Outside. There were dementors outside. He really shouldn't be outside. But his walk had kind of gotten a little out of hand. At least he'd had the air now. He'd ended up in the forbidden forest though. And that was really not good at all. He frowned, stopping where he was, and having a good look around. He wanted to make sure that there were not any dementors here. The only person that could have a go at sucking his soul out was Kat, and he was pretty sure she didn't actually want to do that. Okay. He was pretty certain that there were not any dementors around. Humming to himself he began walking again, though a little bit slower than before. It was okay. He would just have a nice stroll through the forbidden forest. It wasn't as if any dementors were going to come out and randomly attack him.

Of course not.

There was a few moments of silence in which Dylan waited for stuff to happen. Would the tree uproot itself and hand over a piece of its own wood? Would it open it's...eyes?...and give him an approving look? Would it lower a branch to clap him on the back...Would ANYTHING happen?

The Slytherin Captain waited a few moments longer...but still, nothing happened. No movement, no sound, no anything.

Dylan...was going to take that as a sign to continue what he was doing then.

Looking down at his list of things to do, he went ahead and accio'd his textbook back. "Accio Ancient Runes book,"...because the Captain did not know the verses by heart...He didn't have laser memory like Odessa did...So, he'd need to read them from a source...In fact, his source was suddenly soaring his way in that next moment, landing neatly on his lap. HA! TAKE THAT...whoever'd booknapped it a little while ago...

Right. Down to business.

After some page-flippage, Dylan found what he was looking for and cleared his throat...and then cleared it some more.

"Hail to thee, wight of yew,
I pray to thee give this branch of your body!
Into it send thy speed,
To it bind the might of the bright runes..."

He paused and eyed the text for a moment...ALL the runes...because this was meant to be a neutral galdr. So...okay...and because he'd been memorizing these for NEWT purposes, Dylan didn't even have to look them up. Yep, he was totally proud.

"Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo,
Hagalaz, Naudhiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz, Sowilo, Teiwaz,
Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Inguz, Dagaz, Othala."

As he dropped the last syllable in Othala...the Slytherin looked up and surveyed the tree. Still, nothing was happening...So, all was good, then? He could...start cutting? Dylan looked through the book to get further instructions. One could never go wrong with book instructions...

STARE.

He'd offered the wrong thing....It was supposed to be bread and mead....or plant food. Okay...but REALLY...Who didn't know the facts here? A golden snitch was ten times better than mead and bread...and DEFINITELY more awesome than plant food. Besides, snitches were a special magic all there own...and by offering up something so beloved by him (a seeker and Captain), it meant more as an offering. So, no. The snitch was staying right were it was...Surely the tree knew his thanks in the form of the very personal object...

The second year old walked with her two baby rats on her shoulder, on her right shoulder you could see a fluffy pink rat, called Little princess, and on her left shoulder you could see a little, baby blue rat, called Sir blue and he was the baby from Little princess, she really thought that they were cute, mother and son, together on her shoulder! She smiled and looked around her, she saw flowers everywhere and she wanted to pick some pink flowers when she saw the ones she liked, she wanted to decorate the common room with them, she hated it if there were no flowers inside a room, and especially a room where she was daily!

She saw a flower she liked and wanted to walk toward it when her baby rat, Sir blue fall from her shoulder and... a owl flew in the sky above them, the owl made a sound and Sir blue became scared! He started to run because he wanted to hide somewhere but he was running in the direction from the forbidden forest! "WAIT, SIR BLUE! COME BACK HERE!" The second year old started to run and entered the forbidden forest... "Oh no...." she looked around her and felt suddenly scared, knowing that she was at a VERY dangerous place at the moment...

Right...So...he was just...going to cut the branch now.

"I do apologize for his violation to...your person?" Erm, were trees considered people? Dylan didn't know as he slowly drew his wand...Was he supposed to be chanting something? Merlin, he felt like he should've been...but it wasn't clear. The textbook wasn't even clear about it...So, he remained only slightly confused.

Dylan was smart. He'd figure this out.

