Chapter 11-The Mist

"Albus?!" Rose ran through piles of leaves she didn't recognize, jumped over branches and logs. The farther she went, the more the forest darkened. The more she ran, the more the arms of the trees reached out and yanked at her fiery red hair, urging her to stay a while. "Patricia!" She didn't know what had happened. Seconds ago, she'd been walking with Albus and Pat silently through the forest, searching for a tree suitable for a wand, watching out for dangerous creatures hiding in the brush. The more she thought, though, the more she realized that she'd been running frantically for far longer than just seconds. Minutes, scores of them passing in this one moment.

The duff played tricks on her, showing silhouettes of scruffy haired boys with glasses and tall girls with wide hats and nets around their waists. The roots tripped her like some hooligan schoolboy as the leaves laughed like the pretty girl he was trying to impress. The two drew a wire out on the ground and she tumbled over it, but just as she was about to catch herself with her feet and hands, she saw the ground. So far below. A cliff. Before she could fall, she acted fast, drawing her good wand and shouting, "Stupefy!" Any other wizard would've laughed, but she knew exactly what would happen with her troublesome wand and closed her eyes as the backlashing explosion threw her through the trees.

She laid back in the tangle of broken and strong branches high in the tree. "Ow." A relatively short, sixteen-inch twig fell onto her stomach. She looked around at the tree surrounding her and inspected the leaves floating gracefully to her stomach. "How very convenient. Birch wood: for new beginnings. I think I've found my wand. Now, where are Albus and Pat?"

"And so we continued our journey through the black expanse, watching carefully for any creatures that might care to eat us. Rose—Wait a minute, where is Rose? No, don't write that!" The Quick Quote Quill paused on the page. He looked around. "Oh, don't tell me they branched off earlier on? I could've sworn they were right here."

"Look! There's one!" a voice whispered from behind him. Albus swiveled in the spot to meet…nothing in particular, actually.

"Oh, it's far too skinny! No wizard would be dumb enough to come in 'ere alone! Let's see if 'is friends are fatter!" another gruff voice said.

"This is the mist, Darius. 'e's not going to find his friends until 'e gets out of it. We could take 'im back to the lair and get another one later."

"But then them spiders'll all know somethin's up and we'll have to share the fat one!"

"Hello?" Albus asked. "Who's there?" The voices silenced. "I'm not going to let you eat me, by the way."

"What makes 'im think 'e 'as a choice in the matter?"

"Darius, shush! He'll hear us."

"I have a wand!" Albus threatened. "Show yourselves or I'll stun the both of you!"

"I thought their spells only worked on one person at a time."

"How am I supposed to know? 'agrid barely ever used 'is umbrella. This boy 'asn't even got one."

"Maybe a wand's different from an umbrella?"

"Naw. 'agrid called the umbrella a wand sometimes."

"Maybe it's a different type of wand."

"Alright, then, let's settle this. Sir, is your wand called an umbrella?"

"Um…no," Albus frowned.

"See, there you are. Not an umbrella."

"I didn't say it was! You're twisting my words to be right again! You always do that!"

"I did no such thing."

"You are a filthy liar, you are!"

Albus did a double take when he saw his Quick Quotes Quill scrawling. "Are you seriously writing this?" It paused, and then continued writing his last statement. "Ugh. That's it. Accio enemies!" He flourished his wand and shot the targets into the trees where they tumbled into a heap on the ground.

"Why, I'll—I'll get you!" the one little man with quite a lengthy beard sprouting from his chin shouted, wielding a pickax considerably larger than his head.

Albus's eyes widened. "You're dwarves!"

"Aye! And we don't 'preciate being thrown around like piles 'a trash, thank you very much! Sloane! Sloane, move your bloomin' arse!"

Sloane picked himself off the ground and eyed Albus. "The nerve 'a this one! Eh? Summoning us like a couple 'a broom sticks!"

"But we don't have any dwarves in the Forbidden Forest," Albus told them. "They live in the mountains where they can mine minerals and hide underground. They don't really like wizards."

