Quickening his pace since it was undoubtedly Jaemin up ahead Leo saw that the boy wasn't a teensy bit dressed for the cold and wet weather condition something he noted automatically since he had become a father. Jaemin looked like he was shivering and freezing, but Leo was still too far away to really know for sure. He knew the boy had heard him call out but irritating enough he hadn't done as ordered. Kids nowadays never did.

Sighing inwardly Leo pulled his wand from his holster and gripped it tightly as he called out again "Jaemin stop! Don't go into the forest its dangerous!" You never knew what lurked in the shadows of the trees.

Of course Jaemin proceeded to not follow orders again. He was as nuts as the kids Leo had left behind in the trophy room. Shaking his head he quickened his pace to a sprint as neared the trees, when he came into the forest just inside the treeline Leo spotted Jaemin standing a few feet away. Striding over to the tween boy he took a firm hold of the boy's arm as asked sternly. "Jaemin, why didn't you stop when you heard me? We shouldn't be in here. The forest is dangerous."



Hearing a loud cracking sound coming from deeper within the forest Leo paused to listen? Had it just been a tree branch breaking? He was really not that interested in finding out if it had been something else. He really didn't want to meet one of the forests more sinister creatures if he could help it. Taking a firmer hold on Jaemin's arm he started to tug him backwards. "Come on Jaemin let's get back to the castle and get you some dry clothes."

Before Leo could take that many steps backwards an alluring song started up as well as an inviting glow to the trees. Uncautiosuly letting go off Jaemin's arm to cover his ears Leo ordered "Cover your ears and whatever you do don't listen to the song Jaemin. Come let's get out off the forest." The song meant nothing good, he just knew it.



Hoping that Jaemin did as ordered Leo's jaw almost dropped to his knees as he saw another student coming towards the forest probably lured by the song. As he recognized who it was Leo looked up at the sky and asked silently 'Why in merlin's white socks did it have to be Azura?'

Shaking his head he sent a patronus charm towards the castle. He would not be able to get both students back to the trophy room without help. Trying his best to not listen to the very alluring music he called out praying that she heard him "Don't come closer Azura! Turn around and go back to the castle."

The 'crack' in the forest drew his attention immediately. Jaemin's head jerked up and he took a half step toward where he thought the sound might have come from; was it her? Was she here, and hiding from him? Why so shy, my love?!

He was about to move toward it when the librarian caught his arm. The hand was warm, but it was far from comforting, because it was trying to keep him from his love. The boy looked up at Leo, clearly annoyed. "She's here! She's here, you have to let me go to her!"

What was... that...

His head already wasn't quite right, but the soft music lilting out of the forest now just made it more fuzzy. The small boy turned toward the glow, arm slack in Leo's grip. His love... a song... his love...

Was it from her? The boy blinked slowly, mouth slightly open as he swayed a bit on his feet... he looked at the hand holding his upper arm, keeping him from everything he wanted, and after a long moment, while Leo was busy yelling at someone else... the small boy lifted his arm and bit down hard on Leo's hand.

And then he took off running toward his beloved.

The music seemed to be growing stronger and the green glow brighter. As two children and a professor seemed to be in its grasp. Whatever was in the forest craved more.

Come all children, come and explore.

Azura could hear the music.. Ohhh.. It was talking to her again.. Melody was back.. Azura's purple eyes started to glaze over a bit as she heard a voice call out to her.

For a moment she seemed to regain her sanity.. "Mr. Kitridge?" She asked as she walked closer to him.. "Jaemin?" But as she walked closer, close enough to be in arms reach, her purple eyes fully lost focus.. The song was once again too much for the teen and all thoughts left her..except for the one thought that seemed to be driving her now.. "Azura find book?" She tilted her head and giggled softly..

"Find book for song.. Pretty Pretty songggg."

From somewhere deep inside the Forbidden Forest, the hag stepped out. She closed her eyes and inhaled the delicious scent, taking it in to the very bottom of her lungs and holding it there before she exhaled.

Delicious children.

It was hard to stay away from them, it was. She quietly stepped closer to the grounds and tore a few leaves off some nearby trees, sniffed them then threw them away. They definitely weren't what she needed. The scent of children was close, just not close enough. But it wouldn't be long to wait. Oh no.

With a wicked grin directed towards the castle, the hag turned and disappeared back into the Forbidden Forest.

It was like everything inside of him was slowly draining out of him. Jaemin's legs grew heavier as he moved, and the preteen slowed to a stop, expression a bit dazed; the love potion had taken the edge off the cold, but the song... the song made him feel warm. A different form of yearning filled him up, slowly yet surely, and Jaemin's head tilted to one side inquisitively.

