CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: THE CUP
It had taken sixteen and a half days to travel from Hogwarts to the wooded forests of Albania. Remus Lupin and Buffy Summers had travelled as inconspicuously as possible. Dressed as muggles, catching muggle transport, and using different names everywhere they stayed, they managed to avoid being detected by Death-Eaters. And while it was a bit of a shock to the system to not use magic for everything, they were both managing to keep the magic to an absolute minimum, just to be safe. It wouldn't do to draw attention to themselves.
And in the meantime, Remus finally got to know his god-daughter, and Buffy was finding yet another father-figure worming their way into her heart.
With his guard down, Remus was funny, witting and charming, and Buffy found that his absolute aura of calm was a soothing balm to her wounded soul. Leaving behind Hogwarts and the only family she had left had been difficult. But she knew that leaving was the best option, and even if she didn't fully understand what this Hufflepuff 'mug-o'-doom' had to do with Voldemort, she was willing to come to the middle of nowhere to seek it out.
Remus was no better informed than Buffy, in that respect. He just knew that Dumbledore believed it to be important, and that the Headmaster of Hogwarts believed that Albania was the place where the cup had been hidden.
And if Dumbledore was guessing correctly, then they would have to survive a series of tasks to get to the cup, ones that could be very dangerous, and more than likely, very painful.
"Looks like we've only got a five kilometre hike tomorrow, and we'll be there," Remus said, consulting the map that Dumbledore had provided two and a half weeks earlier.
Buffy moved around the fire and sat beside her godfather, glancing down at the map to where Remus was pointing.
"Nice. Finally, a flat hike," Buffy said, grinning.
"That last mountain was a bit of a killer, wasn't it?" Remus replied.
"Well, at least we'll be in shape for the rest of the war after all this," Buffy quipped. "Possibly for the rest of our natural lives, as well."
Remus smiled fondly at the girl, enjoying her sarcastic wit.
"You'd best get some sleep, then," Remus suggested. "I have a feeling that tomorrow's going to be a lot harder than advertised."
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Remus settled his pack on the ground, as Buffy poked around the immediate area, looking for clues to as where Helga Hufflepuff's cup had been hidden. Dumbledore, while not very forthcoming about the significance of the cup, had suggested that it would be well-hidden, and hard to find with human eyes.
Which meant it was a good thing that neither Remus, nor Buffy, were particularly human.
As Remus began scenting out the area, a loud crash came from behind him, and he raced towards the massive hole that his god-daughter had just fallen through. It was at least ten feet deep, and wide enough to fit a beer-barrel down, if one was so inclined.
"Alright down there?" he asked.
"Peachy," Buffy replied. She carefully stood, taking stock of any aches and pains, but for the most part, she was unharmed. No doubt she'd have the mother of all bruises on her backside come morning, but for now, she was more than capable of plodding on.
She took out her wand, and whispered 'lumos' to guide her way in the dark hole. But from the looks of it, it was only a hole, and nothing more. She ran her hands across the dirt walls, dusting away roots and leaves, searching for some sort of knob that would open up an entrance.
"There's nothing down here," Buffy said. "Maybe this is a decoy."
"Or maybe you're looking with the wrong senses," Remus suggested.
Buffy paused for a moment, before nodding. She extinguished the light from her wand and closed her eyes, opening her senses as Giles had taught her to do so many years ago. But back then, Buffy hadn't had Slayer senses to deal with. She'd been somewhat gifted in picking up magical residue, even at thirteen, but now, a Slayer of fifteen years old, she was even better at it.
Her skin hummed with magic, and she could feel the wolf within Remus clambering to be let free once more. Except the wolf would be locked up for another ten days.
Closer than the wolf though, was a darker sense of magic. It came from all around her, specifically from four different places, which she knew to be north, south, east and west, surrounding her in the hole. She brought a hand up, touching the dirt, and it fairly vibrated beneath her touch. In fact, it felt distinctly similar to Remus' wolf, desperate to be free of its earthly barricade.
"There's something…"
"What do you sense?"
"Magic. Evil magic. And…well, it wants out whatever it is," Buffy said. "And I'm thinking that Dumbledore was either wrong about this cup of Hufflepuff's, or my thinking it's the mug-o'-doom wasn't far off."
Remus tried not to laugh, but whenever Buffy mentioned the mug-o'-doom, he couldn't help but be amused. Her sense of humour was very different to either James or Lily's, and he found it very refreshing.
"Any ideas on how to extract it?" Remus asked.
Buffy pause for a moment before pulling her wand back out. "One," she replied. She rested the tip of her wand on the wall of earth in front of her, where she got the strongest sense of magic from. She pushed the wooden tip into the dirt, wiggling her wand to push it further in.
