(This is a major chapter! For anyone who reads and enjoys it I would really appreciate your thoughts.)
Previous Chapters:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003804769
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003805533
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003806102
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003806803
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003808304
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003810956
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003811902
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003814653
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003816806
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003819557
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003821422
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003822967
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003823601
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003825124
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003826708
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003828109
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003828964
Tags:
@SaphireStark @Missy Clara Oswald @CatsAndRoblox @Pervaza972
Chapter Eighteen: The Silver Doe
They stared at the fang in silence for what had to be a couple of minutes before one of them finally spoke.
‘This must be why Dumbledore left me his bag in his will,’ said Tracey. ‘His will said it would “carry all that I need,” he knew we’d need a method to kill the Horcruxes and he left one for us.’
‘He didn’t leave us with nothing,’ Harry whispered in shock, now just over run with conflicting feelings.
that was when Theodore snapped.
‘It’s been in there the whole time?!’
‘I guess so—‘ Tracey tried to begin, but Theodore wasn’t finished.
‘After nearly four months of having the locket, and almost dying in Godric’s Hollow trying to find one, there has been a fang in your purse this entire time?!’
‘Theo, calm down, it’s ok,’ said Harry, who knew his foster brother’s emotions were fried and he didn’t really mean any of what he was saying.
‘The bag was originally intended to go through Scrimgeour’s tests, and if he found the fang he would have confiscated it,’ said Tracey, trying to rationalize how the events of the last ten minutes occurred. ‘When I found the box I was specifically thinking about what you two were arguing about, how could Dumbledore have left us with nothing to succeed with our hunt, that’s when the box materialized. I think it would only appear in the bag if the person searching was specifically thinking about Dumbledore and Horcruxes, that way Scrimgeour wouldn’t find it but we eventually would.’
‘Alright, alright, I apologize for yelling,’ said Theodore, now a bit calmer. ‘So, shall we do it?’
‘No,’ said Harry very suddenly, both his friends turned to face him. ‘Look, the bit of Riddle in the diary tried to kill me, and Dumbledore nearly lost his hand while destroying the ring, I think when we go to destroy the locket it’ll put up a fight and we need to be ready, but currently all three of us are exhausted. We also don’t know how powerfully it’ll try to stop us and we currently aren’t that far away from a muggle campground. I say we spend today resting and recovering, tomorrow we move somewhere where there should be no one at risk but us, and when we’re all equally ready we’ll kill it.’
Harry could tell both wanted to get it over with, but they also couldn’t argue with Harry’s logic that three exhausted teenagers, a self-preserving Horcrux, and a super deadly fang did not mix for a good outcome. They carefully wrapped the fang back up and left the closed box on the table.
It was snowing by the time Theodore took over the watch early that evening. Harry’s dreams were confused and disturbing: Nagini wove in and out of them, first through a gigantic, cracked ring, then through a wreath of Christmas roses. He woke repeatedly, panicky, convinced that somebody had called out to him in the distance, imagining that the wind whipping around the tent was footsteps or voices.
Finally he got up in the darkness just before dawn to join Tracey during her watch, she was huddled in the entrance to the tent trying to read A History of Magic by the light of the wand, though just like in Professor Binns class she appeared to be fighting falling asleep. The snow was still falling thickly, and she greeted with relief his suggestion of packing up early after Theodore woke up to move on.
‘I agree with your idea that we should go somewhere isolated,’ she said, shivering as she pulled on a sweatshirt over her pajamas. ‘I keep thinking I can hear or see people in the distance.’
Harry paused in the act of pulling on a jumper and glanced at the silent, motionless Sneakoscope on the table.
‘Oh, I’m almost certain I am just paranoid, these last couple days have really messed with my head,’ said Tracey, looking nervous. ‘That and the snow, it’s dark and it plays tricks on your senses…although just incase maybe the three of us should Disapparate under the Invisibility Cloak just to be safe.’
A couple hours later, with the tent packed, Harry holding the box, Theodore wearing the locket, and Tracey clutching her purse, they Disapparated. The usual tightness engulfed them; Harry’s feet parted company with the snowy ground, then slammed hard onto what felt like frozen earth covered with leaves.
‘Where are we?’ he asked, peering around at a fresh mass of trees on the edge of a great valley as Tracey opened her purse and began tugging at tent poles while Theodore got started on the protective enchantments.
