"A container!" Harry exclaimed happily.
"Yes, a container," Richard stated. "It looks like it's locked. Harry, will you give me a masterclass?"
Harry Potter pointed his right hand at the container.
- Alohomora.
There was a click. Harry greedily reached his steel tentacles towards the doors and swung them open with a loud screech.
The boys swam closer and froze in their tracks. Richard turned his head to Harry, looking astonished. Richie himself looked no less stunned.
"Stones?" Potter said, disappointed.
"Stones," Richard nodded.
"Stones..." Harry said quietly.
"Stones, damn it!" Richard exclaimed.
"Where is the treasure?" Harry asked.
"Fuck..." Richard wanted to say it briefly and succinctly, but remembered that it wasn't proper for an aristocrat to express himself that way. "Somewhere..."
"Maybe in a different container?" Harry suggested hopefully.
"Maybe," Richard agreed.
Swimming further, the boys discovered the top of the container, which was almost completely covered with silt.
They enthusiastically began digging out the steel box and hauling it up using steel manipulators. They soon succeeded.
- Alohomora!
Another click, a grinding sound, the container doors opened wide and two boys' heads in the magical light, looking inside with great hope.
Silence...
Richard, turning his head toward Harry, seemed to hear his vertebrae creak. Potter's face was elongated with astonishment. Richie's eyes widened like an Alderaan hypnotoad.
Harry broke the silence with a sad voice:
- Stones...
"Rocks?" Richie said.
"Stones," Potter nodded.
- Stones?!
"Stones, damn it!" Harry confirmed, saying the last word in Russian with a terrible accent.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Richard couldn't help but ask.
- I don't know, I don't know... Richie, you said there was treasure here. Or are these stones precious?
- Unlikely. They look like ordinary cobblestones.
"Richie," Harry looked at his friend suspiciously, "how did you find out about the treasure?"
- This... Illumination...
Richie didn't want to admit that his information had been gleaned from the Galaxies in his past life. One day, he was browsing the web, idly clicking from link to link, and came across an article about the greatest treasure finds. He remembered a gigantic hoard discovered in the early twenty-first century. At the time, all he could remember was that the treasure was incredibly rich and that a ship had sunk fifty miles off Cape Cod. But there seemed to be some murky story there-the vessel had never been recovered, either due to a lack of the necessary equipment, or because the British government, which effectively owned the vessel, had prohibited its recovery.
"Let's find another container and open it," Richard suggested.
- Let's try.
And once again, the search was successful. Following the established procedure, another container was dug up and opened. This time, the boys stood for a long time, their faces drawn, silently staring at the pile of rubble.
Harry was the first to break down.
- What the hell is going on here?! Satan, Hitler by the thigh! Why are there cobblestones in all the damn containers?
"It's a complete scam all around!!!" Richard drawled.
- Richie, do you know something?
- I think I can guess.
"And?" Harry asked questioningly.
- Everything was stolen!
"Really?!" Harry looked at his friend skeptically.
"And for a long time," Richard continued.
"Well?!" Harry muttered discontentedly, demanding to continue.
- This ship was carrying payments from the USSR under the Lend-Lease program.
"Richie, who are you talking to now?" Harry's eyes showed confusion.