94 Diagon Alley

In that pompous tone you used to say, "You must be freaking out. And we went to Godric's Hollow. Let me think, what happened there, Harry? Oh, yes. Well, the mysterious man's snake jumped out and almost killed us, and then the mysterious man arrived himself and caught us in just one second."

"What?" Ron opened his mouth and looked at Hermione and Harry, but Harry ignored him.

"Think about losing your fingernails, Harry! It really shows how little we have suffered, doesn't it?"

"Hermione," Harry whispered, "Ron just saved my life."

She didn't seem to hear.

"I'd like to know something, though," she said, staring a foot above Ron's head, "how did you find us tonight? That's important. Got that , to ensure that we won't be disturbed by people we don't want to see."

Ron glared at her, then pulled a small silver thing out of his jeans pocket.

"This."

She had to glance at Ron in order to see what he took out.

"Lights out?" she asked, so surprised that she forgot to put on a cold, fierce look.

"It doesn't just turn the lights on and off," Ron said, "I don't know how it did, and I don't know why it happened that time and not the other time, because I've since left Always wanted to come back. But I was listening to the radio that morning, early Christmas morning, and I heard—heard you."

He looked at Hermione.

"You heard me on the radio?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, I hear you in my pocket. Your voice," he held up the deluminator again, "comes from this one."

"What the **** am I talking about?" Hermione asked, in a tone of skepticism and curiosity.

"My name, 'Ron'. You said...what wand..."

Hermione flushed red, Harry remembered: that was the first time they had spoken Ron's name since he left. Hermione mentions him when she talks about fixing Harry's wand.

"So I took it out," continued Ron, looking at the deluminator, "it didn't look any different, but I was pretty sure I heard your voice, so I pressed it. At one point, the light in my house went out, but another light appeared outside the window."

Ron raised his hand and pointed forward, staring at what neither Harry nor Hermione could see.

"It's a ball of light, it seems to be pulsating, blue and bright, like the kind of light around the door key, you know?"

"Hmm." Harry and Hermione said together involuntarily.

"I knew this was it," said Ron, "so I quickly packed up, put on my backpack and walked into the garden."

"The little ball of light was waiting for me in the air, after I came out it floated up and down for a while, I followed it to the back of the hut, and then it...well, it floated into my body inside."

"What?" Harry thought he didn't catch it.

"It floated towards me," Ron demonstrated with his index finger, "all the way to my chest, and then—it went in. Here," he pointed to a point near his heart , "I can feel it, it's hot. As soon as it's in me, I know what to do, it's going to take me where I have to go. So I Apparate and come to a hillside, everywhere It's all snow..."

"We've been there," said Harry, "two nights there, and the second night I always felt like someone was walking and shouting in the dark!"

"Well, that should be me," said Ron, "at least, your shielding spell works because I can't see or hear you. But I'm sure you're nearby, so Finally got into the sleeping bag and waited for one of you to show up. I think you'll show up when you close your tent."

"Not necessarily," said Hermione, "to be on the safe side, we're all Apparating under the Invisibility Cloak. And we left early because, as Harry said, we heard There were people bumping around."

"I was on that mountain all day," said Ron, "hoping you would show up. But when it got dark, I knew I probably missed it, so I pressed the deluminator again. , blue light appeared and floated into me again and I Apparated into the woods. Still can't see you guys, I can only hope that one of you will show up - Harry shows up. Oh, obviously, I first Saw the doe."

"What did you see?" Hermione asked sharply.

They talked about the adventure just now. As the story of the silver doe and the sword at the bottom unfolded, Hermione frowned as she watched them back and forth, so absorbed that she forgot to wrap her limbs.

"But it must be a Patronus!" she said. "Did you see who called it? Did you see no one? It led you to the sword! Incredible! That and after?"

Ron said that he saw Harry jump into the pond and wanted to wait for him to come up, then realized that something was wrong, jumped down to save Harry, and went back to fish out the sword.