"To be fair, no one really likes wizards," Sloane said. "No offence."

"How could you possibly have not meant offense by that?"

"Well ain't 'e Mr. Observant!" Darius crowed. "Give 'im a bloody metal!"

"Wizards haven't dared entered this part 'a the forest since the Battle 'a Hogwarts," Sloane told him. "Loads 'a creatures came back after them and the Ministry maggots stopped harassin' 'em. Now we eat whatever we can find 'round here."

"But why aren't you underground?"

"So we may 'a been banished for a slight misunderstandin'…Really wasn't our fault."

"Those scum suckers can lick my arse!" Darius averred. "If I ever get my hands on 'em, they'll be chopped to pieces!"

"You know about the dwarves, then? Who's the current king in Switzerland?" Albus asked.

"An interesting story there—" Sloane started.

"'ey! Don't you tell 'im nothing!" Darius shouted.

"Oh, for all that's good and humble, who's 'e going to tell?"

"Actually, I'm part of a school newspaper," Albus admitted. "I could put this in."

"You put this in: Thyk of Rasenburry is a right git of a dwarf! Right up there with Dwain and Igor of Gnomeshingle!"

"Whatever did Igor do?"

"Married Louis!"

"Oh, for all that's good and humble, you never asked her out once! All those years, you just stared at 'er. She never knew you existed!"

"Oh, forget it. Let's just kill 'im!"

"If you do, I can't put that message in the newspaper," Albus noted.

They paused. "He does have a point there, Darius," Sloan acknowledged. "Besides, we can't kill him, now we've been introduced."

"We don't know 'is name!"

"Albus."

"See, there we are!"

"It's funny. I thought this place would tear me limb from limb, but I've been in here for hours without seeing a soul," Albus noted.

"Aye, the animals are aggressive at the borderlines," Sloane agreed. "But that's just to keep the wizards on their toes so they won't mess around in here. Really, the inside's hit or miss with danger. Pretty big forest in a whole."

"Would you stop telling 'im all that!" Darius shouted. "You're givin' away our secrets to a journalist!"

"I won't tell anyone if you can help me find my friends."

The two eyed him suspiciously. "Sidebar," Sloane said simply. To Albus's confused face, the two scurried off to a nearby tree and turned their backs to him in a two-person huddle.

"I think we should leave 'im 'ere," Darius said.

"Inclined to agree with you," Sloane nodded. "If 'e's not a meal and 'e knows all this, 'e's no real use to us."

"You know I can hear you two," Albus interrupted.

The two narrowed their eyes at him before skirting out of sight. Albus rolled his eyes, standing there with his arms crossed as the two conversed out of hearing range. Perhaps it would've been smarter if he'd said nothing. The two finally came back into sight, smiling a little too widely.

"We've decided to help you," Sloane announced.

"Fantastic. Which way?"

"We'll lead you through. Folks get lost too easily in this forest. Another reason not to return," Sloane added.

The group walked for a while, but it was hard for Albus to keep track of the time here. Everything seemed to make his mind fill with fog, so he could barely see a minute passing on his internal clock. "So you know where they are?" he asked. "You've seen them?"

"Er…past the mist," Sloane insisted. "We'll never find them in that monster."

"How far until we get out?"

"Just there!" he said, stopping, waving for Albus to follow. "You see that?"

Albus stepped farther and farther past the dwarves, squinting his eyes a bit, but couldn't make out a single shape. "No, I don't see—"

"GERONOMO!" the two shouted in unison, shoving at his legs, so he tumbled down the rocky cliff.

Patricia rounded the bend. Something was off about this. She wasn't sure what, though. She felt like maybe…someone was supposed to be with her? The faces of a red-haired, beautiful girl and boy with bright green eyes and unruly black hair entered her mind. She couldn't seem to pinpoint who they were, though. Her mind felt relaxed and lazy as if she were sunbathing on the lawn back home. But that was crazy. The weather was freezing. The leaves rustled in bright autumn colors around her. She touched her head, realizing the hat had fallen out and her hair had waterfalled down her head in a mess of wavy brown strands.

