The clock struck three, and Harry woke with a start. He repositioned his glasses and looked around. Hermione had fallen into a deeper sleep than he; she had found a comfortable corner in his office and dozed off under a blanket. Harry tiptoed to the door and quietly opened it, looking down both ends of the hall. The Auror Department was deserted this early in the morning, but it wouldn't be long before the Ministry returned to life.
They had been waiting for news of Ron, whether the rescue expedition had succeeded, whether it had failed. It had been noon the previous day when Harrington had finally caught sight of Ron through a scrying glass, stranded somewhere in the Carpathians. Aurors had been dispatched immediately, but they still had not returned. He thought that it couldn't be much longer now.
Hermione opened her eyes and joined him in the doorway. They stood and listened to the silence.
"Nothing?" Hermione said.
"Nothing."
Then suddenly there was the sound of grating metal as the lift began to move, footsteps followed by urgent voices.
"That's him! Come on!" Harry said.
They ran down the hall to the stairwell and sprinted down six flights of stairs, leaping past the steps three at a time, until they reached the Atrium. A goblin was sitting at the Security Desk, working the night shift. He was idly flipping through a magazine with one bony finger, looking down on it through circular spectacles perched upon his beakish nose.
Harry flashed his Auror's badge to the goblin while gasping for breath, "Ron...Excuse me….Have you seen...a group of wizards...one red-headed..." he said.
The goblin waited for both Harry and Hermione to regain their composure before responding, "Mr. Weasley has been taken to the observation ward located on the third floor."
"Okay, thank you," Harry said, turning to look at Hermione, "Let's go."
They climbed the stairs two by two, until they they reached the third floor. The light in the door of the observation was on, and when they opened it, they were immediately intercepted by the matron.
"What do you think you're doing?" she said.
"We're here to see Ron Weasley," Harry said, "Please, we're from the Auror Department."
"Visitors at this time are absolutely out of the question," the matron said, "You can speak to him about work after he's been released."
"I'm his wife, this is the father of his godchild," Hermione said, matching the matron's steely gaze, "Ministry policy dictates that the family of patients are to be granted visiting privileges at any time."
But the logic of Hermione's argument was lost on the matron as Harry noticed her eyes staring intently at his forehead.
"Ahhh...Harry Potter," she said.
Hermione took the opportunity to push past the matron and into the ward. Harry went after her, following an awkward handshake with his admirer.
Ron was lying in bed, still in his tattered robes, his normally vibrant hair turned a dull brown and his face darkened by the filth of the wilderness. When he saw his two best friends coming towards him, he sat up.
"Oi! Harry! Hermione!" he said.
"Oh Ron!" Hermione said, running to him and jumping into his arms, "Thank goodness you're alright."
"Hello Harry, how are you?" Ron said, sheepishly as Hermione cradled his head.
"I'm fine thanks," Harry said, breaking into a grin, "What happened to you?"
"Blimey, where do I start?" Ron said.
When the nurses had finished their examinations, the curtain was pulled back to give the three friends some privacy. Hermione sat beside Ron on the bed, and Harry had taken a seat on the visitor's chair. Their expressions turned serious.
"So, did you find him?" Harry said.
"No," Ron said, "Never even caught sight of him. But I got an idea of what Molotov might have been after." He took several deep breaths, "It's good to be back at normal elevation. Air's so much better."
"Well Ron, did you see anything interesting?" Hermione said, "They say that the Carpathians were the birthplace of magic. A lot of rare and ancient magical creatures are supposed to still be living there."
"As a matter of fact, I don't think I would have managed to survive without a little help from this...creature," Ron said, "Strange little bloke, like a flying baby, I really thought it was...you know...human, at first."
"Hold on!" Hermione said, "Did it have no teeth? And four toes on each foot? Ron can you remember for me?"
"Yeah, it would smile at me in such a creepy manner," Ron said, "Not sure about the toes." He closed his eyes, trying to recall a picture of the creature in his mind, "Yeah, maybe. Maybe it had four toes on each foot."
"That's incredible!" Hermione said, "A gremlin! The last recorded sighting was in 1492 by—"
"Wait a minute," Harry said, "Ron, did you say you might have figured out what Molotov was doing out there? Tell us everything that happened, start from the beginning."
