Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed my last chapter! As always, I'm always glad for reviewers. I really appreciate knowing that people take the time to write a review for my story. A little complaint…I've noticed people are fond of writing slash about Percy, but I just don't see that happening. Give him more credit, no offense to anyone. Honestly.. Hmm..Forbidden Forest takes on a whole new meaning here.
Disclaimer: The Weasleys and the Forbidden Forest belong to J.K. Rowlings, Professor Alectrice and Kristen Mimswell belong to me.
They all trudged through the Forbidden Forest, Professor Alectrice walking cautiously in the lead, Percy and Kristen following close behind and Fred and George Weasley bringing up the rear.
Professor Alectrice seemed to be very calm and relaxed while Kristen's excitement seemed to have died out.
"No chance we'll find any signs of vampires tonight," She commented gloomily to a rather relieved Percy.
"Why would that be?" He asked, his glacier eyes darting around nervously as they trudged on, leaves crunching softly beneath their feet over the hushed whisperings from the twins who had moved up, each walking on either side of the professor.
"Well," she started with a rather disappointed sigh. "The moon is rather bright tonight and they prefer to hunt in darkness." At this, Percy looked up abruptly, checking for any clouds. Kristen pretended not to notice and went on. "Also, being Friday, a lot of people are out, even in the forest, and they prefer hunting down single passerby's and not small groups of people."
"I see," started Percy who was looking calm now, beginning to enjoy the scenery in the forest now that his mind wasn't on being jumped from behind and having a set of fangs sliding down his throat.
Lowering his voice, he added, "Just between you and me, I'm glad. I don't fancy having to go running amok in this forest, trying to stake a vampire before it gets me."
She nodded in acknowledgement rather than accordance and turned her gaze forward just in time to stop herself before she ran into Professor Alectrice who was examining an ash tree.
"Interesting," she commented, her eerie golden eyes scanning the tree up and down, limb to limb.
Percy examined the tree also, but didn't find anything remotely interesting about it.
"Students," she announced, getting everyone's attention. "Can any of you tell me what is wrong with this particular tree?" she asked, turning from the tree, though pointing at it with her wand.
Unsurprisingly, it was Kristen who raised her hand.
Raising her eyebrows in anticipation, the professor nodded toward Kristen.
"Well, professor," Kristen began. "This is an ash tree, one of the most commonly used in creating stakes for hunting vampires." Nodding once toward the tree, she went on. "This tree appears to have many of its limbs removed," She said, circling the tree. "Many of its smaller, lower branches have been removed, and it seems as if the thicker, higher branches have remained." At this point, she stopped walking as she was back on the side of the tree where the rest of the group was.
"Correct, Ms. Mimswell," Professor Alectrice said, awarding Kristen with a small smile. "As you would notice, it is not likely that the limbs were simply broken, you can see the smooth formation where the limb actually was," she said, stepping forward caressing a part of the tree with the palm of her hand. "This shows that whatever did this knew exactly what they were doing and had a particular reason for doing so, otherwise, would not have been so careful when doing so.
Fred's eyes widened at this and apparently, Professor Alectrice noticed because she added, "But not to worry, boys, we probably won't be finding any creatures tonight." Everyone except Kristen seemed quite relieved at the news.
"However," she went on, "I'd like each of you to split up into pairs and go on trying to find a larger group of tree such as," nodding toward the ash, "this one in hopes that we can get somewhat of an idea where the fiends reside."
"If you get lost, simply send up blue sparks into the air, and I will come shortly. If you get into trouble, shoot up red sparks."
At this, the twins took off in one direction, Professor Alectrice with them, seeing as she obviously thought Kristen could handle herself, and Percy was left with Kristen, who immediately went the opposite direction of Professor Alectrice, Percy's disdain.
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They had been walking for half an hour now, discussing a wide variety of topics, at first about Kristen's interest in vampires, then about the books she had read on them, then about books in general, something Percy knew much about, a dark cloud gradually covering up most of the moon leaving them a small sliver of light to go on by.
"I don't know, I think that the author's use of connotation and names describe and explain the story more than the metaphors they use," Percy argued.
"You think so?" started Kristen. "I'm not so sure about that.. I think it's more along the lines of the plot and the personality of the character that reveals the true conflict going on. Take Dancing with Werewolves, for example..."
