All in the Family

Chapter 81: The Yule Ball

"Achoo!" Regulus sneezed painfully hard, his eyes watering so much they were squinted nearly shut, leaving him half blind as he tried to gaze blearily around to their new torture grounds. The bright sunlight was helping nothing, the nausea that still persisted through their trips along this place was as heavy as ever, and this time in particular they seemed in a truly bizarre area that he couldn't imagine had to do with Harry Potter's circumstances. It was a garden, a truly illustrious one that Professor Sprout would water at the mouth to see. He'd landed on a pile of Honking Heleniums that were vocally none too happy at him as he scrambled onto the smooth limestone pathway, and looked around to see Evans the Muggleborn in the field across from him gazing in just as much confusion at some purple flowers he couldn't identify.

Brushing pollen from his robes and looking around carefully, surely no one had forgotten the Devil's Snare, he found nothing immediately dangerous about their environment, but didn't quite relax either. The hedge walls were about a foot above his head, but he could see even taller ones in the distance as if they fluctuated in size, or perhaps the whole place was built on rolling hills, and behind him in the distance he could see where the trail began in the shadow of an odd building. It looked sort of like an abandoned, though clearly once very fancy hotel carved right into a mountain. The huge cracks along its surface made him leery though it would collapse any moment and start an avalanche, so he wasn't keen on inspecting it too closely. Rising clear above all of this was the mountain peak, the glinting sun shining down right on the whole place like a spotlight.

He turned back around to see Evans was cautiously making her way through the plants with the most dainty of steps, and waited patiently for her to make it to the pathway before deciding she wasn't going to die so turning to be on his way in search of the book.

"Hey, err, Black!"

He turned back with honest curiosity what she had to say to him, they'd hardly spoken this whole time, and he certainly had nothing to say to her.

"I, um, I don't recommend stepping back off the path, alright? There could be something more dangerous than Dancing Daliahs around here, wherever here is."

He nodded once to show he'd heard before going back off, hands deep in his pockets. He was surprised at himself he didn't care anymore what anyone would have said about how he handled that situation. That he should have cursed her, or at least reminded her that as the more superior wizard he needed no such warning, would have been the expected return, but now he had other things on his mind to worry about than whatever that Muggleborn got up to in this place.

He didn't have to travel much farther, taking two right turns before he found the book nestled in a patch of strange-looking plants. From what little he knew of them, he'd guessed they were foxglove and irises mixed together in a bright plum color to create whatever was strong enough to hold that hefty book aloft nearly up to his waist. Even though it was in arms reach, he wasn't stupid enough to try grabbing it from the strange plant, and instead he looked miserably at his bare hands. Even if he did summon the book to him, he wasn't sure he trusted the strange plant enough it wouldn't leave residue on his hands to cause some adverse effect. Then his eyes brightened with an idea, and he shucked off his shoes, slipping them carefully into his bag this time, almost enjoying the warmth of the path on his bare feet while he pulled off his socks and used them as makeshift gloves before getting the book in hand. He was quite proud of his ingenuity and didn't care how ridiculous he probably looked as he read out the chapter title, happy at least this was being gotten out of the way already.

Frank had landed in a very prickly shrub, and the more he twisted to get free, the sharper the leaves dug into his clothes. He could feel small nicks where several had already broken skin. He was cursing so frantically by the time the hand was being shoved in his face he didn't care if it was You-Know-Who offering him help out, he took it with gratitude as he was finally pulled free.