[Belarus] - Machinations in Minsk

Night rolled over the city of Minsk blanketing it in a dark an eerie ambiance. The only lights that could be seen were the street lights and the odd lights still on coming from different buildings. In a certain park very light footsteps could be heard as a person cloaked in black walked through some bushes vanishing from sight.

As the person entered into the bushes, a slight wobble seemed to appear in the atmosphere for a split second before receding away. To any normal person this 'wobble' would be unnoticeable. The person seemed to continue through into the bushes before finally seeing a light within their sights. Their pace increased as they walked towards the light and passing through one more bush they could finally see where the light was coming from.

"Merlin's beard you gave me a scare... Didn't I tell you not to light a fire here!? If this place gets burned down by your stupidity I'm not taking the fall for it. Just use your damn wand if you want a light!".

Sat down next to the fire was the figure of a man, wearing a similar black cloak to the person who had just entered into their area.

"Relax... We're in a ward right now. None of these dumb muggles will ever see us. If you're truly worried about me somehow burning this park down then I can just put a charm on the fire to stop its spread... Seriously you worry too much, all I wanted was a couple marshmallows".

The man cloaked in black kept his head down not showing his face as he spoke back. His eyes seemed to rest on the marshmallow he was roasting over the fire. The person who had just arrived sighed as they took a seat opposite their companion, sitting down with a slight huff escaping their lips.

The camp grew quiet for a while before the man roasting his marshmallow finally spoke up again.

"So... did you receive the news?".

The person leant forward giving the man a stern nod.

"Yes... Still no news of where or if 'he' is still around. There's some slight whispers in Albania but nothing set in stone".

The man in black shook slightly hearing the news. He stammered for a second neglecting his now 'overly-roasted' marshmallow which was turning black.

"Damn it... We scattered like rats for years, scurrying into different parts of the wizarding communities across the world after that damn little brat managed to somehow beat him... I refuse to believe that was all it took to beat him though".

The man pulled back his overly burnt marshmallow still eating it despite its purely black colour. A slight crunch could be heard as he bit into it, his face showing an annoyed grimace. The same expression was relayed back to his by the person who brought the news as they continued.

"If you want my opinion though I think its only a matter of time before 'he' returns somehow... Think about it, someone spotted the order skulking around in England, making moves again. They wouldn't start up again if it wasn't for the dark lord making his return... If we try and recruit those damn beasts for him then maybe we can get a promotion when he makes a comeback".

"Recruit huh... Can you go this time? Those damn beasts are infuriating to parlay with though. Constantly asking for us to 'prove our strength' and such...".

The person sighed as they reached into their pockets, pulling out a vial containing a dark red liquid.

"With this we should be fine... I sourced it from an underworld wizard here in Minsk. A long-time connection I've had way back after the first wizarding war. This should help us win over those damn giants finally".

The man laughed as he saw the vial. He took out another marshmallow giggling to himself almost insanely as he started to roast this one again.

"It's hilarious don't you think? We'll be recruiting whilst everyone is unaware! When the dark lord returns he's already going to have an army ready for him! We truly are one step ahead this time... No maybe even several steps ahead!".

Both of them present at the fire started to laugh at the situation they were in as the moon above them rose, illuminating their area. As it did the fires light seemed paltry in comparison as the surroundings around the campfire were lit up. The man lifted his head up looking up towards the moon, a diabolical smile now on his face. He lifted up a mask from his side and put it on.

The mask of a death eater.

.

"Master are you sure you don't need to rest? We've been flying constantly for a while now".

In the night sky flying north away from Romania was Oz and Alfreda. After leaving the sanctuary they found an area for Oz to transform and the duo were now heading north towards Belarus, their next destination.

[I'm surprisingly fine actually. Maybe being able to control my blood more has allowed my form to be held for longer periods. We'll get to Belarus first before stopping].

Alfreda narrowed her eyes trying to understand what Oz was saying. Whilst in his dragon form Oz seemed to talk in dragon-tongue despite putting all his effort into speaking English to Alfreda. She managed to infer the meaning of his words though, mainly catching that Oz wanted to get to Belarus before stopping.

