In the Mind of the Walking Encyclopedia - Chapter 6
Author: tainted black (penny@twistedcandy.org)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
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Previous:
Lightning strikes again and I spot my wand lying next to the fallen tree. I reach out for it, but stop. I see that the first tree was slowly starting to catch on fire--and the fire was spreading to my wand! Oh, no! But I need my wand back... Closing my eyes, I attempt to grab at the wand, but the fire has started to spread to my wand.
"Nooooooooooo," I wail. "My wandddddd! No, no, no!" I stomp on my wand, putting the fire out. Then I pick it up. My beautiful mahogany wand is half black now. I know it isn't totally useless, but I knew better than waving a broken wand around. I stick it into my robe regretfully.
So now I'm totally lost in the Forbidden Forest and practically wandless. Okay, so -now- it cannot possibly get any worse.
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I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.
Me, Hermione Granger, was wrong. For the second time in a row! The world must be coming to an end.
Okay, so I'm being a bit over dramatic. But anyways... I was wrong.
The bush in front of me is rustling violently. To say I am scared is an understatment--I am frightened out of my wits! I began backing away from shaking bush slowly, careful not to make any noise.
A pair of yellow eyes peers at me. I gulp. Not good. Not good at all.
Frantic, I begin to ransack my brain for any ideas as to what it was. What creature has yellow eyes and lives in the Forbidden Forest? An image of a centuar appears in my mind. Nope, wrong. A centaur wouldn't be growling at me like this. A red lizard? They have yellow eyes. No, this thing was much bigger than any lizard. Some sort of snake? A spider?
A claw comes out of the bush. While I'm at it, those are really sharp looking claws.
"A nundu!" I cry out. That's what it is!
For those who don't know, a nundu is a giant leopard. It is usually very quiet and the victim doesn't know it's there until it is too late. All in all, not a wonderful thing to meet.
It springs up from the bush and lands on its four feet, eyes still on me.
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, my brain sings. I mentally yell at it to shut up. It doesn't.
Dead, dead, dead.
That's when my animal instincts kicked in. To be the hunter or the hunted! To fight or flee! To hiss or scatter! To lay low or fly high! To--oh, I shouldn't be wasting my breath on this. I run blindly in the dark, knowing full well it is futile to do so.
I hear it running after me and I scream loudly.
"AHHHHHHH! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
I really don't expect anyone to hear me, though.
I quickly reach a dead end. Oh crap. What a way to die. I really thought I would die doing something honorable, like fighting the Dark Lord or something. Maybe even die of old age. But come on now, I'm going to die because an animal on the first real day of school! It's pretty pathetic.
The nundu knows that its prey is cornered. It stops running and starts walking at a leisurely pace towards me. I close my eyes, hoping it wouldn't be -too- painful. I had really wanted to do a lot with my life, too. I wanted to be a teacher or an auror after I graduated Hogwarts, and raise up a family and...what's taking the blasted nundu so long? I open one eye. And then the other.
What in the world...?
The nundu isn't moving. It isn't even blinking. What happened? This must be a trick! It wants me to move so that it can pounce on me! ... Or maybe not. I take tiny steps to it and stare at its face. It's still not moving. Huh...
The rain is falling harder now, but the nundu is frozen there. I then hear footsteps. Oh, great, this better not be another animal.
"Hello?" I call out tentively. "Is anyone there?"
"I knew you were lost," comes that unmistakable voice.
"Malfoy! I thought you went to Hagrid's," I say.
"I was on my way there. But then I wanted to make sure you actually came back, so I walked back to where we originally were and waited for you," he explains, coming into view. "Now I'm all dirty."
"I didn't know you cared," I say.
"I don't," he quickly replies. "I just don't want to get in trouble because you decided to play let's-get-the-cabbit."
"Why would you get in trouble if I'm the one chasing after the cabbit?"
"Oh, I don't know," he says sarcastically. "Maybe McGonagall would yell at me for being unresponsible and letting her precious student go by herself into the Forbidden Forest. Or wait, maybe that oaf would accuse me of forcing you to go in."
I think about it for a while. "Okay, you're right. I shouldn't have gone into the forest. Let's get out of here!"
Malfoy points his wand out. "Point me." His wand points to the north. "Come on Granger, let's go. If this way is north, then the school would be down the other way, as the Forbidden Forest is to the west of the school."
