Inchworm

Harry woke up abruptly, sitting upright and breathing heavily as though he had been running.

"You all right, Harry?" a sleepy voice asked from the sofa.

"Yeah--fine," Harry answered, trying to slow his racing heart. "Go back to sleep, Ron."

Ron sat up anyway, rubbing his eyes. "Another one of those weird dreams?"

Harry nodded. Of late he had been troubled with strange dreams, abstract dreams that were two-second images and swirls of colour and noise all flashing past. Voices both familiar and strange at the same time kept whispering to him, "Kissell...Kissell...Kissell..." A woman's tortured scream was overlaid with a woman regally announcing the opening of a ball. A dog's barking blended with another woman's voice saying, "Arise, Duke of Assisi." A man yelled "NO!" underneath a slightly younger version of essentially the same voice repeating over and over again, "The road that leads to the end of the world! The road that leads to the end of the world!" Faces and names and pictures flashed through, never long enough to get a coherent picture.

"Same as always?" Ron asked Harry.

"Almost. But just before I woke up...I swear I heard someone say, 'Remus lied, Remus didn't know, the Prince lives.'" Harry shook his head. "I don't know what that means."

"Dunno. Maybe Kissell is a prince and you've got to find him."

"Doubt it. What kind of a name is Kissell?"

Ron shrugged. Harry leaned back and closed his eyes. After two seconds, Ron realised his friend had fallen asleep again. Marvelling at the other boy's ability to just drop off like that, Ron was about to lie down when Harry suddenly shot upright, his green eyes wide. "Ron!"

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron asked, concerned.

Harry turned to look at him. "Ron...I just saw...flashes of a building, fields, a long system of red dirt roads trampled by travellers, and I heard those people whispering 'Kissell...Kissell...Kissell...' over and over again. Then everything went black and one of the voices was chanting, 'Hufflepuff's cup is spoils of war at the end of the road that leads to the end of the world.' Ron, that's it, we've got to find the road that leads to the end of the world!"

"Harry...it was a dream," Ron pointed out.

Harry pounded his forehead with the heel of his hand. "I know, but it...it feels right. The road that leads to the end of the world...I used to dream about that when I was little, but where is it?"

