Mischief Managed | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 22

Author's Note

'Mischief Managed' just reached 100k reads! Thank you guys so much! I hope you've liked the story so far ❤︎

***

Even though the five Gryffindors didn't come across any dangerous creature, they soon ran out of the forest when they saw a few huge spiders from afar, and Peter insisted on going back desperately.

"Ugh, but Nothing exciting happened!" James said grumpily as the five of them sneaked past Hagrid's hut. "Where were all the creatures that people talked about!?"

     "Probably hiding fearfully from the great and mighty James Potter, of course," Jenna said dramatically with a smirk as she nudged James with her elbow, sniggering.

"Dunno... but I wouldn't have minded seeing a unicorn or something," said Peter sadly, shrugging.

"Believe me, the reason that forest is forbidden isn't because of its unicorns," Sirius said darkly, causing Peter to shudder at the thought.

"But it would've been more fun if we had come across something," James went on, still feeling disappointed.

"What were you expecting to find there?" Jenna said with a grin. "A dragon attacking you out of nowhere?"

"Now that would've been a good challenge!" James smirked, making them all laugh.

Although they all fell quiet when Remus suddenly said, "Uh oh..."

"What is it?" Sirius raised a brow at him.

But without answering his question, Remus yelled, "RUN!"

Before they knew what was happening, all five of them screamed when a tree beside them suddenly came to life and raised it's enormous branch, moving it toward them to crush them underneath.

"AAARGH!" They yelled, trying to jump to the sides so the branch wouldn't hit then. But the barbaric tree had started to attack them with its trunk and all its other branches.

They ran to the opposite direction as fast as their legs could carry them, finally managing to escape the tree, with their hearts pounding in their chests out of horror.

When they finally got back to the empty Gryffindor common room, they let out a sight of relief. Although the moment they had caught their breath, they all glanced around at one another and burst into laughter.

"That — was — awesome!" James said between his pantings.

"We're definitely doing it again!" said Sirius, laughing.

"Count me in!" Jenna said with a grin, nodding delightfully. "Well... I think I better go up to sleep."

"Yeah, okay." James gave her a lazy wave.

"Goodnight, Jenna." Remus smiled at her warmly before Jenna bid them goodbye and walked up toward the girls' dormitory to sleep.

But the boys stayed up the whole night in their room, all four of them laughing about their night and talking about their possible next adventure.

"Did you see the way I jumped out of the tree's way!?" Sirius kept going excitedly.

"Yeah! It missed me by inches!" James exclaimed proudly.

"I didn't think we could make it out alive, but here we are!" Peter said, still laughing along with Remus.

     "I think we were lucky that we didn't get caught, though," said Remus, deep down glad that he had sneaked out with his friends that night.

     They stayed awake for hours on end, enjoying the homemade cookies that Peter's mother had sent him that day with their family owl, having the best time of their lives until they eventually fell asleep out of exhaustion at around four a.m.

***

The next day, the four boys slept in and missed breakfast time much to their dismay, and could barely keep awake during the classes. They kept yawning and rubbing their eyes out of exhaustion, until Professor McGonagall took five points from Gryffindor when Peter completely fell asleep during her lesson.

     Throughout dinner later that evening, Jenna joined them at the table, and all they could talk about was their last night's adventures. They talked in excited whispers, still going on and on about how they had successfully managed to escape the barbaric tree.

"I asked around today from older students," James started with a smirk, lowering his voice. "The Tree's called the Whomping Willow. Apparently, this is the first year that it has been planted on the Hogwarts grounds. It wasn't here before."

"But... why would they plant such a tree here, when it can easily kill someone!" Peter mused with a frown.

"Dunno." James shrugged, but then his grin widened again. "But maybe we can find out."

"So, how was your day, Jenna?" Remus asked out of nowhere, turning to face the blue-haired girl.

"Er... it was all right, I guess," said Jenna, taking aback at the sudden question.

"Ugh, we should get going now." Sirius groaned, checking his watch.

"Where?" Peter asked curiously.

"Detention," James grumbled. "Professor McGonagall gave us a whole week worth of it!"

"Yeah," Jenna nodded in agreement, "we have to clean all the broom closets on the first floor tonight, and have to be done before curfew."

"Then the second floor the day after that, then the third, the fourth, and all the way up to the stupid seventh! All week!" Sirius said miserably, the mere thought bothering him.

"Don't worry," James told him, getting up to his feet along with Jenna, "we might be able to sneak off to the kitchen again afterward for some more Butterbeer. I really liked it the first time."

"Cool! You know where the kitchen is!?" Peter exclaimed, but the other three shushed him. Nobody else was supposed to know.

"See you guys later, then," said Remus with a light wave, opening up his Transfigurations book to go over what they had learnt earlier that day, while Peter refilled his plate with more roast chicken.

James, Jenna, and Sirius made their way out of the Great Hall and met a grim-looking Filch at the entrance hall. They followed him up to the first floor, unaware that something worse was going to happen to them that very same night.