1.1 "Wand loaded at both ends."
An allegorical fic, by LitCrit.
1.2 Chapter 3
Deep in the forest, Harry took his dressing gown off and hung it over a branch to dry. Steam rose from it gently.
"This is a very, very strange place," he said, looking through the trees at the distant mist. The first glimmers of daylight gave it a rosy glow, and birdsong was growing louder and clearer. He dropped his wand into the pocket of his dressing gown, and to his surprise the whole gown billowed for a second. He turned and looked to the others.
Hermione raised her wand and said, "Arefacio!" Her own nightgown and hair dried. She raised her hand to her head, puzzled.
"Why does magic work in here, but not out there?"
"I don't know," answered Harry, "but there is no point in being wet and cold now." It took a moment's work for the five of them to be dried.
Harry walked back to the edge of the forest with his wand, and raised it.
"Lumos!" he said. Light blazed behind him, but in front of him, across the sward, there was nothing but the dull predawn glow.
"This is weird!" said Ron.
"This is not a real place," said Hermione. "I don't think that Malfoy's Apparition worked properly. We have got stuck somewhere."
"Well, we're not in Hogwart's any more," said Harry. "That's for certain. We are on our own, now. Just us, and our own skills. What are we going to do?"
Ron shrugged.
"We'll just have to look out for ourselves."
*****
"That was a light, in the trees ahead!" cried Malfoy.
Crabbe and Goyle looked up. Malfoy was running. They tried to keep up, but their frozen legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Goyle fell over, dropping Draco's wand.
Ahead, Draco was peering into the trees, trying to find the source of the light. He walked up and down the sward, and stopped, looking at the ground. He looked up again at the other two as they finally caught up, puffing and panting. They staggered to a stop, and watched Malfoy stupidly as he strutted up and down the empty sward, engrossed in his own thoughts. Neither of them dared ask him what he was doing.
All around Malfoy there were patches of flattened grass and footprints. One was about Malfoy's height, straight across the middle, as though someone had lain down in the wet grass. It was almost as if… but no, that would not be possible.
He looked up again into the forest, and sure enough there was a path trodden into the grass, leading to a small gap in the undergrowth. With an expression of pure hatred on his face, he hunched his shoulders and stamped up the path, into the trees.
Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other. They had always followed Draco, from the very beginning. They didn't know how to do anything else, even when he led them into trouble. Following him was inevitable, so they fell into step behind him without a thought.
As Malfoy pushed through the thicket he noticed that it was dry and warm, and flapped his sticky shirt to try and rid it of some of the moisture. As he pushed deeper into the forest, the light grew stronger and he could see the colours of trees, flowers, fruit and small, fast birds. He ignored them, and slashed through the undergrowth with his arms, cutting a wide path.
He could hear the others stumbling along behind him, but was more interested in what was happening ahead. Eventually, he could hear some kind of activity. He violently gestured to Crabbe and Goyle, who paused. With a slow hand movement, he told them to settle down to the ground, and then he crawled along silently.
Sure enough, in front of him, the Gryffindor refugees had set up camp in the woods. Dressing gowns were hanging from trees, and the five were quietly working on making a small clearing. Malfoy laughed at the sight of them in their pyjamas and night-shirts, but his laughter stopped when Ginny cast a spell, and a fallen bough lifted itself up and settled into place across two trees. He turned around and crawled back Crabbe and Goyle.
"Give me my wand."
Crabbe turned to look at Goyle, whose mouth fell open stupidly.
"Well?"
"I, umm, I dropped it," said Goyle, guiltily.
"Well go and get it," answered Malfoy, savagely. As Goyle turned Malfoy kicked at him, sending him flying to the ground.
"Stay here, and be quiet," Malfoy ordered Crabbe, and turned back to the small Gryffindor camp.
When he returned he saw that the building had progressed rapidly. There were two tent like frames suspended between trees and Neville and Ginny were lining the frames with branches and long grasses to create roofs. Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing in a circle, holding their wands and discussing something animatedly. Ginny and Neville were obviously listening carefully.
As Draco watched, Ron tried to cast a spell, but nothing happened, and on the still morning air he distinctly heard the name 'Malfoy' mentioned. Harry and Hermione both shook their heads rapidly. Draco sat down, and watched as the group parted, and started working on some small, insignificant tasks.
What is going on? He thought. This was not the Forbidden Forest. He had walked steadily down the sward for quite a few minutes and ended up back where he started. Spells could not be cast out there, but he had seen Ginny cast a spell in the clearing. Yet why couldn't Ron cast a spell?
