Longing to draped the Engorgio’d scarf more snugly around her cousin, Valerie nearly gave her wand another flick to try and levitate the ends around him. It was impossible to focus entirely with him shivering like that and his lip turning more and more blue with each passing moment. But it was these precious moments that steadied her hand and forced her to turn her eyes to the parchment now in her possession. “It will all be fine,” she tried assuring him. Her thoughts became distracted once more, wondering if perhaps now that her arms were inside the cage if she could cast spells that would stick. Wards were only exterior were they not? Even with the insulated fabric hanging around him it was not enough. He was not safe yet. Her wand hand gave another twitch, ready to attempt another Hot-Air Charm or Insulation Charm when her thoughts once again steadied her hand and she held his terrified gaze.

The only way he was going to be safe was if he got out of this prison. So it would be a waste of precious seconds thinking about anything else.

Swiftly pulling her arms from the cage and wincing as her forearms grazed the ice that dug into the sleeves of her uniform (perhaps even cutting the fabric), Valerie sat back on her feet while still kneeling before the cage and unfolded the parchment. Numbers. Her head instantly snapped around to the small box and glared at it. “Now you give me these? Really?” she barked while giving it a bit of an obscene gesture with one of her gloved hands. She could feel the tension rising in her body and the only thing that was keeping her from getting aggressive and violent with box the box and the cage (kicking and such) was the fact that Ryan was still in there.

Shivering. Just barely surviving.

Cursing and muttering under her breath, she forced herself to look solely on the piece of paper in her hands and the numbers displayed there. She had to tune Ryan out or else her thoughts would continue to distract her. Continue making her want to make sure he was still with her.

She did not know much about Arithmancy (which was where her train of thought continued to ride its course) but it was a subject she had actually spent some time with between tasks. Numbers were something tangible and solid. More concrete than the pseudo work involved with Divination (a subject she had dropped long ago due to its unappeal). But there was something perplexing with these numbers in combination with the spell she had just performed previously. There were parts missing to the ‘curse’ seeing as there were not two single digits at the end of the spell to represent the cline and therefore type of ‘curse’. Which either meant that her previous notions involving the box and there being a lack of a curse upon it was correct (hence the missing bits) or she was meant to just know to detach the last two digits in the longest series of numbers and decode things that way. Or was she missing the basis of the curse? All options seemed likely.

“285 6995 19751,” she read aloud. Keeping everything in her head was just going to make things a muddled mess, so she leaned down slightly and extended a finger to begin writing in the snow. Thoughts of these numbers associating with the Milky Way depicted on the lock, but that did not make much sense to her. If these were meant to be some kind of coordinates of the celestial and cosmic variety then there would be degrees associated with them and even if they were referring to something specific in the night sky there was absolutely no way she would be able to deduce anything from those.

So she quickly ruled that out for the sake of her sanity and attempted to focus on this one method for now. However nonsensical it was still making to her in the moment.

“Two. Relationships and humans,” she began, electing to select only the most applicable from the recalled meanings of the numbers as well as speaking aloud. Perhaps her words (no matter how shrill they came now and then) could provide Ryan with some comfort. Keep him conscious. Keep him thinking. “Eight. Movement. Five. Freedom, physical world, physical touch.” If she were to dismiss and then replace the word ‘curse’ or ‘spell’ with ‘cage’ and ‘lock’ then this seemed fitting. Ryan, her No Maj cousin, was trapped in a cage and unable to move. That much was obvious and clearly fit with the basis, the affected thing, the numbers in the sequence represented. Exhaling and watching her breath come out in puffs of white mist, Valerie dared glance at Ryan but soon tore her eyes away once more to attempt to decipher the next sequence. Which was rather obvious she supposed. Was it not clear what the cage and lock by association were doing? “Six. Stability, family focus. Nine. Endings, power and strength, immediacy. Nine again. Emphasis.” Or potential attack, result, in weakness or fainting. Little tidbits she kept to herself rather than speak for worry of alarming Ryan. At least she recalled there being other specific meanings to numbers when in the kernel position and she could only infer that the double nine in use meant that was the most prominent. Otherwise there was alto the potential for dizziness and disorientation as the six implied and shaking as the five did. Again, all of this made sense and was apparent when she looked at him. “Five. Already discussed.”

Rubbing her forehead between her brows, the Wampus rolled her shoulders and tried to keep her focus as she proceeded. “One. Verbal expression, independence. Nine. Metamorphosis, strength. Seven. Magic. Five. Change, freedom. One. Already said.” Sitting back and looking at the numbers on the ground made her no less confident in what she was doing and tears of frustration were slowly edging their way out of the corners of her eyes once again. Just give her her cousin back. Unable to control herself, she kicked at the lock with one of her combat boots and welcome the discomfort that came from the outlash. She hated this and would take facing another dementor over trying to logic through another damn puzzle. Had the last task not been enough with testing their minds?

Pounding her fist into the snow to release some pent up anger to start, her finger went back to writing in the snow below each set of numbers. She opted to break off the last two numbers because what else was she supposed to do to figure this out? Without those last two, she would be helpless in figuring this out. Unless there was hidden ink on the parchment and she needed to cast a spell to reveal it. One thing at a time, Valerie. One thing at a time.

“This makes no sense” she roared again as she pounded her fist into the snow and now with tears freely falling down her cheeks. What did she need to do? And why did that damn box have the Milky Way on it? That stupid thing was keeping her from her loved one.

And then another thought struck her.

Milky Way. Dividing two people from one another.

“Vega and Altair?” she wondered aloud as she spun around from her notes and returned to holding the box in her hand. Was she meant to find those two stars on this box?