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"Carlos? Are you out here?"
Jay wasn't sure how he had been stuck with "locate and retrieve Carlos" duty yet again, but he wasn't happy about it. It was lunch time, and he would much rather be in the Great Hall with Mal and Evie, stuffing his face before he had to head out to Quidditch practice that afternoon. Even though it was a Sunday, Ben had decided that they should practice every single day for at least a couple of hours between now and their big match against Slytherin the following weekend.
Ugh. Quidditch captains and their competitive natures.
Carlos had parted from the group early that morning, stating that he wanted to get some homework done on the lawn and he would be back inside by eleven. Now it was nearly an hour after that, with no sign of the white-haired boy. Mal and Evie had refused to leave the castle, insisting that it was too cold and Jay should go instead. When he had asked them why he was expected to face the cold while they were not, Evie giggled, and Mal gave him a pointed glare. "Jay," she said with a pout, her words dripping from her lips like sugary sweet syrup, "imagine Carlos outside all alone, shivering because he forgot his cloak - which you know he probably did, he always does - and in trouble? What if he tripped and fell into the creek, or tried to climb a tree but fell off, or-" one hand came up to her mouth as she let out a fake gasp, "what if he stumbled into the Forbidden Forest? He needs you, Jay! You're the only one of us who would be strong enough to help him out."
"It's only October, it's not that cold outside," Jay grumbled, even as he threw on his own cloak and stalked toward the front doors. "And Carlos is almost fourteen! We don't need to keep treating him like a baby!" he shouted over his shoulder, pointedly ignoring Mal's laughter. Merlin's beard, she got him every time.
So here Jay was, shivering in the chilly fall air and scouring the grounds for his friend. It wasn't unusual for the younger boy to go off on his own for a little while, especially outside; he often claimed that he needed some space, and after Jay had learned a bit about his home life, it was easy to see why. But Carlos wasn't one to make a promise and then forget about it. Jay hated to admit it, but he was the tiniest bit worried. Just the teensiest. He had been serious when he told Mal that they needed to stop treating Carlos like a child - he was only a year younger than them, for goodness' sake - but if Jay was alone, he could admit to himself that he had a soft spot for his friend. Maybe even a bit more than a soft spot.
And really, for some reason Carlos did have a strange talent for ending up in precarious, often life-threatening situations - Jay was pretty sure he would never be able to forget Halloween two years ago. How Uma and Harry had managed to sneak a baby cerberus into the school, Jay had no idea; how it had somehow fixated on Carlos and chased him around half the school before the professors had it contained was even more of a mystery.
That had put a slight damper on the group's efforts to eliminate Carlos' fear of dogs.
"Hey, C!" Jay called, circling around the Herbology greenhouses and heading further down the hill, away from the castle. "Carlos, are you out here? The girls are waiting on you! Come on, they're got a plate ready with your name on it!"
No response. Jay was about to call his search a bust, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted something that made his heart stop:
A bookbag. A worn, overstuffed, and very familiar book bag. Resting right at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Ugh. Mal had been right. She would never let him live this down.
"Dammit, C," Jay growled under his breath as he strode towards the woods. He reached the book bag and looked down, feeling both pleased and upset to confirm that it did indeed belong to Carlos, as evidenced by the tiny blue heart and letter C stitched near the edge (Evie's design). What was the kid doing in the Forbidden Forest?
"Carlos?" he whispered, pulling his wand out of its holster and holding it before him. If he was going to enter the most dangerous place on campus, he was going to do so very carefully. "Carlos, I'm coming to find you, and when I find you I'm gonna kill you, alright? Alright."
Slowly he started forward, lighting his wand to help him see a bit better in the leafy dimness that suddenly engulfed him. He had only been in the Forbidden Forest a couple of times before, usually thanks to one of Mal's ridiculous ideas ("Hey, you know what would be great? If we left the castle right now in the middle of the night to steal an incredibly rare plant from the Forest so Evie can use it in one of her potions! Doesn't that sound fantastic?") and he felt the same way now as he had back then: quite uneasy.
Jay wasn't even sure if he was heading in the right direction, and he really didn't want to stay in these woods any longer than he had to. Glancing around to make sure nothing in his immediate vicinity was going to eat him, he brought his wand closer to his mouth. "Find me Carlos," he breathed softly, envisioning the white-haired boy vividly in his mind.
Immediately, his wand began to tremble, shifting this way in his palm, then that way, and finally settling at an angle 90 degrees east to its original position. Jay glanced to his right; nothing looked different about that part of the forest, but if the wand was telling him that's where Carlos was, then that's where he was headed. He changed course, stepping lightly over tree trunks and twisting vines, letting his wand guide him for nearly five minutes. He was beginning to grow impatient and was going to perform the spell once more, just in case his wand had made a mistake last time, when he climbed over a particularly pronounced tree trunk and suddenly found himself in a small clearing, with-
Oh.
Wow.
He had found Carlos. The smaller boy was seated cross-legged near the other edge of the clearing, a thick textbook lying open in his lap. He seemed to be reading through the book, one hand flipping the pages, while the other hand was idly trailing up and down the side of - and this is where Jay had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining things - a unicorn. A small, perfectly golden unicorn with only a nub for a horn, who was resting against Carlos' side like an impossibly valuable pillow.
The unicorn lifted its head, sensing Jay's arrival, and gently butted Carlos' leg to get his attention. The boy paused in his reading and looked up, a bright smile immediately lighting his face. "Jay! What are you doing here?"
It took Jay a good moment to answer. Mainly because the sight of Carlos nestled in the grass, relaxed and happy and chilling with a freaking baby unicorn as a companion was almost too much to process.
Oh man, Mal was gonna be so mad that she missed this.
