Chapter Six: The Forbidden Forest
Emma Swan sits under a large oak tree, readingThe Standard Book of Spells Grade Five, that Saturday morning. It is a warm day, and the giant squid is swimming around in the shallows, basking in the warmer water. Her friends are at Hogsmeade for the day, and Emma who is sick decided not to go, and said she would stay up at the school and relax by the lake. Every so often, first and second years would walk by in their friendship groups, sending her nervous smiles before continuing on with their day. If Emma could stay here every day of the year, nothing would make her happier.
The fourth term is only two weeks in, and Emma feels like time has flown. Last summer holidays had been a nightmare and she was sure this holiday would be as well. Her cousin Lily had given her a black eye when Emma refused to move off the sofa, and Lily had claimed it to be an accident which her Muggle father James, and her pretending-to-be-Muggle mother Priscilla accepted, and grounded Emma for the rest of the holidays.
This holiday Emma decided she would keep well out the way of everyone. She hated living with them. With her parents having died in a car crash when she was a small girl, her mother's sister Priscilla was Emma's only living relative. Emma doesn't like Priscilla very much. It has nothing to do with always taking Lily's side and treating her like she didn't exist, it was because Priscilla was a witch who graduated Hogwarts, and fell in love with James. Priscilla has hidden her magical ability from him and today she still does.
Priscilla had claimed that Emma's mother Odette was abnormal and her husband Derrick too. James agreed and from that a lie had been fabricated. Emma often found herself wondering what would have happened if Lily had grown up to show magical ability and Emma was pretty sure James would have disowned her as a child. Thankfully for a worrying Priscilla, Lily was a squib and showed no signs of magic.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" A male voice asks, causing Emma to jump and for her train of thoughts to break off.
"Sure." Emma smiles, a slight blush tinging her cheeks.
Neal Cassidy, a sixth year Hufflepuff prefect is standing in front of her, a warm smile on his face. Neal is a good looking boy, and all of Emma's friends know that Emma has developed a crush on him, even though they have never spoken, until today.
"You're not at Hogsmeade?" Neal asks, leaning back against the tree beside her.
"I wasn't feeling well." She almost squeaks, managing to keep herself composed.
Neal nods his understanding and smiles. "Well, I had some homework I needed to finish. Did you want to maybe go get some pumpkin juice? The Great Hall is open for lunch."
Emma trembles slightly but nods her head enthusiastically. "I'd love too."
…
Emma wakes Saturday snuggled deeply in her bed covers. It is cooler today, and around her, Mary Margaret, Ruby and Mulan are dressing in warmer clothes.
"I hope they have warm food this morning." Mulan mumbles. "I hated the porridge yesterday. It was so runny."
Ruby sighs. "If things don't look up food-wise I might be paying Granny a lot more visits."
"And the Sleeping Beauty awakens." Mary Margaret smiles sending Emma a large smile.
"Morning." Emma yawns, drawing the covers closer around her. "What's the time?"
"Seven thirty, so if you want to make breakfast you might want to hurry up." Mary Margaret answers, before walking out of the dormitory.
Emma groans and stands quickly dressing in jeans, a sweater, boots, a leather jacket, a scarf, gloves and beanie. Considering it is weekend and out school hours, students are allowed to wear what they want to. The Slytherin's always looked classy with their smart pants and dress shirts, or skirts, tights and heels. Emma could have sworn she has never seen one of them wear jeans before.
After quickly brushing her hair and teeth in the girl's bathroom, feeling too lazy to use the Prefect one, she makes her way into the common room to see it mostly empty. She rolls her eyes at the fact that none of her friend's has waited for her, food clearly on their minds. Emma arrives in the Great Hall a few minutes later to her usual group sitting in the same spot they did every morning, all pulling their faces at the lack of bacon and egg. It was porridge again.
"Apparently the Elves still hadn't gotten the bacon supply for the weekend." Ruby grumbles poking at her porridge, which is still runny.
Emma pulls a face as she spoons some into her bowl, but is surprised when her owl Henry swoops over carrying a couple of letters.
"Wow, you got mail." Graham teases, earning a playful punch to his arm.
"Shut up." Emma mumbles, giving Henry a bit of a dried toast, before he flies away again.
