A/N:Well here goes another update, I hope they are living up to the wait. As I said, despite the fact thatI've been gone for years i never once stopped thinking about how to come back and finish this story. I've really been on a Harry Potter kick the past few months, and perhaps the amazing story of MAD harmony's "Unlike a Sister" was that final push I needed to come back to the ship that I love. With that, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

From all that you made

That you lost

Or threw away

Traded in for a brand new life

But I can't

Can't let go

Can't turn around

Hold my head high and walk away

Hey

Remember me

I remember you walking away

–"Walking Away" Lifehouse

Two hours into his watch, Harry had had to do a quick dive into Hermione's beaded bag to dig out a few more sweaters for him to wear. The trees surrounding them turned out to not have been very shielding against the wind's relentless attack. Apart from the steady cascade of snow, there was no movement to be seen around. No living thing would dare be wandering around in this weather. The only reason Harry had been able to sit outside for so long on his watch was thanks to the aid of the small jar fires Hermione had conjured up before going to sleep. They circled around him, giving him a solid shield against the unforgiving wind.

Between his weariness and boredom, up ahead he could've sworn he saw a bright glow emanating from the distant trees. shaking his head, he removed his glasses to clean them, surely his lack of sleep was catching up to him.

Harry squinted back at the area he had been looking at before. The glowing light had disappeared.

"I must be losing it," Harry whispered to himself.

When he was sure the light wasn't there, he stepped back inside the tent. He made his way back into Hemione's section where could see the blue light of her fires radiating outwards. He smiled at the sight before him.

She was fast asleep, A copy of 'Hogwarts A history' laying face down on her chest that rose and fell with each breath. A soft snore escaped through her pale lips that were no longer a tint of blue. She looked so comfortable, it took everything in his power to fight his urge of joining her. She too had gone through her fair share of sleepless nights, it would be far too irresponsible not to keep an eye out while she caught up. Harry was aware they were in even more danger now since their narrow escape from Godric's Hollow. They couldn't afford to both have a good night's sleep. Instead, he chose the chivalrous route, he bent forward to kiss her on the forehead and walked back outside.

Harry was once again enveloped in the semi-warm circle of Hermione's jar flames. He unpocketed the folded-up Marauders map from deep inside his pockets. He had gotten somewhat into the habit of checking how everyone else was faring back at Hogwarts. He knew very well that they were not the only ones going through difficulty because of Voldemort's return. Every now and then, he would pick up bits and pieces of the current situation at Hogwarts through the wireless radio Ron had left behind. Gone were the carefree regular days in which the most difficult part of school was just passing your classes. Instead, reports were given of severe punishment students were enduring for different bogus reasons. The students were miserable, the school was actually infiltrated by many known Death Eaters. As more days passed many students would choose to go home in fear of being abused, many others were simply taken due to their blood status.

For once Harry felt glad Hermione had insisted on coming along with him. Had she stayed back, it was more than certain she would've ended up in Azkaban along with the other innocent muggle-borns. Though her blood status was dangerous enough, she was also the known best friend of Harry Potter, Undesirable Number 1, she would have most definitely been used as a pawn against him. At least here he would have a more proactive approach to protect her at all costs.

On the map, he saw the dot and name of Severus Snape pacing back and forth in the Headmaster's office. He felt a pang in his stomach when he saw his name, the feeling of betrayal still vivid in the pit of his stomach. Snape had never been one of his favorite people due to the horrible way he had treated him for years. Once he killed Dumbledore, that general hatred a student would have for an unfair professor turned into something much more visceral.

It took several more minutes of seeing the new headmaster pace around the office before a bright light grabbed his attention from his peripheral view. It was the same bright light he had seen moments before only now it shone brighter and bigger. It was starting to form into something, though he could not see it from his vantage point. He would have to leave the comfort of the tent site in order to know for sure.