Potter, he thought. Potter has done something! This is all his fault.
He turned and looked again at the small encampment. Ron was picking fruit from a tree, and with a casual flick of his wand, he gently lifted off the ground to grab a fruit that was out of reach. Malfoy's face screwed up in confusion. He looked around at their work – they had a camp with a fire, small piles of fruit in woven baskets, and Harry was actually sitting in a chair, helping Ginny to reshape branches to make another seat.
How dare they make themselves comfortable like that?
Malfoy got up and returned to Crabbe, who was sitting shivering. He grabbed Crabbe by the collar and half dragged him back out to the damp cold of the sward.
"They can have their pathetic little camp," he snarled. "But that is all they can have. We are going to rule this entire sphere!" He kicked out at Crabbe.
"Go and find out what's taking so long with that wand!"
With a yelp, Crabbe ran ahead to join Goyle in his search for Draco's wand in the long damp grass.
*****
It seemed to take hours. Crabbe and Goyle suspected that Malfoy's rantings were actually distracting them from the task of finding his wand, but of course they did not dare say it out loud. When they did find it, it seemed far smaller that they remembered. Malfoy held it up in his hand and the three stared at it for a moment.
"This will be the greatest wand here. It will put me in my rightful place. But first, we must do something about those Gryffindors."
He led his small following into the forest, and quickly dried and warmed them. This gave him all the thinking time that he needed.
"Get yourselves a branch each, something we can make into brooms." Without a thought, Crabbe and Goyle obeyed, struggling with trees to rip lower branches from them. Within half an hour, two trees were stripped of bark and weeping sap, and the two proudly presented Draco with their twisted offerings, looking for all the world like sorry excuses.
With savage yanks, he ripped the greenery from the branches, and started working on them with his wand. After a few minutes, he had made two crude brooms. Crabbe and Goyle stood and watched with an awed expression as he cast a long and complex spell on them, and sure enough, the two brooms lifted into Draco's waiting hands.
He handed them to Crabbe and Goyle.
"Go and distract them. Lead them away from their little encampment. I need at least five minutes."
Crabbe and Goyle nodded to each other. Plans, whatever they were, they did not understand. But they knew what their job was, and they were good at it. They climbed onto their makeshift brooms, and shakily rose through the canopy. Malfoy jogged back out to the sward, and quickly made his way back towards the Gryffindor camp.
*****
"It is a question of priorities, really. We do have to find a way back to Hogwarts, but we still don't know how long we are going to be here," explained Harry. "Hogwarts is the most important priority, but food and shelter is more pressing. And anyway, we have to learn whatever we can about this place."
Ron was obviously quite comfortable, stretched out in a hammock, sucking on a sugar quill and stroking Hermione's hair with his other hand as she sat next to him.
"We have to get back to Hogwarts," insisted Ginny. "We must."
"We will, Ginny," said Harry. "We will."
The group sat together talking as Crabbe and Goyle silently descended through the trees behind Neville, who was carefully peeling the foliage from a large branch set into the ground. Goyle swung sideways on his broom, and firmly kicked Neville from his seat.
"Hey!" shouted Harry as he leapt from his seat, chasing after the two broom riders. Crabbe and Goyle rose just out of reach, and started grabbing fruit from trees to throw at Neville. Neville ran, and the two riders followed on, with Harry and Ron pursuing. Hermione and Ginny started to run after them, until Hermione held Ginny back.
"Where is Malfoy?" asked Hermione.
Ginny looked up at her with wide eyes. The two girls lifted their wands and turned to face their camp, and waited quietly as the sounds of pursuit receded behind him.
Sure enough, after only a few moments, Malfoy slithered into view in front of the two girls.
"Just try to stop me," he challenged. He raised his wand in one hand, and swaggered into the camp.
Hermione placed one hand on Ginny's shoulder and gently pulled her backwards whilst Malfoy peered inside the two tents and examined the seats that had been made. He picked up some of the fruit they had gathered, and ate it. He turned back towards the girls, kicking the baskets across the ground and treading on the contents. Finally, he saw what he wanted.
He uprooted Neville's branch.
"What's this?" he demanded.
"Neville's flagpole," answered Ginny.
"Not any more," he sneered. "It's just what I wanted."
He stamped across to one of the tents, and lifted an armload of the branches that had been tied into place to form the roof, and strode out of the encampment.
