Little Hangleton was a small village, with dingy, worn-looking houses and buildings. It was on the outskirts of Greater Hangleton, which Hermione privately suspected wouldn't be much better. The Hanged Man, the village pub, was the nicest building in the town, which lowered her opinion of the place even further.

"Look at that house," Harry said, pointing to a large, decrepit manor overlooking the small town from a hill. "Creepy."

"Yes. Creepy." Riddle's voice was flat. "Let's go."

Tom led the coven into the woods around the town a short way.

"We're essentially trying to find suspicious magic, right?" Harry asked.

"Essentially," Hermione agreed. "If there's nothing here, it's unlikely there's a horcrux here. If there is anything suspicious, then it is likely one was hidden there."

"I'm hoping it's here," Blaise commented. "That creepy manor's too publicly visible for my taste."

They continued on, feet crunching on leaves and sticks as they went.

"If I recall correctly, the Gaunt hovel completely surrounded by trees," Tom said. "So many it blocked all the light out. I think it should be just ahead—"

There was suddenly an overwhelming sense of encroaching doom in the forest, ominous fear and threatening whispers pressing in on them from every direction. Nothing had changed, but suddenly continuing on through the forest seemed hopeless, like a complete suicide mission, and Hermione wondered if maybe she shouldn't just call it quits and go home and hide under her covers, where it was safe.

The coven all stopped dead in their tracks, while Tom took another few steps before realizing he'd left them behind.

"Oh, I don't like this feeling," Luna said, shuddering.

"Is this a fancy Keep-Away charm?" Blaise asked, trying to keep his voice even. "Or Muggle-Repelling Charm?"

"I feel like something horrible is going to happen if I keep going," Susan said, holding herself across her middle. "This dread…"

"From an academic perspective, this is rather impressive," Hermione said, her voice breaking. "To alter a charm to cause a different emotion or feeling—"

"Let's keep going," Harry said, determined. "If we break through it, the feeling should stop."

Slowly, the coven kept marching forward, shivers of dread turning to full-out shudders. Hermione couldn't stop images of her entire coven dying around her flooding her mind, their lifeless eyes staring up accusingly at her, with her knowing it was all her fault—

Abruptly, the feeling vanished, and they all stood silently in the dark woods.

"Well, that was fun," Blaise said dryly.

"Could you feel it?" Luna asked Tom, who flinched.

"…no," he admitted. "The magic didn't have an effect on me."

"That's good to know," Hermione said, intrigued. "I wonder if it's because you're – well, you – or if it's because your body isn't real."

Tom barely restrained a snarl.

They kept going, the shack coming into view.

"Are we sure this is the right place?" Susan asked skeptically. "We haven't run into any curses yet—"

"What do you think that awful Keep-Away Charm was for?" Blaise asked her, his tone pointed.

"That could have been put up by—"

Susan's sentence was abruptly cut off by swoosh and a WHOOMP, and abruptly, Susan was gone, her screams echoing around the woods.

"What was that?" Harry looked around, panicked. "Was that a bird?"

"No! Look!" Luna was pointing up in the air. "The tree—the tree took her—"

Hermione followed Luna's finger to see Susan, desperately clutching onto a large bough of a tree as the tree tried its best to shake her off. She was screaming, but she didn't let go.

"Whomping Willows," Tom said, a note of approval in his voice. "Magical protections that aren't detectable like spell residue. Nice."

They all backed away from the shack and the tree, and a moment later, Susan landed on the ground in front of them, managing an unstable landing thanks to her air magic, but she was badly shaken.

"That is going to bruise," she said. She touched her midsection and winced. "Badly."

"There's more than one Whomping Willow," Harry said, peering ahead. "How do we get through them?"

Hermione bit her lip, thinking.

"There's not really a good answer to that," she said. "He probably planted these trees all around the shack, so we can't just approach from a different angle. And they're tall trees, so we can't just fly in from above…"

"Can we tunnel in?" Blaise asked.

"That will take forever," Susan said, now in a bad mood. "We need this over with today."

"We could dodge," Luna said simply. "If we run, we could leap over the branches or out of the way."

Tom stared at her.

"That," he said, "is the stupidest idea humanly possible. Do you want to become just a bag of skin holding chunky organ soup?"

