Chapter 17

I woke up rather abruptly on Saturday morning. Lily ripped open the curtains so the sun was blaring through the windows, and Marlene yanked me off the bed, I lost my balance and ended up on the floor. Today was going to be a 'girls day out', I was already afraid.

After getting dressed and heading down to the Great Hall, I watched mutely as Lily began piling my plate with croissants and proceeding to smear them with butter and jam.

"Lily, I'm not complaining but I really could have done that myself."

She just gave me a pat on the shoulder and said "eat up Bells."

Rodger sat a few seats down the table, I gave him an apologetic shrug and pointed to my friends. He smiled and shook his head. I was reminded of what a wonderful boyfriend he was and wanted to go say good morning to him, when Marlene pushed me back on the seat. I gave her a quizzical stare.

"No boys today Bells, remember, it's a girls day out."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. They even forcefully moved my head when I so much as turned in the direction of Rodger.

Once at Hogsmeade, we made our way into nearly every store (except for Madam Pudifoot's). Mary bought a new set of sleek black quills from Shrivenshaft's, we all had a peek in Dervish and Banges, and Marlene purchased some Hiccup sweets and nose-biting teacups from Zonko's jokeshop.

I saw Honeydukes ahead and excitedly began to increase my pace, when the girls dragged me into Gladrags Wizard Wear. I groaned, I knew perfectly what torturous activity lied ahead. I would have to try on a million different clothing items and model them each in turn.

I would never admit it but it turns out to be a lot of fun each time.

I was currently dressed in a floor length purple gown. The sleeves stopped at my elbows, and the sweetheart neckline was lined with golden beads, the same beads lined the hem of the dress, the cuffs of the sleeves, and a thick golden ribbon was tied securely around the waist.

I was admiring the dress, smoothing my hands down the soft fabric, when I heard the impatient calls for me to step outside the changing rooms.

I rolled my eyes when I did, ignoring the familiar gasps and squeals emitted by each of them.

"You look beautiful!" Mary exclaimed, with her hands clasped together in front of her chest, she looked like my mother.

Marlene made sounds of affirmation and was vigorously nodding her head.

Lily was silent, I looked at her and she was staring a me with a calculated expression.

"Well I don't look that bad do I?" I asked her teasingly.

She grinned, "worse."

The four of us lay sprawled across Lily and I's bed. Witch Weekly magazines and bags of Honeydukes' chocolate were scattered around us.

"Thanks so much for today guys, I had so much fun and I needed it" I smiled at all of them.

"Aw Bells, we're always here for you!" Mary is so sweet.

We spent about an hour discussing useless things like singing sorceress Celestina Warbeck's shocking affair with composer Irving Warble, leaving her marital status in question, and the attractive members of the Chudley Cannons quidditch team.

Lily glanced at the clock and jumped, "Bells its 12:45! We have to serve out detention with Professor Kettleblack!"

My mouth dropped in an 'o'. We were forty five minutes late already. Stuffing a few last chocolates in out mouths, we left Marlene and Mary and rushed down to the Hogwarts Grounds, where we found Sirius, James and Abi, standing next to a very grumpy looking care of magical creatures professor.

"Well. I trust this delay was caused by substantial reason" he looked down at us with a disappointed glare, which deepened further when we remained silent.

After a few more grumblings of reprimand, he handed us each cloth bags filled with assorted leaves, and, to Abi's horror, boxes of insects that Niffy loved to devour. We were also given crudely woven baskets which I assumed were for trapping the creature.

"Right. Now off you go you lot," the professor said with his hands on his hips, "and remember, no magic!" With that, he turned around with incredibly sassy fashion, and disappeared into his hut, slamming the door.

"Stupid knob" James exclaimed as soon as the he left. "What are we supposed to do with these?" He held up the baskets with incredulity.

"Look we should stick together as a group." Sirius said.

"Why? It's not like we're going into the Forbidden Forest or anything" Abi complained.

I looked up at Sirius' face at that, he looked like he very much planned to go into the Forbidden Forest.

"You're right, we'll split off. James and I will pair off, and you girls go as a group." He instructed.

James and Lily started to protest, Lily beat him to it, "uh uh, I'm not being lumped with her!" She pointed at Abigail, who glared back and seethed, "likewise!"

"And I don't want to be parted from my Lilyflower!" James exclaimed, "our romantic moments together are few and far between as it is!" He clutched at Sirius' arm and put on an expression of desperation that would have floored any theatrical critic.

"Absurd..." Lily murmured, shaking her head.

I hung back, silent, observing the exchanges.

"I'd rather go with Abigail than you!" Lily spat.

"Well, fine! Go with her then!" James then proceeded to pull Sirius and I away from them, I looked back and fought a chuckle as I saw both their murderous expressions.

After walking a few hundred metres in silence, James did the most idiotic thing he could have done. He shouted, "well, I can't abandon my Lily flower like that, so I'll see you guys later!" and sprinted off back in the direction we came, leaving the both of us gobsmacked and feeling murderous ourselves.

We stood there awkwardly for a few moments. He had brought one of his hands out of his pockets to rub the back of his neck, and I kicked at a stone in the dirt.

"Well, where should we start?" He asked, after what seemed like an age.

