Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 106 - No Time To Rest

I held on tightly as we flew higher and higher. The busy streets of London grew smaller under us and, soon enough, they were far behind us. The cool breeze was soothing against my exposed burns, but soon I began to shiver due to the cold.

We found ourselves flying over mountains and lakes when we began to lose altitude. Lower and lower the dragon flew until we arrived above a small lake.

"I say we jump when it gets low enough!" Harry shouted and my eyes widened. "Straight into the water before it realizes we're here!"

I reluctantly agreed, as did the others, for we could see no other choice.

"NOW!"

I slithered over the side and plummeted feet first into the air. I felt my heart rise up in my chest as I sped toward the surface of the lake. Then my feet hit the water hard and I plunged into the freezing water. I kicked toward the surface and gasped as I breathed the cool air. Harry was already swimming toward the shore as Ron and Hermione emerged from the water.

As soon as we reached the shore, Hermione collapsed onto the ground, panting and shivering, as Harry started to set up the usual protective enchantments. I winced as I crouched down beside Ron and Hermione, who both had red burns all over their faces and arms — as I undoubtedly had myself. Harry sat down beside us as Hermione pulled out dry clothes for all of us and essence of dittany and began to dab some on her burns. I put some on my own minor burns on my arms but grimaced when I saw Harry's hands, which definitely needed something stronger than Dittany.

"No, wait," I said and grabbed my bag and wand. "Accio burn-healing paste."

The flask flew straight into my hands and I unscrewed the lid. He reached for it but I stopped him.

"Let me," I said and began to gently rub some on his badly wounded hands.

He thanked me and looked at me tenderly once I was done. We looked at each other for a moment but were interrupted by the sound of Ron's voice.

"Well, on the upside," he said, "we got the Horcrux. On the downside —"

"— no sword," Harry said.

"That double-crossing little scab . . ."

"What'll happen to it, do you think?" Hermione asked suddenly as she looked at the dragon.

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

"What do you mean?" she asked.

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

We all started to laugh uncontrollably.

"What are we going to do, though?" I said as we stopped laughing. "He'll know, won't he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!"

"Maybe they'll be too scared to tell him?" Ron said. "Maybe they'll cover up —"

Suddenly Harry hissed in pain and covered his scar. I turned to him, filled with worry, but I knew all too well that he was looking into He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's mind again. After a while, he slowly stood up.

"Harry?" I said hesitantly

"He knows," he said simply. "He knows, and he's going to check where the others are, and the last one, is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it."

"What?"

"But what did you see? How do you know?" Hermione questioned.

"I saw him find out about the cup, I — I was in his head, 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 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?" Ron asked as they stood up.

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

"Wait, wait!" Hermione cried. "We can't just go, we haven't got a plan, we need to —"

"We need to get going," Harry said firmly. "Can you imagine what he's going to do once he realizes 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?" I asked, feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

"We'll go to Hogsmeade," Harry said. "and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school's like. Let's all get under the cloak, 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."

Hermione and I exchanged a worried look before agreeing and moving closer to them. Harry pulled the Cloak on us and we squeezed ourselves together as much as possible. Then, without waisting another second, we turned on the spot.