Author note:
Sorry for the delay. I was kind of paralized with fears that this chapter would be terrible. Lol. It actually turned out to be pretty decent though, at least in my opinion. Hope ya'll enjoy!
Also, it'd be great if ya'll could tell me what side of the castle was east. I think I have the sun rising in the exact wrong spot. LOL
I don't own anything.
~ I was alone, and I had no idea how to get home.
I sat on the ground and cried. I was more scared than I'd ever been in my whole life.
"Hello? Are you okay?" A timid voice called. A student, who was about my age, stepped out from behind a tree. He wore red and gold robes. He fiddled nervously with his hands as he walked up.
"I um, I saw them taking you out here, and I knew they were up to no good. So, I followed you. It's a good thing I did too, those nasty Slytherins! Are you alright?" He reached out his hand to help me up.
I nodded my head.
"D-do you know how to get home?" I asked wiping my nose on my arm before accepting his help.
"Well, uh, no I don't." He admitted.
"Then you told someone where you were going?" I asked.
"Uh, no. I didn't do that either." He admitted sheepishly.
Night was starting to fall. Shadows were growing long. Things I couldn't see rustled long dead leaves. Something swished behind me. I moved closer to the Gryffindor.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
He calmly turned and looked at the spot I was pointing to.
"Do you mean the wind?" He asked.
An owl hooted in the distance. I jumped. He did too, but he acted like it didn't bother him.
"Calm down. It's going to be fine." He assured me. His voice trembled slightly at the end.
"It's getting late. What do we do?!" I asked, making no effort to hide my rising terror.
His response was level headed and well thought through. "Well," he started, "my parents said that if I'm ever lost in the woods, I should stay where I'm at so people can find me."
I turned all the way around to get a good look at where we were. "There's nowhere to hide!" I shouted.
He firmly gripped me by the shoulders and shook me. "Get a grip, Hufflepuff! We're going to be fine. But, just in case, we should probably find a more defensible location." I took deep breaths while he formulated a plan. He snapped his fingers.
"I need you to hold onto my shoulder. Don't let go. I'm going to lead us towards the sun, because the sun always rises on the side of the castle away from the dark forest. Whenever you get scared, I want you to think of every spell you know. This is important. Can you do it for me?"
I bit my lip and nodded.
He nodded back.
We started walking.
The Hufflepuff prefects started worrying about thirty minutes before regular curfew. First year Hufflepuffians had an earlier curfew because they tended to get lost, a lot. The prefects asked everyone when they walked in if they'd seen me. No one had. The last student came in five minutes before regular curfew. They hadn't seen me either.
"Maybe he's in Ravenclaw." Mama Badger suggested. She left to go look.
The prefect boy left instructions with the older Hufflepuffians to let him know if I showed up. He then went to check the Gryffindor common room. Before he got there, he was stopped by a teacher who saw the concerned look on his face and asked what was wrong. He explained the whole situation as well as his plan to check with the Gryffindorians.
She answered him, "If he does not appear soon, I will alert the school faculty and the ghosts. There are plans in place for this. We will find him," She smiled comfortingly, "but for heaven's sake, don't tell Gryffindor!"
Just then a Gryffindorian walked up.
"Don't tell us what?" He asked in that goofy Gryffindor way. "Teacher, we're missing a first year student." He said in a casual manner as if this was an everyday occurance
"Gryffindor as well?" She asked.
His eyes widened. They moved from the teacher to the unsettled Hufflepuff prefect and his expression grew serious. Whenever those rulekeeping Hufflepuffians missed curfew, it meant something really bad had happened.
"His friends are saying they saw the first year Gryffindorian heading towards the groundskeeper's hut last."
"Oh dear," she said as she started towards the groundskeeper's hut at a brisk pace, "let us hope your house member hasn't convinced the young Hufflepuffian to do something foolish." It wouldn't have been the first time.
Not 10 minutes later. The halls were a flurry of red and gold. Students of all ages wandered the halls in search of one missing Hufflepuff first year.
It was chaos.
"Go back to your common rooms!" A teacher shouted.
"I'll create a distraction!" A Gryffindorian shouted.
"They can't punish all of us!" Another assured.
"Now you listen to me. I'm Head Boy!" The Gryffindorian screamed until his voice grew hoarse.
There were even sounds of explosions coming from the dungeons.
It took them a total of 10 minutes to work out what had happened. It helped that my new Gryffindorian friend had left his books behind at the groundskeeper's hut. It also helped that the Slytherin head of house was very good at squeezing the truth out of his students.
The headmaster was able to get the Gryffindorians back into their common room and lead a group of teachers, prefects, and various Gryffindorians, who thought they were being very sneaky, into the dark forest to search for us.
Author note:
Sorry for the delay. I was kind of paralyzed with fears that this chapter would be terrible. Lol
Huge thanks to my Mom for the idea of being "rescued" by a Neville-type Gryffindorian.
Another huge thanks to my sisters for the bit about what everyone would be shouting during the chaos. You two are great!