Okay...So, since the yew tree related to Odin...and Odin was the allfather and all that...and Ansuz was Odin's rune...He'd chant Ansuz. There. That was some power of deduction for 'em...and if that wasn't right, well. What other rune was he supposed to chant? It was open to interpretation...Ha. This was going to be amusing...Finding a branch that looked and felt right for the taking, the Captain readied his wand...and began to chant...

"........ansuz ansuz ansuz...aw aw aw aw aw aw aw aw aw...aw aw aw aw aw aw s s s s s s....Diffindo!....aw aw aw aw aw aw....aw aw aw aw aw aw aw aw aw........."

YEW!SLICE!

Laying the branch down on the ground, he patted the tree's trunk a few times before bending to reach into his bag. It wasn't in the instructions...but he'd brought along some mooncalf solution anyway to put over the cut. After they'd worked with it in Herbology, Dylan had never forgotten the importance of the lesson he'd learned. One...Bentley got super nuts about trees...and two...not to be afraid to use the solution to help the trees along a bit. So, here he was...doing just that. Hopefully it'd soothe the yew tree's pain....or whatever.

"Does that feel better?" He was asking question's as he unscrewed the lid to apply the balmy solution. Dylan was generous with it, too. Why not? Besides this, what else would be use it for?

Rub, rub, rub...Pat, pat, pat...

Finishing up with that, he got it sealed back up and put away.

“Sir Blue? Where are you?” She wanted to shout the name from her rat harder but she was afraid that she would pay too much attention to herself, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted attention here, she had heard a LOT horrible stories about the forbidden forest and she didn’t wanted to find any of the creatures who were living here! She was afraid that Sir blue would be lost forever here, the forest was really large and she didn’t knew if she would be able to find her rat back! “Little princess, help me to find him, you are his mommy so try to call him!” asked she her pink rat and placed her rat carful on the ground before her feet. Her rat started to walk and sniffed while she walked forward, deeper and deeper inside the forest.

The forest around her became darker and darker, she saw shadows EVERYWHERE and she heard a lot strange sounds, and she didn’t wanted to know which creatures were making all those sounds… No, she wanted to stay as far as possible away from them! She looked over her shoulder behind her, she was afraid and wanted to find Sir blue so that she could leave this forest, she knew that there were Dementors here at Hogwarts, hidden in the dark, and she was now exactly at the place where she expected them to be! She looked down at Little princess, wondering if her rat was also afraid and scared because her baby was lost, when she saw that her rat started to run. Little princess didn’t ran away from her, she even looked behind her to see if she was following. “Little princess, do you know where Sir blue is?!”

They were coming to the ending of this meeting. Dylan knew what the next step was...and after he'd completed that...he'd be able to take the branch back to Slytherin and start cleaning it up and Diffindo!ing it. It was almost a sad moment...as he and the yew tree had bonded kinda. Even thought, he'd just basically chopped one of the tree's arms off...if a branch could be the equivalent of an arm. Totally normal friendship stuff...

Ahem.

Yep, it was time to crack the ol' textbook open again. Once again, he hadn't memorized the verses...So, this was going to have to be okay. As reassurance before he started speaking the chant...the Slytherin reached his hand out and patted the tree trunk...It was weird...but he enjoyed touching the tree. He could still make out that strange heartbeat thing, though...Would definitely need to ask Professor Botros about that one.

AHEM. He cleared his throat...

"Wight if Yew, accept my thanks.
Henceforth may your might be in this branch!
Magically bound to the bright runes Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho,
Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo, Hagalaz, Naudhiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz,
Sowilo, Teiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Inguz, Dagaz, Othala.
Working my will with speed and wisdom."

Once again...the urge to dance had been there as he'd spoke the runes. Dylan couldn't seem to help himself when it came to this stuff. He just felt the natural rhythm in them and wanted to celebrate...or something. It was all very strange. Dylan was more reserved in his other lessons.

"Now we part, yew tree." There were another moment shared between the two as he rubbed and patted at the bark again. "I'll be back soon...and I promise I won't take anymore branches."

With a final nod and pat, Dylan bent to get all his things back into his bag...and to lift the branch. It wasn't heavy or anything...not that some weight would've bothered the Slytherin. He'd been weight-lifting. Totally didn't care about a branch.

"Until next time..."

...and he was off.

