Broadcast #3: Curiosity, Part 1

Fear. Let me tell you a story about fear.

King Arthur wanted to find the holy grail. Who knows why—something about a fishing bum or something. But he wanted to find it, because it was the bloody holy grail. It could probably make you immortal or something, I don't know. Make you rich. Give you infinite wisdom, all that magic lamp nonsense.

Anyway, King Arthur wanted to find it, but didn't know where to look. So he sent out his knights—the round table chaps, you know—and told them that they each had to go into the forests around Camelot to look. But here's the kicker: each knight would have to go into the forest at whatever point looked darkest to him. The place that looks darkest, that's where they would find their treasure.

And that's the truth, ain't it? People, if you're afraid of something, that probably means that there's something important there. You wouldn't be afraid if it wasn't important, right?

—Rowland Macmillan, Archery Club EP. 17

Harry, Justin, Ernie, and Hannah hid behind an old, oak tree. In the distance, across the grassy field that surrounded Hogwarts, they all saw a man walk into the Forbidden Forest. The man was alone, wearing a long, dark robe, and a distinctive turban which all four kids had grown used to seeing around the halls since classes started.

"See?" Ernie said, turning back to the other three. "The bloke's off, just like I told ya. Off his rocker, walking in there all alone, suspicious cloak an' everything. I told you I saw him doing it."

Hannah crossed her arms. "It's not that strange, is it? Maybe he's just looking for something."

"Like what?"

Harry was still staring at where the man had disappeared to. The Forbidden Forest worked to earn its name, constantly covered in a wispy, dark mist, as if cursed to forever reject all light. It was pitch black right up on the tree-line, the spaces between trees looking like an army of individual cave entrances, so it hadn't taken any time at all for the man to escape their sight altogether.

"Monsters maybe? Orcs and stuff." Harry said, though without much heat behind it. "He is the defense professor, I'm sure he can take care of himself."

"Orcs and stuff," Ernie said, deadpan, then shook his head. "You sure were raised muggle, I'll give you that."

Justin had lost interest by then, laying his back against the tree and resting his eyes. "You saying you don't have orcs and stuff?"

"Well, sure, but that's not really—"

"Oh, what's any of this matter anyway?" Hanna said, now annoyed. She glared at Ernie, pointing at him like a chastising mother. "You drag us all over here saying it's important, and then show us something perfectly natural! I've got things to do!"

Ernie was unperturbed, scowling back at her. "I dragged these two here," he said, waving a hand at the other boys. "You came on your own. I'd rather you'd stayed behind, to be honest."

"Well I had to come!" Hannah said, huffing. "If you're planning for the friend group, that means I'm involved whether I like it or not!"

"Who ever said you were a part of the friend group?" Ernie said, now shouting, stomping over to Hannah and getting right in her face.

While the two continued to argue, Harry looked over at Justin. "We're a friend group?" he asked.

Justin shrugged. "News to me."

"Anyway, that's not the point!" Ernie said. He ran over to the tree and got on one of its hunched roots, then turned to all three and held his hands out, a man on his soapbox. "C'mon! You can't tell me I'm the only one who thinks this is bloody strange!"

"You're the only one who thinks this is bloody strange," Justin said, his voice monotone.

"Shut up, you."

"What's the big deal?" Hannah said. "The Forbidden Forest is forbidden to students. Teachers can do whatever they want, right?"

"Again, that's not the point!"

"Well, what is the point, then?"

"The point is that it's Quirrell we're talking about!" Ernie shouted, and that gave the rest pause. Seeing that his words had reached them, or at least that they weren't denying him, he pressed on. "I can't be the only one who thinks the man is absolutely mental."

Hannah struggled to disagree, more out of habit than any real desire. "I mean… He's just, you know…"

"He walks around like a scared little mouse!" Ernie said. "He talks like there's something stuck in his throat, he can't look you in the eye even when he's teaching. I mean, he's a complete ditz! You think so too, right Harry?"

Said boy hesitated at being addressed, and having everyone's eyes on him. "I… guess he is sort of awkward," he said. It made Harry feel bad to say, mostly since he thought he could be fairly awkward himself. But there was no denying that Quirinus Quirrell was by far the most… unique of all his professors.

The man seemed incapable of being around others. Harry could understand—he himself was no socialite—but Quirrell took it a step over the line. Constantly hunched, hands drawn together in what could've been a scheming posture if it wasn't for his worried, roaming eyes and trembling bottom lip. And the way he spoke, with so many pauses, stutters, and hitches, made it hard to even understand what he was saying most of the time. Quirrell could've been a good teacher—he seemed to know what he was lecturing about in classes, and his casting left nothing to be desired—but the way he was, none of his students could ever truly respect him enough to learn anything from him.