"Who are they from?" Mary Margaret asks, peering at both letters curiously.
Emma picks up the first one and groans. "Mother Superior. I had almost forgotten about detention."
Emma glances over at Robin to see that he is reading through his letter, also pulling a face.
"Midnight., and we are serving it with your grandmother Ruby, and Regina and Jones are with us." Robin states.
Emma looks towards the Slytherin table to see only Regina sitting there; pulling a similar facial expression to one's Emma and Robin wore. Killian is nowhere in sight.
"Damn I would have loved to have seen his face when he received the letter." David chuckles, before going on to mock Killian's accent. "My father will hear about this."
Emma goes to reply when she stops mid-sentence. Killian is there, only he isn't looking at his letters, he is in the middle of an argument with Milah.
"Wow, never thought I'd see that." Emma mumbles watching them.
"You didn't hear?" Marian asks, joining them. "They broke up over the holidays. I heard Milah cheated on him with Robert Gold who graduated last year. Killian found out and broke up with her. She's been trying to win him back ever since Gold dumped her sorry ass, because he and Belle from Ravenclaw are dating."
Emma's eyes widen. "Seriously? Belle and Gold. Oh my god. Her mum must be pissed."
"She was but Gold charmed her. He comes to Hogsmeade every week to see Belle. It's kind of cute really. But yeah, Milah and Killian are in a very ugly post-breakup situation." Marian whispers. "So you want to annoy him, bring her up."
"You know I was wondering why we hadn't seen them all over each other like we normally do." David mutters. "It's actually a very good thing anyway. They were sickening."
"But they were together shopping in Diagon Alley? I saw her enter Flourish and Blottswhere Killian was, with Tamara." Emma said, not being able to comprehend they had broken up.
"Nope, she just follows him around and tries to make it seem like he still wants her. In fact, I heard he actually hid from her the other day." Marian chuckles. "Too bad he couldn't today. It looks pretty heated."
Emma goes red in the face when she sees that Killian is angrily walking away from Milah, and looking at her. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that Killian has seen her watching. Killian looks away and plonks down next to Regina and Zelena, opening his letter, letting out another curse at it.
After breakfast, Emma decides that she isn't going to Hogsmeade. Graham offers to stay behind to keep her company, but Emma insists she wants to be alone, especially having suffered through an entire week of Killian's presence. She watches her friends leave, before grabbing her Charms textbook and heading out to her usual spot by the lake. Half way out of the Great Hall she is stopped in her tracks by the very last person she wants to see.
Neal.
…
Emma feels on top of the world. She and Neal have been dating for almost a term now, and some reference to them as the power couple. Of course, she has sneers from the Slytherin's who mock her, but she doesn't care.
Neal waits for her at the bottom of the staircase every morning, sits with her and her friends during meals, and to make matters even better, they like him. He is sweet and charming, and always puts Emma first. The last week of term arrives fairly quickly, and Neal is in his study hall, leaving Emma to hang around with her friends.
Emma though decides she is going to practice catching the Snitch, so she flies around every so often releasing the snitch to dive and re-catch it. She's been in the air half an hour, before she is joined by the last person she wants to see. Killian Jones is hovering beside her.
"You and the honey badger hey?" He smirks as Emma rolls her eyes.
"Go away." Emma mutters.
"It's not going to last." Killian sing-songs. "He's not a very nice guy, Princess. Worse than I am in fact. He's only going to hurt you."
Emma glared at him. "You don't know Neal and you know nothing about our relationship."
"You're right, I don't. Anyway, Slytherin has the pitch booked so scram."
Emma rolls her eyes and chucks the snitch at him, before landing, and walking back to the castle. By the time she enters the Great Hall, Neal has finished his study lesson and he is standing there, waiting for her.
"Hey." She smiles.
Neal immediately presses his lips against hers in a possessive manner and Emma smiles into the kiss.
"What's brought this on?" She asks.
"Saw you with Jones. He's bad news. I don't like him near you." Neal mutters, before taking Emma's hand and pulling her into the Great Hall.
