Like I'd promised Lucas, I left my wand under my pillow. As to prevent
suspicion from my friends and everyone else, I instead put a stick in my
pocket, which I'd found in the courtyard after the Charms written. Gaspar,
with rings under his eyes from N.E.W.T-overdosing, wished us luck as we
went.
Millicent was nervous, I could tell, even if she kept up an impressive straight face and wasn't nearly as pale as she should have been. But anyone would have been nervous to the point of hysteria when being put through an unknown, unprepared practical exam, held by a teacher generally considered stark raving loony, even by Hogwarts' standards. Her knuckles were white, that was how hard she gripped her wand. I tried my best to look comforting and patted her on the shoulder as he climbed the stairs to the Defence classroom. She gave me a brave smile. Should have been Sorted into Gryffindor, if it hadn't been for her inborn sneakiness.
Well at the Defence classroom, we were greeted by a note tacked to the locked door, stating simply that Lucas expected us all down at Hagrid's cabin ten minutes ago. I blinked, red the note again, but it still stated, in black ink on some left-over Muggle paper, that we should have been there ten minutes ago, regardless of when we arrived at the classroom. Muttering to myself about head-case teachers and Muggle paper, Millicent and I headed down and out of the castle.
We weren't the first to arrive: I had long since figured out that it was physically impossible to turn up for a lesson earlier than Hermione Granger. The only time I had was for the Arithmancy exam, and one or two lessons. In six years. And all of those times she'd been detained by illness, rain of frogs, Voldemort and unexpected swamps. At any other given moment, Granger's default state of being was early for class. This time, she had both Potter and Weasley with her, who hovered over her shoulders like a pair of over-grown vultures. Boot and Patil had turned up, as had Bones. She stood at the edge of the small group, leaning against a fence and twirled her wand absently. She looked bored.
Lucas himself was standing behind a table, filled with what looked like bubbles, each one a different colour. They rose and swirled by command of his hands, and he looked like a particularly demented conductor. He nodded absently when we arrived, before going back to his vibrant bubbles. Every day, that main gained new eccentric habits. I settled down on the grass, not caring about the strange looks I got from the others, since they were all standing. Silly buggers: I wasn't about to stand around for the hour it took for Lucas to get to the point. I didn't get to sit for too long though. Longbottom and the last few stragglers arrived, out of breath and red-faced, and Lucas actually started talking as soon as they'd caught their breaths.
"Welcome." He said, turning his attention from the bubbles. "I hope you're all prepared for you exam? Good. I won't ask you to face your fears, but since Mr Longbottom's greatest fear is his Potion's professor in a hat and a handbag, I don't think this will be a particular problem. You will be paired up for this exam, and no, Mr Potter, you will not be allowed to choose your partners," Potter's expression turned disappointed and a little sullen. "You have all been very curious about today, no doubt. You might also wonder why you only have a single exam today, and not only because you might already be finished with the others. It's rather simple."
He gestured to the rather imposing forest behind him. Even in the bright light of a summer morning, it looked somewhat dark and sinister. I shuddered. There was a good reason it was called the Forbidden Forest, after all.
"Around the perimeter of the Forest, a protective barrier has been set up. The main hold-up for this exam has been to gain the Headmaster's permission, since he believed you would be in terrible, mortal danger if you went through it. But, the protective barrier, the constant watch that will be kept, and the team of Healers and extraction wizards standing by to help if something goes wrong will ensure that you all survive. Most of you without a scratch, and you will come out bleeding only if you aren't careful. Or if you're ignorant," He added, and I wasn't sure if he'd realised that the expressions on his students' faces was sheer terror. "But that won't be a problem for any of you."
"Professor?" Longbottom's voice was quaking as he raised his hand.
"Yes, Longbottom?" Lucas replied, for a moment brought back from his plans of revenge on ignorant fourth years.
"What exactly are we going to do?"
"Why, you're going into the Forest, of course." He looked surprised we hadn't guessed it yet. "It has been sectioned up, and you will be put, in pairs, in each of the sections. Further instructions will be given upon your arrival. Any questions? And I will not accept questions of the ´You can't do this to us, Professor!´ and ´This is cruel! We haven't been able to prepare!´ variety. The whole point of the exam is for it to be unprepared."
I raised my hand slowly, trying to hold onto my temper.
"Yes, Mr Zabini?" He nodded.
"May I have a word with you in private, Professor?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice calm.
"Of course." He nodded again, deliberately ignoring the curious stares of my classmates.
As soon as we were out of earshot of the other students, I spun around and faced him, not knowing where to start, how to keep myself from screaming at him, or to keep from strangling him. He was about to send me into the most dangerous forest in England, probably in Europe, along with someone who probably wouldn't be deaf, dumb and blind, and he expected me to accept this and use wandless magic as well. Rage was too light a word.
"Are you mad?" I enquired heatedly.
"Quite," He agreed cordially, "But I fail to see what this has to do with the conversation."
"You're about to send me into the Forbidden Forest! I'd say that counts for something!" I was almost shouting. "But I'm not even going to bother arguing that point. You know I've kept my wandless magic a secret. I haven't even told Millie, for Merlin's sake! And now you want to dump me in the most dangerous forests of all time, with someone I don't know very well, and you want me to just blow my bloody secret wide open! I think I have a pretty good cause to call you crazy!"
"All very sane arguments, I'm sure." He agreed once more. "But I am, officially, in charge of your special training, and therefore, I'm going to pull rank on you, both as a professor and as a technical superior, and I'm going to order you to do this. No matter who you end up with in there, there'll be more than one opportunity to try out your magic. You'll need to. If whoever it is becomes too hysterical, or is likely to leak, there's this handy spell called Obliviate, which is quite useful."
"You can't use that without explicit Ministry permission," I pointed out, only slightly mollified.
"I once blasted a hole in the wall of Gringotts and stole a dragon. Why should I give a damn about Ministry permission?" He pointed out logically. It was the first time I could remember hearing him curse.
"You'll have to tell me how to do that some time, but that's not the point. I don't like flaunting something like this." I said weakly, but not quite ready to go down without a fight. One look in Lucas' eye told me that fighting was as pointless as rolling a ball up a steep hill. Sighing heavily, I gave in. "Fine. If you weren't my professor, I'd strangle you for being so aggravating." I threatened half-heartedly. "Just do me a favour? Don't pair me up with Longbottom, or I can't promise he'll come out of there alive."
He sent me back with what could only have been a Lucas-brand chuckle. It sounded somewhat like the croaking of a raven. Muttering to myself, which I seemed to do often lately, I walked back to stand next to Millicent. Today wasn't a very good day. Millicent and everyone else gave me rather curious looks when I came back looking like a thundercloud, but didn't say anything. Lucas came wandering back with a vague look of amusement on his face, and I was momentarily reminded of his habit of eating chocolate, but only after killing it.
"You will be Portkeyed to your section as soon as I have finished talking," He took up just where he left off. "You won't know who you have ended up doing the exam with until you arrive. All I have left to say if good luck."
We were all supposed to pick up one of a variety of items on a table. I snatched a black pebble, and felt the all too familiar tug of a Portkey. When I was younger, about ten, my father would sometimes take me out on shopping trips or just regular walks in remote parts of mountains or forests, and since I wasn't able to Apparate, and only a few, powerful individuals could tandem-Apparate further than ten feet, we'd use Portkeys. After the initial wave of nausea, I'd always be horribly happy. I wonder where that feeling went?
'''''''''
The Forbidden Forest was dark. It was so dark that I had to sit staring at the ground for a few minutes before my eyes accustomed themselves to the lack of light. Breathing was more difficult than it was outside the forest: the air between the trees was musty and felt old, somehow. When I realised I was sitting in a rather thorny hedge, I quickly got up and tried to see who else had ended up in the godforsaken forest with me. For a wild second of hope, I thought I'd ended up there alone, but then I spotted a pair of shoes, sticking out from underneath a black cloak, and my hopes were crushed.
The cloak was tangled in the same kind of thorny bush I had landed in, though the owner of it was at least moving their feet, so I could tell whoever it was was alive. It was a very small someone, so my initial guess was that it was Bones, or perhaps Longbottom, who was quite small. Since the owner of the shoes and cloak wasn't getting up, I decided to, in a fit of rarely seen nobility, help out. I walked towards the tangled cloak, already a hand out to help. I caught hold of the person's shoulders and hauled, not bother to check if said person was conscious or not. She, and I had noticed that it was a girl since no male in the Defence class had such skinny shoulders, was lighter than I had thought, and as a result I nearly fell over trying to help her up.
