17. Aunt Matilda.

Adam found himself in a semi-twilight. A thick grey cloud covered everything from horizon to horizon, a cold wind blowing at his back. He could hear Tony moving around beside him muttering under his breath, a light appeared above them and a rope ladder dropped to the floor. Adam looked up at the bottom of a large boat, at least ten meters long and around four wide, hanging impossibly above his head. In the dim orange light, Tony grinned at him as he grabbed the ladder.

Welcome to Aunt Matilda." He hauled himself up the ladder.
Adam followed him up with difficulty as the rope ladder swung around wildly. He found himself on a wooden deck, light spilling from an open doorway showed the wheelhouse, behind a covered windowed room stretching about three meters back. Beside the wheel were some stairs and a corridor leading off into the darkness. He stepped down the short flight of stairs and walked down the corridor, passing two doors on either side. He opened the first door and found a large neat well-appointed kitchen. Adams' brain screamed that something was wrong, but refused to explain what. He closed the door before opening the one opposite, finding a shower, toilet, and basin. He closed the door and moved down to the next two doors.

"No way." He exclaimed as he looked into a large bedroom, complete with a four-poster bed, wardrobes, bureaux, and a large chest at the foot of the bed. He pulled the door closed, took a deep breath, and opened the last door, finding another bedroom, only this time the bed had only a bare mattress on it. Adam marched back to the wheelhouse and looked at Tony's smiling face.
"Extension charm took me ages to get it right."
"You say they can be big enough for hundreds of people to live in?"
"Yes." He paused for a moment, allowing Adam time to catch up. "If I have guests, I can add more rooms as required." Adam shook his head and walked into the rear room, which led off the wheelhouse. It was as he expected, a neat semi-circular room with windows all around, which would give an amazing view was it not so overcast. A large desk dominated the far end of the room, which looked out through the windows. Two small settees opposite each other with a small table between them filled the centre of the room. The space under the windows contained bookcases, filled with an assortment of strange-looking books.
"A veritable home from home," Adam said, dropping into one of the comfortable-looking chairs. He watched Tony tap the wheel with his wand. He felt rather than heard a deep rumble from underneath as the boat seemed to surge forward.
"Are we going somewhere?" he asked.
"Out over the lake and up a fair distance."
"How do you know where you're going?" Adam asked, moving back into the wheelhouse.
"I've been here for years, so I know the area; also I've added anti-collision charms." He said trying to sound matter-of-factly when in reality he was pleased with the boat.
"Exactly where is here?"
Tony looked around. "Northern Norway or Sweden, nobody seems to know which. About thirty kilometres from Lykkeligdal."
Adam had nothing else to say, realising whenever he felt comfortable with what was going on, he would always be surprised.
Ten minutes later Tony tapped the wheel and the steady thump of the engine died back and then stopped altogether. Adam, who had gone back to the settee, with a book he'd taken from Tony's library. He could feel the boat rock from side to side gently, not to waves, but the wind as it passed them by.

Tony came into the sunroom and tapped his wand on a potbellied stove that sat in the corner and a small fire burst forth inside.
"I have a question." He closed the book and placed it on the table.
"Is it about the boat?"
"Yes and no. If you can make extension charms big enough, as you have said, for entire communities to live in, why is everyone so bothered about Muggles expanding? As far as I can tell, all you need is a boat," he gestured around the room, "and a few extension charms and you can house your entire community?"
Tony nodded at him. A smile played over his face for a moment.
"You agree with me?" Adam asked, surprised.
"Yes. That's the reason I don't think these murders are anything to do with this so-called Muggle problem."
"If Salamander dragons were becoming extinct, why weren't they moved into an extension spell?"
"I don't know."
"Why do you have Drake Hantareres when you could put all the dragons in extension charms?" Again Tony shook his head. "One thing, Charley Weasley said he had to follow the dragons and keep applying the invisibility spells, as they are magical creatures." Tony nodded while frowning. "Can dragons be put in an extension spell?"
"I don't see why not?" He replied after a moment, although Adam could see his frown.
"Does being inside an extension charm cause problems for people in them for any length of time?"
"No, at least I don't think so." He looked down and thought. "I studied extension charms at Durmstrang, I already knew about them from Hogwarts. I learnt what I needed to know to make the adjustments to this boat from Anatoli, but that's about the limit of my knowledge."
The gentle rocking of the boat lulled Adam into an easy sleep, slumped in the chair, the heat from the potbellied stove helping to keep the cold out as the outside temperature dropped. Tony was sitting at the desk which he had covered in books, all open on various pages.

