Chapter Thirteen

As Remus' group made their way into the forest, he couldn't help but be somewhat relieved that Kettleburn hadn't forced him to work with Danielle. However, he knew she had to be planning to do something to Michelle; he could tell by the way Danielle had glared at her all through lunch. He hoped that James and Sirius would be able to stop whatever she had planned, but he couldn't help feeling that something bad was about to happen.

After about three hours of searching for the wounded unicorn, Lily and Michelle were ready to call it quits. Unfortunately, as Michael and Robert kept reminding them, no one had sent up the green flare as they had been instructed to do if they found the unicorn, meaning that they had to continue looking. However, the search was becoming increasingly difficult as it was beginning to get dark, and none of them knew their way around the forest. Michelle and Lily were quite sure that they were completely lost, and Lily suggested sending up the red flare for Professor Kettleburn to come and get them.

"I don't really think that's necessary," Robert said, pushing his long shoulder-length brown hair out of his eyes. "We should just keep on looking."

Michelle and Lily sighed in exasperation, but kept on walking.

After a while, Michael, who'd been walking a little ahead of them, paused, looking at something in the trees, just off the path. By this time, they had wondered into the heart of the forest, where the trees were so thick that it was difficult to tell if it was even still daylight outside. It could have been the middle of the night for all they knew. "What is it?" Robert asked, joining his friend.

"I thought I saw something moving," Michael said. "Might have been my imagination, though."

"It could have been the unicorn," Robert said. "Maybe we should check it out."

"I don't think so," Lily said, as the two boys made to go investigate. "Professor Kettleburn said to stay on the path."

"Professor Kettleburn isn't here, though is he?" Michael said as he stepped off the path. "I want to see what's in there."

Before Michael had gone five steps, however, they heard loud thrashing sounds coming from all around them, followed the sound of many hooves. Seconds later, they were surrounded by ten or eleven Centaurs, all of them armed with bows and arrows, and each of them aiming at the one of the four teenagers.

Then one Centaur with a gleaming chestnut coat stepped forward, still aiming his weapon lethally. "Who are you, and why have you trespassed into our forest?" He asked roughly.

Michelle stepped forward, speaking somewhat timidly. "We're students at the school. We were sent into the forest to search for an injured unicorn."

At this, another Centaur with black hair walked up, thrashing his hooves angrily. "A likely story! The unicorn is nowhere near our part of the forest! They are intruders, Ronan, and we should kill them now!" He said to the first Centaur, Ronan. Many of the others seemed to agree with this sentiment.

"Um, look," Lily said, going pale in the face of the face of the Centaurs' rage. "We didn't mean any harm. We'll just, um, leave n-now." Michelle nodded in agreement, and the two of them began backing away.

Michael and Robert, apparently not agreeing with this, stayed where they were with defiant expressions on their faces. Michael now stepped forward, pulling out his wand. "You can't do anything to us! Part-humans aren't allowed to attack wizards; the Ministry will come and take you away!" He said indignantly.

"Um, Michael, I don't think that was-" Michelle began, as she reached for her own wand, and she and Lily continued to back away from the now even more enraged Centaurs. However she stumbled over a protruding tree root, and fell flat on her back, hitting the ground so hard that her left ankle gave a loud cracking noise, and she dropped her wand in pain, sure that the ankle was broken.

The black haired Centaur roared angrily, along with all of his compatriots. "Part-humans! We are not anything like you, human, and we will not tolerate such insolence from lesser beings!" At that, some of the others moved menacingly toward Michael and Robert, who still hadn't moved. Robert seemed to take this as a sign that they were going to attack, and he aimed his wand, stunning the Centaur closest to him.

This was a very bad mistake. The Centaurs, now angrier than ever before, attacked, shooting arrows at the four students. Michael and Robert dodged the arrows being sent their way, and ran away from the Centaurs as fast as they could without looking back. The Centaurs went after them, for the moment having forgotten about the girls, but although they were much faster than the boys, they were hindered by the thick underbrush in the forest, and soon lost sight of the wizards.

While the Centaurs were distracted with chasing Michael and Robert, Lily ran over to where Michelle was still lying on the ground, clutching her foot. "Are you alright?" Lily asked worriedly.

"No, I think my ankle's broken," Michelle said, grimacing in pain.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here before they come back," Lily said, grabbing Michelle's hand and pulling her to her feet. Michelle gasped in pain, but managed to stay on her feet by leaning on Lily.

They began making their way towards what they thought was the outer edge of the forest, Lily practically dragging Michelle. After what seemed like hours, Michelle couldn't take it any more. "Lily, stop. My foot's killing me, I can't walk anymore." Michelle gasped out.

Lily turned to look at her friend, and saw that Michelle's face looked almost ghostly white in the dim moonlight that was filtering through the roof of the forest. "All right, let's take a break." She said as she deposited Michelle on the ground as gently as she could. Lily finally realized that she could probably cast a simple healing charm she'd learned from Madame Pomfrey, and Michelle would be much better. She began searching for her wand, but couldn't find it. "Oh no," she muttered in distress.

