A/N: Damn! Broke my speedy update pattern! Got a bit carried away this weekend so dealing with a tender head and dehydration!! Hope this chapter still comes out coherent.
TO: embermarieclaire, I rekon I look forward to your reviews as much as you do my chapters! Pumps my ego and makes me feel good!
TO: Cecilia Orechio, oooo yea, Mr. Bad-And-Ugly is gonna be back!
To all you other guys that review every one of my chapters, you guys are great too! I have readers that like my ideas!! Wicked! I'm also surprised, not to mention very happy how you lot seem to pick up on every detail I stick in the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own the main guy so don't sue me!
Sirius motioned for everyone to gather closer.
"No one is to leave anywhere alone." He said gravely his eyes falling on each person around the rough semi circle they had formed. Yoanna looked terrified her hand tugging at a lock of hair. Lily was bent over James looking apologetic as she inspected the red marks on his neck. For once James was not completely absorbed by her presence and was looking back at Sirius steadily, his expression deadly serious. Rosie returned his look with a glare.
"I don't think we'd get anywhere even if we tried, alone or with someone." She said deliberately referring back to their failed attempt to leave the forest. Sirius ignored her comment and conjured a small campfire made from dancing blue flames. "What are you doing?" Rosie cried and put out the glow with a wave of her wand.
"What does it look like? I don't know about you but I'm cold." Sirius slapped his forehead in mock shock at his callousness. "Oh right, I forgot snakes were cold blooded. I'm sorry." He finished with his most un-sorry tone ever. With a faint puff the blue fire was back this time larger. Rosie bristled but did not put out the fire again.
"You draw evil to us like a moth to a flame." She said not bothering to hide the darker tone in her voice. Lily was instantly reminded of the forbidding warning she had given her about being watched and shivered.
"You cold?" James asked. Lily shook her head; if anything she was more uncomfortable than cold in her drying clothes.
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly and drew closer to the fire, the light danced over his chiseled features making him seem darker than her warning. "Then, my dear, like a moth the evil will get its ass burnt." He had his wand out again and five fork picks appeared along with a large bag of marshmallows. "Besides, ever heard of the phrase: 'light wards off evil'?" To the others he added happily "Eat up fellow scouts, can't think on an empty stomach can we?"
Not long after, their moods had improved considerably and with a bit of coaxing even Rosie had a few hot and gooey marshmallows. Upon hearing Lily call Rosie's name however, Sirius choked on a marshmallow and exclaimed. "You don't look like a 'Rosie' to me."
"That's because I'm not. I'm Rose Amiral." Rosie replied darkly, a bad mood beginning to storm.
Sirius nodded thoughtfully. "I thought as much." The exchange was lost upon Lily and Yoanna and James gave Sirius a warning glare before interrupting by offering the bag around.
"So what are we going to do?" Yoanna asked tentatively.
"Camp songs!" Sirius cheered but quietened down when they all glared at him.
"I guess there's nothing to it guys, we're going to have to send flares up and hope someone can see it." Lily sighed. With so many of them having broken so many rules they were going to lose a lot of house points but there was nothing to be done. Everyone looked at each other. The solution sucked but there was nothing else they could do.
"I'm not sure it would get past the tree tops." Yoanna observed as she looked up into the treetops.
"No problem, I'll climb." James stood up and brushed himself off.Yoanna also stood up. "I'll climb too." She'd grown up in the countryside and had spent much of her childhood climbing trees. At the thought of her childhood her heart clenched but she quickly dismissed it. Now was not the time to think about that.
James scaled a tree easily whilst Yoanna took her time carefully selecting comfortable footholes. Once high enough James balanced himself on a thick branch giving him a good view the clearing and slightly more view into the deep growth surrounding them. It was hard to make out anything in the dim light but slowly his eyes adjusted. He didn't have a watch on him but he guessed that dawn must be close. They had been in the forest for a good few hours now it just had to get lighter soon although he doubted it would make much difference even when they could see their predicament.
A movement to his left caught his eye. James peered into the thick blanket of leaves and caught a flash of something white. Through another gap he could see that it was a man! But another second of watching told him otherwise, for this man had four legs. A centaur. James had never seen one of those before and with a swish of a tail he was gone. Centaurs were very elusive creatures and James wondered his luck at having seen one on such an unlucky night; perhaps he should ask Lily out again. He shook his head firmly. The Sirens had been enough of an embarrassment without increasing the tally on how many times Lily had slapped him in the same night.
He aimed his wand through one of the larger breaches among the canopy and shot off a spurt of red sparks that exploded once it had cleared the tree. It rained a shower of red over the momentarily lit up sky. In the same instant something skittled up the tree trunk in front of him. Upon first glance it was deep green with long vine-like stems that wrapped and twisted around each other to form a mini humanoid figure complete with a head full of leaves. It was clearly a plant yet highly mobile.
"Oh Shit!" he cried out recognizing the dangerous plant. It was a Porptule. An extremely hostile plant that spends most of its living cycle hiding in treetops and living off tree sap. Unfortunately it was classed as hostile because when it felt threatened by anything (which was most of the time) it would squirt out a dollop of extremely thick sticky substance much like glue at the cause of threat. In the dark and hasty climb James had missed the warning of masses of dried yellow patches dotted on the tree.
With a strange porp noise and a force that knocked James off the branch, he face was covered with the warm goo and he was falling.
"Leviosa!" Lily screamed as she saw James fall. It was a simple spell derived from the levitation spell and it would have broken his fall had she her wand. Instead its effects only amounted to a slight hiccup in his descent and he landed heavily at her feet. "James!"
Behind them Sirius was quickly signaling for Yoanna to return to the ground as he was attacked by healthy splatter of yellow glue. With a quick flick of the wrist he deflected the majority it of only to hear a scream in the direction of deflection. Rosie was clutching her face, rapidly trying to wipe it goo away. Sirius went running to her, pulling her hands away from her face. He had no idea how long it took for the stuff to set but one thing possibly worse than having it in your face is having it stick your hands to your face.
"Scourgify!" Soap suds foamed all over her face immediately and he fought against her desperately scrabbling hands to wipe away the glue and soap, still the spell did little more than add more mess. "Damn! Damn! Damn it!" he swore at the little progress he made.
Likewise Lily was wiping away the glue as best as she could but the glue was setting and the damage was done. "I can't open my eyes!" James discovered that true to its properties, the stuff had glued his eyes firmly shut. "Don't worry about it, Lily, it's not going to come off." He said finally pulling her hand away from his face. All at once he was suddenly more aware of the sounds in the immediate surroundings. He could hear a series of porps as the Porptules sent their projectile body fluid at them and hearing them splatter away from them. Someone must be deflecting them away. He could also hear Sirius swearing and Rosie wailing.
All at once it stopped. "I think they've given up." Yoanna said, eyes alert and wand prepared. She hadn't let a second spurt of glue hit them since she had reached the ground.
"Let go of me, you idiot!" Rosie shouted in frustration but Sirius still held onto her hands. Likewise her eyes were also glued shut.
"I'm bloody trying to!" He managed to rip his wand hand away from her wrist and they both winced as a layer of skin came off. "Bloody hell!" he stared at his raw hand. The glue had set fast and he was not about to risk losing the skin on his other hand as well.
"Oh no!" Lily tried to pull her hand out of James but it had stuck fast. Rosie continued to swear but did not attempt to rip her already swore hand away from her chin or the other from Sirius' other hand.
"Guys!" Yoanna alerted them as two figures stepped into the clearing.
A/N: A semi cliffhanger there! I hope you enjoyed this chapter because I certainly did!
