A light rain must have fallen in the woods earlier.
It hadn't been obvious back by the river, but the deeper they went into the forest, the more they could feel the wet ground underfoot. In places, it was slick enough to make footing uncertain.
Fortunately, the two Death Eaters ahead of them weren't especially cautious. Otherwise, the footprints and traces Jon and Harry had left behind would have been easy to spot.
The pair walked well ahead, and neither of them used magic such as Apparition. Maybe they didn't know the terrain well enough. Maybe they didn't want to risk drawing the attention of other wizards by casting spells.
The Disillusionment Charm was useful, no doubt about that, but compared with an Invisibility Cloak, it fell far short.
Harry Potter couldn't help thinking that if he were wearing the Cloak now, he wouldn't need to keep this much distance while tailing them.
He glanced down at the wand in his hand, the one Jon had tossed him earlier.
It appeared to be made of rowan wood, about the same length as his holly wand, though badly worn with age. It had clearly been used for many years.
And the moment he held it, an unpleasant sensation crept through him, as if the wand might leap from his grip at any second.
It was nowhere near as good as his own.
Still, this wasn't the time to be choosy.
The two Death Eaters in front clearly didn't know where they were going.
Harry could tell they had already circled through the forest more than once.
Every few steps, they would stop without warning, forcing Harry and Jon to halt as well.
Good thing he had rested properly in the tent earlier. After a trek like this, he would have collapsed otherwise.
Jon, on the other hand, remained calm the entire time.
He simply followed behind the Death Eaters in silence, his brow tightening now and then as though he were working through something in his mind.
Jon was a year younger than Harry, yet far steadier than he was...
Harry glanced at him, and a strange thought suddenly surfaced.
Jon's uncanny gift for prophecy.
Had he already foreseen everything happening now?
Was everything unfolding exactly within his expectations?
A chill ran through Harry. He quickly pressed a hand to his chest, forcing himself to calm down.
With the relationship they had, Jon wouldn't betray him.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Jon asked softly, seeming to notice something was off.
"No... nothing. It's nothing," Harry said, though the answer rang hollow even to him.
...
They kept their distance and continued the pursuit.
Then suddenly, the two Death Eaters ahead stopped again. They leaned close together, heads lowered, whispering to each other.
Jon pulled Harry behind a large tree and motioned for him to stay hidden.
The Disillusionment Charm could theoretically create invisibility by blending the body into its surroundings, but a wizard with sharp enough senses could still notice something was there.
This time, the Death Eaters remained stopped far longer than before.
To Harry, waiting behind that tree felt like an entire century.
Then, just as they began moving again, something unexpected happened.
At the fork ahead, the two Death Eaters split up, each taking a different path.
Harry froze.
Luckily, Jon reacted at once. He made several quick gestures, telling Harry to follow the one on the left while Jon took the one on the right.
"Use your Patronus to contact me," Jon whispered.
"Be careful. Whatever happens, don't drop the Disillusionment Charm."
Harry nodded without hesitation.
He might have been in rough shape back in the cave, but things were different now. Jon had given him a wand. It didn't handle well, and it clearly hadn't chosen him, but it was still a wand.
The two boys split up at once, each following a Death Eater.
Harry kept his distance while watching his target closely.
Back at the camp, when he had overheard their conversation, it had been obvious one of them was sharper while the other was duller.
The one Harry was tracking was clearly the slower one.
That made things easier.
So he edged a little closer, just in case something unexpected happened.
After what felt like another endless stretch of walking, Harry was about to stop and send a Patronus message to Jon when...
Another figure appeared among the trees ahead.
Harry's breathing quickened.
He had found the right target.
...
"Severus!" shouted the Death Eater Harry had followed. "I've no idea why you chose this damned place for a meeting. It's completely unfamiliar, I can't Apparate here, and the whole thing is maddening!"
"I believe I warned you, Aiden," came the familiar voice of Severus Snape. "Orthodox wizards across Europe are searching for us. We must be cautious. Cautious, and then even more cautious."
It really was Snape.
A pulse of excitement surged through Harry.
If he could drag the man responsible for Professor Dumbledore's death back to Azkaban, nothing could be better.
But Harry kept his head. He didn't charge forward with his wand raised.
Severus Snape was an exceptional Dark Wizard. Even with a surprise attack, Harry might not defeat him. And the wand in his hand worked poorly, while another Death Eater stood beside Snape.
He needed to find a chance to send Jon a Patronus message first.
"Where is Potter?" Snape asked coldly.
"You were supposed to bring Potter back."
"No one was there. We searched that cave several times and found nobody. Potter either never came to Albania, or he escaped the cave long ago."
"So the plan has run into a slight complication... has it?" Snape said lazily.
Then suddenly, his sharp black eyes snapped toward Harry's hiding place.
Harry lunged behind the nearest tree, praying Snape hadn't seen through the Disillusionment Charm.
"What is it, Severus?" Aiden asked curiously.
"Nothing," Severus Snape said coldly.
"Come with me."