Thank you to: Joelle8, XxrandomxX, ThatGirlWhoLicksWindows, Likewow5556, Kitty Bridgeta, mystlyx, Arlath's Daughter, Someone aka Me, susiipie, talapadme and sckarlie potter
I'd send you the sunshine, but unfortunately I haven't got any to give.
Just a reminder, by the way, as a few people have said they are confused about who is who.
Albus Severus Potter - do I really need to say?
Rose Weasley - Ron and Hermione's child
Lorcan and Lysander Scamander - Luna and Rolf's children
Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy - Draco and Astoria's son
Alice Longbottom - Neville and Hannah's daughter
Lia Creevey - Dennis Creevey and a Muggle woman's daughter
Aisha Siddiqui - Muggleborn
The first six are canon, the last two are mine.
Previously: The eight of them reached a plant-covered, water-surrounded cave, after much rowing, where Lorcan noticed some strange symbols and they all got slightly muddy.
"Wow," Lia breathed, as she stepped into the cave. "It's like something out of a fairy tale."
The six of them had been carrying the boat between them, and only now put it down. "It's starting to really rain out there," Albus said, shaking his head so the droplets would fly off it.
"Oh, thanks." Scorpius mock-complained. "Get me even wetter."
"One of us is going to have to get wet, if we want some wood for a fire," Lysander pointed out. "Unless we want to be cold tonight?"
"Tonight?" Albus asked. "We're going to stay here overnight?"
"Shouldn't we explore the island, or wherever we are?" Scorpius suggested.
"Isn't there a more pressing issue?" Alice said, turning away from the wall of symbols.
"What?" Aisha asked.
"I don't know why none of us have considered it before," Alice repeated. "We really should have asked this question earlier. It's pretty odd that we haven't."
"If I didn't know your Dad was a Professor, I'd still be able to tell," Albus sighed. "You're doing that thing that teachers do, when they want you to get the answer on your own."
"Help me get the answer then," Rose told him. "Something we should have asked….a really obvious question….."
She stared around at her surroundings. "The most obvious questions are the first ones we ask. When you wake up from unconsciousness, the first question is "where am I?'"
"True," Alice agreed. "There's a bigger question than that though."
"Can you just cut to the chase and tell us the answer," Lysander sighed. "This is wasting time."
"But it's fun!" Rose grinned. "Generally, the biggest questions aren't who, what or where. They're why and how. Why do we exist? How….how did we get here?!"
"Exactly!" Alice cried. "We ought to be being Sorted at Hogwarts. We vanished from the boats while we were crossing the lake, ended up on some tropical island and we've been talking about our parent's professions? That shouldn't happen. We should have woken up, and immediately started panicking."
"But we didn't," Lysander realised, joining in the conversation. "We haven't wondered that once. We've mentioned Hogwarts, we've assumed we're going to get Sorted – but we have no idea where we are, how we got here or how we're going to get back."
Albus sighed. "While they discuss the meaning of life," he muttered to Scorpius, "and Rose can go on for hours, should we collect that firewood?"
"You don't need to," Lorcan answered him. "There's some already over in that corner."
Rose, who had been saying "and where things that should happen, don't happen, you can normally suspect magic," was interrupted by Lysander, whose ears seemed attuned to always overhear his brother.
"Where?" he demanded, hurrying over to the corner where, sure enough, there was a pile of wood, neatly bound with some string. "Okay, now that's suspicious," he said. "Like the hamper full of food in the boat."
"And the oars that appeared out of nowhere." Alice pointed out.
"Are you sure they weren't just there before, and we didn't notice?" Lysander asked.
"Yes," answered Scorpius, Rose and Alice as one. Lysander nodded in defeat, definitely outnumbered.
Scorpius then frowned down at the wood. "We have wood now," he pointed out, "but do any of us know how to light it?"
"I could try," Lia offered. "I've made fires before, but I usually had matches."
"I know the general idea of how," Rose added. "With Al's glasses, we lit that paper before."
Albus grinned, remembering. "Oh yeah. Molly and Lucy gave it us, saying it was scrap and we could practice on it. Turns out it was some paper that their Dad was supposed to submit to the Ministry."
"Lorcan or I can light it," Lysander said confidently. "We've had to light fires before without magic, if there were Muggles on one of the expeditions and we had to pretend we were ordinary people."
"We're doing it again!" Alice cried, exasperated. "I don't want to be cold tonight, but there are other issues, here."
"There must be some sort of magic going on," Rose sighed. "And I bet it's related to those symbols."
Whilst Lorcan and Lia lit the fire, the other six hurried over to look at the wall.
Unfortunately, as hours passed and it grew steadily darker, they had advanced no further. They had begun by agreeing that they looked 'familiar', although now they were beginning to doubt even that. Lysander had racked his memory, and dragged his twin over too, but neither could remember ever seeing symbols like that in any of the four corners of the globe that they had travelled to.
Thoughts had eventually turned to other matters, most particularly food. And water. Albus raised his bottle, frowning at it. It was almost empty. Rowing had been thirsty work.
"Do you think I can fill this up from the lake?" he asked the others.
"It has just rained," Rose pointed out. "The water running in from the streams should be fresh."
"Don't take it from the actual lake though," Lorcan warned. "It'll be stagnant, and Vanderhoosts love to live in stagnant waters, and they can kill you if you swallow them."
