As Harri was changing into pajamas that Lily had lended her (having guessed she would need a change for the night), a flash of red flames appeared next to her and then Fawkes was there, holding a letter.
"Hey, Fawkes," she murmured, petting the preening bird. "Is that for me?"
Fawkes let out a confirming trill and held up his leg for her to take the letter. Harri did so, absently summoning some grapes from the kitchen for him as she opened it.
Harri,
I have no idea where you are or what situation you're in, so I'll cut to the chase. Where are you and what situation are you in?
Neville
Harri chuckled- classic Neville. He had always been that way.
She looked through the desk opposite her bed and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill.
Neville,
I'm not in any dangerous situation. Well, no more of one than usual, at least. I got summoned into an alternate dimension to fight He-Who-Must-Be-Hyphenated. It's all right, if this is the Fawkes from our home dimension then he may be able to bring you along here too. Anyways, it's all chill, no worries.
Harri
There, that ought to do it. "Fawkes, would you please take this to Neville for me?" She asked, holding up the parchment. Fawkes trilled again and flew from his perch on the corner post of her bed to the desk, holding his leg out again. Harri tied the letter to it and pet his head. "Thank you."
Fawkes disappeared in a burst of flames and Harri went to the bed, again flopping down on it, though this time she had her head on the pillow and was face down. She was out like a light.
The next morning, Harri was up early- as per usual- and she met Lily in the living room area of the flat. "Morning." Harri muttered. She wasn't a morning person.
"Good morning," Lily grinned, and it seemed like she was a morning person. Great.
Harri simply accepted the plate handed to her and began to eat her food. It was only after a cup of tea that she actually managed to be awake enough to interact.
Yawning, she stretched and asked Lily if there was an order meeting that day.
"No, but there is one tomorrow. It starts at about six pm." Lily answered, picking up a small bag.
Harri nodded and made her way to the door. "Great, I'll keep that in mind. If I don't end up returning tonight, don't worry. I have a tendency to ignore curfews and go entire nights without sleeping."
Once Harri reached the only spot where the anti-apparition ward on the flat didn't cover, she apparated to Little Hangleton.
Time to get that damn ring.
After she had passed through the main bit of brush closest to the town, and was a ways into the forest, there was a burst of flames and Neville appeared, holding Fawkes' tail. "Thanks, Fawkes." He grinned at the Phoenix, waving as it flamed away, then he turned to Harri. "Hey, Hars. What's up?"
Harri snorted at the nickname and jerked a thumb to where the Gaunt Shack (read: hovel) was. "Just killing a soul piece. What's up with you?"
He fell into step beside her as they began to walk to the hovel again. "Just freaking out after you disappeared right in front of me."
Harri nodded, "Makes sense. I'll try not to get summoned by the Producat in Salutem again."
"See that you don't." They glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes then began laughing. When they recovered, they started casting and looking for wards and hidden spells.
"Right, Harri, snakes." Neville muttered to her from the doorway. Harri looked away from the walls and began to hiss at the snakes, finally convincing them that they were meant to be there.
The two of them slowly made their way through the house, stopping every now and again to dispel a ward or curse. Finally, they reached the ring, which was hidden under a rather obvious floorboard.
Harri picked it up and examined it, glad that Neville had brought her pair of dragonhide gloves. Evidently the reason it had taken him all night to get there was that he was packing all their stuff and pretty much whatever else they would need to restart a new life in a new dimension, as the Producat spell didn't allow the one summoned to go back to his/her own dimension, so Harri was stuck in this universe, and even though Neville would be able to go back and forth with the help of Fawkes, he would stick around with Harri instead of dealing with everyone from their home dimension alone.
"Hm…" She pushed some magic into her eyes, examining the ring under mage sight. "Looks like a standard withering curse locked to VoldieMoldie's magic."
Neville nodded, putting on his own dragonhide gloves at taking the ring from her, presumably doing the same mage sight thing she did. "Yeah, explains why neither Snape nor Dumbledore could get rid of it."
The withering curse was a curse, obviously, that slowly killed the victim by making their skin wither away (it pretty much accelerated the aging process, but added a decomposition factor to it as well). The victim couldn't dispel the curse because it affected their magic, so Dumbledore couldn't have gotten rid of it himself. Snape couldn't because if the curse was locked onto his magic then he couldn't, as he wouldn't have the sheer amount of magic needed to overpower Voldemort.
Harri gave a small snort and offered him her Basilisk dagger. "Would you like to do the honors?"
Neville accepted the dagger, being able to handle it due to the dragonhide gloves. "I would." He set the ring down on the rickety table and stabbed it. There was a small scream from the ring as the horcrux died, but Harri and Neville ignored it. Neville pocketed the ring and handed Harri her dagger back, then they apparated from the hovel to an alley in London.
"Lunch?" Neville asked, and Harri nodded.
"Yeah, sounds good." So, with that decided, they stopped at a restaurant- since Neville actually had a chance to prepare to pretty much restart their lives, he had gotten all their stuff and put it in a space expanded bag, as mentioned before.
After they ate, Harri took Neville's arm and apparated them into Hogsmeade. Specifically, into the cellar of Honeydukes. They took the stupidly long tunnel to the third floor of the school then easily made their way to the RoR.
Opening the Room of Hidden Things, Harri and Neville exchanged glances. "I don't remember where it was," they said in unison, then laughed at themselves.
"Alright, I'll take the left and you take the right." Harri snickered, splitting with Neville to go about her own search. It took perhaps about three hours to find the diadem and destroy it before she went off to search for Neville, which took considerably less time.
"Now we've only got the locket and cup left," Neville grinned.
"Man, halfway done with destroying Voldewhore and it's just the second day." Harri muttered, and they both broke down into chuckles as they made their way back to the tunnel and into Honeydukes cellar, before they apparated away again.
This time, though, it was to the Leaky Cauldron to grab a couple of butterbeers and sit at an empty table, just observing everyone for a few hours. Mainly they were just wasting time until the next day.
Harri decided not to return to Lily's flat for the night, because it would probably be a little presumptive of her to just bring Neville, who Lily didn't know, back with her and she wasn't going to be separated from her best friend, especially in an alternate universe.
After they left the Leaky, Harri cast a patronus and sent it off to Lily with the message that she wouldn't be returning that night.
Instead, they went to a hotel and got a room for the week (they had the money- both magical and muggle- so why not use it).
The next day was spent getting the locket and debating whether or not to break into Gringotts again. The result was no, but the next time one of the LeStranges, preferably Bellatrix as her insanity made her particularly susceptible, went to get money from the bank, they'd imperious them and have them get the cup as well.
It was stupid and risky, but nowhere near as stupid and risky as actually breaking in would be.
~•~ ~•~ ~•~
I'm sorry for the absolutely ridiculous amount of time you guys had to wait, but I just haven't really been... Well, feeling creative, I guess. Recently I've just been kinda like "eh" to everything, so yeah, and my internet's shoddy, so it's either like "will it work today?... NOPE!" or "Hey I can actually do the... Nevermind."
Also I've been binge watching Supernatural whenever I have stable internet.
To those of you who read any of my Harry Potter Black Butler crossovere, I'm sorry but you'll have an even longer wait. Again, sorry, but I'm losing interest in Black Butler. It's just not a big part of my life right now.
I'll try to work on all my fics, really, I will, but don't get your hopes up for a swift update. I've got all that I mentioner before and finals. Thankfully winter break is approaching so I'll have more time to work then.
Sincerely,
Faeries and Vampyres