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You thought that this would be a simple task you had given yourself this day. An anonymous letter had reached you earlier this rather cold and snowy morning, informing you about a poacher’s camp close to the forbidden forest, possibly hunting down a hoard of mooncalves that used to live in that certain area.
Without much time to gather lots of information about the camp, you had decided you would simply sneak past ghosts and professors after curfew, freeing the small and frightened creatures and making it back to Hogwarts Castle to get at least just a few hours of very much needed sleep. You just couldn’t risk nodding off in professor Sharps class again, the embarrassment you endorsed that day as your potions professor caught you sleeping in his class would remind you every time.
Your cheeks turn red in embarrassment even though your skin feels like it has frozen by now. Luckily, you had practiced your disillusionment charm. Sneaking out of the castle had been the easiest part of all of this. You were actually surprised by the small amount of teachers you encountered on your way out. Must’ve been too cold for them during this icy winter which, you thought, was clearly understandable.
Now, you were slowly marching through the thick layer of fresh snow, your cloak slowly dragging behind you as the snow crackled beneath your feet. Since you had snuck out of your dormitory into the woods around Hogwarts countless times, you pretty much knew your way around. The letter you had received had described the position of the camp quite well, you’re sure you wouldn’t miss it.
You feel a tug on your shoulders and stumble. Adrenaline quickly rushes through your veins as you reach for your wand, turning around and ready to attack any poacher or- hell, maybe even one of Ranroks complices-
A sigh involuntary leaves you as you notice it was just your cloak that got stuck in the snow. You stuff your wand away and grab your cloak, not so gently slapping off the snow that clings onto the already soaked material.
“I don’t have time for this shit-“ you mutter, making sure your cloak is free of any bigger snow clumps again before continuing your search for the camp. You rub your hands together in an attempt to warm them, gently blowing some warm air between them.
Snow continues to fall onto you and as you finally make out some faint lights in the distance, your whole body is covered into a light layer of snow, making your whole figure blend into the scenery. Your shoulders ache from the weight your cloak continuously produces, and your legs already burn from the strain of marching through the thick layers of snow. You’d do anything for a break and a warm tea right now.
You internally curse as you know the hardest part of freeing the mooncalves is yet to come. You couldn’t afford to take a break now. Judging by how tired you already are, you really shouldn’t take a break now. Chances are you’d take a nap and might not get up again. It’s too cold for that and you must save the Mooncalfs. You visibly shudder while you glance around, making sure no poachers are on night watch. Your eyes move to a particularly large pine tree. The snow around the broad tribe seems to curl around the tree like a comfortable blanket. Doesn’t the snow look soft now?
You shake your head to snap out of your thoughts. Taking one deep breath, you continue your way. There’s no time to waste.
Finally, after another short march, you can take in the size of the camp. You position yourself against some more pinetrees located at the top of a small hill right next to the flimsy-built camp. It must’ve been built in a haste; the tents look like they’re close to collapsing due to the weight of just the small amount of snow laying on top of them. There are still dozens of boxes stacked on top of each other at every free space available around the tents.
Right in the middle of the camp, there’s a small campfire with just a few poachers seated in front of it. Judging by the size of the camp, its quite surprising to see just five of them. They’re chatting comfortably, unaware of your presence, you notice.
Your eyes continue to dart around the area until you spot a small cage located at the very back of the camp. You pinch your eyes, trying to make out any mooncalfs. It takes a second before your eyes focus on the dark silhouettes of the mooncalves you’ve been told of. There’s close to half a dozen of mooncalves stuck in the tiny metal cage, at least that’s what you can make out.
With no way of hiding yourself as the disillusionment spell would hide you, but not your footsteps, you decide you would strike the poachers with a few long-distance spells before stepping into the camp further. Your hands clasp around the base of your wand.
“Confringo!” You shout as you cast a flashy bolt towards the campfire, immediately blasting it into pieces, sending the poachers and surrounding boxes flying.
What you didn’t expect were poachers hiding behind said boxes. Were they waiting for you?
As you’re certain you could beat five of them, more than a dozen of grown wizards would be more than just a small challenge.
