Chapter Seven
Into the Forest
Mia spent most of the next day, Saturday, in the Inter-House Common Room doing homework. She was always startled by the amount of homework she got on the first week back at school, but this year it seemed even more than normal. This was because, as their teachers were constantly reminding them, the fourth years were beginning their OWL syllabus. Mia was already feeling like she might go mad if she heard the word 'OWLs' one more time and it was only the first week back.
Louis, who Mia was sharing a table with, grinned appreciatively when Mia told him this.
"Yeah, all I've heard this week is 'this'll be in your OWLs', 'it's highly likely you'll be tested on this in your OWLs', 'your OWLs are only twenty-one months away, you know'."
"It's worse being a fifth year and it's actually your OWL year," Mac said, from his perch on the arm of Lily's chair, where he was making notes from his Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five, in a notebook which was hovering in front of him. "Did you know, I got homework from all seven of my lessons yesterday?"
"So did we," Lily said.
"Which I notice you're not doing any of," Mac said, peering over Lily's shoulder. "Who are you writing to, anyway?"
"James," Lily said. "Telling him about the Stic that was stuck on the table all week."
"You know, they're actually pretty useful now we've figured out how to unstick them when they're stuck between things," Louis said, looking up from his Arithmancy essay.
"Hem, hem," Theo said.
"Alright, you've figured it out then, if you're so damn fussy," Louis conceded.
"I'm telling James it was you," Lily told Theo.
"Anyway, I stuck the one you gave me-"
"Lent you-"
"-to my mirror-"
"Where it so beautifully holds all your hair products," Hugo put in.
There was a round of coughing 'Veela hair', and Louis glared first at Hugo, then at Lily.
"Will you quit interrupting me?" he demanded. "No, I'm using it to stick notes and reminders to myself to my mirror."
"What, like 'apply my hair products'?" Mac asked.
"Shut up!" Louis whined. "What is it, pick on Louis day?"
"Absolutely," Mac said.
"Totally," Lily said.
"Definitely," Mia said.
"One hundred percent," Hugo said.
"Well, shut up and let me get on with my essay," Louis said, and then a hush fell over their corner of the Inter-House common room as everyone got on with their homework.
On Monday, Lily and Mia sat down opposite Matilda and Emma at breakfast to find Matilda mid-rant.
"What's all this about, dare I ask?" Lily asked tentatively, pouring herself some cereal.
"We haven't got Care of Magical Creatures today," Matilda said.
"I thought you didn't like Care of Magical Creatures," Mia said.
"Yeah, isn't it promoting captivity and the exploitation of magical creatures?" Lily grinned.
"It is," Matilda conceded. "But at least we get to learn about magical creatures, and maybe I can help Professor Hagrid change his ways and embrace a more holistic way of teaching. Perhaps he could add some environmental studies too – I think it's pretty stupid that there's nothing like citizenship education at Hogwarts."
"Hagrid's been teaching for nearly thirty years – you're not going to get him to change his teaching methods just because you say so," Lily said.
"Well, I think that's stupid," Matilda grumbled. "And so's Divination which is what we've got to do instead."
"I thought Divination would've been right up your alley," Mia told Matilda. "Figuring out the meaning of life from nature and all that."
"It sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo," Matilda said.
"No more that 'trees'd talk to us if we let them speak'," Lily said.
Matilda scowled at her. "And another thing," she said. "Did you know that the torches on the walls in the corridors are left on all night?"
"How do you know that?" Mia asked suspiciously. "You haven't been wandering around the castle at night, have you?"
"Of course not," Matilda said. "I asked Nearly Headless Nick. You'd think that in a world of magic, they'd've invented motion sensitive lights, if Muggles can do it without magic."
"Maybe they have and the ghosts set off the motion sensors," Mia suggested.
"You know what'd be nice, Matilda?" Lily asked.
"What?" asked Matilda with a glare.
"A nice long walk in the grounds by yourself before lessons," Lily said. "Clear your head, blow away the cobwebs."
"Maybe," Matilda sighed. "I guess that doesn't sound too bad. Coming, Emma?"
Emma hesitated.
"A nice long walk by yourself," Lily said, and Matilda scowled again but got up and walked out of the Great Hall on her own.
