HARRY:

Hermione knew nothing of the Everlins. When she'd said she thought Lucy being bitten had happened closer to home, she'd been thinking of Ottery St. Catchpole, not California. She certainly understood part of the magnitude of the situation — being bitten by a werewolf under any circumstance was traumatic regardless of any other circumstances in play — but there was more, so much more, that she couldn't even begin to grasp until Lucy told her about Claire, and Danny, and Abby, and everything else.

Once Lucy had pulled herself together enough to stop crying and make her way back into the tent, I followed her in while Hermione kept watch. The two of us disappeared into the kitchen behind a silencing spell. I went through the familiar motion of making tea, while Lucy opted to break into the supply of hot chocolate that had been untouched since Ron left.

"Are you going to tell Hermione?" I asked, my voice soft even though there was a silencing spell in place.

"No." Lucy's voice was even softer. "I've been thinking about it, but she has more than enough on her plate right now. And I've been thinking about my family too, quite a bit, and... what I know now... I don't think it changes anything moving forward. It — well — obviously it changes a lot, but I'm not — I'm not going to abandon all of this and rush back to California right this instant. Based on what's in that file, Umbridge has no way of knowing the rest of my family survived. The first page of that article from Halloween of that year only talks about me. There were no other articles in there featuring pictures of my parents or my sister that were taken after the attack, they were all of the four of us beforehand. I think they're safe. I think they'd be safest if I stayed here until I can go back knowing I won't be followed by anyone who wants me dead. It would be selfish to go back now, and turn my back on everyone here, and risk bringing this war to their doorstep. My family, they — they've missed me this long. They've lived with the unknown this long. I think it'd be best for everyone if they wait a little longer."

I shook my head in disbelief. "I don't know how you do it. If it was me, if I somehow had the slightest hope my parents were alive, I'd go running back without a second of thought or hesitation. I mean, you unfortunately witnessed firsthand how my desperation to visit my dead parents, relatively speaking, led to disaster. Is that part of why you don't want to go back yet? Seeing what happened to me?"

"I've always wanted to wait," Lucy replied. "At first it was simply because I didn't want to walk up to Amos and Susan and say something along the lines of 'Hey, you kidnapped me, take me back.' Then, well, it was because Cedric was gone, and I found out in rather dramatic fashion that I was rather central to the war effort, and I didn't want to go back in that state, traumatized and grieving and preoccupied with the fate of the wizarding world. And now here I am, even more traumatized and grief-stricken and bound with both hands to the fate of the wizarding world."

I must have made a face, because Lucy rested a hand on top of mine and squeezed until I turned to look at her.

"Don't you dare feel guilty, Harry James," she said firmly. "My decisions aren't your fault. You are not responsible for every tragedy."

I nodded, glancing away and reaching for mugs as I did so. "I am quite certain your family won't care what state you return in, but I understand. Well, not that they won't care as in they'll be dismissive, I'm sure they won't be dismissive of everything you've had to endure in the years since — "

"I understand," Lucy interrupted. "Don't hurt yourself tripping over your words. I — I know they'll love me no matter what, but I think I want to have a chance to heal a little on my own first before I inflict myself upon my family."

"Lucy, you wouldn't be 'inflicting' yourself on anyone," I chided. "I rather enjoy having you around, you know."

I could hear the blush in Lucy's voice even though she was standing behind me so I couldn't see her face. "Well, yes, I'd certainly hope so, after how much time we've spent together as of late."

"Point being," I said, "I'll support you in whatever decision you make, no matter what the timeline of it all looks like. Whoever has you is lucky to have you in whatever capacity you are willing to be had... or something like that, does that make sense?"

Lucy laughed as she reached to remove the screaming kettle from the stove. "Yes, it does, thank you. Anyway, I don't think I want to tell Hermione yet, but I have... a lot of food for thought, I guess." She looked up at me with eyes shining with tears, though she was smiling. "My dad might have survived. I never — I never thought — Harry, he could be alive."

"If anyone would be, it'd be someone like you," I said fondly, tipping her chin up and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "My stubborn little survivor."

"Yes, well, I told you once I'd like to put up with you forever, which can only happen if we both keep up our commitment to survival even when it's really fucking difficult." Lucy popped to her toes and kissed me properly. "Come on, let's warm up, then, speaking of our commitment to survival, you can practice more with my wand."

"Are you sure, Lu?" I asked.

She nodded. "Now that the initial wave of overwhelming emotion has passed, I'd like to carry on as normal for as long as I can before the next wave comes and all of the fear of the unknown catches up. Dueling with you would be a productive use of our time until then."

With that, I brought Hermione's tea to her, and Lucy followed with a mug of hot chocolate in her clutches. Once we were all sufficiently warm from the inside out, Hermione returned to the tent to continue reading her book about Dumbledore, and Lucy got to show off her wandless magic while I tried to keep up with her.

