Complete and Utter Poppycock

Chapter 23: The Final Hiding Place

Chapter 23: The Final Hiding Place

The cool breeze soothed the burning and blistering skin from the dragon. I could hear Ron swearing at the top of his voice, putting a smile on my face. Hermione was sobbing. Harry and I were the only two holding ourselves together. On and on we flew, over countryside parceled our in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscape like strips of matte and glossy ribbon.

"What do you reckon it's looking for?" Ron yelled as we flew farther and farther north.

"No idea," Harry bellowed back.

I was growing hungry, the sun slipping lower in the sky, which was turning indigo; and still the dragon flew, cities and towns gliding out of sight beneath us.

"Is it my imagination," shouted Ron after a considerable stretch of silence, "or are we losing height?"

I looked down and saw deep green mountains and maimed, coppery in the sunset. The landscape seemed to grow larger and more detailed. Lower and lower the dragon flew, in spiraling circles, honing in, it seemed, upon one of the smaller lakes.

"I say we jump when it gets low enough!" Harry called back. I stared wide-eyed. WHAT? "Straight into the water before it realizes we're here!"

Everyone seemed to agree but me. I was not okay with this. Jumping into freezing cold temperatures in this time of the year? It's barely close to summer!

"NOW!"

I slithered over the side of the dragon and plummeted feet first toward the surface of the lake. The water was absolutely freezing. I kicked towards the surface. The dragon was already fifty feet away, swooping low over the lake to scoop up water in its scarred about. The dragon flew on, it's wings beating hard, and landed on a distant bank. We struck out for the opposite shore. The lake didn't seem to be deep: soon it was more a question of fighting our way through reeds and mud than swimming, and at last we flopped, sodden, panting, and exhausted, onto slippery grass.

I collapsed, coughing and shuddering. That was probably the most freezing experience I've ever managed. Harry started casting the usual protective spells around us. Hermione was on the grass the same way I was. I winced as I dabbed essence of dittany onto my many injuries. Hermione pulled out bottles of pumpkin juice she had brought from a Shell Cottage and me a bottle of Butterbeer which I gratefully took, and clean, dry robes for all of us.

We changed and then gulped down the drinks.

"Well, on the upside," said Ron finally, watching his skin regrow, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside —"

"— no sword," said Harry through gritted teeth.

"No sword," repeated Ron. "That double-crossing little scab . . ."

Harry pulled the Horcrux from the pocket of the wet jacket he had just taken off and set it down on the gras in front of us.

"At least we can't wear it this time, that'd look a bit weird hanging round our necks," said Ron, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Hermione looked across the lake to the far bank, where the dragon was still drinking.

"What'll happen to it, do you think?" she asked. "Will it be all right?"

"You sound like Hagrid," said Ron. "It's a dragon, Hermione, it can look after itself. It's us we need to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know how to break this to you," said Ron, "but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts."

All four of us started to laugh, and once it started, it was difficult to stop. I felt lightweight with hunger.

"What are we going to do, though?" said Hermione finally. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know about the Horcruxes!"

"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him?" said Ron hopefully.

"It's not like they know exactly what we took, right?" I said.

Then Harry gasped and we all turned to each other watching him worriedly as he wreathed around on the grass. Then he shot his eyes open. He struggled up, shivering.

"He knows." Harry said. "He knows, and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one," he was already on his feet, "is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

Those dreams. . . They really are the Horcruxes. I know exactly where it is. I've seen it before already with the dream catcher. I knew those dreams were telling me something. . .

"What?" Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried.

"But what did you see? How do you know?"

"I saw him find out about he cup, I — I was in his head, he's — he's seriously angry, and scared too, he can't understand how we knew, and now he's going to check the others are safe, the the ring first. He thinks the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape's there, because it'll be so hard not to be seen getting in, I think he'll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours —"

"Did you see where in Hogwarts it is?" asked Ron, now scrambling to his feet too.

"No, he was concentrating on earning Snape, he didn't think about exactly where it is —"

"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione as Ron caught up to the Horcrux and Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to —"

"We need to get going," said Harry firmly. "Can you imagine what he's going to do once he realized the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn't safe enough?"

"But how are we going to get in?"

"We'll go to Hogsmeade," said Harry, "and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, I want to stick together this time."

"But we don't really fit —"

"It'll be dark, no one's going to notice our feet."

The flapping of enormous wings echoed across the black water: the dragon had drunk its fill and risen into the air. We paused in our preparations to watch it climb higher and higher, now black against the rapidly darkening sky, until it vanished over a nearby mountain. Hermione walked forward and her her place between the three of us. Harry pulled the Cloak down as far as it would go, and together we turned on the spot into the crushing darkness.