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Chapter Fourteen: Breaking Point
Early next morning, before the other two were awake, Harry left the tent to search the small wooded area around them for the oldest, most gnarled, and resilient—looking tree he could find. There in its shadow he buried Mad-Eye Moody’s eye and marked the spot by gouging a small cross in the bark with his wand. It was not much, but Harry felt that Mad-Eye would have much preferred this to being stuck on Dolores Umbridge’s door. Then he returned to the tent to wait for the others to wake, and discuss what they were going to do next.
Given that they were only a kilometre away from one of the Ministry workers who posed the most threat to them, and the fact that they had no access to food, all four decided it was best to move to a different location and to continue moving frequently. Theodore therefore removed the enchantments he had placed around the small clearing, while Harry, Allison, and Tracey obliterated all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show that they had camped there. Then they Disapparated to the outskirts of a small muggle market town.
Once they had pitched the tent in the shelter of a small crop of trees and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments, Harry ventured out under the Invisibility Cloak to find sustenance in exchange for some of the muggle money Tracey had given him. This, however, did not go as planned. He had barely entered the town when an unnatural chill, a descending mist, and a sudden darkening of the skies made him freeze where he stood.
‘But your Patronus shown brighter than ever yesterday?’ protested Tracey in confusion when Harry arrived back at the tent empty-handed, out of breath, and mouthing the single word, dementors.
‘I couldn’t…make one,’ he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. ‘Wouldn’t come.’
Their expressions of consternation and disappointment made Harry feel ashamed. It had been a nightmarish experience, seeing the dementors gliding out of the mist in the distance and realizing, as the paralyzing cold choked his lungs and a distant screaming filled his ears, that he was not going to be able to protect himself. It had taken all Harry’s will power to uproot himself from the spot and run, leaving the eyeless dementors to glide amongst the Muggles who might not be able to see them, but would assuredly feel the despair they cast wherever they went.
‘But we need to stock up on food,’ said Tracey, ‘what are we to do?’
‘That’s not what’s important at this moment,’ said Allison.
‘What do you think happened Harry?’ asked Theodore. ‘Did your hunger prevent you from producing a Patronus, or something else?’
‘I don’t know.’
He sat low in one of Dumbledore’s armchairs Tracey had found in the purse, feeling more humiliated by the moment. He was afraid that something had gone wrong inside him. Yesterday seemed a long time ago. Today he might have been thirteen years old again, the only one who collapsed on the Hogwarts Express.
‘Should someone else go and try and get food?’ suggested Tracey.
‘Sure, you go and fight your way through the dementors, then,’ said Harry, stung.
‘Harry,’ said Tracey a little taken aback, ‘I really would if I could, but my right arm is in a sling and I’m not an expert at spell casting with my left.’
‘That’s convenient,’ said Harry, rolling his eyes.
‘How can you say that to Tracey, Harry, she’s only trying to—‘ began Theodore.
‘I got it!’ exclaimed Allison excitedly, startling the others into silence. ‘Harry, hand over locket! Now please!’
She said the last part quite impatiently, holding her hand out towards him, when he did not react.
‘Please Harry, it’ll all be ok.’
Harry lifted the golden chain over his head. The moment it parted contact with Harry’s skin he felt free and oddly light. He had not even realized that he was clammy or that there was a heavy weight pressing on his stomach until both sensations lifted.
‘How do you now feel?’ she asked gently.
‘Loads better!’
Realizing what just happened, Theodore became quite pale.
‘Um, Harry,’ said Theodore in a tone that it was clear he was trying not to upset or offend him, ‘is there any possibility that the locket has been possessing you?’
‘What? No!’ he said defensively. ‘I remember everything we’ve done while I’ve been wearing it. I wouldn’t know what I’d done if I’d been possessed, would I? Hermione told me there were times when she couldn’t remember anything.’
‘So,’ said Tracey, looking down at the heavy gold locket, ‘should we stop wearing it, and just keep it safe in my purse or the tent?’