It wanted something from him. Needed it. Absolutely could not continue without it, and nor could he. Jaemin turned on the spot, movements stiff from the cold he no longer felt at all, and shuffled back toward the castle, eyes and expression both clouded over and blank. He needed to find it. Needed it.

The music grew louder and more hypnotizing the more Leo tried to not listen to it. It was almost as if it intensified just because he tried to fight it. After Jaemin had disappeared out of view Leo eyes started to glaze over a bit as he heard Azura call out to him. He had lost the fight.

He momentarily regained his sanity to look down on his bloody hand where Jaemin had bit him to feel it throb with pain. Leo was walking towards Azura when the song renewed its strength which caused his eyes to fully glaze over and lose all focus. He just had one thought now. "Tarot cards. He needed them."

Turning around he stiffly started to head back towards the castle.
"Find pretty tarot cards and a shiny, shiny ball he must."

It was definitely getting on in the day, and definitely darker and colder out, though Jaemin showed no concern nor care for that. The small boy, still in just a damp short-sleeved shirt and damp pants, stumbled a bit as he made his way out of the castle once more. His poor limbs hadn't even had a chance to fully thaw while he'd been inside - had he the ability to notice or care, he would have felt the strange burning sensation in his fingers and ears as they grew warmer, a sensation that now disappeared as he trudged his way outside once more. The red smears on his cheek were run through here and there by droplets of water that had run from his thawing hair, and the scrapes seemed as if they were finally done bleeding now, though they still stood mostly open to the frigid winter air as he made his way through the snow toward the forest again.

"Books," he whispered, eyes locked on the trees, ears yearning to hear his song once more. He had brought the song its books. It would be happy with him now, yes? He could stay with the song forever, now that it had spell books? All he wanted was to please the song... He took a much more direct path than he had the first time he'd come out here, and soon was standing, shivering despite feeling no cold, at the forest's edge again. His own footprints from before went a short way into the depths, and he followed them thoughtlessly; once he reached where he had been before, where he had heard his song and seen his light, he stopped, and he dropped to his knees in the snow, shakily holding the books out and dropping them into the snow in front of him.

Books for the song. Spell books. He had done well, yes?

It had been a normal day for Paul. Like......very normal. Typical. Took his dog for a walk, did some lesson stuff, graded essays, graded various other homeworks....did plant!man things, and it was time for a second walk for Miss Zelda the collie. It was cold, so Paul had bundled up all snug and comfy, wrapping his scarf around his neck and pulling a beanie over his head before making his way outside.

Zelda loved the snow. She really did.

It was weird, however, when he glanced towards the castle...and saw a small figure heading right for the forest. He couldn't make out just WHO it was, but Paul was very concerned. It was cold out, and he could tell the person wasn't wearing warm clothes. Plus, the forest itself. "Come on, Zelda, let's go investigate--come on, girl--" he gave his dog a little tug of the leash and headed in that direction.

Following the footprints was easy. The person hadn't covered them up or anything so..

Zelda was quite displeased she was being dragged all this way into the forest, and was whining a bit as Paul followed the small footprints. He had a horrible feeling that it was a student........

Where was his song? His song... Jaemin swayed back and forth, still on his knees in the snow, eyes fixed off somewhere deeper in the woods. Was the song not happy with him? He had brought spell books. They had the word on the cover. Were they not right? The small boy let out a distressed whine, a violent shiver going up his back. He had to find his song... he had to deliver the books to it...

Moving around was getting harder, but Jaemin did his best to push himself back up to his feet. Further into the forest... he had to look for his song. Fumbling with frozen fingers, he picked the books up again and started stumbling deeper into the trees, falling against some of them as he moved. Slowly, oh so slowly, glazed eyes fixed on a space deep within the growing darkness. That was where he would find his song... right?

"Come on, girl--" he said to the dog as he raced towards the hunched over figure. Goodness. iT WAS JAEMIN SONG. Paul's teacher-y/caring uncle instincts kicked into gear, and he followed Jaemin deeper into the forest until was right up behind the boy. He grabbed his shoulder.

"JAEMIN! What in the world--it's freezing, m'boy!" he said softly as Zelda sniffed near Jaemin's butt, as dogs do, her tail wagging quite a bit before she licked his hand.

The small boy didn't acknowledge the familiar voice, nor the touch on his shoulder. The grip, however, caused a small jerk as he tried to keep moving forward, and he dropped the books in the snow again. Those poor old books weren't faring well at all, but arguably they were doing better than the tiny Slytherin.

Jaemin tilted his head to one side and back to see who or what was impeding him. There was a good long moment of blank, soulless, absolutely empty staring at Paul, the out of place expression showing not a single shred of recognition... and then something deep inside of the twelve year old very abruptly snapped back into place.

