(Y/N)'s POV

My first day wearing the locket was not a pleasant one, Hermione had insisted that we didn't use it, but then we got talking and felt like testing a theory. Remembering how Sirius escaped Azkaban was the basis of our plan.

She remembered something about him saying that Dementors finding it much harder to detect the emotions of an animal, so I was wondering if the negative effect that the locket could have on emotions could be counteracted by my Animagus form.

Sirius had explained that it was harder for Dementors to detect or understand animal emotions because they aren't as complex as humans. I was reminded of this subtle difference after encountering Nagini.

I didn't mind being in my Animagus form, it was pretty much how I travelled through the woods or slept out in the cold when I was chasing after the others with the compass. So, I was becoming more used to being in that form.

After I put on the locket I transformed immediately, trying to stop any influence it would have over me before it started. It just felt like an odd sort of collar against my fur, though it was rather difficult not to put pressure on one of my paws as I walked.

Hours passed and I felt the same, not pressured by the locket as Harry and Hermione described it, and I was happy at the success. We now had a safer way to keep the locket close to us.

But it all fell apart that night. The bunk that had been designated to me since my return had still remained unused, I instead slept in the same bed as Hermione, finding that when I was curled up in bed with her, the nightmares that had plagued me all my life never came.

Until I put the locket on, they spilled into me at night. But it wasn't the same, it was worse, so much worse. As my vision came to me in the nightmare, I was being led through a cobbled street that I didn't recognise, at the end of the beaten path was a headstone.

I sighed, recalling my last nightmare and the blood-soaked words that always adorned the stone, expecting the words that were now etched into my hand or some other ominous message.

But the scene shifted, and I was in the graveyard. Not the one I usually saw, the snow covered one in Godric's hollow.

Voldemort's piercing red eyes were upon me and he laughed, but it wasn't in his voice, it was a laugh I was familiar with, one I had heard before, one I hated with the depths of my soul, but before I could decipher whose laugh it was the figure began disappearing into smoke.

The smoke filled the graveyard and twisted around me, as if I were in a whirlpool of some kind, and then, from the smoke arose stone. A cold wind howled and bit straight through me.

All around me where hundreds and hundreds of headstones, each with a different name, each one familiar, each one sickening. They all had one phrase in common "Here lies..."

Some of the ones that stuck with me even as I awoke were "Here lies Luna Lovegood. Died an outcast" "Here lies Neville Longbottom. Died insane like his parents before him" everywhere I moved my eyes another name caught them.

I turned away from the horrific sight only for more to be in front of me. "Mad Eye Moody. Died for nothing" "Nymphadora Tonks. Left her child behind." "Remus Lupin. Died the animal he was"

"Arthur and Molly Weasley. A disgrace to all purebloods." There were seven identical graves all in a row behind them, the first one started with "Ron Weasley" but each one ended the same "Blood traitor."

I tried to scream up toward the skies, I tried to swear that I wouldn't let it happen, but my voice made no noise. As I looked back down at the ground, I found a slightly more ornate stone with some engravings on it, but it had been destroyed, blown apart. "Harry Potter. The false idol that led them to their deaths."

The next grouping of gravestones sickened me more than any other. "Here lies Winky the House elf. Died crying for her master." Beside it was another patch of dirt the was not given a stone but laid exposed, all that was left was a skeleton of an animal, just the bones.

There was another that was distinct from the rest, the words "Hermione Granger" was painted over with the word "MUDBLOOD" smeared across the stone. This and the next few shook me the most.

"Here lies (B/N) Bogwood. Died in agony" "Here lies (M/N) (L/N). Died screaming" "Here lies (F/N) Bogwood. Died scared." I tried to shut my eyes, but as I did an image was on the back of my eyelids, in the dark, like my Animagus form was whenever I summoned it. "Here lies (Y/N) (L/N). Failed them all."

And then I heard banging from the floor beneath me, the dirt around me began to shift and I understood where from, under the dirt, they were banging on their coffins hoping to escape, all of them asking why I let them die.