‘We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around,’ Harry stated firmly. ‘If we lose it, if it gets stolen—‘
‘It’s settled then,’ said Allison, and she placed it around her own neck and tucked it out of sight down the front of her shirt. ‘Just like night-watch we should take it in shifts, so nobody gets corrupted or their soul possessed.’
‘Alright, well if we think we have it figured out, we should probably try and buy some food,’ said Tracey.
'Yes, but not here,' said Theodore, still looking nervous. 'We shouldn't stay here with all dementors near by.'
In the end they settled down for the night in a field on the outskirts of Kembleford, less than seven kilometers from Harry's home village. Theodore left with some muggle money and Harry's Cloak and returned from the village market with cans of soup, fruit, and vegetables, as well as a carton of milk and eggs, a bag of bread, and a block of cheddar.
'I technically just took the food and left money near the register when the cashier wasn't looking,' said Theodore in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs with cheese on toast. 'It won't cause them worry will it? And do you think I left enough currency, I'm not used to muggle money.'
Allison rolled her eyes and said, with her cheeks bulging, 'Tee-oh, oo did fine.'
And, indeed, it was much easier to relax when they were comfortably well fed. The argument about the dementors was forgotten in the laughter that night, and Harry felt cheerful, even hopeful as he took the first of the four night watches.
This was their first encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits; an empty one, bickering and gloom. Days where they set up camp away from all of society and they had to ration their canned food showed just how much food meant to each of them. From his childhood Theodore was used to starvation and bore up reasonably well on those days with little to eat, his temper perhaps a little shorter than usual. Tracey was used to lavish meals at home or from the Hogwarts house-elves, and hunger made her cranky and more prone to tears, but she never lost her cool. Harry never found himself wanting a lot of food throughout life, and stress tended to diminish his appetite, so the constant threat of being caught by Voldemort or Death Eaters made him not notice the reduced amount of food when it occurred. Allison was another story, she worked out to build bulk, so she burned a lot more calories than the rest of them, so when she went hungry everyone in group suffered. If she didn’t get enough to eat her temper was short, she was reluctant to do tasks, and she picked fights more often. Whenever lack of food coincided with Allison’s turn to wear the Horcrux, she became downright unpleasant.
On her good days she would help teach Theodore to read Runes, or read with the other three the books Theodore brought that he believed would help them better understand Voldemort and potentially find new Horcrux locations. She also would spend time with Harry, and they would try to help each other through the dark times they were all living in. On bad days she wouldn’t leave her bunk unless asked.
As Dumbledore had told Harry that he believed Voldemort had hidden the Horcruxes in places important to him, they kept listing, in a sort of dreary litany, those locations they knew that Voldemort had lived or visited. The orphanage where he had been born and raised; Hogwarts, where he had been educated; Borgin and Burkes, where he had worked after completing school; then Albania, where he had spent his years of exile: These formed the basis of their speculations.
'Should we go to Albania, how long would it take us to thoroughly search all of a foreign country?' asked Allison sarcastically.
'I don't think there is a Horcrux there. He made and hid the first five before his exile, and then Dumbledore was fairly certain that the snake is the sixth,' said Theodore.
'And we know the snake isn't in Albania, as it normally is right next to Vol—' said Harry, though he was cut off by Tracey.
'Please don't say his name.’
'Sorry. It normally is right next to You-Know-Who.'
‘So none in Albania then,’ said Allison, disappointed at the lack of progress.
‘Yes, and I can’t see him hiding anything at Borgin and Burkes,’ said Harry, who made this point many times before, but said it again simply to break the nasty silence. ‘Borgin and Burke were experts at Dark objects, they would’ve recognized a Horcrux straightaway. I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts.’
Tracey let out a bit of a sigh.
‘It’s more possible than Albania, but if there was a Horcrux in Hogwarts then don’t you think Dumbledore would have found it?’
Harry repeated the argument he kept bringing out in favour of this theory.
‘Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwarts’s secrets. I’m telling you, if there was one place Vol—‘
‘Harry!’
‘I’m sorry Tracey, YOU-KNOW-WHO, but it’s just a name!’ Harry shouted, started to get really annoyed with everyone. ‘If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!’