‘Cairngorms National Park,’ said Tracey. ‘My dad took my brother and I hiking once in the park, but this section is off limits to humans so we should be completely alone.’
Here too snow lay on the trees all around and it was bitterly cold, but they were at least protected from the wind. They decided to spend the day resting and planned to destroy the Horcrux the following morning. All three of them huddled around the tent’s wooden stove for warmth, and were reading books for pleasure and not research. Harry felt as though he was recuperating from some brief but severe illness; an impression reinforced by Tracey’s solicitousless. The book he chose to read was his copy of A Snitch in Time that Allison had given to him, and for the first time in months his heart was no longer filled with anger at the thought of her, but with aching and wishing she was back. That afternoon fresh flakes drifted down upon them, so that even their sheltered clearing had a fresh dusting of powdery snow.
After two nights of little sleep, Harry’s senses seemed more alert than usual. Their escape from Godric’s Hollow had been so narrow that Voldemort seemed somehow closer than before, more threatening. As Harry took his turn with the locket and darkness drew in again he refused Theodore’s offer to keep watch and told him and Tracey to go to bed.
Harry moved an old cushion into the tent mouth and sat down while holding the box, he felt the need to explain it and its contents, and when he felt satisfied he carefully placed the small box in his think sweater’s front pouch. Harry was wearing all the sweaters he owned but even so was still shivering. The darkness deepened with the passing hours until it was virtually impenetrable. Out of habit he pulled out the Marauder’s Map, to once again try to find some evidence some evidence that his ex-girlfriend was ok, but after searching the whole map he folded it up and then let out a sigh.
‘Allison…’ he breathed with both love and remorse, before returning his eyes to the forest and nearby valley.
Every tiny movement seemed magnified in the vastness of the forest. Harry knew that it must be full of living creatures, but he wished they would all remain still and silent so that he could separate their innocent scurryings and prowlings from noises that might proclaim other, sinister movements. He remembered the sound of a cloak slithering over dead leaves many years ago, and at once thought he heard it again before mentally shaking himself. Their protective enchantments had worked for weeks; why should they break now? And yet he could not throw off the feeling that something was different tonight.
Several time he jerked upright, he neck aching because he had fallen asleep, slumped at an awkward angle against the side of the tent. The night reached such a depth of velvety blackness that he might have been suspended in limbo between Disapparition and Apparition. He had just held up a hand in front of his face to see whether he could make out his fingers when it happened.
A bright silver light appeared right ahead of him, moving through the trees. Whatever the source, it was moving soundlessly. The light seemed simply to drift toward him.
He jumped to his feet, his voice frozen in his throat, and raised Tracey’s wand. He screwed up his eyes as the light became blinding, the trees in front of it pitch-black in silhouette, and still the thing came closer…
And then the source of the light stepped out from behind an oak. It was a silver-white doe, moon-bright and dazzling, picking her way over the ground, still silent, and leaving no hoofprints in the fine powdering of snow. She stepped toward him, her beautiful head with its wide, long-lashed eyes held high.
Harry stared at the creature, filled with wonder, not at her strangeness, but at her familiarity. He had seen her before.
‘Allison…’ he whispered once more as he remembered the form her Patronus took.
In the back of his mind he knew he should shout for his friends, but in the moment he had only one thing on his mind.
‘Take me to her, please.’
They gazed at each other for several long moments and then she turned and began to walk away.
Quickly he got up with the intent to follow her. She continued to step deliberately through the trees, and soon her brightness was striped by their think black trunks. For one trembling second he hesitated. Caution murmured it could be a trick, a lure, a trap. But instinct, overwhelming instinct, told him that this was not Dark Magic. He set off in pursuit.
Snow crunched beneath his feet, but the doe made no noise as she passed through the trees, for she was nothing but light. Deeper and deeper into the forest she led him, and Harry walked quickly, sure that when she stopped, Allison would be where the doe had stood. And then they’d be together again and all would be ok.
She then lead him just outside the forest into the edge of the vast valley before at last she came to a halt. She turned her beautiful head toward him once more, and he broke into a run, a question burning in him, but as he opened his lips to ask it, she vanished.
Though the darkness had swallowed her whole, her burnished image was still imprinted on his retinas; it obscured his vision, brightening when he lowered his eyelids, disorienting him. He looked around for Allison but she was no where to be seen. Now fear came: Her presence had meant safety.