There was something slower about her movements that day, though. Not slow by any means, she was remarkable as always, but there was a hesitance in the way she moved her hands, a reluctance in her incantations, a distant look in her eyes. I could tell that being on that cursed ground was weighing heavily on her, the same way Godric's Hollow and its ghosts still weighing heavily on me.

In a way, I wondered if knowing her family was alive was worse.

The fate of my parents was long sealed. The fate of hers, though, was still unwritten. There was a grief that I would always feel, the ache of being helpless to protect my parents, but Lucy carried with her an ever-present anxiety that she was somehow failing her family, that she could still somehow fail her family. I had failed my family, my flesh-and-blood family, I was the last of my line and I had failed. I was a baby, but what difference did it make? Lucy, on the other hand, was growing. She was growing older, but not yet closer. Time marched on, the distance remained the same. Her family had been alive all that time.

I always missed my family. I always had, and I always would, but it was one-sided. They were gone. I remained.

Lucy was both gone and remaining. Her family was both gone and remaining. The yearning went both ways.

"No need to go easy on me," I said teasingly, trying to make light of the situation, trying to light the competitive gleam in her eyes so it would burn away a bit of the sorrow lingering there.

Instead, though, Lucy deflated. "Sorry, Harry, I shouldn't be distracted when I'm trying to help you."

"Oi, no need to apologize." I tucked her wand into my pocket and walked over to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You've had a long day."

"It's not even noon yet," she protested.

"Like I said, long day, you've had several years happen in just a couple hours," I said. "Go rest. Please."

"I don't particularly fancy the idea of being alone with my thoughts right now," Lucy replied in a quiet voice.

I scrambled for something I could say, something that would fix the situation. Something fun, something light-hearted, something that wasn't just fighting more, something that wouldn't remind her of the weight of the world and the way we were still grappling with it. Nothing came to mind, though, so Lucy merely tightened her ponytail and straightened up.

"I'm good." She nodded at me and backed up a couple of steps, generating a tunnel of wind just by swirling her finger around in a circle. "I think 'ventus' is an underutilized spell. It could be quite powerful, especially if it were to suck up debris. How would you defend against it, Harry?"

"Would a Shield Charm do the trick?" I asked.

Lucy shrugged. "Let's find out. Be ready to jump out of the way, though."

With that, she pointed directly at me, and the miniature tornado started heading in my direction. I cast a Shield Charm and jumped out of the way simultaneously, just to be safe, but the Shield Charm successfully deflected the tornado and sent it back Lucy's direction. She cast a Shield Charm of her own, trapping the tornado in a little clear dome, studying it with interest.

"This could be very cool," Lucy said as she walked in a circle. The tornado was only as tall as her, but based on the tracks it was carving in the earth below, it was rather powerful. "Hermione? I've done something rather cool, if you want to see."

Surely enough, Hermione poked her head out of the tent just a couple of seconds later. "What's that?"

"Not sure. I think I could find a way to use it, though."

"You two have fun with that," I said, backing away with my hands raised. "I'm not clever enough to contribute to this conversation."

"Oh, sure you are," Lucy replied, but I could tell her mind was elsewhere, with the way she was studying the tornado, Hermione standing right beside her. "Do you think it would be best utilized as an offensive spell, or a defensive one?"

I shook my head with a grin and ducked into the tent, leaving the girls to their inquiries. With nothing better to do, I opted to take a nap so I could offer to cover Lucy's watch shift that night as well as my own. As much as the girls valued their schedule, surely Hermione at the very least would be in favor of letting Lucy recover from her eventful morning.

In the end, Lucy did put up quite a fight, insisting she was okay and she wanted to keep watch, but once the sun had set and the woods looked like the woods from her memory, I made my way outside.

"Are you sure about keeping watch, Lu?" I asked gently.

Her face was pale in the glow of the light from the tent. "No, I'm not so sure anymore."

I lowered myself down next to her. "I'll keep watch, you go rest."

"But what if — I don't love the idea of leaving you out here alone. It's not that I don't trust you, I do, it's just — "

"I'm going to be okay," I assured her. "It's not a full moon. If trouble comes, I'll shout. Go rest, please. It's going to be okay. We're all safe here, now."

After we shared a long hug, Lucy relented and returned to the tent, exchanging a couple sentences with Hermione before crawling into bed. My heart broke a little when I heard her whisper a silencing spell — she was either worried about nightmares, or planning to cry, or both — but there was nothing I could do for her in that moment. I focused on keeping watch, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness of the night and trying to attune my ears to the sounds of the forest.

I jumped a little when I heard Hermione start getting ready for bed, but once she settled in for the night, so did I, and thus began what I expected to be another long period of trying to stay awake and scan for threats that — thank Merlin — had not yet reared their ugly heads.

