The Easiest Part

It was already dark outside. Chris left the Hogwarts grounds without getting noticed by anyone not even Harry and Dumbledore. Lights twinkled from windows over shops on the deserted Hogsmeade lane. Harry and Dumbledore turned the corner into the side street, a minute after Chris. The Hog's Head's sign creaked a little, though there was no breeze. In contrast to the Three Broomsticks, the pub appeared to be completely empty.

"It will not be necessary for us to enter," muttered Dumbledore, glancing around. "Christina?"

Chris was already in her human form waiting. As soon as she heard Dumbledore calling her name she walked out from the shadows.

"Harry can Apparate now, Christina, but you can't. So take my right arm and hold on tightly," Dumbledore looked around one more time as Chris held his right forearm. "On the count of three . . . One . . . two . . . three . . ."

Chris felt Dumbledore's arm twist away from her and redoubled her grip; the next thing she knew, everything went black; she was being pressed very hard from all directions; she could not breathe, there were iron bands tightening around her stomach; her eyeballs were being forced back into her head; her eardrums were being pushed deeper into her skull and then —

Chris gulped great lungfuls of cold night air and opened her streaming eyes. She felt as though she had just been forced through a very tight rubber tube.

"It was a lot worse than. . . Portkey," Chris panted bending down supporting her hands on her knees. She felt like she was going to throw up.

"Christina, are you all right?" asked Dumbledore, looking down at her solicitously. "I should have warned you before. The sensation does take some getting used to."

"I will be fine," said Chris after making sure she wasn't going to throw up. Her stomach was empty. She had left for the kitchen to eat something but now it was long away from the Hogwarts kitchen. She straightened up and saw they were standing on a rocky ground beside a huge rushing river. The only light was coming from the full moon and the cold breeze was flapping her hair all around her face. Chris looked behind her and saw tall big trees casting shadows, making difficult to see anything other than darkness. Chris also heard a roaring sound ahead of them. It felt like the river was crashing into something.

"What do you think?" asked Dumbledore. He might have been asking their opinion on whether it was a good site for a picnic.

"What is this place?" asked Chris.

"Griffin forest," said Dumbledore. "I don't think this place has any significance in Tom Riddle's life but I have felt the magical signatures around here and I have my reasons to believe that Voldemort has relocated one of his Horcruxes here. . . on Malgino's saying."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked.

"Well, for one thing, I know now that Malgino is a seer and he can see glimpses of the future," Dumbledore said and started walking along the shore. "So he knew we will be looking for the Horcruxes — our final destination lies a little farther. Watch your steps and come."

"Malgino is a seer?" Chris exclaimed walking carefully after Dumbledore.

"Yes, and that is why he knows a lot of things which we don't," said Dumbledore calmly stepping over a boulder. "Watch that left rock, it is a bit slippery."

"So he knows what's going to happen in the future?" Harry jumped over the rock Dumbledore had pointed out.

"Not entirely. The future is always changing. No one can say what is going to happen in it, not even seers," said Dumbledore. "But yes, they do have a few advantages. However, I don't think Voldemort is getting full advantage of his friend being a seer. I am sure Malgino is not being honest with him about everything and neither is Voldemort himself. That is the hardship with the people who want to rule, you can not befriend them — here we are."

Chris was so occupied by Dumbledore's shocking information that she didn't notice the river which all of a sudden had fallen down from the cliff, creating a big dangerous almost fifty-foot waterfall.

"You will not object to getting a little wet?" asked Dumbledore and Chris' mouth fell open.

"Professor, if we step into the river it won't make us a little wet, it will sweep us with it straight down the waterfall," she said watching the black swirling gushing water.

"Where are we going?" Harry inquired. 

"There," Dumbledore pointed his finger down at the place where the water of the waterfall had divided into a few narrow, shallow streams after falling and had disappeared into a dark forest.

This is crazy.

"Don't worry, your magic will hold you," And with the sudden agility of a much younger man, Dumbledore stepped into the fast gushing river. 

Harry was just behind him and as Chris said, the water started to sweep them away towards the waterfall very fast.

"I have O.W.L.s tomorrow," Chris muttered under her breath. "I really hope I live to get six or seven 'Outstandings'."

And she plunged into the water after them. Unlike Dumbledore and Harry, she did a swan dive and started to fall with the water. The water was icy and no matter what, it was harder than she thought. Stones cut around her body as she fell, water pressed into her nose and ears, and as she hit the water down headfirst, the water felt so hard that Chris thought her skull might be cracked. But it wasn't done. Now they needed to swim and reach the forest. Chris kicked toward the surface and emerged, then started to swim with a perfect breaststroke, but her waterlogged clothes billowed around her and weighed her down. She could see Dumbledore ahead of her and Harry a little far from her.

At last, they reached the slippery grassland and Chris pulled herself onto it, coughing and panting.

"It was the easiest part, wasn't it?" She asked looking up at Dumbledore, who was getting on his feet.

"I think so," Dumbledore smiled at her.

Hearing this Harry quickly got to his feet, his wand held high. He extended his other hand towards Chris and she took it and stood up.

"Lumos."

Now that they were entering into the woods, the light was coming from their wands. They walked for a long time, and Harry informed more than ten minutes had passed they are walking inside the forest. But Chris had a different concern.

"This place is unnaturally quiet. There's no sign of birds or animals or any sound of them," she whispered.

"I felt that too," Harry said looking around. "But can't it be dark magic? Maybe some kind of dark magic drove them away."

But her intuition told her that wasn't the case.

"Something dark did drove them away but it isn't a spell," she said.

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To be continued. . .