‘Lumos!’ he whispered, and the wand-tip ignited.
The imprint of the doe faded away with every blink of his eyes as he stood there, listening to the sounds of the forest, to distant crackles of twigs, soft swishes of snow. Was he about to be attacked? Had whoever cast her enticed him into an ambush? Was he imagining that somebody stood beyond the reach of the wandlight, watching him?
He held the wand higher. Nobody ran out to him, no flash of green light burst from behind a tree. Why, then, had she led him to this spot? Where was the person who cast her?
He glanced at the surrounding trees again, but was convinced that nobody was going to attack him. They had had their chance as he walked alone through the forest, had had plenty of opportunity when he was distracted by the doe in the open valley.
He was shivering now, his teeth chattering horribly, but he didn’t want his late night journey to be in vain. Harry looked around, holding Tracey’s wand high, and saw an old sturdy log lying nearby and an idea popped into his mind. He was completely alone, no one for ages that could be hurt.
He placed Hagrid’s pouch containing his wand, his mother’s letter, a couple photos, the shard of Sirius’s mirror, and the old Snitch next to the log, then he took the locket off and placed it on top of a flat part of the log. Finally he removed the small box from his sweater’s pouch, and very carefully removed the Basilisk fang.
He stared at the Horcrux while holding the fang in his right hand, and Tracey’s wand in his left just in case. For a moment he was going to just stab it as is, but then a realization washed over him.
“I have to open it using Parseltongue,” thought Harry. The answer came so readily to his mind that he thought he had always known it deep down: Perhaps it had taken his recent encounter with Nagini to make him realize it. He looked at the serpentine S inlaid with glittering green stones: It was easy to visualize it as a minuscule snake, curled upon the old log.
He took a couple breaths to read himself, he knew that when the locket opened it wasn’t just going to allow itself to be stabbed. After a couple more deep breaths Harry felt that he was ready.
‘One...two...three...open.’
The last word came as a hiss and a snarl and the golden doors of the locket swung wide with a little click. Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle’s eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and slit-pupiled.
Harry lunged to thrust the tip of the fang through the Horcrux, its eyes swiveled frantically, but before he could reach it Harry’s scar exploded in blinding pain and his mind was filled with an agonizing scream. The fang dropped from his hand.
‘I have seen your heart, and it is mine.’
The screaming didn’t stop, but on top of it, memories were forced into Harry’s mind.
He was back in the hospital wing near the end of his third year, sitting next to his sister who had just been permanently scared both physically and emotionally by Remus, and Harry couldn't prevent it or help her now.
Umbridge repeatedly torturing him, and no one could come to his rescue.
The screaming in Harry’s head only got louder.
Harry is back in the alleyway, he could smell the dementor's putrid, death-cold breath, filling his own lungs, drowning him. He was unable to cast a Patronus as he couldn’t think of a happy memory…
Happy memory…Harry tried to fight back. He forced himself to think about the last Christmas morning Harry, Canini, Theodore, and Remus got to spend with Sirius, how joyful they all felt.
He’s now back in the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione's body lays on the ancient stone floor, cold, with no sign of life. If Harry had just listened to her once that year she wouldn’t be dying alone.
Harry thinks back to when he was six years old, and Canini called him “brother” for the first time. The love he felt from gaining a new family member.
But then Harry is drowning again, a hundred dead hands pulling him in all directions but up. His heart races as he knows he’s going to join the rank of corpses in the lake.
Harry desperately tries to think about his happiest memory of all. Just before beginning his fifth year at Hogwarts, he had been down because Dumbledore didn’t make him a Prefect, which seemed so silly now. To cheer him up Sirius had come to sit next to him, and he had told Harry that Prefect or not he was proud of the person he had become…but now thinking of that memory Harry could not also help think about Sirius’ stunned face as he fell through the arch, that Harry couldn’t save him…
His scar felt as though it had burst into white-hot flames, Harry’s whole body was in agony. He wanted the pain to end. He felt his left hand with Tracey’s wand begin to move even though he hadn’t asked it to.