After a busy morning of Herbology, Transfiguration and double Potions, Lily and Mia purposefully sat as far away from Matilda as possible at lunch and then headed outside for Care of Magical Creatures, where they were undertaking their final preparations for their first trip into the Forest on Wednesday.
"I want yeh teh work in pairs," Hagrid told the fourth-years as they stood around him in a semi-circle outside in the warm September sunshine. "Here's the route we'll be taking inter the Forest," he said, showing them a large map where a short semi-circular route cut off a small corner of the Forest. "With yer partner, usin' the maps yeh made for homework, I want yeh teh make a list of the creatures we migh' see on Wednesday. Then I want yeh teh list the risks associated wi' those creatures and how teh manage them. Finally, I want yeh teh think about and make preparations for how you might record what you find out about the creatures we see – sketches, where we actually find them, what they're doin'. It's one thing studyin' these creatures when I bring 'em out here for yeh, quite another teh see 'em in their natural habitat."
"We need to tell Matilda to hold her horses until forth year," Mia whispered to Lily, who grinned.
"Alrigh', then?" Hagrid asked. "Whatever yeh don't finish now'll need teh be finished for homework so off yeh go."
Mia found the map of the Forest she'd made for homework and used her want to mark the route in pink dashes. Lily copied her and then the two of them moved away from the rest of the class to sit down halfway up a grassy bank.
"It doesn't look like anything interesting lives in this part of the Forest," Lily sighed, studying her map. "Mostly just bowtruckles, probably."
She drew up a table with three columns: Creature, Dangers and Safety Measures. Mia copied her and then they wrote 'bowtruckles' in the first column of the first row.
"Dangers…" Mia mused. "They try to take your eyes out, don't they?"
"Mmm, if you get too close and don't give them woodlice," Lily agreed. 'Try to take your eyes out,' she wrote in the second column. 'Take care when approaching them. Have woodlice,' she wrote in the third.
"I guess we have to prove we can tackle an easy part of the Forest before we're let loose on a potentially dangerous one," Mia said. "What about centaurs? Hagrid said they wander all over the Forest."
The two girls picked up their quills and started to fill in the next row on their tables.
Mia awoke on Wednesday morning to a thunderstorm.
"I hope Hagrid still takes us into the Forest," Lily lamented as the two of them stood at their dormitory window in their dressing gowns.
"I don't envy you one bit," Frankie yawned, still snuggled up in bed. "Having to go out in that weather. If Kieran thinks I'm letting him hug me when he comes in, he's got another think coming."
At breakfast, Lily and Mia sat opposite Mac, who had seated himself at the Gryffindor table for some inexplicable reason.
"What d'you think of these?" he asked, showing Lily and Mia a badge with the letters 'HEC' emblazoned over the picture of a Hippogriff. "It's just a prototype but I'm pretty pleased."
"It's Matilda you have to show them to," Lily said, "not us. But yeah, it looks pretty cool."
"Would you wear one?" Mac asked.
"I guess so," Lily shrugged.
"Sweet," Mac said. "I'll go show Matilda."
"That was weird," Lily said. "How come he wanted our approval when Matilda's the one in charge of the HEC?"
"Not our approval, your approval," Mia grinned. "I think someone's got a bit of a crush on you…"
"No," Lily said dismissively. "No, he can't have… anyway, he only dates Louis' ex-girlfriends, which rules me out."
"He doesn't only date Louis' exes," Mia said. "Louis never dated Vicky. So, d'you like him?"
"I dunno," Lily shrugged, turning away to pour herself some more orange juice. "Mac's just Mac, isn't he?"
Mia grinned but said no more.
After double Modern History of Magic, Lily and Mia, who had had no word that their trip into the Forest was cancelled, donned waterproof cloaks and headed down to Hagrid's. He was waiting for them in the doorway to his hut, out of the rain which was still coming down in sheets. As they drew closer he ushered them inside.
Mia had never been inside Hagrid's hut before. She looked around as they waited for the rest of the class to arrive. The hut was all one room, which served as a kitchen, dining room, living room and bedroom all in one. All the furniture was Hagrid sized – from the massive bed in one corner, to the bucket-sized tea cup on the table.
"We're still going inter the Forest," Hagrid told the class once they'd all arrived. "Yeh've all got yer cloaks and it won't be so bad under the tree cover. Now, attach yer maps and plans teh these clipboards and then use the spell 'Impervious' teh stop them getting wet – yeh might want to use it on yer faces too."