'Its just a school, Harry,' scoffed Allison.
'It isn't just a school, not to him anyway! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special, the first place he met like-minded peers, and even after he left—'
'Are you sure you are talking about You-Know-Who and not yourself?' inquired Allison. She was twisting the chain of the Horcrux around her finger: Harry was visited by a desire to rip the locket off her neck.
'Well, Harry, you said that You-Know-Who applied for a job at Hogwarts after he left,' said Theodore.
'That’s right,' said Harry.
'And that Dumbledore believed he only returned to the castle to find an object, probably another founder’s relic, to transform into a Horcrux?' continued Tracey.
'Yeah,' said Harry.
'Its just, he never got the job,' said Theodore. 'Which means he likely didn't get the chance to retrieve something of the founder’s or return to hide it in the school!'
'Okay, then,' said Harry, defeated. 'Forget Hogwarts.'
Without any other leads, they traveled into London and, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, searched for the orphanage in which Voldemort had been raised.
Tracey stuck into a muggle library and discovered from their records that the place had been demolished many years before. They visited its site and found a tower block of offices.
'We could attempt an excavation at night?' Theodore suggested half-heartedly.
'He wouldn’t have hidden a Horcrux here,' Harry said. He had known all along: The orphanage had been the place Voldemort had been determined to escape; he would never have hidden a part of his soul there. Dumbledore had shown Harry that Voldemort sought grandeur or mystique in his hiding places; this dismal gray corner of London was as far removed as you could imagine from Hogwarts or the Ministry or a building like Gringotts, the Wizarding bank, with its golden doors and marble floors.
Even without any new ideas, they continued to move through the countryside, pitching the tent in a different place each night or two for security. Every morning they made sure that they had removed all clues to their presence, then set off to find another lonely and secluded spot, traveling by Apparition to more woods, to the shadowy crevices of cliffs, to purple moors, gorse-covered mountainsides, and once a sheltered a pebbly cove. Every eight hours or so they passed the Horcrux between them as though they were playing some perverse, slow-motion game of pass-the-parcel, where they dreaded the music stopping because the reward was eight hours of increased fear and anxiety.
Harry’s scar kept prickling. It happened most often, he noticed, when he was wearing the Horcrux. Sometimes he could not stop himself reacting to the pain.
'You alright Harry, what did you see?' asked Allison calmly, anytime she noticed him in pain. When wearing the locket he always ignored the first part of her question.
'A face,' muttered Harry, every time. 'The same face. The thief who stole from Gregorovitch.'
Allison would always look away, hurt, and maybe also disappointed. But Harry couldn't control what he saw or when. He couldn't use his visions to see if the group's friends or family were alright, he was not a television aerial; he could only see what Voldemort was thinking at the time, not tune in to whatever took his fancy, and yet her sadness made him feel like she expected that was what he should somehow do. Eventually Harry learned to suppress any sign of pain or discomfort, for the other three showed nothing but impatience at the mention of the thief. He could not entirely blame them, when they were so desperate for a lead on the Horcruxes. The only news from the wizarding world they could access was the occasional stolen Daily Prophet, or Theodore guessing the right password for the Grimmauld Place radio Tracey brought to listen to Potterwatch, but neither so far gave them any information useful to their hunt.
As the days stretched into weeks, Harry began to suspect that Allison, Tracey, and Theodore were having conversations without, and about, him. Several times they stopped talking abruptly when Harry entered the tent, and twice he came accidentally upon them, huddled a little distance away, heads together and talking fast; both times they fell silent when they realized he was approaching them and hastened to appear busy collecting wood or water.
Harry could not help wondering whether they had only agreed to come on what now felt like a pointless and rambling journey because they thought he had some secret plan that they would learn in due course. Allison was making no effort to hide her bad mood, and Harry was starting to fear that Theodore and Tracey were also disappointed by his poor leadership. In desperation he tried to think of further Horcrux locations, but the only one that continued to occur to him was Hogwarts, and as neither of the other thought this at all likely, he stopped suggesting it.
