Hogwarts Mystery -T and B

Year 4 part 3

The week following the Ball, Barnaby, Charlie and I made plans to fly into the forbidden forest. Not only did Charlie know all about creatures in the forest, he was also the Gryffindor seeker, so he was an excellent flyer. It was a chilly November evening when the 3 of us met on the training grounds. We stashed our brooms near the forest to make it easier to sneak out of the castle. When I landed in the meeting spot, Barnaby was right behind me, but Charlie was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Charlie?" asked Barnaby
"I don't know. we were all supposed to meet here. Maybe he went ahead to look around.."
"He couldn't have been that far ahead."
We looked around but all we could find were hoof prints.
"Those must be centaur prints." said Barnaby. "I read there was a herd in here..."
"We need to find Charlie. Vermillious!" I shot red sparks from my wand
"Hey guys. I got here before you and decided to look around a bit. I didn't see anything though"
"Neither did we" I said "But it's getting pretty late. We should head back before Filtch catches us"
Back in the dorm, I found a note on my bed from Tulip to meet her in Jacob's room. Everyone was asleep, so I snuck out on my own. Merula was with Tulip.
"What is she doing here?" I asked. I tried not to sound annoyed, but failed miserably
"Don't be mad, but Merula has spent as much time in here as either of us. We could use her help in finding some sort of clue"
The three of us looked around until Tulip found a drawing. A more detailed look at the grove Charlie, Barnaby and I just came from.
"Look at this structure just behind the grove?" Tulip pointed to the drawing "It looks like a centaur camp"
"So it looks like we need to go deeper into the grove.... Merula, you up for a trip into the forest?" I asked
"Let's go!"
Merula and I flew into the grove.
"We can't just fly into a centaur camp uninvited. We'll have to walk from here" I said
"You can try. But you will not get far" A centaur walked towards us.
"This isn't my fault" said Merula "She made me help her search for something"
"What are you searching for Human?"
"Um...nothing? we were just looking around..."
"Your lies sound familiar. Do you have a brother?"
"Look, we don't want any trouble.."
"You're brother stole an arrow that belongs to me. An arrow that once belonged to my father."
"This arrow?" I pulled the broken arrow I found in the last vault from my robes
"Where is the arrowhead? And how did it get into a cursed vault?"
"I don't know. it was like this when I found it."
"Centaurs are taught to stay out of human affairs, but you brother told me someone had disturbed the vault unleashing a curse on Hogwarts. I wanted to help. It was the worst mistake of my life. The jeweled arrowhead is a family heirloom. You brother stole it from my camp. My herd blamed me for helping a human and exiled me. I have been living alone ever since."
"If I find your arrowhead, will you show me where the vault is?"
"I will consult the planets"
"You never told me your name"
"Torvus"
"Thank you Torvus. My name is Tiffany Bond"
Merula and I left the forest and went to bed
The next morning, I got up early to catch Barnaby after his swim
"Hey what are you doing up. You look awful"
"Thanks" I mumbled"I only got a couple hours of sleep. when I got back after our trip to the forest, I had a not on my bed" I told him about going to the forest with Merula.
"You what! Why would you go anywhere with her. Do you know how dangerous that was? And meeting up with an angy centaur? You should have gotten me"
"There wasn't time. We had to act fast. But we found out loads of information."
"It was still pretty stupid to go off like that. You can't just go putting yourself in danger. Especially with Merula"
"But everything is fine. I'm fine. Do you remember over the summer when I told you sometimes I'm  going to have to do things on my own? Well that was one of those times. But I do need you to come with me to talk to Charlie about what I found out. We can go to the Three Broomsticks later.'
"I would rather have gone with you into the forest and you go talk to Charlie by yourself" he laughed
"But then you would miss out on Butter beer" I kissed him on the cheek "And I know how much you love Butterbeer"
"Not as much as I love something else" he pulled me close and kissed me
We met Charlie later and I told him about meeting Torvus.
"I know Torvus. He's a good bloke. Whenever he sees a sleepwalking student, he escorts them to the edge of the forest and points them back to Hogwarts"
"How come you never mentioned you know a centaur" asked Barnaby
"I guess I didn't want to brag. But I also don't want anyone know how often I sneak into the forest"
"Did he even tell you about his missing arrowhead?"
"He was mumbling about it once, but I didn't press it. He seemed upset about it and didn't seem like a good thing to bring up"
"He said if I found his arrowhead, he might bring me to the cursed vault"
"Then I guess we better come up with a plan to find that arrowhead"
Barnaby and I had a Quidditch match against Ravenclaw to prepare for. Tulip volunteered to keep searching Jacob's room for any information about centaurs or arrows since she didn't care about Quidditch.
Quidditch practice took up any free time Barnaby and I had. With Rath as beater, they were in first place. More chasers have been sent to the hospital wing for being on the receiving end of her Bludgers than ever before. The day of the match we were ready. At the whistle, we got the quaffle and tried out a new play that Murphy came up with. The Thimblerig Shuffle confused their chasers and we're were able to score the first goal.In fact, thanks to Barnaby, none of Rath's Bludgers came close to us. She was fuming. We were up 180 to 10 when Rath took her anger out on Barnaby and hit a Bludger directly at him. He didn't see it in time and couldn't dodge fast enough. He got hit in the chest which knocked him off his broom. I was seeing red. I flew over to our other beater, Stark.