I just nod my head and begin to follow him when...
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
We pause and slowly turn back towards the nundu.
Malfoy curses under his breath and points his wand back at the nundu. "Why don't you just shut up and freeze like the good little cat you are?" he shouts at it.
The nundu doesn't hesitate to leap out at Malfoy.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he shouts.
The nundu seems to have been expecting it and it moves to the side, missing the spell by a meter. It then attempts to pounce on Malfoy, but Malfoy had already moved from the spot he was standing in.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he tries again. "Bloody hell, Granger, why are you just standing for? Help me!"
"I can't!" I shout. "My wand got on fire and--WATCH OUT!"
Malfoy moves with astonishing speed away from the nundu and he glares at it. "This thing is starting to annoy me. Impedimenta!"
The nundu slows down, but not by much. It is now going as fast as the cars on a highway--when there's no traffic.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Again, the spell misses the monster, but narrowly. I watch Malfoy, who doesn't seem the least bit tired, but his moves are starting to become sloppier due to the mud on the ground. I know the rain must be getting in his eyes, but he doesn't brush them away with his hands.
"You bloody beast! Just -freeze-!" He steps backwards into a particulary large puddle of rainwater and he slips down, dropping his wand.
"Shit," he curses. The nundu is less than a meter away from him and it reaches out for Malfoy with its pointed claws. I quickly turn my head to the left and right, looking for his wand. If I can get it...I can freeze the monster before it eats Malfoy!
There! It's about three meters away from me and I run towards it. The beast is almost on Malfoy now and I take off my shoe to throw at its head.
"You stupid monster! Come and get me!" I shout. "I'm the one you originally wanted!"
"What are you doing, Granger!?" Malfoy barks at me. "Stop trying to be brave and find my wand already! I'll distract it."
"Too late!" I exclaim. I grab the wand and wave it around. "Come on, nundu, you big brute!"
It looks at Malfoy and I, trying to decide which one it should eat first. Then it moves towards Malfoy again and I hear Malfoy shout with pain.
"Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!" I yell.
This time, none of the spells miss the nundu. It begins to fall backwards near me and I drop the wand in panic. I am just out of the way when I hear it crash where I was just standing.
"That was a close one," I mutter. I run over to Malfoy who is still lying on the puddle and staring at me. I see there's some blood on his legs.
"Why do you have to go around being the hero," he says, not asks, in his characteristic drawl. "You bloody Gryffindors just always -have- to be the heroes, even if it's your own bloody fault." He struggles to stand up, but falls down. "Damn it."
I bend down on my knees and look at his legs. "It scratched you."
"Well, gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious."
"But I suppose you're fine, since you're still able to come up with witty remarks."
He smirks for a couple of seconds before looking down at his leg. He frowns and runs a hand through his soaked hair. I can't help but notice he doesn't look all that bad when his hair is free of the gel.
I cautiously place my hand over his legs.
"Don't touch me," he says. But his voice isn't as threatening as before and I take it as an okay.
"Stop being such a machoman," I whisper. "I know a couple of things about wounds, so trust me, okay?"
"Why should I trust you?"
"You have no one else to trust."
"I have myself."
"That won't be good enough." Merlin, he's so stubborn!
"How about you just go get my wand and I'll heal myself?"
I sigh. "I can't. The nundu fell on it."
"That's just great. I just hope that bloody thing doesn't get over the spell again," he mutters darkly. "How did it get over the first so fast anyways?"
"You probably didn't put enough into it," I respond absently. "Now let me at least put something around your leg."
"I can do it myself. Just tell me what to do and--"
I interrupt him. "No. It will just take too much time."
"There's just no point in arguing with you, is there?" Malfoy sighs defeatedly.
"You should've realized before." I smile at him and I gently push the bottom of his robes up to his knees.
"I'm still winning, you know." He smirks.
Ugh. He's still going on about it. "Whatever you say, Malfoy."
I grimace as I see one long scratch on his right leg. It was from his ankle to his knee and it was bleeding profusely. Without bothering to think about it, I rip the sleeve of my robe off and wrap it carefully around his leg.
"This'll hurt for a second," I warn. I then tighten the fabric and twist it into double knot. He hisses a bit, but doesn't do anything else.
