mam is the best!"
"Never will understand humans and their need to be swaddled for so long by their parents." Griphook grumbled, "And this fish tastes awful."
"Well you're right there, it's not brilliant." Dean smirked, grinning at Dirk.
"Who's Dirk?" Hermione whispered.
"I've heard the name, if it's the one I'm thinking." Draco whispered back, "And it's not a common name. Anyway, Dirk Cresswell is head of the Goblin Liaison Office… or was."
"Another Muggle born?" Harry asked.
Draco nodded sadly. The three of them shivered, realising they were seeing the reality for a lot of muggle borns, on the run with nothing. They'd never been more pleased that they had prepared ahead of time.
"So, what's the gossip about goings on at Gringotts?" Dirk asked, trying not to smirk too happily at the goblin.
Griphook shuffled a little and glared into the fire, "Death Eaters coming in, ordering us about. They have no respect. I got a small revenge though, before they kicked me out."
"Ooo, do tell?" Dirk grinned, "We love revenge on Death Eater stories!"
"The frizzy haired, mad one, and her always sad sister came in with a scram sax… goblin made, very old and pretty. The scram sax of Salazar Slytherin! A rare beauty indeed. The frizzy, crazy one ordered me to put it in her husband's family vault. The Lestrange vault lives right at the heart of Gringotts."
"And you didn't put it in?" Dean asked, excitedly, "Do you still have it?"
Griphook looked insulted, "No!" he spat, "I put it exactly where I was ordered to, although they should of asked more nicely. We don't need wizards in charge." he grumbled, "And it should be ours anyway! It is goblin after all!"
Dean frowned in confusion, "I'm failing to see the revenge bit."
Griphook grinned nicely, "I didn't bother to tell them it was a fake."
"It's not real?" Dirk asked, his eyes wide in shock.
"It's real enough." Griphook corrected, "You can hold it and everything, but it's not genuine, or authentic. It's a good fake, you'd have to be a goblin to spot it was a fake. But the wizards are all too busy swanning about, forcing themselves where they don't belong to ask any of us experts. It makes me laugh thinking of it sitting there."
"I will toast to that!" Dirk cried, lifting up his dinner and grinning, "Bit of cheer for us all."
Harry, Hermione and Draco crept further into the tent slightly so they could talk.
"So Daphne and we were right; they moved the fake as we know we have the real scram sax." Hermione said quietly, "And the fact it's in the Lestrange vault does suggest we were on the right track for where they might be holding a Horcrux."
"He said she looked sad. He said Mother was sad." Draco said, trying not to cry, "Always sad."
"Oh Draco… she'll be all right." Harry said gently, "I'm sure Griphook was just being mean. He called Bellatrix 'the frizzy haired, mad one'."
"Bellatrix is the frizzy haired, mad one." Draco pointed out, "I can't imagine her mental state has gotten any better over the last few months. I'm sorry, I know we have bigger things to worry about but… I hate when Mother is sad."
Draco brushed the tears from his eyes, shaking away the unpleasant memories that were flooding into his mind.
"I think we should tell Dirk and Dean about the camp, near Hogwarts." Hermione said, after listening to ten minutes more of them chatting outside the tent.
Harry and Draco looked at like she'd gone mad.
"I mean it." Hermione said, "We can't just ignore them! They're starving, all three of them and… they're in so much danger."
"What if they use magic? Or don't want to stay in a tent for months?" Harry pointed out.
"We can offer it to them." Draco suggested, "But make sure they know the rules, give them the choice."
Harry didn't feel comfortable about it, any of it. Cho was there, she would be in danger if they took the risk. However selfish that was, it was how he felt and it wasn't going to go away.
"What about Griphook?" Harry pointed out, "Goblins are weird around magical folk."
"Harry that's horrible." Hermione chided.
"Harry is right there, Goblins have craved wands for centuries." Draco sighed, "I don't think he'd be happy there… we'll wait until they've split up, or their asleep and just tell Dirk and Dean."
"No." Hermione said, shaking her head, her frizzy hair flying around her face, "We're not going to leave someone out there just because he'd not human! He's still a person!"
"Hermione… Hermione wait up!" Harry said, panic filling his voice as she strode out the tent.
Draco managed to grab her arm, "We need to pack down first. We have to be ready to move in case this goes badly."
Hermione took a deep breath, glad Draco had stopped her. She wouldn't have even been able to get back through the wards if she'd stormed out. It wasn't her best plan.
They managed to pack down in almost silence. Dirk, Dean and Griphook had moved further into the shelter of the trees. They had no camping equipment, not even a blanket so if it rained again, the trees would at least keep some of the water off them.
"If this goes wrong, we meet here." Draco said, pointing to a large field in Devon on the map he drew in the air with the tip of his wand.
Harry and Hermione nodded, tucking their bags safely in their inside pockets so they wouldn't fall out and get lost.
Hermione removed the wards so they were standing in the open. There was no real change in the way things looked but they always felt very exposed when the wards were no longer there.
She walked carefully over towards the three, barely sleeping forms and coughed loudly.
Dirk and Dean jumped awake and grabbed their wands from their pockets and pointed it at Hermione, where she stood with her hands up in the air.
"Hermione?" Dean asked, not yet lowering his wand, struggling to believe what he was saying.
