Harry and I immediately pitched our tent once we left Godric's Hollow, our adrenaline running high. Hermione placed the enchantments around where we were at and then we headed inside where it was warm and went to sleep, hoping our nerves would calm down.

The next morning, the three of us went exploring on our own, looking around in the forest. It was beautiful, especially with all the snow covering the ground, the trees, and the river. I went to a quiet spot with a piece of parchment and a quill with some ink that I took from the tent. I pressed the parchment against a book that came from my rucksack and began to write.

Dear Draco,

It's already Christmas and it feels like forever since the last time I've seen or heard from you. I'm about to go crazy because it's been so long. I go to bed every night, wishing that you were beside me. I constantly think about you and hope that you're safe. I miss you.

I'm fine, by the way. It's just me, Harry, and Hermione now. Ron left a long time ago and none of us had heard from him since. He said some awful things before he left, but his words don't matter anymore. He's gone and I don't know if he'll come back.

I finally read The Great Gatsby. It made me cry. The book was so beautiful. I can see why it's your favorite. I thought about us while I was reading the book. Tom, in his weird ways, was able to protect Daisy while Gatsby was able to give her passion. I think you and I both know that a woman needs both security and passion and you give me both.

I want you to let me know that I can always count on you and that I'll always be safe whenever I'm with you. I want you to give me passion and never let go of me, because I don't want to let go of you.

I'm ready for this war to be over with so we can be together. I miss you so much. Please stay safe.

Love,

Max

I sighed and looked at the letter. I knew that I was never going to send it to him since my letter would probably be intercepted by the Ministry. I began to fold it up when a fox ran by me and took the letter by its mouth.

"Hey! That's my letter! Come back here!" I yelled at the fox as the animal ran away from me. I stood up and watched as the fox disappeared into the trees.

I groaned and grabbed the quill, the ink, and my book and walked back to the tent. Hermione and Harry were sitting outside when I got there. I quickly placed everything back inside the tent and walked back out and sat with Harry and Hermione by a tree.

"Are you feeling better?" Hermione asked me when I sat down beside her.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I guess. What is this place?"

"Yeah, you've outdone yourself this time, Hermione," Harry added.

Hermione smiled a little. "It's the Forest of Dean," she answered. "I came here once with Mum and Dad. It was years ago. It's just how I remember it. The trees, the river, everything. Like nothing's changed. That's not true, of course. Everything's changed.

"If I brought my parents back here now, they probably wouldn't recognize any of it. Not the trees, not the river, not even me." She paused for a moment before she continued talking. "Maybe we should just stay here, you guys. We can just stay here and grow old together."

I chuckled a little at her joke.

She looked back at the book she was reading, then looked back up at me. "You wanted to know who the man in the photograph was. I know who he is. His name is Gellert Grindelwald." She handed me the book and I looked at all the pages that were about him.

"He's the thief we saw in Gregorovitch's Wand Shop," I said. "Isn't he, Harry?" I handed him the book so he could see the pictures of Grindelwald.

He nodded his head. "Yeah, it is him. Speaking of wands, where's my wand, Hermione?"

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Oh, Harry..."

"Where is my wand, Hermione?" he repeated.

She reluctantly stood up and lifted her blanket up and revealed Harry's wand, which was now broken in two. "As we were leaving Godric's Hollow, I cast a curse and it rebounded. I'm sorry, Harry. I-I tried to mend it, but wands are different."

"It's done," he said. "It's done. Leave me your wand. You and Max go inside and get warm. Max, I'll take the locket as well."

Hermione handed Harry her wand, then I handed the locket over to him. She grabbed her things and headed inside the tent, followed by me. I went and climbed in my bed. I heard Hermione huff a sigh as she plopped down on her bed.

"I feel so awful about breaking his wand," she said.

"It's fine, Hermione," I assured her. "He'll get over it. Besides, we were almost killed by a snake almost twenty-four hours ago and all you're worried about is breaking Harry's wand? Trust me, we have bigger problems to worry about."

