Closed Call of the Woods

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Ever since she'd heard from Wills about the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, Maddy had longed to explore it for herself. She had always loved adventuring in the native bush with her brothers, so of course she was eager to do so in an entirely new forest she'd never visited before. That rule that said it was forbidden was obviously ridiculous, and it couldn't possibly apply to people like them, who'd grown up in the forest and knew everything they might expect from them. Maddy had never been in the bush alone before, but she was excited to try doing so, and confident that everything would be fine. And it would be a fantastic thing to write home to Sebastian about, and an exhilerating new adventure.

So on the sunny afternoon of her first full day at Hogwarts, Maddy set out. She had to do this early, before William offered to show her around and deprived her of the opportunity to try this on her own. Besides, it was too exciting to leave any longer. Maddy was well prepared, with her backpack stuffed with her raincoat, waterbottle, compass, and snacks. She strode confidently into the trees, with a smile on her face and her head filled with thoughts of adventure. Between the trees, the familiar dappled light was comforting and encouraging, though Maddy noticed some European trees among the natives. She could hear birdsong high in the branches, tui and bellbirds. Relaxing a little, she wove her way through the undergrowth. She would go as far as she could today, she decided. Not get tired, not turn back for anything. It would be great.

 

[Jasper Night]

Being at Hogwarts was a new and thrilling experience for Jasper, one he had been looking forward to for years. But now that he was here, he wasn’t just here to go to school. In his opinion, the classes were the least appealing part of being here. No, Jasper was here to explore and do something awesome to impress everyone. Those two things were on the top of his list, and he had thought of a way to combine them both. The forbidden forest was supposed to be a very scary and dangerous place, which was why it was forbidden probably. So if Jasper headed inside on his very first day and then told everyone about it, he would surely be seen as someone very cool and fearless. Especially if he wasn’t caught.

It wasn’t until he was nearing the tree-line that he realized there was a flaw in his plan. Even if he went in for real and walked around for a long time, there was no way he could prove it. He should have thought to bring someone with him as a witness! Hesitant, Jasper glanced back at the castle. He could go back, but who would he ask? He didn’t know that many people yet, and if he asked the wrong person and they told a professor he would get in trouble. He decided he would just have to go into the forest and find something awesome to bring back, something that would prove his story. He stepped into the forest and looked around with wide eyes. The trees were huge! And everything looked so much darker now most of the sunlight was blocked by their branches. Jasper stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked, his confidence waning a little bit. What sort of creatures were in here, anyway? Probably nothing that would eat him, right? But then he heard some rustling noises and paused, watching the direction the noise was coming from warily. He grabbed his wand, even though he didn’t know any spells yet. “If you’re thinking of eating me, I will kick your butt first and I’m not even tasty!” He shouted.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy loved the forest, the plants, the light between the trees. She looked around, curious about everything around her, trying to spot the birds she could hear - just like she would at home, although it felt weird to not have her brothers here. Still, she would inevitably go in with Wills sometime soon - and then it would feel even more bizarre to not have Sebastian with them. Why had the principal said this place was dangerous? It was just a forest, like the many others Maddy had ventured into, nothing threatening or surprising here. Soon she would be looking for more excitement, but for the moment she was content to wander slowly and explore.

Soon, though, she heard a rustling and a cracking of twigs: someone - or something - moving, far more clumsily than she was. What if it was a wild animal? Maybe even a magical creature! That would be exciting, and go some way to explain the description of the forest as dangerous, though Maddy was sure she could deal with whatever it was. Then came a voice through the trees, and all Maddy's wild imaginings were quelled before they properly began. Clearly whoever it was had heard her too - and the voice sounded kind of familiar. She giggled at what it said. "I'm not going to eat you!" she called back, following the direction of the sound. "I'm sure you're really tasty, though." It wasn't long before she found the source of the noise, and stepped out of the bushes to show herself. "Oh, hi Jasper!"

 

[Jasper Night]

As Jasper pointed his wand in the direction of the noise, he noticed something embarrassing. He was holding the wand backwards, so it really was a good thing he didn’t know any spells yet. He hoped that whatever creature or monster was there would take him at his word about his tastiness and back off accordingly. But when he heard a girl voice call back that she wasn’t going to eat him, he relaxed. He quickly turned his wand around and listened as the girl approached. It turned out to be Maddy, the girl he had met on the train to Hogwarts. He grinned at her and nodded. “I knew it was you.” He lied. “Or at least a student. I was just making a joke.” He put his wand away and shrugged. “The forest is no biggie, right? I bet it’s not even really that dangerous.” He glanced around, a little uncertain. “But hey Maddy. Shame we’re not in the same house, right? What are you doing here?” Presumably she was here to explore too, but she looked a lot more prepared. In Jasper’s eyes, it was a little too much, really. The school was right behind them, why would they pack up like they were going camping for three days? “How much stuff did you bring?” He asked her, glancing at the backpack in disbelief. “Are you running away to live in the woods?”