He was back in the miserable tent, Allison yelling at him and then implying that Harry didn’t love her before leaving him forever. As the tip of Tracey’s wand reached the temple of his head, Harry realized he would never see Allison’s beautiful smile ever again…
Before his body could end his minds misery, Tracey’s wand flew out of his hand. Before he could think of how, the screaming inside his head only grew louder, he could not think his own thoughts anymore.
Harry watched, unable to move a muscle, as Snape, the man everyone told him to trust, murdered Dumbledore. Harry was unable to look away as his body fell off the Astronomy tower to land broken far below.
He was forced to rewatch Voldemort’s snake burst out of poor Bathilda’s old dead body.
Every fiber of Harry’s body told him he couldn’t take it any more, that his life was going to end. End all alone, and in pain, and-
There was the sound of an almost primal war-cry, metal crunching with extreme force, and a long drawn out screech of mortal pain, then the world went white.
Harry wasn’t sure how long he was out, but when he began to open his eye it was slightly brighter than the darkness of night he had been, and although his vision was blurry at first he could make out a beautiful figure looking over him.
‘Am-am I dead?’ he managed in a raspy voice.
‘I bloody hope not.’
Nothing but the shock of hearing that heavenly sarcastic voice could have given Harry the strength to sit up. Shivering violently in a cold sweat, he pushed himself to lean his back against the log. There before him stood Allison, dressed in what almost looked like Death Eater robes, her hair a couple inches longer than when he had last seen her but she still wore the pink headband, the Basilisk fang in one hand and the the shattered remains of the locket dangling from its chain in the other.
‘Merlin’s beard what were you thinking?’ panted Allison, as she tossed the fang towards its box and got down to her knees to be level with Harry, finally she held the locket up to his face. ‘Why did you try to destroy this thing on your own?’
Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with Allison’s reappearance: he could not believe it. Harry stared at Allison, every time he blinked he half expecting her to have disappeared each time he opened his eyes, and yet she had to be real: She had just disarmed him and destroyed the Horcrux; she had saved Harry’s life.
‘It was y—you?’ Harry said at last, his teeth chattering, his voice weaker than usual due to his head nearly combusting.
‘Yes, yes it was me,’ said Allison, her face and voice now soften.
‘Y—you cast that doe?’
‘Er, no, I’m a bit confused on that front myself, as it wasn’t my doe.’
‘But you’re Patronus, it’s-‘
‘My Patronus is a doe, but I didn’t cast the one you saw.’
Harry put Hagrid’s pouch back around his neck, stooped to pick up Tracey’s wand, and faced Allison again. He was still overjoyed to see her, but the initial shock was leaving him, and skepticism filled its place.
‘How come you’re here?’
Apparently Allison had hoped that this point would come up later, if at all.
‘For you…you and the others,’ she said quite hesitant, Harry had never seen her this nervous. ‘That is, if you will have be back.’
There was a pause, in which the subject of Allison’s departure seemed to rise like a wall between them. Yet she was here. She had returned. She had just saved Harry’s life.
Harry was glad she was back, and things were better than they had been just before she had left, but things had happened and Harry couldn’t ignore that either.
‘The group will have you back,’ said Harry, choosing his words carefully. She seemed to take the message, she was welcomed back into the group of friends, but she will be only a comrade of Harry’s, at least for now. ‘I think some bridges will need to be mended as well.’
Allison nodded. She looked down to her feet, and then to the fang near the box. She seemed momentarily surprised by it.
‘So how did you all find a Basilisk fang?’
‘It’s a rather simple story actually, turns out it was in the bag Dumbledore left Tracey all along, it just took us a while to find it,’ said Harry. ‘It’s you I think who has some long stories to tell. How did you get here? How did you find us?’
‘You are right, it is a long story,’ said Allison. ‘I’ve been searching all over this place for the last couple of hours, but this is the largest national park in Scotland. I was just beginning to lose hope when I spotted the deer in the distance and than you following not far behind it.’
‘You didn’t see anyone else?’
‘No,’ said Allison, ‘or—‘
But she hesitated, glancing at two trees growing close together some yards away.
‘Actually I had thought I had seen someone around those trees, but that’s when I started seeing the Horcrux trying to get you to kill yourself and I ran to disarm you. I’m not even sure if it was a person though-wait!’
Harry had already stood up and was hurrying to the place Allison had indicated. The two oaks grew together: there was a gap of only a few inches between the trunks at eye level, and ideal place to see but not be seen. The ground around the roots, however, was free of snow, and Harry could see no sign of footprints. He walked back to where Allison stood waiting, still holding what remained of the Horcrux.
