The Tale of a Gaunt

The Locket Horcrux

About a week later, Arabella, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all trying to destroy the locket, which was proving very difficult to do.

"Incendio!" Hermione exclaimed, aiming her wand at the Horcrux, but it only caught on fire, without having any damage.

"Confringo!" Arabella yelled, but still, nothing.

"Bombarda!"
"Descendo!"
"Diffindo!"

But none of the spells worked.

"Wait a minute, Bella, use that ancient magic ability" Harry said.

"Haven't used it properly yet, but I'll try" Arabella said. She raised her wand up to the sky, and slammed down, hoping for the lightning, but nothing happened, only a small flicker of electric appeared.

Arabella frowned, and made a jabbing movement at the locket, but still, nothing happened.

"How the hell do I actually do this?" Arabella thought.

"I guess we're stuck then" Ron said, picking the locket up.

"Yeah. But we'll find a way" Hermione said.

A few weeks then passed, and they had made no progress at all. They'd only moved around the country, trying not to be caught, but still, no destroyed locket just yet.

Then, when they were all thinking of how to destroy it, a voice from Potterwatch on the radio came.

"Sad news today as it has been confirmed that the first saviour of Hogwarts, Sarah Peters, has sadly passed away".

Arabella closed her eyes. There went another. First her headmaster Dumbledore, then her great-great grandfather Ominis, and now her great-great grandmother, Sarah.

A few more weeks passed, and they were once again sat in the tent, when Hermione spoke up.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed, after cutting Harry's hair.

"What?" Harry asked, staring into nothing.

"I'll tell you in a minute!" Hermione said, now walking to the table. She seemed to be thinking of something.

Arabella and Harry walked up to her.

"What's up?" Arabella asked.

"The Sword of Gryffindor! It has Basilisk venom on it!" Hermione said happily.

"Brilliant" Harry said, holding his thumbs up.

"No, you don't understand. Remember, back in second year? You stabbed the Basilisk with the-" Hermione said.

"Sword of Gryffindor" Harry said, realising.

"Well, I wouldn't know, considering the fact that I was in the Basilisk's throat at the time" Arabella thought.

"You are brilliant, Hermione, truly" Harry said.

"Actually, it's quite logical, you stabbed the Basilisk with the sword, which then impregnated the sword with the venom, and then as we know Basilisk venom can destroy Horcruxes!" Hermione smiled.

Arabella then remembered stabbing the diary with the Basilisk fang.

"Well then, I wouldn't have gotten that" Arabella said.

Suddenly, the lights went out. Arabella, Harry and Hermione looked around.

"What the-" Harry said, but was cut off by the lights coming back on, revealing Ron, standing there with his Deluminator, which was handed to him by Dumbledore.

"Yeah, that's right, I'm still here. But you three carry on, don't let me spoil the fun" Ron said moodily.

Harry turned to look at him. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong, not according to you, anyway" Ron said.

"If you've got something to say, spit it out, don't be shy" Harry said.

"Alright, I'll spit it out" Ron said. "But don't expect me to be grateful now that there's another damn thing we've got to find" Ron said.

"I thought you knew what you signed up for" Harry said.

"Yeah, I thought I did too" Ron said moodily.

"Look. I don't see what part of this isn't living up to your expectations, and in case you haven't noticed, we've already found one Horcrux" Harry said.

"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them, nowhere effing near" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione then stepped forward to Ron. "Take the locket off, Ron, you wouldn't be saying this if you hadn't been wearing it all day!" Hermione said, trying to take the locket off Ron's neck, but Ron held it, keeping it on.

"If you don't want to be here, go home" Arabella said, glaring at Ron.

"Maybe I will! Why do you think I've been listening to the radio every night? So I don't hear Fred's name, or Ginny's, or George's or Mum" Ron said.

"You don't think I've been listening too? You think I don't know how this feels?" Harry asked, his temper clearly rising.

"No! You don't know how this feels, your parents are dead! You have no family!" Ron yelled.

Then, Harry lunged at Ron, and they started fighting.

"No! Stop!" Hermione yelled, trying to pull them apart, which she did.

"GO THEN!" Harry shouted.

Ron glared at him. He took the locket off and threw it to the ground.

"And you? Are you coming or staying?" Ron asked Hermione.

Hermione looked at Harry and Arabella, speechless.

"That's right, I heard you two the other night-" Ron said.

"Ron that's- that's nothing!" Hermione said.

Ron then stormed out of the tent. Hermione chased after him.

"Ron! Ron! Come back!" Hermione called, but there was a loud crack, and Arabella realised that Ron had Disapparated.