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy chuckled at Jasper's bluster; she was pretty sure his tone had been too nervous for that to be entirely a joke, but she wasn't about to pull him up on it. At least, not too much. "Sure you were," she said, with just a hint of sarcasm. "Yeah," she continued earnestly, "that whole 'forbidden' thing is ridiculous. This is just like any other forest, it's not dangerous at all." She grinned, although by the way Jasper kept glancing at the trees she guessed he wasn't quite as comfortable here as she was. Just as well they'd met, then. He'd be safe with her. "At least you're in the same house as my brother instead. I'll introduce you, we can all have adventures together." That would be ideal: they already had a group between them, with Wills' friends and Jasper, and maybe some of the other Gryffindor girls too, they seemed cool. "I'm exploring, of course. Forests are the best, so of course I wanted to have a look around as soon as possible. You're exploring too? We can go together." Maddy was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be by herself for this trip, that someone else had been bold enough to come here on the very first day, but looking around with Jasper would be fun too. "Running away to live in the woods sounds like a great backup plan if Hogwarts isn't as fun as I thought - we do pretty much live in the woods at home - but nah. This isn't nearly enough stuff even to stay overnight, just to keep safe and comfy." Maddy was a little incredulous that Jasper thought this was too much; clearly he was terribly unprepared and had no idea what he was doing. That was okay, she was happy to take the lead.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper was pretty sure he wasn’t completely convincing, and he really wished his heart would stop pounding in his chest so much. He decided to ignore the tone of sarcasm in Maddy’s voice, as insisting on it just didn’t seem like a very good idea. He nodded vigorously when she said the forbidden part of the forbidden forest was silly. “Right? What’s the worst that could happen? Are the trees going to eat us?” He scoffed, then pulled a face at a nearby tree. “Try it.” he hissed before looking at Maddy again. “Oh right, your brother is in Slytherin too. I’m sure he’ll love to go on adventures with us. Why didn’t you ask him to go to the forest?” He was a little curious about Maddy’s older brother now that she mentioned him, though he had forgotten about him until now. “I’m just going in for a quick check.” He told her, still a little wary of her backpack and what it implied about her own plans. “You look like you’re ready to be out here for days.” He added, pointing at the full bag. As she explained she wasn’t running off to live in the woods, Jasper only focused on one part of what she said. “Wait, you live in the woods at home?” He asked her, a little baffled. “Like, for real?” In his imagination, he saw tree houses connected with rope bridges. It probably wasn’t that cool, but he couldn’t help hoping. “What do you mean?” He asked her, eager to hear more about that part. He once again looked at the girl’s pack skeptically. It looked a little more than simply stuff to keep her ‘safe and comfy’. But he wasn’t going to keep questioning it. If she wanted to carry around way too much stuff on a stroll through the forest, he wasn’t going to ruin her fun.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy giggled as Jasper challenged a tree. Seb had had the trees attack them once in a D&D game, but that surely wasn't going to happen here. "That one's definitely just a normal kauri," she pointed out. Did he know that? Could he recognise trees? Maddy knew all the native plants, but she was aware that not everyone did. She patted the rough bark as she sauntered past the tree. "Well, we always have the best adventures together at home. I wanted to try exploring here on my own before I went with him." Maddy decided not to mention how weird it would be to have the two of them exploring without Sebastian; she didn't want to think about that. "I wanna go as far as I can," she told him enthusiastically, oblivious to the nervousness in his expression. "Not for days, I can't miss our first classes, but definitely for the rest of today." Jasper seemed to have unrealistic expectations of what was enough to pack for a forest trip, but that was fine, Maddy was prepared enough for both of them. She grinned. "Yeah! Our house is right on the edge of Fiordland National Park, we're surrounded by trees. We can just wander off into the bush and go adventuring any time. It's really great." Maddy loved her home, and she was eager to share her enthusiasm. "So, you coming?" she asked, gesturing deeper into the forest.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper frowned at the tree before looking at Maddy. "How do you know that stuff? Who knows tree names?" He shook his head slightly. "You're like a forest fairy or something." Maddy didn't really look like a fairy, but he stood by his words. When she said she wanted to explore on her own, Jasper narrowed his eyes at her. "But now you're with me. Do you mind that I'm here?" He could leave, if she wanted. He would be disappointed, but then he would probably have a better adventure than she would, all on his own. Maddy told him she wanted to go as far into the forest as she could, and Jasper was okay with that until she mentioned going for the rest of the day. He stopped short. "What?" He asked, before hopping a few steps to catch up. "That wasn't my plan." He told her honestly. "That's... like, a long time." He frowned, glancing around. "I mean, it's a nice forest and all, but wouldn't that get boring?" Suddenly, her pack made a lot more sense. Jasper had planned to stroll in, look around for a while and make it back in time to boast about his adventures at length. As she explained about her house, more and more things about Maddy became clear to him. It made sense that she could name trees, and wanted to walk around in the forest for hours. He hesitated for a moment. "Alright, I'm coming. But only for a while, I have other stuff to do too."

