I do not own Harry Potter. Amy and Karen belong to me.
Halloween in the Forest
Halloween was most definitely Amy's favourite time of year. What could be better than scaring the wits out of your friends?
Well besides scaring the wits out of a certain pair of twins.
"What exactly are we doing?" Karen asked nervously as her green eyes darted around the deserted corridor. She was expecting the twins to jump out from behind a statue wielding a chainsaw or something else of a deadly nature.
Amy grinned. "You know the Forbidden Forest?"
"The key word being forbidden, but yes," she replied, not liking where this was going.
"What if we sent the twins there for a little bit?"
"Are you crazy? There are werewolves in there! They could seriously get hurt!" Karen protested. They had just entered the Gryffindor common room and Amy was looking around critically.
"They'll have their wands. I'm sure they'll be fine," Amy said dismissively and picked an abandoned book off of the table. "This is what we're going to do. I'm going to turn this into a Portkey using a nifty spell I found in one of the library books. Then I'm going to give it to the twins and we'll be free for a few hours."
Karen threw her hands in the air and tried to come up with a convincing argument. "But you can't create Portkeys within Hogwarts grounds!"
"Relax! I know what I'm doing," Amy said. "Fred and George will be going on that Hogsmeade trip and we're going with them."
"But we're only first-years!" Karen protested.
Amy only rolled her eyes and went back through the portrait hole. Karen slumped and followed, her feet dragging against the floor.
"I am so getting expelled."
...
"I really think we should reconsider," George said as he watched his twin rummage through his trunk. "They're only first-years and it's the Forbidden Forest!"
Fred paused in his searching to throw a disappointed look over his shoulder. "You're chickening out!"
"No! Well...I just think we should pull off something that might not get them killed."
"You worry too much. They'll be fine and back before dinner." Fred finally found what he was looking for and pulled it out. It was an old Quaffle ball that had the material peeling off in some places. "Do you still have that spell?"
George nodded. "So we're going to turn this thing into a Portkey and have them transported to the Forbidden Forest?"
"I believe I was in the room when this was said," Fred said with a hint of annoyance. "Now stop being Mum and help me."
"But we can't create a Portkey on school-"
"I know that! We'll make it tomorrow in Hogsmeade. You will have the task of getting Houston and Thomas and bringing them to Honeydukes."
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"You can't be serious." Fred shook his head. "There's a perfect secret passage you can use!"
George was thrown off for a moment. "You're actually going to let me take those two through one of our secret passages?"
"I'm willing to make sacrifices. Just try to whisper the password, will you?"
"Oh yes. We are most definitely getting expelled," George muttered as he reluctantly went to assist his brother.
...
"Are you sure about this?" Karen asked for the billionth time.
Amy let out an exasperated sigh and glared at her best friend. "If you ask me that question one more time I'm going to send you to the Forbidden Forest!"
The two girls were hanging around the Great Hall. A crowd of third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh-years were pouring through the front doors while a grumpy Argus Filch checked each student off. They had yet to see the twins but Amy wasn't worrying.
"Is it just me, or is Mrs. Norris staring?" Amy asked.
Karen glanced at the cat and saw that she was indeed staring at them. "I think she's glaring actually. By the way, you have yet to fill me in on the plan on how we're getting into Hogsmeade."
"Well, I have some spare Polyjuice potion and thought-"
"Oi! Houston!"
Amy instantly got on her guard as George waltzed over to them. "What do you want Weasley?"
"Ah, don't be like that. Listen, I feel really bad for nearly drowning you and thought I'd sneak you into Hogsmeade."
Amy had a right to be suspicious. "I don't think so."
"I don't blame for not trusting me. I guess I thought I'd make it up to you by showing you Honeydukes."
Amy blinked. "Honeydukes?"
"Yup. It's got every sweet and chocolate treat you can think of," George said casually.
Despite her reservations, the blonde lost her common sense at the mention of chocolate. It was one of her few weaknesses. "Well...I guess it would be alright."
"Great! Follow me."
"Are you crazy? Fred might be-" Karen hissed, but was cut off by Amy.
"I'm sure we'll be fine. Besides, this is a lot easier than using the Polyjuice potion. And we're missing History of Magic for this!"
Karen turned wary eyes on George. "Don't you need to sign out?"
"Oh, I'll escort you there and then come back," George explained.
Karen was about to ask what he meant when they came upon a statue of a witch with a humpback. George whispered something and the hump opened. Amy's eyes widened and she cautiously stepped through. Karen followed, grunting when she hit the hard ground.
George led them down the passage and helped them through a trap door. Amy looked around the cellar that they entered. "Whoa."
"Just walk through that door right there, but make sure no one sees you. I'll meet you inside after I get Fred."
