II

The Forbidden Forest had a sort of savage beauty.

The trees stood tall and worn, bent and twisted with the years, with occasional drooping branches and wide, scraggly roots spaced just right to trip the unwary. The shadows within seemed to absorb any light that filtered in, and the scratchy bark almost glowed and glittered. It held all sorts of promise of adventure, and Ginny loved it. She looked about her excitedly.

"Right," Hagrid was saying, holding a torch that was half as tall as Ginny, "Malfoy's gonna be helping me gather bracken. 'tis for the winter fires to keep the animals warm." He didn't expand on what sort of animals he meant to bring in for his winter classes, and Malfoy resented being treated like a common house elf. "an' Ginny, you are gonna be on the look out for rowan trees. I need young wild-rowan berries fer Professor Snape, they won't be ripe yet 'course." Rowan berries didn't become ripe until hit with the first frost. He produced what looked like two long levitating baskets for the bracken, one much longer than the other, from where he had apparently left them near the trees, then turned back to Ginny.

He handed her a smaller, roughly woven basket and carried on with his instructions. "Pick only the bracken as has already fallen from the trees. An' we won't be goin' far in. There are rowans and bracken aplenty on the fringes. Don't go straying by yerselves. Right. Got it? Lets go."

Malfoy waited for Hagrid to add a reminder of what happened the last time he'd been in the forest, and was annoyed when he didn't, having no idea why Hagrid didn't mention it. He couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine at the memory as they entered the forest. Watching his step, he lit his wand and tried to look around while at the same time carefully watching the tree roots.

Ginny thought the detention didn't sound very bad at all. And for what it was worth, Hagrid didn't look particularly worried. Of course, she reminded herself, Hagrid didn't look worried around dragons either. With a soft 'Lumos' her wand was a bright beacon and they were well on their way. About five minutes later she was disappointed. There was little to be heard or seen apart from their footsteps and the occasional crunch of what had to be small animals moving through the undergrowth. A few times she thought she heard Malfoy jump. Hagrid walked in front, then Ginny and the unhappy Malfoy after and Fang brought up the rear. Every now and then, the gamekeeper stooped to pick up a branch and drop it in his basket, which was levitating ahead of him. She imagined Malfoy did the same behind her, though his attempts were in actuality half-hearted.

His thin mouth was set into a grim line, and his eyes darted around the silent woods, wary, angry and nervous. He really hated the damn forest. Weasley, in front of him, didn't seem afflicted by any such thing, as she merrily barrelled after that oaf through the trees. His mouth thinned even more.

Five more minutes and Ginny's disappointment in the forest increased. Luna would be, too. Unlike her Ravenclaw friend, Ginny had no idea what she expected to see. But it was the Forbidden Forest. And it was Samhain and she had definitely expected something.

Suddenly a rustle broke the stillness, and Ginny glanced over to the right, as did Hagrid and Malfoy. A rabbit, surprisingly large and prematurely white before the snow of winter had fallen, was frozen near some spiky-looking bushes. It watched them carefully and Fang gave a happy little bark before taking off after it, as the little animal turned tail and fled.

"Fang!" Hagrid shouted. The dog knew better, after all the years in the forest, yet if his eyes hadn't fooled him, the rabbit had had a strange glow about it. He glanced over at Ginny Weasley, who had just been thinking the same thing, and then at Malfoy, who was staring into the trees, wide eyed. Hagrid didn't like the boy, and he couldn't bring himself to leave little Ginny with him in the middle of the forest. But they were on the path, where no harm could come to them, and he couldn't let Fang run off after whatever that rabbit thing was. Decision made, he ordered the two students to wait where they were, to keep their wands lit and not to stray off the path. If he called they were to send sparks. He would do the same.

Malfoy thought it was all a little too familiar. With a final "Stay on the path!" and an apologetic look at Ginny, the half-giant left his basket levitating and dashed off after his dog, calling for him. Draco thought darkly that it was too much to hope Hagrid would've learned from past mistakes.

They stood that way in silence for a full minute, squinting into the trees, until Ginny broke the silence. "The rabbit was glowing." She observed. Draco wished she hadn't, though she still didn't sound too put out. In fact Ginny was remembering defence class, "It was a Pooka!" she announced, "It had to be!" Malfoy was about to say something scathing when another bout of rustling made him jerk and anxiously scan the tree line. Ginny had never met anyone that highly strung. And that was including Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. She toyed with the idea of telling him as much.

"Don't be so jovial about it, Weasley." He ground out, glaring at her harshly, "You've no idea of what is out there in these bloody woods."

She shot him a look, "Don't be silly, Malfoy. If it was that dangerous they wouldn't have sent us here." He snorted at that. That was when Ginny's eyes alighted on the rowan tree. It was further down and off the path, to the right, lit faintly by some moonlight that seemed to filter from behind the thin cloud cover. Grinning triumphantly, she started over to it.