"Well," Ron said on a sigh, "sleep on it tonight, we'll work it out in the morning."

~~~

"I think I found it!" Ron called quietly, waving discreetly.

Remus and Harry joined him cautiously. It had been a week since Harry's dream had told him that Hufflepuff's cup was at the end of the road that led to the end of the world. Remus had joined the boys and Hermione and Ginny were back at Thorn Valley. Ginny had initially grumbled about this, but Hermione had offered to stay and Ginny had cheered up considerably.

Remus reached down and touched the red dirt of the path. "Is this it, Harry?"

"I've only seen flashes in dreams, but..." Harry shielded his eyes, looked down the road, and nodded. "This is it."

Keeping to the fringe of bushes on the edge of the path, Harry, Ron, and Remus set off. "So where does it go?" Ron finally asked.

Harry shrugged. "The end of the world, maybe. I don't know."

Remus's eyes flickered left and right. "Perhaps it leads to Kissell."

"But what is Kissell?"

"I don't know. I overheard Lily and Morrie--Morrie was her best friend--I overheard them talking about a trip to Kissell they had taken, and when I asked them where it was, they clammed up. It's definitely a place, though, and I remember that phrase--'the road that leads to the end of the world'. I never knew what it meant."

The landscape gradually changed. Yellow and even brown meadows gave way to green. Wheat and corn grew tall and golden. At about noon, they came to a thick apple orchard. Ron sat down heavily on a fallen trunk on the side of the road. "Whoof. I'm exhausted...do we have time for a lunch break?"

Harry couldn't help but smile at his irrepressible friend. "Ron, we don't know how long this road is or where it leads. We don't know how long it will take us to get there, what's waiting at the other end, or what might happen on the way."

Ron looked up in despair. "Does that mean we need to keep going?"

Harry actually laughed a little as he dropped down next to his friend. "It means, Ron, we have time for a break. We have all the time in the world."

The three ate their lunch in silence. Ron absently reached for an apple hanging low and Remus slapped his hand away. "Those don't belong to you."

"Who do they belong to?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno, but if it's someone in Kissell, the last thing we want is to get on their bad side. If Hufflepuff's cup really is there, we don't want to do something that will upset the people."

Remus shook his head. "'Spoils of war.' What do they mean by that?"

"I don't know. I think this is an old-fashioned place, though...I've seen a lot of hoof prints, and the wheel ruts are too narrow to be from cars."

Eventually, the three moved on, again keeping to the side of the road. Harry was still scanning for any trace of a sign that might lead to Kissell.

"I don't get this," he finally said in frustration. "We've been travelling for kilometres, and I haven't seen a single road sign. Hell, I don't know if we're even on the right path, or travelling in the right direction."

"What do they need a road sign for?" Remus pointed out quietly. "There hasn't been an access road since we got on. It doesn't turn off. It's a straight path. Where would a road sign point?"

"True."

Their shadows lengthened behind them as they approached a bend in the road. Harry held a finger to his lips, and they stole around the bend. Once they did, all of them stopped and stared in wonder.

There was an honest-to-goodness castle standing in front of them, surrounded by a deep moat. The castle looked little like Hogwarts, more like some small girl's fairy tale castle. It was a brilliant, pristine white, with turrets topped with aquamarine and lilac spirals that shone in the sunlight. A large, blindingly white wall guarded the castle; one or two guards patrolled the ramparts, but Harry spotted two small children chasing each other about and laughing.

"Now what?" Ron muttered. "There's no way across."

"We'll have to ask them to lower the drawbridge," Harry said, pointing.

"Oh, and what d'you suggest we do? Walk up and yell 'Excuse me, could you let us over, we're looking for a cup'?"

"No," Remus said suddenly. "Like this." He walked up to the edge of the moat, cupped his hands around his mouth, and called out, "What ho the drawbridge!"

There was a pause, then a deep voice yelled back, "Who's asking?"

"Now what, O brilliant one?" Harry asked with a half-smile and a wink to show he was teasing.

Remus shook his head and called back, "We represent the Order of the White Bumblebee, and we are on a quest for a certain artefact rumoured to be within your walls."

"Order of the White Bumblebee?" Harry and Ron echoed in unison.

"For Dumbledore. Well, I had to think of something, and if there are Death Eaters we don't want them knowing we're from the Order."

There was a pause, and then the drawbridge was lowered slowly. Remus took a step forward, but Harry stopped him and shook his head. "I'll go first. If they've laid a trap or something, you two run for it, you won't be caught."

"You're not saving my acorns, Potter," Ron told his friend.

"Nor mine."

Harry sighed. "If you must..." Steeling himself, he walked across the drawbridge, Ron and Remus close behind him.

A tall, cultured-looking man accompanied by a large beefy guard met them at the portcullis, scowling. "How did you find out about this...artefact?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to divulge that right now," Harry said calmly. "Sir, we mean no harm, we are simply looking for a fancy silver cup."

The man's scowl deepened. "There are many such cups here, and in the world."

"This one would have a shield on it, with a badger. Perhaps it was carried off as spoils of war?"

There was nothing worse Harry could have said, except perhaps to insult the man's mother. He turned a very ugly shade of puce and turned to the guards. "Arrest them! They are Enemies of the State!" he bellowed.

"Wait, what? No!" Harry cried, but it was too late. The guards were too swift for him and far too swift for Remus. Ron almost got away, but stopped when he saw Harry captured and a guard grabbed him. Scowling, two of the guards began raising the drawbridge as the remainder dragged Harry, Remus, and Ron down to a very dank set of dungeons.

As the bolt slammed home, Harry sat on a low stone bench with a sigh and dropped his head into his hands. "I'm sorry, guys. This is all my fault."

Ron spoke up indignantly. "Ha! You tried to leave us behind!"

"And I did the shouting," Remus added. "It isn't your fault, Harry. I shouldn't have mentioned the cup."

Ron shook his head. "Bet they thought we were whoever they stole it off of, come to steal it back. Well, O valiant leader, what do we do now?"

Harry sighed and sat back. "I guess we wait."