Party Preparations

[Aodhan Kaelen]

It was finally the day that Rory and he had been planning since before Christmas. He had been so excited to go into the forest with his friend, and look for a good place to have their party that he couldn't be happier once he returned to the castle. But now they were back which meant no more wasting their time to think about it and come up with a smart plan. The two Gryffindors had told each other to meet up before the entrance of the forest so they wouldn't attract any unwanted attention from either students or teachers. Whilst on his way down to the grounds Aodhan couldn't help but wonder if maybe Andi should've been their lookout instead since he didn't really know Rory's friend, but because the girl had promised him that Rose could be trusted he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind. Once he arrived at the forest entrance, Aodhan leaned against a tree, waiting patiently for his friend to show up.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory felt kind of strange sneaking out of the Gryffindor common room without telling her friends where she was going. Well, she'd told Rose, but that had only been on a need-to-know basis. Rory had never really had to avoid telling her friends anything about her adventures around the castle... but it was all for a good cause she reminded herself. This was official brigade business. Well, as official as a brigade that didn't really meet or make lots of plans or do anything a normal brigade would do could be, anyway. Rory didn't bother thinking about it too much, though - she and Aodhan had a forest to scout. The night was already off to a good start, she was glad to see, as she managed to make it to the meeting spot without any disturbances, and could see her friend already waiting for her. "Okay I'm here, you can quit lazing around now," Rory grinned as she approached Aodhan. "Rose is in place, but if we get caught she knows nothing, you hear me?" She waited to make sure he had understood, then pulled her wand out of her robes. "Let's go. Lumos Maxima!"

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

He was about to check the pocket watch he got from his grandfather during Christmas to see how much longer he was supposed to wait on his friend when he heard her approaching him. ''Took you long enough.'' Aodhan said teasingly. ''I was about to fall asleep.'' He pushed himself off the three while he listened to Rory telling him that her friend would know nothing if a professor managed to catch them in the forest. Aodhan saluted and said. ''Aye aye, General.'' and then pulled out his wand as well, illuminating the tip of it as they started walking into the forest. He couldn't help to feel a little uneasy as they followed the path that took them further into the forbidden forest. Aodhan had heard the stories older years told the younger years in the common room, and wasn't keen on having his guts eaten out by a Centaur for trespassing on their land. ''So how far do you reckon we need to go before they can't see us, or the lights, anymore?'' The Gryffindor asked, curious to know how far Rory thought the two of them needed to go before they were practically invisible for anyone inside the castle.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory laughed at Aodhan's teasing. "You should've, then I could have drawn on your face again," she said, smirking. She could have drawn glasses around his eyes this time. As they headed into the forest, Rory began to feel a little thrilling spark dancing around her ribcage. The chill of the night air made her feel more alive than usual, and she swung her wand around eagerly to see if there was anything interesting in the trees surrounding them. Which caused her to stumble a little over a tree root in her way. She didn't bother glancing back to see if Aodhan had noticed, but continued marching ahead. She did turn back at his question, though. "I don't know, that's what we're trying to find out. We'll just keep walking and ask Rose how long it took for the light to disappear when we get back." It seemed like a plausible enough way of discovering what they needed to know. Rory certainly couldn't think of any better way to do it.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan rolled his eyes at her comment about drawing on his face again, shaking his head laughing. He was going to get her back for doing that to him whilst he was sleeping on the couch in the common room, he only needed to wait for the perfect opportunity to do so. ''Yeah you just wait, Night.'' the Gryffindor replied as they walked further into the forest. It was hard to look around with the only light coming from the tips of their wands, and asked himself why they had come up with the idea of throwing a party when it was dark rather than when the sun was still shining bright in the sky. He grinned when Rory stumbled over a tree root, though didn't say anything about it. Aodhan looked back at her when she answered his question, the though of a centaur catching them and eating their guts still lingering in his head. He should've guessed that she would say that since that was literally what they had told each other they would do, but clearly neither of them had ever really thought about it. ''As long as we're safe from any creatures living in the forest though, right?'' he said, hoping that Rory would agree on this.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory only snorted in response to Aodhan's pitiful attempt at a threat. She was sure she'd be waiting for a long time yet before he managed to get the jump on her. Continuing to walk between the trees, Rory looked down at her feet, using her wand to shine the light back and forth along the forest floor. This was still a path, wasn't it? She was sure they couldn't have accidentally wandered off into uncharted territory or they'd be waist deep in ferns by now... right? She stopped and chewed at her lip briefly, a small frown forming on her face before it was wiped away by the vague realisation that Aodhan had just asked her a question. "What? Oh yeah nah, we'll be fine." She grinned suddenly. "Are you scared?" She remembered Aodhan had told her that there were supposed to be centaurs in here, but Rory thought the chances of meeting any would be extremely low - which kind of made her want one to show up now. That would definitely make her night. In the meantime, however... she held the tip of her wand underneath her chin, throwing spooky shadows up her face. "You've ventured too far in now, Aodhan... they'll never let you back out alive..." Rory hoped her voice sounded suitably low and menacing, although the fit of giggles that was trying to break through probably wasn't helping.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