The night, though, was suddenly illuminated by a gentle silver glow, something I spotted in the distance through the trees. I clambered to my feet, drawing Lucy's wand, my vocal chords paralyzed by fear as the glow grew ever closer and began to take the shape of... a doe.

Wonder replaced my apprehension.

The doe had come for me. It was meant for me, only me, and it wasn't going to hurt me.

I wasn't sure how I knew that with so much certainty, but I did. Perhaps it was the lingering influence of Lucy's display of her emotional magic, perhaps it was the fact that it was her wand in my hand, perhaps it was just the presence of a soothing light in the oppressive darkness of the night, but whatever it was, I gravitated toward the doe.

When it turned and started heading into the forest, I hesitated for only a second before following it. I knew, logically, that it was more likely a trap than not, but I paid logic no heed as I led with something deeper, something soul-level that understand what my more practical side could not. There was magic there, something sure and trustworthy, that compelled me to follow the doe through the trees.

The only sound was the crunching of my feet through the snow. The darkness of the night was so complete that all I could see was whatever was fortunate enough to be in the path of the doe. I lost track of space and time as I followed the doe through the woods, in something of a trance.

And then with one glance back at me, the doe disappeared.

"What? No," I said desperately. I held Lucy's wand out in front of me. "Lumos."

The tip of the wand lit up, but the dim light of the wand did little to soothe me. The presence of the doe had felt safe, and her absence was immensely unsettling. I regretted, for the first time, following her so far from our campsite, so foolishly, surely I was about to be attacked.

I spun in a circle, scanning the trees around me for any threats. The forest seemed alive around me, and I wondered if something was lying in wait for me the same way Greyback had been lying in wait for Lucy in those same trees twelve years prior, on a night as dark as that one.

I didn't see any threats, but my wand did illuminate a small pond that appeared to have been frozen over. Curiosity piqued, I moved closer to the edge of the pond, studying it as best I could.

A glint of silver and red snagged my attention. I dropped to my knees and leaned ever closer, muttering "Lumos maxima" to confirm my suspicions.

Sure enough, the sword of Gryffindor, was, somehow, inexplicably, at the bottom of a frozen pond in the Forest of Dean.

I had no idea how it was there, so close to the site Lucy had been bitten by Greyback twelve years before. Had Dumbledore left it there for us to find, assuming Lucy would want to revisit this place? How would he even have known about its location so exactly, though? Or maybe there was something uniquely magical about the place, and maybe the doe was somehow related, maybe the doe had somehow saved Lucy's dad's life too, maybe it was a magical guardian of this part of the forest, I had no idea. None of it really mattered anyway, I realized. The how and why of the sword's origins in that pool were unrelated.

All that mattered was how I was going to retrieve it.

I pressed my wand tip onto the ice, figuring I should get the most simple solution out of the way first, not that I expected it to actually work.

"Accio sword!"

The sword remained unmoved on the bottom of the pond, so I sighed and wracked my brain for other ideas. It had come to me in an hour of need, so I conjured to the front of my mind the fear of Christmas Eve, in Bathilda Bagshot's upper room, snake lunging, Hermione screaming, Lucy's bright purple magic cracking throughout the room.

"Help!" I shouted, hoping my fear would be real enough even if the danger was no longer present, but that didn't work either.

It was the sword of Gryffindor. I'd have to be a Gryffindor to achieve it.

I'd have to do something involving bravery and whatever else the Sorting Hat had purported to be true about Gryffindors. Daring, nerve, and chivalry. With a heavy sigh, I started stripping off my several layers of clothes. I had no choice but to jump in after it.

Before I knew it, I was standing there barefoot in the snow, wearing nothing but my pants. I cracked the ice with a Severing Charm that split the night with a loud crack, and when I could think of no reason to stand there and think about how cold the water was going to be for a second longer, I held my breath and dove in.

I had never been so cold in my life. It was agonizing, my very bones seeming to have turned to ice. I managed to wrap my trembling fingers around the hilt of the sword, though, and I held tight as I yanked it upward out of the silty bottom of the pond.

And then something choked me, hard.

I had forgotten to take off the Horcrux.

I dropped the sword at once and scratched at the metal chain around my neck, but my fingers were utterly useless. I thrashed around, trying to propel myself upward, but the Horcrux only yanked me back and forth under water, disorienting me, slamming me into the rocks that surrounded me.

Rather than going dark, my vision started lighting up with stars, but not Lucy's. Not yet. Soon enough, I was going to drown.

I cried out one last time, a strangled stream of bubbles before the Horcrux pulled itself even tighter.

But then, somehow, I was out of the water, I was back on the snow. I could breathe.

I gulped the frigid air into my lungs for only a second before water rushed up to meet it and I had no choice but to roll onto my side and expel all of the water from my system, too weak to get onto my hands and knees.

Lucy must have saved me, I thought, as I grasped my throat and realized with relief the Horcrux was gone. Lucy always saved me, from myself and from everyone else.

But it wasn't her voice I heard.

