Lily realised her mouth had fallen open when Parkinson started speaking and closed it immediately.
“Hudgens, you have to walk into the Forbidden Forest. Geller, you have to walk out of the Forbidden Forest. And Evans…” Parkinson smirked, “you have to find something for me. A dark green scarf with silver dots. I seem to have lost it in the Forbidden Forest.”
Lily couldn’t believe this. She had to go on some sort of treasure hunt in that godforsaken place! And all Arietta and Diana had to do was walk in and out of there. So not fair.
“And remember, you have to do your dares on different nights, or days if you like, and you can’t do each other’s dares. If you do, you lose. Understand?” Davies sneered.
Pleasant guy, Lily thought.
“So you’re saying I have to walk into the Forest but can’t walk out of it again?” Diana asked, astonished. Lily, however, saw a complete different problem.
“You want me to walk around in the Forbidden Forest on my own?” she interrupted incredulously. This was bad. The Forest was not a safe place to be wandering about at night, and like hell she was going to walk in there in bright daylight. It was far too easy getting caught if you took that chance. No, it had to be at night. And on her own, too. She actually preferred telling McGonagall that the scene at lunch was her fault entirely. She turned around to inform Diana and Arietta about this, but she didn’t have a chance to say anything before Arietta cut in.
“Look guys, I think we should do this. Otherwise, we can look forward to hell from those idiots. Besides, if we do it, we get to give them their dares, and you bet they aren’t going to get off as easy,” she mumbled, so the Slytherins wouldn’t hear their conversation.
“I agree. This is also about teaching them that they can’t just take it out on us that their fathers are doing illegal stuff. That is just typical Slytherin,” Diana said. Lily shook her head, amazed that they were actually suggesting they should go along with this.
“You two are crazy. I am not walking around in that place on my own, you hear me?” she whispered to her two friends, glaring angrily at them.
“You may not have to. We’ll find a solution later; we don’t have to go there tonight,” Diana answered, looking slightly uncomfortable.
“Yeah, come on Lils,” Arietta whispered, looking pleadingly at her.
Against her better judgment, Lily let herself be persuaded, and whispered out of the corner of mouth: “Alright then, but you’d better have a plan.”
Diana smiled and informed the Slytherins that they agreed to do the dares.
“How are you going to know that we did them, though? In theory we could just lie,” Lily said, sceptically lifting an eyebrow. In truth, she was more worried that Crawford, Davies and Parkinson would simply say that they had done whatever dares Lily, Diana and Arietta would come up with, and that there would be no way of telling whether or not it was the truth.
“You got a point,” Parkinson said thoughtfully. Arietta smiled mysteriously.
“Might I suggest something?” she said. “We all sign a document, which will be a sort of contract. We’ll put a spell on it, so if anyone says that they’ve done a dare but haven’t, it’ll be pretty obvious.”
Lily knew from the look on Arietta’s face that she was thinking about a particular spell. She could think of a couple that might work, but she had a feeling Arietta had something in mind that would make lying extremely embarrassing.
“Fine. Who is going to make this contract?” Davies asked. Arietta pulled a piece of parchment out from her robes.
“I already made one,” she said and laid the parchment on a desk. At the top there was room for writing what the terms were, as well as the fact that not telling the truth would be highly embarrassing as well as obvious. Arietta wrote the terms quickly, and then signed it. Crawford looked sceptical but signed it nonetheless and passed it on to Davies, who also signed it. Parkinson took an extremely close look at it before she signed it. Lily scribbled her signature without a second glance at the parchment, as did Diana.
“Alright then, I suggest we meet again when you’ve done your dares or want to announce that you’re giving up,” Davies said with a smirk. Lily glared at him, but decided not to say anything.
“Agreed. See you,” Diana said and left the classroom. Lily and Arietta followed, although not before Lily had snatched the ‘contract’ off the table.
When they were finally back in the common, having successfully avoided both Mrs Norris and Peeves, Lily collapsed in an armchair in front of the fire. Arietta and Diana sat down on either side of her.
“I am exhausted,” Lily sighed. Arietta got some chocolate out of a pocket and offered Lily and Diana a piece. Lily took it gratefully.
“So what are we going to do?” she asked, hoping one of her friends would have a plan.
“Right now, I have no idea. I’m still surprised that they asked you to walk around in the forest and not me. I mean, it was my father who got their fathers arrested.” Diana rubbed her eyes.
“It’s probably because I’m Muggle-born. I think I also annoyed them during that scene at lunch,” Lily said slowly as she stared into the fireplace. Arietta had almost closed her eyes, she noticed. She could feel her own eyes beginning to droop as well.
“I suggest we sleep on it and discuss it again in the morning,” she decided, thinking that if she didn’t go to bed soon she would fall asleep in the common room. Diana nodded and nudged Arietta, who woke up immediately. Lily managed to go all the way to their dormitory and threw herself on the bed. She had practically fallen asleep before her head hit the pillow.
*****
When Lily woke up the next morning, she found the dormitory empty except for Camille, who was snoring loudly in the other end of the room. She glanced at her alarm clock and discovered that it was half past ten. She usually woke up around nine o’clock and was surprised that she had slept so long, but then remembered last night and realised she had probably needed the sleep.
When she got down to the common room, she found Arietta and Diana bent over their Potions essays. Lily had already finished the essay and went down to get some breakfast. She ate quickly and returned to the common room. Arietta had finished her essay, but Diana was still bent deep in concentration over hers. Lily looked over her shoulder. She had only finished half of the essay.
“Want some help with that?” she asked and sat down next to her.
“I thought you’d never ask. Thanks,” Diana sighed gratefully and handed her the essay. Lily looked it through, corrected some mistakes here and there and handed it back to Diana.