*****
An allegorical fic, by LitCrit.
1.2 Chapter 3
Deep in the forest, Harry took his dressing gown off and hung it over a branch to dry. Steam rose from it gently.
"This is a very, very strange place," he said, looking through the trees at the distant mist. The first glimmers of daylight gave it a rosy glow, and birdsong was growing louder and clearer. He dropped his wand into the pocket of his dressing gown, and to his surprise the whole gown billowed for a second. He turned and looked to the others.
Hermione raised her wand and said, "Arefacio!" Her own nightgown and hair dried. She raised her hand to her head, puzzled.
"Why does magic work in here, but not out there?"
"I don't know," answered Harry, "but there is no point in being wet and cold now." It took a moment's work for the five of them to be dried.
Harry walked back to the edge of the forest with his wand, and raised it.
"Lumos!" he said. Light blazed behind him, but in front of him, across the sward, there was nothing but the dull predawn glow.
"This is weird!" said Ron.
"This is not a real place," said Hermione. "I don't think that Malfoy's Apparition worked properly. We have got stuck somewhere."
"Well, we're not in Hogwart's any more," said Harry. "That's for certain. We are on our own, now. Just us, and our own skills. What are we going to do?"
Ron shrugged.
"We'll just have to look out for ourselves."
*****
"That was a light, in the trees ahead!" cried Malfoy.
Crabbe and Goyle looked up. Malfoy was running. They tried to keep up, but their frozen legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Goyle fell over, dropping Draco's wand.
Ahead, Draco was peering into the trees, trying to find the source of the light. He walked up and down the sward, and stopped, looking at the ground. He looked up again at the other two as they finally caught up, puffing and panting. They staggered to a stop, and watched Malfoy stupidly as he strutted up and down the empty sward, engrossed in his own thoughts. Neither of them dared ask him what he was doing.
All around Malfoy there were patches of flattened grass and footprints. One was about Malfoy's height, straight across the middle, as though someone had lain down in the wet grass. It was almost as if… but no, that would not be possible.
He looked up again into the forest, and sure enough there was a path trodden into the grass, leading to a small gap in the undergrowth. With an expression of pure hatred on his face, he hunched his shoulders and stamped up the path, into the trees.
Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other. They had always followed Draco, from the very beginning. They didn't know how to do anything else, even when he led them into trouble. Following him was inevitable, so they fell into step behind him without a thought.
As Malfoy pushed through the thicket he noticed that it was dry and warm, and flapped his sticky shirt to try and rid it of some of the moisture. As he pushed deeper into the forest, the light grew stronger and he could see the colours of trees, flowers, fruit and small, fast birds. He ignored them, and slashed through the undergrowth with his arms, cutting a wide path.
He could hear the others stumbling along behind him, but was more interested in what was happening ahead. Eventually, he could hear some kind of activity. He violently gestured to Crabbe and Goyle, who paused. With a slow hand movement, he told them to settle down to the ground, and then he crawled along silently.
Sure enough, in front of him, the Gryffindor refugees had set up camp in the woods. Dressing gowns were hanging from trees, and the five were quietly working on making a small clearing. Malfoy laughed at the sight of them in their pyjamas and night-shirts, but his laughter stopped when Ginny cast a spell, and a fallen bough lifted itself up and settled into place across two trees. He turned around and crawled back Crabbe and Goyle.
"Give me my wand."
Crabbe turned to look at Goyle, whose mouth fell open stupidly.
"Well?"
"I, umm, I dropped it," said Goyle, guiltily.
"Well go and get it," answered Malfoy, savagely. As Goyle turned Malfoy kicked at him, sending him flying to the ground.
"Stay here, and be quiet," Malfoy ordered Crabbe, and turned back to the small Gryffindor camp.
When he returned he saw that the building had progressed rapidly. There were two tent like frames suspended between trees and Neville and Ginny were lining the frames with branches and long grasses to create roofs. Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing in a circle, holding their wands and discussing something animatedly. Ginny and Neville were obviously listening carefully.
As Draco watched, Ron tried to cast a spell, but nothing happened, and on the still morning air he distinctly heard the name 'Malfoy' mentioned. Harry and Hermione both shook their heads rapidly. Draco sat down, and watched as the group parted, and started working on some small, insignificant tasks.
What is going on? He thought. This was not the Forbidden Forest. He had walked steadily down the sward for quite a few minutes and ended up back where he started. Spells could not be cast out there, but he had seen Ginny cast a spell in the clearing. Yet why couldn't Ron cast a spell?