Then they were upon me, skeletons with cork necklaces, skeletons with red hair, some with brown bushy hair, some with glasses, some with one eye lodged in its socket, pink hair...they overtook me.

I woke up with tears in my eyes, my head pulsing, I sat up harshly, so much so I woke up Hermione beside me who let out a gasp of her own, "What's wrong?" she cried. I didn't answer her, I couldn't. All the pain that I had felt for the past few days was forgotten.

I twisted to my left and out of the bed, landing harshly on the floor, crawling on my hands and knees and deaf to the world, I found my belt, which I had taken off to sleep, rummaging through the contents I soon found a potion that smelled of lavender.

As if I was a man dying of thirst, I downed the bottle, not caring about the taste or the potency of the contents, hoping it would bring me some relief from my own mind, I don't remember the dream that followed, the next thing I remembered was waking up.

When I awoke, I was irrationally angry, I couldn't even really tell you why, if nobody had come to check on me then Death Eaters could have swept through the tent and killed us all and it would be all their fault. Not mine.

I found them both huddled around a book, reading it over, I didn't announce myself, but just listened, because otherwise I doubt, they would tell me about it, I mean why would they?

It's not as if I was usually the person fighting their battles for them. I was always the one that got hurt. It wasn't as if I had hunted them down as they paraded through the country.

It's me that had to fight Voldemort alone in the graveyard, me who had to confront the death eaters alone as they invaded Hogwarts, me who had to act as the decoy for the other order members. I couldn't help but feel a little resentful.

The long rant that Harry went on allowed me to pick up the context of what they were reading. Apparently, Dumbledore used to be almost as bad as the people he claimed to be better then and was best mates with a raving lunatic, I was not incredibly surprised.

"-Harry." She seemed to have heard his thoughts. "Listen to me. It — it doesn't make very nice reading —" "Yeah, you could say that —" "— but don't forget, Harry, this is Rita Skeeter writing." "You did read that letter to Grindelwald, didn't you?"

"Yes, I — I did." She hesitated, looking upset, cradling her tea in her cold hands. "I think that's the worst bit. I know Bathilda thought it was all just talk, but 'For the Greater Good' became Grindelwald's slogan, his justification for all the atrocities he committed later."

"And . . . from that . . . it looks like Dumbledore gave him the idea. They say, 'For the Greater Good' was even carved over the entrance to Nurmengard."

"What's Nurmengard?" "The prison Grindelwald had built to hold his opponents. He ended up in there himself once Dumbledore had caught him. Anyway, it's — it's an awful thought that Dumbledore's ideas helped Grindelwald rise to power."

"But on the other hand, even Rita can't pretend that they knew each other for more than a few months one summer when they were both really young, and —" "I thought you'd say that" said Harry.

"I thought you'd say, 'They were young.' They were the same age as we are now. And here we are, risking our lives to fight the Dark Arts, and there he was, in a huddle with his new best friend, plotting their rise to power over the Muggles."

"I'm not trying to defend what Dumbledore wrote," said Hermione. "All that 'right to rule' rubbish, it's 'Magic Is Might' all over again. But Harry, his mother had just died, he was stuck alone in the house —"

"Alone? He wasn't alone! He had his brother and sister for company, his Squib sister he was keeping locked up —" "I don't believe it," said Hermione. She stood up too. "Whatever was wrong with that girl, I don't think she was a Squib. The Dumbledore we knew would never, ever have allowed —"

"The Dumbledore we thought we knew didn't want to conquer Muggles by force!" Harry shouted, his voice echoing across the empty hilltop, and several blackbirds rose into the air, squawking and spiralling against the pearly sky.

"Well, personally, I agree with Harry, I think that first bit does sound just like Dumbledore." I said, they both turned to me, "Oh, you're awake!" Hermione said. "Oh, sorry, did I interrupt book club?" "What we reading?" I said, looking over at the title.

