The foliage crunched loudly under Holly's hurried steps. She was running as fast as she could. The trees of the forest barely let enough light through their leaves for her to see where she was going. But the where wasn't as important as long as it meant away from it .

Holly slowed down eventually, not able to sustain her pace for any longer. She took cover behind a tree, pressing her back to it and trying to calm her racing heart. The forest was dead quiet, she could only hear her own heavy breathing.

When a branch cracked in the distance, Holly held her breath, not daring to make another sound. The noise had come from the direction she had come from. She carefully peeked around her cover and cursed under her breath when she spotted her pursuer still hot on her tail.

It was just strolling through the forest like it was on a nice nature walk, not concerned with any of the other creatures living here. If there were even any left to begin with.

Holly darted from behind her tree to the next and then the next, and the next after. Always keeping something between herself and the pursuer. Though that probably didn't make a difference. It had followed her this far without relying on sight.

But Holly was desperate, something would have to work. When she judged the distance between them sufficient, Holly double backed a couple trees and took a different direction. This time, she carefully hid her tracks with leaves covering the ground. Then she hid behind another tree.

Slowly, the sound footsteps approached, before coming to a stop. Holly held her breath again. She could hear a lot of rustling, seemingly having confused the thing. After what felt like an eternity, the steps started sounding more and more distant, heading away from her.

Holly almost wanted to shout out in celebration, but stopped herself. Taking a quiet breath instead. She would have to find a way out of this forest before the thing realised she had tricked it.

With how little light there was, Holly couldn't tell where the sun was for a direction. So instead she chose the way that would lead her as far away from her pursuer as possible.

After making her decision she peered around the tree trunk again, just to make sure she really was alone. Thankfully the coast seemed clear. Taking another deep breath, Holly took the first tentative step. Only to stumble over some root and land on her face.

She scrambled back to her feet as quickly as possible and started listening again. Nothing… when she looked down at her bare feet though Holly was distraught. She hadn't stumbled. Some stupid vines had wrapped themselves around her ankles. Where had they come from?

Clawing desperately at the vines, Holly felt like crying when they didn't budge at all.

*thump*

Holly stopped immediately. What was that?

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

"Oh no no no no no!" It was coming back and she was still stuck here. She was a witch for god's sake. Some vines shouldn't be able to stop her!

*thump*

Wait, she was a witch! She could do magic! How could she have forgotten? Holly quickly started looking for her wand. Panicking when the vines began to tighten and spread, slowly pulling her feet into the ground.

*thump*

And of course her wand was nowhere to be found. Holly's pockets were empty. Had she dropped it while running? No, she wasn't this clumsy. Something was wrong.

*thump*

Holly's head shot up when in addition to the footsteps she began hearing children. Creepy, giggling children. Distracted by the new noise, she didn't notice new vines aiming for her arms and suddenly pulling her flat into the forest floor.

* thump *

The thing was coming close now, just behind the tree. Holly was struggling against her bindings, her eyes fixed on the tree she'd been using as cover, when it started speaking.

"Aaw, did the little witchling fall down and hurt itself?" Its voice was like a hundred voices talking at the same time, with a constant sound of childish giggling in the background.

* thump *

The first thing Holly saw was a familiar scaly white hand snaking around the tree trunk, leaving deep gashes in the bark with its knife-like fingers. They were cutting the bark as if it was butter.

Holly squeaked when it finally peeked around the tree. Not that she'd ever confess to such a thing, if she ever got the chance to do so that was.

She thought this thing had only been an illusion, how had it gotten into the forest? Empty eye sockets turned to her, grin getting wider and wider, if that was even possible.

* thump *

"We have been waiting for this. We starve, we hunger, let us feast!" The voices came from everywhere, its mouth hadn't moved at all to talk.

* thump *

It kept coming closer. Heavy footsteps dragging through foliage. Holly continued struggling against her bindings, but they just kept pulling her harder into the ground.

* thump *

There was no escape.