Ron rubbed his eyes and yawned before starting, "Well, as you know, we got reports that Molotov had been seen in one of the small villages at the western bend. I got the orders to go after him. It was a quick apparition to a safe house in Ukraine, and then I thought I would make my way into the place by broom. I managed to fly over an entire grove of Whomping Willows. The broom flew off somewhere, but the worst part of it was that I snapped my wand in the landing."
"That's the second in three months!" she said.
"I know, I know, but it was an accident." Ron said.
"How did you make it out of the grove without your wand?" Harry said.
"I s'pose I got lucky, landed right at the edge of it, reckon I would have died right there if I hadn't," Ron said. "It was still early morning, and the whole place was covered in fog. I just got this strange feeling as I kept walking about, like the place was just filled with powerful magic, yeah? Lots of noise of animals all around me, but I couldn't see anything."
"Oh it's a shame you didn't have a field recorder," Hermione said, "Think of what we could have discovered just from the sounds."
"Well I lost my pack in the crash, lost everything really. Didn't have a way to track Molotov or even to find out which way I was going," Ron said, "So I just went in the direction I thought I came from, going around the Whomping Willows of course, but the grove was huge, and I just kept walking and walking, and there were still loads more of them. So I got tired and found a spot in the grass to sit and rest for a while."
"Wait a minute," Harry said, "How far do you think you went along the grove?"
"Dunno really," Ron said, "I got pretty tired walking about like that. I reckon I must have dozed off for a minute, but when I woke up, I heard this rustling and squealing nearby, so I moved closer to find out what it was."
"Who knows what that could have been!" Hermione said, "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
Ron rolled his eyes. "Alright Hermione," he said, "But if you had been there, you would have done the same. Probably no use trying to run away from anything living there." He paused to brush the hair out of his eyes. "So anyways, I came upon some sort of creature tangled up in a bunch of vines. Whatever got it was pulling it in, and I felt sorry for the thing, so I just picked up a branch from one of the trees and whacked at the vines until they went away, back into a hole in the ground."
"That must have been the gremlin you were talking about?" Harry said.
"Yeah, it seemed quite glad that I had rescued it, flying around my head and squeaking like that," Ron said.
"It was showing you gratitude for what you did," Hermione said, "Gremlins are supposed to be highly intelligent. They were sometimes used for espionage back in the 13th and 14th centuries."
"Gremmy was pretty happy that I had rescued him," Ron said, "He flew around me in circles and made a sound that I think was laughing."
"You did not name that gremlin Gremmy," Hermione said, laughing and rolling her eyes.
"Well I had to call him something," Ron said, "He was clearly intelligent and trying to communicate to me in his language, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I pointed to myself and repeated my name, and he seemed to get it, but when I pointed to him, he would just fly around my head and giggle."
"You know, I don't recall any of the gremlins mentioned in books having names," Hermione said, "Strange, considering that many of them were attached to households for life, sometimes multiple generations."
"I don't think they actually need names," Ron said, "He just seemed to know when I wanted his attention, like he was reading my mind, yeah? Made me a little nervous, especially because he would hover after me, just behind my head. I had started walking again, and after a while there was this spot in the grass that had been flattened by something resting there. I walked a little further and found a trail of what looked like pieces of eggshell, with the membrane on it still fresh. When Gremmy picked one up, he seemed to recognize it and started flying in circles and giggling again. I asked him if it was something dangerous, and he just patted my head and smiled. I kept following the trail, and this time Gremmy flew in front of me."
"Hagrid never taught us much about identifying eggshell patterns," Hermione said, "But it's a pretty simple process to figure out what creature is inside the egg if you know what to look for."
"Well I didn't need to figure it out because we found what it was," Ron said, "Massive toad, I mean the size of a big dog, but it had these bright red eyes. Was hopping in one direction like it knew where it was going. Gremmy teased it a bit, flying in front of it and poking it in the back, and eventually the thing must have gotten really angry because it turned a bright red and started puffing smoke out of its mouth."
"A dimwort!" Hermione said, "You know their blood is considered really valuable. It's used in all sorts of banned potions. Very difficult to raise in captivity too."
