Chapter 8: Escape
It was several hours before they all managed to shuffle into the tent, the sun long set over the distant horizon and the moon finding her familiar place in the night sky. Luna and Ron set down Harry and Hermione at the kitchen table before Ron scurried to the kitchen to make a pot of tea. Luna conjured flames with her wand into the nearby fireplace before taking a seat across from Hermione.
It was several long minutes of silence before Ron returned with a steaming kettle and four cups. He poured them all a glass and gave Harry and Hermione time enough to drink two full servings, the color slowly returning to their shivering cheeks. They looked as if they had just been pulled out of freezing waters after hours of swimming, their skin clammy and their breaths uneven.
The tea seemed to work miracles, their eyes eventually being able to open, although no one dared speak. Harry's eyes darted between Ron and Luna suspiciously, though Ron noted that he wore what he hoped was a grateful smile on his face. Hermione, however, just pulled her knees to her freezing body, resting her chin on them while glaring at him with unmistakable hatred.
"Well, this is a bit awkward," started Ron, smirking, hoping that his sense of humor would be the appropriate way to break the ice.
"Yeah, being in this tent, get used to it," said Harry in an almost inaudible, shaky whisper, although he did smile back at his best friend. Hermione continued to glare. "Mind giving us an explanation, now?"
Ron cleared his throat. It was going to be a long night. "Alright, I suppose I owe you guys one…"
"Damn right you do," chided Hermione, looking away as Ron prepared to talk.
He ignored the interjection. "Well, to start, if it means anything I wanted to come back the minute I left." Ron stopped to wait for their reaction. Hermione had not moved a muscle, but now Harry had the same insulted look on his face. Obviously, his comment meant nothing to them, but that wasn't anything he had not expected.
"Well anyway, I couldn't go back to the Burrow, seeing as how we're all wanted criminals and all…"
"What do you mean by all? Why would the Ministry want you guys too?" questioned Harry, his expression of anger replaced by a look of confusion.
"See for yourself," Ron replied, reaching into his rucksack and throwing a newspaper onto the table. On the cover of the Daily Prophet, was a full page picture of Harry, with the caption Undesirable Number One Still At Large. "It's a few days old, but apparently we've been wanted for awhile…check page 3."
Harry picked up the paper and turned the front page. There, on the right hand side, were several rows of people's portraits, each looking from cell to cell with a mixture of bewilderment and fear. It reminded Harry of a school yearbook, the names of each individual plastered in bold ink under their headshots. The faces were a blend of young and old, rich and poor, a literal smorgasbord of wizards and witches alike. On the top of the page, in big bold letters, was the heading WANTED: Reward if found.
His eyes moved from side to side as he tried to identify familiar faces. Sure enough, sitting in the second column of the third row, was a picture of Ron, the caption under his freckled face saying: Listed truant, Attacked Ministry officials, Known accomplice of Undesirable Number One, (Blood traitor). Harry felt his blood boil in anger. Once again, his fame had dragged someone close to him into the line of danger. He continued to examine the pictures, eventually landing on one of a bushy-haired girl in the very first box. He looked at Hermione, who had scooted over in her chair in order to read over his shoulder. "Even on the most-wanted list, you have to be first?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. She shot him the same "Don't mess with me" look that she had been giving Ron ever since she had regained consciousness.
"It gets better," said Ron, taking a sip of his tea. "Read her caption."
Harry watched as Hermione's eyes came off of his and went back to the paper. She silently read the words out loud to herself, her mouth retarding as she approached the end of the text. Looking absolutely appalled, her jaw remained hanging as she pointed to the text.
Concerned, Harry turned his head to read for himself. Hermione Granger: Listed truant, Unregistered Muggleborn, Advisor to Undesirable Number One, Undesirable Number Two.
"Undesirable number two?!" said Harry incredulously, smashing his fist on to the table and looking at Ron as if he could answer all his questions.
He just nodded. "My guess is that someone at Hogwarts ratted us out, telling the Ministry about all your friends and who you ever talked to. It's not like you guys tried to hide the fact that you are best mates, anyway. Anyone could connect the dots as soon as both of you never returned to school."
