Of Gods And Wizards

Chapter 3 --- We're off to see the Wizards!

"Have you ever imagined the end of the world?"

"I almost caused it, does that count?"

"No. Because I have seen it."

"Is it horrible?"

"Well, no. Actually, I found it quite beautiful."

"Why?"

"Because I died. And when I died, I stopped seeing."

"Then, do you want to die?"

"Of course not, I smashed my mother's porcelain teakettle when I was three. I hate beautiful things."

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It was early morning when Draco awoke. The soft light of a new dawn was beginning to creep into the Slytherin common room. His neck was stiff and his clothes wrinkled, with the faded scent of greenhouses and snow clinging to the folds. Silvery strands of hair dangled in front of his eyelids, lacking the usual hair gel that held them back in place. He had fallen asleep the night before in a green velvet high-backed chair, where he distinctly remembered brooding over what he had gotten himself into. Whatever prize the Vanir might be offering, it certainly wasn't worth spending any extra amount of time with Potter, not to mention Weasley and Granger. And yet, he had agreed to go. He would have gladly brushed it off as a moment of stupidity, but of course, Draco Malfoy never had moments of stupidity.

"Hey, you look like someone just stepped on your face," came the husky voice of Crabbe, who had just exited from the boy's dormitory. Goyle was chuckling idiotically next to him.

"Oh, you mean I'm starting to look like you," Draco sneered back at Crabbe. He wasn't particularly in the mood to play nice, especially as he spotted an olive-coloured canvas bag with a note attached to it, sitting near his feet. Goyle frowned and looked at the bag.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"It's a body bag. I've finally gone and killed Potter, and I thought I'd leave the evidence in a clearly visible spot because I'm sure that's the last place any of you would ever think to look," Draco snapped back, but he reached down to pick up the note and read it, anyway.

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

I have supplied you with this bag for your trip. Please pack all necessary items and have yourself ready by breakfast. You and your fellow travelers will be setting off by foot through the Forest at 10:00 o'clock sharp. Oh, and Draco, necessary items do not include hair gel or the likes of.

Prof. Albus Dumbledore

Draco snorted, and shoved the letter into his pocket, picking up the bag as he did so. It was heavier then he had imagined. "I'm leaving, and I won't be back for a while. A long while, in fact." He paused to smirk at the confused looks on both of their faces, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some hair gel to pack."

He hoisted himself out of the chair, bag in hand, and sauntered towards his room, leaving Crabbe and Goyle scratching their heads in bewilderment. It rather amused him. He was never overly fond of them, really; they were never close. Draco always viewed them as tools--devices to get what he wanted. He believed that it was impossible for him to make friends. Or at least stand them.

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Seamus woke up to the sounds of Harry and Ron bickering loudly. He rolled over, and kicked lazily at the curtains of his four post bed. They swung back, revealing a distraught-looking Harry waving about a scarlet-coloured canvas bag.

"Ron, I don't think cherry flavored condoms count as a necessity," Harry said, as he grabbed a silvery-looking robe that Seamus rather suspected was an invisibility cloak, and shoved it into his bag.

"Of course they're necessary, Harry. You never know when--" Ron began, but Hermione walked into the room. He immediately proceeded to blush and mumble something about the weather.

"Morning Harry, Ron. Morning Seamus." She smiled at them, "Aren't you ready yet? We're leaving at 10:00 am, you know."

"Hermione, you do realize you're in the boy's dormitory, right?" Seamus asked as he climbed out of bed and picked up his own red canvas bag.

"Of course I do," she replied, but turned a bit pink about the ears. "I'll meet you all downstairs in a few moments, then." Harry chuckled a bit as she left.

Seamus started packing, just as Ron and Harry finished and headed down for Hermione. This bothered him, as they surely could have woken him up, too. He, however, did not want to start this trip with sour feelings, and so decided that they probably tried to wake him, and he simply told them to sod off. He hurriedly packed a few comfortable clothes (none of this robe business), a deck of cards, and an extra pair of wool socks.

