The Ravenclaw Nine || BTS Harry Potter AU

Chapter 33

Nara's Point of View

The Forbidden Forest was utterly silent aside from the whooshing of wind and crunch of snow beneath their feet. Keeping her wand raised, she pushed a branch out of her path and peered into the near-darkness where she could barely make out blobs of figures traveling alongside her. When she released the bough, it smacked Hoseok in the face and showered pine needles on him, but Nara ignored his squeak of surprise and noted, "This doesn't feel right. What makes you so certain that this isn't a trap?"

"I never said it wasn't a trap," Nadya replied. Her usual deadpan humor had been replaced with calm calculation ever since she had magically reappeared in Hogwarts just in time to save them from the dark wizards. "However, we don't have a choice in the matter – we need to find the Horcrux."

"Which is what, again?" Jimin asked, his arm wrapped protectively around Chloe's waist as she shivered from both fright and cold.

"It is an object that contains a fragment of a dark wizard's soul – in this case, Grindelwald's."

"And why is that so important?"

"Because, should the Horcrux get into the hands of the wrong person, Grindelwald could achieve immortality and rekindle his terrible reign," Taehyung interjected suddenly.

"You took the words right out of my mouth. It is almost like you..." Nadya's voice trailed off as her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "...read my mind."

For the next few minutes of silence, Nara's ears were filled with the creaking and groaning of trees and Hoseok's whimpering every time he tripped on a root. Even though they trekked through the forest without a clear path, Nadya seemed confident of their destination. Eventually, they emerged in a snowy clearing that seemed out of place in the dense forest. Aviela gasped abruptly and cowered beside Jungkook.

"T-this is where I was attacked before winter break," she stammered. "This is where Yoongi almost killed me."

"It wasn't Yoongi," Nadya murmured thoughtfully, her boots leaving dirty imprints in the fresh snow.

"How can you be so certain?" Jungkook demanded.

"It wouldn't have been Yoongi," Namjoon agreed quietly, holding his wand aloft in case dark wizards poured from the opening in the canopy of trees.

"Chloe?" Jaelyn was standing on her toes and peering at the branch of a tall pine tree. She pointed at a ring of dull silver hanging from a pine needle. "Is this the earring you were talking about?"

Nara's heart pounded in her chest – even though she didn't fully grasp the situation, she knew enough to understand that it was serious – as Nadya strode across the clearing and peered up at the earring. "That's it," she said, reaching up to take it.

All of a sudden, a blast of red light soared from within the forest, and Nadya jerked her hand back just in time to avoid the Stunning Spell. The cloaked dark wizards swarmed the clearing, standing opposite the eleven students. Fear surged through Nara's heart, but she instinctively held out her wand, her mind racing through all the defensive spells she had ever learned.

"Now, listen closely, children," a man with a strong accent drawled, flashing white teeth in his malicious grin. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way: give us the Horcrux, and–"

"No, thank you," Nadya interrupted him. "Expelliarmus." He easily blocked her Disarming Spell but got hit by Jaelyn's Stunning Spell as the rest bravely followed Nadya's lead.

Nara ducked away from a Killing Curse and leveled her wand at the nearest dark wizard. "W-Wingum Leviodum," she stammered and then had to avoid a stream of fire that blackened the nearest tree. Her incompetence pushed her into a state of paralyzed fear, and she cowered behind a thick bush that offered little shelter from the spells flying every which way.