“Sir blue!!? Where are you?” She was afraid, but dared it to call her rat a little louder because she was now really desperate to find her rat back! She ran behind Little princess, and she was a little surprised to see that her cute and fluffy rat was so fast, she had trouble to keep up with her rat! “Not so fast, I’m not as fast as you and I don’t want to lose you too!” She called for her pink rat while she tried to keep up with Little princess. She ran so hard that she didn’t looked behind her and forgot to search for landmarks inside the forest to find her way back.

The forest was now almost too dark for her to look where she was running and her foot stuck behind a branch. “AHHH!” She screamed loud when she fall to the ground, with her face in the MUD! And, when she felt that her whole face was dirty and that her pretty dress was also dirty, she screamed again, and this time from desperation, she had lost her baby rat AND she was dirty! EVERYTHING was going the wrong way today and she HATED it! “I’m dirty…” She sniffed while she looked at her pink dress who was now brown from the mud and she screamed again when she saw that a insect was walking OVER HER ARM! “AHHHHHHH!” she screamed and tried to slap the insects away from her! “Little princess, help me, kill them!” She called for her rat and then she realized that her pink rat was… also gone… She was alone!

Alistaire Firth was doing one of his rounds of the perimeter of the forest when he thought he saw a student lurking near the edge. Oh no, not again! What was it that these kids didn't understand about the word 'forbidden' and it meaning not allowed ever? Grumbling to himself and taking out his wand, he began to think happy thoughts. Dementors were lurking around and he wanted to be prepared.

He tramped through the trees, wand lit, in a direction that would hopefully get close to intercepting whoever it was. Hearing shrieks, he began to rush. "Homenum revelio!" he shouted. What on earth..? There were TWO people in here? He had definitely only seen one. That meant there was another student in here separately. The Groundskeeper was on high alert.

Crashing through the underbrush, he heard a girl yelling that they needing help killing something. What kind of creatures is she up against? he wondered. "Hold on, I'm comin'!" he yelled as the girl came into view.

The second year old started to cry from the fear she suddenly felt, she was alone and had not only lost Sir Blue, but also Little Princess, AND she was here maybe in danger! She started to slap on the insects who were on her arm and when she finally had removed all those scary insects she started to run again. She heard how somebody shouted behind her, but she was too afraid to stop and to look behind her, maybe she heard a dark creature who tried to lure her into a dark hole where she would be eaten alive! Maybe was the voice she heard a illusion and if she would listen to it she would be in REAL danger! “Stay away from me!” She shouted to the thing who was behind her and started to run faster and faster, searching for her two rats.

She fell again and she was now sure that her pink dress was ruined, she felt how the mud was dripping from it and she was hurt on her leg, she had fallen on her knees and she had now a few bloody scratches on her knees. But again, she refused to stop with running, to afraid that the thing who was behind her would eat her alive if she would stop with running and that it would catch her! She was sure that she was the only one inside the forbidden forest, no one else would be stupid enough to go in here, right? She herself would have NEVER stepped inside the forest if she would have a other choice. If she hasn’t lost Sir Blue she would now be safe inside the castle, with a cup tea. But she had lost Sir Blue and now she was here, all alone. She was really convinced that she was the only one and that the dark creatures inside the forest were trying to let her walk into a trap! But, she was a smart girl, yes, she was VERY smart and she wasn’t listening to the voice behind her!

After a few minutes she stopped and looked around her, her eyes were filled with tears and she shivered over her whole body. “SIR BLUE!!!? LITTLE PRINCESS!!!!? Where are you!?” She screamed as hard as she could, desperate to find her two rats and to leave this forest, if she knew the way back… While she looked around her she… “I have found both of you!” She now cried really hard because she was SO relieved to have her rats back! She ran to her two rats, Little Princess had found Sir Blue and they were now running toward her. She grabbed her two rats and turned around, ready to run away when she saw a large spider! The spider was almost as large as a Quaffle, and she already was afraid of spiders, and this was the LARGEST SPIDER SHE HAD EVER SEEN!!!! “AHHH!” She screamed and fell to the ground, she pulled her hands before her face and prayed that the spider would go away.