Fortunately, there was a rather sturdy tree just behind me, and I only stumbled before bracing himself on it. However, the girl, possibly having realised someone was pulling at her shoulders, pushed back, and ended up with her face pressing against my neck. That was certainly not what I had intended, and I stood frozen for a moment, before she found her voice.
"Letting go would be a wonderful option at the moment," She commented drily.
My eyes widened and I let go as if I had been burned when my ears and my brain recognised it as Granger's voice.
"Sorry. Lost my balance there for a moment," I said evasively, trying to pretend I hadn't just apologised to Granger of all people.
"Fine." She shrugged and pretended nothing had happened. "Any sign of further instructions?"
"I only came to some minute ago, so no," I said, inspecting our rather dreary surroundings. "Any idea where we might find them?"
"This is only my second time in here," She muttered, pulling her wand out of her pocket, "The last time was when I was eleven and terrified. Memory serves that other than trees, vicious plants and the occasional magical beast, there isn't very much in here by way of information."
"Point," I mumbled, quietly agreeing with her. There was nothing but thorns, trees and a far-off noise to disturb the loneliness.
"I trust you have all arrived at your assigned locations?" Lucas voice spoke from just behind us.
Granger and I spun around like one person, and looked behind us. A small blue bubble, about the size of a Golden Snitch, hovered in the musty air. I recognised it as one of the bubbles Lucas had had on his little table earlier, outside the forest. I stepped closer, and I could feel Granger tensing beside me in shock.
"I believe you all hear me perfectly. If you don't, please send up red sparks and I will fix the problem immediately." If I peered closely, I could even see his rather amused face. "Now, on to the actual instructions. Listen closely, or you will earn me paperwork when I try to explain your sudden demise to the Headmaster. Your objective is to reach the Portkey point, at the centre of the forest. The location of it is individual for each section, and when you reach it, the Portkey will be obvious. Lights will point you in the general direction of it, and should you get too far off course, you will be forcibly turned around."
I broke my concentration for a moment to try to see the light he was speaking of, but I couldn't, and turned back to the bubble.
"You will be graded not on how fast you reach the Portkey point, but on how you reach it." Lucas continued. "The variation of spells you use, your resourcefulness when magic isn't enough, and just how much you remember about how to best handle certain elements around you. Such as how to disable a Kappa, though I doubt there are any in the forest. The bubble will follow you around, so that I can keep a watching eye on you. The race starts now, ladies and gentlemen. I'll see you at the finish."
The Bubble, as I took to referring to it in my mind, twinkled brightly for a second, before turning back to its normal colour. I blinked, and then turned to Granger. She looked just as apprehensive as I felt: the thought of the lengthy trek through the forest to wherever the Portkey point was was enough to make anyone hesitate. I'd hear about Auror exams from my Father once, and he'd said they were something like our task. I hoped to high heaven that we wouldn't have to battle rabid unicorns, like they did. Unicorns were vicious.
"Any sign of the light?" I asked.
"I think it's over there." She pointed to the edge of the tiny clearing we were standing in. A tiny, twinkling light could be seen between the trees. "But I don't think we can get there."
"Bloody bushes," I grumbled.
And they were indeed bloody. The thorny creepers we'd landed in covered all but the circle around our feet, and some whitened bones stuck out from the edge of them. In the dim light, the creeper looked evil, somehow, but that could just be a trick of my overheated mind. We were standing in a dip in the landscape, almost like a bowl, and the creepers covered it completely. It was bloody impossible to get to the light without crossing a carpet of three-inch thorns.
"We landed in them," Granger pointed out, "But our clothes must have protected us, because I don't think I'm bleeding."
"Neither do I." I agreed, "But walking across that is like threading on broken glass. We'll have to clear a path through it."
"Burn it?" She suggested.
"Should work, yes," I nodded. "It doesn't get much light in here, so it should be sensitive to both light and fire."
"Incendio." She said, pointing at the creeper with her wand. Blue-bell flames burned at the creeper, which reacted more violently than anticipated.
Strands of it, with sharp, three-inch thorns whipped up and tried to smash into our faces and arms: one of them wrapped around my wrist and tugged, and I grit my teeth against the pain as two of the thorns made short work of my skin. I tugged back, and to my surprise, it snapped. A wild, hissing noise filled the air and the raging plant snapped and burned, shrivelling up like old leaves. One of the whipping strands caught Granger in the head, and sanity once more left my mind: I snatched hold of her arm and dragged her through the path she'd made, out on the other side of the creepers.
Just as we scrambled over the edge of the bowl, the vicious plant let out a thin, wailing scream. It sounded not like an animal or a human, but just as plants would, if they had a voice. With a last few half-hearted whips, the creeper crumbled up and died. It left behind the vicious thorns, which littered the ground like left-over knives. Breathing heavily, I sat down on the ground and ran down a mental tally of myself, to check if I was all there.
"You're bleeding." Granger told me. She had collapsed beside me, breathing as if she'd run a marathon as well.
"So are you," I pointed out, indicating the cut running down her cheek.
"I'll live," she shrugged awkwardly.
"I'm keeping this," I said, reaching down and picking up a particularly large thorn.
"Why?"
"Because it's sharp, and I feel like getting revenge on the sodding plant, alright?" I snapped, agitated. "Where to now?" I asked, calmer, after I put the thorn up my sleeve.
"The light's over there, but it's further away now," she sighed, apparently ignoring my irritation.
"Of course," I said, still irritated. "It'll keep moving until we get to the Portkey point."
Granger grumbled to herself, but got up off the ground and started walking towards the light. I scrambled to my feet and hurried after her, since I didn't want to be left alone in the Forbidden Forest, not even if I was paid a million galleons for it. Despite having more or less outgrown my fear of werewolves, being in the Forest sparked it up again, and being left alone was the last thing on my To-Do list for the day.
Strange birds flew overhead, chirping oddly in the silence. Some of them tired to attack us, but I waved my hand at them and they stopped their attempts. It earned me some more cuts on the arms, and one of them tried to take a piece of my ear, but other than that, I was fine. My wrist had stopped bleeding too, so I was as happy as one could be while trapped in a danger-infested forest with a girl you don't like spending time with. Granger trudged along in front of me, looking around her constantly to keep an eye out for dangerous creatures.
Despite Granger's rigorous watch, neither of us noticed the Erkling until it was almost upon us. The high-pitched cackling laugh it emitted made me clap my hands over my ears, trying not to have my eardrums ruptured. Granger did the same, screaming, and in the process dropped her wand. The screeching sound was enough to make my head pound: Erklings mostly use their cackle to take children away from their keepers and kill them, and as such, their voice is very enticing to young people. To human beings over the age of fourteen, though, their noise is painful to hear, and can cause brain-damage. Listening to it for extended periods of time could even cause insanity.
In a moment of clarity, I realised it was up to me to handle the Erkling. I looked around me, in hopes that I might find some help from the trees, all the while trying to remember how to get rid of Erklings. The only things that popped up in my mind were Germany and collapsible cauldrons. I pulled the stick I'd brought from my dorm out of my pocket, transfigured it into a much heavier rock, and slammed it into the head of the Erkling, hoping to buy myself some time.
Imagine my surprise when the Erkling folded up on the ground and stopped screaming altogether. Kicking it slightly proved my sudden suspicion. It was dead. It was deader than dead. If it was any deader, people would be making comical sketches about it. I prodded it again, just to see that I hadn't been wrong the first time, before turning to Granger, who was whimpering on the ground, hands still over her ears.
"It's dead, Granger," I said, prodding her with my foot as well.
"D-dead?" She stammered, uncurling and standing up. "How?"
"I thumped it with a rock." I dropped the rock hurriedly. "Get your wand: we're in a bit of a hurry, you know."
She snatched her wand up, apparently too shaken up to ask how I'd found a rock that big when there hadn't been one in the vicinity when the Erkling attacked. Thanking deities she was somewhat ignorant, I took the lead towards the distant light. The Bubble floated along in a bubbly, up-and- down manner, and if I listened closely, I could hear distant mumbling from it. Granger was mumbling behind me too, though I couldn't snatch up anything else from her jumbled speech than "cauldrons", "crazy" and "lobster". That girl confused me no end sometimes.
The landscape got rougher as we walked, or tried to, towards the light. At times, we were forced to balance precariously over small rivers on slippery stones. A Grindylow tired to pull Granger under, but I stomped on its fingers before that could happen, and it retreated, swearing bubbles at me. We go across, splashed with water and a little worse for wear, but otherwise unscathed. My wrist was starting to ache uncomfortably though, and I wondered if the thorns had been poisoned, because Granger seemed to have a problem with keeping her balance.
