Claudia:
Oh. My. God. Nina and I were walking down to the castle grounds, and we were going to visit a unicorn! Merlin, that beat anything that Patil or Longbottom might teach us in their respective subjects. Knowing that Rose would probably worry about my whereabouts (she was such a worrywart), I left her a quick note on her bed. I really wanted to include her in this, but she’d never skip a class. Never ever. It was probably right up there on her Evil Acts List with boiling live puppies.
Anyway, so Nina and I were chatting the whole way down. She told me a little bit about herself. I’d already known that her dad, Lee, worked in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, Al and Rose’s uncle’s shop. She told me that her mother, Isabella, went to Beauxbatons Academy in France, but was Italian. That explained her olive skin. She’d moved to England after graduation where she met Lee in Diagon Alley one day. It was love at first sight, according to her parents. It sort of sounded a bit like the way… his parents got together. Adam. I made a resolution to forget Adam for now. Maybe, when he was mature enough to listen to my apologies, I’d think about him again.
Nina also had two younger sisters “ Sophia, who was eight and little Kirrilee, who was only four. She gushed on about how adorable they were “ she was most likely right. They were probably miniature versions of Nina and her mother.
There wasn’t much to tell with me. I just told her about my little sister, Leah. When I told her that she was eight years old as well, she gushed about how great it’d be if Leah and Sophia would become friends.
“I suppose that would be nice if it weren’t for the fact that my sisters a Muggle,” I said pointedly.
“What, you don’t think she’s going to be a witch?” Nina replied.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t exactly shown any signs yet. You’d think that she would have. I started blowing up toasters by the time I was five.”
“Hmm… she still has potential. A lot of young wizards and witches don’t show any magical powers until they’re about eight or nine.” She flashed a grin at me. Why did I hate Nina before? She was so nice! It was only when we reached Hagrid’s empty hut that I started doubting myself.
“Where’s Hagrid?” I said, puzzled. Nina just shrugged.
“I don’t know. He said something about feeding the unicorns… yes, that’s probably what he’s doing. Tell you what, I know where the unicorn was. How about we go in and I’ll show you?”
I hesitated for a moment. “Umm… I don’t know, Nina. We aren’t allowed in. And it probably isn’t safe in there.”
“Aww... come on, Claudia! Hagrid’s only about a hundred metres into the forest away. It’ll take us five minutes, max, to get there! And its not like it’s Acromantula or anything that we’re visiting! Its just unicorns. And they’re so pretty… ooh, did I tell you they’re pure gold?”
That last sentence did it. “Gold? What are we waiting for!” I exclaimed. Nina led the way.
Ten minutes later, I got worried again. We were no closer to finding Hagrid than discovering the thirteenth use of dragon’s blood.
“Are you sure that Hagrid took the left fork back there? Maybe it was the right fork. They both looked the same to me,” I gabbled nervously. Nina just rolled her eyes.
“Claudia, trust me, I know where we’re going.”
Deeper and deeper we walked into the heart of the forest. I considered turning back many times, but then realised that I’d never be able to find my way out again. Where in Merlin’s beard was Nina going? I had no choice, however, but to follow her. I kept walking, mud dripping from my shoes.
About four minutes later, however, we stopped. I gazed around, expectantly, to see where Hagrid or the unicorn was. But there was a significant absence of both. I turned on Nina angrily.
“What the hell are you playing at?” I growled, annoyed. “There was no unicorn, was there? You’ve just taken me out here to… to… to “”
“To what, Claudia?” she smiled.
“To… I don’t bloody well know!” Even though I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do much, I thought it might put her off for a few seconds. I reached for my wand, but when I realised it wasn’t there, I panicked. My enemy grinned triumphantly, before an absolute look of horror became plastered upon her face. She pointed behind me, and I turned quickly, my arms in front of me, ninja style. Which would have been totally cool, but nobody was there to see it. Not a single living thing.
“What the hell, Nina. There’s nothing there!” I said impatiently, but before I could turn around to glare at her, she got to me first.
“Flippendo!” she cried, and I suddenly fell twelve feet backwards. Stupid Knockback Jinx. I braced myself for the impact of solid ground, but it didn’t come. Instead, I fell through a thick undercover of fallen leaves and mud. Down I went, about fifteen feet, before that hard impact came. On my leg. I screamed in pain, and faced up to where Nina Jordan now stood with her head looking down at mine.