"Unfortunately, I think that's the only idea we have that will work," Hermione said, giving Tom a sharp look. "Unless anyone knows magic to freeze the trees?" Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Hermione carried on. "Right. Then we'll try running through, using the Slowing Charm as we go."

"Arresto Momentum?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. We'll all run at the same time, so we're all spreading out slowing charms as we go. We should be safe once we get to the doorstep, but be careful not to actually touch the door. It might be hexed."

"I do not like this," Susan grumbled.

"Well, it's all we've got," Blaise said, forced cheerfulness in his voice.

Everyone took a moment to stretch and limber themselves up before taking up a racing pose, ready to spring forward into the trees.

"Ready everyone?" Hermione asked. "On three, then. One… two… three!"

She sprang forward into the tree line, the others leaping forward at her side. She had her wand out, ready to cast spells, and she ran fast as she could. The first real Whomping Willow branch caught her off guard, sweeping along the ground to destroy her shins, fast. Hermione didn't have time to cast anything – she tried to dodge by jumping over it as it swung towards her from the front. But it was a thick bough and she didn't clear it, her shoes catching the top of the branch and making her fall face-first into the ground, pain exploding in her face and nose.

"Hermione!"

Hermione scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain bursting in her nose. She ran to catch up with the others, waving her wand wildly, blood dripping down her face.

"Arresto Momentum! Arresto Momentum!"

The slowing charms seemed to only slow the branches to a point. Hermione managed to dodge the next two, but the fourth that came for her came from behind, smashing into her and sending her flying through the forest.

"Aahhh!"

She crashed into the ground, hard.

Hermione got back to her feet with a groan, her ears ringing. She looked around, surprised to see her friends running towards her, and then quickly turned around and ran in the direction they were running, dodging another branch with a scream. The tree that had hit her had sent her flying the right way, at least—

She reached the shack a few moments later, panting and wheezing against the wall. She put a hand to her nose, closing a nostril to stop it from bleeding, though her front was already covered with blood. The others arrived shortly after, out of breath and gasping. Many were cradling injuries or favoring one leg over the other.

But they'd all made it – alive.

"Fucking hell," Blaise swore. He rubbed his thigh hard, massaging it. "Those trees are vicious. Where did he even get so many?"

"The ring's probably been here for almost fifty years," Tom said calmly. "He probably planted seedlings and just let them grow up."

Blaise gave Tom a dark look, but Tom merely shrugged.

Harry was examining the door, breathless. He alone had escaped without being hit by the trees, his Quidditch-honed reflexes helping him to dodge every branch that came his way.

"There's a snake nailed to the door," Harry said. "Do you think that's a warning?"

"Yes, but not from me," Tom groaned. He seemed embarrassed. "That was here the first time I came here. The Gaunts were all Parseltongues – don't ask me why they killed a snake instead of just using a symbol…"

"All the windows are tightly sealed," Susan said, examining. "They're absolutely covered in grime and filth. I can't see anything."

Hermione joined Harry in examining the door, still holding a hand to her nose to help the pain and clot the blood.

The door was wood, and though it looked very worn, it also looked very heavy, and very set in its place. The snake on the door was an adder, but its venom had long since dried up, so there was no threat there. The doorknob even made an obliging click when she cast Alohomora, which she didn't expect to work. She frowned.

"I don't feel any Dark Magic here," she said cautiously. She turned to Tom. "Do you?"

Tom raised an eyebrow.

"I only have the magic you gave me," he pointed out.

"Still," Hermione pressed. "Do you?"

Tom reached out with his magic, and Hermione was surprised to realize she could feel him reach out with his magic. It must be because his magic was actually her magic – she couldn't feel when Harry reached out—

"That's odd." Tom was frowning, looking at the door with suspicion. "There's nothing. I can't feel anything."

"So we just go in, then," Blaise said, groaning as he massaged one of his upper arms. "The curses must be inside."

"Still," Tom said. "I would have expected something on the door itself."

"Try the knob," Luna advised.

Harry reached for the doorknob, only to jerk back with a yelp.

"It burned me!" he said, cradling his hand. "It's hot."

"But we couldn't feel any magic," Hermione said, confused. She reached for Harry's hand, healing the burn. "How is it hot, then?"

Tom examined the doorknob closely.

"Oh, very nice," he said approvingly. "Undetectable. Unavoidable. Well done."

"Well, what is it?" Susan snapped. "Runes?"

