Raven (Fred x oc)

104. Stories, Snatchers, and Mushrooms

"So, what happened to you?" Harry asked, looking at Ron. Hermione huffed, looking away from them as I took down the shield charm. 

"I wanted to come back as soon as I left," he admitted. "But I apparated right into a group of snatchers." 

"A group of what?" Harry asked. 

"Snatchers," I explained with a sigh. "They're a bunch of desperate nobodies looking for a quick coin by turning muggle-borns and blood-traitors into the Ministry. Not people you want to be caught by." 

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "So they took my wand and I had to fight out of it. Disarmed one, got my wand back and apparated. But, I didn't do it quite right. Splinched myself again, look." I shuttered as I saw he had lost two fingernails. 

"Gosh, what a gripping story," Hermione said sarcastically in a lofty tone. "You must have been simply terrified. Meanwhile, we went to Godric's Hollow and, let's think, what happened there, Harry? Oh yes, You-Know-Who's snake turned up, it nearly killed both of us, and then You-Know-Who himself arrived and missed us by about a second!" 

"What?" Ron and I shouted. 

"Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our suffering into perspective doesn't it?" 

With a small sigh, I passed my Harry, muttering, "I need to let Fred know I found you all. I'll only be a moment." He nodded and I left the tent. After doing the Patronus message thing, I came back inside to see that Hermione had gone to bed and Harry and Ron were talking quietly. 

Reaching into my bag, I took out a sleeping bag as there were only three beds in the tent. 

"Valerie, you can take one of the beds," Harry offered. "It's fine." 

I hesitated before asking, "You sure?" He nodded. "Then you can use my sleeping bag," I offered, leaving it on the floor as I moved over to go to sleep. In less than a few minutes, I was fast asleep.

I woke early the next morning, before the rest. Getting up from bed, I got dressed warmly and went into the kitchen to see what provisions they had. Which was pretty much none. I left the tent and went out into the cold. It was light out now and I was able to easily search for anything edible. I soon found some edible mushrooms and some edible roots that I knew would taste rather like potatoes when cooked. 

Once I had gathered enough, I got some water and came back inside. "Morning," I called cheerfully. The others had gotten up by now and had just been discussing what to do for food. I moved to the kitchen and began cutting and washing the food. Dropping them in a pan, I added some salt and water and let them come to a boil. After draining the water, I mashed the roots so they created a sort of mash with the mushrooms. 

Dishing them out, I carried the four bowls into the main sitting area. I passed them out with silverware and sat down with my own. "Thank you," Harry said, looking surprised. Each of them took a cautious bite before realizing that it was rather good. I passed the day tending to meals and attempting to use my new powers. So far there had been little progress. 

Late in the day, I was standing outside the tent, hand raised as I attempted to create a force field around a stone on the ground. Suddenly it did form and with a sudden extremely that caused my head to cloud and spin, five thousand veils appeared and five thousand figures appeared with five thousand different kinds of lighting. I cried out, my head pounding as I fell to the ground. 

"Valerie!" Hermione cried, rushing over to me. Blinking hard a few times, I saw that everything had gone back to normal. 

"I-I'm fine," I stuttered, my head still pounding. 

She helped me back to the tent and asked, "What happened?" With a sigh, I explained to her everything I had done with binding the rings to myself to keep them away from my mother. 

"But that was really dangerous!" Hermione shrieked the moment I had finished. 

Coming into the tent with Ron, Harry asked, "What was really dangerous?"

"Valerie combined herself with the ring!" Hermione shouted. "That could have killed you!" 

Setting my jaw, I replied, "If it had, then Fred knew what to do. I told him to take the ring to Ginny if anything happened to me." 

"To Ginny?!" Ron shouted angrily. "That could get her killed!" 

"She is the only other person I could trust with it!" I defended. "Whatever, you don't have to worry about it. She doesn't have it. I do." 

"Good," Ron replied. 

Rolling my eyes, I said, "I'll take first watch."