‘Anything there?’ Allison asked.
‘No,’ said Harry.
It was only when Harry caught back up to where Allison stood that he got to have a good look at what remained of the locket. The fang had shattered the glass in both windows: Riddle’s eyes were gone, and the stained silk lining of the locket was smoking slightly. The Horcrux that had lived in the locket had been killed; torturing Harry had been its final act.
Together they walked towards where Allison’s enormous rucksack lay, discarded as she had run toward Harry to save him. He hoisted it onto his own back and walked back to Allison, whose adrenaline was wearing off, and her calm exposure dropped as her eyes filled with tears. While having just agreed they were no longer a couple, she was still one of his best friends, so as she broke down Harry wrapped her in a tight hug.
‘I’m sorry, I am so sorry I left,’ she said in thick voice as she sobbed and shook in his arms. ‘It was the biggest mistake of my life, and you almost got killed—‘
Harry held her close with one arm, and soothingly ran his fingers through her hair. He never realized how much he missed the scent of Aloe Vera until now.
‘It’s ok, everything is going to be ok now,’ said Harry calmly. ‘You’ve sort of made up for everything tonight. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life.’
Allison began to calm down and they pulled apart.
‘You make it sound much cooler than how it felt at the time,’ she mumbled while whipping her eyes.
‘Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve been trying to tell you and the others that for years.’
‘The others…’ said Allison almost in a daze, and then both simultaneously seemed to realize that the just barely grey sky had long since turned into a proper dawn. ‘I think it’s time we return.’
Harry nodded, ‘All we’ve got to do is find the tent again.’
But it was not difficult. Though the walk through the dark forest with the doe had seemed lengthy, with Allison my his side the journey back seemed to take a surprisingly short time. Harry could not wait to wake Tracey and Theodore, and it was with a quickening excitement that he entered the tent. Allison lagging a little behind him.
It was gloriously warm after the night time winter environment of the forest, the wood stove still producing heat from the red-hot embers inside it. The other two were still fast asleep, curled up under blankets in each of their bunks, and did not move until Harry had called to them several times.
‘Guys! Guys!’
Slowly they both stirred, then sat up quickly, Theodore pushed his hair out of his face while Tracey tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
‘What is it Harry?’
‘Is everything alright?’
‘It’s okay, everything’s fine. More than fine. I’m great. There’s someone here.’
‘Sorry?’ said Theodore in concern, his wand raised. ‘Did you say someone’s here? Who?’
Then they both saw Allison, who stood there holding the box containing the fang and the destroyed Horcrux in the other. Harry backed into a shadowy corner, slipped off Allison’s rucksack, and attempted to blend in with the canvas.
Theodore practically jumped out of his bed and ran over to Allison to give her a hug. Tracey on the other hand took another approach. She slipped out of her bunk and moved like a sleepwalker toward Allison, her eyes upon her pale face. She stopped right in front of her, Allison gave a weak, hopeful smile and half raised her arms.
Then Tracey began screaming. At first it was just noises of pure anger and frustration, but soon it turned to heated words.
‘You—insufferable—selfish—aridin!’ shouted Tracey, slightly out of breath. Harry wasn’t sure if the last word was in english, but the meaning was still clear.
‘It—has—been—months! Months—of—me—worrying—whether—you—were—dead—or—alive! And—Harry…Harry—give—me—my—wand!’
She looked as though she was going to physically attack Allison as well as ready to wrestle her wand out of Harry’s hands and he reacted instinctively. ‘Protego!’
The invisible shield erupted between Allison and Tracey. The force of it knocked Tracey backward onto the floor. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she leapt up again.
‘Tracey!’ said Theodore, raising his hands. ‘It’s ok—‘
‘It is not ok!’ she screamed. Never before had Harry seen Tracey lose this much control; she looked quite mad. ‘Give me my wand, Harry! Give it to me now!’
‘Tracey, will you please—‘
‘You are not the boss of me, Harry Potter!’ she screeched. ‘Why are you letting her back so easily, you cried in your sleep for weeks!’
‘You did?’ said Allison, temporarily distracted.
‘Not now,’ Harry responded quickly before returning his attention to Tracey.
‘Allison!’ howled Tracey.
