"It's done." Harry said

"Maybe we can –"Hermione suggested

"It's done." His tone puts an end to it. She nods.

"Here have mine." You offered your wand. Harry nodded at you

"And give me that." He said pointing the locket with Hermione. Hermione starts to speak, then simply hands it over. She starts to leave, pauses.

"He loved you, Harry. I know he loved you." Hermione said as she trails her fingers lightly over his hair, and he closes his eyes.

The fire is merely embers. Harry sits with a frosten crusted blanket draped over his shoulders, staring bitterly into the dark forest. The silence is eerie, shadows play in the trees. He peers through the tent flap and seesh. Hermione slumbering in the light of a small bowl of flames. Then, slowly, light crawls briefly over the tent canvas and he turns, peers into the forest once more. Something seems to glimmer faintly, but so briefly as to seem a trick of the eye. The air is cold, gives texture to the darkness, makes it a living thing.

And then it is there again, the light -- pure and bright and silver and moving through the trees toward him. Harry rises and the blanket slithers off his shoulders.

Gripping y/n's wand, he watches the light drift closer, then shatter throughout the trees, momentarily blinding. And then it appears...

A silver-white doe, moon-bright and dazzling. It gazes at harry and he stands, transfixed. And then the doe turns away.

"No..."

"What is it, Harold?" Y/n asked him. Harry just simply points to the woods. Y/n sees the silver doe.

Frost crunches beneath their feet as they dashes through the trees in pursuit of the silent doe up ahead, breath streaming from his lungs. She leads them deep into the forest until, finally, she stops, as do Y/n and Harry. As they watch, she turns her beautiful head toward them and vanishes. For a moment, a GHOST IMAGE of her, like a retina burn, hangs in the air and then Harry is plunged into darkness.

"Lumos!" Harry whispers

Y/n's wand-tip ignites. Harry paints the clearing with light and something gleams: a small frozen pool. He crosses to it, looks down. He sees his own image reflected dully and then, deeper, within, a silver cross. Y/n's eyes widen as she sees what's underneath the ice. She looks closer.

It is the SWORD OF GRYFFINDOR.

Harry steps back, blinks. It's still there. He glances about, painting the trees with light, looking to insure if they are alone, then casts light upon the pool once more.

"Accio Sword." Harry cast.Nothing. Harry walks about the pool again and again and then stops. He crouches and looks slowly down at his chest. The Horcrux around his neck has begun to TWITCH. Harry places his fingers upon it briefly, then rises. Quickly, with fumbling fingers, he SHEDS his clothes and points Y/n's wand at the pool.

"What are you doing ?" Asked Y/n. Harry doesn't answer.

"Diffindo." The pool's icey crust cracks, echoing in the silence. Chunks of dark ice rock the surface. Harry steps to the pool's edge, peers within and plunges , screaming in the dark silence of the chill water. He kicks down to the glimmering sword, grabs the hilt and kicks for the surface when the locket's chain begins to coil, tightening like a snake about his neck. As the links bite into his throat,

He releases the sword and begins to thrash about, struggling to get his fingers under the chain. Realizing it's no use he reaches for the pool's edge, his fingers scrabbling desperately over the ice, but unable to gain purchase. Slowly, his hands go limp and slip from the ice back into the water, where he drifts slowly down, a slow trail of bubbles escaping his mouth, eyes half-closed as he peers upward, watching as the surface of the water grows slowly calm peaceful when a shadow appears and a pair of hands shatter the glassy surface of the water and Harry is pulled upward and out, landing...face-down on the frigid ground, choking and retching.

"Y/n..." He mutters. A hand reaches in, strips the locket from his neck.

"Are -- you -- mental?" Harry's eyes pop open. Standing a few yards away, fully dressed and half-drenched, clutching the sword of Gryffindor in one hand and the locket in the other, is Ron. Harry just stares, then begins to pull on his clothes.

"It was you!"