"Umm" I glanced up at the trees. Of course James had led us to the Forbidden Forest.

Sirius slowly grinned, "come on Bells, you know you want to"

"No, no no no no no!"

"Oh come on!"

"I am not going in there!" I stomped my foot.

"It will be an adventure"

"It's so dangerous! There is a reason why it's the Forbidden Forest, and not the Bidden Forest, or the Welcome Step Right In Forest!" I huffed.

"But I'm right here, nothing will happen to us" he said haughtily.

I scoffed, "that's not much reassurance"

He stared at me, I blushed and looked to the ground. For a moment I thought we had regained our spark of banter.

He continued to stare and I was looking all around the ground awkwardly, when he suddenly hauled my up over his shoulder.

My scream of surprise caused a few resting birds to scatter from the trees.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING SIRIUS?! PUT ME DOWN!"

"You've challenged me Bella, and now I must prove myself. It's and issue of pride. You wouldn't understand."

"Alright alright, just put me down first."

He gently placed he on my feet, I tried to bolt away as soon as he did but he caught me around the waist.

"uh uh uh" he chuckled victoriously like a cat who caught its prey, "too predictable Bells, that's why you always lose against me in quidditch"

I pouted and stuck my tongue out.

Realising we were in something of a compromising position, I slowly extracted myself from Sirius' arms. He was looking at me with a gaze torn between determination and resignation.

After composing ourselves, we began laying out the leaves and boxes in a rough trail leading to one of the baskets, propped up with a stick.

Staring down at our handiwork, I commented, "this is the most basic, unimpressive and sure to fail trap I've ever seen in my life."

"Have a little faith Bells!" Sirius turned to me, indignant, "I am the master mind of this creation! It is foolproof."

"We're catching a Niffler not a worm, they aren't stupid."

He opened his mouth to retort, but then we heard a sound. And extremely terrifying sound. I was a growl. A vicious wet gurgle that brought the image of saliva dripping down bared, knife-sharp teeth.

I looked at Sirius with horror, his eyes were wide as quaffles. He instinctively brought a protective arm around me, and slowly, silently pushed me against a tree, hoping the shadows would cover us from any creature out there.

"On the count of three, we run back to to the grounds" he whispered in my ear. "One..Two..Thr-"

He covered my mouth and the scream died in my throat.

I gasped in pain and looked down. I had moved my foot poised to run, and it had sunk unto the ground, painfully caught between the roots of the tree we were leaning against. I was trapped.

"I'm stuck Sirius!" I whispered urgently, tears forming at the rims of my eyes. The growling grew closer.

Sirius pulled out his wand.

The growling grew even louder, into a snarl. Footsteps could be heard now.

I buried my head into Sirius' shoulder.

I peeked out and gasped again, seeing two pairs of yellow eyes in the middle of a dark, hunched figure.

It rose to match our height, which was alarming, seeing as we were standing up.

It reared on its hind legs and was poised, ready to propel its terrifying body towards us.

"STUPEFY"

The creature growled even harder, it wobbled slightly, Sirius' spell must have hit it on its left side, but seemed to weak to paralyse it's whole body. It limped closer, those vicious teeth still bared. When all of a sudden, it let another growl, a different kind, a growl of pain. It snapped its head back to look at it's tail.

Lo and behold, Niffy had bitten down on the creature's tail, and was relentless.

"STUPEFY" Sirius yelled again, and this time, the creature instantly froze, the growls dies, and its body fell limp to the ground.

I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding.

I tried to remove my leg and whimpered in pain again, Sirius immediately turned his attention to my leg.

He began use severing charms to cut away the roots that were entwined around my leg.

Once freed, he made me sit, and tore a strip from the bottom of his shirt and began to bind my wound.

Niffy cautiously came up to us and I smiled, reaching out my hand to pat it's furry head. He immediately moved into my touch and crawled closer.

"You saved us" I smiled down at the creature. He climbed onto my lap.

I looked up to Sirius, who had finished with my wound. "Thank you" I said, putting all my emotion and sincerity into my voice and eyes.

He smiled, "and I'm so sorry, are you alright?" He asked, looking at me with the utmost concern.

"I'm fine thanks to you."

He sighed and patted the creature in my lap, "and thanks to Niffy" he smiled.

"Yes, thanks to Niffy."

Sirius began to lean closer. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

"You looked so scared, are you sure you're alright?"

"You were right, you proved yourself and won the challenge."

"I shouldn't have dragged you in here, I'm so sorr-"

"You didn't let anything happen to us."

We stared intently into each others eyes and continued to move closer.

I felt a vague nagging that I shouldn't be doing this, but then his eyes flicked down to my lips, and mine to his, and the feeling disappeared.

I'm not going to break my head this time

My eyes fluttered to a close.

We were centimetres apart.

"SIRIUS! BELLA! ARE YOU IN THERE?!" James' voice snapped us back to reality.

"BELLS! ARE YOU IN THERE?" Lily's worried voice joined his.

"WE HAVEN'T FOUND FURIOUS FLAME, I KNEW YOU GUYS WERE GOING TO GO IN THERE, WE'RE GOING TO GET A PROFESSOR."

We just sat there, continuing to stare at each other.

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- Sugar~