Harry's POV

Everyone was on edge, ever since Y/N's departure yet again, Ron had been even more tense than usual. There hadn't been much progress ever since we found the locket and I knew that this was an issue prominent on both Hermione and Ron's mind.

One day, Hermione came to the discovery that the sword, which Dumbledore had left for me in his will, could actually destroy Horcruxes and it became our new mission to try and locate the sword and then destroy the locket.

"Where could he have left the real one?" Hermione pondered.

"The Shrieking Shack?" I suggested. "No one goes there."

Hermione shook her head. "But Snape knows how to get there."

"Dumbledore trusted Snape." I reminded her.

"Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords." said Hermione.

"Yeah, you're right! So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d'you reckon, Ron? Ron?"

I looked around and for one moment, I thought that he had left the tent but then realised that he was lying in the shadow of a bunk, looking stony.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" he said.

"What?"

Ron snorted as he stared up at the underside of the upper bunk. "You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun."

Perplexed, I turned to Hermione for help but she shook her head, obviously as confused as I was.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"Problem? There's no problem," said Ron, still refusing to look at me, "not according to you, anyways."

I stared at the boy. "Well you've obviously got a problem, so spit it out."

Ron swung his long legs off the bed and sat up. He looked mean, unlike himself. "All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."

"I don't know?" I repeated. "I don't know?"

"It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," said Ron, "you know,with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running around a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."

"Ron." Hermione said.

"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for." I said.

"Yeah, I thought I did too."

"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" I asked, anger started to boil up inside me. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to mummy by Christmas?"

"We thought you knew what you were doing!" shouted Ron, standing up, and his words attacking me like scalding knives. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!"

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.

"And I sure as hell didn't expect to find out that my childhood best friend who supposedly died is actually alive and is a Death Eater!" Ron said, anger prominent in his voice.

"We thought you'd like to know!" I said.

"You guys have been running around...keeping your secrets for who knows how long!" Ron said bitterly.

I rolled my eyes. "What did you want us to do? Throw a 'welcome back to life' party for Y/N and tell the whole world he was alive? Dumbledore had a plan!"

"Well fuck Dumbledore and his plans!" Ron roared. "I thought he had a plan for you but obviously he doesn't because we haven't done shit!"

"Take the locket off Ron." Hermione said calmly, her voice wavering slightly.

"Look! We've found one Horcrux already!" I said, gesturing to the locket which Ron was wearing.

"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as weare to finding the rest of them, nowhere fucking near in other words."

"So why are you here?" I said angrily. "Why don't you just fuck off and go back to your mummy? Have her read you a nice bedtime story and then tuck you into bed."

"Fine," Ron scoffed, "maybe that's what I'll do. I'm sick of everything revolving around you! No one else gives a shit about my family, it's all about Harry-bloody-Potter. It's alright for you isn't it? You haven't got any siblings and your parents are safely out the way-"

"-MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!" I bellowed.

"AND MINE COULD BE GOING THE SAME WAY!"

I made a movement towards Ron but Hermione had intercepted and cast a shield charm separating the two of us. At this moment, I felt such a strong hatred towards Ron.

"Leave the Horcrux." I said plainly.

Ron tore the locket off himself and tossed it to a nearby chair.

"What are you doing?" he asked, turning to Hermione.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Are you going or staying?"

Hermione looked at Ron in disbelief. "I'm staying Ron...we said we would help Harry-"

Ron interjected. "-it's fine, I get it. You choose him."

"Ron-"

But it was too late, Ron had disappeared and Disapparated away, leaving Hermione sobbing loudly.

I didn't care, so instead, I carelessly walked over to the locket and threw it over my neck and disappeared into where the beds were and went straight to sleep.

The next morning, the reality of Ron leaving had finally hit me and some part of me wished it was a dream, but I knew it wasn't. I had accepted the truth that Ron had deserted us. Days had passed and we never brought Ron up but I knew that Hermione was upset about it, one by one the most important people in her life were leaving her and I knew it was leaving her distraught.

Halfway through a conversation one day where Hermione was talking about Grindelwald's mark, I brought something up.

"Hermione, I want to go to Godric's Hollow."

Naturally, she agreed to accompany me so the two of us both set off. She also thought that it would be an excellent place to keep the sword since it was Godric Gryffindor's birthplace.

"Bathilda Bagshot lives there," Hermione muttered, "maybe she's got the sword..."

Once Hermione was done with all her conspiracies and we were done planning, the two of us quickly set off. When we arrived, Hermione deduced that it was Christmas Eve due to the snow and the decorations around the village. We took a minute to admire our surroundings before we continued walking through the village.

"Harry, look!" Hermione said to me, pointing to a statue.

It was a statue of three people, a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother's arms. Snow laid upon all their heads, like fluffy white caps.

I stared at it, I never thought there would be a statue of my parents, I gazed into my parents' stone faces and a feeling of longing entered me.

"Let's keep on going..." I muttered.

We continued walking, making our way into the graveyard. As we walked past, our feet making dents in the snow we passed some familiar names in the graveyard. The thick blanket of snow covered people's headstones. Hermione called my name in the distance but I ignored her, for I had found what I had been looking for.

James Potter
Born 27 March 1960
Died 31 October 1981

Lily Potter
Born 30 January 1960
Died 31 October 1981

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

I stared at their graves solemnly and didn't notice Hermione joining me by my side.

"This is them..." I mumbled quietly, before reading out the last words, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death..."

A horrible idea entered me. "Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"

"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters meanit, Harry," explained Hermione, her voice gentle, "tt means...you know...living beyond death. Living after death."

But they were not living, I thought. They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that my parents' moldering remains laid beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. Thinking about this, tears came before I could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on my face. What was the point in wiping them off or pretending? I let them fall, my lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from my eyes the place where the last of Lily and James rested. They were bones and dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, my heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice. At this moment, I was close to wishing that I was sleeping under the snow with them.

Hermione had taken my hand and was gripping it tightly and rested her head on my shoulder. I could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady myself, trying to regain control. I should have brought something to give them, I had not thought of it, and every plant inthe graveyard was leafless and frozen.

As if instantly understanding my thoughts, Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before us. I caught it and laid it on my parents' grave.

"Come on...let's go." Hermione muttered to me softly.

I nodded and let the final tears fall down my face, before I left I let out a final mutter before leaving my parents' resting place.

"I love you mum and dad. This is all for you."