As he walked down the stairs to join the trio, he sighed. He had forgotten something. He ran back upstairs and retrieved his inhaler.

"So," Seamus said, when he reached the common room at last. "Where do we go now?"

"Well, I'm assuming breakfast. We should probably take our bags with us, in case we lose track of time." Coming from Hermione, this was comical, as she rarely lost track of anything.

Ron seemed to be thinking the same thing. He replied, "We probably won't have time to come back here anyway."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Because we're stopping by the kitchens on our way out," Ron said, matter-of-factly.

"We most certainly are not," said Hermione. Seamus could remember Hermione's objections to house-elf labor, even from two years ago. "I'm not making those poor house elves work extra, just for us."

"And I'm not going on this trip with no food!" Ron exclaimed. "Plus, we have Dumbeldore's permission." Ron handed her a note that had clearly come with his bag, as the ink matched the color of the straps. It told him that the house elves would expect them in the kitchens after breakfast.

Hermione sighed. "Alright, then."

There was a brief moment of silence, which Harry broke. "Well, let's go then. I'm starved."

They walked down the halls, leaving Seamus vaguely confused as he hurried to catch up. He wondered how they would get to the kitchens. He also wondered how Dumbledore assumed that they even knew how. However, he did not want to start Hermione off again, and decided not to ask either question.

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Susan had tried to make it out of the Hufflepuff common room without much notice, but she was in fact toting a bright yellow bag stuffed with some clothes and other basic necessities, and her efforts were useless.

"Winter vacation isn't for another few days. Susan, really, where are you off to?" Hannah, who was beginning to sound a bit exasperated, asked for the millionth time.

"I've already told you, I'm going away early. Something urgent has come up, and I've just got to go. I'll be away for a while, too, I'm sure." Susan nodded and tried to smile at Hannah, but her nerves were quite flustered.

Hannah appeared to have accepted this for the moment, even if she did look a bit hurt. Susan would have said something to comfort her, but she really didn't have the time. The rest, she was sure, would already be down at breakfast.

A few scattered groups of students sat about yawning in the Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling was glowering stormily, and Susan sighed deeply as she spotted four Gryffindors with matching red bags. Nervously, she ran her fingers through her coarse black hair; she'd forgotten to brush it in the rush of packing. With another sigh, and more then a bit of reluctance, she walked over to their table.

"I don't know what we'll do after that. I guess we'll just have to manage with whatever food we can find. Besides, we couldn't live on chocolate frogs and cream tarts the whole time, anyway," Harry was saying when Susan got within hearing distance.

She wasn't exactly happy with the prospect of mingling with Gryffindors and Slytherins as it was. Hufflepuffs tended to stick to themselves, but even so, Susan had never really found peace at Hogwarts, the way most of the people she knew had. She thought this might have a great deal to do with the fact that getting along with people wasn't really ever her specialty.

"Ahem, hi," she said quietly. They stopped in the middle of their conversation and looked at her. "Hi," she said again, fidgeting slightly.

"Oh, hello Susan. Have a seat, won't you?" Hermione smiled sweetly, which vaguely bothered Susan, though she couldn't say why.

Susan sat down as they continued their conversation, which led from chocolate frogs and cream tarts, to Twinkies, to cream fillings. Half way through the discussion on Ron's extensive Chocolate Frog collection, Susan grew quite interested in a cold piece of bacon on her plate. By the time she picked back up on the conversation, Ron was just saying that they should start on off down towards the kitchen. Susan presumed by the way he was watching the doors that he wanted to leave before Draco Malfoy arrived. Her presumptions were deemed correct when Ron groaned loudly, and a slender blonde boy strolled into the Great Hall.

As Draco approached the Gryffindor table, what few people were occupying the Great Hall turned to watch.

"You know Harry, I should have brought some alcohol," Ron suddenly said.

"Why, Ron?" Harry raised an eyebrow, trying not to grin.

"Well because, it'd make dealing with Malfoy so much easier if we were all drunk."

