Harry heard some voices up ahead on the path and wondered what was going on.

Is it Tony? he thought. Maybe Tony is talking to the two people who had passed me?

He rubbed his sore butt cheek and then shook out his wrist and made his way toward the voices.

Tony's voice sounded distressed—angry and a bit frantic.

"Stop doing that. Let me go!" Tony shouted.

As Harry neared he realized that it was coming from the ground. Tony had also fallen down.

Who thought up this hike idea?

Harry's anger sparked and he didn't listen carefully to his staff, stubbing his toe painfully on a rock. Resisting the urge to toss the staff down the mountainside, he bit his tongue to keep from crying out and limped along in his wet trainers. It was only the knowledge that there were people he didn't know on the trail and concern that Tony might be really hurt that kept him from losing it completely. By the time he'd traveled close enough to ask what was going on without having to shout, he'd calmed down a bit.

"Tony, are you alright?"

"Hey, do you know this young man?" It was the voice of the man who'd been talking about the underground.

Tony was cursing and it sounded like he was flailing, too.

"Yeah, is that you Tony?"

Tony grunted in response.

Harry's staff told him that he was a step away from a person lying in the pathway and that there were two other people nearby.

"Hey, he won't let us help him up. He won't even let us touch him."

"Do you know how he's hurt?" Harry asked as he lowered himself down to the ground, using his staff to help keep his balance and then collapsed it and put it in his pocket. He slowly reached forward, tentatively feeling for Tony. He felt Tony flinch as his hand came in contact with his torso and pulled back. From what he could gather, he was lying on his back perpendicular to the path.

"He's got some scrapes and bruises, but he's not telling us where he hurts," another man's voice supplied.

"Could you go get Healer Jordan?" Harry asked, "I'll sit with him."

"Are you sure you're okay staying with him?" the second man asked, his voice was deep and resonant, with a slight accent that made Harry think of far-off lands.

"Yeah, we'll be alright."

Harry sat quietly by Tony's side as the two men walked away. Harry noted that the second man was mentioning the locations of rocks on the path for the first man. He must be blind, too, Harry thought. He wondered why the second man was here.

He let out a big breath.

Why send all of us down this mountainside when we're still learning how to get around in our newly broken bodies? It seems sadistic.

When he was pretty sure that the two men were out of earshot, Harry probed, "Hey, Tony? Do you want me to help you up or do you want to keep sitting here?"

He made an unintelligible grumble in response.

Harry shifted his position to get more comfortable (and off the bruise)—it seemed like they'd be here for a while.

Tony let out a sigh that hitched in the back of his throat like a sob. Tony's feet started scrambling on the rocky earth, sending little rocks down the side of the hill by the sound of it.

"Are you trying to sit up?"

Tony's answer was just a frustrated yell. He lay still again. The way he was gasping for air made Harry pretty certain he was crying.

"Do you just need something to push against to stand up?" Harry asked, guessing that Tony didn't want him to haul him up by his shoulders. He was pretty sure that's what the shouting had been about.

Harry crawled around Tony, near his legs, feeling the ground in front of him to navigate over the loose rocks. Up above on the path, Harry heard the sounds of other people coming toward them. Tony must have heard them, too.

"Yeah, the rocks keep moving—it's so sandy here," Tony said. He had seemed to get control again.

He pulled his knees up and Harry sat in front of him. Tony pushed against Harry, but didn't seem to be able to get the leverage he needed to sit up. He flopped back onto the ground and then groaned, "Just roll me down the mountain."

The way Tony said it seemed kind of funny and sad all mixed up together. A chuckle bubbled out of Harry's lips and he tried to catch it—mortified that he had laughed.

To his surprise, Tony started laughing, too. Tears squeezed from Harry's eyes as he laughed harder than he'd laughed in a long time. It felt good. They settled down and Harry had an idea. He leaned forward and put his hands on Tony's shoes, "Try now Tony!" he said as he held Tony's feet down. They pulled away from Harry, and he pressed down, and he could hear Tony straining to sit up. Tony's breathed out heavily near Harry's ear. He'd done it! Harry moved away a bit so that Tony could get his legs under him and stand up. Harry stood up slowly, too, holding his arms out in a half-circle around Tony, but not touching him—just there in case Tony started to fall again.

"Thanks, Harry," Tony said quietly, though there was still a hint of laughter in his voice.

"No problem," Harry said, not really understanding why he felt a bit embarrassed. "Do you want to keep going or just wait here for Healer Jordan?"

"Let's go before Mei gets here," Tony said, his voice directed toward the mountain as if he were looking up it.

Harry took his staff out of his pocket and said, "Navigant HMS Eden."

It sounded like Tony had started walking ahead of him again.

