Emerging from the dorms, Harlequin seen Jasmine entering the common room, bounding up to the other witch, with a grin on her face she began to relate a thought, “hey, you think maybe you could get ol’ Gabey to talk to your father about staying?” When Jem looked up, Hel could tell from the look in her eyes that wasn’t an option, “oh…”
“He sent an owl today,” Jem began, “saying we have to be on the train immediately following the Yule Ball.”
“That is it,” Hel returned, grabbing the witch by the hand and leading her back out the common room, “I will not be deterred this time. We need to have a bit of fun.” Before Jem could object the two were down by the lake shore, looking out upon the skeletal-looking ship that had arrived only thirteen days before.
The arrival of the other two schools that were visiting for the Tri-Wizard Tournament had been quite a sight, and Hel had been trying to convince Jem it would be a good idea to investigate. “Are you sure about this?” Jem questioned, “what if we get caught?”
“It’ll be fine,” Hel returned. “Look, everyone is in the Great Hall currently, this is the perfect time. Just a little peak.”
As it turned out, getting on the Durmstrange ship didn’t prove too difficult a task. In theory, one could say getting off should have proved the same level of difficulty. The problem came in when the thought about time of day hadn’t been taking into account.
The gangplank had been out, as Durmstrang was eating dinner with Slytherin, so it was no trouble for a little black cat to make its way on board. It was even less trouble for the raven that had landed on the rail and awaited the cat’s arrival.
Once on board and assured that no one was left to stand watch, the two witches shed their animagus forms. “Shall we?” Hel asked as they began to explore the Durmstrang’s school away from school.
The ship was sparsely decorated, with the exceptions of a couple blood-red banners that stood out against the plain wooden walls. “Guess they weren’t kidding when they were talking about Hogwarts being extravagant to them,” Jem commented as she looked around.
“From what I’ve heard about Beauxbatons,” Hel began, “the Durmstrang students would have a heart attack if they stepped inside that carriage of theirs.”
“Our next stop?” Jem raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“I’m not sure even I could handle that much glitz, and, yeah, Cirque!” The two girls giggled together as they continued to roam the ship.
Some of the rooms were obviously set up to work as classrooms while the students were aboard the ship, another looked as if were set up for dueling. A make shift potions lab was locked tight, you could just barely make out the shape of cauldrons sitting on tables in the dim light of the port hole window. Other doors were locked tight to the witches.
Footsteps above deck alerted Jem and Hel that they were no longer aboard. “Now what?” Jem whispered, her eyes wide.
“We get back off the way we got on.” Hel returned, leading the way to an open window. Jem transformed back into the sleek black raven, and Hel helped her through the window before returning to being a cat.
The cat quickly wound its way through the ship, heading for the uppermost deck that would take her to the gangplank and safety. She reached where the bridge over the water should have been, only to find that when the students returned from dinner that they must pull the plank up behind them for the night.
The raven perched on the rail, nervously pacing back and forth, looking down at the black cat. With a twitch of the cat’s tail, it indicated for the bird to follow. In a shadowed corner, out of sight from anyone, Hel was once more herself. “Go back to the common room,” she whispered, “I’ll be okay. I’ll find some place to keep tucked out of sight until morning. Might be a bit late for Charms, but it’ll be okay.” The raven dipped its head indicating it understood, and the cat was before it once more.
The black cat watched as the bird became a speck on the horizon, then with a bit of a sigh, headed off to find some place warm to curl up for the night.
To Be Continued |
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