"Here goes nothing," Buffy murmured. "Reducto."
And indeed, it was nothing. There was no reaction whatsoever, and Buffy felt slightly silly for having tried.
"Uh…little help here?" Buffy asked, looking up at her godfather.
"Try 'scindo sordesco'," Remus suggested.
Buffy shrugged and obediently repeated the spell. "Scindo sordesco."
The earth all around her began trembling, as though it was the beginnings of an earthquake. Buffy flung out her left hand, leaning against the wall, trying to maintain her balance. But instead of the wall holding her upright, the earth shifted completely, and she fell through the wall as it swallowed her whole.
"BUFFY!"
Remus couldn't believe his eyes. One moment, his god-daughter had been down the hole, and the next, she had disappeared. He lowered himself into the hole in the ground, and placed his wand against the wall. "Scindo Sordesco."
Nothing.
He tried again. And again. But the earth refused to move, and the two dozen other spells that Remus began rattling off had no effect either.
Wherever Buffy had been taken to, she was on her own.
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It was like being an ant in a colony, Buffy decided. There were hundreds of different paths that branched from the main walkway. It was pitch black, except for the tip of Buffy's wand, and once more, Buffy was thankful that she was a witch. The only problem was, Buffy couldn't get back out the way she had come in. And she had a bad feeling that Remus wasn't having any more luck in coming in, than she was in getting out.
Buffy leant down and picked up a short wooden root. She transfigured it into a sturdy piece of chalk and marked her place with a large, unmistakable 'x', and the number '1' next to it.
She cautiously move down the hall, marking her trail every few metres, with another 'x', and 2, 3, 4 etc down the corridor. It meant that if she managed to get lost, she'd be able to follow the numbers back to the original one. She had absolutely no desire to get stuck, or lost, or a combination of both.
Every few moments, Buffy would stop and try to sense what direction she needed to go in. The only problem was, there were several magical signatures down some of the paths. What they were, the Slayer had no idea, but the strongest sense of magic was coming from deep within the labyrinth.
She continued her trek, continuously stopping to mark her trail, and to ensure she was going in the right direction. She often ran into dead ends, but quickly managed to redirect herself onto the right track after a few moments.
After what felt like two or more hours, Buffy felt as though she'd finally found the last branch that she needed to come down. She breathed in deeply, and with her wand held high, a few defensive spells at the forefront of her mind, she entered the shadowy cavern, ready for anything.
Except for the sight in front of her.
On an alter-like table, in the very middle of the hollowed cave, sat four golden goblets, each of them completely identical. They were all the same in size, shape, colour, with exactly the same markings, gems and even scratches. They were arranged in a square with only two inches between them.
Buffy stepped forward, reaching out a hand to touch one. At the last moment, she pulled her hand back. She knew better than to touch something, especially seeing as Dumbledore was quite insistent on finding this cup. Whatever it was, it was powerful. And that was always dangerous.
Buffy leant closer, trying to find some sort of distinguishing feature on one of the cups. Each of the small golden cups had two handles, and a badger engraved within the gold. The insignia for the House of Hufflepuff. Helga Hufflepuff's cup.
And unless Buffy was mistaken, she knew that only one of these four was the true cup. She somehow couldn't see the Hogwarts Founder deciding to buy a set of them just for kicks.
Which meant that Buffy needed to work out which of them was the true cup of Hufflepuff.
Buffy sighed. She should have known that this wouldn't be easy.
She looked at the cups, and then glanced around the room, hoping for some kind of hint as to which of the cups it would be. She walked around the alter, but found nothing of significance at all. Sighing, she looked up at the roof and paused. Above her was a giant crest, exactly the same shape as the Hogwarts crest. Except instead of an 'H' in the centre, there was an upside-down 'V'.
Buffy walked back around the other side so that the 'V' was in the right direction. She then noticed that the crest was directly above the four cups.
She looked down at the cups, and realised that they represented the four quadrants of the crest. And if Buffy knew anything about Voldemort, it was that his heritage as Slytherin's heir was the most important thing to him. Which meant that he would have lined up the true cup to coincide with the Slytherin's place on the Hogwart's crest. Which meant that it would be in the upper right hand corner.
She reached out and went to touch it, when she felt her senses go haywire. She stopped herself barely a moment before her finger could graze the golden cup.
She glanced back up again and realised her mistake. The upper right hand corner of the crest on the ceiling coincided with the cup in the lower right hand corner of the table.
Buffy said a quick prayer to the Powers That Be before she reached forward and grabbed the cup.
She felt a tug behind her navel, and then the world began to spin.