Chapter eighteen; Ripped apart

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She didn't think things could get much worse, but it did. Her and Ron had become even more segregated from Hermione and Harry. It proved when Ron was lying in bed, listening to his radio while Hermione cut Harry's hair. Olivia sat away from them, in her own bed flicking over spells she'd never heard of before in the book Dumbledore had left to her.

The majority were of a different language, and it confused her greatly. Not only that but they had little information on what the spells actually did. Her and Hermione had figured out, or thought they had figured out what 'bás chun luaith' meant. They had to reference a book Hermione had brought about spells from different cultures and had to roughly translate it in Gaelic. It meant something along the lines of 'death to dust' which made no sense. 

When Olivia had tried it on a patch of grass, it died before disintegrating into thin air — something she recalled Oykron Morte's body doing.

They'd also discussed Morte, trying to decipher who he was. There wasn't much about him in books, any book for that matter, except one about famous witches and wizards. It had been titled; 'The most powerful Witches and Wizards in the world: The Good and the Bad.' Inside they'd predictably found recognisable names, Lord Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore and Newt Scamander to name a few. The further back they went though they had found Oykron Morte's name had ran alongside Olivanna Black's name.

In a brief overview about Morte, it described him to have tuned against the world, against Muggles, when his mother had been murdered by a group of Muggle men after discovering she was a Witch. From there he spiralled and turned to the Dark Arts to take over the world and abolish Muggles and Muggle-Borns.

From across the tent Hermione was cutting Harry's hair, "Oh my God." She said aloud after snipping another lock of his hair off. At her words Olivia closed the book, intrigued, and rose a curious brow.

"What?" Harry panicked, feeling the nape of his neck worriedly.

Hermione stood up and ran to where they had a table set up, out of Olivia's view, "I'll tell you in a minute."

Harry, still looking shocked, looked from Hermione and over to Olivia before getting out of his chair and following Hermione quickly, "Maybe you could tell me now."

Olivia sighed as they both disappeared out of view, around the corner, and listened to see if it would be a conversation worth listening to, "The Sword of Gryffindor, it's Goblin made." Hermione said.

"Brilliant." Harry said sarcastically.

"No, you don't understand." Hermione said, "Dirt and rust have no effect on the blade. It only takes in that which makes it stronger."

"Okay?" Harry stuttered slowly. Olivia furrowed her brows to herself and thought about the Sword of Gryffindor. She'd never seen it herself, of course, but there had to be a reason for Hermione bringing it up surely. She uncrossed her legs and sat up into a seating position, dropping the book beside her she stood up from her bed and walked over to where she and Harry had disappeared from.

"What are you on to here?" She asked.

Hermione stood at the far end of the table with her wand in her hand, "You've only destroyed one Horcrux right?" She asked rhetorically as Harry picked up an open book, "Tom Riddle's diary in the Chamber of Secrets."

"With a Basilisk Fang," Harry said confused, "If you're telling me you've got one of those in that bloody beaded bag of yours—"

"Don't you see?" Hermione interrupted and sat down, "In the Chamber of Secrets you stabbed the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor. It's blade is impregnated with Basilisk venom—"

Olivia crossed her arms over her chest, "—yes but Basilisk venom can kill anything."

"So think about it." Hermione encouraged.

Olivia drew her brows to a close. The sword takes in anything it is touched with, so surely it would take in the venom which Hermione had just said. Basilisk venom kills anything, like she had just said herself. So with the sword impregnated with the Basilisk venom—

A brilliant grin formed on Olivia's face while she looked to Hermione, "You are fucking brilliant!" She gushed, amazed by what Hermione had pieced together.

"What?" Harry asked, dumbfounded, "I still don't—"

"What Hermione's trying to tell you," Olivia interrupted, "Is that the Sword will only take in the venom from the Basilisk and—"

"make it stronger." Her and Harry both said together once he caught on.

Hermione beamed, "Exactly which is why—"

"—it can destroy Horcruxes." Harry said, sitting down.

Olivia walked to the table and leaned over the wood, "And that's why Dumbledore left it to you in his will."

