Harry was having a hard time getting comfortable on his broom. His arms ached, his rear end was sore, his feet kept falling asleep. This was the longest he'd ever been on a broom without any kind of break. Above the clouds, the sun was brutal and his hands were slippery on the broom handle. Rivulets of sweat were making tracks down the sides of his face and under his arms. He was thankful for the invisibility cloak which was probably preventing a sunburn, but it was like a sauna under it. He was really thirsty.

Once Nio had helped him navigate around the tree branches and telephone wires and get above the clouds, the little snake had retreated to nap against Harry's belly where he didn't have to worry about the dizzying heights, sun, or wind—or Hedwig.

Harry had nearly jumped off his broom in surprise when Hedwig hooted gently near his ear shortly after they had cleared the clouds—the cool mist of the clouds falling away to impossibly hot, bright light.

When her wings brushed against his cheek, he wondered why he had never thought to fly with Hedwig before… when he could see. He pushed the thought away and in his mind's eye, he imagined the way the wind would lift her up under her wings and ruffle her feathers. He imagined her piercing eyes, steady on the horizon. She was so stealthy that he only knew she was near from her occasional hoots or growls. Harry suspected she made the noises to warn off other birds when he heard the distant calls of geese. Nio wiggled with alarm whenever she made those noises and Harry marveled at how the little snake had ever made the journey from Surrey to London.

When Hedwig started to fall behind, Harry slowed down.

"Hedwig, do we need to stop and rest?" Harry asked hopefully.

She made a cooing noise that sounded like an affirmative.

"Nio, can you climb up to my neck and help me find a place to land?" Harry said, nudging the sleeping snake with his fingers.

The little snake protested a bit and then started squirming up Harry's torso. Harry supported the snake through his shirt to minimize the tickling as Nio climbed up to his perch under his chin.

He also spoke to his staff, "Navigant a safe and muggle-free spot to rest." But instead of directing them to a new location, the staff stopped making any vibrations at all. And then he felt another vibration at a different frequency that was coming from inside his broom; it wasn't directional, rather repetitive, occurring every few minutes. He had a feeling he knew what it was and was eager to land so that he could confirm his suspicions.

"What do you see, Nio?" Harry asked. "Any good landing spots?"

The little snake coiled tightly around his neck, nearly choking him.

"It's okay. I've got you and you're strangling me," Harry said, threading a finger underneath the snake's cool belly.

"I really don't like looking," Nio said in a tremulous voice. "Flying is for birds, not snakes."

As if she understood, Hedwig hooted softly, her feathers brushing Harry's forehead. A moment later Harry grabbed the broom handle with both hands again as the broom dove down through the clouds. Harry's stomach tried to exit from his mouth. He gulped it back in with the realization that a sudden weight had settled on the end of his broom. Hedwig's alarmed cries came from the same spot and he realized as he fought to bring the broom back up, that she had landed on his broomstick. Nio's grip on his neck intensified and for a moment Harry was certain he was either going to die of asphyxiation or from sudden contact with the earth.

Once he adjusted the broom (helped by Hedwig scooting closer to his hands), he was able to tug at Nio's coils and breathe again.

He gasped, "Hedwig. You've got to warn me next time." She grumbled in a way that could be taken as a grudging apology.

The air around Harry and his companions was wet and the sun's intensity, gone. Harry shivered.

"We must be inside a cloud," Harry said in parseltongue.

"Yes, we are," Nio replied. "It's cold!"

"I'll go down more and you tell me if we're near someplace safe to land… my staff didn't understand," Harry explained to Nio.

Emerging from the clouds, the wind was more buffeting than it had been earlier and it carried the scent of brine.

"We're near the ocean?" Harry asked.

"What's an ocean?" Nio responded.

"Lots of salty water," Harry said, inhaling deeply.

"Oh."

Hedwig growled a warning.

"What is it?"

"More of those metal sticks."

"Wires?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"Yes, but I see them. I'll guide you around them. We're getting closer to the ground," Nio said, obviously relieved.

Nio swayed from side to side, guiding Harry with his movements as they neared the earth. Harry could hear the wind rattling leaves as well as the sounds of cars on a roadway.

