Chapter 10 – Yule Part 3

Rosemary and thyme. Salt and pepper. Seasoned to perfection and slowly cooked until butter knife tender. The succulent lamb roast Anya was eating tasted simply marvellous, the house-elves in Hogwarts were really going all out for the Yule Ball. There was chatter all over the Great Hall as people made new friends or simply hung out with old ones.

When the meal ended and the dances started, everyone was eager to begin. Anya's Beauxbatons partner was simply bounding with anticipation as he ushered Anya onto the dance floor, Andre Lannes was his name, she managed to pick that snippet up during her meal. Once again, Anya was glad she chose a Beauxbatons partner, not only was the conversation simple and easy due to a language barrier but he – like most of the other Beauxbatons students – knew how to dance very well.

Hogwarts had offered last minute dancing lessons to all students from the fourth-year and above, but it seemed more like an entertainment session for the Purebloods who were already taught dancing from young and a torture session for majority of the Muggleborns and Half-bloods who were fumbling their way through. Zabini even had the audacity to sneak in the popcorn he had procured from a Muggle store before the term started, keeping them preserved with a Stasis Charm.

Once again, this was one of the times Anya swore Nathaniel came from a Pureblood family, dancing and etiquette had been part of the training she and the others had received, much to all their confusion as they never really used it. Here, she let her Beauxbatons partner take the lead, moving along to the beat of the music and actually taking the time to enjoy the melodious movements she was going through.

"By the way, Ms Seryy," Lannes said as they did another spin. "Fleur has requested that you meet her tomorrow morning, at the Beauxbatons carriage."

"She got the golden egg figured out?" Anya asked.

"It appears so."

Anya cast an eye at the French Champion, seeing the part-Veela dance along with a drooling Ravenclaw.

"Very well. Thank you, Mr Lannes."

"The least I could do," he flashed a dazzling smile.

Soon, the two agreed to separate to find their friends, going to opposite ends of the Great Hall. She passed by a dancing Nott and Greengrass, reaching an empty seat in the corner and settled down with a drink in hand.

"Well what's our dear champion doing all by herself?" a familiar mocking voice reached her ears.

"Enjoying the scene," she replied smoothly, looking at the approaching Zabini. "Really now, Zabini? Two?"

The charming Slytherin had a girl in each of his arms, both of them giggling giddily.

"What's wrong with that?" he shrugged nonchalantly. "The more the merrier."

"Say that with a straight face the next time you end up in the Hospital Wing."

The sound of a click and flash caught Anya's attention and she saw Collin Creevey wandering around with his camera, a grumpy looking fourth-year Hufflepuff – his unfortunate date presumably – following her. Seeing the camera, she remembered something.

"Creevey," Anya called out, waving at the Gryffindor. "Mind taking a picture? I'll gladly pay you for the photos."

The third-year's face split into a wide grin as he ambled over, preparing his camera.

"No problem Seryy, I'll do it for free," he said happily. "It's a hobby after all."

"A hobby he priorities over his date," Zabini muttered quietly to Anya. "Of course a filthy Mudblood would behave like this."

"Okay," Anya ignored the Slytherin's words. "I want mine by the end of this week if that's possible."

However, Zabini would never say no to a free photograph and agreed to have a picture taken. Anya, Zabini and the two Durmstrang girls stood in front of the camera, smiles on their face as the flash went off.

"Nice," Creevey exclaimed. "Seryy, how about a photo with Harry!? Hogwarts champions taking a group photo. I can't find Cedric though."

Before Anya could respond, the bubbly Gryffindor went over to a nearby table and began speaking to Harry. Harry seemed all too glad to have an excuse to leave the table, the irate and sulky Weasley behind him being a possible reason to his compliance.

"So Seryy, Hogwarts champions photo, huh?" Harry inquired, trying to relax himself into a smile.

"Nah, it was Creevey's idea," said Anya as she watch the young Gryffindor prepare his camera for another shot. "I didn't mind having a souvenir for tonight's event. Maybe we ought to get Diggory here?"