* thump * * thump *

It crouched down above her head. Saliva was dripping out of its disgusting mouth, which sizzled when it hit the leaves right beside her ear.

"Tasty~~ Tasty~~ Treat~~" it began to sing.

"Bugger off you… I'm not for eating you smiley creep!" Holly retorted weakly. Her brave front crumbling immediately.

It just laughed at her. A loud and shrill sound that pierced into her mind, giving her the worst headache of her life.

Unable to do anything but watch, Holly stared in horror at its claw that was coming closer and closer to her face.

Just as it was about to touch her, there was a hard tuck of the vines. Holly felt the ground beneath her give way and then she fell into the darkness.

Holly startled awake with the outraged shriek of the thing still reverberating in her mind. Her heart was practically bouncing out of her chest from panic.

It was still dark, her limbs unable to move. She was lying on something soft and slightly sticky. Holly shuddered just thinking what this could be now.

But she couldn't give up without a fight. Struggling as hard as she could against her bindings she eventually managed to roll over. She could feel the bindings loosening around her arms so she continued trying to roll over.

Only she miscalculated where she was held and went straight over a cliff and dropped with a loud squeal… for a whole two feet and landed with a thump. Holly's eyes were assaulted by a blinding light.

Once her eyes had adjusted enough to see her surroundings she flushed in embarrassment. Holly was lying on her dorm's floor, tangled in her bedsheets. What a way to wake up. Holly didn't know why she had panicked so much. Did she have a nightmare? After her run in with the vines in the forbidden corridor it would make sense. She would have to find out what they were and how to defend herself against them better.

Holly kept lying in the tangled mess of sheets for a while just thinking about the last night, only starting to get up when she noticed how high the sun already was. Untangling herself from the twisted sheets, Holly stretched her limbs with a yawn, still tired after the unrestful night. The sheets were still clinging to her sweaty skin, causing a shiver to run down her spine. She pushed herself to sit up, her heart rate gradually returning to normal as the light filtered into the room.

Her bed was a mess, dark patches of sweat on the mattress, the curtain ripped down on one side, probably from her fall. Not to mention her blanket and pillow on the floor. Under the watchful eyes of Hedwig Holly started making her bed as best as she could.

Taking a seat on the edge of her bed, Hedwig joined her in her lap demanding pets. Gently stroking the soft feathers Holly started thinking about what to write in her letter to Mrs. Flamel. "...inally up, Holly?". Not to mention she really wanted to find a way to beat that oversized chess set. Did the library have strategy guides for chess?

When a hand landed on her shoulder all of a sudden, Holly shot up from her bed with a squeak and whirled around to face her attacker. Hedwig protested with unhappy hoots about abruptly getting thrown off her seat.

Wide panicked eyes quickly focused on none other than Lavender, barely able to hold in her mirth.

"Merlin's beard, Lavender! You scared the living daylights out of me," Holly accused.

Lavender crossed her arms in front of her, raising an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't have scared you if your ears actually worked. I greeted you when I entered," she defended herself.

"What's up with you anyways? I've never seen you oversleep, it's almost noon!"

Holly noticed Lavender's gaze drifting over her form, but before she could answer Lavender continued.

"Are those bruises on your neck, what happened?" Lavender asked and quickly rounded the bed to take a closer look at Holly.

She swallowed thickly, the concern in her friend's voice was palpable. But what should she say?

' Oh, I just almost got killed last night ' would just get her in trouble.

Holly hesitated for a moment, realising that she couldn't come up with a convincing excuse. She sighed, deciding that honesty might be the best approach. At least the partial truth.

"Okay, fine. I might've, um, gone into the forbidden corridor last night and ran into some trouble."

Lavender's eyes widened in surprise mixed with concern. "Are you crazy? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Well, after last night I know exactly how dangerous it is." Holly tried downplaying it with humour.

It didn't work. Lavender frowned at her. "This is nothing to be joking about, Holly. Professor Dumbledore warned us that the corridor is deadly and you just wander in there all alone?"