"You are brilliant Hermione, truly." Harry practically worshipped.

Olivia shook her head in amusement, "She already knows that."

Hermione blushed before gushing, "Actually I'm highly logical, which allows me to look past extraneous detail—"

"—Woah, woah," Olivia interrupted, holding her hands out, "slow yourself down, it's only a compliment which your modesty is killing." Hermione continued to blush regardless, "Now I hate to burst your bubble, but you know someone's gotta do it."

"What is it?" She asked.

"There's one, tinsy, little problem—"

Olivia dropped her arms when the sound of Ron's deluminator echoed, followed by the light around them disappearing. They stood in the dark, waiting for Ron to either return the artificial light to where it belonged or to say something. After a few moments he did both, and the tent lit up for them to see Ron stood where Olivia had moments ago. 

"The sword was stolen." He said quite monotonously. He wore the same scowl of jealousy on his face that he had a few months ago after he had gotten splinched, "Yeah, I'm still here. You all carry on, don't let me spoil the fun."

Olivia sighed and looked to Ron as he continued to stand there, "Ron—" she went to say, only to be interrupted by Harry as he turned in his chair.

"What's wrong?"

"Wrong?" Ron echoed, "nothings wrong, not according to you anyway."

Olivia pressed her lips into a thin line as she forced the cringe off her face. She didn't need to be a Seer to know this wasn't going to end well for anyone.

Harry looked to him, slightly defensive, "Look, if you've got something to say then don't be shy. Spit it out."

She threaded her hands through her hair and sobbed tearlessly, this really wasn't going to end well. The tension had been silently bubbling up between Ron and Harry for a while, and now it was set to burst.

An expression of hate formed on Ron's pale looking face, "Right, i'll spit it out," He snapped, "but don't expect me to be grateful just because now there's another damn thing we've got to find."

"I thought you knew what you sighed up for?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I thought I did too."

Harry moved to stand up and marched down the three steps to Ron, "Well I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand. What part of this isn't living up to your expectations?" He started to snap.

Olivia rose from her seat on the bench and Hermione followed her actions silently, "Harry—"

"D-did you thing we were going to be stopping in a five star hotel, finding a Horcrux every other day? For you to be back with your mum by Christmas?"

"I just thought after all this time we would've actually achieved something. The most that's happened is Olivia learning new spells, that have the capacity to blow holes in the ground and kill everything in sight, in a language we don't even know!" His voice rose, "I thought you would know what you were doing, I thought Dumbledore would've told you something worth while. I thought you had a plan?"

Olivia took the three stairs in one as she treaded carefully over to the two boys, their irritation growing even more in their eyes as they continued to go back and forth. Olivia hoped that it wouldn't of come to this, to two best friends of over six years crumbling under their failures. She hoped that eventually everything brewing between them all, every malicious feeling or every scowl of jealousy would eventually melt into nothing.

She wanted to believe in herself that she wasn't holding anything against Harry but by watching the scene in front of her fold out, she knew she did. Maybe it was pressure that he was cracking under, maybe he really was just sick of their shite luck they'd been cursed with from the beginning or maybe he had been waiting for something of this sort to happen.

Regardless of what Harry wanted or what Ron wanted, Olivia was more concerned over her own self. The Horcrux's prominent and everlasting ring was slowly driving her to the centre of insanity and she wasn't sure herself how much more she could take. Between controlling her own self and playing peacekeeper between Harry and Ron she could feel everything she had spent so much time in trying to prevent slowly creeping up on her. It stuck to her skin like droplets of water and sank into her body, filling her with her own irritation and her own anger.

"I told you everything Dumbledore told me and incase you haven't noticed we've found a Horcrux already." Harry pointed out.

"Yeah and we're about as close to getting rid of it than we are to finding the rest of them, aren't we?" Ron came back with.

Hermione walked over to Ron and tired to pull the Horcrux from his neck as it taunted Olivia. It tortured her ears like the Cruciatus Curse would the body. Like the Imperious Curse would the mind. Her own irritation had brimmed her arms now, the bottom half of her body fully consumed by its abrupt penetration and she resisted the urge to shout. Instead she clenched her jaw tightly as Hermione fought with Ron over her Horcrux.

