Decaying leaves crunched beneath Aster's yellow converses as they walked towards the Forbidden Forest. It was a rather crisp November evening, and the wind was just a inch short or what could be considered 'howling'. Aster cinched their zip-up hoodie tighter around their body in an attempt to block out the cold.

The edge of the Forest was bathed in soft autumnal sunlight, highlighting the oranges and the yellows that painted the trees. With each passing minute that Aster walked down the path towards the forest, the spotlight of sunbeams slipped lower and lower, and by the time Aster set foot on the boundary of the forest, the sun had finally slipped behind the hill. A few tiny, twinkling stars had started to make their appearance in the darkening sky.

Aster hadn't particularly wanted to go down to the Forbidden Forest this late in the evening, and especially not alone, but these turn of events couldn't be helped.

Aster had left their work satchel (not to be confused with their school satchel), which was filled with important notes and pressed plant specimens from around the school grounds, just inside of the Forbidden Forest. If they were to leave it there overnight, all of their notes would be horribly smudged (possibly ruined) and their plant specimens would be damp (which would promote mold and fungus growth, and while Aster did love a good mold or fungus sample, they would prefer to not have them on their perfect plant specimens).

When they had realized where they had left their satchel, Aster had walked over to the Ravenclaw table to ask Wolfbane if he would accompany Aster to the forest, but it had been a no-go. Wolfbane disliked the dark exponentially more than Aster did, and adding a spooky forest to the mix was simply too much. Aster understood and respected Wolfbane's negative response, and had simply resolved to go on their own.

The cold gripped at Aster's bones as they finally set foot inside the forest boundary. Instantly, a curtain of darkness creeped in around Aster. They didn't like that one bit, they chose to ignore that creeping feeling and forge on.

As they continued on, the forest started to close in around them. The once clear path of compacted earth was now covered in waist-high ferns and grasses that swished with the movement of small animals scurrying below them. Aster felt what had to be a small rodent brush up against their ankle, and then continue past them. The branches on the trees hung lower and lower the further Aster went on until they had to crouch almost all the way down in the tall grass to get under the branches. At this point, Aster couldn't even begin to count how many spider webs they had had to brush out of their face. Aster heard a howl in the distance. They walked just a little bit quicker after that.

Aster honestly did not remember traveling this far into the forest earlier in the day, but then again everything looked different in the dark. It was almost as if the forest consciously rearranged itself during the night in order to confuse wayward travelers so that they would stay trapped in the forest forever.

A twig snapped sharply to the left of Aster, and they quickly turned their head to try and see what had caused the noise. Aster knew that centaurs and unicorns reside in the forest. Secretly, they were hoping that a centaur had made the noise so that Aster might not be so lonely on their journey. Centaurs were very intelligent, and they knew their way around the forest. Maybe one of them had seen Aster's bag? There was no such luck to be had, however, seeing as the branches as well as the darkness obscured Aster's view so much that they could barely see past the end of their nose.

Aster was never going to find their bag at this rate, however it was imperative that they did. That bag had over ten years worth of notes that Aster had handwritten, as well as illustrations of different plant specimens that Aster had spent countless hours perfecting. Quite literally, that bag was irreplaceable.

With a renewed confidence and understanding, Aster continued, unaware of the creature that was closely following them.

Up ahead, moonbeams broke through the canopy of leaves and landed upon the forest floor. The amount of trees were thinning out, leaving more room for Aster to maneuver around. The grasses and ferns, however, were not thinning. This was quite alright to Aster, as they could finally stand up straight and therefore did not have to crawl through the thick grasses. Said grasses were now as tall as Aster's waist. A trail had been made where the Hufflepuff had walked through the grasses into a clearing, where they saw something that made them freeze.

A pair of antlers, each with two dull points, rose up through the waist-high grass and started to move directly towards Aster. A path, just like the one Aster had made when they entered the clearing, appeared behind the antlers as it progressed in Aster's direction.

When the antlers were approximately ten meters in front of Aster, the Hufflepuff snapped out of their frozen state and started to back away quickly. The antlers still followed.

When Aster reached the part of the forest where the branches hung low, they bent down and continued to run, but they ended up losing their balance and toppling into the grasses in front of them.

Disoriented from their fall, Aster took a minute to raise their head from the soft dirt. The forest around them had gone deafeningly quiet; not a singly sound could be heard aside from Aster's heavy breathing.

The first thing Aster noticed as they gently lifted their head from the ground was the pair of scuffed shoes that were mere centimetres from their nose. As Aster continued to raise their head, they noticed knobbly and scabby knees that were bent in a crouch, a button down shirt (that was probably at one point white, but was now so grass stained that one would assume that green was its original color), and a very torn navy overcoat that matched the knee-length shorts. The thing that made Aster blanch, however, was the head.

Everything else on this individual (who had the appearance of an old timey school boy) appeared to be human, except for the head. Instead of a human head, this creature possessed a deer skull for a head (which explained the antlers). The empty eye sockets glared back at Aster, making a harsh shiver run up and down their spine. Instead of hair, thick green vines emerged from the top of the skull and hung loosely around its tiny shoulders, and a one stray vines hung in front of its left eye socket.