"No need to," Harry said quickly, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

Anya scanned through the crowd of dancers and picked up the Hufflepuff quickly, he was dancing with a smiling Cho Chang. It appears Zabini wasn't the only one who wanted to go out with the Ravenclaw, although Zabini did handle the rejection much better than Harry.

"Alright then. Creevey, fire away."

Creevey grinned as he pressed the shutter button and a flash went off once more. The two siblings stood side by side, one in a white dress, the other in green robes. Both of them had smiles on their faces as their identical emerald-green eyes wrinkled in festive joy.

They may have felt a little awkward, which they did, being shoved in for a photo by Creevey. However, if one were to look at the photos that Collin Creevey would soon produce, with the Gryffindor photographer handing Anya hers a few days later, the two siblings looked completely at ease and natural standing beside each other. As though they have been doing this for ages.

XXXXX

Anya stood outside the Beauxbatons carriage, waiting patiently. She did not mind waiting, being a user of a sniper rifle had taught her that it was alright to wait. She had waited for days in a swamp under heavy torturous rain for the opportunity to take a shot, this was comfortable by comparison.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Ms Seryy," the part-Veela's rich throaty voice filled the air. "But let us begin our discussion, oui?"

Anya nodded, turning to face Fleur.

"So, the Second Task. You figured out the golden egg?"

Fleur lips shifted into a smug smile as she set her hard-fought golden egg on the floor. She drew her wand and rapped the egg smartly, which opened. Inside the egg, it was completely hollow, but the walls within the egg were carved with line after line of magical formulas and runes. Numbers, letters and symbols adorned the walls.

"You are supposed to decipher all these?" Anya asked, inspecting the runes. "You could have asked me to help."

"Non," Fleur said, shaking her head. "Much of this is too complex for a fourth-year student, some of these runes are not taught until sixth-year, and the Arithmancy sequences are beyond the schooling syllabus."

"Yeah, okay," Anya said a little tartly. "So what did you figure out?"

Fleur took out pieces of parchment and showed them to Anya. Anya grabbed them and took a look, they were filled with various numbers, sketches and phrases.

"The first one I figured out is this," Fleur pointed to a parchment with a rough sketch of lines and curves, with dots and shadings here and there. Upon closer inspection, the entire sketch was made up of tiny numbers. "I deciphered the main Arithmancy figures and came to this."

"It's a map," Anya had seen Arithmancy-encoded information before, deciphering them was usually Jen's job, hers was doing the runic counterparts.

"Oui," Fleur nodded. "But of where, I do not know. But it must be the location of the Second Task."

"Forbidden Forest."

"Je vous demande pardon?"

"The area boundaries on this side of the map exactly matches the treeline on the northwest side of the Hogwarts grounds," Anya said, recalling her walk with Astoria. She always took the opportunity to observe her surroundings closely whenever possible. "If these curves indicate roads and streams, then it also matches the pathways and streams I've seen entering the Forbidden Forest."

"Then what are the other dots and shadings on the map mean?"

"Beats me," Anya shrugged. "Possibly denser vegetation, magical traps or even nesting grounds of whatever the Forbidden Forest hides."

"Very well, then there is also this," Fleur pointed to the next piece of parchment that she had worked out. It was a line of runes, written in the Frenchwoman's cursive script.

"Twelve Labours of Heracles," Anya muttered as she read the runes.

"Oui, the runes that formed this was scattered throughout the egg, I had to use various Arithmancy techniques to find them," Fleur shifted her finger to the number she wrote next to the runes. "When I inspected the locations of each individual runes, I realised that they formed the number three multiple times, if you connected each rune as a dot. Too many times to be coincidence"

"The third labour?"

"Correct Seryy, capture the Ceryneian Hind. I expect that we have to some creature to catch or maybe a conjured magical entity instead."

"The next question is," Anya mused. "Are there three teams or four? It won't be fair for everyone else if Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter worked together. But it wouldn't be fair for the Durmstrang Junior Champion to support two teams simultaneously."

"Did the Hogwarts Champions work together for the First Task?" Fleur's question was an answer itself.

