Chapter 6: The Quest Continues
"I- I love her," he said, glancing at Hermione with a small smile. "And that's why I can suddenly do wandless, nonverbal magic," he concluded. "As soon as I realized that I loved her…it was as if I was granted these special powers, powers that came solely from love."
"But Harry," Remus cut in. "You did it once. That hardly means that…"
"He did it again," Hermione interrupted, grabbing Harry's hand and giving it an affectionate squeeze, "just now… upstairs."
Remus smiled and stood up to give Harry a pat on the shoulder. "Well done," he said, his voice filled with pride. "Well done."
"I can't believe you can do wandless magic," Tonks exclaimed. "Honestly Potter, is there anything you can't do?" she joked.
At those words, however, Ron angrily pushed back his chair and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving everyone else completely shocked and confused.
***
"Ron, let us in," Hermione said a few minutes later, as she knocked loudly on Ron's bedroom door. "We need to talk." There was silence; Harry and Hermione looked grimly at one another.
"C'mon mate," Harry said loudly, banging his fist against the doorframe. "Let us in. We'll stay out here all night if we have to, Ron, and you know-"
Suddenly the door opened and Ron appeared in the doorway. "I swear, you two are the most bloody annoying people I've met. Never let up, do you?" he grumbled.
The trio stood there awkwardly for several minutes, none of them saying a word. Finally, Hermione spoke up. "Ron, can we please talk about this?"
"What's there to talk about?" Ron asked, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation. "That my two best friends are snogging behind my back?"
"Would you rather we did it in front of you?" Harry joked, but he fell silent after Hermione gave him a sharp look.
"Ron, listen," Hermione said gently, turning her attention back towards Ron. "We didn't do it to exclude you or hurt you…it just happened. This has nothing to do with you."
Ron snorted and looked away.
"You and I aren't even together!" Hermione exclaimed, growing more and more frustrated. "Didn't we decide mere weeks ago that there was nothing going on between us, that there never will be?"
Ron didn't say a word. He just sat there, staring across the room, crossly.
"Ron," Hermione said, her voice becoming bossy, as if she was speaking to a small child. "You had all of last year to ask me out, but you didn't; instead, you were too busy shoving your tongue down Lavender's throat. You lost your chance, and, as we realized at the beginning of the summer, what we thought was there, just isn't any more. Harry and I are together now and you have to accept that."
She looked tentatively at Ron, hoping that he wasn't even angrier at her, but Ron remained perfectly still, not saying a word.
"What is this really about, Ron?" Harry asked suddenly, startling both Hermione and Ron. They had forgotten he was even in the room.
"What do you mean?" Ron said, finally turning to look at him.
"What I mean is, I don't think this has anything to do with me and Hermione being together," Harry said defiantly. "So what is this really about?"
There was a long silence before Ron finally exploded. "God, Harry, isn't it obvious?!"
Harry looked at his friend in confusion.
"You have everything, Harry!" Ron exclaimed, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Ever since first year, it's always been about you, hasn't it? You've been `The Boy Who Lived', `The Chosen One', while all I've ever been is Ron, Harry Potter's sidekick."
"Oh, Ron," Harry said, "you know it's not like that-"
"But it is, Harry!" Ron said, practically shouting. "You're the star Quidditch player, the youngest seeker in a century; you're the one who won the Triwizard Tournament, who faced dragons and merepeople; you're the one who everyone looked up to during the D.A. You have the fame, the money, and now you have Hermione…"
"Hermione's not some prize, some token," Harry said, feeling his temper rise. "We've had this conversation before, Ron. I do not want the fame; I do not want the money. I just want to be an average seventeen-year-old wizard; someone who only has to worry about not failing his N.E.W.T.s, not failing the entire Wizarding world. And when I finally find something, someone, that makes me feel happy, that makes me feel normal, you don't want to let me."
"It's not like that…" Ron said, sheepishly. "I reckon I'm just jealous…okay, incredibly jealous…It's just, you always get your way, don't you?"
"Get my way?" Harry exclaimed. "When have I ever gotten my way? Was it when my parents were killed, forcing me to live in that bloody cupboard underneath the stairs at my aunt's house? Or when I finally met my godfather, only to have him taken away from me as well? Or when the entire Wizarding World is against me because the Ministry was too stupid to realize that I was telling the truth about Voldemort all along? Or-"
"Okay, I get it," Ron said, holding up his hand for Harry to stop. "I get it," he repeated, slightly softer, looking down at his hands in embarrassment.
"It's just…you two won't leave me out in the cold?" Ron asked.
"Of course not. Hermione may be my girlfriend, but you'll always be my best mate. Nothing is going to change that…well, as long as you stop acting like a royal prat."
"Yeah…I'm sorry," he mumbled, obviously embarrassed, for his ears suddenly turned a vibrant shade of red. And that was the last they ever talked about it.
***
The next few days went by quickly for Harry. He spent most of his time in the library with Hermione, researching Horcruxes and spells that would be helpful in the final battle. Somehow, he felt that something had changed inside of him since he had started dating Hermione. His nightmares came less and less frequently, and when he was haunted in his sleep, Hermione would always come rushing into his room to comfort him.
But more importantly, Harry felt himself becoming happier, more at ease. He found himself less anxious, more content. He looked forward to those afternoons spent in the library with Hermione. To him, it didn't matter if all they did was research, or if they simply sat on the couch talking.
He began noticing the small, unimportant things about Hermione, things he had never even thought to notice before: how she bit her lip anxiously when she was trying to figure out a difficult problem or understand a confusing passage in a book, or how she would always make sure the stack of books beside her were perfectly aligned.