"Take us away from any legwalkers or their moving chairs," Harry advised.

"Cars?" Nio offered.

"Yes, those," Harry laughed.

Hedwig made a growling sound and Harry wished he understood owls as well as he understood snakes.

"There's a gathering of trees ahead and near them some large stones. There aren't any legwalkers, houses, or their cars nearby. I think it's a good spot. No wires, either."

"Okay, that sounds good."

"And it is before we reach the big salty water. I can't see the other side of it… is it really that big?"

"I've only seen it once, but it was stormy and nighttime—but it seemed endless," Harry said.

The little snake shivered and his coils tightened on Harry's neck. "The world is far larger than I ever imagined."

"Yeah."

Hedwig hooted softly and stretched her wings so that the tips brushed Harry's hands and face. The broom lurched in response to her movements and Harry remembered the sails on the HMS Eden and how they caught the wind.

He wondered if anyone could see Hedwig riding a stick through the air. Maybe it looked like she was carrying it, instead of it carrying her. He hoped so. The invisibility cloak was billowing and whipping around him as they dove down toward the earth.

"Is there something that I can tell my staff to guide us to?" Harry asked Nio.

"Yes, there is a circle of rocks," Nio said. "They'd be good for sunning ourselves."

Harry was already telling his staff to navigate to the circle and following the vibrated directions as they descended. Hedwig hooted in protest and launched off the broom so unexpectedly that Harry yelped and was once again struggling to keep them on a steady path. His dangling feet scraped against something solid as he righted the broom and then was able to bring them in for a landing in the center of the stones—the vibrations informing him of their location around them. It wasn't the most graceful landing he'd ever executed, but he didn't fall, either.

"Hedwig!" Harry said sternly, as he dismounted. "You can't just do that! We nearly collided with that er… stone?!"

She hooted dolefully from farther away and higher up than he expected and he turned his body so that his face was turned toward her.

"It's okay. I was just scared. And we'll have to figure out a way to do this so we don't crash," he said in a soothing tone.

He wiggled his toes inside his trainers… they smarted a bit, but seemed to be okay.

He took his staff out of his broom and shoved the broom into the staff's storage, then shook out the staff and squeezed it for a description of the area. His staff described a grassy knoll ringed by lichen covered stones in the clearing of trees and bordered by farmland. From the wind blowing sea air, Harry surmised that they were on a hilltop. The constant undercurrent of cars and trains rumbling Little Whinging was missing… instead there was a thrum of insects and birds, wind through leaves, and, distantly, waves upon stones. He sighed, relieved that maybe they were far enough away from people to be noticed.

Harry swung his staff in front of him in an arc walking across the uneven grass until his staff tinged against a stone.

"Does this look like a good one for sunning ourselves?" he asked Nio.

"It'll do, but the one to your right looks even better," the little snake responded.

Harry walked over to it, collapsed and flicked his staff into his arm holster then knelt, his hands out in front of him until he found the craggy surface and a spot to sit. He adjusted the invisibility cloak so that the ties weren't digging into his wrists. He was tempted to take it off, but then remembered that he ran away while the Minister of Magic was at Privet Drive… who knew how many Aurors were looking for him already.

He transferred Nio from his neck to the warm rock and then, mindful that he didn't lay on the snake, stretched out on the surface, resting his head on his hands. He drew in deep breaths as the sun warmed him and helped his aching muscles relax. After a little bit, Hedwig hooted faintly as she flew overhead and he understood her to mean that she was going hunting and would be back soon. He sat up again and summoned his water bottle from his staff and gulped some water, pouring a bit in the lid for Nio.

"Any chance you can dig around for some worms?" Nio asked in a drowsy voice after he'd lapped up the water.

Harry smiled in response and scooted to the edge of the rock, grazing the surface lightly with his hands until it started to slope toward the earth. He winced as the uneven texture gouged his knees. His progress was delayed, though, when his fingers encountered a ridgid line carved into the stone. He followed it and found that it was intersected by two snaking lines undulating over the centerline. He puzzled them out and followed the incised lines that culminated in radiating lines.

