protection.
They did not discuss Ron at all over the next few days. Harry was determined never to
mention his name again and Hermione seemed to know that it was no use forcing the
issue, although sometimes at night when she thought he was sleeping, he would hear her
crying. Meanwhile Harry had started bringing out the Marauder's map and examining it
by wandlight. He was waiting for the moment when Ron's labeled dot would reappear in
the corridors of Hogwarts, proving that he had returned to the comfortable castle,
protected by his status of pureblood. However, Ron did not appear on the map and after a
while Harry found himself taking it out simply to stare at Ginny's name in the girl's
dormitory, wondering whether the intensity with which he gazed at it might break into
her sleep, that she would somehow know he was thinking about her, hoping that she was
all right.
By day, hey devoted themselves to trying to determine the possible locations of
Gryffindor's sword, but the more they talked about the places in which Dumbledore
might have hidden it, the more desperate and far-fetched their speculation became.
Cudgel his brains though he might, Harry could not remember Dumbledore ever
mentioning a place in which he might hide something. There were moments when he did
not know whether he was angrier with Ron or with Dumbledore. We thought you knew
what you were doing ...We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do ... We thought
you had a real plan!
He could not hide it from himself: Ron had been right. Dumbledore had left him
with virtually nothing. They had discovered one Horcrux, but they had no means of
destroying it: The others were as unattainable as they had ever been. Hopelessness
threatened to engulf him. He was staggered now to think of his own presumption in
accepting his friends' offers to accompany him on this meandering, pointless journey. he
knew nothing, he had no ideas, and he was constantly, painfully on the alert for any
indications that Hermione too was about to tell him that she had had enough. That she
was leaving.
They were spending many evenings in near silence and Hermione took to bringing out
Phineas Nigellus's portrait and propping it up in a chair, as though he might fill part of
the gaping hole left by Ron's departure. Despite his previous assertion that he would
never visit them again, Phineas Nigellus did not seem able to resist the chance to find out
more about what Harry was up to and consented to reappear, blindfolded, every few days
of so. Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and
taunting kind. They relished any news about what was happening at Hogwarts, though
Phineas Nigellus was not an ideal informer. He venerated Snape, the first Slytherin
headmaster since he himself had controlled the school, and they had to be careful not to
criticize or ask impertinent questions about Snape, or Phineas Nigellus would instantly
leave his painting.