Written for the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
House: Thunderbird
Class/Task Number: Potions. 5 [Bubotuber Pus] someone calming someone else down
Bonus Prompts:
[setting] Forbidden Forest
Mission: Acromantula
The Marauders go into the Forbidden Forest to look for the Acromantulas.
"This is a terrible idea!" Peter Pettigrew whimpered as he stumbled through the bushes.
"This is a brilliant idea, Wormy!" James Potter clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, a huge grin stretched on his face from ear to ear.
"Yeah, Wormy! Where's your sense of adventure?!" Sirius smirked as he pushed past the low branches of the thick trees.
"Currently curled up under the blankets in our dorm, James!" Peter cried, as his heart pounded against his ribs.
Merlin, if anyone found out what they were up to, they would be expelled faster than you could say 'crap'! According to James and Sirius, it would be a simple reconnaissance mission. According to Peter, it was a suicide mission.
As they trudged through the Forbidden Forest with nought but their wands held aloft in their hands, Peter again wished he was fast asleep in his warm bed. He envied Remus who was currently holed up in the infirmary for the night, sick with a stomach ache.
"Why can't we have waited a couple of days before we came here with Remus? He knows more spells than us," Peter stammered.
"Because of his fluffy condition, Petey," Sirius explained offhandedly.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Peter frowned.
"He'll scare away the Acromantulas, Squeakers." James batted away a branch with his hand but it snapped back and hit him on the forehead. He yowled loudly at the sudden thwack and fell backwards onto his bottom. Sirius and Peter burst into loud guffaws that resonated through the dark and morbid forest.
"Oh, sod off, you two!" James grumbled, good-naturedly, as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"Isn't Moony scaring the spiders away a good thing?" Peter finally managed to ask after they'd had a good laugh over James' misfortune.
"Merlin, no! We want to see the spiders — not scare them away!" James rubbed his forehead and felt a twinge of pain.
"Can't we be normal people for once and run away from spiders? And James — you're scared of spiders yourself! Don't you remember the spider Pads Engorgioed a couple of weeks ago?! You freaked out over it! How are you going to survive a whole nest of them?!" Peter was befuddled by James' insistence that they find the spiders' nest. His heart thundered in his chest at the very thought of facing spiders bigger than his Animagus form.
"We'll get to that later," James suddenly hesitated.
"Wait, Prongs? You don't have a plan?!" Peter cried out, horrified. His breath came out in soft gasps and wheezes.
"Do we ever have a plan for our glorious adventures?" James hedged, as he scratched the back of his neck, nervous all of a sudden.
"Oh, Merlin's pants, Rudolph! We're all gonna die!" Sirius barked, as he whirled around to face James.
"We won't die, guys — we might get a bit injured, but it'll be fine!" James tried to reassure them but failed when Peter started hyperventilating.
Peter wrapped his arms around himself and sunk to the ground in a heap. Almost blinded by his terror, he didn't notice James' relieved expression.
"Oh, shit... Sniffy McWhiskers? You okay?" Sirius crouched down beside him, his hand placed on Peter's back.
"I can't breathe!" Peter wailed out, as he clawed at his arms.
"Shit, we need to go back now," James quickly announced, his eyes wide with desperation.
"Hold on, we're not heading back — Pete is. He's obviously too scared to come along," Sirius drawled, his eyes narrowed on James' slightly trembling form.
"Can you shift? Could you head back on your own?" Sirius questioned him.
"Please, don't leave me alone! Come with me!" Peter wailed, as he grabbed onto Sirius' shirt with both hands.
"Fine, fine. We'll head on back some other day," Sirius grumbled, annoyed that Peter was such a stick-in-the-mud.
"Thank you," Peter whispered as he rose up on shaky feet and followed the two boys out of the Forbidden Forest.
"Hey, Prancer — let's go see the Acromantulas," Sirius suggested as the boys lay in bed one night after dinner.
"Are we taking Wormtail with us?" James asked as he rolled over onto his elbows to face Sirius.
"Nah, he'll just slow us down. Come on," Sirius whispered as he slid out of bed and quickly pulled on his robes.
In the darkness of the room, Sirius didn't see James pale at his words.
"It's too late — and I'm sleepy," James complained with a trembling voice.
"Well, sleepyhead, grab your Invisibility Cloak and let's go — or are you too scared?"
"Hell no! I'm not scared!" James protested as he inevitably got up and quickly rushed around the dorm room.
He pulled on his own robes and then grabbed his Invisibility Cloak. The two fifteen-year-old boys wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around themselves before they snuck out of the castle, unaware someone was following them at a distance.
The moon lit their way towards the Forbidden Forest, but even the moonlight itself could not lance through the tufty thickets. The arcane limbs of the trees clacked, rustled and shook their crackling leaves ominously as the boys wandered through slowly and silently The composting organic smell of the rotting branches on the forest floor rose up like a miasma. Huge roots spread-eagled the ground and twisted like the ridges on a great Hungarian Horntail's back.
Twigs crunched under their feet as the boys traipsed further off the moss-veiled trail through the wizened trees. The boys had never been this far in the forest before — neither of them wanted to admit they were terrified out of their wits. The sound of small twigs snapping behind them almost sent them both into cardiac arrest.
