Slytherin's locket was as large as a chicken's egg. An ornate letter S, inlaid with many small green stones, glinted dully in the candlelight of Sirius's drawing room as everyone passed it around, turning it over. After our narrow escape from the Ministry, involving us all taking the Muggleborns up to the fireplace exits and helping them through as the Polyjuice Potion wore off and I had to dance and dodge Ministry officials trying to capture me, we were all just lounging around trying to recover. 

"Can you feel it, though?" Lee asked in a hushed voice, as he held it tight in his clenched fist.

"What d'you mean?"

Lee passed the Horcrux to me. After a moment or two, I knew what Lee meant. Was it my own blood pulsing through my veins that I could feel, or was it something beating inside the locket, like a tiny metal heart?

"What are we going to do with it?" Hermione asked.

"Keep it safe 'til we get the sword, I guess." I replied, and I hung the chain around my neck, dropping the locket out of sight beneath my shirt. 

"Ugh, why didn't we try to break into the Chamber of Secrets and get a fang while we were at school?" Terry threw his hands up into the air, grumbling. 

"Because Riddle would have known that Daisy knew about the Horcruxes, and we'd never have gotten the cup." Kylie sighed. "At least attempting to steal the sword could be passed off as general mischief; trying to get into the Chamber of Secrets would raise a lot more suspicion if he decided to have a peek at that particular memory." 

"This whole situation stinks." Terry said venomously, glaring at the cup, which was now sitting out on the coffee table again. 

I winced, looking away from it. Did they know I'd taken it? Did anyone see the snake Patronus? Why did I have that Patronus, anyway? It really wasn't as if I was actually in love with Riddle... even if I did occasionally feel a panging feeling I associated with missing someone when I thought of him. 

And that night, I whimpered into my pillow as my scar prickled, a deep longing sweeping through me as flashes of pale hands that were not my own came across my mind, smoothing over my picture, twirling my wand... then I blinked, and the diadem that I had worn on my head to my wedding was in my hands, and a vivid memory of me walking down the aisle with my floating white veil over my dark hair took over my vision. 

And suddenly, the vision and the pain in my scar vanished, leaving me buried face first in my pillow. And, while most of the longing sensation had vanished from the pit of my stomach... some of it remained. My mind wandered back to the Patronus, to the connection between us that was now stronger than ever, to the cup Horcrux that I'd woken up to cradling... 

Wow. He'd really done a number on me, hadn't he. He'd... he'd gotten what he wanted. A part of me, however small it was, actually held love for Tom Riddle. 

I rolled over, turning to gaze at Terry, who was asleep across from me. His long eyelashes fluttered as he sighed deeply, twitching his nose, and I frowned as I thought about how vehemently opposed my best friend was to my relationship with Riddle, how sick he thought it was. 

I traced my fingers over the silver band on my ring finger, then felt the friendship bracelet on my wrist that Terry had given me in first year. My fingers slid back to the ring then back to the bracelet, round and round, as my eyes moved over the freckles scattered across Terry's cheeks. Dumbledore's words about Amy echoed in my head as I slowly drifted off to sleep; Make a choice between what is right, and what is easy... what is right, and what is easy... 

*

I looked through the girl's vision, watching the homosexual boy sleeping, his chest rising and falling. I could see the room beyond him, darkened but still visible through the moonlight softly lighting up the wallpaper. 

The same wallpaper that I had seen behind that Weasley boy as he had lowered his head to my wife's pussy, the wallpaper of Sirius Black's house... 

* 

"No..." I gasped, my head rushing as I sat up too fast, oddly mixed with the strange leaping sensation of joy in my stomach. "No! Fuck..." 

I scrambled out of bed; I had to leave; everyone was in danger while I was here, I had to go, I had to let Riddle see that I was here no longer - I grabbed Terry's bag, rifling through it frantically for the cup, swearing as I realised it was still in the drawing room, feeling the heavy locket throbbing against my chest - 

"S-Softpaw?" 

I jumped, spinning around. Terry was sitting up, rubbing his eyes. George halted snoring, turning over loudly in his bed before starting up again. I took a step back, shaking. 

"Go back to sleep, Terry." I said, my heart pounding in my chest. 

Perhaps shocked fully awake by my use of his real name, Terry blinked, opening his eyes wide. "What are you doing, Daze?" 

