Ynunlle

Chapter V

Friday, August 1, 1997

Supervised by Edward and Carole Potter and Tonks, the five teens descended into Diagon Alley a little after 9:00 am. They were a bit more dispirited than usual. Hermione glanced through Flourish & Blotts, but since there were no new N.E.W.T. materials she did not already own, she was not interested in looking further. Harry walked past the Quidditch supply store without a second glance. Luna did not try to coax them into any of the smaller, off-beat stores and, since her father was investigating a story in Wales, did not drop by The Quibbler office. None of the five even evinced any interest in ice cream.

So, after Hermione had investigated the bookstore, the group went straight to Freebody's Outfitters, where clothing other than robes and associated garments were sold. The clothes were Muggle-style, but magically reinforced denims, and dragon-hide combat boots magically made to fit without having to be 'broken in' and similar gear.

"Caps?" Harry asked with distaste, looking at an array of them.

"Where you're going has a real temperature range," Carole told them. "It will be anywhere between Forty to Fifty most mornings. By early afternoon, it might be around Eighty, and back to the low Seventies by dusk. Most afternoons are pretty sunny, too."

The girls all went for practical wide-brimmed denim hats, but Harry and Neville went for more traditional bargemen's caps.

By noon, the group was outfitted. Since they showed no interest in having lunch in Diagon Alley, they returned to Potter Place.

After a very quiet luncheon, Dumbledore appeared. The group agreed that they might as well go to Hogwarts. While their 'adventure' hung over them, Potter Place had lost its appeal.

Harry and Luna had worried that they would be separated, since Luna would be sent to spend the night in her Ravenclaw dorm. Edward and Dumbledore had decided, however, that the group should instead spend the night in their Ynunlle accommodations. That would give them a chance to get used to it, and to discover if they were missing anything before leaving.

The group therefore trooped directly to Myrtle's bathroom, accompanied by Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey. Hagrid was not waiting for them, however. Instead, they saw a much different figure.

"Charlie!" Ginny cried, rushing to fling herself into his arms.

"Hey, Squirt!" Charlie said, hugging her back.

"I had hoped Hagrid could make the journey, but I'm sure Mister Weasley will more than suffice," Dumbledore told them, holding the door open so they could enter the girl's lavatory. A flushing sound signaled Myrtle's fleeing before the onslaught.

"Why can't Hagrid come?" Harry asked, worried.

"Just a minor problem with the accommodations," Dumbledore said. "You'll see once we reach the arch." Dumbledore took them to the sink. "If you would?"

"Open," Harry said in Parseltongue. The portal to the Chamber of Secrets' slide opened.

"Might I suggest the command of 'stairs'?" Dumbledore asked Harry.

"Stairs," Harry ordered.

A set of stairs spiraled down into the darkness. "Oh," Harry said, "that makes sense."

Flitwick led the way, followed by Dumbledore and Edward. The trio slowly made their way, cleaning up the tunnel, and setting up supports as well, especially at the site of the cave-in. Before Harry opened up the Chamber itself, they all enclosed themselves in the Bubble-head charm. Even though it had been just over four years, the huge body of the basilisk might have decayed fairly slowly. The teens had no compunction of standing outside the Chamber while the adults went in and cleaned up.

An hour later, the teens were allowed in. The basilisk's skeleton had had what little decayed flesh remained stripped off it and then it had been cleaned. The skeleton itself now laid over on the left side of the chamber, winding around the columns. It would become an exhibit the following year. Removing the bubbles, the students all found the air still a bit stale, but not unbearably so.

Dumbledore came out from behind the statue representing Salazar Slytherin. "As we suspected, the back of the base was built over the arch," he told the group. "It partially powers the defensive wards for the entire school! Still, We can set up anywhere."

"Set-up what?" Harry almost demanded.

Reaching into a pocket, Dumbledore pulled out twelve chains, each with a small black cube on it. Dumbledore handed one to each of the travelers, Carole and Madam Pomfrey, and had them wear them as necklaces, and yet hold the black cube in their off-wand hand while touching their wands together.