"Don't you mean as soon as the three of us didn't return to school?" said Harry, beginning to eye Ron suspiciously.
Ron took another sip of tea before answering. "Right, but you don't see me labeled as an Undesirable. I figure it's 'cause Dad's been working in the Ministry for so long, they know all they need to about me and my family. And technically none of Thicknesse's goons can touch pureblooded families, so I guess they consider me less of a threat. Hermione, on the other hand…they would have nothing on her, her parents being muggles and all. She's a mystery to them, and since they know how close you two are…" they both blushed at his statement, making Ron's eyes darts between them curiously, "As I was saying, since they know you two are so close, and seeing as how neither of you have been seen yet…"
"You were seen?!" Hermione said in an almost-shout, forgetting to say the words in a cold tone. She caught herself afterward, immediately folding her arms back around her knees tightly and continuing to murder Ron with evil looks.
"Yeah, like I said, I didn't want to risk going back to the Burrow with my face in nearly every wizarding kitchen in England, and with Dad already being tracked by them, I didn't have much hope in returning home. So when I dissapparated I went to the town closest to Great-Aunt Muriel's house…"
"Why there?" interrupted Luna, seemingly enthralled by something in her fingertips. Harry almost jumped when she spoke. It was the first time she had talked during the whole conversation. He had forgotten that she was even in the tent with them.
"Truthfully? No one would look for me there. She really doesn't have many close friends, and Merlin knows none of my immediate family would be caught dead there unless it was something important…really important."
Harry nodded his head. Remembering the horrible conversation he had had with her at Bill and Fleur's wedding, a part of Harry told him that not many people would mind if she had disappeared at the hands of Voldemort's cronies.
"Anyway, on my way to Aunt Muriel's house, I stopped at a shop to browse through the latest Daily Prophet to make sure no one we knew had died." Ron stopped as Harry and Hermione waited for him to answer the obvious question. "Don't worry, as far as I know everyone is alright. But when I got there, there was this scruffy looking mob hanging around the entrance. I tried to act natural and just ignore them, but one of the bigger ones stopped me. Could swear he was half-troll, judging by the smell…"
Ron looked at Hermione hopefully. Unfortunately, his ill attempt at humor seemed to make her angrier.
"Who were they?" asked Harry, attempting to steer the conversation back on track. Under the table, he grabbed Hermione's leg, partially to comfort her, partially to prevent her from leaping across the table and mauling Ron to death.
"Snatchers," answered Luna for Ron. "They are all over the country. Usually they're just a bunch of thugs looking for extra money. The Ministry pays them for capturing and turning in muggle-borns or blood traitors, especially the ones on their wanted list. Daddy says that the leaders of the area groups are Death Eaters, though."
Ron waited for her to mention some sort of odd creature that Voldemort used to manipulate the Snatchers to do his bidding, but instead she returned to idly looking around the tent as if she had never spoken at all.
"How'd you escape them?" Harry questioned, now completely enthralled in Ron's tale.
"They must have noticed that my picture was in the Prophet, and they asked me who I was. I couldn't just confess right there, so I told them that I was Stanley Shunpike." Ron told them as he poured himself another cup of tea.
"And they believed you?" Harry said in disbelief.
"Well, they weren't exactly the brightest people. They stopped to debate with one another as to whether or not I was the real Stan, and I took the opportunity to apparate out of there. Must have done something wrong though, splinched myself." He held up his right hand across the table. One of his fingernails was missing. "But that's beside the point. I ended up in the hills by Ottery St. Catchpole, close enough to civilization so that I could keep an ear out on everyone's safety, but far enough away so that no one could find me. There was this cave in one of the hills where Fred and George used to hide stuff they didn't want mum to find, so I camped in there for a few days."
