Most of the Latvian Ministry was located in Riga, but the Veil they'd been working on was in Cēsis, Latvia's oldest town that was about an hour and a half drive away from the capital. Thankfully they could floo or apparate there, because although the country was prepared for its winters and the heavy snowfall the season brought, Hermione couldn't stand muggle transport in these kind of conditions.

The flight had been quiet enough with only some turbulences during the landing that had her gripping her small bag more tightly and focusing very hard on keeping her breathing steady. By the time she was through passport control, Hermione was back to her usual self and looked around for whoever was picking her up. A man in his 50s, who was looking quite stern, came up to her and introduced himself as Aigars, showing her some identification from the Latvian Ministry. Although he probably knew quite a bit about her, Hermione introduced herself and they made smalltalk as they left the airport.

"We are very glad you have agreed to come on such short notice to help with this problem," Aigars said once they were out of earshot of the Muggles, his accent soft and somehow melodic. "Over the years a lot of people have vanished from the Circle, so the research into it is very important to us."

Hermione shivered and pulled her cloak closer around her - it really was much colder here than in the UK, approaching -30°C that day. "It's no problem at all. I'm glad to be able to help you with this. I wouldn't want anyone to get stuck in limbo for 10 years again. It's not a pleasant experience from what we've been told."

"Sirius Black," Aigars said and Hermione nodded. No use denying it since they were pretty well informed.

"We've brought more people back since him, of course. He just got the most attention," Hermione said, rolling her eyes, but smiling fondly. Aigars studied her face for a moment, but didn't comment. So far Hermione had followed him without really looking around all that much. They were in an empty part of the car park when Aigars stopped and held out his arm to her.

"Is it okay for you to side-along? We were planning on taking you straight to Cēsis, brief you there, and get started on bringing Ieva back as soon as possible."

Hermione simply grabbed Aigars' arm and said, "Let's go, then." He gave her a small smile and a moment later, she felt like she was being pushed and squeezed through a tube - the typical sensation of side-along apparition. She hated it.

When her feet hit the ground, Hermione nearly toppled over, but Aigars steadied her, tightening his grip on her arm. "Thank you." She took a step away from the wizard and straightened her coat before looking around. They'd landed in a small road. There were houses around, but overall it seemed like a pretty quiet place. She could see a church rising up over the other houses, but there weren't really any other distinguishing landmarks.

"If you would like to follow me." Aigars walked down the road, Hermione quickly catching up with him and walking besides him, but still looking around curiously. It looked quite different from the UK, but also different from Romania and other places she'd been to in the past. Still, it reminded her of some place, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where.

"I'll be staying in a hotel?" Hermione asked after the silence between them stretched out.

"Yes, it is the biggest hotel in town. It is a little further from the castle, but we can apparate, so it should be fine. And the manager of the hotel is a squib, so he will not be asking too many questions," Aigars explained and Hermione nodded along. It took them a couple of minutes to reach the town center that consisted of a large market square with several roads branching off from it. They made their way down one of those roads, walking up to one of the biggest houses she'd seen in the town so far.

Hermione was checked in without any problems and they stopped by her room, so she could sort out which books to take with her. Aigars watched with an amused expression on his face when Hermione emptied her small handbag onto the bed, bringing forth more items than should be possible.

"You legally expanded that bag?" he asked while she grabbed a number of books and threw them back into the bag.

Hermione's eyes twinkled with amusement and a smirk appeared on her face, "Of course. The Minister himself signed off on it. Besides, it's undetectable." Aigars shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Kings had signed off on a number of things for her, knowing full that she'd never abuse his trust. It was still nice to know that Minister of Magic did trust her though.

"Right, I have all the books I need. What did you need to brief me on?"

"We do not actually have all that much information, because Ieva was working on the Circle by herself and she did not take an extensive amount of notes." Hermione furrowed her brows at the words - that seemed like a massive oversight. Not that it could be changed now. "Her notes do say that the Circle is similar in age to the Veil, but that it took longer to activate the Circle, which is why it was not used as early as the Veil. She thinks that the Circle was only used for executions later on. Before it was used to communicate with the dead. However, no one has attempted to use it for centuries, neither to communicate with the dead, nor to execute criminals." That sounded fairly similar to the Veil. Although she herself didn't believe that it could be used to communicate with the dead, it was a prevalent hypothesis among the other Unspeakables.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to go and see for ourselves. Maybe it's better I'm not influenced by Ieva's findings since something she did didn't go quite right."

"Yes. Ieva checked in as per usual on Monday morning and said she wanted to try to activate the Veil. She was not clear on what activating it entailed, though, and she did not wait for another colleague to be present before her attempt. We only realised that something had gone wrong and that she was gone when she did not come by my office during lunch for an update." While Aigars appeared like quite a stoic person, Hermione could tell that Ieva would get a scolding once she was back.

