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Shuri approached the Sacred Cavern carefully. Her brother was giving her another impossible task - to find and revive the Heart-shaped herb. Nothing like asking her to find any sign of the sacred plant in a cave that has been set on fire. “There has got to be a better way to do this,” Shuri muttered as she looked around the devastation. “I know tech, not plants. Even if I find a sprig, what do I do with it?”
“Professor Longbottom,” Minerva McGonagol’s voice filled the greenhouse. “I need your assistance. Please report to the headmaster’s Office immediately.”
“What have I done this time,” Neville muttered to himself as he looked over the mandrakes that his First Years had repotted this morning. “It’s not like I can get into much trouble out here. Mandrake roots will have to wait, the Headmistress summons me.”
“You are sending me where?” Shuri looked at her brother in disbelief. “I am not made for the wilderness of America, especially in the summer. I am barely made for the cities there. What are you expecting me to find in the Rocky Mountains?”
“I am expecting you to find a way to save our future.” T’Challa looked at his sister and smiled. “I am not sending you alone. You will have help from Scotland. A man very knowledgeable in plants and wilderness.”
“Brillant!” Shuri threw her hands in the air and began to pace between her lab tables. “You are sending me to the mountains of the West in America to meet a strange plant man and save Wakanda’s future. Nothing like a well thought out plan, brother.”
“You are always telling me you are a genius,” T’Challa grinned. “What’s so wrong with giving you a chance to prove it?”
“Are you sure about this?” Neville gulped as he looked over the parchment the Headmistress had set in front of him. “I have been working with potions to revive lost plant species from fragments that are found by expeditions, but I am not to this stage yet. Can’t you send someone else?”
“No, Professor Longbottom,” Minerva McGonagal tapped the parchment. “They have asked for our best herbologist and that is you. I have neve seen anyone come close to what you do in your greenhouse. Even Professor Sprout thinks you are the wizard for the job.”
“If I was working in my greenhouse, I would not be as worried,” Neville sighed. “But, I have not been camping since I was a student and I have never even heard of this plant. I’m going to have to talk to Hermione about how to pack everything I am going to need into something I can carry on my back.”
“I am sure you will come up with a solution, Professor Longbottom,” Minerva smiled. “Hogwarts and Wakanda are counting on you. Your travel partner will meet you at the VIsitor’s Center of the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado in two days. Do not disappoint me.”
Shuri looked around the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. Her brother had sent her here to meet her travel and research partner. All he told her was that her partner would be tall and lanky. With dark hair and a large pack. T’Challa was so helpful. “I’m going to strangle him in his sleep when I get home,” she muttered to herself as she pretended to look over the topographical map in front of her. “I have seen twelve tall and lanky men with large packs in the last twenty minutes. How am I supposed to find the one I am looking for.”
“Excuse me, sir.” Shuri heard a deep voice address the ranger nearest her. “I am looking for information on wilderness camping and the trails near Lost Lake.”
The stranger and the ranger approached the map Shuri had been looking at. “You are in luck.” The ranger pointed at a location on the map as he spoke. “No one is staying at Lost Lake right now and the trails are not too rough. There are some nice cave systems near the sight as well as several trails that make good day hikes. If we hurry, I can get your permits processed and you can get on your way.”
Shuri turned towards the man that had requested information on Lost Lake. “Excuse me, sir. Are Professor Neville Longbottom?”
Neville blushed at her question. “I am,” he whispered. “How do you know my name?”
“I’m Shuri. My brother, T’Challa, sent me to meet you.” Shuri shrugged and looked back to the map. “I guess we should follow the ranger and then head for the wilderness. I am looking forward to working with you.”
“You are Shuri?” he whispered again. “The headmistress said a young lady would be meeting me here. Did you bring what you will need in the wilderness?”
Shuri looked at the small pack on Neville’s shoulder then gestured to the large bag beside her. “I did. But, I’m not so sure about you. Is that all you are bringing?”
Neville smiled and shrugged. “I have friends that are wizards at packing everything they need into something they can carry.”
Shuri had never seen so many things come out of such a small bag. A tent, camp chairs, water station, and small greenhouse, to name a few. “Just an extendable bag charm that Hermione loves to use,” was the explanation Neville had given her with a shrug. “Magic makes travel easier. Give me a few minutes and the tent and greenhouse will be ready. Will you need a lab space in the tent?”
Shuri looked at the tent had begun to set up in their campsite. “How are you going to get lab space in that small tent? It is barely going to fit the two of us. I have seen modern science do many things, but make more space inside a tent than I see on the outside is beyond belief.”