The poachers quickly position themselves, ready to send a wave of spells towards you. You already move to use Protego to shield yourself as the first poachers send their spells towards you. You quickly lose ground, causing you to take a few steps back, ducking away from spells. There’s no way for you to send another cast at them with the number of attacks being sent towards you. You’re quite sure now that they were expecting you this evening.
You’re at a loss, really. With that many poachers around, there is no way you can free the mooncalves and make it out with all of them alive.
“You were right, it’s a darn child! A child has been bothering our business for so long?!” One of the poachers yells.
As a few of them halt in their movement, trying to make out whether the statement of their troublemaker being a minor is true or not in the dark of the night, you realise that this is your only chance to move.
“Diffindo!” You yell, blasting a bright slash towards your attackers, quickly sending two of them flying into a nearby pinetree. You can see how their backs snap back in an unnatural manner and know they won’t get up any time soon anymore as their bodies hit the floor.
You block another spell directed at you and cast Glacius towards them, causing most of the poachers to duck to avoid any ice shards.
You run for the cage, perhaps you can keep them away until the mooncalfs are out of sight. Your legs once more burn and shake from the weight of the snow clinging onto your cloak.
“Bombarda! Glacio!” You yell. The poachers keep their distance, but there’s no time to open that damned cage. Alohomora be damned-
“Depulso.” One of the poachers grunts from behind a broad pine tree, hitting you square in the stomach.
The spell knocks any air out of your lungs, shoving you against the frame of the cage forcefully. As your head hits the bars of the iron frame, you gasp in pain. You move your free hand towards the back of your head, trying to numb the stinging sensation.
You regain your posture as quickly as possible but notice the poachers having moved to form a half-circle around you. Their wands are already raised at you, ready to strike you down if needed. Judging by the sole number of poachers, you knew you couldn’t defend this one. Their dirty smiles burn into your head as they laugh, probably proud of catching their nuisance. You grit your teeth.
Suddenly, there’s a blast just behind them, knocking many of them over. There’s a moment of silence as they look around in confusion- Did one of them just mess up?
As much as you’d like to find out who effed up, this is probably your last chance to get out of this whole mess. You’d have to free the mooncalves another day, when you’d be armed with potions and a better plan.
You cast another Bombarda, just for good measure to keep them busy before taking off into the woods. You hear another blast and lots of yelling, but you can’t afford to turn around to look. With a painful headache already starting to form and the small amount of light of the moon and this damned heavy cloak, it’s hard to keep your pace, but you try your best.
Having made some distance, you think you’re finally out of their sight. You slow down, taking a moment to take some rather shaky but deep breaths. You look around to see nothing but tall pine trees and snow everywhere. Now to finding Hogwarts-
“Got you.” A deep and raspy voice croaks.
You barely have time to notice the voice speaking before you’re hit with a spell to your left lower arm, causing you to fall into the snow. You yell as the sharp pain of a cut runs along your arm. Glancing down, you faintly see blood drenching the arm of your cloak, but you try your best to regain your focus to spot the attacker. You need a second before you finally spot a tall silhouette to your right, just a couple of metres away of you.
“Expelliarmus!” You shout, sending your spell towards the poacher, but he blocks it with ease. It’s the poacher that told the others about your age. His wand is glowing with a faint red glow, illuminating his crooked teeth and pale skin.
“You’ve been a bother for months now and this is all you’ve got? Honestly, this is kind of disappointing.” He smirks,shrugging as slowly stalks closer to you. You cast more spells, causing him to block or dodge them. His defense against gives you time to gather yourself again and with one more glacius casted at him, you take off into the woods again.
It’s more luck than anything else that you don’t smash into any pinetrees as you sprint as fast as your tired legs manage. Bright spells barely miss you, hitting the surrounding snow with a loud hiss.
Your heartbeat is pounding in your ears. Your legs burn relentlessly, reminding you of the fact that you won’t be able to keep this up for much longer. Your hands feel like they’re freezing, and the stinging of your arm is reminding you of the fact that you should have brought some potions with you. You guess it’s the adrenaline keeping you running right now. Great.
You keep running for a solid minute until you emerge from the forest into a clearing. It’s when your legs finally give out that you stumble and fall into the snow, panting heavily. You turn around, shuffling backwards to assess the situation. Your panting is the only noise you hear, the rest of your surroundings seem so quiet.
