They fought their way to
the sidewalk, tripping over clutter and cursing, and when they
reached the porch they were greeted by an old, pale, extremely ugly
witch. Her face was covered in warts and she was hunched over, with a
plate of raw liver in her hand.

“What's that racket?”
She yelled. Can't an old woman eat in peace?”

“Lucius, I think that's
a Hag,” Margie whispered into his ear. He nodded and spoke
politely, not wanting to upset her anymore.

“Excuse me, ma'am. We've
just apparated and appeared behind your farm. We didn't mean to
disturb you. We'll just go now.” He backed away slowly; he knew
that hags didn't have much magical ability, but he'd heard many
stories of people being turned to stone after enraging a Hag. He knew
it wasn't always on purpose, but was just a fit of anger and a loss
of control most of the time. The Hag grunted, pointed down the path
and disappeared back into her house.

“That could have gone
worse,” Richie said, shivering.

“Yeah, it could have.
Come on, let's go to Moscow. Or maybe St. Petersburg to the Romanov
palace!” exclaimed Margie, grabbing their hands. She focused on the
Romanov castle and they appeared there. They even unlocked the door
and spent a night there, as the palace was deserted.

On Christmas, they
apparated back to their homes and gave out souvenirs of their
travels. They decided to stay and rest until after the New Year, when
they would take an unplanned trip to Fiji to look at the Fire-Crab
preservation. Richie had a cousin who helped keep the crabs safe, and
they had been given permission to visit. Luckily, even in January, it
was warm in Fiji so they were able to wear comfortable clothes for
the first time in months.

They met with Richie's
cousin, Gerry, on the beach where the preservation was located. They
followed Gerry to the entrance of the preservation and he lifted the
protective spell, allowing them to walk into it.

From the Muggle side of
the beach, it had just looked like a lot of rocks and algae-covered
sand was in this area. When they walked through the barrier, it all
changed; the sand became clean and soft, with palm trees everywhere.
But the part of the scene that was most beautiful were the giant
tortoise-looking creatures everywhere. These were the fire crabs;
they had grey-green skin and shells, and black eyes. Their shells
were encrusted with the most beautiful gems; sapphires, rubies and
emeralds glinted in the sunlight as the crabs slid in and out of the
water. They knew to stay back, because the crabs would shoot fire out
of their rear ends if they felt threatened.

“Now,” said Gerry. “I
know you've probably learned the Kockback Jinx in school but I still
want to make sure you have it down. If you're attacked by one of
these, use a weak Knockback Jinx to send it back so you can get away.
The spell is Flipendo, and for the wand movement, you make a little
checkmark with your wand, then continue your wand down to make a sort
of valley, and then make a final swish upwards to make a hill. The
wand movement takes some practice so I want to see you do it a few
times.”

Once they had all
performed the spell to Jerry's satisfaction, they were allowed to
walk around. They each got to pet a fire-crab and by the end of it,
they had all been so careful that they hadn't even needed

to use the Knockback Jinx.

They all said goodbye to
Gerry and lounged on the beach for a while longer.

“What do you all think
about visiting Hogwarts?” Richie asked. “I'm sure Professor Balog
won't mind. I heard there were some staff changes and I'd like to see
who all left.”

Lucius nodded. “That's
sounds fine. Shall we go now?”

“Yes, please. I'm
starting to burn,” Margie said, rubbing some rose oil on her skin.

They apparated to
Hogsmeade and walked along the path to Hogwarts, wondering if they'd
be allowed in. The gate opened for them without a problem and they
continued into the castle, where they almost immediately ran into Sir
Nicholas, the ghost of Gryffindor tower.