"Are — you — fucking — mental?" Ron demanded in between coughs.

I scrambled for my glasses, strength suddenly renewed, and beheld Ronald Bilius Weasley in front of me once again. He was fully dressed, soaking wet, holding the sword in one hand and the locket in the other as he glared at me.

He shook the Horcrux in my face. "Why the fuck did you not take this off before you decided to dive?"

I was too stunned by the presence of Ron to speak. It was a miracle. It couldn't have been real.

But my clothes felt real enough as I tugged my jumpers on one by one.

"It was you?" I managed finally, once I was fully clothed, though the clothes did very little to help with the cold.

Ron blinked. "Well... yeah."

"You cast that doe?" I asked.

"What?" Ron shook his head. "No, of course not! I thought it was you doing it!"

"My patronus is a stag."

"Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers." Ron furrowed his brow. "Could it have been Lucy?"

"I don't think so. She was asleep when I left. And... I don't think she can cast a patronus yet. Again. Yet. And her patronus was a bear, last time she cast one. If her patronus is a doe now, that would be news to me." Not wanting to keep talking about Lucy — who would surely murder me herself later for nearly getting myself killed without her — I scratched the back of my neck. "How — why — how are you here?"

"Well, I've — you know — I've come back. If — you know — you still want me, that is," he finished, uncharacteristically shy.

I nodded. He'd just saved my life. He'd gone away, yeah, but he'd come back when I needed him most, like he always did.

Ron glanced down at his hands and blinked, holding the sword up to me. "Oh, yeah, I got it out. That's why you jumped in, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't understand," I said. "How did you get here? How did you find us?"

"Long story. I've been looking for you for hours. It's a big forest, isn't it? And I was just thinking I'd have to kip under a tree and wait for morning when I saw that deer coming and you following."

"You didn't see anyone else?"

"No. I did think I saw something move over there — " Ron said, pointing, " — but I was running to the pool at the time, because you'd gone in and you hadn't come up, so I wasn't going to make a detour to — "

I rushed to the spot where he'd pointed, but there was nothing and no one there, as well as no sign anyone had actually been there. With a sigh, I trudged back to where Ron was standing with the sword and the locket still.

"Anything there?" he asked.

"No."

"So how did the sword get in that pool?"

"Whoever cast the patronus must have put it there."

"You reckon it's the real one?"

I glanced down at the sword, then at the twitching locket, and nodded. "The Horcrux tried to kill me the second I touched it. One way to find out, though, isn't there? There's a flat rock over there, follow me."

I crouched next to the stone and brushed the snow from it. But when I extended my hand for the locket, Ron offered me the sword.

"No, you should do it," I said, looking up at Ron.

Ron blinked. "Me? Why?"

"Because you got the sword out of the pool," I replied. "I think it's supposed to be you."

"Mate, that's mental," Ron said, shaking his head. "What do you mean you think it's supposed to be me?"

"Just trust me, please. The same way I thought I was supposed to follow the doe, I think it's supposed to be you who destroys it. I'm going to open it, and you stab it. Straightaway, okay? Because whatever's in there will put up a fight. The bit of Riddle in the diary tried to kill me."

Ron's eyes were wide with fear. "How are you going to open it?"

"I'm going to ask it to open, using Parseltongue."

"No! No, don't open it! I'm serious!"

"Why not? Let's get rid of the damn thing, it's been months — "

"I can't, Harry, I'm serious — you do it — "

"But why?"

Ron backed away from the locket, shaking his head. "Because that thing's bad for me! I can't handle it! I'm not making excuses, Harry, for what I was like, but it affects me worse than it affected you and Hermione and Lucy, it made me think stuff — stuff I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse, I can't explain it, and then I'd take it off and I'd get my head on straight again, and then I'd have to put the fucking thing back on — I can't do it, Harry!"

"You can do it, you can! You've just got the sword, I know it's supposed to be you who uses it. Please, just get rid of it, Ron," I begged. "I know you can do this."

Ron wrestled with himself for a long moment, then walked back over to where I was holding the chain of the locket against the rock.

"Tell me when," he said, voice shaking as he lifted the sword.

I nodded. "You can do this. On three. One... two... three... open."

The Parseltongue worked, and the locket opened to reveal two dark brown eyes. Tom's, before they turned scarlet.

"Stab it, Ron," I said.

Ron started to bring the sword down, but before he could make contact, the locket spoke in a guttural hiss.

"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."

"Don't listen to it, Ron, stab it!" I shouted.

But Ron hesitated. The locket continued speaking.

"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible."

"STAB IT!" I shouted again, but Ron paid me no heed, instead staring into Tom's eyes as the locket continued to speak.

"Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter... least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friends... second best, always, eternally overshadowed..."

The locket struggled even more against my grip on the chain.

"RON, STAB IT, NOW!" I screamed.