"Poor Dulovo, this is much harder for him if all champions do this task at the same time."

"Indeed," the part-Veela agreed. "But we digress."

Fleur shuffled through the parchments to pick out another piece.

"This one was the easiest to decipher: the old catches, the young protects."

"So each team has their own 'Ceryneian Hind' and has to catch the other teams 'Ceryneian Hind'?" Anya concluded. "Champions are to catch, Junior Champions are to protect?"

"That seems to be the case, although there are still many unknown variables. Is this 'Ceryneian Hind' a stationary entity or does it move on its own? What are the Junior Champions allowed to do in order to protect?"

"What the plan then, Delacour?"

"The main problem is whether or not duelling is allowed. Seryy, are you good in duelling?" Fleur asked doubtfully, eyeing the younger girl as though inspecting her for any flaws.

"Good enough."

"I would recommend practicing a little on duelling just in case. Other than that, you could read up on some Charms or Transfiguration spells that may aid you in setting up defences. Or maybe runes too, I've heard of your work in the First Task from my friends."

"I'll have it covered," Anya said in assurance. "What about you?"

"Forgive me Seryy," Fleur said with a haughty smile. "Since I would rather have a Beauxbatons victory in this Triwizard Tournament, I cannot risk having you know my plans and possibly leaking them out to the Hogwarts Champions."

"So much for international cooperation," Anya laughed. "Though that is fair, I expect all the other Champions to have this mentality. You're already giving me a lot of information to work with, explaining what the Second Task could involve. Personally, I were your shoes and I wanted to completely keep this under wraps, I would just tell you what to do without any explanation whatsoever."

"Well, I would rather have my partner in this task know what she is supposed to do," Fleur said breezily as she stowed away her pieces of parchment and the egg. "Furthermore, I've seen the Hogwarts Champions. I can completely trust them to be honourable and follow the rules-"

"And not tell me a single thing as I'm not their partner for this task," Anya finished her sentence with an easy grin. "I expect that you informed Poitiers of this before me."

"Well, as much as how I would rather be the one to win the Tournament, I do want a Beauxbatons victory at the end."

"Completely understandable. Well, if that is all, I suppose I should get started on the preparations?"

Nodding her head, Fleur turned about and returned to the Beauxbatons carriage, leaving Anya to herself.

XXXXX

"Well, I suppose that's all there is to the golden egg," Hermione sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Merlin, this thing is a challenge to crack."

"Thanks Hermione, you're a lifesaver," Harry grinned, looking at all the clues that Hermione had managed to siphon off the golden egg. Looking at what he had to do though, it was much less dangerous than facing off the Hungarian Horntail. Whoever had placed his name in the Goblet would not be getting his hopes up in having Harry killed in this Second Task. Compared to a dragon's claws, tails and fiery breath, a huge game of Capture the Flag but with moving flags was a lot tamer. Granted, the other champions were still a threat, as Ron had so adamantly pointed out.

"Remember what Sirius said," Ron reminded Harry. "You're gonna have to watch out for the Durmstrang champions, who knows what Dark Magic Karkaroff would have taught them? Can we even trust that Dulovo guy?"

"Ron!" Hermione admonished the red-head. "The whole point of having the Junior Champions be partners with other schools for some of the tasks is to foster international relations, trust is essential."

"I'm just saying mate," Ron replied, holding his hands up in surrender. "The whole Durmstrang lot seems shady."

"Alright," said Hermione wearily as she looked through what she had gathered from the golden egg. "Let's go through this logically. You should be safe from the other Champions, they'll be busy doing their own catching. It's the Junior Champions that you have to watch out for, so let's start with the Beauxbatons Junior Champion, what do we know about him? The First Task can be a good indication for his abilities."

"Other than being a great chef? Nothing," said Ron bluntly, causing Harry to snigger.

"There's more than that," said Hermione sharply. "He has to be adept in Potions to create an obscure potion that enhances the smell of foods. And the bag the Beauxbatons' Champion was carrying for the First Task had been magically expanded as well, so Charms is possibly another one of his aces."

"Potions and Charms," Harry mused. "Shouldn't be too bad."

