Legacy Rewritten

The Cost of the Curses

"Wait, before we go, can we stop here? I don't remember ever venturing into this store," I said, batting my eyes at my brother, trying to drag him into the door anyways. "Oh, alright, but then we're going back to Hogwarts." he replied, rolling his eyes despite the fact that his mouth curled upwards slightly. A mischievous smirk appeared on my face as I called him a softy, earning a scoff and a light punch to my shoulder as we made our way into the cute shop. There were ornate tea cups stacked on shelves surrounding the whole store, all leading to a counter where there were multiple different tea bags, containers of lose tea, and a whole array of pastries inside of a glass cooler at the end of the counter.

The walls were painted in a blush pink tone, white lacey leaves and vines tracing the edge of the walls and around the door. There were various plants hanging from the ceilings, even some bright green vines hanging above the frame that outlined the back-wall behind the counter; it was such a lively place, but still had an aura of calm with all of the aromas of different teas floating in the air. "Revelio," I said quietly, unveiling a golden scroll with the title: "Tea Shop Decor". It basically told me that a woman, Madame Snedley, owned the tea shop and that the room was decorated with plants, pink shades, and frilly lace...something I could clearly see without the help of a page labeling what I've already seen. 

I looked at the tea flavors on the wall, ending up seeing a glass canister filled with little squares of orange, dried pineapple pieces, some sort of pink flower that was dried, and a couple other lighter colored leaves and immediately wanted to try it. I grabbed the little glass container, along with a 'tea strainer', as they called it, using the galleons I had collected to pay for it. It was only about 10 galleons, so it barely made a dent in the amount that I've found, but we then made our way out of Hogsmeade and on the path toward Hogwarts yet again. "So, why did you want to know more about the boys? Are you interested in one of them?" Zander asked, trying to get my attention as some commotion in the Forbidden Forest was drawing my attention away from his words. 

"Ren, are you listening to me?" 

Silence.

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

More silence. 

Zander's patience was clearly wavering, but I didn't see his face as I saw different flashes of red, green, and white magic in different directions coming from the forest. 

"Ren-" "Shhhhhh!" I exclaimed, interrupting his distant voice as I realized that I had, subconsciously, started making my way into the darkened trees.  "I see something, c'mon, we have to go check it out," I exclaimed quietly, but I rushed through the trees without seeing if he had heard me. "Ahhhh!" I exclaimed again as I felt a burning sensation in my side as I looked over and found that a big creature, kind of reminding me of an alligator, something I'd read about that Muggles say live in swampy areas, had come towards me out of nowhere. But he was far away, so I was confused as to how it could've caused me this pain, at least until I saw it launch its tongue at me. 

I dodged it right on time, not hesitating for a moment to cast at it. It wasn't even phased as I kept throwing basic casts at it, trying not to get too close but nothing seemed to be working...at least until it 'threw' its tongue out at me again at the same time I cast 'Levioso', causing its tongue to levitate the creature in the air. "It's a dugbog! Confringo!" Zander shouted as he burst through the tree-line, clearly out of breath since he had obviously ran after me. He also had a deep scowl set on his face, clearly not pleased by my sudden departure. The dugbog growled deeply as its dark eyes turned to peer at Zander, but now it had a massive burn mark on its side. I had an epiphany: fire was the only thing that seemed to affect it. Since it's attention was turned towards my brother, I dashed behind a tree and started to sneak around, glancing briefly at Zander to convey I had a plan.