Autumn rolled over the countryside as they moved through it. They were now pitching the tent on mulches of fallen leaves. Natural mists joined those cast by the dementors: wind and rain added to their troubles. The fact that Tracey's cooking had improved or that they were now adding freshly harvested fruit and vegetables to their diet could not altogether compensate for their continuing isolation, the lack of other people’s company, or their near total ignorance of what was going on in the war against Voldemort.
'Why can't we add more hardy meat to our meals?' said Allison one night, as they sat in the tent on Caldey Island, 'and I've seen wizards and witches like Tulip conjure food out of thin air.'
She prodded moodily at the lumps of charred gray sole fish on her plate with a side of plain boiled corn. Harry glanced automatically at Allison’s neck and saw, as he had expected, the golden chain of the Horcrux glinting there. He managed to fight down the impulse to swear at his moody girlfriend, whose attitude, he knew, improve slightly when the time came to take off the locket.
'Tulip can not conjure food out of thin air,' said Theodore. 'It is impossible. Food is part of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration—’
'Meaning?' asked Allison stubbornly, trying to eat around the spine of the fish.
'It means we can't make food, especially nutritious food, out of nothing,' said Tracey, taking offense from Allison insulting her hard efforts. 'If there is some nearby you can summon it, you can sometimes turn one food into another, using Tribuomnus can increase the quantity of food you already have which I do every meal, but—'
'Well your spell clearly didn't work on this mess,' said Allison loudly.
'Hey, Harry spent hours catching the sole, and Tracey worked hard cooking for us, show some respect,' yelled Theodore, standing up.
'Respect? How can I show respect when we're living how no human being should. This is all absolutely exhausting and—'
'Then go to your bunk!' barked Tracey, Harry wasn't sure if he had ever seen her lose her temper at Allison before, Allison sat still in shock. 'Now!'
Allison swore under her breath but did as she was told, she got up and went into the adjoining room.
'Are...are you ok, Tracey,' asked Theodore carefully, her face had become bright red.
'No, I'm getting really sick of her acting like she's the only one suffering. I'm miserable, and I'm guessing you all are too.'
'Yeah, I guess so,' said Theodore. He looked lost in thought for a few moments, then appeared to have an idea and brought the little radio onto the table. 'How about I see if Potterwatch is on, it'll be nice just to hear our loved-one's voices.'
He started fiddling with the dials and tapping his wand on the radio, while Harry and Allison began cleaning up supper.
'Harry, you should really go talk to Allison,' said Tracey as quietly as she could.
'No, I don't think she's in the mood for talking,' he said grumpily.
'Maybe not now while she has the Horcrux, but a time when neither of you are wearing it.'
'I don't know, why me, she listens to you more.'
'Because its not me she wants to talk to, she wants to discuss something with you.'
'I highly doubt that,' Harry scowled. 'She barely speaks to me at all.'
'She wants you to go to her, Harry. Its a girl thing. She wants you to go to her, tell her you know something is wrong, and that you will listen to her. She'll open up then. If you want you're relationship with her to last you two need to tal—'
'Hey guys? Shut up!' said Theodore suddenly as he stood up in excitement. 'I found it.'
'and now for the names of deceased or missing witches and wizards before we move onto some more hopeful news. These are confirmed. Thankfully the list is short today,' said the voice of Remus, which did lighten Harry's heart slightly. 'For deaths we are saddened to announce the demise of famous Seer Cassandra Vablatsky, Thorsten and Elena Pfeffer and their children, as well as the death of Julie Parkes whose family wishes for solitude as they mourn their daughter. For disappeared individuals there is Mykew Gregorovitch—'
'They haven't found the body yet, then,' whispered Harry.
'—Scarlet and Kitty Sharp, and finally Bella, Jake, Charlie and Madge Farley.'
'Oh no, that's nearly Gemma's entire family, I really hope they're just in hiding,' said Tracey, supressing a sob. Harry also felt bad for their former Prefect.
'Now, onto some good news,' said the hopeful voice of Colin Creevey. 'The Ministry wants Muggle-borns to live in fear, to believe that if they get caught they are guaranteed to end up in Azkaban, but I'm happy to say that is a lie. Dirk Cresswell was arrested but escaped from his Death Eater guard and is now on the run, but he is alive.'