"It's the Slytherin you got to watch out for," Ron pointed out.

That was definitely true, comparing the French and Russian Junior Champions, the later gave a more lasting impression of being dangerous. The incident with Crabbe and Goyle was clear evidence to that. On top off that, she had been the only one besides Harry himself to throw off the Imperius Curse in Moody's class.

"We should expect some runic defence from her," Hermione theorised. "Her item during the First Task was incredible. I heard from Professor McGonagall that she excels in Transfiguration too, so expect that too."

"It wasn't that fancy," said Ron dismissively.

"But that was a high-level application of Runes, Ron," Hermione exclaimed. "Runes capable of creating and reacting with magic – Active Runes – are not even taught until NEWTs. OWL-level studies of Runes only involve translation and theory."

"So I go for the one Poitiers is defending first?" said Harry thoughtfully. "Then if that works out, I go for others?"

"Sounds about it," Hermione concluded.

XXXXX

The soft thumps of Anya's magically silenced pistol filled Astoria's ears, she looked on as the elder Slytherin fired round after round precisely into the levitating water balloons that acted as makeshift targets. They were at a secluded corner of the Hogwarts grounds, hidden by bushes and trees.

"You see the posture? Feet apart, left foot forward and body bent a little forward. Never lean backwards," Anya explained as she maintained her stance. "You can extend your arms to a comfortable position but don't lock your elbows. Firm grip on the pistol, lock your wrist."

Anya handed her Makarov to the excited girl and ushered her forward in encouragement. Astoria mimicked Anya's stance and lifted the pistol, peering through the sights. She was taught the basics of operating this Muggle device a few minutes ago and found it to be very simple. There was no complex formulas or theories involved like a curse, you simply slide in a box of what Anya called 'bullets' into the device, 'cock' the thing by pulling the top part of it and then you simply pulled on the lever to fire. With this, even a child could kill a person.

"Turn off the safety then align the sights," Anya instructed. "Once you got that, slowly pull the trigger. Trigger pull is important in a good aim, the pistol shouldn't be moving when you pull. Control your breathing too, rule of thumb is shoot when you finished exhaling."

Astoria focused on the water balloon in front of her and took aim, trying to calm down her excited breathing.

"That's not controlling your breathing," Anya remarked plainly as she took out small pieces of wood and began etching them with sigils and runes.

"I'm trying, I'm trying."

Slowly, she placed her finger on the trigger and began to pull. When the propellant ignited, the recoil – though mostly absorbed by magic – took her by surprise, causing her to let out a small gasp. Twenty feet away, a red water balloon ruptured.

"Wow," said Astoria softly. "Just like that."

"Just like that," Anya nodded, keeping an eye on the girl while she worked on her pieces of wood. "Even a child could use it."

Anya took out a small box from her robes, it was the size of an earring box. She drew her wand and enlarged it, opening the box revealed rows of bullets ready to be used.

"It's a weekend and we have the time," Anya told the younger Slytherin. "You wanted to try out the pistol. Use it to your heart's content."

Astoria let out a wide grin as she went back to the water balloons, raising the pistol once more. Soon, the thumps of the pistol became a constant as Astoria emptied magazine after magazine. She had to admit it, Muggles really did know how to invent interesting things. Maybe they were not as bad as what her family and friends made them to be.

"This is kind of refreshing actually," Astoria exclaimed as she returned the pistol back to Anya. "I didn't think that Muggles can come up with this. Without using magic too."

"You'd be surprised at what Muggles know that wizards don't," said Anya absentmindedly, carving another rune on a wooden block.

"And what are you doing?" Astoria peeked over Anya's shoulders to see what the older girl was doing. "Is that preparation for the Second Task?"

"Yep."

"You figured out what's going on?" Astoria asked smilingly. "Care to share?"

"Sworn to secrecy."

"Prat."

"Relax, Astoria, the Task is just a game of Capture the Flag."

"Can you tell me what you're doing?"

