Prompts: 2. (word) experience
4. (word) chasing
7. (spell) Reducio
All right, here it is, although it turned out a lot longer than I was expecting it too (still under 3,000 though). Oh, and disclaimer these characters don't belong to me!
Roxanne was bored. Really bored. So bored that if she sat still for one more second, she was sure she would spontaneously combust. In fact, her toes were already heating up! Or maybe the warmth filling her toes was from the fire she was sitting by. It was spring break and practically everyone had gone home. But, of course, this was the year her parents had gone to Peru to "look into expanding the joke shop." So she and Fred were stuck at Hogwarts (there was no way she was ever going to someone else's house for break. Not after she had spent all winter break at Louis's house). "Freeeed," she groaned, "Let's go on an adventure."
"Let's not," Fred replied, keeping his eyes trained on the book he was reading.
"Pleeeease," Roxanne whined.
"Nope," Fred said, still refusing to look up. Roxanne huffed. This happened every single time. Fred and Roxanne would be left somewhere. Roxanne would get bored. Fred would read his books. Roxanne would suggest they do something that was actually fun. Fred would read his books. Roxanne would leave to do something that wasn't mind-numbingly boring. Fred would read his books. After years of experiencing the same old cycle Roxanne was used to it, although no less bitter.
"Fine," Roxanne declared. "I'll go on my own."
"Alright," Fred replied uninterestedly. Roxanne rolled her eyes. Exploring alone was always less fun than exploring with someone else. At least this way she could finally go to the forbidden forest though. Fred always claimed it was "more exciting" to explore inside. Roxanne utterly disagreed.
Quickly shoving a few essential supplies (chocolate frogs, a few doxy eggs, a packet of scale-sprouting powder, and nineteen ever-spinning tops) into her giraffe patterned knapsack, she marched down the stairs, through the corridors, into the great hall, and out of the castle.
Outside it was quite windy, and she felt her hair being pulled every which way. Some of the trees in the forest were also feeling the affects of the wind, and as she neared the forest, she heard the distinct clanging of several wind chimes. For a second she wondered who had hung them, but the thought was driven from her mind with the excitement of exploring.
Perhaps she'd try to find a unicorn. Lucy was always complaining that she never had enough hairs, and even if she didn't get any hairs there were always bragging rights. Yes. She would find a unicorn.
Now, how to find a unicorn. . . Roxanne had no idea how to find a unicorn. The only animal she had ever found was an escaped niffler. Hagrid had lost it and she had followed its tracks until- wait. Tracks! She would find some unicorn tracks and follow them until she found a unicorn (and just hope that she wasn't accidentally following a grouchy centaur).
Slowly following the path, she began to scour the ground for tracks.
Two hours later Roxanne had found three bowtruckles, a new record for the number of twigs that could stick in her hair, and no unicorns. She had just began to reach into her knapsack for a bit of refreshment when she heard galloping. Quickly shoving everything back into her pack she turned to look for a possible unicorn. There was nothing in sight, but the galloping was getting faster and faster and seemed to be heading straight at her.
Suddenly Roxanne's excitement turned to fear. What if it wasn't a unicorn? What if it was a centaur or something equally as dangerous? What if it wanted to steal her scale-sprouting powder!? Roxanne's stomach sunk in panic and she began to stumble backwards, faster and faster until she was full out running.
Quickly, she veered off the path, hoping to lose whatever creature was chasing her. Unfortunately, she veered directly into a large spiky plant and hung there, limp with fear, her knapsack impaled on a wickedly sharp leaf.
She could hear her pursuer coming closer and her mind went blank in terror. And then, she saw it: a surprisingly small and humanoid beast with a horribly messy mop of reddish black hair and a terrifying- wait, the creature was oddly familiar- "James?" she cried in surprise.
"Rox-anne," he panted joyfully. "Fred said- you were in- the forest. Why- didn't you- wait- up?"
"I- what? I thought you were on break," Roxanne's mind swirled with a million different thoughts (most of them not very nice) and she wiggled pathetically. "Could you help me?" she asked reluctantly. "I'm kind of really stuck on this stupid plant."
"Of course," James strode over easily as though he hadn't just run pell-mell through the woods. "I am on break," he explained as he began working the tip of the leaf out of the fabric of her knapsack. "Mum and Dad had to come down to the school for a meeting with the headmaster- something about Al- and I wasn't about to stick around that dingy old office." Roxanne fell to the ground with an audible thump and quickly got to her feet. "So how did you even get stuck?" he asked, his stoic expression betrayed only by the twitching corners of his mouth.
"I was looking for a unicorn," Roxanne huffed.