"N-nothing." I said, taking a step back towards the door. "Go back to sleep. I - I'm just going to the bathroom - or something -" 

"Or something?" Terry swung his legs off the side of his bed, standing up. "What the fuck are you on about? Daisy, seriously, what's going on?" 

His loud voice had woken Fred and George up. There was a groaning from Fred's bed, and George blinked blearily up at us. 

"Wassgoinon?" Fred's voice sounded roughly from underneath a blanket. 

"Nothing." I repeated, frantically feeling for the doorknob. "Nothing, I swear -" 

Terry stepped forward, grabbing my face, and turned it roughly towards him. His eyes gazed into mine, and he stepped back a moment later, his eyes wider than before. 

"Okay, you're absolutely right that we should probably leave." Terry told me. 

"We?" I scoffed at the same time George said, "Huh?" 

"Yes, we." Terry said firmly. "I'm not letting you go anywhere alone. Riddle," he turned to the twins, "saw where we are, and Softpaw's trying to leave so that he can see through her that she's no longer here so he doesn't come here and wait outside the Fidelius Charm for someone here to slip up. 'Cause then he'd hold them ransom for Softpaw." 

"Smart boy." I said sarcastically. "But I'm putting everyone in danger by being around them. EVERYONE. That includes you guys." 

"I don't care." Terry said bluntly. "I'm with you until the end." 

"Me too." George said. "I'm not letting you go running off into danger, Daisy." 

"And I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you ever again." Fred said, finally out from underneath his blanket and staring at me with a fierce loyalty in his eyes. 

A warm sensation filled my chest, and despite the fear thrumming inside me, I beamed. 

"Alright. Grab the bag and the essentials." I said. "I've got the locket, can someone get the cup? I have to look in on Sirius and Harry, just to, y'know..." 

I trailed off awkwardly, but the boys nodded understandingly. We headed out onto the landing, and the three boys went down the staircase while I went up. I pushed open the door to Sirius and Emily's room quietly, peeking in for a moment. The couple were cuddling, sleeping peacefully as the moonlight fell across their faces, and I only allowed myself another moment to watch Sirius's lips twitching in his sleep, before withdrawing and quietly closing the door again. 

I repeated the process in Harry and Ron's room, stepping around Ron's bed to press a soft kiss to Harry's forehead. His eyelashes fluttered slightly, and my chest stung as I stepped away from him again. 

But then pain seared across my forehead; I was outside in the square, staring in between the two terraced houses where number twelve should be - 

I bit my lip to keep in the curse words that threatened to fall out of my mouth. Clutching my forehead, I staggered to the bedroom door, glancing back to see Harry stirring in his sleep, whimpering. I darted down the staircase, meeting Fred, George, and Terry at the bottom, and I started as I saw Lee behind them, wide awake. 

"Daisy, I have to come too, I have to keep the listeners updated on Potterwatch, and I wanna help -!" 

"W-whatever!" My voice came out as a wail as my scar seared again. "We have to go, c'mon, he's outside already -" 

And, clutching each other's hands and spinning on our heels, we Disapparated. 

We had arrived in a dense forest, not unlike the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. The boys set up the tent from Terry's bag and cast protective enchantments around me as I lay on the ground, trying to tune into Riddle's head; eventually, after what seemed like hours, I felt a stirring in my head, and then right after a sudden swoop of rage inside me as I turned on my heel on the grass of the square in Grimmauld Place, Apparating to the gates of Hogwarts and furiously aiming a Killing Curse at the first guard I saw at the gate. 

"Okay." I gasped, resurfacing from Riddle's mania-fuelled rage. "He saw, he saw I'm not at Grimmauld Place anymore and he went back to Hogwarts. Because he doesn't know where I am now." 

"Bit of a pointless trip for him." Terry grinned. 

But I wasn't really in the mood for grinning. I'd just left my friends behind... Sirius behind... Harry behind... 

And as the night went on, the guilt didn't lessen much. I'd abandoned them. Sure, it was in their best interests, but I didn't even properly say goodbye. They're going to wake up and wonder where I am, they'd panic... This could have been the last time we ever saw each other. 

With the Sneakoscope Hermione had given me for my birthday once set carefully upon the table in the tent, Fred, George, Terry, Lee, and I spent the rest of the night and the following day sharing the role of lookout. Sometimes we'd go in pairs, other times we'd fully open up the flap of the tent and all sit out together, though this soon got old as we half froze to death. 

