Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Twenty-Five: Piss Off

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Remus was not in the mood for this!

He was covered in dirt that he had been too tired to scourgify away. It's not like he had expected to run into anyone. It was an utter nightmare to have not just Lily but Sirius as well, catch him sneaking back. His limbs were sore from running and the whole trip had been completely useless. He had waited and waited and waited for Skipper who did not show up. What Remus should have done then and there was to turn around and go back to the castle. But he had not. Instead, he had done the stupid thing and had entered the forest...

He often shook his head at James and Sirius' levels of arrogance but he realized he had experienced his own bout of it. Otherwise, he never would have thought he could somehow find Skipper with his jumble of instructions given in a rush earlier in the day. He had only been able to get about half an hour of practicing healing spells in, which was another mistake on his part. Only he knew the chance of him actually being able to help Silverstream was slim. So maybe it wasn't arrogance exactly that had led to him traipsing through the forest with the invisibility cloak firmly covering him, but it had without a doubt been stupidity.

He should have turned back as soon as he felt the eyes on him, the feeling of being watched, which shouldn't have been possible because he was covered by the cloak. Whether something was observing him, or Remus was just slightly paranoid after the acromantula attack last time, he wasn't sure. He spent hours trying to find Skipper and in doing so getting hopelessly lost. Remus probably would have still been wandering in the forest if a centaur by the name of Torvus hadn't appeared.

The centaur had been able to see right through him and had instructed him in a voice that sounded young on how to get back to the castle. Remus had attempted to ask for help in finding the wolves, changing his voice in case the centaurs talked to Hagrid often. But Torvus would not budge as he once more told the student he had to leave, along with something about the forest was no place for him, 'especially at this time.' Remus had, of course, no idea what Torvus had meant by that.

But the Gyrffidor had already been annoyed about Skipper not showing up and had been walking for hours at the time so he had simply thanked Torvus for the prompt easy to follow directions and had begun to follow them. Remus' skin had all but been crawling at one point and he had gotten the distinct sense that 'especially at this time' had something to do with the...odd feeling brewing in the Forbidden Forest.

If anyone asked Remus to explain what had been so 'off' about the forest he would not have been able to verbalize it besides a general feeling that something was wrong. But Remus was pretty sure the Forbidden Forest could take care of itself. Besides not knowing if 'the something wrong' meant a fight was brewing between the forest's inhabitants or not, he had not delayed in leaving as promptly as he could. But his fast walking had quickly turned into a panicked run as he had heard clicking in the trees. By the time he had bolted out of the forest he had been so out of breath that he had collapsed on the ground, luckily with his cloak still on. If it hadn't been for James' invisibility cloak he would have ended up in so much trouble. He had nearly been in trouble even with the cloak as Professor McGonagall had shifted from her animagus form, apparently having been prowling the border as a cat, less than two feet from him. It was a good thing she had not stepped on him as she had looked all around as if she could not quite believe there was no one there.

"Not again," she had 'tsked' to herself, then she had rolled up her sleeves and waved her wand, sending a shimmering blast of energy towards the forest that climbed upward. For the first time, Remus had been able to see the barrier clearly for the few seconds the spell had lasted, before the shimmer had ended and the barrier had become invisible once more. After that it had been a rather simple walk to the Gryffindor common room. Only Remus had been expecting the luxury of collapsing into his bed and drifting immediately off into sleep.