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135[@more@]said Ted. “I’d take tips from him gladly; it’s what we’re trying to do, stay free, isn’t it?” “Yeah, well, you’ve got a point there,” said Dirk heavily. “With the whole of the Ministry and all their informers looking for him, I’d have expected him to be caught by now. Mind, who’s to say they haven’t already caught and killed him without publicizing it?” “Ah, don’t say that, Dirk,” murmured Ted. There was a long pause filled with more clattering of knives and

136[@more@]“Who else is here?” he asked, turning his head from side to side. “Your tone displeases me! The girl and her friends were foolhardily in the extreme. Thieving from the headmaster.” “They weren’t thieving,” said Harry. “That sword isn’t Snape’s.” “It belongs to Professor Snape’s school,” said Phineas Nigellus. “Exactly what claim did the Weasley girl have upon it? She deserved her punishment, as did the idiot Longbottom and the Lovegood oddity!” “Neville is n

134[@more@]the sword on You-Know-Who? Or on Snape himself? “Well, whatever they thought they were going to do with it, Snape decided the sword wasn’t safe where it was,” said Dirk. “Couple of days later, once he’d got the say- so from You-Know-Who, I imagine, he sent it down to London to be kept in Gringotts instead.” The goblins started to laugh again. “I’m still not seeing the joke,” said Ted. “It’s a fake,” rasped Griphook. “The sword of Gryffindor!” “Oh yes. It i

132[@more@]“You cast the Muffliato charm over us, right?” he whispered to Hermione. “I did everything,” she whispered back, “Muffliato, Muggle-Repelling and Disillusionment Charms, all of it. They shouldn’t be able to hear of see us, whoever they are.” Heavy scuffing and scraping noises, plus the sound of dislodged stones and twigs, told them that several people were clambering down the steep, wooded slope that descended to the narrow bank where they had pitched the tent. They dre

133[@more@]There was silence for a while, except for the sounds of munching; then Ted spoke again. “I’ve got to say, Dirk, I’m surprised to run into you. Pleased, but surprised. Word was that you’d been caught.” “I was,” said Dirk. “I was halfway to Azkaban when I made a break for it. Stunned Dawlish, and nicked his broom. It was easier than you’d think; I don’t reckon he’s quite right at the moment .Might be Confunded. If so, I’d like to shake the hand of the witch or wizar

131[@more@]when they were so desperate for a lean on the Horcruxes. As the days stretched into weeks, Harry began to suspect that Ron and Hermione were having conversations without, and about, him. Several times they stopped talking abruptly when Harry entered the tent, and twice he came accidentally upon them, huddled a little distance away, heads together and talking fast; both times they fell silent when they realized he was approaching them and hastened to appear busy collecting wood o

130[@more@]"YOU-KNOW-WHO, then!" Harry shouted, goaded past endurance. "If there was one place that was really important to You-Know-Who, it was Hogwarts!" "Oh, come on," scoffed Ron. "His school?" "Yeah, his school! It was his first real home, the place that meant he was special: it meant everything to him, and even after he left—" "This is You-Know-Who we're talking about, right? Not you?" inquired Ron. He was tugging at the chain of the Horcrux around his neck; Harry was visited by

129[@more@]In the end they settled down for the night in a far flung field belonging to a lonely farm, from which they had managed to obtain eggs and bread. "It's not stealing, is it?" asked Hermione in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs on toast. "Not if I left some money under the chicken coo?" Ron rolled his eyes and said, with his cheeks bulging, "Er-my-nee, 'oo worry 'oo much. 'Elax!" And, indeed, it was much easier to relax when they were comfortably well fed. The

127[@more@]windowsill, and he fired a curse at Gregorovitch and jumped out of sight. He stole it, he stole whatever You-Know-Who’s after. And I . . . I think I’ve seen him somewhere. . . .” Harry wished he could have another glimpse of the laughing boy’s face. The theft had happened many years ago, according to Gregorovitch. Why did the young thief look familiar? The noises of the surrounding woods were muffled inside the tent; all Harry could hear was Ron’s breathing. After a while

128[@more@]tent empty handed, out of breath, and mouthing the single word, dementors. "I couldn't . . . make one." he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. "Wouldn't . . . come." Their expressions of consternation and disappointment made Harry feel ashamed. It had been a nightmarish experience, seeing the dementors gliding out of the must in the distance and realizing, as the paralyzing cold choked his lungs and a distant screaming filled his ears, that he was not going to be able to