She was pointing at Allison in dire accusation: It was like a malediction, and Harry could not blame Allison for retreating a couple steps. ‘I need to know! Did you hear me running after you? Calling your name, begging you to come back?’
‘I-I did,’ Allison said. ‘And it was the worst mistake of my life to leave. Tracey, you have no idea how deeply sorry I—‘
‘Sorry? If you were truly sorry you should have come right back, or never left at all!’
‘Tracey,’ interjected Harry who considered this a low blow, ‘she just saved my—‘
‘No no, what Trace said was fair,’ interjected Allison to his interjection. ‘You are right, you are always right Tracey, I should not have left and that is nothing but my own fault. However I didn’t get the chance to come back.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ asked Tracey in a huff, crossing her arms.
‘I knew I had made a mistake the second I Disapparated, I instantly wanted to come back to apologize to you Tracey, to all of you, but I Apparated right into a gang of Snatchers, and—‘
Harry was about to ask a question, but Theodore beat him to it.
‘Do you mean Catchers, like Coco Rumsey Catchers? Pixies can be vicious in large numbers.’
‘No, I meant what I said,’ explained Allison. ‘Snatchers are gangs that capture Muggle-borns and other undesirables and bring them forcibly to my dad for rewards. They’re everywhere now, and I rolled the unlucky die that I appeared right in the middle of a group of them. I looked school aged and didn’t have any time to react, so they thought I was a Muggle-born on the run and stunned me. I was out for several hours but when I came to I continued to act as though I was unconscious so I could learn some things.’
‘How'd you escape?' asked Tracey, her anger subsiding to care about Allison's safety. Harry lowered the Shield Charm.
'Well I heard them talking about how my father is the one that pays them their reward, so when they "woke me up" I told them exactly who I was and it sent them into a panic. Some weren't sure to believe me, others could see the resemblance I have to him, one thought he remembered that I was disowned, but others still wanted to be absolutely sure of the facts before they essentially arrested their bosses daughter. In the chaos I managed to kick the bloke holding me in the berries, grab my wand and his, and Disapparate. To be safe any time I’m in the wizarding world now I wear Snatchers robes, they pay less attention to you if you look like one of them.
'Then how come you didn't come right back after that?' asked Tracey, though her tone and body language was much calmer. 'Why did it take you nearly two months to reappear while we spent some of that time deciphering a Grindelwald rune without you, or fighting You-Know-Who's snake and just barely escaping the Dark Lord himself where you could have been a great help?'
'You did what?' Allison said, gaping from her to Theodore to Harry, but Tracey ignored her. ‘Ok, I did come the moment I was safe from the Snatchers, but by then it was early afternoon I must have missed you guys. There was nothing I could do at that point.’
Harry cleared his throat.
'Look, Tracey,' said Harry quietly. 'Allison just saved my life.'
Tracey looked as though she was going to yell again, but then took a large breath and let out an exasperated sigh.
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Tell me how you were able to find us and what Harry means by you saved his life.’
Allison then turned a little pink.
‘Er, you want to know how I found you?’ her eyes kept darting over to where Harry stood.
‘Yes, we kind of chose this spot pretty randomly, so while I am glad you’re back we have to make sure no one else can find us,’ said Theodore rather seriously.
Allison let out her own sigh, then pulled a small silver object from her robe’s pocket.
‘I found you guys with this.’
They all gathered close to see what she was showing them.
‘The Deluminator?’ asked Theodore, quite surprised.
‘I’ve learned that it doesn’t just turn on and off lights,’ said Allison, she still seemed a little embarrassed for some reason. ‘It’s still not clear to me exactly how it works, or why what I’m about to tell you happened specifically last night, but tonight I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried, and then suddenly I could hear…well I could hear you Harry.’
She was looking at Harry.
‘You…you heard me?’ he asked, now a little embarrassed himself.
‘Yeah, I heard your voice coming from my pocket,’ she held up the Deluminator again, ‘coming from this.’
‘What did I say?’ Harry asked, as he couldn’t remember sending Allison a vocal message somehow.
‘Just one word, my name. “Allison.” Nothing else, just my name. You said it sadly but with such love…’
Harry felt his eyes and cheeks become bright red. He remembered. Early in his watch he had said her name, and it had been the first time he had done so since the day she had left; the first time he had thought about her without anger.
