94 hp Diagon Alley

Trembling, he grabbed the pile of clothes that were still lying by the water, and put them on his head one by one, while staring at Ron, a little worried that he would disappear every time he couldn't see him.But he should be real: he just saved his life by jumping into the pond.

"It's — it's you?" said Harry finally, teeth chattering, his voice weaker than usual because he had nearly strangled him.

"Yeah," said Ron, looking a little flustered.

"You—you summoned the doe?"

"What? No, of course not! I thought it was you!"

"My patron saint is the stag."

"Oh, by the way, I think they look different, without horns."

Harry hung the leather pouch Hagrid had given him around his neck, pulled on his last sweater, bent to pick up Hermione's wand, and looked back at Ron.

"Why are you here?"

Clearly, Ron wanted the question to come up later, or not at all.

"Well, I—you know—I'm back—" He cleared his throat, "Of course I wasn't going to go."

There was a moment of silence, and the topic of Ron's departure seemed to be like a wall between the two of them.But here he was, he was back, and he had just saved Harry's life.

Ron looked down at his contents, momentarily seeming surprised.

"Oh, yes, I fished it out," he said unnecessarily, showing Harry the sword for inspection. "That's what you jumped for, wasn't it?"

"Yes," said Harry, "but I don't understand. How did you come here? How did you find us?"

"It's a long story," said Ron. "I've been looking for you for hours. It's a big forest, isn't it? I was trying to sleep under a tree until daylight when I saw the deer come running up." , you follow behind."

"You didn't see anyone else?"

"No," said Ron, "I—"

He hesitated, looking at the two trees next to each other a few meters away.

"—I seem to see something moving over there, but I'm running towards the pond, because you jumped in and didn't come up, so I don't want to detour—hey!"

Harry was already running to where Ron pointed.The two oaks grew close together, with a gap of only a few inches at eye level, a good place to steal without being noticed.But there was no snow around the roots, and Harry saw no footprints.He walked back to where Ron stood waiting, sword still in hand.

"Is there anything there?" Ron asked.

"No."

"Why is the sword in the pond?"

"The one who summoned the Patronus must have put it in."

The two looked at the exquisite silver sword, the hilt inlaid with rubies shone slightly in the fluorescent light of Hermione's wand.

"After you left," Harry whispered, Ron's face blocked, "Hermione cried for a week, maybe longer, but she didn't want me to see. There were nights when we didn't talk. You Not here..."

He couldn't go on, and now that Ron was back, Harry fully realized how much it meant to them without him.

Ron didn't answer, but turned his face away, and wiped his nose with his sleeve loudly.Harry got up and walked over to Ron's huge backpack a few meters away, which Ron had dropped when he ran to the pond to save him.Harry hoisted it on his back and walked back to Ron.Ron got up too, his eyes bloodshot, but still calm.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have left. I know I'm a—a—"

He looked around in the dark, as if hoping that a sufficiently vicious word would swoop down and claim him.

"You pretty much made it up tonight," said Harry, "fishing out the sword and saving my life."

"Sounds a lot bigger than I am," muttered Ron.

"Things like this always sound a lot bigger than they are," Harry said. "I've been trying to tell you that for years."

The two stepped forward at the same time, hugging each other, Harry clutching the still damp clothes on Ron's back.

"Now," said Harry after they parted, "all we have to do is find the tent."

Finding a tent is not difficult.Though it seemed a long way to follow the doe through the Dark Forest, it took surprisingly short time to get back with Ron by his side.Harry couldn't wait to wake Hermione up.He walked into the tent excitedly, and Ron followed hesitantly.

Compared with the pond and the forest, it is very warm here.The only sources of light were those bluebell-like flames, still glowing in a bowl on the ground.Hermione was sleeping soundly curled up in the blankets, and Harry called her several times before she woke up.

"Hermione!"

She moved a bit, sat up quickly, and brushed the hair off her face.

"What's the matter, Harry? Are you all right?"

"It's all right, it's all good, not just good, it's great, there's someone here."

"What did you say? Who—?"

