Chapter 38

Ari's POV

Once again the figure howls, this time with a smirk on his face, before saying, "You're just so easy to trick!"

I jump up off the ground and smack him in the chest as I yell, "FREDDIE! YOU INSUFFERABLE TOSSER!" I turn around and see that James and Landen have caught up to me and are both glaring at Freddie while they catch their breath.

Freddie continues to smirk at me, his expression resembling that of a giddy child, but before he can respond, Eli comes running around the corner and slides to a stop next to Freddie, a serious expression on his face as he attempts to catch his breath before saying, "You… You all are going to want to see this… Follow me, but tread quietly."

I wipe the still flowing blood from my face and nod, grabbing hold of Eli's shirt and forming a train as the remaining three follow suit and grab onto the backs of the shirt in front of them. We all tiptoe through the eerily silent forest, Eli leading the way, the lot of being equally as silent, knowing only where to go by following the body of the person in front of us. After sneaking through the forest for a few minutes, Eli stops abruptly and turns around to face us. I'm about to question why we've stopped and where he's led us when I hear what caused his concern.

"You few students 'ave decided to follow Lord Brighton, but we need more! We need more followers if we are to follow through wis our plans! So I need you, new brozerhs and sisterhs, to find more people to join our family! I warn you, do not trust just anyone. Ariana Brighton and her friends are hated, but if ozher students see that she is innocent, that she isn't one of us, they will join togezher and follow her. Now, lift up your left sleeve so I can give you ze mark of our family."

I creep forward and peer around the tree trunk I'm hiding behind. I see about ten boys and girls, all of different houses, standing in a single file line. I watch Andromeda approach the first boy in line, a fourth year from Ravenclaw named Joshua Abernathy, and pull out her wand before she moves in front of him completely, blocking my view of what she's doing.

It only takes her a few moments to finish with Joshua, but it's more than enough time to see who else is there. There are a total of three Ravenclaws: Joshua and third year and fifth year siblings Jenny and Jamie Singleton. There are two Hufflepuffs: Second year Lilly Fitzpatrick and fifth year Robert McKinty. There are four Slytherines: Sixth year Roald Zabini, third year Alicia Songtree, seventh year Lowell Eltron and first year Partridge Parkinson and there is one Gryffindor: Alec Darkbloom. The moment I catch sight of Alec, it takes every fiber of my being to stop myself from running to him and punching him in the face but, by clenching my teeth and fists, I practice a fair amount of restraint and continue to watch the events that are playing out in front of me.

Andromeda continues down the line and does something I can't see to the remaining students forearms with her wand before welcoming them to the "family", telling them to find more recruits and dismissing them.

Eli, Freddie, Landen, James and I all hide in nearby bushes as the newly inducted students and Andromeda exit the forest. We wait until we can't hear their loud footsteps and echoing voices anymore, then we wait a few minutes longer, before crawling out of the bushes and gathering in a tight circle. Before anyone can even begin to talk about what we just saw, Landen says, "We should head back to the Head's common room now…"

We all nod our agreement then, in a single file line, we slowly and silently make our way out of the Forbidden Forest, only the moon overhead lighting our way. Once we've exited the forest and gotten back into the castle, it takes us no time at all to sneak back to the Heads dorm.

The moment we get in and the portrait swings shut, Brittany and Al come storming out of my room demanding answers. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU FIVE BEEN? IT'S FREAKING TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING! I WAS WORRIED SICK!"

Freddie gives Brittany a quick peck on the cheek before saying, "Alright, well I'm just going to address the elephant in the room. Ari, you're a bloody idiot."

I let out a scoff and throw my hands up as Al patiently takes a seat on the couch. "WHAT?!"

He glances around the room before continuing. "Well! I mean come on! There's not even a full moon tonight and you thought you were going to find a werewolf in the forest? Really?"

Landed visibly attempts to contain his laughter as he steps between me and Freddie, preventing me from attacking Freddie for his ridiculous claim. "How about we talk about what we just saw Andromeda doing with those students in the forest…"

Brittany looks at all of us, confusion painting her every feature. "Wait, what did we miss?"

I shake my head and scoff again. "How about we talk about the fact that ALEC DARKBLOOM was in that line of students! What the hell was that?!"

Everyone in the room shrugs nervously as Brittany snorts in frustration. "WHAT. DID. YOU. GUYS. SEE?"

