“Hua-Ling has eggs?” James exclaimed.
“How can one be missing?” asked Sirius.
“How does she know if one’s missing?” added James. “Can dragons count?”
“Don’t ask me how, but she knows,” said Anton.
“Did someone steal it?” Sirius asked.
“How could someone steal a dragon egg from a nest?” replied James. “That’s impossible.”
“Oh, it’s possible,” said Stefan. “Damn foolish, but possible.”
Stefan and Emmeline lost no time in following Anton back toward the nesting enclosures, isolated in a quiet clearing near the slope of one of the larger hills. James and Sirius ran after them, momentarily forgotten. Just as the first time he had met her, James heard Hua-Ling long before he saw her. The cry she made was as close to a human wail of anguish as any dragon ever got.
“They have to have a separate enclosure for the mothers, because they’re so protective,” Sirius explained to James as they jogged down the dirt path; Stefan was too distracted to attend to James' confused expression. “We found out Hua-Ling was having eggs just before we were going to transfer her, so we went ahead and just took her here. The other pen will come in handy later on anyway.”
A sudden bend in the path brought them into the clearing. Hua-Ling, rearing up on her hind legs, seemed to loom huger than James had ever seen her. From a heap of stones in a corner of the enclosure, the tops of two gleaming, speckled red and gold eggs could be seen. Hua-Ling let out another bellow. Her front legs hit the ground with an earth-shattering thunder of scales on stone.
Stefan shouted orders to the growing number of keepers around the clearing. Together they stunned Hua-Ling long enough to administer a very strong dose of Calming Draught through the biggest syringe James had ever seen, prying open her iron jaws with what looked like an ordinary crowbar.
“We’re lucky the reservation is so well-equipped,” said Sirius to James. “It’s gotta take an awfully strong potion to affect a dragon.”
Once the problem was averted, Stefan and Emmeline remained with Anton and another keeper, Andreas, to discuss the situation. Forgotten, Sirius made to leave, but James paused as he caught the words “purposeful distraction.”
Although three of the keepers were native Romanians, they spoke English for Emmeline’s sake, as often was the case on the reservation. English was in general the language of choice for all the different nationalities that converged.
“So you think that someone took down the barriers between the Fireball and the Vipertooths on purpose, so that they could sneak over here and steal an egg while no one was looking?” Anton was asking Stefan.
Stefan nodded. James strained his ears. “It’s too much of a coincidence, two emergencies on the same day, both unexplained, and one resulting in a missing egg.”
“But isn’t it a lot of trouble to go through for an egg?” Anton wanted to know. “Who in their right mind would want to steal a dragon egg?”
“Not the egg,” said Andreas suddenly. He had been silent, absorbed in thought. “The eggshell. Fireball eggshells are potion ingredients, aren’t they?”
Stefan nodded again and crossed his arms over his chest. “Class C Trade-able.”
“What potions are they used in?” Emmeline asked, looking back and forth between Andreas and Stefan, her brow knit with intense thought.
“Advanced Healing, and Dark Magic,” Andreas answered, stroking his brown curly beard as he spoke. “That’s why they’re Class C. You need a Healing clearance to get them.”
“And whoever did this didn’t have clearance,” said Stefan, frowning darkly. “That suggests they wanted it for Dark purposes.”
“So they’ll wait until the egg hatches, take the shell, and do what with the dragon?” asked Anton. Like Emmeline, he was glancing from Andreas to Stefan in keen concentration.
“Dispose of it,” said Stefan grimly.
James had heard enough. He turned and strode back down the path towards the dorms. Sirius followed, deep in thought, tripping over roots and stones in his preoccupation.
“Dark Magic,” James said, his voice sounding small among the tall trees. “What do you think of it? Something to do with Voldemort?” He turned and walked backwards, facing his friend.
“Dunno,” Sirius replied, staring at the ground. “I remember reading something about a potion with Fireball shells. It was in a book at my mum’s house, which isn’t a good sign.”
