o______________O
Kurumi's arms flailed and she nearly tripped over a rather large carrot in front of her when August said what time it was. 9? 9?! 9?!?!?! How did it get to be this late and WHY was it not darker outside?! In fact, Kurumi DID trip over the large carrot and thankfully fell on the path instead of another vegetable.

Spitting out some dirt, Kurumi looked at August and rolled her eyes when he said it was 7:45. Still later than she usually ate, but not ridiculously late. "Yes...please," she said as she pushed herself off the ground and dusted off herself.

Tayla opened her mouth to say something, but before she could a ball of snow hit her near the face. "Woah!" Tayla laughed. She missed these snowball fights. She ran to hide behind a snow-covered bush close by and felt another snowball hit her on the back before she ducked. "Hey! That's two for you!" It was either Sophie had good aim or she was running too slow.

Tayla quickly formed another snowball where she was hiding, threw it to Sophie's direction, and ducked again.

Not wanting to stop the snowball fight, but suddenly thinking she and Sophie might get in trouble doing so near the vegetables, she ran towards the Whomping Willow. "Catch me if you can!"

Sophie missed her snowball fights with her much older cousins. They could be older, but they could be really silly and fun. She was glad she could have snowball fights at Hogwarts too!

Still hiding, she saw a snowball flying above her head. She laughed and looked over in Tayla's direction just in time to see the Gryffindor get out of her hiding spot and run towards the Whomping Willow.

YAY, WHOMPING WILLOW! Her favorite area! Sophie ran after Tayla, scooping up snow on her way.

Eight very large and very hairy legs appeared on one of the pumpkins in the vegetable patch followed by eight beady eyes. The Acromantula whose name was Ranog watched the children run away through the snow.

A pity. They would have made a tasty feast.

Okay...attempt number three, or was it four?, to get some knitting done. Using the bag that August had given her to carry her knitting supplies, Kurumi made her way to the vegetable patch and searched for a good sized pumpkin to sit on - not noticing the frightening 8-legged creature that lay hidden in the snow.

"Here looks good," she said, her back to the creature, as she sat down on a pumpkin and began taking out the partially knitted sweater from the other day. Maybe NOW she could finish it up?

The smell of fresh meat was more than Ranog could bear. Gnashing his pincers together, the monstrous Acromantula stood upon his huge hairy legs and towered over the child seated upon the pumpkin, casting a shadow over her. He gnashed his pincers again making the most terrifying sound.

Kurumi loved the fresh air out here on the grounds. It was nice to be out of the common room and away from people for a bit. That, and now she could finish this one sweater and then perhaps head to the duck pond to try and catch a duck to put the red thing on. She was sure the ducks would appreciate since their pond was now covered in snow.

Suddenly...the noise of her needles clanging together became...far too loud to be normal. "Hmmmm?" she said as she as she ceased her knitting...only to find that the sound did not stop. What in the...

Kurumi's eyes widened as she saw a shadow on the ground that cloaked her own in darkness. That...wasn't the shadow of a person....

Nervously, Kurumi turned her head around. "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she shrieked, throwing her knitting needles and half knitted sweater up in the air as she dove forward and rolled away from the acromantula. As she did, her wand hand flew for her wand tucked safely away in its holster. When she came to a stop, Kurumi was back on her feet quicker than you could say cookie with her wand out and ready.

MERLIN DID SHE HATE SPIDERS!

Worst part of all this? There was no Salander to save her this time.

Kennedy had been chasing after Oliver and had traced him all the way to the vegetable patch. He stood on the tip of his toes and looked around. Where had that little monster gone? Didn't he know he could get lost?

Of course not, all that kitten cared about was chewing on things.

His head snapped up when he heard a scream and...

O________O

Holy guacamole!

Was that a...nah. BUT it was. Kennedy heard their venom was valuable, but he's also heard that it was best retrieved when they were dead. Oh LOOK! Kurumi was playing with it!

Oh wait...she wasn't.

Kennedy whipped out his wand and inched toward the Gryffindor Prefect. "Kurumi!" he hissed, although the acrumantula could most likely hear him. He then ran to her and tugged on her robes. "We should hide..." LIKE NOW!