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy giggled at Jasper's reaction. She didn't think it was all that uncommon to know the names of trees, but if she could impress him that was definitely a bonus. "I did tell you my parents are conservationists, right?" she asked, trying to think back to what she had actually mentioned on the train. "Knowing about trees is kind of their thing. But I'll definitely take being a forest fairy, that's a much cooler explanation." She grinned, and attempted a wobbly curtsey. Any element of fantasy was immediately appealing to Maddy, and she hoped this was a sign that Jasper's mind also worked that way. "No, I'm happy to have you! The more the merrier," she said cheerfully. "I just meant I wanted to take the opportunity without Wills showing me around." Maddy wanted to take charge, not have her brother acting all superior because he'd already been in this forest. With this boy who didn't even know about trees, or proper precautions, she was indisputably the leader. "Oh, you can turn back whenever you want," she said generously, then paused. "You will be able to find your way back, right?" Maddy was so accustomed to knowing how to navigate in the bush that it took a moment before it occurred to her that he might not. She hoped he would. She didn't really want to be saddled with having to return to the castle early because her new friend didn't know what he was doing. "You kidding? Forests aren't boring. They're the best. This is gonna be the best part of Hogwarts - especially if we find any actual magical creatures - and I'm gonna spend loads of time out here."

 

[Jasper Night]

As Maddy laughed, Jasper looked at her sharply. But she seemed to find him funny, and wasn't actually laughing at him. He relaxed. He liked being funny, but he didn't like being laughed at. He knew the difference pretty well. "I think you did. What are conservatives?" He said, repeating the word wrong entirely. "Still think you're a forest fairy. And I'm... something cool too." He just couldn't think of what quite yet. He was glad she seemed happy to have him around, and nodded. He could understand that she didn't want someone to show her around, though he was obviously here and would definitely figure out the way before she did. He scoffed when she asked if he could find his way back. "Of course! You just turn around and walk in the other direction." He said confidently. "I could find my way out with no problems at all." He ducked under a low-hanging branch, then looked around. "It can't be that hard." He added in an undertone. He gave her a skeptical look when she said forests weren't boring. Anything is boring if you do it all day. Even eating cake." He told her with a tone of wisdom. "Especially eating cake, because you'll throw up." He shrugged, hopping over a rock. "What kinda creatures do you figure are in here?"

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy was a little surprised that Jasper, a New Zealander, didn't know what she meant, but she didn't mind explaining. It was oddly satisfying to know more than him. "They look after the forests and the wildlife and stuff. They work for DoC - you know, the Department of Conservation?" She spoke the acronym unthinkingly, so accustommed to using it, then realised that if he didn't know what conservation meant he might not know what that stood for either. "I'm definitely a forest fairy," Maddy agreed, greatly enjoying the notion. "You can be a knight," she added, casting him as the first fantasy character that came to her head. "And I'm leading you in your quest to find the lost . . . um . . . what do you want to be looking for?" Maddy loved fantasy games, but she was accustomed to relying on Sebastian for thinking of the overarching plots. She was nowhere near as good at that sort of stuff as he was. Maddy took Jasper's confidence at face value, at least for the moment. "Good, let's go," she said, ignoring the fact that they were already moving. She shrugged, glancing up at the canopy above them, the glorious green light. "Sure, if you spend the whole day doing the same thing. But there's heaps you can do in the bush." She pushed aside a low-hanging branch, and held it aside for Jasper to pass. "Well, there are definitely plenty of birds," she observed. "I hope there are magical creatures here too, that'd be awesome. Wills said he'd heard rumours there are centaurs here. I'd really love to meet a centaur."