Ron lifted the sword higher, clearly with the intention of bringing it down upon the locket, but before he could, the locket emitted steam that slowly started to take the shape of three bodies that turned solid once they had escaped the locket: Hermione, Lucy, and me. He, understandably, shouted and stumbled back, and the locket suddenly burned so hot I had to yank my hand away.

"Why return?" the Riddle-Me said in Voldemort's voice. "We were better without you, happier without you, glad of your absence. We laughed at your stupidity, your cowardice, your presumption — "

Riddle-Hermione interrupted me with a cackle. "Presumption! Who could look at you, who would ever look at you, beside Harry Potter? What have you ever done, compared with the Chosen One? What are you, compared with the Boy Who Lived?"

"Nothing," Riddle-Lucy answered on Ron's behalf. "You are nothing. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. Our pathetic excuse for a friendship is built on nothing more than my pity for you. Anything you ever thought we had in common was a lie. I don't share your useless pining for someone you could never have. I've never been the least important person in my family."

"RON!" I roared, interrupting Riddle-Lucy before she said anything too damning to be dismissed. "STAB IT! DO IT! NOW! COME ON!"

The eyes of the Riddle-Us all turned red.

"Your mother confessed that she would have preferred me as a son," Riddle-Me informed Ron with a sneer.

Riddle-Lucy laughed as she turned to me. "Why, of course! Who wouldn't prefer you? Everyone wants you, especially me. But then again, you knew that, didn't you?"

With that, Riddle-Lucy grabbed me by the face and started kissing me intensely, and I kissed back with equal intensity, while Riddle-Hermione walked in a circle around us, caressing Lucy's cheek, tracing her fingers down my jawline.

"Who wouldn't prefer him?" Riddle-Hermione wondered aloud. "What woman would take you? You are nothing... nothing... nothing... compared to him. Either of them."

When Riddle-Hermione wedged herself between Riddle-Lucy and Riddle-Me, tangling her fingers in Riddle-Lucy's hair and grabbing Riddle-Me by the throat, I cast a desperate look at Ron, whose own eyes appeared to glow scarlet.

"RON! DO IT!"

I dove out of the way as Ron finally charged forward with the sword, bringing it down hard on the locket. I scrambled to my feet, wand raised, ready to fight whatever emerged from the locket next, but after an ear-splitting shriek, the locket fell still and silent, smashed against the rock.

I walked over to the Horcrux and inspected the damage for myself. The windows of it were shattered, and a faint trail of smoke rose from it.

"You did it," I breathed. "Good job, Ron." The sword clanged to the ground behind me, and I turned just as Ron dropped to his knees, his head in his hands. "Ron?"

He didn't reply.

I shoved the locket into my pocket, grabbed his rucksack and hoisted it over my shoulder, and approached him slowly, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"None of that was true," I said. "Not one word. We missed you. Hermione cried for at least a week, most likely longer, she just didn't want me to see. Lucy missed you too, your friendship is very real, it means a lot to her. Your mum's never said anything like that to me. And, er, as far as the snogging goes, er, none of that actually happened while you were gone. I swear. Hermione's like my sister, she's never been any more or any less than that to me, and I reckon she feels the same way. Hermione and Lucy love and fight like sisters too. It's always been like that."

Ron looked up and cracked a small grin at that, but his expression crumpled immediately as tears swelled in his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left." Ron wiped his nose. "I know I was a — a — I can't think of a word bad enough."

"You've made up for it tonight, I reckon. Saving my life. Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux."

"That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was," Ron said in a small voice.

"Shit like that always sounds cooler than it really was, I've been trying to tell you for years."

I helped Ron to his feet, and the two of us embraced for a long minute.

"Well, now all we've got to do is find the tent again," I commented. "The girls will be so excited to see you!"

With a new spring in my step, I led the way back to the tent.

"Lucy!" I called as I slipped inside, a smile on my face. "Hermione!"

Lucy stirred first, pushing herself to a sitting position and rubbing her eyes with her hands. "Harry? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"It's okay! Everything's fine! More than fine, really! I'm great! There's someone here!"

"What do you mean?" Hermione mumbled sleepily, rolling over just as Ron walked in. "Who — "

She froze when her eyes found Ron. She rolled out of bed and walked up to Ron, one slow step at a time, staring at him with a completely blank expression. I shrugged off Ron's rucksack and watched as Lucy stole from her own bunk and snatched Hermione's wand from where it was poking out from her pillow, watching Hermione's back apprehensively as she tucked the wand into the waistband of her pajamas.

Ron, for his part, somehow found it within himself to offer Hermione a small smile and start to go in for a hug.

Hermione, however, punched him directly in the face with so much force he stumbled backward. She kept punching him, shouting with every blow.

"YOU — COMPLETE — ARSE — RONALD — BILIUS — WEASLEY!"

Ron, for his part, somehow found it within himself to be surprised by this greeting.

"Ouch — ow — get off! What the — ? Hermione — OW!"

