𝑈𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 ☾ 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑜 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑓𝑜𝑦

Reprieve ☾ 7-05

Once Harry and Ron had finished setting up the tent, we helped get Draco inside. He groaned in pain from the wound on his arm, and I flinched every time he opened his mouth. We had to set him on one of the bunks and he lay there for the entire night, drifting in and out of consciousness. The essence of dittany would heal him fairly quickly, but he definitely needed the rest. Hermione had set the protective enchantments quickly as well, and soon we were all seated around the radio inside the tent. Ron kept fiddling with it to try and find the correct frequency, but it was mostly dead air and static. Harry and I had gotten a bit bored, so I pulled out a travel-size wizard's chess set and we began to play. After a few hours of going at it, he resigned after losing his queen in a brutal and vicious attack. We were all deathly tired, but Draco's injury was giving me too much anxiety for me to even think about sleeping. I volunteered the first watch, and Hermione, Ron, and Harry quickly fell asleep in their bunks.

-

"You first." Hermione instructed calmly. We were now standing in the clearing, a bit of a ways from the tent, wands pointed at the locket we'd retrieved from Umbridge. Draco was watching from a log nearby, his arm in a sling. He nodded once for encouragement, and Harry raised his wand.

"Dissendium!" The spell shot out and a bright blast flashed before our eyes, but the locket stayed irritatingly intact. A thin wisp of smoke rose from the log where the locket laid. A faint clicking could be heard from inside of it. It had flown across the clearing and now sat in a pile of leaves. Hermione walked closer.

"Incendio." The leaves burst into a flourish of flame but the locket quickly extinguished. The clicking continued and I sighed. Harry raised his wand again.

"Expulso!" The locket let out a screech and it flew across the clearing again, landing in yet another pile of leaves. It shook violently before settling. Ron stepped closer now, looking a bit tired with bags under his eyes. I suppose he didn't get much sleep last night either.

"Diffindo." Harry tried again, and the blast flashed, but the locket clicked again and shone brightly in the sun that fell through the trees above.

"Damn." I whispered to myself. "Confringo!" The area around the locket exploded into flame, but the locket again showed no sign of damage. Harry exhaled, obviously irritated, and took another step toward the locket.

"Reducto!" The locket bounced away, and Harry chased it with spell after spell. The clicking continued and Harry clenched his jaw. When it still remained shiny and intact, I exhaled sharply before approaching Harry and placing a hand on his arm in attempt to comfort him. Dumbledore should have finished his own damn quest instead of sending us.

"This is obviously not working. It's not going to fucking break." I grumbled, frowning at the forest floor. Harry nodded once before picking up the locket. I grabbed it from him and placed it around my neck.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, brow furrowed. Harry exhaled and I tucked the locket into my shirt.

"We have to keep it safe until we find out how to destroy it." I snapped. Ron frowned.

"Seems strange, mate," He commented, looking to Harry. "Dumbledore sends you off to find all these horcruxes but doesn't tell you how to destroy them. Doesn't that bother you?" Harry turned to him and raised a single eyebrow and he frowned. It was an obvious answer, he was just being stupid about it. This whole thing was stupid. I whipped around and looked at Ron like he was crazy. Harry turned around and walked away, sighing in frustration. I frowned again and watched as he stepped off through the trees. Fine, then.

-

I fiddled with the radio this time, and when Ron reached to take it from me, I smacked his hand away. He gave me an incredulous look and I shook my head. I would figure it out, since he obviously couldn't. I twisted the knob one more time and it flickered to life. The sound filtered through the clearing. Good thing Hermione had cast a silencing charm.