Rambling Through the Woods 2
Chapter 2 - Canine Encounters
When Pansy woke up it was morning and she was still lost in the Forbidden Forest with Loony Luna. The Unicorns were no longer glowing, looking as pure white as they did in their Care of Magical Creatures class. Luna was already awake and seemed to be dancing with the foals. The adult unicorns didn’t seem to mind Luna, which really didn’t surprise Pansy. What did surprise her, however, was the unicorn foal that nudged her when she sat up, looking to her for some attention.
Pansy obligingly petted the unicorn as she tried to figure out what to do next. They survived a night in the Forbidden Forest, which was more than she had expected, but they really couldn’t live with the unicorns. She still had her wand, although she didn’t know about Luna, they could send flares up and stay with the unicorns until they were rescued. The only problem with that, though, was that flares depended on someone looking for them and there was no guarantee that anyone at Hogwarts would see the flares. Pansy wouldn’t be missed until classes started on Monday and she doubted that anyone would honestly miss the Loony, which meant that they had two more days until people noticed that they were missing. No one would notice the sparks above the Forbidden Forest and it might in fact attract bad things over good.
Their best bet, really, was to make it back to Hogwarts on their own without dying. Pansy really wasn’t sure if that was possible, but she was a Slytherin and Slytherins were ambitious. Luna was too odd to really care that it would be impossible to get back alive; therefore they had a pretty good chance.
“Luna, we’re going back to Hogwarts and we’re not allowed to die,” Pansy said as she got up and strode over to where the blond was dancing.
“Really? Even if we come across some plain cloth? I really don’t like plain things.” Luna paused in her dancing and pouted at Pansy.
Pansy rolled her eyes. “Just as long as we don’t visit the other side, you can do what you want. Remember, safety and staying alive is the key, so don’t do anything stupid.” Pansy glanced around the clearing, trying to pinpoint where they had entered. “Now, do you know the way out of here?”
Luna glanced around with wide eyes. “You could probably pick any tree to pass by, but I’m afraid that going over or under a tree might take too long.”
Pansy frowned and decided to ignore the tree comment. “I thought you might know the way back to Hogwarts.”
“Why would you think that?” Luna blinked, confused.
“You knew the way over to this clearing and the unicorns,” Pansy pointed out.
“Knowing and finding are two different things,” Luna replied, twirling around once more.
“So, find our way back to Hogwarts.” Pansy resisted the urge to throw her hands up in the air, not wanting to startle away the unicorns.
“Let’s see. London is that way,” Luna tilted her head to her left, “the moon is that way,” Luna pointed towards the ground and Pansy rolled her eyes, “the flying monkeys are that way,” Luna pointed straight up and Pansy couldn’t help but glance up at the blue sky, “and Hogwarts is that way,” Luna kind of waved her arm around so that it was hard for Pansy to figure out where Luna was pointing exactly, “so, we should go between those trees.” Luna pointed straight ahead.
“You couldn’t have done it without the long list of where things are?” Pansy asked, unconsciously checking the sky for flying monkeys once more.
“How else would I know where I was going if I didn’t know where I’ve gone?” Luna replied.
“You’ve been to Hogwarts before.” Pansy decided not to mention that flying monkeys weren’t a place.
“It’s a marvelous old building and the Forbidden Forest is fascinating. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to travel through it with a friend.” Luna smiled at Pansy and skipped forward before Pansy could give a scathing comment in reply.
“We are not friends,” Pansy muttered, only following after the girl to have someone around to toss as bait. She held her wand at the ready as they slipped between the trees, ignoring the sparks that Luna was making as she twirled her own wand.
It was slightly darker inside the trees and Pansy ignored all of the rustling to be heard through the woods and above their head. As long as they didn’t attack, creatures could scurry around as much as they wanted, in Pansy’s opinion. Luna seemed to notice the rustlings in so much as to label each unseen animal as a Dorngwagnit, or a Peopleplanter, or a Firesnubben. Pansy actually found that she didn’t mind Luna’s ramblings too much, as they distracted her from all of her daydreams of dying.