Ali sighed. Why do they always have to run? He chased her for at least a minute, yelling at her to stop. Finally, when he was about to pull out his wand and force her to stop, she fell onto the ground and screamed.

Running into the clearing where she was, he roared "Stupefy!" and took aim at whatever it was that was attacking her. The jet of red light hit the dirt and rebounded harmlessly into the night and away from the girl. There was nothing there. Must've been imagining things. Firth hurried toward the small girl, crushing a large spider underfoot in the process. He bent down in front of her and said, "It's alrigh', Mr. Firth is here. Are yeh injured?" And will you uncurl from that little ball so I can see who you are?

Someone was shouting, did she heard a spell? Stupefy was a spell right? Oh no… the creature who had followed her was able to speak! But… then it’s not a Dementor, right? They don’t have a mouth to speak with, only to suck up souls. So… was this a other creature? Oh noooooo…. If it had a mouth to speak than it had also teeth to eat her and her two rats! She crawled backwards and away from the red flash she suddenly saw from between her hands and made a scared noise. What was the red flash? WHAT FOR DARK CREATURE WHAS THERE?! Do I need to run again? Or is the spider doing it? Oh, spiders are dangerous, I already know that but… are they mutated here in the forbidden forest and more dangerous than a normal spider? Are spiders eating rats? She didn’t wanted them to eat her rat, she had JUST found them! And she didn’t wanted to be eaten herself!

She heard how the creature walked toward her and she realized that it was now too late for her to run away, but if she was quick she could order Little Princes to take Sir Blue with her and to run away and if she was lucky then the spider would not like her and didn’t wanted to eat her! Yes, she hoped that the spider didn’t wanted to eat her! “Don’t eat me! I’m tasting very bad! And don’t hurt my rat’s, I just found them!!!” While she begged the creature to not eat her she hoped that the creature could hear her and would listen to her. “I promise that I will lock my rat Sir Blue inside his cage so he will never run a away again, I will ground him! Please don’t eat us!” she screamed while she still covered her face with both her hands, too afraid to look up and to see if it was really the spider or a other dark creature who was standing before her!

"It's alrigh', Mr. Firth is here. Are yeh injured?" Oh, that voice… She recognized it! It was the groundkeeper!!! She slowly peered through her fingers, afraid to see that it was still a dark creature who wanted to fool her and to eat her and her two rats alive, but she didn’t saw a monster… It was really the groundkeeper! It was dark but she knew now for sure that she was safe and that the spider and all the dark creatures were gone now! She and her two rats would not get eaten today! She now removed her hands from her face and grabbed Mr. Firth by his left arm. “Thank you, thank you! You have saved us!!!” A sob escaped through her mouth and she started to cry. “Sir Blue, my rat ran away, he was afraid of a owl and flied into the forbidden forest and….” She sniffed harder looked with a tearful look up at the groundkeeper. “I ran after Sir Blue and I was lost, there were all strange sounds… insects everywhere and something was following me, a HUGE monster, it was really scary and large and it ran the whole time behind me!!! It wanted to eat me and my two rats!!!!!!!”

She now looked with a scared look around her and saw the dark forest around her, it was so dark and she saw shadows EVERYWHERE and she was sure that there were dark creatures inside those shadows, watching her and waiting for a moment to eat her and her two rats! She turned her attention back to Mr. Firth and she grabbed him now by his arm as if her life was depending on it. “Please, please, can we leave? Do you know where we are and how we can leave this forest, I was lost and I didn’t knew in witch direction I needed to run and…” she stopped to take a deep breath and cried again.

Branches were actually really cool. There were so many things you could do with them, you know? Alice was currently brandishing hers like a sword, fencing with imaginary tree folk in front of her before refocusing on the task at hand. She peeked at Dylan's textbook again, finding the next verse she was meant to chant. The thanking one, right? Because the tree let her cut a chunk out of it and stuff.

Thanks, tree.

"Wight of Alder, accept my thanks.
Henceforth may your might be in this branch!
Magically bound to the bright runes Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho,
Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo, Hagalaz, Naudhiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz,
Sowilo, Teiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Inguz, Dagaz, Othala.
Working my will with speed and wisdom."

She would have shaved her bark right there but.. wait.. where did her textbook go?

