Ron stood rigid with surprise, towering over the squat, ugly form of Kreacher, who was leaping wildly up and down. Harry and Hermione seemed just as unable to move. Hermione’s eyes were brimming with tears (Ron never quite understood Hermione’s pity for house elves, especially this one) and Harry’s mouth was an “O” of surprise.
A disturbing smell wafted into Ron’s nostrils. He heard a sizzling sound that reminded him of his Mum’s cooking and suddenly remembered the burn on Harry’s palm. He stared in fascinated horror as smoke rose in lazy tendrils from Kreacher’s gnarled fist. Ron’s stomach rolled. The locket was baking the elf’s skin.
“Locket’s smarter than Master, yes it is, tells me that Master is here, sneaking where he’s doesn’t belong! Master is not a noble Black! Master is some half-pure mixed-breed whelp of a boy who does not deserve any of the Black family treasures, no no no, he doesn’t,” Kreacher’s wet, protruding eyes rolled back and forth, and Ron realized that loneliness and bitterness had driven him mad.
“Kreacher,” Hermione knelt down so as to be on eye-level with the elf. Ron got his wand ready, saw Harry do the same. “Kreacher, listen to me. That locket doesn’t belong to the Black family. It’s a very very dangerous object, and it’s hurting you. Can’t you see?” Hermione kept her voice low and reasonable, gestured to his clenched hand.
“Filthy Mudblood thinks she can speak to Kreacher, tell Kreacher all kinds of lies,” Kreacher averted his eyes away from Hermione and clutched the locket compulsively, “Kreacher knows something though, yes he does, because the locket tells him so.”
“What?!?!?!” Harry shouted, then looked annoyed at himself for doing so. Kreacher jumped a little, but remained glaring at Hermione.
“Kreacher,” she began calmly, “What do you mean, the ‘locket told you so’?”
“No no no, stinking Mudblood girl will not find “”
“Oi! You slimy little devil! Call her that one more time and see what happens!” Ron pointed his wand at Kreacher’s snout.
“Ron, it’s fine. It’s just a word, and anyway, he’s so brainwashed that it doesn’t really mean “”
“No, Hermione, it’s not fine, it makes me sick in fact. He has no right to talk to you that way. You’ve only ever been kind to him and “” Ron was so angry he couldn’t go on. His blue eyes locked on Hermione’s brown ones. Why? He tried to transmit the question to her, Why treat such a foul creature with so much understanding?
“Kreacher, you may not have to answer Hermione. But you do have to answer me,” Harry began, his voice level. “Tell me what the locket, erm, said to you.”
“Master knows Kreacher cannot disobey him, filthy slime of a wizard, but what he does not know, wretched boy, is that when Kreacher wears this locket,” Kreacher slipped the chain over his long neck, closed his eyes. A look of immense calm came over his ugly features, “When Kreacher wears this locket, Kreacher is more than just Kreacher.”
Ron’s stomach plummeted when the house elf said this. He looked over at Harry who seemed as unsure as he did. They both leaned over and tugged Hermione from her position on the floor, and the three of them backed slowly away. Ron could feel the doorway to the kitchen directly behind them.
“What do we do?” He whispered to Harry and Hermione. There was no doubt in his mind that the locket resting on Kreacher’s bony chest was a Horcrux. Everything’s happening too quickly, but we can’t let him get away.
“We have to get it away from him,” Harry muttered back, a grim expression on his face, “Trust me, I’ve seen what happens when Voldemort possesses “” at the utterance of that name, the name, Kreacher’s eyes popped open. Their irises had a reddish tinge. He was still grinning, but his gaze was unfocussed and far away.
“Oh my god,” Hermione breathed beside him. “Harry, how are -?”
“Master doesn’t have anything else he wants to tell Kreacher to do, does he? Kreacher was foolish to keep the locket here, Kreacher sees that now. Kreacher should keep the locket with himself all the time, to protect it. Not like bad Master Reggie, who tried to ruin it! Master Reggie, who was old Mistress’ favorite child. But Kreacher knew Master Reggie’s secret, yes he did. Kreacher saw him hide the locket before “ before “” The elf’s speech was cut off abruptly.
