With a loud crack and a bright flash of light, the two Aurors found themselves suspended in mid-air. In a split second, before they could realise what was going on, the invisible floor gave way and they started plummeting towards the earth, the wind rushing violently past them. Albus yelled at the top of his voice, his arms flailing wildly as he tried to slow down his fall. Scorpius, on the other hand, grappled inside his robes for his wand, his eyes watering as he tried to see. They were merely a few feet away from instant death when finally, his fingers curled around the familiar wooden stick. Tugging it out, he pointed it at the ground and screamed, “Arresto Momentum!”
It was as if an unseen rope had been tied on their waists; they suddenly came to a halt, their faces a foot above the ground. The smell of earth and grass filled Albus’ lungs before at last, the non-existent cord snapped and they fell to the ground with a loud thud. Albus thought he heard a small crick, before suddenly feeing a sharp pain on his face; he realised he had just broken his nose.
Scorpius clambered to his feet, massaging his forehead, and he stowed his wand back into his pocket. “Nice spell-work back there, Potter,” he commented.
Clutching his throbbing nose, Albus groggily got to his feet. “I guess I could do wid bore practice. Baybe I forgot to add da salvatierra at de edd. Or baybe it was da Reduco gravita.”
“Lovely,” Scorpius said sarcastically. “You forgot the most important spell, the one that makes us land safely on the ground instead of plummet down from the sky. Happens sometimes, doesn’t it? Happens to us all.”
“Shut it,” Albus growled. Blood was dribbling down his face from between his fingers. “Fix by dose?” he asked, removing his hand to display his bloody and obviously broken nose.
Scorpius pulled out his wand again, looking at Albus with a mix of pity and amusement. “Reminds me of the time when that Bludger smashed into your face in fifth year. Thanks for that, by the way; Slytherin wouldn’t have won without you and your rookie Beater. Episkey.”
Albus grunted as he felt another stab of pain while his nose fixed itself. With a quick wave of his wand, he siphoned off the blood covering his face. “Where are we?” he asked, looking around for the first time.
They were in some kind of valley. There was lush green grass all around them, and a few shrubs or small trees sprouted out of the ground here and there. Behind them was a small hill, on top of which stood a rather large house, almost completely covered with ivy.
“I bet ten Galleons that Rufflesius is in there,” Albus muttered under his breath.
Silently, the two Aurors trudged up the hill. Having gone on many little ‘excursions’ to the hills around the Burrow, Albus seemed familiar to the topography of the place; knowing where to place his footing, he made it up to the top without much difficulty. Scorpius, on the other hand, had lived in a small village for the most of his life and his parents had hardly allowed him to venture outside on his own. For that reason, Scorpius had never found trekking up hills his cup of tea.
Once Albus had helped Scorpius up onto plane ground, they slowly started walking towards the rotting, ivy-covered front door. After a minute of silence, they reached it. There was no knocker or doorbell on the door, however.
“There would have been no point knocking, anyway,” Albus said. “Besides, they probably made this house to hide from people; it’s in such a desolate area. No one would come visiting, so why make a knocker in the first place?”
“Yeah,” Scorpius agreed. “It’s covered with so many plants. No one would have guessed that anyone lived here, and Muggles probably wouldn’t even notice it.”
Albus took out his wand and pointed it at the rusty keyhole, the only thing on the door. “Alohomora,” he muttered. The keyhole glowed white and something clicked inside. With an ominous creak, the door swung open. Wands raised, the two Aurors tiptoed into the building as the door swung shut behind them, leaving them in pitch-black darkness.
“Lumos,” Scorpius whispered hastily, and the tip of his wand glowed. Albus thought he detected a hint of fear in his partner’s voice. He knew that Scorpius didn’t really like the dark.
The living room seemed like a deserted, haunted house. It was filled with cobwebs from top to bottom. The clothes covering the furniture had turned black, their original whiteness hardly discernable. The wooden floor was thankfully covered with an inch of dust; otherwise, their footsteps would have echoed loudly in the cavernous room. A threadbare rug lay underneath what Albus assumed were the remains of a coffee table. The curtains on the windows were drawn, preventing any sunlight entering the room. Albus thought he heard a faint buzzing coming from them and felt a sense of foreboding.
“Who in their right mind would live in such a filthy rat’s hole?” Albus hissed, crinkling his nose as they walked towards a rickety staircase at the back of the room.