Emma has never seen this jealous side of Neal before and she pushes it aside thinking this is what all boyfriends are like. Half an hour later, she feels her stomach sink a little when Killian swaggers into the Great Hall as though he runs the school. Neal tenses and glares at the younger boy by a year, but Killian shows no signs of backing down.
"Keep away from her." Neal hisses.
"Like I want to be near her anyway."
And before Neal can answer, Killian has walked away.
…
"Been avoiding me have you?" Neal smirks, giving her the 'I am the man stance'.
Emma glares. "I don't want anything to do with you. Now move."
Neal chuckles, and leers when he sees a couple of on-lookers are watching them, all mouths open in shock.
"Oh come on, we had some good times together." He steps forward, completely ignoring how uncomfortable Emma is getting.
"Yeah, but that was before I found out you were only using me, and then you dumped me in front of the entire school. Get out of my way."
Neal goes to reply, but he is stopped mid-sentence when a hand pulls him around. Emma expects to see either, David, Robin or Graham there, thinking that one of them may have changed their minds about going to Hogsmeade, but when she hears the collective gasps of her school-mates, she knows it was neither three. Looking down on Neal in a slightly threatening manner is none other than Killian Jones.
"She said move, mate. So move." Killian says his tone dark.
Emma's eyes widen in shock, and she looks like a deer in headlights. Neal is staring harshly back at Killian, but after a few moments, he hastily walks away.
"Why did you do that?" Emma asks.
Killian looks back at her and just as Emma believes she is going to get an answer, he walks right past her and disappears down the stairs leading to the Slytherin common room.
…
The rest of the day passes in a haze for Emma. Her small run in with Neal has shaken her a little, but she knows she couldn't have gone the entire school year avoiding him. She'd seen him in the Great Hall at meal times, and caught the odd sight of him in between lessons, and had made it her mission to avoid him when he did come into her view.
The one thing that remains on her mind throughout the day though is Killian being the one to jump in. She had seen something behind his eyes then and there that was real. He wasn't pretending to play hero or make himself look good. Whatever Neal had done had affected him, and even though he hated her, Killian had gone out of his way to make sure Neal got out of her face.
By the time Mary Margaret, David, Robin, Ruby, Marian, Mulan and Graham arrive back from Hogsmeade it is almost dinner time. Mary Margaret is carrying a bag on Honeydukes sweets for Emma and has even managed to sneak a butter beer back.
"Thanks." Emma smiles, as she takes a sip, loving the feeling of the liquid warming her up.
"You want to tell me what happened earlier?" Mary Margaret asks, as the two of them sit alone in the dormitory. "Everyone is talking about it."
Emma groans and peers at Mary Margaret. "News spreads really fast around here. Neal confronted me when I was trying to leave the Great Hall earlier. He refused to get out of my way. Jones showed up and managed to get Neal out of my space. No big deal."
Mary Margaret rolls her eyes. "That is a big deal with him, Emma. I've never seen him stick up for anyone outside of his house."
"I don't care okay. I just don't want anything to do with Jones. And now Robin and I have detention with him and Regina tonight, which just makes matters worse."
Mary Margaret sighs. "I know. Come on, let's get some dinner."
…
It is the last day of term before the summer break. Emma is laying in her be trying to think of ways her and Neal can see one another during the summer holidays. She can't see James or Priscilla driving her anywhere, let alone letting Neal visit. She could always use the floo network system that Leopold had set up without her aunt and uncle knowing in their fireplace.
"Emma, are you coming?" Ruby calls. "Breakfast is already going."
"I'm coming."
Emma staggers out of bed, dresses and made herself presentable before joining her friends in the common room, all making their way into the Great Hall. With it being the last day of term, there are no lessons, as today students are packing up all their belongings, and being given instructions for the holidays for what they are allowed to do and not.
"Oi, can we talk?"
Emma jumps when sees saw Neal walking towards her. She's never heard him order her around like this before. David looks as equally confused, but allows Mary Margaret to pull him away.
"Sure, what's up?" Emma smiles, reaching over to take his hand.
Neal pulls his back immediately and smirks when he sees a few people watching.
"Thank you for letting me win this bet." Neal chuckles, as he signals to a couple of his friends. "You made it really easy. I get a nice new broom stick out of this. You were okay, not the best kisser and very clingy."
