After the lakeside stay the four boys flew to Stavanger, this cabin much higher up the mountainside and with views to make a grown troll weak. The land was rougher here and they feasted on wild blueberries and PJ's mushrooms. This part of the country had even more impressive fjords than the ones they had previously seen, and after a good night's rest they set off to hike Priekenstolen, a famous muggle landmark. Pulpit rock was a flat plateau that stuck out the side of the mountain with a breath-taking, if nauseating, six-hundred metre sheer drop straight into the Lysefjord. It was however a gruelling two hour trek each way, for the place was swarming with far too many muggles for them to just pop up in a bush near the top. The downwards return journey ruined their knees and they crashed the second they got home in one undignified pile on the sofa.

Dan had done a little bit of walking with his parents when he was younger, and so was holding up the best, but even he was massaging his aching thighs, his heavy lids shut tight.

"I think I'm dying." Chris broke the weary silence cheerfully.

"Fingers crossed." PJ yawned.

"It's embarrassing really," Phil said, the effort audible in his voice as he mustered the energy to speak. "Wizards are always in terrible shape. Our main sport is played sitting down for Christ's sake. There's no need to do much walking when you can apparate or use the floo network or whatever."

"Yeah, that's something I always wondered," Dan said, removing PJ's elbow from between his fourth and fifth rib. "I've not seen many bigger wizards, considering."

"There are potions you can take," PJ mumbled. "And you can do stuff to the food. Make it taste nice but not be all that bad for you."

"But that doesn't make you fit." Dan clarified.

PJ shook his head. "I knew a guy who went to a muggle gym. People laughed at him, but the girls didn't."

"Any muggle school would have a gym, and boarding schools would have really good ones." Dan, who had recovered his breath and was feeling mostly okay besides the aches and tiredness, was observing the other three with a smirk.

"We're lazy. We can just use magic. Too heavy to lift? Not a problem. Too far to walk? Don't have to." PJ yawned widely. "It's in our nature. I doubt it'll ever change."

"I think we should campaign for a gym at Hogwarts." Dan announced.

No one paid any attention to him, as in one, exhausted motion they had all fallen asleep. Ruefully, Dan rested his head on Phil's shoulder and joined them.

~

The activity Dan and Chris were most excited for had been saved for the second to last day. While not in use, Norway's national Quidditch grounds were opened to the public. But these were no muddy fields with metal hoops at either end. This was a huge fjord, the typical U-shape carved out of the rock by a retreating glacier and flooded with sea water. It was concealed on all sides by towering mountains and unapproachable by muggles. The game was played above the still water, with markings drawn out in water plants and a repulsion charm to save dropped quaffles from drowning.

There were many sets of goalposts. The main set were next to the sheer slope of a mountain where spectator stands had been hewn into the rock itself. All across the fjord were pitches of various sizes with enchanted, floating hoops as goalposts. Where the lake narrowed out into its feeding river there was a long, sparkling racetrack. But Chris and Dan would get their fill in due course, now they had a different destination.

Their belongings safely stowed in the cosy inn on the beach, the four boys streaked across the lake and dived straight into the water at the base of the mountain where a sign had been painted onto the Palaeozoic rock. After a few seconds of blisteringly cold water, they curved back up and broke the surface inside a dimly lit cave. Immediately, they were dry and warm again thanks to a charm cast just above the water. They followed the cut of the cave heading towards a faint purple glow.

Dan had been wanting to visit crystal caves ever since he had read about them in The Lord of the Rings. He was not disappointed.

The purple light was cast by little floating lanterns, the crystals themselves were white. The further into the cave they travelled, the more colourful the lights became until they spanned the whole spectrum in gentle hues of soft light. The boys were the only people in the caves at this moment and they flew slowly, carefully avoiding the projectiles of sparkling rock that reached their long fingers across the cavern.

In one crevice the crystals looked like clouds, round and bubbling, while in another they were razor sharp shards of ice. Dan was sure there was some science behind it, but he didn't have anything to offer the wizard boys.

Even the classic stalagmites looked beautiful when illuminated this way. No one had spoken since they'd first plunged below the water's surface. It was quiet, muffled and perhaps a little eerie but not unpleasantly so. It was a similar feeling, Dan noted, to entering a church, although he had never been religious. The grotto commanded a quiet, reverent respect. It was something so secret and special and unearthly, and yet it had allowed them entrance. It was so different to the world around it. Had it not been for the sign and its reputation, Dan would never have even imagined it to be there beneath that mountain.