"Well, by then I was pretty hard on myself, abandoning you two and all. I kept thinking, 'If I can't find them, is there any way I can help them?', and on one night while I tried to find a comfortable position in my sleeping bag, it came to me. We weren't getting any leads as to the sword," he pointed his thumb towards the kitchen counter, where the artifact was resting, "and as far as Horcruxes were concerned, we only knew of the existence of the cup and the locket. But what about the last item of the founders? The one belonging to Ravenclaw? We had been so preoccupied with the items we knew about, we hadn't bothered to research the ones we didn't know existed. Like I said, I couldn't go back to the Burrow or send an owl to Ginny for help, so I did the only thing I could do: I went to go ask the only Ravenclaw in the area if she knew anything about it."
Luna's head snapped toward Ron at the allusion to her, and she smiled slightly to her three companions.
"So Ron dragged you into this whole situation?" Hermione asked Luna in a voice a million times nicer than one she had used when talking to Ron.
"Yes, I guess you could say that," Luna responded with a nod, smiling.
"Mmm, he does have a nasty tendency to put people into uncomfortable situations, doesn't he Harry?" she said snidely. Harry chose to ignore her rather than fuel her angry flames.
Harry looked over to make sure Luna was not looking at him. Sure enough, she was busy playing with the lemon floating in her tea cup. "That still doesn't explain why you brought her with you," said Harry in a stern whisper.
"I'll get there, promise," Ron whispered back before continuing on. "Well, I went to visit the Lovegood house to have a chat with Luna. You know its winter holidays now, so I knew she would be there. I knocked on the door and her dad answered, quite the…um…character, Luna's dad," he paused as they heard Luna's chair shift uncomfortably on the floor, "he told me that she was down at the stream near Bottom Bridge, fishing for Plump…Blimp…Bluma…"
"Plimpies, they're two legged little buggers who like to nibble unsuspecting swimmers' ankles. The fresh-water ones in the stream are quite delicious," Luna explained as if she was reading it directly from some book, a gleam in her eye.
"Err…yeah, what she said. Anyways, I went down there and there she was in the blistering cold, in a gigantic parka holding a fishing rod. Well, I said hello and she seemed surprised to see me…"
"Oh, I certainly was. All the other kids at school were talking about how you three were off on some secret quest, and it made me sad to know that you wouldn't be returning. So when I saw Ronald it certainly caught me off-guard. I had just hooked a Plimpy when he strolled by, I was so scared that I must have stopped pulling and then it got away! Sad really, that was the only one that bit all day…" she stopped talking suddenly, frowning.
"Oh, if that isn't likely…" muttered Ron under his breath, which made Harry cover his mouth to prevent from laughing. "Anyway, I told her that we had taken our assignments with us before we left Hogwarts, and that I needed help with an essay for Binns' class about the founders of the school, and I asked if she knew anything about objects that Rowena Ravenclaw might have cherished. It was a long shot, but I tried anyway. But surprisingly, she told me about her…"
"Diadem," Luna cut off Ron's soliloquy suddenly, her voice unusually serious. Her eyes started to become glossy as she stared off into space. "The diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. Daddy was making a replica of it before we left. 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure!', he always told me." The room was silent for a moment as Luna continued to stare into another world, the slight shakings of her body barely noticeable. "Oh no, it seems we're out of tea!" Luna said awkwardly as the trio stared at her, "I'll go make another pot!"
Quickly but nonchalantly, Luna reached into the middle of the table and grabbed the kettle, taking long, quiet steps before disappearing completely into the kitchen.
Ron shook his head and sighed. "I really feel sorry for her, must be terrible…"
"Why? What happened?" Hermione demanded in a half-whisper.
Taking a second look over his shoulder to make sure Luna was not returning, Ron motioned them to come closer to him so that he did not have to say the next part out loud. "Well, after she told me about the diadem, I was so happy to find a lead I could work with while waiting to find you guys. I helped her back to her house…I mean, it was the least I could do after she helped me…us out. A few minutes later and we could see the tower which they lived in, but there was something odd…" He paused for another nervous check over the shoulder. "There was a gaping hole where the front door used to be, and there was a lot of yelling coming from inside."
