The Wizarding World

The departure of the two students from earlier piqued her interest far more than the conversation she was having with her fellow Ravenclaw. Still, she made a valiant effort to look like she was paying attention to him, and if she spared a glance or two at the others, who could blame her? 

"You weren't exactly subtle," Tasha shrugged when they finally left. The unnamed boy looked shocked at her deduction, likely because she gave a very non-typical response. By stating her knowledge of such social engagements, she created an unprecedented situation... Interesting. "And this is the part where, now unsuccessful, you go and tell your friend about it with some clever dismissive remark, no?"

"Wa-wait! Hold up!" Arcruss exclaimed after her, trying to gather all his items together and run after her.

Bart's mouth hung open, realizing what Hymie was doing. Though he only understood it as trying to get another study partner, he still tried to tell Hymie to stop. It was too late however, and the girl had responded in some weird way, but they were too far away for him to understand what they said exactly. Though it was clear he had been turned down on the offer, so Bart had to sit back again, relaxing again. While he wouldn't be completely against more study partners, which actually had been quite fun, he wasn't sure how to act with this sort of thing. Even just the idea of getting someone else to join their group made him slightly tense.

----

Jennifer wanted to follow behind Will immediately, and after only a moment of hesitating, grabbed up her things and got up from the table, keeping only somewhat of a distance from the two boys. She mentally prepared herself in case Maxine decided to try and stop her, at this point even she could see that possibly happening. Well, she'd just have to focus on her target!

"Oh!" Maxwell exclaimed with much more enthusiasm than what was probably warranted, "Will and his uh... friend? are leaving, lets go catch Maxine before she goes with them."

With that, he gently pulled his friend away from her food and towards the Gryffindor table. They had gotten there just in time as Maxine was just about to get up and follow the boys. She paused when she noticed her brother approaching. She took a chance to glance at the exit, narrowing her eyes at Jennifer who she was sure following her friend (but couldn't exactly go stop her without brushing off her brother), before turning back to the two Hufflepuffs.

"Oh, uh, hi?" She greeted awkwardly.

Will was all about recklessly rushing off. He was also all about breakfast. His mind processed the decision - fight time was not food time. What was this mad fool mixing the two for?! 

He glanced between Gabriel and the breakfast spread. Fight. Food. Fight. Food. Jennifer? Will spied his fellow Gryffindor and his brow furrowed. She was watching them. "Oh great, is this a gathering of people I don't like? Is it an "I Hate You" Party? I do like parties." And fights. Will tensed ready for verbal or magical conflict.

"Nah, I wouldn't be cool to dis you over something like that," He said. "But if you change your mind, I'll catch you on the flip side,"

He got up, and headed back towards where Bart was sitting.

"She's not down with it," he said.  

--

Just as Laura got up to follow Will and Gabriel; she noticed that Jenny had also gotten up to follow them. This seemed to be getting stranger and stranger.

She considered walking up to them and just asking what was going on; but that would probably involve talking to both Gabriel and Jenny. Instead, she decided to just follow them for now.

--

Gabriel turned around; and noticed the Gryffindor girl following them. He didn't know why she was following them; nor did he care. One loud-mouthed imbecile was more than enough.

He turned to the girl.

"Get out of here," he said. "Or I will be forced to show you some particularly nasty hexes,"

He was bluffing, of course. He would likely get in deep trouble if he started casting spells in the middle of the Great Hall. However, he doubted she'd call his bluff.

Jennifer stopped short at Will's response to her following, but just gave a sound of indignation, "hmph!" before walking up closer. She was just about to tell them they most definitely needed to behave when Gabriel threatened her.

Really? HE was going to threaten HER? "You're nothing but a brute, aren't you?" she smiled up at him as if she were looking down on him, not bothered by his threat in the slightest. Not only did she know there was no way he'd do anything to her right in front of so many people, but also because she wouldn't allow herself to be swayed by violence.