"Well, yeah. Bit obvious, I'd think."

"And the doe. That was you as well." Harry said

"No. I reckoned it was you." Ron said

"My Patronus is a stag." Harry said

"Right. Antlers." Ron brings his arms up, vaguely pantomiming antlers, but the effect is lost, what with the sword and locket. Harry then turns and sees a half drenched, passed out, Y/n. Harry immediately sat by her and started shaking her awake.

"She's fine." Ron said as a matter of factly.

"How do you know?" the brunette said still shaking the girl awake.

"Well, I may or may not have knocked her out." Ron said sheepishly.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!" Harry shouted at Ron. Y/n started to stir awake

"Harry...." She muttered. Harry's neck immediately snapped to the half-awake girl.

"Oh Godric! You're awake!" he said hugging the girl close to him.

"Is that Ron?" she asked seeing a familiar red-head.

"Well yes it is." Ron replied. Y/n immediately hugged him seeing he was alright.

"Okay, happy reunion. But, You didn't see anyone else?" she asked Ron

"No, I... I did think maybe I saw something -- when I was running -- over there –"

Harry crosses to a pair of Oaks grown close together.

"Anything?" Ron asked

"But I reckon whoever cast the doe, put the sword in that pool hoping we'd find it." Harry said shaking his head

"And we did, didn't we?" The "we" hangs in the chill air. Harry eyes Ron, then Y/n, steps forward and dangles the locket close to the sword. It immediately begins to TWITCH.

"See that? It knows. It's afraid." Harry said. Y/n looks up

"Do it." She ordered Ron

"What? No.Y/n. That thing's bad for me. I can't handle it. I'm not making excuses for how I acted, but that thing affects me more than it affects you guys and Hermione. It made me think stuff-- stuff I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse." Ron starts to ramble

"All the more reason." Y/n said to him

"No. I can't –"

"Then why are you here? Why did you come back?" Y/N's tone is hard, meant to wound. This stops Ron. He steps back, grips the sword with both hands. Harry nods.

"I'll have to speak to it in order for it to open. When it does, don't hesitate. I don't know

what's in here, but it'll put up a fight. The bit of Riddle that was in his diary tried to kill me." Harry said.

Ron nods and then Harry sweeps a layer of frost from a flat rock, lays the locket down.

"On three. One. Two. Three" Harry counted.

"Take me inside..." Harry said in parseltongue.

Click! The twin doors of the locket SNAP open. Behind each glass window a LIVING EYE blinks -- Tom Riddle's eyes.

"Stab it, Ron. Now." Ron raises his trembling hands, poises the sword. Then a

Voice hisses from the Horcrux.

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

"Don't listen to it." Y/n told Ron.

"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears..."

"Ron. Don't listen to it!"

"Least loved, by the mother who craved a daughter. Least loved, by the girl who prefers your friend...

"Ron. Stab it!"

The locket quivers in Harry's fingers, turning white- hot, and he releases it. As the eyes gleam scarlet, Harry grimaces and a flash of blinding light bursts forth, leaving in its wake two FIGURES floating in the darkness -- GHOST IMAGES of Harry and Hermione.

"We were better without you, happier without you." Said Riddle-Harry.

"Who could look at you beside Harry Potter? What are you, compared with the Chosen One...?" said Riddle Hermione

Ron stands transfixed, sword in hand, horrified.

"Ron. It lies! Stab it! STAB IT!"

"Your mother confessed that she would have preferred me as a

son..." Riddle Harry said

"Who wouldn't prefer him, what woman would take you, you are

nothing, nothing, nothing to him..." Riddle Hermione said.

The ghostly Hermione, frightening yet beautiful, entwines herself around the ghostly Harry, her hair running like silk over their faces as she leans forward and covers his mouth with hers.

"Do it, Ron! Kill it!"

Ron's head turns then, to Harry and Y/N. Harry freezes. A trace of scarlet glints in Ron's eyes. He raises the sword high and -- for a moment -- Harry looks fearful.