"We'd have been able to detect lingering magic in runes," Tom said. "No, this is just physics and thermodynamics – there's an everlasting fire inside of the doorknob. That's what made it so hot."

"What?" Blaise's voice was incredulous. "Are you telling me there's really—"

"A tiny fire inside of this," Tom said, nodding. "And we have to use it to get inside. Luckily," he said, putting his hand on the doorknob, "I do not have a proper nervous system."

He opened the door, and stale, musty air wafted out of the dark room. Everyone lit their wands, exchanging grim, determined looks.

"Be careful," Hermione advised. "We don't know where it will be, or exactly what we're looking for. Let's go room by room. Stay alert. There's bound to be traps."

The coven members ignored her as they filed in after Tom to go inside, leaving Hermione to take up the rear. They'd already discussed all this prior to coming, and Hermione realized, somewhat abashed, that she was just repeating the instructions as a way to combat her own anxiety.

The living room had rotting floorboards, a few pieces of decaying, crusty furniture, and not much else. Everyone took up examining around the room, feeling for magic and looking for runes.

Hermione found nothing as she searched around the door and the nearby baseboards and floorboards meticulously, scrutinizing them inch by inch. When she stood up again, she felt dizzy and stumbled.

"I'm going to step out for a moment," she told Blaise and Tom, who were nearby. "I think I lost more blood than I thought."

She'd left the door open. The fresh air of the forest helped clear her head, as compared to the musty, cloying smell of the shack. And the Gaunts had lived here, she knew, despite the house being in just as bad of a condition as it was now. No wonder they'd resented the Riddle family and their big mansion.

"Oh, hello." Luna's voice came out through the door. "Who are you?"

Hermione glanced back inside to see Luna talking to the air. She blinked.

"…Luna?" she said from the doorway. "There's no one there."

"Yes, there is," Luna said. "Look, it's Mr. Piggly-wiggly. He says we need to climb on the ceiling."

"You go ahead," Harry groaned. "I don't feel good."

"I feel like I'm going to puke," Susan agreed, her voice sounding thick. "Does proximity to Dark magic cause nausea?"

"No…" Hermione said slowly.

"Well, then." Susan seemed to shrug it off, before she abruptly fell to her knees and threw up.

"Susan!"

Blaise and Harry both moved to get to her, but Blaise stumbled and fell against a chair.

"I'm dizzy," Blaise said, his eyes unfocused. "Why am I so dizzy? I didn't find any magic yet—"

"My head is throbbing," Harry said, helping hold Susan's hair back. "And—I know this sounds extreme—but I think I'm having a heart attack."

Hermione looked at Tom in confusion, but Tom seemed just as puzzled as her, shrugging. Blaise fell to the ground vomiting as well, and Luna giggled from her place up the wall and near the ceiling, which she seemed to be licking.

"Mr. Piggy-Wiggly says dizzy is good," she said. "It helps you see past the normal into the truth."

Panic started building in Hermione as she watched her friends rapidly degrade in front of her, Blaise gagging and Harry collapsing on the ground. She had no idea what was going on – Tom wasn't affected at all, but nothing seemed to affect him, really – and she wasn't affected either—

Wait! She had been affected – she'd been dizzy, so she'd gone outside. She'd thought it was just blood loss, but as soon as she had some fresh air, she'd felt better—

"It's the air!" she shouted, realizing immediately. "Open the windows! Open the windows!"

Holding her breath, Hermione ran into the house, waving her wand at one of the windows.

"Bombarda!"

The window exploded outward in a shatter of glass, and from the other end of the house, Hermione could hear Tom doing the same thing.

"Bombarda! Bombarda!"

Her air elemental was ready as soon as the windows were open; a strong wind swept through the cottage with enough force to send one of the smaller chairs flying across the room and into the far wall. Her magic was panicking, trying to replace all the air in the room as fast as possible, and Hermione, though she was starting to feel dizzy, went to her friends, Vanishing their piles of vomit.

"It's the air?" Blaise asked her weakly. He moaned, clutching his stomach. "The air cursed us?"

"How is that even possible?" Harry groaned, holding his head.

"I don't think it was cursed." Hermione looked up to see Tom Riddle by the fireplace, looking thoughtful. "I think it was the same sort of deal as the doorknob."

"What are you talking about?" Blaise groaned. "Be clear. We're all too sick to interpret your mysterious mumblings."