Holly couldn't meet Lavender's eyes. She was ashamed to be worrying her friend so much.

"You scare me sometimes, you know that? Disappearing for hours on end to Merlin knows where, getting injured and now you tell me you've been sneaking into the forbidden corridor without so much as a note."

Suddenly Holly was enveloped in a warm embrace.

"We talked about this before, remember? We won't judge you for whatever you do when you're alone, but please tell us when you're going to be in danger!" The desperation in Lavender's voice growing the longer she went on.

"I'm so sorry for making you worry so," Holly began, also snaking her arms around Lavender and squeezing back. "I was overconfident and dumb. I was sure I had thought of everything, but didn't take the feelings of my best friends into account."

They fell silent for a while, just enjoying their closeness. Eventually Lavender broke the hug and lead Holly over to the vanity mirror that was propped up on her nightstand.

"Lavender?" Holly asked, looking at the various different tubs and brushes laid out around the mirror.

"What, you thought I'd let you walk around with obvious and suspicious bruises?" Lavender huffed. "Now let me cover them up and then you really need a shower, you stink!"

Holly could see Lavender mocking grin in the mirror's reflection before she was unceremoniously shoved down onto the small stool that stood before the vanity.

"And don't worry, the makeup is magical and waterproof," Lav added while checking over some of the tubs and holding them next to Holly's face.

With a warm feeling spreading throughout her body she lowered her head and smiled to herself, hands folded in her lap.

"Chin up! I can't see what I'm working with."

Holly just laughed.

The sun cast dappled patterns through the trees as Holly, Lavender, and Parvati spread out their picnic on the grass outside the castle. The scent of fresh grass and the musky trees mixed with the aroma of the food they had just brought from the Great Hall. It was a serene moment in the midst of their magical education. As they bit into their sandwiches and nibbled on pastries, the conversation turned to Holly's misadventures. She had promised to share more after all.

"… so I sent a prank Longbottom's way during Christmas-"

"Wait, wait, wait. You were the one who sent that glitter bomb to Neville? How did you do that?" Parvati interrupted her mid sentence.

Holly was shocked that her friends knew about the glitter bomb. She'd sent it to him months ago during Christmas as revenge for his involvement in her fall off the broom in flight class. She hadn't heard anything about it after sending it and had assumed her runes failed.

"How do you know about that, I thought it didn't work?"

"It worked alright," Parvati said. "More than just alright actually. Seamus and Dean have been complaining about still finding glitter in their dorm, even though Neville opened it at home and not in the castle!"

Holly burst out laughing, having to hold her stomach with both hands. "Serves him right! I'm sorry for Seamus and Dean though, that's why I specifically sent it to Longbottom's house. Never thought it'd be this effective."

"That's just the thing, Neville's post gets thoroughly checked for any kind of tampering or magic. The Madame Longbottom actually got Professor Dumbledore involved to find out how it got through!"

"Oh…" Holly was stunned. "Why is it such a big deal, it was just a prank letter?"

"Because as much as you dislike him, Holly, Neville is still the biggest celebrity in Britain. He gets dozens of cursed or enchanted letters a year. Can you see how the first magical letter to get through to him is a huge security flaw, even. If. It. Was. Just . A. Prank?" Parvati accentuated each word with a finger poke.

Holly rubbed the sore spot she had been poked at carefully, Parvati had hit her right in one of the bruises from yesterday's encounter with the vines. Not like it was difficult to hit a bruise, considering she was practically covered in them.

"Fine, I can see that," she conceded. "But it really wasn't all that hard. Just a couple small runes on the inside of the letter. Maybe he should invest in better security."

It really was just that, a small rune sequence to store magic, a gust of wind to blow the glitter out and then a fire rune to set the envelope ablaze. The only complicated thing had been implementing the trigger and drawing coherent runes on the inside of the envelope.

"Merlin's beard, how thick can you be?" Now even Lavender was looking at her strangely.

"The Longbottoms employ a variety of Gringotts curse breakers to check the mail, on top of the Aurors specifically tasked to do so, courtesy of Susan's aunt."

