Chapter Six: Detention
It was cold in the forest, and that was all there was to it. The wolves were all shivering by the time they reached Hagrid, who was looking at them expectantly.
"Well?" he said.
"Well what?" they said back back.
"What'd ya do now, eh? Firs' week into the year, an' yer already gettin' detention. I tell ya, I won' be doin' this every week, I won'," he grumbled.
"Sorry Hagrid. Can we just get this done, its kind of cold," Ginny piped up.
"Yeh, yeh."
The wolves walked behind Hagrid. The light of his lantern was the only source of light they had, aside from the bright moon. It seemedquiet, and the Wolves knew that it wasn't any regular quiet. Quite scared, They stayed close to Hagrid, and close to eachother.
"So, uh," Knitter started, "anyone need a little extra warmth?" The girls quicky declined, saying they all of a sudden felt warmer, and that they were fine. Knitter looked put out.
They walked for a while longer before coming to a clearing. Hagrid had stopped suddenly, causing Ginny to bump into him, Knitter to bump into her, and the same with Rachel, Alyssa, and Christina, each one letting out "Oof's" when they collided.
"Here we are," Hagrid said. They looked around themselves, horrified that they had no idea where they were.
"What do we have to do?" asked Knitter.
"I got a note from Madame Pomfrey tha'saidshe wanted some Fleshweed. Seems to be used a lot when makin' healin' potions. Now, I'm gonna put ya into groups. We're gonna meet back 'ere in an hour, got it? Alrigh'. Ginny, Rachel, Alyssa- you three go that way-" he pointed down a very dark, very scary looking path leading out of the clearing and into the abyss of foliage- "and Christina and Chris, you go that way-" he pointed toward a pathway identical the the one the girls had begun to go into, if not scarier- "okay?"
They nodded their assent, knowing it would be the death of them.
And then Hagrid headed off in his own direction.
"I can't see anything," Rachel grumbled, before grabbing her comerades arms to keep herself from tripping.
"You have a wand, smart one," Alyssa said, taking out her wand and muttering, "Lumos." A light appeared in front of them from Alyssa's wand, just in time for Ginny to miss a head swat from a tree branch. Ginny groaned as she and Rachel too, took out their wands and lighting them. She growled.
"Doesn't Pomfrey know I am allergic to Fleshweed? Is this some form of cruel and unusual punishment? She's the one who I always friggin' have to go to when we use Fleshweed in Potions! I always have to take the allergy antidote. Ah, damn!"
Ginny tripped and fell in the dirt before Alyssa or Rachel could do anything. They quickly helped her up, brushing the dirt off her as they set her on a rock to sit.
"Are you alright?" Rachel asked, cleaning off her robes.
"Yeah, I just tripped on that stupid root over there... I think I sprained my ankle."
Alyssa and Rachel looked in the direction of the root, but saw nothing there.
"What did you trip on?" asked Alyssa.
"That root! The one that's sticking, like, a foot out... of the... ground...?"
"There's nothing there, Gin. You must have tripped on your own feet. It's alright, we'll help you walk," Alyssa said.
"No! There was a root there! I'm telling you! It must have gone back into the ground. I mean, this is the Forbidden Forest. These could be evil trees. I never liked trees. I never liked tree huggers either. Not that that has anything to do with this. Anyway, help me up."
They then proceeded to lift her up off the rock, each one with one of her arms around their necks.
"Ah... AAHHHH! Easy, easy... Damn that hurts. Aw, Damnit! Stop. Stop!" Ginny said.
"What, what is it?" asked Rachel, both of the stopping.
"My cloak, it's stuck on that bush. I told you. These trees are out to get me..."
Alyssa went back a step and began trying to pull free Ginny's cloak.
"Ginny, it won't come loose unless I rip it."
"Ugh, nevermind, I have other cloaks," Ginny said, taking off the only thing inbetween her bare arms and the biting cold.
"So you're just gonna leave it here?" asked Rachel.
"I guess. Lets go, it's not that bad," said Ginny.
Just then, Ginny's arms around Alyssa's and Rachel's necks, all their heads turned in the same direction at the same time. Someone had screamed, a long, horrified scream. And it sounded a helluva lot like Christina. The three girls looked at eachother, scared, all thinking the same thing. Just as they were trying to comprehend what to do, two more screams were heard, only this time, it was Christina and Knitter screaming, they were sure of it.
"Oh Merlin. Do you think they're all right?" Alyssa asked.
"I dunno," replied Rachel.
Then, there was a russling in the bushes behind them. The girls snapped thier heads around to look, but there was only darkness. Silence.
