© Sunrisepainter: Because of Snape

Into The Forest

For one hour, they walked next to each other in silence. Fred watched Hope secretly while she fought her way trough the undergrowth. At the same time, he tried to keep the Marauders Map in mind to make sure they remained on track. He noticed that Hope's body was tense and that she was trembling. Her insecurity and her fear attracted his attention a while ago. He and George often went into the forest before. He knew every animal species, every single trail and almost every tree in there. At least, that is what he was profoundly convinced about. However, Hope had never been there. To her, it was an unknown world, a world where she did not belong to.

Fred remembered the day he and his twin treated the Forbidden Forest for the first time. They had been around twelve years old, not less scared than Hope now but more naïve and quite keen on adventures. The Weasley twins always loved to take risks which was one of the reason why they had always played tricks on Filch of all people. Fred grinned reminiscing and so he did not notice that Hope had stopped in her tracks. He bumped into her.

"Ouch! What the heck is gotten into you?" Fred complained.

The girl did not respond as she was as stiff as a statue and listening closely to their surroundings.

"Did you hear it, too?" She whispered after a while. Her hot breath created a cloudlet of steam into the cold hear. Her voice trembled. Fred also stopped and listened. Indeed! Something rustled in the shrubbery.

"Turn off the light!" He whispered.

"Nox."

"Nox."

Now, it was pitch-black around them. The only source of lightning was the full moon which only moderately shone trough the canopy of leaves. The two teenager breathed rapidly. Hope squeezed her eyes and pressed her back against a trunk.

"Hope?" Fred's voice was now right next to her right ear. She did not answer. The anxiety choked her.

"You don't have to be afraid. I promised you to keep you safe and sound. I always keep my promised, aright?" He said.

She could only nod her head. Yet, tears started to well up in her eyes. Fred peered over her shoulder into the darkness. He knew the forest nearly as well as Hogwrtas and he actually was sure that around this area did not live dangerous animals. Well, except for centaurs but their hooves would be louder than the rustling in the shrubbery just now. He had to find out the truth.

"Lumos!"

"W-w-what a-are you do-doing?" Hope stuttered as he was about to move further towards the shrubbery.

"I'll take a look, of course!" He whispered over his shoulder.

"No, don't do it! Are you nuts? Let's run away instead!" She held him back clutching his jacket.

"Fear not! It won't be anything bad and in case of need we still have our wands." Softly Fred loosened her fingers from his jacket and smiled at her before he turned around and tiptoed towards the shrubbery.

Hope nervously bit her fingernails. She did not like this situation it all. Even though Fred pretended to be brave, who would he impress with his boldness? Maybe her? Or even the thing in the shrubbery?

"Hope, come over here!" She then heard Fred call her name. Without wasting another thought about it, she stumbled forward. What happened? Her heart was throbbing up to her throat.

Fred stood in the middle of the shrubbery and pushed some branches apart. He chuckled:

"Take a look! Here's you're beast!"

Curiously and at the same time a little scared, she risked a look over his shoulder. Then, she sighed in relief and had to laugh.

"It's a squirrel! I sweat blood because of a single squirrel?"

"Figures!" Fred joined her laughter.

"Let's go!" Hope giggled.

After a while, they had to leave the track. It was hard watching out for the countless tree roots while trying to keep an eye on their environment to avoid any kind of danger. Fred had an extra hard time as he still had to pay attention to the map as well.

Without noticing, Hope's foot got stuck in a root which made her crash down onto the hard forest floor with a loud yelp escaping her mouth. Immediately, Fred rushed over to her. She lifted her upper body, moaning as she felt a sharp pain at her ankle. She gritted her tears but still tears filled her eyes.

"You're okay?" He asked while helping her sit up.

"My ankle...I think it's broken!" She groaned.

"I'll take a look." He got sown on his knees and carefully pulled the shoe from her foot. A surge of pain overrun her and buried her fingers in the soil beneath her.

"Sorry." He mumbled and tried to be extra removing her sock.

"It looks really bad, you know. It's all bruised and swollen, looks kinda like a plum. Can you stand?"

"I don't know!"

"Try it...wait, I'll help you." He put her arm around his shoulder and tried to support her. She carefully raised to her feed. It hurt like hell but she tried to pull herself together.

"Not too bad."
"Really?" He suspiciously checked her face from the side. She nodded her head.

"Okay, it can't be help as we have to walk on. It's to far away...already around the next corner. I'll support you. We've gotten so far now, I think we'll manage the rest, too."

"Yeah."

She put her shoe back on and with Fred helps she was able to limp forward. She was pretty embarrassed about her situation. She had to rely on him now whether she liked it or not as she could not take another step without his help.

"Preferably, we should hide first." He whispered in her ear and was so damn close to her again.

"I don't know if there are any wolfs out there, lurking in the darkness. At least, you can hardly hear them."

Hope just nodded again. and together they sneaked behind a big oak tree. Hope sat down on the cold forest floor and leaned her back against the trunk. Her closed her eyes in exhaustion. The pain was nearly killing her.