Neville pulled his wand from the side pocket of his bag and sketched runes in air around the tent. “This is not modern science. This is magic. There are so many more things that can be done when magic and modern science work together. Does your lab need to be cool? I know I need to set temperature and humidity control charms for my greenhouse.”
Neville proved to be full of surprises after camp was set up as well. “Since we are here, we might as well enjoy some local camping delicacies. They can all be made over the fire. Good thing I brought a fire pit and fuel.”
“What did you have in mind?” Shuri asked as she watched him dig in the bag at this feet. “Hot water over freeze dried food is what I was prepared for. I have done some research.”
“Hot dogs, beans, crisps, and S’mores, to start” Neville smiled as he pulled a small metal fire pit from his bag. “I did research as well. We might as well enjoy ourselves and have a barbecue in the wilderness before we hike to the caverns in the morning. What is the point in having magic if you can’t use it?”
“Are you sure this will work?” Shuri looked over the strange forks Neville had pulled from his bag. “This fork doesn’t look like it will hold anything.”
“I’m sure an inventor such as yourself would appreciate a marshmallow fork.” Neville chuckled and handed Shuri a bag of marshmallows. “I’ll get the fire going if you will get these on forks. How do you take your S’mores - toasted or burnt?”
Shuri laughed when Neville handed her a parchment covered in drawings of S’mores and levels of marshmallow doneness. “I think I’ll go for burnt. So dessert before dinner tonight?”
Neville stood in the mouth of the cavern and looked into the dark. “According to Harry, there have been reports of strange purple flowers seen in these caverns over the years. If it is the heart shaped herb, we will have to find a way to get a small sample and return it to your country.”
Shuri lifted her lantern to eye level and looked around the cavern. “I don‘t see anything here, but it looks like another tunnel is at the back of the cavern. Let’s head that way and see what we can find. I’ll leave tracers at each tunnel juncture so we can find our way back out again.”
“Lumos.” Neville held his wand up as it cast an eerie blue light around the cavern. “I’m fine with that. We need to map this cave system while we go. Muggles have some ideas about what is here, but we need an accurate record of what we find so we don’t have to do this again. Do you have anything in your bag for that?”
Shuri smiled and tapped the watch on her wrist. “This will record all our movements and I can download the information when we get back to the tent. It keeps track of more than just how many steps I take. I’m sure I can create a three dimension map of what we explore when we get back.”
Neville and Shuri walked toward the tunnel at the back of the first cavern. “I hope this is not another wild dragon chase,” Neville whispered. “I do not want to spend what's left of my summer holiday scrambling through tunnels searching for a mythical plant. I do enough of that during the school term.”
“I can promise the heart-shaped herb exists.” Shuri sighed as she followed Neville into the next tunnel. “There was a whole sacred cavern full of it before Warmonger burned it all. We have people in Wakanda dedicated to taking care of the herb, if only we can find another spring it to take back to them.”
“What was the cavern like?” Neville asked as he flicked his wand into the dark. “I have charms that can seek certain conditions. I use them when I am looking for rare plants for my greenhouse.”
“Look for cool and damp soil with a flowing water source if we are trying to get close to the conditions of the sacred cavern.” Shuri shrugged. “My people created our cavern many years ago to farm and protect the herb. Legend says the sacred cavern is where the herb was originally found, a ‘heart in the stone’ of Wakanda.”
“So, that is what we will look for.” Neville flicked his wand and a gold sparks flowed from it’s tip towards the next tunnel. “Let’s see if this spell can help us find what we are looking for. Native traditions say an herb of great healing and magic lives deep in these caverns. I hope they are more than just traditions.”
Shuri grabbed Neville’s shoulder and pointed at the golden spark that was coming back towards them and growing larger. “Is it supposed to be doing that?”
“It means the conditions we need have been found.” Neville flicked his wand at the spark and watched it zoom back where it came from. “Now we follow it and see what there is to be seen. It won’t slow down and wait on us. Hurry!”
Neville and Shuri scrambled through a maze of tunnels and caverns following the golden spark. Shuri bumped into Neville’ back when he stopped suddenly at the entrance to a large cavern. “Oooffff. Why did you stop?”
Shuri lost her voice as she looked around neville’s shoulder. The cavern glowed purple with the light from the centers of thousands of flowers that covered the floor and walls of the cavern. “I think we found the ‘Heart in Stone’,” Neville whispered. “Is this what you were looking for?”
Shuri walked around Nevile to enter the cavern. “This is amazing. I have never seen the heart-shaped herb look so beautiful. Let me scan the cavern and then we can work on a way to get some of these back our greenhouse.”
“Back to the greenhouse will be easy.” Neville whispered. “Back to Wakanda may take more magic than I have.”
“Well then,” Shuri chuckled. “Let’s get to work.”