"Let's go then," Hermione said, slinging her bag over her shoulder after putting on her coat once more. Aigars held out his arm for her again and as soon as she grabbed it, she was being pulled along. When they landed, they were almost knee deep in snow, and Hermione could feel the magic permeating the place - it was almost like Hogwarts. In the distance she could see the castle. So the magic didn't come from there? Hermione looked around, furrowing her brows, and feeling around with her own magic until it hit some ward on the edge of a small forest. Not waiting for Aigars, she started in that direction.

"I could have just told you where it is," Aigars said, walking besides her and Hermione blushed.

"Sorry, the magic is so strong, it's hard not to notice."

Aigars nodded. "We let our strongest curse breakers put up wards after Ieva vanished."

"Can we just go through or do we have to dismantle them first?"

"I can key you in, give me a moment." While Hermione stopped, Aigars crossed the magical barriers and vanished from her sight. A moment later he reappeared, still behind the wards, and she could suddenly see the Circle.

"A modification on the Fidelius?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as she crossed the wards, and again Aigars simply nodded.

"Interesting," Hermione whispered, but her eyes were already fixed on the Circle. It was a collection of fairly large rocks, all arranged in a circle that alternated between a tall rock - almost 2m in height at her estimation - and one about half that size. The rocks were covered in runes, all painstakingly arranged with equal spaces between them. It must have taken forever to get this working.

As Hermione looked around, she realised that the temperature within the wards was much higher than outside. She'd already noticed the lack of snow, but she'd just assumed someone had cleared that away. Instead it had probably never snowed here. Looking over at Aigars, she could see that he'd already shrugged off his jacket and conjured himself a comfortable-looking armchair, watching her work. Following his example, she shrugged off her coat and rolled up the sleeves of her jumper. Pulling out a book on runes and her notebook, she got started on figuring out what the runes on the first of the four tall rocks said.

At first glance the runes seemed to be about earth as an element. This was similar to the Veil which was based on the elements and keeping the balance between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Maybe translating the rocks wouldn't be that difficult after all. If it used magic so similar to that of the Veil she wouldn't have to adjust the ritual all that much to make it work for a Circle instead of an archway either.

It still took her hours to complete her preliminary translation of all the rune stones. The tall ones all spoke of an element while the smaller ones' runes discussed mixing one element with the other. At some point Aigars had asked if she wanted some lunch, but Hermione had declined, too engrossed in her work to eat. A couple of other people from the Ministry stopped by throughout the day, but they never stayed long, only exchanging a few words with Aigars, who stayed with her the whole time.

With a groan and rubbing her eyes Hermione got up from where she'd been sitting cross-legged in front of the last of the "small" rune stones. Aigars looked over at her as she walked up to him. "I think I've figured out most of the runes. Out ritual should only need a few adjustments that shouldn't be too difficult to make. Ieva's parents will be taking part in the ritual?"

"Yes, they are at the hotel. I can pick them up any time."

"Better do it now then. I want to try the ritual before it gets dark and it looks like the sun'll start setting soon." Aigars nodded and left, apparating away once outside the wards. Hermione quickly went over the ritual, adjusting the arithmantic equations to make it work for a circle and add in points for the smaller stones. After adjusting the maths, Hermione raised her wand and started drawing a ritual circle in the middle of the stone circle, the four most important points being right by the tall rune stones. Aigars would have to join them, Hermione realised halfway through. He wouldn't have to donate any of his blood, but he could be an anchor for Hermione, balancing things out quite nicely. As Hermione was making some small adjustments to her rune circle, Aigars returned with Ieva's parents who watched her finish her work patiently, although they were fidgeting nervously.

"Hello, Mrs Pašlaika, Mr Pašlaiks. I'm Hermione Granger. It's very nice to meet you, although I expect we all wish it was under different circumstances." The two of them shook her hand and returned her sentiment. She was a little surprised because their accents were quite a bit thicker than Aigars'. She could still understand them, but it was a fair bit more difficult. Hermione explained the ritual to them in detail. When she got to the part where Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika would have to sacrifice some of their blood, she could see fear flicker in their eyes and Hermione looked over at Aigars in hopes that he could dissuade their worries.

The older wizard spoke in rapid Latvian to Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika and soon the two nodded. Heads held high they walked to their positions in the rune circle, taking up air and earth. "I'd like you to stand in the spot for fire, Aigars. I think we'll need you for balance, but you don't have to sacrifice any of your blood." Aigars nodded and took his own spot, which left the water one for Hermione. She sat down on the ground just like the others had done and nodded at Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika to cut their palms and add their blood to the Circle. As they did, Hermione closed her eyes and began chanting, putting her hands flat on the sandy ground and feeling out the magic.