"Oh, Dumbledore's book, what you think he's left you some secret code or something?" "Knowing him he probably made Skeeter write it in secret. Oh! Maybe if you read it backwards it can lead us on another wild goose chase that will get us all killed in the end. How fun!"

Hermione was still set on defending Dumbledore. "He changed, he changed! It's as simple as that! Maybe he did believe these things when he was seventeen, but the whole of the rest of his life was devoted to fighting the Dark Arts!"

"Dumbledore was the one who stopped Grindelwald, the one who always voted for Muggle protection and Muggle-born rights, who fought You-Know-Who from the start, and who died trying to bring him down!"

"He was a hypocritical, manipulative old man that used people for his own gains." Hermione looked appalled "No he wasn't!" I laughed, "Hermione for someone so smart, you'd think you'd pay more attention."

"I mean look at us now, he brainwashed the lot of us. Even now you're chasing after him, hoping he left you some clues to help you on this important mission that he forced you to go on."

"And when you're not doing that you insist that we focus on wasting time based on a feeling you had in your extra special wand instead of focusing on the thing we were sent here to do. Just like him, wandering us around in circles and claiming it's a straight line."

It was strange, I wasn't particularly good at keeping my mouth shut on a good day, but now, it was like I had no filter. I understood the words I was saying were rude and insensitive, but I just couldn't find it in myself to care.

"It's not a waste of time! If we know what Vol-" "Then what, if we find out what he's doing, he's still just as unkillable as if we didn't, unless you think he's going to give you the grand tour of all the pieces of his soul?"

"Of course not, but if we know where he is, we can stay away from him can't we?" I sighed, "Or you just like thinking you have a one up on him because you can spy on him despite the fact he's been leading you around by the nose for years because you're too stupid to even consider the ramifications of anything you do"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said, narrowing his eyes at me, "Could mean a lot of things to be honest." "(Y/N) calm down, take the locket off." Said Hermione stepping between us. Harry glanced down at my neck and sneered.

"Why, because then I could stop hurting his feelings because he knows this is all his fault and he's trying to blame it on Dumbledore?" "How is any of this my fault!" shouted Harry over her shoulder.

"It was you that insisted we went to the ministry early and you were the one that sounded the alarm it was you who almost got us killed at Godric's Hollow so you could cry over a statue and chase after a fantasy."

He went to open his mouth, but I kept going, I was on a roll even if this argument didn't really make sense, I had no real reason to be this upset, but I still was.  It was like my emotions were turned up to eleven.

"It was you that left me in the graveyard. It was you that got me involved in the Tri-Wizard. You who forced us into the Department of Mysteries. You're the one that keeps putting everyone in danger!"

"You decided that stuff for yourself, I didn't tell you to come." "No, but we all know that you were going to run off and get yourself killed regardless. So, someone had to keep you alive, not that you ever do the same."

"That's enough!" cried Hermione. "Well it's true, we've been saving his life for years. And what do we get for it? An all-expenses paid camping trip to the middle of nowhere, how lovely." Harry pulled out a wand from his pocket that I recognised as mine.

Him putting his hands on it just made me feel even more resentful "Don't embarrass yourself Harry. You couldn't beat me with your wand let alone mine." I closed the gap between us further, towering over him, only Hermione stood between us.

"I don't need your help" he spat venomously. I nodded, "Of course not. I suppose you're going to Expelliarmus the Death Eaters into submission. Maybe one'll get you really angry and you'll mutter out a stupefy?"

Upon saying these words Hermione's wand flew from her grip and landed in my hand. I waited for him to escalate anything if he was going to. "No! Both of you STOP!" cried Hermione, "We are not doing this again!" she shrieked.

Now it made sense, I guess Ron caught on and left before Potter got us all killed. Probably the smartest thing he's ever done. "I can see why Ron left, it's better then sitting around doing nothing.

"It's certainly better than following this idiot on one of his little adventures so he can prove himself as a hero for people to worship." Harry shouted, "I've got you this far haven't I?"

