Ron was gaping at him; Hermione sat up, looking worried.

"But what did you see? How do you know?"

"I saw him find out about the cup, I - I was in his head, he's" - Harry

remembered the killings - "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 things 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 it is?" asked Ron, now scrambling to his

Feet too.

"No, he was concentrating on warning Snape, he didn't think about

exactly where it is -"

"Wait, wait!" cried Hermione as Ron caught up to the Horcrux and Harry

pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. "We can't just go, we haven't got a

plan, we need to -"

"We need to get going," said Harry firmly. He had been hoping to sleep,

Looking forward to getting into the new tent, but that was impossible now,

"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."

The flapping of enormous wings echoed across the black water. The dragon

Had drunk its fill and risen into the air. They paused in their preparations

To watch it climb higher and higher, now black against the rapidly darkening

Sky, until it vanished over a nearby mountain. Then Hermione walked forward

And took her place between the other two, Harry pulled the Cloak down as far

As it would go, and together they turned on the spot into the crushing

Darkness.

The Missing Mirror

Harry's feet touched the road. He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street:

Dark shop

Fronts, and the mist line of black mountains beyond the village and the curve in the road

Ahead that

Led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks,

And with a

Lurch of the hear, he remembered with piercing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly

A year before,

Supporting a desperately weak Dumbledore, all this in a second, upon landing -- and then,

Even as he

relaxed his grip upon Ron's and Hermione's arms, it happened.

The air was rent by a scream that sounded like Voldemort's when he had realized

The cup had

been stolen: It tore at every nerve in Harry's body, and he knew that their appearance had

Caused it.

Even as he looked at the other two beneath the Cloak, the door of the Three Broomsticks

Burst open

And a dozen cloaked and hooded Death Eaters dashed into the streets, their wands aloft.

Harry seized Ron's wrist as he raised his wand; there were too many of them to

Run. Even

Attempting it would have give away their position. One of the Death Eaters raised his

Wand, and the

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 657