However, the Sneakoscope remained silent and still upon its point all day, and whether because of the protective enchantments and Muggle-repelling charms the boys had spread around us, or because people rarely ventured this way, our patch of wood remained deserted, apart from occasional birds and squirrels. Evening brought no change; I focused hard and made my hands glow with a feeble light as George and I swapped places with Lee and Terry at ten o'clock, and looked out upon a deserted scene, noting the bats fluttering high above us across the single patch of starry sky visible from our protected clearing. 

"C'mere, Softpaw, it's freezing." George gestured, and I scooted across to where he was sitting, snuggling into his side as he wrapped an arm around me. "Hey, you okay? You've been quiet all day, and everyone who knows you knows you aren't quiet. Plus, I thought you'd enjoy a cheeky camping trip with the lads." 

I sighed, looking up at him. "I'm not okay. I just left my brother and my godfather behind, I'm sick of Riddle constantly making my scar hurt... and..." 

I hesitated. Should I confide in George? Terry would react with disgust, he wouldn't be able to hide it, and he's got trauma from Riddle too; Fred would react in obvious ways... but George hasn't got any personal trauma with Riddle, and he's not romantically involved with me, so surely he'd be more understanding? 

"What are you thinking about?" George asked, and I was surprised at how gentle his tone was. I reached out and slipped my fingers through his. 

"It's hard to say..." I whispered. 

"That's okay. Take your time. We've got another three hours." George joked, and I quirked my lips at him. 

"I - I've been having dreams about Riddle." I muttered. 

"Huh?" 

"At night, I can see what Riddle's thinking." I rephrased my sentence nervously. "And it's... memories of us together. He - he loves me, and..." 

I looked down into my lap. I could feel George's gaze on me. 

"Georgie... I think some part of me loves him too!" 

George's eyes widened at my choked sob of a sentence, and pulled me into a hug. His arms were tight around me as I cried into his shoulder, burying my face in his woolly jumper, and the familiar and comforting scent of gunpowder and marshmallows overwhelmed me, intensifying the guilt and making me feel so much more terrible. I loved Fred; I knew that, so why did I also love the worst enemy I've ever had? 

"It's not your fault." George murmured into my ear. "It's not your fault, Daze, you were drugged and kidnapped for months, he conditioned you to be used to his presence and feel positive towards him... of course you're allowed to feel strange after escaping so suddenly from him." 

"But it is my fault." I whispered. "I - I - George, I willingly had sex with him after I broke out of the love potion and the Stockholm Syndrome... Georgie, I chose to have sex with him -" 

"And that's okay, Daze!" George blurted out after his eyes widened and eyebrows raised. "It's normal, I understand; the situation you were in, the relationship you had with him while you were captured, no one can blame you -" 

"Terry would." I said quietly. "And so would Fred. And..." My bottom lip wobbled. "So do I." 

George stared at me for a moment, eyes a little too bright. Then he hugged me again, squeezing me tight to him, and he rubbed comforting circles into my back. "Daisy, princess... please don't blame yourself. You were in captivity, no one can blame you for your state of mind in that situation. No matter what you think, that situation could never be fully consensual. If you don't mind me asking," He added, "what was the situation?" 

I drew back from him slightly, taking in a shaky breath. "I had to pretend to still be under the love potion so that he wouldn't suspect anything. So I had sex with him... but I liked it..." 

"Yeah, okay." George laid a firm hand on my shoulder. "That wasn't fully consensual, if you had to bargain your way out of captivity. You were scared of what he would do if he found out you weren't drugged anymore, so you gave in to him. Don't beat yourself up over this." 

I blinked up at him, my eyes welling up. "But I liked it..." 

"I mean, are people attracted to men not supposed to find him really hot? Even I can acknowledge he's handsome, and I'm straight. Of course you'd like it." 

"But it was wrong..." 

"I'm not going to blame you for reactions and emotions you had while in captivity, Daze." George said firmly. "Terry won't either, he's just worried about you. And neither will Fred; all he cares about is that you're okay, he knows you love him. And... neither should you. You shouldn't blame yourself for anything that happened between Floppy taking you and breaking out of Hogwarts. Seriously, no one else is, so why should you?" 

My bottom lip wobbled again, and I flung myself back at him. We hugged while my tears leaked onto his jumper, so glad that he didn't blame me, so glad that he understood. George was really one of my best friends, and confiding in him and him still fully supporting me afterwards meant more to me than I could tell him. 

