The Curse of Swan Lake

Chapter Eighteen

The next stop was Iceland. It took me a day to recover fully and once we'd packed all of our things, we headed for the ministry in Rio de Janeiro to procure a portkey to Grindavík. The travel itself would only take about 4.3 seconds, but the queue at the travel office was so long, we needed four hours until we managed to sign up for a portkey.

"Your portkey will leave in 30 minutes," said the wizard with a strained smile that showed he'd seen too many annoyed witches and wizards today to handle any more.

"Thank you," I said with a nod and took the metal coin from him.

"Next!" the wizard called out, sighing when a group of old witches shuffled forward, all shouting something in French.

Severus and I took a seat in the waiting area and I set my bag down on my knees. The room was overcrowded with screaming babies, yelling kids, exhausted parents and elderly people who looked like they wished they could hex everyone away.

"There is one thing we must discuss," said Severus after casting the Muffliato charm. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "About the blue pegasi."

"I told you, I didn't realize it was a problem we arrived in Rio de Janeiro," I defended myself. "I'd intended to tell you after we'd returned from the garden. But then, well-" I motioned to my neck.

"Either way," said Severus and leaned back, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "the problem remains that we are unprepared for what we might face."

Blue pegasi were among the most suspicious creatures on the planet- it was almost impossible to get near them. They lived in a cave that could only be accessed from a secret entrance near the Blue Lagoon (which was about 3 miles away from Grindavík), which would already be very difficult to find.

But the main problem was that the blue pegasi were protected by some sort of ancient magic. I'd found this important piece of information only a few days ago in one of the books I'd brought and it didn't say what exactly protected the pegasi. It could be anything from a magical creature to some shield that extended around their territory. What the book did mention, however, was that so far, barely anyone had managed to leave that place alive.

Fu...dge.

I poured over my books every chance I got and Severus did the same. But now we were less than twenty minutes away from traveling to Iceland and still had no idea what we would have to face.

"It could be a creature the pegasi live with," I suggested. "A symbiosis. The hair of the blue pegasi has great magical powers and in return they could receive protection."

"I doubt it," said Severus and glanced at the clock. Eighteen minutes to go. "I have never heard of such a symbiosis among the equine creatures of the Wizarding world."

I scowled. "Doesn't mean it can't exist."

"I am not saying that. It is just very unlikely."

I sighed tiredly and leaned back in my chair, playing with the end of my braid. There were moments when I considered chopping it all off because it sure was a lot of work. However, I was too attached to my hair to actually do that.

A bell rang.

"This is the ten minute warning," a monotonous female voice spoke. "All travelers to Iceland, Grindavík please proceed to gate 243."

Severus and I got up, grabbed our things, and followed a bunch of American teenagers down a corridor to our gate. I thought it was funny how the Wizarding world was trying to copy the muggle airports by introducing check-ins, gates and so on.

Our gate was just another room with three people dressed in ministry robes.

"Please hold on to your belongings," a witch instructed us. "Everyone traveling with the portkey should remain in contact with it at all times."