Anya passed over one of her finished wooden blocks for Astoria to inspect. It was completely carved in runes and a slight tremor of magic could be felt. Drawing her wand, Anya turned the wooden block into a swiftlet, which began to fly in circles above the pair.

"That's pretty," Astoria commented, eyeing the bird which still bore the same runic markings as its original form. "But what does it do?"

"I was impressed by Potter's performance in the First Task," Anya explained. "And then I realised that there are three top-notch Quidditch players among the Champions, the only who isn't is paired we me. Needless to say, I do not wish for any of them to go use a broomstick for this Task."

"So Anti-broomstick spells embedded in the runes? And transfigured into birds to follow Diggory, Potter and Krum." Astoria was now closely inspecting the runes of another wooden block Anya had finished carving. "You really inspire me to take up Runes next year. Maybe I should take the same electives as you, Muggle Studies and Runes."

"Let me ask you a question," said Astoria curiously, looking at the pistol still by Anya's side. "If Muggle weaponry and technology is so good, why didn't you use them to aid the Champions in the First Task?"

It had been very tempting to just do that during the First Task. The runic distraction Anya made was the second idea she came up with. Her first idea that came to mind involved Transfiguration, Strengthening Solution and batch of thermite or explosives. Or maybe, she could have pulled off a Nathaniel, hijacking a fighter jet from the nearest military airbase to combat an enraged dragon. However, it was general consensus among the Spooks not to blatantly give up their cards to normal wizards.

"Use highly dangerous equipment made by Muggles in a highly publicised event?" Anya laughed, shaking her head. "The press will have a field day and the Purebloods in the Ministry will start sharpening their knives. I'd rather keep the Muggle tools to myself."

"Keeping an advantage to yourself?"

"Aren't you in Slytherin?"

"True," Astoria chuckled. "What else do you have planned?"

"Nothing much really, I'm in charge of defending" Anya shrugged as she set down a finished wooden block and picked up another one. She reapplied dragon's blood – procured on request as a Junior Champion – on her silver knife and continued her carving. "Maybe a few wards and the rest will probably go down to duelling with the Champions if that's allowed."

"You can duel?"

"Well, I've been in fights."

The watch on Anya's wrist indicated that dinner was approaching and she ended the conversation, reminding Astoria that they should probably head back to the castle. Packing her things, she took note of the box that was now half empty. She did the math in her head, Astoria used up ten magazines, that was eighty rounds. Astoria really didn't hold back when told to fire the pistol to her heart's content, Anya was going to have to write a letter back home asking for ammunition. Thankfully, Filch didn't know what bullets were.

Days went by as the Second Task edged nearer and nearer. Anya had spent a great deal of time sneaking off into the Forbidden Forest, not the part of it where the Second Task was going to be held, there was a good chance that place was crawling with Tournament officials and protective wards. She simply needed to acclimatise herself to the environment and build back her physical strength. She did go out for physical training once every week, it was a regimentation she enforced on herself, but when there's schoolwork to do, she could not afford the time to go on ten mile treks while carrying a full equipment load. Furthermore, the Forbidden Forest was a good place to practice her combat spells away from prying eyes.

"Diffindo."

A swift flick of her wand lopped off the heads of two dummy figures she had transfigured. She had two dozen of them scattered throughout the area, charmed to move about, albeit not gracefully but rather in a drunken robotic fashion. The practice was simple, release the dummies and give them a five minutes head start, following which she proceeded to hunt them down. Even though she was tasked to defend whatever it was that the Tournament came up with, training with Vlad had ingrained her with the idea that offense is the best defence.

Sprinting through the woods, the trees on her periphery became a slight blur as she darted around, easily avoiding the barely noticeable potholes and protruding roots as she moved. Her eyes took in all the details of her surroundings, the tripping hazards, far away dummies and their trails left behind in the forest marked clearly by her right eye. The prints on the snow, an overturned stone on the ground and even the scraped bark on the tree trunk, all these were flashing traffic signs in Anya's eyes.

"Stupefy."