The redhead left and the two girls opened the door carefully. They slipped casually into the crowd and smiled when they weren't caught. "This is so cool!" Amy breathed, looking at the piles of candy stacked throughout the shop.
"Do you have money?" Karen asked.
Amy dug in her pocket and removed some Galleons and Sickles. "Sweet! What do you want?"
"Just buy me a pack of Ice Mice," Karen said. She smiled when Amy giddily went throughout the store, snatching brightly coloured sweets and adding them to the growing pile in her arms.
Amy came back to Karen with bags loaded with sweets. "This place is awesome!"
Karen arched an eyebrow. "The shop owner didn't question why a first-year is in Hogsmeade?"
"He was too busy to notice I'm only eleven." Amy grinned.
At that moment Fred and George entered the shop. Fred snorted at the bags in Amy's hands. "Did you buy out the whole store?"
Amy frowned. "Okay, what's up? You're up to something, I know it!"
"Consider this a truce," Fred said nonchalantly. "Come on."
Amy shoved the bags in Karen's hands and removed a book from where she'd been hiding it under her robes. Karen bit her lip to quell a groan. The blonde held the book behind her back and murmured the spell under her breath.
Fred, meanwhile, was doing the same thing with the Quaffle he removed from his bag. The four kids walked behind Honeydukes and found themselves alone.
Perfect.
"Catch!" Fred called and threw the Quaffle in the air. Amy, caught off guard, dropped the book and both girls reached for the Quaffle at the same time.
"What the-?" Amy cried. She felt a jerk behind her navel and her blue eyes widened. "Oh no you didn't!"
Then they were gone, leaving behind two bags of sweets.
"Did you see their faces?" Fred laughed. "I can't wait to see them when they get back."
"If they get back," George muttered.
Fred looked shocked. "Don't talk like that! I made sure they weren't too far away from the school. Besides, it's midday. What could go wrong?"
George rolled his eyes and went up to the book on the ground. "They dropped something."
"Let me see," Fred said as he pushed past George and picked the book up. George took hold of one end and pulled a little so he could read the title. He suddenly felt a jerk behind his navel and he froze. "Oh, no."
It seemed that Fred and Amy had the same idea.
...
"Those jerks!" Amy yelled furiously. She kicked at the leaves on the ground and punched the rough bark on the trees. "Those little punks!"
Karen sat on the ground and tried to keep her breathing steady. Being lost in the Forbidden Forest was one thing, but finding your way out before dark would be problematic considering both were horrible with directions. "Don't you have a map or something?"
"Oh, because I always carry a map around with me!" Amy snapped.
"Your sarcasm isn't helping our situation," Karen informed. "So I suggest we start walking and try to find our way out of this place."
Amy sighed and nodded. The two girls shuffled through the Forest, the leaves crunching under their sneakers and sounding like gun shots in the silent air. "When I get my hands on those two, they are so dead!"
Karen decided to keep her mouth shut. She had a feeling she would need to save her energy.
...
"I can't believe it!" Fred roared, kicking up a cloud of dirt. "How did they have the same idea as us? And more importantly, how could we have fallen for it?"
George picked a leaf off of his school robe. "Well, how were we supposed to know that the book was a Portkey?"
"Please. Does Houston look like the type that reads a lot?"
"Now that's a bit harsh."
"I can't help it! We're stuck in this place with no idea how to get back to the castle!"
"Hmm. Yes, I think we could call this karma. I'm sure that's why Houston and Thomas are here as well. It's all one big dash of karma and I'm sure someone's having a good laugh somewhere."
Fred scowled. "You aren't helping!" He dug out his wand and tried the Four-Point spell. The wand jiggled for a moment before settling on a direction. "Let's get out of here!"
George shook his head and followed his twin as he crashed through trees and bushes. "I do believe we are in for a rough night."
...
Karen leaned against a tree in exhaustion. They had been walking for what seemed like hours and her feet were aching. Amy was swatting at the bugs that seemed attracted to her blonde hair and cursing rapidly. "Can't we send up sparks or something?" the raven-haired girl asked.
"No! Do you want to get expelled?" Amy asked.
"I'd rather be expelled then spend the rest of my life in the Forbidden Forest."
"Now you're just being dramatic," Amy muttered. "Why can't you people have normal bugs like flies and mosquitoes?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Funny."
The two girls looked nervously at the setting sun. "Oh dear," groaned Karen.
The bushes to their right rustled frantically and Amy stumbled back a few feet, waving her wand madly. Karen pulled hers out and paled. After a few agonizing seconds, two figures burst from the thicket-both with flaming red hair.
Fred and Amy eyed each for a millisecond before screaming, "You!" and lunging at each other. Karen hastily grabbed Amy by the waist while George tackled Fred to the ground. "I'll kill her!" Fred shouted, trying to make a grab for the blonde.
