"Ní mhaireann solas na maidine don lá." // "No morning sun lasts all day."

The group made the trip back up the hill to Hogwarts early the following morning. A low, dense mist had settled across the valley over the night, and was slowly but surely being burnt away by the sunlight.

Many of the students were still fast asleep as Dumbledore ushered them down the halls.

Tara found herself unable to pick her gaze above the tips of her shoes, not exactly desiring to engage with the memories that would materialize should she look down a corner, or even out of a window. And it was only when Dumbledore finally ordered them to stop, that she was finally able to gather the courage to lift her head.

They found themselves facing a mostly blank, stone wall at the convergence of two large corridors.

Without any words spoken, or any wands brandished, the stones in front of them suddenly began to shake and shift until finally, an ornate door had formed in the dead center of the wall.

With a victorious smile, Dumbledore once more urged the group forward.

They emerged out into a rather empty room, spare for the collection of odd objects sitting in the center of it. The first was a large, floating ornate wheel of sorts that hovered about three feet off of the ground. Surrounding it, in a very ritualistic-looking circle, were six identical, brown leather cases.

Jacob leaned into Newt’s shoulder as they all shuffled inside.

“Hey, Newt, what is this place?”

“The room we require.” the Magizoologist replied vaguely.

Dumbledore stepped out in front of the assembled party, wringing his hands out in front of his stomach.

“I trust all of you have the tickets that Bunty gave you?”

Everyone nodded their heads in confirmation, Jacob excitedly lifting up the piece of parchment that they had all been issued during their walk up towards the castle.

“You’ll need them to gain access to the ceremony.” the professor continued, nodding his head over his shoulder. “What do you think, Newt? Can you tell which one is yours?”

The younger Scamander took a moment to drag his eyes around the circle of cases before slowly shaking his head.

“No.”
“Good. I’d be worried if you could.”

“I assume the Qilin’s in one of these cases?” Lally asked smartly.

“Yes.” 

“Well, which one is it?”

“Which one indeed.” Dumbledore said in response, a small smile appearing on his face.

Tara let out a breath of disbelief.

“Oh, it’s like a three-card monte thing.” Jacob piped up, causing a confused silence to fall over the room. “Like the shell game thing? Like a short con- nevermind. It’s a Muggle thing.”

“Grindelwald will do anything within his power to get his hands on our rare friend.” Dumbledore pointed out. “Therefore, it’s essential we keep whoever he dispatches on his behalf guessing so the Qilin gets to the ceremony safely. If by teatime, the Qilin- not to mention all of us- are still alive, we should consider our efforts a success.” The professor said as he donned his hat and scarf.

Jacob suddenly raised his hand again.

“For the record, no one ever died playing three-card monte.” he pointed out nervously.

“An important distinction.” Dumbledore noted. “All right, everyone choose a case, and we’ll be on our way. Mr. Kowalski, you and I will proceed together first.”

“Me?” the Muggle asked in surprise. “Okay.”

Jacob slowly wandered forward, reaching for the first case that he crossed paths with. But Dumbledore quickly cleared his throat. When the man glanced over at him, he found the professor not-so-subtly shaking his head. 

Standing back up straight, Jacob glanced around the circle again, then pointed wordlessly at one across from where he was standing. 

This time, Dumbledore nodded.

Picking up the case, Jacob paused for an awkward moment as the ornate wheel in front of him began to sparkle. And as Dumbledore reached out a hand to touch it, the room was instantly filled with a bright and powerful golden light.

“I’m looking forward to you educating me a little further on the finer points of three-card monte.” the professor said, offering his other hand for Jacob to take.

“My pleasure.” the man replied. The wheel began to spin faster and faster before finally, the two of them vanished in a flash.

Letting out breaths of their own, the remainder of the group quickly descended on the circle of cases.

“Well, good luck everybody.” Bunty said lightly.

Newt, by then, had already scooped up a case and was heading straight for the glowing wheel.

“Good luck.” he managed to shout back over his shoulder before vanishing.

“And you too, Bunty girl.” Lally said cheerfully as she skipped forward into the light. 

Tara had moved to do more or less the same, when Theseus suddenly grabbed a tight hold of her wrist. 

Her head shot back over her shoulder in surprise, watching as the wizard simply nodded his head towards the spinning wheel.

“Be careful, ok?” he said with the smallest of smiles. “Don’t do anything stupid until I come and find you.”

Tara scoffed in disbelief.

“Me do something stupid?” she repeated. “You’ve got some nerve, Scamander.”

With another smile, Theseus finally released the hold he had on her wrist.

Tara sent him one in return before taking a breath, snatching one of the remaining cases up off of the floor, and walking straight into the golden glow of the wheel.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───

A singular second later, Tara was stumbling out into a Bhutan alleyway. 

