Preview: Forbidden Forest Part #2

[Hogwarts, Hagrid's hut, May 9th, 1992]

A few days later, the two Ravenclaws, namely, Moses and Wednesday received a message from Hagrid that the egg is hatching, they had Professor Binns's class at that time, so both of them just decided to cut his class. Arriving at his hut, they were welcomed by a steamy room, causing the two of them to scowl.

"It's a little hot in here, Hagrid," Moses commented as he gave himself an elemental control command, and with it, he created a normal temperature barrier between himself and Wednesdays.

"We need it for the egg to hatch, Moses, hav' foun' the others' whereabouts?" Hagrid asked while stroking the fire.

"Nah, haven't seen them yet, and Hermione's killing them with her sched considering that the exam will be close," Moses replied as he stood by Hagrid's side and watched him do his work. Wednesday just sat quietly in a wooden chair by the side, waiting.

A moment later, the door towards Hagrid's hut opened, revealing the three Gryffindors whom they were waiting for.

"Yor' just in time! It's nearly out." Hagrid said as he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. All at once, there was a scraping noise, and the egg split open.

Moses was making excited noises with his face only twelve inches away from the egg when he saw the coolest and most wholesome things he'd ever seen. Wednesday had an interesting glint in her eyes, almost the same glint that she had when her mother gifted her a shovel when she was younger.

The baby dragon flopped onto the table. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns, and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed, and a couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head.

It snapped at his fingers, showing its pointed fangs. The small dragon looked at its surroundings with curiosity.

"And it's a Norwegian Ridgeback! My brother Charlie works with this in Romania!"

"It's a she, not a he," Wednesday remarked as she went closer to the dragon.

"Why do you say so?" Ron asked sincerely, gazing at the dragon with a star in his eyes.

"Look at the scales on her back. Males have a silver streak on them while females have blueish streaks on them, so she's clearly a female."

"I was gonna' name her Norbert, but I guess that's out'a question —" Hagrid muttered with a thoughtful expression.

"You can name her Norberta — I think it's a good name, Hagrid," Harry commented with a smile, and as he said those, Norberta purred at Hagrid's touch, and then she suddenly coughed, causing her mouth to let out a burst of flame onto Hagrid's beard, which he frantically fanned with his big hands.

"She'll have to be trained up a bit, of course."

"Hagrid," said Hermione, as she continued,

"How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face—he leaped to his feet and ran to the window.

"Who's that?" Hagrid uttered it in a daze.

"Malfoy." Harry answered, causing Hagrid to stare at the window in fright as he uttered,

"Oh dear..."

"It's curfew right now, and I hear that Snape's in the Diagon Alley buying potion ingredients, you're a Gryffindor, and we're a Ravenclaw, so there's a possibility that he'll snitch us to Professor Flitwick, and Professor McGonagall..." Moses uttered them while in his thoughts, causing the others to look at him weirdly.

"Rather than you muttering there, Moses, how about we run for ourselves and avoid losing our house points?"Hermione uttered in a stern voice,

"There she is..." Ron whispered to Harry, causing the boy in question to giggle quietly in a corner.

"Fine~ Fine~" Moses said while raising his arms in defeat as they all went outside Hagrid's hut, however, one goth-looking girl didn't move at all,

"You coming Wednesday?" Moses asked,

"You can go first," Wednesday said, staring blankly into Moses' eyes.

"...Sure." He replied as they took off, not before Ron asked what Wednesday was doing—staying behind.

"Beats me," Moses replied with a shrug,

After that, they were all quite far away from Hagrid's hut. Wednesday turned around to face Hagrid with an emotionless expression, her hand was on her front, and her body was in a straight, formal position.

"Hagrid..." she said with indifference as she continued,

"I have a proposition for you..."

(⁠ ⁠˘⁠_⁠˘⁠)

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...

Not a minute later, Wednesday was able to catch up with the others, but once she was already there, the group was facing the stern looks of one Professor McGonagall and one Professor Flitwick.

"Ms. Wednesday... again?" Professor McGonagall commented while looking at Wednesday's blank face.

"Why did I follow them?" Wednesday mumbled to herself, her eyes fixed on the group with a deadly stare.

-------------------------

May 26th

'I'm glad I followed them...' Wednesday thought in glee, however, contrary to what she was feeling, an expressionless look is still adorned in her pale ethereal face.

It's been a few days since Professor McGonagall reprimanded a group of three Gryffindor, two Ravenclaw, and one Slytherin, and to Malfoy's regret, they were each taken 50 points from their house and given a detention with Hagrid to the Forbidden Forests, much to Wednesday and Moses's excitement.

