Chapter 53: Let the hunt Begin!

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

December 2nd, 1992, 01:55 PM - Wednesday

Erik was waiting together with his wives at the castle's entrance for the arrival of the Unspeakables. They had, during that day's lunch time, presented to the school a copy of the three dimensional map found in the 'command' room inside Salazar's secret chamber. The presentation had as objective to show the students how the castle and the area around it was during the founders' times. Erik could say that the presentation was a success. Professor Binns even appeared to study that piece of history. The historical map, as it was presented to the castle population, was now being kept in the school's trophy room. Selena had used the opportunity to deface an award given to a student named Tom Riddle by the school. She had added extra information in the plaque of the award. It now said that the award was revoked because said student was the person who was really behind the attacks to the students.

It was then that Erik and Selena felt a ping in the wards. Erik and Selena turned to the gates and saw a group of three Unspeakables by the gate. Their guests have arrived. Erik then signaled with his hand for them to enter the gates at the same time that he allowed them entrance to through the wards.

"Mr. Croaker, welcome to Hogwarts again."

Erik said to the Unspeakable when he and his team was near enough.

"Thank you, Lord Ravenclaw."

Croaker replied to Erik..

"Come, I have asked the house-elves to prepare a meeting room so we can discuss the hunting."

Erik said to them and started to walk inside the castle with his wives following him. The team of unspeakables was far behind from them too. They quickly walked through the Great Hall and into one of the corridors of the ground floor of the castle. The group then entered an inconspicuous room. Inside, they found a round table already prepared in the center of the room with a big and detailed map of Europe open on top of it. Erik and the girls walked to the table and positioned themselves on one side of it. The team of Unspeakables soon followed them and positioned themselves on the other side.

"As you can see, this is a detailed map of Europe. We will use it, together with a divination spell and the tracker that you, Unspeakables, built to point to the region where the disembodied piece of soul is hiding."

Erik said, explaining to the Unspeakables what they were going to do. He then extended his hand to Croaker and asked the Unspeakable.

"If you would, please, hand the tracker?"

Erik said to Croaker, who retrieved a mokeskin pouch from a pocket in his robes and from inside it, took a pendulum-like artifact. Croaker then handed the tracking artifact to Erik, who positioned it on the center of the map. Erik hovered his hand over the tracking artifact and concentrated a little, willing his magic to do the job that was supposed to do with the help of the tracking artifact and the map. As he finished his spell, the pendulum in the tracker started to move on its own. First, it moved in small circles. As the pendulum was doing more and more circles, the radius on them was getting bigger and bigger. And then, it stopped. The pendulum went rigid, froze in place. Its line, tense, and its pointed weight was pointing to a specific region on the map.

Erik went over it and aligned his eye with the pendulum line and pointed weight.

"Hmm… Albania."

Erik said, announcing what the tracker had shown them.

"So, Riddle's main piece of soul is somewhere in Albania… Good."

Selena added. Her last word was said with a sinister smile on her face.

Erik waved his hand and the tracking artifact started to float about half a meter over the table, canceling the divination spell at the same time. He then centered the detailed map with the country, Albania, in the center of the table, and with another wave of his hand, the map started to enlarge. It growed until the country of Albania took more than half of the table. While all of this was happening, the Unspeakables were unmoving and silent.

Erik put the tracking artifact down on top of the map again, but this time, just outside the borders of Albania. He then casted, for the second time, the divination spell. The pendulum started to move in small circles again, which slowly grew in radius. And then, like before, it stopped. Its line and pointed weight were pointing to a region inside the country. Erik aligned his eye with it and announced to the room.

"Qafshtama National Park. That's where we will find it."

Erik said while still looking at the map.

"Leona, get the coordinates for us for the Park."

Erik asked Leona, turning his face to look at her and giving the tracking artifact back to Croaker. Leona took a pencil and drew a circle in the map where the park was. She then started to take notes on the map itself, calculating the approximate coordinates for the transportation point in accord with the latitude and longitude lines in the map. After thirty seconds or so, Leona finished her math and turned to Erik.

"Got it."

She said shortly. Erik nodded his head to her and replied.

"Prepare a transportation circle for the coordinates. Standard transportation height for unknown coordinates."

Erik said to Leona, who went to the bigger open space in the room and started to concentrate on building a transportation magic circle to the calculated coordinates. Erik then turned to the team of unspeakables.

"Gentleman, I hope that you all brought your broomsticks."

Erik said to them.