Or...OR...

THEY COULD RUN GET A PROFESSOR, KILL IT AND GET ITS VENOM.

Ranog had just been about to advance on the girl human when four of his eyes spied another human running in their direction. Two humans. Dinner annnnnd dessert.

It was his lucky day.

Gnashing his pincers together again, his legs began to move as he advanced towards the two children.

Kurumi squeaked and jumped when she heard someone say her name. "Kennedy?" she gasped, looking at the Slytherin boy. "W-W-What are you doing here?!" Not that it really mattered WHY, it was more important that he was here at all, yeah?

Hide? Kurumi didn't think that that was really going to matter... "Kennedy...it can smell us...I don't think hiding it going to help," she said looking at the creature as it approached. "We have to get it away from the castle...back towards the forest..." Where it belonged, right? Where was Professor Williamson or the Groundskeeper when you needed them?!
Kurumi's left hand grabbed onto Kennedy's arm when the creature advanced further. Was it increasing its speed too? Merlin they needed to do SOMETHING!

She remembered back to a lesson with Professor Saylen where they had gone into the Forbidden Forest. Heck, they had even had a homework assignment to practice the spell. It might buy them some time at least to run and get a professor.

"ARANIA EXUMAI!"

Come on...stun it or something...

He ignored her question, his green eyes still fixed upon the spider. His eyes slowly shifted to its pincers. That's where the venom was, right? He bit his lip. What if he tried...saving Kurumi and then extracting the poisonous liquid? That seemed like a plan.

Kennedy was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Kurumi grab his arm. Right. Spider. Life or death. He gave a quiet step back, tugging the girl along with him. Then his eyes widened. "You want us to go..." he pointed toward the Forbidden Forest, "...there?" Had the spider brainwashed her? That was not a safe place.

Gosh, he's read so many articles on the uses of dragon blood and some venoms, but never really paid attention to how to get the creature it belonged to. He heard Kurumi cast the spell and it sound a BIT familiar, but he couldn't quite make it out. "What's that spell?" Because he REALLY wanted to use it now.

Stay, spider, STAY!

The brisk January air seemed to be a bit refreshing as Scabior walked around the grounds. It was much better than saying the the stuffy castle. Even his office seemed to be choking him with the warm air, despite the fact that his fireplace was not even lit.

Out of the few things that Scabior did enjoy, one was the winter.

He had expected everything to be quite, maybe a few children laughing here and there, throwing snowballs and making snowmen. What the Professor didn't expect was the loud shriek that erupted from around the useless vegetable area. He quickly changed his direction, making his way over to the patch very quickly.

If children were just screaming for no reason-Dash's eyes grew slightly as they caught sight of the Acromantula and the two Prefects who looked as if they were about to wet their pants. See what vegetable patches did? They brought in giant spiders. Scabior's hand found his wand as he quickly ran into the patch in front of the children. "Stupefy!" His voice was levelled and controlled, yet still managed to hold a great bit of power to it. Arania Exumai would hurt the creature, stunning it would be better to figure out why it was there in the first place.

Why did Kennedy look so...excited all of a sudden? This was NOT a time to look excited...this was a time to be terrified and running for your life and finding a professor to handle these sorts of things because two fifth years after a flesh eating spider did not compute.

"I don't want US to go in there..." she said, lowering her voice and then jabbing her wand over the shoulder at IT. "I want HIM to go in there." Get it? Got it? Good!

Tugging on Kennedy now to try pull the two of them further away. "Arania Exumai...spider killing curse and used to blast back acromantulas," she explained in a hurried tone. "Learned it in my first year when we went into the Forbidden Forest for Care of Magical Creatures." But that wasn't important now. What they needed to do was run.
Then a spell seemed to have come out of nowhere and Kurumi didn't bother stopping to see if it hit the acromantula or not, instead dragging Kennedy in the direction the spell had come from. Kurumi's draw nearly dropped when she saw WHO had cast the spell. She didn't know that he cared! Or, perhaps, he just wanted to make sure that the vegetables were safe? Perhaps he was a vegetarian which was doubtful since she was pretty sure that he ate his meat raw.