She nodded her head in agreement. "I suppose you're right."

Neither of us said another word to each other after that, with Hermione sticking her nose in a book and me lost in deep thought.

*******

Harry was still outside, even when I told him that he could come inside if he wanted to. He didn't budge. He sat out there all day, leaving Hermione and I alone. It was dark by the time I decided to go outside and sit with him.

"Hey," I said as I sat down next to him.

"Why are you out here? It's freezing cold," he told me.

"Yeah, it is, which is why you should be inside, too," I retorted.

"Seriously, why are you out here?"

I shrugged. "I was starting to worry about you. I wasn't sure if something bad happened to you."

"Oh, now you're beginning to worry about me?" he teased.

"Shut up," I said, playfully hitting his arm. "I always worry about you."

"I know, I know. I'm only messing with you. Besides, I always worry about you, too."

I sighed, then pulled out my wand and handed it to Harry. "Here, take my wand."

"No, Max. You need it."

"But you don't have one. Hermione's wand won't work the way you'll want it to. Our wands, however, share the same core, so they might work the same for both of us."

He sighed and took the wand from me. "Thanks. I didn't even think about that, honestly. But you don't have a wand now."

"Trust me, I don't need a wand to take on a few Snatchers," I assured him.

He laughed. "Whatever, Max."

I laughed at him, then it got quiet. We sat there for a moment, not saying another word to each other.

"Max?" Harry said beside me.

"What?"

"Isn't your Patronus a doe?"

"Yeah. But you already knew that. Why did you ask me when you already know what my Patronus is?"

"Because I see it. Look." He pointed at some trees and there it was. My Patronus was staring at us.

"That's not possible," I said. "I mean, who else has the same Patronus as me?"

"Well, Dad was a stag and Mum was a doe, too. Maybe it's Mum," Harry said.

"Do you remember the last time we thought we saw our parents, Harry? We thought it was Mum and Dad and then we figured out that it was us."

"So maybe the person casting the Patronus is you?"

I snorted. "Right, like that'd happen again," I replied sarcastically. We looked back at the doe and saw that she was walking away from us. "Come on, let's go see where she's going."

We stood up and followed the doe all the way to a frozen pond. The doe turned into a ball of light, floating in the middle of the pond.

"Lumos," Harry said, using my wand.

The ball of light floated through the ice and at the bottom of the pond. I bent down and wiped some of the snow off the ice and gasped. "Harry, look! It's the sword!" I exclaimed.

He bent down beside me and nodded his head. "Accio sword."

"Really, Harry?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It was worth a shot," he said when the sword didn't come to him.

I huffed a sigh. "Now what do we do?" I asked him.

Harry stood up and pointed my wand at the ice. "Diffindo," he said, making some of the ice dissolve. It formed into a hole in the pond.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. I opened my mouth when he took his shirt off. "No. Hell no. You're not going in that water, Harry James Potter."

"Well, there's no other way to get that sword other than to jump in and get it myself," he said.

"But it's freezing!" I told him.

Once he was stripped down to nothing but his boxers, he looked at me. "I'll be fine." He handed me my wand and then began walking on the ice.

I shook my head. "You're an idiot, you know," I said, going over to a tree and sitting down, leaning against it.

Harry ignored me and placed his feet in the water, then he pushed off with his hands and went underwater. I folded my arms over my chest and waited for Harry to come back up with the sword. Why he thought going underwater to retrieve a sword was a great idea, I would never know.

All of a sudden, I heard a bubbling sound coming from the water.

"Harry?" I called out, running over to the hole. I gasped when I saw that he was drowning. "Harry!" I took off my coat, threw it across the frozen pond, and jumped in the water.

