Boy Who Never Grew Up

Be Our Guest

Pansy and Blaise sprinted through the forest in the direction they saw Draco run off to. The forest was just that to them: a forest. They ran and ran, not knowing what direction they were in now and tried to stay close to not loose each other.

"Pansy?" Asked Blaise as everything went quiet for a while. Up ahead, he saw her figure and her short hair slowly blowing to the right. Cautiously, he approached not trying to trip or fall over anything- wood or animal- on the forest floor.

Water ran ever so coolly from the cave opening down fissures, feeding springs in other places. And in those moments without the noise or distractions of the world it was pristine peace. It was a cave mouth of impenetrable blackness, as they stepped in they watched their shadow dissolve into the surrounding darkness.

"Let's go back..." Blaise stuttered, turning around as the collar of his shirt was pulled.

"Come on you wimp" sighed Pansy and she grabbed a torch from the rock, lighting it with the small, candle-like fire on the wall of the cave. Walking through, the sound of a gushing river filled their sucked-in eardrums that pounded and pounded from the pressure.

"HALT!" Someone screamed to them. Panicked, Pansy dropped the torch, hearing it clatter and roll on the floor to splash! In the blue water tinted by the dark cavern.

"You're going to fall off the edge." The voice was gentle, soft, but somehow just as loud. The reason it sounded like a boombox was from the closeness the person was to the pair. His hair, flowing white from the top of his seven foot and even more head to the bottom of his robe (which flowed down the floor). Pansy had no idea which bits of hair was his beard or for the top of his head.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He smiled at them, and had a twinkle in his eye that already agitated them.

Cautiously, Blaise edged behind Pansy, while Pansy took a step forwards. "Who are you?"

"We, are the Natives." He said, and then a woman stepped up behind him, then a smaller man, and another woman. Finally, a man that could be classed as a giant. She gasped, jumping back as the people multiplied.

What Blaise noticed the most was the group of redheads clumped together to the side of the man with the long, white beard. The resemblance not only in the hair but the height, the bone structure and the eyes to Ron's were uncanny. He wondered why Ron didn't live with them, too.

"How are you here?" Asked one of the people in the crowed. It was a man who had messy, dirty hair and a fake eye, using a cane to help him walk. Threateningly, the man stalked up to them, pointing his walking stick at Pansy's throat.

"That is enough, Alastor. You do not harm children!" Scolded a woman at the front. She was tall, her hair in a bun and straight posture.

Alastor grunted, walking off and mumbling something like 'I could've taken 'em'.

"Everyone, back to your daily routine." There was grumbling from the onlookers and everyone turned around but the tall woman and a man in a moon crescent, blue... dressing gown?

The man with the long beard walked to them, smiling down at them softly. "Greetings, young ones." The man said.

"Hello to you too..." Pansy eyed them both curiously.

"I am Albus, Albus Dumbledore. And this is-"

"Minerva McGonagall." She introduced herself and the man smiled- still. It was actually quite daunting that he was able to smile like that for almost the entire encounter.

"Could you tell us your names?" Dumbledore asked, hands placed atop his own.

Pansy and Blaise exchanged looks before Pansy answered for them both- Blaise still a step behind her. "I'm Pansy, that's Blaise. Could you tell us where we are?"