"Professor Scabior!" Kurumi called, running towards him and taking a standing position behind him with her wand still at the ready. Since he was here that meant that they would be safe, right? Kurumi was almost surprised that she felt safer next to the History of Magic professor as opposed to the acromantula. "W-what do you want us to do?" Run?

Kennedy allowed himself to be pulled along by the Gryffindor prefect. Fine, FINE. He'll find some other time to befriend the acrumantula. He lifted his wand and was about to mimic Kurumi when he heard another spell being said. That voice sounded extremely familiar.

Ah, Professor Scabior!

Maybe HE could get some of that acrumantula venom for him? He was a strong wizard, right? Oh darn it, why couldn't it have been professor Lafay, she'd probably understand if he asked. You know...for educational purposes.

He ran after Kurumi, but didn't hide.

Look at those pincers!!!

The little human girl was throwing something at him. Some sort of light. Ranog, did not like it and thankfully whatever the light was managed to miss him. He gnashed his pincers together continuously in an agitated fashion. He would eat her first.

One hairy leg had just thundered down in front of them when another human appeared. This one was bigger than the other two. Which meant a lot more meat to chew on. But the big one was throwing light at him as well.

It skimmed passed his head causing him to recoil somewhat. Ranog was getting annoyed with these humans and their sticks of light. He reared up on his back legs before boring down onto the trio, his pincers gnashing together furiously.

She had missed

More importantly, so had Professor Scabior

There went her theory about him being a Hit Wizard and Sniper during the night. If he couldn't hit a giant spider in broad daylight, night seemed to be somewhat out of the question, yeah. Then again, this spider was fast...really...fast... and spellcasting was sort of failing.

Kurumi tumbled backwards, just out of the creature's reach, when bore down on the trio, jumping back on her feet as quickly as she could. Had the acromantula just recoiled? Had Professor Scabior's spell had some effect? Notice the lack of a Professor Scary Face right now?!.

"M-Maybe if all three of us cast a Stunning Spell together?" she whispered, her wand still at the ready. With three spells at once, surely one of them would hit?

Kennedy's eyes widened when the acromantula charged toward them. He quickly moved out of the way and THIS time he hid behind the professor. Sorry, Professor Scabior, but you already lived long enough. Technically, Kennedy was the future...and Kurumi, of course...so they had to LIVE.

LIIIIIVE!

His wand was still at the ready. "I'm with Kurumi," he said. Unless there was another, much stronger spell they could use. He was kind of surprised at how well he was taking this. Usually, he feared dying, but the PINCERS...they were...just THERE.

His eyes traveled back at the spider's pincers. IT should be running instead, pssh.

What did he want them to do? "Lower your voice." He said calmly. That would be a start, because yelling 'i'm right here, come and eat me!' didn't seem to be working.

He clenched his teeth to bite back a few choice swear words. He didn't look back at the students but shook his head regardless. So did Hollingberry think she could call the shots? Amazing. He wasn't needed then, going back to the castle sounded nice."Just keep casting them, again and again." Scabior said quickly. They would send spells one after the other. Quantity was better than quality here, Hollingberry should know all about that. As the spider bore down upon them, he took the biggest step back that he could, pushing Kennedy back in the process.

Without warning, the Professor raised his wand again, his arm moving in every direction, sending about half a dozen non-verbal stunning spells to the hairy beast.

Yelling? Who was yelling? Oh dear...was Professor Scabior...a little hard of hearing? Neither Kennedy nor her were shouting and she certainly hadn't been when it had first showed up while she had been knitting. She sure hoped that she could get her knitting needles back...and the part of the sweater that she had done. She had been working really hard on that.

Just keep casting stunning spells...okay, she could do that. Kurumi glanced sideways at Kennedy when all of a sudden Professor Scabior turned into a living machine gun with his spellcasting. Hmmm...maybe he WAS a Hit Wizard after all!