“You sneaky, rotten, two-faced cow!” I hollered up at her. “You realise you’re going to pay for this, right? The second I get back up to the school…”
“Listen, Claudia, I don’t exactly care what you want to say to me. But let me just say this… I’m not sure whether you’ll end up getting back to the castle at all tonight. You have no wand, and nobody but me knows you’re here. I might just leave you here all night. But don’t worry, I’ll come out in the morning and get you… I’ll be the hero who saved Miss Kelaney from a terrible fate. But… just for argument’s sake, if you do decide you want to tell somebody why… well, then, it's not going to end up happily ever after for you.”
Oh, as if. Nina Jordan was no better at magic than me. We were first-year students. How much damage could she do? With a wave of her fingers and a taunting smile, she disappeared. I listened to her footsteps get softer and softer, before ceasing completely.
How could I be so stupid to think she’d changed? I really needed to stop being so gullible. Honestly, it was going to kill me one day. I paused momentarily to think that maybe that that day had come. I didn’t dwell on it; I couldn’t dwell on it. My leg hurt too much. The stabbing pains every second were proof. It was probably broken. I guess Madam Pomfrey would be able to heal it instantly with a wave of her wand. But I didn’t have a Madam Pomfrey here. So I made do with propping it up on a pile of leaves I fashioned. I decided to try and get some sleep since I had no idea how long I would be out here.
Hours later, I was woken up by a scream.
Adam:
The four of us automatically turned, our illuminated wands pointed directly in front of us, to greet our newcomer. Nina Jordan was standing in the middle of a small clearing some thirty feet away, and had a look of complete and utter horror on her face. I charged at her; the sound of leaves and twigs breaking behind me rapidly told me that Rose, Al and Scorpius were following suit.
“Where is she?” I screamed at Nina when we reached her. I must have looked like a complete maniac. Maybe because by that stage, I was. “What have you done with “”
“Adam…” Rose said in a trembling, breaking voice. “Look up…”
“Oh, shut up Rose! We need to find Claudia! Where is she?”
“Adam… I’m serious… look over here. This is urgent… ADAM! QUICK, RUN!” And before I knew it, I saw a very large, hairy creature with eight legs and lethal pincers heading in Nina and my direction. It was twice the size of me. I didn’t need Rose Weasley and her books to tell me what it was. It was a spider, and it was hungry.
“HOLY CRAP, LET’S GO!” yelled Albus, and he and Scorpius both grabbed one of Rose’s hands, who had now stood rooted to the spot in fear. They tugged her until she obliged and they ran through a gap between the trees.
“COME ON, NINA! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” It was heading straight towards her. She stayed just as still as Rose.
“YOU DON’T GET IT, DO YOU? IT WANTS TO EAT US FOR TEA!” I screamed. “LET’S GO, YOU IDIOT!”
Finally she got the message. She grabbed my hand, and before I could react, she sprinted out of the clearing, with me in tow. She followed the path that the other three had gone, and I couldn’t do anything but tag along “ literally. Two minutes later, we stopped; Al, Rose and Scorpius were standing in another clearing, their backs together in a triangle formation, and their wands held out. It was a very intimidating sight.
“Oh, thank Merlin. Its just you two.” They relaxed their faces but didn’t lower their wands. I drew mine out as well. Before Nina could react, all four of us pointed our wands directly at her.
“What. Have. You. Done. With. Claudia?” Scorpius Malfoy looked menacing under the wandlit glare as he gritted his teeth and growled those words at Nina. Apparently, she agreed with my opinion.
“I… well, I don’t exactly… she could be anywhere…” she began, stuttering. This was the first time in my life I’d seen her speechless. If the situation wasn’t so bloody serious, I would have been amused.
“TELL US! TELL US, NOW!” screamed Rose, moving closer. I seriously wouldn’t piss off Rose Weasley voluntarily. If Nina valued her life, she’d start talking very, very soon. It seemed to have done the trick “ Nina began fessing up.
“Well… I sort of persuaded her to come out into the Forbidden Forest with a promise of a baby unicorn…”
Merlin, only Claudia would be that dense. But it was that density she had that I loved… Okay, back to the situation at hand, I told myself.
“So where is she now?” I spat at Nina.
“I don’t know… she’s in a pit somewhere… she fell down, I think her leg’s broken. It was an accident, I swear. I was trying to get out of the forest for help, but I got really lost… I kept stumbling through the forest. And then a few hours later, I came across you four and the Acromantula.”
“What the hell was Claudia “” I began, but Rose cut me off.
“We need to find Claudia, right?” she said. The others nodded in agreement. “I know how we can do it.” She extinguished the light out of her wand; it made no difference with the other three still shining. Nobody trusted Nina with her wand. She took something out of her robes “ it was a notebook, with hearts, smiley faces and flowers over it. Embossed on the front was the words ‘Claudia Kelaney’ in fancy script. But what was Rose doing with her workbook? She pointed her wand at the name.
“Reperio alio,” she said in a clear voice, and a pink beam of light shot out towards the east. Whatever she did worked. We all stared in awe.
“What is that?” Al asked. “Will it help find Claudia?”
Rose looked pleased with herself. “Yep “ this is a person locator spell. It will locate anyone if you repeat the incantation while pointing your wand at that person’s name. That pink beam will lead us directly to her. Pretty neat, huh?”
“Does anyone feel like they’re Nancy Drew right now?” said Nina, trying to lighten the mood.
“Who in Merlin’s bead is Nancy Drew?” said Al impatiently.
“Oh, she’s a Muggle “ never mind.”
Claudia:
Why in Merlin’s name was I so freaking gullible? I knew that I wasn’t very smart, but I didn’t think I was this dumb. How could I have trusted Nina? Rose was right; I needed to get my head out of the clouds and start acting my age. I was such a baby. I needed to become smarter. For Christ’s sake, I was at boarding school! I needed to look out for myself better. And get myself out of this freaking Forest.
Suddenly, I could hear many sets of footsteps, rapidly approaching. Above me, I could faintly see a pink light. It was a miracle, hallelujah!
“Down here!” I cried, and those footsteps came right up to me. I heard a heartwarmingly, familiar voice call down to me. I could have burst into tears of happiness at hearing him.
“Claudia! Are you alright?” yelled Albus Potter back. “Is your leg alright?”
“No, not really… wait, how do you know my leg’s bad?”
“Oh “ its not important right now. I’ll tell you later. Let’s just get you out of here, okay?”
“Spongify,” said another voice. Rose! Thank god she was here too, I smiled. Shame that spell had no effect whatsoever.
“We’re about to get you out of here, Claudia,” called Scorpius. I grinned at the sound of his voice as well. “Rose is just going to “”
“Wingardium Leviosa,” she said calmly, pointing at me, and suddenly I was levitating two feet above the ground. With another flick of her wand, Rose brought me above the surface slowly. I felt like Jesus, rising above my little pit. It was officially the coolest thing ever. When I broke the surface, Rose set me down on a giant cushion. That explained the first charm.
“Thank GOD you came “” the words came out of my mouth, but then I looked around and noticed the two least likely people that I would have thought to come to my rescue.
Adam grinned sheepishly at me, while Nina just scowled.
“You,” I growled at the traitor; Rose took an automatic step backwards at my facial expression. “What the hell are you still doing here?”
“Umm….” Nina and Adam replied in union.
“Which one?” Scorpius said.
“The cow, first,” I replied.
“Oh. Okay, then.”
I stared as menacing as I could manage up at Nina. If my leg had been mobile, or if I wasn’t the average height of a pigeon, I’d probably stand up and put my hands on my hips.
“What the hell, Nina?” I shouted. “You can’t just abandon me on purpose in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, with a broken leg and stuck in a ditch, and then decide to join the rescue mission that my friends are on. By the way,” I added towards my friends, “why are you on a rescue mission. Even if you’d known I was in danger, why didn’t you go get a teacher or something? Why risk your lives for me?”
Silence. Except for…
“Cause,” Adam said, “you’re our friend. Friends don’t ditch friends in trouble.” An awkward silence followed.
“Still…” I said hesitantly, “why would you come. You hate me now.”
“I don’t hate you,” he said, looking truly bewildered. “What gave you that idea?”
Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe its because you spent five days ignoring me? I thought.
“Hmm, I don’t know,” I said, faking a look of confusion. “Maybe its because you spent five days ignoring me?”
Nobody had any comeback for that.
“Stop it, guys,” Rose butted in, ever the mother. “Let’s concentrate on getting out of here.”
“Will that pink spell work again?” asked Al.
“No, its only designed to find people… wait, hang on a second.”
She dug something out of her pocket. I recognised it as the note that I’d left Rose. So that’s how she knew I was gone. And here I was, thinking she was psychic. “You put Hagrid’s name on it. If I perform the spell again, it’ll lead us straight out of here, right to his hut!” She beamed, and so did everyone else, even Nina. Although I hadn’t understood a word of that, it sounded like we were going to get out of here.
“Reperio alio,” she repeated, and the same pink beam of light that I’d seen in the hole now shone brilliantly in one direction.
“Let’s go!” Scorpius grinned, and turned to leave the clearing. Something stopped him in his tracks. “How do we get Claudia out of here, though? She can’t walk.”
“Nice observation,” I gritted through my teeth. The pain was becoming unbearable.
“I’d use the Levitation Charm, but there’s no way in hell I could carry her to the castle like that,” Rose fretted. “So its going to have to be the Muggle way, I’m afraid. Adam, Al? Want to do the honours?”
Before I could react, the two boys walked over to me, arms stretched out together in a cradle formation. With a flick of Rose’s wand (“Wingardium Leviosa!”), I suddenly became hoisted up between them, as if I were sitting on a human swing. Not to mention that it was Adam who was carrying me. Awkward much?
He grinned at me apologetically. I couldn’t help but conform and smile back.
“Its lucky you’re so light.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Let’s go,” said Rose. To give us a little more light, Nina lit her wand up as well, and her and Scorpius walked on either side of the rescue party; the magical lanterns. Rose led the way, and Adam and Al brought up the rear, with me in tow.
Scorpius:
The trees started thinning, and before we knew it, we were at the edge of the forest, the sweeping lawns of Hogwarts Castle before us. It was now very dark, and the castle lights shone brightly. The pink beam, however, wasn’t pointing towards Hagrid’s hut; it headed straight up to the castle doors.
“Can we extinguish the beam yet?” Al asked Rose. “Only I just don’t want to look like a complete nutter in the castle.”
“No, we can’t. Until we’re in visual sight of Hagrid, it’ll stay.”
So that was why, ten minutes later, we found ourselves bursting into the middle of the Great Hall. The entire population of Hogwarts had been enjoying their desert course of the Halloween feast. The Great Hall looked magnificent; a hundred, live bats circled the ceiling above and dozens of illuminated pumpkins floated around. The food looked good too. However, everything was abandoned and the school could only sit in stunned silence as they absorbed the sight of six first-year students; some whose robes were torn, most of whom who had crazy hair and one that was being carried by two of the boys.
James Potter broke the silence. “Sup, Al?” he called from the Gryffindor table. At least the pink beam had gone; Hagrid was sitting at the staff table, looking just as puzzled as the others. Al ignored his brother. All we could do was stand there sheepishly.
“Potter, Weasley, Malfoy, Kelaney, Finnegan, Jordan,” called Professor McGonagall from across the Hall. “My office “ now!”
She didn’t sound too angry. But then again, who knew what went through teachers' brains? She got up from her chair and walked down the centre aisle. She beckoned for us to follow.
“Oh, wait a second,” she said, stopping as soon as they were outside the Great Hall; the surprised faces of the students now invisible. “Hold still, Miss Kelaney.”
She conjured a stretcher for Claudia, and Adam and Al released their hold on her as she floated mid-air, lying on her back. We trudged up through the empty corridors. Instead of going through a doorway to McGonagall’s office, we were led towards the Hospital Wing. Of course “ Claudia needed medical care. Madam Pomfrey came running out of her office as she saw us come into the wing, and two minutes later Claudia was lying in one of the beds; her leg propped up while Madam Pomfrey fussed over her and fed her numerous potions.
“Does anyone want to explain to me how six first year students burst into the Great Hall during the Halloween Feast, when they should have already been there?” said Professor McGonagall as soon as Claudia was drugged up on Pain-Relief Potion and couldn’t feel her leg.
I was about to say something along the lines of “Nina Jordan is a cow,” but before I could, Nina herself cut me off.
“Its my fault, Professor,” she said in a sweet, sincere tone that not even McGonagall could help but believe. “I’d thought I’d seen a unicorn on the edge of the Forbidden Forest from the Owlery “ I’d gone up there at the lunchbreak to send an owl home to my mother. Claudia was the first person I saw afterwards “ she agreed to come down and see it with me. However, it wasn’t there. I had then assumed it had moved a little further in, and we kept going in. However, Claudia fell into a ditch “ it was like a Muggle bear trap or something. She couldn’t get out “ her leg had broken. I left to go find help, but I ended up getting lost myself. Hours later, these four (she gestured at Rose, Al, Adam and I), found me, and with help from Rose (she smiled briefly at Rose. Rose didn’t return the smile), we managed to get out of there.”
“Is this true, Miss Kelaney?” she asked Claudia, who was lying on the bed, looking very out of it.
“Sure, it sounds about right,” she replied dizzily. It sure didn’t sound right to me though.
“And how in the world did four first-year students get into the middle of the Forbidden Forest and live?” McGonagall asked us four faintly, still uncomprehending the situation.
“Claudia had left me a note,” Rose explained. “She said she’d be back before Herbology; it was afterwards and she hadn’t turned up. We got worried. It was only when we realised Nina hadn’t shown up for both classes either that we figured something fishy had gone on.”
“So then we went down to Hagrid’s “ that’s where Claudia said she’d be near. We found two sets of footsteps,” continued Al. “We followed them in, but we heard a scream. It was Nina “ she had stumbled upon a nest of Acromantula.”
“You five survived a colony of Acromantula?” said McGonagall in a disbelieving tone. Even Claudia looked surprised at this, and she probably couldn’t feel half of her body.
“Yes “ we did the sensible thing and ran,” Adam added. “Rose then did this amazing spell which took us directly to Claudia with some pink beam thingy.” Everyone looked at Rose and she smiled, embarrassed.
“The Person Locator spell,” said Professor McGonagall understandingly.
“That’s when we found Claudia. We levitated her out of the ditch, and brought her back up to the castle,” I finished.
“This is the story you all agree on?” she said. Everyone nodded except Claudia, who had seemingly dozed off. “But why didn’t you four come and get a teacher?”
“We don’t know… it seemed pretty urgent, and Hagrid wasn’t at home “ we didn’t know how much time we had left,” Adam said.
“Well… so be it… Acromantula, oh my Lord…” McGonagall trailed off. She composed herself and then adopted a business-like tone to her voice.
“First things first “ cutting class, Miss Jordan, Miss Kelaney,” she paused and then realised Claudia was asleep, “is a very serious offense. Fifteen points “ each “ are to be taken from Gryffindor. Another five points off for serious lack of judgement, Miss Jordan.” Nina winced.
“However, I have never seen as much bravery, not to mention stupidity,” she continued, “from first-year students such as yourselves,” looking at Al, Rose, Adam and I, “than you four since… well, since your parents,” she gestured to Al and Rose. They both grinned at the obvious level of praise.
“Fifteen points each are now awarded to Gryffindor. Count yourself lucky, all of you, that you are barely unscathed. Now,” she said, sounding maternal, “if you are hurt, in any way, then stay here with Madam Pomfrey. I’m afraid Claudia must have to stay here the night. Otherwise, you may go.”
The five of us turned to leave the Hospital Wing, not looking back. Nina went in a different direction to us, but my friends and I were left to head up the staircase to Gryffindor Tower.
“What a load of rubbish,” said Rose angrily. “Like hell Nina’s story is true.”
“I know,” I agreed. “I would bet you a hundred Galleons that Claudia would have a very different story if she wasn’t so drugged up.”
“Convenient,” Adam said bitterly.
We had reached the tower. As we entered through the portrait hole, everyone turned to gawk at us. No wonder, really. Victorie Weasley was the first to reach us.
“Albus! Rose!” the Head Girl cried as her cousins became smothered in hugs and kisses. “Dieu merci, tu vas bien! What happened?”
“Gerrof, Tori!” grumbled Al, attempting to push his eldest cousin away.
The next day was a Saturday, and the four of us were sitting by the fire. Adam and Al were having a fierce game of wizard chess; Adam had just claimed Al’s last bishop when the portrait hole opened and Claudia entered.
“Hey guys!” she grinned, and Rose ran over to her and enveloped her in a hug. “Hope you weren’t having fun without me, now?” Al and I rushed over to her. Only Adam was left. Claudia looked past us to gaze at him.
“Listen, Adam… everyone… I can’t thank you enough for what you did. You saved my life.”
“No problem,” I grinned.
Adam was still sitting down, gazing at us. Suddenly, he smiled, made his way over to us and held out his arms to Claudia. “What are friends for?” She smiled and he wrapped her in a bear hug.
“Group hug!” cried Claudia, and the three of us had no other option but to join in “ mainly due to the fact that Claudia would have killed us otherwise.
The Gryffindor Gang by U-No-Poo
Chapter Notes: Hey guys! I promised I'd update before the holidays ended... I lied. But that's only because I got this knocked back the first time I validated!
Anyway, I left you with a mysterious, omnious scream, right? This chapter isn't what you'd expect... so you've been warned. Don't assume you know what's going to happen! I'm really pleased with this chapter as well.
J.K Rowling still owns Harry Potter to nobody's surprise. Enjoy!
Chapter Endnotes: I didn't leave you on a cliffie this chapter! How surprised are you? I thought I'd be nice! However, don't get used to it, people! Cause I'm not as nice next chapter... hint hint, nudge nudge, something will happen. It's the beginning of a new sub-plot, but it'll shock you! However, its not a bad one.
How did you like it though? I was pretty nervous about whether you guys would love it or not, and I hope I've met your expectations! Anyway, so leave a review after the beep!... [insert beep].