"Can you speak?" As it spoke, the teeth clacked and rattled in their loose holdings. After all, there was no flesh to hold them in place. Aster wondered how it managed to talk, seeing as it had no tongue. This feat should have been impossible, and yet it was speaking perfectly clearly (with a slight accent that Aster recognized as French). "You've been staring at me for a while, and you haven't said a single word!"

"Uh. . ." Aster started dumbly, struggling to find the words they wanted. At that moment, Aster noticed that it was wearing their satchel. The corners of different papers were sticking out of the top corner where the closing flap didn't quite cover the opening all the way. "That's my satchel."

The creature, which had been crouching down so that it could sort of be at Aster's level, stood up all the way. Aster scrambled to get up off of the ground so that this creature didn't have an unfair advantage, should it choose to attack. As it turned out, the creature didn't even stand as tall as Aster's rib cage (not counting the antlers, of course).

"What do you mean it's yours? I found it, fair and square! Someone had just left it sitting underneath of a tree, and it was filled with all sorts of cool drawings, so I figured I would take it because it's cool." The creature rambled, sounding very much like a young child as it did.

Aster just knew that that was their satchel, so they thought of a quick plan on the spot.

"If I can prove to you that that," Aster pointed at their satchel that hung down to the creature's knees. "is my satchel, will you give it to me?"

The creature paused. It tilted it's head to the side every so slightly, and rubbed at the flat bones in between its nostrils.

"I suppose." It said, and then quickly added: "But only if I get something in return!"

Anxious to have their precious satchel returned, Aster quickly agreed. "Of course, anything you want!"

If the creature could move its facial features, Aster was sure that it would have raised it's eyebrows and grinned (even though it already looked like it was grinning, what with all of its teeth openly on display).

"Anything I want?!" The creature was bouncing with excitement, and when Aster nodded their agreement, the creature's jaw dropped open in what Aster supposed was shock.

After the creature settled down some (but not all the way, seeing as it was still practically vibrating in joy), it put its hip, widened its stance, and pointed its finger at Aster as it said, "You have to be my friend!"

Aster had expected something along the lines of 'You Shall Serve Me For One Thousand Years', but certainly not "You Have To Be My Friend'. They must have looked confused because the creature quickly began to explain its request.

"This satchel is obviously important to you. Friendship is nothing to turn your nose up at, and it gets lonely out here, so I figured us being friends would be an excellent exchange!"

"If that's what you want, then I have no problem with it." Aster replied. "In order to prove the satchel is mine, I'm gonna have to have a paper from it."

Aster mentally did a dance of victory as they remembered that at the bottom of each page of notes, they signed their name. They knew it would come in handy one day, though they couldn't have possibly predicted what was currently happening.

The creature was quick to comply. It reached its hand in the top of the satchel and pulled out the first paper that it could find. This particular sheet of notes was about a peculiar mushroom that Aster had found earlier that day and had sketched it so that they could research it later in the library and take some notes. When Aster gently grabbed the piece of parchment paper from the creature, their signature was at the bottom of the page, just like Aster knew it was.

"That right there," Aster said, pointing to their signature, "is my signature. If you reach in the inside pocket of the satchel, you'll find a pencil. I can sign my name again at the bottom again to prove that this is mine, if you want?"

The creature, finding this proposal acceptable, reached inside of the satchel and handed a pencil over to Aster, who signed their name at the bottom and handed the pencil and the piece of paper back to the creature. The creature looked over both signatures, and finally nodded to itself. It tucked the pencil and the paper back inside of the satchel, and lifted said satchel off of its shoulder to give back to Aster.

Aster took the leather strap of their satchel and put their head and arm through the strap so that they were wearing the satchel cross-body. It was like a weight had been lifted off of Aster's chest, now that they finally had their work satchel back. They would certainly be more careful next time they went out to collect samples.

The creature, having handed over their found treasure, seemed to deflate a little bit. "How can I be sure that you're truly gonna be my friend, and not just leave forever because you got what you wanted?" It asked sadly. The vines on its head almost seemed to turn brown at the roots, although that could have simply been an illusion because of the low light.

Aster thought for a minute. They intended to keep their end of the promise, although they couldn't think of a way to reassure the creature. Then, an idea hit them like a rock straight to the forehead. Rummaging through their satchel, they found some notes about a common plant that they had taken about two years ago. Aster pulled out the sheet of paper, and handed it to the creature.

"Now, you have a piece of my notes. I certainly cannot be missing a piece of my notes, so I will come back for it." Aster said gently, and gave a reassuring smile. "Now you know that I will be coming back."

If the creature had had actual eyeballs, Aster was sure they would have been widened and dewy with the start of tears.

"Thank you." The creature said, it's voice full of gratitude. It held the piece of paper gently and reverently, like it was the most precious item in the world.

Aster turned to exit the forest, but turned back around at the last second to ask the creature something.

"Do you have a name?"

The creature puffed out its skinny chest, and raised its chin. "You may call me Lord Bellamy!"