Fred examined her anxiously. He did not know what to do with her. Was it better for to sit and wait while he got the herbs or was it better to take her with him? After all, she would not be able to escape in case of danger. He peered around the trunk.

A few metres away from heir hideout, a giant crag towered upwards into the sky. It was maybe about thirty feet tall and eerily illuminated by the opaque moonlight. In the middle of deep crevice something was slightly glowing. He squinted his eyes to get a better look. It was a golden herb, the wanted Cytrillkraut.

There were no wolfs far and wide. Perhaps, they we're near by in some kind of cave or they were hunting. Wolfs were pack animals, so in worst case scenario they would have to face all of them or none.

"What do you see?" Hope asked from the ground.

"Nothing."

"What's "nothing"?"

"Well, at least, no wolfs but Cytrillkraut instead."

"No wolfs? I have to look myself." She got in her feed again and also peeked around the trunk.

"Indeed! Maybe, they are hiding somewhere. They must have heard us coming. It could be trap."

"Nonsense. Either Professor Sprout lied to us or these creature aren't home! Let's just get this damn herbs and make a run for it!" Fred clenched his wand in determination and stepped into the middle of the glade.

"Hey, wait! I'm coming with you!" Hope nagged and limped some steps forward before the pain was too severe to move on. Fred stopped hesitantly. He thought about what to do next. Hope noticed his tentativeness.

She furiously put her arms akimbo and glared at him:

"Does that mean you wanted to leave me here?"

"Oh well, I don't know if you're able to do this an...err..." He stammered.

"Listen to me closely now, Fred Weasley! I know that I'm an inconvenience with my minor ailment but that's still not any sort of reason for leaving me here. I promised to come with you although I was afraid. And I am still afraid, to tell the truth. However, we wanted to work together for once. I don't know what happened the last few day but somehow we managed to get along better than before. That's the reason why I won't let you go alone up there. I'm going to help you as far as I can with my ankle...even...if...I might d-die...in the process. And if o-one of u-us d-d-dies...,we'll d-die to-together!" The worth escaped her mouth before she had a chance to think about it but they were all true. She felt some kind of loyalty towards the Weasley. Fred goggled her flabbergasted.

"W-what did you say...just now?"

Hope closed her eyes and repeated her last sentence:

"If one of us dies, we'll die together!"

"Okay, if that's your last word." He walked back to her and gripped her hand. Hope gasped. She did expect that reaction at all.

"Then, let's die not not die together!" He dragged her with him.

She let it happen and held her wand embattled in front of her as they reached the glade. They moved carefully and slowly. On the one hand, it was because of Hope's aching ankle and on the other hand, they did not want to arouse attention.

After some steps, Hope heard a branch snapping.

"Did you hear that?" She asked quietly.

"What? Did you hear a squirrel again?" He chuckled.

"Sh-shut up..." She blushed. "Well, I heard wrong...I guess."

They reached the tail of the crag. The crevice with the Cytrillkraut was impossible to reach from their spot, so they had to climb a little after all. Somehow, none of the two thought about the possibility to try and perform magic to get the herb down.

"Can you get up there?" Fred asked.

"I...I'm not sure but I definitely try." Hope was more determined than before and so she placed her healthy foot on a ledge. She slowly pulled herself up and was surprised how well it worked.

And together they really accomplished the climb. Fred had to help Hope more often than she wanted him to but after her pledge of loyalty he did not mind at all. He was actually quite happy to have some company. Finally, they reached the crevice where the mysterious herbs shone brighter than ever.

"It's beautiful." Hope whispered enchanted. The herb looked as if she was of solid gold. Fred determinately put his hand into the crevice to pluck some Cytrillkraut but Hope got his wrist before he touched the herb.

"Hey!"

"Are you nuts!" She scolded. "You don't even know if that stuff is dangerous. You shouldn't touch it so unconcernedly!"

"Are you sure?" He did not seem convinced.

"Better safe than curse!" She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, wrapped it around some of the glowing blades and spirited it away into the pocket of anorak.

"And now let's hurry back to the castle!"

"That's it?" Fred asked disappointed.

"Yeah, fortunately it was."

Together they got going their down-climb which was a whole lot simpler than the way up. Fred went first, stopping once in a while to help Hope who was still disabled by her aching ankle. While doing so, he tried to avoid physical contact as much as possible. Of course, it did not pass unnoticed by Fred and he smirked deviously.

When he was back on the ground again, he pulled the stunned Hope down into his opened arms. He wrapped his arms around her her and hugged her.

"Weasley! Let me got!" She angrily hissed next to his ear.

"Why should I? I think it's quite comfortable like that." He laughed.

"P-please l-let me g-go!" Her voice was suddenly all frightened and trembling.

"Why? Are you embarrassed?"

"The w-wolfs...the wolf pack is back...we're surrounded"

End of Chapter Thirteen.

A/N: Dear monkey87 & Person,

thank your for commenting the last few chapters. I'm really flattered by your words and it makes me happy that you enjoy my story :).

XOXO

Sunrisepainter