"Oh yeah, so far, we haven't found a horcrux since the ministry and we still don't have a way to destroy one." "You can destroy it and for some reason you're not doing it" I chuckled, was he really that stupid?

"Oh yeah 'Burn it!' Burn it and almost get us all killed while I cry about some random loser in a picture that's probably dead anyway." I took a step closer to him. "Well nobody's stopping you now, go destroy it then." he gestured to the locket.

"What's this? You the almighty Harry Potter. Need my help to destroy a horcrux." I clapped my hands over my mouth "Shock horror! This is unprecedented. Like I haven't been saving his life for nearly a decade."

"Alright Hermione, you heard our chosen one, follow his orders to the letter no matter who dies for it. Let's start a huge uncontrollable living fire in the middle of nowhere. In a forest! I'm sure that wont draw any attention."

I chuckled again, "Man, you're as stupid as everyone makes you out to be. It's a wonder you've lived this long. I mean without your mother or anyone else to die for-" Hermione had enough finally and snatched the locket from my neck and stashed it into her purse.

As soon as the locket was free from my neck, I immediately regretted all I said, it was like I'd just woken up from sleepwalking. I didn't know how to confront them after that, I couldn't face them, so I just turned and left, under the guise of taking the next watch.

I spent a lot of time thinking about everything I said. Was it the truth? Was that how I really felt? That Harry was leading us all to our deaths? It wasn't the first time I had ever doubted him, we had a similar argument before after the Department of Mysteries.

I hoped that he knew that regardless of my personal feelings I'd still follow him into the gates of hell if he asked me to, and I wasn't about to give up on the mission if that's what he thought, It's bigger than me and my resentments, it's bigger then all of us.

I apologised to the others many times over, hoping they wouldn't take it to heart, but there was an awkwardness between us for a while. In the hours and days that past the mood of the three of us had diminished and most of our afternoons were filled with gloomy silence and small talk.

As a sort of apology for being the cause I tried to lighten the mood as much as I could but it wasn't until a few days later that I got a genuine laugh out of both of them as we discussed the horcruxes.

"Consider yourself lucky he's sentimental, if it was me, mine would be a needle that I'd lob in a hay bale somewhere" I paused "Come to think of it, I'd make a much better dark lord then he would"

Harry smiled for the first time in a while, "Well if I was fighting you, I'd have given up by now" he said, I scoffed, "Don't flatter yourself Potter. If you were fighting me, you would be dead by now" I said plainly.

Hermione giggled, "How do you figure that?" She asked. "Well, I don't care about all the pure blood rubbish and I wouldn't care who kills my nemesis as long as they stay dead, so I already have more followers and less opposition then him."

"What about Dumbledore?" Hermione said, "Well for one I wouldn't get Malfoy to do it, I'd hire someone half competent, like Peeves." They both smiled at the thought much to my relief. "What's Peeves gonna do? Raspberry him to death?"

"Nah, if I really wanted to do it I'd have to get him when his guard is down and someone he wouldn't want to hurt, so I'd probably imperius a student or one of the staff to do him in, Flitwick's a good duellist. Or I'd just poison his sherbet lemons."

Now Harry scoffed, "Oh yeah, how am I kicking the bucket then?" "Easy, first year in the forest, I'd have done it with the killing curse, then that centaur too, bobs your uncle, new dark age, no third act, or second really."

Harry countered "I don't think Quirrell had his wand, or didn't know the curses" I frowned "Well first off, I'm not Quirrell, secondly, you think he took down a unicorn with his bare hands? Did you ever meet the bloke?"

"I mean not to speak ill of the dead, but he would probably get intimidated by Dennis Creevey" "You seem to have put a lot of thought into this." Hermione said, I shrugged, "Well, what else am I supposed to do when the sorting hat does his songs every year, or when Binns goes on about some goblin war or other."

They laughed a little and we spent a while reminiscing about simpler times, but it soon turned into another round of "Ron did this" and "Do you remember when Ron..." it had become a common theme in our everyday conversations.