‘When I heard your voice I took it out at once,’ Allison went on, looking at the Deluminator, ‘it looked the same as it always does, but I knew I had hear you. So I clicked it. The lights in my room went out as normal, but in their place a small light appeared just outside my window.’
Allison raised her empty hand and pointed in front of her, her eyes focused on something neither Harry, Tracey, nor Theodore could see.
‘It was a tiny ball of light, kind of bluish and beautiful, and instantly I knew what it was for,’ said Allison, now becoming more confident in her retelling. ‘I quickly packed up, put this outfit on just in case, and went outside into the yard. The little ball of light was waiting there for me, and when I got there it…well, it sort of went inside me.’
‘Sorry?’ said Harry, sure he had not heard correctly.
‘It’s hard to explain, but it just floated through me,’ said Allison, illustrating the movement with her hand, ‘it went through me, right here,’ she placed her hand right over her heart. ‘It didn’t have any particular feeling on its own, but once it was inside me I felt warm and had a calming wave wash over me. I knew what I had to do, I had a clear picture of where I had to go. So I Disapparated and appeared in the valley, I was a foot deep in snow. It was dark and I was all alone.’
‘You see us?’ asked Theodore.
‘No, but that’s a good thing, it means your protective enchantments work,’ said Allison reassuringly. ‘Despite my senses telling me otherwise I knew deep down that you all were somewhere nearby. I went searching through the woods, I looked around for hours hoping one of you would show up—and then Harry did. Of course I spotted the doe first.’
‘Sorry, you spotted the what?’ asked Tracey, who was now as invested in her story as Theodore.
They explained what had happened, and as the story of the silver doe and the destruction of the Horcrux, Theodore frowned with a disappointed look when Harry told the parts of where he left the tent without telling anyone and then attempting to destroy the Horcrux on his own, but for the rest looked quite intrigued, especially by the silver doe.
‘It had to have been a Patronus!’ he said. ‘Did either of you see anyone around, while a messenger Patronus can be cast from very far away, a Patronus doing a specific task like leading you along a specific path had to have been cast by someone nearby.’
‘Allison thought she briefly saw someone, but later we couldn’t find any evidence,’ said Harry.
‘What happened next?’ asked Tracey, now quite invested.
Allison explained how she had watched Harry place the Horcrux on the log, readied the fang, and then opened the locket with Parseltongue; how she realized that something was wrong when Harry cried out in pain, disarmed him before the effects of the Horcrux could cause him to harm himself or worse. That’s as far as she got before hesitating, and then Harry cut in.
‘—and then with a fierce war-cry she grabbed the Basilisk fang and drove it through the Horcrux!’
‘And…that was it? It was just over?’ asked Tracey.
‘Well, it—screamed,’ said Harry with half a glance at Allison.
‘Here, Trace.’
She tossed the locket towards her and she caught it. Tracey then examined it with Theodore looking over her shoulder.
With the story retelling over Harry now couldn’t help think about what Allison had said about the Deluminator. It sounded as though his love for her guided her home. He still felt that he wasn’t ready for them to be together again, but now he knew their relationship rekindling was a when, not an if. For now though he wanted to change the subject.
‘Did you say you got away from the Snatchers with a spare wand?’
‘Sorry?’ said Allison, who appeared a little lost in thought. ‘Right, yes, sorry.’
She tugged open a buckle on her rucksack and pulled a medium length, sand coloured wand out of its pocket. ‘Here you go. I took it so he wouldn’t be able to attack me magically, but after I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I just kept it in case I needed an extra.’
‘You were right,’ said Harry, holding out his hand and received the new wand. ‘Mine’s broken.’
‘What? That’s horrible Harry, I’m so sorry,’ said Allison. It looked like she was about to hug him, but it was at that moment that Tracey finished studying the locket, hung it around her neck, and walk straight past Harry and Allison. Her face was still moody and cold.
‘Trace…’ Allison started, possibly to continue apologizing, but Tracey interrupted.
‘You’ve both had a long night out in the cold and snow. I’m going to make some tea.’
And quietly Theodore whispered, ‘That’s probably the best you could hope for.’
And Harry knew what he said was true. Tracey might still be hurt, and Allison was on a long road to recovering her relationships with all three of them, but the healing had begun. However Harry was simply happy she was back.
