Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "So easy a caveman could do it!"

Hermione Granger (cerebralwitch) wrote in wished,
@ 2009-12-29 18:06:00

Entry tags:

!1997: 12, !complete, !plot, harry potter, hermione granger, ron weasley

Who: Hermione, Harry, Ron
What: Horcrux discussion, and destruction!
Where: Forest of Dean
When: Today
Rating/Warning: Some Violence, Language, and Danger

She couldn't believe it was that easy. There right in front of her in Dumbledore's notes. The next horcruxes. She knew what they were! Hermione stared at her journal in silent awe for at least five full minutes before she jumped up, tearing through the tent to find Harry.

"Harry!" She called, then pulled open the divider to his bedroom in the tent. "Harry! Get up! I've figured out the next two horcruxes! I know what they are!" Which, of course, didn't help them to destroy this one, but it put them one step further. Two steps, really. Two very large steps closer to what they needed to eventually do, which was destroy all of them. And, if they could talk together about what this might mean if she was right, then maybe Gryffindor's Sword would be the answer to this riddle, too.

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sonofastag
2009-12-31 05:55 am UTC (link)

Harry shoved over to give her room, taking the soap with a muttered, "thanks, Hermione."

He blew on the soup to cool it off and shook his head. "I don't even know how we managed to get rid of the other one. I tried that sword. A few times. I guess it just had to. . . open first. . . " Which he couldn't quite remember how he'd done.

He'd been after something when he went in the water. . . "Nagini," he blurted as he remembered. He blinked and then told Hermione. "I saw Nagini, and heard Voldemort, and then I told it to open. I think I said it in Parseltongue. And then Ron destroyed it, I think."

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geroffme
2009-12-31 06:08 am UTC (link)

"Thanks." Ron smiled up at her briefly before digging in. It would be enough, somehow. He nodded along to Harry's version of events.

"Once it was open, I just had to - stab it," he agreed. "As soon as I hit it with the sword, it just sort of screamed, and broke. Do you think that'll work on all of them, then?" That almost seemed too good to be true, until he remembered they still had to track them all down. "What do you think they are?" Nothing any of them could wear, he sincerely hoped. Still ... at least now they would know what they were looking for - a vast improvement.

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cerebralwitch
2009-12-31 06:12 am UTC (link)

It was, thanks to Viktor, at least better than the berries and nuts they'd lived on for weeks when Ron had been there, right? Hermione leaned back with the soup, taking a few bites slowly until it had cooled off a bit.

"I think it might," Hermione said, and she bit her lip, because she'd had time to think about it while Harry was gone and there were still a lot of holes. She felt like she was right, but she didn't like to go on feelings.

"I've almost finished my translation of that book that Dumbledore gave me. You remember? The children's stories... He left his own notes in the margins, notes that rewrote parts of the text, but the runes on those were even more obscure that some in the text itself. I think, though..." and it felt foolish even saying it, but she took a breath and said, "The locket belonged to Slytherin. We'd guessed at that. But the other things ... I think we're looking for a cup that belonged to Helga Hufflepuff. And a diadem - it's a tiara sort of thing - that belonged to Ravenclaw."

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sonofastag
2009-12-31 06:22 am UTC (link)

"But that's only two," Harry mused, frowning. "Did he not have one for Gryffindor? Since the sword can destroy them?" It didn't make much sense. But there should be another one, still.

Harry thought of the vision, of that sickly feeling he got when he felt too connected to Voldemort. He'd seen Nagini. Not just the last time, but a few. "Maybe. . . I've seen nagini a lot. In visions. And Voldemort always keeps her close, and watches over her. . . can they be living things?"

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geroffme
2010-01-01 12:32 am UTC (link)

"Do you think he would have one for Gryffindor? He can't have been too keen on that." Creepy as it was, the snake seemed to make better sense. "If you can put your soul into a bit of jewelry, I don't see why you couldn't do it with something that's actually breathing. - Except it seems sort of stupid to put it into something that can die." Of course, talking about sense and stupidity was all a little off the mark when you were dealing with someone who had gone so far round the bend that he was breaking himself into pieces on purpose.

