Chapter 4: If you go out in the woods today…
A muffled beeping woke Botan in the middle of the night. She groped under her pillow and pulled out the source of the beeping -- it looked like some sort of watch. She checked the face, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, checked again, and gasped.
She looked around the room to make sure all her roommates were still sleeping. They were. Botan quickly pulled on her school robes and snuck out, quietly closing the door behind her.
A few moments later, Hermione sat up in bed.
Hermione snuck down the stairs to the common room. She paused when she heard voices below. Botan was there, and Hermione thought Yusuke and Kuwabara were as well -- maybe all of the Japanese students -- but the voices were too low for her to be able to make out what they were saying. Hermione carefully crept down a few more steps and listened.
"We know already, Botan! Geez, it's not like we can't sense demons ourselves by now. How did you fix the compass, anyway? I thought it broke when I went after Rando."
"It did. This is a new one. It's set to locate any demons coming through the summoning ring. The ring leaves a very specific energy signature; it's quite easy to track."
"So what are we standing around for? Let's go kick some ass!"
"It's not that simple, Yusuke! The school has very strict rules about students wandering around after hours. You'll be in serious trouble if you get caught. Besides, with all the uproar in the wizarding world, I'm sure that the headmaster is keeping a close watch on the doors."
Shuichi was speaking now. "That's easy enough to deal with. We simply don't use the doors and don't get caught. The castle is riddled with secret passageways, including one that ends just inside the Forbidden Forest. Its entrance is near the Slytherin wing. If we're careful, we should be able to reach it easily and come back the same way."
"Right. Kurama's got a plan. Can we go fight monsters now?" Yusuke said.
"All right, all right. Just be careful," Botan said.
The voices died away. Hermione climbed down the last few steps and cautiously peeked into the common room. It was empty.
Hermione thought for a moment, then took the stairs to the boys' tower.
"Harry, Ron, wake up."
"Huh? It's the middle of the night, Hermione. Even you can't want to study now," Ron said muzzily. Harry fumbled for his glasses.
"The new Fifth Years are trying to sneak out of the castle. We have to follow them."
"'Kay. Good night." Ron rolled over.
Hermione punched him lightly in the shoulder. "It's not funny, Ron. They found a secret tunnel over by the Slytherins and they're using it to sneak into the Forbidden Forest."
"Nah," Ron mumbled, "can't be a tunnel over there. 'Snot on the map. You know, the one from Fred 'n George."
"Not if Harry's dad and his friends --you know, Padfoot and company -- didn't know about it, either. At least, I don't thing it would show any secret passageways that they hadn't found. Fred and George might know for certain," Hermione argued.
"Mm. Maybe." Ron blinked, then squeaked, "Aaaaah! Hermione! What are you doing in the boys' tower?!"
"Trying to wake you up."
"Hush up, both of you. You'll wake Neville and Seamus," Harry whispered.
Hermione nodded, pointed back towards the common room, and slipped out the door. Harry and Ron pulled their school robes over their pajamas and followed.
"So why did you wake us up?" Harry asked when they were all safely downstairs.
"It's the new students. They're trying to sneak out of the castle and into the Forbidden Forest. Something strange is going on with them, though I'm not sure what. I think we should follow them."
"Wait a minute -- Hermione is suggesting that we break school rules?" Ron said.
"I must have been hanging around with you two for too long." Hermione hesitated. "Besides, every other time that something strange has happened around here, it's ended with someone trying to kill Harry. Just for once I'd like to know what's going on before it becomes life-threatening."
Ron looked at Harry. "She's got a point, you know."
Harry sighed. "I'll go get the invisibility cloak."
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"Ouch! Harry, watch where you put your elbows."
"Sorry. Ron, you're going to have to crouch down or something or our feet are going to stick out the bottom."
"You know, this was a lot easier when we were First Years."
"Yeah. Go figure, we grew."
"I don't know whose hand that is, but move it NOW."
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Hermione filled the others in on the conversation she'd overheard as they crept through the halls under the invisibility cloak. They were almost to entrance hall when they heard someone moving in the room in front of them.
They all froze. A moment later Snape poked his head through the doorway and peered suspiciously down the corridor. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all held their breath. Snape glared down the hall once more, then withdrew back into the front room. The three Gryffindors all breathed again and very quietly retreated to a few rooms away.