"There." I stand up. "All done! We should get going now..."
"Problem there, Granger. How do we go back if we don't know where to go? Both of our wands are now useless." He holds out his hand, letting the rain fall on it. "And the rain is coming harder than before. There's going to be a storm tonight. Have any idea?"
I bite my lower lip and scan the area. "We might have to walk around for a den or cave."
"And leave this nundu alone? It's going to come after my blood!"
"Just leave it alone. I'm sure it will go away on its own."
He rolls his eyes. "You Gryffindors obviously no knowledge of the animal world, do you? When it pulls itself out of the spell, it's going to be hungry and mad. And it's going to smell my blood. And then it will come after us!"
"Not unless we're back at Hogwarts," I snap.
"You are too optimistic."
"You are too pessimistic." I stick my tongue out at him. "Let's get going."
Malfoy again struggles to stand. I grab his arm and feel him stiffen against me before pulling himself away.
"Look, you're going to need my help whether you like it or not," I point out. "So you might as well just go along with it. As much as I don't want you to, just lean against me so it would be easier to walk. I don't want you slowing us down."
He makes a face and warily leans against me.
"Let's go," he says tiredly.
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3/22/o3 - Well, I actually had this down about an hour later, but I was so caught up in trying to write chapter five of "The Beginning of the End" that I forgot to upload it. ^^; Here it is now!
And see! Now I have a plot. *grins* But someone please tell me if this has been done before. To my knowledge, it hasn't. *shrugs* By the way, I changed the rating from PG to PG-13. *shrugs* I don't know if one could cuss in PG fics. Lol. I highly doubt it though.
The Nundu is a real magical beast in the wizarding world. ^_^ Look it up, if you don't believe me.
*blinks* Whoa. ^^; I have more than one review. *cheers*
Thanks to: SotMoon (wow, I can't believe you went through all the chapters reviewing! ^_______^ ), Elfmoon87 (since we don't know much about our dear Mione here, I imagined her to be very moral...or very sarcastic. xD. lol, and yep, it got worse ), and DarkflamesSolitude (glad you like the fic so far :D ).
Please review. ^_____^ You would make me very happy if you do.
Author: tainted black (penny@twistedcandy.org)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
------------------------------
Previous:
Lightning strikes again and I spot my wand lying next to the fallen tree. I reach out for it, but stop. I see that the first tree was slowly starting to catch on fire--and the fire was spreading to my wand! Oh, no! But I need my wand back... Closing my eyes, I attempt to grab at the wand, but the fire has started to spread to my wand.
"Nooooooooooo," I wail. "My wandddddd! No, no, no!" I stomp on my wand, putting the fire out. Then I pick it up. My beautiful mahogany wand is half black now. I know it isn't totally useless, but I knew better than waving a broken wand around. I stick it into my robe regretfully.
So now I'm totally lost in the Forbidden Forest and practically wandless. Okay, so -now- it cannot possibly get any worse.
------------------------------------
I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.
Me, Hermione Granger, was wrong. For the second time in a row! The world must be coming to an end.
Okay, so I'm being a bit over dramatic. But anyways... I was wrong.
The bush in front of me is rustling violently. To say I am scared is an understatment--I am frightened out of my wits! I began backing away from shaking bush slowly, careful not to make any noise.
A pair of yellow eyes peers at me. I gulp. Not good. Not good at all.
Frantic, I begin to ransack my brain for any ideas as to what it was. What creature has yellow eyes and lives in the Forbidden Forest? An image of a centuar appears in my mind. Nope, wrong. A centaur wouldn't be growling at me like this. A red lizard? They have yellow eyes. No, this thing was much bigger than any lizard. Some sort of snake? A spider?
A claw comes out of the bush. While I'm at it, those are really sharp looking claws.
"A nundu!" I cry out. That's what it is!
For those who don't know, a nundu is a giant leopard. It is usually very quiet and the victim doesn't know it's there until it is too late. All in all, not a wonderful thing to meet.
It springs up from the bush and lands on its four feet, eyes still on me.
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, my brain sings. I mentally yell at it to shut up. It doesn't.
Dead, dead, dead.
That's when my animal instincts kicked in. To be the hunter or the hunted! To fight or flee! To hiss or scatter! To lay low or fly high! To--oh, I shouldn't be wasting my breath on this. I run blindly in the dark, knowing full well it is futile to do so.