All of us felt his absence, he was usually our sense of normality, our anchor to the real world, thee three of us alone were to obsessed with the mission to go long without burning out or snapping at each other, as was evidenced by my actions earlier in the day.

The idea that he could be anywhere right now and had no way back to us filled me with dread, I'd been there and was lucky to have something that drew me back to them, but the chances of Ron's return were diminishing with every day, and we all knew it.

Since the month had drawn on and we were now solidly in the colder part of the year, Hermione and I had decided to share our watches whenever we could.

It was a way to both prevent either of us from getting to tired by alternating, or to beat the cold in the air by staying huddled together. It was snowing by the time we took over the watch at midnight, relieving Harry after several hours.

Hermione was huddled with me in the entrance to the tent reading A History of Magic by the light of her wand as I shifted my attention from the night in front of me to the foe glass on my arm, finding nothing interesting in either case.

"It's bloody freezing," I shivered, she nodded. Placing her head on my shoulder. I would complain more, but it gave us an excuse to get a lot closer. By the end of the night she was laid across my lap as I stroked her hair and investigated the night.

It was nights like this that I really missed Hogwarts, despite not touching it in years, I could still remember the warmth of Butterbeer, I could just imagine shuffling down to Hagrid's in the snow and having a nice warm cup of tea with him as he told us about some magical beast or other.

Come to think of it everyone would be off for Christmas break around now. I could imagine everyone saying their goodbyes now, Ron would go to the Burrow and probably drag Harry along with him. Would I have stayed at Hogwarts this year or gone with them? I don't know.

I could have visited Tonks and Lupin during the holiday, I could have congratulated her on the baby. I could imagine digging into some of Mrs. Weasleys Christmas food and dancing with Winky again, she would be back at the Burrow from Hogwarts too.

I spent the majority of our time on watch deep in my own imagination, yet again falling back on the thought of better times, it was hours before I was pulled out of my thoughts by soft snoring from Hermione beneath me.

By the time Harry joined us it was the early morning and the snow was still falling thickly, due to the weather, he suggested we packed and left early, we had no reason to argue so got to work moving our camp.

"We'll go somewhere more sheltered," Hermione promised, shivering as she pulled on a sweatshirt over her pyjamas. Naturally, we reported anything we saw, even mundane stuff.

"I kept thinking I could hear people moving outside. I even thought I saw somebody once or twice." "I'm sure I imagined it," said Hermione, looking nervous. "The snow in the dark, it plays tricks on your eyes."

". . . But perhaps we ought to Disapparate under the Invisibility Cloak, just in case?" Half an hour later, with the tent packed, Harry wearing the Horcrux, and Hermione clutching the beaded bag, we Disapparated.

The usual tightness engulfed us; I felt the momentary warmth of being in the middle of two spaces and then we slammed hard onto what felt like frozen earth covered with leaves.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, peering around at a fresh mass of trees as Hermione opened the beaded bag and began tugging out tent poles. "The Forest of Dean," she said. "I came camping here once with my mum and dad."

Here too snow lay on the trees all around and it was bitterly cold, but we were at least protected from the wind. I was spending most of my time as an animal to be honest, all the fur made the tent rather toasty.

As Hermione set to work with the protective enchantments, Harry and I pitched the tent and set up everything we needed inside, a task made rather difficult by Harry lacking a wand.

He must have been thinking the same thing because halfway through his third attempt at driving a peg into the ground he asked me. "Hey (Y/N)?" I turned to him, expecting him to ask for help.

"I just thought. Couldn't I use your brother's wand...I mean if you..." he shrugged and seemed to give up on the question. "Well yeah, he's not exactly finding any uses for it is he? But that's a moot point I'm afraid."

"Mum and (B/N)'s wands are at home, which is probably swarmed by Death Eaters and Ministry people by now. I would have brought them with, but I didn't think I'd need to, plus, I haven't used either of them since...the department of Mysteries. It feels strange, like dead men's shoes or something."