"You — crawl — back — here — after — weeks — and — weeks — " Hermione continued. She spun on her heel and marched back to her bunk, where Lucy was sitting, her face expressionless. "Where's my wand?"

"No," Lucy said simply.

Hermione whirled on me then and marched forward, hand held out. "Give me Lucy's."

I shook my head. "Protego!"

The force of the Shield Charm knocked Hermione back from both Ron and myself. She remained undeterred though, scrambling back to her feet, even more enraged than before.

"Hermione, calm — "

"I will not calm down! Give me a wand! One of you! Now!"

"Hermione," I said, "will you please — "

"Don't you tell me what to do, Harry Potter! Don't you dare!"

Hermione turned to Lucy again. "Give it back now!" When Lucy shook her head, Hermione whirled on Ron. "FINE! YOU!"

Ron at last had the good sense to retreat, withering under Hermione's glare and her pointed finger.

"I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back!" Hermione yelled.

"I know. Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really — "

"Oh, you're sorry! GREAT!" Hermione released a frighteningly hysterical cackle. I'd never seen her lose it so completely, and one glance at Lucy confirmed that Hermione had unhinged, well and truly, in a way we'd never seen before. "You come back after weeks — weeks — and you think it's all going to be alright if you just say sorry?"

"Well, what else can I say?" Ron fired back.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't know! Rack your brains, Ron, that should only take a couple of seconds — "

I winced. That was overly cruel. I had to try to defend him.

"Hermione, he just saved my — "

"I don't care! I don't care what he's done!" Hermione insisted in a high-pitched voice. "Weeks and weeks, we could have been dead for all he knew — "

"I knew you weren't dead! Harry's all over the Prophet, all over the radio, they're looking for you everywhere, all these rumors and mental stories, I knew I'd hear straight off if you were dead, you don't know what it's been like — "

"What it's been like for you?" Hermione screeched. Then she was so overcome by fury that she could find nothing else to say, and Ron took advantage of her silence to fit in a couple words of explanation.

"I wanted to come back the minute I'd disapparated, but I walked straight into a gang of Snatchers, Hermione, and I couldn't go anywhere!" Ron said loudly.

"A gang of what?" I asked.

Hermione, for her part, dropped into a chair nearby and crossed her arms and legs, looking fit to explode.

"Snatchers. They're everywhere — gangs trying to earn gold by rounding up Muggle-borns and blood traitors, there's a reward from the Ministry for everyone captured. I was on my own and I look like I might be school age; they got really excited, thought I was a Muggle-born in hiding. I had to talk fast to get out of being dragged to the Ministry. I told them I was Stan Shunpike. First person I could think of. And they believed it, thank Merlin, they weren't the brightest. One of them was definitely part troll, the smell off him..." He glanced at Hermione to see if she found his attempt at humor amusing, but when it was clear she very much did not, he continued. "Anyway, they had a row about whether I was Stan or not. It was a bit pathetic to be honest, but there were still five of them and only one of me and they'd taken my wand. Then two of them got into a fight and while the others were distracted I managed to hit the one holding me in the stomach, grabbed his wand, disarmed the bloke holding mine, and disapparated. I didn't do it so well, splinched myself again, lost two fingernails, and I came out miles from where you were. By the time I got back to that bit of riverbank where we'd been, you'd gone."

Hermione's voice was thick with sarcasm when she spoke again. "Gosh, what a gripping story! You must have been simply terrified. Meanwhile we went to Godric's Hollow and, let's think, what happened there? Oh yes, You-Know-Who's snake turned up, it nearly killed the three of us, and then You-Know-Who himself arrived and missed us by about a second."

"What?" Ron asked, eyes wide.

"But imagine losing fingernails! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?"

"Hermione, Ron just saved my life," I said softly.

Hermione ignored me, but Lucy jumped up from where she had still been perched on Hermione's bunk and rushed forward. She hugged Ron tight, and he hesitated for only a second before hugging her back, his eyes sinking shut as he deflated.

Hermione ignored this too, looking pointedly at something invisible to Ron's left. "One thing I would like to know, though. How exactly did you find us tonight? That's important. Once we know, we'll be able to make sure we're not visited by anyone else we don't want to see."

Lucy broke away from Ron — who was perfectly dry, thanks to a bit of handy magic on Lucy's part — and went to stand next to me, casting a suspicious glance at my wet hair out of the corner of her eye. She slipped her hand into mine, and the two of us resumed our role as mere spectators as Ron glared at Hermione.

"This," Ron said, wisely pulling the Deluminator from his pocket and offering no further information.

This forced Hermione to look at him, and she was too intrigued to look angry for a moment. "The Deluminator? How?"

"It doesn't just turn the lights on and off. I don't know how it works or why it happened then and not any other time, because I've been wanting to come back ever since I left. But I was listening to the radio really early on Christmas morning and I heard... I heard you."