They alighted on a plateau of rock to get a closer view of the crystals. They still hadn't spoken, and Phil took Dan's hand. While Chris and PJ crawled on their hands and knees admiring the glass-like structures, Dan and Phil remained where they were, looking out into the cave.

"I think we should get married here." Phil broke the silence, and Dan laughed in surprise at the noise.

"We wouldn't fit many guests in." Dan hypothesised.

"Good. I really do have a lot of aunts."

"I'm quite happy not meeting them just yet." Dan chuckled.

"One of them has green hair."

"What's wrong with that?"

"She keeps snakes in it."

"I like snakes."

"They're poisonous and they bite anyone other than her. She doesn't much like people."

Dan laughed. "God. Muggle families can be scandalous enough, you really don't need to throw magic into the equation."

Phil squeezed Dan's hand. "How does this holiday compare to muggle ones?"

Dan considered for a moment. "It's so much better, but that's not really because of the magic. It's because I'm with friends and we can go wherever we want. That's the only extra thing magic helped with. Apparition is really quite useful. But the best thing about it is you guys."

"But you have fun with your parents too, right?"

"Of course, but I haven't been on holiday since I was like, nine. And we just went camping. We didn't see any incredible new country or anything. We were just spending time together." Dan smiled fondly at the memories of campfire tales and far too many marshmallows and when it had rained for two days straight and they'd had to stay inside all day playing endless games of ludo and driving each other crazy.

"I guess we are pretty lucky that it doesn't cost much to travel. If you wanted you could just apparate anywhere. Like, go as far as you can and then stop and chill for a bit and go again." Phil pondered.

"No, Phil, there's a lot of sea in the way. Even the most powerful wizards probably couldn't manage the whole Atlantic in one go."

"Alright, well you take a rubber ring with you."

Dan laughed, laying his head on Phil's shoulder. "I love you, by the way. I haven't said it in a while and I just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten."

Phil's cheeks lifted into a wide, pink smile. "You're not so bad yourself."

~

The inn had a muggle phone connection and the three purebloods practically wet themselves as Dan called home to belatedly let his mum know he'd arrived safe.

"Luna's pining for you. For a cat that can disappear for days on end without so much as a note, she sure does kick up a fuss when you take a holiday. And there's some post for you."

Dan frowned. "Is everything ok?" He asked his mum. "You sound upset."

"Really? No, everything's fine. Just a bit stressed with work. I'm tired, that's all."

"It's a Saturday. You shouldn't be doing any work on a Saturday." Dan scolded.

"Welcome to the real world, sweetheart."

Dan could hear his own sarcasm in his mother's voice and he smiled. "Don't worry. I'm going to get really rich really soon and then you can retire."

"I've seen your money," his mum laughed. "Can you imagine me plonking dirty great slabs of gold down on the counter at Tesco?"

"We do have exchange places, mum. We're not completely uncivilised."

"There you go again. Us and you. We're all humans, aren't we?"

Dan felt the familiar twist of guilt in his stomach. It was so normal for him to separate the worlds of wizards and muggles, for they had to be separate in order to coexist; but where the lines greyed this didn't seem like such an elegant solution.

"You're my son," Dan's mum carried on quietly. "I know you're different, but you're still my boy. It hurts when you talk to me like I'm a different species."

A part of Dan wanted to scream but you are, but he knew that wasn't really true. His mother had carried him and given birth to him, the reason for the difference wasn't his magical ability. He was as human as anyone else. It was the separation of the communities so long ago that had caused them to evolve independently or, in the case of the wizarding world, not at all. They still used quills and ink, for Christ's sake. They were different worlds. And Dan had lives in both.

After showering and changing into shorts, the boys took to the skies. It was a bit chaotic with so many brooms in the air. A whole school trip from Mahoutokoro had commandeered two pitches and one of the younger students nearly crashed into Dan after being knocked wheeling off course by a bludger. She yelled what Dan assumed was an apology before diving straight back into the action. The hardcore of their players were all wearing Japan's national team's white and red robes, bearing their emblem: a white circle with a green outer rim, inside of which a red dragon roared with its claw upon a Quaffle.

"I went to Japan for a World Cup game with my dad when I was little," Chris informed the boys as they searched for a game to join. "It's really beautiful. It's next to a massive Sengoku-era castle and there's sakura trees all around, you know the pink cherry blossom? We were in these gorgeous pagoda towers and it's like here, the pitch is over a koi pond instead of grass. I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. The reflections in the water of the players and stuff."