"Too bad I didn't catch any then, because we kept following the thing and eventually it brought us to a lake, and this place was overflowing with them, I mean just loads and loads of them, sitting on the shore, swimming in the water. The one we had followed just sort of hopped in and joined them."
"Sounds like the Department of Magical Creatures should really take a trip to the place," Harry said.
"Well I hope they're prepared because there were things, things that I didn't even see, that even Gremmy was afraid of. I tried to find a place to sleep later that night, and Gremmy tugged me awake twice and forced me to run in whatever direction with him until he thought we were safe again. Reckon he saved my life both times."
"I wonder how a gremlin protects itself from danger when it can't run," Harry said.
"Get this," Ron said, "They can use magic! When I woke up in the morning, I thought I saw a person watching me behind some brush, so I started after them. I thought it was Molotov, but after chasing them for a while, I caught a glimpse of their back, and I realized that I was chasing Hermione, or something that looked like Hermione. Luckily Gremmy had caught up to me by now, and he pulled me back, just before these black vines came out of the ground and latched onto me. Gremmy just sort of pointed both of his fingers at it, like this," Ron gestured, "and the vines withered away and fell off of me. Saved me again, he did."
"Don't be surprised that they can use magic," Hermione said, "Lots of magical creatures can you know."
"Gremmy's was different thought," Ron said, "I could only feel it. I couldn't see it. It was an invisible force that he could control, because it affected the vines, but it didn't hurt me. I think they're really powerful creatures actually. Anyways, so finally I thought that I passed the grove of Whomping Willows and was starting back towards what I guessed was the right direction, when Gremmy pulled me back again. I had nearly fallen into a massive hole in front of me, more like the opening of an underground lake, hidden by the brush. I had to rest then because I hadn't eaten anything since the day before, but then I noticed that a rope ladder was hanging against the rock of the cave wall, and it looked as if it hadn't been used in ages. Gremmy was giggling again and flew downwards into the cave, and I guess I was forced to follow him. There was a pathway beside the lake that continued further underground, and Gremmy kept a small light on the tip of his finger as we went deeper and deeper. He got really serious all of a sudden, very focused and quiet. Then suddenly the passageway opened into this huge cavern, and we were looking down into it. It was lit by this strange blue light that hovered in the air."
"Ron, that sounds like faerie fire!" Hermione said.
"Well I didn't pay it too much attention because the entire cavern floor was occupied by the biggest dragon I had ever seen, sleeping fortunately." Ron said.
"What kind of dragon was it?" Harry said.
"Dunno, didn't look like anything I had ever seen before," Ron said, "It was bigger than even that Hungarian Horntail you faced in the Triwizard Tournament Harry, and it looked like it had been there a long time, like it had become part of the rock itself, but I could see it still breathing."
"That's strange," Hermione said, "I don't recall there ever being such a spell that could put a dragon to sleep, except in the old legends. Whatever magic it was, it must have been very old and very powerful."
"But one thing I know is that dragons like that are always used to guard something, and I looked around for whatever it was. There wasn't any treasure that I could see, no gold or anything, but then I saw a small pedestal right in front of the dragon. Gremmy and I crept closer to get a better look, and it was this strange looking crystal, shaped like a pyramid, except it also was reflecting the light from the faerie fire in such a strange way, like all of it was focused into its center, like a prism yeah?"
"I don't believe it Ron," Hermione said, "That sounds like Arwen's Crystal from ancient legend! It's supposed to be really powerful. It can amplify the power of any spell that is cast through it. That's probably what Molotov was after!"
"Well I didn't have much time to think about it, because all of a sudden the dragon woke up, and it was incredibly angry. Gremmy must have cast some magic on it as I ran, because it didn't kill me instantly, and I was able to get back up the path and out of the cave, but as I did so, the dragon collapsed the whole cave onto itself. It was right about then that the rescuers showed up, and now here I am."
"Well it seems like the mission wasn't a total failure," Harry said, "You found something."
"Yes, but now it's been lost forever," Hermione said, "A priceless artifact of ancient history."
"What's that?" Ron said, "You mean the crystal? That's what woke up the dragon in the first place." He drew the glistening prism from his robe pocket. "Here it is."