Between Fine Lines

Ten

Everything Hermione had been concerned about before came crashing down in the morning.

"Hey Hermione I-bloody hell!" Ron jumped back from where he stood, the privacy flap falling once more. Harry looked up from his breakfast (a cup of coffee, since he really didn't want to go digging through Hermione's bag without her permission,) to where Ron had shouted out. "What's wrong?" Harry questioned, pushing his glasses up onto his nose as he craned his head.

"They're in the same bloody bed! Snogging!" Ron exclaimed angrily, barely staying on his feet as Regulus stormed out, practically shoving him over.

"Privacy-ever heard of it, Weasley?" Regulus questioned, shoving at the redhead's chest again. Hermione came scrambling out of the tent as the two boys began to shove at each other again, pushing her hair from her face as she got in the middle of them.

"Who's snogging?" Harry questioned, still not quite awake as he shuffled over to the scene, coffee still in his hands.

"Hermione and Black!" Ron fumed, yet backing up as Hermione drew her wand to keep the two overly testosterone filled lads apart.

"Hermione?" Harry raised a brow, looking at his best friend. "Is there something that you want to tell us?" Harry looked from Regulus to his friend, lifting his mug to his lips and silently cursing Ginny for being correct in her assumptions.

"It wasn't supposed to come out like this, honestly Ronald! Do you not know how to wait for permission to enter somebody's sleeping quarters?" she scolded him, immediately turning her back to Regulus so she could round on Ron.

"It's Harry's fault! We were hungry but he didn't want to rummage through your endless purse!" Ron tried, pointing at Harry, who gave him a look. Regulus scoffed, kissing Hermione on the back of the head, giving Ron a very rude hand gesture and heading off toward the bathroom without another word.

"Sit at the table and do horcrux research like you should have been," Hermione hissed angrily. "I will get dressed and then I will decide if I feel like feeding you or making you go into the forest to pick berries," Hermione stalked back off toward her bed, a scowl still on her face.

"Brillant," Harry muttered, going back to the table and his book. "You're not going to say anything? About any of this? About Hermione and Regulus snogging?" Ron questioned incredulously. Harry shot him a withering glance, "I want breakfast. Come sit down."
—-

The next month was filled with training and research. Every time they thought Hermione was done pulling books out of her bag, there were three more (much to Ron's discontent).

Regulus was constantly practicing with the wand that used to belong to Rowle, testing his magic and his limits, working with Hermione, Harry and (begrudgingly) Ron in dueling. He slept better every night, next to Hermione, despite Ron's verbal discontent with the matter.

Harry and Ron took a walk during week three and Ron's loud protesting turned into quieter grumbling.

"Alright, so this is what we know so far..." Harry laid out the parchment they had been writing all over on the table. "Vol-" He paused at Hermione holding her hand up. It hadn't taken them too long to figure out that the death eaters had put a taboo on The Dark Lord's name. "Tom made six or seven horcruxes. One was the diary, which was destroyed, the second the Gaunt ring, destroyed by Dumbledore..." Harry looked at the fake locket that Regulus was rolling between his hands.

"Clearly, the third is the locket, but until Sirius and Kreacher return, we don't know if it's been destroyed or not yet."

"So two sorted, one half sorted and four to figure out," Ron chewed on the inside of his cheek. "One has to be the snake, right? The one that goes everywhere with him?" He looked around the table.

"Nagini, she's definitely got to be one, I can't believe she's still alive," Regulus shook his head. "She's got to be... fifty or sixty?" he thought about it, doing the math in his head.

"Well clearly the laws of snake age don't apply to horcruxes," Ron commented as he watched Hermione neatly write 'snake' under the list of 'to destroy'.

"Well that makes four," Hermione noted, before Ron and Regulus could start arguing again. She paused for a moment, her eyes gazing over the list, "Slytherin's locket... Gryffindor's sword. What do the other two heads of houses have?" Hermione questioned. She noted down 'something from Ravenclaw, something from Hufflepuff', as Regulus played with her free hand, trailing his finger along her wrist.

"Can you stop flirting and focus?" Ron snapped. Regulus' eyes peered to the redhead boy across the table, wondering for a brief moment if Hermione and Harry would truly miss him if he was to just choke the life out of him. "Don't be mad you couldn't see what was right in front of you, Weasley."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ron questioned, his hands balling into fists. Harry and Hermione each gave each other a look, wondering if they should squash the argument or just let the two of them finally punch it out, get it out of their system.

"It means, I see how you keep looking at her, and she's not for you," Regulus commented. Hermione gave him a look, "I am a human being, not a possession or... or a horcrux!"

"Of course not, love, that's not what I meant," Regulus corrected himself as Ron got defensive again.

"She's my bloody best friend and you're acting like... like a... pig! This is the middle of a war! I have my family to think about too! Just because you and Sirius-"

"Don't," Regulus cut him off threateningly. "Don't pretend that you know anything about my relationship with my brother.

Harry looked across the table at Hermione, who shared the same withered expression. "So, how do we destroy the horcruxes this time around?" Harry asks. "Oh, fantastic question Harry, please do share your insight." Harry paused, before resuming conversation with himself. "Well I destroyed the diary with basilisk venom and Dumbledore destroyed the ring eventually with the sword of Gryffindor, so both are really good options to locate."

"But we haven't seen the sword of Gryffindor," Hermione interjected, her and Harry completely ignoring Ron and Regulus hollering back and forth over them. "Well, we're going to have to find it or find a way to sneak into Hogwarts and get into the chamber for some fangs."

"This is a lot to sort out, where do you think we can find the other two unknown horcruxes? Do you think that they're hidden in Hogwarts? Maybe Kreacher will know..." Hermione frowned.

"I know, Sirius not coming back yet is frustrating me just as much," Harry reached over, patting her hand.

Ron and Regulus had stopped arguing, running out of insults to throw at each other and were now both trying to catch their breath, looking down at Harry and Hermione. "You want to get back into Hogwarts? Potterwatch radio says death eaters have started taking over the classes." Ron sat back down next to Harry, avoiding Hermione's steely gaze.

Regulus sat down as well, trying to hide the satisfactory smirk that was itching to appear on his face as Hermione rested her hand on his thigh. "Well, we don't have much options, y'know-if you heard everything Hermione and I were just discussing," Harry commented, pointing at the items under the 'to be destroyed' column.

"I was listening..." Ron grumbled under his breath. "I'm going for a walk," he decided, getting up abruptly from the table, grabbing his wand and leaving the tent.

—-

Ron came back about twenty minutes later to find Hermione and Regulus dueling outside, he watched them quietly for a while before moving around their duel and going back into the tent to find Harry.

Harry sat by the radio, listening to the voices of Lee Jordan and Fred Weasley on the radio to learn about what was happening in the rest of the wizarding world.

"We have to find the sword of Gryffindor," Ron informed him after the broadcast ended, scribbling down the word 'Albus' for next weeks' password to listen in.

"I know," was Harry's only reply.