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❝ Snape knows you and Y/N were spotted in Hogsmeade. ❞
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"JUMP!"
"ARE YOU MENTAL, RONALDINE?"
"HE'S RIGHT! JUMP NOW!"
The quartet plummeted feet first toward the surface of the lake and they hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing, green, reed-filled world. They kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting.
The dragon did not seem to have noticed anything. Harry, Y/N, Ron and Hermione struck out for the shore.
Hermione pulled out four bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from Shell Cottage and clean, dry robes for all of them. They changed and then gulped down the juice.
"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, who was sitting watching the skin on his hands regrow, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside-"
"-no sword," said Harry.
"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab. . . Did you kill him, Y/N? I saw you throw your dagger at him."
"I didn't kill him," said Y/N, panting. "I didn't kill any of them. Only injured. Slowed them down."
Harry pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the grass in front of them. Glinting in the sun, it drew their eyes as they swigged their bottles of juice.
"Can only the Sword of Gryffindor destroy the Horcrux?" asked Y/N. "Can't something else destroy it? Any spells or some other object?"
"We tried everything. Every spell," said Harry.
Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank where the dragon was flying.
"What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked, "Will it be alright?"
"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron, "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."
All four of them started to laugh, and once started, it was difficult to stop. Y/N's ribs ached, she felt lightheaded with hunger, but she lay back on the grass beneath the reddening sky and laughed until her throat was raw.
"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally, hiccuping herself back to seriousness. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"
"He'll come after us if he knows," said Y/N. "He'll try to protect the remaining Horcruxes."
"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him!" said Ron hopefully, "Maybe they'll cover up-"
