The Badger And The Snake; Phan/Harry Potter AU

Eight: Into The Woods.

Later on in Care of Magical Creatures, Tyler also got detention with Hagrid in the forest that night. (He gave the impression that the blast ended skrewts they were studying looked like Hagrid himself.)

So that night around 10pm, Dan, Phil, Tyler and a small, curly-haired Hufflepuff girl gathered at Hagrid's hut. She stretched out her hand to shake the other boy's. "I'm Carrie."

Dan and Phil shook her hand - the latter whispering to the other that he had never got to know her too well, despite being in the same House - and introduced themselves but Tyler refused until he knew her blood status. "I'm a pureblood. Would that matter to you?" She placed her hand at her waist, refusing to shake Tyler's apologizing ones.

Carrie didn't try to make friends with Tyler after that.

"So, tonight since you've been disobedient you're going to go into the Forest with me, in pairs - that I'm choosing -" Dan and Phil gripped each other's hands tighter, "And you'll be helping me gather Nufflers for me classes. Might as well help for somethin',"

"Alrigh', the two teams go together."

"What team?" Carrie asked.

"WILDCATS!" shouted Dan before he could stop himself.

"...Okay then. Tyler with Dan and Phil with Carrie." Dan and Phil groaned simultaneously, gripping each other's hands tighter yet. They were both afraid of the dark.

"I'm no Gryffindor," Dan whispered to Phil. Phil chuckled, but Dan could hear the nervousness in his laughter.

Once Hagrid had shooed the two "teams" off, Tyler snuck up behind Dan, both of his hands on the other boy's shoulders. "It's Halloween. It's dark. You're terrified, aren't you?" Dan cleared his throat and opened his mouth to answer, but Tyler interrupted him. "I know you are. But don't worry, kid. I've got you. I know loads of jinxes."

Dan smiled politely. "Thanks," he lied to Tyler, not feeling remotely grateful. Tyler was nice sometimes, but mostly just annoying.

Tyler smiled so radiantly in response Dan almost felt bad for thinking he was annoying.

Almost.

________

Carrie and Phil were wandering around, searching the ground thoroughly for the bunny-like creatures.

"What would have been a smart move," Phil said, annoyed, to his friend, "was if Hagrid actually told us what they look like. All I've seen are crap drawings of the rabbits. I don't know whether that lump over there is a Nuffler or a rock."

Carrie laughed and agreed, transfiguring the rock into a golden watch. "They can't hurt you now, can they?" She asked, chortling.

Out of nowhere, a dark brown bunny-looking creature appeared, except about two times larger than an exceptionally fat rabbit. It made a hole in the ground, jumped through it, and grabbed the watch in it's mouth. It scurried away rather slowly, so Phil was able to grab the Nuffler before it "ran" away. He placed it in the knapsack Hagrid had given them for this very purpose.

They laughed, then high-fived. "Brilliant! We just have to lure them with gold and they'll come running," said Carrie.

"Just like your mum," Phil muttered under his breath, smiling when Carrie punched him in the shoulder (quite hard, actually.)

So the pair continued like this for some time, until their knapsack grew large and moldy from the Nufflers stuffed in there.

"Great, we've probably got all the Nufflers in this forest by now. It's probably safe to head back."

So they walked towards what the remembered the beginning of the forest was, but seeing as Phil had the memory of a goldfish and Carrie hadn't been paying attention on the way there - "If I had, we would've been out of here by now," - they got lost.

"I remember us going past that tree," said Phil, pointing at a seemingly ordinary tree.

"No, we didn't, we went past that tree," Carrie argued, pointing at an extremely wide tree.

The two bickered for what seemed like hours - which was really only minutes - but they were both even a little but frightened of this forest, especially at night. On Halloween. During a full mo-

A creature grumbled behind them. Carrie whimpered, but Phil put one finger up and to his lips, motioning for her to make no sound. Phil was so terrified he couldn't even turn around, but then -

"RAWR!" A familiar voice said as he jumped onto his best friend's back.

"DAMN IT, DAN," Phil nearly shouted. But was laughing, relieved that it wasn't another, perhaps less desirable creature . . .

Tyler laughed at the Hufflepuff's reaction. Carrie held up a finger in his direction.

The foursome walked back together quietly.

On the way back towards where Hagrid had left them - "Nice teaching skills," Tyler ranted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Leaving 11 year olds in the forest, great," - they heard a faint sucking noise. The four of them instantly quieted, eager to find out what the source of the noise was . . .

There was a dark lump, hunched over in the middle of a clearing. The lump's back was towards them, so the . . . Thing? Person? Creature? Couldn't see them sneaking up from behind.

They tip toed until they could get a profile view of the "thing," wands at the ready.

"How about those jinxes right about now, Ty," Dan barely said to Tyler, who grunted. At once, the creature turned it's head rapidly to the side to face them. They instantly recognized it. Or rather, her.

Professor Carbonaries was sucking the life out of a unicorn.

________

A/N: Sorry for not posting for, like, four days. I couldn't think of anything and to be quite frank with you I was reading loads of phanfiction. Anyway, big thanks to my friend amaz1ngphil (matching everything, we're tight like that B) ) who has ceaselessly given me ideas and images to put in the Media section. I never know what to put there. Also grateful to my friend Zahra, who proofreads everything before it's published and is basically a phanfic idea gold mine. I love you both. In other news, I'll update twice today. I'm on a road trip to Washington, DC and I might as well write on the way there! Much love, Loren xx