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cerebralwitch
2010-01-01 12:40 am UTC (link)

"If Nagini is one of them, then he can't die. Well, at least not the way a normal snake would be able to. The Horcrux pollutes things, but it also makes them nearly indestructible, like the locket."

Hermione shrugged, "I think that maybe Harry's right, if he had a vision of it. But we should try to find the cup and the diadem first. It seems like they'd be easier than Nagini..." And less dangerous.

The next part she was going to say was going to seem really off the wall, though. Still, she had to say it. "I think we ought to go and talk to Xenophilius Lovegood, too."

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sonofastag
2010-01-01 01:27 am UTC (link)

"I don't know. If he was going for a bit about the Founders then you'd think he'd want the whole set. Even if he hates Gryffindors," Harry answered after a moment, frowning in thought.

He shook his head at Hermione. "It's probably daft. I just get the feeling Nagini's. . . important, somehow," he offered lamely.

He lifted his eyebrows at Hermione. "Xenophilius Lovegood? Why? He's. . . " a raging nutter. But Harry knew better than most that people called Luna a nutter too, and she was smart and brave and loyal. But still. Her dad seemed off his nut.

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geroffme
2010-01-01 01:55 am UTC (link)

"... Mental?" Ron suggested. He knew Hermione's opinion of the Quibbler's usual fare - if she was looking to its editor for answers, she must have been pretty desperate. He did seem to know about some weird stuff, of course ... just weird stuff that didn't actually exist. "Do you think he knows anything about horcruxes? Doesn't really seem up his alley, to me." Rather, if he had heard of them, there probably already would have been a Very Special Edition published.

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cerebralwitch
2010-01-01 02:07 am UTC (link)

"Don't be ridiculous," she told Ron, rolling her eyes, then she sat her bowl down on the small coffeetable and reached for a pad of paper and a pencil that was lying there too.

"No, this is why. I've seen this symbol in a lot of Dumbledore's notes. He even made the A in Albus into it almost every time...." The symbol she drew on the paper was odd. A triangle with a circle touching the sides and bottom, a line dissecting the center. "When I tried to look it up, all I could find was that it was a symbol for Grindewald. Grindewald! But that barely makes any sense. But then I remembered that on Lovegood's robes at your brother's wedding? He was wearing the same symbol."

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sonofastag
2010-01-01 02:23 am UTC (link)

"Unless one of the horcruxes is an imaginary nargle," Harry muttered as Hermione reached for paper and pen, smirking at Ron's comment. Better he said it than Harry.

He frowned. "Luna's nutters dad was wearing a dark wizard's symbol? Why would he be wearing that?" Harry couldn't see Xenophilius Lovegood as an acolyte of a vanquished dark wizard. "Maybe it meant something else? Before Grindewald used it?"

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geroffme
2010-01-01 02:35 am UTC (link)

"Well, if we ask him," Ron said, leaning over the table to study the symbol, "We're probably in for a bloody long lecture." Full of nonsense, more likely than not, he thought. It didn't make sense that Luna's father should be showing around something linked to Grindelwald, but it made even less sense to think that Dumbledore would have used something like that casually. You didn't doodle that sort of thing in the margin, you just didn't. "There's no one else we could ask, without ... seeing someone?" Lovegood was on their side, clear enough, but there was something at least a little comforting about being well-hidden in the middle of the woods.

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cerebralwitch
2010-01-01 02:42 am UTC (link)

"Of course he's not following a dark wizard," Hermione said, rolling her eyes and looking at Harry. "The Quibbler's always been on your side, hasn't it? Even now, and I'm sure it's been dangerous for him. So it isn't that. I think.... right, I think it might be something else. I think it might be a key." Like on a map, but she didn't have any idea what it could mean.

"Grindewald had to have gotten it from somewhere, and Lovegood's the first person I've ever seen with it. It's barely even mentioned in the books I've tried, and only vaguely. I think he's the best bet."

