A Young Wizard's Journey - Rising Phoenix

Mutual Arrangement

Being alone in the forest this late at night was still eery, even this far along in his magical education.

Y/N had braved the depths of this area many times before and he was hardly scared, but it was difficult to not at the very least be on edge. Not least of all because of what had happened earlier that day.

With a whispered incantation, several of the small blueish flames appeared in his palm. He pushed them outward, allowing them to float about ten feet away from him in the cardinal directions as he wandered.

As Y/N walked, he thought back on his, admittedly half-formed, plan. The forest was home to many creatures, each perfectly capable of looking after themselves but so was Y/N. If he could find allies in here or even just a group to co-exist with, he stood a decent chance of holding out for the two days before he could meet with Hagrid.

His first thoughts had been drawn to the Acromantula, not as allies but as a potential threat to his safety in the woods. Since the death of Aragog, they had apparently gotten even more aggressive, and given that the last time Y/N had encountered them they'd tried to kill him, he wasn't keen to find out how much more aggressive they'd become.

Another thought had been to Hagrid's half-brother, Grawp, but Y/N had never encountered Grawp before. He'd heard the stories of course, but Hagrid's request had always been for if he had to leave to go and see Grawp, and Y/N had left Hogwarts at the same time.

So, he'd fallen back on the only, relatively safe, option he could think of. The Centaurs.

The Centaurs had respected Dumbledore and Y/N knew that they disliked Umbridge and the Ministry but telling them these things directly would not appeal to them. Centaurs were too proud for that.

Y/N would need to get creative with his reasoning. Attempting to convince them that "they needed him" would only serve to annoy them. He'd have to play the desperate party and, in a way, he was.

On and on through the dense brush he moved, stepping over and around loose roots and patches of brambles, doing his best to keep his head high.

Finally, just as he was trying to ensure he was still heading in a semi-reasonable direction, Y/N stopped, extinguishing the South and West lights. The North and East ones grew larger, shining brighter as they spread outwards.

Crouched low in the grass a short distance away was a horrible creature. With short, wiry brown hair, a snarling face, and eyes locked straight onto Y/N.

He'd never encountered a Blood-Sucking Bugbear before and can't say he was particularly excited about his first encounter with one either.

The creature leapt from the brush toward Y/N and he raised his hand.

At once, the beast froze in mid-air, struggling wildly against the magic now holding it aloft. Y/N slammed the beast into the ground, then with a dragging motion, pushed it face first through the dirt, throwing it into a nearby tree.

He only had to make it back down, not kill it.

The beast hit the tree hard and staggered back up, snarling wildly. It hunched low and threw itself toward him again.

Y/N flicked his wrist, and that same whip of flame from the night of moving Harry emerged. He threw it forward and the flame wrapped tightly around the creature, causing it to give a screech in pain. He twirled it once around his head and then threw.

The Bugbear went soaring away into the darkness, landing hard just out of eyesight with a pained yelp. The yelping continued, getting quieter and quieter as the creature hurried away.

Y/N let out a sigh and then wandered over to the bush where the creature had been resting before letting out a small snarl.

There, lying still in the grass, with half of their lower half ripped apart was a centaur. The beast had evidently caught the warrior off guard and had been feeding when Y/N passed by, which helped explain the aggression.