"What is it, now?" Michelle asked, worried.

"I can't find my wand; it must have gotten lost during the fight with the Centaurs," Lily said as she frantically continued to search for her wand.

Michelle began looking for her own wand, but she couldn't find it either. "I can't find mine either," she said fearfully.

Both girls suddenly froze as they heard a low growling coming from somewhere just behind them.

"What could have happened to them?" James said for about the tenth time, as he and Remus paced the common room floor. After nearly three hours of searching, he and Sirius had finally managed to locate the injured unicorn, Professor Kettleburn had come to find them as soon as they'd sent up the green flare, and he'd taken care of the unicorn after sending his students back to the castle. Most of the other groups had seen the flare, and had left the forest as well so that by the time they'd made it out of the forest, almost everyone else was already there. Lily and Michelle's group still hadn't come back, and after an hour of waiting for them, Kettleburn had sent the others back to the school, and had gone to look for them himself.

"I don't know, but guys, they're both talented witches. They can take care of themselves," Sirius offered, although the expression on his face showed that he was almost as worried as James and Remus were.

"Look, why don't we go to dinner? Maybe we'll be able to catch Professor Dumbledore and see if he knows what's happened," Jennifer suggested, if only to give them something to do, not because she was really hungry.

The others nodded, and they silently made their way down to the Great Hall, each consumed with worry for their friends.

Most of the other students they passed in the corridors simply gave their group sympathetic looks; it was as if they knew that something terrible had happened to Michelle and Lily. This did nothing to improve their collective mood.

As they entered the Great Hall, Remus noticed that it seemed to be much quieter than was normal. The Gryffindor table in particular was especially subdued, as everyone was worried about their housemates. They sat silently at the table, avoiding the eyes of everyone around them, and began to eat. Jennifer noted that several of the teachers, including Professors McGonagall and Kettleburn were missing from the staff table. She supposed they must have gone out to search for Lily and Michelle.

After a few minutes, Professor Dumbledore stood up to speak. "May I have everyone's attention? Good, now I've got some rather bad news, though I'm sure everyone has heard about it by now. A few hours ago, two of our students, Lily Evans and Michelle Cooke, went missing in the Forbidden Forest while doing work for one of their classes. They are still missing, though we are doing everything we can to find them. I would like to ask you not to get involved in the search; we don't need any more students getting lost in the forest," Dumbledore said, and for a moment, he seemed to be staring right at James and Remus, who'd been planning to go after them. "Everyone will return to their dormitories after dinner, and you will remain there until tomorrow. Thank you."

Dumbledore sat down, looking immensely worried as he continued to eat.

Suddenly, a couple of people sitting at the Ravenclaw table caught Grace's attention. "Hey guys, weren't Michelle and Lily working with Michael Jackson and Robert McKinnon?"

"Yeah, why?" Jennifer said as she looked up from her plate.

"Because there they are," Grace said, pointing them out to the others. Michael and Robert had apparently made it back safely, and were currently sitting next to Danielle and Rachel, chatting. Grace noticed that Danielle seemed to be twirling something between her fingers, and was looking quite pleased with herself. With a start, Grace realized what it was Danielle was holding.

"Uh, Jennifer, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that Lily's wand Danielle's got?" Grace asked, worried.

"Yeah, it is," Jennifer said, scrutinizing Danielle closely. "But how could she get a hold of Lily's wand?"

The others looked puzzled, and frightened. Being lost in the Forbidden Forest was bad enough, but not having your wand was much, much worse.

Lily and Michelle scrambled behind the nearest tree, Lily practically dragging Michelle, as the growling became louder, and closer. "What is it?" Lily whispered fearfully. Michelle didn't even want to know. She desperately wished she hadn't lost her wand. She felt almost naked without it, and now they were unarmed against an unknown creature that seemed to be stalking them.

"We've got to get out of here," she whispered to Lily.

"How?" Lily breathed. "There's no way you'll be able to run, and I'm not leaving you."

Michelle knew she was right, and was greatly comforted by the fact that Lily wasn't going to leave her here alone. She looked up at the tree they were hiding behind. Suddenly, an idea came to her. "Maybe we could climb up this tree. If we can get high enough, the creature might just give up. I'll just have to deal with the pain," she said, and Lily agreed.

Giving Michelle a hand up, Lily watched as Michelle struggled to get high enough so that Lily would have room to start climbing. As she reached for a good branch to pull herself up with, Lily heard the growling once more, only much closer this time. The creature, or whatever it was, seemed to be just on the other side of the giant tree. "Hurry!" Michelle cried to Lily, as they heard the beast moving closer to their side of the tree. Not stopping to think, Lily hauled herself up into the tree as Michelle reached down to give her a hand.

Just as Lily made it into the tree and they both began to climb higher, they creature leapt at the spot where she'd been standing seconds before. "My God," Michelle breathed as they took in the gigantic skeletal body of the creature beneath them, with its many eyes, huge legs, and pincers that were capable of ripping them to pieces. "It's an Acromantula." They climbed faster, as the giant spider began to search for a way to get at its prey.