"Here we go!"

Elyse lifted Harry of the ground, Heather having grabbed Ron. The two had taken off their cloaks once they reached the bottom of the nearest mountain and were now flying upward, Harry and Ron clutched in their grasp.

They reached a decent area to land on within one minute.

"Harry, you can decide which way we start searching first," Elyse said. Apparently they weren't people to waste time.

"Er…" Harry said, not liking the decision to be up to him at all. "Right, I s'pose. Closer to Gryffindor Tower…."

They turned right and started searching, looking from one cave to another, though they weren't obvious and were difficult to find. They seemed to blend in as the trees hid most of them from sight. They searched around trees, behind bushes, and even tried pushing down on rocks for some secret cave, but the few they found had no red mark on the top right-hand corner.

"Okay, I'm really starting to believe this might have been a hoax," Ron said dubiously.

"It can't have been," Harry said confidently, pushing on a tree to see what happened. Absolutely nothing happened.

"If you're sure…" Ron muttered, kicking through a bush and hitting the tree behind. "OUCH!"

But after an hour of searching, Harry's confidence was beginning to waver. Heather had been counting, and after twenty-seven caves, they had found nothing but a very angry Jobberknoll, who pecked them away, listening intently to their screams of "GET AWAY YOU STUPID BIRD!"

"I dunno, Harry," Ron said again. "Maybe…"

"We've got to try. There are a lot of caves in this place, I'm sure! It could be any one of them!" Harry said.

"We could be here looking all day for it while the others wonder where we are," Ron said.

"We'll find it," Heather said quietly. "We have to."

"Over here!" Elyse said excitedly. "I think… I think this might be it! Yes… yes it is! Come on!"

Harry, Ron, and Heather raced to her side. She was staring at the top, right-hand corner of a cave that had a painted red line on it. The cave went as far back as they could see before it was engulfed in darkness.

"This is it!" Harry said quietly, staring down into the darkness.

"Lyse, the cloaks," Heather said, putting on the Invisibility Cloak as she spoke.

Elyse put on the Shadow Cloak and was thrown into the cave's shadow.

"Here we go," Ron said, more to himself than anyone else.

Harry and Ron walked into the cave, half expecting a door to appear behind them preventing them from retreating, but nothing happened. Heather nudged them on and they walked in the seemingly endless gloom.

"Lumos," Harry murmured quietly into the gathering darkness. A light appeared at the tip of his wand, and Ron followed his lead.

They walked on in the cave for time that seemed an eternity, Elyse occasionally being seen as she purposefully stepped into their wand light to let them know she was there. Heather occasionally gave a tap on the wall that echoed loudly on the cold, gray walls.

"Anything?" Ron asked quietly.

"Nothing," Harry said, looking around. "I think there might be--hey, there!"

His wand had hit a large crevice, big enough for one person to get through at a time. He looked at Ron.

"I don't like this."

"Me neither," Ron agreed.

"Elyse will go first, so keep your wands on that spot. You'll see her go through and she'll give a thumbs up if it's okay," Heather said softly.

Harry pointed his wand at the left side of the opening and sure enough, Elyse's shadow crossed it. She was gone for a few moments, then a thumbs up appeared in Ron's wand light.

"I'll go first," Harry said, slowly edging through. He pointed his wand around as Ron quickly stepped up behind him.

A light brilliantly erupted over them, revealing the contents of the room.

It was a large room, as it seemed, with ten variously-sized tunnels leading out of it. Harry and Ron looked at each other--they now understood why it would be so hard to find Hermione and Katie.

"Which one do we take?" Ron whispered.

"Where's Elyse?" Heather asked quietly.

Harry looked around. "There!"

Elyse's hand was the only thing protruding from the fourth tunnel. She was pointing adamantly at herself and the tunnel.

"I think she wants to go down that one," Ron said, grinning slightly.

"I think you might be right," Harry said, grinning at this, too.

"Let's go, then," Heather whispered.