“Lumos.” You whisper, and your wand glows faintly, allowing you to take a look at your injured arm. You hiss as you see the deep cut running along the length of your forearm. Blood is seeping out of it, dripping into the snow and staining it dark red. You really need to get to the castle now.
Your breath hitches as you hear faint noises coming from the direction where you came from. You try to calm your breathing to listen to the noise. It sounds like a fight. Between what?
You try to stand up, but your shaky legs refuse to obey. Instead, you shuffle backwards, staring into the dark of the forest, keeping your wand up with your uninjured hand.
Your hand around your wand tightens as you see the poacher emerge from the thicket. You notice that he’s looking quite frightened, looking over his shoulder before turning around to face you. His frightened expression turns into an angered one as he spots you shuffling further into the middle of the clearing.
You cast another expelliarmus, but he counters it with his own spell. Without your full strength, you seem to lose this battle, too. You see his spell easily overpower yours. Despite your efforts, he beats your spell, immediately sending your wand flying. You watch it land several metres away from you. There’s no way you can get to it without him taking notice of it. You turn your head to face the dirty, and angry smirk of the poacher again.
“A little brat is what you are. You cost us a lot of nerves, and so did your backup.” The poacher growls. Wait, backup? Did someone else follow you? Professor Fig? No, you’re sure no one followed you. You’re almost sure he wouldn’t have been able to follow you through the forest, blaming his age. Who followed you, though?
Your confusion seems to be visible.
“You damn bastard. Don’t act like you don’t know your filthy rats. Either way, he won’t get here in time to get you out of here.” He continues, walking towards you. You once more try to get up, but your legs just won’t comply. They shake from the simple strain of shuffling away from the figure moving towards you.
“You know, there aren’t lots of reasons for clearings in the middle of a thick forest.” He snarls, halting a couple of metres away from you and looking around. You glance around too, trying to make sense of what he’s saying, but your head is pounding heavily.
“Use your brain, now. You used to be capable of doing so a couple of days ago when you destroyed our other camp.” He grumbles, folding his arms in front of his torso.
You think. You know your way around here, yet you have never encountered a clearing at this part of the forest before. The last time you went here wasn’t as cold as it is right now. There was a really pretty lake with beautiful flowers and a handful of creatures- wait, lake?
Of course, you mentally smack yourself. This is a frozen lake.
“Seems like you got it.” He concludes, “There’s always some danger related to these lakes… especially when they’re frozen.” He smirks.
Oh no.
You try to scramble away, but he shoots another Expelliarmus right in front of you. The ice beneath you cracks heavily. You don’t dare to move another inch. If you fall in, there’s no way you’ll get out of the water. That would result in a definite death.
The man chuckles deeply, pointing his wand at you again.
In that exact moment, the light of Diffindo breaks through the forest, striking the poacher in the back. He stumbles forward with gritted teeth, his breathing strained.
“That cursed rat…” The poacher groans. He turns around to look at his attacker and you can see the extend of Diffindo. His back is slashed open, blood seeping through his clothes, staining the floor beneath him red in a fast pace.
You try to see the attacker, or perhaps your saviour, too, but the poacher quickly turns around.
“if I go down, so will you, damn brat….” He shakily mumbles, his eyes already quite unfocused, either from pain or blood loss, you can’t tell.
Your eyes widen as he casts another spell at your feet, and the thick ice underneath you breaks.
For a split second, time seems to hold still. And then your body makes contact with the ice-cold water.
coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldfuckfuckFUCK
You yell in shock as your lower body falls into the water. You grasp onto the ledge of the hole you fell in, holding onto it for dear life. You try to breathe, but the ice-cold water causes your whole body to seize up. Instead, you take short gasps, trying to keep yourself from sinking in any further by kicking with your legs.
You look at the poacher, but the lifeless body is already lying a few metres in front of you, blood coating the surrounding area.
You focus on your situation again. You need to get out. Now.
Your clothing, however, drags you down. The weight of your cloak causes you to sink into the water deeper and you slowly loose your grip on the ledge. Your breathing hitches as the water reaches up to your torso. Despite everything, you can’t push yourself up, and you start to panic.
“Don’t panic!” You hear a shout from afar.