"Weasel! What do you think you're doing!" Malfoy demanded in his best prefect voice.

"I'm going to pick some rowan." She answered simply.

"It's off the path." He couldn't believe he was starting to sound like Granger. He grabbed her elbow, and she yanked it back out of his grip.

"Honestly, Malfoy don't be such a git, it's right there. Hardly off the path. It's not like you can get lost when you can actually see the path." Now she sounded exasperated as she made her way over. With a hiss, knowing that he couldn't just let the stupid girl wander off on her own, Draco flicked his wand, lowering his basket to the cold ground and hurried after Ginny. Merlin knew, he wanted nothing more than to stay on the path.

Using her wand, Ginny proceeded to snap off droves of the tiny red berries, while Malfoy watched in chilly silence, darting sporadic glances at the stark silence around them. Ginny ignored him until the basket was full. With a final glance at the slight tree, which she thought rather pretty, she turned to her moody companion.

"Okay, it's full. Let's go back."

Wordlessly gritting his teeth the Slytherin turned back to the path. The girl really was incredibly annoying.

He froze momentarily, as did Ginny half a second later.

They stared. The forest was dark, the trees were twisted, and the path was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Which was impossible. Ginny said as much in a strangled voice.

"Oh really?" came the insolent reply. They walked in the direction they knew they'd come, but the path was still gone. They peered around them. Malfoy felt his skin crawl. Ginny was starting to get a little worried.

"I hope you're happy, Weasel! Now we're lost." He sounded angry, and his face, what she could make out of it in the gloom before she turned away, was edgy.

"Oh, so now it's my fault?"

"Well, it certainly isn't mine." Ginny itched to hex him. Malfoy was thinking the same thing, though perhaps not as politely.

"Oh, so we just got translocated off the path by sheer chance?"

"That's not the point! I didn't make the path disappear! They don't usually do that."

He chose to ignore her.

"Well, since we know we came this way, we could try and go back."

"I think we should try and signal Hagrid."

He snorted derisively, "Use your head, Weasley. You don't even know where that big oaf, is. What's to say he'll see you?" The unspoken thought which hung in the air between them was "what's to say something else might not."

"Why do you have to be so condescending about everyone, Malfoy? Does it give you some sort of pleasure to be such a sodding git?" Ginny half-jogged after him, which rather ruined the sharp effect of her voice. There was no way she was going to let him pin this on her. Her spine straightened in her ire. Her eyes blazed and her face was flushed. It was too bad most of this was lost in the dark. Before Malfoy could throw back his own retort, Ginny went on, accidentally revealing a thought she'd had for quite some time, "It's like you're trying too hard to be nastier than you actually are. Oh! Have no doubt, I'm sure you are vile, or can be. But I don't, for a moment think, you're as bad as you seem to believe. What is it, Malfoy, some sort of, 'might as well since everyone expects it'?"

Malfoy's reply was curt and startlingly calm. "Say anything like that again, Weasley, and I'll hex you." Deadly stillness reigned.

A sob cut through the tension. It was deep and heart wrenching. Malfoy's eyes flew to Ginny's face, startled. In the faint light of their wands, her face reflected his surprise.

"Someone's hurt!" The girl exclaimed, their fight forgotten. They looked in the direction of the sound, through the trees a little back the way they'd just come. A faint globe of light appeared there, growing stronger.

"It must be a student! Come on!" he didn't have a chance to stop her before she was moving.

Malfoy swore, starting after her again, saying something even worse as one of his hand-crafted boots caught a protruding root. Branches caught at his robes and he could've sworn the trees were closing in on them. When Ginny reached the spot where she was sure she heard the sobbing coming from, there was nothing but empty darkness. The light reappeared a little way away.

"They're on the move!" She looked at Draco urgently, whose eyes were scanning their surroundings for what had to be the thousandth time that night.

He sighed, exasperated, "Think about it, Weasley. This deep in the forest?"

She considered it, then shook her head, her face set stubbornly, "I have to check. I can't just- " she broke off, shrugging and moving again.

She was just about to reach the light when an arm shot out and caught her round the middle, before yanking her back. Malfoy had been paying attention to the ground. Ginny found herself against his chest.

"Malf-" she was about to give him a piece of her mind about trying to feel her up, when he waved his other hand, the one holding his wand.

"Bog," was all he said. This close she could feel how tense he was, she was aware of his rapid hear beat.

She nodded, "Thanks", she daid, somewhat surprised that he'd saved her, when he obviously considered Hufflepuff-poisoning a sport. They stared at each other, before Malfoy cleared his throat and Ginny stepped back carefully. Another sob almost echoed around them, mixed with a softer undertone of laughter and another light. A light glowed faintly, seemingly from the same place as the source of the sound.