She took a moment or two to gather her senses, the grip she had on the handle of the case tightening as she did so. Glancing over her shoulders in both directions, she allowed herself to breathe easier upon finding herself alone. 

At least for the time being. 

She had a vague idea of where she was meant to be heading for; a magical staircase up into the mountains where the ceremony was to take place, but she didn’t know quite where that was in reference to her current position. So, in the end, she decided to begin walking along the edges of the main road, believing that it would give her the best chance at mapping out the pathways of the village itself.

As she slunk through the shadows, she began to hear the muffled sounds of chants and cheers from somewhere up ahead. Quickly slipping into a nearby alleyway, she flattened her back up against the stone wall. There she remained for several long minutes, watching on with wary eyes as crowds of wizards began flooding past her position, thundering down the main road of the village. Many of them were holding banners and chanting the names of their respective choices for leader of the wizarding world.

The witch waited until the largest part of the crowd passed her by, before finally daring to dart across the main road, dipping down into another alleyway. As she traveled along its shadowy path, she began to hear footsteps behind her. Turning her head back over her shoulder a few imperceptible times, she clocked three dark-robed wizards that had evidently begun to tail her.

Doing the math in her head, she didn’t think that she had enough time to try and apparate in an attempt to shake them off. So instead, she opted to continue zigzagging down the uneven streets without any specific direction or destination in mind, hoping to lose them the old-fashioned way.

Continuing on like that for a few more minutes, Tara stumbled over cobblestones with her head on a paranoid swivel. Everywhere she looked, she could see their shadows following her. 

She knew it was only a matter of time before they would catch up, but she also knew that it was her job to keep them held off for as long as she possibly could. Because the more time they wasted pursuing her, the less time they had to be searching for the Qilin or accosting her friends. 

As she came upon an intersection of several different stone pathways, Tara covertly slipped her wand out from where it had been hidden in the side of her boot. Grasping it tightly in her hand, she stepped out of the cover of the shadows, swiftly spinning on her heels in order to face what had previously been her back.

A surprised breath fell out of her throat.

No one was there.

That’s when her back slammed directly into something.

Well, rather, someone.

Whirling around in a panic, wand still brandished, Tara suddenly found herself pointing it at the stunned face of Theseus Scamander.

With a gasp, she dropped the wand back down to her side, Theseus quickly mirroring her actions.

The wizard had opened his mouth, as if about to speak, when Tara suddenly caught sight of something just over his left shoulder.

As quick as light, she shot a bolt of energy forward, expertly missing Theseus and instead nailing the cloaked advisory that had been approaching his blindside. 

But in the time that it took for the enemy to collapse to the ground, the two wizards found themselves surrounded by about ten or so German Auror’s.

Falling into an instinctual defensive stance, Tara and Theseus wasted no time beginning to trade spells, blocking and countering whatever the Auror’s sent their way with equal amounts of aggression. 

The two of them fought together quite fluidly, a skill that they had been unknowingly perfecting since all the way back in their Hogwarts days. They could not only react to the threats at hand, but also could seemingly sense each other's thoughts and decisions, allowing them to maneuver accordingly. 

Once they had managed to break through a large enough chunk of the horde, they retreated up a nearby flight of stairs, one that carried them up and out of the small courtyard. All the while continuing to fire off the occasional counter spells as they went.

The moment that they reached the top, Tara felt a sharp shiver travel down her spine. Spinning on her heels, she had fired a spell forward before she even realized it herself. And the next thing she knew, she was watching an Auror tumble down from where they had been perched on a balcony overlooking the street.

Hearing Theseus grunt next to her, Tara quickly turned her attention back forward. There, she found him engaged in a rather nasty battle with an Auror that was slowly attempting to make his way up the staircase.

A flash of red crossed her vision, and her wand hand swung out in a rather violent arc. The brick and stones that made up the bottom three or four steps exploded out of the earth at her silent command. And with a simple flick of her wrist, the stones wrapped themselves around the Auror, swirling in a dangerous tornado, and effectively cutting him off from Theseus. Curling her fist even tighter around the wood of her wand, Tara then pulled it down sharply, slamming the wizard into the ground at the bottom of the stairs, the stones and bricks encasing him against the Bhutan street.

A silence quickly settled over the intersection.

Releasing a breath, Tara lowered her wand back down to her side, pointedly blowing a strand of hair around her face. Surrounding them now, were the same ten or so Auror’s, now all laying in various states of unconsciousness.

Turning her head to the side, she was met with the sight of an equally out-of-breath, but alive, Theseus. The moment that his eyes found hers, the man immediately broke out into a wide smile.

“You are one hell of a witch, you know that?”

Tara’s lips had parted in order to reply with something equally as snarky, when suddenly the sharp tip of a wand appeared in the side of her neck.

Theseus’ eyes darkened as the same was done to him. Two additional wizards emerged from the shadows behind them, and soon enough, standing before the couple was none other than Helmut himself.

