#theowolf

Chapter Twenty-Seven || FFN · AO3

Everything seemed so much more serious now that they were camping out in the wilderness with no direction. As if it hadn't been clear enough before, the knowledge that they had no plan to speak of was only made more obvious every day that they spent wandering around the forest, hiding in the expandable tent at night.

Harry, at least, had been sufficiently kowtowed by Theo's rebuke of his tendency to put those closest to him in grave danger. He spent most of his days looking at Ron's arm in a sling with an incredibly guilty look, and his evenings trying to blast the locket apart into smithereens, with no luck.

"You won't be able to destroy that with a simple diffindo," Theo said with a snort, leaning back into the couch with his arm slung around Hermione's shoulders as she read the book Dumbledore gave her, furiously translating the runes. He was happy to help her whenever she got stuck, but she was generally much better with runes than he was. "You heard the house elf...even he wasn't able to destroy it."

Harry snorted in derision. "I suppose that you would be the expert in dark magic, Nott," he said, more annoyed with his own ineptitude than Theo's presence.

Chapter Twenty-Eight || FFN · AO3

The days dragged on and on with seemingly no end in sight. It was abundantly clear to everyone that they had no idea what they were doing, or even what they were looking for, even if no one wanted to say it aloud. Instead, they contented themselves with wandering from place to place, setting up camp when they got tired enough, and then keeping watch over the night for snatchers.

Tensions had been bubbling up between the four teenagers, made all the worse by the horcrux that they took turns wearing. It always made Hermione's skin crawl to have it draped around her neck, whispering terrible, horrible things into her ears, looking for any cracks in her mind that it could exploit. Theo was the least affected by it, something that only made Harry and Ron more suspicious of the young werewolf.

"It's probably because werewolves are already dark creatures," Hermione tried to explain in a hushed whisper one day. "The dark magic won't affect him as much. I really don't see how it's a problem. It would be good to have one of us keep a cool head."

Chapter Twenty-Nine || FFN · AO3

Even with Ron gone, the tension between the three remaining teenagers hadn't dissipated at all. If anything, it only threw into sharp relief the fact of how little they had accomplished as the weeks had gone by, days growing shorter and nights growing colder. Their food supply had always been limited, but even with one less mouth to feed, it was still dwindling day after day.

Hermione tried to offer helpful advice, but it was becoming more and more clear that Harry had never had any plan to begin with. They were no closer to finding another horcrux than they had been when they fled the Burrow, and the one that they had still remained stubbornly in tact.

Harry was constantly wracked by emotions that weren't his own, and he grimly reported to Hermione and Theo that Voldemort was looking for something. "He's searching for...a solution," he whispered between gritted teeth while his hands pressed against his temples, wishing that he could push the images from his head. "He's desperate for...whatever it is he is looking for."

Chapter Twenty-Five || FFN · AO3

Mrs. Weasley had made no secret how unhappy she was to be hosting Hermione's new plus one to her eldest son's wedding, but Remus had explained, in as gentle of terms as possible, that it was a non-negotiable. If Theo couldn't go, Hermione wouldn't be going either. The mother of the groom had relented, but made no efforts to make the youngest Nott feel welcome in her home, huffing about Death Eaters the moment that the young couple arrived. Hermione hoped that Mrs. Weasley didn't think that there could be something between her and Ronald, still.

She had quickly put the kibosh on Hermione and Theo sharing a bed, though, insisting that he could bunk with Charlie in Percy's old room, while Hermione could share a room with Ginny like previously. There hadn't been much time to argue about it, because almost as soon as she had shown up at the Burrow, the Minister of Magic was as well, to dispense with Dumbledore's last will and testament. Theo had not been invited in and in fact Scrimgeour looked surprised to see him there at all. Hermione told him that he hadn't missed out on much, showing him the copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard that she'd received.

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