'Yes Rangefinder,' said Lee Jordan, 'and he's not the only one. Multiple rumours from different sources say that Ted Tonks, my old pal Dean Thomas, as well as the Goblins Griphook and Gornuk are on the run but currently safe.'
'Speaking of Goblins, there are some interesting stories floating around about Gringotts as well as Hogwarts, most of which we've confirmed to be true,' said Kingsley. 'At some point in the early school year, the murderous Headmaster Snape supposedly found within Hogwarts the missing Sword of Gryffindor and boasted about it to the Daily Prophet quite publicly. Well last week four brave students attempted to steal the sword to return it to Gryffindor House, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, and Ella Wilkins. They were caught, but thankfully were given the safest punishment currently offered at Hogwarts. Where the stories become truly interesting is because of the attempted robbery Snape ordered for the sword to be moved to a vault in Gringotts, where repeated rumours have been leaking that the sword is a fake, and the Ministries attempt to squash these rumours proves them to be truth.'
'So, Snape had been bragging about his ownership of a fake sword?' ask Lee.
'Yes River. Just like before his appointment to Headmaster, the sword of Gryffindor is missing,' concluded Kingsley.
'Well, now on to the most anticipated part of our broadcast, the weather,' said Remus in a tone that implied what he was about to say had nothing to do with meteorology. 'Large amounts of fog have been spotted in Appleby, Cleckheaton, Cork, Ottery St Catchpole, and Mould-on-the-Wold. High chance of clouds in Wiltshire, so beware. Finally there has not been any lightning sightings since September second in London, but small rumoured lightning strikes have been reported for over a month now. That's all for the weather tonight.'
So fog clearly meant dementors, and they seemed to be guarding places Harry had connections to. Lightning seemed to refer to Harry himself, it would appear security during the broadcasts had to be increased as they had called him by name in the original broadcast and a few since than. Harry did not know for sure what clouds meant, but he took note to avoid Wiltshire.
'That'll be all for tonight, stay safe everyone. Next broadcast's password will be Vance,' said Lee Jordan, and then the radio went to static.
Harry, Tracey, and Theodore remained frozen, none had spoken since Remus had been listing those who were missing. After a moment however Harry, found himself needing to say, 'Our friends—the sword—'
‘I heard!’ said Tracey.
She lunged for the small emerald purse, this time sinking her arm in it right up to the armpit.
‘I…think…I…found…it…’ she said between gritted teeth, and she pulled at something that was evidently in the depths of the purse. Slowly the edge of an ornate picture frame came into sight. Harry and Theodore hurried to help her. As they lifted the empty portrait of Phineas Nigellus free of Tracey’s purse, she kept her wand pointing at it, ready to cast a spell at any moment.
'We need to know what happened to our friends, and maybe why they tried to steal the sword,' she panted, as they propped the painting against the side of the tent, 'and Headmaster Phineas Nigellus might have seen what happened!'
'Unless he was asleep,' said Harry, but he still held his breath as Tracey knelt down in the front of the empty canvas, her wand directed at its center, cleared her throat, then said:
'Um—Excuse me? Headmaster Phineas Nigellus?'
Nothing happened.
'Professor Black?' Theodore tried.
'Sir, we really need your help, er, please,' tried Tracey one last time.
'"Please" always helps,' said a cold, snide voice, and Phineas Nigellus Black slid into his portrait. At once, Tracey cried:
'Obscura!'
A black blindfold appeared over Phineas Nigellus’s clever, dark eyes, causing him to bump into the frame and shriek with pain.
'What—how dare—what are you—?'
'I apologize, Professor Black,' said Tracey, 'it had to be done for our safety!'
'Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?'
'Never mind where we are,' said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.
'Can that possibly be the voice of the elusive Mr Potter?'
'Maybe,' said Harry, knowing that this would keep Phineas Nigellus’s interest. 'We’ve got a couple of questions to ask you—about the sword of Gryffindor.'