"We never go out without one, Lord Ravenclaw. But why would we need one?"

Croaker replied to Erik and asked him.

"Standard security measures when transporting to an unknown location. We set the height of the transportation circle to three hundred meters above ground, that way we don't transport in the middle of a building or on top of a lake. So, we will be teleporting in the middle of the air."

Erik answered to Croaker, who looked back at his colleagues and gave them a nod. They then each started to retrieve a broomstick from inside their robes. Erik walked to where Leona was. Her blue magic circle was already shining, charged and ready to be activated. Erik stood by her side, and hugged Leona's waist. Selena and Joan joined them too, followed by the three Unspeakables.

"Ready yourselves."

Leona warned everyone. A layer of light of different colors wrapped around the bodies of Erik, Selena and Joan, signifying that their fly spells were being activated, while the three Unspeakables mounted their broomsticks and, with a low impulse, started floating some centimeters above the floor. Leona looked at them and saw that they were all ready, with Erik hugging her waist with more strength and casting a subtle notice-me-not over the group.

"Activating transportation magic circle!"

Leona said and the blue magic circle shone with a more strong light and the seven disappeared in motes of blue light.

Qafshtama National Park, Albania

December 2nd, 1992, 02:10 PM (English time)

In the middle of the air, three hundred meters above the soil, a blue magic circle suddenly appeared. Half a second later, seven people appeared in the middle of it. As the blue light of the magic circle faded, the seven people looked down from where they were flying. What they all saw was a big forested area covered in fresh white snow.

"This is a nice scene."

Joan spoke while looking around her floating point.

"Yes. If not for the disembodied soul wandering here, I would think so too."

Leona replied to Joan's comment. Erik, who was holding Leona in the air, looked around them too, and then down.

"We have a clearing just under us."

Erik pointed out to the group.

"Let's land and prepare to start the hunt."

Erik added, and he started to fly down. The rest of the group looked down and started to fly down after Erik too. Soon, Erik landed in the snow covered clearing and put Leona back down on the ground. The rest of the group followed too, with the Unspeakables hopping off of their broomsticks.

"Mr. Croaker, the tracking artifact."

Erik says to the Unspeakable, who reaches for his mokeskin pouch and retrieves the tracking artifact from inside it. After putting away the mokeskin pouch, Croaker checks the tracking artifact. He looks at it for some seconds and then points a way.

"That way."

Croaker says and Erik nods at it with his head.

"Keep your eyes open."

Erik says and starts to walk in the direction pointed by Croaker. Selena was by Erik's side, Croaker and his Unspeakables were behind them, and Joan and Leona were last, taking the rear of the group. They walked for almost twenty minutes through the forest covered in white snow. Croaker would, at certains moments, make corrections to their directions, guiding the group to the 'prey'. And then, Croaker stopped suddenly, getting the attention of everyone and making them stop too.

"It should be here. The tracker is pointing to it as being right here."

Croaker said while looking around and looking at the tracking artifact again. Erik and Selena looked around and expanded their senses. After some seconds checking, they found nothing.

"There's nothing here, Mr. Croaker."

Erik said to the man. Croaker looked at the tracker again and reaffirmed.

"The tracker is saying it is here."

He said while showing the tracking artifact to Erik, who confirmed.

"Indeed it seems so… Unless…"

Erik said, dragging his last word while thinking. Selena caught immediately at what he was thinking about.

"Unless the bastard is hiding underground."

Selena said in realization.

"Yeah, I think so too. The tracker is pointing down."

Erik said.

"It makes sense."

Croaker added.

"So, let's look for a cave entrance."

Selena said to the group who nodded with their head in agreement.

More twenty minutes later, Erik called everyone to his place. When the group was together again, Erik showed them his find. It was a tree. A very big and old tree. It had no leaves at the moment because of the winter, and the snow was thick on the ground around its trunk. Erik then pointed to a patch near the tree's roots where there was no snow and a big and deep hole could be seen.

"I melted the snow around when my senses caught this cave entrance under the tree."

Erik said to the group.

"I tried to get a reading of its insides, but it runs deep."

Erik added. Leona's voice then came down on their ears like thunder.

"It's down the rabbit's hole then, Alice."

The members of the group that were not wearing cloaks, Erik, Selena and Joan, looked at her for a moment before rolling their eyes.

"What? I liked that book."

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a/n: managed to write the chapter for the day. It's shorter than usual, but it's here. Not really a health issue, but I appreciate the well wishes. Thank you.