Resentment | Dramione

Chapter 19

Hermione had lost count of the weeks they had travelled – moving from place to place every day in the hopes to find a new Horcrux. Even when they didn't know where they would be able to find a new Horcrux, they still got on moving, erasing every trace of their stay whenever they left.

They still hadn't figured out a way to destroy the locket, either. It was because of that reason that they kept on passing it down between each other every twelve hours or so, taking turns in wearing the thing.

Most of the times they would stay out of each others' ways if one was wearing it, because the locket was having a worse effect on them as the days piled up. Which is something Draco had learned all too soon as well after many arguments they had whenever she wore the locket, and eventually he kept quiet completely.

That limited their conversations a lot. Sometimes she would wear it in day time, and by the time the night fell and she could take it off, she would be off to bed and there would be no time for chit-chatting. Other times Draco was simply unavailable, pressured into more things on Voldermort's command.

Hermione didn't have the time to actually see into his mind to figure out what it was that Draco had to do. She didn't trust herself with it whenever she wore the locket, which seemed to bring out every bad part of her. Merlin knows what she might say to him and accuse him of if she did do that. Saying things she was certain of that she would regret later on.

But even though they avoided communication at most of the days, whenever they did have a chat, it almost always resulted in a fight. And even though Hermione just knew that Draco was aware that it wasn't really her who was deciding to say all those things, she also knew that it was slowly starting to work on his nerves regardless. Things between them had gotten tense – and not only between her and Draco.

There had been an obvious tension hanging around between the trio; Ron and Hermione were slowly starting to question whether Harry really knew anything at all about the Horcruxes. Of course Hermione knew there must have been something, but as the weeks were passing by and the locket weighed more heavily on her being, she began to doubt her friend more and more.

Ron was having it the worst of them all. The locket dampened his spirits much greater than they had done to either Harry or Hermione, and even when they tried to avoid him whenever he wore it, they still managed to find a way to irk Ron and end up in a fight.

"What's wrong?" Harry's voice shook her out of her thoughts, and she turned to see Ron walking into the tent, his face looking as pale and tired as hers and Harry's, but a certain annoyance was unmistakably edged on his face. "Nothing's wrong." Ron answered, although his voice was strained.

"Just spit it out, will you?" Harry pushed, and Hermione got up along with Harry. "All right, I'll spit it out." And there he went, ranting about all the doubts that he had expressed to her days ago, and complaining about the lack of finding new Horcruxes. "Ron," she intervened, trying to stop him before he'd say something he didn't mean. It was just the locket that he was wearing that made him talk this way. At least, a part of it was.

But Ron simply ignored her, and went on with his rant. Harry jumped in at one point, the anger present in his voice as he spoke. He made some pretty good arguments here and there, and Hermione was feeling half ashamed of ever doubting and talking bad about her friend.

A heated argument arose, and Hermione lamely tried to calm it down – which proved absolutely useless. "And what about all the Death Eaters that are on our trail? Ever thought they might find us at some point and do the same thing to us as they did to my sister? Or probably even worse?" Ron spat at him, and Hermione felt hot tears starting to fall down her cheeks. This was not a fight that should be happening. Things were starting to get bad, and they really couldn't afford to fall apart.