Pogonotrophy

The light above was crepuscular, the burgeoning clouds clawing their way across the cerulean sky. Cruel and unforgivable, the swirling coal-coloured brume consumed the light-hearted skies above and made no threat, instead a promise, to unleash algific torrents upon the flourishing landscape of lime green and buttercup yellow. Lifting her eyes to the world above her own, the possibility of lightning left the young, blonde Ravenclaw feeling ever so slightly uncomfortable. She observed with judgement behind her fair gaze as students, male and female alike, sprinted for the castle before the heavens dared open. Her eyes narrowed, her lips pursing in the same moment, as the girls that had taken shelter beneath the covered bridge fawned over the chivalry of the breathless men beside them. Cerelia’s upper lip curled; a bitter taste left on her tongue by the sight of them.

A soft sight escaped the cherry red Cupid’s bow, parting it as if the cherub himself was preparing to fire. For a moment she allowed her eyes to fall to a close, her eyelashes tickling the pallor of her cheeks. She reopened them after a moment that allowed her to gather her thoughts and she continued her descent down the verdigris embankment towards the woodland that lined the grounds; a weald a copious amount of critters, creatures and beasts called home. It was there that she lingered, her place somewhere between the decay of the forest floor and the rebirth of the grassy, fruitful landmass that was home to all manner of insects. It was there that she knelt, though only for a moment, to pick a large daisy that had sprouted sometime prior to the arrival of the April showers. The stem snapped wilfully in her grasp and she rose to her full height once more, reaching with the flower in hand to tuck it behind her ear, allowing her to present a rather summery, carefree façade to the world.

Inhaling the sweet, aromatic breeze that danced from the surface of the lake, Cerelia reached out a sallow hand and let her nails drift across the bark of an apple tree, abundant with juicy, scarlet fruits. That same hand soon found the ornate handle of her wand and the tip began to glow a plum purple, the spell that sprang from it severing the hold the blush coloured fruit had on the tree. Gravity’s effect was short lived as it landed easily in the petite palm of the blonde. The skin of the fruit was soft and, once her teeth slipped through past the crunch of the flesh, the juiciness she foresaw in the fruit escaped, flowing from the sides of her mouth and disappearing beneath the collar of her blouse. She took the fruit away from her lips and her tongue mopped away the juice that clung desperately to her skin, savouring the sweetness of it. The exploration that had previously been on the agenda had been postponed momentarily, her attention gripped by the fruit that seemed only to glisten brighter in what little light passed through the unrelenting clouds.

The bellow of the wind took Faith by surprise, and she looked up from her book, startled by a sudden peal of thunder that shook the heavens, and the earth, rumbling it's way to silence. Okay who am I kidding, I can't write with words of such beauty, so let's put this into simpler terms. There was a large crash of thunder and Faith looked up startled. People were running for cover, and it was obvious that it was moment from the sky opening up and rain falling down. That's when Faith saw something interesting.

Among the panic and chaos of people running to get inside, a Ravenclaw girl was seductively biting an apple, with no one around. The hell was she doing? It was about to pour and she was biting into an apple in like, slow motion, wiping the juice off her face and nearly flipping her hair. Either she need to get laid, or she just had.. Faith wasn't quite sure which one. Standing up, Faith was about to head back to the castle, when the rain started. "Oh crap.." She sprinted up to the nearest shelter available.. the apple tree that the girl was standing under. Bending over to catch her breath, Faith glanced around. "That storm came quickly." She commented, her eyes flickering over to the other girl and she smiled. "Hi.. I'm Faith." She said standing up straight and leaning against the tree. "Gotta love rain.."