As our shift went on, George and I laughed and bantered and joked around, generally having a good time as I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt freed; as if by telling George my troubles they therefore didn't seem as bad. 

And near the end of the shift, when Fred, Terry, and Lee's chattering and laughing died down inside the tent and the lights were dimmed for sleeping, I snuggled in close to George again, allowing him to pull me into his side with his arm slung around me. 

"Thank you for not hating me." I said softly after we both calmed down from tittering at George's joke. 

George smiled at me, his eyes twinkling and reflecting the golden fairy lights strung up in the entrance of the tent. "Not that you deserve it, but... I could never hate you." 

I beamed; leaning in, I pursed my lips to kiss his cheek, but George turned back towards me at that moment, and our lips collided. Surprised, I let them connect for a long moment, before I pulled back, eyes wide. 

"S-shit, sorry! I didn't mean -" I gasped. Oops. 

"It's oka-" George started, before a solid force collided with him, and he was wrenched away from me. 

I gasped again, leaping to my feet. George's wand clattered to the ground; I snatched it up, aiming it at whatever had slammed into George and was now aiming a punch at his stomach. 

"L-Lumos!" I stammered. George's wand-tip lit, and I saw George, groaning and trying to throw off a growling... Fred? 

"Don't you dare!" Fred snarled, now struggling against George as the latter pinned back his arms, panting. 

"Don't - what - why are you fighting me?" George cried, wincing as Fred forced his head back against the ground. 

"Guys, stop!" I flung myself forward, onto my knees on the twigs and dirt before them, wriggling my hands in between the two boys and trying to force them apart. "Fred! Freddie - stop -" 

"He kissed you! He's not allowed to kiss you!" Fred spat, glaring at his twin as the two wrestled around my hands. My mind went, immediately and without my consent, to the threesome we'd had just before I'd been kidnapped, and it seemed like Fred was on the same wavelength as me, as he then said, "You're not allowed to kiss her when I'm not here -" 

I closed my eyes, concentrated with all my might, and shoved as hard as I could. The twins separated; scrambling up, they held their fists in front of their faces, glaring at each other, panting; I looked between them warily. 

"When you're not here? Yeah?" George said. 

Fred scoffed. "Yeah!" 

And George whirled around to me, grabbed me by the waist, and planted his lips on mine. I made a muffled noise of surprise before George's lips were off mine and he was turning smugly to Fred again. 

"Guys, this is so immature." I said huffily, folding my arms. "Stop treating me like I'm a tr-" 

Fred, red-faced and furious, strode over to me in two steps and grabbed my face, planting his own lips on mine. I internally rolled my eyes as he pulled away, watching the twins with a mix of contempt and amusement as they glared at each other. 

Then George stepped closer. The two boys were right in front of each other now, panting and scowling, squaring up with their chests puffed out, me facing them; George pulled me in for another kiss, then Fred turned my head, pulling my lips off of his twin's and descending on mine with his own. George tugged me back, tilting his head this time, slipping his tongue into my mouth; I let out a soft noise of satisfaction as George felt across my body, his tongue sweeping against mine, then Fred separated us, diving deep into my mouth with his tongue, his hands moving across George's and sliding down my body. 

I was quaking in between the twins as their hands moved all over me, Fred's tongue in my mouth as George kissed at my neck, the anger between them translating into passion for me as George nipped at my skin with his teeth and Fred's fingertips pressed down hard on my hips. I whined as their mouths swapped again, George's warm lips sliding against mine, Fred's mouth sucking a hickey into my neck... 

"Er... guys?" 

My knees weak, I nearly collapsed onto the ground as Terry's voice spoke from the entrance to the tent. Lee joined him a minute later, in his red and purple striped pyjamas, yawning. Fred and George each took a step back from me, the rage and horniness gone, and fidgeted awkwardly, looking away in opposite directions into the dark forest. 

Glancing between the boys, I sighed. I reached out and put a hand on the tent to steady myself. "Who's - who's taking next watch?" 

"Me and Red are supposed to." Terry said. "Unless he's... preoccupied." 

Lee snorted behind him, then ducked away as Fred whipped around. 

"He's not." I said, giving my boyfriend a look, then turned on my heel and marched into the tent. I could hear a low murmur of voices outside, but I didn't care. I climbed up onto my bunk and huddled under my blankets, wishing that Fred wasn't on watch right now... and that George could join us...