The Original Heretic

xi.

after a long, cold, ride on the dragon's back, with the cool wind soothing everyone's burns, then causing us all to get chills, it started descending.

"is it just me, or are we losing height?" ron called out.

"no, we are!" i replied back, yelling over the wind.

"we should jump in the water once it's low enough, before it realises we're here." harry suggested as we got lower, and we all agreed.

"one... two... three! now!" we all slipped off, and landed in the lake. i came up to the surface first, the trio following. we watched as the dragon continued on, landing on the far bank. we set off for the shore in the opposite direction, and eventually pulled ourselves out of the water in exhaustion. taking off my bag, i reached in for two blood bags, guzzling them. harry had cast all the protective spells around us to prevent being tracked, then flopped onto the ground next to us. hermione and ron were using a healing potion to fix their burns, and i bit into my wrist, holding it out to harry.

"drink. it'll heal you." hesitantly, he lifted my arm to his lips, and let some of my blood run down his throat. immediately, his burns vanished, like the other twos had with the potion, which left us just tired.

prepared as she always was, hermione brought out pumpkin juice for her and the boys, and clean robes for all of us. we changed, then sat around a campfire i started, looking at the cup i twirled around in my hand.

"on the bright side, we got that." ron pointed at it. "on the downside-"

"-no sword." harry finished bitterly.

"double crossing bastard." ron muttered. hermione was gazing off into the distance, where the dragon had gone.

"i wonder if it's alright." she mused.

"you sound like hagrid." the weasley replied. "it's a dragon, it can take care of itself. we should be more worried about us."

"why's that?" harry looked over.

"well i don't know how to break this to you, but i think they know we broke into gringotts." ron said sarcastically, and i let out a little snort, causing hermione to giggle, which set off harry and ron. i think we were all delirious from the day we had just had, because once we started laughing, we couldn't stop until our stomachs hurt.

"what are we going to do though?" hermione tried to gather herself. "you-know-who has to know about the horcruxes now-" as she spoke harry grabbed his forehead, doubling over in pain.

"he's seeing from you-know-who's eyes." ron looked worried for his friend, and we all waited for harry to regain consciousness.

he shot up, alarmed. "he knows and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," harry stood up, "is at hogwarts. i knew it. i knew it."

"woah, slow down. what?" i twirled my finger. "backtrack. what did you see?"

"he found out about the cup, and he was angry, but he's also scared, on edge. he's gonna check where all his horcruxes are, make sure they're safe. hogwarts will be the last place, we need to go there now." harry was panicking, getting his cloak and wand ready.

"wait, harry! we haven't got a plan, or anything." hermione tried to reason with him.

"we go now. ron, under the cloak with me so we'll be fully covered. brit, can you make hermione invisible as well?" harry asked me, and i nodded, doing it. once we were all concealed, we apparated to hogsmeade.

just like when i first apparated with minnie, the second we landed, alarms went off, but this time, they were louder, more shrill.

"shoot." i hissed. "where do we go, quickly?" i asked harry, seeing death eaters start to run around.

"accio cloak!" one man yelled, and i gasped. luckily, harry and ron stayed invisible. the men spread out. we ran to side streets, listening as they yelled.

"we should just disapparate!" hermione urged. i tried, but even i couldn't.

"i cant, which means there's no way in hell that- is that a dementor?" i cut myself off, looking at the faceless phantom. "okay, harry. do not cast your patronus, let me." i readied my wand, and yelled.

"expecto patronum!" with a little extra push of some of my own magic, i made my patronus look like the first farm animal i could think of, a goat, and a death eater yelled.

"that's potters patronus!"

they all started running in our direction, and like a miracle, a door opened to our left.

"potter, in here, quick!" we didn't hesitate, and all ran in and upstairs. i listened as the man taunted the death eaters, saying it was him who broke the charm and cast the patronus. they grudgingly accepted it, and stalked off. we all let out a huge sigh of relief, and i made myself and hermione visible again as the boys took off the cloak.

"are they idiots? i made the patronus look like a goat, not a bloody stag." i rolled my eyes, but stopped talking once the man walked up to where we all were.

"are you all stupid? why did you come here?" he asked gruffly.

"thank you, you saved our lives." was the only reply hart stammered out. looking closer at the man, he commented something. "it's your eye i've been seeing in the mirror shard. you sent dobby."

"a fine young elf. he didn't come back, is he okay?"

"i told him to stay away from any danger." i spoke up. "he's probably in france or something, i dunno."

after a little more conversation, which revealed this man was aberforth, dumbledore's brother, he brought the trio food while i grabbed my last blood bag.

"you guys need to get as far away from here as possible." aberforth said gravely.

"what do you mean? we want to get inside hogwarts." harry replied with a determined look on his face. seeing that, i knew he couldn't be swayed, and i was prepared to stand with him for whatever it took. i promised minnie.