It didn't take her long to feel something react. It was definitely a soul that had connected with them and she started feeding more and more of her magic into the connection, but no matter how much she pulled, it wouldn't come through. Sweat was beading on her forehead and she could smell the scorched earth beneath her fingertips, the amount of raw magic burning it. Hermione kept up the link for a long time, even as her breathing became laboured and her brows were knitted together. Just as she thought she'd run out of magic she felt a trickle of someone else's magic supplementing her own. Aigars. However, even with his help, she couldn't keep up the connection much longer and with a sob she stopped chanting and pulled her hands off the ground. The link snapped. Gasping, the other three stared at her.

"I'm sorry. It wouldn't work. Maybe I made a mistake, maybe we need another blood relative," Hermione said, feeling dizzy, her voice weak. Aigars gave her a hand, helping her up and the four of them left the circle as quickly as possible, none of them sure how it would react after having so much magic ran through it. The cuts on Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika's hands were healed quickly, but they couldn't hide their disappointment.

"We thought you would be able to help," Mrs Pašlaika said, dabbing at the tears in her eyes as her husband wrapped an arm around her.

"I will find a way to get Ieva back," Hermione said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She was annoyed with herself, not Ieva's parents, but they'd probably take it the wrong way. "Does Ieva have any siblings?" When Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika nodded, Hermione asked, "Could they join us here by tomorrow?" Again a nod. Mrs Pašlaika explained that Ieva had a sister, Zane, who could probably come to Cēsis the following day.

"Good, I'll use the rest of today to check my rune translations again. Maybe the Circle isn't as similar to the Veil as I thought. I'll see you again tomorrow." With that Hermione turned around, grabbing her notebook and book of runes once more and started all over again with one of the tall rune stones. Aigars went back to his armchair after saying goodbye to Ieva's parents and kept his watch over her.

"Ah, fuck me," Hermione muttered when she finally figured out what had gone wrong. The smaller rune stone between 'earth' and 'water' mentioned Samhain. It was a rune she'd never seen before and overlooked earlier. Aigars looked up at her exclamation, but Hermione ignored him, rushing from stone to stone and checking each of them over again, scanning for the runes she now expected to find. Samhain, winter solstice, Imbolc, spring equinox, Beltane, summer solstice, Lughnasadh, autumn equinox, and back to Samhain.

"I misinterpreted the runes," Hermione told Aigars, frowning, because what a stupid mistake was that? She shouldn't have assumed the Circle worked the same way as the Veil and rushed things. "The different rune stones stand for the old pagan holidays and I'm guessing it's only possible to pull people back on those days when the old magic is the strongest." Aigars raised his eyebrows.

"The Veil does not work like that? Many people still follow the old traditions here. Even muggles celebrate midsummer, for example."

Hermione nodded. "The Veil works based on an elemental balance, but the Circle seems to have been linked to the holidays instead. Do you know when the next solstice is? Did we just miss it?"

"Tomorrow." Hermione gaped at Aigars for a moment then nodded slowly.

"I think," she began, running a hand through her hair. "I think if it hadn't been so close to the solstice today I wouldn't even have been able to connect to Ieva at all. I would have written her off as lost." Hermione blanched at the thought and AIgars seemed uncomfortable with this turn of events as well.

"Fortunately you did feel her," he said and then told her they should get back to the hotel and start fresh the following day. And he reminded her that she really ought to get some dinner before retiring for the evening.

Back at the hotel the two of them quickly grabbed a bite to eat - by the time Hermione was finally back in her room her exhaustion caught up with her. She slept like a rock that night.

The next morning Hermione rose early, determined to do everything in her power to bring back Ieva from beyond the Circle that day. After a quick shower, she rushed her breakfast in the hotel to get back to the Circle as early as possible. She would have gone straight to the Circle by herself, but she thought Aigars wouldn't appreciate it, so instead she sent a patronus to him, telling him that she was ready to go back, asking if he could take her again, because she wanted to check the rune stones one more time while she adjusted the ritual. It took Aigars quite a while to finally show up outside her room and knock on her door.

When she let him in, he said, "You are an early riser."

"I just wanted a few more hours with the Circle, so I could fix the ritual properly," Hermione said, but Aigars didn't seem too bothered by the fact that she'd woken him so early in the morning. He probably just wasn't fully awake yet. It was only then that she saw that he was holding a massive to-go cup of coffee that he took a big sip from as he followed her inside the room. Definitely not fully awake yet. While she went to get her book bag, Aigars shut the door behind him and held out his arm for her when she turned back to him. Within seconds of her grabbing it they stood outside the wards protecting the Circle, though the Circle itself was difficult to make out because it was still so dark outside.