He contemplated his situation for a moment. After what had happened to them in Godric's Hollow, he was a lot more apprehensive than he had been. After all, they were down to just one wand and if he left, that would mean Hermione would be completely vulnerable. Still, something inside his gut was telling him that it was okay to follow this light. With one last wrestling look at the tent, he took off into a sprint. the light was getting bigger and the form it had changed into was becoming clearer. He gasped as he saw it, it was a Doe. A ghostly, transparent doe.

The transparent figure twitched its ears and looked straight at him. Harry was transfixed. He felt torn, part of him was on defense, surely this was a Patronus, he had managed to master Patronuses perfectly since he learned it in his third year from Lupin. Someone had to be nearby conjuring it, setting up some trap. At least that's what his paranoid mind was screaming at him. At the same time as those thoughts flooded him, there was something oddly calming about it, the doe was nodding its head in a comforting way, beckoning him to follow it.

Not needing more persuasion, he followed suit.

The misty doe frolicked quickly as he neared it, pulling him deeper into the mossy forest and farther away from Hemione. He was entranced by its beauty, he didn't even feel the bitter cold anymore. The thick snow crunched underneath each step, the now bare trees fenced around and above him, there was an eerie stillness to the air, there was no movement of animals that inhabited the area. The blue doe stood out magnificently against the white snow and the brown naked trees, staying always just out of reach. It took several more steps until the doe finally stopped, coming to a halt in a frozen, silver pond much bigger than the one Hermione had taken him to earlier. He watched in confusion as the Doe looked back one more time before it evaporated back into its small ball form and sunk into the depths below.

"Wait!" he heard himself yell.

It had disappeared. What did it mean? Why had she brought him there? What was the message?

Harry carefully weighed his options, he could go back and ponder what this all meant possibly with Hermione's help as well. Or… he could investigate why he had been led to this point. Whoever conjured it had to have done so for a reason, though he knew the only person who would have that Patronus form in question was no longer around.

He knelt down and removed his trainers, all alone, it wouldn't have been a good idea to fall into ice as he had hours ago.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered, stepping gingerly onto the smooth glossy surface.

In that first step, he noticed that this ice was much thicker than the previous one of the smaller pond, he felt more secure as he walked to the spot in which the doe had vanished. Raising the wand over his head he looked for any signs of the Patronus. The bottom of the lake was hard to see, it was murky underneath which meant the water was far deeper than it looked from afar. Even with the opaqueness, to his trained Seeker eye, there was a glint of something reflecting off his light. Something was down there. He lay down onto the ice and saw it once again, more vividly this time and he couldn't believe, down below in the murky pond, in the middle of a forest lay Gryffindor's sword. The same sword they had discovered a few days ago would finally be able to destroy that wretched locket that had made their lives hell.

He looked around once again, hoping that whoever conjured the Patronus would finally be visible. There was no one. Hermione was far away, there was only one wand between them, it was freezing cold, he had been led to this point by some unknown source. Logically it didn't make any sense….everything that would've told a normal person to flee was there. Still, too much time had passed since they had acquired the locket and this was the closest they would ever come to finally destroying one.

"Accio Sword!" He demanded.

Nothing happened.

As he expected. it would've been too easy that way. There was only one way he would be able to reach the sword.

Before he could convince himself otherwise he removed his glasses and stripped down to just his underwear, shivering violently as he did so. He could only imagine how much worse it would be once he plunged himself into freezing water. Wordlessly, Harry sent his clothes to the other side of the bank.

"Diffindo!" He chanted.

He moved Hermione's wand in a circular motion, cutting the ice into a big enough hole for him to jump into. The freezing water ebbed out, giving him a taste of what he was about to endure. As he sat down on the solid portion, he forced his legs into the numbing water, feeling the sensation instantly. With one last gulp of air, he ducked down below and beneath the glassy surface.

Wordlessly, He conjured up light with the wand.

The sword gleamed sharply against the dark, looking completely out of place.

