Everything was running according to Jon's arrangement. Because of Ron's injury and anxiety, he left Hermione and Harry under the influence of the Horcrux, which suddenly made the atmosphere in the team tense.

When Harry woke up the next day, it took him a few seconds to remember what had happened. He naively hoped that it was a dream and that Ron was still here and had not left.

But when he turned his head, what he saw was Ron's empty bed, attracting his attention like a corpse lying on the road.

Harry jumped out of his bed, not looking at Ron's bed.

Hermione was already busy in the kitchen. When Harry passed by, she did not say good morning to him, but turned her head hurriedly.

he's gone.

Harry said to himself.

he's gone.

As he washed his face and dressed, he could not help thinking this, as if repeating it would soften the blow.

He was gone and not coming back. This was a simple fact, Harry knew, because their protective magic meant that as soon as they left this place, Ron couldn't find them.

He and Hermione finished breakfast in silence. Hermione's eyes were red and swollen, and it looked like she hadn't slept all night.

As the two packed their bags, Hermione lingered, and Harry knew why she wanted to stall by the river.

Because he caught her looking up eagerly several times, he believed she was deceiving herself into thinking she heard footsteps in the heavy rain.

However, no red-haired figure appeared in the woods.

And every time Harry looked around like she did (in fact, he couldn't help but hold on to a little hope), but saw only the woods washed by the rain, a small burst of anger erupted in his heart.

He could hear Ron saying: "We thought you knew what you were doing!"

So he continued to pack his bags, feeling like there was a hard knot in his heart.

The turbid river water rose rapidly and would soon overflow their bank.

The two stayed an hour longer than the normal time they should have left the camp.

Finally, after opening and repacking the beaded bag three times, Hermione seemed to have no reason to delay anymore. She and Harry apparated hand in hand and appeared on a hillside covered with heather and howling in the wind.

As soon as she arrived, Hermione let go of Harry's hand, walked away from him, and finally sat down on a big rock, burying her face in her knees and trembling.

Harry knew she was crying.

He looked at her, feeling that he should comfort her, but something kept him rooted to the spot.

He was cold and tense from the inside out: I saw the contemptuous expression on Ron's face again.

Harry strode through the heather, making wide circles around the emotionally disturbed Hermione, casting the spells she usually cast to keep them safe.

They didn't talk about Ron for the next few days.

Harry was determined not to mention his name again, and Hermione seemed to know that it was useless to insist on mentioning it.

But sometimes at night, when she thought he was asleep, Harry could hear her crying secretly.

Harry began to take out the Marauder's Map and looked at it carefully with his wand.

He was waiting for the black dot marked Ron to appear in the corridors of Hogwarts, proving that he was back in the comfort of the castle, protected by his pure-blood status.

However, Ron does not appear on the map.

After a while, Harry found that he took out the map just to stare at Ginny's name in the girls' dormitory. He didn't know if his eager eyes could enter her dreams and make her feel that he was missing her and wishing her all the best.

good.

During the day, they pondered where Gryffindor's sword might be and discussed where Dumbledore might choose to hide it.

But the more they discussed, the more desperate and far-fetched their guesses became.

No matter how hard Harry banged his head, he couldn't remember Dumbledore ever mentioning a place to hide things.

Sometimes he doesn't know whether it's Ron or Dumbledore who annoys him more, we thought you knew what you were doing...

We thought Dumbledore told you what to do...

We thought you had a real plan!

He couldn't hide from himself that Ron was right, Dumbledore had left him almost nothing.

They found one Horcrux, but were unable to destroy it, and the others were as elusive as before.

Despair seemed to be engulfing him. Thinking about it now, Harry was surprised that he was so self-righteous that he asked two friends to accompany him on this aimless journey.

He knew nothing, had no ideas, and was painfully on guard for any sign that Hermione might come and tell him that she had had enough and was leaving.

They spent many nights almost in silence, Hermione often taking out the portrait of Phineas Nigellus and propping it up on a chair, as if he could fill the huge hole left by Ron's departure.

Similar.

Although Phineas Nigellus had promised never to come back last time, he seemed unable to resist the opportunity to inquire about Harry, so he agreed to appear blindfolded every few days.

Harry was even glad to see him, he was a companion after all, albeit a sarcastic one.

They liked to hear any news that was happening at Hogwarts, but Phineas Nigellus was not a good reporter.

He admired Snape, the first Slytherin headmaster since he took charge of the school himself.

Harry and the others had to be careful not to criticize Snape or ask disrespectful questions, otherwise Phineas Nigellus would leave the scene immediately.

However, he still revealed some snippets.

Snape had to deal with the ongoing low-key resistance of a group of die-hard students.

Ginny is banned from Hogsmeade.

Snape restored Umbridge's old rules, prohibiting student gatherings of more than three people and any informal student societies.

From all this, Harry speculated that Ginny, and possibly Neville and Luna, were working with her to maintain Dumbledore's Army.

The sporadic news made Harry so eager to see Ginny that he almost felt a stomach ache. At the same time, it also made him think of Ron, Dumbledore, and Hogwarts. He missed school almost as much as he did for Hogwarts.

Just as strong as my girlfriend’s.

Indeed, when Phineas Nigellus described Snape's repressive measures, Harry had a moment of madness,

He imagined simply going back to school to join in the troublemaking operation for Snape: having plenty to eat, a soft bed to sleep on, and having other people's responsibilities, it seemed like the most wonderful life in the world.

But he then remembered that he was the number one delinquent, with a bounty of 10,000 gold galleons on his head, and now walking into Hogwarts was as dangerous as walking into the Ministry of Magic.

Phineas Nigellus inadvertently emphasized this fact by asking leading questions to find out where Harry and Hermione were.

Whenever this happened, Hermione would stuff him back into the small beaded bag.

After such a rough farewell, Phineas Nigellus always refused to show his face for several days.

The weather is getting cold.

Because they did not dare to stay in one area for too long, they did not stay in southern England, but continued to move around the country.

Halfway up the mountain, freezing rain pounded on the tent;

In the swamp, cold water poured into the tent;

On a small lake island in Scotland, half of the tent was buried in snow at night.

They had seen the Christmas trees twinkling from several drawing-room windows, and one night Harry finally determined to take up what seemed to him the only way left.

Having just finished a rare meal of spaghetti and canned pears, Harry thought she might be a little more persuasive than usual.

Moreover, he had carefully planned in advance to take a few hours off from wearing the Horcrux, which was now hanging on the bed beside him.

"Hermione?"

"Um?"

She was curled up in a sunken armchair, reading "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."

Harry couldn't imagine that she could read anything new from that book, it wasn't very thick after all.

But she was obviously still deciphering something, because the "Magic Phonetic Table" was spread out on the armrest of the chair.

Harry cleared his throat, feeling just like a few years ago when he had to ask Professor McGonagall if he could go to Hogsmeade without getting the signed permission from the Dursleys.

"Hermione, I've been thinking-"

"Harry, can you do me a favor?"

Apparently she didn't listen to him.

She leaned forward and held up the "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", trying not to appear too deliberate. The time was almost up and she needed to guide Harry to think in one direction.

"Look at that symbol."

She pointed to the top of the page. Above the text that was probably the title of the story, there was a figure that looked like a triangular eye with a vertical line in the middle of the pupil.

"I haven't had any ancient runes lessons, Hermione."

"I know, but it's not a rune, and there's no phonetic list for it.

I always thought it was an eye pattern, but now I think it’s not!

It's a mark made with ink. Look, it was drawn by someone. It's not the content of the book. Think about it, have you ever seen it?"

"No... no, wait."
To be continued...