The Boy Who Fought: OC X Hermione

Reunited

Carson had taken his things and walked around the village, hoping they had finally come to Godric's hollow. He looked around and saw no Hermione, Ron, or Harry. While he did hear some commotion by where the Potter's used to live, he assumed it was death eaters and ran into the trees by the graveyard to hide. When he hid himself, he also saw a ginger haired man.

"Ron...?" Carson whispered, the man turning to him.

"Carson...."

They both hugged each other, happy to see one another again, but that was soon short lived.

"If you're here...where's Hermione and Harry?"

Ron explained how he left and his side of the story, which was he thought they were leaving him out and making him feel like he wasn't wanted there or helping. Wearing the horcrux also didn't help, so he packed up and left. Carson was mad at Ron, but understood where he was coming from.

"Other than that... what have I missed?"

"Hermione's going mental without you...every night, when she thought everyone was asleep or on watch, I heard her talking to her stomach about how you're going to come back and things. But other than that, she didn't talk to anyone. She just read her book and focused on destroying the horcrux. We've been taking turns with the locket, she doesn't wear it because she's nervous for the baby. It changes you, the locket. But the horcrux can be destroyed by the sword of Gryffindor, she'll tell you more about it once we get back to them. That's why Dumbledore left it for Harry."

"We need to get back to them. Did you just miss them too?"

"Yeah. I knew they were here, but when I found them they had disapparated, then you came in here and I found you."

"How do we get back?"

"The deluminator. It takes you to them. That's how I got here. We'll spend the night, and we'll go tomorrow."

Carson took him back to where he had been staying after going into the trash outside the pub for food. This time, they had gotten the jackpot. Two sandwiches, not touched or eaten at all. It was a Christmas miracle.

They spent the night in the house, after running into snatchers. The next morning they quickly take the deluminator and apparate into a forest, to see a doe patronus, following it to see Harry drowning in the lake. They rushed over and pulled him out.

"Harry, mate what were you thinking?!"

"The sword! It was down in the lake..." Carson muttered, helping Harry up.

"Carson..." Harry whispered, hugging him tightly.

"Hi Harry!"

"It was you..."

"What was me?"

"The doe patronus."

"Don't be silly Harry, mine's a fox and an otter. It changes."

"Then who was it?"

"Not mine either mate."

"You two didn't see anyone else?"

"No. When Ron got us here, we saw the patronus, then you drowning in the lake."

"But I reckon whoever cast the doe, put the sword in that pool hoping we'd find it."

"And we did, didn't we?"

The locket started ticking, and they all turned their attention to it. It was twitching and Carson could feel it's anger and fear.

"See that? It knows. It's afraid. Do it Ron."

"What? No. Harry. That thing's bad for me. I can't handle it. I'm not making excuses for how I acted, but that thing affects me more than it affects you. It made me think stuff, stuff I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse."

"All the more reason."