He nodded and got back to work, sighing, "Nothing's ever simple" he parroted under his breath. "Good, you're catching on" I teased. Causing him to miss the peg and hammer his own thumb, much to my delight.

We spent most of the day inside the tent, huddled for warmth around the useful bright blue flames that Hermione was so adept at producing, and which could be scooped up and carried around in a jar.

Every time the tent door opened, and a frost chilled the inside of the tent I found myself longing for the knitted Weasley sweater I knew that Hermione had stashed somewhere in her purse and the warmth it would provide.

But I bit back the urge to add it to my wardrobe and relent, it had become an unwritten rule of the tent that we were prohibited from wearing them. Not because of anything malicious towards Ron or the Weasleys, just because it hurt too much to be reminded of them at times like this.

As darkness drew in again Harry refused Hermione's offer to keep watch and told her to go to bed. "You should go too; I know you're tired." Before I could protest and even pretend that he was wrong, and I was wide awake he shook his head.

Knowing arguing was pointless, I passed him my wand, knowing that Hermione was probably the best person to keep a wand. "Night mate, call us if anything happens" He nodded. So, I set off to bed as he moved an old cushion into the tent mouth and sat down.

By the time I got to bed Hermione was already pretty much asleep. It was the cutest thing; her eyes were falling closed as she struggled to keep awake, her head jolting a little each time.

I settled in next to her and held her against me, gently stroking her hair until she settled into sleep. Despite how tired I was, I was a completely different case, for some reason I just couldn't sleep.

No matter how I shifted my thoughts kept me awake, well, to be honest I wasn't sure if It was my thoughts. It was the same as the day with Yaxley, a little tick noise drummed on the back of my head.

It was as if there was a little tiny clock ticking on the back of my neck, I could almost feel it vibrate into my skull. I didn't know what it meant, I barely knew what it was, but for some reason I could imagine it in my hand.

An ornate gold pocket watch with planets and moons in the space that is usually occupied by hands and numbers. I could imagine it faintly held in my wand hand, even though in reality the gift from Dumbledore was in my belt across the room with Hermione's purse.

What the hell was it even doing bothering me at a time like this. Maybe Dumbledore just didn't ever want me to get a good night's sleep. If I got comfortable and felt myself drifting off the ticking seemed to intensify.

It was almost like it was in rhythm of my heartbeat. It was driving me insane. After I think about ten or twenty minutes of shuffling about and trying to get comfortable, I gave up completely.

Getting out of bed I spent a few seconds putting warmer clothes on. Then went to sit with Harry on watch for a bit, knowing that once I was this awake going back to sleep was going to be next to impossible.

When I did, I found his usual pillow empty, maybe he had gone outside for some reason. I ducked outside the tent and craned my neck to look around, still seeing no sign of him. "Harry!" I whispered into the night and waited for a second, but I got no reply.

I stepped back inside the tent and was debating waking Hermione, but Harry hadn't called out to us or anything, so I wasn't sure if I was overreacting or not. I couldn't find it in myself to wake her.

Instead I wrote a quick note. "If you wake up and read this Harry's gone on a stroll, going to get him, left the wand with you in case of emergency. I'll take the compass so we can head back."

I quickly shuffled into my belt, hoping the stuff inside would offer me some protection, I also snatched up Dumbledore's pocket watch. I would have taken Hermione's wand, but I didn't want to leave her defenceless. With that done I walked out into the cold of the Forest of Dean.

I wished I had the cloak with me, not even for the minimal warmth it provided but because I wouldn't feel so exposed, I felt like I saw shadows around every tree waiting to curse me, every crack of a twig was a new attacker in the dark.

It was a few minutes before I found something that I think resembled a trail. Pressed down into the layer of a snow were what I believed to be footprints, knowing there was nobody else around for miles I deduced they were Harry's.

Following the prints as best I could I felt like an old hunter chasing a deer or something, it would have been quite fun if the forest weren't so unnerving. I soon came to a clearing next to a lake. I was quite shocked at what I saw.