Jay finally managed a casual wave, taking a small step forward, then another when the unicorn didn't budge. "Hey man," he said, keeping his voice low and relaxed, just like he had learned in Care of Magical Creatures. "Mal and Evie were getting worried when you didn't show up to lunch, so they sent me to find you. What are you doing here?"
Carlos flushed, glancing down at his watch and then dropping his head, dismayed. "Oh no, I'm so sorry! I completely lost track of time; normally I'm really good about setting an alarm so I can get back to the castle in time, but I must have forgotten to do so-"
"Normally?" Jay's head tilted to the side, an inquisitive look on his face. "So...this isn't the first time you've been here, then?"
"Er..." If possible, Carlos' face turned an even darker shade of red. "Well...no. I, um, I come here pretty regularly?" he phrased the end of his words like a question, eyes widening as Jay's mouth turned down into a frown. "Not, like, every day!" he added hurriedly, shutting his book and tossing it to the side. "Just, sometimes when I need to get away from...everything...I come out here. With Gwen."
"Gwen," said Jay flatly; next to Carlos, the unicorn lifted its head once more and glanced around expectantly. "You...named a unicorn."
Carlos nodded, his eyes lighting up as he gestured to the creature next to him. "Well, she kept joining me and I couldn't just call her "Unicorn", so I had to give her a name! Anyway, this is Gwen. She's the youngest in her herd, as far as I can tell. My guess is she's just over a year old. Gwen, meet Jay. He's my best friend."
Jay's chest warmed at the words "best friend", and he tried to keep a grin from breaking out on his face as he stopped a respectable distance from Carlos and Gwen. This was all incredible, but he was still tasked with bringing his companion back to the castle to eat. "It's nice to meet you, Gwen," he said to the unicorn, offering her a slight bow and then holding his hand out to her. She sniffed his fingers delicately, then seemed to whinny in approval as she began to lick his palm. Laughing, Jay glanced over at Carlos, who looked as though he might burst with happiness.
"I knew she would like you," the white-haired boy exclaimed, running one freckled hand along the creature's side. "I was gonna tell you all about this spot, soon, I swear - I wanted to bring you all here on my birthday, so Mal couldn't get mad about me keeping it a secret for so long-"
"Carlos," Jay broke in gently, "Mal wouldn't be mad at you for keeping secrets. Come on, she's more guilty of that than any of us. She - and I - just want to make sure that you're safe. You really worried her when you didn't show up at the Great Hall."
He saw the guilt flood Carlos' face and sighed, pulling his hand away from Gwen so he could crouch in front of his friend. "Hey," Jay said, using a finger to lift Carlos' head up, locking their eyes on one another, "This is awesome. I've never heard of a student just setting up study hall in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, and with a unicorn for company, too. The creatures of the Forest must really like you - and that's a gift that shouldn't be wasted."
His eyes hardened slightly as he continued. "At the same time, your safety is important, Carlos. This is called the Forbidden Forest for a reason - there's a lot of dangerous stuff out here, stuff even Mal wouldn't dare to mess with. I know you need your space sometimes, but I need you to promise me that you'll let me know whenever you decide to come out here. Just so that if you ever go missing for a while, I'll know where to start looking." He brought a hand up to Carlos' head and ruffled his white hair. "Sound good?"
"Yeah," Carlos agreed, a soft smile lighting his face once more. He leaned into Jay's touch, shutting his eyes for a moment. "Thanks, Jay. I'm glad you were the one to find me."
Merlin's beard, this boy was going to be the death of him. Jay felt his chest warm again, and he pushed down the strong urge to lean forward and meet the lips that rested just inches from his own. Having been starved of affection for the first ten years of his life, Carlos was always eager for any kind of gentle touch nowadays from his friends. Jay refused to take advantage of that fact and push his own feelings onto the Hufflepuff; he was fine just like this, always ready with a hug or a head scratch and nothing more.
"Come on," said Jay, dropping his hand and getting to his feet. He dusted off his pants, then reached down to help Carlos stand as well. "Evie's probably sent a watch party down here by now. Let's get back inside."
Carlos nodded in agreement, picking up his book from the ground and turning back to Gwen, who had just risen. He knelt once more and wrapped his arms around the unicorn's neck, hugging her tightly for a moment. Jay had to marvel at how calmly she stood; he knew that young unicorns were less wary of males than their adult counterparts, but they still typically preferred to be touched by females. She must have been able to feel how pure Carlos' spirit was, how unlikely it was that he would ever hurt her. The thought brought a smile to Jay's face, one that he quickly tampered down when his companion turned his way.
"Alright, let's go," said Carlos, and he led the pair of them out of the Forbidden Forest much more quickly than Jay had walked through it before. In just a couple of minutes they stood back on the castle grounds, blinking at the sudden onslaught of sunlight. Carlos grabbed his book bag from the ground, shivering slightly. Mal had been right; he did indeed forget his coat, although the forest must have shielded him from most of the wind.
With a sigh, Jay unclasped his cloak from around his neck. "Here," he said, draping the material around Carlos' shoulders and securing the clasp once more. "Evie will kill me if you come back with a cold or anything. Wear this until we get inside."
Carlos shook his head quickly. "I don't wan't you cold," he insisted, "it's my own fault for forgetting my cloak. Take it back."
"Nope, sorry, no can do. Evie's wrath is worse than your guilt. Besides, I don't mind the cold." That was true. Growing up in the hot, dry deserts of Agrabah, Jay never complained when the colder weather hit at Hogwarts, since he couldn't experience it at home.
Carlos rolled his eyes but smiled brightly once more. "Thank you, Jay," he said once more, and they continued up the castle in a peaceful silence, both now eager to fill their stomachs in the Great Hall.