The locket glowed star-bright and burst open. A swirling red mist tangled itself around Kreacher’s small figure, danced as if blown by a strong wind. A high-pitch shriek emanated from the center of the scarlet storm and as they watched, the mist began to absorb into the elf’s dull grayish skin. Kreacher seemed less there somehow, as if he were being replaced by someone or something else…
“Ron!!! Hermione!!!” Harry’s shouted over Kreacher’s yelps of pain, “We have to do something, and do it now!! That mist “ that’s Voldemort ¬“ we need to destroy it now!” Harry pointed his wand and Ron followed suit. Their eyes locked. Ron knew there was only one spell that would do the trick, and from the set look on his face, so did Harry.
“On three, ok, mate?” Ron voice sounded stronger than he felt. He’d never killed anything intentionally in his life, and he didn’t feel great about starting now, especially with this pathetic wreck of a Kreacher. Is this what being a hero is about? Can I really do this? Before his thoughts could go any further, there was an anguished cry.
“NO!!!! RON!! HARRY!!! YOU CAN’T KILL HIM!!!” Hermione shrieked, knocking their wand hands down.
Ron fumbled and managed to catch his, but Harry’s slipped from his fingers, and it landed within the red corona surrounding Kreacher. Harry dove for it, but the elf reacted quickly and snatched it up, a look of cruel cunning on his face. He pointed the wand at Harry’s face and opened his mouth. When Kreacher wears this locket, Kreacher is more than just Kreacher, the thought flashed across Ron’s with a shiver, but then he simply did what needed to be done.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!!!” Ron screamed it, meant it, because he knew if he didn’t his best friend was as good as dead. A cold green light exploded out of his wand and struck the elf in his solar plexus, right above the golden oval of the locket, and Kreacher crumpled to the ground. The red mist around him glowed brightly, briefly. Then it wink out. He was still. Very still.
Harry touched the elf. Kreacher did not move. He removed the locket carefully from the prone figure, and held it out in his burned palm. It was still lovely, a beautiful piece. But something was gone. It had lost its significance, its power. It was now, once again, only a locket.
“Dispersium,” Harry murmured, having retrieved his wand as well. The locket dissolved into thousands of tiny golden specks, disappearing into the air around them.
Ron helped Harry to his feet, though he was on the verge of collapse himself. His entire body was vibrating minutely. It was if he were cold, so cold, at the very center of his being, he’d never be warm again.
“Thanks mate,” Harry said, clapping him on the shoulder, “for saving my life,” he added. They both turned to Hermione, ash-white, pressed against the doorframe. Ron waited fearfully.
“What have you done?” She looked at him as if he were someone completely unknown to her, a dangerous stranger.
“He did what he had to do, Hermione,” Harry spoke. “Kreacher was possessed by Voldemort, don’t you understand? He was going to use my own wand to kill me.”
“So “ so “ that’s how it is then? What if it had been me that was possessed? Or you, Harry? Or your mum or dad or Ginny, Ron? Wouldn’t you have paused for just a moment to consider the value of the person before blindly killing him or her? Or do you just do that with disposable individuals, like house elves?” Her face was calm but her voice had a hysterical edge to it.
“Hermione,” Ron moved towards her. He couldn’t stand what he saw in her eyes, heard in her voice, but part of him was angry, too. “Listen, will you? This is a totally different situation. I mean, I wouldn’t just go around killing house elves, but Kreacher wasn’t the nicest guy around, you know? It’s not right, Hermione, or logical. You have a blind spot for them, for some reason, and it’s not fair, it clouds your judgment. Kreacher was never good, or caring, never was deserving of your kindness at all, except that he was a house elf “”
“-and he had a hand in leading Sirius to his death. And don’t think that he would have hesitated for a second, Hermione, to go straight to Bellatrix Lestrange with everything he knew about the Order, if he could have. Ron’s right, Hermione, you’ve got a weakness. I don’t feel great about Kreacher’s death, but you can’t compare him to people we all love,” Harry shrugged.
Ron held his breath. Hermione looked at her hands for a minute, then stared past the two of them towards Kreacher’s prone figure. “I’m going to get some sleep, if I can. You two can handle that,” she spun on her heels, and Ron heard her footsteps echo away as she climbed the staircase to the first floor.
“Do you think she’ll forgive you?” Harry asked.
“For killing Kreacher to save your life, to destroy the Horcrux? Probably,” Ron sighed. “For showing her she was wrong? I doubt it.”
The Time is Now by Hermione816
Chapter Notes: What is the power of evil? And how far do good people have to go to destroy it?? Ron finds out...