"Wh- who's there? Hello?" Ginny called out, but knew it was in vain. Then, there was movement in front of them, and their heads shot back around.
"I'm really scared you guys. What do we do? Screw the Fleshweed, lets head back to the clearing," Alyssa whined.
"I'm with you."
"Me too."
They turned around, but at the same time, all three of them screamed.
Christina and Knitter headed off in the direction that they were told to go.
"Knitter, no screwing around all right? I just wanna get the stupid plant and get out of here," Christina said.
"Meh... alright," Knitter said.
"Okay. You know what the damn thing looks like, right? It's got white leaves, and it puts toxic black smoke around itself when it feels threatened. Got it?"
"How can it feel threatened if its a damn plant? That's what I don't get," he said.
"You don't have to get it. Its the friggin Wizarding World," she replied.
"Okay fine. White plant, black smoke. Anything else mom?"
"Shut up."
They walked in silence for a while, taking different paths and detours, looking for Fleshweed. Suddenly, Christina called out:
"Knitter, come here! I think I've got it. See the white cluster over there in that clearing? Okay, go position yourself and be ready to grab it and run. I'm going to cut it from here before it can get us with the black smoke."
"What exactly am I running from, you said?"
"Oh, that. It's nothing really, it just might... ahem... jump out and bite you. Okay anyway get ready. One... Two... Three! Diffindo!"
"Ah! I got it!" Knitter said.
"Good," Christina said, "Now get out of there!"
Knitter got up and ran from the spot.
"Yes!" They high fived.
Okay, now lets head back to the clearing and wait for them. I do not want to be caught out here by anthing that eats meat."
"Okay, you lead the way," Knitter said.
"What, why me? It was you who was supposed to keep track of where we were going-"
"Me? Why me, I already had to get the stupid plant-"
"But you're supposed to be the man. Just find our way back alright-"
"Fine! Fine I'll do it! Damn all you had to say was please..."
Knitter didn't move.
"What's the problem?"
"I... I don't know how to get back."
"OHO! Oh that's just great! Now we're LOST! Fine, you know what... let's just try to find it, we cant be that far. And it was a pretty distinctive clearing... wasn't it?" Christina said.
"If you say so."
"Then lets go."
They wandered for not two minutes when Christina swore that she saw that same tree twice.
"What do you mean you saw that same tree twice? There's like, a million trees in the forest!"
"No! See that knot right there? That's very distinctive-"
"You said the clearing was very distinctive too, but you didn't find that yet either, now did you?"
"Don't get mad at me, Knitter you aren't exactly being helpful!"
"You know what? Fine! I'll just find it on my own! Meet you there," he said before storming off, leaving Christina alone.
Angry, Christina stormed off in the opposite direction, before she realized that she really did have no idea where she was going, and fear overtook anger.
"Knitter? Knitter, I'm sorry. Come on, don't fight. I'm scared," Christina said, wandering around.
She heard a russle in the bushes behind her, and gasped.
"Knitter? Where are you? There's something in the bushes, Knitter, and you were always better at jinxes than me..."
Her breathing became short, and she pulled out her wand, ready for the worst. It was quiet. She was scared. Just then, something made a loud noise behind her and she turned around and screamed, a long, shrill scream of pure horror.
And then there was laughter.
Knitter lay on the dirt, laughing at Christina. His face was red, and there was dirt all over his face and clothes.
"What the hell Knitter? That was NOT funny! Damn it you little arse!"
More hysterical laughter, and he stood up.
"You- HA HA HA- you should have s-seen... the look on your fa... you were so scared... you were hilarious!" Knitter said between his laughter.
He got up, still trying to contain his laughter, before he caught the look on Christina's face. She was looking right past him, completely horror stricken. Knitter turned around, and the same instant, both boy and girl let out screams.
Now facing both Knitter and Christina was a cloaked... thing- twice the size of the teenagers. It raised its arms, and bacame even scarier. Just then, it wobbled. It seemed to tip right at the height of Knitter, and the arms reached up to steady itself on a branch. The sleeve of the cloak caught a branch of a low tree, and the entire thing lost its balance.
"You idiot... stop it! AAARRRRGGGG!"
Suddenly, the entire thing fell over, but at the last minute, the arms reached out and grabbed the end of the cloak, ripped it, and then two people toppled onto the ground.
"Ahhhhh! You idiot! What the hell was that?"
"Well, you aren't exactly petite anymore, Lea!"
"Well thanks to you everything's ruined. If those thug's of yours are as stupid as you, then they won't succeed with Weaslette and them."
"Yeah well if your friend is as heavy as you are then I wouldn't blame them!"
Then, off in the distance,the four of themheard screams. It sounded like the girls.
