Chapter 9: The Forbidden Forest!
"Wake up you lazy lump." shouted Rachel at Amy, "Its Christmas, lets open presents."
"Sod off." said Amy still half-asleep.
"Get up now!" said Rachel conjuring a glass of water and throwing it over Amy.
"What the bloody hell. Alright I'm up." said Amy.
They went down the stairs and into the commonroom and found Harry had let Clare and Kirsti into Gryffindor tower.
There were piles and piles of presents. Amy, Clare and Kirsti had bought Rachel 'Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts.' Sirius had bought Amy her own copy of 'Quidditch through the Ages'. Clare had seemed to have a thousand boxes of Chocolate Frogs from everyone. Kirsti had been given a poster of the English Quidditch team that had been signed by all the players from her mother. They had all been given Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Dungbombs, jumpers from Mrs Weasley, Skiving Snackboxes from Fred and George, Broom Servicing Kits and a Broom Compass each.
They then had Christmas dinner in the Great Hall. There were very few students that had stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas. After dinner they had a snowball fight against the Weasley twins, Ron and Harry. After two hours of throwing snow the girls won. After that they all went to the prefects bathroom, as Kirsti and Clare were prefects, to clean up.
"Why don't we go out for an adventure." said Rachel with a mischievous look in her eye.
"Where?" Kirsti asked.
"How about the Forbidden Forest, we haven't wound up Bane in a while." said Rachel.
Amy ran up to the Gryffindor tower to get the Marauders Map and to borrow the Invisibility Cloak from Harry, and met the others in the entrance hall. They quickly but quietly made their way to the edge of the forest,
"Right, is everyone ready? If for some reason we get split up conjure up some red sparks." Clare said sensibly. They had been walking for ten minutes when they heard galloping that was getting closer and closer,
"What was that?" Kirsti asked, feeling scared.
"It was nothing. Stop being stupid, there are always strange noises here and they're always nothing." Rachel snapped. Suddenly a twig snapped and they all spun round, a Centaur stepped out.
"Oh, it's only you. How are you Firenze?" Amy asked.
"You should not be here, it's far too dangerous." Firenze warned.
"Ah but that's why it's so much fun!" Rachel smirked, "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something, have you got any news on Voldemort or the Deatheaters?"
"Mars has been looking bright this month." Firenze replied mournfully.
"Oh not that stupid junk, I get enough of that from Trelawney, I was being serious." Rachel sneered.
She had obviously offended Firenze because he simply said "You must leave." before turning and galloping off into the darkness.
"I really don't like Centaurs." Rachel said.
"Come on, let's go, we've got more exploring to do." Kirsti whispered, still feeling a bit shaky.
After another half an hour the girls heard a loud thumping noise ahead of them, they ran to hide behind a massive tree.
"That's a Mountain Troll, they are the most violent type, you want to have some fun?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, I'll freeze it." Rachel replied, suddenly the Troll stopped and stood motionless. "Expelliarmus!" Rachel shouted and the Troll was knocked off his feet and the club he was holding flew out of his hand. Kirsti then hexed him into a floral dress, while Amy gave him curly hair. Rachel then unfroze it and Clare hexed it to sing continuously.
They then started to run back to the school laughing as they went, suddenly Kirsti screamed and was pulled backwards. Kirsti was being pulled back by a giant plant, it then pulled her into the air and held her upside down. The plant started lowering her down to its giant mouth, like a giant Venus Flytrap. Rachel froze it just as Kirsti was inches away from its razor sharp teeth.
"You're good at Herbology, what do we do?" Rachel asked Clare.
"How am I meant to know, blow it up or something." Clare snapped. Rachel unfroze it and then blew it up, Kirsti was thrown into the air and landed on the floor with a thud.
"Kirsti are you alright?" Clare asked.
"I think my ankle is broken." Kirsti whimpered. Rachel conjured up a stretcher for Kirsti.
They were making their way back when a herd of Centaurs appeared out of nowhere.
"Hello Bane, how are you today?" Rachel said sarcastically.
"You insult me by just talking to me. You should not be in the Forest. You are out of place." Bane replied angrily.
To show his annoyance he kicked Kirsti's stretcher, breaking her other ankle. Rachel was about to curse the entire herd when Clare pulled her back and told her to just freeze them. Rachel, thoroughly disgruntled, agreed and froze them, they were then able to get back to the castle and take Kirsti to the hospital wing.