Dumbledore added his wand to the travelers, followed by Pomfrey and Carole, and then he said an incantation. An orange light spread up their arms, and it turned a light green when the glow hit the cubes.

"The habitat is now attuned to the twelve of us, which is the maximum," Dumbledore told them as he lowered his wand. "No one else may enter the habitat for the next two months, although of course you will be back long before then. It also allows those of us who are staying here to communicate with you. One of us will be awake and on duty at all times."

He turned to Edward and Remus. "If one of you would care to demonstrate?"

"These habitats have been developed over the centuries to explore Ynunlle," Edward explained as he took his necklace off and set it one the ground. He touched his wand to the cube and said, "Expand!"

The cube expanded into what looked like a little one person canvas tent. "Yes," Dumbledore said, "many of the principles are very similar to the type of tents I believe some of you used at the Quidditch world Cup a few years ago. This has a number of additional capabilities, including the security and communication features. Also, any number of your cubes may be activated at the same time. You may deactivate your entrance from inside; if you don't, you will exit from your entrance."

"That means if we get separated during the day, we can still get together at night, and easily leave together the next day" Edward put in.

"Precisely," Dumbledore agreed. "There is a month's worth of fresh food under preservation spells, and many other supplies. Why don't you all enter and familiarize your selves for now, and Madam Pomfrey, Mrs. Potter, and I will be in in an hour or so?"

Remus dropped to his knees and crawled into the tent. Harry shrugged and followed.

And he crawled into a carpeted room that would have done any wealthy hunting lodge proud. There were stones right at the crawlway entrance, but that soon gave way to a plush burgundy carpet. The room was some forty-five feet long and twenty feet wide, and perhaps twelve feet high. The wall to his left was had an immense stone fireplace in the center and had filled bookshelves on either side.

The entrance wall had a rather complete-looking bar on the fireplace side. The other side held clothes hooks and some low wooden shelves, with stools near by, obviously so they could shed their outside clothes if they desired. While the furniture on the fireplace side was deep sofas, captain's chairs, and rustic tables, the right side had a billiard table and a card table.

By now, the others were in the entrance room as well. "There are five bedrooms on either side of this room," Remus told them, "each with a WC and shower attached, and one large bath. Through that door," he told them, pointing at the center of the far wall, "we have the dining area and kitchen. Above the entrance," they all turned and noticed there were five mirrors, "we have our spy glasses."

Remus touched his wand to the center mirror, and the view in front of the tent appeared. The mirror below showed the view from the back, while the mirror above showed the ceiling of the Chamber. "The Headmaster recently upgraded these, based on some Muggle ideas, so that there's now a night-vision option, as well as record and fast play-back."

"And the Pure-Bloods like to think only they have ideas," Hermione said with a sniff.

"Now, now, Hermione," Remus chided gently, "none of that. These aren't decorative tiles under the mirrors, by the way; they activate our defenses, communications, and the entrances. The red shrinks the outside back to the size of the cube, although in the shape of a rock. Although it's the size and actual weight of a small stone, it has the inertial mass of the entire structure."

"So it won't crush whatever it's on, but it can't be moved?" Hermione asked.

"Exactly. The green tile restores the tent shape. Don't ask about the others; that's too complicated to go into now. There should be copies of the manuals in each of the bed rooms." Remus turned full around. "Why don't you all choose your rooms? Take the right side -- five rooms and a bath. Your bags should be right inside the corridor."

The five teens did as they were told, and saw there were indeed five doors, presumably leading to the five bedrooms and bath. "Ginny, you take that first one on the left; Neville, you're in the last one. Harry will have this one, then Luna and myself at the other end."

"But. . . ." Ginny protested.

"No buts!"

"But. . . ." Harry started.

"If the bedrooms are the width suggested by the corridor, they're only twelve feet to fourteen feet wide at most," Hermione stated.

"Let's see," Luna said simply, and popped her head into Harry's room, and her own at the end. "Yep, ten feet, with a closet and WC between them. Looks like about thirty-five feet deep, though." Her head popped back into the corridor. "Nice big bed, too."

"See," Hermione said. "So, we each need a room to put stuff in, and get some down-time in." She grinned. "Beyond that, we can figure something out."