There were no words in either language Jaemin spoke to quite describe the absolute horror of everything rushing back all at once. The empty spaces were suddenly full again, brimming over even, and all of the things he hadn't felt for the last few days crushed up against each other in their need to be felt.

Several days of being awake buried him in unexplained exhaustion. Several days of being constantly in the cold had left him with the inexplicable signs of frostbite. Several days of constant movement made his weak limbs even weaker.

The blankness on his face melted into an expression of horror, of not understanding, because nothing of what he felt or where he was made sense. It lingered for only a moment before the frozen preteen's eyes rolled back in his head, and his whole being went limp, crashing down toward the snow.

GAH.

Paul, nearly having a panic-freakout-thing right now, quickly waved his wand a thick, woolen blanket suddenly engulfed the boy. Zelda was barking insanely, jumping all around and clearly picking up that something was wrong. Paul waved his wand again and levitated the boy, not wanting to pick him up and not be able to carry him. While Jaemin was small..Paul was old. And he didn't want to slip in the snow and send the boy into a worse off predicament than he was currently in...and so...TO THE CASTLE.

He unhooked Zelda's leash from her collar. "Zelda, home," he nodded in the direction of the Greenhouses, and the dog took off in that direction. He hoped a certain....MALE DOG wasn't wandering about and therefore DISTRACTING Zelda from doing what Paul told her to /do/.

Well...to the warmth, then. Paul was torn between sending a patronus ahead of him or just...well he didn't know WHAT to do with Jaemin.

With one child grasped by the wrist (Kitty) and one child slung over her shoulder (Brady) Ursula ran as quick as her legs would take her to the entrance of the forest where she had set up her pot and some of the ingredients she had managed to get from the castle throughout the year as well as a particularly sinister looking potions book which was her key to turning the children into a rather delicious meal for her. She was getting hungry and her stomach rumbled just to prove the point.

"Now come with me children there's nothing to worry about not a thing at all." She smiled and let out a cackle of laughter as she reached her large cauldron where she put the two children she had (Brady and Kitty).

Azura was walking up from the lake when she noticed a few someone's.. Being dragged??? What was going on! And wait was that the... Hag?

And was that Kitty and Brady?? Azura started to run after the group but she skidded to a highly ungraceful stop, nearly toppling over as she managed to not cross over into the Forbidden Forest.

She couldn't go barging in there. Not without a plan, she didn't want to end up being cooked either, but Brady! And Kitty!

She bit her lip and took out her wand and tried to think up some sort of plan to help save her friends!

Juliette ran after the hag not having the slightest idea what she was going to do to save her fellow students! On the way towards the forest, she accidenally ran right into a hole in the ground, which caused one of her heels to break. HER PRECIOUS NEW SHOES! She honestly stopped to tend to her shoes, but she had to remind herself why she was running in the first place, and it wasn't because she was training for a 5K!

It took everything in her to throw both her shoes aside and continue down towards the...

*gulp* Forbidden Forest.

She came to a stop when she saw a nearby girl (Azura) with her wand at the ready. "Psssst!" She moved closer to the girl. "Do you have a plan?" Surely, she did.

Had Kitty fainted? Kay couldn't tell because she was just too focused on getting the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff back. Mercifully, Justin joined her but the hag was good... maybe too good... at dodging their spells.

"We have to follow her,'' the woman had shouted to her colleague and immediately hurried off after the trio. Thank goodness she jogged with Marsha almost every morning so she was fit. But they needed help. Fortunately, she spotted Azura and Juliette not far by. "Ms Kennedy, Ms McDean! Could you go find help? Another professor, if you can.'' Or professors? Whichever worked.

Right now...

"Incarcerous!'' Kay tried at the hag again. Where was Justin? She could all the help she could get.

That Hag was just a little too lucky. How she managed to avoid them all stroke a nerve as she headed toward the forest with another kid. Really. Another kid? No, no, no.

"Get back here!" The Groundskeeper ran after her with Kay. The uneven grass trimmings would have to wait another time as they ventured through into the forest. "Do be quick girls, and don't let any other students nearby." Had to point that out with the danger going on.

Finally the Hag stopped and was apparently putting them into the pot. Nodding at Kay's next attempt, "Right. Glacius," Aiming right under the pot. No fire for you to start. Now aiming at the evil one. "Flipendo!" It was time to put a stop to her.

Even though Esme knew that the Hag was trying to lure her to come out to the forest as a meal, that didn't stop her from continuing the chase. Her adrenaline was pumping and all that she could think about was the fact that there were people in danger and one of them was her close friend and the other was someone she didn't know super well but still liked.

"Azura! Juliette!" she called out as soon as she saw them by the forest. They had been at the courtyard but Esme hadn't registered them until now. "What do we do?!" Professor Stewart answered seconds later as she asked the other girls to get help. Well, she would join them! At least the groundskeeper had rendered the fire useless.