James, Landen, Freddie, Eli and I all cast uneasy glances to each other before James takes a seat next to Al and begins explaining what happened in the Forbidden Forest. "Well Al, Brittany, let's start from the beginning. Tonight Landen, Ariana and I went into the forest to look for werewolves. We thought we had found some too when we heard a bit of howling resonating throughout the forest, but-"

I glare at Eli and Freddie as I cut James off. "BUT it turns out we found the ever common bloody wankers instead!"

Freddie scoffs and raises his eyebrows at me. "OI! I am most certainly NOT common! I am-"

James rolls his eyes and interjects. "Are you lot going to let me finish the story or not?!"

We all nod in silent unison for James to continue, guilty looks on all our faces as we do. James clears his throat and continues the story. "As I was saying… We thought we had found some werewolves, but we only found Freddie and Eli, who were successfully pranking Ari." He sees that I'm about to object to his claim so he quickly adds, "Yes Ari. They successfully pranked you. Don't try to deny it either!"

I flop down onto the floor and pout, my arms crossed tersely against my chest. "Whatever… I knew it was them the whole time…"

James rolls his eyes once again and turns to look at Al and Brittany, who are sitting next to each other and watching James intently as he, making sure not to leave anything out, continues his account of the story. When he gets to the part about Andromeda doing something to their forearms, I interject once again. "Did any of you see what she put on their arms?"

The four boys each shake their heads, confusedly looking at each other as Freddie says, "I'm not really sure… Why did she choose to put in on their forearm? Are she and Ari's dad trying to copy Voldemort's dark mark thing?"

Brittany, who had been silent throughout the entire recollection of the story, chimes in. "Isn't it obvious? The forearm is easy to hide and easy to access. If they want to show it off they can but, if they want to hide it, they can do that as well. It's genius, really…" She lets out a heavy sigh and zones out, staring blankly at the crackling fire.

Eli scoffs at Brittany while nudging me with his foot. "Uh-oh Ari…"

I smirk up at him and stifle the urge to laugh. "Uh-oh Eli…"

Al raises an eyebrow at us and clears his throat. "Er, what 'uh-oh'?"

Brittany snaps out of her stupor and angrily says, "If either of you mention a 'nerdgasm', so help me Merlin, I'm going to murder you both!"

Eli and I both burst into a fit of laughter while Brittany glares daggers at us and Freddie, James, Al, and Landen look at us quizzically. After Eli and I have calmed down, we all sit around the room, each silently lost in our own thoughts. After what seems like hours, the silence is broken by,

"He really is going to attack American muggles, huh?"

I look up from the carpet that I had been staring at and see Al watching me with concern on his face. I nod my head slowly as I respond. "Yeah Al… He really is…"

He nods and takes a deep breath before asking, "And he's really using other students from Hogwarts to help him?"

I nod again, noting the fact that now everyone is watching us talk, and somberly say, "Yeah…"

Al takes a moment to put everything together then jumps up off the couch and exclaims, "Then we have to do something! We have to stop him!"

I smirk at him and nod once again. "Yeah, we do Al. You have anything in mind?"

Al shakes his head just as James shrugs his shoulders and plainly says, "Well, first we have to stop Andromeda from recruiting any other students. Once we've done that, we can figure out where to go from there."

Brittany looks over at James and grins. "When did you become the voice of reason?"

James winks at her and grins. "Mind blowing, right? I'm about to do it again too. It's almost four in the morning and five of us have classes tomorrow. I recommend we all head off to bed and talk about this again tomorrow."

We all nod our agreement, some of us replying with an audible yawn as well before saying our goodnights and heading into our designated rooms, bidding Al farewell when he leaves to go back to the Slytherine's dungeon.

I say goodnight to everyone one last time before adjourning into my room and flopping down onto my bed in a heap of exhaustion, convincing myself that we will figure things out tomorrow before falling into a nightmare filled sleep.

I hope this update came faster for yall! I worked really hard at getting it out in a timely manner just for yall! I hope you all enjoy it!

As always, I would like to thank everyone who is reading and sticking with this story! You all will never know how much I truly appreciate your support!

I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts and opinions about this chapter! I love yalls reviews! I feeeeed on them! haha But seriously, yalls reviews definitely keep me writing and help me to update faster, so I would really appreciate some reviews! :)

Thanks!

-Tx :)