Potter, he thought. Potter has done something! This is all his fault.
He turned and looked again at the small encampment. Ron was picking fruit from a tree, and with a casual flick of his wand, he gently lifted off the ground to grab a fruit that was out of reach. Malfoy's face screwed up in confusion. He looked around at their work – they had a camp with a fire, small piles of fruit in woven baskets, and Harry was actually sitting in a chair, helping Ginny to reshape branches to make another seat.
How dare they make themselves comfortable like that?
Malfoy got up and returned to Crabbe, who was sitting shivering. He grabbed Crabbe by the collar and half dragged him back out to the damp cold of the sward.
"They can have their pathetic little camp," he snarled. "But that is all they can have. We are going to rule this entire sphere!" He kicked out at Crabbe.
"Go and find out what's taking so long with that wand!"
With a yelp, Crabbe ran ahead to join Goyle in his search for Draco's wand in the long damp grass.
*****
It seemed to take hours. Crabbe and Goyle suspected that Malfoy's rantings were actually distracting them from the task of finding his wand, but of course they did not dare say it out loud. When they did find it, it seemed far smaller that they remembered. Malfoy held it up in his hand and the three stared at it for a moment.
"This will be the greatest wand here. It will put me in my rightful place. But first, we must do something about those Gryffindors."
He led his small following into the forest, and quickly dried and warmed them. This gave him all the thinking time that he needed.
"Get yourselves a branch each, something we can make into brooms." Without a thought, Crabbe and Goyle obeyed, struggling with trees to rip lower branches from them. Within half an hour, two trees were stripped of bark and weeping sap, and the two proudly presented Draco with their twisted offerings, looking for all the world like sorry excuses.
With savage yanks, he ripped the greenery from the branches, and started working on them with his wand. After a few minutes, he had made two crude brooms. Crabbe and Goyle stood and watched with an awed expression as he cast a long and complex spell on them, and sure enough, the two brooms lifted into Draco's waiting hands.
He handed them to Crabbe and Goyle.
"Go and distract them. Lead them away from their little encampment. I need at least five minutes."
Crabbe and Goyle nodded to each other. Plans, whatever they were, they did not understand. But they knew what their job was, and they were good at it. They climbed onto their makeshift brooms, and shakily rose through the canopy. Malfoy jogged back out to the sward, and quickly made his way back towards the Gryffindor camp.
*****
"It is a question of priorities, really. We do have to find a way back to Hogwarts, but we still don't know how long we are going to be here," explained Harry. "Hogwarts is the most important priority, but food and shelter is more pressing. And anyway, we have to learn whatever we can about this place."
Ron was obviously quite comfortable, stretched out in a hammock, sucking on a sugar quill and stroking Hermione's hair with his other hand as she sat next to him.
"We have to get back to Hogwarts," insisted Ginny. "We must."
"We will, Ginny," said Harry. "We will."
The group sat together talking as Crabbe and Goyle silently descended through the trees behind Neville, who was carefully peeling the foliage from a large branch set into the ground. Goyle swung sideways on his broom, and firmly kicked Neville from his seat.
"Hey!" shouted Harry as he leapt from his seat, chasing after the two broom riders. Crabbe and Goyle rose just out of reach, and started grabbing fruit from trees to throw at Neville. Neville ran, and the two riders followed on, with Harry and Ron pursuing. Hermione and Ginny started to run after them, until Hermione held Ginny back.
"Where is Malfoy?" asked Hermione.
Ginny looked up at her with wide eyes. The two girls lifted their wands and turned to face their camp, and waited quietly as the sounds of pursuit receded behind him.
Sure enough, after only a few moments, Malfoy slithered into view in front of the two girls.
"Just try to stop me," he challenged. He raised his wand in one hand, and swaggered into the camp.
Hermione placed one hand on Ginny's shoulder and gently pulled her backwards whilst Malfoy peered inside the two tents and examined the seats that had been made. He picked up some of the fruit they had gathered, and ate it. He turned back towards the girls, kicking the baskets across the ground and treading on the contents. Finally, he saw what he wanted.
He uprooted Neville's branch.
"What's this?" he demanded.
"Neville's flagpole," answered Ginny.
"Not any more," he sneered. "It's just what I wanted."
He stamped across to one of the tents, and lifted an armload of the branches that had been tied into place to form the roof, and strode out of the encampment.
*****