(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

35

We had been running from one fireplace to the next and I had had to be careful to get enough breath to call out the addresses clearly enough. When we finally emerged from the chimney at our destination, Maddie was desperately clinging to Fred and George only had him by his jacket sleeve. That had been a close call.

Coughing and gasping, we stepped into the small wooden cabin. There was nothing but a round table with two chairs and a bed frame with no mattress.

"Where are we?" George wiped soot from his face.

"Norway." I opened the door out and icy winter air hit us. "Colder than I remembered."

The harsh light reflected back off a fine layer of snow and we all had to squint our eyes.

"This used to be the home of an old man Ellen and I bugged often enough. I'm not sure how funny he thought it was that we used to play in his yard." I stepped outside and the crunching snow under my feet brought back strange memories.

"He's moved to the city to live with his relatives, but he allowed me to stop by once in a while the last time I visited."

"How long ago was that? A hundred years?" George fished a spider web out of Maddie's hair before she could notice.

"Not quite." It took me a moment to compose myself. "I had actually planned for us to arrive reasonably at one of the camps here. From there we could have taken a paved trail to the ruins. Sorry for the hike."

The icy air burned in my irritated lungs and I was thankful that I had listened to George and not left in the middle of the night. Even if we hadn't run into my parents then, I'm sure we would have had more problems after such an uncomfortable night.

"So," George closed in on me. "So that were your parents. Do you think I made a good first impression."

"Definitely better than if they had come to see us in my room this morning."

The way to the ruin was inconvenient, and now that we couldn't officially register, we also had to sneak to the tomb via a detour. It wasn't as if it was heavily guarded - after all, the main part of the ruin had been turned into a museum - but the burial mound we wanted to get to wasn't open to the public, for obvious reasons.

"There." The four of us crouched behind a fallen tree. "See the entrance between the barracks? That's where we need to go."

Over my head, the Weasley twins grinned at each other. "Leave it to us."

"You can't blow anything up!", I warned them.

"Do you think we're amateurs? Explosions are for pranks. Break-ins are a whole other thing."

The twins actually steered us between the guards with incredible finesse. I remembered that among the documents I had stolen there were sketches of the surroundings here, but they had been made years ago. Since then, guard houses and patrols had been added. And yet somehow we made it to the stone door unseen.

I was about to suggest another entrance when the twins were already pushing it open. "Wasn't it locked?", I whispered, as soon as we were inside.

"Since when do locks stop us," the twins grinned, pushing the doors shut again.
I was pretty sure the door must have been specially secured. I guess I had really underestimated the twins' criminal energy.

"Well, if this is how I'm buried," Maddie remarked, "then I'll become a ghost for that reason alone, to haunt whoever decided to do this."

We made our way through the front area, which had clearly been thoroughly investigated. Parts were still cordoned off and tools were everywhere.

"And this is where you just walked in as a kid?" asked George, who never stayed more than an arm's length away from me.

"Respect," Fred agreed, "should we call you Camy Croft?"

"I prefer Camille Jones. All I'm missing is the hat and the whip," I joked back, but earned a rather definite "Wuh-psssh" from Fred, who made a whipping gesture to his brother.

"Jealous?" laughed George, and I turned away rather quickly.

"Soooo." Maddie was more than grateful for the distraction from the desolate grave. "Is it official now?"

"Guess so." I could barely suppress the grin and we giggled like two little girls. "You must have been in on the plan, too."

"Well, sure I was! Do you think the boys would have gotten anything done that way without me?"

Probably not. Gratefully, I nudged my friend with my elbow.

"But tell me." Maddie stopped. "Something's not adding up here."

Instantly, all my senses sharpened. "What do you mean?" I followed her gaze, but it looked almost the same as last time. A little tidier due to the archaeologists.
"I mean the plants. There's hardly any light coming in here, but that's a wind fern there. They're really into direct sunlight."

"This was something like the nave, right?" Fred dug a crumpled piece of paper out of his back pocket. His notes, which I had never read because Maddie's discovery had changed everything. "Even though it looks like there used to be windows here, they were built bricked up like this from the beginning. So Maddie's right, the plant couldn't have grown here."

Acknowledging, I nodded at him. "Let's keep our eyes open for anything else we notice." I couldn't figure it out. The fern was still very small and the only one I could see so spontaneously. A coincidence?

We had found a lot of little details, but most of it didn't make sense. Motifs that were repeated in most of the pictures, except for one where something was suddenly changed. Benches that were always exactly the same distance from the walls, again except for one.

"There's always an outlier." George peered over the barricade that separated us from the tomb proper. "Do you think this is part of the puzzle yet, or is it meant to distract us from the real solution?"

"I guess we'll find out now." I was about to climb over the barricade when he held me back.

"Be careful. It doesn't look like anyone's been in here since - you know. I'm sure there are still traps."

"Yeah, I remember," I joked before lowering myself down the other side.

It still looked exactly as I remembered it. On either side of the elongated room, open coffins stood against the walls. Dummies designed to keep grave robbers out - if my parents were to be believed. They had all contained traps that the two had disarmed. At the end of the room, opposite the door, on a pedestal stood the actual coffin. Pretty obvious, but around it were most of the traps as well.
Dust particles flickered in the air, and I pushed the floating light of the twins along without moving myself. A few things had changed, I guess. The shadow ivy, a black tendril that preferred total darkness, had continued to grow inexorably, almost encircling the entire wall behind the coffin.
To my right, lush roots had broken through the wall, but the shadow ivy had used them to suck the nutrients out of the plant. Now they were hard and dry. I wouldn't be surprised if they were already petrifying from the inside out. Shadow ivy had that effect.
Hesitantly, I took a step ahead, then another.
A riddle. A task.

Behind me, George landed on soft soles and paused in motion for a few seconds before making sure nothing was happening. "This is really a step up from our other ventures." His eyes scanned the surroundings just as intently. "Fred and Maddie are coming too, but they want to make sure we haven't missed anything."