the hallows - f. weasley

- c h a p t e r - s i x t e e n -

 Gemma woke up with a sharp gasp–nearly colliding with the bottom of the bunk above her, but Harry caught her just before she did.

She stared at him with wild eyes, "W-What happened? Where are we?! Where's Luna?"

Harry just shook his head, "We're okay. We got out of there–Hermione saved us. And Luna..." He pinched his lips, "Luna is alive but in captivity." He shifted his eyes to her legs before he said, "You need to stay still–Hermione fixed up your leg as best she could, but you're gonna be a little sore. She said it's gonna hurt like you sprained it real bad."

Gemma could already feel the ache in her ankle now that she was awake, but she didn't question the situation because she was immediately concerned at the franticness from Hermione as she was snapping at Ron, "But the Deathly Hallows can't exist, Ron!"

"You keep saying that, but one of them can," Ron retorted quickly–not even noticing Harry and Gemma watching now. "Harry's Invisibility Cloak—"

"'The Tale of the Three Brothers' is a story," Hermione told him firmly. "A story about how humans are frightened of death. If surviving was as simple as hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, we'd have everything we need already!"

"I don't know. We could do with an unbeatable wand," Harry spoke up–twisting his new wand that he hated so much over his fingers.

"There's no such thing, Harry!"

"You said there have been loads of wands—the Deathstick and whatever they were called—"

"All right, even if you want to kid yourself the Elder Wand's real, what about the Resurrection Stone?" Her fingers formed quotation marks in the air as her tone was thick with sarcasm. "No magic can raise the dead, and that's that!"

"When my wand connected with You-Know-Who's, it made my mum and dad appear...and Cedric..."

Gemma nearly choked on air at the mention of Cedric.

It had been a long while since she had thought about her best friend–trying to make sure no one on this quest died. And now that he had been mentioned–her chest grew heavy, and she cradled her head in her hands as Hermione shot back, "But they weren't really back from the dead, were they? Those kinds of—of pale imitations aren't the same as truly bringing someone back to life."

"But she, the girl in the tale, didn't really come back, did she? The story says that once people are dead, they belong with the dead. But the second brother still got to see her and talk to her, didn't he? He even lived with her for a while..." There was a brief pause before he continued, "So that Peverell bloke who's buried in Godric's Hollow, you don't know anything about him, then?"

"No," Hermione replied–sounding a little relieved at the subject change. "I looked him up after I saw the mark on his grave; if he'd been anyone famous or done anything important, I'm sure he'd be in one of our books. The only place I've managed to find the name 'Peverell' is Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. I borrowed it from Kreacher. It lists the pure-blood families that are now extinct in the male line. Apparently the Peverells were one of the earliest families to vanish."

"'Extinct in the male line'?" Ron repeated in confusion.

"It just means that the name's died out. Like the Peverells–they may have descents, but they don't have the same last name," Gemma explained–bringing attention to herself. She lifted her eyes and saw Hermione open her mouth to speak, but she said, "I'm fine–let's just—"

"Marvolo Gaunt!" Harry cried–making Gemma jump.

"Sorry?" Ron and Hermione asked together.

"Marvolo Gaunt! You-Know-Who's grandfather! In the Pensieve! With Dumbledore! Marvolo Gaunt said he was descended from the Peverells!" Hermione, Ron, and Gemma all looked at him in confusion, so he continued, "The ring, the ring that became the Horcrux, Marvolo Gaunt said it had the Peverell coat of arms on it! I saw him waving it in the bloke from the Ministry's face, he nearly shoved it up his nose!"