"The cruelest thing about hope is that it convinces you to keep listening."
_____________________________
The days that followed blurred together into one long stretch of waiting.
Morning.
Night.
Rain.
Silence.
The endless search for food.
The endless search for clues.
The endless search for hope.
None of it seemed to lead anywhere.
The Horcrux only made everything worse.
They had agreed to wear it in shifts, believing it was the fairest solution.
Instead, it slowly poisoned each of them.
Harry became angrier. Specifically with Katherine.
Hermione buried herself even deeper inside books, surviving on barely any sleep.
Ron grew increasingly irritable, snapping over the smallest inconveniences before apologising moments later.
Katherine...
Katherine barely recognised herself anymore.
Every time she wore the locket, the ache in her back intensified until it became almost unbearable.
Sometimes it burned.
Sometimes it throbbed.
Sometimes it felt like someone was pressing fingers directly into the bruise across her back.
She never mentioned it.
Not once.
They already had enough to worry about.
The worst part wasn't the pain.
It was the thoughts.
They came quietly.
Almost naturally.
You're slowing them down.
You're the reason they're hiding.
If you weren't here...
they'd all be safe.
By the fourth afternoon she couldn't bear being inside the tent any longer.
Without saying a word, Katherine slipped outside.
The forest was eerily still.
The air hung heavy beneath the canopy of trees, thick with the scent of damp earth and pine needles.
She walked until the voices inside the tent disappeared completely.
YOU ARE READING
We will meet again ~ Fred Weasley
Fanfic________________________________________ Currently rewriting 23/04/2026 - will be changing the current chapters daily It's always been the two of them. No one else. In fact, they had never expected to need anyone else. Hogwarts changed that. Schoo...