Seamus nodded wholeheartedly, and Hermione scoffed at them. Susan reached for her necklace--an amber amulet, given to her by her mother, who had received it from her grandmother, and held it between her fingers for a moment, before shoving it back into her robes.

"Would you look at that? Potter and his little fan club-- what a bright way to start my morning." Draco sneered, as he arrived at the Gryffindor table.

"Oh shove it, Malfoy." Harry stood up and glared furiously at Draco, as if daring him to cross the line. Ron, Hermione, and Seamus were on their feet in a moment, too. A few of the watching students gasped in anticipation.

Draco adopted a look of mock heartache, "I come to you in friendship -- well, alright -- seething hatred, but I don't want to be here and I feel I'm being mistreated."

Hermione interposed, a tone of gravity lodged in her voice, "Listen, none of us really want to be here. But we haven't got much of a choice, now have we? We're about to set off on a long journey. This isn't going to be an afternoon stroll through the park. We're going to run into problems, dangers that we can't even imagine. But as long as we have no choice, let's at least make it as pleasant as possible. I'd hate to have to put a full body bind on any of you, just because you couldn't keep your mouth shut." Hermione pulled Harry back, and threw a sharp look at Draco. She could be quite intimidating when she chose.

"Yes well, choice or not, I have no intention of cooperating with any of you," Draco spoke scornfully, swinging his green bag casually over his shoulder and taking a seat at the table next to Susan, who had never gotten up in the first place. "But I do, however, intend on getting my share of the 'Vanir' prize."

"Oh, like you haven't got enough money already, Malfoy," Ron muttered, resentfully.

"Jealous? What?" Draco smirked. "You know, maybe if your mother sold some of her children, she could actually afford to join the Wizarding Weight Watchers."

"Maybe you'll never make it back from this trip and your mother will finally have a reason to wipe that awful look from her face," Harry spat back before Ron even had a chance.

"All of you! Honestly." Hermione threw her hands up in despair.

Both Harry and Ron were a dreadful shade of scarlet, and appeared to be doing everything they could from taking a swing at Draco. While he merely sat back, seeming to be thoroughly pleased with himself for causing such frustrations--and if the comment about his mother bothered him, he didn't show it.

"Hey, what's going on?" The gathering tension dissolved as the six turned to look at a young girl with scarlet hair and a splash of freckles. She looked confusedly back and forth between Harry and the others, Draco, and Susan.

"Oh look. Another Weasley. What fun," Draco said, deadpan.

Ron shifted uncomfortably, "Hey Gin. Uhm... well, I'm--we're--going to be leaving for the winter vacation, and maybe longer, I'm not sure. But, see, the thing is...we have to... and yeah."

"I'm not sure you could find a more inarticulate way to explain anything. Oh, wait, it's you we're talking about here. I have faith in you." Draco never seemed to shut up.

"You're going somewhere with him? And... who's that?" She gave Susan a scrupulous look before starting up again. "And what about Mum and Dad? Have you told them? Where are you going, anyway? Plus, you're leaving early. Winter vacation doesn't even start for a couple days. I'm sure that's not allowed. Are you going to go do something really dangerous? I'm not eleven anymore, you can't lie to me." Ginny glared intently at Ron, hands on hips. The snow was starting to fall outside, and her voice rose highly in the nearly vacant Great Hall. Any students who were not already watching turned to look at them.

Susan decided it was time to intervene. "Sorry to break up this little show, but I do believe we have to be on our way soon."

"Not to mention we've still got to stop at the kitchens." Seamus nodded in agreement.

"Come on Ginny, we'll tell you along the way, and you can make sure to write mum and dad as soon as you get back to the common room," Ron breathed an obvious sigh of relief.

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After explaining a fairly accurate, though less life threatening version of their mission to Ginny (who spent every other moment protesting, until finally Ron and Harry urged her into the Gryffindor Common Room with the threat of a friendly hex or two), and visiting the house elves in the kitchens, the heroes were making their way down through chilled corridors of the castle.

