the truth of snakes

Hot Baths & Grim Encounters

"No it- it couldn't have been.." Juniper answered warily.

The rest of the girls stayed silent, panting and looking at one another.

"Grims are just old superstitious nonsense." Juniper continued more firmly, standing up straighter and gaining confidence. "It was probably just one of that oaf Hagrid's little beasts- you know how Dumbledore let's him get away with letting all manner of creatures have their run of the forest."

"Did you see that thing?? It was anything but little!" Farrah choked out, still bent over and winded from their sprint back up to the castle.
Juniper swatted her back, making a face like "Shut it" and glanced quickly over to Roxanne who was looking back towards the Forest with a look of terror stamped across her face.

Farrah just coughed and spluttered some more.

"Well whatever that thing was.." Georgie started, her voice soft and her face gaunt & still splattered with mud. "I'm gonna need a drink."

"Probably more than one," Roxanne replied, her face trying for a hint of a humor although she still looked shaken.

"Preferably something stronger than pumpkin juice." Juniper finished and Farrah coughed in agreement.

The girls chuckled to each other (albeit a bit half-heartedly) and slowly made their way back into the warmth of the castle.

• • •

As soon as Roxanne stepped into the entrance hall heat flooded into her. She stopped shivering, from both leaving the cold of the rain and from slowly shaking off the fear that had crept into her mind from seeing the Grim.
No, it was not a grim. She kept having to remind herself.

Georgie's muddy hand found Roxanne's arm as if she knew what thoughts were racing through her friend's mind.

"Hey," Georgie looked into Roxanne's eyes which were trying to hide the fear that had overcome them in the past fifteen minutes.
"Even if that.. that thing was a-"

"A Grim?" Farrah supplied, earning her a sharp look from Georgie and Juniper.

"Yes- even if that thing was a Grim, it means absolutely nothing unless we give it meaning."

Unless I give it meaning you mean, Roxanne thought. It showed up for me.

" All those old stories," Georgie continued, still looking firmly at Roxanne with an expression of determination she had never seen on her friend's soft features, "Of people supposedly dying after seeing a black dog- all those people were just so terrified at the thought of having seen a Grim that they let terror consume them and died of fright. Honestly Roxanne, if you don't give it power over you then you have nothing to worry about. And if turns out that some great beastly dog is after you, then we'll  hex it into bits! You saw how quickly it took off after Juniper shot that curse at it."

"Plus," Juniper started to add, " Aren't 'Grims' suppose to be spectral omens? I'm not sure about you but I didn't see anything spectral about that thing- and it's canines looked far from ghostly."

Roxanne was starting to feel better. Her friends were right, about everything. She shouldn't be worried.

"Welp, at least one good thing came out of that little adventure," Roxanne said.

"A free mud facial?" Farrah quipped, rubbing her cheeks which were covered- covered-  in dark mud.

Roxanne smiled, a real smile that immediately released a whole lot of the tension that had been infecting the group.

"No, although you're welcome for that," Roxanne smirked alluding to the brawl that had left her and Farrah even more mud-covered than Juniper and Georgie. She pulled out the glass jar from her now rain-soaked cloak.