Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

Now that we were free, I was relieved, but at the same time, there was a new fear. There was no way of steering the dragon, we would have to cling to its back until it decided to land, and how long was that? How long could dragons fly without food or water? And when it did land…what type of food would it look for?

I was taking deep breaths of the fresh air, trying to calm myself. We’d had just a couple more near-death experiences than I’d liked. Behind me, I could hear Hermione sobbing and Ron swearing profusely.

We kept flying, for how long I didn’t know, through wispy clouds, over fields and rivers. We kept flying as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. Finally, the dragon seemed to be slowly descending in wide circles around a lake.

“I say we jump when it gets low enough!” Harry called back to us. “Straight into the water before it realizes we’re here!”

We all agreed, and waited until we were low enough and Harry yelled, “NOW!”

I unclamped my numb hands from its scales and slid down its side, dropping into the cold water. I re-emerged and saw the ripples where the others had fallen, then their heads popped up, spluttering. The dragon didn’t seem to notice anything, it landed on a distant shore and we swam towards the opposite one.

The lake wasn’t too deep, and it was really more of wading through reeds to get to the edge. As soon as I reached the sandy bank, I flopped onto my back, panting and exhausted. Hermione fell down next to me, and I heard Harry going around muttering all our enchantments. Ron appeared beside us and Hermione sat up, searching her bag for something. Finally she pulled out essence of dittany. We all began dabbing it on our many burns and other injuries. The relief was almost instant once the stinging was gone, and I lay on my back again.

“Well, on the upside” said Ron, “we got the Horcrux. On the downside – “

“ – no sword,” said Harry, gritting his teeth.

“No sword,” repeated Ron. “That double-crossing little scab…”

Harry took out the Horcrux and set it on the sand where it glinted in the fading sunlight.

“At least we can’t wear it this time, that’d look a bit weird hanging round our necks” said Ron.

“But think, you could start a new trend, Ron” I said.

Hermione looked across the lake and said, “What’ll happen to it do you think? Will it be alright?”

“I hope so, I mean, how long so you think it’s been in there? Does it know how to find its own food?”

“You guys sound like Hagrid,” said Ron. “It’s a dragon, it can look after itself. It’s us we need to worry about”

“What do you mean?” asked Hermione.

“Well, I don’t know how to break this to you,” said Ron, “but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts”

We all started laughing. Oh, how good it felt to laugh. I never noticed how much of a high it is until my days weren’t all filled with humor.

“What are we going to do, though?” asked Hermione, finally becoming serious again. “He’ll know, won’t he? You-Know-Who will know we know about his Horcruxes!”

“Maybe they’ll be too scared to tell him?” said Ron, hopefully. “Maybe they’ll cover up what happened, just say the dragon got loose somehow and – “

He suddenly stopped as we noticed Harry on the ground. He was shaking, and looked to be in a great deal of pain. Then, he let a scream that did not at all sound like him. It caused us to back away a step or two before kneeling beside him.

His episode didn’t last as long as some of the others had. He opened his eyes and seemed surprised to find us watching him.

Then, he said, “He knows”

He stood up, “He knows, and he’s going to check where the others are, and the last one is at Hogwarts. I knew it. I knew it”

He had known it, he’d told us a hundred times, and we’d just brushed it off.

“What?” Ron gaped at him.

“But what did you see? How do you know?” Hermione asked, worried.

“I saw him find out about the cup, I – I was in his head, he’s – he’s seriously angry, and scared too, he can’t understand how we knew, and now he’s going to check the others are safe, the ring first. He thinks the Hogwarts one is safest, because Snape’s there, because it’ll be so hard not to be seen getting in, I think he’ll check that one last, but he could still be there within hours – “

“Did you see where in Hogwarts?” I asked, as Ron and I both got to our feet too.

“No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn’t think about exactly where it is – “

“Wait, wait!” Hermione cried.

Harry stopped, holding the Invisibility Cloak, Ron had the Horcrux in his hand, and I was checking that I still had my bag.

“We can’t just go, we haven’t got a plan, we need to – “

“We need to get going” said Harry firmly. “Can you imagine what he’s going to do once he realizes the ring and the locket are gone? What if he moves the Hogwarts Horcrux, decides it isn’t safe enough?”

“But how are we going to get in?”

“We’ll go to Hogsmeade,” said Harry, “and try to work something out once we see what the protection around the school’s like. Get under the Cloak, Hermione, I want to stick together this time.”

“But we don’t really fit – “

“It’ll be dark, no one’s going to notice our feet”

There was the sound of flapping across the lake. We stopped to watch the dragon soar into the sky , higher and higher, until it vanished out of sight behind a mountain. Then, Hermione came forward and Harry threw the Cloak over all of us, pulling it down as far is it would go, and we turned into the crushing darkness once again.