Tom ignored him and looked to Hermione.

"The doorknob had a fire inside of it," he said. "And here, in the fireplace – there's warm embers, and I think there's a fire under the floor here—"

"A fire? Burning all this time?" Hermione asked. Her eyes went wide as she realized the implications of what she'd just said. "This entire house was shut up air-tight. You think it's carbon monoxide affecting us all?"

Tom shrugged. "You tell me."

Luna was climbing down from the wall now, and Susan was taking deep, shuddering breaths. Harry and Blaise both looked less green, though still fairly weak. Hermione's air elemental was still circulating in fresh air from outside at a slower pace without conscious thought on her part, and to Hermione's relief, her own dizziness was dissipating too.

"So we were gassed?" Harry looked disturbed. "That—that's severely messed up."

Tom winced. "Well. Voldemort did live through World War II. It would have been fresh in his mind."

Hermione didn't know the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning – she'd never taken a high-level chemistry course – and all they'd covered in muggle primary school was 'this is bad, make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector in your house' and 'make sure your chimney flue is open before you light a fire'. But it seemed likely that had been the cause, especially given fresh air seemed to be fixing the problem.

"There's a fire in the fireplace?" Hermione said, focusing on the end goal once again. "Where?"

Tom pried up a floorboard near the fireplace opening. "Right here."

She went over to join him while the others recovered. Inside was a bright fire, burning merrily on no fuel. In the center of the flames was a heavy ring.

"Another burning trick?" she said, glancing up at Tom. "It seems unlike Voldemort to reuse traps."

"Maybe the ring is cursed itself," Tom said. "I can't imagine it wouldn't be."

Abruptly and without any discussion, Tom reached into the fire and neatly plucked the ring out, making Hermione squawk in surprise.

"I could have—I've got the fire elemental—"

"And I don't have a proper body or nervous system," Tom said calmly, raising an eyebrow. "I'm clearly the better risk for a fire like this."

Hermione rolled her eyes and scowled while Tom examined the ring.

"This is the ring, all right," he said. "Only…" he trailed off, pausing. He turned the ring over in his hands. "I can't feel the soul piece in it. I can't feel any magic in it. What did he do…?"

Almost in a trance, Tom slid the ring onto his finger.

It happened instantaneously.

Heavy, choking Dark magic began pouring out from the ring, visible as a purple-black cloud, and Hermione shouted and scrambled back from him while Tom yelped in surprise. The skin of his finger started to change colors, turning withering and necrotic, and it began creeping over his palm.

"It was cursed!" he said, his eyes wild as he looked to Hermione.

"I think I can see that!" Hermione shot back. "Your hand is turning black, Tom!"

The blackness was up to his wrist now, while Tom tried to yank off the ring. The ring didn't budge, pulsing with Dark power.

"No, no, that's obvious," Tom said, panic in his voice. "The ring itself had a compulsion to put it on – and I felt it somehow. I haven't been subject to the other compulsions—"

"It's the horcrux itself."

Hermione looked over to see the others had joined him, watching grimly as the necrosis crept up Tom's arm. They all gave him a wide berth, and Blaise was gesturing to Tom's hand while Tom struggled to yank off the ring.

"The horcrux itself can defend itself," Blaise said, mouth set in a grim line. "The diary defended itself by possessing people, didn't it? Well, the ring…"

He trailed off, and they watched as the necrosis crept up further, a visible noxious cloud.

As horrified as she was, Hermione tried to analyze the situation — Tom hadn't felt the sense of dread, he hadn't been burned, and he hadn't needed to breathe real air, but this curse had managed to affect him? Was it because the necrosis curse only affected the surface flesh, and Hermione had visualized a physical body when pulling him from the diary? Come to think of it — had Tom been burned by the doorknob, and he just hadn't felt the pain? She'd definitely visualized a body, even if not an entire nervous system...

"Do we think he's going to die once the necrosis reaches his heart?" Luna asked, tilting her head and observing. "Or only once his entire body is black?"

A new expression flickered over Tom's face, one Hermione had never seen on him before.

Tom was scared.

"What happens if I die?" he asked. His voice was even, but there was a quaver of fear that Hermione could catch now. "I'm still wearing the horcrux—"

"Well, then, we need to make sure you're not wearing the ring when you die," Susan said perfunctorily. "Diffindo!"

