Before their journey could begin, there were still a few thresholds to clear.

Lucas and Snape divided the work quickly.

Lucas would handle the paperwork. Snape would go upstairs to sort out the vessel rental.

After seeing his mentor off, Lucas walked over and sat down at the small table. His current height fit just right into the space.

Right. Start with the basics.

Lucas dug a black ballpoint pen out of his bag.

The form in front of him was the Sea Passage Permit. Flipping through it, he found it was followed by an Emergency Contact Registration Form and a Marine Pollution Pledge.

The sheer number of headings was enough to make anyone's head swim, but many of the forms shared large stretches of overlapping content.

Lucas worked through an endless loop of name, gender, age, then hit the next line: identification number.

He tapped the table absently and skipped it for now.

Upstairs, Snape stood before a heavy wooden door. A brass nameplate hung on it: Vessel Rental Office.

The edges of the plate had already oxidized. He raised his hand to knock, and the door swung open on its own.

A wave of damp, briny air hit him in the face.

The room inside had been expanded with spatial magic. It was far larger than expected, the floor-to-ceiling shelves stretching as if endlessly into the dark.

Every shelf within sight held rows of narrow-necked glass bottles, laid on their sides.

CLICK. Someone tripped a mechanism.

The lights came on all at once, illuminating everything from the nearest shelf to the deepest recesses of the room.

Light filtered through layer upon layer of shelves and lit up the ship models inside the bottles.

They were exquisitely crafted. On the vessel closest to him, Snape could make out the railings along the upper deck, a miniature helm, and even the sailor's knots, tied with perfect precision.

A slightly stooped old man emerged from somewhere behind him.

He leaned on a cane. As he made his way over, Snape noticed that one of his legs was made of wood, striking the floorboards with a dull, heavy thud at every step.

"You must be Mr. Snape? I imagine you've already had a look at the selection process?" the old man asked, unhurried.

Snape nodded.

He stated his business in his usual few words. "I have already chosen a route. Find me a suitable vessel."

The old man remained unhurried. He led Snape to the first shelf. "This collection holds tens of thousands of vessels — everything from seventeenth-century sailing ships to modern Muggle powerboats."

"Choosing a ship isn't like choosing a wand. A wand is once in a lifetime. A ship offers a sailor willing to try endless possibilities."

Snape cut him off. "Just give me a recommendation."

Snape's blunt manner interrupted the old man's nostalgic preamble. He gave an unhappy "Hmph" and held out his hand. "Did you bring up the booklet they gave you downstairs?"

Snape passed over the "booklet," which was thick as a dictionary.

The old man slotted the volume into a recess in the corner, a notch made exactly to its dimensions.

As the book clicked into place, the sound of gears filled the room, and the shelves began to move with a series of clacks.

"First, we filter by age. Too old and you won't be able to handle them, but too new won't do either." The old man worked a dial in the corner, some sort of filtering device, and as he adjusted it, one row of shelves shifted a little closer to where Snape stood.

"Next, passenger capacity. The application listed only two people, if I recall."

Another set of shelves rolled back.

"Finally, accident rate. I need to find you something even a fool could operate — there's always someone who manages to turn a simple pleasure cruise into a catastrophe." The old man muttered to himself and twisted the dial with force.

Three bottles slid forward to Snape's position.

"These three are your options." The old man pointed at them with evident pride. "A brigantine, a stealth speedboat, and a small catamaran."

Even so, Snape could not truly match the names to the models in front of him. As far as he could tell, the ships were all roughly the same size, with only minor differences in their sails.

Silence drifted between them.

Just as Snape was about to point at one at random, the old man spoke up. "If you can't make up your mind, you could always consult your companion."

Snape saw no need for that, and he had no desire to go all the way downstairs and turn a one-trip errand into two.

"Making the decision together matters." The old man admonished him in the tone of someone speaking from long experience. "Trust me — I've seen far too many people just point at random. Then they get out on the water. Think about it: out at sea, open water in every direction, nowhere to escape to. They just start blaming each other. More than once, only one person came back off that boat alive..."

The hand Snape had been about to raise hesitated.

He wasn't afraid of anything like that happening. But the voyage was going to be a long one.

"Wait here!" The Potions Master, thoroughly displeased, jotted down the three vessel identification numbers and headed back downstairs with the handbook.

Lucas had nearly finished the sections with the heaviest repetition. When Snape pushed the door open, Lucas was still filling out forms with a blank, mechanical expression.

At the sight of Snape, Lucas exhaled quietly. "Professor, have you chosen a vessel? All these forms need your personal information. Specifically, your passport number."

Lucas stood up from his seat and asked in passing, "Did you bring your passport?"

Snape said nothing. He seemed to be weighing whether to admit that he held a Muggle identity.

But he lived on a Muggle street. There were Muggles who remembered what he had looked like as a child. He had no real intention of hiding it; Lucas could probably already guess he was half-blood.

