The Chaser's Heart

Year 4: The Forest Vault

Charlie, Bill and I met up behind the Quidditch pitch the week after the match with an hour to go before curfew.

It was getting dark, but not completely dark yet, but we didn't want to risk getting caught out after curfew on top of being out of bounds if we were caught.

'Brilliant match, Nora!' Charlie grinned when I arrived. The brothers were already waiting for me behind the stands. 'I have to admit, I was beginning to get nervous after your last goal.'

'You were nervous?' I chuckled. 'I wasn't going to relax until we had at least a hundred and sixty points on you.'

'It was a good match,' Charlie said.

'Yeah, Skye's still sour about it all,' I grimaced.

'She'll get over it,' he waved a hand dismissively. 'And then she'll have to play us again!'

'We'd best get a move on,' Bill turned our attention back to the matter at hand. 'I'd like to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.'

'Come on, Bill, this is going to be fun!' Charlie nudged him in the arm. 'I though you wanted to be a Curse-Breaker.'

'I didn't say it wasn't going to be fun,' he scoffed. 'It'll just be more fun when we're all of age and not at risk of being expelled or having our Prefect privileges revoked.'

'Ah, yes,' Charlie nodded seriously. 'I can't imagine doing a poo in any other toilet now.'

'Alright, that was a bit too much information, Charlie. Are you both quite finished?' I groaned and then ducked down under the stands to retrieve the broomsticks I'd stashed there after practise the day before. They were right where I'd left them. I tossed Charlie his and then the other to Bill before mounting mine.

'Yeah, alright, follow me,' Charlie mounted his broom and kicked off at once.

I was hot on his broom tails, with Bill behind me, the three of us keeping a close watch for anything that may have noticed what we were doing.

The coast was almost unsettlingly clear. No one called out or attempted to stop us at all. We all flew low, close to the tree line in case we were noticed, people might think we were a stray Thestral or Hippogriff.

We flew for a couple of minutes before Charlie called back that we were close and to keep following him. He sudden;y dropped like a stone into a clearing that appeared out of nowhere. I had no trouble following suit, but Bill was a bit wobbly when he touched down beside us.

To my surprise, the clearing wasn't deserted. There was a large centaur with a pointed nose, long, dark hair and a stony expression who appeared to be waiting for us.

'Torvus!' Charlie greeted him and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least it seemed that Charlie was familiar with the centaur. 'You've made it! How are you?'

'Not bad, considering we're about to talk into the jaws of death,' he replied in a deep, flat voice.

'Are you going to help us in the Cursed Vault?' I asked, trying to get my bearings on the situation. It appeared Charlie had recruited the centaur, Torvus, to help us get into the Vault.

'Yes,' he said sombrely. 'I hope you're ready for this.'

Charlie had warned me that there may or may not be a few acromantula involved. We'd spent an evening in the library researching useful spells and then another evening in the training grounds with Bill practising them.

'Of course,' I nodded in what I hoped was a confident manner.

'Follow me,' he turned abruptly and headed off even deeper into the forest.