Lovers (A Newtina Fanfic)

Part 4

"Nurmengard Castle."

The letter immediately floated up. It curled up a corner as if beckoning the aurors. Actually, it was beckoning them, jerking forward, pointing at the door. The six stood up, and once the letter saw (or however a piece of paper knows people have stood up) that they were ready, it took off. There was a hasty goodbye, and then the aurors dashed after the letter. The letter kept a quick pace, and by the time they caught up to the letter, they were in the atrium. After that, it was a jog across London. They must have looked funny, six adults jogging around freezing London for no apparent reason. Fifty minutes later, they came across a deserted alleyway. The paper dropped to the ground.

It seemed that everywhere aurors went they ran into alleyways.

They first scouted out the area, but there was nothing of importance. Perhaps the location had been chosen at random. Then they looked for a portkey. Portkeys could be practically anything, but they doubted that there wouldn't be a hint. After about ten minutes, Pixie stumbled across something.

"Hey, guys, look at this!" she said. They ran over to join her. It was a couple of pebbles in the grime. The pebbles vaguely spelt boot.

"We've got to look out for a boot," Tina said.

"How do you know?" asked Mr Brighton, craning his neck to study the pebbles.

"It says it right there," Tina replied.

"The pebbles are just arranged randomly. Heck, it could just be pebbles by itself," Mr Brighton said.

"Wait, what?" Tina said, studying the pebbles. And then it struck her. "This is the secret alphabet my sister and I made when we were little. I guess my brain automatically converts it to the word in the English alphabet." The more she looked at it, the more clear to her it wasn't in English. The letters were all curvy and strange and resembled English very little.

"Well, it's the first lead we have to where this portkey is, so let's look for a boot," Theseus said. The group shot off, looking for a boot. In the end, it was Pixie who found it. Pixie was good at finding things. They all gathered around the boot. It was worn, and missing the buttons. It was the exact same colour as the dirty slush on the ground. A strange, murky brownish-grey.

"How do we get this portkey to work?" Mr Ramos said. He poked the boot and-

His finger was stuck.

"Everybody, touch the boot!" Tina exclaimed, putting her finger on the boot. It was also stuck. With that, the other four put their fingers on the boot. And it was good that they all did it so quickly because three seconds later, the boot spun.

Faster and faster, and they all disappeared.

A second later, they were transported to the top of a mountain. A blizzard was raging, and you were practically blind in terms of how far you could see. The castle was nowhere in sight. It was like looking for the bottom of a cup full of tea. You just can't see it.

Then again, the castle could have been invisible.

The aurors and the magizoologist raised their wands, and the snow parted slightly. They could see where they were standing, and they were...

Standing dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. The six immediately scrambled back, not wanting to tumble off the edge and die. Theseus waved his wand to gain everyone's attention, and he said,

"So, let's find this castle. You know the drill. On the count of three."

"One, two, three, Specialis revelio!" everyone shouted, pointing their wands to the grey sky.

Nothing happened. Theseus quietly cursed and kicked the ground.

"There must be something we can do," Tina said. "Maybe there's a clue, like at the portkey."

They started searching. They looked high and low, and side to side and under and around.

It seemed like they had looked everywhere, but there was nothing.

Nothing. Everyone had given up, except Tina. Well, Newt had gotten distracted by what he thought might be some kind of ice bird. Tina had heard him talking about it. Some kind of phoenix, but icy. Or something.

Anyway, Tina looked and looked. She was determined to find something. She wanted to see her sister.

And of course, she found nothing. She sighed, for she was so sure there would be something. She started to walk back to the aurors, who were huddled by a boulder. One moment she was upright, walking, and the next moment, she was-

Lying facedown in the snow. Ouch. She stood up, brushing the snow off her face. Or rather, tried to stand up. Drawing to her full height, 180 centimetres, she bumped her head. Hard. On what though, she could not discern. There seemed to be nothing above her except the thin air. She stooped down a bit and felt above her. There was something there, she could feel it. She felt the air next to her. The same. And behind and in front of her? Nothing. She walked into the tunnel (for that is what it was), using her fingertips as a guide. Once she had walked far enough to decide that it was a proper tunnel, she called the others. They came rushing over. Newt and Theseus both bumped their heads, them being quite tall. They walked through the invisible tunnel, feeling it as they walked. Tina, Newt and Theseus all had to stoop down to walk, and it was slightly uncomfortable. This was one of the most confusing things they had done, possibly ever. There was nothing to look at, just them walking and hoping they wouldn't trip or bump their heads.

After what seemed like ages (it was three minutes) they came to a stop. Mr Ramos, who was in the back of the single-file line, shouted,

"Why are we stopping?"

"There's something here," Tina replied, felling the space in front of her. It was solid and had grooves. She kept feeling, and suddenly her hands found a knob.

"Did you find anything?" Pixie asked.

"It's a door. Disguise yourselves. Mr Ramos, uh, hummingbird-ify yourself," Tina said, wincing at her word choice. They did as told, casting self-transfiguration spells on themselves, turning into hummingbirds, and using their talent to seamlessly blend into the background, respectively.

Tina turned the knob.

When she opened the door, a whole other world was lying in wait. Instead of the snow-covered mountain tops, there was a hallway. It was carpeted, and the walls were lined with gilded paper. Crystal lights hung from the ceiling.

It was the epitome of wealth.

"Damn," Theseus murmured. Tina and Newt hit him in the arms at the exact same time, both whisper-yelling,

"Language, Theseus." Theseus duly ignored them. They all drew their wands, excepting Mr Ramos. The tiny hummingbird flew forward, shifting back and forth so he was a green blur. They scouted out the area, peeked around the corner, froze for a second, and dashed back to the group. He shifted back, and with his wand, wrote out,

There's a blond woman at the end of the hallway around the corner. This being an effective way of silent communication, Tina raised her wand and wrote out,

What did she look like?

Short, curly blond hair, a pink coat, and she's average height. Then, Theseus raised his wand, writing out,

Is that your sister?

Sounds like it. If it is, she can hear this conversation now. Hi, Queenie!

Well, let's go then. Keep your wands out. With that, they started to creep forward. They walked silently, tightly gripping their wands. They reached the end of the hallway and peeked around the corner, all six of them.

It was-

Queenie.