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sonofastag
2010-01-01 02:50 am UTC (link)

"We could owl, I guess. Or get someone else to. Ginny. . . " Oh. Bugger. Ginny. Harry suddenly remembered the last time he'd SEEN Ginny, and what he'd said to her when she was snogging Capper. Which still hurt a bit, but at the moment he was more concerned with what an utter and complete git he'd been.

"Bugger," he muttered. He couldn't do anything about it now, though, so he just shook his head. "The Quibbler's been on our side, but it's also been mental. Maybe he just wore the symbol because he thinks if he has it on the aliens can't read his mind. But if it's all we've got to go on, then suppose it can't hurt to ask."

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geroffme
2010-01-01 03:04 am UTC (link)

"Ginny can't leave Hogwarts," Ron said immediately. He'd bridled at his mother's orders to spend the holidays at school, but they were unquestionably sound as far as his sister was concerned. "I know the Lovegoods don't live too far from the Burrow, but I've never seen the house - so they're not exactly in the middle of the village, or anything. I reckon we could find it without running into too many people, anyway. And if he does know something worth knowing ..." I'll give you both five galleons. He shrugged. "Yeah. Couldn't hurt."

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cerebralwitch
2010-01-01 03:07 am UTC (link)

"Ginny needs to stay at Hogwarts," Hermione agreed, and then she thought about owls, but shook her head too. "We can't trust owls. They can be traced too easily, remember what Sirius was afraid of with them? And they can be intercepted. It's best if we go ourselves."

And if it was close to the Burrow, at least they knew they'd have a safer escape if they absolutely had to have one.

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sonofastag
2010-01-01 03:11 am UTC (link)

"I know. I meant have her send an Owl. Everyone knows where she is, so it couldn't be traced back to us, and wouldn't tell anyone else anything they didn't know already," Harry explained with a shrug. He wouldn't put Ginny in danger. That was why he hadn't wanted to date her. . . which might have been wiser than he knew about if she didn't even like blokes.

"All right, then we can go see him tomorrow, and then. . ." Harry shrugged. "If he doesn't know anything, we'll figure it out then?"

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geroffme
2010-01-01 03:21 am UTC (link)

Ron nodded. Harry had a point about the owl, but Hermione was right - they could be intercepted, and he'd rather not have people wondering why Ginny, or anyone connected to the three of them, was asking around about Dark wizards. If it really was a clue to something, it would be nice if they were the only ones who had it. "If he doesn't, we can start trying for somewhere else to look ... but might as well start at the beginning, I guess." He liked the thought of stopping by a friendly house, as well. He knew he was going to be missing his bed very soon.

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cerebralwitch
2010-01-01 03:25 am UTC (link)

"Okay," Hermione said, and that had really been easier than... well, anything she'd tried to get out of either of them for months, really, and she sighed happily - the horcrux was dead! - and picked up her soup agian. "So we should get some sleep tonight. Maybe let you and Ron rest tomorrow, too, and go the day after? Because .... well," She shrugged, looking at Harry. "I don't know about you, but I feel like I haven't slept since the Ministry."

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sonofastag
2010-01-01 03:35 am UTC (link)

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I think that little nap from nearly dying is as close as I've gotten to sleeping well for a while," he told her with a wry smile.

And Harry could find some reasons to be out of the tent a bit and leave Hermione and Ron time to talk, too.

"We should let the Order know we're safe, too. I haven't even peeked in the journals lately." Harry had found it too frustrating to see things from afar he couldn't do a thing about, with the horcrux hanging over them.

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geroffme
2010-01-01 03:57 am UTC (link)

Ron felt a little surge of guilt as he wondered how long it would take for word that he had run away again to reach his mother's ears. "A day off sounds like a good idea," he said, taking up his bowl. "That might be enough time to think of something to tell them that doesn't send Mum off the deep end. Probably better leave out the bit about running around in the woods messing with swords."

Even if he spent the day lounging around doing nothing but freezing, it felt wonderful to know that weight of guilt would be off his shoulders at last. He was where he belonged again, he was sure of it - and they had made some actual progress, something he'd thought pretty near impossible, not long ago. The last thing he'd expected was to return to see things looking up - but here they were.

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