"Hey, Nio! Look at this. I think it is two snakes and a bird? Or is it winged snakes?" Harry asked, turning his head toward the snake. As he ran his fingers over the carving, he realized that it was buzzing with faint magic. He pulled his hands back and rubbed his tingling fingers with his thumbs.

Nio dislodged small stones on the surface of the rock as he slithered to Harry's knees.

"Snakes don't have wings," Nio stated. "It looks like the stick has wings."

"I wonder what it means," Harry said.

"Worms."

"What?"

"You were going to hunt worms for me…" Nio reminded him.

"Oh, right." Harry found the edge of the rock again and followed the curve to the tendrils of wet grasses and heather that surrounded the stone. He was thankful that this July had been rainier than usual because the earth was soft and it was easy to pull the tufts of grass out and it wasn't too long before he'd gathered some plump, wriggling insects for Nio.

As the snake feasted, Harry's stomach rumbled. It had been a while since he'd been licking the lemon curd from his fingers. He wished he'd had a chance to stash some food in his staff. As if aware he was thinking about it, his staff vibrated against his forearm and he remembered that he was going to check the slate that Gemma and Peter had given him.

Harry brushed the dirt from his hands and settled on the stone slab again. He was about to summon the slate from his staff, but as he had found a seat on the stone, his hand had pressed against the carving of the snakes and it sent a tremor through his body, heating up under his hand. He yelped in surprise and scooted away from it. The trembling became a roar and Harry had to throw himself on the surface of the rock to keep from falling off. His hands scrambled frantically across the surface, trying to find handholds as it lurched and gyrated. Nio hissed from under his belly, and a gut-wrenching grinding of stone against stone filled the air. Dust erupted around them and an earthy dankness engulfed them, cool, wet air filling his lungs.

"What's going on? Is the earth opening up?" Harry shouted.

Nio's muffled response was unintelligible and Harry rolled to the side so the snake could breathe. His body whipped against Harry's as he slid under Harry's chin to look over the side of the rock.

"It appears so, Sthei," the snake hissed near his ear. "Stairs of stone descending into a dark tunnel."

"Do you think there's any food down there?" Harry asked hopefully.

"There's plenty up here," Nio offered.

"My kind of food," Harry clarified.

"What? You don't like worms?"

"Er, no, I don't think so."

"You've never tried them?"

"Not yet. I imagine they taste like slimy dirt."

"Exactly. Delectable!"

"So, this staircase… what do you think? Should we check it out?"

"I like tunnels."

"I should let Hedwig know where we're going. What if the tunnel closes again once we're inside?"

"How about I take a look around and you stay up here?" Nio suggested.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'll be able to find another way out if it closes."

"All right. That's probably wise," Harry said, but he was feeling left out. He really wanted to go exploring with Nio, even if it was down into a dark, mysterious hole.

"Hey, Nio!" Harry called after the snake as it glided away from him. "Wait for me. I want to go with you. Hedwig will be fine."

"Oh, all right. But let me ride on your neck. I don't want you to step on me," Nio said as he nudged Harry's outstretched hand. Harry transferred him to his neck and then flicked out his staff so that he could figure out where the stairs opened up. He edged around to the side of the stone and slid off. Nio told him how to find the entrance to the stairs and he descended into the cavern, shivering as the temperature dropped.

The stone rumbled again once Harry descended the stairs, stooping so that he didn't hit his head on the lintel at Nio's warning. Harry turned, braced himself against the cool stone wall and held his breath as the sun was eclipsed by the closing rock above him. He fought his panic at the thought of being entombed by focusing on Nio's reassuring hisses. His hands ran over the textured stone walls following the crevices where the individual stones had been fitted together to make a wall. He felt forward with his toes and found that the ground was even under the dusting of dislodged pebbles and dirt. With his hands, he found another incised carving of the snakes embracing around a winged staff near the ceiling of the tunnel. It tingled when he traced it and when he pressed his whole hand against it, it warmed up as the one above had done, and the stone screeched open again, allowing light to flood into the underground cavern. After the cascade of dirt and pebbles stopped raining down on them, Harry breathed out a deep sigh.

"We're not going to be trapped down here," Harry whispered in Parseltongue.

"There's always another way out," Nio reassured.