Not hers, but.. well.. it wasn't there where it had been a couple of minutes ago.

Pity. She'd be back later, and would remember her own this time. She would.

Having just finished with the stripping of the galdr, Dylan slowly made his way back out to the tree. HIS tree. His YEW tree. He was even whistling a turn as he walked along, feeling great about everything he'd done for this project thus far. All was going according to plan, too. No hiccups or missteps along the way....so far.

When he'd finally reached where his yew tree of choice sat, Dylan quickly dropped his bag and took a seat in front of it. The Slytherin liked being in its presence...It was calming...and just a chill environment all around. "Hello, yew tree. I've returned..." He hadn't lied about coming back? See? He was right here..."...Did you miss me?"

Maybe....maybe not? Hmm?

"I've done something special for you..." Totally had. He'd wrote a song, albeit not a great one...but it was still a song...and Dylan was proud of it...now. Wasn't like thirty minutes ago...but he'd come to love it on his walk down to the grounds. Digging into his robe's pocket, he pulled out the small black pouch. He hadn't needed to break out the parchment his song was written on, though...The Captain figured it would've been considered rude to not have it memorized...and well, he HAD wrote it. Kinda hard to forget it, really.

Clearing his throat, he tugged at the drawstrings to open the pouch, preparing himself for what he was about to do...No singing right at the moment. Nope...Simply sprinkling the bark bits for now...He did this with care, though. Gently pulling them from the pouch to then scatter them at the foot of the yew tree.

Sprinkle..............sprinkle................spri nkle.................

Yes, fear did strange things to people. For instance, thinking the Groundskeeper was going to eat you.

But once she realized what was going on, she calmed right down. Oh good, I don't like it when they're hysterical. Firth was not exactly the emotional master. "Yer rats, eh? Well tha' huge monster yeh heard runnin' after yeh was probably me. Sometimes when yeh're scared, yeh don' get things quite straight." Like him yelling at her to stop over and over again.

"But yes, we should leave now. Up yeh get." He pulled the girl to her feet. There would be time for talk when they were safely outside of the Dark Forest. "Le's go." And he pulled her gently, but firmly, down the path back towards the castle.

Was it really the groundskeeper who had been running behind her? And not a dark creature who wanted to eat me and my two rats? She looked at the groundskeeper with a ashamed look, she really had thought that a monster was running behind her, oh! She had ran away from him while he was the one who had tried to help her, this was SO… But… She remembered all the dark shadows she had seen, all the sounds she had heard and she had been so sure that she had been followed by something dangerous! And the spider who had tried to attack here, just a few minutes before… She was sure that the spider had been real! And the groundskeeper HAD attacked something, he had used a spell, she had seen that! So, she had been really in danger, right?

Was the groundskeeper offended that she had been afraid of him had had called him a dark creature? Was he also angry because she had ran away from him? She didn’t knew it, she had not really talked with the groundskeeper before so she didn’t knew him and if he was friendly or not… But she hoped that he would be friendly to her and that he wasn’t angry, she didn’t wanted him to be angry because she NEEDED him to get out of here, and he had saved her from all the dark creatures here… And, it was not her fault that she was here, she had lost her rat Sir Blue and she NEEDED to take care of her baby rat!! End even now that her rat, Sir Blue had AUGLY blue color, he was the baby from Little princess so she needed to take care of the baby rat! And besides the ugly color was Sir Blue really sweet and she loved her baby rat, so yeah, she would do it again if she needed it, running into this forest for her rats, but she didn’t hoped that she needed to do it again, no… She was now prepared and would NOT LOSE her rat again here near the forest!

Crack, crack… Did she heard something? Was there something, another dark creature? And this time a real monster!? She had heard a cracking sound! She looked around her and wished that she was a better witch and that she knew more spells to protect herself here, she felt so useless! We wanted to be older so that she already could learn more spells, spells to defend herself and not the useless spells she now knew and had learned at Hogwarts, she wanted to be able to fight! But… she wasn’t able to fight, she didn’t knew how… She felt SO stupid now! But, at last she had calmed and trusted that the groundskeeper, Mr. Firth knew what he needed to do… she eyed again the forest around her and tried to listen if she heard again a few sounds she DIDN’T wanted to hear, like a dark creature who was lurking in the shadows….