She saw Ron standing there with sword in hand, dripping water on the ragged carpet.Harry stepped back into the shadows in the corner, removed Ron's knapsack, and tried to blend in with the tent's canvas walls.

Hermione got out of bed and walked towards Ron sleepwalking, her eyes fixed on his pale face.She stopped in front of him, her lips parted slightly, her eyes wide open.Ron smiled hopelessly and half-opened his arms.

Hermione lunged forward and began beating him every inch of him she could reach.

"Ouch - ouch - let go! What are you doing -? Hermione - ouch!"

"You - big - bastard - Ron - Weasley!"

She added a punch to every word she said.Ron shielded his head and ducked back, while Hermione chased forward.

"You - crawled back - came? - so many - so many - weeks - after - oh, where is my wand?"

She seemed to take it out of Harry's hands, and Harry responded instinctively.

"Armor protection!"

The invisible vertical wall immediately separated Ron and Hermione, and the impact knocked her backwards.She spat the hair out of her mouth and jumped up again.

"Hermione!" said Harry, "Calm down—"

"I won't calm down!" she screamed.He had never seen her so out of control, like crazy.

"Give me back my wand! Give me back!"

"Hermione, please—"

"Don't command me, Harry Potter!" she snapped. "I warn you! Give it back! And you!"

She pointed at Ron accusingly, like a curse, and Harry felt that Ron could not be blamed for taking a few steps back.

"I ran out to chase you! I called you! I begged you to come back!"

"I know," said Ron, "Hermione, I'm sorry, I really—"

"Oh, you're sorry!"

She laughed, a high-pitched, hysterical sound.Ron looked at Harry for help, but Harry just grimaced and expressed helplessness.

"It's been so many weeks since you've come back - so many weeks - you think you'll be fine just to say sorry?"

"Then what can I say?" Ron called, and Harry was glad Ron was starting to resist.

"Oh, I don't know!" cried Hermione, with biting sarcasm, "Rack your brains, Ron, it'll only take two seconds—"

"Hermione," interrupted Harry, who took it as an unkind attack, "he just saved my—"

"I don't care!" she screamed, "I don't care what he's done! After all these weeks, we might all die—"

"I know you're not dead!" roared Ron, drowning her voice for the first time, and getting as close as he could through the Iron Armor Charm, "The Daily Prophet talks about Harry all the time, and so does the radio. , they're looking for you everywhere, lots of rumors and nonsense stories, I know I'll hear about it right away if you're dead, you don't know—"

"I don't know how you live?"

Her voice was so high-pitched now that soon only bats could hear it.But she was so angry that she couldn't speak for a while, and Ron took the opportunity.

"I wanted to come back as soon as I Apparated, but I fell in the middle of a group of Snatchers, Hermione, and there's no way I can get away!"

"A group of what?" Harry asked.Hermione slumped down on the chair, her arms crossed tightly, her legs crossed, and she didn't look like she would let go for years.

"Snatchers," said Ron, "are all over the place, a bunch of guys trying to make money hunting down Muggle-borns and pure-blood traitors. There's a Ministry bounty for every one caught. I'm on my own, looking It was like school age, they were so excited, they thought I was an escaped Muggle-born. I hurried to talk about it so I didn't get dragged into the Ministry of Magic."

"What did you tell them?"

"I said Stan Sampak, the first person I could think of."

"They believed it?"

"Those guys aren't very bright. One must be troll blood, smells like..."

Ron glanced at Hermione, obviously hoping the little humor would lighten her mood a bit, but she was still tightly tangled and her expression was a slate.

"Anyway, they got into an argument over whether I was Stan, which was kind of pathetic, to be honest. But they were five against me, and took my wand. Then two of them got into a fight, taking advantage of the others While distracted, I punched my captor in the stomach, snatched his wand, cast a disarming spell on the guy holding my wand, and disapparated. Naked—" Ron held up his right hand, missing two nails.Hermione raised her eyebrows coldly. "—The place where I manifested is far away from you. By the time I return to the original river—you have already left."

"Oh, what a thrilling story," Hermione said with the words that she wanted to hurt others