Escaping Hogwarts is, in fact, much easier than advertised.
The place is huge. I don't know if you've ever played hide and seek inside a castle, or an old-timey house, but I'm about ninety percent sure that most of the Victorian ghost children are just committed competitors who never got found.
Hogwarts is much bigger than Buckingham Palace and Chatsworth Hall and St Peters Cathedral and Edinburgh Castle combined. So unless you're fatally unlucky, like a certain Mr Potter, the chances of running in to anyone still awake on a midnight adventure are slim to none. Which is how Kadin Bell managed to slip through the school, out the door and to the edge of the Forbidden Forest undetected.
A thirteen year old girl waited for her just inside the treeline.
"Hey, Hermione." Kadin grinned at the sight of her friend.
"Kay." She greeted her friend, "You bring the stuff?"
Kadin patted the strap of her rucksack proudly, "Um... Small thing. I sort of... Invited someone else."
Hermione's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Who?"
"Sup, Granger." Fred emerged from the gloom, "Up for some adventure?"
The girl did not designate this question as worthy of a response. Instead she turned to Kadin, "Why is he here?"
Kadin shrugged sheepishly, not meeting her eyes, "I owed him one."
"One what?" Hermione asked, "Near death experience?"
Fred gasped, "How did you know?"
In response, Hermione rolled her eyebrows, "C'mon. They aren't gonna wait forever."
"Who aren't?" Fred asked, following the other two into the gloom.
Hermione glanced at Kadin, "I'm not sure we should tell him. It is dangerous and possibly fatal."
"Trust me," Fred said, "That only makes me want to come more."
"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about." Hermione sighed, "I don't need anyone else getting in my way."
Kadin didn't like it when other people argued. She could feel herself retreating further and further into her shoulders as Fred and Hermione traded jabs (mostly the former) and agitated comments (mostly the latter) back and forth over her head.
"Oh, the brilliant Hermione Granger!" Fred declared, "Should we shine your shoe, Miss? Polish your teeth? Leave you to your death quest and go dungbomb Filch? I'm sure you wouldn't want to be distracted by our presence."
"You can do whatever you want." Hermione snapped, "I just need Kadin. She's good with magical beasts."
"Magical beasts?" Fred sighed dramatically, "We are going to die tonight, then. Well, I'm a little younger than I expected but I would make for a radiant corpse. I expect you all to cry dramatically over my werewolf-mauled body."
"No one's hunting werewolves." Hermione rolled her eyes, "We're not idiots."
Kadin thought about Remus Lupin and gave a nervous little laugh, "Yeah, it's not even a full moon. And sphynxes are way more dangerous than werewolves."
"That's reassuring, and here I- Wait." Fred broke off to frown at his friend, "Did you say sphynxes?"
She nodded, happy to have diffused the tension somewhat, "Yep."
"As in the bloody big lions with people faces?" Fred pressed, as if he expected her to say 'well, no, actually. I was talking about a rare variety of small bunny'.
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ONCE BOY |2| Remus Lupin
Fanfiction'Grown up' has never been more foreign. Kadin Bell is the daughter of a disgraced murderer and a practically perfect war hero. The hero is dead. The murderer has escaped. It's a classic story. But something's wrong. The adults are keeping secrets, a...
