Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 88

         

Ron's Departure

"If somebody swapped the real sword for a fake while it was in Dumbledore's office," I panted, lifting the empty portrait of Phineas Nigellus free of the beaded bag, keeping my wand pointed at it, ready to cast a spell. "Phineas Nigellus would have seen it happen, he hangs right beside the case!"

"Unless he was asleep," said Harry under his breath. I ignored him and kneeled to the empty portrait now leaning against the side of the tent.

"Er—Phineas? Phineas Nigellus?"

Nothing happened.

"Phineas Nigellus? I called again. "Professor Black? Please, could we talk to you? Please?"

"'Please' always helps," said a cold, snide voice, and Phineas Nigellus slid into his portrait.

At once, I cried, "Obsurco!"

A black blindfold appeared over Phineas Nigellus's clever, dark eyes, causing him to bump into the frame and shriek with pain. "What—how dare—what are you?"

"I'm very sorry, Professor Black," I said, "but it is a necessary precaution!"

" Remove this foul addition at once! Remove it, I say! You are ruining a great work of art! Where am I? What is going on?"

"Never mind where we are," said Harry, and Phineas Nigellus froze, abandoning his attempts to peel off the painted blindfold.

"Can that possibly be the voice of the elusive Mr. Potter?"

"Maybe," said Harry. "We've got a couple of questions to ask you—about the sword of Gryffindor."

Harry I and continued to gather information about the sword's recent activities. Once Phineas vanished to return to his portrait, I turned to Harry.

"Harry!" I cried.

"I know!" Harry shouted., punching the air. I began to squash Phineas' portrait back into my beaded bag; when I had fastened the clasp, I threw it aside and raised a shining face towards Harry.

"The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthen them—Harry, that sword's impregnated with basilisk venom!"

"And Dumbledore didn't give it to Lily of I because he still needed it, he wanted to use it on the locket—"

"—and he must have realized they wouldn't let Lily have it if he put it in his will—"

"—so, he made a copy—"

"—and put a fake in the glass case—"

"—and he left the real one—where?"

"Think!" whispered Hermione. "Think! Where would he have left it?"

We began to debate locations when Harry turned to ask Ron what he thought. Yet, Ron was lying in the shadow of a lower bunk, looking stony.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.

"What?"

Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk.

"You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."

I shook my head, perplexed.

"What's the problem?" asked Harry.

"Problem! There is no problem," said Ron, still refusing to look at Harry and I. "Not according to you, anyway."

The several plunks on the canvas of the tent informed me that it started to rain.

"Well, you've obviously got a problem," said Harry. "Spit it out, will you?"

Ron finally sat up to face us. He looked mean and unlike himself.

"All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."

"I don't know?" repeated Harry. "I don't know?"

"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," said Ron, "you know, with nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running around a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."

"Ron," I said in such a quiet voice.

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

"Yeah, I thought I did too."

The Sword

"Where are we?" Harry asked, peering around at a fresh mass of trees as I opened the beaded bag and began tugging out tent poles.

"The Forest of Dean," I said. "I came camping here once with my mum and dad."

Our escape from Godric's Hollow had been so narrow that Voldemort seemed more threatening than before. Harry refused to stop keeping watch, much to my dismay yet gratitude. The snow played tricks on my eyes. It would see people in the dark snow cover trees, haunting images of friends or foes.

I was fast asleep, curled up under my blankets and did not move until Harry said my name several times.

"Hermione!"

I finally gave up on sleep and came to consciousness, pushing the hair from my face.

"What's wrong? Harry? Are you all right?"

"It's okay, everything is fine. More than fine. I'm great. There's someone here."

"What do you mean? Who--?" I looked around, then saw Ron holding the sword of Gryffindor and dripping into the threadbare carpet. Harry backed into a shadowy corner.

I slid out of my bunk and moved like a sleepwalker toward Ron. I stopped right in front of him, my lips slightly parted, eyes wide. He gave a weak hopeful smile and half raised his arms.

I launched myself forward and started punching every inch of him that I could reach. I yelled at him. He attempted to explain himself.

"One thing I would like to know, though," I said. "How exactly did you find us tonight? That's important. Once we know, we'll be able to make sure we're not visited by anyone else we don't want to see."

Ron glared at me, then pulled a small silver object from his jeans pocket.

"This."

"The Deluminator?"

He explained how he found us with aid of the deluminator finding powers.

"What doe?" I asked.

"A doe appeared that led me to the sword," Harry said. "I followed it, revealing myself to Ron."

"Did you see who was casting it? And it led you to the sword! I can't believe it! Then what happened?"

Ron explained how he had watched Harry jumped into the pool and waited for him to resurface, how he realized something was wrong, dived in, and saved Harry, then returned for the sword.

"What was wrong, Harry?" I asked.

"Another vision," Harry shrugged, "nearly drowned from it."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then, without a word, I climbed back into my bed and settled down without another word.

"About the best you could hope for, I think," I heard Harry murmur.

"Yeah," said Ron. "Could've been worse. Remember those birds she set on me?"

"I still haven't ruled it out," I said, my voice muffled from the pillow.