Hermione covered her mouth as Ron continued, her eyes wide open in shock. "Of course Luna wanted to go see what was going on, but I had to hold her back. We hid in some trees and waited for something to happen. We could hear a lot of screams coming from in there, yelling then painful screams," he shook his head as a wave of shivers took over his body, "It was horrible."
"Death Eaters?" said Harry.
"Had to of been at least two of them, I don't think that the normal Snatchers would have been able to use the Cruciatus Curse so…effectively," Ron sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Well, by now Luna was trying her best to wiggle free, but I couldn't just let her waltz in there to her death. So I pinned her down and we waited some more. Eventually, a group of Snatchers came out carrying somebody, two big shouldered guys in masks trailing behind them…think their names were Selwyn and Travers, if I heard them right. Anyway, the body? It was Luna's dad, Xenophilius. You know he's been writing articles in his newspaper supporting you, right Harry? The Quibbler never left your side, never sold out to the Ministry. That's probably why they wanted to capture Xenophilius. He was in pretty bad shape too, all bloody, no movement except random convulsions," Ron gulped. "They messed him up bad, guys."
Harry was glad that Luna was taking her precious time with the tea. It would have been horrible for her to have to relive the moment when she lost the only parent she had left. "I couldn't hold Luna back after that point. She sprinted towards the group, firing curse after curse. Let me tell you, for such an emotionally damaging situation, she was brilliant, stunned two or three of the lesser guys before the rest noticed."
"I chased after her, but by that time there were explosions going on everywhere. We tried our hardest to take them out, but one of the Death Eaters managed to summon more of his friends. I knew that the only good we would do was get ourselves captured, so I grabbed her and apparated back to the cave on the hill. We weren't hurt or anything, just a couple of scratches, but Luna had lost it. She didn't cry or anything like that, but she just sat there staring at the wall, saying nothing. There wasn't much I could do, I mean, what do you say to somebody who lost the person they loved most in the world?"
Harry looked over to Hermione. Her eyes were tearing up, wishing that there was something she could do to ease Luna of the pain. Harry's vision was also beginning to get blurry. He knew all too well what it was like to have your parents taken away from you and being helpless to stop it.
"We didn't want to risk being caught, since I had been seen twice and now we were in quite a bit of trouble for attacking Death Eaters. So we continued to hide, neither of us knowing what to do…"
"But how did you find us? We made it so that we weren't trackable!" cried Hermione, her hands looking as if her grip on her knees was going to break her bones.
"That's the odd thing…you know Dumbledore's deluminator?" said Ron. They both nodded. "Well, it does a lot more than just turn out the lights."
He took out the object and laid it on the table. "One day, I and Luna were talking more about the diadem, when suddenly we heard…well, you."
"Me?" scoffed Hermione, pointing to herself. "How?"
"I didn't quite know at first, thought I was just imagining things. But Luna said she heard it tolo, and we both stopped talking and listened again. Then sure enough, a few minutes later we heard you say my name again…"
"What was I saying?"
Ron shrugged. "Something about being done with something or another…"
Hermione shot a quick glance at Harry. Harry remembered that specific conversation from several days ago. It was the one where Hermione had declared that she was done wanting Ron to become the man for her. Harry hoped that Ron hadn't noticed their quick exchange of knowing looks.
"Like I said, we kept hearing Hermione's voice saying my name. Finally, I realized that the noise was coming from my pocket. You were speaking through the deluminator! Obviously we had no clue what was going on, but I had a hunch that we had to use the thing somehow. So I clicked the top…"
"And?" beckoned Harry and Hermione.
"Well, I'm not sure if it will work now that I've found you guys, but it absorbed the light of the fire as usual but instead of leaving us in darkness there was this bluish orb of light floating outside the cave, the kind of light around a portkey, you know? Well, whatever it was, I just knew that it would take me to you guys. We packed up quickly and went outside, and it just flew inside me…"
"It did what?" asked Harry in disbelief.
"You know…just kind of merged into me, right through the heart. I felt it too, it was nice and warm, but as soon as it entered I knew where I had to go."