"You heard me on the radio?" Hermione asked.

"No, I heard you coming out of my pocket." He lifted the Deluminator. "Your voice came out of this."

"And what exactly did I say?"

"My name. 'Ron.' And you said something about a wand, I think?"

I exchanged a look with Lucy. It was the first time anyone had said Ron's name aloud, to my knowledge, which could have explained it.

"So I took it out, and it didn't seem different or anything, but I was sure I'd heard you. So I clicked it. And the light went out in my room, but another light appeared right outside the window. It was a ball of light, kind of pulsing, and bluish, like that light you get around a Portkey. I knew this was it, so I grabbed my stuff and packed it, then I put on my rucksack and went out into the garden. The little ball of light was hovering there, waiting for me, and when I came out it bobbed along a bit and I followed it behind the shed and then it... well, it went inside me."

Hermione blinked. "What?"

"It sort of floated toward me, right to my chest, and then — it just went straight through." Ron touched his chest. "It was here, I could feel it, it was hot. And once it was inside me I knew what I was supposed to do, I knew it would take me where I needed to go. So I disapparated and came out in the woods. Your protective spells work, anyway, because I couldn't see you and I couldn't hear you. I was sure you were around, though, so in the end I got in my sleeping bag and waited for one of you to appear. I thought you'd have to show yourselves when you packed up the tent."

"No, actually, we disapparated under the invisibility cloak as an extra precaution, and we left really early, because I thought I heard somebody blundering around," Hermione said.

"Well, I stayed there for a long time, because I kept hoping you'd appear. But after a couple of days, I knew I must have missed you, so I clicked the Deluminator again, the blue light came out and went inside me, and I disapparated and arrived here in these woods. I still couldn't see you, so I just had to hope one of you would show yourselves in the end — and Harry did. Well, I saw the doe first, obviously."

Hermione's brow furrowed. "You saw the what?"

I started explaining then, and Hermione's brow furrowed more.

"But it must have been a patronus! Couldn't you see who was casting it? Didn't you see anyone?"

We both shook our heads.

"And it led you to the sword!" Hermione continued. "I can't believe this! Then what happened?"

Ron resumed telling the story, and I avoided looking at Lucy even as her hand tightened painfully around mine as Ron's series of events unfolded. He didn't hesitate until he mentioned me opening the locket, then I jumped back in.

"And then Ron stabbed the locket with the sword," I said.

"And it just... went? Just like that?" Hermione asked.

"Well, it screamed." I pried my hand free from Lucy's and shook it out a bit before I passed the busted locket to Hermione. "Here."

Lucy walked over to see for herself, moving in the stiff, rushed way that informed me she was angry, so I turned to Ron.

"Did you just say you got away from the Snatchers with a spare wand?" I inquired.

"What? Oh, yeah." He reached for his rucksack and pulled out a wand. "Here. I figure it's always handy to have a back-up."

I accepted it with a nod. "Thanks. You were right. Mine's broken, I've been using Lucy's."

"Really?" Ron asked in disbelief. "How'd — "

He was interrupted by Hermione moving, and he looked scared all over again as she shoved the destroyed Horcrux into her bag, snatched her wand from Lucy's hip, and returned to bed, her back to all of us.

"I think that's about the best you could have feasibly hoped for," I muttered to Ron, jerking my chin in Hermione's direction.

"Yeah, could've been worse," Ron agreed. "Remember those birds she set on me last year?"

"I still haven't ruled it out," Hermione declared without turning around.

Ron cracked the smallest grin, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. He glanced at Lucy then. "You've been rather quiet. Are you alright?"

Rather than answering, Lucy merely went to hug him again. He held her back for a moment, and I could tell Riddle-Lucy's words grew softer in his mind until they faded to nothingness.

"Thanks for saving Harry from his own idiocy," Lucy said.

Ron chuckled. "Yes, well, you deserve a break from it every now and then. Happy to help."

"Tell me about it." Lucy pulled away from Ron and turned to me with a glare, crossing her arms over her chest. "I trust you've learned your lesson and you won't do anything that abysmally foolish without me again?"

"Of course, Lu," I replied.

With that, Lucy granted me a tight hug. "Good." She let me go after a second, sniffing hard, then turned back to Ron. "I'm guessing you want to hear about what we've done?"

"Yeah, what was that about You-Know-Who?" Ron asked.

"We can talk about it outside and let Hermione sleep," Lucy replied. "Harry? You want to come?"

I nodded. "Sure, but I'm grabbing blankets. It's cold out there."

"Colder in here," Lucy whispered with a glance at Hermione's back, earning a snort from Ron. The sound seemed to startle Lucy, but she smiled at him once she'd recovered from her minor fright. "Merlin, I've missed you."

"Likewise, Lucy," Ron said, draping an arm around her shoulders and heading in the direction of the tent flap. "I appreciated your slightly-amused look in response to my joke about the troll-like Snatcher."

