The Summer Vacation of the Third School Year
Before going home, Evita stopped by Gringotts. While the Goblin leading her was distracted, she quietly slipped the dragon inside something. It was in better condition than before, but had cleverly disguised itself, still pretending to be weak.
Evita wondered whether the Goblins' treatment of the dragon was going too far, then worried that it might suddenly lash out and hurt someone. Deeply concerned, she withdrew a large bag of Galleons and exchanged them for pounds. Only after relaxing with a shopping spree in Diagon Alley did she return to Godric's Hollow, as if running away.
Standing in front of the house, she grew a little melancholy. Physical age had a great effect on a person. Before long, she would probably forget altogether that she had actually been quite mature in her previous life.
The change left Evita with an indescribable feeling. It was as if she were experiencing adolescence all over again: going to school, doing homework, talking endlessly about subjects that interested her...
Twelve- and thirteen-year-olds were at a rebellious age. Though she had not become so obnoxious that everyone hated her, she had grown childish too.
Though, judging by her habit of keeping dangerous Fantastic Beasts, she was already rebellious in the extreme. She could be locked up in Azkaban for years and fed to the Dementors.
Planning ahead, Evita resolved to practice the Patronus Charm, then spent a long time reflecting on herself before finally calming down.
She walked slowly into the house, and the long-awaited mission notification finally sounded.
[Mission chain, part two: Go to Albania and find the Maledictus named Nagini, who takes the form of a snake]
Nagini! Seeing the mission panel, Evita remembered everything—or at least, she remembered the matter of the Horcrux. No wonder... Albania lay in southeastern Europe, with mountains and hills covering almost three-quarters of the country, a coast to the west and mountains to the east. Animals really were better suited to the task than people: not only could they remain well hidden, but they could also search for it from a height.
Evita shrank her suitcase to the size of a dictionary and added a long gold chain to it. She carefully slung it over her shoulder and decided to fly to Albania.
In the 1980s, the aviation industry was becoming more established, as well as safer and more convenient. Evita set out from a London airport and made it to a forest at the far edge of Albania. She grabbed a random mouse nearby and asked:
"Have you seen a big snake in the forest? Or could you ask the other mice you know whether they've met a beautiful East Asian woman with long black hair?"
The mouse squeaked, meaning it didn't know either.
Evita pursed her lips, though she wasn't too disappointed. Just as she was about to leave, she remembered something and asked, "Have there been any mysterious mouse deaths lately?"
The mouse kept squeaking and shook its head.
"Then have any other animals been dying mysteriously, one after another?" she pressed, unwilling to give up.
The mouse lowered its head and nudged the soil, but still squeaked and shook its head.
Evita was a little disappointed, but she knew she was looking for a needle in a haystack. It was only natural that the mouse had no useful information. So she shrank the suitcase again and again until it was like a necklace, but she still wasn't quite satisfied.
"Mommy-chan," she said with a sweet, adorable smile, "can't you really help me put it away?"
Adele said, "No."
"Can I cheat?" she asked again. "For example, could you give me a navigation system?"
"That's... not allowed either." Adele hesitated for a moment but still refused. "Unless you spend the entire summer vacation looking and still can't find her."
"All right." Evita didn't press the matter. She took her Animagus form and did her best to dull her gleaming feathers, then hung the suitcase necklace around her neck and took flight, relying on her keen bird's eyesight to spot a large snake that might be out there.
Nagini's animal form was about fifteen feet long and green, but finding her in a country with an area of nearly thirty thousand square kilometers was easier said than done.
After an hour of fruitless searching, Evita finally remembered that she had helpers. She landed on a small hillside and called out four Fantastic Beasts.
"Echidna, Ariela, Heloise, and Fini." She put sunglasses on the Basilisk and described Nagini's appearance before saying earnestly, "I want you to search the mountains and forests for me, and don't let the Muggles see you. If you find any trace of her, Fini, come and tell me."
The Basilisk, Wampus Cat, Acromantula, and Phoenix all nodded in agreement and went their separate ways.
Evita also left the forest, intending to search the cities. But Nagini was of the same generation as Newt and the others, so she ought to be over seventy by now. The chances of her still retaining her reason were vanishingly small, and Evita could only try her luck.
"Wait." She suddenly noticed a blind spot. "If I take Nagini away now, will Voldemort make another big snake into a Horcrux? Oh, right, how many Horcruxes did he have in total?"
"No," Adele answered promptly. "You can think of the original plot as a motionless portrait, and your actions as a paintbrush. Wherever the brush paints over the portrait, that part of the original is completely changed."
"Thank you." Evita was very polite, but her thoughts couldn't help wandering further. She was going to take Voldemort's Horcrux away, and one day she would meet that most terrifying of dark wizards.
Thinking of it that way, she would have to work even harder.
After drawing up a study plan to outdo even the most competitive overachievers, Evita straightened her clothes and followed her intuition into a city. She found an inn and checked in, then sat at a table there, spread out some paper, and began writing and drawing on it with a pencil.
She decided to broadcast a search for Nagini on television and put up missing-person notices as well as notices for a missing snake. A snake that large was unlikely to appear in a city, but what if it did?
Albania had sixty-one cities in all. She selected several larger television stations whose broadcasts could reach other cities, spent more than half a month visiting them all, and offered a hefty reward.
Once that was done, all she could do was wait anxiously. But summer vacation lasted only a little over two months. If she failed this time, she wouldn't be able to come back until the following year.
Over the course of nearly a month and a half, Evita received plenty of reports. Unfortunately, most of the people who came were simply trying their luck, intent on swindling her out of money. No one provided any reliable information.
Sighing, she returned to the city where she had first arrived, only to hear a clear, melodious cry.
Evita hurried into an alley, where Fini the Phoenix landed nearby and began elegantly preening his feathers.
"Do you have news?" she asked.
Fini nodded. Evita embraced the Phoenix, first bringing back the three animals still diligently searching the forest. Then, after nervously reviewing the spells she had learned, she finally made up her mind, gripped her wand, and was taken by Apparition to a deep, silent forest.