Author's Note: Something is wrong with the pictures. I'm going to try a couple of things to fix it. If you have any tips, let me know.
One Hour Later; Somewhere in England
The remaining members of the DA huddled around the table. Cold rain lashed the sides of their tent. It was fortunate that Hermione had managed to hold on to her purse. Their quarters might have been a bit cramped, but at least they were out of the rain.
Of course, it wasn't as crowded as it could have been. Fred and George had been making improvements.
There was another reason it wasn't as crowded as it could have been, but Harry didn't like thinking about that.
The memories came anyway. It was hard for them not to with all the reminders laying around.
Godric Gryffindor's sword, so casually propped up against Ginny's chair, had fallen from Neville's hands when Nagini killed him.
Seamus and Dean's wands, taken up by the twins when their own had shattered. Their owners hadn't had a use for them by that point.
And the clock. They hadn't stayed long at the burrow, but Ron had panicked their third day on the run, and when they'd apparated away from Bellatrix, his first thought had been of home. They'd had to leave quickly, but not before grabbing some supplies, and not before Ron had spotted the clock.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's hands had lain shattered at the bottom. They had all expected that, much as it hurt to even think about the warm, motherly woman and her eager husband bleeding out on the stones of Hogwarts. He hadn't been able to breathe for a moment. The kitchen hadn't been disturbed. It had seemed like at any moment she should have come bustling down the stairs, yelling at the twins for tracking mud on her floors and whipping up a massive dinner and insisting Harry take fourths.
Bill had been gone since the first battle of Hogwarts, dying in the same battle as Dumbledore. And most of them had been there when Percy had fallen, only minutes after he finally picked the right side.
But they had watched as Charlie's hand had flicked from "Mortal Peril" (where everyone else was these days) to "Traveling" for just a split second.
"Still on the run, then," Ron had said with relief. "Must be apparating."
The hand had swung back down to "Mortal Peril". Ron had set the clock on the kitchen table.
Then the hand had shuddered and fallen off. It bounced once, before neatly breaking in two.
"Maybe - maybe I broke it," Ron had said desperately.
"Yeah, you set it down too hard, what were you thinking?" George had grabbed onto the excuse.
In answer, Fred had hurled the clock at the wall. The remaining hands didn't so much as shudder.
"He didn't break it."
Luna might have made it out. She could still be on the run somewhere. Colin Creevey, on the other hand, had been hit with a Blasting Charm head on.
The remaining survivors were grim. Talking with Sirius always cheered them up a little, but in the face of all they had seen, nothing could cheer them much. Only Fred and George retained any semblance of cheerfulness, but Harry was reasonably certain that they were as truly cheerful as he was certain what they should do next, which is to say, not at all, but trying to keep up appearances for the others' sake.
Harry cleared his throat and stood up. Hermione and Ron, who she was currently using as a pillow, already knew what he was about to say, but the others - Fred, George, and Ginny - needed to know.
He explained about the horcruxes as quickly as he could. He would have told them earlier, but this was the longest breathing moment they'd been blessed with since the battle.
"Six horcruxes?" Fred said in disbelief.
"Seven," Harry said quietly. "But there's only the three left now."
"That's why Neville went after the snake," Ginny realized. She looked up at Harry. "That's it, isn't it?"
"Yes. The sword's invested with basilisk venom. It could have killed the snake."
"But the snake was too quick," Hermione said in a small voice.
"We can fix that," George muttered.
Fred got a wicked gleam in his eye. "Skiving Snackboxes for snakes. Brilliant."
"So the snake and the locket," Ginny said.
"Never did find that locket," Ron said. "We've got a copy though."
"I'll explain later," Harry promised.
"What's the last one, then?" George asked.
Harry squirmed uncomfortably. Even Ron and Hermione didn't know this part.
"Harry?" Ginny asked in concern.
"Me," he said quietly. "The last horcrux is me."
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Undesirable #1
Fanfiction"Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time, Harry." Fifteen years after they first discovered that books were factual records of events in other worlds, the International Society of Fans figured out how change the endings. After months of...