Are you hallucinating right now? You try to focus on your surroundings, but with the water already reaching your throat, you can’t manage to keep yourself afloat.
Your nails scratch at the ice surrounding you as your head slowly sinks into the water. Everything the water touches feels like thousands of small needles poking into every single inch of your skin. Your legs trash in desperation as you try to kick yourself up, but your cloak keeps dragging you down.
Finally, your hands slip off the ice and you sink into the ice-cold water of the frozen lake. Your abused lungs already protest against the lack of air in a matter of seconds.
With the lack of air, you trash, instinctively struggling, trying to open your mouth to inhale air. It doesn’t take long before your biological instincts take over and you try to breathe in but instead, inhale icy water, causing you to grasp at your own throat. Eventually, your struggles cease as your limps slowly turn numb.
In a moment that feels like hours, you seem to lose consciousness. The water doesn’t even seem that cold now.
And you couldn’t even free the mooncalves.
This was all for nothing.
What a cowardly way to die.
You slowly sense yourself just floating in the water, going up- going up?
Water bubbles around you as you, instead of sinking deeper, move up towards the surface again.
It takes just a second until you break through the surface of the water. That’s Levioso-
You struggle to understand what happened just now as the casted spell sets your body down just a few metres next to the hole you broke through.
Air. priority. Now.
You caugh heavily, quickly throwing up the water you inhaled mere seconds ago. You splutter and cough, trying to get most of the water out of your lungs.
You take a shaky deep breath, before heaving again, water still blocking your airway.
A hand knocks against your back, helping you cough up the remaining water.
You quickly turn around with a spinning head, only to face your Potions Professor, Aesop Sharp.
What the-
“Profes-“You rasp, but you’re interrupted by another coughing fit.
“Don’t speak. Take your time” He quietly speaks. His hand gently pats your soaking cloak in a comforting manner. You do as he says, coughing and rasping as you regulate your breathing. With every second that passes in silence, your senses come back to you. The stinging in your arm, the pounding in your head, the unforgiving cold. Your whole body trembles from shock, cold and pain. What was he doing here?
Professor Sharp brushes his hand off his mantle and kneels to your level, hissing as his knee protests against the movement. He points his wand to your torso.
“Focillo” He mumbles and a gentle warmth spreads through your body. You sigh at the sensation, letting your head hang down as you just enjoy a break from the cold you’ve endured for most of the evening. Finally, the feeling in your fingers returns and you carefully flex them, wincing as they prickle.
“I-“ You try to start, but your Potions teacher once more interrupts you.
“Where are you injured?” He interrupts you, already glancing over your body, his focus immediately landing on your lower arm.
“The arm… and my head, I think. I got pushed into the frames of a cage and hit my head.” You simply answer. If there are any more injuries, those aren’t your focus right now.
“What happened?” He asks, his head nodding to your injured arm that’s showing through the cut up fabric of your cloak. The water washed away most of the blood, leaving a deep but clean gash in your arm. You turn your head to face him again. He holds out his free hand towards you.
“I- uh..” You think about your choices to lie your way out of this, but lying to a former auror when the facts seem mostly clear to him doesn’t seem like a good idea. Perhaps he just wants to hear the truth from you, testing you. He doesn’t like liars, you know that.
You take another deep but shaky breath and decide to go with the truth.
“I didn’t expect this many poachers, so I had to get away. I didn’t expect them to follow me, I thought they were busy with whatever was going on at the camp.” You mumble, your eyes focused on the floor below you in shame as you hold out your arm. How naive. You really had not thought this through.
He inspects the cut for a moment before letting go of your arm and grabbing something from his mantle. You look at the vial the former auror pulls out of his coat. The green liquid is all too familiar to you; it’s a wiggenweld potion.
“This won’t suffice, I am aware of that, but unfortunately, it’s all I have with me right now. It will at least get you in shape to apparate.” He speaks. He looks at your trembling hands for a second before putting the cork of the small vial between his teeth opening it for you.
You feel like a little child as he puts the vial to your lips, yet you know that in your state you’re incapable of downing the contents of the vial without spilling one half of it, so you just accept your fate and drink the potion.