'Ah,' said Phineas Nigellus, now turning his head this way and that in an effort to catch sight of Harry, 'yes. That idiot seventh-year acted most unwisely there—'
'Neville is not an idiot,' said Theodore roughly. Phineas Nigellus raised supercilious eyebrows.
'Who else is here?' he asked, turning his head from side to side. 'Your tone displeases me! The boy and his friends were foolhardy in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster.'
'They weren’t thieving,' said Harry. 'That sword isn’t Snape’s.'
'It belongs to Professor Snape’s school,' said Phineas Nigellus. 'Exactly what claim did the Longbottom boy have upon it other than his house? He deserved his punishment, as did the misguided Bones, the Lovegood oddity, and the traitor to my house Wilkins!'
'Susan isn't misguided, Luna is not an oddity, and Ella is a better Slytherin than you ever were!' said Theodore, who took fellow Slytherins being closed-minded very seriously.
'Where am I?' repeated Phineas Nigellus, starting to wrestle with the blindfold again. 'Where have you brought me? Why have you removed me from the house of my forebears?'
'Never mind that! How did Snape punish Neville, Ella, Luna, and Susan?' asked Harry urgently.
'Professor Snape sent them into the Forbidden Forest, to do some work for the oaf, Hagrid.'
'Hagrid is no oaf!' said Tracey shrilly.
'And Snape might’ve thought that was a punishment,' said Harry, 'but Neville, Ella, Luna, and Susan probably had a good laugh with Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest...they’ve faced plenty worse than the Forbidden Forest, big deal!'
He felt relieved, while Potterwatch had said their punishment had been minor, Harry still believed it would have been worse: he had been imagining horrors, the Cruciatus Curse at the very least.
'The information we're truly after, Professor Black, is perhaps whether you know why anyone would want to have sword, other than it being made by Godric Gryffindor?' asked Theodore
Phineas Nigellus paused again in his struggles to free his eyes and sniggered.
'Simple boy' he said. 'Godric Gryffindor did not create the sword, he hired Goblins to forge it. That is why it has Goblin properties, such as repelling mundane dirt or imbibing only that which strengthens it.'
'Don’t call Theodore simple,' said Harry.
'I call blood-traitors whatever I please,' said Phineas Nigellus. 'Perhaps it is time for me to return to the headmaster’s office?'
Still blindfolded, eh began groping the side of his frame, trying to feel a way out of his picture and back into the one at Hogwarts. Harry had a sudden inspiration.
'Dumbledore! Can’t you bring us Dumbledore?'
'I beg you pardon?' asked Phineas Nigellus.
'Professor Dumbledore’s portrait—couldn’t you bring him along, here, into yours?'
'Harry...' said Tracey, her voice full of sympathy.
Phineas Nigellus turned his face in the direction of Harry’s voice.
'Evidently it is not only your friends who are ignorant, Potter. The portraits of Hogwarts may commune with each other, but they cannot ravel outside the castle except to visit a painting of themselves hanging elsewhere. Dumbledore cannot come here with me, and after the treatment I have received at your hands, I can assure you that I shall not be making a return visit!'
Slightly crestfallen, Harry watched Phineas redouble his attempts to leave his frame.
'Professor Black,' said Tracey, 'please, sir, just one more thing. Could you tell us the last time you saw the sword before Snape found it?'
Phineas snorted impatiently.
'I believe the last time I saw the sword of Gryffindor leave its case was when Professor Dumbledore sliced an old fang with it and than later used it to break open a ring.'
Theodore whipped around to look at Harry. Neither of them dared say more in front of Phineas Nigellus, who had at last managed to locate the exit.
'Well, good night to you,' he said a little waspishly, and he began to move out of sight again. Only the edge of his hat brim remained in view when Harry gave a sudden shout.
'Wait! Have you told Snape you saw this?'
Phineas Nigellus stuck his blindfolded head back into the picture.
'Professor Snape has more important things on his mind than the many eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore. Good-bye, Potter!'
And with that, he vanished completely, leaving behind him nothing but his murky backdrop.
'Harry!' Tracey cried.