I hear it running after me and I scream loudly.
"AHHHHHHH! SOMEONE HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
I really don't expect anyone to hear me, though.
I quickly reach a dead end. Oh crap. What a way to die. I really thought I would die doing something honorable, like fighting the Dark Lord or something. Maybe even die of old age. But come on now, I'm going to die because an animal on the first real day of school! It's pretty pathetic.
The nundu knows that its prey is cornered. It stops running and starts walking at a leisurely pace towards me. I close my eyes, hoping it wouldn't be -too- painful. I had really wanted to do a lot with my life, too. I wanted to be a teacher or an auror after I graduated Hogwarts, and raise up a family and...what's taking the blasted nundu so long? I open one eye. And then the other.
What in the world...?
The nundu isn't moving. It isn't even blinking. What happened? This must be a trick! It wants me to move so that it can pounce on me! ... Or maybe not. I take tiny steps to it and stare at its face. It's still not moving. Huh...
The rain is falling harder now, but the nundu is frozen there. I then hear footsteps. Oh, great, this better not be another animal.
"Hello?" I call out tentively. "Is anyone there?"
"I knew you were lost," comes that unmistakable voice.
"Malfoy! I thought you went to Hagrid's," I say.
"I was on my way there. But then I wanted to make sure you actually came back, so I walked back to where we originally were and waited for you," he explains, coming into view. "Now I'm all dirty."
"I didn't know you cared," I say.
"I don't," he quickly replies. "I just don't want to get in trouble because you decided to play let's-get-the-cabbit."
"Why would you get in trouble if I'm the one chasing after the cabbit?"
"Oh, I don't know," he says sarcastically. "Maybe McGonagall would yell at me for being unresponsible and letting her precious student go by herself into the Forbidden Forest. Or wait, maybe that oaf would accuse me of forcing you to go in."
I think about it for a while. "Okay, you're right. I shouldn't have gone into the forest. Let's get out of here!"
Malfoy points his wand out. "Point me." His wand points to the north. "Come on Granger, let's go. If this way is north, then the school would be down the other way, as the Forbidden Forest is to the west of the school."
I just nod my head and begin to follow him when...
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
We pause and slowly turn back towards the nundu.
Malfoy curses under his breath and points his wand back at the nundu. "Why don't you just shut up and freeze like the good little cat you are?" he shouts at it.
The nundu doesn't hesitate to leap out at Malfoy.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he shouts.
The nundu seems to have been expecting it and it moves to the side, missing the spell by a meter. It then attempts to pounce on Malfoy, but Malfoy had already moved from the spot he was standing in.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he tries again. "Bloody hell, Granger, why are you just standing for? Help me!"
"I can't!" I shout. "My wand got on fire and--WATCH OUT!"
Malfoy moves with astonishing speed away from the nundu and he glares at it. "This thing is starting to annoy me. Impedimenta!"
The nundu slows down, but not by much. It is now going as fast as the cars on a highway--when there's no traffic.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Again, the spell misses the monster, but narrowly. I watch Malfoy, who doesn't seem the least bit tired, but his moves are starting to become sloppier due to the mud on the ground. I know the rain must be getting in his eyes, but he doesn't brush them away with his hands.
"You bloody beast! Just -freeze-!" He steps backwards into a particulary large puddle of rainwater and he slips down, dropping his wand.
"Shit," he curses. The nundu is less than a meter away from him and it reaches out for Malfoy with its pointed claws. I quickly turn my head to the left and right, looking for his wand. If I can get it...I can freeze the monster before it eats Malfoy!
There! It's about three meters away from me and I run towards it. The beast is almost on Malfoy now and I take off my shoe to throw at its head.
"You stupid monster! Come and get me!" I shout. "I'm the one you originally wanted!"
"What are you doing, Granger!?" Malfoy barks at me. "Stop trying to be brave and find my wand already! I'll distract it."
"Too late!" I exclaim. I grab the wand and wave it around. "Come on, nundu, you big brute!"
It looks at Malfoy and I, trying to decide which one it should eat first. Then it moves towards Malfoy again and I hear Malfoy shout with pain.
"Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!" I yell.