As I was trying to help Harry, I was sinking deeper into the water, my body going cold and numb. As I tried swimming back up, my jeans got caught in something. I was struggling to get to the top so that I could save Harry. As I was beginning to give up, bubbles formed in the water. Someone jumped in. After whoever freed me, I swam back up to the surface. I gasped for air, shivering and coughing as I got out of the water.

"Are you two mental?" a voice asked from my left. It sounded a lot like--

"Ron?" I said.

"Yeah, it's me," he replied. "A bit obvious, I think," he added with a chuckle.

I managed to stand up and walk over to him, panting. "You're back."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, I'm back."

The three of us exchanged glances, calming down and staying silent for a moment, taking in the fact that Ron was standing here in front of us after being away for so long. Hermione really had faith in him, and she was right to hold onto that feeling of hope.

Once Harry put his clothes back on, he spoke up. "Okay, before we get into anything else, we need to destroy it now that we have the sword," Harry said. "Ron, you're going to destroy this locket."

"What?!" Ron questioned in shock, widening his eyes.

I huffed a sigh, taking the locket off of Harry and setting it down on a rock. "Okay, Ron. Do it. Destroy the damn locket."

He looked down at the ground. "I can't handle it. That thing affects me more than it affects you, Harry, and Hermione."

"All the more reason why you should be the one to destroy it," I retorted.

He shook his head. "No. I can't."

"Then why are you here? Why did you come back?" Harry asked

I went over to him. "Listen, we want you to be the one to do this. We know you can destroy it. You always think that you can't do anything like get an Outstanding in a class, or get Hermione to realize that you're the one for her..."

"Wait, what--"

"I pick up on things, Ron. Anyway, I want you to stop and think about who the real Ron Weasley is. I know that he's a strong Gryffindor who can take on anything that life throws at him. Stop telling yourself that you can't do this, because I know you can. Harry and I both know that you can destroy this locket. You can do this, Ron."

He looked at Harry, then back at me, and nodded his head. "Okay. I'll destroy it."

I nodded back and went back over to the locket, where Harry spoke up again. "Now, I'm going to speak to it in order for it to open. When it does, don't hesitate. We don't know what's in there, but it'll put up a fight."

"All right," he said. "I'm ready."

I nodded my head, then looked at Harry. "Do it, Harry."

He nodded and stood beside me. Then, he began speaking in Parseltongue. All of a sudden, we heard a snarl, then roaring coming from the locket.

The roar knocked all three of us off our feet. The black smoke and the high-pitched whistling was distracting us from seeing what Ron was doing.

"I have seen your heart, and it is mine," we heard Voldemort say to Ron. "I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. Least loved by your mother, who craved a daughter. Least loved by the girl, who prefers your friend."

"Ron, kill it!" Harry shouted.

Suddenly, three figures appeared. Harry was on the left, Hermione was in the middle, and I was on the right.

"We were better without you," Harry said. "We were happier without you."

"Who could look at you compared to Harry Potter?" Hermione said. "What are you compared with the Chosen One?"

"Ron, it's lying!" Harry yelled.

"Your mother confessed that she would have preferred me as a son," Harry said.

"What woman would take you?" I said. "You are nothing."

That was when my figure disappeared and Harry and Hermione began to snog the hell out of each other.

"Ron, hurry up and kill that thing!" I shouted at him.

Ron put on his angry face, stood up, and ran after the locket, and slammed the sword down on the locket, making everything disappear.

We all sighed in relief, panting and looking at Ron.

"Well, there's now only three Horcruxes left to find and destroy," Ron said.

We said nothing after that. We sat there in silence, not knowing what to do next. A Horcrux had been destroyed. The only thing left to do was to figure out what to do next, so I grabbed my coat and walked away from the boys, heading for the tent, trying to figure out what our next move was going to be.

*******

The next morning, I woke up and went for a walk to clear my head. After walking around for a while, I headed back to the tent. When I got there, Hermione was coming out of the tent. I was able to see her reaction when she saw Ron and it wasn't pretty.

"Hey," Ron greeted her, smiling like an idiot.

