Chapter 5: Forbidden Mystery, Part 2; Into the Woods

Rose

98, 99, 100. Rose set down her hairbrush, looked in the mirror and sighed. 100 strokes and her hair was still a wild mess of tangled curls. But, thinking about it, her hair was the last of her many worries.

First of all, she had reconciled with her cousin, but he was best friends with a Malfoy. Those boys were never separated, so if Rose spent time with Albus, Scorpius was there too. She still wasn't comfortable around Scorpius.

Secondly, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher wasn't teaching them anything and seemed to have a grudge against them all. Rose wasn't happy about how the class was turning out, as her expectations had been quite high.

Third, keeping her new friendship from her father wasn't easy. He had given her strict orders at the beginning not to befriend Scorpius. She had never kept a secret from her parents before, and they were not helping. They kept sending letters asking if she had made any friends, but she couldn't say. Her father would kill her if he found out she befriended a Malfoy.

The last thing in her troubled mind was the strange thing that Albus had seen that evening. She hadn't witnessed anything, but Albus seemed very upset about it. He didn't usually act like that. The only thing that she had figured it could be was just a figment of his imagination.

Rose rubbed her forehead. Everything going through her mind was giving her a headache. She glanced around at her roommates sleeping peacefully, and decided she too should finally be carried away to the serene world of sleep.

*

She was running; running faster than she ever had in her life. She had to get away. Something was chasing her. Some strange unseen being was following her. She knew it couldn't get her. She ran faster and faster, then suddenly, she stopped. It was a small clearing in the trees; it seemed to be her destination. She was surrounded by darkness, but wait! Something bright was appearing out of the gloom. She eagerly leaned forward to the light, to see what was emitting such a hypnotic glow. It was a giant serpent, all made of silver. The mouth was opening. She was suddenly struck with fear, but she couldn't move! Out of the menacing mouth of the snake burst a flash of fire. It lit the ground; flames racing towards her! She still couldn't run! Beads of sweat rolled down her face, the heat becoming unbearable. Suddenly the strange thing that had been pursuing her leapt out of the blazing snake and started throwing jets of green light at her. She was being swallowed up by fire and brightness. She screamed to help, but to no avail. The evil being was laughing cruelly at her. The last thing she saw was a trail of the green luminosity coming straight at her chest. Then she knew no more.

*

"Rose! Rose! Please get up!" Her eyes snapped open. She was panting heavily and was drenched with sweat. What an awful dream that was!

"You're awake!" Rose turned her head to see her classmate, Ivy Blackburn, standing over her looking scared but happy at the same time.

"You were screaming and tossing around for ages. I- we thought you would never wake up." Rose craned her neck to see her other roommates staring worriedly down at her.

Ivy placed her hand on Rose's clammy forehead. "Maybe we should call the nurse," she trilled.

Rose suddenly felt annoyed with the attention. "I'm fine," she snapped, a little harsher than she meant to. The other girls retreated dejectedly to their beds, but Rose didn't notice their hurt looks. The only thing on her mind was telling the boys.

Albus and Scorpius were sitting in the common room, revelling in the fact that it was the weekend. Their peace didn't last long, for Rose soon raced down the stairs. She was bursting to tell them about her nightmare. She knew it wasn't an ordinary dream, for her 'scary' dreams had never been so real.

When she had explained, Albus shouted out, "That's the thing that I saw yesterday!" Then of course, he had to explain it all to Rose and Scorpius again. Rose furrowed her brow.
"What could it mean?" she mused. "What could it mean?"

*

The Hogwarts P.I.'s trooped out of the castle at 1300 hours, determined to get answers. The first thing, Rose insisted, was to question the first witness. Albus Potter, 11, gave his statement.

"I couldn't tell exactly which way it was going. It all happened so fast." Rose was grilling Albus on the direction the mysterious figure had gone. Now she was getting impatient.

"Come on, think!"

"Well, it kind of went past me like this, and I think it went that way," described Albus, pointing past the castle towards the Forbidden Forest.

"No way," Scorpius stated flatly. "I didn't come to school to get in trouble." Albus nodded in agreement. Now Rose was really annoyed.

"You boys have less courage than- than a bashful bunny! My grandmum wouldn't be scared to go into that forest, and Uncle Harry did millions of times! If you won't go in, I'll just go alone." With that, she stalked off purposely towards the Forbidden Forest, Albus and Scorpius shouting restraints.

Rose ignored them; there was nothing that would stop her now. Except for-

"Oi! What do yeh think yer doin'?" Harid had come out of his hut and was staring quizzically at Rose, who was one step away from the woods. "I-I-I was just-"

"We upset her, so she was running away from us, Scorpius put in, gasping for breath.

"That's right," Albus puffed. Rose smiled at the support, and then turned back to Hagrid. "I wasn't actually going into the forest," she said, flashing a huge smile.

"Jus' see tha' yeh don't," Hagrid commanded, shuffling back to his home.

"Thanks for the cover, guys. But we still need to get in there." Albus' face lit up. "I could write Dad for the Invisibility Cloak." "You do that."

The threesome walked up to the castle with a new hope of solving the adventuresome spirit must have reminded Harry of someone, for he sent the cloak the next morning with no questions. Only a note which read simply, Don't get caught.

*

It was pitch black outside as they made their way down the quiet halls of Hogwarts at midnight. They had covered themselves completely with the cloak and were walking noiselessly, so that if anyone happened to come their way, they would hear and see nothing.

Rose, in the lead, opened the oaken door just enough so that all three could squeeze through. Silently they crept across the grounds, only pausing once to make sure that Hagrid was asleep. Then the time had come. Rose took a deep breath and stepped into the dark forest.