The passage of a small but significant patch of Devil's Snare's left us worn out and ready to fall boneless to the ground, so I ordered a moment's rest. I collapsed with my back against an old tree, while Granger just sat down in the middle of a clearing. Since there were no obviously dangerous plants, aside from the bony trees, I didn't bother to tell her otherwise. Tired both from lack of sleep and the massive work of getting from our arrival point to the small clearing, which probably wasn't even halfway to the Portkey point, my eyes slipped closed on their own accord, and I sank into a light sleep. Granger was still wide awake, trying to wring some water out of her hair when I closed my eyes, so I figured she'd wake me up before too long.
I woke up on my own, after a rather disturbing dream about bones and thorns, to the feeling of something crawling along my wrist and buzzing in my ear. Opening my eyes, I met Granger's terrified gaze. Her face was stark white, and she was looking at something about an inch to the left of my face, wand in her white-knuckled hand.
"Zabini, if you value your life, don't move." She said, doing an admirable job at keeping her voice steady.
I blinked.
"Incedo absentis." She pronounced clearly, pointing her wand at me. Whatever was buzzing next to my ear, as well as whatever was crawling on my wrist, disappeared.
"What?" I mumbled, sitting up straighter. I felt a little dazed, and somewhat depressed, but when didn't I feel down?
"Glumbumbles," was all she said.
"Nasty critters," I nodded.
They were, at that. They resembled bees, but in the same way tigers resemble domesticated cats. Grey and slightly furry, they were about an inch an a half long, and lived in old trees and caves, away from the light. Their "honey", a treacle-like substance, induced depression, as did their stings to some extent.
"I think some of them got in your wound, but I got to them rather quickly so the depression should pass," She continued.
"Good." Well, what else was there for me to say? "Let's get going before we severely hurt ourselves."
True to Granger's assurance, the depression wore off in a matter of minutes, when we were battling some vicious blue flowers. They made me sleepy once more, and when I was about to close my eyes, it attempted to strangle me. Granger stopped it by tearing it of its stem. Another tired to make her fall by wrapping around around her feet. Her wand was uselessly wrapped inside her pocket by another of the nasty blue flowers, and without thinking, I hexed the plant with a Severing Charm.
"Prescindir!" I snapped, gesturing towards it, and the blue petals fell uselessly to the ground. I dragged her up again and didn't let go of her arm as I started out towards the light, which was getting closer, though agonisingly slowly.
"Feeling alright?" I asked.
"Better than I would have being strangled to death by deranged blue-bells," she managed a weak smile. "Thanks."
"Couldn't leave you to a death by flowers, could I?" I muttered, trying to ignore the fact the tips of my ear were heating up. "Shout if you see anything dangerous. Like lethal petunias, or something."
"Mhm." She mumbled.
We walked in silence for about ten minutes before I remembered to let go of her arm. Tactfully, she didn't say anything, but just pulled out her wand and kept walking. A Moke scuttled down a tree-trunk, caught sight of us and with a small pop, disappeared. Granger mumbled something to herself about magical lizards and survival instincts, and since the Moke was harmless, we kept walking. It was down-hill now, though a small ridge rose to the left of us. I got my feet tangled in some dead grass, and Granger had to keep my from smashing my face into a rock. It was rather embarrassing, but on the whole, I could stand it. At least it wasn't as bad as the Runespoor we ran into.
It lay sleeping on a branch, wrapped around it, two of the three heads asleep while the third held watch. Granger and I inched around the tree carefully, and it followed our progress with it's small, beady eyes – I wondered why an African snake was curled up in a very British forest, but getting around it and out of its vicinity alive seemed a lot more important at the time, so I put the thought in the "Ponder when Lucas gets blue eyes" file. The light was no considerably closer than it had been, and I was feeling rather cheered up.
"That was close." Granger commented when we were well out of it.
"Not as close as the Erkling." I disagreed.
She turned around to argue her point, like a Ravenclaw would defend a discussion inches from death, but stopped and stared over my right shoulder. Her face turned as white as the Bloody Baron, and her mouth worked soundlessly. Her hands shook as she raised her wand, pointing at something behind me. Filled with a horrible apprehension, I turned around slowly.
"Graphorn," she finally whispered.
The grey-purplish creature as huge, large enough to rival some of the nearby trees, and was staring at us in a definitely hostile way. Two sharp horns lowered slowly, and I saw with absolute clarity what was going to happen. It was going to charge at us, and we were both going to die. A spark of defiance appeared, racing down my spine. An almost Gryffindor-like anger surged up, and I lunged towards Granger, shoving her to the side and out of the way, putting myself in the Graphorn's path. It was a horribly stupid move, but somehow my spine and my feet had overruled my brain, and decided I should be selfless and stupid for once.
The horns missed me by half an inch and buried themselves in the tree. I tried to get away, but the Graphorn made short work of the dead wood and was trying to stomp me to death. Suddenly, it let out an unearthly howl and spun around as fast as its clumsy body would allow, nearly killing me in the process. It was only by pure and utter luck that I avoided being trampled. Getting up, I caught sight of Granger standing on the edge of the clearing, with her wand out.
"Run!" I shouted as the Graphorn charged.
Time slowed down, and I saw her try to scramble out of the way, but she wasn't fast enough. One of the Graphorn's lethal horns glanced off her side, and even in the dim light and the distance, I could see her bleeding profusely. She screamed, the sound echoing in the otherwise silent forest, and folded up on the ground, trying to drag herself out of the way. Something inside me snapped, and the fire of raw magic burned at my fingertips. Green sparks dripped off my fingers like drops of water, and my vision slowly but surely clouded. I couldn't see anything but the Graphorn and Granger trying desperately to get away. Rage was too light a word to describe my state of mind.
Green-tinted flames ripped through the air with a deafening noise, burning the Graphorn's tough hide until it turned a sooty black. The creature lumbered around, roaring in rage. It took one look at me and the green flames surrounding my hands, and decided to find an easier meal. It ran as fast as its lumpy frame would allow, and disappeared between the trees, howling in distress. As soon as it was out of the clearing, I was across it and kneeling at Granger's side.
"Granger?" I called. She didn't respond. "Granger? Please, don't die on me: do you have any idea how much your friends would kill me if I came back with your corpse? Granger? H-Hermione?"
At the sound of her given name, she opened her eyes slightly and looked at me. She didn't seem quite aware just yet, and I busied myself with looking over her wounds. Though it had looked like the horn only touched her side lightly, she still had a cut too long and too deep for my tastes. It ran from her ribs all the way down to her thigh, past her hip-bone. She'd hit her head on a tree, which hadn't helped her previously earned cut on the cheek any. Trying not to break down in hysterics, I calmed the shaking of my hands by systematically tearing my cloak into strips and wrapping them around her to dress her wound.
Left in only my rather tattered uniform, I attempted to contact her again, while helping her into a more upright position.
"H-Hermione?" I stumbled over her name, not being used to saying it. "Please, be a little more conscious. I don't know how to use the Ennervate spell yet, so I can't help you, and I need you to be awake." I must have sounded helpless and pathetic. "Potter will behead me with a spoon when we get out of here, you know. Not that I can blame him: it is all my fault anyway. But it was rather short-sighted of you to put yourself in the Graphorn's way like that. C'mon, wake up?"
She opened her eyes again, and gave me a more focused, if rather confused look than she had the first time she returned to reality. I eased my arm between her head and the tree trunk so that she wouldn't be hurting her head even more.
"Wha' happn'd?" She mumbled, trying to focus her gaze on something and ended up staring at my nose.
"The Graphorn ran you down," I couldn't keep myself from smiling in relief. "You've got a cut the length of my forearm running down your ribcage now, but it looks like you'll live."
"My head hurts," she said, regaining the capability to form full sentences with a full number of letters again.
"As it should: you banged your head on the tree, and I think there was poison in the thorns that cut you earlier," I chuckled despite the seriousness of the situation. "Feeling well enough to keep going?"
"I don't think I can walk on my own," she admitted.
"I'll help you." I promised quietly. "Here, let's stand you up on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three."
I hauled her up, and she gasped sharply in pain. Waiting until the pain faded, we started walking slowly towards the light. It had gotten closer after we got rid of the Graphorn, which led me to believe we didn't have a long way left to go. The forest seemed to thin out as well, which heralded the arrival of another clearing, or perhaps even the edge of the forest. Our progress was painfully slow, but I didn't want to speed it up, since Hermione was staring to bleed through the makeshift bandages, wetting my shirt and turning it red, and I didn't want her to die from blood loss.