'I know!' Harry shouted. Unable to contain himself, he punched the air: it was more than he had dared to hope for. He strode up and down the tent, feeling that he could have run a mile: he did not even feel hungry anymore. Theodore was squashing Phineas Nigellus’ portrait back into Tracey's purse, when he had fastened the clasp he tossed the purse aside and joined Tracey with his own wide smile.
'The sword destroyed the ring, it destroyed a Horcrux, Harry!' said Tracey excitedly.
'I know, this is good news, it means its possible,' said Harry with a smile, but then his smile dropped slightly. 'But we can't use the sword, it'll likely vanish in the hands of a Slytherin.'
Theodore's smile did not vanish however, 'We don't need the sword, we need what was inside it, Dumbledore embedded it with the basilisk venom from a fang. Don't you understand what this means?'
'Er no?' admitted Harry. He knew basilisk venom could kill a Horcrux, deep down he knew of something else that was dark that could kill it to, but he had thought he had burned any basilisk venom that remained in all of Europe.
'For most snakes after they die within two weeks their venom dries up, but it would appear despite you burning Slytherin's basilisk until only bones remained and it sitting in the Chamber of Secret's for nearly half a decade that there is still venom in its fangs,' said Theodore.
'Alright, but how do we get to the Chamber of Secrets? Hogwarts is probably the most dangerous place for us right now,' said Harry, although he had to admit hope was settling back in.
'Maybe we wait until Christmas, if they still let kids go home for Holiday, than the castle will have less potential people to catch us,' said Tracey. 'We could also use the Honeydukes tunnel to get in. What do you think Allison? Alli?'
Harry looked into the room with the bunk beds. For one bewildered moment he thought that Allison had left the tent, then realized that she was lying in the shadow of a lower bunk of her and Tracey's bed, looking stony.
'Oh, you finally remembered I exist?' she said.
'What?' said Harry, confused.
Allison snorted as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
'Continue discussing important things without me though. I'd hate to interrupt.'
Perplexed, Harry looked to Tracey and Theodore for help, but Theodore stayed still and Tracey simply shook her head, apparently as nonplussed as Harry was.
'What’s the problem?' asked Harry.
'Problem? What problem?' said Allison, still refusing to look at Harry. 'I told you I was fine.'
There were several plunks on the canvas over their heads. It had started to rain.
'Well that's a lie, as you clearly have a problem, "Jaanu"!'
That last sentence made Allison spring to her feet, her eyes burning with fury. She looked mean, unlike himself, if anything she was reminded Harry of her father.
'No, "Beau", you are the one with the problem! Acting like everything is solved when in reality we now have yet another thing we have to find, yet another thing you don't know.'
'Don’t know?' repeated Harry. 'I don’t know?'
Plunk, plunk, plunk. The rain was falling harder and heavier; it pattered on the leaf-strewn bank all around them and into the river chattering through the dark. Dread doused Harry’s jubilation. Allison was saying exactly some of the things Harry had suspected and feared her to be thinking.
'This has been torture, you know that?' said Allison, 'isolation, starving, and freezing to death. And all for what, what have we actually achieved?'
'Alli...' Tracey said, but in such a quiet voice that Allison could pretend not to have heard it over the loud tattoo the rain was now beating on the tent.
'I thought you knew what you’d signed up for,' said Harry. 'What happened to your promise that you'd be by your side every step of the way, that you'd help me hunt down Snape for revenge, that you'd help find the Horcruxes, and you'd help me defeat Voldemort?'
'Well maybe I was wrong.'
'So what part of it isn’t living up to expectations?' asked Harry. Anger was coming to his defense now. 'Did you think we’d be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you’d be back in Winterton by Christmas?'
'What I thought was that you trusted me! What we thought was that you actually knew what you were doing!' shouted Allison, her words pierced Harry like scalding knives. 'What we thought was that you knew something from Dumbledore that would help us, that after all this time you'd have a plan!'
'Allison!' said Theodore, unlike Tracey, his voice was clearly audible over the rain thundering on the tent roof, but like Tracey, she ignored him.
