Chapter 90: Year Four - Chapter Sixteen
I quietly glided through the floor, my hand holding tightly to that of my dance partner. The music was a waltz of sorts, and as I moved my feet following the rhythm, I began the twirl at just the right time. My partner followed through. Amanda's hair was in curls, light hazel and wearing a nice, soft blue dress. We opened the dances, my own suit a shimmering silver one. On my back, I had added a small black mantle with Hogwarts' houses etched upon it. What better way to show I was Hogwarts' champion than with a small mantle?
Mantles were cool, even if extremely dangerous to have while flying in front of an airplane.
The Weird Sisters were playing the music using their instruments. The dinner had been a quick affair, everyone wanting to dance under the glittering lights of a Hogwarts' Hall turned not just Christmas-themed, but also filled with ice sculptures and wonderful decorations. Percy Weasley was present in place of Barty Crouch, the old man probably enjoying his Christmas at home with his Imperius'ed son. Harry Potter was missing; then again, he'd always pick spending Christmas with his Godfather than with Hogwarts now that he could.
I was happy for him.
Amanda had taken the dancing lessons of Professor McGonagall to heart, and as the opening dance came to an end, I reckoned my feet hadn't been hurt even once. "Thank you for the dace," Amanda said in a hushed whisper.
"Thank you for tolerating a dunderhead like me," I answered with a cheeky smile of my own.
"It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for a friend," she answered with a huff, before moving away as I neared one of the many girls who had unfortunately been without a partner, but had come all the same to the dance.
"Would you like a spin of the dance floor?" I asked to the first, and she actually smiled. Truly, there was nothing like bringing happiness to those who needed it. There were Slytherin, Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, some older than my year, some of my year, some had done their best to be pretty and others had come not really expecting to dance.
I danced with them all, or at least, I like to think I gave a honest effort.
I twirled with a Gryffindor girl who had come with her date, only for her date to abandon her halfway through. I held the waist of a Slytherin who had a couple of years more than me. I clutched tenderly the hand of a Hufflepuff. I grinned as I extended once more my hand, to a pretty, yet annoyed-looking, French girl.
Even the Durmstrang girls had no escape. I was the monster that desired to dance. I was the one man willing to take the grenades for the team, the bullets for the friends, and yet I didn't do it because of that.
I did it because I felt it would be a nice, kind gesture to give to as many students as possible an unforgettable night.
Fleur Delacour actually left with Roger Davies, so I doubted she'd picked badly her night date. I finished my last dance with Amanda, as things were proper, and then walked with her on my way back to the Ravenclaw Common Room.
"You avoided the mistletoe, all of it," Amanda said, playfully elbowing my ribs.
"I am the mistletoe-avoider, the kiss-denier," I acquiesced.
The Ravenclaw door swung open as the riddle was easily solved, and as I bid the girl goodbye, I collapsed on the armchair. I couldn't take a single step up the stairs to my common room, my legs aching just like my feet.
I quietly removed my shoes and socks, gasping for relief as I quietly curled my toes on the soft carpet, staring at the ceiling with a forlorn, happy expression.
The brilliant red jet struck me unexpectedly from the sides, sending me to tumble down and lose my consciousness against the hard, yet carpeted, floor. The darkness that filled my vision broke under the noise of the rustling of leafs, and as my eyes quietly adjusted to the lack of light, I clenched my fingers around my wand. Or at least, they would have if I had a wand still.
I was without a wand.
I was without a wand, in a place of rustling leafs.
My eyes snapped open ever the more as tension suddenly sprang through me. I stood up hastily, and hissed. Stones were digging into my bare feet. Rocks, and gravel, and wet leafs. It was cold. Snow was around me, thick and white.
My teeth would have chattered from the cold, if only the adrenaline in my body hadn't made me understand a dark, foreboding thought. I was in the Forbidden Forest. It was dark, it was night, it was cold, and I was in the Forbidden Forest, so deep into it that I had no idea which way was the castle, and which way it wasn't.
I was in the Forbidden Forest, having been thrown there by someone who had been either under an Invisibility Cloak, or such a monster of stealth I hadn't heard him enter the common room.
This could either be Moody's ramping-up paranoia, or an attempt on my life from whoever the hell wanted me in the tournament. Yet, I hadn't been straightforwardly killed. No Avada Kedavra, no dark curse, nothing but knocking me unconscious and then leaving me in the deadliest part of Great Britain in my mind.
There was a snarl somewhere in the distance.
Wasn't there a pack of Werewolves in the Forbidden Forest?
I looked to the right and to the left, and then extended my right hand. My wand should come to me if I accio'ed it. It should have, and as I waited for what felt like interminable minutes, I dimly realized something was softly creaking the snow in my direction.
My eyes opened as I stared into the eyes of a large, beautiful wolf. Well, the large wolf would have been beautiful, if it had been alone and not with a pack of equally hungry-looking beasts.
I tensed. "I am a wizard," I whispered. "You will let me live, or I will kill you all."
Wand. Any moment now, if you'd please.
One of the wolves snarled, and began to circle by my left as another did the same by my right.
"I know Hagrid, you know Hagrid?" I growled, as I kept trying to summon my wand forth. It didn't seem to be forthcoming. Why wasn't my wand coming to my rescue? Was it being so slow? "Accio wand! Accio spruce wand, dragon heartstring! Accio my wand!" I hissed as I kept flexing my fingers into the empty air.
The wolf by my extended arm took my words as a challenge, and lunged.