Eyes back on the scary creature, Kurumi began throwing spells at it as well, keeping her voice low and changing the intended target area with each one. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

Nonverbals would be on her checklist for next term.

Kennedy managed to keep his balance after Professor Scabior PUSHED him. Eh, it didn't matter really, the more protecting the better, right? Right. He nodded at the instructions although he doubted either Kurumi or the professor saw him. Shooting stunning spells randomly wasn't a bad idea either. Actually, doing that would probably spread their range at hitting the spider.

He pointed his wand at the acromantula. "Stupefy!" he said, pointing it at the pincers. Maybe one would fall off and roll over to him? Worth a try. "Stupefy!" This one was directed at its legs so it could hopefully trip. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" Now these were just so the could hit the ugly monster.

Then it struck him, he was fighting an acromantula a level XXXXX creature. This was a story to tell...if they made it out alive.

It would have been an impressive attack on the humans if it had not been for those sticks that they were holding and the lights that kept coming out of them.

The first few managed to hit Ranog but they had no effect and he continued his advance but even a creature of his size could not outlast the onslaught that was being put on him.

He was being hit over and over with those lights and they were starting to take effect. His legs wobbled, his pincers froze in mid strike and then Ranog teetered for a few seconds before finally toppling over and landing on his back, his hairy legs curled in on himself.

o_____________________O

FUDGECICLE!

Kurumi's eyes widened and dashed quickly between the acromantula, Kennedy, and Professor Scabior. Was it....did they just....how did it...THEY HAD ONLY BEEN USING STUNNING SPELLS!!! That shouldn't have killed it, right?! If they had, Kurumi knew who she was pointing fingers at, and it wasn't her or Kennedy.

Kurumi still stood a little behind Professor Scabior and beside Kennedy, her wand not lowering even a centimeter just in case the creature sprang back to life. Hopefully Professor Williamson didn't magically decide to show up now...Kurumi guess that he had a rather strange fondness for spiders.

She looked back at Professor Scabior, well...the back of his head anyway, and waited to hear what they should do next.

Theygotit!

THEY GOT IT!

Kennedy grinned at the upside down spider. Was it dead or just stunned? Professor Scabior should go check it out since he was the adult in this situation. M'hm. OH, and on his way he should...get Kennedy one of the pincers? Yeah, that would be lovely.

He looked over his shoulder at Kurumi, grinned and gave her a thumbs up, but doubted Professor Scabior could see him. They did it! They beat an acrumantula...with the assistance of an adult.

He was a bit relieved to see that the the first few spells had hit the creature. It meant that it was only a matter of time before-the Acromantula's legs seemed to start wobbling, and then before anything could be done it toppled over onto its back. As if it were dead.

Scabior raised his wand once more. "Incarcerous." Ropes shot out of the wand, binding the already fallen spider. It had to be done, just in care the spells effects wore off quickly. Pushing his wand back into his holster, Scabior turned to face the two Prefects. "One of you go inform Tate of what just happened, the other go get Williamson. And-" Scabior glanced between the two before giving them the smallest of smiles. "-good job you two." He would stay in the vegetable patch and make sure no one came close to the Acromantula.

Incarcerous? Why would Professor Scabior be using that spell unless.... OH MY STARS! IT WASN'T DEAD!

Kurumi felt like jumping up and down with glee now that she knew that the creature hadn't been killed. Which was rather ridiculous considering how moments earlier she had been somewhat fearing for her life and not wanting to become early dinner for the arachnid. Kurumi looked up at Professor Scabior when he instructed her and Kennedy to go get the Headmaster and Professor Williamson and couldn't help but wonder why he didn't just send his patronus after them. Maybe he was like her father in that he was ashamed of the form it took?

And...wait a second...had her and Kennedy just earned a SMILE from the man?! Kurumi wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing considering how few instances she had ever seen him do so...if ever. Still, she bowed her head at the compliment and caught her breath a bit more. "I think I speak for both of us when I say...we are glad you show up, professor." She glanced at Kennedy again. Huzzah for not becoming spider food!

"I'll go get the Headmaster," she nodded, pocketing her wand and taking off at a slow job towards the castle.