All five of them gathered around a fallen tree log where the locket rested. Ron rested against the nearest tree, still too weak to do anything that used body weight. Annie, Dante, Hermione, and Harry were going to give it a shot and see if they could destroy the locket by using their wands.

"Dissendium!" Harry demanded. 

The locket bounced back, but still remained untouched. Not a scratch mark stained its surface. 

"Incendio!" Annie suggested, aiming her wand at the locket as well. 

The flames quickly engulfed the locket, but quickly vanished, leaving an untouched locket in their wake. Annie stared, alarmed and dumbfounded. 

"Expulso!" Dante shouted. 

Only the tree stump exploded into fragments, leaving the locket still clean and good as new. 

"Confringo!" Hermione demanded confidently. 

The locket still remained unscorched. Annie continued to stare, dumbfounded. She could not believe that the locket still remained untouched. Annie, Hermione, and Dante all lowered their wands, knowing that they could not get their spells to harm the locket. Or destroy it, to say the least. 

Harry had finally lost his temper. He fired spell, after spell. Nothing happened, but the locket bounced backwards with each spell that hit it. Annie realized that something seemed off with her brother. Before he could move to strike another spell at the locket, she put herself in front of him, getting him to stop. 

She engulfed him into a hesitant hug, not knowing if he'd need it or not. But he finally gave in, immediately comforted by his sister's presence. His anger and frustration subsided, knowing that they could always try destroying the locket another day. 

When things had died down, another noise came to their ears. Annie slowly let go of her brother and turned to face the locket, which shuddered with each pulsing tick that it made. Dante finally spoke, his voice low. 

"It's angry."

"Clearly," Annie tried to joke. 

Hermione visibly shuddered at the sight. Harry stepped forward and knelt down, taking the locket by its chain. Sera stared, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What are you doing, Harry?! That thing tried to possess you!"

Harry shrugged. Annie was just relieved that he no longer had a wild, demented look in his eyes as they had been while he was trying to destroy the locket. 

"Someone's gotta keep it safe until we figure out how to destroy it." 

"I can put it in my bag —" Hermione began to suggest, but Harry cut her off. 

"No." 

"Seems strange, mate. I mean, Dumbledore sent you off to destroy at least a dozen Horcruxes, yet he doesn't tell you how they should be destroyed," Ron pointed out. 

That evening, everyone tended to their own activities. Ron fiddled with the radio, in hopes to hear something reassuring from the Wizarding World. Hermione sat on the worn armchair, flipping through the book Dumbledore had left to her in his Will. Annie and Dante were playing a casual game of Wizard's Chess. Annie had a hard, concentrated look on her face, which Dante thought looked quite adorable. Harry fiddled with the glass shard in his hands, one that he had kept around for a couple of years. 

Suddenly, Harry gasped, finally forcing Annie's attention away from the game. She caught Hermione's eye. She nodded and stood up. Annie followed suit, abandoning their casual game of chess, coming over to anxiously watch her brother, who twitched. His eyes were squeezed shut. Annie stood in front of him. She frowned, watching her brother in concern. 

Finally, her brother's eyes flew open. He saw his sister and Hermione standing in front of him. He winced guiltily. 

"I thought that you had learned to control those," Annie finally commented. 

Harry shook his head, looking incredibly guilty. Annie sighed, gently chiding her brother. 

"You can't let him into your head like that, Harry. Dumbledore, himself, had said that at one point, didn't he? You have to learn to close your mind, or it'll get too dangerous! We need to practice —"

Harry cut her off, looking incredibly pissed. "It's not something that I can control that quickly, Sis. Can't you understand that?" 

Annie stayed silent. She finally sat at her brother's side on the couch. She took his hand in hers, and he finally relaxed. 

"Tell me, brother. Tell me what you saw." 

Harry took in a deep, collected breath before explaining to his sister what he had seen. 

"He's found him. Vol —" He quickly cut himself off, remembering that the name was Tabooed. He glanced anxiously at the tent towards Ron, who still looked distracted by the radio. "You-Know-Who. He's found Gregorovitch." 

Annie furrowed her eyebrows, confused. She's heard the name of Gregorovitch from one of her Hogwarts books. 

"Gregorovitch?" she echoed. "As in the wand-maker?" 

Harry looked rather taken aback that his sister knew this without him telling her who the man was. 

"Yes. How did you know?" 

Annie shrugged. "Did you ever pay close attention to Professor Binns' history lessons, Harry?" 

Harry shook his head guiltily. "No. He never made lessons interesting." 

"But what has Gregorovitch got to do with You-Know-Who? That's the question." 