The dull throbbing in your head ceases instantly. You glance down at your cut to see the skin slowly pulling itself together again. Unfortunately, your potions professor is right; the cut doesn’t close entirely and there’s still an angry, red line left on your forearm. Your shaking doesn’t stop however, you’re too worked up by almost drowning a few moments ago.
Professor Sharp gets up slowly, his wand is still pointed at you to keep you warm while he bends down to grasp the wand you had lost in your fight mere moments ago. You test your legs, trying to get up and, thanks to the potion, your legs obey you.
“We’ll apparate, I wouldn’t want to take any other risks of running into another group of poachers and I assume that given your current status and my lack of potions, you’ll agree with me.” He simply says, holding his elbow out for you to hold onto it.
There’s no reason to argue as you fully agree with him, so you hold onto his arm as he apparates the two of you to Hogwarts Castle.
Your head spins as your surroundings change drastically. You slowly open your eye and instead of the white and cold forest, you find yourself surrounded by warm and soft light and kettles, everything smells of ditanny. You’re in the potions classroom.
You hear your professor mumble a cast you can’t quite make out and in a matter of seconds, your soaking clothes are dry again, not clinging onto your skin uncomfortably anymore.
You want to thank professor Sharp, but he’s already walking to a few shelves in the back with his slight limp. Your brain starts to rush as you finally realize what actually just happened.
You snuck out of your school way past curfew, sneaking past the teachers and ghosts keeping watch. You went close to the forbidden forest and messed up badly, almost killing yourself in a badly planned rescue mission for half a dozen of mooncalfs that you couldn’t even save. And then, you managed to nearly drown because you forgot about a damned lake that you’ve seen dozens of times during fall. The only reason you stand here right now is because of your potions teacher and you still couldn’t make any sense of how he got there.
“Sit.” You’re pulled back into reality by your teachers words. You turn around to see him motion to the chair he usually sits in during class. You bite the inside of your cheek.
“I should really go-“
“There really isn’t room for any discussion.” He says. With a flick of his wand, the doors of his classroom shut close. You internally scream as you watch the doors shut, frustrated about how awfully wrong your simple plan of tonight went.
You let your head hang in defeat as you slowly walk up to his chair, sit down and glancing at the ground. You fumble with your shaky hands as you can basically feel him staring you down. You don’t know how to start talking about the elephant in the room. You’re filled with shame.
“I’m sorry.” You mumble, though you know this doesn’t explain anything. There’s a moment of silence. Your teacher moves a chair from the students desks a couple of feet in front of you with his wand. He sits down on the chair, stretching out his bad leg.
“What is it you’re sorry for, exactly?” Sharp asks, keeping his eyes focused on you.
You once more feel like a kid. Your cheeks heat up.
“I’m sorry for sneaking out. I didn’t expect tonight to be as turbulent as it was.” You mutter, picking at your trembling fingers.
“Turbulent, you say? Let me remind you of the fact that you not only were close to being taken apart by a dozen of poachers, but were this close to drowning. If I hadn’t blown up their backline in time, you’d be in pieces by now. If I were you, I would call tonight’s event nothing but suicidal and careless.” Sharp snarls, his words carrying a hint of anger now. You sink into the chair uncomfortably.
So he was the one who created a time window for you.
“You’re incredibly lucky the house elf cleaning your dormitory found the letter you received and had the courage to inform me about it.” Sharp remarks, pulling said letter from inside his mantle. Your glance finally moves up to stare at the letter in embarrassment.
There’s no use in denying any of it. You messed up royally. You’re frustrated with the way he points out every little aspect of your wrong doings.
“I know I messed up! I didn’t plan to be as reckless as I have been, but do expect me to simply let mooncalves die because of the fact that I couldn’t manage to-“ you lash out, but halt in your words as you notice you’re yelling at the former auror in front of you. His face is empty of any emotion as he simply looks at you.
“I’m sorry, professor.” You mumble, staring at the cobblestone floor. Oh, how you wish to disappear right now.
Professor Sharp’s eyes move to your shaky hands. He gets up once more, limping towards a drawer next to his desk. You watch him as he opens it, pulling out a small vial. He inspects the glass container for a brief moment before walking to his chair again.
“I really need to know what it is that urges you to sneak out as often as you do. Is it because of Professor Fig? Does he send you?” Sharp asks cautiously, slowly sitting down on his chair.
