Courage - Harry Potter

-107-

Book: Courage
Chapter 107
Word Count: 6180

The four friends felt that it was best not to stay anywhere too long, with the sole proviso that their next move took them within reach of a bacon sandwich. Hermione therefore removed the enchantments she had placed around the clearing, while Harry, Layla, and Ron obliterated all the marks and impressions on the ground that might show that they had camped there. Then they Disapparated to the outskirts of a small market town.

Once they had pitched the tent in the shelter of a small copse of trees and surrounded it with freshly cast defensive enchantments, Harry had ventured out under the Invisibility Cloak to find sustenance. However, he returned shortly after, empty-handed and complaining about a cold chill that he had experienced and mouthing the word 'dementors'.

"But you can make a brilliant Patronus!" protested Ron.

"I couldn't... make one," he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't come."

"So we still haven't got any food."

"Shut up, Ron," snapped Layla. "Harry, what happened? Why do you think you couldn't make your Patronus? You managed perfectly yesterday."

"I don't know."

Ron kicked a chair leg.

"What?" he snarled at Layla. "I'm starving! All I've had since I bled half to death is a couple of toadstools!"

"You go and fight your way through the dementors, then," said Harry, stung.

"I would, but my arm's in a sling, in case you hadn't noticed!"

"That's convenient."

"And what's that supposed to—?"

"Of course!" cried Hermione, clapping a hand to her forehead and startling both of them into silence. "Harry, give me the locket! Come on," she said impatiently, clicking her fingers at him, when he did not react, "the Horcrux, Harry, you're still wearing it!"

She held out her hands, and Harry lifted the golden chain over his head. The moment it parted contact with Harry's skin, he felt free and oddly light.

"Better?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, loads better!"

"Harry," she said, crouching down in front of him and using the kind of voice he associated with visiting the very sick, "you don't think you've been possessed, do you?"

"What? No!" he said defensively. "I remember everything we've done while I've been wearing it. I wouldn't know what I'd done if I'd been possessed, would I? Layla told me there were times when she couldn't remember anything."

"True," said Layla. "I don't think he was possessed."

"Hmm," said Hermione, looking down at the heavy gold locket. "Well, maybe we ought not to wear it. We can just keep it at the tent."

"We are not leaving that Horcrux lying around," Harry stated firmly. "If we lose it, if it gets stolen—"

"Oh, all right, all right," said Hermione, and she placed it around her own neck and tucked it out of sight down the front of her shirt. "But we'll take turns wearing it, so nobody keeps it on for too long."

"Great," said Ron irritably, "and now we've sorted that out, can we please get some food?"

"Fine, but we'll go somewhere else to find it," said Hermione with half a glance at Harry. "There's no point staying where we know dementors are swooping around."

In the end, they settled down for the night in a far flung field belonging to a lonely farm, from which they had managed to obtain eggs and bread.

"It's not stealing, is it?" asked Hermione in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs on toast. "Not if I left some money under the chicken coop?"