"And . . . ?" James questioned.
"And I haven't found one yet." Roxanne busied herself with wiping the dirt and twigs off her visibly grimy jeans.
Trying not to look too eager, James asked "Sooooooooo . . . can I help you?"
"Sure," Roxanne replied beginning to see the positives in this encounter. "You can walk in front of me."
As James crashed through his tenth spiderweb, they came to a small clearing. Amber leaves littered the forest floor, and through the dense canopy, two identical rays of sunlight slithered through, illuminating a cream colored pygmy puff .
"Shhh," James hissed, spinning around to face Roxanne, but there was no need. Roxanne had already fallen silent at the sight of the abnormally fluffy creature. Slowly, she emptied out her knapsack and, almost as if they had planned it, they crept around the pygmy puff clutching Roxanne's knapsack carefully. Then, as Roxanne held her breath, they swooshed the knapsack over the pygmy puff and caught- a leaf. "But where'd it go?" James cried, turning in circles with frustration.
Roxanne scanned the clearing. "There," she yelled, pointing at a ball of fluff squeezing between two boulders as it tried to make a quick getaway.
In a stroke of luck, James grabbed the sack and it hurled it toward the pygmy puff where it landed directly over the escaping creature. "Got it!" James shouted triumphantly.
"How did you do that?" Roxanne asked in amazement as they tied the bag shut, leaving a dime sized hole for the pygmy puff to breathe.
"Experience," he smirked, cradling the bag in his arms. "Fred's going to love it," he declared, peering in the tiny opening.
"Right," Roxanne said. "Back to business." But James seemed incapable of looking away from the pygmy puff. "James," she called, "JAMES."
"Sorry," he said looking unashamed.
"Let's go," she said, and they tromped back onto the trail.
They hadn't gone far when they came to a y in the path. The left trail was clear and well trodden, but the right was littered with fallen branches and was very barely visible. Without a moment's hesitation, both cousins immediately turned onto the right path (if you could call it a path). Climbing carefully over blackberry brambles and studiously avoiding doxy nests, they made their way to a large cave although neither noticed the singed traveling cloak lying at its base. "Do you reckon there's a unicorn in there?" Roxanne asked hopefully.
"Who cares?" James replied, his eyes shining with excitement. "Something lives there." They walked boldly into the cave without stopping to admire the bludger-sized mushrooms that clung to the walls, their pearly caps shining with moisture. At the end of the cave there was a large passageway and some suspicious looking rocks that they could barely make out in the gloom. Quickly, they lit their wands, which reflected eerily off the limestone walls, and marched into the lichen covered passageway. Twigs and pebbles crunched beneath their feet as the passageway sloped further and further down. "What do you think it is?" Roxanne broke the silence, her voice reverberating loudly in the passageway.
"Beats me," James replied, "Hope it's a Chimaera though. Those things are wicked."
"Wait," Roxanne called quietly. "I think there's something up here." They stopped immediately and stood, peering into the darkness at what appeared to be the curled form of some sort of creature.
James bent down and picked up something from the ground. "Well, let's see what it is," he said as he pulled his arm back, the something, which Roxanne could now see was a rock, clutched firmly in his fist. He grinned jovially at Roxanne before chucking the rock as hard as he could at the mysterious shape.
Immediately they heard angry buzzing and a crowd of angry pixies rose into the air. Disappointedly, Roxanne sighed "Oh, it's just pixies." But she had spoken too fast. The shape let out a low growl and began to tower up into its full height. Even before it had completely unfurled its dragons tail and lifted up the shaggy mane of its lion's head, Roxanne could tell what it was. "A Chimaera!" she cried happily. "Looks like you got your wish, James."
"I've never seen a real Chimaera," James yelled hopping up and down in excitement. This only served to irritate the Chimaera further and it growled with even more force before lunging violently toward James. "Merlin," James cried. "We'd better get out of here."
Without another word, they sprinted down the dusty passage, through the cave, past the now lime green mushrooms. Hastily throwing spells behind them.
"Stupefy."
"Petrificus totallus!"
"Reducio."
"Locomotor motis."
Quickly they threw themselves into a bush and waited with bated breath for the Chimaera. However the cave remained silent and first James, then Roxanne, climbed out of the bush they'd been hiding in. "That was wicked," James said peering back into the cave. "Wish it would've breathed fire, though."
"Can they breathe fire?" Roxanne said in surprise.
James shrugged, "Lily said they could." Then he paused and turned an ear toward the cave. "Listen." For a moment Roxanne could hear nothing, but then she heard it, a faint roaring, although this was much more high pitched then the Chimaera's roar had been. In fact, it sounded more like the school cat, Mr. Norris, than a Chimaera.
