Congratulations! You made it this far!

- Aloof Avenger #2


The first couple weeks of school I had lived in a blissful daze of magic and adrenaline spiking escapes into the forest. But I was shaken out of my ignorance rather abruptly when I stumbled upon Emma in the library one day with what seemed to be gravity defying hair and angry tears in her eyes as she flipped through a charms book.
"Emma? Are you okay, what happened?"

"It was those stupid soulless gingers." She grumbled. "They put a charm on my hair and I can't fix it! It was bad enough as it was back in Utah, but this is just ridiculous."

"Wait, those two red heads have been bothering you? Why haven't you told someone, or came to me so we could get back at them! Hell I'll kill them for ever bothering you Nemma trust me!" I stood up angry and ready to go curse those two to all infinity when Emma grabbed my robe and yanked me back down.

"Quiet, we'll get in trouble! And I didn't tell anyone was because I was being kind of, well, stupid, and challenged them to a prank war." She didn't seem too proud to admit she signed herself up for a prank war. "I was actually meaning to ask you to help me with it."

I sat back and hummed thoughtfully, "A prank war you say... weeell I do have a rather creative sadistic side that's itching for a way out..." I smiled suddenly "They won't see what hit them with the two of us together!"

She smiled back. "Perfect, now help me find a way to fix my stupid hair."

After that we spent almost all our free time running back and forth from the library researching ways to get back at two boys who knew more magic than us and were therefore ahead of us in this fight. When I wasn't plotting the demise of two jerks who had dared harm Emma I was out exploring the forest, and eventually I ended up going at least once a week. The other Raven's simply accepted my disappearances as another one of my oddities when asked I would just mention my insomnia and that I loved to take walks in the night air to help me sleep, they understood that and no one really cared, most simply said that as long as I didn't lose them any house points they didn't mind.

I was tempted to tell Em but I thought it would be better to get used to the forest and everything in it before I dared to bring in other humans. So my only companions for the trips were Archer, who loved to slither off and hunt in the forest, and on occasion the Sorting Hat (who asked me to call him Oswyn as that is the name Godric gave him when he was first created). Oswyn was brought along under the conditions that he could not tell anyone, including Dumbledore, but he really didn't seem to mind that saying that since I had made friends with the forest spirit (he confirmed my suspicions on that) I was safer in the forest then almost anyone and therefore he didn't have to tell anyone since safety was always the main reason it was forbidden. Lily had freaked out when I tried to take her into the forest and darted away back to the school as soon as I went past the tree line. I got a dark kitty glare and was hissed at whenever I tried to pet her for two days after that. I understandably stopped trying to take her.

Going into forest turned out to be the one of the best decisions I have ever made. Nearly every time I went there I discovered something new, whether it be a pretty clearing filled with playful fairies or something more dangerous like the den of giant spiders I had stumbled across and only escaped because as the largest spider said "The forest likes you, human, but that will only allow you escape once, should you enter my territory in this forest again you will be eaten!" After that I had decided to make a map.

Now I'm crap at drawing things in any detail so I threw myself into researching charms that would draw the map for me. I finally asked one of the older Raven's, telling them that I wanted to chart my route to classes as I still managed to get lost (not a lie), the sixth year happily helped me and said it was a good idea. The charm took a while to get perfect but after a while I would wander the forest as a large piece of paper and quill floated beside me and charted out the forest in detail. I asked the fairies to help me map out some of the more dangerous places in the forest, such as the spiders territory, and they would take my map and zoom along giving me huge coverage of the forest.

Within a month the entire forest had been mapped and places that were dangerous clearly marked. By the end of the year I wouldn't need that map, having explored nearly everywhere and being able to recognize where I was off of my surroundings. But that was a long way off and right now the map was my saving grace. The more I visited the more aware I became of the little things the forest that did around me. She laughed at me when I did something stupid and would warn me with whispers on the wind when Hagrid or someone else came to the forest. Her trees would smack me with a branch when I angered her or pat my head with leaves when I felt sad.

I often felt a hand guiding me to different places, such as when I first ran into the herd of centaurs that roamed the wood. They accepted me as "Forest Friend" and seemed to have adopted me into their tribe, despite some of their members obvious dislike of humans. I spent many nights with them wandering through the forest, and they pointed out areas on the map I should visit. They were still secretive, and spoke mostly in riddles but they made calming company and while some of them were jerks the majority were pretty nice.

It became near second nature to sneak out of the castle, and I knew more than enough hiding places at this point to never get caught, and by mid-october I was confident enough in the fact that I wouldn't get them killed or expelled to ask Emma if she wanted to come with me. I snuck up on her the friday before Halloween when she was wandering the halls and dragged her into an unused classroom. She promptly screamed and struggled. So much for being sneaky. I rolled my eyes and and smacked Emma upside the head.

"Shush! Seriously when you get dragged away look at who it is before you start yelling, I was being sneaky for a reason you know!" She shook off her shock fast enough to smack me back and glare at me.

"Well don't go dragging people off if you don't want them to scream!" Emma snarked at me.

"Agh well listen I wanted to talk to you... but you have to promise not to tell anyone! I could get in some serious trouble". I rubbed my head nervously and smiled slightly. "Besides if you don't tell I can show you some really cool stuff!"

Emma shot me a worried look and asked, "What are you talking about, Steph?"

"Well um... so I got kinda bored after the first week or so a-"
"Hang on you got bored?" Emma rolled her eyes. "We are in a magic school surrounded by ghosts and all manner of amazing stuff and you got bored?"'

"I have a weird attention span so sue me!" I huffed. "No more interruptions got it?" she nodded, and I continued. "So I was bored and well I kinda noticed the forest and it was so pretty and dark and forbidden that I well Ikindasnuckintotheforestandhavegoneinlikeeveryweek since!" There was silence for a few moments as she just stared at me. "Ahhh awkward silences, oh yes, by the way I was sort of going to invite you to go with me because um adventures and shenanigans and such?"