Potter's Shadow (Draco Malfoy)

Chapter 67

Another few days had passed, filled with direct determined looks from Hermione, all of which I tried to ignore. Ron was a lot better but still on the mend. 

We'd finally decided it was time to try and destroy the Hocrux, Ron watching from behind. We'd lined up with the locket resting on a nearby log. "You first," Hermione told Harry. 

"Dissendium," Harry cast hitting the locket. 

We edged forwards to see if it was still as it was when it started chittering at us. I stepped back just before the others. 

"Incendio," Hermione cast but all that did was scorch the ground around the locket. 

They looked to me as I raised my wand, "Bombarda." The locket just flung itself backwards slightly. 

"Expulso," Harry case knocking it back further, meaning I had to edge my way forwards again. "Diffendo," Harry tried again, desperation leaking through all of us. "Reducto." It was at this point he just started waving his wand willing any non-verbal spell to attack the locket but it wouldn't break. We were still stuck with one very much solid horcrux. 

It took a while but he stopped, pulling the locket up by the chain. He slipped it around his neck. 

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked. 

"We have to keep it safe until we find out how to destroy it," Harry explained, the defeat and resignation clear on his face. 

Ron spoke up from behind us, his arm still resting in his sling, "Seems strange, mate. Dumbledore sends you off to find all these Horcruxes but doesn't tell you how to destroy them. Doesn't that bother you?"

 Harry had no answer for that and just walked away. 

"He'll figure it out, he always does," I shrugged as we all made our way back to the tent. 

It didn't take long for Harry to return and settle himself onto watch, I moved out from the tent the radio causing more anxiety than it was worth. I slumped into the leaves next to him and waited, watching everything. Harry had pulled out the shard of Sirius' mirror and was looking into it. He'd told me he could see someone looking back before, that it looked almost like Dumbledore but they disappeared so quickly. 

The radio crackling with mentions of Dean disrupted Harry and I. I'd never been close with Dean, we'd never really got to know each other. The times I did try he was too busy making out with my best friend. I still felt bad that he was on the run. I felt bad that Ted Tonks was fleeing from his family too. Everyone in the order knew Andromeda would go with him, she'd do anything for him. She'd sacrificed her relationship with her sisters to be with him but now she was at home. At least she had the light at the end of the tunnel with Remus and Tonk's baby. 

I reached out and grabbed Harry as he lurched back. 

"Harry!" I called shaking him but he didn't respond. His eyes had that glazed look as if he was no longer in his own body. He practically was, he was in Voldemort's head and I couldn't pull him out. I thought it had got better with the occlumency lessons but apparently not. "It's alright. You're not him and he isn't here. You're Harry." It was a habit I'd picked up after the snake, he forgot who he was. I liked to remind him that he was his own person so when he came back he would remember. 

My eyes flickered at the sound of leaves crunching as Hermione returned from checking her protective charms. She'd likely reinforced them as she did every other day. "I thought it had stopped," she voiced when his eyes focused back in and the glaze disappeared. "You can't keep letting him in, Harry." 

"You-Know-Who has found Gregorovitch," Harry explained what he had seen. 

Hermione and I shared a look before she voiced our thoughts, "The wandmaker?"