metamorphmaga | hunting unicorns

As spring approaches and the snow begins to melt, Jenny and Emma take to spending their free afternoons outside, practicing flying or doing homework on the lawn or just generally enjoying the sunshine. Their spot of choice is not, as such things go, all that far from the forest, and for Jenny it becomes something of a game: see if you can spot a unicorn. She never does, but she never gives up hope. Someday.

After about a month of this, Emma decides to leave the lawn early- she's finished her letter to her parents, and wants to drop it at the Owlery- so Jenny is left to her own devices. Bored, she examines the forest. It's only supposed to be unsafe at night, right? It won't hurt to go wander around a little in search of unicorns. She won't go very far.

And if she's lucky- unicorns.

Half an hour later, Jenny is deeply regretting her idea. She is completely lost, and the forest has gotten much darker and gloomier. She would go back, if she had any idea where to go. She's taken to making little piles of rocks, to attempt to mark her way; unfortunately, so far all this has told her is that she is definitely going in a circle.

The next time she re-encounters a pile, she branches out to the left instead. She's pretty sure she came from that direction, so maybe-

Cold.

Jenny is friends with Miranda. Miranda has been compulsively researching Dementors all year; she knows what it means, this cold, the screaming terror. But it's so much worse than anything ever, ever said it would be. She's frozen to the spot, unable to move, brain screaming in terror.

And then the Dementor appears. Slowly but visibly, it approaches her. Is it bigger than the books said they should be? She thinks it is. It's already looming and it's not even close.

Frantically, crazy with fear, Jenny does the only thing she can think of- she shifts away her mouth.

The Dementor stops, seeming to hover in place. Jenny stays frozen in place. The Dementor doesn't seem to be planning to Kiss her... but it's not moving, either, and she's still stuck.

Oh, God. Now what?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

marrinikari

McGonagall sighs. "We do not need another media circus around this school," she says, mostly to herself. "I must go; we shall need to investigate the Dementor's presence. They were supposed to all have left, after the Battle." She looks at them over her glasses. "Are you all willing to keep this quiet until I have determined what, precisely, happened? I should like to have some answers before the public speculation begins."

From:

chanuphis

"I want to kill the rest of them," says Miranda. "All of them. How long do you want us to wait?"

From:

marrinikari

"Telling others? Preferably, not until we can figure out where the Dementor came from, and why you say it was so large. I would add 'until we know what you did to it,' but honestly, Miss Swan, I expect that to take quite a while." She sighs. "As for killing the rest of them- do please recall, Miss Swan, that you are eleven. And under my supervision. While I fully support any endeavor to rid the world of Dementors, if you wish to participate you will need to wait until graduation."

From:

chanuphis

"I cast a Patronus. I did it exactly like in the book," says Miranda. "I'll show you if you want. If everybody's Patronuses could kill Dementors we'd already know about it."

From:

marrinikari

"Miss Swan, whether or not you did cast a Patronus is irrelevant. You are a child, and you are in school. Wizards have coexisted with Dementors for centuries; they can continue to do so until you are an adult. You are a Hogwarts student, not an Auror, and your Patronus will keep until you finish your studies."

From:

chanuphis

"I cast a giant, person shaped Patronus that killed a Dementor. A huge Dementor. It could keep me safe!"

From:

marrinikari

"Miss Swan, you have withstood one Dementor, whom you say was visibly unusual. What if its size represented a weakness of some kind that you exploited, and other Dementors will not fall so easily? What if you encounter more than one Dementor, and are overwhelmed? For that matter, last anyone saw them, the Dementors were in league with all sorts of Dark creatures, which were not necessarily deterred by a Patronus, and may still be in their company. I have no intention of finding out with your life, Miss Swan. This school has lost more than enough students already!"

Flushing, McGonagall collects herself and straightens. "Enough. Back to your Houses, all of you; it's well past time. You can visit your friend tomorrow."

From:

chanuphis

"I could go with somebody, somebody else who also wants them gone -" Miranda begins, but Karen is already tugging her away.

From:

parental_guidance

Emma leaves reluctantly, but is finally shooed out by Madam Pomfrey. Once outside, she turns to Karen and Miranda. "I'm so, so sorry, I had no idea!"

From:

chanuphis

"Don't be sorry, if we hadn't come along Professor Fisher would have gone in alone and fainted and he'd probably be dead and that wouldn't help Jenny at all," says Miranda.

From:

pleating

"If you hadn't come along. I didn't do anything."

From:

parental_guidance

"What did you do, anyway...?"

From:

chanuphis

"I cast a Patronus, just like in the book. Expecto patronum and thinking of something happy and -" She demonstrates the wand motion, still holding her second, overpowered, supposedly chimaera-hair wand. "And then it worked like that and I'm not totally sure why, but I bet I could do it again."

From:

parental_guidance

"Weird," Emma shivers. "Do you think using that wand helped?"

From:

chanuphis

"Maybe. I'm going to try it with the other wand, but - I tried to make Patronuses before, with my regular wand. They didn't work, I just got mist. I don't know if I could do it this time because I had to or because I tried the overpowered wand."

From:

parental_guidance

"I hope I never have to," Emma says vehemently, "that was so scary. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Then she pauses, realization dawning. "Oh Merlin what am I going to tell my parents?!"

From:

pleating

"Maybe you should find out what Professor McGonagall is going to tell them, first?" suggests Karen.

From:

parental_guidance

"Yeah," Emma sighs. "I wouldn't quite put it past them to get mad at me for not telling them immediately anyway, but- the Headmistress said to wait, so I'll wait. Do you guys have any idea what you'll say to your parents...?" Not focusing on Miranda here, nope.

From:

chanuphis

"I'm going to owl Renée and tell her exactly what happened and see if she'll try to find a way for me to do it again sooner than McGonagall has in mind. If she doesn't, well, I would've probably had to wait till I was of age anyway."

From:

pleating

"Dear Mum and Dad, one of my friends got lost in the woods, and me and Miranda went with the one who reported her missing and a professor to find her, and the professor was useless but Miranda beat the monster and we are all okay?"

From:

parental_guidance

"It sounded like she just wasn't comfortable being the one sending you to dangerous places?" Emma volunteers tentatively. "I bet if you found an Auror who would let you tag along over the hols or something, she'd- okay, she's probably complain, but I bet she'd let you."

From:

chanuphis

"I'm going to definitely write Aurors and anybody else who might be able to bring me places to Dementor-hunt," agrees Miranda. "Especially if it turns out I can't figure out what I'm doing special to make it a killing instead of a chasing Patronus."