An hour later, the twelve people directly involved were sitting in the dining room. Professor Flitwick was monitoring from the communications mirror that was in that room. "First of all," Carole said, standing, "here are your watches. The time is irrelevant now, but won't be at the gateway on Ynunlle."

"As you can see, it's a twenty-four hour watch," Dumbledore pointed out. "As you can also see, they follow the old system, so both dawn and dusk are at approximately Twelve. Six would be noon or midnight. You might as well get used to the idea, on the off-chance you end up meeting any of the natives."

"So, we'll be waking up at around the Eleventh hour of night, an hour before dawn. Shower or whatever, breakfast, fix and pack lunch, et cetera," Edward told the group. "Around dawn and dusk, we can communicate back here clearly for about thirty to forty minutes, at other times there can be some interference. Remus will generally be in charge of that, and Charlie will be checking out the outside or setting the defenses. There's another manual on the bar if your room didn't have a copy. Hopefully, we come out at around Twelve-thirty and hike until about noon. We take forty-five minutes at most for lunch, and to rest. Then we hike until at least Ten. That's when we'll start thinking about camp. Depending on what hills we might have to go over, we'll rest as needed."

"There traditionally aren't many Dementors in the areas we'll be hiking through," Remus reminded them, taking up the story. "There could be many vampires, however, especially around the cavern."

"Natural enemies, from the info we were given," Harry pointed out.

"Exactly," Remus agreed. "And we'll be totally safe in here from either at night. There are also mountain trolls and a number of other dangerous animals, magical and otherwise."

Edward pulled out the guns. "Double-barreled shot guns and old fashioned six-shot Forty-fours or Thirty-eights." He looked at them. "I know Harry can handle the Forty-four; can the rest of you?"

The students and Tonks all nodded. "Good. Remus, don't touch any of this until we get there!" Remus nodded, looking at the ammunition warily. "The shotgun shells are filled with a mixture of silver shot and some steel. The slugs for both the revolvers and the shotguns are hollow-points with an alloy that has some silver in it. Vampires and Dementors get the right barrel for preference; that's where we load the pellets. Animals, trolls, and people get the slugs if we can't hit them with spells. Got it?"

They all nodded. "People?" Luna asked.

"Some are controlled by the vampires and Dementors," Carole told them. "Hopefully, you won't run into any of the regular natives."

"If we run into those controlled by vampires or Dementors?" Harry asked.

"We treat them as the enemy as well -- they'll attack first unless they've been ordered to watch us, so we fight back," Edward told them. "The regular natives are more likely to try and avoid us."

"And of course you won't chase them down," Dumbledore told them. "You are on a mission, not gathering data."

"Questions so far?" Edward asked.

"There are trolls, Dementors, and people," Hermione mused, "are there elves, goblins, centaurs, giants, or merpeople?"

"There are certainly doxies, pixies, and fairies," Carole said thoughtfully. She looked at Dumbledore.

"So far as we know, there are no elves, goblins, centaurs, or merpeople," Dumbledore replied. "We believe there were once giants in the areas we know about, but they are no longer there. However, there are all those other islands and mini-continents which we have never properly explored. If they are on Ynunlle, we have no knowledge of them and they should not be apparent to you."

"I'm glad to see Charlie, but exactly why couldn't Hagrid come?" Harry asked next.

"Ah, well," Dumbledore said with a touch of embarrassment, "we just could not get the entrance to enlarge without causing problems with the habitat."

"When was the last time we had reliable information on this area," Hermione asked, seeing the subject needed to be changed.

"This gate has been restricted for some hundred years," Dumbledore told them. "The last official use was more than sixty years ago. We believe the last unofficial use was over fifty years ago."

"There was primitive magical recording equipment at one of the sites in Chad," Carole put in. "We're still deciphering the records."

"However, the main gate used is in that town we mentioned. The Italian Ministry, and the groups that have preceded it, have sent a deputation nearly every year, often twice a year, for some two thousand years," Dumbledore said, picking the thread back up. "While fifty miles is a fair distance to the people of Ynunlle, since they can not Apparate, brooms work quite well in areas where there are few dragons. So while we have little recent news, we think we have a fair knowledge of local conditions."