There was a pile of clothes and a still lit wand next to an open hole within the surface of the lake that was otherwise frozen over, there were two figures in the night.

At first I thought one was drowning the other and rushed to intervene but upon closer inspection one was pulling the other out of the water, I was unable to see in the darkness, but one was Harry I was sure of it, the wand that was illuminating the scene was mine.

I stayed near the treeline, waiting to see if the stranger posed a threat, but then my jaw dropped and my heard started pounding. There was no way that was who I had imagined it to be.

But I'm sure I'd know that hair anywhere, it was the beacon that led me to my friends whenever I couldn't see them in the crowded hall of Hogwarts. I must have just been imagining things, hoping it was who I thought.

Getting closer, I was certain. Stood with his arm around Harry, ginger hair stuck to his sopping wet forehead, was Ronald Bilius Weasley.

I knew I missed him, I just didn't know I missed him this much, realising I hadn't seen him since I was left behind at the ministry my eyes welled with happy tears, we were finally back together again, all of us.

I was overjoyed, I almost shouted out to him and gave away my position so I could run over and say hello, but then my inner Moody kicked in and I calmed down, needing confirmation before I got my hopes up.

So, imagining this Ron doppelganger was fake I thought it through, Harry was in no state to defend himself, he was half naked...for some reason. But he was still in reach of my wand, so he wasn't entirely defenceless.

I decided to arm myself and attack from the shadows if necessary, "Accio Wand" I whispered, extending my hand. I waited a second for Hermione's wand to find its way to my hand.

To my surprise and amusement, my wand rocketed to my hand, I realised I forgot to specify which wand. But my plan still proceeded as I meant it to. Though now I had to act quickly in case the fake was going to attack Harry.

Harry's POV

I had no strength to lift my head and see my saviour's identity. All I could do was raise a shaking hand to my throat and feel the place where the locket had cut tightly into my flesh. It was gone: Someone had cut me free.

Then a panting voice spoke from over my head. "Are — you — mental?" Nothing but the shock of hearing that voice could have given me the strength to get up. Shivering violently, I staggered to my feet.

There before me stood Ron, fully dressed but drenched to the skin, his hair plastered to his face, the sword of Gryffindor in one hand and the Horcrux dangling from its broken chain in the other.

"Why the hell," panted Ron, holding up the Horcrux, which swung backward and forward on its shortened chain in some parody of hypnosis, "didn't you take this thing off before you dived?" I could not answer.

The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with Ron's reappearance; I could not believe it. Shuddering with cold, I caught up the pile of clothes still lying at the water's edge and began to pull them on.

As I dragged sweater after sweater over my head, I stared at Ron, half expecting him to have disappeared every time I lost sight of him, and yet he had to be real: He had just dived into the pool, he had saved my life.

"It was y-you?" I said at last, my teeth chattering, my voice weaker than usual due to near strangulation. "Well, yeah," said Ron, looking slightly confused. "Y-you cast that doe?" "What? 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." I put Hagrid's pouch back around my neck, pulled on a final sweater, stooped to pick up (Y/N)'s wand, and faced Ron again.

"How come you're here?" Apparently, Ron had hoped that this point would come up later, if at all. "I realised how much of a mistake it was as soon as I left, so-" He took another breath. "-Well, I've — you know — I've come back. If —" He cleared his throat. "You know. You still want me." There was a pause.

Before I could answer him with anything the wand in my hand seemed to be pulled off in one direction, slipping out of my wet hand, I was filled with panic, was it (Y/N) trying to call his wand to him from the tent, were they in danger?

I did get an answer to my inquiry but not in the way I expected. Ron went to open his mouth to ask me something. Then, he was tackled to one side and what I first thought was an animal had landed on top of him.

Instead, Ron now had a wand in his face, the tip glowing with an ominous red light that illuminated the darkness of the forest and showed the face of his attacker. His own wand spiralling out of his hand.