"Wait," Ron said, pausing suddenly.

"What now?" Draco demanded, setting down his overstuffed bag in a huff.

"Which way?" Ron asked, looking around.

"Oh, please don't tell me you're already lost," said Draco, throwing up his arms. "I can already see how much fun this is going to be."

"No, seriously," Ron said, dejectedly. "Which way? Do we get a map? Did one of you get a map, because I think we need one."

"Thank heavens you remembered, Ron. We need to go ask Dumbledore," said Hermione, turning up a wide stone staircase. "He's probably expecting us."

There, on the stairs, to the surprise of everyone excluding Hermione, was Dumbledore. "Why, yes. I thought you might be needing a hint of directions."

"Nice trick, do you do parties? Are you available on weeknights?" Draco said, probably agitated that he had forgotten to complain about having no map.

Dumbledore smiled nonchalantly and seemed determined to ignore Draco. "Sadly, to where you are going, there is no map."

Five mouths dropped. Draco just smirked. "Figures."

"However, when heading to the ends of the earth, one is more likely to be successful by heading north," Dumbledore said. Obviously this meant something to him.

And with a slight swirl of cloaks, Dumbledore vanished, making a nice popping sound, indicating that he had apparated.

Ron turned to Hermione, whose mouth was still hanging open. "No apparating on Hogwarts grounds, eh?"

Seamus, who had been quiet until that point, said simply, "Well, let's begin, then."

Susan smiled. "Famous last words."

Hermione gave her a look that sent chills up her spine, though the cold seeping through the floors and walls with the onset of winter at Hogwarts was no help. Perhaps, she was simply acting the disciplinarian part that she played so well. The only message Susan got was a more foreboding one. It was purely, You don't belong. It hung in the air for a moment, and Susan shuddered impulsively as it passed. Then Hermione and the others turned, walking silently out to the grounds of Hogwarts, towards the forbidden forest, and what lay beyond them in the north.

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Trodding through the snow towards the forbidden forest, in the middle of winter, carrying a rather weighty bag, and heading off to one's doom (though he happened to do that quite often, when he sat down and considered it) was not Harry's idea of fun. The snow had stopped falling from the evening before, when this all began, but the bitter cold frost left over was hardly better.

The six students paused for one silent, collective moment at the edge of the forbidden forest. For this one moment they were only six silhouetted shapes standing at the edge of a vast unknown expanse, blending together, almost into one.

"Sorry to interrupt your 'woe is me, here comes my doom' moment Potter; I know how you enjoy them. But if we stand here any longer, I'm going to get snow in my hair," Draco said.

"And that would be a tragedy of epic proportions," Ron muttered.

"Exactly. I'm glad you see my point," Draco nodded wholeheartedly. Harry had half a mind to tell him his hair looked reminiscent of a blond wig that met a sheering knife and a glue stick on a dark street one night, and seemed highly likely to slide off his head at any given moment.

But instead he simply said, "Shut up, Malfoy," readjusted his grip on his bag, and crossed into the shadows of the forest with Ron and Hermione to either side, and the others in procession.

The daylight was dimmed tremendously under the thick canopy of the forest, so that even in the early morning glow it was akin to walking backwards in time, and into the night. Dark, twisted trunks of ancient trees and the echoing of indistinguishable creatures closed in on the six as they pulled their winter cloaks tighter about them.

They had been going for quite awhile when Draco trudged up to the front of the group. As he passed Harry, he started picking up speed, slowly leaving more and more distance between himself and the rest of the assembly.

"What do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" Harry shouted, finally.

"You're clever, Potter. Figure it out." Draco paused and looked back at Harry with maliciously amused gray eyes. "Oh, wait. Nevermind."

"We can't split up. There's a lot of forest to cover before we get out of here and I don't want to get caught in the middle of the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night by myself, and I don't think you do either."