"It's because back in England it's usually too cloudy," PJ laughed. "Water is clear. It's only blue when it reflects the colour of the sky, it would just like we were playing over a muddy puddle."

"Yeah," Chris said ruefully. "England's pretty rubbish."

They found a German group playing Stitchstock and watched for a while. Dan had read about the game, one of the early originators of Quidditch, but never seen it played. It seemed fun to play but there wasn't enough going on to make it a good spectator sport.

Some Norwegian locals, all blonde and beautiful, invited them into their game which had all together far too many players. Dan was fighting eight others for the exhausted snitch while the fourteen bludgers that had been introduced 'for a laugh' rocketed calamitously around the pitch. Phil was mostly to be found flying in completely the wrong direction, focusing more on avoiding injury than scoring any points, while Chris gleefully took the bludgers head on in his quest for victory.

Many broken bones and a concussion later the mixture of teens and young adults finally called it quits and headed back to the inn. The sun was setting artistically against the blue water, which was now taking on shades of purple as the cold night drew in. Inside, the atmosphere was lively. Even those who weren't staying the night had stopped for a drink before heading home, and the result was a boisterous, overwarm cacophony of wizards from all over the world.

PJ was garbling away fluently in Italian to a group of dark haired girls and after a few minutes of nodding along politely Chris left them dejectedly to experience some Norwegian ale. Dan and Phil had joined three Americans broomstick-backpacking across Europe for the summer. They were in their final year at Ilvermorny, North America's largest school of magic.

"We're staying a few more days here and then we're heading over to the UK," Oliva told them enthusiastically. She had dusty brown hair and a generous smattering of freckles across the centre of her face. Her eyes were large and hazel and warm, and her smile friendly. "They say that Hogwarts is one of the easiest to find. So many schools are so secretive, you know? We spent ages trying to find Beauxbatons, it's supposed to be really beautiful, but no one would help us. Half the people we met went there but just refused point blank. I think that's stupid, you know? Travelling is so good for you. Opening your mind to different cultures and stuff. I've read about the palace, like they're happy to boast about its grandeur and stuff but they won't actually show anyone. It's stupid."

Ava was very small but had a lot of flame red hair and she nodded in agreement. "Do you think we'll find Hogwarts?" She asked.

"I've no idea," Phil admitted. "I'm not sure what enchantments it has. But you can walk there from Hogsmeade so I don't see why not."

"Hogsmeade's the only all wizarding village in the UK, right?" Ava asked. "Yeah, that's what we were planning to do. We're going to London first but then we'll probably see Hogsmeade."

Jade, almost as small as Ava but with a quieter nature and dark hair and skin, pulled out a much loved wizarding travel guide. "This is out of date. But it looks like you can just walk round the Black Lake and it's there?"

Dan looked at the map and nodded. The castle wasn't shown, but there was a very suspicious looking blank space. "You won't be able to go in, but you can see the tops of the towers from anywhere around here."

"It's not all that big compared to a lot of the other great magic schools." Ava said.

Phil shook his head. "About a thousand students. Two-hundred in each year, then those are split into four houses."

"We have houses too. Is it true Hogwarts has a secret chamber built by one of the founders and he put a Basilisk in there?" Olivia asked curiously.

"Yeah, we don't talk about that," Phil said sheepishly. "Bit embarrassing really. Only one person died though. It's all sorted now. No harm done."

"Someone died?!"

"Oops."

~

On the last day Dan saw his first dragon. A Norwegian ridgeback, flying high above them. It took no notice of the boys, but its might was palpable even from this distance. The black shape outlined against the sun was enough to send a shiver of fear down Dan's spine, while Chris whooped with excitement.

"That was so cool! You know how cool that was?" He enthused. "We saw a wild dragon. A wild one! There are so few in countries with widespread population. They're tracked by wizards to make sure they're not spotted. It's a lot of work."

"Are there places where they're not tracked?" Dan asked, alarmed.

"Sure, anywhere where there aren't muggles in their territory." Chris expounded. "Cos they can fly, obviously, that's a pretty big area and not many countries have that much empty space. Russia has a thriving dragon population, but it'll never get out of hand because the places people don't want to live animals don't want to live in either, and dragons need food. Romania has a research centre and Hungary is supposed to be pretty teeming."

"Are there any in England?"

"Of course there are you egg," Chris laughed. "Where do you think we get all the potions ingredients from?"

Now he thought about it, that was a pretty stupid question. He'd definitely read something in The Daily Prophet once about a worrying increase in muggle dragon sightings after ministry cuts to the department.