“I’m sorry, Mr. Firth… I didn’t knew who you were and I didn’t wanted to run to something or someone I didn’t recognized here… I’m really sorry that I thought that you were a…. Monster…” she looked down at her feet and tried hide her trembling lip. She REALLY wanted to leave this place, together with her two rats and she didn’t wanted to come back here, EVER!

She was the groundskeeper thankful when he had had pulled her to her feet and she shivered. She was cold, her dress was ruined, she had scratches on her knees and she was now in a cold, dark forest. She looked with a scared look up at the groundskeeper and didn’t knew what she needed to do now, or where they were. [b]“We aren’t lost, do we? And… do you know the way back?”[b] She spoke with a soft whisper, she didn’t wanted to speak out loud here at this place, afraid to wake some sleeping dark creatures and make them curious who she was… She did a few steps closer toward the groundskeeper and hoped that he was a good duelist and that he would keep all the dark monsters away.

Well, at least she was coming calmly. That was more than he could say about certain other students he'd found in here. SOME people had wanted to try to argue with him and prove they shouldn't be punished while they were still in grave danger. Children. Sometimes they could be really dumb. But then again, all adults could act like children at times as well.

But then he was hearing an apology. "Eh, as much as I appreciate th' explanation, we really ought ter be quiet until we get outta here." And with that, he resumed his tromp through the trees.

...that is, until she spoke up again. Merlin, she just doesn't get it, does she? "No, we're not. Now stay close an' stay quiet," he said, a touch of agitation creeping into his voice. With each step, the forest began to thin out and it became increasingly lighter and easier to see. Finally, they reached the Grounds of Hogwarts without incident.

Once they were free of the trees and had made their way to the back side of his hut, he turned to face the small girl. "Right. Now I understand tha' yeh wanted ter find yer rat, but nothin'--NOTHING--gives yeh the right ter go into the forest like that." Hence the word forbidden in the name. "Now d'yeh have anythin' ter say fer yerself?"

Ella was back at the edge of the forbidden forest, wand in one hand and mokeskin pouch in the other. The blonde had some more Ancient Runes business to attend to and she needed the same Yew tree she'd used before to do it.

Spotting the tree, the sixteen year old hurried over and smiled at it faintly. She felt a sort of connection to the tree now that they'd been working on this project together. Was it okay to hug the tree or? Psh. Course it was okay! The badger wrapped her arms gently around the trunk and squeezed. "Hello, Yew. I told you I'd be back." And Ella was not a liar. Nope. "I've brought you something. Ready for it?" Was Yew ready?

Opening her Mokeskin pouch, the blonde carefully poured the bark shavings into her hand and held them out for Yew to see. Then she started sprinkling the bark around the base of the tree, making sure to go in a sunwise circle just like the book had said.

Was it time to sing yet? Grin!

Alder. Aldeeeer. Where was it? She had written a song for him and everything.

Back at the edge of the forest with her mokeskin pouch filled with bark and her parchment covered in lyrics, Alice arrived in front of her tree once more. The textbook had said she had to perform this during the next 28 days, or a full moon phase.. that meant she could do it on the same day, yeah? She was going to assume so.

The fifth year opened the little bag of bark shavings, extending her fingers into it and grabbing a handful of tree bits. She was just meant to sprinkle them around the base of the tree now, wasn't she? Clockwise, too. Doing just that, Alice used one hand to drop the shavings and the other to touch its trunk with her other palm. "Thanks you for letting me use your branch, Mr. Alder." THis thing had been thanked an awful lot now.

Did woodcutters have to do all this, too? For every tree they cut down?

Killing nature required way more effort than she had originally thought, that was for sure.

Once he'd completed sprinkling the bark shavings, it was time to sing his lovely song to the tree. Once again, Dylan knew it wasn't the greatest song on the planet...but he was happy with it...and hopefully the tree would feel properly blessed because of it...Hopefully...because there was nothing traditional about it.

Right...

The Slytherin concentrated on breathing for a few moments as he slowly began walking around the tree. Clockwise...like the hands on a real clock...Dylan made sure to reach his hands out and touch at the yew tree's trunk as he did this, too. To better feel connected with the tree and all that...