"You see, there in lies your problem. You don't think. It's all the same with you Gryffindors." Draco adopted a mockingly serious tone, "You think this path may be perilous? Oh, most certainly! In fact, we'll probably lose our lives in the process! All the more reason to charge blindly into all sorts of danger in the name of -"

"We do not charge blindly into danger!" Harry said indignantly, throwing his bag to the ground.

Before Draco even had a chance to retort, a great shout arose from the rear of the group, and they had enough time to turn and see a head of sandy hair disappear into a black pit.

"And there they go again," Draco said with smirk.

Slowly, Seamus' vision came back into focus. The last thing he remembered was pausing to reach for his inhaler as he caught up to the rest of the group, when the ground rumbled slightly and gave way from beneath him. Now, he was obviously in the bottom of some rather damp hole, and quite a bit sore, too. After he reoriented himself, he could make out voices calling from above.

"Can you see anything?" called Hermione.

"Did you break anything?" asked Harry.

"So, you've fallen for me, too?" cracked Draco.

Seamus stood up and flexed his arms and legs to check for injury, while trying to preserve whatever bit of dignity he had left. Nothing was broken, but his head ached a great deal and he was a tad muddier then he would have preferred. The contents of his bag were scattered along the floor of the pit, and the bag itself hung somewhat ripped from a root protruding from the thick wall of dirt.

"I'm alright, I think," he called up finally.

"That's all good and well, but how are we going to get you out of there?" Ron asked, looking down the hole at Seamus.

"We need rope," Harry stated matter-of-factly.

"Rope? Oh, I thought we were Wizards," Susan Bones said wryly. "You know, with magic powers. Why use rope, when you can Accio?"

Draco snickered appreciatively at this quip, but Susan merely scowled at him, too. Seamus rather fancied the rope idea, as Accio was never as precise with people as it was with objects. To make matters worse, it occurred to him that there wasn't a great deep hole in the middle of the forest for nothing.

He mentioned this to the others.

"Perhaps we should hurry, then," Hermione replied, sounding a bit anxious. Raising her wand into the air, and saying "Accio", she brought Seamus into the air and safely to the ground. With this, Hermione turned and smiled smugly at Susan.

After walking about ten steps, Seamus stopped. The group turned around to stare at him.

"I'm missing something," Seamus said, running through a checklist in his mind. "Oh. Oh. Oh, no."

"Don't worry, Seamus. I packed extra cherry-flavored condoms," Ron interjected.

Hermione stared.

"You know, just... in case," Ron said, sheepishly.

"No. I've lost my inhaler. It must have fallen out of my bag," Seamus said, searching the ground in vain hope. "It must still be down there."

The group, aside from Draco, apprehensively approached the hole again. It was suddenly darker, and even more unwelcoming than it had been when it was occupied by Seamus. The thought of retrieving the little plastic object seemed to be terribly overwhelming.

"Hey, Potter. Relative of yours?" said Draco.

The group immediately turned around, wondering who should be offended, and were surprised to see a short leathery-skinned creature with large watery eyes and an overly shiny head, holding Seamus' inhaler in his three-fingered hand. It was partly cloaked in the shadows of the forest, but its yellow orbs peered intently at the six, nonetheless.

"What is it?" Harry whispered in Hermione's ear. He had thought for a moment that it might have been a house elf, but they had much longer noses and pointy ears.

"I... I think it's a Nippel." Hermione said.

Ron made a particularly amusing coughing noise. "A... what?!"

"Nippel, and I'm very much here to help you," the creature barked, waving the inhaler around in an exaggerated motion.

Draco made a disgusting look on his face. "That thing talks?"

He was rewarded with an equally unappealing look by the creature, who strutted over to Hermione and gently placed the inhaler into her hand. "You may very much wish to explain to your smug friend who I am."

"I don't care," Draco said, shrugging his overstuffed bag and looking generally annoyed.

"Oh, but you will. This creature--this... Nippel. Well, he can help us find this sword for one. Nippel's have helped travelers for centuries. They appear most often to... " Hermione was, for once, at a loss for words.

"Warn them of great peril. Very much so," said Nippel. "And that is exactly what I am here to do."