The Potions Master produced a passport with considerable reluctance and dropped it on the table.

Lucas pressed his hand down on it immediately.

He stiffened, almost imperceptibly, then pivoted smoothly. "Did the selection go all right?"

Snape showed him the three vessel types.

Lucas quickly compared the basic details in the handbook and chose the catamaran.

The handbook noted that this type had a more stable structure and offered more interior space.

None of that was really a concern for wizards, Lucas was confident the brigantine's onboard equipment would be just as good.

But he was pleased all the same. Because Snape had given him the chance to choose.

"Carry on with the forms, I'll go collect the ship!" The Potions Master glanced at the passport still pinned under Lucas's hand, but when his gaze swept across the mandatory fields still waiting to be filled in, he decided to let it go this once.

The moment Snape stepped out the door, Lucas flipped the passport open.

The photograph inside looked to have been taken when Snape was around fourteen or fifteen.

The Snape in the photo stared at the camera with profound displeasure, like a moldy mushroom.

Ah, he really shouldn't think of it that way.

Snape returned to the upstairs room.

"The catamaran." He announced his decision with satisfaction.

The old man smiled. "Discussion is the foundation of facing things together." He delivered the line in that same experienced tone, the kind that got on Snape's nerves, but before Snape could react, he asked: "What color would you like the vessel?"

"What colors are available?" Snape was already losing patience.

"Red, black, and white," the old man said, unhurried as ever.

"Black." Snape answered without hesitation.

"I'm afraid I can't offer you that one, Mr. Snape." The old man interrupted with a mild smile. "Your route passes through Muggle waters. Fifty years ago, a wizard was spotted sailing a black-hulled ship through a storm in that stretch of sea. To this day, there are legends of a ghost ship in those waters."

"White, then." Snape realized this had never been a real choice.

By the time the Potions Professor came back downstairs carrying a white, fairy-tale ship-in-a-bottle, Lucas had just finished the last of the forms.

Lucas studied the white sailing ship, searching for an angle of praise. "It's beautiful. At the very least it'll be quite striking in the sunlight."

The official took the bottle from Snape's hands, pressed several magical seals into it, and finished it with a custom wax seal at the stopper.

"Tomorrow at first light, smash the bottle at the designated berth. The ship will enlarge itself upon entering the water, and the helm is fitted with a spell that automatically corrects course. As long as you don't touch the helm, you are guaranteed to arrive at your destination safely."

Snape nodded, took the bottle back, and signaled for Lucas to hand the completed forms to the official. Then he led his apprentice out, and the two of them disappeared into the Ministry of Magic.

➤ Next: Muggle Heroes

Chapter 259 - Muggle Heroes

Lunch was sorted at a Muggle community in Italy.

Snape still had to take Lucas to stock up on supplies for the voyage. He was forced into a classic white shirt and black trousers, but for some reason the two of them attracted a remarkable number of second glances along the seafront.

"They keep staring at us." Lucas held back a laugh as he stated the fact.

A Muggle kid on a skateboard shot past them on the street with a whoosh.

All the children here wore short sleeves and shorts. Lucas's clothes fit right in.

Snape was leading him through the search for a Muggle restaurant, and the customers sitting outside kept directing their attention toward Snape. Snape tried glaring back, but they only scratched their heads and smiled at him.

"We're foreign tourists." Snape explained to Lucas, without much confidence.

He finally found an Italian restaurant that looked decent enough and immediately pushed the door open, steering Lucas inside.

This small town was no tourist hotspot. There was a little harbour nearby, and compared to a large city teeming with crowds, it suited a wizard's sea voyage far better.

Snape guided Lucas through ordering, pointing at the menu to get their meaning across.

The restaurant door stood open, they were already very close to the sea. A salty breeze swept through carrying damp grains of sand, and from the window seats you could see the occasional seagull wheeling past in the sky.

With a splat, a faded red tin car parked by the roadside took a direct hit from a bird dropping.

A seagull landed on the windowsill outside and tilted its head to look at Lucas.

Lucas propped his chin in his hand and watched it for a while before turning his attention back to Snape, who had produced paper and pen and was attempting to organise a shopping list.

"Everyday supplies can be bought in the usual quantities. Drinking water only needs to be prepared in moderate amounts — the ship has a magical item that converts seawater into fresh water." Snape muttered to himself.

"On the way here I spotted a general supermarket. We can head there after we eat." Lucas went along easily.

Lucas could always find a story to fill the waiting time. This time he shared one about Dumbledore from before their departure.

"Before we set off, Professor Dumbledore mentioned an adventure at sea from a hundred years ago."

Snape's attention drifted from the list, partly because he realised there was nothing more to write on it anyway.

The "everyday supplies" were all purchased by Lucas. There was no need to itemise them in detail.

So Snape listened patiently as Lucas told Dumbledore's story.