The class did as they were told and then followed Hagrid out of the hut to the edge of the Forest. Lily and Mia found themselves at the back of the group, behind Ilonka, who was muttering angrily to herself about the ridiculousness of going out in this weather.
"Just because you're scared of going into the Forest," Lily scowled. "You don't have to be such a baby about it."
"I'm not scared," Ilonka said scornfully.
"Yeah, right," Lily said quietly enough so that only Mia heard.
Once they were in the Forest, Mia barely noticed the rain, what with the tree cover and the Impervious spell.
"Alrigh', stay close an' let meh know if yeh see anything," Hagrid said as the fourth years made their way into the Forest, following a bare, earthy path.
They hadn't gone too far when Kieran and Alexander spotted a tree full of bowtruckles. The class gathered round to look but only those who had thought to bring gifts of woodlice could get close. The bowtruckles chirruped happily at the food and Hagrid let the class observe them for a few minutes before ushering them on.
As they got deeper into the Forest, the fourth years saw a variety of creatures, all relatively harmless.
"This is sooo boring," Ilonka whined as the class examined yet another leaf crawling with Flobberworms. "How much longer do we have to look at worms in the rain?"
"Hey, what's that?" Lily said, pointing. Mia and Ilonka both looked to where she was pointing. Mia could just make out a silvery-blue wisp-like creature, quite far away but moving closer.
"It looks much more interesting than anything we've seen so far," Ilonka said.
As the creature came nearer, Mia could see that it hopped on one leg and carried a blue-glowing lantern.
The creature came to a stop about ten metres away from the path and seemed to be beckoning to the three girls. They were quite a long away behind the rest of the class now; Mia could just about see Hagrid still but the rest of the class, who were a lot shorter, had disappeared into the foliage.
"Well I'm going to follow it," Ilonka said decisively as the creature took one hop backwards away from the girls and beckoned again. "I'm sure whatever it's going is much more interesting than here. It might even know a shortcut out of here." She took a few tentative steps off the path.
"Ilonka, don't be stupid," Lily said. "You don't even know what it is – it could be a dark creature, luring you away so it can eat you."
"Oh don't be so melodramatic," Ilonka said. "There aren't any dangerous creatures in this part of the Forest."
"Lily's right, Ilonka," Mia said as the creature took another hop backwards and beckoned again. "Anyway, it's heading further into the Forest, not out."
"Well I don't care!" Ilonka said defiantly, continuing to walk away from the path, following the creature.
Mia had a sudden sense of foreboding and rushed after Ilonka.
"You mustn't follow it, Ilonka," she said, grabbing Ilonka's arm.
"Get off me!" Ilonka said, trying to shake Mia off. "I'll follow it if I want to."
Mia shot red sparks into the air with her wand and held on tightly to Ilonka's arm. She somehow knew that, whatever she did, she mustn't let Ilonka follow the creature.
"Lily, come help me!" she said and Lily came and grabbed Ilonka's other arm.
The two minutes it took Hagrid and the rest of the class to reach the three girls felt like an eternity to Lily and Mia as they struggled with Ilonka. Eventually, however, the giant-like man appeared, crashing through the undergrowth with the rest of the class at his heels.
At the sight of Hagrid, the creature with the lantern vanished in a puff of smoke and Ilonka stopped struggling.
"Wha's goin' on here?" Hagrid demanded as Lily and Mia let go of Ilonka.
"There was this weird one-legged smoky creature with a lamp, and Ilonka wanted to follow it, and we had to stop her," Lily explained.
"I should think so too," Hagrid said. "Sounds like yeh had yerselves a hinkypunk there – wet weather musta brought 'er out. Who knows what would've happened teh yeh if these two hadn't've stopped yeh, Ilonka."
Ilonka scowled.
Hagrid checked his watch. "Alrigh', we best be getting back," he said. "And yeh-" he turned to Ilonka, "-are stayin' right by meh. Followin' a hinkypunk." He shook his head. "Haven't yeh learnt about the tricky little blighters in Defence Against the Dark Arts?" he asked. "No? Then perhaps yeh need teh ask Professor Hawksworth fer a lesson on them."
He spent the rest of the lesson telling the class about hinkypunks, the one-legged bog dwellers who liked to lure travellers away from paths.