James finally whispered, "Hey, Pads?"
Sirius swallowed and choked out a weak, "Yeah?"
"Do you think something's following us?"
"Be positive," Sirius whimpered.
"Well, I'm positive something's following us," James moaned, as sweat dripped down his brow and the expanse of his neck.
"Don't jinx it, Prongsie," Sirius hissed, but he still snuck a peek behind him.
He saw something in the corner of his eye shimmer. He blanched when he realised James' fears weren't unfounded. A giant spider scuttled out of view just as Sirius whirled around to look at it.
"James — shit, did you see that?!"
James, unfortunately, had. He'd listened to Hagrid's accidental boasting about breeding Acromantulas against the law — he hadn't expected the spiders to be this big, though!
"James? James! Come on, let's follow it!" Sirius smirked, despite the obvious terror he himself could feel rising in his gut.
"O-okay." James endeavoured to straighten up and sound brave, but his voice came out high-pitched and squeaky.
The two boys ducked under the never-ending, overarching vault of leaf and limb as they went after the scuttling sound.
The next thing they knew, they were surrounded by a herd of Acromantulas who slowly crept through the dark vines and shadows that loomed around them.
"Oh, shit," Sirius whispered, his wand trembled as utter fear coursed through his veins. They'd never even dreamed the spiders could be this gigantic and terrifying.
James and Sirius slowly backed up as the spiders scurried closer. Their backs met the tree behind them too soon. Sirius glanced up and saw another black, petrifying Acromantula weaving a web overhead.
"What's the plan?" Sirius hissed under his breath, his wand clenched tightly in his fist.
"You brought me here! Didn't you think of a plan?" James whimpered, unashamed of his terror.
"I thought you would know what to do — Merlin's beard, those are some big spiders!" Sirius' heart endeavoured to beat out of his ribs.
One of the spiders suddenly attacked. It lunged forward towards James but was hit with a quickly thought-out Petrificus Totalus by Sirius. The others screeched inhumanely high and sped forward.
All of a sudden, they stiffened and whirled around to look at something hidden in the darkness. They nervously clicked their pincers as they shifted from side to side.
What could be so dangerous that the Acromantulas were terrified?
"Arania Exumai!" A loud voice barked from the dark shadows.
A jet of blue-white light streamed towards the spiders who screeched in fury, but they quickly backed away from it. As another spell lit up the darkness, the spiders were repelled by it and they hurried off into the safety of the ancient, oak trees. Another spell hit the Acromantula crawling on the tree above James' head; it fell on the boys with a loud wailing screech.
James shrieked with terror, tried to bat away the corpse of the dead spider, but hit his head against the lichen-encrusted bark. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Sirius quickly crouched down beside James and shook him to wake him up. They needed to leave or else the spiders might come back.
He, too, had almost had a heart attack when the gigantic spider fell on them. Merlin, this was such a terrible idea!
But James didn't move.
When Sirius heard the leaves rustling behind him, he lost his composure. Tears formed in his eyes, and he shrieked, "We'll leave! We swear! Please don't hurt us!"
"Padfoot! Relax, it's just me!" Remus hopped over a fallen tree and rushed over to his terrified friends.
"Re–Remus? Is that you?!" Sirius had never been more relieved in his life. He breathed out, as his heart still warred against his chest.
"Yes, you idiot — wait, did James just faint?" Remus blurted out, as he quickly squatted down to look at James.
"Oh, Merlin, James! Prongsie, mate! Wake up!" Sirius wailed, as he furiously shook James.
James grunted as he slowly squinted his eyes open. He glanced up at Sirius and then, at Remus. He whispered, "It didn't happen, did it? There weren't any spiders here, right? That was just a prank?"
Remus rolled his eyes and dragged James up by his arm. He smacked him upside the head, and growled, "Didn't I tell you guys not to go into the Forest without me? Look at yourselves! Sirius, you pissed yourself, didn't you? And James — you fainted! What if I hadn't followed you in here? What then? Do you have any idea what those creatures could have done to you? There are actual entries of people seeing others get ripped from limb to limb! You two are such pillocks, I can't even believe it!"
James stammered, "Well, at least we'll be able to tell our kids one day about how we battled Acromantulas and survived?"
As the tension wore off, Remus shook his head, amused, and said, "I'll tell your kids the truth — Merlin, James, you fainted!"
Sirius burst into hearty guffaws as the weight lifted off his shoulders. James grimaced at the sight of the dead Acromantula and shivered with fear.
"Let's get out of here, guys," James muttered as he slowly rose up on wobbly legs. Merlin, he still could feel the weight of the spider falling on top of him — it was very traumatic.
As the boys searched for the winding trail, James kept on glancing over his shoulder, still petrified. Sirius and Remus both threw an arm around James' shoulders, silently supporting him. They knew he was still shaken up about the incident.
But Sirius knew that as long as Remus was with them, they didn't need to worry for long — he worried enough for all of them. He always had their backs.
'Thank Merlin and Morgana, Pete hadn't come along! Or else they'd have two terrified boys on their hands,' Sirius thought as they finally broke through the treeline and headed back to the castle.
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