Ron's POV

God this was awkward, butterflies danced in my stomach as I asked Harry if he wanted me to come back. I don't think I've ever been this nervous, but then again, it might just have been the cold.

Before I could get an answer, I was tackled from somewhere to the left of me onto the freezing ground below, anything I held clattered out of my hands, what I saw when my eyes focused again both made my heart jump and then sink.

(Y/N)'s face was illuminated by a sinister red shade of light and he snapped at me "When I found you and a girl after a party. What room did I send you to?" I was shivering with cold and It was so sudden I was too shocked to answer.

(Y/N) got impatient, "ANSWER ME!" My mind rushed for the answer and I stammered, still shivering. "Uh, prefect's bathroom weren't it?" His face lit up. Immediately (Y/N) climbed off me and pulled me up to my feet by the arm, leading into a hug that I gladly accepted.

He was cackling with joyous laughter and patting me on the back happily. "If it isn't the return of the Mack" he said, practically bouncing as he spoke. "Of what?" I asked, trying to figure out what that meant, he found it hilarious for some reason and hugged me again

"Never mind that you idiot." Then he pulled away and shivered, "Why are you all wet?" Still in shock I turned and pointed to Harry, who was in just as much shock as I was and then to the hole he had made in the ice. Bending down to retrieve the sword and the locket again.

(Y/N) found this an acceptable answer and he pulled me into another hug. "I'm so glad to see you!" he cheered, I got over my shock and nodded. He was beaming at me; it was almost as if I had never left.

"Yeah, I didn't expect to see you," I finally answered, still smiling he raised an eyebrow, "Disappointed?" he smirked, I'd missed that. "Anything but." I answered as my teeth chattered.

My eyes blinked away tears, I had never been happier to see someone, all my worries about returning left. I had been so worried about him; I hadn't seen anything in the papers except something about an explosion in a bar.

"I've been keeping an eye on the paper for any sightings and I tried finding you, if I'd known you were back with these lot I would have tried to come back sooner" I said truthfully. He shrugged.

"Now enough with the reunions, Harry's about to catch hypothermia." With a single wave of his wand a hot air seemed to surround Harry and I as if we had been placed next to a warm fire. I had never been so relieved to be dry again.

Then he turned to Harry "Why the hell did you go skinny dipping at a time like this? " I held out the sword of Gryffindor and (Y/N)'s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Apparently, he hadn't seen me holding it and still managed not to impale himself on it as he tackled me, "Where the bloody hell did you get that from?" "Did you have it? How did-" he started.

Harry stopped him before he started rambling "There was a Patronus, a doe, I followed it and it led me to the sword, it was in the lake." Harry explained. "I had to pull the prat out to stop him freezing to death, plus this thing was strangling him." I added, holding the locket.

(Y/N) cocked his head to one side and looked at Harry in confusion "Why didn't you just heat the water with magic first you plum." And they laughed, it was strange to hear. I didn't realise I missed it until I did. But in the silence, the tension came back.

(Y/N)'s POV

The subject of Ron's departure seemed to rise like a wall between the three of us. Yet he was here. He had returned. He had just saved Harry's life. It was a good start at his redemption and return.

I was over the moon; words couldn't express my happiness in this moment. Was this why Dumbledore had deemed it fit to keep me awake? Did he know that Ron would return?

Surely not, maybe the mysterious ticking noise was my imagination, my bodies way of preventing me from having another nightmare as I slept. Either way, I wasn't complaining.

Ron looked down at his hands. He seemed momentarily surprised to see the things he was holding. "Oh yeah, I got it out," he said, rather unnecessarily, holding up the sword for Harry's inspection.

"That's why you jumped in, right?" "Yeah," said Harry. "But I don't understand. How did you get here? How did you find us?" "Long story," said Ron and I got a bit excited.

"Oh, you have no idea. We were in Godric's Hollow. There was this old lady right, and she smelled really bad, but she wasn't actually an old lady, you'll never guess what she really was-"