Despite the warm night air, Rowena found herself shivering as she took off the Cloak under the covering of the ancient trees. The sliver of the moon didn't do much for providing light, so a few hundred yards in, she took out her wand. "Lumos." Without the comfort of knowing that Rhys was nearby, Rowena's fear of the Forbidden Forest magnified. Every rustle of leaves in the light wind made her heart skip a beat, and she jumped at the sound of her own footfalls. A raven suddenly flew in front of her and into the sky; she pointed her illuminated wand toward the tree it came from and saw a nest in it. As she was looking, a dead bird fell out from it and onto the ground. She stepped backward to avoid it hitting her and nearly turned around, her search for the Elder Wand saved for another day. Instead, she stayed where she was and took a few deep breaths.

"They're birds, Rowena. Just birds. They won't hurt you. They don't scare you. You're nearly to the place you found the Stone. Just keep going." And, after a minute, she did. It took her another ten minutes to reach the place she found the Stone. She had no particularly good reason for looking there, but it seemed as good a place as any and she got down on her knees and began to search, picking up every twig she saw, waving it around and hoping there was something more to the twig than appeared at first. She crawled around on her knees for so long that her khakis had turned nearly black with dirt.

Rowena gave up the search for a twig and began to try to remember what an elder tree would look like. If the wand was put back where it came from, there was a possibility that Leila had tried to graft it to an elder tree, or hide it near one as a clue. She tried to remember the defining characteristics of the tree, but all she could think of were the white blossoms it would have in springtime. Most of the trees around her had white blossoms. They seemed eerie and ghost-like under the faint glow from the moon.

As she studied the branches, looking for signs of anything strange, she heard noise behind her. She froze, refusing to turn around and see what sort of beast awaited her. It sounded like hoofs. Soon the one set was joined by more and more and she felt she had no choice but to turn and see what was there.

Staring at her in the darkness were eight sets of beady eyes, far taller than she was, and set in human faces. But still beneath them were horse's hooves. Centaurs, she thought, and then backed slowly into the trunk of the tree.

The one in front, a black thoroughbred with a man's body nearly as dark as the night, spoke to her. "What are you doing trespassing in our forest, child?"

"I- I'm just looking around," she said, her head down, unable to face the powerful frame in front of her.

"In the middle of the night? This deep in the forest? Humans haven't reached this place in hundreds of years, and you are in our territory."

"I'm sorry. I'll leave."

"No, I'm afraid we can't let that happen. Now that you are in our part of the forest, you are subject to our law. And our law has very specific methods of dealing with trespassers."

The great black centaur leaned down and picked her up, squeezing her too tightly, and began to gallop even deeper into the forest. He made no attempt to shield her from branches. The rough bark cut open her skin and left her bleeding. With no other options, and going half-mad in pain, Rowena began to scream. "Rhys! Professor Finney! Someone! Help me!" Her wand thankfully still in her hand, she began to send up red sparks.

"They won't do you any good, here, child. The tree cover is too dense."

Unfortunately, the centaur was right. The sparks she sent up hit the top of a nearby tree, and the leaves, dry from lack of water, caught fire. Fiery branches began to fall to the ground, catching twigs and foliage on fire in front of them. The centaurs abruptly turned around and began to gallop away from the spreading fire. One of the others, now far ahead of the one carrying Rowena, turned back to say, "Drop the child! She's slowing you down!" On command, Rowena found herself being flung onto the forest floor while the herd of centaurs continued to run from the flames.

Rowena pulled herself to her feet, trying to ignore the sore spots developing around her waist. She wasted a moment to look back and see what had become of the fire; it was spreading, moving from tree to tree easily in the densely forested area and climbing over the ground. "Aguamenti," she said, pointing her wand at the flames, but her meager attempt at water wasn't enough to fight the raging fire. It was moving closer and quickly; she knew she couldn't fight it off alone. Turning on her heel, she ran away from the flames, absentmindedly hoping that it would herd her back toward the school.

Never much for running in the first place, the rough terrain of the forest was too much for her and she tripped over a tree root. Before she could get up again, she felt the flames licking at her ankle and it was all she could do to hold them off. Her skin was burning, but she ignored the pain and hobbled to her feet. The pain in her leg was almost blinding her and she ran with only vague attention to the silhouettes of trees. Even as the flames caught up to her, she slowed, noticing one of the silhouettes ahead of her was moving. From a distance it looked something like a centaur, or a unicorn, but it lacked the man's body that would distinguish the former, and was far too dark to be the latter.

