Pogonotrophy

The Forbidden Forest was never, ever going to be the wisest place to take a walk yet Cerelia couldn’t bring herself to regret entering the copse; what did irritate her was the abysmal company she had. Cerelia couldn’t help the smile that came to her face as her veins throbbed with adrenaline. Her feet carried her with such speed she did not think she’d even touched the floor but once she’d thrown herself off the top of jutting roof to propel herself forward she knew that she was moving, and fast.

Cerelia’s grip tightened on her wand as the spiders closed in around her, willing herself to remember that she was only fifteen years old and there was a quiet agreement between her magic and the knowledge her mind kept of spells not to cast the Killing Curse. Instead she used Incendio, extinguishing the disgusting little creatures in a concentrated fire which would stop burning once it had consumed its target. Cerelia had cast a look over her shoulder at Faith, her face screwing up with dismay at the girl’s spell work which was, regrettably, lacking.

“They’ll get up again!” Cerelia shrieked, throwing another ball of flame towards a spider that was in mid-flight having thrown itself from the bark of a tree towards her. “It’s Stu-pe-fy not Stupify, it’ll get them down but if you care to look...they’re getting back up again!”

Cerelia glanced over her shoulder as the girl spoke, finding herself rolling her eyes despite the severity of the situation. Cerelia jumped another jutting root and abruptly changed direction, heading West instead of North, cutting over Faith as she did so.

“It’s a Cerberus, you cretin!” She exclaimed with a laugh.

Cerelia passed through parallel hedges, Faith, she was sure, behind her, and suddenly the sound of spiders and the roar of the dog quietened to almost nothing. Cerelia came to a stop, her robes flapping around her body, and paused at the mouth of the hedges that lead on in a cross shape with only three ways to go. Left, right, or straight ahead. Cerelia lifted her wand, this time lighting it, and looked around before glancing back at Faith.

“This should not be here. What is it? Come on Faith, let’s not dilly-dally. We haven’t all day. Rask! Schnell! Faster! What is it? Do come along now, you’ve been here since your first year, have you not? What is this place? What does it provide? And, most importantly, which way is out?”

Faith couldn't help it, she was getting seriously annoyed with this girl. In the heat of the moment, while running from giant spiders and a three headed dog, she had the gall to correct how she was saying a spell. And even gave time to insult her. Faith was about to shout something back, but a spider fell directly in front of her, and she shot flames at it, watching it writhe as she jumped over it's body and propelled herself forward, dashing alongside the other Ravenclaw girl.

Finally though, the noises fell behind them, and it went deadly quiet. The hair on the back of Faith's neck stood up, and she could almost feel the hum of magic in the air, making her clothes move slightly as though in a wind without there being one. Faith stopped next to the girl, as she rushed on in speaking. Mouthing question after question, but Faith was simply staring. Without much thought, she reached forward, and touched the hedge. It was almost like a spark, the knowledge that came up though Faith's fingertips, and she knew exactly what this was. Faith had to make sure though, she quickly took a few steps back, glanced around, and climbed up onto a root that was higher than the hedge. "Merlin.." She whispered, staring at the view before her.

"I wonder why it went here.." She said, and then glanced back down at the girl. "You sure you want to go in there? There is no other way out.. and even if you found a way out.. well there isn't the most wonderful things that you'll run into in there.." She said smiling as she slid down the root and came to a rest in front of Cerelia. "Tri-Wizard Tournament, 1996, Task Number Three, the hedge maze, set in the Quidditch Pitch originally, the cup was placed in the center, and the champions had to find their way through the maze in order to reach the cup, first to reach it, would essentially win the Tri-Wizard Tournament.. of course unless your points were well enough.. it was actually the year Harry Potter competed and the year that You-Know-Who came back.." Faith said, her hand going to the hedge again and touching the branches. "For some reason.. they decided to move it into the Forbidden Forest.. meaning this thing is even more deadly then it was during the Tri-Wizard.. and it was pretty deadly then too.."