She instead looked back to Will, that moment of superiority giving her the calm she needed to give him a proper explanation, "We are both Gryffindors, and as Gryffindors we must show that we are not simple rule breakers and brutes," she gestured towards where the teachers sat, who were probably uninterested in actuality, "Do you really think they won't catch you? You're literally walking right out of the great hall and going straight to the forest! So please don't give Gryffindor a bad name by simply walking out there as if there's no problem,"

-----

Bart sighed, a small smile on his face, "Well, that was perhaps for the best. Although I did not know that you wanted more members for our study group. If necessary, we can go create a list of students that would be appropriate, don't you think?" he asked, wondering how best to go about getting more members to the group. He was, of course, entirely missing how Hymie had misunderstood.

----

Even as Samantha was being pulled from her food, she stuffed one more thing in her mouth as she let herself be pulled along by Maxwell. She quickly ate it, swallowed, and wiped her mouth off with the back of her arm as they made their way over. 

"Hey~!" Samantha said while waving a little to Maxine as they got there, "Wooow, you two really do look a lot alike up close!" Samantha said while looking back and forth between the two twins. She really did look amazed too, "I've never met twins, so it's really interesting! I have a younger sister and she doesn't look anywhere near this alike to me, hahaha!" she laughed about it openly, clearly enjoying meeting her friend's sister.

"Oh, hey! You must be Samantha. Maxwell talks about you a lot," Maxine grinned, for the moment distracted from Will and his entourage of assholes plus one person they actually liked. 

Maxwell blanched at his sister's blunt and embarrassing statement, "What. I only mentioned her once... or a few times...! Don't exaggerate it!" 

"Suuuuuure," She drawled, before turning back to Sam, "He's really excited about making new friends." She began to explain but then the commotion Will and the others were making further down the great hall got her attention, "What are they doing?"

"That's true, I'm not a simple rule breaker," Will commented with a somewhat pensive look, but then his face grew a cheesy grin and he continued, "I'm an EXCELLENT rule breaker! I don't know much about this house pride stuff but what I do know is that Gryffimdirs are supposed to have some sort of adventuror's spirit and even if you're more of a Slytherin than one of us, I'm gonna live up to the legacy."

He turned to Gabriel. "We aren't going now, I'm still in my pyjamas." He looked down to emphasise that point as he was wearing some sort of tartan fleeced bottoms. "They're reeeeeeally comfortable," added the Gryffindor boy somewhat glibly. In reality, he just didn't feel like doing what Gabriel said. He didn't mention it but Maxine was coming too. "Bye now!" He waved at them before nonchalently chewing on a sausage and strolling off.

"Wait wait Laura, Are you absolutely sure.... that you want to follow that one person who is the most meanest to you and another who most likely looks like someone who wouldn't care if someone else get's hurt?" He asked from her with clear pressing tone while following her.

Hymie stared at Bart. He wondered if perhaps Bart wasn't really interested in either of the girls that he'd tried to set him up with. Maybe he honestly had no idea what Hymie was even trying to do.

...but that was impossible. Clearly 'study partner' was just some nerdy euphemism for 'potential date'.

He grinned at Bart knowingly.

"Ah, I get what you're sayin', dog," he said, winking at Bart. "don't worry, I'll find you a good 'study partner',"

--

"No," said Laura. "But Will is my friend. And he's surrounded by..."

Laura thought of several words that could describe Jenny and Gabriel. There were quite a few of them; but none of them were very nice.

"...really mean people," she said. "He might need help,"

She then got a bit closer, in hopes of hearing what they were saying.


--


Gabriel's fist shook with rage. Brute? How dare she call him a brute! He was nothing if not a high class gentleman! And then she had the gall to insult his plan?

"Well excuse me for being the only one here with the guts to do something about the abominations roaming those woods!" he said. "Does anybody have a better idea?"

At that point, he heard someone clear their throat. He turned to see the muggle-born girl; and the guy from the train. He really didn't have time for whatever the heck they were going to suggest.

"Um, I have a better ide..." Laura started to say.

However, he didn't give her a chance to finish talking.