"Do you think my reducio hit it?" James asked, looking delighted at the prospect.
"I don't know- let's check," Roxanne said, and they clambered back into the cave, following the sound of the pitiful roars.
Roxanne had just had her hair pulled by an escaped pixie, when James yelled, "I FOUND IT." James's reducio had hit the Chimaera, and although it was baring its fangs just as ferociously as it had before, it was no bigger than a tea cup.
"Let's take it with us," Roxanne called enthusiastically.
"Yeah!" James shouted kneeling down to get a closer look at the minuscule Chimaera. "But we can't put it with the pygmy puff. I don't trust that vicious creature around Leroy."
"Alright," Roxanne replied, scrutinizing the shrunken Chimaera as she wracked her brain for a better way to carry it than by its pointed dragon tail. Finding none, she gingerly grasped its scaly tail and pulled. The Chimaera roared (or more aptly, meowed) in rage. But although it kicked its tiny feet and wriggled back and forth, nothing could change the fact that it was smaller than a quaffle.
It seemed as though they had walked for hours when, panting, Roxanne said, "How much further?"
"We're pretty close, but we still have a little while," James called, now cuddling the purring pygmy puff. Roxanne groaned. Her feet hurt, there was sweat sliding down her forehead, and the Chimaera seemed to be growing heavier by the minute. Quickly she glanced down to make sure it was at least still alive and almost yelled in surprise. The Chimaera was growing bigger, and even as she watched it, it surpassed the length of a fizzing whiz bang and swelled to the size of a cabbage head.
"James. James," Roxanne said, her voice surprisingly calm. "I think your reducio spell is wearing off. Could you recast it?" But James hadn't even glanced up from the pygmy puff, and didn't seem to be listening to a word she was saying.
"Uhhhh later, Roxanne." But Roxanne had stopped walking. The Chimaera, now the size of a small sheep, was growling ferociously, and Roxanne was using all of her energy keeping it suspended.
"JAMES!" she called again, but before either of them could react, the Chimaera lashed out and bit Roxanne's ankle. Yelping in surprise and pain, Roxanne dropped the Chimaera which sprinted straight up the path and towards- the castle. "Oops?" she said feebly, prodding her fang-marked ankle with her wand.
"What if it gets in the castle!" James cried, and they grinned happily at the prospect (although Roxanne a little less so- her ankle still throbbed terribly).
Than, keeping their ears peeled for angry roars, they made their way back up the path.
They had just reached the edge of the forest when they heard a loud shout, "JAMES! JAMES!" James shot Roxanne a guilty look, and they hurried up the trail. There, they found James' father looking equally livid and anxious. "James!" he cried. "I told you to stick with us. We were only supposed to be here for a half an hour, but now the whole school's on lockdown. A Chimaera's been sighted and no one's even allowed outside the castle."
Roxanne grinned excitedly at James, but he was squinting so intently at the castle he might have been asked to memorize every gash in the tall stone walls. "They might have to change that," he said, and Roxanne followed his gaze to see a thin tongue of flame working its way down the wooden doors of Ravenclaw tower.
"Well, follow me," Harry said grimly, and they exchanged half guilty, half excited looks.
By the time they had followed Harry up to the castle, though, the fire had been put out and everyone had been released from the lockdown.
"Roxanne, James," Fred half-walked half-ran up to them. "Did you hear-"
"Yeah, yeah," James said, "Wonder how it got in."
Fred eyed them suspiciously. "You two were in the forest. You didn't happen to send this Chimaera on a murderous rampage up to the castle while you were exploring, did you?"
"Of course not!" James and Roxanne cried in unison.
"Right, like-" Fred broke off in a gasp. "A pygmy puff- you shouldn't have."
"We didn't," James said loftily. Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "He's all mine, and I have decided to name him Sir Leroy Cuteness the fourth."
"I won't let a creature as cute as that suffer your horrendous naming skills." Fred replied, looking even loftier, if it was possible, and then lunging, without warning for the poor creature.
As they tussled for the pygmy puff a horrible realization fell upon Roxanne. "Guys, GUYS," she called in panic. "I've left my chocolate frogs in the woods!"
"Say . . ." said James thoughtfully. "I wonder if those attracted anything- a dragon perhaps?" Fred glanced meaningfully at the still smoking tower, and they exchanged slightly guilty looks. "Alright, Fred I hear you," James said, and Fred grinned smugly. "Tomorrow than, Roxanne?" he called. Roxanne nodded fervently.