She closed her eyes and stepped forward. Something was right about this place. She just knew that if she kept walking, she wouldn't fall or bump into any obstacle. She'd be fine, stepping over the dry, frozen October ground. The forest floor seemed so far below her, the farther she went, like she was floating while still touching the ground. She felt her arms rising as if filled with an air lighter than air. The word came to her lips and stayed there without them moving: helium. Like little elongated balloons, they drifted up. And then, her fingers felt something. Soft and delicate, smooth as silk and still more elegant. She could feel warmth radiating off the prickly cloth as she spread her hands over it.

She opened her eyes and smiled upon seeing an animal beneath her hands. It glowed white light that oscillated every part of her body. She moved forward to stroke its head, running her fingers down its long nose. "You're a unicorn," she realized. "I've learned all about you in my Magical Creatures class. You only come to maidens." She felt calm, scratching its neck and smoothing over its mane. She reached her hand up and touched the swirling horn rising from its forehead like a giant piece of hard candy. It felt like a freshly brushed tooth. She giggled at the thought of someone sitting on its back, grumbling as they carefully ran a toothbrush over the horn. For a moment, the someone was small and indistinct, but then she saw who it was. Albus.

Then, she snapped back to life. Albus and Rose! How could she have forgotten? They were still somewhere in the forest! She couldn't, for the life of her, remember leaving them, though. Her mind just seemed to have wandered into a mist and then come out at the silly image. Funny, though. She didn't feel alone. Not her with this creature. She looked at the unicorn.

"I'm lost. Will you help me find my friends?"

It showed no signs that it understood her other than cantering off leisurely to her left. She jogged to keep up with it as it navigated clearly through the brush, its smooth white coat radiating pure light. Such light made the surrounding atmosphere pitch black so she felt as though she was in a dream, following a spirit through the deadly forest's dark backdrop despite the fact that it was midday and the sun had earlier been shining brightly through the trees.

At last, the unicorn paused. "What is it?" she asked, touching its mane. It turned its head back. "I don't see anything."

"GERONOMO!"

Suddenly, something crashed into her with an overwhelming force. She grasped at the unicorn, but fell back with nothing but a clump of glowing white hair in her fingers. She screamed as she fell backwards, deep into the darkness. Then, something caught her. It felt like a net of elastic, sticky and bouncing up and down as the force from her fall made the strings pressing into her back vibrate. Something groaned on top of her. "I'm going to kill those guys."

Wait a minute. "Albus?"

The body on top of her shifted atop hers. Through the beams of midday light streaking through the trees, she could clearly see the dark fabric of a boy's robes getting caught in the gummy structure to the point where his left leg could barely move. Al's face came slowly up to meet hers, so theirs eyes met in a dangerous clash of emerald and pecan. "Hey, Patricia Cassiopeia McLaggen," he smiled awkwardly.

"Do you think 'e's dead?" a voice asked from above.

"Should be," another said. "If 'e's not, the spider's will get 'im, sure's day."

"Right, right."

For a moment the two paused, listening to their footsteps drown in the distance. Patricia stopped and looked at the boy above her.

"ALBUS POTTER, GET THE BLOODY HELL OFF OF ME!"

"Oh, like I have a choice."

"Did you get us in here?"

"Me? What were you doing on the side of a cliff?"

"Following a unicorn."

"Of course. Yes. A unicorn. Why didn't I think of that sooner?"

"Well, what were you doing?"

"I was making some dwarf friends."

"Same ones that pushed you off the cliff?"

"It's not a perfect relationship."

"Ugh."

"So, Patricia Cassiopeia McLaggen...You know, I kind of like the middle name. Can I call you Cassy?"

"Really? No one likes my middle name. Sure."

"So, Cassy…"

"What?"

"We're alone together."

She knitted her eyebrows. "Yeah."