"But why did you bring Luna? You know that we can't tell her anything about what we're doing, it would just endanger her more! And the more people who know about us, the more likely we are to fail!" Hermione barked, her voice angrier than ever.
It was Ron's turn to get angry. "What would you have me do, Hermione? Say 'Hey, it's been fun'
and just leave her in that cave?"
"But she's a student! She would have returned to Hogwarts and been safe…"
"If they catch her she's going to die!"
Ron's words hung in the air. Hermione stuttered as she tried to talk, "D…Die?"
"Yes, Hermione. The Ministry is done playing games. The only person they want alive is Harry, but anyone on their wanted list they will torture into talking and then kill. I'm exempt because of my bloodline, but anyone else…"
Ron pointed toward the Prophet which was still spread across the table. Sure enough, there too was Luna's picture. Luna Lovegood: Listed truant, Attacked Ministry officials, Daughter of propagandist Xenophilius Lovegood, Known accomplice of Undesirable Number One. Right next to her list of crimes, in blood letters, was the word EXPENDABLE. Harry choked as the word floated around his mind, making him sick.
The trio jumped apart from one another as they heard the clinking of spoons on ceramic. A second later, Luna appeared in the doorway, carrying a tray of fresh tea. She set it gently on to the table and retook her spot next to Ron. Although no one mentioned it, they all realized that she had taken an unrealistic amount of time to brew the fresh pot, but everyone knew why she had waited to enter the room. Feeling as if somebody had to do something after the horrible story he just told, Ron patted Luna on the back, saying "Thank you," as he poured her and himself a fresh cup. Harry quietly closed the newspaper in front of him.
"As I was saying, we apparated to the place the deluminator told us to go and ended up on some snowy hillside. We followed the hints it was giving to me in my head, and after a day or two we found you guys…well, at least we found the tent. It must have remembered me or something, because I could see it just fine, but whatever sealing spell you put on the door sure worked wonders."
Harry looked swiftly to his side and smiled at Hermione, proud that her charms had worked as intended. "So when we couldn't get inside, I clicked it again and it took us through the forest. Nothing really happened for an hour or so, but that's when we saw the patronus…"
"A patronus?" questioned Hermione. "It wasn't…was it a doe?"
Both Luna and Ron nodded. Hermione looked at Harry and he stared back at her.
"We saw it too."
"Who's was it? Did you guys know?"
"No, but it can't have been an enemy, because it brought me to the field with the…" Harry trailed off. "The Horcrux! What happened to the Horcrux? All I remember was us getting hit by some weird curse coming from the locket after we got the sword out of the water, then all of sudden you two were there."
"Well, whatever the heck it was, it knocked you two out cold. By the time we got to the opening, you two were unconscious. We thought you guys had been attacked or something, and you were barely breathing. But then Luna noticed the locket and sword just sitting there. We tried to grab them, but then these two dark red bolts just came after us. We thought they were gonna go for us, but instead they flew into you guys. And then…"
Harry's shoulders slumped at Ron's choice of dramatic pause. "Then what? It sounds like the same type of magic that I saw before I passed out…" he demanded.
"Well, after that you guys woke up," Luna said simply.
"Tha…That's it? We just woke up and here we are now?" cried Harry in disbelief.
"Well, you woke up but you weren't you, if that makes any sense," corrected Ron.
"No, it really doesn't."
"Alright, well after the locket shot you two you let out this really horrible scream and started gasping for air. Scariest thing I've ever heard. We didn't know what was going on, so we just watched helplessly. Then suddenly both of you just stopped and fell to your knees, panting a bit. I went to go check on you, Harry, since you were closest, and then you just went for my throat…"
"I attacked you?"
"Yeah, almost killed me too," Ron said, lifting his chin up. They could still see the red streaks where Harry's fingers had tightened around his throat. "We knew something was wrong, both of you had these dark red slits where your eyes used to be. All four of us got into a bit of a row…"
"Was anybody hurt?" asked Hermione, her anger temporarily replaced with curiosity.
"Well, you almost Avada Kedavra'd me, but thankfully Luna was able to disarm you after Harry protected you from my own spell. Must hate me or something, huh Hermione?" Ron smirked, his voice sarcastic.