Tom screamed, and his blackened hand abruptly fell off at the wrist. Hermione had to hold a hand to her mouth as her stomach revolted at the sight, heaving. The stump of his arm was black, but Tom wasn't even bleeding – there was just a noxious, black ooze that made the end of his limb look wet.

"If I hadn't just vomited up everything, I think I would vomit," Blaise said conversationally.

"Christ, Susan," Hermione said, her heart pounding. "Warn a girl, will you?"

"I didn't think there was time," Susan said, gesturing to the necrosis now creeping up Tom's neck. "I did what needed to be done."

"Well," Harry said. "We have the ring now. Do we just keep it on his hand?"

"The hand will probably vanish when Tom does," Hermione said, biting her lip. "Here – let's put it in this bag before that happens. The compulsion charm might affect us otherwise."

"Lovely," Blaise said. "Who wants to pick up the disembodied hand?"

No one said anything, but Luna came over and levitated it into the air, nonplussed.

"You all were ready to fight dark curses, but not to pick up a hand?" She floated it into Hermione's outstretched bag with little fuss, giving them all an amused look. "Really?"

Harry made some objection, to which Luna replied, but Hermione was looking at Tom, the necrosis creeping further. He'd collapsed against a wall, the necrosis eating his legs and rendering them useless. There was fear in his eyes – real, genuine fear – and though he was doing his best, Hermione could tell even he didn't know what would happen to him if his body died, rather than just ran out of magic. She moved over to sit next to him, pushing down the bile that rose in her throat at the sight of his oozing stump.

"Hey, it'll be okay," she told him quietly. "You'll still be in the diary. This body isn't real."

"But what if I'm not?" Tom's voice was quiet. "I made the horcruxes to avoid this. So this would never happen. Hermione…"

Hermione couldn't touch him – she didn't know if the necrosis was contagious or could be transmitted by contact – but she wished she could touch him, to offer him comfort as he faced his own (possible) mortality. The black was halfway up his face, now, and creeping over his eyes, leaving bright white orbs rimmed in red peering out of a head of flaky coal.

"I'm scared, Hermione." His voice was a whisper. "I don't want to die."

"Nobody does," Hermione said quietly, sitting with him.

She watched as the necrosis crept over the rest of him. When there was no skin left to be seen, Tom's eyes rolled up into his head, and his eyelids slowly closed. He gave a deep, shuddering breath, and then he fell over, his body hitting the floor with a dull thud.

The room was silent.

"So… is he…?" Harry ventured.

"Dunno," Blaise said. "We'll have to wait and see."

Even as Blaise spoke, Tom's body began dissolving in front of them – not into black flakes of skin, but into dim sparkles of light. The fact he was dissolving magically, not decomposing into a necrotic pile of flesh, sparked confidence and reassurance in Hermione – it had been that way at Azkaban, when he had run out of magic to sustain a body.

"We need to get out of here," Susan said, glancing around. "Who knows what other traps might be here?"

"Excellent point," Blaise said, straightening. "Even if Voldemort didn't leave any more, who's to say the Gaunts didn't booby-trap their shack?"

"I am not in any condition to run back through the Whomping Willows," Harry said flatly. His eyes were hard, a stubborn expression on his face as if he was preparing for a fight. "I just puked and almost had a heart attack. I can't do it."

"You didn't even get hit the first time," Susan shot back. "Can't take a few hits if you can't dodge?"

"None of us are in good condition," Luna said calmly. "We were all just seriously poisoned."

Hermione bit her lip, thinking.

"We don't have many options," she said reluctantly. "We could try to run out through the trees, but then there's the Whomping Willows to deal with. We could try to fly out from the roof, but then we risk muggles seeing us and the Whomping Willows, potentially. Or we could make a ley line and travel out that way, but then you'd all need to hop a line while feeling sick too."

"That option," Harry said immediately. "So long as I'm not the one making it, I can take a ley line wherever."

"I agree," Blaise said. "Anything that doesn't rely on our physical bodies is best."

Hermione glanced around. Susan and Luna were nodding in agreement, and Hermione sighed. She'd been the least poisoned, and she'd practiced making ley lines the most, but it was still an awful, agonizing thing that she really didn't want to do if she didn't absolutely have to.

Unfortunately, with the situation as it was, she absolutely had to.

"All right," Hermione said, resigned. "Give me a minute or two to do this, and then we'll get out of here."