"Nobody cares!" he said. "I'm going to kill that monster; and if no one here is going to be useful; than I'll just have to do it myself!"

He then stormed off rather dramatically. However, he didn't head towards the forest. Instead, he headed towards the Slytherin dorms.

"...well that was kind of rude," said Laura.

Samantha giggled a bit at how Maxwell's sister had teased him a little, but she wasn't really worried about him talking to her. Instead, she decided to add to the teasing just a little, "I wonder what kinds of things you say~?" she poked his shoulder a bit as she said so.

Will's group being loud had only really caught her attention after Maxine pointed it out, "I don't know, but it looks like at least one of them is upset!" She thought about it, and noticed that all of them were other first years from Gryffindor and Slytherin, but she didn't actually know any of them personally.

---

Jennifer was surprised by Will's reaction. She wasn't sure if he was still insulting her- scratch that, he definitely was. But, at least he seemed to be following at least a bit of Gryffindor's style. As Gabriel left with a dramatic flourish, Jennifer sighed in relief that at least Will wasn't going. Seems her ability to sway people is much better than his. Well, that wasn't hard. He seems to just want to kill animals in the forest. Well, a Chimaera could hardly be called an ordinary animal, but that was besides the point. It's quite possible they were placed there on purpose by the school for some reason.

Putting all of that aside in her mind, she gave an elegant curtsy (something that would probably be well out of place here) to Will, as a sort of sign that she was satisfied, and she made her way out of the great hall. She really wanted to leave, they had gotten rather loud as a group and she didn't really have any need to keep eating right then. She made her way back to the dormitory for now, but she'd be leaving again rather soon. Perhaps the library, she could use some light reading...

---

Bart narrowed his eyes for a second, but then shrugged and went back to his incredibly normal eating, "I'm sure you will, you seem to be rather good at gauging character traits. At least, for the majority of the time,"

Maxwell rubbed the back of his neck uncertainly, "Well, you know, I just mention the usual stuff. So, uh, what was that about? The Slytherin who wanted to talk to Will?"

"Oh!" Maxine turned her attention from Will and the others, taken in by the change of topic, "He wants to talk about the you-know-what, but it looks like they're done. Hey, lets go introduce your friend to Will. I'm sure he'd love her!"

"Well i'm gona tag along if you're so insisted on following them, gives me a good excuse to use couple jinxes if something happens." He  said With slight hopeful smile on his face.

"You know it bro,," said Hymie, giving Bart a thumbs up. "But seriously chum, we need to hook you up with a 'study partner',"

He paused to think.

"Maybe we need to find you a brainy-lady," he said. "Find you another nerd..."

--

"Please don't jinx people," said Laura, before following Will to the Gryffindor table.

However, it occurred to her that she had no more reason to follow him. However, as she turned to head back to her table; she overheard him mention chimera hunting.

It seemed to her that chimera hunting was an incredibly stupid idea. In fact, it sounded to her like a good way to end up in a morgue. I was the kind of thing that you'd have to be a moron to try.

On the other hand, Will and Maxine were probably going to try it. If they were going to try it; they would probably need someone to be the voice of reason in their group. If someone didn't go to supervise them; who knows knew what kind of reckless thing they'd try?

She cleared her throat, attempting to get her friends' attention.

"Um...can I come monster hunting with you?" she asked.

Samantha gave Will a wave in return to his greeting. When he exclaimed that they'd be hunting a Chimera, she gasped, "Are you sure?" she asked. She looked at Maxwell before looking back, "That doesn't seem very necessary," somehow it hadn't occurred to her how dangerous it was for them, and was a little more worried about the creature. Though it's not like she really understood that it was a monster, she just didn't like killing for no reason.

Maxine's eyes slowly widened as what Will said settled in her mind, "Yes." She muttered at first, "YES!" She said again this time much louder as she pumped her fist into the air.

"Wait, what?!" Maxwell swiveled, looking between his ecstatic sister and the boy who just suggested something so horribly stupid, "You can't be serious. Tell em you're not serious."