"Hey, Tony." Harry's throat felt tight. He hated to ask.

"What?"

"I could… use… your help… too." Harry had a hard time getting the sentence out.

"Oh, right," Tony said. "What do you want me to do?"

"Could you guide me? Tell me how to get around the rocks on the path?"

"I thought your staff did that?"

"Yeah, it does and I'm getting better at understanding the directions it gives me, but… " He trailed off. "Never mind. Forget it."

He stepped awkwardly on a clump of grass in the path and stumbled a bit, caught himself and kept going. He thought Tony would turn around and start walking down the path again, but didn't hear any evidence of it and felt his face get hot as he realized that Tony must be watching him. His staff confirmed it, telling him that there was a person standing two yards in front of him and he stopped.

"Er, I've seen Gemma guide you, and you hold onto her arm… and… "

Harry understood.

"Listen, I think if we're going to get down this mountain in one piece, we're going to need to help each other," Harry said more matter-of-factly than he felt.

He knew there was truth in it. It was hard to ask for help, but easier to offer it. Maybe Tony felt the same way.

"So, how do we do this?"

"How about I put my hand on your back? I think you're too tall for me to put my hand on your shoulder."

"Okay, we could try it. You'll still use your staff?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I'll put my left hand on your back and use my staff in my right hand," Harry said, stepping a little closer and holding his hand out.

"Okay, take another step," Tony guided, he had turned around.

Harry found Tony's back and dusted it off a bit.

"Whoa, you're covered in dirt," Harry said, coughing. "Would it be okay if I held onto your shirt?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Tony agreed. "Okay, I'm going to start. It's going to get steeper soon after this switchback."

"What's a switchback?" Harry asked imagining a torture device that Filch would keep stocked in his office.

"It's the turn on the trail when you zigzag across the side of a mountain to keep the trail from being too steep. My folks like to go hiking," Tony explained. "Okay, there's a big rock on the right, so go behind me a bit more."

"Isn't that kind of a muggle thing to do?" Harry asked as he tapped the rock with his staff as he passed it.

"Nah. Hey—what are you saying?" Tony stiffened.

"Nothing. I just haven't heard of wixen hiking before," Harry said.

"Wixen?" Tony asked, and then added, "Okay, watch out the path gets pretty narrow here. There are a bunch of trees with branches hanging down."

Harry could feel Tony ducking and Harry followed right behind him, glad he was a little shorter.

"I just learned it—it means wizards or witches or both. It's a lot easier to say."

"That's just weird," Tony said.

"Do you think we're really in the mountains or just in a magically enhanced room?" Harry asked.

"I think we're in the French Alps, for sure. It is too much like the real thing to be magically enhanced. I mean I've seen some pretty amazing magic before, but this takes the pumpkin pastie. Okay, it's getting a little steep here. Let's go slowly. I think we went through some sort of portal. Did you feel it when we went through the door?"

Tony slipped just then and lurched backward as he tried to catch himself. Harry hanging onto his shirt, pushed a bit and helped him right himself. Harry slid a little too on the sandy slope that was littered with tiny marble-like rocks, but steadied himself with his staff and by leaning on Tony.

"Whoa"… "phew"… "thanks"… "yeah, thanks."

They recovered and kept going, a little more carefully.

Harry was surprised that Healer Jordan hadn't joined them yet. Or that Mei and Gemma and Aminah hadn't caught up with them. Or anyone else for that matter.

Didn't Healer Jordan say there was something like sixteen people doing the residency program?

"Where is everyone?" Harry asked.

"Well, that blind guy went down to the ship to get Healer Jordan."

"Didn't both of them go?"

"What do you mean, both?"

"There were two guys who were trying to help you get up… " Harry said and then started to doubt himself.

"There was just one guy."

"Their voices were totally different… "

"Yeah, I thought that was weird," Tony agreed.

"… and their voices were coming from two different places," Harry went on.

"Well, I only saw one guy."

Tony was adamant and Harry decided to let it go, mostly because he had to really focus on what he was doing. It was a lot harder to follow Tony holding on to his shirt than it was to hold on to Gemma's arm. When Gemma or Healer Jordan or Hermione had been guiding him, he got signals from their body language about what was coming up—slight pauses or subtle movements. Healer Jordan and Hermione added verbal cues that helped, too, but of course, Gemma couldn't. She was really attentive, though, and really made up for it with how she communicated through the movement of her arm or she'd touch his hand with her other hand for additional information.

Tony's shirt did none of those things. Still, it was better than his staff alone on this treacherous terrain.

"How much farther do we have to go?" Harry asked. This was a workout.

"We're nearly there. Just a few more switchbacks and we'll have reached the part that's pretty level with the lake where the ship is anchored and then it looks like it is pretty straight and even until we get to the dock."

