Couldn't even get my lunch eaten for all the questions!

[alt_ron]

Enough already! I can't answer everybody's questions one at a time! So you want to know what happened last night? Good thing about study hall is I can tell you all about it now!


First of all, Draco Malfoy is the biggest coward on the planet!

Didn't know you could run that fast, Malfoy! And I hate to break it to you: you scream like a girl! Only louder.

I'll admit, it was dead serious out there. I cant believe they made us go in there. I mean, it's clear why that forest is forbidden, innit? It was just totally BLACK in the parts where the trees are really thick and the trees were seriously huge! (Sally Anne, you'd have loved some of it, but you want to go during the day so you can see it all and not just feel like you're some creature's midnight snack. Im telling you, every step we took, something out there growled or hooted or screeched.)

So we were snipping branches, making a path, and pulling stuff out of this clearing, and Mr Lupin went off and left us with Professor Macnair, and then we started hearing noises, which Macnair said were just Lupin setting bait or something, but all of a sudden there's this huge crash and this thing, this totally sorcerous BLACK thing with enormous teeth comes snarling and tearing out of the trees right at us! I was just stood there frozen, but Malfoy lets this bloody great scream and runs off -- and so of course the thing tears off after him.

After that it was pretty confusing. Professor Macnair said I should stay there, and he ran off after Malfoy. I thought I should at least get out of the middle of that clearing, I mean I was just a meal waiting for something to come eat me, wasn't I? But I didn't know where to go and all of a sudden there were Centaurs. -- Pansy, have you ever seen one? They come in all colours, but there was this one really enormous black one that grabbed hold of me and wanted to know what I was about. They have bows and arrows and they're not very nice, but I was okay because pretty soon Mr Lupin found us and talked to the centaurs and they let go of me. And when we got back to the clearing, there were loads more centaurs all talking to Harry Marvolo, but I couldn't really understand what they'd been talking about. It was all stuff like 'Mars is bright tonight -- unusually bright' and something about the innocent being the first to die and a load of other stuff that didn't make sense. Then Professor Macnair dragged Malfoy back - he looked like he might faint when he saw the Centaurs -- and Macnair took hold of Marvolo and marched us all out of the forest together.

And that was pretty much it. I don't know if Marvolo's in trouble for following us out there. Now it's all over, I think it might have been the wickedest detention ever!

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Only a Gryffindor would say that running away from a totally sorcerous snarling black thing with enormous teeth makes you the world's biggest coward.

If I ever go into the Forbidden Forest WHICH I WON'T PROFESSOR MACNAIR DON'T WORRY I am taking a Gryffindor with me. So that if we find something that wants to eat us I'll have time to get a running start while it eats the Gryffindor as he stands there thinking, 'I'll bravely face down the giant snarling thing with my first year spells!'

I can't believe you got to go in there as a punishment!

[alt_ron]

I know, can you believe it! It was totally wizard! Well, at the time, it was pretty scary and, Im telling you, it was the darkest, BLACKEST place Ive ever been in my whole life.

[alt_sally_anne]

Yeah I think if I were going to go there I'd rather do it during the day when it's light out.

I liked the forest near my old house but I stayed out of it at night when there wasn't any light to see by.

[alt_sally_anne]

NOT THAT I AM GOING TO GO THERE I know Professor Macnair got worried I was thinking about it once. I would only go there if I had a professor with me or were on detention or whatever and they'd never let make me do that for detention because everyone knows I want to see it and detention's supposed to be a punishment.

[alt_harry]

You don't really want to go there Sally-Anne!!

[alt_seamus]

What was it they had you doing in there anyway? Parvati and Lav keep saying things about the forbidden forest and then acting all mystereus when any one tries to get them to say more.

[alt_ron]

I dont really know -- but, yeah, something's gonna happen out there.

We were making the path wider out to this clearing place and dragging brush and things out of it. It's a really big open space and I think there might have been stacks of wood over on one side just at the edge of the trees, but it was really hard to tell, and I think Professor Macnair was kind of keeping us busy on the other side away from whatever was over there. I don't know.

Whatever it is, Professor Macnair doesn't seem too happy about it. Don't think Mr Lupin likes it too much either, though he wasn't saying much.

And whatever it is the centaurs dont like it a bit.

[alt_harry]

Your telling me!!! They were awfully scary.

[alt_ron]

I know! And it was like they were saying something completely dire, but if you think about what they actually said it doesn't make sense at all. I think their just mad -- maybe thats why they keep them out their in the forest, cause they can't have a conversation with anybody that makes sense.

[alt_neville]

Malfoy doesn't seem to have been eaten, anyhow. Maybe whatever chased him decided in the end that he didn't taste good.

He was much quieter this morning than usual in Potions.

[alt_neville]

But how dead cool to see Centaurs!

[alt_ron]

Yeah, it was totally wizard!

But being alone with a whole herd of them was dead scary. They seemed really angry that we were out there in their forest. Like they own it! And Professor Macnair told them as much, but I think he agreed with them that whatevers going on is bad business. He seemed pretty grim about it, anyway. He kept saying they had Orders to do it -- him and Mr Lupin -- and it seemed like the centaurs had Orders too. Maybe. I dont know, really.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, I dont think it hurt him. Knocked him down maybe. When they came back, Professor Macnair was telling Malfoy to dry up, itd just slobbered on him is all. But Malfoy looked like hed wet himself! Or maybe it was the monster did that after it tasted him!

[alt_arthur]

'Wickedest detention ever,' hmm . . . perhaps you rather missed the point?

I trust you won't make a habit of this sort of thing, my boy, just for the thrill and all, eh? Really, I don't think your mother's nerves can stand it.

[alt_ron]

Well, they did make us work really hard. I was sort of glad when that monster thing came crashing in and we had to stop. I think the centaurs might have chased us out anyway if that thing hadn't come and tried to eat Malfoy.

But, Dad, the centaurs were really amazing! Have you ever seen any? They were really tall and strong. The one that grabbed me had the biggest hands I've ever seen. And really foul breath, but he didn't hurt me, really. They said all this mad stuff about the stars and Mars and a load of absolutely dire stuff thats supposed to happen and all. Professor Macnair says you can never get a straight answer out of a centaur, and I expect hes right about that.

[alt_arthur]

No, I have to say I've never seen a centaur, my boy. I must admit, I almost envy you that experience.