Amy scowled. "I'm going to feed you to the Giant Squid if we get back!"
"I'm going to turn you into a mouse and feed you to Mrs. Norris!"
"I'm going to turn you into a lemon drop and sneak you into Dumbledore's office!"
"That's disgusting! What's wrong with you?"
Karen cast a glance to the orange-red sky and took a deep breath. "Shut up!" she hollered.
Silence fell upon the forest once more. "That's better. Look, we really can't blame each other considering we all had the intention to send the other pair into the Forbidden Forest. So right now we have to focus on not getting killed, not getting expelled and making it back to the castle."
"You make it sound easy," Fred muttered. George slowly let go of him and he got to his feet, brushing himself off. Karen stepped away from Amy. The girl simmered for a moment before letting out a long sigh.
"I suppose we'll have to work together to get out of this mess...fine. But after this, no more Portkeys."
"Agreed," three voices chorused. The foursome followed Fred's wand, occasional casting a glance at the darkening sky. Soon the forest was pitch black and Amy and Karen held their wands up high so they could see where they were going.
"Ya know, we could have been eating pumpkin pie and drinking pumpkin juice right about now," Amy muttered.
"That's not our fault!" George and Karen snapped. "We tried to tell you!"
Karen tripped over a root and crashed to the ground. "Ouch!"
"What's the matter?" Amy asked, holding her wand up so that the blue glow illuminated Karen.
The raven-haired girl rocked back and hissed with pain. "I think I twisted my ankle!"
Fred rubbed a hand down his face. "Fantastic. George, help her out. Amy needs to light the way."
Karen slipped her wand in the sleeve of her robe and balanced herself on one foot. George wrapped an arm around her waist and Karen slipped an arm around his shoulders. The pace was a bit slower, and Fred jumped at every noise that was made. Amy sighed. "Would you hold still? Your wand keeps jiggling!"
"Well, sorry for being aware!" Fred snapped.
"That's not being aware, that's being paranoid."
"Shut up!" George and Karen snapped.
"Make me!" Fred and Amy hollered back.
A deep, heavy breathing cut them off. Amy slowly peered up the narrow slop they had just picked their way down and paled. A large, grey wolf with glittering yellow eyes was bearing its fangs at them. "Oh crap."
"Werewolf," George breathed, tightening his grip on the frozen Karen and slowly backing up.
"It must have been tracking us," Fred whispered faintly. His wand was gripped tightly in his hand and he was shaking. "Oh blimey."
The wolf lunged, fangs flashing in the silver moonlight. Amy shoved Fred out of the way and the wolf tackled her to the ground instead. The paws pinned her shoulders to the ground and Amy shrieked. The wolf howled and went to bite her.
"Stupefy!"
The spell missed the wolf and crashed into a nearby tree in a flash of red light. It did startle the wolf enough for it to scramble backwards, snarling. Amy got shakily to her feet and held out her wand. "Get out of here!" Amy ordered.
George looked torn, but knew Karen would be in great danger if she stayed with a twisted ankle. The two moved through the trees. The wolf tried to go after them but Amy blocked its path and aimed another Stunning spell.
The wolf fell to the ground and the two wasted no time. Fred casted a hasty Body-Bind Curse and took off after Amy, weaving through the trees and nearly smacking into a terrified-looking George.
Karen moaned with relief when she saw the two of them. "Can we please get out of here?"
"Yeah, those spells we cast won't last very long," Fred muttered.
Amy squinted through the dark and gasped. "I think I see the castle!"
Sure enough, off into the distance was the outline of Hogwarts, nothing but a shadow in the night sky.
George scooped Karen up bridal-style and the four sprinted, leaping over roots and kicking up dirt and leaves. The howl of the wolf only spurred them to go faster.
They crashed through the last set of trees and collapsed on the soft grass. Karen cried with relief at seeing the magnificent castle and Amy took deep breathes to calm the pounding of her heart.
"I'll take Karen to Madame Pomfrey," George offered and helped Karen stand again.
"What will you tell her?" Amy asked.
"I guess I'll say I found her like this in the common room and gave her a hand." George shrugged. "I don't think she'll believe it though. After all, someone ought to have reported four missing Gryffindors by now."
Amy ran a hand through her blonde hair. "Maybe I should start pre-packing my bags."
"Mum is going to kill us," Fred mumbled. "Next time, we won't make the Portkeys transport so far away from the castle."
"You mean there won't be any Portkeys at all, right?" Amy asked threateningly.
"Right! Right!" Fred said quickly. "No more Portkeys. Forgot about that."
Karen snorted and the four set off for the castle. Fred and Amy hung back and an awkward silence hung in the air.
"Er...thanks for saving me from getting tackled by that werewolf," Fred murmured.
"It was nothing. Thanks for getting it off of me."
"No problem."