"We're nearly there now," I said as quietly as I could. "Just another few steps. That's right, one more then. Careful of the rock there. There's no need to hurry: we have all day and all night if we have to. The light is just a little further."
"You know what?" She chuckled weakly. "There's something my father says every once in a while, to make me laugh: ´When you're in a tunnel, don't walk towards the light!´."
"Well, good thing we aren't in a tunnel then, isn't it?" I grinned back, as be circled a tree and kept walking.
"Yeah. Zabini?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for helping me." She smiled.
"I couldn't just let you bleed to death, could I? It's kind of the same situation as with the flower, I'm afraid, but a bit more serious this time," I said evasively.
"You're not too bad after all," She whispered with a smile. "Would you mind terribly if I said I don't want to fight you any more?"
"A bit," I tried to shrug, but it was difficult while holding onto her. "But I'll get over it. This, however, doesn't automatically mean you're my best friend."
"I know it doesn't. I'm not dense: I'll just not pick fights with you." She attempted a shrug, but stopped abruptly and hissed when the pain hit her again.
The rest of our walk was quiet, as Hermione had enough trouble trying to keep from falling down, and I had my thoughts to keep my company. I had just made relative peace with a Gryffindor. Like I'd told her, it didn't make her my friend, but it made her someone I wouldn't have to watch out for. It was nice, in an awkward and strange kind of way. Things weren't going to be all sunshine and daisies from now on, but they would be simpler. As long as she understood this wouldn't stop me from insulting her if I felt she deserved it.
The Portkey point turned out to be a small circle of grass surrounded by rather friendly looking trees. Or perhaps it was just the relief of being done with the exam that did it. The Portkey was an old, ragged teddy-bear with only one leg left. Managing somehow to remain standing, we grabbed the Portkey at the same time, and the familiar tugging sensation pulled us out of the godforsaken forest. The last thing I saw before the Portkey pulled us away was Hermione's bloodied hands clutching at mine.
'''''''''
It was only through extreme luck and a bit of manoeuvring on my part that we remained standing when we arrived outside the forest. Hermione was clutching at my hand with one of hers, the other wrapped around my waist, trying to keep from falling down and hurting herself, while I leaned against a conveniently placed fence to steady myself.
"Welcome back," Lucas greeted us from behind his table. "How are you feeling?"
"Like breaking your bleeding nose," I replied, opening my eyes again and glaring. "You said you had Healers, didn't you?"
"Yes," Lucas nodded. "McQuillen!"
A man dressed in light green robes with a strange badge hurried up to him from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He was short and stocky, and was smiling widely, at least until he spotted Hermione and me. Then, his face suddenly turned serious, and somewhat angry, and he quickly helped me lead her to the closest bench, looking like he was liable to explode.
"I should report you for this, Lucas: it's illegal to put people in mortal danger," McQuillen said angrily. "If I didn't know you were such a responsible man, I'd have you hung."
"I have faith in you, McQuillen: you are perfectly capable of handling this," Lucas said, his eyes never leaving the bubbles. "Now, unless you need my assistance, I have another ten students out in the Forest, whom I have to keep track of."
"What happened?" McQuillen asked me, "To her, firstly."
"We landed in some creeper with thorns," I began as one should, at the beginning. "I think they were poisonous, one got me in the arm and I started feeling odd some half-hour after that," I showed him my wrist in the passing. "She got cut on the cheek. And she started walking strangely, like she couldn't keep her balance."
"What sort of creeper was it?" McQuillen asked, checking the wound on her cheek.
"I don't know," I admitted, "I don't take Herbology. But I kept this thorn." I held up the nasty looking thorn, shrugging it out of my sleeve.
"Oh holy Keeper of the Scepter!" McQuillen exclaimed, snatching it from my fingers. "That's Moonthorns that is: if left for too long, they can be fatal! Here, you said you'd gotten stung as well? You'll need an antidote right now: drink this, while I help her."
He handed me a small vial of green potion, which I drunk as quickly as possible. In the silence of my mind, I resolved to break Lucas' nose as soon as I could. Not only had he sent us straight into the jaws of a Graphorn, but he'd dumped us squarely in a lethal plant. Not even if he had a good reason would I stop from punching him. Hurting me was fine, because as he had said, this was an opportunity to train me, but hurting Hermione? Now that was a personal insult.
"What else did you run into?" McQuillen asked. "What a mess you are."
"What didn't we run into would be a more appropriate question," I snorted. "An Erkling, which we took care of, a Grindylow which left us soaked but all the better for it. Some Devil's Snare's, but, we managed. Glumbumbles, but the depression passed, and they didn't affect her. Some blue flowers that nearly made me fall asleep. We walked around a Runespoor, which watched us but didn't do anything. We saw a Moke. Oh, and a Graphorn, which is to blame for the wound she's got down her ribcage."
"A Graphorn?" McQuillen looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or take me seriously.
"Yes. Ugly brute it was too: it barely touched her though, otherwise she'd be dead. I managed to scare it off and patched her up the best I could." I could see he didn't believe me. "It nearly got me too, but fool that she is, she distracted it and wasn't fast enough to get out of the way."
"A Graphorn?" The Healer repeated. "You're not serious!"
"Are you calling me a liar?" I asked as calmly as I could, "And this," I unwrapped some of the makeshift bandages and showed him the wound, "A figment of your imagination?"
"No," he shook his head, slipping back into professionalism. "Step away while I take care of this: as soon as I'm done I want the two of you in the infirmary, understood? Good. Chaisty! Give me a hand here!"
I backed off, far enough to give them some working space, and leaned against the fence. For the first time since we'd Portkeyed out of the Forest, I looked around and realised it was rather crowded around me. Closer to the edge of the forest, some grim-looking wizards and witches, among whom I thought I could see Anja, as well as a healthy number of Healers were waiting around for everyone to come out of the exam alive. But that wasn't all: at the steps of Hagrid's cabin, the students who had gotten out before us were sitting, only now noticing mine and Hermione's arrival. Among them were Potter, as well as Bones and assorted Ravenclaws, and Potter was looking murderous.
I braced myself as he got up and headed in my direction, looking like he would rip me apart if no one stopped him. Wisely, he avoided the Healers, though he looked frantic about Hermione, and avoided raising his voice at first as to not draw attention from Lucas.
"What the hell did you do to her?" He hissed, his knuckles white with the effort of not punching my lights out.
"I didn't do anything to her, except perhaps keep her alive until we reached the Portkey point," I replied, keeping myself calm. This wasn't the time to fight.
"She's bleeding!" He snapped, though quietly.
"So am I." I pointed out, holding up my stabbed wrist.
"It's your fault, isn't it?"
"Probably, but causing it isn't the same as doing it." I shrugged. "Look, Potter, I wouldn't get anything out of deliberately hurting your best friend, even if I actually was cruel enough to do it. Everything that happened to her was purely by accident, though some of it was, certainly my fault. If it hadn't been for me, I'm sure she would have been sent to a safer section. As it was, she wasn't and ended up with me. Indirectly, as you can see, her wounds are my fault, but I didn't stab her, I didn't poison her and I certainly didn't chuck her in a lake with a Grindylow. So could you just please drop in and let me chew on my nerves alone?"
My little speech seemed to shock him somewhat, but it also made him calm down. Still, he glared at me, but looks I could handle. It was outright confrontation that was a little difficult when I was still a little dizzy from being poisoned, and a little shaken up both from the massive magical feat I'd performed and the attack from the Graphorn.
"Here, you, with the bloody shirt!" McQuillen called. "We've patched her up and given her the antidote, so you're off to the infirmary. No excuses."
Helping Hermione to her feet, I started out on the slow journey to the infirmary and Madam Pomfrey. Potter watched us go, glaring fiercely, but there was nothing he could do since I was under orders from a senior Healer. Hermione herself was barely conscious, but managed to put one foot in front of the other all the way to the hospital wing.
"Merlin! What happened to you?" Madam Pomfrey asked when she opened the door.
"The Forbidden Forest happened,"I made a face. "We were sent here by Healer McQuillen: he said we weren't to leave until a more thorough check- up had been done on us."
"Come in, come in. You look fit to collapse, boy!" She snapped at me, clearly worried.
"I just need some sleep," I protested, helping Hermione onto a bed. "And I'll be fine."
I didn't get further than that before my vision went out and my knees hit the floor. After that, I was hard-pressed to remember anything. Unconsciousness does that to a person.
''''''''''''''
Ending Notes: Poor Blaise. Poor Hermione. This chapter was a lot longer than the usual, but only because I had so much to write and didn't know when to stop. Tune in next chapter to see what happens when Blaise finally wakes up again.