Not to mention how he looked at Harry. Nervously, just like with everyone else, like Harry had a snake under his cloak waiting to jump out, but behind the nerves there was something else. The same kind of disgust he'd seen from Snape. A dark tint in his pupils, as dark as the shadows of the forest, and a tensing around the nose, like his nostrils were ready to flare. But unlike Snape, it was hidden. Concealed behind the mild manner. Harry wouldn't have noticed it if he wasn't already so familiar with people disliking him.

"And a guy like that, walking into the dark and dangerous forest all on his own, dressed up like he's in some cult?" Ernie raised his head, a fist coming up with it, and he cried out to the heavens. "I… am curious!"

"Curiosity killed the cat, didn't it?" Justin said, now laying on the grass like a sunbathing cat, either unaware of the irony or uncaring of it.

"No!" Ernie said. "My dad always says, curiosity saved the cat 'cuz then it could see the death coming!" He held his hand out to them, the other pointing to the forest. "So what do you all say? Let's go find out what that wack's up to in there!"

"Pass," Justin said.

"Pass," Hannah said.

"You guys're a bunch of chumps!" Ernie turned to Harry, who again paused at the intensity of his look. "You up for it, Harry? C'mon, you're the Boy Who Lived! Nothing in there's gonna get ya if You-Know-Who didn't!"

"… Okay."

Ernie gave a loud whoot. Justin raised an eyebrow. Hannah gaped.

"Harry, it's against the rules!" Hannah said. "And also it's dangerous in there! I heard there's giant spiders!"

"And orcs," Justin said, cleaning out an ear.

"Yes! And orcs! But most importantly…" Hannah grabbed Harry's collar, shaking him around. "I can't let you give this idiot a win! Don't go!"

Ernie stuck his tongue out at her. "Nya-nya, Harry's coming with me! I guess you lot'll just have to sit back in the commons like a bunch of loooosers!"

"Look at what you're doing to me, Harry!"

Grabbing her hands, Harry gently pulled Hannah off him. He gave her the closest thing he could to a smile, considering the sudden shiver that had begun creeping up his spine. "Sorry, but I guess I'm curious too," he said, and that was the truth. It was just his luck to get two professors who didn't like him, and him in particular. Harry didn't think there was much to do about Snape—the potions master seemed like a moody person in general—but with Quirrell, maybe there was something he could learn to convince the man to let him off.

Plus, there was something to that shiver he was feeling. It wasn't unpleasant. On the contrary, it was… thrilling. The moment Ernie mentioned going into the Forbidden Forest, Harry had felt it building up, like a lit fuse crawling its way to an explosion. It was like what he'd felt when he'd first found out he was a wizard. Like when he'd first gone to Diagon Alley and saw its curving streets, its hovering signs, its colorful people. Like when he'd first seen Hogwarts, the grand castle silhouetted against a foggy, moonlight sky. Like when he'd cast his first spell. It was even a little like what he'd felt when, in the dark of night, he'd made Justin his friend, his first real friend.

It was a good feeling, and it led to good things. Harry was willing to trust it, even as the darkness of the forest loomed somewhere in the back of his mind.

Hannah must've seen something in his face then, because she pouted and looked off to the side. "Well, if you're gonna look like that when you say it…" She closed her eyes and breathed in deep. "I'll go too," she said, hands on her hips, nodding with all the confidence in the world.

Ernie's previous jubilation plummeted into disbelief. "Wait, what?"

"I mean, it's a friend group thing," she said, smirking at Ernie's dumbfounded expression. "What about you, Justin? Care to take a stroll in the scary forest?"

Justin closed his eyes, hands behind his head, for all the world looking like he was set to fall asleep under the shade of the tree they sat next to. "Nah."

Harry, Hannah, and Ernie all looked down at him. "Why not?" Hannah said.

"Don't feel like it."

They were all silent at that. Ernie eventually cupped his chin. "I guess I can't really argue against that," he said.

Hannah, however, only frowned. "What do you mean you don't feel like it?" she asked, huffing.

Justin shrugged. "It just sounds like a hassle. I got enough work with all this homework piling up—"

"—which you haven't exactly tried to do—"

"—and also I'm, I dunno, a scared little boy. See? I'm sooo scared."

Harry looked at him, then back at the other two. "I think he'll go."

At this, Justin opened his eyes. "What makes you say that?" he said, uncertainty seeping into his voice for the first time.

"You need my notes to write your McGonagall paper tomorrow, right? I'm blackmailing you."

"I don't think that's what blackmailing means."

"Well, whatever it is, I'm doing it. Please come?"

Justin looked long at Harry. Finally, he grunted and sat up. "I could write that paper in my sleep, but I'll humor you. Just this once though, since I guess it could be interesting." He sighed at Harry's smile, then turned to Ernie. "Alright, chief, what's the plan?"

Ernie had by then shaken himself from Hannah's inclusion. He passed his eyes over the other three, shooting her a scowl, then smiled anyway. "Alright, he said, and they all leaned forward, "here's what I'm thinking."

FYI, I'd add Hannah on the tag in the description if they let me put more than four characters. Oh well.

Follow, favorite, and review.