"You know her?" Dirk asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Tell me something only Hermione would know?" Dean ordered her.
"Umm… that Harry and Draco are with me? And we have food." Hermione grinned, not lowering her hands.
"Harry Potter?" Dirk asked, his eyes growing wide, "As in… the Harry Potter?"
"That's me." Harry said awkwardly, stepping forward slightly.
Griphook narrowed his eyes at them, "I bet the bounty on my head would vanish pretty quick if we turned you in… bet it would for all of us-"
"We'd be gone before they got here." Draco assured him, "Then you'd just be two muggle borns and a goblin who wasted their time."
Griphook grumbled to himself, knowing that the tall blonde boy was right.
"Do you really have food?" Dean asked, his stomach grumbling.
"We happen to run into the Harry Potter, while on the run, and you're thinking about food?" Dirk asked, shaking his head.
Draco summoned a cracker from his bag and turned it into a large plate of chips, more than enough for six. Dean took it from Draco and tucked in, letting the salt and vinegar warm him from the inside out.
"I can't believe I'm actually getting to meet you." Dirk said, nibbling a chip and unable to keep his eyes off Harry, wondering if it would be too rude to ask to shake his hand again, "I honestly never thought I'd live to see this day…"
Harry shifted nervously from foot to foot, "Umm… thanks I guess?"
"Look, we can't stay long." Hermione said, not wanting to get into a lengthy Harry worshipping session, "We took all our wards down before coming over to see you, it's too dangerous to be here long."
"Why did you?" Dean asked, feeling very sleepy now he'd eaten properly for the first time in over a week, "Come over, I mean."
"We couldn't just leave you." Harry pointed out, "You don't even have blankets and winter is coming."
"We can't come with you." Dirk said with a frown, "Aren't you on some secret mission? That's what everyone is saying, the only reason you would have run off. If it's secret we can't be with you."
"We are." Draco nodded, "And no, you can't come with us. We do have somewhere for you to go though, if you want. It's not much, just a camp site so you'll be living in tents."
"There's no magic there, nothing. You'll have to live as total muggles." Harry explained, "But there are a few others there and you'll be safe. No one else knows about it."
"Well I'm not going." Griphook sniffed, "Bad enough wizards keep their magic for themselves, I'm not living in a tent surrounded by people who refuse to use their magic."
"Well we're in!" Dirk said happily, "Right Dean?"
"For sure!" Dean said, finishing the last of the chips and feeling rather sick having eaten so much.
"Well… it's your choice." Hermione said calmly, hiding her disappointment and worry at the idea of the goblin being all alone, "At least let us give you some food and supplies?"
Griphook glared at Hermione before giving her a sharp nod. It only took them a few minutes to empty out one of their magical bags and fill it with three heavy duty blankets, a large tarp and ropes, and then as much long lasting food as they could think off, at least enough to last him a good few months. They also handed over a camp stove and some pans.
"Thank you." Griphook said, giving them a more gentle nod, "I will return them to you as soon as I can."
"Oh, don't worry about it." Hermione said kindly.
Griphook glared at her.
"Thank you Griphook, that is very kind of you." Draco said quickly, placing a hand on Hermione's shoulder, "When you are done with them, return them to Malfoy Manor."
They helped Griphook set up a rough camp in the middle of the trees before apparating away with Dirk and Dean.
"Why did you say Griphook had to give those things back?" Hermione asked Draco with a frown.
Draco sighed, "Goblins… they don't believe in 'giving'. A lot of the arguments between Wizards and goblins come from wizards buying goblin made things and then once they die they pass them on to their family rather than giving them back to the one who made them. Or Wizards giving things to the goblins and the goblins becoming bitter when they have to break their necks to give them back. There was almost a war back in the middle ages when wizards gave a huge sum to the goblins to help them build a settlement, the goblins thought they were trying to enslave their race as it was the only way they were going to be able to pay the wizards back, the wizards however meant it to be charity."
"How do you know all this?" Hermione asked, "I've never learned any of it at school before."
"Many, many trips to Gringotts over the years." Draco shrugged, "And family knowledge. It's not really important enough to teach at school."
"Says you." Hermione huffed, "You know it all."
Draco nodded in agreement, "True, but it's also partly because it doesn't fit in with the typical wizard or goblin narrative…"
"Well that's no reason not to teach it!" Hermione shrieked, her voice growing higher with every syllable.
"Drop it?" Harry suggested, looking pointedly at Dirk and Dean.
Hermione mumbled an apology, looking awkwardly between Draco, Dirk and Dean.
"So where is this camp?" Dean asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Just on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, not the side with Hogwarts or Hogsmead obviously." Harry told them, starting to put the wards up around them.
"Any more details?" Dirk asked, "That's still a good few miles to narrow down after all."
"I don't know any more than that." Harry shrugged, "We made plans but for everyone's safety we didn't know exactly where. I can tell you the Pansy Parkinson is there, as is Cho Chang and William Culpeck."
"Thank you." Dean said, "I've never felt so scared before as I have the last few weeks."
"We hope you'll be safe there." Hermione said.
"No magic." Draco repeated, "Nothing. It's not going to be easy."
"Easier than it has been." Dirk assured them.
Hermione, Harry and Draco waved them goodbye as the loud pop filled the air before getting everything set up for the night.