"My first dragon was a Hebridean black," Chris carried on, although no one had asked. "That and the Welsh Green are native to Britain, but we have a lot of imports. There's so much money in dragons. Most of the trade is illegal obviously."

Dan tuned out much of Chris's rambling as they passed over the largest city they'd seen since arriving. They had been flying around any extensive muggle dwellings, but doing that over Drammen would have added a good forty minutes to their journey. Consequently they were flying much higher to avoid being seen, and Dan's fingers were going numb. Here and there the cloud was thin enough beneath them to catch glimpses of the sprawling suburbia, but mostly they were alone in the damp whiteness. To their left, it was raining. The light was distorted by the falling water and created straight, yellow rays that stopped clearly at either end of the raincloud. It also may have been a contributing factor in their decision not to go that way. They were heading for Oslo, Norway's capital and home to one of the most famous wizarding highstreets in the world.

Considering its small population, Norway had a very large wizarding community. Chris had tried to persuade the four to visit Svalbard as he and his friends had convinced themselves that the magical school Durmstrang was located there, but it was far too North for them to do in one holiday. And besides, there really was a lot of ice and not a lot of anything else. They would have had to pack two completely separate wardrobes to stay warm on the ice fields and not sweat out in the balmy forests of the South.

Fortryllende Banen, the enchanted path, was found by slipping through an invisible door in the back of a large statue of a troll. The Norwegians certainly had a thing about trolls, they brought them to international quidditch matches as their national animal and the boys had flown over at least four different towns and villages named after them. Once inside the statue they followed a tiny, winding stair lit by flaming brackets and filled with strange, metallic music that seemed to be coming from the walls. The stair climbed up again and they were standing in a long, wide, and colourful street.

It smelled like a bakery; that was the first thing Dan noticed. Somewhere, someone was cooking pastries that Dan could almost taste as he breathed in the sweet air. Directly in front of them was a massive, stone built bookshop and opposite it stood a tavern that sounded very lively for a Sunday afternoon. There was a herbalist next to a pet shop and a tiny apothecary with so many oddbits dangling from the ceiling that it looked as if you might have to crawl to avoid knocking anything over.

They stopped at a quill shop looking for souvenirs and then at the menagerie to admire some colourful lizards that had caught PJ's eye. But Norway was not famous for its quills nor even the wand makers' adjacent, though it was impressive as the country held many magical forests with rare species of wand tree. And the end of the long, twisting street was Alchemist's Corner – the largest collection of alchemical learning outside of the Egyptian Centre for Alchemical Studies (Africa widely regarded as the homeland of the practise). It was a strange and deeply hypothetical branch of magic, offered as an optional course to sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. None of the three sixth years had taken it, nevertheless they were fascinated by the peculiar magic and eager to browse the dusty shops and library.

It was confusing and fascinating and impossible to make any sense of. It felt old and very separate from the methods of magic they knew. It was philosophical and conjectural metaphysical and it seemed that many generations of alchemists would dedicate their life's work to trying to do something and never actually succeed. The whole place made Dan feel very inferior. PJ was studying a display on Panacea, a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely, while Chris was turning a technical looking instrument over in his hands (Dan suspected he was trying to figure out which way up it went). Phil was reading something, and Dan was staring blankly at it all hoping that they were just pretending to understand what any of it meant.

The three boys were usually very good at squashing the ae gap between them and Dan, but outside of school it became a lot more apparent when they could do magic and he could not. They'd explored a cave system with Chris's friend Arne and it had been half an hour before anyone thought to light a branch and give it to Dan so that he could have his own torch rather than stumbling along blindly trying to keep up with them and nearly falling into a huge chasm in the ground. When they'd wandered into a particularly foul smelling patch of bog they'd all performed the bubble head charm on themselves while Dan had choked on the stench and tried not to vomit. And then, in the evenings when they were sat around the fire making shapes in the sparks and casting shadows on the walls, Dan could only watch.

Now, he watched on as PJ picked a smooth metal ball and muttered some enchantment he'd just read. The ball shivered and became wooden. PJ's face lit up and he turned to show Dan, and it took a minute for Dan to find a smile to drag across his face.

Chris too was giving alchemy a try and had sent one of the silver instruments whizzing into life. Across the room, Phil was dipping his fingers in what had been a cauldron of molten gold but now appeared to be more like a fine, gold mist. In cruel juxtaposition, Dan was watching a security troll pick its nose. It was stood guard in front of a bead curtain at the back of the shop that lead into another room, presumably holding far more valuable or dangerous alchemical equipment.