I shook my head, grinning, and followed my two favorite people in the world — no offense to Hermione — out into the night, laden with blankets that I distributed to the three of us as we settled on three stones grouped together.

"I would have loved to laugh properly," Lucy was telling Ron as she cast a silencing spell, "but, well, I didn't want to make everything worse. Hermione was a bit... frightening."

"She was a bit more than a bit frightening," Ron retorted.

Lucy laughed.

"Thanks for snatching her wand, by the way, that was remarkably brave of you. I reckon I would have been reduced to a pile of ash if not for that." Ron grinned at Lucy, then sobered up. "I would have deserved it, though. I... I really am sorry, Lucy. You weren't even there when I..."

Lucy shook her head. "You were wearing the Horcrux more often because of me."

"Oh, don't tell me you've been blaming yourself."

"Not necessarily, but..."

"Oh, Lucy, no, I'm sorry — "

"It's okay." Lucy swiped at her cheeks, though they were dry. "Really, it's okay. It's just been rather awful without you. We really missed you, you know. And I'm not saying that to make you feel worse about it, I'm saying it because — because it's true, and you matter to us, and without you..."

"I wanted to cheer Lucy up earlier, and I was at such a loss, but you've already made her laugh," I said.

Ron frowned and looked at Lucy. "Why were you in need of cheering up? What's wrong?"

"One story at a time," she replied, shaking her head, grinning a bit. "Anyway, so, in Godric's Hollow..."

Lucy started explaining Godric's Hollow, then backtracked to Keira's house and promised to show him the letter and the box come morning, then explaining Bathilda Bagshot's house. He was appropriately horrified when I described how Nagini had been inside Bathilda's body, and his horror only mounted when Lucy explained my strange hours-long fit. Lucy plowed on, though, and said my encounter with my past encouraged her to be brave enough to try to grapple with hers, hence the Forest of Dean.

"I was bitten right over there," she said, pointing. "I did something rather crazy with my emotional magic, something I can't really explain and I doubt I could recreate, but I... I got to see the aftermath happen from someone else's perspective, which rattled me a bit. That's why Harry wanted to cheer me up."

Ron let out a low whistle. "Merlin, Lucy, I'm sorry, that sounds awful. I expect you'll want to get out of here as soon as possible tomorrow."

"I suppose. I'd rather go somewhere as far from water as possible," she said with a long-suffering sigh and an exasperated look my direction. "Seriously, did you not even think about taking the Horcrux off first?"

"No, I didn't," I replied sheepishly.

Lucy hummed, her disappointment evident, and leaned closer to me, examining the mark on my throat. She reached for her wand and tapped my neck, and with a murmured "Episkey," the last of the pain dissipated.

"Thanks," I said, offering her a smile.

"Of course."

She smiled back, and time stood still for a moment before Ron cleared his throat.

"So, er, the Horcrux did more than just scream," Ron said. "Did I miss anything... else? While I was gone? You know, with the two of you?"

"What? No!" Lucy replied immediately, her bright-red blush evident even in the darkness of the night. "What would give you that idea?"

"You, Harry, and Hermione all emerged from the locket and started saying... it doesn't matter. Point is, you started snogging Harry, and then Hermione apparently wanted to participate as well, and — "

Lucy tossed her head back and laughed. "You've got to be joking!"

"No, I saw it too, unfortunately," I said.

"Ron, I assure you," Lucy said between bouts of laughter, "nothing like that happened while you were away. Bloody hell, we spent most of our time either reading or keeping watch. There were days we barely even spoke to each other, let alone... that."

"Alright." Ron nodded. "I was decently sure of that, but I fear that image will be seared into my mind forever."

Lucy wrinkled her nose. "I bet. Go on, what did the Horcrux say?"

"It was all nonsense," I said firmly. "Not even worth repeating. Ron knows it's not true. Right?"

"Yeah." Ron nodded again, a small smile finding its way onto his face. "None of it was true."

He lunged forward then and hugged the two of us tightly.

"I'm so happy to be back," he said. "Even if Hermione's not so happy about it."

"She is, I know she is," Lucy argued. "I know that beneath all of the hurt, she's relieved. I'm sure she'll continue giving you a hard time, but she can't be cross forever, despite her best efforts."

Ron chuckled. "She sure does try." He pulled back, resting his hands on his knees. "Well... thanks for the warm welcome. Even though it was, er, actually rather cold." He glanced at me, at my still-wet hair, and grinned. "Somehow, mate, I think you might have been even more thick than me."

Lucy all but glued herself to my side, wrapping both of her arms around my left one, her thigh pressed up against mine, her head resting on my shoulder. "You know, I'd have to agree. Next time, just stay, will you? Both of you?"

"Of course," I said in unison with Ron, and the three of us exchanged a smile before looking up to the stars, just a couple of which were visible through the clouds once again.