Ron found it amusing to tease Harry about the extensive amount of studying Harry had suddenly taken to doing. "That girl's rubbed off on you, mate," he would say, chuckling at Harry's expense. And when Harry would argue that he actually enjoyed the research, Ron would cut him off, always replying, "Better you than me," before walking off, leaving Harry behind, wondering what the hell he meant.
Harry was quite pleased at how well Ron seemed to be handling Harry and Hermione's new relationship. He didn't even seem bothered by the occasional kiss goodnight or when they held hands, something that greatly shocked and delighted Harry. He reckoned even Hermione would admit that Ron's emotional range had grown larger than a teaspoon over the past few years.
Besides studying, Harry spent most of his time training with either Remus or Tonks. The trio would train together in the morning, but after everyone else left, Harry would remain behind, spending extra hours working out and practicing dueling spells. He began working himself harder and harder each day. He knew that no amount of extra training would ever prepare him for what he had to do in the final battle, yet he still pushed himself, day after day, to new limits, setting new standards and goals for himself every day.
One afternoon, after a particularly long and tiring training session, Harry lay inert on the worn couch in the library, fiddling with the first fake locket he had found with Dumbledore.
Groaning, he shoved the locket in his pocket, rolled off the couch, and walked towards the table where Hermione was researching. "Have you found anything?" he asked, his voice weary.
"Nothing at all!" Hermione exclaimed, her voice filled with shock. Harry chuckled, highly amused that Hermione was genuinely shocked that her precious books didn't have all of the answers.
"What have you found so far?" Harry asked, pulling up a chair next to Hermione and sitting down.
"Everything about Dark Magic artifacts," Hermione said, rhythmically tapping her quill against the table. "But to take the magic out of the artifact, these books only suggest burning or some kind of spell like Reducto." She sighed.
"We've already tried those methods," Harry grumbled. He thought back to when the trio had attempted to burn the locket, and he chuckled at the memory. In exasperation, Ron had just chucked the locket into the fire. Realizing what he had done, Ron had scrambled on all fours, dishing the locket out of the fire, burning his eyebrows off in the process. The locket, however, remained completely unscathed. It hadn't even been warm to the touch, despite the fact that it had just been sitting amongst the hot flames.
Harry groaned and opened The History of Dark Artifacts that was sitting on the table. The two of them had been sitting in silence for several moments, each of them scanning through book after book in search of some way to solve Riddle's mystery. Riddle's riddle, Harry thought, causing him to chuckle. However, the joke did not seem nearly as funny by the time he explained it to Hermione, and he turned his attention back to the book in front of him.
"Harry, look at this," Hermione said suddenly, grabbing him by the arm and pulled him towards her so he could have a look at the book in front of her. "'An artifact is categorized as one of Dark Magic when a spell has been placed upon it, giving the artifact a magical energy that runs within it. Argus Lucient created the first Dark Magic artifact in 346 B.C., placing the enchantment upon a silver mirror…'"
"That makes sense," Harry said, slowly taking in what Hermione had just read. "If " Harry asked impatiently.
Hermione scanned the page, biting her lip impatiently. "Locus malum quod obscurum super simultas," Hermione said suddenly. "That's the spell you use to cast Dark Magic upon an object…and to take away the spell…" She drifted off, scanning the pages furiously.
"Demo atrum veneficus navitas ut est intus simultas," Hermione said softly, a few moments later. She looked up at Harry. "Do you think that would work?" she asked, excitedly.
Harry wasted no time. Getting up from his chair, he ran out of the library and to his room, where the locket was wrapped in a cloth in his drawer.
A few moments later, back in the library, he carefully set the locket on the table, being careful not to touch it. He still had yet to figure out why he had passed out after touching it the first time. He recalled that Hermione and Ron could touch the locket, free of any harm.
Pointing his wand at the locket, Harry clearly said the spell. Much to their disappointment, the locket remained intact, unharmed, the Horcrux still within it.
Feeling defeated, Harry slumped in his chair, shoving his hands angrily in his pockets. Inside his pocket, Harry's hand collided with the fake locket he had been fiddling with earlier. Taking it out of his pocket, he noticed for the first time how similar the two lockets actually looked, almost identical except for the snakelike S inscribed on the other locket. Snakes, Slytherin's mark…and Voldemort's. Harry thought to himself But of course it would be Voldemort's mark as well, Harry reasoned. Voldemort was the last descendant of Salazaar Slytherin, the last of the powerful lineage, the last to speak to Parseltongue…
"But of course," Harry murmured softly, causing Hermione to look at him in confusion.
Ignoring Hermione, Harry eyed the snakelike S on the locket carefully. Concentrating with all of his energy, Harry slowly said the spell, Demo atrum veneficus navitas ut est intus simultas, again, this time in Parseltongue.
The effects were immediate. The locket split in half; a stream of light bursting from it, knocking Harry backwards. After Harry had gotten back to his feet, the light was gone, as was the locket; all that was left was a small puddle of gold where the locket had been.
He glanced next to him at Hermione, who was looking at him with a mixture of shock, confusion, and awe. "What just happened?" Hermione asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I did it," Harry said, hardly able to control his excitement. "I just destroyed the Horcrux."
Author's Note: I know I wrote things in this chapter that aren't necessarily possible from the books, but please excuse me. I tried to keep it as close as I could to what actually would happen while destroying a Horcrux. Oh, and the Latin spell…I used an online translator, so I'm sorry if it's not right.
But other than that, I hope you liked it- Please Review!!
-->