This time, none of the spells miss the nundu. It begins to fall backwards near me and I drop the wand in panic. I am just out of the way when I hear it crash where I was just standing.
"That was a close one," I mutter. I run over to Malfoy who is still lying on the puddle and staring at me. I see there's some blood on his legs.
"Why do you have to go around being the hero," he says, not asks, in his characteristic drawl. "You bloody Gryffindors just always -have- to be the heroes, even if it's your own bloody fault." He struggles to stand up, but falls down. "Damn it."
I bend down on my knees and look at his legs. "It scratched you."
"Well, gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious."
"But I suppose you're fine, since you're still able to come up with witty remarks."
He smirks for a couple of seconds before looking down at his leg. He frowns and runs a hand through his soaked hair. I can't help but notice he doesn't look all that bad when his hair is free of the gel.
I cautiously place my hand over his legs.
"Don't touch me," he says. But his voice isn't as threatening as before and I take it as an okay.
"Stop being such a machoman," I whisper. "I know a couple of things about wounds, so trust me, okay?"
"Why should I trust you?"
"You have no one else to trust."
"I have myself."
"That won't be good enough." Merlin, he's so stubborn!
"How about you just go get my wand and I'll heal myself?"
I sigh. "I can't. The nundu fell on it."
"That's just great. I just hope that bloody thing doesn't get over the spell again," he mutters darkly. "How did it get over the first so fast anyways?"
"You probably didn't put enough into it," I respond absently. "Now let me at least put something around your leg."
"I can do it myself. Just tell me what to do and--"
I interrupt him. "No. It will just take too much time."
"There's just no point in arguing with you, is there?" Malfoy sighs defeatedly.
"You should've realized before." I smile at him and I gently push the bottom of his robes up to his knees.
"I'm still winning, you know." He smirks.
Ugh. He's still going on about it. "Whatever you say, Malfoy."
I grimace as I see one long scratch on his right leg. It was from his ankle to his knee and it was bleeding profusely. Without bothering to think about it, I rip the sleeve of my robe off and wrap it carefully around his leg.
"This'll hurt for a second," I warn. I then tighten the fabric and twist it into double knot. He hisses a bit, but doesn't do anything else.
"There." I stand up. "All done! We should get going now..."
"Problem there, Granger. How do we go back if we don't know where to go? Both of our wands are now useless." He holds out his hand, letting the rain fall on it. "And the rain is coming harder than before. There's going to be a storm tonight. Have any idea?"
I bite my lower lip and scan the area. "We might have to walk around for a den or cave."
"And leave this nundu alone? It's going to come after my blood!"
"Just leave it alone. I'm sure it will go away on its own."
He rolls his eyes. "You Gryffindors obviously no knowledge of the animal world, do you? When it pulls itself out of the spell, it's going to be hungry and mad. And it's going to smell my blood. And then it will come after us!"
"Not unless we're back at Hogwarts," I snap.
"You are too optimistic."
"You are too pessimistic." I stick my tongue out at him. "Let's get going."
Malfoy again struggles to stand. I grab his arm and feel him stiffen against me before pulling himself away.
"Look, you're going to need my help whether you like it or not," I point out. "So you might as well just go along with it. As much as I don't want you to, just lean against me so it would be easier to walk. I don't want you slowing us down."
He makes a face and warily leans against me.
"Let's go," he says tiredly.
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3/22/o3 - Well, I actually had this down about an hour later, but I was so caught up in trying to write chapter five of "The Beginning of the End" that I forgot to upload it. ^^; Here it is now!
And see! Now I have a plot. *grins* But someone please tell me if this has been done before. To my knowledge, it hasn't. *shrugs* By the way, I changed the rating from PG to PG-13. *shrugs* I don't know if one could cuss in PG fics. Lol. I highly doubt it though.
The Nundu is a real magical beast in the wizarding world. ^_^ Look it up, if you don't believe me.
*blinks* Whoa. ^^; I have more than one review. *cheers*
Thanks to: SotMoon (wow, I can't believe you went through all the chapters reviewing! ^_______^ ), Elfmoon87 (since we don't know much about our dear Mione here, I imagined her to be very moral...or very sarcastic. xD. lol, and yep, it got worse ), and DarkflamesSolitude (glad you like the fic so far :D ).
Please review. ^_____^ You would make me very happy if you do.