"That's not a lantern." The boy said, quietly, feeling his hair stand on end, "That's a will o' the wisp." At his words Ginny looked closer and realised that the light was a bit greenish. Will o' the wisps were pretty faerie lights. But, bordering strongly on unseelie, they had a way of luring people into danger. Then she remembered something her Ravenclaw friend once told her,

"They're supposed to hide treasure." She spoke without thinking and regretted it instantly. Malfoy levelled an almost contemptuous glare at her. The laughter chose that moment to become a song. Or a low, hauntingly beautiful humming sound, at any rate. And the vague outline of a slender greenish shape rose out of what had to be freezing water. It's skin reflected the pale moonlight. The clouds were dissipating. Ginny was certain it was a female shape and Malfoy tensed next to her, obviously recognising the nix for what it was. It extended a beckoning hand. The nails were long, dark and sharp. Its eyes glowed yellow. Ginny and Malfoy raised their wands and moved unconsciously closer together.

"Afraid, are you, mortal kith?" a scratchy, whispery voice twined around them. Their hair moved as if on a breeze. "Yes, afraid, but we mean merely to dance. It is our night to dance, and this our dancing glade. Why do you stumble upon us? Do you mean to dance with us, perhaps?" More shapes glided out of the shadows. They were beautiful, ensnaring, yet, afterwards neither Ginny nor Malfoy could quite describe them. They wore leaves, fine twigs and cobwebs in their hair and moved as though air bent around them. A strange tune arose as though from the frozen ground beneath their feet. Some of the creatures, short and tall, thickset and slender began to move. The nix remained still.

"We wish," Ginny began politely, though suddenly she really wanted to dance, and she remembered how in exchange for a little blood the nix could make one a great musician. Malfoy caught the strange note in her voice, thinking along the same lines, calculating. He was much less inclined to trust and negotiate then the Weasley girl, "Are you mad?" He hissed at her.

Ginny was surprised, then changed tack. "We wish only to return." Her voice was still soft and polite. The creature seemed to consider this, cocking its head to the side, while the others completely ignored them.

"But returning…would be a boon, and such are never without a price." Malfoy wondered if it was possible to feel a voice on his skin.

Ginny thought hard, knowing the price was never obvious, then inspiration struck,

"I have some rowan berries." She stuck out the arm with the basket as evidence.

"So you do. Moon touched rowan, I see." The female grinned, showing sharp pointy little teeth. "Rowan is a tree of power causing life and magic to flower…"the water sprite seemed to be quoting, though neither Ginny nor Draco knew where from. "And do you know the value of life, little mortals? And magic? You are of it, but do you understand it?" Yellow eyes flashed at them, as though trying to read their faces, "But I tire of this. Very well, then, I will take the gift you offer. Half that little basket. Throw it to the water." Draco did just that, pale hand extending and the water almost seemed to reach for the offering. When the 'gift' was paid, the water-thing spoke again, sounding whimsical, "I'd offer you some words of wisdom, which your kind never heed, but you seem to know all you need, though perhaps you do not recognise it yet. Go back whence you came. And now we part. Fare well." With a sharp jerk of a spindly green arm a mist descended like a veil between them, and Ginny and Malfoy stood without speaking in the cold forest once more. As one, they turned around, and found themselves right back by the bracken baskets.

This seemed so far out of the realm of the everyday that neither knew quite what to say. And so they stood in silence on the path that wasn't there, until Malfoy noticed Ginny was shivering with the cold.

Remembering her threadbare robes he unwound his scarf, green in honour of his house, and handed it to her, wondering what the hell had come over him. "Here."

Ginny looked up as his voice shattered the silence. Her eyes widened, but she accepted the garment without comment, nodding her thanks. It was warm and it spelled like him. It wasn't unpleasant. She wound it around her neck.

"Well, I'll be damned." Malfoy said softy, watching her. His fear seemed forgotten and a whole new kind of truce was between them. That was when they saw the red and yellow sparks Hagrid was shooting. Upon finding them the half-giant scanned the two faces. They looked pale, from the cold no doubt, and there was a strange mistiness to their eyes, but nothing seemed out of place. They didn't look as if they had tried to kill each other in his absence. Fang trotted next to him, and Hagrid again expounded on his disbelief that the dog had run off. They started back towards the castle, and it was not till they were clear of the trees that Ginny heard Malfoy mutter "I hate that bloody forest."

OOO

By unspoken agreement, they did not discuss what they'd seen in the forest. When asked, Ginny told Luna that she thought she hear a squonk. Luna seemed impressed, though Ginny told her nothing else. It was just too odd to talk about. At the same time it was somehow special, so that she didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else. When she'd gotten back to her dormitory after the detention, her roommates were asleep. She was surprised to find the green and silver scarf still around her neck. For no reason Ginny could name, she tucked it under her pillow before falling asleep.

7