The barge rocked to one side, bringing Adam out of his sleep.
"What did we hit?" Adam asked stretching, seeing Tony already at the window, looking out over the huge lake. The sky was a neutral grey as the sun rose behind a blanket of low clouds.
The sound of wind gusting passed the boat followed by another thump which rocked the boat again.
"We're being attacked by someone on a broom," Tony yelled, dashing out of the room.
He ran into the wheelhouse and out the side door, before climbing up onto the lower roof, with Adam right behind him, his coat over his arm. The dawn sky seemed to flicker before the boat rocked again. A moment later, a figure hunched over a broom passed the end of the boat at speed. Tony's wand was out and pointing at the receding figure. A mix of different colour sparks erupted from his wand, missing the rider by inches. The rider dived below the boat. Tony leaned over the side as the rider sped underneath them. The boat rocked again, hit by the rider, this time underneath.
Adam dodged back and grabbed at the rail to stop himself from falling. He reached into his coat and pulled out his gun. Bracing himself against the side of the boat, the gun at arm's length in both hands, he waited for a target to appear. He did not have to wait long before the broomstick and rider came towards them at speed from above. Adam braced, allowing himself to breathe slowly as he took aim. As the rider turned towards the boat, his forward speed seemed to drop. The gunshot was loud in the early morning. The rider jerked hard left and sped off away from the boat. Tony took that moment to use his wand again. More sparks flew out, and the rider seemed to fold up, then broom and rider fell. They watched as the broom and rider, still as one, dropped before hitting the water with a big splash that would have hurt considering the height they had fallen.
"Adam, keep a lookout, I'm going inside to get the boat started." Adam nodded, keeping his stance ready, scanning the air around the boat.
The boat rumbled into life, turned and dropped, causing Adam to grab at the low metal handrail. In the distance, Adam could see the attacker floundering in the water, in trouble. The boat levelled out a few meters above the water. The persons' struggles were becoming weaker by the second. Adam slipped the gun back into his coat, threw his coat on the floor, and pushed the rope ladder over the side. He was about to go over the side and down the ladder when Tony came out and tapped him on the back, gesturing at him to get off the ladder. He aimed his wand at the person in the water, who rose up to the boat. The figure was no longer struggling as Tony dropped them onto the narrow deck beside the wheelhouse. Adam reached down and rolled them over. They both noticed that blood was running over the deck, then they realised the attacker was a young woman.
"Tony heads up, there's someone else flying around in the distance."
He stood and scanned the horizon, his wand at the ready.
"Take her inside and see if you can stem the blood flow from the bullet wound. I'll keep a watch out here."

Adam grabbed his jacket from the lower deck and threw it inside before grasping the woman under her shoulders and pulling her inside and into the sun deck. He lifted her onto a chair, before checking her over, finding blood coming from a wound in her thigh, which puzzled him, as he had swapped the bullets for the small plastic tranquilliser disks, designed to stop and not injure. He tried rousing her, but she was unconscious.

The boat rocked again, this time the hit was much harder and forced the boat over at an angle, before rolling upright again. Adam went back outside, hanging on the door. Tony was crouched down scanning the sky when a thump hit the underside of the boat, followed by a loud creaking noise as the boat lurched upwards. For a moment, they were both weightless as the boat stopped climbing. The sky lit up as fire erupted from the end of Tony's wand, Adam wondered where he got a flamethrower from, as the fire arched across the sky towards another broom rider. They turned away and headed from them at speed, disappearing into the gloom.
"He's gone for now, but I expect he'll be back. How's our guest?"
"Unconscious with a leg wound that's still bleeding."
"You're good with that gun."
"I missed her, and I used a tranq not a bullet, the wound is from a knife."
They both went into the kitchen. Tony pulled two small potion bottles out of his cupboard as Adam examined the girl's thigh wound. Tony knelt down beside him and opened a bottle. The top contained a small pipette, which Tony used to drop a couple of spots of the liquid onto the wound. As they watched, the wound stopped bleeding and healed up. Tony pulled a blanket out of a cupboard and placed it over her.

As they walked back to the wheelhouse, Adam saw her wand, which he picked up and slipped it into his jacket pocket, which was still on the floor. He was amassing a collection, something he was sure wouldn't go unnoticed for long.