The final spell tagged the stumbling dummy on the back, which toppled onto the ground. Wiping the sweat off her brow, she sat down on the ground and took a moment to catch her breath. After which, Anya went about cleaning up any traces that she had been there, reverting the dummies back to logs and repairing any noticeable damage on the trees. Nathaniel had been adamant in teaching his protégés to keep their tracks clean when necessary, a practice she continued here.

When the clean-up was done, she did a final check on her belongings before making her way back to the castle. A quick trip to her dorms for a shower and change of clothes had Anya refreshed and hungry for breakfast.

"Morning Seryy," Zabini greeted her as she took a seat beside him. "You've got an owl waiting for you."

The dark-skinned boy nodded his head to a tawny owl which had a letter attached to its leg, Anya plucked the letter from the owl and looked at it. It had her name on it, but the handwriting was familiar. She opened it and looked at the paper inside.

Greetings Anya. Watch out for our arrival to Britain, for we all miss you dearly. Danger in Russia has been at an all-time high but that's to be expected. Class has been well I take it? Ten of us back in Russia are wishing you the best for the Triwizard Tournament. Items that you wanted we have purchased and are sending over. Moved Nikolai to his new home yesterday, from the effort it took, Russia always reminds us of its vast size. To think that Greg always said Russia was small. Britain must be a nice place, beware the gnomes there though. Of Tournament tips just remember your stances of Stand, Crouch, and Prone as stances can always help you in a duel. Also, safe winds. Home is where your heart is, ready for the next challenge.

The letter seemed fine and dandy, which meant it was absolute nonsense. Anya scanned through the letter again, cycling through the various codes they used until something logical came up. Something did and it had Dimitri written all over it, the code was crude and easily deciphered but Anya couldn't be bothered.

Anya read through the letter in mild concern, she certainly did not expect a Triwizard Tournament official to be importing highly illegal magical ingredients and components, most of which are used in dark rituals. Hoping dearly that those were for his personal use rather than for the Tournament, Anya kept the letter and pondered for a while. Mr Crouch, she was going to have to be careful of him.

XXXXX

"That's the last of them," Jen muttered as he pulled out the magazine from his rifle – a standard AK-47 – and inspected the remaining bullets. There was none, his stowed it in one of the pouches on his ballistic vest and loaded a fresh magazine into the rifle. The sulfurous smell of gunfire still permeated the air, so did the smell of charred furniture.

"Looks like it," Dimitri called out from the other end of the room, his wand drawn. He was busy vanishing the blood from the floors and walls. "Ten Muggles, three wizards, one of which was probably a Spook. Correct?"

"That's what I counted too."

They were in the Russian suburbs, inside a house that was suspected of storing high value magical items. Currently, the two boys were finishing their clean-up of the kitchen. Bullet casings, shattered plates and bullet-ridden pots littered the floor, awaiting Dimitri to vanish them. The bodies had already been cleaned up and stowed in bags.

"Just the basement left?" Jen asked as he inspected the photos hanging on the pink walls, they showed the typical happy family posed in front of the porch.

"Yep," the Russian replied. "It's empty though, Homenum Revelio-ed it a minute ago. I think the only thing left are the wards."

Jen slung his rifle and drew his wand. "Very well, shall we?"

The pair began their work on the wards blocking entry to the basement, muttering incantations softly. Half a minute later and the wards broke, Jen opened the door and Dimitri began casting sensory spells down the stairway, checking for any traps or dangerous creatures.

"It's more or less, clear," Dimitri declared, beginning to walk down the stairs with Jen on his tail.

"Sure wish Crow was with us."

"Of course you would," Dimitri chuckled. "But she's a thousand miles away in Scotland now."

"Lumos."

Light flooded out of Jen's wand, illuminating the basement in a warm glow. Boxes filled the basement, many of them plastered with tags and labels. One particular box stood out to the pair, it had a long roll of parchment wrapped around it multiple times like a bandage, sigils and runes written on the parchment.

"Sure wish Anya was here to check this script," Dimitri cast a spell to check for any nasty surprises, nothing bad turned up. "Runes are her thing, she's the only person I know who's mad enough to do the rune carving on her own body herself, I needed Vlad to pin me down to get my runes on."