They walked down the tunnel that Elyse had motioned for and held up their wands, which they hadn't unlit. It was dark for most of the way, but just at the edge of their vision Harry thought he saw the other end of this tunnel. They reached it without delay, Harry and Ron looking around them anxiously for whatever was to happen.

"This room is really big," Ron commented vaguely. Indeed, it was big enough to hold several giants stacked on top of each other, along with a round dozen wide. They couldn't see the other end of the room.

"Reckon we should continue forward? Something tells me we aren't going to like what we'll find at the other end of this room," Harry commented.

"Let's go," Heather said, giving them a slight nudge for any doubts.

They walked on, but had hardly taken a dozen steps when Ron stopped.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Ron pointed. Elyse was in his wand lighting, scared out of her mind and pointing fast towards the way they just came.

"What's there, Lyse?" Heather asked urgently. "What did you--"

A loud breathing suddenly erupted, and a giant foot crunched down just beyond their wand light.

"Uh oh…" Heather said. "That's our cue, boys."

A thin jet of flame appeared far above their heads. Harry and Ron moved fast, hoping Elyse and Heather were well ahead of them as the fire landed where they had been moments before. Harry chanced a glance back, and gasped. If he remembered his dragons correctly, they were running from a Common Welsh Green dragon, one that would become a little aggressive if provoked by a human. Harry ran faster, vaguely wondering what Elyse did to the dragon to make it so furious with them.

Ron flew out of the other end of the tunnel, Harry right behind him, the light in the room still glowing brightly. Harry was unsure what was the source of this light, but too out of breath to pay much attention.

"What… was that…?" Ron asked. "A… dragon… I think…."

"Yes…" Harry panted back. "Common… Welsh…"

"Well…" Heather said sarcastically. "I can imagine… it was having fun… being all… cooped up in there…."

"Oh yes," Ron agreed in the same manner of voice. "Much fun…"

They stood there for a moment, then looked up to find Elyse. She was now heading toward the sixth tunnel, motioning them to follow her.

"This had better be better," Ron mumbled. "She what she got into last time? We were almost dessert…."

They headed down this tunnel with renewed hope that it might be the one they were looking for. As they entered the pitch black room, their wands went out.

"What?" Harry asked, lifting his wand to his face, though he still couldn't see it. "Lumos!"

Nothing.

"Ron, you try," Heather encouraged from somewhere behind them.

"Lumos," Ron murmured with the same result.

"That's odd," Heather said. "There's not much magical power that can do that…."

"Well, you can bet it's not good. Watch there be a… a Nundu or something in here and we can't see…." Ron said.

"Then the Nundu can't see either," Heather pointed out.

"It could hear us!" Ron moaned.

"Well then be quiet," Harry said sharply, listening.

There was total silence. Eerily, the darkness seemed to close in on them, the seemingly impenetrable sound making Ron shiver a bit. Heather's breathing sharpened for a moment.

There was an evil, high pitched cackle from somewhere behind them.

Harry turned sharply. He heard Ron and Heather turn to face the new nemesis just as he did.

The cackle came from where they had just been facing.

Harry turned again.

It was to his right; Harry turned; his left; Harry turned again; behind him. Harry couldn't keep track. It was in front of him one moment, then behind him the next.

"How many are there?" Ron whispered.

No one answered for a moment.

"One," Heather finally decided.

"ONE!" Ron exclaimed.

"Ron be quiet," Heather ordered faintly. "Yes, one. This is a cave. It echoes. It's probably right in front of us. I still can't place what kind of creature it is, though."

The cackle was behind them again.

"Are you bored?" Harry asked vaguely.

"Very," Heather confirmed.

"Feel like doing some wandless magic?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Indeed." Harry couldn't see what she was doing, but in a moment had a ball of light in her hands, which were now the only things outside the Invisibility Cloak.

"Handy," Harry commented.

"Very," Heather agreed. "Now… where is our little—there!"