"Professors Myers and Draper are closest!"

Brady was pretty sure that he had just blacked out because he had no idea what the heck was going on at the moment. One minute he was in the courtyard and the next moment he was in a cauldron in the forrest. The second year looked around at his surroundings. He say Kitty. "Hey, Kitty? Are you okay?" It was just supposed to be him here and no one else. Why did people run for him?

He didn't know what to do. He had to think of a plan.

Ursula could see people approaching. Lots of people. She licked her lips in delight as she saw them all standing there, they would make a delicious feast for her. She let out a grunt as she saw the 2 adults coming towards her with their wands raised. She had a taste for children but she wasn't overly fussy, if they wanted to join in then she wouldn't turn them away. Ursula used the children in the pot as a shield because to her it really didn't matter if they were conscious or not. Dead or alive. The flavor was all the same to her.

The boy was speaking and Ursula reached out her hands to smooth their hair down in a caring sort of way "Now, now, of course she's okay. Everyones okay." Stress caused the flavor to turn bitter and Ursula couldn't have that. She went to her stores of ingredients and picked up the very large container of water and poured it into the cauldron. With that done she followed it up with a few other bits and pieces; liver paste, some chicken feet, herbs of course, some diced vegetables.

Kitty woke with a start. Like Brady she had passed out when the Hag grabbed her - and so she had missed being dragged into the forest and being tossed into a pot. For one moment she thought that it had all been a nightmare, but then Brady was asking her if she was okay and she realized it had all been real. "I'm not okay," she said with barely more than a whisper, too terrified to talk louder. Every inch of her was shaking with fear. "We're going to die, aren't we?" In her terror she hadn't even realized that there were others nearby coming to help, and she did not feel strong enough to climb out of the cauldron. She moved so as to be sitting right next to Brady, not wanting to die alone.

The Hag was approaching them. Then a bucket of water was poured into the cauldron, followed by chicken feet and vegetables.

the Scottish boy raised his eyes up towards his head as he felt the Hag touching his hair. NOBODY. TOUCHES. THE. HAIR. She wasn't allowed to do that! Nobody was! "Get your gross hand off of my hair!" He snapped at the Hag. Brady waited for Kitty to answer him back before he would say anything. He didn't want to cut her off, that would be very rude. He noticed as she moved closer to him and sat down. "No, we're not going to die. The school staff won't let that happen." He had some faith in the staff, maybe less on the new Headmaster right now. He was saved from getting eaten last term but the Hag had bit his ear, sadly.

Brady looked at Kitty and put his arm around her. Maybe that would make her feel better? He didn't really know much about the girl actually. "So what do you like to do for fun?" He asked her, hopefully a conversation about anything other than the Hag and possibly magic would make her feel better...he hoped it would make him feel better. Same with the one last term. They're allowing this sort of thing to happen at the school. How? He knew that they didn't know the whereabouts of the Hag but still. How would this happen? There should some sort of alarms or spells or something to notify the Headmaster or Headmistress and the rest of the schools staff that someone that's not supposed to be here is here. He had to think of something. He didn't know what but he had to think of something. Was it raining? No? He looked up, here we go again. Ew! Chickens feel. Bleh!

Okay obviously someone needed to go get a teacher, or like several of them, right now! Her friends were in there and she didn't care if Brady wasn't talking to her.. He was still her friend, and Kitty was her housemate!

Ravenclaws forever yo!

She turned to look up at an older girl (Juliette) who had come up next to her and she slowly nodded, of course she had a plan, she was a Ravenclaw, they always had plans.. even if right now she totally didn't have a plan. Thankfully, before she could do much else, Professor Stewart and the groundskeeper showed up!

Right! They needed to get more Professors!

And then there was Esme!

"All right, One of us should go get Professor Meyers, the other Professor Draper and the last one should keep the rest of the kids away from here." Like the groundskeeper said..

Also.. Azura was thinking about doing something entirely way to Gryffindorish for her own good.. But she needed to relax and try to breathe and hope the teachers could save her friends.

"I'll stay here and keep watch." The tiny teen said with a nod as she pulled out her wand..

Pfft.

Did the Hag really think that they were stupid enough to believe that Brady and Kitty were okay? They clearly WEREN'T. "You hurt a hair on their heads and YOU will be far from okay." That wasn't merely a threat, that was a PROMISE. There was no way that she would get away with it if she hurt or killed students. There was a whole group of people that would be going against her and more would be added to the mix.

Uggh.

She didn't really want to leave her friends but Esme was more than fine with Azura staying behind. Just as long as this got resolved fast. "I'll go and get Professor Myers." With that, she ran off towards his office.