There was a hush in the grounds, in her mind, only broken by the sound of thudding footsteps on the mud of the grounds. Cerelia let her hand full down to her side, her grip lax yet firm upon the apple. Her other hand wound into the pocket of her robes, producing the Yew wand that had favoured her a mere five years before, and continued to. The tip found the source of the footsteps and her left arm stretched out, her elbow bent upwards slightly so as to portray something akin to approachability, friendliness - not that it was present, mind you. Cerelia raised a groomed eyebrow at the girl before her. Ginger, she was, but not a Weasley. She was a light witch though, that Cerelia identified immediately, though she did not dare lower her guard. It was then, of course, that the rain occurred to her. The few drips that landed on her skin almost burnt though she did not hasten towards the shelter the tree provided, nor did her face contort with obvious dismay. No, she merely stood there, waiting for the girl to say something.

When she did, Cerelia lowered her wand a fraction. The girl glanced out at the watery world beyond the safety of the trees and licked her lips, her tongue greedily savouring the taste of the apple. It was only then that Cerelia moved, her movements looking now calculated rather than hurried like they would have been had she moved before. She pressed her back against the bark of her tree and her narrowed eyes watched as the rain fell from the skies above. Cerelia exhaled slowly and pushed herself away after a moment, turning once more to face the woods. She flicked her wand, a ball of white light appearing on the end. The Lumos that was needed for the spell was not uttered into the air, it merely appeared, something that Cerelia gave a small smirk at before poking the wand forward, into the forest.

Cerelia took a handful of steps forward and paused upon remembering the girl had spoken. Cerelia turned and pursed her lips slightly, bringing the wand down by her side. A quick flick of her wrist tossed the apple into the undergrowth and she stared patiently at the girl.

“Isn’t that the point of storms?” Cerelia inquired; her voice desperate to claw out of the innocence and speak with the patronising tone it yearned for, “to test you?” Cerelia then turned and raised her wand again. She cast a look over her shoulder at the girl and smiled, the curve of her lips allowing just a smidgen sadistic amusement to pass through. “You dislike rain.” She told the girl. “Otherwise you would not be under here.” She turned her gaze back to the forest and slipped past the groping vines that reached for her, desperate for something to cling on to, desperate to find light. “The storm will not pass just yet. I suggest you return to the castle.”

Faith raised an eyebrow when the girl spoke about storms testing you. "Actually I thought the point of a storm was to.. ya know.. water the plants.. and get rid of excess moisture in the atmosphere.. but I guess you can look at it that way too.." She said staring at the other girl with an obvious look of confusion, and bewilderment. Faith watched as the girl peeked into the Forbidden Forest and she stood up straighter, frowning. "I was being sarcastic.. but alright.." She said taking a few steps towards the girl, looking into the forest as well. "What ya looking for? Drop something?" She asked, pulling out her own wand and lighting it. It was dark in the forest, and if she had dropped something, well it would be hard to find with the rain clouds making everything darker than normal.

"Whoa.. whoa.. are you going into the forest? Stop!" Faith couldn't help it, she took a few more steps forward, before she plunged into the forest after the girl. "You can't just walk into the forest all by yourself! It's forbidden remember.. You'll get in serious trouble for being in here.. and it's dangerous, Centaurs, and spiders, and werewolves, and who knows what else!" Faith's voice had fallen to a whisper once she entered the forest, looking around her as she held her wand out to light her way. "What are you doing anyway?"

The girl, Cerelia observed, was a Ravenclaw; but she did not seem to be saying anything that was attributed to the house of intelligence. Cerelia regarded the girl for a moment upon her reply and raised an eyebrow, genuinely wondering how the girl breached the riddled portrait entrance. Cerelia brought her wand up a little higher and lowered her eyebrow, deciding to give the girl the benefit of the doubt before replying. She was a redhead, Cerelia reminded herself. She didn’t exactly present any aura of intelligence, either. She seemed fairer of mind; simple, even.

“The metaphorical storm,” Cerelia corrected, “is there to test you; but, ya know it could just be to water the plants.” Cerelia bit her tongue, preventing herself from insulting the girl further, and moved further into the woods, the roots and leaves crunching underfoot. The girl turned at the sound of the redhead and her eyebrows shot to her hairline. The light at the end of the wand began to glow brighter, the woods darker than the world beyond them, and Cerelia looked at the girl, unable to wipe away the look of incredulity. “No.” Cerelia replied shortly, turning away and descending slowly down a dark embankment, her tentative footsteps talking her downwards instead of thoughtless ones throwing her off of the embankment in question.