"Where were you on that one!?" I shouted "He can't play both beater positions you know!" I grabbed his bat in anger and swung at an incoming Bludger aiming directly at Rath. She wasn't expecting a Chaser, especially one as small as me, to hit it back at her. I caught her off guard and hit her in the arm knocking her off her broom. I could hear her arm break from where I was so I knew it was bad. The Ravenclaw seeker caught the snitch to end the game, but we won by 10 points. I flew down to where Barnaby and Rath were laying. Barnaby somehow was still conscious.
"That was brilliant" he wheezed
Rath's arm was dangling at an odd angle but if looks could kill, I would have died on the spot
"I think she's pissed that I hit her" I was knelt down beside him smoothing his hair back
"Oh she definitely is. You're a better beater than Stark. Actually you're better than the hufflepuff beaters too" he laughed
"Where is Stark anyway. I'm going to kill him."
"If I was him, I'd be hiding from you"
Rath and Barnaby were brought to the hospital wing for mending. Their beds were next to each other, so the entire time I was with Barnaby, Rath was scowling at me.
"Nice hit Bond" she finally said "Maybe they should chuck Stark off the team and put you on Beater. He's worthless"
I gave her the evil eye. I knew Stark was worthless but I was t a out to throw a team member under the knight bus.
Rath had a compound fracture in her arm. Barnaby had a broken collarbone from the Bludger and a mild concussion from the fall. Madam Pomfrey would have them mended in no time. I told her I would take care of Barnaby so she could focus on other patients so she let me stay past visiting hours.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better with you here. I still can't believe you hit the Bludger" he laughed
"Yeah me either. Lucky shot" said Rath
"How's your head feeling?" I asked ignoring Rath and smoothing his hair "Do you need anything?"
"I'm really fine. It takes more than a cheap shot to take me out" he said glancing over at Rath. "It's getting late and you should get to bed. I'll be fine by morning"
"Are you sure you don't need anything?"
"Just one thing" he pulled me in for a kiss. I tried not to lean on him but he didn't seem to care.
"Get a room you two. I'm trying to sleep over here"
The next morning I raced over to the hospital wing as soon as I woke up. Madam Pomfrey said she just realeased Barnaby not 5 minutes ago. I knew he had to be hungry so I ran to the Great Hall hoping to catch him. As soon as I saw him I ran over to him and jumped to hug him.
"Oof careful. The bone is healed but it'll be sore for about a week"
"Oh my god I'm so sorry"
"It was worth it. You should see Rath. she can't practice for a week. Madam Pomfrey mended the bones but there was a lot of damage." he shook his head "Remind me never to make you mad"
"Speaking of mad, where's Stark."
"Don't be too mad at him. Rumor has it he's been kicked off the team"
"Really? Well it's not like he ever did anything. You have been playing both positions all year"
"Yeah well when a chaser half your size hits the Bludger harder than you ever have, it's kind of embarrassing"
"Tiffany Bond. I found something" Tulip was out of breath. She handed me a bit if parchment. xIt looks like the arrowhead was carved from. a giant ruby"
Underneath the drawing it said 'Torvus will understand. This is the oh way inside' in Jacob's handwriting. 'The only way to hide it from both of them is to bury it'
"Both of them?" I asked aloud "And where would he have buried it? I think I need to talk to Rakepick"
"I still don't trust her" said Barnaby. "I'm going with you"
We met Rakepick at the training grounds and I told her about the arrowhead. She seemed intrigued. Apparently she didn't know about it. She offered us her niffler Sickleworth to help look for it. Barnaby and Sickleworth hit it off right away.
"I bet it's somewhere in the forest. I think it's time for You, Me, and Charlie to go back. This time with Sickleworth.
That evening,  we flew into the forest. This time we agreed to stick together. We followed Sickleworth around the grove. He took a path to a small cave.
"This looks like a Red Caps hole" whispered Barnaby "See all the bones and stuff? They live wherever blood has been spilled."
"Yeah and they are pretty nasty. The only way to repel them is with something beautiful" said Charlie
Just then we heard a horrible scream. The red cap discovered us in his cave. Thinking fast I took a vial out of my robes and threw it on the redcap. he took one took in a broken mirror and ran out of sight
"Penny gave me this beautification potion. I use it to help straighten my hair." Barnaby gave me a weird look. I blushed "Luckily I she just gave me some and I put it in my robes right before we left"
"Fast thinking" said Charlie
"I think Sickleworth found something!" said Barnaby as Sickleworth climbed up into his arms and handed him the arrowhead "You're such a good little niffler" he patted him on the head.
"We better get this to Torvus right away!"
We ran back to the grove and cast Vermillious, but no Torvus.
"If only I could get up higher. Oh maybe I can. Wingardium Leviosa" I cast the charm on myself. "Vermillious"
"It's not a good idea to draw attention to yourself in the forest" Torvus said as he approached
"Ok. Barnaby can you catch me?"
"Of course"
I dropped down and he caught me in a cradle catch and gently set me down
"Thanks" I whispered. "Reparo" I repaired the arrow for Torvus and handed it to him
"You have kept your word. I will keep mine. I will show you where the vault is. But before I do, you must bring Hagrid and prepare for the fight if your life."