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper shrugged when Madeline talked to him about DoC, then clarified. He wasn't one to pay attention tot hat stuff, and while being outside was fun, this all made it sound pretty boring. "I see." He said, though he didn't really see. He just didn't want Maddy to talk about her parents more. He grinned when she said she was a forest fairy, and nodded when she said he can be a knight. "I'm the best knight, the strongest and fastest." He said eagerly, picking up a stick and brandishing it like a sword. "Come join me, small fairy. Show me the way to the, uh, dragon. So I can slay it." He glanced at her, frowning. "Why would I be looking for something? Knights kill things. That's why they have swords." He held up the stick to demonstrate. Jasper wanted to decide on what he would be doing as a knight, not let Maddy decide for him. He followed Maddy's lead, though he tried to make sure he wasn't walking behind her at all so it didn't look like he was following her. "What kinda thing can you do out here then?" He asked her, curious to know if he had been missing out. He rolled his eyes. "Birds don't count. They're boring. Unless they're huge and can eat you." He told her, as if this was an obvious fact. "Centaurs are more like it. I bet I could become friends with a centaur in no time."

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy took it at face value that Jasper understood; it all seemed pretty obvious to her. She grinned when he grabbed a stick to use as a sword: that was precisely the sort of thing she would have done, had she been the knight. Which she often had been. As a fairy she should have . . . a wand, she guessed, but she didn't know any spells yet so there was nothing cool she could do with that. Or wings, but she didn't have the werewithal to make those. But then Jasper started talking about slaying dragons, and Maddy was entirely distracted from being a fairy. "No! Don't slay the dragon! Dragons are cool!" She frowned back at him, equally confused for the opposite reasons. "Knights go on quests. A lot of those quests are to find stuff. Like the holy grail?" She picked the most well-known example she could think of, suddenly losing all her confidence in Jasper's knowledge of fantasy. What sort of people didn't know that knights went on quests? Did he never read books, or listen to stories, or watch movies or anything? "And they don't just kill things, there's all that . . . chivalry stuff and such." Maddy led the way confidently through the trees, weaving around thickets and ducking nimbly under low-hanging branches. "Well, you can go exploring, like we're doing now, or play imaginary games, or eat the edible plants, or talk to birds. Sometimes you can find all sorts of cool stuff, too." Maddy chuckled, realising that for someone predisposed to find such things boring, they probably still sounded boring. She shrugged, disagreeing but not prepared to argue. "Birds are cool. Huge birds that can eat you are even more cool." Maddy tried to think if there were any of those in New Zealand, but she couldn't remember. She really couldn't wait until Care of Magical Creatures class. "Oh, yeah, making friends with a centaur would be awesome."

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper looked at the ground as they walked, still holding the stick he had picked up to be his sword. He purposely stepped on a few smaller sticks to make a noise, hoping it would attract the attention of a centaur or something else cool. He frowned when Maddy argued with him about slaying the dragon. "In stories they slay the dragons sometimes!" He told her, not liking her bossy tone and the way she insisted she knew what knights did. "Knights can do different things, and I want to kill stuff with my sword!" He brandished the stick dramatically, pointing it into the air. "I'll only kill evil dragons, or monsters, or evil people. Nothing that's not evil." He said, doubling down on his version of the story. "That is also what chivalry is." He said, ducking under a few branches as he followed her. What she said did sound like fun, but some of it sounded a bit boring too. "Talk to birds?" He scoffed. "What's the point if they won't talk back? And you can play imaginary games anywhere Also, I can't imagine the plants are very tasty." Jasper had never liked vegetables, so why would he enjoy eating random plants in the forest? He huffed slightly, but decided against arguing that birds were boring unless they were big enough to eat you. He instead nodded in agreement with Maddy's statement about centaurs. "It would be cool." He said, before grinning. "I bet they'd let me ride them before you."