At the sound of the girl again, Cerelia turned for the last time, her wand high in the air above her as the redhead panicked needlessly. “Werewolves? Really? It’s daytime.” Cerelia shook her head and turned back around, deciding to ignore the girl. However, the question made Cerelia pause. “..exploring,” she answered after a moment. “Come on, if you’re going to. Unless of course...you’re afraid.”

Faith raised her eyebrow at the girl. Obviously a 'creative genius' as they put it, making everything metaphorical. She didn't really like metaphors, in fact she'd rather read some cold hard facts, instead of listening to dribble about how something could represent something else, she understood it, she just didn't like it, it was boring and useless to Faith.

The girl was unlike any Ravenclaw Faith had ever met. It seemed she was a metaphorical girl, more creativity based than logically based, and she had a desire to explore.. why wasn't she a Gryffindor? But here Faith was, nearly falling down the embankment after the girl, shining her wand on the ground so she could see better. "I'm not afraid.. why do you think I just went down that thing?" she asked, jerking her thumb back to the embankment they had just stumbled down. "I don't know though.. this is the kind of stuff Gryffindor's do.. and unless you're a Gryffindor I suggest we get the hell out." She said quickly, her eyes roaming over the area around her.

It was easy to forget that students at Hogwarts were not like those on the continent. Cerelia allowed her mind to fold backwards, to a time when she would have delighted in prancing through the forests in Scandinavia that enclosed the prestigious Durmstrang. She missed it, in that moment. She missed the freedom equality allowed. This place, Hogwarts, was run by cliques and favouritism between Professors and students. That wasn’t how it was supposed to work and Cerelia hate the difficulty of it. Perhaps, she allowed for a moment, it was her father’s ever increasing irritation that had sent her spiralling into a foul mood. Whatever it was, though, she wished she didn’t have to endure it with the company of a girl who clearly didn’t enjoy the mystery of the magical world like Cerelia did. Not that much of it was a mystery to her anymore. Anything that was had been read up on. Now there were only the true mysteries left to explore - like the Chamber of Secrets, providing she found it, and the Forbidden Forest. Though, those were only two examples. There were so many more.

Baiting the girl was unnecessary. In a true Hufflepuff fashion, within a few moments the redhead had already linked herself to Cerelia and now couldn’t bring herself to walk away from the girl who, as far as Faith was concerned, was walking into her grave. Cerelia did not agree, however, and was becoming bizarrely irritated with the girl’s flushed bursts of emotions that were almost as sporadic as her bits of dialogue. She clearly hadn’t caught on just yet that Cerelia preferred silence.

The blonde moved ahead, her long gait propelling her forward at a rate that would hopefully see her lose the redhead behind her. The girl was determined to speak, though. Cerelia bit her tongue again as she came to a stop and flicked her wand again, sending the beam of light into the air. The orb floated up, just above her head and to the left, bathing the forest in a white light. Cerelia turned, raising an eyebrow at the redhead. She was naive. Stupid, even.

“Well, I don’t know,” Cerelia responded mockingly. “Aren’t you afraid a Werewolf is going to get you?” Cerelia couldn’t stop herself from laughing at this point and she shook her head in disbelief, her lips curling into an indulgent, patronizing smile. “I suggest you go then, because I’m no Gryffindor. This is no show of bravery; I do not possess a hero complex or a desire to impress you.” Cerelia’s lip curled a little at the thought. “No, far from it in fact. If you believe yourself to be safer with an empty headed Gryffindor then I think Madam Malkin’s mucked up your tie order. That is naivety. You can go back. You are just going to get yourself killed. Though that would be fun for everyone, a little bit of murder and mayhem, it won’t be for me. I don’t fancy being implicated in a murder just yet, thank you very much. Think about it this way though,” Cerelia smirked, turning around once more and beginning to walk. “There aren’t any Werewolves about this time of day.”

