Was raise a shaking hand to his throat and feel the place where the locket had cut tightly

Into his flesh. It was gone. Someone had cut him free. Then a panting voice spoke from

Over his head.

"Are -- you -- mental?"

Nothing but the shock of hearing that voice could have given Harry the strength to

Get up. Shivering violently, he staggered to his feet. There before him stood Ron, fully

Dressed but drenched to the skin, his hair plastered to his face, the sword of Gryffindor in

One hand and the Horcrux dangling from its broken chain in the other.

"Why the hell," panted Ron, holding up the Horcrux, which swung backward and

forward on its shortened chain in some parody of hypnosis, "didn't you take the thing off

before you dived?"

Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with

Ron's reappearance; he could not believe it. Shuddering with cold, he caught up the pile

of clothes still lying at the water's edge and began to pull them on. As he dragged

Sweater after sweater over his head, Harry stared at Ron, half expecting him to have

disappeared every time he lost sight of him, and yet he had to be real: He had just dived

into the pool, he had saved Harry's life.

"It was y-you?" Harry said at last, his teeth chattering, his voice weaker than usual

Due to his near-strangulation.

"Well, yeah," said Ron, looking slightly confused.

"Y-you cast that doe?"

"What? No, of course not! I thought it was you doing it!"

"My Patronus is a stag."

"Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers."

Harry put Hagrid's pouch back around his neck, pulled on a final sweater, stooped

to pick up Hermione's wand, and faced Ron again.

"How come you're here?"

Apparently Ron had hoped that this point would come up later, if at all.

"Well, I've -- you know -- I've come back. If --" He cleared his throat. "You

know. You still want me."

There was a pause, in which the subject of Ron's departure seemed to rise like a

wall between them. Yet he was here. He had returned. He had just saved Harry's life.

Ron looked down at his hands. He seemed momentarily surprised to see the

Things he was holding.

"Oh yeah, I got it out," he said, rather unnecessarily, holding up the sword for

Harry's inspection. "That's why you jumped in, right?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "But I don't understand. How did you get here? How did

you find us?"

"Long story," said Ron. "I've been looking for you for hours, it's a big forest, isn't

it? And I was just thinking I'd have to go kip under a tree and wait for morning when I

saw that dear coming and you following."

"You didn't see anyone else?"

"No," said Ron. "I --"

But he hesitated, glancing at two trees growing close together some yards away.

"I did think I saw something move over there, but I was running to the pool at the

time, because you'd gone in and you hadn't come up, so I wasn't going to make a detour

to -- hey!"

Harry was already hurrying to the place that Ron had indicated. The two oaks

Grew close together; there was a gap of only a few inches between the trunks at eye level,

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 908