Sophia Brandt and the Ilvermorny Fountain of Youth

A Trip to Beimeni Lake

When Rosie sat down beside Sophia at breakfast a few days later and pushed aside her steaming plate of assorted breakfast foods to lay forth a dusty old scroll, Sophia thought her friend was crazy. 

"Hey, watch it!" She said, quickly snatching up her plate. "What are you doing? I only have a few more minutes of breakfast before my basic jinxes test in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I'd really like to enjoy them!"

Rosie only rolled her eyes and waved Callum and Noah over. Neither of them looked particularly happy about coming over, but they all came anyway. 

"I know you guys haven't had much time to go over the Thunderbird clue," she began, "but I think I've found something."

Sophia, who'd been concentrating on the blueberry muffin in front of her, snapped to attention. "Huh?"

Rosie signed and pointed at the scroll in front of them. It looked like something that dated all the way back to when Ilvermorny was created, with its faded markings and old script. 

Callum peered at the scroll suspiciously. "What's the clue got to do with this old thing?"

Rosie looked somewhat offended by the question. "This is a map, Callum. Remember how Noah had that idea that the clue was pointing to water? Well, I was in the library the other day, and I found this and checked it out so all of you could see."

"It's a map of Ilvermorny," Noah finished, his eyes wandering over the old scroll. "And Mount Greylock."

Sophia set down her plate and took a closer look at the scroll. Noah was right--the center of the map showed the Ilvermorny castle, circa the year 1802. Sophia resisted the urge to trace her fingers along all the old buildings outlined in the map to see just how much Ilvermorny had changed since then. 

"Look at the mountain," Rosie instructed. "This was the only map I could find that shows all of the waterways around Mount Greylock," Rosie said, pointing to faint blue lines. "There are natural springs that run down the mountain. They only form in the spring once the ice at the top of the mountain starts to melt." 

"It's October," Sophia said flatly. "Are we really supposed to wait that long?"

"I don't think so," Rosie said. "Look here." 

Rosie's finger hovered over a small blue blip on the far left side of the mountain, barely visible now since the map was so aged. The small dot of blue was captioned with the words--

"Beimeni Lake," Noah said excitedly. "That's where we're going."

They had agreed to meet at the Pukwudgie cottages after their classes. Sophia was the first to arrive and she'd nearly paced a hole in the grass waiting for the others. 

Luckily, Rosie came just in time to save the vegetation. She set her backpack down and pulled out a new, smaller map of the hiking trails on Mount Greylock. 

"We'll take the Glow Bug Loop down the mountain, then go right at the fork, and follow Serpent's Ravine to the lake. They should all have trailheads so we don't get too lost." 

Sophia traced out their pathway on the map and nodded. "Mmhmm." 

She looked up at the clouds, which seemed to be getting lower and lower in the sky. In a few hours it would probably be dark, which meant that they needed to get started soon. 

"Finally, they're coming," Rosie said, pointing over at the castle doors. 

Noah and Callum were walking out of the castle together, heads bowed down in conversation. As they got closer, Sophia saw that Callum had a grim expression on his face.