They soared through the night sky at a rapid pace, watching the moon above rise and slowly fall back down. As the moon started to disappear from sight, bringing along dawn with its fall, Oz started to look for a place to descend. In the distance he could see the city of Minsk.

'Seems my speed has improved as well... We crossed over Ukraine in around 20 hours after all'.

Oz descended down onto a hill and transformed back immediately into his human form. His complexion was slightly pale however not nearly as bad as it was when they flew from England to Romania. He took a seat on the hill looking towards Minsk. Alfreda sat down next to him looking at the sight before them.

"Master... What's our plan this time then?".

"Unlike previously we don't have a 'location' to go towards. Hagrid only mentioned that the giants resided north-east of Minsk. Whilst my eyes are good at spotting things like wards and such, I feel that a ward protecting a race like the giants would probably be a lot harder to spot in comparison. I'd be able to eventually find it but without someone like Norberta here it may take a long time...".

"So we need to go to Minsk first. We can re-supply while we are there and search for any 'wizard-kind' in the city. If we're lucky we can find they magical society here and I can use the identity of 'Lee Oswald' to coax information out of them. Something tells me it won't be that simple though...".

As Oz looked out at the landscape he had one dilemma in mind, a simple one yet one that would stop them from progressing with this journey if it wasn't solved.

'Unlike in Romania where we had Charlie as a translator, we have no intermediary this time in this country. I really should have spent some time learning languages back in Hogwarts in preparation for this...'.

Alfreda seemed to leave Oz to his thoughts as she placed a ward on the area they were in and then placed down the tent they had to sleep in. Both of them entered the tent and Alfreda started to cook them both a meal as Oz was left to his thoughts.

'Language... language is knowledge so I can't make a spell that allows me to learn languages can I. If magic could bestow knowledge then all wizards and witches of this world could learn years of knowledge in a simple spell. Even the founders and Merlin could have passed down their knowledge as spells if it was possible however it clearly wasn't...'.

'Maybe instead of 'learning' a language I can create something that translates a language, almost like a wizards google translate. That'd take me a while to do though, considering the difficulty of such a project is on par with the Magi-Cast... There was mention in a book I read of a magic translator having been made before but its effectiveness wasn't the best...'.

'Who would have thought something as simple as 'language' would be a roadblock in this journey'.

As Oz finished that thought Alfreda placed a breakfast in front of him, sitting opposite to him on the table. The two started to eat as Oz's mind still wondered on what to do. His eyes flashed for a moment as he looked up to Alfreda who was still eating her food slowly.

"Say Alfreda... Merlin was known to travel around right? Did he ever go to different countries?".

Alfreda swallowed the food in her mouth, patting her mouth with a cloth before responding.

"He did like to travel and it was usually out of country... He'd always leave me to tend to the hideout whenever he did".

"Was he multi-lingual then? I wouldn't put it past him to be...".

"I'm not too sure... I was never with him when he went to other countries".

Oz clicked his tongue as he finished his meal.

'Damn another roadblock... I was hoping there would be an easy way around this but it seems there's nothing I can do instantly. Guess I should buy an 'English to ______' book whenever I'm in a new country for now until I find a solution. My memory should help greatly however understanding spoken words will take time...'.

As the two finished up their meals they both had a quick sleep before waking up and packing the tent up again. The tent was stuffed back into Alfreda's pouch as the sun in the sky reached its peak. Oz looked towards the city of Minsk with expectation in his eyes.

'Regardless of the difficulties, I will find those giants even if I have to go blindly searching in a general direction...'.

===================

A/N - Apologies for this chapter taking so long. I'm starting to slow down again I admit but only because I want to continue. If I force myself to write I'll burn out again like I did early this year and much like you all I also want to see this novel to the end.

If you want quicker updates I mention what im doing on my discord so please feel free to join if you'd like.

Discord: https://discord.gg/TbfuXchd