"This is not going to end well," I muttered.

Hermione stormed over to him. She began to throw stuff at him and even whacked him with his rucksack. "You complete arse, Ronald Weasley!"

"Oh, shit," I said, widening my eyes at her.

"You show up here after weeks and you say hey?!" she shouted. She turned towards Harry. "Where's my wand, Harry?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said.

"Harry Potter, you give me my wand!"

"I don't have it!"

"How come he's got your wand?" Ron intervened.

She turned to face Ron again. "It doesn't matter why he's got my wand," she snapped, her eyes falling down to the destroyed locket in his hand. "What is that?"

"He destroyed the locket," I told her.

"So how is it that you just happen to have the Sword of Gryffindor?" she questioned.

"It's a long story," Harry answered.

"A very long story," I added.

She looked at us, then back at Ron. "Don't think this changes anything."

"Oh, of course not. I only just destroyed a bloody Horcrux! Why would that change anything?! I wanted to come back as soon as I left. I just didn't know how to find you."

"So, how did you find us?" Harry asked.

"With the Deluminator. It doesn't just turn off lights. I don't know how it works, but I was sleeping in this little pub on Christmas morning, keeping away from some Snatchers, and I heard it. A voice." His expression turned soft as he looked at Hermione. "It was your voice, Hermione."

We looked at her as she had her arms folded over her chest. "What exactly did I say, may I ask?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"My name. Just my name," he replied. "You said it in a whisper. So I took the Deluminator, clicked it, and this tiny ball of light appeared. That was when I knew. Sure enough, it floated towards me, the ball of light, and went right to my chest, straight through me. Right here." He pointed at his chest. "I knew it was going to take me where I needed to go, so I Disapparated, and came to this hillside. It was dark. I had no idea where I was. I just hoped that one of you would show me in some way that you were there...and you did."

I felt my heart sink a little. I realized that Ron Weasley was also Jay Gatsby and Hermione Granger was Daisy Buchanan. Ron believed in the tiny ball of light, like Gatsby believed in the green light. Ron never gave up on hope. He never gave up on Hermione.

I wasn't sure if I could stay mad at him anymore. He was one of my best friends and if he wasn't a true friend, then he wouldn't be standing here right now.

Hermione went inside the tent, followed by Harry. I had my arms crossed over my chest as I looked down at the snow, shuffling my feet.

"Max, I'm sorry," Ron said to me. "I'm an arse, I know."

I looked up at him and laughed while playfully rolling my eyes at him and shaking my head. "You may be an arse sometimes, but that doesn't mean I'll stop being your best friend."

He smiled at me as I walked over towards him and gave him a hug.

We stood there for a moment, hugging each other. Best friends had to put their bad memories in the past, so that was what Ron and I did.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Heelluuuuuurr!

I liked this chapter a lot. Probably because Ron's speech about the tiny ball of light just makes my heart flutter a little. :D

Shoutout to @reachingformorex for the banner on the side. :) She's part of the collab account @xTheSilverTriox. She wrote Elle's story, Hermione's twin. Here's a summary of the first book:

Elle Granger had never taken any thought to how different she was compared to her family. In fact, the differences never really crossed her mind until the day she got home from her third year in an American wizarding school and comes face-to-face with her real family.

Now Elle is thrown into the curious life of being Hermione Granger's twin and attending Hogwarts. If she wasn't so nonchalant - this whole ordeal may have killed her. With her two personal stalkers in tow, Elizabeth attempts to take on Hogwarts one baby step at a time, while dodging the every whims of the Weasley twins.

And just what is it about that one Weasley twin with the heart - melting smile that gets Elle every time?

Go follow her and check her stories out! (especially Hermione's Twin b/c it's the bomb.com) ;)

Anyway, who's ready for Draco and Max to finally be reunited? If you're reading this, then tell me what you think will happen to them once they're reunited.

Comment, vote, more action will be coming! :)

-A