“I’d write something about the side effects to the potion and why it is dangerous to brew. Perhaps also something about the lacewing flies as an ingredient. You can borrow my essay if you can’t remember what the side effects are,” Lily offered. The essay was about the Polyjuice Potion. Lily had thought it was fairly easy and had used a couple of hours to finish it, but she knew Diana refused to consider Potions as anything but difficult and had therefore never bothered to understand the basics of potion brewing.
“Yeah, that’d be great. Although I think I’ll finish it tomorrow and take the rest of today off,” Diana replied, putting the essay away. Arietta smiled and shook her head. Diana ignored her.
“So, what are we going to do?” Arietta asked, taking a bite of a sandwich.
“Seriously, Ari, you are always eating something,” Diana said accusingly, pointing her finger at Arietta. Arietta shrugged and continued talking.
“We have a bit of a problem with the dares, Di, so if you could focus here.” Lily laughed at their antics. It was so typical Diana to point out Arietta’s eating habits. Diana scowled.
“Right, so what do you suggest?” Lily asked; keen to find out if Arietta had any plans. If it was Arietta who came up with a solution, it was usually something Lily would never have thought of.
“I think the solution has to be found in the exact words they used to formulate our dares,” Arietta grinned. Diana looked as if she didn’t understand, but Lily caught on immediately.
“Of course. Diana has to walk into the Forest but can’t walk out of it again. You have to walk out of it, but can’t walk in there. Ari, you’re a genius,” Lily said, suddenly very optimistic about the whole thing. Diana’s face lightened up.
“Are you saying that I can just bring my broom and fly out of there?” she asked, grinning. Lily nodded.
“Yeah, or someone can use Wingardium Leviosa on you, but I’d take the broom as well,” she answered, still smiling. Suddenly she remembered her own dare and the smile wilted.
“What about me? I still have to walk around in the Forest on my own,” she whispered, so a group of First Years passing them wouldn’t hear her.
“Well, I was thinking you could just summon the scarf,” Arietta said, looking doubtful.
“I don’t know if it’ll work. I don’t know exactly how it looks, and when it is that far away I need to have a clear picture of it in my mind. Otherwise I could risk summoning someone else’s scarf,” Lily reminded her, also not convinced that it would work.
“Well, I don’t know what you can do if it doesn’t work. I understand that you don’t want to walk around in the forest alone, neither of us would, really,” Arietta said thoughtfully, “but maybe the words that Parkinson girl used could be used in our advantage again. She said you had to look for the scarf. That doesn’t mean we can’t come with you, it just means we can’t look for the scarf.”
Lily brightened up at once, but Diana had objections.
“Actually, she didn’t say Lily had to look for the scarf. If she had said that, we could have gone with her. But she didn’t, she said Lily had to find the scarf. So if we go with her, we practically have to wear blindfolds. Otherwise, we could find it by accident and thereby fail to follow the rules.”
Lily’s optimistic view of the whole thing disappeared immediately only to leave a dark cloud in her mind.
“That’s true. So I guess that means none of us can go with you,” Arietta agreed. Diana nodded.
“Yeah, so unless you want to explain to someone else who has nothing to do with this why they have to accompany you into the Forest, you’re practically on your own. And you have to bring a broom, because you can’t walk neither in nor out of the place,” Diana finished quietly, leaning conspiratorially over the table so Lily and Arietta could hear her.
Lily rested her head in her hands, thinking that this day was getting worse.
Suppose I’ll have to do it alone, then, she thought, glooming.
“Well, Lils, all you can do is to make sure you go in there prepared. I mean, check up on spells and hexes and what you might need. And once you’re in there, try summoning it, even though you don’t think it’ll work. It’s worth a try,” Arietta said consolingly. Lily sighed and nodded slightly. She suddenly realised how cheerful all the other students in the common room seemed to be. It was unfair they didn’t have to worry about getting caught on their way to the Forbidden Forest and potentially losing their Prefect’s Badge, not to mention actually walking blindly around in the forest until they found a bloody scarf. But then again, life never seemed to be quite fair. Not to anyone.
“So, who’s going first?” Diana asked, twirling her wand in her hands distractedly.
“Not me,” Lily mumbled, not feeling up to saying anything much. All she could think about was that she actually had to find a bloody scarf in the bloody Forest. She could end up dead! No, she reminded herself; she could always get on her broom and fly to the top of the trees, even though she wasn’t much for flying. But still, it was dangerous...
“I’ll go first then,” Diana volunteered, as no one else seemed to be willing to do so.
“What day?” Arietta enquired.
“How about doing it tonight?” Diana suggested, finally laying her wand on the table. Lily suddenly became very practical.
“No, tonight won’t do. It’s weekend and all the students are up late. It’s too easy getting caught. I’d say Monday is better. I have to do rounds in the evening then, so if you do it Monday, Ari can do hers Tuesday and I’ll do mine Wednesday. Then I have time to check up on some jinxes as well,” she said, sitting up straight in her chair.
Arietta nodded and Diana said, with an edge of finality in her voice, “Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it is, then. I have to go and meet Charlie now, I promised him I would let him use my broom.” She stood up and headed towards the dormitories for her broom. Arietta found some chocolate and stared thoughtfully into the fire while eating it. Lily, however, was almost in shock. She couldn’t believe that she had to walk around in the forest on her own! She was positive that she was going to die.
I only have until Wednesday, she thought, all practicality leaving her, and her eyes slightly dazed. Wednesday I’m going on a stupid, unnecessary and completely dangerous mission. Wednesday I’m doomed…
Forbidden Forest? Who Said Forbidden? by Rikku
Chapter Notes: Thanks to my beta Celtic_Jewel. Please R&R!
Chapter Endnotes: Hope you liked the chapter! You are most welcome to leave a little review... :D