"Ah, right on cue, Cameron."
"YOU!" Christina yelled.
"What are you doing here?" Knitter questioned.
"Why, we're trying to drive you mad, of course. If it wasn't for baboon-backside over here, then we would have succeeded," Lea answered, earning glares from Cam.
"Who do you think caused all of the spookiness when you were alone, both of you? Skotch, I followed you, making russling in the bushes, and making you freak out."
"It's pronounced SHUCK moron," put in Christina.
"And I," continued Leon, completely ignoring Christina," followed you around Knitter. Remember when I broke that tree branch and dropped it right in front of you? And you totally flipped out. Ha ha ha."
"You know what," Christina said, "I'm done with this. I've served my detention, I've gotten the weed, so I'm going to look for Ginny. If anyone's coming you better move your arse, because I'm not stopping for anyone."
Knitter quickly moved closer to Christina, so he wouldn't get lost, and then they proceeded to go. However, not long after they had been walking, they heard more footsteps behind them.They turned their heads long enough to see Cameron and Lea behind them, closely following them, so they wouldn't get lost.
Smirking to herself, Christina trucked on, and, when no one was looking, raised a root out of the dead foliage on the ground with her wand. She was pleased when she heard a gasp and a thunk, then scrambling to get up. When she looked back, she saw that both Lea and Cameron had dirt on their faces and leaves in their hair. She was, however, exasperated when she saw that, apparantly, Knitter had tripped on the branch too.
"Sheesh... That root back there was a doozey," he said, causing Christina to inwardly groan.
"Whatever. I think we're close. For a while, I've been following these foot prints. Here, see?" she said, pointing to soe imprints in the dirt.
Knitter nodded, and not a minute later, the four of them collided with something running at them.
Make that five somethings running at them.
Alyssa, Ginny, and Rachel were running from a big cloacked thing, much like the one that Lea and Cameron were. This one was clearly three people.
"Whoa, chill out, chill out! It's not real, its Lea's and Cameron's friends. Hey, Ginny, what happened?" Knitter said as he slowed down the running group and caught sight of Ginny's swollen ankle, and her limping.
By now, the thugs and Serenity had come out from under the cloak, and were watching.
"All right, at this point lets just deal with finding Hagrid and getting out of here. We'll take Gin to Pomfreyif we do that... WHEN. I mean when we do that..." However, Alyssa did not sound very convincing.
"Okay, I have anidea. Lets split up-" Cameron started.
"NO!" everyone yelled at him.
"No," Rachel said more calmly, "we're going to stay together until we get out of here. Agreed?"
Ten hands went in the middle.
"And that is the last time you will ever see a pact formed between me and that whore," Christina whispered to Alyssa, who smirked.
Both Gryffindor and Slytherin treked through the forest until they came to a clearing about thirty minutes later. They each sat on the ground resting, in complete silence.
"So then it was you who made that root appear in front of me, causing me to sprain my ankle," Ginny asked Serenity.
She nodded.
"But," she said, "it was Lea's brilliant idea to write that forged note from Pomfrey to Hagrid saying that you had to retreive Fleshweed. She knew you were allergic to it, so she made you have to get it! Ha!"
Glares from the Gryffindors.
"Speaking of which..." Knitter said, pulling the white plant from his pocket, "I still have it, so our detention isn't completely pointless."
Ginny sneezed. Her face was really red, like a rash, and her eyes were puffy.
"Knitter, you retard, put that away! Ginny's already reacting to it," Christina said.
"Hey, you guys..."
Everyone looked up to see Alyssa walking around the clearing, looking interested.
"You guys, this... this is the clearing that we're supposed to be at. This is the one we were supposed to meet Hagrid atafter one hour... speaking of which, does anyone know how long its been?"
Knitter checked his watch.
"Yeah... its been and hour and fifteen minuted since we left here... Where's Hagrid?"
"I don't know, but I do know something... we came from that way when we were coming from the school," Rachel said, pointing toward a familiar path.
"Ugh, then let me by!" Leon said, getting up and going past everybody.
Quickly as they could, the thugs, Serenity, and Cameron followed her, as Alyssa and Rachel teamed up to support Ginny, while Christina and Knitter brought up the rear. Within ten minutes, they saw the light of the school.
"Let's go."
(A/N I was feeling extra generous today. believe it or not, i wrote all of this on MLKJr. day. yeah, the whole thing. lol im at my moms work and im bored outta my mind. lmao k please review... writers block IS MURDER. im workin on new BR chapter, so be waiting! batbones- how do u like me now? huh? oh yeah and theres more to come for you... i will get you back for that stupid thing u wrote... MUAHAHAHA! ahem. review kindly.)