Scared, but choosing the unknown creature over the known dangers of the fire, she kept moving forward, but cautiously. The creature seemed to notice her and moved closer. It was like a horse, but skeletal, pitch black, and winged. If Rowena didn't know any better, she'd have thought the creature was a Thestral. The fire had slowed some and the animal approached her, opening its wings and kneeling down. Rowena was certain it wanted her to climb on. She hesitated, having never been one to trust creatures in the first place, but especially with her burned leg, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it to the edge of the forest alone. She climbed on.

There was no good place on the Thestral - if it was a Thestral - to hold on, but she eventually rested her hands in the crest between its wings, bracing herself with her legs as the animal rose into the air and above the treetops. Rowena never minded heights much, and even played Chaser for Gryffindor during fourth year, so she looked down to see if she could get an idea of where in the forest they were.

What made it hardest to tell was the amount of smoke and flames rising from the dense trees, and a wave of guilt washed over her. Acres of forest habitat were disappearing beneath her as the result of her carelessness and recklessness. Rhys probably wouldn't speak to her for weeks.

And then there was the issue of her near-certain expulsion.

She didn't have much time to think about it, however, because the Thestral (but it couldn't be a Thestral) landed in front of the small stone house where Professor Finney lived and then galloped back toward the Forbidden Forest. Without anything better to do, despite being three o'clock in the morning, Rowena knocked.

It took awhile for Professor Finney to reach the door, but when he did he was fully dressed. "Bloody hell, Rowena. It's the middle of the night. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I- er, um, just look," she said, stepping backwards and gesturing vaguely toward the Forest, smoke still rising above the trees, the air seemingly wrinkled in the heat.

"Dumbledore's beard! What happened?"

"Shouldn't we fight the fire first? I promise to explain later. My own aguamenti wasn't strong enough to fight it alone."

"You were probably just distracted if you were in the midst of it. Come on, then." Rowena began limping behind him, her burned ankle searing in pain. "Wait, are you hurt?"

"Just a little. Deal with it later, Professor. The Forest is burned enough as it is."

"If you're certain." At the edge of the Forest, Professor Finney held up his wand and a burst of water turned into a wave when it reached the ground. As he guided the water toward the advancing flames, he risked a look at Rowena. "Well then, do you plan on helping me?"

Rowena nodded, but couldn't cast the spell non-verbally. "Aguamenti!" Unlike her first attempt earlier that day, Rowena managed enough water to help some, moving away from her Professor's much more successful attempt to cover more ground. Within about fifteen minutes, the fire was under control and the two pulled back from the forest, exhausted from the effort.

Soon the pair was sitting at the dining table in Professor Finney's house, Rowena drinking a glass of pumpkin juice and Professor Finney with what he insisted was just a cup of tea. The look on his face as he swallowed left her thinking it was stronger. "So, Rowena, do you care to explain yourself?"

"Not really," she replied, but one look at his stern expression convinced her to keep speaking. "But I will if I have to."

"I think you'd better."

"Remember in class, how I was talking about the Elder Wand?"

"Yes, I do." A look of understanding dawned on his face. "Oh no, Rowena. You didn't go looking for it? I told you that's dangerous magic you're dealing with! I would have expected you to leave it alone."

"But my mother..."

"I really don't know what to tell you about thinking you saw your mother."

"I saw her. I did. And I really don't want to have anything to do with the Elder Wand, but since I do now, I just wanted to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. So I decided to come out tonight." She told him how she found out the last known location of the wand was here at Hogwarts with Leila Weasley during her seventh year, how maybe she decided to hide it, the way the Resurrection Stone had been hidden as well.

"The Resurrection Stone?" Professor Finney interrupted. "Its existence is just a myth. That and the Invisibility Cloak. There's proof that the wand exists, I suppose, but not the rest of the Deathly Hallows. They were just flourishes added to the Harry Potter legend over the years to make it more interesting."

"Like it wasn't already interesting enough?" Rowena blurted out, but managed to keep her mouth shut about the cloak she was presently carrying in her pocket.

"You know how tales spread, Rowena. Like rumors. Someone tells the story, the next person adds a detail or two to spice it up, and so on. It's been a thousand years, Rowena. You have to remember that. There's a group of people - and their numbers are growing - who believe that Harry's story is just a morality tale made up for everyone to learn from. Good over evil, the power of choice, the corruptibility of power, all that sort of thing. You're wasting your time trying to unite the Hallows, and the wand itself is dangerous. And in the process of all this time wasting, you've destroyed half the forest. Were you planning on explaining that part?"

"Oh, right. Yes. Well, there were Centaurs-"

"You ventured into Centaur territory?!"

"Not on purpose; I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going," she said.

"That much is obvious. You're lucky you escaped with your life! How did you get back?"

