The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.13 | Ravens' Mirror

The bus ride to Paimpont was silent. Charlie had decided to take a short nap whilst Margaret took the window seat this time (on his insistence). The landscapes outside changed from the city of Rennes to small villages to luscious green hills to canopies of trees as the bus drove further into the country.

They got off at the village of Paimpont which was right in the middle of the Forest of Brocéliande. Since it was summer, there seemed to some tourists around. But otherwise, it was just the residents in their small stores, quaint cottages and brightly painted buildings.

As Margaret and Charlie wandered around the village, looking at sights and getting familiar with the place, a pub in the nook of a street appeared out of nowhere as they passed it. Then, to their surprise, a statue of a fairy in a fountain waved at them. Another sign of an apothecary seemed invisible to most, whilst some oddly dressed people made their way in and out of it.

Paimpont, as it turned out, had both muggle and wizarding population.

Soon, Charlie and Margaret decided to separate. Whilst he headed off to inquire about accommodations, she told him she was going to ask around about her mother's side of the family.

However, this was only a pretence. Margaret knew there was likely no one alive that had heard of Armstrong, or Ambrosius for that matter. Instead, she went to see if she could get fake IDs somewhere. Then she bought bottles of water since they had none left and made her way to a quiet side street to stuff them in her bottomless bag.

Suddenly, Margaret froze. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing. She was being watched.

A raven croaked from above, startling her. Margaret shot a glare up at it, muttering "Shoo." The dark bird tilted its head at her before spreading its wings and flying off over the roofs of the cottages lining the street.

Margaret rolled her eyes, turning to walk back to the main street, but yelped with a start when a golden wisp appeared right by her foot.

The wisp though did not seem to mind her proximity for once. In contrast, it rose up and down right where it was, a soft, strange humming emitting from it. It sounded like a song... Only, it wasn't.

Margaret listened closely. It was a whisper, only a whisper.

"Beware... Beware..."

"Oh, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you."

The wisp disappeared as Margaret whipped around to face Charlie, almost cursing out loud.

Beware of what?

"Sorry," she says, unable to keep the annoyance from her tone. "It might've startled the muggles if they saw me dropping so many water bottles in my small bag."

"Oh, all right. Well, I enquired about trips in the Brocéliande forest and they told me that there were special times reserved for wizarding tours," he says. "But a muggle agency is taking a group of trekkers to Valley of No Return in about an hour. I managed to get us passes for that."

Charlie held up two printed bills, giving her a crooked smile. Margaret's annoyance all but vanished.

"You are brilliant, have I said that?" she says, stepping closer to read them.

"Don't boost my ego just yet," he jokes, grinning. He turned sideways to show her the massive bag he was somehow carrying on his back and she hadn't noticed. "Muggle tent. I prefer the wizarding ones, but oh well. The hike is overnight camping stay in the forest. That solves our sleeping problem." Then his brows furrow and he adds, "Hope you don't mind sharing the tent though. We might be able to enchant it-"