It took several strides to finally come within reach of it. There was no movement in the water other than his own. As he came within feet of his goal, the triumphant feeling evaporated as he felt the locket still on his chest clinging to his chest. Despite that he was fully immersed in water, he felt a white-hot pain similar to a burn on his chest right before the chain wrapped around his neck viciously. At that moment Harry was convinced that the locket had a life of its own. Sure he knew part of Voldemort's soul was in the locket, as all Horcruxes were to be. Yet this was the second time he had seen it act out of its own accord.

His vision was failing him, the wand strewed to the ground, Gryffindor's sword still flashing at him tauntingly as he writhed against the pressure against his windpipe. He pulled violently at the chain, a flood of memories flashed in his brain. He couldn't believe that this was how it would end, so stupidly. Drowning inches away from the sword, wand laying useless at the bottom, murdered by a sliver of Voldemort's soul. He had failed not only himself but everyone else.

As he felt his body give way to the lack of oxygen, he vaguely registered the presence of pressure against his chest, a vice-like grip grabbing him firmly like a devil snare. He was fading in and out of consciousness at this point. With his vision hazy, he hadn't noticed that he was being lifted out by whatever had wrapped around him. Grateful to just be out of the frigid water, he made no protest against it.

It wasn't until he broke the surface and felt the biting cold of the outside hit his head that he felt revived. He let out a huge gulp of air and mustered the strength to break the chain around his neck, at last, the back of the locket puckering as he did so.

Harry gasped and groaned as he tried to make sense of just what had happened. He had just been at death's door yet again, there was no doubt he didn't have the energy to pull himself out. Water that cold knocked the breath out of you enough, let alone when an invisible entity was choking you as well. Had Hermione come to his rescue once again?

After he managed to regain some consciousness, He noticed that someone was dragging him, a bigger form with a deep voice. The coughs and wheezing were coming from a man's voice. It couldn't be Hermione. hazily he registered he was back soft snow instead of slick ice. How clothes and glasses were thrown unceremoniously at him

Blindly Harry felt around numbing snow until his hands found the familiar form of his glasses.

"What on earth were you doing?" shouted a familiar voice he hadn't heard in weeks.

It was Ron.

"Ron?!" Harry said incredulously.

It was a myriad of emotions to see the tall ginger that had deserted them in a fit of rage weeks ago. Harry had not had the time to honestly wonder what it would be like when he saw him again. While he had wished to eventually see him, he couldn't shake off the way he had left things and the way he had said them. He had hurt Hermione deeply and that was something that would take Harry a long time to forgive. He had become accustomed to Ron being thoughtless and insensitive towards everything, but that night he had crossed a line he didn't even know existed. Hurting Hermione, physically,emotionally or mentally was something that had become almost blasphemous to him.

Still, there he was right before him and he was then overcome with relief to see that he was okay. It was something he knew would also raise Hermione's spirits tremendously. As he knew she still blamed herself for Ron's departure. For as much crap that everyone gave him for blaming himself constantly, Hermione seemed to be right up there with him in that department.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"I've been looking for you two for ages!" Ron gasped.

The two fumbled clumsily as they put on their dry clothes.

"Did you send out that doe?" Harry wondered.

"No…my Patronus is a Jack Russell Terrier." Ron said breathlessly, squeezing into his jeans.

"You don't understand," the ginger started. " I felt like shit the moment I apparated. It was as if by stepping away, this heavy curtain of rage just disappeared. By the time I found my way back, you were gone."

"I've been camping out for weeks in hopes I would find you and I just see you walking out of the forest following a doe Patronus, I couldn't believe my luck!" he laughed. " but mate…why on earth did you jump into the water with that thing!"

Ron pointed disgustedly at the locket that was lying a few feet away from them, its chain broken in half. It was then that the reminder of what he had nearly cost him his life came to him. the sword.

"The Sword!" he exclaimed.

"Way ahead of you." Ron said as he pulled the wand from the floor behind him.

Harry snatched the sword from him forcibly right before he hugged him tightly.

"We can talk about everything later," he said happily. " But you have no idea what you just did."

Ron pulled away, looking dumbfounded.