Assuming it was finally safe, Harry waved Hermione's wand to dispel the Iron Armor and turned to Ron again.

"You said you made a wand when you escaped from the raiding party?"

"What?" said Ron, who was staring at Hermione. "Oh—yes."

He ripped open the buckle of his backpack and pulled a short black wand from the bag. "Here. I think it's always good to have a spare."

"You're right," Harry said, extending his hand, "mine is broken."

"Are you kidding me?" said Ron, but when Hermione stood up, he panicked again.

Hermione crawled back into her bed and lay down without a word.

Ron hands Harry the new wand.

"Almost the best you can hope for, I think." Harry whispered.

"Yeah," said Ron, "not the worst, remember those birds she put out to peck me?"

"I haven't ruled it out." Hermione's muffled voice came from under the blanket, but Harry saw Ron smile a little as he pulled his dark purple from his backpack red pajamas.

"Actually," Ron whispered to Harry, keeping his eyes fixed on Hermione, "I was really just going to get some food—we hadn't been for weeks. Good meal." Then he took out several cans from his backpack, "I went to the Shell Shack after escaping from the raiding party, and Bill managed to get me some bisque, beef and beans..."

Hermione sat up from the bed, still looking puffed up.

"…Hermione, can I help you warm up some soup? I have a few more loaves." Ron hurriedly put his entire arm into his bag, "Bill stretched without a trace. Spell, but I'm still bulging with so much stuff. Fleur applied the preservation magic to the bread--looks good. Hermione, you've lost too much weight--"

Hermione didn't lift her eyelids, intending to respond to Ron's flattery with silence. Not wanting to get involved in the cold war between the two friends, Harry pulled out his new wand and prepared a fire to comfort his stomach.

"Cough," Ron said, clearing his throat at the sight of Harry's movement, and speaking to the little flames floating in the glass jar, "I've always liked these flames Hermione made."

"I love it too," said Harry, "especially now that I can have a warm bowl of cream of chicken." The rough wand casts a spell, "Get bigger quickly - get smaller quickly!!"

The flame in the can nearly burned a hole in the top of the tent.

Hermione impatiently went out herself and piled several cans that Ron had brought on the newly lit fire. And deigned to examine the wand, "You just need to practice." She said a little nervously, "It's all a matter of confidence, Harry." Harry knew she was still blaming herself for breaking her wand.

But they quickly indulge in the deliciousness of canned goods, leaving their difficult wands behind.

Seeing Hermione's expression softened by the sweet dinner, Ron summoned the courage to speak to them again.

"Job, I'm sorry for arguing with you - but it's all for a reason, I had nightmares for several nights and was always irritable during the day. Bill just found out that I was actually poisoned — the mushrooms we picked under the tree earlier — and Bill said those rose-red white mushrooms were hops, hallucinogenic." He swallowed, as if He didn't want to recall his outrageous hallucinations, "So I rushed to find you with a big bag of food, worried that you would eat poisonous mushrooms..."

"Humph." Hermione wrapped herself in the blanket again, turning her back to Harry and Ron.

"When do you think her anger will go away?" Ron asked Harry in a low voice.

Harry was quietly throwing the mushrooms he and Hermione found during the day out of the tent, "Tell me more about how that glowing ball got into your heart, she will forgive you. "

"I'm telling the truth, every sentence is true." Ron said, squinting at Hermione, who was not sure whether to sleep or wake up on the camp bed.

Harry didn't expect Hermione's anger to subside overnight, so he wasn't surprised to see her communicating with her face and apparent silence the next morning. Ron maintained an unnatural seriousness in her presence as a sign of continued repentance. In fact, when the three were together, Harry felt like the only one who wasn't mourning at a small funeral. But in the few moments he spent alone with Harry, Ron would be recklessly merry.

"Someone's helping us," he kept saying, "someone sent the doe, someone's backing us, and we've got the Horcrux-killing sword, man!"

Inspired by the sword of Gryffindor, they began to discuss where other Horcruxes might be