“If anyone does live here, he’s definitely a person worth investigating,” Scorpius replied. “Anyone living here would be up to no good. It’s the perfect place to do something illegal; no one would bother to enter and check it out, because they’d assume no one lives here.”
The stairs creaked softly as they crept up the winding flight. As they got to the landing, they found themselves face to face with a long, dark corridor that led up to nothing but a single door at the end. Cobwebs were suspended from the ceilings. There was a shrill squeak and a scurry of tiny feet on the wooden floor as a rat ran into a small crack in the wall at the sight of the newcomers. It was then that Albus noticed an oddity in the corridor.
“Look,” Albus whispered, pointing at the bottom of the door. Scorpius saw it, too; a faint strand of light was streaming in through the gap beneath the door.
Someone was inside.
Immediately, Scorpius put his index finger on his lips and signalled for Albus to be quiet. He positioned himself to the left of the door and held his wand aloft. He motioned to Albus to stand in front of the door. He held up three fingers and then drew his fingers together into a fist and separated them quickly. Albus nodded, understanding the tactic. Looking straight at the door, Scorpius held up one finger, then two, and then finally, three.
“REDUCTO!” yelled Albus.
There was a loud bang and an explosion and the door was blasted off its hinges, showering the two Aurors with dust and debris. The force of the blast sent Albus spiralling backwards; he landed a few feet away with a loud thump. Scorpius, who was shielded from the direct impact, instantly hurtled into the room. Albus immediately sprang to his feet and charged through the door-frame, his wand raised high.
As the dust and smoke settled, however, the two Aurors found themselves in a completely empty room. The only thing inside was a large, iron cauldron filled with a bubbling potion, resting idly on top of a crackling fire.
Albus let out a sight of frustration. “Damn!” he cursed. “That blast must have alerted him now, wherever he was. He’ll be gone before we can even say his name.”
Scorpius walked towards the cauldron and peered into its contents. The green concoction inside was frothing and hissing wildly, letting out puffs of smoke now and then. Scorpius sniffed. The fumes filled his nose, giving him the sensation that he was soaring. He immediately stepped back, shaking his head to get rid of the fuzzy feeling.
“Myrrh, meswak extracts and cloves,” he stated, his brows knitting into a frown. He’d always been good at potions in school. “The ingredients needed to make herbal toothpaste. However, mixed with roots of baneberry, a dash of bloodroot sap extracted on a full-moon and rufflesius leaves, they make a powerful wizarding drug most commonly used for intoxication: Cittanil.”
“Whoever was here was making drugs?” Albus asked, surprised. Scorpius nodded.
Albus waved his wand, and in a flash, the cauldron and its contents vanished. “I sent it over to the Ministry for inspection,” he said. He then looked around. The rooms seemed to be in a slightly better condition, for there were no cobwebs and the walls looked much cleaner. This made him sure that someone did live here, whether or not they visited other parts of the house. But then, where did they...?
“We’d better get going, then,” Scorpius was saying, stowing his wand back in. “No point hanging around. We’ll bring reinforcements later on; whoever was here will come back for the cauldron.”
Albus was staring at the wall opposite the door. As he blinked, it seemed to flutter.Could it be “?
“Potter, are you coming?”
Albus spun around quickly, putting a finger on his lips and waving his wand. Scorpius frowned, but then eyes widened for a second, and he quickly withdrew his wand. Hastily, Albus motioned to the wall in front of him.
“Yes, Malfoy,” he said loudly, walking towards the wall. “Let’s go.”
“There’s nothing here, after all,” Scorpius said loudly, playing along, wondering what on earth his partner was up to.
Albus was inches away from the wall. Raising his wand, he whispered, “Homonem Revelio!”
Right in front of their eyes, the wall vanished and revealed an extension of the same room, comprising of a straw bed, and in one corner, a urinal. Crouched on the bed was an oddly familiar man.
A Touch of Ice by majestic_ginny
Chapter Notes: Thanks a lot to my awesome beta, Soraya for all her edits and inputs. Love ya, hon.
This chapter contains drugs, though no one uses them. I still added the Substance Abuse warning just to be safe :) Also, the ingredients of the drugs are real leaves, but I really don't think they would make anything, except a blob of pastey stuff.
Chapter Endnotes: Reviews make me happy!
--Nadia