"Incendio!" I snarled with my left, glittering sparks sailing straight for the creature's snout and making it yip and rethink its strategy, even as my fingers pained me from the scalding heat. "In times like these," I quietly took a deep breath. "The better part of valor-"
Alarte Ascendare.
The jump upwards was small. It wasn't what I'd manage with my wand, but it was enough to get me out of the lunging of the wolf pack and onto the safety of halfway through the tree's bark. I clutched it, tightly gritting my teeth as my feet found purchase on the bark, the cold, clammy bark. I climbed up the tree, glad that wolves couldn't climb them. Up on the safest branch I could find, the wind bit into my exposed skin like a vice.
My teeth took the cue to start chattering. "Wolves below, ice above, and no wand," I wanted to cry, but I didn't. Standing atop the branch, I extended my hand. Fine, if I couldn't get my wand, then I'd get something else. I needed something capable of breaking through a window, so... "Amanda Beater's Bat!" I bellowed into the empty air, one hand outstretched.
I heard nothing, but still kept my hand extended. Then, I heard a whistling sound. It came, spinning from the left, twirling and knocking down the snow from the branches of the trees, the large bat landed in my hand. I exhaled in relief. This was bound to catch the castle's attention, all things considered.
Was this a warning? Was this someone giving me a warning of sorts by dropping me off in the Forbidden Forest, but not outright killing me? I mean, if I had half a brain, I'd stick around to finish the job on the off-chance the creatures didn't. My heart froze as the evil thought lurked into my brain. Since the enemy could have an Invisibility Cloak, it meant that the would-be murderer could pretty much still be around. I flung myself towards the closest tree branch to the left, the Alarte Ascendare doing a great job in acting like a mid-air jump button of sorts.
Beneath me, the wolves growled and followed.
Behind me, the tree I had been on exploded in a shower of crimson sparks.
Never did my feet push my body in the air faster. Never did my mind focus more on the simple, sheer principle of running the fuck away. I couldn't fly, but I was going to learn how. The trees behind me exploded. Perhaps someone called the spell out loud, but I couldn't hear them over the ringing in my ears.
I missed a jump, slipping and falling down with a scream in my throat as the barest hint of a mollify-spell made my hurt-filled fall slightly less hurting, but still knocking the wind out of my lungs. I rolled away, swinging Amanda's bat against the incoming snout of a wolf and making it whine, blood pouring from its caved-in snout.
I had a metal bat, and I wasn't afraid to use it.
Yet I wanted a wand.
The dazzling red bolt departed from the far side of the forest. I watched it arrive, clenched my hands against the bat, and then screamed hoarsely as I swung the bat back. "Protego!" it wouldn't work as well as intended, if it would work at all. The bolt impacted against the metal bat. It fizzled and then sailed high in the air, like a solid ball. It hit a branch and thundered overhead. The wolves yipped at that, rushing away.
"You think you can kill me!?" I howled in the direction of the bolt. "Then I'd like to fucking see you try!"
My breathing was growing short. I couldn't feel my fingers, or my feet.
I watched the haze of my breath leave, and narrowed my eyes. It was dark. Everything in the forest was so, so dark. I could barely see in front of me. If that was the case, then even my opponent needed some source of light, or of noise, to see me in turn.
Perhaps he had a kind of night visor of sorts, or...and then I realized I was wearing a silver, glittering robe. Even a blind man could see me, since all it took was one ray of light to shine brilliantly around me.
As if on cue, a warm light shone over the Forbidden Forest, a sharp heartwarming cry echoing through it.
The flaming wings of one Fawkes came into view, the talons landing gently on my left shoulder. The warmth made my whole body tingle, the pungent cold making itself known as I began to cry in earnest from relief. For being such a small bird, it had enough strength to lift me up and bring me back, with strong, powerful flaps, all the way to the castle's courtyard.
I landed, clutching on to Amanda's beater bat like a life-saving anchor, and quietly stared into the eyes of one extremely worried Headmaster and some assembled teachers. Most of them were in their nightgowns or pajamas, and they did look ready to scour the Forbidden Forest if sending Fawkes hadn't worked, I reckoned.
"Mister Umbrus," he said. "What happened?"
"Either Professor Moody did an extremely hands-down Constant Vigilance training course," but the man was on the stairs, together with the others, "or someone thought it would be incredibly smart to throw me unconscious into the Forbidden Forest, hoping I'd die. When they realized I wouldn't, they took a more practical approach of throwing spells at me," I said, my voice half-cracked and half-shaken. "I'm burning the forest down when I get old enough, Headmaster. Mark my words, I'm burning it all down and putting comfy, nice, little souvenir shops and motels. I'll make pelts of the wolves, and carpets, and stuffed-"
"He's under shock, Albus," Madame Pomfrey said, her presence by my side something I only barely noticed. "Let's get you inside and into the infirmary, young lad," she whispered, pushing me gently up the stairs.
"And then I'll pour concrete on the roots, yes," I continued, "Salt the ground, make it so the Forbidden Forest becomes the Extinct Forest."
I turned briefly, pointing an index finger in the direction of the forest. "Mark my words! I'll destroy you and all the evil you have within you!"
Gently, ever so, I was pulled along and into the infirmary, a potion thrust down my throat that made everything explode from the inside out, as if every single pore of my skin needed to melt, and then gush out geyser-like vapors. My head thumped down against the softest pillow ever, and I exhaled loudly, the memories of the minutes before drifting off as I fell asleep, the strength sapped from my limbs.
My wand.
I needed to find my wand.
My kingdom...for my wand.
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