A/N: I am going to apologize for the utter pointlessness of this chapter right now. This was one of the tasks, so I had to write something for it. The next one is pretty much the same deal. And, yes, I understand that if you went north from Romania you would definitely not reach London. Blame the guides on MNFF.
Chapter Three
Polaris
Weasley and I left that night, after I had packed what I assumed would be enough to feed and water the both of us on our journey. I also packed my potions kit; no doubt Weasley would be in need of Dreamless Sleep Potions and Calming Draughts. I charmed our bags onto the Cleansweep that Andrews had lent me, and then bewitched it to fly beside us as I put one of Weasley's arms over my shoulders and lugged him away from Dragomirna.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until we reached the end of the mountain trail that I remembered that I had Apparated here myself, and I had no idea how to get from Romania to England on foot or broom. Merlin, I barely knew how to get from Scotland to London without Flooing!
I remembered reading that Muggle travelers of old had used the stars to navigate by. I'm not much of an astronomer, and I would gladly have slit my wrists rather than taken Divination, but I did have a very efficient memory. Granted, it had been near twenty years that I had taken Astronomy at Hogwarts. However, as long as I had my direction, I could find my way decently enough. Weasley was in no state to help me, so I nudged him anyway and pointed to the sky.
"We need to get to London. We're in Romania. Your father likes Muggles and no doubt has told you countless tales of how they used to sail in ships using the stars."
"Centaurs use them, too," Weasley grunted.
That cheeky whelp! At least I knew he was well enough to manage sarcasm. I still glowered at him relentlessly.
"Polaris," he answered, groggily. "The Plough."
Oh, that was a lot of help.
I knew the "the Plough" was a generic name for the constellation, Ursa Major. It was only a coupling of stars within the constellation itself. I assumed he meant I need to use the Plough to find Polaris.
I suddenly felt like I was back in the classroom, nervously awaiting Professor Sinistra to duel out the exam. Sighing, I searched the sky for Ursa Major and located the Plough at the tail end of the constellation. The Plough had seven stars, and, if my memory was correct, the stars were named Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid. To find Polaris, I would need to use the pointer stars, Dubhe and Merak.
Now came the hard part of trying to remember which blasted star was which. If Dubhe and Merak were pointer stars, then they would probably have to be two of the four stars that made up the square portion of the Plough. Using the pointer stars, I was to draw a line to Polaris. So I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting us totally and completely lost. Polaris was supposedly the brightest star in the sky. So, I chose the first star on the bottom of the Plough as Merak, mentally drew a line through what I assumed was Dubhe, and then mentally drew another line from there until I found a large, bright star that I hoped was Polaris. Feeling rather foolish, I checked the other nearby stars and came to the conclusion that "brightest star in the sky" fit the star that Dubhe and Merak had pointed me to.
Voila. Polaris.
Now that I had my heading, I heaved Charlie Weasley once more and headed toward it, the Cleansweep in tow.