"This is a pretty big step down here from this rock," Tony said as he paused and Harry ran into his back.

"Omphff, sorry!" Harry apologized. "I didn't know you were going to stop."

Tony stepped down and Harry's hand holding his shirt pulled it up a good foot or so. He moved his hand to Tony's shoulder and explored the drop off with his staff. He moved over to Tony's side slowly feeling the rock with his trainers (they weren't quite so squishy anymore—though his toes felt like they were pickled) and took a deep breath and stepped off the rock to land next to Tony. His momentum carried him a step further and he lost his balance for a second, but Tony had planted his feet and Harry used his staff as a walking stick to stabilize himself and he didn't fall.

"Wow, that was quite a drop-off. How's Mei going to manage that?" Harry wondered.

Harry felt Tony twist around to look up the mountainside.

"It kind of looks like Healer Jordan is up there with them and that she's levitating Mei." Tony seemed perplexed.

"I thought she was down at the ship."

"There are people on the ship, but Healer Jordan is definitely up there with Gemma and Mei and that Paki girl," Tony insisted. "She kind of stands out."

"Her name is Aminah," he felt a little nauseated. He was starting to like Tony and then he'd say something like 'Paki.' It made him really uncomfortable and reminded him of Uncle Vernon. "And what do you mean… she kind of stands out? Who? Healer Jordan?"

"Yeah. You know," Tony stalled.

"No, I don't."

"She's so dark and her clothing is so colorful. She's like a neon sign. And her hair—it looks like snakes," Tony elaborated.

"Oh, well, I didn't know," Harry said, feeling like he was missing a lot or maybe it was Tony who was missing a lot.

"Right," Tony got quiet.

The path had gotten a bit easier to traverse and they were moving a little more quickly. The bell on the ship was still ringing rather rhythmically and now he could hear a faint drumming as well. It kind of sounded like there was a party on board. Maybe for that reason, the birds were less chirpy.

"Oh, watch out for that bush—it has thorns on it." Tony warned a little too late.

Harry felt the thorns catch on his trousers and he stopped, letting go of Tony's shirt.

He bent to try to free them and recoiled when the thorns sliced his fingers.

"Oh, ow. I should have seen that coming."

"How could you?" Tony grunted.

"Just a figure of speech," Harry retorted, the sting of the thorns making him less amenable.

"Yeah. It's kind of weird, right? How we keep using words that no longer really apply. Like today I said that something was handy. And here I am, 'Look at me, no hands, mum!' Nothing is handy for me, except I keep saying it."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. He had freed himself from the thorns and sucked on his pierced fingertips.

He reached out for Tony again, and Tony backed into his outstretched hand.

"Thanks," Harry said and they continued. His fingertips throbbed where they had been cut and he wondered if he was leaving bloodstains on his staff.

I really need to learn some quick healing charms. I hope that is some of what we learn here, Harry thought.

They had just walked around the third switchback and the drumming on the ship was louder. The path was no longer zigzagging across the side of the mountain… they were heading straight for the sounds on the ship. Water was lapping against the sides of the ship and footsteps were sounding on wood planks.

"Okay, we're going to walk up a gangplank," Tony warned.

Harry hesitated, pulling on Tony's shirt as he stalled, "Wait, really?"

"It's okay. It's wide enough," Tony assured.

"There's no railing or anything?"

"No, it's about two feet wide and there's a raised board every foot or so, to give you some traction."

"How high up does it go?"

"It's pretty steep. I'd say it's about as high as the staircases in Hogwarts," Tony had stopped and Harry could hear that his foot was on wood now, not the gravel path. "Come on, you can do this. Didn't you kill a Basilisk?"

"Yeah and look where that got me," Harry shot back.

"Good point."

Harry stepped forward, shifting his hold on Tony's shirt to his left side so he was squarely behind him. Tony started moving up the gangplank, leaning forward to adjust his body's weight to the incline.

"Potter, stop pulling me back. You're strangling me," Tony protested.

Harry slid his hand down a bit so that he wasn't tugging on Tony's shirt so much.

"Hey, you made it!" The second man from the hike called down to Harry and Tony. His voice seemed much farther away than Harry was imagining.

Harry flinched and then tried to relax and concentrate on finding the next raised wooden plank with his foot, shifting his weight deliberately and carefully. He was really disconcerted by the way the plank and the boat seemed to be moving with the water.

Slowly as they progressed up the gangplank, the sounds of the water lapping against the ship sounded farther away and the noises on the deck neared.

On the hill behind them, Harry could hear Mei's loud complaints and thought "At least we made it."

And then it occurred to him that they'd have to go back down the gangplank and then hike up the mountain to return. The thought almost made him pitch over the side, but he steadied himself.