"Oh, amazingly wonderful yew tree...
I'm so pleased with what you have given me...
I Diffindo'd your branch...and then did a dance...
What a terribly marvelous day!"

It didn't feel so silly as he continued tracing his steps around the tree...In fact, the Captain got the sense that the tree was enjoying it...It was all those weird feelings again...and with his hand fitted against its trunk as he walked, that faint heartbeat had returned...

Dylan really wanted to talk to Professor Botros about that.

"...Your gift was not bestowed in vain
...and you won't ever hear me complain...
...about tree-hugging and saving the planet again."

After completing his third turn around the yew tree, he dropped and sat for a moment looking up at it. "I hope that was to your satisfaction..." Really, he did. He rather liked this tree. Felt like a friend and stuff, weirdly enough.

...and he was just going to leave the galdr, too...so the moon and sun could work their magic...That cool? Yes?

"Okay...I'm going to go back inside for a little while. I'll visit again..." That last part of whispered as he scooped his back up and made his way back towards the castle.

Now that Ella's bark was emptied all around the base of the Yew tree, the blonde was ready to sing. GRIN! Now she wasn't exactly an award winning vocalist or anything but she had some chops. Or well, she liked to think she did. Yew would think so too right? RIGHT?

Ahem.

Three times around the tree sunwise, yeah? Yeah. "I wrote you this song, okay? It's called 'Thank Yew.' Punny, right?" BEAM.

And Ella began to circle the tree, singing softly as she ran her hands along the trunk.

"Yew tree growing big and tall
Looking up, I feel so smallllll!"


And then she went around for the second time, continuing her singing.

"Thanks for giving me a branch
And not laughing when I chanted and dancedddd!
"

And around for the third time, singing a little louder now cause big finish and all.

"Yew tree growing big and tall
Looking up, I feel so smallll!"


Taaaaa-daaaa! Would it be totally weird if she clapped for herself? Probably. Instead the blonde curtsied and smiled at the tree, feeling pleased with herself. "That's all for now, Yew. I really hope you liked your song." Really, really.

Did Professor Botros know that Alice didn't sing? If she tried, it'd more or less resemble the sound of a dying cat crossed with a tone deaf croaking frog. She had no plans to sing the song she'd written for the Alder tree, but was going to recite the lyrics to it instead. With this in mind, she began walking around the tree slowly. Clockwise, just as she'd sprinkled the bark, wasn't it? Her hands were outstretched, occasionally touching the trunk, but not more than necessary.

The touching part was still weird.

"Alder growing tall and strong, I noticed you when I came along.." Lalala, still not singing.. "I cut your branches, stripped your bark... and asked for your Alder speed.. to bind the might of the Elder Futhark.... into my Gandr that comes from your seed.." It technically did come from its seed, didn't it? Because the branch came from the tree, which grew from a seed, which in turn..

Nevermind, she was going to confuse herself. One verse left to go. She'd gone around two times now.

This was such strenuous work.

"Thanks for helping me with class.. Ancient Runes isn't an easy pass." It wasn't, Botros gave them really tough work, did Mr. Alder know? Not that Alice couldn't handle it, but still. "I hope you like your jelly slugs, and don't think I stole from you like a thug." Finishing her third circle just as she spoke the line, she imagined the whole forest applauding her for that brilliant performance.

"Bye, Mr. Alder. Thanks for your help." Alice had other work to get to.

Making his way back out to the tree and where he'd left his galdr, Dylan strode with purpose. There was still much to be done...and no time could be wasted. He needed to start working with the shape of that stick of wood. Needed to start smoothing it out and getting the rough edges taken care of. That's why he also had a pair of dragonhide gloves in his back pocket.

They had textured areas with the fingers went.

Once he'd made it to the tree, he took a seat and picked up the galdr. Luckily...it was right where he'd left it and no forest animal had come along and snatched it. Dylan thought this was a good thing...considering he didn't really care about animals the way others did. There was no telling was he would've done to one...

A less dangerous one, mind.

Either way, he started shaping his galdr by wrapping his hands around it, applying pressure as he rubbed along his wooden form. Dylan could actually feel the nicks and slight indents in the wood as he touched at it...using the outer material of his gloves to his advantage.