“Maybe we should check it out,” said James suddenly. “We’ve got the day off day after tomorrow. Let’s go into the city and do some research.”
Sirius frowned more deeply. “Sure, but won’t Stefan and the others figure it out?”
“If they do, they won’t tell us about it. Maybe we can be of some use. Who knows?”
Sirius shrugged. James faced front again. He really did want to help, but also, he wanted to see that admiring gleam in Emmeline’s eyes again, the one he’d seen after he’d felled the Fireball. James could already see himself catching the crook and presenting him to Stefan, with Emmeline standing by, smiling proudly at James.
Sunday after lunch, James, Sirius, Larry, Marian and two other interns walked about a mile through empty forest to the Apparition point designated for residents on the reservation. They Apparated into an alleyway in downtown Bucharest. From there they walked a little ways and, unnoticed by passing Muggles, descended a stairway into what looked to be an underground railway station under construction. In reality, no Muggle had set foot there for quite a while. Work on the metro system in Bucharest had begun several years ago, but this particular station had never been completed. Once unwanted, it had been quietly taken over by wizards and used for other purposes. Space was difficult to get a hold of in the crowded city, but all the Muggles seemed to have mysteriously forgotten about this spot. James suspected this was due to the enchantments that protected it.
The interns headed for the half-finished ticket booth, a metal frame without glass in the spaces. The six of them crowded into the booth, and Larry drew his wand. He ran his wand up one edge of the metal frame, across the top, down another edge, along the bottom and up again in a sort of sideways “S” shape. A shudder ran through the booth, and the tile floor began to descend into the ground. The interns passed through several metres of dirt and stone before the bedrock formed a ceiling above their heads and they passed into an enormous underground cavern.
As they walked off the platform which had merged seamlessly into the tile floor of the room they were in, James glanced around. He had been to this place several times before, but it never ceased to amaze him. To the left of where James stood, an underground river ran parallel to the metro tracks above. A sign in Romanian, German and English offered boat service up and down the river as far as Serbia and Bulgaria. Looking up, James could see no trace of the passageway that had brought him here through the smooth stone. Directly in front of James stood a bustling travel kiosk complete with a fireplace and a bucket of Floo powder. A swinging sign in front of the kiosk read, in several languages, “Welcome to Bucharest.” A bored-looking man sitting on a stool behind the counter was reading a newspaper entitled “Zilnic la Steaua””The Daily Star.
James turned away from the river and saw in front of him an enormous cavern. The ecclesiastical ceiling was supported with medieval arches from which thousands of lanterns were hung. Tall, narrow windows between the arches high on the cavern walls shone impossible sunlight into the space, lighting up the street below”for a cobblestone road ran down the center of the cave, and the street was lined with booths and carts and more permanent shops. Everywhere there were witches and wizards of all ages, eating, shopping and socialising.
At the far end of the street rose an elegant palace, complete with columns and fountains and topiary sculptures. A banner hanging over the entrance read “Ministerul de Magie”; the Romanian Ministry did things in style.
The other interns wandered off to their own agendas, and Sirius and James set off in search of a bookstore. “We’re not going to find one along here,” Sirius pointed out, gesturing down the main street. “Let’s try down this way.”
There were many small side streets and alleyways off of the main road, and it was down the nearest one of these that Sirius and James headed. It was a narrow, dark and dingy alley with sooty stone walls and filthy, uneven pavement. Stepping from the wide, airy, brightly lit avenue into this dim corridor was like stepping into another world, and not a more pleasant one. James and Sirius advanced cautiously, sliding nearly sideways to avoid coming into contact with the grimy walls of the buildings on either side. The gloomy atmosphere cast a cloud over James’ mood, which only a moment ago had been quite sunny.
“This looks promising,” said James with forced cheerfulness. He pointed to a dull red swinging sign that was barely legible through the dirt that coated it. The words were Romanian, but the illustration was that of a medieval-looking illuminated manuscript.