"Will have to do something about that," Hermione muttered as they crossed the wards. A small smile tugged on the corners of her lips as she sent up two dozen bluebell flames that illuminated the Circle and its surroundings in an eerie blue light. Without any further distractions Hermione got to work. Since they'd come up with a new theory for how the Circle worked it was easy enough to check the rune stones one more time before adjusting the ritual and removing the rune circle from yesterday from the center of the Circle.

It was nearly noon by the time Hermione finished the ritual and a new rune circle that hopefully would work this time around. She sat down on the ground just outside the Circle with a huff and looked over at Aigars who'd gone over to reading after he'd finished his breakfast.

"Do you know when exactly Zane will get here?" Hermione asked and Aigars looked up in surprise from his book.

"Not exactly. I would expect it to be soon." Aigars said and Hermione nodded. "I better get back to the hotel if you are done, and bring them here as soon as Zane arrives." That sounded like a good plan to Hermione and she agreed to wait at the Circle instead of going back as well. She pulled out another book from her bag as soon as Aigars had popped away and settled in for a longer wait. It would be good to rest up a little before Ieva's family got there anyway. She'd need all the energy she could get for the ritual later on.

Hermione lost track of time as she waited, having forgotten her watch back in the hotel room. She'd cancelled her bluebell flames quite some time ago when it was finally light enough outdoors to see properly, but Latvia seemed quite a bit like Scotland - it didn't get properly light during the winter, particularly on the day of the winter solstice. On top of which it was pretty overcast that day. She really hoped the ritual would work before sunset because she didn't fancy doing the ritual all night long.

Not long after that thought had popped into her mind, Aigars returned with Ieva's family. Zane seemed to be Hermione's age or a little bit older - the older of the sisters then. She looked very much like Mrs Pašlaika with her pale skin and very thick dark hair that fell almost to her hips. She did have Mr Pašlaiks dark brown eyes though. There was a tenseness to her as she introduced herself to Hermione and Mr Pašlaiks and Mrs Pašlaika only nodded at her.

"Right," Hermione said with a sigh. "We better get started. Mr Pašlaiks, Mrs Pašlaika you two take the same positions as yesterday. Zane, you will sit across from me. Aigars, you don't have to enter the rune circle, but I might need you to feed me magic again if you don't mind." Her orders were followed without protest and once the others had taken their positions, Hermione sat down in her spot and signalled for the others to cut their palms and add their blood to the rune circle. Hermione herself began chanting once Ieva's family had put their bleeding hands to the ground and she pressed her hands into the sand as well.

Right away it felt different from the previous day - yes, her magic was still scorching the ground, but the soul she'd connected with seemed to be moving towards them, even if it was only at a sluggish pace. Hermione poured more of her magic into the link and the soul seemed to speed up ever so slightly. Still, at this rate, she would definitely have to tap Aigars again, if not Ieva's family members as well. For now Hermione just gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, keeping track of how far the soul'd moved so far.

This was definitely much more difficult than the ritual had ever been back in the UK. Yes, she'd magically exhausted herself bringing someone back there as well, but that had only been once. Sweat had formed on her forehead again a while ago and pulling out Ieva was becoming more and more difficult by the second. She felt like she was close to breaking the link when she felt a hand on her shoulder and a rush of magic flooding her body. With renewed vigour she channeled the magic into the connection.

It was just enough.

As Aigars pulled back, having spent the vast majority of his magical energy, Hermione used her last reserves. There was a blinding white light, all the runes lit up at once. When the lights died down, a person was lying in the middle of the rune circle, unmoving, but before Hermione could go check on who she assumed to be Ieva, her whole world turned sideways and faded to black.

Updated A/N November: Heya everyone!

Sorry to everyone who got a message that the story had been updated - all I did was take down the last chapter I'd posted because I wasn't happy with the state of it anymore haha. I'm trying very hard to write the rest of the story at the moment before I start posting again, the first chapter being a new and improved properly edited version of Chapter 9.

Hope you're all having a good day and weekend - thank god it's Friday, right? c:

A/N from June/July: Heya everyone!

Dang, this chapter is way late. I don't want to make any excuses, but June has been kind of a mess for me, with financial stuff to sort out, health stuff to sort out, going back to Germany for only a week that was filled with appointments and stuff, and then a work trip at the end of June after I got back to China, which left me with a cold that I still have right now.

A massive mess. It's been stressful. I'm only just feeling like things are settling a bit, so I'm getting back into the swing of things with writing and other things.

Anyway - sorry this is late, I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway :') This chapter was one of my absolute favourites to write so far!

Hope you're all having a good week and that you guys have had a better June than me haha