"Ron, do you know the importance of this sword?" Harry asked him. " We can finally destroy that wretched locket!"

Before Ron could even register what was happening, Harry handed him back the sword into his open limp hand.

"Why are you giving it to me?" he asked nervously.

"You found it, it's only right that you're the one who destroys it."

Ron shook his head vehemently.

"No you don't understand…" said Ron to a deaf Harry who was conjuring the locket back to them. "I think it affects me differently than it does you two. It made me think…dark things."

"You've got this Ron." Harry reassured him again.

"Harry really, I can't!" Ron spat.

Harry stopped smiling. He was starting to lose his patience.

"Why did you come back?" Harry shouted. "All this time you gave me so much grief for not accomplishing anything…now I give you the opportunity to start and you can't?"

Ron was lost for words. His face was difficult to read.

"Do you think it was easy for us? dealing with that locket?" Harry said darkly. "Dealing with everything you said? She cried for days after you left. It's eating her up inside. I had to try to piece back the mess you left behind. For me, it wasn't a big deal, not the first time you're a prat."

"But you walked away Ron when we both needed you the most."

Ron looked down in deep shame.

"So if you really want to make things right." Harry nodded to the sword still hanging weakly from Ron's hand. "You can start there".

Harry took Ron's defeated stance as his cue to continue.

"Now…I'm going to open it up," said Harry. shocked at how sudden the realization that if anything were to open a part of Voldemort's soul, it would be the skill he unknowingly gave him; parseltongue.

"It's not going down without a fight. It nearly killed me when I was down there" he went on. "Just ignore whatever it throws at you, It's going to try to hit you at your lowest. Don't listen to it. Don't hesitate."

Harry watched as Ron hyped himself up. Almost like a Quidditch player jumped in place minutes before an important match to shake the nerves. All the color had vanished from his already pale freckled face. He drew out one last long breath before he drew the sword upward and behind him, ready to strike.

"Okay," he said almost inaudibly. " I'm ready".

Harry nodded and gave him one last look of encouragement before he hissed at the locket in his serpent language.

"Open."

There was an emphatic screeching noise the moment the locket sprung open. In a split second, Harry could see a piercing eye on the inside before a powerful force knocked the pair off of their feet and opposite each other.

Above them was a black,grotesque,waxlike form twisting and turning, deciding which way it would shift into something that would affect Ron the most.

"I have seen your heart and it is mine, I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears…" came Voldemort's menacing disembodied voice."

At the mention of his fears, the was an opening in the formation, hundreds of arachnids came hurdling at Ron.

"Ron don't listen to it!" Harry yelled over the clamor. He could see Ron cowering away from them, the wand hanging more limply from his hand.

"Least loved by the mother who craved a daughter. Least loved by the girl who prefers your friend…"

"RON STAB IT!" Harry bellowed.

The form then shifted into two different human forms. Man and Woman.

With horror, Harry realized who it was. It was his and Hermione's doppelgangers, only more menacing and more attractive. They were also fully naked, with nothing but a silvery sheen covering their bodies. The only difference between them and the real thing was that their eyes were glowing a bright red, their bodies firmer and fitter, walking with a menacing air of superiority.

"We were better without you, happier without you." said Riddle-Harry coldly.

"Who could look at you beside Harry Potter? What are you, compared to the chosen one…?" said Riddle-Hermione menacingly.

Ron was rooted to the ground transfixed. His face contorted in rage. His eyes were blazing.

"Ron it lies!" Harry yelled over. "Stab it! STAB IT!"

The images were walking ever closer to Ron. taunting him with every step.

"Your mother confessed that she would have preferred me as a son…" Riddle-Harry mocked.

"Who wouldn't prefer him?" Riddle Hermione laughed. " What woman would ever take you? You are nothing…nothing…NOTHING to him…"

The two forms finally came to a stop once they were sure they were all that Ron could see. They turned to one another, their tight embrace covering their intimacies. Riddle-Harry grabbed Riddle-Hermione's chin and pulled her to his face, kissing her passionately. Ron could feel his blood boiling. The forms kissed lustfully and passionately, arms writhing around each other. Ron's body was shaking in ire, the sword was clenched painfully in his fist. It was worse than he could've ever imagined. it was the last few months embodied into one grotesque image. He felt his breath coming ragged and finally mustered all the courage he had to make it all stop.