She didn't answer, instead grabbing her wand from Luna's outstretched hand with a silent nod of thanks. Quietly, she tucked it into her pants pocket, her expression softened from learning that she had committed an unforgivable curse on one of her closest friends.
"So you're saying that the Horcrux tried took control of me and Hermione, and then we tried to kill you two? Did we say anything?"
The color in Ron's face disappeared, and he didn't speak for a minute. "Uh…you guys were talking, mostly about how I shouldn't have come back, that I was useless, you know, the expected things…"
Harry frowned, his heart going out to his friend. "Ron, you know that's not…"
"It's ok, really it is. You weren't yourselves, and besides, I kind of figured that you guys would say something like that when I came back anyway."
"But if you hadn't of come back, we would still be in that field dead from exposure. Or worse, captured by You-Know-Who. So although you were the biggest prat in the universe, you did save our lives." Harry smiled, reaching over and patting Ron on the shoulder. Ron smiled back at his touch, but still refused to meet his gaze. "So how did you end up destroying the Horcrux with us trying to kill you two?"
Ron choked on the tea he was sipping. His and Luna's eyes met, and she turned away quickly to stifle her giggle behind her back. In response, he coughed wildly, hoping that no one would notice that he was about to burst out in laughter too.
"What, what's so funny?" asked Hermione, her death glare shifting between the two of them.
"No…Nothing, nothing at all. What was the question again?" asked Ron, the side of his lip twitching as he attempted to keep a straight face.
"HOW DID YOU DO IT?" screamed Harry and Hermione, obviously annoyed. The joint effort almost made Ron fall out of his seat.
"Geez! Well…ummm…err…you guys were sno…hmmm…Well, I did what you guys said we were gonna do: I stabbed the locket with the sword, you guys screamed a bit, and then that was it." As if needing to prove himself more, he whipped the broken Horcrux out of his pocket and threw it on top of the copy of the Prophet on the table. "You guys came to a little bit after that, and well…here we are."
There was a moment of awkward silence as the story sank into Harry and Hermione's heads. After months of almost nothing, a flurry of progress occurred in a single day. He was happy enough to find the sword, but to have a Horcrux destroyed and another discovered? Harry was so overcome with joy that he almost jumped the table and hugged Ron in celebration, but for Hermione's sake he just patted him on the back again. The only sound that filled the tent over the next few minutes was Luna's soft hum of "Weasley is Our King."
Hermione was the first to stand up, claiming that she wanted to stretch her legs. She volunteered to clean up the table, loading everyone's glasses and the kettle onto the black serving tray in front of them, "accidentally" spilling the half-empty glass of boiling tea that Ron had been drinking all over his lap before walking with heavy steps to the kitchen.
"Bloody hell," Ron exclaimed, attempting to dry off his legs, "I guess she's a bit mad at me, huh?"
"I would say that's a safe assumption," said Harry, following Hermione's form before she disappeared into the doorway. "But she'll get over it, I'm sure. Either way, thank you for everything Ron. It's good to have you back."
Ron smiled and breathed out a sigh of relief, getting out of his chair the same time that Harry did and grabbing him into a rough embrace. "Don't mention it, that's what friends are for, right? Thank you for not killing me the instant you realized who I was."
Harry let go of his friend after a minute, reaching his hand out to his other savior. "I suppose we should be thanking you too, huh Luna?" said Harry shyly with a smile.
"Oh, don't mention it," Luna replied as she awkwardly took his hand, choosing to just hold it instead of shaking, "Anything I could do to help. But there is one thing I wanted to ask you guys about…"
Both Harry and Ron looked back at her with raised eyebrows.
"What's that?"
"What's a Horcrux?"
A/N: Alright, not a fan of post-chapter notes either, but just to stop the fires before they occur, this was not the original ending to this chapter. As a matter of fact, to accomplish all I wanted to, I think I split this original chapter into three parts, but don't quote me on that specific number. TY for the reviews once again, and the ratings too! You guys are amazing.