“Cases, please.” the German man barked.

They hadn’t even allowed them the chance to comply. Rather two Auror’s roughly ripped them out of their hands, delivering them to the ground at Helmut’s feet.

The wizards at their necks stepped out in front of them, leveling their wands at level with their faces instead. Tara was hardly paying attention to the one in front of her, rather her gaze had darted over to Theseus, watching as he stared down the piece of wood that was damn near poking him in the eye.

She had just about finished her mental calculations, deciding that she was going to jump to the side and place her body in front of him before the Auror’s magic could go off, when suddenly Helmut raised his hand.

“Wait-” he commanded. “Open them. Make sure it’s in there, idiot.”

Back behind them, they could hear a muffled groan emit from the man that Tara had trapped underneath the stones. And if their situation had been even so much as a fraction less dire, she would’ve laughed.

Helmut sighed in annoyance, raising his wand reluctantly to release the man from his stoney bonds.

Everyone’s attention then turned towards the two cases on the ground. The assigned Auror’s pointed their wands at them, magically flipping the golden fasteners open in unison.

As if waiting for this exact moment, the two cases exploded. 

From inside of the one Theseus had been carrying, came what appeared to be an entire set of Quidditch equipment, Golden Snitch and all. The bewitched balls immediately shot out towards the Auror’s surrounding them, devolving into a rather violent magical attack.

Out of Tara’s case, come thousands upon thousands of pounds of paper. They swirled up and around their enemies, blinding and obscuring them from their captives.

Eyes wide in shock, Tara had momentarily followed the path of the Golden Snitch as it darted over a nearby rooftop. Her thoughts drifted to the rest of their party, wondering if the very same thing was happening to them. And if any of them truly carried the Qilin.

Tara was ripped out of her thoughts by the feeling of Theseus’ grabbing a fierce hold of her hand, all but dragging her down a nearby alleyway, leaving the chaos and German Auror’s behind.

The pair didn’t stop running until they found themselves centimeters away from crashing into a large group of people. Bodies were suddenly all that they could see. Wizards were everywhere, carrying banners and wearing identifying colors of their respective votes as they marched down the main village road.

Theseus pulled them to a sharp halt just before the end of the alleyway. He then quickly turned towards Tara, reaching up to pull the hood of her cloak over her head before doing the same to himself. Wordlessly, he grabbed her hand again before merging them out and into the stream of wizards.

They followed in the crowd's footsteps towards a large bridge that appeared to rise up into nothing but the clouds. The mountains of Bhutan loomed as a glorious backdrop to the sight of people continuing to thunder down the stone pathway, only to disappear through an invisible portal at the end of it.

Once they finally reached the end of the bridge, Theseus pulled them off to the side. They kept their heads held low until the main bulk of the crowds had passed through the portal. And they didn’t dare to pull back their hoods until the amount of bodies walking by slowed to an occasional trickle.

Several long minutes later, they heard the fast and unmistakable sound of heels clicking against stone. Someone was jogging down the pathway towards their position. Both Theseus and Tara picked their heads up in worried unison, only to watch Lally fall into the space at their side.

She too, notably, was now void of the case she had been carrying.

The professor greeted them with a short nod, bracing herself up against the edge of the bridge wall, evidently needing to catch her breath. Tara didn’t have to think too hard about what she could have gone through in the past half an hour.

As the group of them continued to wait on the rest of their party's arrival, Theseus had begun to pace the length of the now deserted bridge. From somewhere impossibly high above their position, a low horn sounded. The noise appeared to seep through the entire village, nearly shaking the very stones underneath their feet.

Looking back down from the sky, Tara noticed that Theseus still had yet to stop his nervous march. With a sigh, she pushed herself off of the edge of the bridge, making her way over to him. 

She purposefully placed herself into his path, forcing him to stop lest her run her over. Her eyes danced over his expression, noting just how tightly his eyebrows were furrowed together. 

“He’s gonna be here any minute.” she told him.

As if on some awful cue, the thundering sound of footsteps erupted from back out in the village. The three of them quickly turned together, watching as a semi-large group of Dark Auror’s turned the corner, heading directly for the bridge that they were standing on. Leading the charge was a rather familiar face, Yusuf Kama.

Tara held her breath, watching as the Auror’s all raised their wands out towards them, mere seconds away from casting their spells.

That’s when Kama moved.

He dropped to the ground, slamming his wand down into the earth. From it, came a huge pulse of silver magic, sending a stunning wave of force back towards those flanking him. A large crack shuddered out across the street, and all of the opposing Auror’s were immediately blown backwards, becoming still bodies against the stone.

Kama then stood back up, dusting off his coat in a rather casual manner before jogging over to the group waiting for him in the center of the bridge.

Theseus scoffed.

“What kept you?” he asked sarcastically.

Kama simply rolled his eyes in response, and the four of them moved together for the portal.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───