126[@more@]crow of laughter. And Harry was hurtling back out of those wide, tunnellike pupils and Gregorovitch’s face was stricken with terror. “Who was the thief, Gregorovitch?” said the high cold voice. “I do not know, I never knew, a young man – no – please – PLEASE!” A scream that went on and on and then a burst of green light – “Harry!” He opened his eyes, panting, his forehead throbbing. He had passed out against the side of the tent, had slid sideways down the can

124[@more@]“There’d be some sign of damage if it had been magically destroyed.” She passed it to Harry, who turned it over in his fingers. The thing looked perfect, pristine. He remembered the mangled remains of the diary, and how the stone in the Horcrux ring had been cracked open when Dumbledore destroyed it. “I reckon Kreacher’s right,” said Harry. “We’re going to have to work out how to open this thing before we can destroy it.” Sudden awareness of what he was holding, of w

125[@more@]come to an abrupt halt, run out of road. There were other Horcruxes out there somewhere, but he did not have the faintest idea where they could be. He did not even know what all of them were. Meanwhile he was at a loss to know how to destroy the only one that they had found, the Horcrux that currently lay against the bare flesh of his chest. Curiously, it had not taken heat from his body, but lay so cold against his skin it might just have emerged from icy water. From time to t

123[@more@]out Vol –“ “Don’t say the name!” Ron cut across her, his voice harsh. Harry and Hermione looked at each other. “I’m sorry,” Ron said, moaning a little as he raised himself to look at them, “but it feels like a – a jinx or something. Can’t we call him You-Know-Who – please?” “Dumbledore said fear of a name –“ began Harry. “In case you hadn’t noticed, mate, calling You-Know-Who by his name didn’t do Dumbledore much good in the end,” Ron snapped back. “Ju

122[@more@]that had nothing to do with food, Harry imagined the house-elf busying himself over the steak-and-kidney pie that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would never eat. “Harry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” “Don’t be stupid, it wasn’t your fault! If anything, it was mine. . . .” Harry put his hand in his pocket and drew out Mad-Eye’s eye. Hermione recoiled, looking horrified. “Umbridge had stuck it to her office door, to spy on people. I couldn’t leave it there . . . but that’s

120[@more@]Yaxley had burst out of another lift and was running toward the group beside the fireplaces, into which all of the Muggle-borns but Mrs. Cattermole had now vanished. As the balding wizard lifted his wand, Harry raised an enormous fist and punched him, sending him flying through the air. “He’s been helping Muggle-borns escape, Yaxley!” Harry shouted. The balding wizard’s colleagues set up and uproar, under cover of which Ron grabbed Mrs. Cattermole, pulled her into the stil

121[@more@]“Splinched,” said Hermione, her fingers already busy at Ron’s sleeve, where the blood was wettest and darkest. Harry watched, horrified, as she tore open Ron’s short. He had always thought of Splinching as something comical, but this . . . His insides crawled unpleasantly as Hermione laid bare Ron’s upper arm, where a great chunk of flesh was missing, scooped cleanly away as though by a knife. “Harry, quickly, in my bag, there’s a small bottle labeled ‘Essence of Ditta

119[@more@]in front of them. “Reg!” screamed Mrs. Cattermole, and she threw herself into Ron’s arms. “Runcorn let me out, he attacked Umbridge and Yaxley, and he’s told all of us to leave the country. I think we’d better do it, Reg, I really do, let’s hurry home and fetch the children and – why are you so wet?” “Water,” muttered Ron, disengaging himself. “Harry, they know there are intruders inside the Ministry, something about a hole in Umbridge’s office door. I reckon we’

118[@more@]The silver stag soared from the tip of Harry’s wand and leaped toward the dementors, which fell back and melted into the dark shadows again. The stag’s light, more powerful and more warming than the cat’s protection, filled the whole dungeon as it cantered around the room. “Get the Horcrux,” Harry told Hermione. He ran back down the steps, stuffing the Invisibility Cloak into his back, and approached Mrs. Cattermole. “You?” she whispered, gazing into his face. “But –

117[@more@]“Mother to Maisie, Ellie and Alfred Cattermole?” Mrs. Cattermole sobbed harder than ever. “They’re frightened, they think that I might not come home –“ “T-took?” sobbed Mrs. Cattermole. “I didn’t t-take it from anybody. I b-bought it when I was eleven years old. It – it – it – chose me.” She cried harder than ever. Umbridge laughed a soft girlish laugh that made Harry want to attack her. She leaned forward over the barrier, the better to observe her victim, an