Tony had gone back outside to keep watch, so Adam joined him. As he got to him, he watched Tony tap the handrail of the boat and said "Home." The boat's engine or what passed for an engine thrummed into life and moved, turning while gaining height. As he listened, the sound the boat was making kept changing note as a small, almost unnoticed shudder travelled through her.

Now it was almost full daylight, Adam could see they were about fifty feet above the water of a large lake, they were heading for an island, covered with trees. His stomach lurched for a moment as the boat tipped upwards to miss the tops of the trees. Adam could see a clearing, which the boat dropped into, coming to a halt a few feet above the dry land. The engine cut out, leaving silence to descend, or at least as silent as possible, when hundreds of small birds were circling around, disturbed by their arrival.
Tony tapped the handrail with his wand twice.
"A word of warning Adam, I have reinstated the invisibility spell, if you step off the boat, you will not find her again. Understood?"
"Completely," Adam replied, having given up asking stupid questions about magic and was now happy to believe anything he heard.
"What are we going to do with her?" Adam asked as he gestured inside the boat.
"Wake her up and ask a few questions."
They both sat down as Tony waved his wand at the slumbering figure. Her eyes sprang open and looked at them both through the fringe of still wet blond hair.
"Good morning young lady." Said Adam smoothly, hoping to make her feel less panicky.
They saw her hands move under the cover.
"Where's my wand?" She asked.
"No idea, I assume you dropped it when you fell," Tony replied honestly, Adam kept his mouth shut.
"You knocked me out of the air." She said, anger in her voice and eyes.
"You and your friend were trying your best to knock us out of the sky," Tony replied, echoing her anger.
"I wasn't aiming for you, I was running, till you got in the way."
"Got in the way, we saw you fire on us, my home has been damaged."
"I was trying to hide behind your boat, home, you got in the way." She sat up, the blanket slipping off. Her jacket and shirt were still soaked. She shivered and pulled the cover back up.
Tony stood up and went down to the kitchen. Adam looked at the girl.
"How did you find out where we were?" He asked keeping his voice level.
"I told you."
He interrupted. "And I don't believe you." His voice, was louder this time.
"I don't know who you are, why would I attack you?"
"You realise that Tony is an Auror, he will come back in here and use all the tricks he knows and you will tell us the truth, so be kind to yourself."
"I don't understand." She said, fear entering her voice.

Tony came back with a hot drink in his hand, which he handed to the girl, watching her sip the drink.
"Tony, our young friend here is reluctant to tell me why she is here and why she attacked us. A little of your wand magic should sort that out. I remember what you did with Ramsey Arn..." He left the rest of the sentence hanging when he saw the girl's pupils dilate.
Tony sat down, realising what he was doing, and kept quiet. He rather enjoyed watching Adam interrogate, still amazed at the way he could instil fear into trained wizards.
"Let's start from the beginning. What's your name?"
"My name is Hulda Scrivens."
"Why are you here?" There was a hardness to his voice, not missed by Hulda or Tony.
"I told you, I was running away."
"Again, I do not believe you. Do you have your wand ready?" He said looking at Tony, who placed his own drink on the table and pulled out his wand.
"All right." She said, her voice rising.
"My name is." She paused and looked down. "My name is." She stopped again. Tears rolled down her face as she looked up at the two men. "I don't know my name." She cried into the blanket with great sobs, shaking her body.
Adam stood up; about to comfort the girl when something hit the boat again, rolling it sideways. Adam crashed to the floor, sliding along until he hit the wall, followed by the girl's hot drink. Tony leapt from the chair and ran outside.

Adam rolled and got to his feet, about to follow Tony out the door when his lights went out. The girl grabbed something heavy and smacked him on the head. She checked the first pocket she came to, pulling out his gun. She threw it to one side, not knowing what to do with it, ignoring the other pockets and missing his little wand collection.

Looking out the cabin window, she watched Tony fire spells at the lone broomstick rider, who was speeding around the boat, changing direction, making themselves less of a target. The person on the broomstick dropped below the side of the boat, forcing Tony to stand up and lean over the edge. She leapt out and pushed Tony in the back. He let out a single cry as he tipped headfirst over the edge, falling through tree branches onto the hard-packed ground under the boat.

The girl waved at the other rider, who flew over. He reached down and grabbed her hand as she leapt onto the back of the broom and hung on as the rider sped off away from the listing boat. As they flew away, the broom turned back towards them. The rider leaned over and fired again, this time at Tony on the ground, who had stood up, cradling his arm. There was an explosion of leaves, which floated away in the breeze, Tony's body lay face down on the ground, his arms and legs splayed out.