"Snape. Why is it always Snape?" Harry muttered when they were safely out of hearing range of the front hall.
"Guess the new kids were right," Ron said, "Dumbledore is taking security seriously right now. We can't get out that way. Even if we snuck past Snape, he'd see the door open."
"Shh! I have an idea," Hermione whispered. She led them to a large window on the second floor . She pushed it open and spoke an incantation. A rope shot from her wand and attached itself to the windowsill.
"Hey, cool! Where did you learn that one?" Ron asked.
"From your brothers. Where else?" Hermione answered as she grabbed hold of the rope and slid down.
"You know, she's getting awfully good at this stuff," Ron told Harry as he followed Hermione down the rope.
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The Forbidden Forest was dark, dank, and full of strange noises and stranger shadows. Harry wondered if it looked any better during the day. For some reason (possibly the fact that the area was off-limits to students) he always ended up creeping through it in the middle of the night, when shadows were deepest.
The forest was also huge, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione had no idea of where to search for Botan, Yusuke, and the others.
Then part of the forest -- not far from the wandering Gryffindors -- erupted in funny lights and loud thuds. The Gryffindors agreed that that was probably the best place to start.
They were almost to the lights when Hermione gasped and froze. Harry and Ron, still trying to move forward, got tangled in the invisibility cloak. All three of them fell over. Then the boys -- their noses now inches from the ground -- saw the object that had made Hermione stop in the first place.
An arm, cleanly severed, lay on the forest floor in a little clearing. For a long moment Harry thought it was human, but the nails were too long and too thick, more like claws, and the skin had a strange scaly texture. It did not look like it belonged to any sort of creature that Harry had ever seen.
Then he noticed that the lights and sounds had died away.
Hermione grabbed his collar and dragged him back while Ron pulled the invisibility cloak securely over the three of them again.
They watched as Hiei stepped into the clearing and picked up the arm. He contemptuously tossed it onto a small mound nearby.
It took Harry a long minute to realize that the mound was made up of other bodies, most of them in pieces and all of them not-quite human. Harry's breath caught in his throat.
All five of the missing Gryffindors were in the clearing now, though Botan and Kuwabara stayed as far away from the gruesome pile as possible.
Shuichi was speaking now. "The wizards will not know what to make of this if they find it. Hiei, do you think you could dispose of the evidence for us?"
The spiky-haired boy shrugged and lifted an arm. Fire curled around it, then shot towards the gruesome pile. The heap burned to ash in seconds.
Hidden next to Harry, Ron gulped.
"Um, guys, could you hurry it up? I think someone's coming," Kuwabara said, glancing nervously back to the castle.
"Just give me a moment to hide the ashes," Shuichi said. Harry watched, but the red-head didn't seem to do anything before turning and dashing back into the forest with the rest of the foreign students. They passed very close to where the other Gryffindors huddled under the invisibility cloak.
A minute later Hagrid and Fang bounded into the clearing.
Hagrid poked around while Fang sniffed industriously at the undergrowth, coming closer and closer to Harry's hiding place. Then Fang leaped forward and stuck his nose right under the hood of the invisibility cloak, licking furiously. Ron whispered, "Hey! Down, Fang!" as he tried to fend off the worst of the drool. Hagrid did not notice Fang's antics.
"Wonder if we've got glowworms," the groundskeeper muttered, apparently not seeing anything out of the ordinary at the moment. "Have to keep my eyes out for that. Here, boy!" He called. Fang reluctantly left off licking Ron and returned to Hagrid's side.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione waited until they'd gotten some distance away before making their own retreat to the castle.
"What was that?" Ron said when they were back in the common room, a little out of breath still from scrambling up the rope. "I mean, it wasn't like any magic I've ever seen,"
"Not like anything I've read about, either," said Hermione.
"So what are we going to do about it?" asked Ron. "Think we should talk to Dumbledore?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if there is anything we can do right now." The three friends looked at each other uneasily.
"Do you think it's safe? Doing nothing?" Ron said, and was answered by more uneasy silence.
"We'll keep an eye on them, anyway," Hermione said, after a moment. "At least we know to watch them now." She thought for a moment. "I think they said something about demons earlier, while they were talking here. There must be something about that in the library. I'll start researching tomorrow. Maybe I'll find something that can help."
The three Gryffindors said good night and went to their beds, though none of them expected to sleep very well.