Faith didn't like the way the girl treated her, in fact she didn't like it at all. The looks she threw her, the words thrown at her, she was almost positive the girl thought she was an idiot. Faith kept up with the girl easy, her stride long because of her overlong legs, and relatively in shape physique kept her right alongside the girl, her wand up and at the ready for anything that might come at them.

At the werewolf comment, Faith frowned and shook her head. "I wasn't thinking.. sorry if I got caught up in the moment. "She said with a sniff, jumping slightly when a raindrop managed to sneak it's way past the heavy canopy above and plop down right on her head with a soft *thunk*. She looked up and sighed, remembering that it was still in fact raining. The girl mentioned that she was no Gryffindor, and Faith smiled slightly. "Good.. I wouldn't want to be with a Gryffindor.. that is what I was saying." She said with another soft sniff, keeping up with the girl still.

Faith didn't like the girl one bit, but she had her intrigued as it were. A Ravenclaw girl going into the Forbidden Forest by herself, either she had some sort of secret experiment going on in here that the teachers couldn't know about, or she was in fact exploring as she had said. With a soft sigh, Faith looked around them. "There are still centaurs.." She said under her breath, pointing her wand around before looking back at the other girl.

The thick canopy overhead made it impossible for light to fall to the forest floor. Little pockets of channelled rays hit down into the mud in certain areas, creating odd little pods of green dotted about the forest floor; mostly though the forest floor contained death. Walking through it was easy enough if you cared little for your shoes. Cerelia had a hard time trying to figure out what she was going to say to her father after the adventure. She’d need new shoes and though she knew they would be difficult to replace, they were a pair she loved and she did recognise she had been foolish to wear them into the woodland. She scowled openly at the floor as her shoes became increasingly caked in mud but she brushed it from her mind, deciding that she would not tell her father, she’d just go into Hogsmeade and order a new pair from the catalogue in the post office. Instead of worrying she lifted her wand higher, casting a glance over at the redhead, still unimpressed with her display.

“You’re forgiven,” Cerelia replied with a wry smile on her lips, not missing the irony of the situation. Cerelia glanced at the girl again and raised a blonde eyebrow in disbelief. “Really?” She inquired, clucking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “I didn’t get that impression from what you were saying.”

Snap!

Cerelia froze, bringing her wand down and extending it out in front of her. The ball of light above their heads glowed brighter and Cerelia’s eyes narrowed as she searched for the source of the sound. Her eyes widened as hundreds of spiders began to pour from the hole between two arching trees and her face drained of all colour as from that emerged a head of a dog. Then another. Then another. Cerelia’s body began to shake with fear as the creature began to snap and drool at them. She looked over at Faith and began to back away with more speed, a single word: “Run” leaving her lips before she turned and bolted through the forest, running as fast as her legs would take her as the spiders began to hurl themselves in their direction, the dog following.

Faith shook her head silently and walked with the girl, when suddenly there was a snap. Faith froze in time with the other girl, her wand pointed out, her eyes scanning the trees frantically for the source of the noise. And then they showed up, spiders, dogs, weird things.. Faith stood in shock for a moment, before the girl beside her said Run, without further prompting, she fell back a step, and bolted right alongside the girl. She didn't know if they were headed back to the castle, or if they were pushing deeper into the forest, but wherever they went, that freaking dog, and all of those spiders were chasing them.

Without thinking, Faith pointed her wand behind her and yelled. "STUPIFY!" She heard a thump, and then a couple more, and she realized she must have hit one, which had sent others flying. "Aha!" Faith jumped over a log, and pointed her wand over her shoulder shouting "Stupify!" again, hearing some more thumps behind her. There was no way they could outrun these things forever, but she didn't know what to do. They had to get away from them, or they'd be ripped to shreds, or taken back to their lair where they would get eaten. "What was it you were saying about there being no werewolves at this time?!" Faith shouted over her shoulder at Cerelia as she ran.