The enchanted wagon made for easy travel over the soft hills surrounding the valley that Asta's parents lived in, but the further they got away from the little homestead the harder travel became. They found a forest so thick the wagon couldn't make it through the proper way. They had to turn it onto its side and hope they could find a clearing to set up their camp in, which thankfully they had because that night it rained spiders.
Hissing, spitting, tiny spiders that scrabbled for purchase on everything and threw themselves at the small windows when anyone looked out.
Once the sides of the wagon were up and the roof was tightly fastened, the walls and roof became solid, and the windows thick clear crystal. A trapdoor revealed itself and led to a cozy burrow with stacked beds and a small hearth to cook on. There was a generous amount of supplies, and even a map.
"Can we trust a map from them?" Mikhail asked.
"Do we have a choice?" Nyssa asked.
"We do. We can always throw it out," Nicolai said with a huff. "Do we want to?"
"We can trust the mother," Nyssa said.
"You say that because she is a woman!"
"I say that because it displeased him when she gave us the wagon."
"Perhaps she is the one that doesn't want the match."
"The mother likes us," Mikhail said shakily. "Better than the father, at any rate."
"She could be saving us for something worse," Nikolai scowled.
"It is in their kind to be tricksters," Nyssa said soothingly. "Asta is a special case and they lost the records of her first hundred years with us in one of the old wars. I know she was a handful. You may not know it, but events triggered her maturity, not time. When she was left with us, she was just a babe, but she looked a grown woman."
"How did she come to be in your care?" Nikolai asked.
"It was over a thousand years ago. As I said, the records were destroyed centuries ago. The reconstructed records were rewritten from memory hundreds of years after they were first created." Nyssa shrugged. "Who knows how much it is true?"
"Even rumor has to start somewhere," Harry said. He was feeding small pieces of peat into the hearth and stoking the fire.
"Where does the smoke go?" Ginny asked. "There's no chimney."
Harry shrugged.
"And you just lit it?!" Nyssa was alarmed.
"It wouldn't be here if it wasn't meant to be lit. The smoke is leaving. I can transfigure a chimney, but the spiders will get in," Harry suggested.
"This is fine," Ron said in a high-pitched voice. Ginny reached out and took her brothers' hand.
"Can we travel like this?" Mikhail asked.
"The cart will follow us, but I don't think its self-propelling," Nicolai said cautiously. "If there are any experiments, I'd rather they be done in milder conditions."
"Yes," Nyssa agreed.
"So, we stay for the night," Hermione said.
"What if it hasn't stopped by tomorrow?" Ron asked.
"Then we wait for it to stop," Harry said firmly. "We got here in clear weather. It can't last forever."
"But then they'll still be out there waiting for us," Ron protested.
"You can stay in the wagon while we go looking after it stops," Hermione said soothingly. "You'll be safe in here."
Ron looked as if he didn't believe her.
"Are you sure this is the way?" Severus grumbled as he climbed over rocky terrain. They were in a cave near the sea, he knew that much, though where in the world that was, he did not know. It was dark and he was using an orb of light to find his way. Cynna, to his irritation, could see in the dark.
"I hope so. You didn't grab the map," Cynna said irritatedly.
"You said you knew where we were going." Severus grunted.
"It's been a thousand years. Forgive me if my memory is rusty."
Severus was quiet for a moment. "What if we don't—"
"Found it!"
He swung around to see her standing by what looked like a long shaft, a single rune carved crudely on the cave wall. She waved at him once before jumping. Then she was gone.
Severus swore, then hurried to the shaft. He could see nothing. No light. No voices. No portal. No broom to get him out if he jumped in a pit and was lost forever.
But it was his only chance to see Hermione again. So, he jumped.
"At least we have food," Mikhail said cautiously.
"If it's not poisoned," Nicolai sniffed.
They had found a cupboard filled with supplies. Nicolai was skeptical of them.
Harry took an apple and bit into it, pretending he was choking, but no one fell for it.
"We have no choice unless you want a bowl full of spiders," he said sarcastically. His patience was wearing thin.
Ron whimpered.
"They fed us once. If they wanted to kill us, they would have," Ginny said reasonably.
"Maybe they didn't want to kill us in front of Asta?" Mikhail mumbled. "It would be easier to send us on a quest we never come back from."
"It took her a thousand years to find you. I doubt she will get over it and go on with her life," Hermione said soothingly. "Besides, I have a feeling she has a temper and her father doesn't understand how a girl her presumed age acts when she's upset."
"How is that?" Mikhail asked, alarmed since he had very limited experience with women.
Hermione, Ginny, and Nyssa exchanged looks before they laughed.
"Better not to think about it," Nicolai said darkly.
Severus may not be able to fly, but he could slow his descent. The tunnel seemed to go on and on. Severus wondered if he was going to the center of the earth. He waited for the pressure to begin, but there was none, and it relieved him.
Eventually, he started seeing a dim light that grew brighter as he grew closer. Closer to Atlantis. Closer to Hermione. Closer to the steel spikes that waited for him at the bottom of the shaft.
With his spells in place, he deftly avoided them. He landed near them, and faced a long tunnel lit by green cubes set into the hard rock. The walls seemed to be weeping and there was the sound of dripping water far ahead of them.
Cynna was leaning against a wall beneath one of them. Her face was unreadable. "You made it."
"I did." Severus said stiffly.
She grunted and walked along the passageway. "They know we're coming. The fall triggered their alarms. Get your gifts ready. If the passage looks this decayed who knows what we will find."
They walked for some time before they started hearing marching feet. Cynna tensed and it made Severus nervous. A blue light began glowing brighter down the tunnel, as if a slow-moving train was coming towards them, but it couldn't be. Not only because there were no tracks, but because the light was bobbing and as it came closer Severus could see that it was a group of men and women wielding tridents and wearing magical headlamps.
"I represent the Ministry of Magic," Severus declared, pulling out a parchment and praying the experimental translator charms were working. "We request passage to Jotunheim."
No one was paying any attention to Severus. They were all staring at Cynna. She smiled that strange detached smile their kind had and a few took steps back.
"What are you doing?" Severus asked her, right before she opened her mouth and hissed at them.
They turned and fled, some of them dropped their tridents, several screamed. Severus and Cynna were faced by three figures, teenagers from the looks of it: two girls, one tall and one small, and a boy.
"Back to hell with you, Vampire," the boy snarled.
"Vampires?" Severus was confused. "I am not a vampire." He looked at Cynna who was trying to look innocent. "She is not a vampire. We're here on a quest for my wife—" Severus waved his parchment helplessly.
The boy lowered his trident and the girls followed suit. He took the paper, but shook his head. "I can't read whatever language this is."
"It's English," Severus frowned. "Why do you think we're vampires."
"Her face. Her eyes reflected yellow in the darkness and then she hissed," the small girl said as she tried to peer at the parchment. "Doesn't look like any English I've ever seen."
Severus thought for a moment. The he pulled out his wand and tapped the parchment. The language changed to Chaucer's English.
"Oh!" The girl exclaimed, but it wasn't the language or the parchment. She stared at Severus' wand.
The boy was speechless, but the other girl just looked at them curiously.
"Poseidon's chariot, you're a wizard."