Sophia Holmes and the Search for Horcruxes (Harry Potter Fanfic) *Completed*

Chapter Six

I land painfully on a bed of leaves and twigs in a heavily wooded area. Grimacing, I sit myself up and see Ron twitching beside me.

"Shit!" I say, up immediately. "Hermione!" As Hermione stirs, I scramble over to him and check him over. He's still conscious and breathing but his shirt is soaked in blood. I rip it open, exposing his flayed upper arm.

I look him over and shake my head. He's already lost too much blood - if I don't do something quick he'll die. I tear the arm off Ilyena's jacket and use it as a tourniquet to wrap around his upper arm.

Ron yells in pain as I tighten it.

"Harry, quickly, in my bag, there’s a small bottle labeled ‘Essence of
Dittany'," Hermione calls. I hear Harry getting clumsily up but focus on treating Ron. The bleeding is already beginning to stop. "Quickly!"

Harry stumbles dizzily over to Hermione’s bag and starts rummaging around. "Accio Dittany."

"Unstopper it," Hermione says, untying my makeshift tourniquet.

"He's too far gone - if we take that off, he'll lose too much blood."

Hermione shakes her head and I draw back, trusting her judgement that this potion will work.

"Hermione," Harry says, sounding nauseous as he sees Ron. "His arm -"

"Just do it!"

Harry unstoppers it and hands it quickly over to Hermione. She sprinkles three drops onto his arm and green smoke billows up, closing the wound immediately. I sit back, watching the magic work in awe. We could do with some of that in the Muggle world.

"What happened?" Harry asks as we relax. "I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place."

"We were," Hermione nods.  "We were there. But Yaxley had hold of me. I knew we couldn’t stay once he’d seen, so when he let go I brought us here. Ron got Splinched." She shakes her head, looking stressed. "I’m... sorry."

"Don’t be stupid." Harry answers. The smoke clears and Ron's wound is completely healed, all but a scar which runs up his arm. I notice at the same time an obscure scar on the lower arm which looks as though he was gripped tight by something with tentacles. They don't match the marks of any tentacled animals I know of.

"It’s all I feel safe doing," Hermione sighs, rising and taking her wand out. She begins to walk in a wide circle, muttering something under her breath.

"Salvio Hexia... Protego Totalum..."

"What’re you doing?" Harry asks but if I recognise my Latin, it's some kind of protection spell.

"Protective enchantments," Hermione confirms. "I don’t fancy another visit like we had on Shaftesbury Avenue, do you? Especially with Ron like this.  You can get going on the tent..."

"Tent?" Harry asks with a frown. "Where am I supposed to find -" he stops and we exchange a look of disbelief before looking down at her bag.

Harry delves his hand inside and draws out a small, foldaway tent.

"Mr Weasley's tent!" Harry cries. "Hermione, you are truly brilliant."

"We're not all going to fit in there," I say, and Harry looks up at me with a grin. "No!" I say in realisation. "Seriously!"

"Yep," Harry laughs.

"So Hermione has managed to fit a tent which is bigger on the inside into a clutch bag which is bigger on the inside? My brain hurts!"

"What makes it better is the interior of this tent is bigger than the interior of the bag," Harry grins.

"I never liked physics!" I say, returning the smile as I help him put it up.