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Jasper was being oddly noisy, but Maddy assumed he was just not as accustomed to moving about in the forest as she was. He was bound to step on a few more loud twigs than she did. "Yeah," she agreed, a little sadly. "They do slay the dragon sometimes, but I don't like those stories. They shouldn't be slaying dragons, they're already endangered from people doing that." Maddy always preferred stories about befriending dragons, or riding them. She shrugged. "I guess if they're evil, that's okay." Maddy was pretty sure that wasn't what chivalry was, or at least not all of what it was, but she didn't actually know enough about it to argue her point. Nor did she have any particular desire to argue with him. "They do talk back," she insisted. "Well, sometimes. I've had lots of conversations with tuis, and fantails like to come along on adventures with you." When he said plants weren't very tasty, a slow grin spread across Maddy's face. She had a prank in mind, one she hadn't played on someone who didn't know about it for ages. Oh, this would be funny. Maddy looked around until she found a horopito bush, and plucked a few leaves from it. "Try this one, it's pretty tasty," she said nonchalantly. "I'm not sure a centaur would let anyone ride them just like that," she added. From what her parents had told her, centaurs were rather proud, and not prone to humouring children. "Be awesome if they would, though."

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper groaned as Maddy started talking about dragons being endangered, poking her in the side in response. "I'm not talking about real dragons, you know! Just pretend ones. It's just for a cool story. If you're that serious about it all, you definitely can't be a forest fairy." He said, making it up as he went along. "You'd be a ... forest.... troll. Those are probably boring, if they exist." He grinned at her, wondering if she would defend herself or go along with this. It was fun to figure out how she would react to his words. Sometimes she was kind of strange, which she quickly proven when she said birds talked back. "No they don't. Not really." He said, frowning. "Don't lie." His frown deepened when Maddy picked some random leaves and held them out to him. He may be reckless, but he was wary of this. "If they're so tasty, why aren't you eating them?" He pointed out, crossing his arms. "And I bet centaurs would like me more than you." He added, always ready to turn everything into a competition.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy giggled, and poked Jasper back - though she didn't have a stick, so her poke wasn't so effective. She should get a stick. "Yeah, I know! I just don't like stories about slaying dragons so much. I think you should make friends with cool creatures, not kill them." She folded her arms, affronted. "Nope, I'm still a fairy. No backsies. Trolls are pretty cool too, though. They're big and scary. If I was a troll, I'd eat you all up, puny little knight." Maddy turned towards him, held her arms up in claws above her head and stomped demonstratively. "I'm still a fairy, though, just so I don't have to eat you. You probably wouldn't taste any good." Maddy chuckled, oddly pleased that she'd confused him, although she would rather he hadn't accused her of lying. "They make noises at you when you make noises at them. That's pretty much what talking is." Maddy hesitated for a moment when he didn't take the bait of the leaves right away. She was tempted just to straight out dare him to eat them, but that would give the game away. How would Wills deal with this? He was the prankster of the family - and now Maddy knew exactly what to do. She picked off one of the leaves, put it in her mouth, and made chewing motions, while keeping the leaf on her tongue and only actually biting a little of its edge. She did actually quite enjoy the hot spicy taste of the horopito, but only a little bit at a time. The trick was to make him eat it all at once. "Mmmm, yummy," she said. "See, I am eating them. I just wanted you to try one first, since you haven't before." Maddy decided to drop the centaurs thing, not really wanting to make it a competition like Jasper seemed to. "What other cool beasts d'you think we could find? Maybe there are forest trolls in here."