"In her defence, her runes are better than even Nathaniel's, and Grey doesn't do runic tattoos on us," Jen said as he inspected the symbols on the parchment, it was written in blood. "Try doing the feats of strength, agility and dexterity she does when she activates those runes, you can't. By the way, do you think it's safe to open this? You don't normally see a box sealed in blood runes, could be something bad."

"Then we better start erecting solid wards before we open this."

For the next ten minutes, the pair prepared temporary wards, carving out most of the basement walls in magical formulas. Once everything was set, the two stood a good fifteen feet away from the sealed box, hovering close to the staircase. Dimitri took aim and red sparks shot out from his wand, ripping open the parchment wrapped around the box and launching the cover of the box open. The wooden lid flipped open onto the floor with a loud clatter before an anticlimactic silence took over.

"That was underwhelming," Dimitri grumbled. "I thought there was a boggart in there, could have had some fun with it."

Jen edged closer to the box, wand at the ready. Peering over the box, he inhaled sharply at the sight.

"Not that underwhelming, Dim," Jen said. "Look at this."

Eyebrows furrowed, Dimitri walked over and took a look at the contents, whistling when he laid his eyes on them.

"Cyka blyat," Dimitri muttered, shifting through the contents of the box. "We've got a dark wizard on the loose. Human heart, Basilisk venom... all four humors of a succubus and a hag... Unicorn blood, Mandrake roots... vials of whatever-the-hell-this-is... is that a jar of fucking ovaries!? That's a fucking impressive ingredients package for a dark ritual."

"The Whites are really pulling the damn strings to assemble this," Jen said. "You need more than galleons to purchase this, you need favours, connections or allegiance. Who's got the Whites this deep in their pockets?"

"Check the box for any labels," Dimitri said sharply. The two sprang into action, inspecting every corner of the box for clues to its receiver.

"Arithmancy codes here," Dimitri called out as he scanned the lid on the box that they removed minutes ago. "This is all yours, Jen."

Jen grabbed the lid from Dimitri, inspecting the string of numbers and symbols. He transcribed a copy of the number on a piece of paper just in case the original on the lid got ruined. Wand in hand, he began decoding the numbers on the lid, figures unfolding and spreading on the wooden surface. The numbers slowly expanded in length until four sets of numbers and letters were produced.

"GPS coordinates," Dimitri observed. "This definitely has a Spook involved, no normal wizards encodes destinations with GPS coordinates and Muggles can't do Arithmancy. Four results though, which one is it?"

Already punching in the results in his GPS, Jen took a look at the possibilities.

"First one ends up in the middle of nowhere in Mozambique. Second one doesn't exist on this planet unless you can get a latitude of over two hundred degrees north. Third one ends in a village in Essex, Britain. Fourth one ends in the southern coast of Singapore."

"Second ones out," Jen stated. "Unless it's a damn clever code or the coordinates itself is another layer of Arithmancy encryption."

"Singapore is out," Dimitri said gruffly. "Their National Ward Grid is too tight to smuggle in, expected for a small country, and both their Muggle and Magical governments are incorruptible."

"You would know," Jen laughed, shaking his head at on old memory. "Mozambique though? Unlikely, the ingredients in this box aren't what their brand of dark wizards normally favour."

"Britain?" Dimitri murmured. "That's a possibility, they did help the Whites back in the Uprising, and the coordinates actually show a village unlike the others."

The two seemed to be in deep thought before Dimitri broke the silence.

"Hold it! Isn't there a high-ranking British Ministry official living in Essex? Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"How do you know that?" Jen asked suspiciously.

"Same damn reason the person who got us into Azerbaijan undetected knows about all the high-ranking international magical relations personnel, it's my fucking job. That's how I got us into Azerbaijan and all the other countries, know the people you're dealing with."

"Isn't the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation for Britain involved in the Triwizard Tournament?" Jen's face stiffened, Dimitri was not far off too, catching up to the Asian's conclusion quickly.

"We're going to have to send an owl to Anya."

AN: Kudos to those who bothered to decipher the letter Anya got, the code I used was very simple anyways.