"We're not serious," Will said. "But we are going to do it. Come on, it's fun! I didn't die last time, did I?" He paused, and then slowly looked down to check he wasn't a ghost. It's not like the Chimaera hadn't tried and nearly succeeded after all. 

"Yeah I'm not dead. Besides, it's not like they'll show us this stuff in class, it's so cool!"

"Lets catch us a Chimera!" said Laura, excitedly. "So, what's the plan? Do we have a plan? Do we need explosives? Cause I could probably rig some explosives..."

It occurred to Laura that she was talking way too fast; and she stopped. She'd just been so excited. And she was fairly certain that building explosives was going to be somewhat difficult in Hogwarts. Unless there was some kind of exploding potion. She'd have to ask about that at the next Slug Club meeting.

"...or if we want it alive I could brew a potion. To put it to sleep. Or something,"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Laura calm!" Arcruss pulled Laura back to have a word with her. "Have you considered the danger of trying to catch a chimera? Also, what's the merits in catching one? Are you trying to yourself killed Or expelled? I doubt they would teach first years about making explosive potions."

Since Arcruss came from magic family, his father had given full stern lectures to him about dangers of magical creatures, since the location his family lived in contained some dangerous ones.

"Uh huh, luck is definitely more imperative to one's survival, rather than say, avoiding dangerous situations entirely," Maxwell resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the gryffindor boy as he mumbled to himself. 

His sister had caught what he had said and wrapped an arm around him, "If you don't want to go, you don't have to. Will and I can handle ourselves just fiiiiine."

"It's not that I don't want to go. I just-" Maxwell sighed, "I just think it would be better if you stayed here, where it is safer."

Maxine only pursed her lips in response, looking much like a petulant child. The brother shook his head, "Fine, but I'm not letting you guys go alone."

----

Later that evening, as the group prepared to set off into the forbidden forest, Maxwell chewed on the tip of his thumb as they waited for any stragglers to catch up to them. He glanced over to his sister, she was bouncing on her heel, clearly jittering with excitement. How did he get talked into this? Tking his thumb from his mouth, he turned to his sister, "Did you pack a light?" 

"Yep!" 

"First aid kit?"

"Got it!" 

"Your allergy shots?"

"Oh come on! There is no way we're going to come across pineapples in a magic forest and even if we did I wouldn't eat them! Stop being such a worry wart. Everything is going to be just fine, trust me," The girl tried her best to give her brother a reassuring grin. It did little to ease his nerves however.

Samantha had trailed behind Maxwell as he left. She was held back because she had dropped her bag (Full of 'emergency snacks' of course!). As she picked it up, she noticed another girl trying to hide.

"Hey, I recognize you! What're you doing there?" Jennifer flinched, then stepped out, "Yeah, you're um...."

"Jennifer Winston, thank you very much. And you are?" she was upset that she was caught. Why had this girl taken so long to catch up to the others?

"Samantha Barnes, at your service madame!" she giggled, "Hey, you look like you're up for some adventure. Come with me," She grabbed Jenny by the hand and pulled her along with her.

"H-hey! Hold on-" Oh no, no no no no, she hadn't wanted to be caught following Maxine. What's more, she knew Will was coming and there was even likely Maxine's brother. If they got caught, she'd be accused of being part of a band of terrible children, a... a gang!

Wasn't long before Samantha had strolled up next to the others, having effortlessly pulled along the much shorter Jennifer, "Hey, we have another guest!" She said happily.

Jennifer pulled her hand free at last, backed away a step, then grumbled a bit.

"Well you never know, there might be a magical creature that force feeds you pineapples," Will commented with a grin, which faltered slightly as he got a feeling that he had missed or forgotten something. "You know, for a magical castle full of teachers it's surprisingly easy to get out at night." Had it been too easy? No... Forgotten Gabriel? No, he didn't care about that.