The spells and curses in this chapter were stolen from an English-to-Latin dictionary on the web, so forgive any inaccuracies, since I don't actually know Latin.
Millicent was nervous, I could tell, even if she kept up an impressive straight face and wasn't nearly as pale as she should have been. But anyone would have been nervous to the point of hysteria when being put through an unknown, unprepared practical exam, held by a teacher generally considered stark raving loony, even by Hogwarts' standards. Her knuckles were white, that was how hard she gripped her wand. I tried my best to look comforting and patted her on the shoulder as he climbed the stairs to the Defence classroom. She gave me a brave smile. Should have been Sorted into Gryffindor, if it hadn't been for her inborn sneakiness.
Well at the Defence classroom, we were greeted by a note tacked to the locked door, stating simply that Lucas expected us all down at Hagrid's cabin ten minutes ago. I blinked, red the note again, but it still stated, in black ink on some left-over Muggle paper, that we should have been there ten minutes ago, regardless of when we arrived at the classroom. Muttering to myself about head-case teachers and Muggle paper, Millicent and I headed down and out of the castle.
We weren't the first to arrive: I had long since figured out that it was physically impossible to turn up for a lesson earlier than Hermione Granger. The only time I had was for the Arithmancy exam, and one or two lessons. In six years. And all of those times she'd been detained by illness, rain of frogs, Voldemort and unexpected swamps. At any other given moment, Granger's default state of being was early for class. This time, she had both Potter and Weasley with her, who hovered over her shoulders like a pair of over-grown vultures. Boot and Patil had turned up, as had Bones. She stood at the edge of the small group, leaning against a fence and twirled her wand absently. She looked bored.
Lucas himself was standing behind a table, filled with what looked like bubbles, each one a different colour. They rose and swirled by command of his hands, and he looked like a particularly demented conductor. He nodded absently when we arrived, before going back to his vibrant bubbles. Every day, that main gained new eccentric habits. I settled down on the grass, not caring about the strange looks I got from the others, since they were all standing. Silly buggers: I wasn't about to stand around for the hour it took for Lucas to get to the point. I didn't get to sit for too long though. Longbottom and the last few stragglers arrived, out of breath and red-faced, and Lucas actually started talking as soon as they'd caught their breaths.
"Welcome." He said, turning his attention from the bubbles. "I hope you're all prepared for you exam? Good. I won't ask you to face your fears, but since Mr Longbottom's greatest fear is his Potion's professor in a hat and a handbag, I don't think this will be a particular problem. You will be paired up for this exam, and no, Mr Potter, you will not be allowed to choose your partners," Potter's expression turned disappointed and a little sullen. "You have all been very curious about today, no doubt. You might also wonder why you only have a single exam today, and not only because you might already be finished with the others. It's rather simple."
He gestured to the rather imposing forest behind him. Even in the bright light of a summer morning, it looked somewhat dark and sinister. I shuddered. There was a good reason it was called the Forbidden Forest, after all.
"Around the perimeter of the Forest, a protective barrier has been set up. The main hold-up for this exam has been to gain the Headmaster's permission, since he believed you would be in terrible, mortal danger if you went through it. But, the protective barrier, the constant watch that will be kept, and the team of Healers and extraction wizards standing by to help if something goes wrong will ensure that you all survive. Most of you without a scratch, and you will come out bleeding only if you aren't careful. Or if you're ignorant," He added, and I wasn't sure if he'd realised that the expressions on his students' faces was sheer terror. "But that won't be a problem for any of you."
"Professor?" Longbottom's voice was quaking as he raised his hand.
"Yes, Longbottom?" Lucas replied, for a moment brought back from his plans of revenge on ignorant fourth years.
"What exactly are we going to do?"
"Why, you're going into the Forest, of course." He looked surprised we hadn't guessed it yet. "It has been sectioned up, and you will be put, in pairs, in each of the sections. Further instructions will be given upon your arrival. Any questions? And I will not accept questions of the ´You can't do this to us, Professor!´ and ´This is cruel! We haven't been able to prepare!´ variety. The whole point of the exam is for it to be unprepared."
I raised my hand slowly, trying to hold onto my temper.
"Yes, Mr Zabini?" He nodded.
"May I have a word with you in private, Professor?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice calm.
"Of course." He nodded again, deliberately ignoring the curious stares of my classmates.
As soon as we were out of earshot of the other students, I spun around and faced him, not knowing where to start, how to keep myself from screaming at him, or to keep from strangling him. He was about to send me into the most dangerous forest in England, probably in Europe, along with someone who probably wouldn't be deaf, dumb and blind, and he expected me to accept this and use wandless magic as well. Rage was too light a word.
"Are you mad?" I enquired heatedly.
"Quite," He agreed cordially, "But I fail to see what this has to do with the conversation."
"You're about to send me into the Forbidden Forest! I'd say that counts for something!" I was almost shouting. "But I'm not even going to bother arguing that point. You know I've kept my wandless magic a secret. I haven't even told Millie, for Merlin's sake! And now you want to dump me in the most dangerous forests of all time, with someone I don't know very well, and you want me to just blow my bloody secret wide open! I think I have a pretty good cause to call you crazy!"
"All very sane arguments, I'm sure." He agreed once more. "But I am, officially, in charge of your special training, and therefore, I'm going to pull rank on you, both as a professor and as a technical superior, and I'm going to order you to do this. No matter who you end up with in there, there'll be more than one opportunity to try out your magic. You'll need to. If whoever it is becomes too hysterical, or is likely to leak, there's this handy spell called Obliviate, which is quite useful."
"You can't use that without explicit Ministry permission," I pointed out, only slightly mollified.
"I once blasted a hole in the wall of Gringotts and stole a dragon. Why should I give a damn about Ministry permission?" He pointed out logically. It was the first time I could remember hearing him curse.
"You'll have to tell me how to do that some time, but that's not the point. I don't like flaunting something like this." I said weakly, but not quite ready to go down without a fight. One look in Lucas' eye told me that fighting was as pointless as rolling a ball up a steep hill. Sighing heavily, I gave in. "Fine. If you weren't my professor, I'd strangle you for being so aggravating." I threatened half-heartedly. "Just do me a favour? Don't pair me up with Longbottom, or I can't promise he'll come out of there alive."
He sent me back with what could only have been a Lucas-brand chuckle. It sounded somewhat like the croaking of a raven. Muttering to myself, which I seemed to do often lately, I walked back to stand next to Millicent. Today wasn't a very good day. Millicent and everyone else gave me rather curious looks when I came back looking like a thundercloud, but didn't say anything. Lucas came wandering back with a vague look of amusement on his face, and I was momentarily reminded of his habit of eating chocolate, but only after killing it.
"You will be Portkeyed to your section as soon as I have finished talking," He took up just where he left off. "You won't know who you have ended up doing the exam with until you arrive. All I have left to say if good luck."
We were all supposed to pick up one of a variety of items on a table. I snatched a black pebble, and felt the all too familiar tug of a Portkey. When I was younger, about ten, my father would sometimes take me out on shopping trips or just regular walks in remote parts of mountains or forests, and since I wasn't able to Apparate, and only a few, powerful individuals could tandem-Apparate further than ten feet, we'd use Portkeys. After the initial wave of nausea, I'd always be horribly happy. I wonder where that feeling went?
'''''''''
The Forbidden Forest was dark. It was so dark that I had to sit staring at the ground for a few minutes before my eyes accustomed themselves to the lack of light. Breathing was more difficult than it was outside the forest: the air between the trees was musty and felt old, somehow. When I realised I was sitting in a rather thorny hedge, I quickly got up and tried to see who else had ended up in the godforsaken forest with me. For a wild second of hope, I thought I'd ended up there alone, but then I spotted a pair of shoes, sticking out from underneath a black cloak, and my hopes were crushed.
The cloak was tangled in the same kind of thorny bush I had landed in, though the owner of it was at least moving their feet, so I could tell whoever it was was alive. It was a very small someone, so my initial guess was that it was Bones, or perhaps Longbottom, who was quite small. Since the owner of the shoes and cloak wasn't getting up, I decided to, in a fit of rarely seen nobility, help out. I walked towards the tangled cloak, already a hand out to help. I caught hold of the person's shoulders and hauled, not bother to check if said person was conscious or not. She, and I had noticed that it was a girl since no male in the Defence class had such skinny shoulders, was lighter than I had thought, and as a result I nearly fell over trying to help her up.
Fortunately, there was a rather sturdy tree just behind me, and I only stumbled before bracing himself on it. However, the girl, possibly having realised someone was pulling at her shoulders, pushed back, and ended up with her face pressing against my neck. That was certainly not what I had intended, and I stood frozen for a moment, before she found her voice.