"If it's so easy, why didn't Voldemort do it?" Harry asked. "And, for that matter, why wasn't this cave blown before?"

"He never had a group of well-trained students like you five," Dumbledore said simply. "I have no doubt, had he proceeded unchecked, Draco Malfoy and four others would have been involved with a safari to the cave."

"And it might not be going to be easy, although we hope there are no great difficulties," Edward said.

"As for your second question," Carole went on, "no one from this side has been to the cave recently. . . ."

"Except perhaps for Tom Riddle, when he made an illegal journey or two," Dumbledore put in.

"Exactly. And he was reportedly driven back by vampires before arriving at the cave. Anyway," Carole finished, "the cave resisted magical attempts to collapse it a hundred years ago. We believe the Muggle explosives will work."

"You said the people of Ynunlle can't Apparate," Hermione said, "does that mean you four can't either?"

"Line of sight only," Tonks answered first.

"Would it be easier for you four to go without us?" Luna asked.

"Faster, but not easier," Remus answered. "There is safety in numbers."

"You five are all very able," Dumbledore told them. "You will all be more than helpful to the party. And as Miss Tonks said, Apparation is line of sight only. Remember, you will be traveling in the mountains. Line of sight Apparation would be at best at most twice as fast as hiking for large parts of the journey."

"Now, put on your belts," Edward instructed.

"Not you, Remus," Tonks warned. Remus nodded.

The group adjusted their belts. There were places for two wands on the left side of the belt and a gun holster on the right. There were places for twelve extra pistol cartridges, and six cartridges each for shotgun shells and pellets. In the back of the belt, there was a Bowie knife, again made out of an alloy with some silver in it.

Next, they slipped on their canteens and then their denim jackets. They were each supplied with a large and a small clasp-knife, a set of water-proof maps for the first 12 miles, a compass (magnetic north was almost true north on Ynunlle), and a small set of pocket omnioculars. They then put on their small knapsacks. That would give them easy-access to a second canteen, water-proof holders for lunch and snacks, and extra cartridges. There was also a place to tie the jackets onto the knapsacks. Add their hats and a walking staff, and the outfits were complete.

"Not terribly heavy or awkward," Ginny said, with the air of a connoisseur.

"Quite so," Charlie agreed. "It's nice having these necklaces. Not having to lug a tent of any size should make it easy to make those nine or ten miles a day if the road is somehow gone or if there are problems, and to be honest, we can probably do twenty a day on a decent road if we really want to without come close to killing, err, exhausting ourselves."

"Why don't you each take a peg and shelf out by the entrance?" Dumbledore suggested. "Then we shall do a quick tour of the amenities."

Behind the large dining room was a well-equipped and well-stocked kitchen. It turned out there was a second level under the first one. It was a mostly-open area. There were cans and sacks of food under preserving spells, more than enough to last the nine for a month. There were also huge storage containers for water and waste, which answered some of the unasked questions the teens had. There was also an old-fashioned armory, extra camping and hiking equipment, piles of astronomical gear, a small potions lab, and a modern Muggle-laundry (washer and dryer).

"I guess we'll need a rota for washing and cooking," Hermione said.

"I can't cook worth beans," Tonks said. "I do know how to operate these contraptions. I'll be laundry officer, unless someone else wants it."

No one volunteered.

"Harry and I can both cook," Luna said.

"As can I," Hermione added.

"I guess that leaves Neville and me for dining room clean-up and general wash-up, and you three leaders can set-up the dining room and police the sitting room when you're not ordering us about," Ginny stated.

"Just like Mum," Charlie grumbled softly.

"I heard that! You can do the canteens, make certain we all pick up the packed lunches, and take care of the garbage from lunch."

The group made a practice run with dinner, that seemed to be successful as far as all were concerned. Charlie retired first, unaware of the sleeping arrangements in the other corridor. No one wanted to enlighten him.

Ginny retired to Neville's room, while Hermione and Harry retired to Luna's.

They would have to be awake early to make the journey.