“No, no this is my responsibility. All assignments professor Fig has given me have been solely related to his lessons." You finally lie as you look into your professors’ eyes. You couldn’t tell him about everything that has happened over this school year. You don’t know if you should trust him. He saved your life mere moments ago, but perhaps he did it because it’s his responsibility to make sure the students remain unharmed in any way. He was an auror, what if he tells the ministry about your abilities? It seems too risky.
“I think we both know that’s not true.” The man in front of you says as if he’s looking right through you. He folds his hands together, the vial between them. You bite the inside of your cheek again.
“Your progress in school has never been slowed down because of him. You exceeded our expectations, I’m more than sure that other professors agree with me.” He says, sighing for a moment before continuing.
“But studying isn’t everything. You look unwell. I am aware you escaped death just now, but you have been looking unwell for quite some time. Whatever it is that you do, it’s tiring you. It is my duty as your professor to make sure you are okay.” He says, opening the vial. The contents are mostly clear. He holds it out to you. You glance at the vial in caution.
“It’s for your shaking, your rattled up mind.” He explains as he leans forward to holds the vial to your lips again.
You drink the potion. Your mind slows down as the potion takes effect. As your thoughts were racing mere moments ago, you feel rather calm, almost comfortable. You look down at your hands to see them still.
“Thank you, professor” You thank him. He leans back into his chair again. You think about how to solve this situation at hand. You couldn’t talk about your abilities. Not right now. You don’t trust him enough.
“I have a problem I can’t talk about as of right now. There’s a lot that’s at stake and I am unable to share it with you. I truly appreciate you saving me, professor, I really do. But I can’t.” You press out, looking at him again.
“Why is that?” Your potions teacher asks as he folds his hands together.
“Because… I just can’t…” You mutter, once more glancing at the cobblestone floor beneath your feet.
There’s a long pause where neither of you speak, both deep in thoughts as each of you tries to find their own solution.
“And you’re certain you can’t talk about it?” He asks, his voice deep in thoughts as he glances at his cauldron a few metres away from both of you.
You nod. He exhales audibly before turning his focus back to you.
“Very well then. I need to make sure you don’t kill yourself out there and tonight’s events proved me you aren’t strong enough to take care of whatever it is that you are currently struggling with. Because of that, and because of the fact that there’s a curfew in this school, I have to be certain that you will not sneak out into the woods or anywhere else again.
You’ll be serving detention every evening from now on. You can practice your spells, your potions or do some homework, it truly doesn’t matter to me. But you will be spending your evenings in Hogwarts Castle. There will be consequences should you not attend” He explains, his tone already letting you know that there will be no negotiation about this.
Your mind starts to wander. If you must serve detention every evening from now on, your plan on defeating Ranrok will be slowed down immensely. You’d have to talk to Professor Fig about this, perhaps he could talk your potions professor out of this.
It wasn’t even that you weren’t strong enough. You were just unprepared. And now you couldn’t manage to talk to him about your abilities. So, he thinks you’re just a weak child.
Your skin feels hot and cold at the same time as your heart seems to pick up its pace once more.
“I understand.” You finally speak up. You really want to leave this place, now.
You push yourself up from the chair you’re sitting on and the former auror does the same, sliding his hands along his coat, straightening the material. You already stride to the door of the classroom.
“Hold on, take this.” Sharp stops you as he moves to another drawer next to his desk, pulling out two more potions.
“This is another Wiggenweld potion and a dreamless sleep potion. Don’t hesitate to take them if needed. As for tomorrow’s class in the morning, you will be dismissed. You can catch up on your studies in detention, after more than just a small nap.” He explains, handing the two vials to you. You glance at the potions.
“Thank you, sir.” You mutter, stuffing them into the pockets of your coat without even taking a look at them. You try to sound as polite as possible, but it’s clear that you really want to leave.
“Good night, sir.” You mumble as you pull the wooden door of the classroom open. You hear the former auror answer but cannot make out the words as you shut the door rather hastily.
You curse on your way to your dormitory.
You could ditch detention and simply continue, perhaps he was bluffing about the consequences.
You could attend detention, but could you deal with the fact that you’re needed somewhere else?
You could trust him, but that could end wrong.
You’d have to think about this. After very much needed sleep.