Wednesday's and Moses' Ravenclaw housemates gave them a stink eye at the beginning, but, considering that they can't do anything about it, they just decided to overlook Wednesday and Moses, after all, who would dare provoke an Addams, right? Well, Penelope gave Moss a few 'private' punishments to lessen the other Ravenclaws' frenzy towards Moses. What they don't know, however, is that those 'private' punishments were more like private lessons. The only thing that Penelope did to Moses during their private time was to pinch his cheeks whenever she wanted while Moses was reading. Oftentimes, when Moses questioned her about her lessons, she just answered them because she doubted a first-year student could even understand them...right? Sike...

"Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside.

It's time for their detention toward the Forbidden Forest now, and currently, they are following Mr. Filch.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them.

"Oh yes … hard work and pain are the best teachers, if you ask me. … It's just

a pity they let the old punishments die out … hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days —"

"I'm glad they let it die out," Wednesday commented, causing the others, including Filch, to stop dead in their tracks.

"Its punishments like those who gives punishing a bad name, hanging your wrist from the ceiling for a few days? Giving me a pink colored candy would have tortured me more..." Wednesday commented while staring intensely into Filch's eyes. Filch, not knowing what to do because he's never dealt with this kind of crazy before, had to run away in fright with a grunt.

Ron looked at her in admiration. Filch, running away from a thrashing? That's like end-of-the-world stuff.

After that, they marched across the dark grounds. Malfoy maintained a terrified expression. Harry wondered what they would do inside the Forbidden Forest. It must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted. The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, After a bit of walking, they could now see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut.

"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy — it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll

all come out in one piece." Filch snarled, causing the three Gryffindors and one Slytherin to be wide-eyed and shocked. The two Ravenclaws, however, had a weird look on them that others seemed not to be aware of.

Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks.

"The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual.

"We can't go in there at night — there's all sorts of things in there — werewolves, I heard."

"Shut up, Malfoy. It's because of you that we're going there, so don't whine now," Moses rebuked, standing in front of them and shivering as far as the others could see. Ron looked at Moses' back and his shivering body in doubt. He squinted his eyes and walked to Moses' front. When he saw Moses' look, he exclaimed

"Are you mad, Moses?! They're literally sending us to death by going to the forbidden forests, and here you are, shivering from excitement?!" Ron questioned in exclamation while watching Moses' delighted maniac smile,

"You don't understand the true essence of adventure, my friend; I've only read about the Forbidden Forests in a book, and nothing, I tell you, can ever compare to the experience of being there firsthand." Moses replied dramatically, while Wednesday nodded ever so slightly in the back, completely agreeing to what Moses just said.

"Yeah? And get eaten by werewolves? Are you mental?" Malfoy commented,

"Maybe~" Moses hummed, causing Malfoy to have a look of confusion. Ron, seeing Malfoy's look of confusion, only nodded understandingly in his heart.

Filch looked at Moses and Wednesday with an eerie look as he thought,

'Something's wrong with these two...'

After walking near Hagrid's hut, they all saw Hagrid preparing his things, and as he looked at them and said,

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already." He stated with a gruff voice while looking at the students about to be punished one by one, only for his gaze to stop on Wednesday and look at her with a thankful look. The Gryfindor trio noticed this, causing them to look at each other, confused at Hagrid's behavior.

"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Malfoy turned to Hagrid haughtily.

"I'm not going in that forest," he said, and Harry was pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice.

"Shut up, Malfoy. Beside, it's because of you that we are going in there to begin with," Moses said in annoyance, he just wants to go now.

"Shut up —" said Malfoy, but before he could continue, Moses cut him off,

"Are you sure you want to continue saying that...?" Moses asked while tilting his head at Malfoy, he was looking at him rather spookily, making the Slytherin boy stumble.

Malfoy didn't move. He looked at Moses furiously, but then dropped his gaze.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here for a moment." he said this as he led them to the very edge of the forest.

Arriving at their destination, Hagrid explained to them what they needed to do and grouped them into three, leaving Moses and Wednesday alone due to Moses' insistence, and Wednesday just nodded along quietly. However, Hagrid was still worried, but when she saw Wednesday's stare, he ultimately agreed in defeat.

In the end, Hagrid was grouped with Harry and Hermione, while Ron, to his disappointment, was grouped with Malfoy and Fang, leaving the two Ravenclaws alone on their own.

[]Powerstones...please (⁠｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡⁠)[]

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