'Well, sorry to let you down,' said Harry, his voice quite calm even though he felt hollow, inadequate. 'I’ve been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. I even begged you not to come, but you insisted. By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, we’ve found on Horcrux—'
'But we are just as near to destroying it as we are to finding the others—all we have been doing is wasting our own time!'
'Alli, take it off, the locket, please!' begged Tracey, her voice unusually high. 'You've been wearing it since morning, you aren't yourself, you'd never say any of this if you weren't wearing it.'
'Yeah, she would,' said Harry, who did not want excuses made for his argumentative girlfriend. 'D’you think I haven’t noticed the three of you whispering behind my back? D’you think I didn’t guess you were thinking this stuff?'
'Harry, that's not—' began Theodore.
'Don’t you dare lie, Theo!' Allison snarled at him. 'You both said it, said it too, that you were disappointed with the lack of progress, you both said told me you wished he had more information—'
'We didn't say that Harry—not like that,' Tracey cried.
The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Tracey’s face, and the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet, and cold. There was a dead snake deep under a far away castle, and they were four teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not itself, yet, dead.
'Say the actual truth, Harry, the real reason you are so upset,' said Allison, her voice altering from pure anger to now also include great sadness.
'And what truth is that?' said Harry, now simply having no idea what she was talking about.
'That you don't trust me anymore!' her voice broke a little.
'What, no, that's not—'
'It is true, I know it is! You repeatedly told others I that I wasn't my father, but ever since you saw the Prophet Remus brought you have looked at me differently than you used to, and you've been lying to me when you didn't need to. It's only gotten worse since you took the form of my father and saw first hand the true monster that he is. You look at me as though I'm also a monster, that I've betrayed you, but worst of all Harry, you look at me as though you don't love me anymore!'
She started to have tears well up, but her eyes were still filled with fury.
'Well maybe I don't!' shouted Harry, Tracey gasped, Allison stepped back as though she had been slapped. Harry regretted it almost the moment he said it, but his anger prevented him from backing down. 'If that is what you believe I think, why are you still here?'
'If you can't trust me after all these years, than maybe I should!'
Allison made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner’s pocket, Theodore and Tracey had raised their own wands. 'Expelliarmus!' they cried, and an invisible ripped both their wands from their hands. Silence broke out and Harry and Allison glared at each other as though they were seeing the other clearly for the first time. Harry felt a corrosive hatred toward All: Something had broken between them.
'Leave the Horcrux,' Harry said.
Allison wrenched the chain from over her head and cast the locket onto the floor. She turned to Tracey as she picked up the Horcrux and hung it around her neck next to her own tiny emerald locket.
'Why'd you take that?'
'What do you mean?'
'Are you staying here?'
'Well...' She looked anguished. 'Yes—yes I’m going to stay, Allison, I made a vow to Harry that I'd go on his journey, that I'd help him find and destroy the Horcruxes—”
Allison looked even more hurt, it was with tears streaming down her face that she turned to Theodore.
'And you?'
'If Vol-You-Know-Who isn't defeated than none of us, including our friends and family, will never be safe. I'm staying.'
'Its alright,' she said, almost mad sounding, 'you're both choosing him over me.'
'What, no!' Theodore shouted.
'Allison, that isn't true and—Alli, come back!' Tracey cried, as Allison suddenly turned around, grabbed her wand, and ran out of the tent. Tracey ran after her.
Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to Tracey sobbing and calling Allison’s name amongst the trees. At the last second his guilt over took him and he ran towards the tent entrance, as he pulled it aside he just barely managed to see a figure in the distance turn on the spot and than disappear.
In shock Harry stood still, the rain soaking him to the bone. After a few minutes Allison returned, her large afro pressed down from the weight of the rain water.
'Sh-she is gone!'
Tracey re-entered the tent and threw herself into a chair, curled up, and started to cry. Harry continued to just stand there in the rain, he felt dazed. After another minute Theodore came out and pulled him into the tent. Still soaking wet, Harry climbed into his bed and stared up at the dark canvas roof, listening to the pounding of the rain.
(I'm sorry Pervaza)