With an anguished yell, Ron pulled up the sword above him and rushed at the image and struck right through the middle with brutish force.

The sword met the locket and there was a monstrous groan then… everything that had come out of it evaporated into the chilly air. It was over. the locket had been destroyed, its pendant lay cracked in half on a flat stone on the snow. A breathless Harry lay next to it, looking at Ron with uncertainty.

Ron fell to his knees, devoid of any more energy. His eyes were no longer dark, but they were red from the tears battling to escape.

"Ron I–"

He had not been sure what exactly he had wanted to say. what could he do, knowing very well that his best friend's worst fear was something that had actually happened? albeit in a much less mocking manner.

Harry had promised not to go back to denying his feelings for Hermione, not after everything they had experienced and confessed to each other. There was no turning back from that. They certainly didn't want to keep it a secret from Ron either. After all, they were not doing anything wrong. However, how could they possibly go on after this? While he knew it would be a struggle to deal with their new dynamic, the visions from the locket clearly had an effect on Ron that neither Harry nor Hermione could have ever been prepared for.

The sword clanged beside Ron as his body was wracked with sobs.

"Ron…you know we don't think any of those things about you right?" Hary said delicately. "We would never ever purposely do something to hurt you."

Ron looked up at Harry, realization written all over his knew there had been a shift with his departure. A tilt in a relationship he had his own hand in bringing together.

"I don't know why it bothers me so much," Ron whispered. "I told you back at the Burrow that I loved her…I always will but I know I'm not the one who can make her happy."

"He played on my thoughts from years ago. It was my biggest fear to imagine you two together…"

"Ron…"Harry started. "things have been shifting slowly. Trust me when I mean I wasn't looking to–"

"I know you can't choose who you fall for… you two were the slowest idiots to realize you had been in love for some time. Everyone saw it, so did I" Ron interrupted.

"I'm not as dumb as you and Hermione think I am Harry"

"I saw it coming, I just chose to ignore it and I guess that was my own fault." Ron shrugged. "Bad timing…I was mean…I closed my own door."

"I just didn't need to see it like that." he said looking at Harry wretchedly. "Tell me you two weren't doing this behind my back."

"Ron you know we would never–"

"I know!" Ron interrupted. " I just…I'm going to need some time to be okay with all of this…I know Hermione probably hates me and that's what hurts the most. The way she spoke to me in that locket…that's the same version of her that kept tormenting me for weeks."

"She cried over you many nights." Harry reminded him. "That doesn't sound like someone who's feeling hatred."

"Do you think she'll ever forgive me?" Ron asked hopelessly.

"Hermione has a big heart. she'll be furious and she'll make you work hard for it." Harry laughed. "But she'll eventually get over it."

Harry walked over next to him and picked up Ron's rucksack that he had brought along with him. He slung it over his shoulder as Ron finally got back up on his feet.

"I'm really sorry Harry," Ron said thickly, wiping his nose."For leaving, for what I said to you both…I know it's no excuse…I was just too weak…"

"It's okay," Harry reassured, placing a brotherly hand on Ron's broad shoulder. "You are not weak. You came back…you saved my life and destroyed the locket. You're braver than you give yourself credit for."

"It's not as easy as you're making it sound," Ron said sheepishly.

"Haven't I told you that for years?" Harry joked.

The two young men embraced, finally feeling the weight of the last few weeks come off their shoulders.

"So I reckon it's time to find Hermione then?" Ron asked deflated.

"Yup". Harry answered.

"I just hope it's not worse than those damn birds she set on me last year."

With their spirits lightened tremendously, the pair made their way back in through the snow and through the small forest that divided them and then tent and back to Hermione.