"Really?" Will asked no one in particular. "Well at least she can't tell on us now. Why-I remember now! Yeah, there's two Chimaeras." The Gryffindor boy continued on like it didn't even matter, before adding "lumos." A scarlet light lit up at the tip of his wand and he swore. "Damn, someone else do it. I over charged it again."

"You don't have to come," said Laura, to Arcruss. "When we get back, I'll be sure to tell you all about whatever exciting stuff you missed,"

--

(TIME SKIP)

"Hey guys, I'm here!" said Laura, arriving at the forest just as they were about to set off.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "I ran into some trouble on the way out of the dorm..."

"I should hope you weren't planning to go chimera hunting without me," said Gabriel.

Laura sighed. She really hadn't wanted to bring Gabriel along; but he'd followed her from the dorm. He'd also threatened to tell a prefect if she tried to ditch him. Though if there was a bright side to this; there was always the chance he'd get eaten by a chimera.

"Sorry. It was either bring him, or risk having him snitch on us," she said.

"Easy, huh?" Maxwell muttered with a sigh as he recalled the three times he and his sister almost got caught trying to get here. He wasn't sure how he got talked into Maxine's brilliant plan of the two of them hiding in a broom closet until well past curfew. He took a light whiff of his sweater sleeve.

Ugh. He still smelled of mothballs.

"Oh great, you're here," He heard Maxine complain which caused him to turn his head to see Sam and Jennifer arriving.

Maxwell raised up his arm and waved, "Hey Sam! I'm surprised you came."

While Maxwell chatted up his fellow Hufflepuff, Maxine side eyed Jennifer until Laura came onto the scene and got the Gryffindor's attention, "It's fine, Laura. He'd probably have found out anyway."

Jennifer turned her head away from Maxine, not wanting to admit how it came to be. Though she then looked at Will, "Two of them? You can't be serious," she said, looking at the forest. What, was there a pack of them or something? What were Chimaeras even doing in the forest anyway?

"Ugh, this is going to be a terrible trip," she sighed, though she was glad that she had practiced a couple of spells. She wasn't sure how handy they'd come in against monsters, but they were better than nothing.

Samantha waved her hand at Max's comment, "Oh no of course I'd come! I didn't want to miss a party like this! Especially when you get that Slug Club to yourself," she winked, "Anyway, with greater numbers comes more security, right? With me and Jenny here that can only make things safer!"

"Don't shorten my name!" Jennifer immediately interjected, to which Samantha jumped a little, but shrugged it off.

Will shrugged. "I saw one and heard another. I guess there could be three or four. Or an entire Chimaera family!" Oblivious or uncaring, and either way extremely fortunate, Will had simply walked out of the castle  through the front door as if he wasn't doing anything wrong.

"Okay, is everyone here then? Oh who cares, let's go!" And he strolled into the Forbidden Forest as if it were the Gentle Glade and not a mass of things that wanted to kill him. Not that he wasn't used to hostile environments where everything wanted to kill him - he'd been to Australia after all.

This time he was very aware of the creatures around him, but none were very extraordinary. He spied a lone wolf and looked to the moon. It was a crescent shape, no worries there. He kept an eye on it anyway. The smell of rotten fish permeated the air and Will's nose crinkled up. "Oh bloody hell, what is that?"

"I guess," said Laura, to Maxine.

Gabriel was not the person she'd hoped to bring with her. In fact; even among the other slytherins he was probably the last person she'd have wanted to take. She looked towards the castle; as if hoping someone else would arrive to join them.

Then she turned around and followed everyone into the forest. One of the first things she noticed was the smell of rotten fish. She put her hand to her nose; trying to block out as much of the smell as she could.

"Smells like fish," she stated the obvious. "Did it smell this bad the last time you came here?"

Arcruss came running from direction of the castle and caught up with the group. With great efforts to even his breathing he managed speak. "you must be crazy to think that i would allow you to go alone to chimera hunting with him. I'm here to make sure that chimera if it still is here, won't eat YOU." Arcruss managed to say.

But he also felt a tingle of adventure in his chest.