"Huh!" Maybe she should give herself some more credit. The trigger might have been a stroke of genius after all. She had drawn part of the magic battery on the seal flap and the rest on the inside. Once the letter was sealed with wax it was a complete sequence that worked as usual.

When the wax was broken to open the letter, the magic would be released into the other runes and power them. That was also why she had assumed it failed. If you opened the letter any other way the magic would just fizzle out.

"So, how'd you do it?" Lavender inquired, leaning closer in the process.

"I just used some self designed runes. It really wasn't difficult," she deflected.

"Runes? How do you even know runes, they're an elective starting in third year?"

"Well, I found my mum's old school things when I was little. I really wanted to learn and do magic, so runes were the only possibility without wand or potion ingredients. I've made a variety of things with them so far, like the hats I gifted you for Christmas."

"You did magic outside of school, before the age of 17? And what's magic about the hats?" Her friends sounded doubtful.

"They have runes down into them. Let me show you!"

Thankfully Holly always carried the plush toy around in case she had the sudden urge to visit Fang. So she could use the little mouse to show her friends her runes.

"Here you are!" She said, rummaging around in her bag and pulling out the small plush toy.

"A… plush?" Lavender and Parvati exchanged incredulous glances. "I've seen you carry that around before."

"Yes, but also much more than that. This is a self made, rune stitched toy for Hedwig."

Then, with a little flourish, Holly set it on the ground and it zoomed off in a zigzag motion. As if on cue said owl swooped down from the treetops with her talons extended and impacted the ground. She narrowly missed the toy, so fluttered back into the air to try for another dive.

The three of them kept sitting on their picnic blanket and watched Hedwig hunt. Her friends seemed to be stunned silent, so Holly snuck the last piece of treacle tart and bit into it with gusto.

"Holly, that's amazing!" started Lavender.

"And a little crazy," added Parvati. "I didn't even know that that was something they teach in runes. I always thought it was just for translating old texts."

Hedwig landed next to them, dropping the toy back in Holly's lap for charging. She picked it up and showed it to her friends.

"Well, I'm self taught so I don't really know what they teach, but it's easy. See those squiggly triang- Hey!"

Before Holly could elaborate further, the plush had been ripped out of her hand by an invisible force and flew off behind her.

"Was it supposed to do that?" Lavender commented with a laugh. But just as Holly tried to turn to where it had flown off to, she froze mid-movement.

Glancing at her friends, she noted that they were also much more serious now, having grasped that there was someone else here with them. As one they were all hovered a few feet off the ground and dropped onto their feet, still unable to move.

"Now what do we have here, three firsties playing with an enchanted artefact that doesn't belong to them?" The voice was clearly female with a slight edge to it, as if accusing them of something far worse.

"Give it back, that's mine! I stitched it myself!" she bit out, furious that someone would accuse her of stealing.

She wasn't rewarded with an answer. Instead, Holly caught movement out of the corner of her eyes. Whoever had frozen them was rounding them, revealing a short witch in light brown robes, wearing a wide brimmed witches hat. The tip hung to the side and attached to the rim was a small lens, for what purpose, Holly couldn't guess.

They assessed each other, Holly with an angry stare, the teacher with a bored look on her face. The tension in the air was palpable, but Holly held her ground. As the seconds ticked by, the tension seemed to stretch and stretch until it could stretch no more. Finally, a sigh broke the silence.

"Are you sure? If you just found it somewhere I might have let you off with just a slap on the wrist." The teacher sounded sincere in her offer, but Holly could see through her. If she took it, then she would never see the plush again. Confiscated and gathering dust in some random teachers desk all the hard work she put into would be for naught.

"Yes, it's mine! My friends can attest to that."

Lavender and Parvati nodded their affirmation when the teacher glanced at them.

"Alright, then you two may go. And you, you have detention with me. Right now!"

An evil smile spread on the teacher's face, making Holly swallow. What had she gotten herself into?