"Please take the Horcrux off, you wouldn't be saying this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."

It was almost as if the Horcrux infected Ron's mind with hatred and it rubbed off on Olivia like a stomach bug, it was contagious. She felt the four white walls she had built around her mind darken from the top, a mental image of how they greyed before forming the deepest hue of black. It continued to spread.

Then, without even noticing she laughed. It wasn't a humorous laugh though, as if she was laughing a a joke. It was a dull laugh, and void of any emotion as her brain reflected on what Hermione had said.

"You think the Horcrux is bad?" She asked before laughing again, "Try being me. You try resisting that urge, when everything dark is pulling you down."

"This isn't about you." Harry said to her, looking as Olivia crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh, yeah that's right. I'm sorry," she snapped, narrowing her eyes in distaste, "how could I be so selfish to forget that's it's all about you."

"Enough!" Hermione yelled, acting as a peacekeeper between the two.

"Do you know why I listen to that radio every night?" Ron asked of Harry, "To make sure I don't hear Ginny's name, or Fred, or George, or mum—"

"What you think I'm not listening too?" Harry shouted, his chest heaving, "you think I don't know how this feels?"

Immediately both Ron and Olivia broke out in protests, "No Harry!" Olivia shouted, "I barely have any living blood relatives left!"

"No you don't know how this feels, your parents are dead. You have no family." Ron shouted after her.

Even that took Olivia by surprise, she wasn't expecting something of that sort to fall out of Ron's mouth. She knew he wouldn't say it intentionally and so she wasn't surprised when Harry lunged for him.

They fought briefly and while Hermione screamed for them to stop, Olivia was the one to intervene. She grabbed each boy by their shoulder, careful not to hurt Ron's injured one, and forced them apart.

"Fine then go. Go then!" Harry yelled when they were apart. Both boys stared at each other in spite and hate. Their chests heaved up and down as adrenaline pumped through theirs and Olivia's veins. After moments of just staring at each other Ron reached for the chain of the Horcrux and pulled it over his head before throwing it on to the floor, the sound of it ringing more accessible to the ear now it wasn't covered by fabric.

He passed Hermione as she spoke his name softly and picked up his bag. Wordlessly Ron walked to the exit of the tent and stopped to turn on his heel and look to her, "And you?" He asked of her, handing her an ultimatum, "Are you coming or are you staying?" Hermione only looked to him breathlessly before giving Harry a quick glance behind her. Ron followed her eye line up to him, "Fine. I get it," He said, adjusting the strap on his shoulder, "I saw you two the other night."

"What?" Hermione asked in disbelief, taking a step forward, "Ron that's—that's nothing."

Olivia swallowed forcefully and studied Ron. Of all the things she didn't want to happen tonight, it would be for the two to fall out also. Especially knowing the unspoken feelings they carried for each other, that they had carried for years. She remembered that Ron still owed her a promise from their fifth year, the night they fought at the Department of Mysteries, that he would tell Hermione how he felt. But watching now she didn't think that was ever going be a possibility.

Ron didn't appear convinced by Hermione's words and he readjusted the strap on his bag-pack before turning on his heel and walking out of the tent flap, out into the darkness.

After Hermione had followed him, Olivia released the breath she had been holding since Ron took the light with the Deluminator. Her eyes fluttered closed for a few short seconds before she opened them again and turned to face Harry. She too threw him a hateful glare, "Incase you were ever wondering. That's what it looks like when you lose the person you love the most." She spat, "So .. congratulations. I hope you feel proud." She threw at him before too walking out of the tent and raising her wand at an innocent tree before releasing her anger out on the brown coloured bark with a scream.

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I'm updating now while I know I can. 

I'm an idiot and I've broke my phone, I want to cry. 

I dreaded writing this chapter for the sole reason of the spat between Harry, Ron and Hermione. I knew adding Olivia into the mix would be more difficult but I'm actually happy with how it turned out! 

Until the next update!!