Harry and Nio decided that it would be better to leave the door open so that Hedwig would know where to find them. It seemed unlikely that other people would be exploring this deserted area.

"I can't believe I'm going down into tunnels again. We just escaped the tunnels—wait—was that two days ago? It seems like an eternity," Harry sighed. "I can't believe I'm here again. At least I have you, Nio."

"And it's just us. No recent scents of manic leg-walkers with the chaos sticks. This place has belonged to the earth dwellers for a long time. A long, long time," Nio's head bobbed up and down under Harry's chin as his tongue tasted the air. "It is safe down here. It smells like home."

Harry swung his staff from side to side, touching the walls on either side and with his left hand, traced it on the wall, ghosting it over the surface as tall and as low as he could reach wondering if there were other carved symbols that would awaken the magic of the tunnels.

Nio warned him of a metal structure sticking out of the wall near the ceiling and Harry held his staff in the crook of his arm so that he could examine it with both hands. After a bit of puzzling, he decided it was a wall-sconce to hold a torch.

"Don't really need that, do we?" Harry chuckled.

As they progressed down the tunnel that sloped gently, gradually going deeper and deeper into the earth, Harry found that the wall sconces were evenly placed on either side of the tunnel.

"I think we're nearing the center of the stone circle," Nio noted.

"How do you know?"

"I can feel the space opening up. We're approaching a larger space. Also, I can hear water. Can't you?"

Harry stilled for a second, listening hard. He could hear a faint trickling noise and it did sound as if the space were larger ahead.

"What is this place?" Harry asked in wonder, his hissing voice echoing ahead and revealing a much larger space than he imagined possible from the steps he'd taken from the center of the stone circle to find the rock they'd sunned themselves on.

His staff was no longer touching the wall on his right as he made his way forward, left hand still exploring the wall. Nio drew in a deep breath as the wall came to a corner and Harry walked into the larger space; cool, fresh air lapped against his face.

"What is it?"

"It is a good place… water, air, food… and I think there must be another way to reach the sun's warmth. There are tunnels going in many directions."

"What do you mean food?" Harry asked.

"Your kind of food… the kind that grows in the earth… it dangles from the ceiling, near the pool."

"Like roots?" Harry asked.

"There are always lots of insects near the roots," Nio said with undisguised glee.

Nio directed Harry to walk across the room. The silvertip on his staff told him that the ceiling rounded up high above his head in the center and that there were evenly spaced tunnels entering into the central space… he imagined that each one led to a stone up in the circle above based on their spacing.

Harry's staff tinged against stone and the gurgling water was louder on this side of the room.

Nio instructed him to kneel down—that he was at the pool's edge.

Harry found that the pool was bordered with a short wall that formed a bench around it. He sat on it and dipped his fingers in the cool water, bringing some up to splash on his face.

"Why'd you do that?" Nio sputtered, indignant.

Harry rubbed the water on the back of his neck and discovered that he was coated in dirt.

"It feels good," Harry said, leaning closer to the water and cupping his hands to drink some. "Oh, that's the best water I've ever tasted. Where are the roots?"

Nio told him to stand up and follow the pool's border to the wall. There Harry discovered that an alcove had been carved out of the stone wall and roots hung down from the ceiling. Nio told him that there was another one on the other side of the spring that ran down the wall, filling the pool.

Harry climbed up into the alcove and felt the hanging tendrils—a network of roots; some were as thin as threads and others were full and heavy. He tugged on one and came easily.

"What do you think? Safe for me to eat?" He asked, holding it to the snake's nose under his chin.

"Smells like sweet earth to me, if you like that sort of thing," Nio replied.

Harry climbed down from the alcove and took the root to the pool where he washed it off and pulled off the thread-like hairs. The top of the root was a feathery fan of leaves that smelled crisp and sharp.

Tentatively, Harry bit into it and it made a satisfying crunch. Sweetness exploded in his mouth.

"Oh, it's good. A carrot. Best carrot I've ever had."

From a long way away, Harry heard a hoot.

"Oh, Hedwig's noticed that we're down here," Harry said, taking another bite of the carrot.

She hooted again and Harry's head shot up. It was an alarm.