"The headmaster said he was under thirty at the time, sailing with a friend on an oak ship to explore the Bermuda Triangle. Near there they encountered a giant glowing sea creature. Its tentacles were longer than the ship's sails, and it had an eye like a lantern."

Snape's mouth twitched.

His instincts drove him straight to the holes in the story. "A glowing sea creature? Dumbledore must have been sneaking off to a Muggle bookshop and buying children's books again!"

Lucas argued back. "But the description was very detailed. He said they ran into a violent storm on the way — waves as tall as mountains. To withstand the force of nature, he and his companion transfigured the ship into rubber so the waves couldn't smash it to pieces. And in the end, after an hour's struggle against the sea, the wizards won!"

Snape let out a cold snort. "Transfiguration spells last a shorter time the larger the object. A ship — even for Dumbledore, let's be generous and say his spell holds for half an hour. How does he survive a full hour of storm?"

Without waiting for Lucas to answer, Snape pressed on: "And the sea creature. If your description is accurate, tell me, why would a creature that hunts with an anglerfish lure come up to the surface to pit its wits against two wizards?"

Rebuttal complete, Snape felt thoroughly refreshed.

Lucas shrugged but held to his own view. "There may be some artistic embellishment. But who's to say the headmaster didn't really have a voyage at sea?"

Snape didn't argue further. The waiter was already setting Italian dishes on the table.

Lucas found the whole thing quite interesting.

Snape's remark about the headmaster secretly buying Muggle books, was that a spontaneous invention, or had he actually witnessed it?

Snape clearly knew many private details of Dumbledore's life that others didn't, yet insisted on acting as though he knew nothing at all.

After the meal the two of them headed back to the large supermarket.

Under the supermarket's incandescent lights, Snape looked as severe as a character stepped out of a story.

That, in truth, was the real reason passers-by kept looking at him.

They were in Italy in the height of summer. Almost no one was dressed in long sleeves and long trousers.

Lucas steered Snape toward the clothing section. The racks were hung with short-sleeved shirts and beach shorts in every colour imaginable, and "every colour imaginable" was actually a conservative description. Strictly speaking, each item had at least ten colours on it.

Displayed alongside the clothing were sunglasses and sailor necklaces.

Lucas pretended to be drawn to the glittering alloy accessories.

Snape's gaze swept over the short-sleeved styles that left the arms bare. The wax-white mannequin wore an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt, showing off a fake white set of eight-pack abs.

"What's the difference between dressing like that and going around completely bare?" Snape muttered under his breath.

Lucas wanted to laugh. The difference was whether you were wearing clothes at all, obviously.

He was just about to say so when a shop assistant appeared. The man knew a few words of English and addressed Snape directly: "Are you here on holiday?"

"We're going out to sea." Lucas stepped in. He needed someone with a talent for sales to play along with him.

"Aha! This is a great season for that. So, are you having trouble choosing from all these clothes? I can recommend a few outfits!"

Snape retreated half a step, unable to bear it.

"I am not here to buy clothes!" he replied loudly, and, so as to be clearly understood, made the rare effort of slowing his speech to a pace a foreign speaker could follow.

Lucas played interpreter, also speaking to the assistant in measured English: "He likes solid colours."

Snape shot him a furious look.

"Ah!" The assistant had a sudden revelation.

He looked Snape up and down, and just before Snape reached the point of deploying the Muggle-Repelling Charm, pulled two linen sets, short sleeves and shorts, from the back of the rack.

"Is this more to your taste?" he urged eagerly. "Buy today and we'll throw in a sweat towel, very handy tied around the wrist!"

Lucas was a little tempted. He tugged at Snape's shirt, doing his best to persuade him.

"We'll take two sets." Snape picked one in natural linen and one in pale blue.

The assistant turned to Lucas and recommended a cream-yellow one, but Lucas shook his head. He looked toward the brightly coloured shirts, pointed at one printed with palm trees and a moon, then pointed at another printed with skulls.

"I want those two!" Lucas made his choice with complete certainty.

As they neared the checkout, Lucas suddenly thought of something. He ran back to the shelves and returned a moment later clutching two wide-brimmed sun hats.

The cashier played along with Lucas's little display. Looking at Lucas wearing one of the hats, he ventured a guess: "Western cowboy?"

Lucas's smile froze. He waved his hands quickly. "Just for sun protection!"

He stretched up trying to reach Snape's head, but couldn't get anywhere close.

The cashier, embarrassed at guessing wrong, moved fast. He finished scanning one hat, then with a quick hand planted it straight onto Snape's head.

WOW!

Lucas looked at the cashier with genuine admiration. Every single person in this shop was a hero.

Snape removed the hat with an expressionless face.

He unexpectedly did not make a scene. Or perhaps the Muggle shopping trip had finally ground all the temper out of him.

The professor paid in silence, borrowed a trolley, and left the supermarket at pace.

➤ Next: The Headmaster's Gift