"You-Know-Who wants something from Gregorovitch. Something that he once owned. But I don't know what it is. But whatever it is, You-Know-Who is determined to have it in his own hands. It's as though his own life depends on it" 

He suddenly glanced over at Ron again. The radio continued blaring inside the tent. He got to his feet, preparing to demand to tell his best friend to turn the obnoxious thing off. But Annie knew better. 

"Don't," said Hermione calmly. "It comforts him." 

Harry's fists clenched. "Well, it does set my teeth on edge. How can you expect to tolerate what he hears? What does he expect to hear — good news?" 

"I think that he hopes that he doesn't get the chance to hear bad news. Mostly about his family. It seems to get him through the day, I think," Annie whispered. 

Harry scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. "What gets you through the day, Sis? I'm curious to know." 

"We all make sacrifices, Harry," Annie gently chided. 

Harry huffed, clearly not pleased with the answer. He crossed his arms over his chest. "How long can it be before we can travel? I'm getting sick of staying in one place at a time." 

"I dunno," Hermione admitted. "It's going to take some time for him to heal. I've done all that I can." 

"Well, you aren't doing enough," Harry snapped at her, surprising Sera. He was never one to snap at people, unless he was angry. 

An idea came to Annie. She snapped her fingers in her brother's direction, causing him to turn towards her. He stared at her in surprise. She extended her hand out to him.

"Give it to me," she demanded. 

Harry stared at his sister, surprised. 

"What?" 

"You heard me," Annie answered. "Take it off. Now." 

Harry threw her a glare before yanking the locket off his neck. He handed it to his sister. As soon as the necklace had left his hand and into his sister's, his shoulders relaxed. Annie smiled. 

"Better?" 

Harry looked surprised by his own reactions. 

"Loads." 

Annie turned the locket over in her hands, frowning. She squeezed it in her hands in an attempt to make it warmer. But nothing. It continued to stay cold. 

"It's still cold," she noted. "Even though it's been lying against your skin and an extra layer of clothing, for days. We'll take turns, yeah?" 

Without another word, Annie slipped the necklace around her neck. She stepped back in surprise as she felt the necklace's presence almost overpowering her. But she quickly recovered. She glanced up at her brother, who nodded silently in agreement. 

Later that night, Annie took her watch. She shivered, hard, against the frigid air that made her bones turn cold. Her breath showed up in mist that she could see. Inside, the radio was blaring. Annie supposed that Ron was still listening to it in his sleep. But the next bit of news clearly caught her off-guard. 

". . . . Severus Snape, newly appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts. Bears little resemblance to the previous, deceased Headmaster. Snape's curriculum is severe, unlike what the other students have learned in the past, reflecting the wishes of the Dark Lord and infractions are dealt with harshly by two of the Death Eater staff that reside there . . . ." 

Her head snapped up in surprise at the sound of Professor Snape's name. She was even more surprised that he had the guts to come back to the school, even after what he had done to begin with. 

The snap of a twig caught her ears, capturing her attention. She turned her head in the direction of the noise. She quietly got to her feet, slipping her hand into her wand pocket, just in case. She crept closer to the noise. Standing completely still, Sera watched in horror, as several Snatchers came into view, dragging dead bodies behind them. One carried a dead body in its arms. 

The sight made Annie cringe in disgust. 

She caught sight of the familiar Scabior, one of the more loyal servants of Voldemort. He quickly stopped in his tracks, turning in Annie's direction. For a split moment, Sera thought that he had seen her. But instead, he looked rather confused, sniffing the air. 

"What is that . . . .?" he paused, taking another whiff. "What's that smell? Is that perfume?" 

Annie watched, holding her breath. Her heart pounded so loudly in her ears, she was surprised that the Death Eaters didn't hear it. Instead, Scabior shrugged it off, though he still had a confused frown on his face. 

"Bah! It could only be my imagination. Let's get going!" Scabior finally declared. 

The trio of Snatchers started their trek again. Once they were out of sight, Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She was not aware that her brother, and Hermione, were standing on either side, slightly behind her, until she heard her brother's voice. 

"Snatchers." 

Annie spun around, panicking slightly, before relaxing. She turned to face Hermione, who still looked concerned. 

"Luckily, we know that your enchantments work, Hermione," Harry added, nodding in her direction. 

Annie still looked confused, turning back to where she had just seen Scabior. 

"He could smell it," she said in a low voice. "My perfume. You know, the one that Dante got for me that one Christmas." 

"Then we should leave," Harry suggested at once. "We're not safe out here, even with our enchantments." 

Hermione shook her head wildly. "I told you — Ron is not strong enough to Apparate." 

Harry did not look too pleased. But they knew that they had no choice. 

"We'll have to go on foot, then."