"Letting go would be a wonderful option at the moment," She commented drily.
My eyes widened and I let go as if I had been burned when my ears and my brain recognised it as Granger's voice.
"Sorry. Lost my balance there for a moment," I said evasively, trying to pretend I hadn't just apologised to Granger of all people.
"Fine." She shrugged and pretended nothing had happened. "Any sign of further instructions?"
"I only came to some minute ago, so no," I said, inspecting our rather dreary surroundings. "Any idea where we might find them?"
"This is only my second time in here," She muttered, pulling her wand out of her pocket, "The last time was when I was eleven and terrified. Memory serves that other than trees, vicious plants and the occasional magical beast, there isn't very much in here by way of information."
"Point," I mumbled, quietly agreeing with her. There was nothing but thorns, trees and a far-off noise to disturb the loneliness.
"I trust you have all arrived at your assigned locations?" Lucas voice spoke from just behind us.
Granger and I spun around like one person, and looked behind us. A small blue bubble, about the size of a Golden Snitch, hovered in the musty air. I recognised it as one of the bubbles Lucas had had on his little table earlier, outside the forest. I stepped closer, and I could feel Granger tensing beside me in shock.
"I believe you all hear me perfectly. If you don't, please send up red sparks and I will fix the problem immediately." If I peered closely, I could even see his rather amused face. "Now, on to the actual instructions. Listen closely, or you will earn me paperwork when I try to explain your sudden demise to the Headmaster. Your objective is to reach the Portkey point, at the centre of the forest. The location of it is individual for each section, and when you reach it, the Portkey will be obvious. Lights will point you in the general direction of it, and should you get too far off course, you will be forcibly turned around."
I broke my concentration for a moment to try to see the light he was speaking of, but I couldn't, and turned back to the bubble.
"You will be graded not on how fast you reach the Portkey point, but on how you reach it." Lucas continued. "The variation of spells you use, your resourcefulness when magic isn't enough, and just how much you remember about how to best handle certain elements around you. Such as how to disable a Kappa, though I doubt there are any in the forest. The bubble will follow you around, so that I can keep a watching eye on you. The race starts now, ladies and gentlemen. I'll see you at the finish."
The Bubble, as I took to referring to it in my mind, twinkled brightly for a second, before turning back to its normal colour. I blinked, and then turned to Granger. She looked just as apprehensive as I felt: the thought of the lengthy trek through the forest to wherever the Portkey point was was enough to make anyone hesitate. I'd hear about Auror exams from my Father once, and he'd said they were something like our task. I hoped to high heaven that we wouldn't have to battle rabid unicorns, like they did. Unicorns were vicious.
"Any sign of the light?" I asked.
"I think it's over there." She pointed to the edge of the tiny clearing we were standing in. A tiny, twinkling light could be seen between the trees. "But I don't think we can get there."
"Bloody bushes," I grumbled.
And they were indeed bloody. The thorny creepers we'd landed in covered all but the circle around our feet, and some whitened bones stuck out from the edge of them. In the dim light, the creeper looked evil, somehow, but that could just be a trick of my overheated mind. We were standing in a dip in the landscape, almost like a bowl, and the creepers covered it completely. It was bloody impossible to get to the light without crossing a carpet of three-inch thorns.
"We landed in them," Granger pointed out, "But our clothes must have protected us, because I don't think I'm bleeding."
"Neither do I." I agreed, "But walking across that is like threading on broken glass. We'll have to clear a path through it."
"Burn it?" She suggested.
"Should work, yes," I nodded. "It doesn't get much light in here, so it should be sensitive to both light and fire."
"Incendio." She said, pointing at the creeper with her wand. Blue-bell flames burned at the creeper, which reacted more violently than anticipated.
Strands of it, with sharp, three-inch thorns whipped up and tried to smash into our faces and arms: one of them wrapped around my wrist and tugged, and I grit my teeth against the pain as two of the thorns made short work of my skin. I tugged back, and to my surprise, it snapped. A wild, hissing noise filled the air and the raging plant snapped and burned, shrivelling up like old leaves. One of the whipping strands caught Granger in the head, and sanity once more left my mind: I snatched hold of her arm and dragged her through the path she'd made, out on the other side of the creepers.
Just as we scrambled over the edge of the bowl, the vicious plant let out a thin, wailing scream. It sounded not like an animal or a human, but just as plants would, if they had a voice. With a last few half-hearted whips, the creeper crumbled up and died. It left behind the vicious thorns, which littered the ground like left-over knives. Breathing heavily, I sat down on the ground and ran down a mental tally of myself, to check if I was all there.
"You're bleeding." Granger told me. She had collapsed beside me, breathing as if she'd run a marathon as well.
"So are you," I pointed out, indicating the cut running down her cheek.
"I'll live," she shrugged awkwardly.
"I'm keeping this," I said, reaching down and picking up a particularly large thorn.
"Why?"
"Because it's sharp, and I feel like getting revenge on the sodding plant, alright?" I snapped, agitated. "Where to now?" I asked, calmer, after I put the thorn up my sleeve.
"The light's over there, but it's further away now," she sighed, apparently ignoring my irritation.
"Of course," I said, still irritated. "It'll keep moving until we get to the Portkey point."
Granger grumbled to herself, but got up off the ground and started walking towards the light. I scrambled to my feet and hurried after her, since I didn't want to be left alone in the Forbidden Forest, not even if I was paid a million galleons for it. Despite having more or less outgrown my fear of werewolves, being in the Forest sparked it up again, and being left alone was the last thing on my To-Do list for the day.
Strange birds flew overhead, chirping oddly in the silence. Some of them tired to attack us, but I waved my hand at them and they stopped their attempts. It earned me some more cuts on the arms, and one of them tried to take a piece of my ear, but other than that, I was fine. My wrist had stopped bleeding too, so I was as happy as one could be while trapped in a danger-infested forest with a girl you don't like spending time with. Granger trudged along in front of me, looking around her constantly to keep an eye out for dangerous creatures.
Despite Granger's rigorous watch, neither of us noticed the Erkling until it was almost upon us. The high-pitched cackling laugh it emitted made me clap my hands over my ears, trying not to have my eardrums ruptured. Granger did the same, screaming, and in the process dropped her wand. The screeching sound was enough to make my head pound: Erklings mostly use their cackle to take children away from their keepers and kill them, and as such, their voice is very enticing to young people. To human beings over the age of fourteen, though, their noise is painful to hear, and can cause brain-damage. Listening to it for extended periods of time could even cause insanity.
In a moment of clarity, I realised it was up to me to handle the Erkling. I looked around me, in hopes that I might find some help from the trees, all the while trying to remember how to get rid of Erklings. The only things that popped up in my mind were Germany and collapsible cauldrons. I pulled the stick I'd brought from my dorm out of my pocket, transfigured it into a much heavier rock, and slammed it into the head of the Erkling, hoping to buy myself some time.
Imagine my surprise when the Erkling folded up on the ground and stopped screaming altogether. Kicking it slightly proved my sudden suspicion. It was dead. It was deader than dead. If it was any deader, people would be making comical sketches about it. I prodded it again, just to see that I hadn't been wrong the first time, before turning to Granger, who was whimpering on the ground, hands still over her ears.
"It's dead, Granger," I said, prodding her with my foot as well.
"D-dead?" She stammered, uncurling and standing up. "How?"
"I thumped it with a rock." I dropped the rock hurriedly. "Get your wand: we're in a bit of a hurry, you know."
She snatched her wand up, apparently too shaken up to ask how I'd found a rock that big when there hadn't been one in the vicinity when the Erkling attacked. Thanking deities she was somewhat ignorant, I took the lead towards the distant light. The Bubble floated along in a bubbly, up-and- down manner, and if I listened closely, I could hear distant mumbling from it. Granger was mumbling behind me too, though I couldn't snatch up anything else from her jumbled speech than "cauldrons", "crazy" and "lobster". That girl confused me no end sometimes.
The landscape got rougher as we walked, or tried to, towards the light. At times, we were forced to balance precariously over small rivers on slippery stones. A Grindylow tired to pull Granger under, but I stomped on its fingers before that could happen, and it retreated, swearing bubbles at me. We go across, splashed with water and a little worse for wear, but otherwise unscathed. My wrist was starting to ache uncomfortably though, and I wondered if the thorns had been poisoned, because Granger seemed to have a problem with keeping her balance.
