"Harry, where are we?" Ron called to the dark-headed boy trudging through the forest in front of him.
"I'm not sure," Harry called back to his friend. "Wherever Dumbledore wants us to be I suppose."
"Why can't that old man ever tell us what we're doing? We're always sent on a wild goose chase without any idea of what's going on. If you ask me, he's go-"
"Oh, shut up Ronald!" Hermione sighed, quickening her pace to match Harry's. "Do you think it's much further?" she asked him quietly, looking out at the dark forest. "We never know what might be out here. There could be werewolves or… centaurs. Maybe something worse, like-"
"I don't think Dumbledore would send us out here unprepared if there were werewolves and centaurs, Hermione," Harry assured her. "And yeah, I think we're almost here. He said to find the large stone with the engraving and to dig beneath it until we uncovered our treasure."
"I wonder what the engraving is of," Hermione replied. "Perhaps it's got something to do with the order? Do you think?"
"I wouldn't have any idea."
The three friends trudged on in silence for a while, keeping their eyes out for a large stone engraved with some sort of wizard symbol. As the night steadily grew darker, Harry almost began to question Dumbledore as well. He could've at least given them an idea of what symbol to be looking for. All the rocks looked the same in this light.
"How will we see it?" Ron asked, breaking the silence. "It is nighttime, you know."
"Like this," Hermione said, whipping out her wand. "Lumos," she muttered, and the tip of her wand lit like a candle, bathing their surroundings in a soft light. The two boys quickly copied her actions, both of them slightly embarassed for forgetting such a simple spell.
"Why don't we look over here?" Harry inquired after another short silence. He gestured to a cluster of rocks, plenty of them big enough to be classified as a "large stone".
The three of them walked over to the rocks, holding their wands up to the stone, searching for any man-made scrapes or symbols. They searched without much luck.
"Maybe we should move on," Hermione suggested after a while. "I don't think it's here. We've looked at nearly every rock, and-"
"I think I found it," Ron said incredulously. Ron never found much, so Harry imagined that it must've come as a shock to his friend. Harry walked over to the stone that Ron was peering at, only to see the Hogwarts crest carved into its side.
"Good job, Ron." Harry thumped Ron on the back in congratulations. "Come over here, Hermione. Let's get to digging."
Hermione opened her small purse, and after rummaging around in it for a few moments, she extracted three shovels. "Here you are," she said, handing each of the boys their shovel as they all began to dig.
It took a lot of digging to get under the rock. Dumbledore had specifically instructed them to dig by hand, as magic could attract some unwanted spectators. He had also told them to leave the rock in place, and to put the soil back as best they could so as to make the evidence of the area's disturbance less noticeable.
After many hours, the sky lightening to a dull gray, there was resistance against Harry's shovel. "Got it," he said to the others. "Come help me get it out."
The other two began to dig at Harry's area, and soon the side of a large trunk began to appear out of the soil, directly under the rock. The stone must've been enchanted somehow, for there definitely wasn't enough support beneath it to keep it standing, and yet it didn't budge.
Once about half of the trunk had been unearthed, each of the three grabbed hold of a handle on the trunk and began to pull it out the rest of the way. It gave quickly, falling out onto the wet dirt with a thump. The soil above it remained sturdy.
"So, can we use magic to get this out of here?" Ron asked, pointing his wand towards the trunk. "Because, you know, he said no magic for digging. He never said anything about magic for filling or lifting heavy trunks."
Hermione gave Ron a sideways glance. "No, we can't. He said we could use Lumos, nothing else. Weren't you paying attention?" Ron looked away, guilty, and put his wand back in his pocket.
Hermione, Harry, and a slightly disgruntled Ron lugged the trunk out of the deep hole. All of them were curious as to the contents of the trunk, but they had to fill the hole first. They picked up their shovels and began tossing dirt back into the small crevice.
After another long period of digging, it was filled. The three turned to look at the trunk. "Should we open it?" Hermione asked.
"Dumbledore didn't say not to," Harry offered.
"Let's do it." Ron said with a nod, walking over to it and unhooking the latch. The other two scrambled over as well, curiously staring at the lid of the trunk, willing it to open and reveal its contents.
As the lid slowly opened, they peered inside.
Inside were four wands. They were all in cases, perfectly preserved. Underneath each wand was a name engraved in gold. "Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin."