This was REAL extreme in Abbi's opinion, but that's exactly what made it so exhilarating. She'd always wanted to enter the Forest, it was the one place she hadn't really been able to look through for human sized fairies that she still believed existed, like how could they not? HMMM? They were probably scared of the witches being evil or something, yep, that was it.

With her comfy boots on the second year ventured out towards the grounds and walked about heading for the edge of the forest. She wasn't silly enough to go alone and in fact her choice of company may have been one of the only reasons she'd left everything to come to the forest so soon. If it was up to her she would have planned more, but Roda oh! Roda! He was totally the best looking guy at school, not that Abbi liked him, no ways! Just his looks, you know?

Anyways, where was Mr. Good Looking then? Hmmm? She scanned her surroundings and waited.

The only, ONLY reason Lucas was even contemplating this excursion was because this forest had been curiously named the Forbidden Forest and there wasn't anything that drew his curiosity more than something that he'd been told not to do. Duh.

Anyway, the Gryffindor had had to detour to the kitchen to sweet talk the elves into a trail mix which... contained only marshmallows and chocolate chips but WHO CARED. When he saw Abbi lingering on the outskirts of the trees, he made a beeline for the redhead and kind of half-ran, half-skipped overt her.

"'Lo," he greeted brightly. "Reeeeeady?" But the second year's brow furrowed when a particularly strange whining noise came from deeper in the trees.

Gulp.

Look brave, little lion.

Rodaaaaaa!!

He was totally walking skipping on fire, well the ground but looking real good whilst doing so. So good that Abbi couldn't help but sigh happily to herself and reach for her cheek. To think he had TOUCHED that.....totally nothing weird here.

"I was born ready!" She beamed about at him, except stopped at his facial expression and the noise following.

Err...was that a monster or something? Yeah, no it be fine. Who was the fairy boss here? SHE WAS! Who would show any monster that? SHE WOULD.

Pulling at Lucas' shoulder Abbi dragged him along and began entering the thickness of the trees.

Lucas grinned at the redhead because DUH. Not even weird creatures could put off Owlie. Clearly sass was a good mitigator of fear. Maybe he would try it. He RESOLVED to be more sassy. UH HUH.

Except then she was literally PULLING him into the creepy forest place and he was stumbling after her - it was pretty impressive the amount of strength she had considering Lucas was like SUPER TALL and had a lot of limbs.

The one thing he could say about the Forbidden Forest was that it was hella cool in here and he pulled a face. "Why do you reckon it's called the Forbidden Forest, huh?" Owlie would know these things right. No. She would not. But he reckoned she would make up a really good story. Maybe. His over-active imagination could fill in the blanks. Something along the lines of little Gryffindors on an expedition dying and it having to be closed off etc etc.

Creeeeeeepy.

But, he was momentarily distracted by food. "Hey, I brought trail mix! Want some?" In any case, he could offer any scary creatures some mini marshmallows as a trade for their lives.

It really wasn't easy dragging someone more than a head taller than you, but hey Abbi was a quidditch player so she had some strength and she was totally a dynamite packaged in a small body. Mhhm!

It didn't take long before they were completely surrounded by trees and it was then that it began feeling spooky. You know, all dark and all that. Yet Abbi wasn't ever really afraid of the dark, she just knew to be aware from now on. She'd show them monsters, for her AND Lucas if he was scared, but it didn't look like he was.

Really? Like was that even a question? DRAMATIC sigh. Boys.

"Why'd you think? Forbidden? Duuuuhhh." She smacked the back of his head lightly. He needed to use that thing called his brain, though it seemed he knew how to use that thing called his stomach.

Marshmellows! YUM! "Yes! Please." She opened her palm waiting for some yummy contents. "We gonna melt them, right?" That was the point of coming here in the first place wasn't it?

"Oh and we should look out for fairies, even small ones." Much more important than anything else. Yep.

It was a good thing he'd suggested this particular adventure to Abbi. Now it wasn't that Lucas was a scaredy cat except that he was much better at being brave in front of other people when his thoughts couldn't go into overdrive and catastrophize everything.

He made a face at her response and made a soft whinging noise when she hit him. "Ouch! Well, duh, Owlie. But why do you think it's Forbidden?" Were they vampires in here? That would be kind of cool actually. He'd like to meet a vampire. No, wait. Erk. Maybe not. "You're strong for someone so tiny." He rubbed the back of his head and pouted. "Meanie."

Ah yes. FOOD. He tipped some into her awaiting palm and frowned. "Oh. Sure. Do you know a spell to make fire?" Because Lucas didn't. He DID however know how to make a fire the muggle way. It just took.. well, forever.

Fairies? Lucas eyed her. "Why? Are they gunna hurt us? Or bite us?" Or were those pixies? HMMM.

Giiiiigggle Snort.

Totally funny to hit him like that. But hey she wasn't mean enough not to apologize. "Sorry, just trying to put your brain in gear." Or maybe he didn't need that considering he meant something else. But like how was she meant to know he wanted to know. He needed to ask it like he just had now. Yep. Yep.

Anyways, this time she actually thought for a few moments, but only a few because she was clever enough to know her facts. Just needed to resurface them, you know? "It's pretty clear, I mean they say there's all these 'scary' creatures in here like centaurs and there used to be these giant spiders, from what I read." She air quoted scary, because really this wasn't even a tinge scary...okay..just a tinge but it was nothing bad. "I think they're silly though, I mean it's all just adventure and adults are boring so that's why they must make it sound so bad to us. They probably don't want us seeing unicorns for some reason." That was her true idea of it, really. Tsssk. Adults needed to grow down.

"Thank youuuu, fairy dust come's in small packages." She beamed about at him, oh so innocently. "And I totally am not! You're the meanie!"

The yummies being poured into her hand only made her beam even more. Sugar was one of the best things ever invented in her opinion. "Yep, it's Incendio." Did he like not listen in potions or something? Boys. Le sigh.

Was he asking for another smack? Was he? SEEMED LIKE IT. "No! Gosh. No! Fairies are totally like the best things ever. Why would they ever do that?" She looked at him and paused to cross her arms just for the dramatic effect.

Hungry, the Giant Spider was Hungry. Lucky Spider had heard two children roaming the Forest. These two won't be missed, they were the foolish type that wandered into forbidden places. The Hungry Spider scurried into the shadowy bushes, then climbed up a tree in the distance. Stealthy Spider will drop down on them from above. Shame one of them was so tiny, and the other one had no meat.

Lucas laughed at her comment and stuck his tongue out at her. "My brain is juuuuust fine. It just needs better defences against YOU." Huffhuffhuff.

Scary creatures? SO MAYBE THERE WAS VAMPIRES. Lucas was now hyperaware of some scuttling around him but Abbi was talking and that required most of his attention. "Giant spiders?" he replied. "Huh. I thought they weren't real." BUT HOW COOL. Lucas' eyes turned the size of saucers at the mention of unicorns. "UNICORNS ABBI WHAT IF WE SEE A UNICORN!" He would pet its head. And then offer it some marshmallows. EEEP. Unicorns were magical, gorgeous, majestic, sparkly things.

Lucas did eye her seriously when she insinuated she was a fairy. "That explains the sass. I've heard fairies are very sassy." But he let out an indignant yelp when she called him MEAN. "I've been nothing but nice to you even after you accused ME of being NOSEY." How rude. She was such a lil' meanie.

Oh. Lucas knew THAT but he thought that just worked on gas cookers. Whoopsy daisy. "Huh. So multi-purpose." Unlike that one spell that turned planks of wood into boats. Mmh. YEAH.

So this had turned into an adventure to find fairies. He nommed some of the trail mix himself and shrugged. "I've never met a fairy I couldn't say. Have YOU met a fairy?" Or maybe she was one...

There was a noise, or something coming from the branches not too far away but Abbi didn't think much of it other than it must have been the wind. She was too busy talking to Lucas to notice anything else anyways.

"Against me? Mhhhmm??" She eyed him all questioningly. What exactly did he mean by that? She wanted to know, she did.

This was seriously talking to like some firstie that knew nothing, heck even firsties knew a little more than Roda did by the sounds of it. Had he not read, heard or even just talked about anything to do with this forest till now? Maybe that's why he was so eager to venture out here in the first place. Unprepared people. Tssk. Tssk. "Yeah, apparently they can kill people and all." Scary things those were. Mhhm.

YAYY! HE UNDERSTOOD HOW EXCITING UNICORNS WERE.

"I KNOW RIGHT? LIKE WHAT IF WE DO! WE MUST TRY FIND ONE." Nevermind the fact that shouting would attract predator creatures over tame ones.

Only frowns were being worn now, because she didn't like what Lucas was saying one bit. She wasn't sassy, she just showed people when they needed to be showed...or that's how she saw it, anyways. "Don't forget I have permission to kick you down there, when you hurt me." Just a FRIENDLY reminder now, wasn't this?

Nod. Nod, then nom nom cause marshmellows. Multi-purpose it was.

Such a boy, never meeting a fairy. Heh. "Yep! I've met one tons of times." In her dreams. *cough* "But they're VERY secretive." Like more than centaurs in her opinion, well the human sized ones anyways cause the little ones were pretty and lit up and all."What creatures do you like?" She asked.

Lucas nodded indignantly. "It's.. so fuzzy. I always have to.. you know what? Don't PICK on me, Owlie. That's all I'm saying." SEE?! He couldn't even get THAT sentence out without difficulty. And it wasn't the nervous, squirmy lack of articulation he usually had, it was like sometimes she was so quick and he was so busy staring at her, his brain struggled to keep up. These were REAL issues.

The Gryffindor gasped in unmanly splendor. "What like.. PREDATORS?" Merlin. This was exciting. SCARY. But also exciting. In any case, he was PREEEETTTY sure Abbi would save him from whatever was in here. She'd probably just stink eye it and then it'd be so intimidated it would run away. See? He was going to be fine.

Finding a unicorn couldn't be easy, or everyone would have them as pets. "Is there like a song we can sing to summon it?" Of course, he was entertaining the notion that a unicorn was like a sparkly puppy that came at will. "Like a rain dance.. but not for rain. For unicorns."

Lucas did stifle a yelp when he realised he had not impressed Abbi. "Break your heart," he repeated seriously and then frowned at her. "I like it. You're funny. And witty." Just don't hit me where it hurts? he pleaded in his head. "Hmph," he grunted, eyeing her up and down. "Don't just hit me because you feel like it or you're grumpy. We made a PROMISE." UH HUH. Secret kisses traded for secrets were SECRET and SACRED. Hmph.

Oh man. Fairies were proving harder to find than unicorns. "HERE?!" he exclaimed and looked around him. "But wheeeeeerrrrrrre? ..You scared them all away because you were being so mean to me." He giggled. Oh. OH. That was so hard. "HELIOPATHS AND DRAGONS." FIRE AND FIRE AND FIRE. "What about you? You can't say fairies cos they're your friends. What else?"

No more waiting!

Anxious Spider clicked it's pincers just as the meals walked past the tree Giant Spider was in. Shooting out it's web, Hungry Spider dropped from the tree and landed in front of the two meals. Clicking it's pincers three times. Giant Spider needed to choose now which one to paralyze first. Which one, which one? Vemon was dripping onto the leaves beneath Giant Spider. Time to eat.

tiny one first.

HUUUUUFFFING

Why did he have to be like this now? She was totally not picking on him, she was teasing him. There was a HUGE difference last time she remembered. “Fiiiiiine.” She rolled her eyes around and then continued walking, now just feeling a little moody rather than adventurous.

Some nodding took place, because that was exactly what those huge spider things were. But she was totally chilled about those things and mostly because she didn’t really think the chances of them seeing anything like that was high and even so, it wasn’t like she didn’t know how to use a wand.

“Um…not that I know of. Maybe we should sing anyways?” Maybe it would lure unicorns after all? I mean who knew what they liked but themselves. “Lalala, lalala, lalala.” She began bopping about. Good enough?

…….HE LIKED IT? HE LIKED SHE WAS SASSY? OKAY SASSY SHE WOULD BE.

If only he could of said that in the first place. “Fine I won’t hit you.” She looked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry, oh-“ She turned back to look in the front and totally freaked out by what she say.

“OH MY GOSH. LOOK RODA CAN YOU SEE THAT? THE SPIDER RIGHT IN FRONT OF US????” Yeah…so she was totally not scared. Err..

“Puh-RIK-yoo-lum!” She shouted using her wand and then didn’t even look up as red sparks flew up in the air, just for back up you know?”I’m gonna show you spider! I’ll show you! “ And she was so not taking a few steps back whilst saying that.

What spells worked on spiders? COME on fairy brain. THINK. Cause running was most likely not going to work in this case

THINK THINK THINK..

OH SWEET MOTHER OF MERLIN, CIRCE SAVE THEM.

So.. in retrospect perhaps this was the reason for the 'forbidden' part to the Forests name. Lucas scared brain did compute that Abbi was talking to him, but all he could do was nod in horror to he question. Yes. The giant spider, dripping venom off its fangs, looking hairy and HUNGRY(!?!) was right there in all its glory.

Wait a minute. WHAT WAS SHE DOING? It occurred to Lucas that at twelve he knew very little to help himself in this situation. In fact, he knew nothing, especially now that his brain was screaming RUNNNNNNN at him.

"Abbi, merlin, what on earth, we need to GOOOO," he said, whispering to her tersely. Except maybe Abbi had a point with her cool, calm and collected spell-casting. Except....what to cast?

Lucas made a face, inching his wand out of his pocket, but didn't mind taking Abbi's non-wand hand and pulling her back an inch, a metre. He had no idea what would work, but he wasn't going to stand here doing nothing while a hungry, hungry acromantula imagined what if would spice their lil' bones with.

"Repulso," he mumbled. His Mum used it when she was gardening to pull back weeds. And a spidey was TECHNICALLY a weed. Except his lack of focus didn't even conjure up enough will to elicit some sparks from his wand. Hmphhhhhhh. This was not the time for time.

"Repulso!" .....and if it worked, they would RUN while the spidey was scared.

Food was not meant to be loud. Perhaps Giant Spider would muzzle their mouths with some of his web?

The Tiny one shot something into the air but did not scare Giant Spider. Hungry Spider moved forward once more once it seemed that the tiny one did nothing very threatening.
Anxious Spider clicked his pincers.

The Tall one did something but only hit the ground in front of him. Giant Spider stepped back

Before Giant Spider could make his move, Started Spider stumbled back as his Vemon was shot back at him. Confused Spider shook his head not understanding what had just happened.

What was Cosgrach doing here, again?

Collecting potions ingredients with that imbecil of groundskeeper.

Why?

He didn't know. All he knew was, as he tried to convince himself later, he had written to that silly man in his sleep, requesting him to assist him on this expedition. He furiously sighed to himself as he arrived at the entrance of the Forest, not bothering to knock his door. Sure, he was a coward when it came to this sort of things and he knew he had to request help--the 'Orsino Kirby' part troubled him. But then, his sleepy mind thought well: The man was muscular enough to protect him if it came to that. The question was, how coward was he?

Oh well. The letter was written, there was nothing Cosgrach could do but wait for him and step into the wilderness.

He'd better be punctual.

Orsino has had better company with his Bee's, than with the Potions Master.

The Groundskeeper wouldn't even be here, but the Snake needed to collect ingredients in the Forest. Couldn't Culloden just order them or something?
He neared the spot where the letter told him to meet Cosgrach, and saw the Grey Haired man. After a few more pained steps Orsino reached him. "Well, what're we getting?" The Groundskeeper said in a bored and tired tone of voice.

If this was some kind of excuse to make up with him, well Cosgrach you're about Two and Half Decades late for that.

Ah, there he was, the muscle man. Cosgrach briefly wondered whether he would like to be called that, but then he figured making a nickname for him would bring them closer or something in some stupid sort of 'brotherhood', then Orsino would probably want to nickname him as well--which Cosgrach would hate, so he banished the thought from his mind.

Goodness.

"Whatever we can find," he said, trying to sound as bored as he could. "C'mon." If he was stepping inside the forest, he wasn't going there alone. Orsino obviously had the more meat here, so the creatures would run after him first. In the worst case, Cosgrach would definitely push him first while saving himself.

Eyeing the man to make SURE he was coming, he started walking.

'Whatever we can find'
So what Orsino was going to walk around the Forest and pick up leaves, mushrooms, bark, moss, bugs and ask any nearby creature passing by if they could borrow some of it's talons, feathers, fur, teeth, or fluids. Yeah great game plan there Cosgrach. The Groundskeeper shrugged his shoulders and followed the man in. He picked up a leaf laying on the side of a tree then stuffed it in his pocket.

He can put that in his potion and drink it.

He followed the Former Slytherin in silence. Odd though he could swear he was hearing muffled voices. Damn hearing, just giving out on him. "You hearing anything, Cosgrach?" The Groundskeeper picked at his ear removing his own beeswax and wiping it on his pants.

Orsino was exactly going to do that, yes. What did he think? Cosgrach hadn't visited the Forest for more than two decades. Who knew what grew in it now?

Of course, though, as Cosgrach couldn't do any occlumency, he couldn't point any of that to the Groudskeeper. Instead, he walked slower than him for the animals to see him first to take a better look around everything and decide whether to take it. After a few minutes' slow walk in silence, he finally bent down to examine a few mushrooms with a magnifying glass. He was too intently examining them to hear anything, so when the man spoke, he was irritated to no end. He grudgingly looked up from the goodies, but the next instant, his gaze lost its focus and he was concentrating on his ears, and he looked confused.

...and alarmed.

"Children!" he exclaimed, "there are children casting magic!" They were--they were just here to camp, right? Right?! Ohdearohdearohdear. Shoving the magnifying glass in his pocket, he drew his wand and started running towards the voices.

Orsino was coming, RIGHT?!

REALLY! Could have sworn he was hearing mumbled voices, but what was mumbled and silent to him, were loud Children off in the Distance. "Kids!?" No, most of it sounded like wind, or whatever. He was about to second guess the Potions Master when he saw red sparks shot into the air from a distance. "KIDS!!!!!!"

He had to pat around his pockets for a moment as he had forgotten where he had placed his wand....back pocket...BACK POCKET!...He normally hides it in his sleeve. Why didn't he even check there first?..No matter Wand in hand, the Groundskeeper fought his pained joints as he steamrolled his way towards where the Magic was caste. If he happens to overtake, and trample a certain Snake in his way...well..oops.

Lucky for Orsino, Cosgrach didn't see his hesitation, for he had already been running towards that direction. He wasn't running too enthusiastically, though. He was running fast alright, but... who knew what the kids were dealing with? He wasn't going to die or be crippled just because some brats thought it was fun to wander into the FORBIDDEN Forest. No sir. It was their problem after a certain limit.

As they ran, the scene began to change where... he had to slow down to a trot...

...was that... that was...

"Protego!" he desperately shot not for the kids but for himself. He loved animals alright, but acromantulas were no animals; they were MONSTERS! His breathing was already ragged due to running, but now it just got worse and even though he hid it, he felt like HE needed help instead of those two stupid brats.

Stupidstupidstupid--

"Orsino, you are friends with them, yeah?" YEAH?! With the terrible, hairy, ugly, eeeeew things? His specialty?

YEAH?!

Was Roda being a coward? HMMM? Cause only cowards ran away. MHHM. Well..maybe Abbi wanted to run away too but hey she wasn't going to look like a coward even if she wished she was one currently.

"Shh! We can defeat Mr Spiders over here, Roda. We can!" Maybe when the world decided to rain with gumballs and candy that was, the chances were small.

Gosh no. He was NOT touching holding her hand in publ--oh there weren't people around. Totally fine that he was pulling her then and totally fine that he was indeed sharing 'cootie's with her. Ahh Roda...cough.

BACK TO REALITY YOH!

The spiders were getting closer and closer. But oh would you look at that little one getting hit by that venom. Haha! In it's face.

"Repulso!" She copied Luca's spell trying to see if it would work a second time, but her aiming went a little off when she heard someone shout Protego behind her.

........Culloden. Not even protecting THEM? She knew he was evil all along! HMPH!

"You better look out spideys they're REALLY gonna show you."Cause Professors were too cool. She took a few more steps back, but kept her wand where it was.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

DONT PANIC. DONT PANIC.

Oh shoot. This was a mess. Whose idea was the Forbidden Forest again? Oh yeah! His. Ha. Whoops. He did manage to get Abbi a few feet further away from the GIANT SPIDER before she started sassing him.

IN THIS SITUATION?! REALLY!?

"Yeah, uh, maybe some other time? Like.. sure, we could probably like.. yeah but he could also eat us, so not today!?" he replied, trying not to sound too frantic, while edging her yet further from the huge hairy arachnid. He was soooo going to have nightmares about this.

Lucas didn't think his spell had been awfully effective. In fact, he was pretty sure the spider just thought it was a little more dewy this December than usual. But there wasn't a lot of time to think on that because LITERALLY out of the woods emerged Professor Culloden. ...And the Gameskeeper. HUH!? Lucas' meagre mental faculties in the situation did muster up the processing power to deduce that this was indeed a good situation and YES YAY THANK MERLIN more intelligent people were here to protect them..

Oh wait.

Lucas was having serious issues with the fact that Culloden had indeed STOPPED running and was now just waving a grey orby barrier at the spider.

"SIR I REALLY.. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE LOOKING AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR. NOW IS RUNNING TIME." Like.. what was the weird silver orby mirror thing going to do!? And more importantly, WHY WAS NOBODY RUNNING?

But most importantly, and this thought made Lucas pause for just a second, if the spider was to run at them, could Orsino tackle it?

Hmm.