The passage of a small but significant patch of Devil's Snare's left us worn out and ready to fall boneless to the ground, so I ordered a moment's rest. I collapsed with my back against an old tree, while Granger just sat down in the middle of a clearing. Since there were no obviously dangerous plants, aside from the bony trees, I didn't bother to tell her otherwise. Tired both from lack of sleep and the massive work of getting from our arrival point to the small clearing, which probably wasn't even halfway to the Portkey point, my eyes slipped closed on their own accord, and I sank into a light sleep. Granger was still wide awake, trying to wring some water out of her hair when I closed my eyes, so I figured she'd wake me up before too long.
I woke up on my own, after a rather disturbing dream about bones and thorns, to the feeling of something crawling along my wrist and buzzing in my ear. Opening my eyes, I met Granger's terrified gaze. Her face was stark white, and she was looking at something about an inch to the left of my face, wand in her white-knuckled hand.
"Zabini, if you value your life, don't move." She said, doing an admirable job at keeping her voice steady.
I blinked.
"Incedo absentis." She pronounced clearly, pointing her wand at me. Whatever was buzzing next to my ear, as well as whatever was crawling on my wrist, disappeared.
"What?" I mumbled, sitting up straighter. I felt a little dazed, and somewhat depressed, but when didn't I feel down?
"Glumbumbles," was all she said.
"Nasty critters," I nodded.
They were, at that. They resembled bees, but in the same way tigers resemble domesticated cats. Grey and slightly furry, they were about an inch an a half long, and lived in old trees and caves, away from the light. Their "honey", a treacle-like substance, induced depression, as did their stings to some extent.
"I think some of them got in your wound, but I got to them rather quickly so the depression should pass," She continued.
"Good." Well, what else was there for me to say? "Let's get going before we severely hurt ourselves."
True to Granger's assurance, the depression wore off in a matter of minutes, when we were battling some vicious blue flowers. They made me sleepy once more, and when I was about to close my eyes, it attempted to strangle me. Granger stopped it by tearing it of its stem. Another tired to make her fall by wrapping around around her feet. Her wand was uselessly wrapped inside her pocket by another of the nasty blue flowers, and without thinking, I hexed the plant with a Severing Charm.
"Prescindir!" I snapped, gesturing towards it, and the blue petals fell uselessly to the ground. I dragged her up again and didn't let go of her arm as I started out towards the light, which was getting closer, though agonisingly slowly.
"Feeling alright?" I asked.
"Better than I would have being strangled to death by deranged blue-bells," she managed a weak smile. "Thanks."
"Couldn't leave you to a death by flowers, could I?" I muttered, trying to ignore the fact the tips of my ear were heating up. "Shout if you see anything dangerous. Like lethal petunias, or something."
"Mhm." She mumbled.
We walked in silence for about ten minutes before I remembered to let go of her arm. Tactfully, she didn't say anything, but just pulled out her wand and kept walking. A Moke scuttled down a tree-trunk, caught sight of us and with a small pop, disappeared. Granger mumbled something to herself about magical lizards and survival instincts, and since the Moke was harmless, we kept walking. It was down-hill now, though a small ridge rose to the left of us. I got my feet tangled in some dead grass, and Granger had to keep my from smashing my face into a rock. It was rather embarrassing, but on the whole, I could stand it. At least it wasn't as bad as the Runespoor we ran into.
It lay sleeping on a branch, wrapped around it, two of the three heads asleep while the third held watch. Granger and I inched around the tree carefully, and it followed our progress with it's small, beady eyes – I wondered why an African snake was curled up in a very British forest, but getting around it and out of its vicinity alive seemed a lot more important at the time, so I put the thought in the "Ponder when Lucas gets blue eyes" file. The light was no considerably closer than it had been, and I was feeling rather cheered up.
"That was close." Granger commented when we were well out of it.
"Not as close as the Erkling." I disagreed.
She turned around to argue her point, like a Ravenclaw would defend a discussion inches from death, but stopped and stared over my right shoulder. Her face turned as white as the Bloody Baron, and her mouth worked soundlessly. Her hands shook as she raised her wand, pointing at something behind me. Filled with a horrible apprehension, I turned around slowly.
"Graphorn," she finally whispered.
The grey-purplish creature as huge, large enough to rival some of the nearby trees, and was staring at us in a definitely hostile way. Two sharp horns lowered slowly, and I saw with absolute clarity what was going to happen. It was going to charge at us, and we were both going to die. A spark of defiance appeared, racing down my spine. An almost Gryffindor-like anger surged up, and I lunged towards Granger, shoving her to the side and out of the way, putting myself in the Graphorn's path. It was a horribly stupid move, but somehow my spine and my feet had overruled my brain, and decided I should be selfless and stupid for once.
The horns missed me by half an inch and buried themselves in the tree. I tried to get away, but the Graphorn made short work of the dead wood and was trying to stomp me to death. Suddenly, it let out an unearthly howl and spun around as fast as its clumsy body would allow, nearly killing me in the process. It was only by pure and utter luck that I avoided being trampled. Getting up, I caught sight of Granger standing on the edge of the clearing, with her wand out.
"Run!" I shouted as the Graphorn charged.
Time slowed down, and I saw her try to scramble out of the way, but she wasn't fast enough. One of the Graphorn's lethal horns glanced off her side, and even in the dim light and the distance, I could see her bleeding profusely. She screamed, the sound echoing in the otherwise silent forest, and folded up on the ground, trying to drag herself out of the way. Something inside me snapped, and the fire of raw magic burned at my fingertips. Green sparks dripped off my fingers like drops of water, and my vision slowly but surely clouded. I couldn't see anything but the Graphorn and Granger trying desperately to get away. Rage was too light a word to describe my state of mind.
Green-tinted flames ripped through the air with a deafening noise, burning the Graphorn's tough hide until it turned a sooty black. The creature lumbered around, roaring in rage. It took one look at me and the green flames surrounding my hands, and decided to find an easier meal. It ran as fast as its lumpy frame would allow, and disappeared between the trees, howling in distress. As soon as it was out of the clearing, I was across it and kneeling at Granger's side.
"Granger?" I called. She didn't respond. "Granger? Please, don't die on me: do you have any idea how much your friends would kill me if I came back with your corpse? Granger? H-Hermione?"
At the sound of her given name, she opened her eyes slightly and looked at me. She didn't seem quite aware just yet, and I busied myself with looking over her wounds. Though it had looked like the horn only touched her side lightly, she still had a cut too long and too deep for my tastes. It ran from her ribs all the way down to her thigh, past her hip-bone. She'd hit her head on a tree, which hadn't helped her previously earned cut on the cheek any. Trying not to break down in hysterics, I calmed the shaking of my hands by systematically tearing my cloak into strips and wrapping them around her to dress her wound.
Left in only my rather tattered uniform, I attempted to contact her again, while helping her into a more upright position.
"H-Hermione?" I stumbled over her name, not being used to saying it. "Please, be a little more conscious. I don't know how to use the Ennervate spell yet, so I can't help you, and I need you to be awake." I must have sounded helpless and pathetic. "Potter will behead me with a spoon when we get out of here, you know. Not that I can blame him: it is all my fault anyway. But it was rather short-sighted of you to put yourself in the Graphorn's way like that. C'mon, wake up?"
She opened her eyes again, and gave me a more focused, if rather confused look than she had the first time she returned to reality. I eased my arm between her head and the tree trunk so that she wouldn't be hurting her head even more.
"Wha' happn'd?" She mumbled, trying to focus her gaze on something and ended up staring at my nose.
"The Graphorn ran you down," I couldn't keep myself from smiling in relief. "You've got a cut the length of my forearm running down your ribcage now, but it looks like you'll live."
"My head hurts," she said, regaining the capability to form full sentences with a full number of letters again.
"As it should: you banged your head on the tree, and I think there was poison in the thorns that cut you earlier," I chuckled despite the seriousness of the situation. "Feeling well enough to keep going?"
"I don't think I can walk on my own," she admitted.
"I'll help you." I promised quietly. "Here, let's stand you up on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three."
I hauled her up, and she gasped sharply in pain. Waiting until the pain faded, we started walking slowly towards the light. It had gotten closer after we got rid of the Graphorn, which led me to believe we didn't have a long way left to go. The forest seemed to thin out as well, which heralded the arrival of another clearing, or perhaps even the edge of the forest. Our progress was painfully slow, but I didn't want to speed it up, since Hermione was staring to bleed through the makeshift bandages, wetting my shirt and turning it red, and I didn't want her to die from blood loss.
"We're nearly there now," I said as quietly as I could. "Just another few steps. That's right, one more then. Careful of the rock there. There's no need to hurry: we have all day and all night if we have to. The light is just a little further."