Albus nodded seriously, and turned to leave the cave. It was fully night now, but the moon was as full as it ought to have been at Hogwarts and so lit the area quite successfully. Scorpius followed him out.
"They don't reckon we should go anywhere alone," he explained.
"I guess that's a good idea, since we have no idea where we are," Albus agreed. He stepped off the rocky ledge that was the edge of their hollow and gasped as he sank. The rains had swollen the mud, and now it was nearly up to his waist. Hurrying over, Scorpius grabbed hold of his arms. With Al scrabbling at the rocks around for purchase, together they managed to heave him back out.
"Okay, that was a bad idea," he stated. Looking around, he saw the water that was feeding the bog. Part of it dripped down the algae-like plant that covered their cave, but some ran down crevices in the rock.
It was here that Albus leaned the neck of his bottle, hoping to catch some of the draining water. "This is running water, right?" he asked Scorpius. "And it's not infected with that plant, if it happened to be poisonous."
"It doesn't go through the plant, so I guess so," Scorpius replied. "As long as it's all safe up there."
They both looked up, to wherever the source of the water was, before it cascaded over the rock. "I'm sure it's fine," Albus shrugged.
Going back inside the cave, they nodded to the others. "Don't ask," Albus warned them, when they saw his mud-covered clothes.
Nodding, they settled back onto the beds they had made from their cloaks. Albus took a swig from his water bottle.
"Does it taste alright?" Lysander asked. Albus began to nod, then paused. Shaking his head frantically, he pretended to clutch at his throat.
None of the others even got up. "You're a really awful actor, Al, you know that." Rose sighed. She, like Alice, had arranged her cloak nearest to the wall of symbols, hoping for inspiration during the night.
Sighing, Albus swallowed the water. "Didn't I fool any of you?" he asked sadly. Seven faces met his gaze, ranging from regretful 'no's, to amused 'as if's and despairing 'honestly's.
"Chuck me a Chocolate Frog then," he groaned. Nearest to the box of food, Lysander hurled one over. Leaning back to catch it, Al's face was struck by the moonlight.
"Your face looks a really funny colour by the moon," Aisha commented. "Which is weird, because Scorpius' face doesn't."
"I feel kind of funny too," Albus frowned. "Sort of, gurgly," He rested a hand on his stomach, then jerked it away. "Woah. And my stomach just kicked."
"I hate to ask such a personal question," Scorpius said, mock-seriously, "but is there any chance you could be pregnant?"
Albus laughed, but it was suddenly interrupted when his whole body shook.
"I don't think that water was safe," Lorcan pointed out.
"So do something!" Albus cried, staring at his stomach, which had now extended to twice its usual size and was moving all on its own.
"What can we do?" Aisha asked, staring at the others as if they might suddenly pull magic out of thin air.
"We need to make him throw it up," Rose suggested, hurrying forward to kneel by Albus. The others began to follow, but Lia stopped them.
"Let him breathe," she said, her quiet voice somehow carrying in the clamour. "Give him some space."
They backed off. At a glare from Lia, Rose did the same, but Scorpius didn't move. He was trying to help Albus hold the rest of his body still, instead of letting it be thrown around by the movements of his stomach.
"Catch!" Lysander yelled. He had been rummaging in the box, and now threw something at the others. Both Scorpius and Rose reached for it, but with Scorpius being hampered by Al's body, Rose was the one who managed to grab it.
"What is it?" Albus asked, unable to see Rose from his position.
"You're a genius, Lysander," Rose gasped. "Skiving Snackboxes!"
She hurried forward, ripping the Puking Pastilles packet open as she did so. "Swallow this," she cried, forcing something into Al's mouth. As it was either choke or obey her, he chose the latter option. His whole body heaved again, and realising what was to come, Scorpius and Rose grabbed hold of him and rolled him over, pushing him forward so they were outside of the green curtain.
The Skiving Snackbox did its work, and Albus emptied the contents of his stomach over the edge of the rock ledge.
"I'm sure I just saw something wriggle," Rose muttered, revolted.
"Can we not think about that," Albus requested, seemingly fully recovered. "That was in my stomach a second ago."
Grimacing, the three of them pushed their way back into the cave, followed by Lia and Lorcan, who had also come to check if it went okay.
"Are you okay now?" Lia asked Albus worriedly.
He nodded. "Right as rain. Or maybe, righter than rain, if that was rainwater that I was drinking."
"There was something magical in it," Rose stated. "It acted so quickly."
"One more thing to add to the mysteries of this place," Scorpius muttered.
Now that his stomach was no longer moving of its own accord, Albus flopped down on his cloak-bed. "I'm knackered," he murmured, already beginning to drift into sleep. "Night, everyone."
"Sounds like a good idea," Alice muttered, settling down herself.
"We should have someone awake all the time," Lorcan warned. "As a look-out."
"Thanks for volunteering," Rose said sleepily.
Lysander rolled his eyes, and dragged himself out of the drowsiness that threatened to claim him. "Two of us can be on watch for the first two hours. I'll do that with Lorcan."
"I'll go next," Lia volunteered.
"Me too," Aisha sighed. "I guess it's only two hours of sleep."
"You guys wake me up then," Scorpius yawned. "See you in four hours."
And with that, the majority of them fell asleep.
And I'm off to do the same, because I have to be up early tomorrow :(
But please, review so that I have something nice to wake up to in my inbox!