They walked on, going on like this, arguing over the material in books and what the authors mean by it when a rustling behind them stopped their conversation abruptly.
Both reeling around toward the cause of the noise, they backed up slowly, each one's steps crackling in the dry autumn leaves.
Backing up against what felt like cherry oak wood, they turned to each other, a pair of icy blue eyes looking into stormy grey ones.
They pressed up closer together unconsciously, each one staring into the bushes where the rustling noise came from, because behind the cool, calm Weasley and the brave, vampire-know-it-all, they were really quite scared being alone in a forest, with vampires lurking about.
After a few moments, Percy whispered to Kristen, "Do you think we should send up red sparks?"
Kristen shook her head no, mouthing back to him, "No..nothing happened. We shouldn't panic the professor and your brothers.. We don't want to cause a false alarm or – " At that moment, the tree behind them moved and they both wheeled around, finding themselves face to face not with a tree, but with a very tall, very pale-faced something, who glared at them from blood-shot eyes, mouth open in a hideous sneer revealing a set of very sharp-looking, very formidable looking white teeth. It had stringy black hair and was wearing very ratty, torn dark-colored clothing and it now seemed to be eying Kristen, taking its time, seeming to be in no hurry as if it knew that in the end, it would get what it wanted.
Percy stepped back in reflex, tripping over an outstretched tree root and fell back into the leaves, making an attempt to scramble up to his feet. Kristen, meanwhile, seemed frozen, entranced by the creatures eyes, simply staring into them, her face oddly slack as the creature reached out, taking her by the hand, a shiver wracking through Kristen's body, Percy now nowhere in sight.
Now Kristen wasn't the type to scare easily, indeed, she considered herself to be rather brave, but at that moment, she was scared, but not scared enough to stay in place. She blinked once, recovering herself and tore her hand out from the creature's grasp and started to propel herself through the leaves.
The vampire, naturally, (or rather, unnaturally) wasn't too happy with this and he was surprised as most of his victims hadn't reacted like this. Despite the fact that Kristen had had a head start, he tore off after her, his animal-like instincts urging him on as he ran after his prey.
She didn't get very far. The moon had now been completely covered by clouds, and she wasn't familiar with the forest.
She tripped over a rock and fell, the creature easily catching up with her and pulling her up by the shoulders. She struggled for a split second, but soon went limp, mesmorized by the vampire's gaze, the creature brushing aside her hair and lowering his face to his neck.
The events that happened later on went by rather quickly.
A wild flurry of red sparks went sailing into the air and a shrill whistling noise was heard soaring through the air, stopping with a sickening "thunk!" as an oak wood stick impaled the vampire which let out a hiss and fell into ashes onto the floor, Kristen blinking and letting out a scream at the events that happened, Percy standing about ten feet behind where the vampire was, breathing raggedly, sweat pouring down his forehead, arm still outstretched for he, indeed, had been the one who had thrown the stake.
"K-Kristen?!", Percy asked, racing toward her side, where she stood pale and trembling from the events that just happened. "Kristen!" Percy took her by the shoulders and shook her a little, his eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses wide with concern, licking his lips nervously.
Kristen blinked upon being shaken and looked at Percy as if acknowledging him for the first time.
"Oh, God…are you alright? Did it..?" Percy drifted off.
She shook her head, swallowing hard. "No..it didn't..no…," she remained quiet for a split second then quite suddenly, threw her arms around Percy's neck, her arms vice-tight on him, her head simply buried in his shoulder, not sobbing, simply remaining in that position as if in shock.
Not knowing what else to do, Percy patted her on the back in bewilderment, obviously still shaken from the occurrence.
After a few moments, she stepped back from him apologizing and blinked a few times. Feeling rather embarrassed at seeing her like this, Percy pulled out his wand and shot reddish sparks into the air.
After a few minutes of waiting around for Professor Alectrice, Kristen looked up at Percy. "..Thank you," she said simply.
Percy looked at her, a few strands of bright red hair in his eyes and managed a weak smile. "Don't mention it," he replied, placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her, and perhaps also to calm himself and together, the two students waited for their professor in silent companionship.