"You know what?" She chuckled weakly. "There's something my father says every once in a while, to make me laugh: ´When you're in a tunnel, don't walk towards the light!´."
"Well, good thing we aren't in a tunnel then, isn't it?" I grinned back, as be circled a tree and kept walking.
"Yeah. Zabini?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for helping me." She smiled.
"I couldn't just let you bleed to death, could I? It's kind of the same situation as with the flower, I'm afraid, but a bit more serious this time," I said evasively.
"You're not too bad after all," She whispered with a smile. "Would you mind terribly if I said I don't want to fight you any more?"
"A bit," I tried to shrug, but it was difficult while holding onto her. "But I'll get over it. This, however, doesn't automatically mean you're my best friend."
"I know it doesn't. I'm not dense: I'll just not pick fights with you." She attempted a shrug, but stopped abruptly and hissed when the pain hit her again.
The rest of our walk was quiet, as Hermione had enough trouble trying to keep from falling down, and I had my thoughts to keep my company. I had just made relative peace with a Gryffindor. Like I'd told her, it didn't make her my friend, but it made her someone I wouldn't have to watch out for. It was nice, in an awkward and strange kind of way. Things weren't going to be all sunshine and daisies from now on, but they would be simpler. As long as she understood this wouldn't stop me from insulting her if I felt she deserved it.
The Portkey point turned out to be a small circle of grass surrounded by rather friendly looking trees. Or perhaps it was just the relief of being done with the exam that did it. The Portkey was an old, ragged teddy-bear with only one leg left. Managing somehow to remain standing, we grabbed the Portkey at the same time, and the familiar tugging sensation pulled us out of the godforsaken forest. The last thing I saw before the Portkey pulled us away was Hermione's bloodied hands clutching at mine.
'''''''''
It was only through extreme luck and a bit of manoeuvring on my part that we remained standing when we arrived outside the forest. Hermione was clutching at my hand with one of hers, the other wrapped around my waist, trying to keep from falling down and hurting herself, while I leaned against a conveniently placed fence to steady myself.
"Welcome back," Lucas greeted us from behind his table. "How are you feeling?"
"Like breaking your bleeding nose," I replied, opening my eyes again and glaring. "You said you had Healers, didn't you?"
"Yes," Lucas nodded. "McQuillen!"
A man dressed in light green robes with a strange badge hurried up to him from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He was short and stocky, and was smiling widely, at least until he spotted Hermione and me. Then, his face suddenly turned serious, and somewhat angry, and he quickly helped me lead her to the closest bench, looking like he was liable to explode.
"I should report you for this, Lucas: it's illegal to put people in mortal danger," McQuillen said angrily. "If I didn't know you were such a responsible man, I'd have you hung."
"I have faith in you, McQuillen: you are perfectly capable of handling this," Lucas said, his eyes never leaving the bubbles. "Now, unless you need my assistance, I have another ten students out in the Forest, whom I have to keep track of."
"What happened?" McQuillen asked me, "To her, firstly."
"We landed in some creeper with thorns," I began as one should, at the beginning. "I think they were poisonous, one got me in the arm and I started feeling odd some half-hour after that," I showed him my wrist in the passing. "She got cut on the cheek. And she started walking strangely, like she couldn't keep her balance."
"What sort of creeper was it?" McQuillen asked, checking the wound on her cheek.
"I don't know," I admitted, "I don't take Herbology. But I kept this thorn." I held up the nasty looking thorn, shrugging it out of my sleeve.
"Oh holy Keeper of the Scepter!" McQuillen exclaimed, snatching it from my fingers. "That's Moonthorns that is: if left for too long, they can be fatal! Here, you said you'd gotten stung as well? You'll need an antidote right now: drink this, while I help her."
He handed me a small vial of green potion, which I drunk as quickly as possible. In the silence of my mind, I resolved to break Lucas' nose as soon as I could. Not only had he sent us straight into the jaws of a Graphorn, but he'd dumped us squarely in a lethal plant. Not even if he had a good reason would I stop from punching him. Hurting me was fine, because as he had said, this was an opportunity to train me, but hurting Hermione? Now that was a personal insult.
"What else did you run into?" McQuillen asked. "What a mess you are."
"What didn't we run into would be a more appropriate question," I snorted. "An Erkling, which we took care of, a Grindylow which left us soaked but all the better for it. Some Devil's Snare's, but, we managed. Glumbumbles, but the depression passed, and they didn't affect her. Some blue flowers that nearly made me fall asleep. We walked around a Runespoor, which watched us but didn't do anything. We saw a Moke. Oh, and a Graphorn, which is to blame for the wound she's got down her ribcage."
"A Graphorn?" McQuillen looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or take me seriously.
"Yes. Ugly brute it was too: it barely touched her though, otherwise she'd be dead. I managed to scare it off and patched her up the best I could." I could see he didn't believe me. "It nearly got me too, but fool that she is, she distracted it and wasn't fast enough to get out of the way."
"A Graphorn?" The Healer repeated. "You're not serious!"
"Are you calling me a liar?" I asked as calmly as I could, "And this," I unwrapped some of the makeshift bandages and showed him the wound, "A figment of your imagination?"
"No," he shook his head, slipping back into professionalism. "Step away while I take care of this: as soon as I'm done I want the two of you in the infirmary, understood? Good. Chaisty! Give me a hand here!"
I backed off, far enough to give them some working space, and leaned against the fence. For the first time since we'd Portkeyed out of the Forest, I looked around and realised it was rather crowded around me. Closer to the edge of the forest, some grim-looking wizards and witches, among whom I thought I could see Anja, as well as a healthy number of Healers were waiting around for everyone to come out of the exam alive. But that wasn't all: at the steps of Hagrid's cabin, the students who had gotten out before us were sitting, only now noticing mine and Hermione's arrival. Among them were Potter, as well as Bones and assorted Ravenclaws, and Potter was looking murderous.
I braced myself as he got up and headed in my direction, looking like he would rip me apart if no one stopped him. Wisely, he avoided the Healers, though he looked frantic about Hermione, and avoided raising his voice at first as to not draw attention from Lucas.
"What the hell did you do to her?" He hissed, his knuckles white with the effort of not punching my lights out.
"I didn't do anything to her, except perhaps keep her alive until we reached the Portkey point," I replied, keeping myself calm. This wasn't the time to fight.
"She's bleeding!" He snapped, though quietly.
"So am I." I pointed out, holding up my stabbed wrist.
"It's your fault, isn't it?"
"Probably, but causing it isn't the same as doing it." I shrugged. "Look, Potter, I wouldn't get anything out of deliberately hurting your best friend, even if I actually was cruel enough to do it. Everything that happened to her was purely by accident, though some of it was, certainly my fault. If it hadn't been for me, I'm sure she would have been sent to a safer section. As it was, she wasn't and ended up with me. Indirectly, as you can see, her wounds are my fault, but I didn't stab her, I didn't poison her and I certainly didn't chuck her in a lake with a Grindylow. So could you just please drop in and let me chew on my nerves alone?"
My little speech seemed to shock him somewhat, but it also made him calm down. Still, he glared at me, but looks I could handle. It was outright confrontation that was a little difficult when I was still a little dizzy from being poisoned, and a little shaken up both from the massive magical feat I'd performed and the attack from the Graphorn.
"Here, you, with the bloody shirt!" McQuillen called. "We've patched her up and given her the antidote, so you're off to the infirmary. No excuses."
Helping Hermione to her feet, I started out on the slow journey to the infirmary and Madam Pomfrey. Potter watched us go, glaring fiercely, but there was nothing he could do since I was under orders from a senior Healer. Hermione herself was barely conscious, but managed to put one foot in front of the other all the way to the hospital wing.
"Merlin! What happened to you?" Madam Pomfrey asked when she opened the door.
"The Forbidden Forest happened,"I made a face. "We were sent here by Healer McQuillen: he said we weren't to leave until a more thorough check- up had been done on us."
"Come in, come in. You look fit to collapse, boy!" She snapped at me, clearly worried.
"I just need some sleep," I protested, helping Hermione onto a bed. "And I'll be fine."
I didn't get further than that before my vision went out and my knees hit the floor. After that, I was hard-pressed to remember anything. Unconsciousness does that to a person.
''''''''''''''
Ending Notes: Poor Blaise. Poor Hermione. This chapter was a lot longer than the usual, but only because I had so much to write and didn't know when to stop. Tune in next chapter to see what happens when Blaise finally wakes up again.
The spells and curses in this chapter were stolen from an English-to-Latin dictionary on the web, so forgive any inaccuracies, since I don't actually know Latin.