In fact, over the next couple of days, he repeated this process, rubbing, touching, and finger-molding the galdr. At some point, he'd decided to ditch the gloves and had just taken to rubbing and squeezing out the kinks...

Merlin, this was tedious.

She hoped Professor Botros wouldn't mind that one of his penknives from class were missing. Would he? Too bad Alice wasn't aware of any smoothing spells, if there were some that existed, and it was how he'd wanted them to smooth runes in class. He wouldn't care that she'd borrowed one so long as she had a perfect Gandr to show for her efforts at the end of this work and he got his tool back, right? Right.

Making her way down to Mr. Alder at the edge of the forest, she seated herself at the base of his trunk and began using the tool to smooth the surface out. Was it working okay? When she'd finished, it did feel a little smoother, so she hoped that meant it was.

Over the next couple of days, Alice would repeat the process, coming down to the tree after classes and shaping her Gandr more and more every day with the penknife. Afterwards, she'd give the Alder a little pat on its trunk and head back up to the castle to replace Botros' tool before he noticed it was missing. Better and better every time.

Ella had been leaving her Gandr out which made her a little uneasy but she supposed the creatures of the forest weren't particularly interested in stealing her project. Or...at least she hoped they weren't. The blonde had never realized just how much work went into making a Gandr and with each passing day, she realized that the more work she put into it, the better it'd work. And she really did want it to work. She couldn't let Botros down.

"Hello, Yew. I trust you're well." She greeted quietly as she knelt at the base of the tree to retrieve her Gandr. She then sat down, legs crossed, and began to work on the stripped wand.

The blonde hummed quietly as she worked, wondering if singing again would spoil whatever process the Gandr had to go through. It was a bit eerie, how quiet it was right by the forest. She figured the humming was a good compromise and at least she wouldn't have to sit in the silence. That could be overwhelming some time.

Hummm. Hummm. Hummmmm. Shapeeee. Shapeeee. Shapeeeee.

Oh, yes, he had been right, she needed to stay silent because she didn’t wanted to get attacked by all the monsters here inside the forbidden forest, she wasn’t so sure if the groundskeeper would be able to protect her if a LOT monsters were here to eat them, so she kept her mouth shut and followed him while she looked with her eyes big from the fear around her. She wasn’t brave enough to face all those monsters alone, she was not a Gryffindor, they were really stupid. She really didn’t understood why they ALWAYS wanted to prove themselves and to search for danger, only because that wanted to show everyone that they were braver and better than some other students! No, she didn’t wanted to prove herself, she was NOT a Gryffindor and she didn’t wanted to be one. She wasn’t brave and she knew it! She herself wanted to avoid the danger and when she could sneak away BEFORE she was in trouble, but she had failed this time, sadly…

Pfff, it was a relieving thing to hear that the groundskeeper knew where they were and that he was able to bring her back and OUT OF THIS DARK, SCARY place… She really hated it to be here! She stayed really close to Mr. Firth, she didn’t wanted to get lost again so she walked SO close besides him that she almost stepped on his feet while she followed him.

The second year old lowered her head and looked down at the ground, trying to hide her quivering lip and her moist eyes. She didn’t wanted to look like a crybaby, she was a Slytherin and she didn’t wanted to be make a fool of herself… Not more than she already had done… But to answer his question she grabbed her two rats, one pink and one blue rat and showed him her two rats. “This is Sir Blue and he is the baby from Little Princess and he… he ran away! He is my baby rat and I love him! I needed to find him, he is still a baby and he would be eaten by a HUGE spider or a other monster if he would have left him there!” She looked now really sad at the groundskeeper and shook her head. “Would you leave your pet all alone there, knowing that he or she would be eaten by a monster?” She really didn’t believed that he would do that, not a normal, good person would leave his or her pet alone to die there… She refused to believe that there were people like that! “I only wanted to safe Sir Blue and to bring him back… And… I didn’t knew that he would run so far away… I even didn’t realized where I was until I stopped and looked around me! I… I- I just wanted to have my baby rat…”

The second year old looked down again and pressed the two small animals against her chest, afraid to lose them again.