Time had slipped away all too easily in Alchemist's Corner, and they left in a hurry when they realised they had little over an hour until they had to catch their portkey from the travel centre. It would be a whistle-stop tour of the rest of the street, with panic purchases to bring home to friends and family.

While many books and signs translated themselves automatically for the reader, the shopkeepers did not and PJ had a moment of terror when he tried to buy a very expensive fortune-telling crystal and was handed the whole bag, but after a lot of hand gestures and frightened yelps it transpired that the crystal vendor was just trying to make him pick one out. He also bought a huge bag full of various sweets for his siblings and Phil bought some dog treats that would allow his dogs to jump ten feet into the air (for a limited duration only, the shop assistant promised). Chris bought some Norwegian pine wood polish for his broom as well as a little animated model of a troll that would guard his possessions and bite the fingers of anyone trying to get near them, while Dan spent nearly all his money on a small scale model of a Fjord that was enchanted to be its own fully functioning ecosystem. Water evaporated off the glistening lake and formed tiny snow clouds at the top of the mountains, and the trees swayed in an imaginary breeze. The model included all four seasons and even the occasional storm, and Phil was sure he had seen a tiny dolphin leap out of the water near the base of the tallest mountain. Dan's parents would be amazed, although they might have some trouble explaining it to guests if they were to put it on the mantel.

Upon leaving the model shop they were nearly run over by a very small witch riding a very large moose, and hurried to find the transport centre in the now rapidly darkening dusk. Phil caused a brief delay by eating a funny yellow sweet Chris had offered him and sprouting antlers, but they made it with time enough to bid one final farewell to the huge painting on the wall depicting a vista-like map of the country.

England was overcast. Chris and PJ went straight home with a tired hug goodbye and a promise to visit soon, while Phil took Dan's hand and, with a loud crack, disapparated.

Dan's mum was waiting for them and flashed Dan a relieved smile when she took in all his limbs in all the right places. Dan always felt a bit embarrassed of his little terraced townhouse after visiting his friends' sprawling magical abodes, but today he was glad to be home. Dan's mum almost cracked his ribs with her hug before turning to Phil to give him the same treatment.

"Well?" She asked, ushering them through to the kitchen and snapping the kettle on. "How was it?"

"It was so, so beautiful," Dan gushed. "I'm taking you there as soon as I'm of age. It's unreal. It's like something out of a Disney movie."

His mum smiled. "Your dad and I are very jealous. We'll hold you to that. We expect to be taken all over the world by luxury broomstick, or whatever you use.

"And thank you for looking after him, Phil love. It was so kind of you boys to take him along with you."

"Oh shut up, mum," Dan said, his cheeks reddening. "I'm only one year younger than them."

"Yes, but that makes you no different to me outside of a school. You're like a piece of luggage they have to carry around with them."

"Thanks."

Phil laughed. "He wasn't that much of a burden, don't worry. And we only really use magic when we're in a wizarding area. Dan was actually pretty useful. Would have been better if he'd spoken Norwegian, but we did need him for booking into muggle campsites and stuff."

"He'll be more useful next year when he can do that as well as, I don't know, levitating mushrooms or whatever it is you do." Dan's mum ruffled his hair annoyingly.

"Well, I can't argue with that." Phil smiled politely and Dan could tell he was itching to go home to tell his own family about their adventures before crawling into bed. They chugged their tea quickly and bid each other farewell, and Dan collapsed exhausted onto the sofa with a contented sigh.

His mum remained standing. She was turning her keys over and over in her hands and she jumped when she heard Dan's dad coming down the stairs.

"Dan," she began, and then paused.

"What's up?" Dan asked, his chest tight.

"While you were away-"

Dan's dad joined them in the cramped living room and bent down to give Dan a brisk hug. He straightened up and moved over to put an arm around Dan's mum.

"While you were away, we got a letter from one of your teachers at school." Dan's mum continued quietly. This was a speech she had prepared and practised in advance. "There's something we need to tell you. It's so long overdue, and we're so sorry."

~~~~

so as you might have guessed from my outpouring of love, i went to norway last summer and absolutely fell in love with it (i actually went with my danish friend who i met through phanfiction so if anyone ever tells you internet friendships aren't real you can put out their eyes with a glacier)

anyway some of the places i wrote about are places we went/stayed so if you're interested here are some pictures of them init

p.s. sorry it got a bit awful and rushed at the end it was just getting so long and i wanted it to be over lmao