He shook his head with a laugh at hearing Rory's reaction to his threat. Aodhan was going to have to plan his revenge on her very carefully if he wanted it to succeed, as he was sure that she would be on guard for any future attempts of getting her back by drawing something on her face as well. He followed right behind Rory as they made their way further into to dark and ominous forest, worrying slightly when she looked down, presumably to check if they were still walking on the right path. Normally Aodhan wouldn't have cared to do something that involved rule breaking, as that was one of his favourite things to do, especially with Andi, but he did not like going into the forbidden forest at all. Had they decided to throw a secret party for Gryffindor somewhere inside of the castle then he would have been fine with it because by now he had a feeling that he knew the castle well enough to not get lost, but the fact that they were looking for a good spot to host the party in unknown territory was frightening him, especially with the centaur stories roaming around in the back of his head. ''I'm not scared,'' he replied quickly, looking up at his friend. ''You are scared!'' Of course he was somewhat scared, he did not want his insides to be eaten out by creatures and he was sure that neither would she. ''Shut up or I'll kill you.'' Aodhan told Rory when she held her wand underneath her chin and began talking in a low voice. Not wanting to look at the girl's face like this any longer, he continued to follow the path further into the forest.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory wasn't surprised at Aodhan's denial of being scared, though she scoffed good-naturedly at his accusation that she herself was. "Yeah, I'm really not," she stated truthfully. It was just a dumb bunch of trees, she'd never seen anything in here to indicate otherwise. Someone had probably made up the story that there were centaurs in here - although whether it was to frighten people off or just trying to make the place more interesting, Rory couldn't tell. It was all made that much funnier by the fact that Aodhan did actually seem to be scared to be going further into the forest, if his unamused reaction to her spooky act was anything to go by. Rory burst out laughing as he pushed past her. "Oh my god, you are scared! You wimp." A couple of seconds passed as she followed him silently, a grin forming on her face. "It's the centuars, isn't it. You're worried they're going to EAT YOU!" With the last words she pounced on Aodhan from behind, jabbing her fingers into his sides.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan knew that she wasn't actually scared, she'd been pretty excited to scout out the forbidden forest for a good spot for their party, and had still been excited for it after he told her about the centaur story. ''Well, they mi-... AAAH!'' Aodhan jumped up in the air when he felt something poking him in his sides, dropping his wand. ''RORY!'' the Gryffindor yelled out, his heart beating rapidly as he turned around to look at his friend. ''I swear to Merlin, if you do that again, I won't hesitate to leave you behind if the centaurs get us!'' Picking up his wand from the ground, Aodhan nervously looked around to see if his screams hadn't drawn out any unwanted attention. ''Please tell me we're in far enough for the Professors not to notice us?'' He didn't want to spend any more time in here now that Rory knew that he was scared since he was sure that she would continue to scare him while walking deeper into the forest.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory burst out laughing as Aodhan screamed from the fright she had given him. In fact, she was laughing so much that she had to grab at her own sides to stop them from hurting. "There's no centaurs you idiot! I can't believe you actually think... how old are you?" She was still laughing, but her stomach was happy to know it was starting to die down. Aodhan looked pretty disgruntled with her though, which was infinitely amusing in itself. "Well if no one noticed you screaming like a baby, we must be," she smirked. "And you call yourself a Gryffindor." She supposed they could head back now though, it wouldn't be fun anymore if Aodhan was genuinely terrified to go any further. Turning around, Rory set off back in the direction they had come. "Come on then, baby," she grinned. "We can give you a dummy back up at the castle." She was sure a proper path out of the forest would reappear in no time.