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper sighed when Maddy told him she just didn't like stories about slaying dragons. There was nothing he could say in response to that, and that was annoying. "It's no fun to play pretend when you can't change stuff, you can't be a fairy forever." He grinned at her. "Besides, I think you look more like a troll." He teased, poking her in the side again to show he was joking. "And I'm not puny, I have muscles!" He flexed his biceps to show them off, though there was really nothing to be seen through his robes. He opened his mouth to argue that he would taste good when she said he wouldn't, but then closed it again as he realized that was kind of a dumb thing to argue about. He huffed in annoyance when she said making noises was the same as talking. "They don't understand you and they don't talk back, so it's not actually talking." He said firmly. It sounded to him like Maddy was boasting about things that weren't really that cool. He was a little suspicious of the leaves she was offering him, at least until she put a leaf in her mouth and chewed it. Jasper didn't want to seem like a coward after that, and put one in his mouth and bit on it. For a second, nothing happened. Then he yelled in surprised at the spicy taste flooding his mouth, and spit it out. He rubbed his tongue, spitting on the ground. "EUGH! EW!" He shouted, spitting a few more times for good measure. Then he looked at Maddy, and knew he had been pranked. Jasper was done with this. "You think you're so funny and so smart about the forest. Well, I'm BORED." He dropped the stick he was still holding to punctuate this statement. "I'm going back. Have fun talking to birds." He turned on his heel and started marching away, annoyed and flustered by the prank.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy nodded thoughtfully. "True, true. I wasn't planning to always be a fairy. I'd rather be something more badass, anyway." Maddy was often the knight or the dragon in her family's pretend games, where they changed with every trip into the bush. "Long-term games can be fun too though, I'm in a D&D group with my brothers and some friends of ours." In those games, Maddy would never give up on her character, Rata the dragonborn ranger. Rata was the best - at least in Maddy's opinion. But she didn't want to think about how she couldn't play any more now she was so far away from Sebastian, their Dungeon Master, so she was pleased to continue the silly argument about birds. "Who are you to assume birds can't understand me?" she asked playfully. "Maybe I'm like a parseltongue, but for birds." Maddy didn't know if that was a thing; she'd certainly never heard of it, but if it was it'd be really cool. Maddy burst into giggles at Jasper's reaction to the horopito leaves. This was just as good as she'd hoped it would be . . . but then he got angry with her. "Oh, Jasper, come on, it was just a silly prank." She knew he was lying about being bored, certain he'd been having fun just as she had, but it still hurt a bit to have him say so. Maddy stared after him, disappointed, as he walked away, then chuckled abruptly. "Hey, Jasper! You're going the wrong way! The castle's back that way." She pointed in the right direction, the opposite way to where Jasper had been headed.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper was done with this conversation and annoyed with Maddy for being such a know it all. He clenched his hands into fists as he stormed away from her, only to freeze in his tracks when she shouted to him that he was going the wrong way. Of course she would know that, and of course he would make a fool of himself even more. He didn't meet her eye as he turned directions. "I knew that!" He snapped, then started walking off even faster, almost breaking into a run. He was sick of this boring forest already.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

It was a shame that Jasper had lost his temper so thoroughly, and a surprise to Maddy; she'd thought they were getting on so well. Oh well, never mind. Let him storm off and sulk back at the castle, where he could be boring. There was loss and hardship in any good adventure, although Maddy had never lost one of the party before. Not with the Kaimarama kids, who always stuck together. She had started this adventure by herself, though. She could continue by herself, since he didn't want to play any more. She could have her own fun, here amongst these lovely trees. Maddy turned away from Jasper's retreating back, and, smiling to herself, ventured deeper into the forest.

 

[Jodie Wedd]

Jodie didn't like the Forbidden Forest. No, she didn't enjoy being inside of it at all. It was creepy, and dark, and most importantly it could be incredibly dangerous. It was that last point that made her all the more willing to patrol inside of it in order to ensure that any and all students weren't running around inside without permission. As she walked inside with the tip of her wand alight she couldn't help but hear footsteps running towards her, she flicked her wand to bring the person to a slow stop and frowned at them. "What the heck are you doing in here?" She asked in a voice that could almost be mistaken for kind and masked the true anger behind the words.

"Are you alone?" She asked, and before she had a chance to reply she flicked her wand once again. "Homenum Revelio!" She said, and found that there was another student a little bit further ahead. "Come with me. Stay close." She said, and before long they found another girl, "And what brings the two of you out here?" She asked the other girl, with no sense of the kindness that had been present in her voice earlier.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper was angry at Maddy and the situation and stormed off in the direction of the castle. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, so was startled when a woman's voice suddenly sounded. He looked up, then gestured to his feet. "Uhh, walking." He said with a shrug, deciding in the moment that it would be best to pretend he didn't know it was forbidden. When she asked if he was alone, he hesitated for a moment before nodding. Unfortunately, his lie was discovered immediately. Jasper sighed and walked behind the professor. "What's wrong?" He asked, attempting for innocence. He tried to look surprised as he saw Maddy. "Oh, I didn't know she was here." He shrugged, then pointed at himself. "I was just walking here. Besides, I was trying to leave, actually, so that's not so bad right?" He gave her what he was sure was a winning smile.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy had only just set off on the solo phase of her first solo forest adventure when she heard voices behind her. Jasper, and another voice she didn't recognise. An adult. Oh, no. As the professor came through the trees towards her, with Jasper in tow, Maddy turned to face them, defiantly. "We're having an adventure!" she declared, as though daring the teacher to disagree. She knew they would get in trouble, that was obvious, but Maddy didn't see why they should, and she was determined to argue her case. The forest was lovely at this time in the afternoon, it was perfectly safe at least for someone of Maddy's skills, and she saw no problem with being out here.