The inside of the store was if anything gloomier than the outside. The only light came from an ancient oil lamp on the rotting wooden counter. There were shelves of books caked with dust, and in glass cases stood gilded volumes that were obviously rare and priceless artifacts; just as obviously, they were quite old and neither they nor their display cases had been properly maintained.
The shop appeared to be deserted. Sirius slid a book off of a random shelf and coughed in the dust that he disturbed. He carefully cracked open its weathered pages, wincing at the crackling sound they made. “James…” Sirius said slowly, squinting at the book in the darkness. “Do you read Romanian?”
“No,” James replied. “There’s got to be someone around who can help us. Hello?” he called out into the depths of the room.
For a moment there was no response, then a shadow moved from behind a shelf and a dark figure came into view. The figure came closer to the light and resolved itself into a gaunt young woman with long, dark, dull hair and pallid skin. Her unremarkable features were combined in a rather contrary fashion with a pair of large, dark, beautiful eyes set deep in her head. She looked out at Sirius and James cautiously and spoke to them in accented but fairly fluent English, “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” James began, but then hesitated, looking to Sirius for help. This was obviously not the most respectable bookstore in Romania, but what he and Sirius wanted to find out was very much illegal. James had not quite thought this far.
Sirius was staring at the girl, his brow furrowed in concentration. “I know you,” he said suddenly. “You're Daciana Arcos. You and your father attended the Black family’s Christmas Ball in London two years ago.”
Daciana turned her head quickly to stare at Sirius for a long moment. Sirius shifted a bit but held her gaze. Suddenly she broke into a wide, toothy grin. “Sirius Black!” she purred. “It is a pleasure to see you again.”
“Er…pleasure to see you, too, Miss Arcos. Listen, I was wondering if you could help us””
“Please, my name is Daciana. You must know that your family is much admired by mine for your devotion to your art, to your skills in magic. Of course, if there is anything I can do to help you further your studies…”
“That’s just it, Daciana. I’m studying…potions. You know what kind.” Daciana nodded her head eagerly, the wide, enraptured smile still hanging ridiculously on her bony face. “I’ve, er, stumbled across some Fireball eggshells and am wondering how I might…put them to use to, er, further my studies.”
James was impressed. The moment Sirius had recognised this girl, he had come up with a plan to get her to help them. Of course, it helped that Sirius was familiar enough with the sorts of people who congregated at his mother’s events to know what approach to use, but still he had proved he could think on his feet.
“I have just the thing,” Daciana said gleefully. James would not have been surprised if she had clapped her hands like a child. This combination of Dark magic and childlike enthusiasm was unnerving James quite a bit.
Daciana slipped between Sirius and James toward the front of the shop. She took a candle from a drawer behind the counter and lit it on the lamp. She turned the corner into the next row of shelves and made her way to the back of the room, standing on tip-toe to examine the spines of the volumes on the top shelf. “This is an ambitious project, to be sure,” she told Sirius as she took down a heavy tome with a slight grunt. “But...” She hesitated, as if unsure how to phrase what she wanted to say. “When I was a guest at your family's home, I spoke with your brother.” Sirius' eyes flickered, but he said nothing. “He hinted of a higher purpose he aimed to follow...a higher master. Perhaps this is your intention also?”
Sirius was silent. James looked at him nervously, seeing that his entire body was rigid, and his eyes were hard. Finally, Sirius managed a jerky nod. Daciana was satisfied. “Then this will surely aid you,” she assured him. She opened the book and thumbed through its worn pages until she found what she sought. “The Fireball shell is the key ingredient in this potion. The other ingredients are easily accessible, except, of course, for the body. But that, too, is attainable, if you know where to look,” Daciana explained in a business-like manner.
“The body?” James blurted out. “What does this potion do, exactly?”
Daciana looked up at him, the candle in her hand casting eerie shadows on her smiling face. “It creates an Inferius.”