"And we're on top of one another."

"Oh, now I see the Gryffindor."

"What's that's supposed to mean?"

She threw her head back and laughed, feeling the weight of his body move above her as her diaphragm wriggled. "You're asking me out while we're in the middle of the Forbidden Forest in the net of a deadly spider in a rather intimate position."

"Asking you—pfft. Pfft! Asking you out. Please! I'm not—"

"Mmmhmmm. Whatever you say."

"I'm—" The net shifted. "What was that?"

"Probably a spider that wants to eat us."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT SO NONCHALAUNTLY?!"

"The key in situations like these—"

"AAAAAAAAH!"

"—is to remain—"

"SLOANE, DARIUS, ROSE, SOMEBODY HELP US! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, HELP!"

"—completely calm."

A voice hissed in her mind, drowning out Albus's shouts to his far off cousin. Wizards! Oh, I haven't had wizards in...TEN YEARS! YES! SO LONG IT'S BEEN! It punctured the sides of her brain and squeezed like a sharp pincer with each word. She could feel the sides of the net contract and curl, twisting, so she and Albus were encased in its gooey white strings. And two! Joys of joys! I shouldn't tell my brothers and sisters. No. I'll savor them for myself. Yes. YES! The voice grew more excited as it spoke, throwing its infatuation with flavor into its ardent spinning so Pat's head began to spin from being tousled around in the net. Her sides cramped and squeezed. Albus pressed tighter against her. Her own ribs felt two sizes too small. There we are! I should tie up the others…but I can't risk them finding these tasty things and eating them for themselves! Yes! I'll eat them now! All for me! Yes! YES! Pat squirmed as she felt the connection lift from her mind. Albus's head fitted close next to her so she could feel his hot breath on her neck.

Then, someone shouted "STUPIFY!" Something exploded beneath them. The fifteen-year-olds fell through a hole in the net, bungying through the air until the sticky fibers of the spider's web discharged them into the frozen forest floor. Flames licked the ground in front of them where the giant hairy arachnid screeched its indignation.

It took a moment for a the two to recover from the blow, shielding their faces from the heat of the fire. "Albus did you cast a spell?" Patricia asked, for a moment impressed that he'd be able to do a spell with his arms tied, but the boy shook his head.

"It wasn't me."

Something snapped in the trees above and a figure slid down the steep cliff and leaped in front of them, shouting a tickling curse but only creating more flames to block them from their enemy. The figure of a girl with wild, blazing hair to match the fire stood tall before them. She turned back and smiled. "Oh, there you are. Thought I'd lost you two. I found a good wand material. Birch. Haven't got a core yet, though."

"I've some unicorn hair," Patricia offered, holding the mane's clump up in her damp hand.

"That's perfect! Thank you!"

Albus was already at his feet, giving out a hand to help Patricia to hers. "Something tells me we should get out of here."

"Right you are," Rose nodded. "So, which way?"

Albus looked around frantically. "Albus…" Patricia pointed through the trees at a swarm of dark shapes swarming in the far back of the forest, crawling forward in a single mass like a lethal dust cloud. Fear crawled in her heart and clawed at it as she thought of their fangs injecting their venom into her side, freezing her limbs so she crumpled in a heap on the ground.

Without hesitation, Albus pointed his wand deep into the forest and shouted, "Guide me!" A light shot out of his wand and disappeared into the darkness. Rose ripped a potion off her vest and threw it past the flames so the bottle shattered against a rock. A lion's head emerged from the inferno and roared. The ground quaked beneath them in a vibration that made their eardrums burst all while watching the beast rocket towards the swarm of spiders. His wand still level, Albus and Rose ran. He paused and looked back. "What are you doing?!" He ran back and latched his arm around her unmoving form, shaking her from her frozen state. Then, her legs were moving. He was propelling her forward with the strength of his left arm, clinging tight to her waist. For a moment, it felt as if she was flying, there in that forest, lighter than air as the horde closed in further and further.