Then, Ron pivots and brings the blade down hard, cleaving the locket. A SCREAM echoes throughout the forest and the ghostly Harry and Hermione turn to dust, becoming one with the vapor drifting from Ron's mouth and all is...

Quiet.

Y/N eyes the shattered locket, then turns his gaze on Ron who stands alone, sword dangling from the end of his arm, chest heaving.

Harry scoops up the locket and examines it. Riddle's eyes are gone, the silk lining stained and faintly smoking. Ron lets the sword fall to the ground, drops to

his knees. Y/n steps forward and -- carefully --places a hand upon his shoulder.

"After you left, she cried for a week. She's like my sister." Harry said to Ron

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left."

"You've sort of made up for it tonight. Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux." Y./n told Ron

"Saving your life."

"That too." The trio stare at the remains of the locket.

"And just think of it. Only three to go."

The bowl of flames boils timidly now; Hermione still slumbers.

"Hermione!" Y/n shouted

She stirs, sits up. Pushing her hair out of her face, she peers through the tent flap.

Harry sticks the sword in the ground. As Hermione emerges, she blinks against the brightness of the morning sun.

"Everything all right?" she asked

"Fine. Actually... more than fine." Y/n answers. She steps aside and Hermione sees Ron, standing at the edge of the camp. She stares, mute, then walks past Y/n and Harry and the ashes of the campfire, stopping right in front of Ron. He raises a hand, smiles sheepishly.

"Hey." And then Hermione begins to PUNCH HIM.

"Wo -- hey -- ouch!" Ron whines

"You -- complete -- arse – Ronald -- Weasley! You crawl back here after all these weeks and say,'Hey?'" she said with each punch

"What is that?" Hermione asked. She stares at the blackened locket dangling in Ron's hand.

"You destroyed it?" Hermione glances at Harry. He indicates Ron. She turns back to Ron. He nods. She starts to speak when her eyes shift, see the sword stuck in the ground.

"And exactly how is it you have the Sword of Gryffindor?" she asked confused

"It's a long story." Y/n said

Hermione ponders this, baffled, then looks back at Ron.

"Don't think this changes anything." She said to Ron

"No, of course not. I only destroyed a bloody freaking Horcrux! Why would that change anything! Do you know what it was like for me to hear those words coming from you! To see you doing those things –" Ron stops.

"See me doing what things?" She asks

Ron blinks, mortified. Hermione turns to Y/n.

"What happened out there?"

"It's a long story." Y/n said, lost for words

"Look, I wanted to come back the minute I'd left. I just... didn't know how to find you."

"Exactly how did you find us?" Y/N Asked Ron

"With this." Ron reaches into his pocket, pulls out the Deluminator.

"It doesn't just turn off lights. I don't know exactly how it works, but Christmas morning I -- I was sleeping -- in this little pub-- I'd given some Snatchers the slip the night before, me being a bloodtraitor and all -- anyway, I was sleeping when I heard it..."

"It?" Harry asked confused

"A voice." Ron turns to Hermione, holds up the Deluminator.

"Your voice, Hermione. Coming out of this." Ron told the girl

"And what may I ask did I say?" she asked annoyed

"My name. Just my name. Like a whisper." Ron said a light pink dusting his cheeks.

Hermione stands perfectly still and blushes. Y/N and Harry both had smug looks on their faces.

"So I took this and I clicked it and this tiny ball of light appeared. And I knew." Ron continued.

"Knew what?" Harry asked

"Just knew. On account of Hermione's voice. And sure enough, it floated toward me, the ball of light, right to my chest and then -- went straight through-- right here." Ron touches a point close to his heart.

"I could feel it inside me. It was warm, like the first sip of a good cup of tea. And I knew it would take me where I needed to go.So I Disapparated and came out on this hillside. It was dark. I didn't have any idea where I was. I just had to hope one of you would show yourselves in the end. And you did."