"Well, I panicked and forgot I was alone. I started calling for Rhys or you or anyone. I sent up red sparks - that's what Rhys said he was supposed to do if there was trouble in the forest - but they hit a dry branch and caught fire. The Centaurs started running away from it and dropped me so they could move faster."

Professor Finney took his time composing his thoughts, but Rowena could tell he had something to say, so she waited for him. "Off the record, then, setting that fire was probably for the best. It's the only way they would've let you go. But you were still in the heart of the forest. How did you make it here?"

"I started to run. I tripped and burned my ankle a little - let it alone, Professor, it isn't that bad. Anyway, a strange animal appeared, sort of like a black horse with wings. It was really skinny, and scared me at first. But it took me on its back and flew here."

"You can see Thestrals, Rowena?"

"It was a Thestral, then? I was sure it couldn't be. I hadn't seen one before tonight."

Professor Finney took a large gulp of his tea and sat with a blank expression on his face for an agonizing few moments. "Is it possible you saw a Centaur die tonight?"

Blurred memories from the evening made their way through her head. She was certain she hadn't. "Maybe. That would make sense I guess. Thank you, Professor." She got up to leave.

"Wait, Rowena. We still haven't discussed your punishment. You snuck out of school in the middle of the night, went into the Forbidden Forest alone, upset a herd of Centaurs, and burned down half of their territory. Don't you dare think you are getting off easy about this."

"Shouldn't I talk to Headmaster Malfoy about it?"

"Yes, that's a good idea. I'll just call him down-"

"Wait, please. It's still the middle of the night." She made to feign a yawn, but it soon became authentic. "Could I get some sleep first, please? Before we talk to him?"

"Okay. But don't think that resting will make me forget what we have planned."

"I won't, Professor. Thanks for the pumpkin juice. And - well, I am sorry, you know. The fire was an accident."

"I know it was. That's why you haven't been expelled yet. Good night now. Get some rest."

Exhausted, Rowena began to walk back toward the large doors of the castle. Dawn had yet to break over the horizon; everything was nearly as dark as it was when she had ventured out hours beforehand. Her mind ran in a hundred different directions as she trudged along - the fire, her pending punishment, the Thestrals, the Wand, her mother - and left very little room for paying attention to her surroundings. If she had been paying attention, she might have noticed the sound of footsteps as she made her way toward the stairs inside, or the faint light from a lit wand that illuminated the path in front of her. As it were, Serah Macmillan's presence at the top of the stairs took her completely by surprise.

"Serah? What are you doing out at this time?"

"Prefect duty. Which means that it's my job to ask you what you are doing out at this time."

Rowena paused and looked up at Serah. Though she was two steps above her on the staircase, Rowena was tall enough and Serah short enough that their eyes were almost level. Rowena couldn't help but think that Serah must often get this shift, because through her glasses, her eyes were magnified but wide open, with no hint at a need for sleep. "Honestly, you don't want to know. I'm going to bed."

With that, she began to make her way past her classmate, but Serah stuck out an arm. "Ten points from Gryffindor. It'll be more once you say what you were up to."

"I was talking to Professor Finney, okay! And he's already guaranteed me a sitting with Headmaster Malfoy tomorrow to talk about punishment. As I already have that settled, I really don't think it's any business of yours what it is that got me into trouble."

She skirted around her and began walking briskly up the stairs. Behind her, she could hear Serah calling out. "But- this is about that wand you were talking about, isn't it? Isn't it?! Rowena, you are going to get expelled if you're not careful. Why won't you tell me what you're up to?"

Rowena could barely hear her as she climbed yet another staircase, skipping the trick step. Serah, while kind at heart, had always been nosy, and couldn't ever figure out why someone would leave her out of a plan. But she was a Hufflepuff in the worst way. She couldn't tell a lie, which meant that when asked about something directly, she couldn't keep a secret. She saw the best in everyone and wanted everyone to be her friend, and was annoyingly pleasant at times. Not to mention the fact that rule breaking, to her, was something unfathomable, something she believed should be punished with as much severity as she could get away with. Rowena couldn't count the number of times she lost 5 points for Gryffindor because of the extra button of her top that she always kept undone. Yes, Serah was bound to be Head Girl next year.

While it was certainly true that Rowena didn't want anyone involved with the whole Elder Wand thing, the last person she wanted to know about it was Serah Macmillan. Talking in front of her during Care of Magical Creatures was completely imprudent, and Rowena regretted it now. She should've just talked to Rhys one night over the weekend in their Common Room. In private. Things would be so much simpler without Serah or Genevieve hanging over her shoulder. Or Professor Finney, she remembered, and despaired over what the morning would bring.