Emma can feel the tears forming in her eyes as she stares at him. "Neal."
"Just leave me alone from now on, kid."
And without even apologizing for breaking her heart, he makes his way back to his friends, who are all laughing. Emma can't help but glance around. Some are giving her sympathetic looks, others looking shocked and some laughing. And to the right, and to her upmost hatred, the one person who had told her she would get her heartbroken, Killian Jones is laughing his head off. And without a second thought she runs from the hall.
…
Midnight comes quicker than Emma wants, and at eleven thirty, she and Robin meet Regina and Killian in the entrance hall, who are standing with Ruby's grandmother.
"Okay now that we are all here I just want to explain what we are doing. There is an injured wolf in the forest and we need to find the poor thing and put it out of its misery. Now because the four of you are here because you couldn't work together, you will be doing just that to find the creature. Emma and Killian you will go in one direction, Regina and Robin the other, and I will go another. If you find yourself in trouble you are to send up red sparks with your wand. Remember there are dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest, and I need the four of you to act maturely and responsibly. I have been warned by Mother Superior that if the four of you don't co-operate in a cohesive manner you will find yourselves right back here again tomorrow night. Let's go."
Emma glances over at Killian who is listening to what Lucas was saying, before she feels Robin tap her on the shoulder to follow him, which she does.
"Just be careful with him." Robin whispers, as they make their way to the edge of the forest. "I'll kill him if anything happens to you."
"Same with Regina." Emma says. "Good luck."
And with Professor Lucas's permission, the four head into the forest, separating immediately.
…
Emma and Killian are silent as they track further into the thick trees. Emma can feel the tension between them and it is beginning to make her feel uneasy. Killian is actually looking serious for a change and it is clear the forest was making him nervous, just like it was with her. After a few moments Emma can't take the silence any longer.
"Why?" She asks.
"Why what?"
"Why did you get Neal out of my face earlier? I thought it would have been great comedy for you watching me get intimidated by my ex."
Killian shrugs in the dark. "I have my reasons."
Emma turns to face him and can just make out his expression with the light from her wand.
"Look I don't know why but it triggered something with you." She cuts straight to the point.
"Can you just leave it the bloody-well alone?" Killian snaps.
Emma takes a few steps back at his angry tone and turns back around. She hears Killian sigh behind her.
"Look, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me anyway. You'd just think I was dicking around."
Emma spins back to face him. "Try me."
"My father gets in my mother's face like that, and it's threatening. I don't like it. Cassidy is clearly bigger than you, it's intimidating. I know I like to get in your personal space, but I don't do it to threaten you, I do it to get a rise. Neal was being a dickhead. He is a dickhead."
Emma's eyes are wide. She knows he is telling the truth, and she can see the hate behind his eyes as he spoke to her about his father.
"Milah used to and still does get in my face even now we've broken up." Killian answers. "Do you believe me or not?"
"I believe you." Emma replies, turning and walking further into the forest.
"So what was Cassidy's reasoning for dumping you like that?" His tone is curious.
"None of your business."
"I told you about my mother and father."
He hears Emma sigh in front of him. "Fine, he and his mates made a bet. The bet was that he would win a broomstick if he could get me to fall for him. I did because I liked him. I was just a pawn in a silly, immature game."
Killian feels a wave of guilt wash over him. Up until yesterday he thought the bet would be a great idea, but hearing Emma's heartbroken tone, even if he didn't like her, he knows his conscience won't allow for him to go through with what he had planned, and he makes a mental note that when he gets back to the dormitory and the next time he sees Greg and Tamara, he is calling it off.
Shocking to him he still finds himself wanting to try and earn Emma's trust and get know her. Despite their hating one another since their first year at Hogwarts, there is something about Emma that intrigues him, and he sees a lot of himself in her.
Killian goes to follow Emma, only he loses his footing on a slippery rock. Everything happens in a flash of an eye. He feels himself slip down a steep slope, a pained yell coming from his mouth. Something snaps in his leg, and he can't find his wand, having lost it mid-fall. He lands in a river, and the last thing he sees is red sparks being sent up from above him.
He doesn't hear Emma shout his name, nor see her follow him down the bank, or more importantly, feel her pull him out from the water.