It took Pansy a while before she realized that something was following them through the bushes, it took her a bit longer to realize that it was larger than the small animals in the forest. She latched onto Luna’s arm - not because she was afraid, but because she didn’t want the blond to be killed before she could use the girl as a shield. Luna shot her an odd look, but she continued rambling on and talking to various trees.
“We’re being followed,” Pansy said when Luna paused for a breath.
“Really?” Luna asked as she turned around. Pansy tugged on her arm, trying to get her to stop, but Luna ignored her and peered into the bushes. “Come on out, little fellow.”
“Loony, we’ve got to keep moving,” Pansy hissed as she once again tugged on Luna’s arm. Then whatever it was in the bushes came out of the bushes and she stopped, not daring to move. “Loony!”
“I know what you are, you’re a Gytrash. I told Daddy that I saw some in the forest, but no one else believed me. They aren’t actually that rare, but they usually haunt solitary places and the forest is anything but that,” Luna rambled on as the large, dark hound paced closer to them.
“Loony, we don’t have time to deal with monstrous dogs,” Pansy said. Not to mention that she really didn’t want to be killed by a dead dog.
“Gytrash really aren’t that bad. They’re misunderstood because they look so scary, but they really can be quite gentle.” Luna ignored Pansy’s frantic attempts to stop her as she went up to the dog and patted its head. Pansy expected the dog to bite Luna’s hand off, but the dog seemed to love it.
“Okay, if we are done petting the monstrous dog, then why don’t we head back to Hogwarts,” Pansy suggested as she backed away a few steps. She had let Luna pet the dog for a couple of minutes, but she still couldn’t get over the feeling that it was going to attack them.
“Do you think you can take us home?” Luna asked the gytrash. The gytrash tilted its head at her and whined a little. Luna shrugged and stepped back from the dog. “It was worth a try,” Luna brightly told Pansy.
“Let’s just go and try not to die,” Pansy sighed. She took Luna’s arm once again, so that the blond wouldn’t stick with the dog and started walking again.
The dog watched them go, whining in confusion. Just as they reached the edge of the small clearing, about to vanish into the trees, it bounded forward and head-butted Pansy’s legs. Pansy let out a small shriek, expecting the dog claws and teeth at any moment, but instead she got dog drool on her face. The large dog grinned at her and licked her face again.
“He likes you,” Luna said, sounding absolutely delighted as she clapped her hands together.
“It’s trying to eat me,” Pansy said as she wiped the dog drool off of her face. She was thankful that she hadn’t really worn a lot of make up the day before, as it would have been ruined now.
“See, I told you that gytrashes were nice creatures,” Luna said, completely ignoring Pansy’s grumblings. “It wants to help us get home.”
“Can it really?” Pansy shot the dog a skeptical look as she got up from the ground. The dog barked and bounced around the small trail they were on. “It looks like a puppy.”
“That’s the perfect name for you, right, Puppy?” Luna asked, patting the dog that was almost as big as she was.
Pansy groaned, “We can’t adopt a gytrash.”
“We’re not adopting it, its adopting us,” Luna replied. “Come on, Puppy, show us the way we need to go.”
The gytrash let out a happy bark and bounded ahead of them. It ran forward a bit before pausing to make sure that they were following them. Pansy sighed, but decided that it wasn’t like they had any real idea of where they were going. “Might as well follow it.”
“Good job, Puppy,” Luna chirped as she skipped over to where the gytrash was waiting. Pansy followed after her, keeping an eye out for any more surprises.
They didn’t encounter any other creature while following the gytrash, despite the amount of noise that it and Luna made. Pansy was willing to bet that the large spectral hound scared off all of the other creatures that would attack them. That slightly worried her, because they were in the company of the creature scaring everything off, but, if one ignored the drool, there really wasn’t anything bad about the gytrash.
The gytrash finally stopped in front of yet another small clearing and looked back as if to reassure them all before he bounced into the clearing. Pansy narrowed her eyes and brushed her way in front of Luna to enter the clearing first. This was clearly not Hogwarts that the dog found and that meant that it probably wasn’t safe.
She was glad that she entered the clearing before Luna, because she was fairly sure that the blond would try to pet the three headed dog that was standing right in front of her. The three heads of the dog growled at her and Pansy took a step back, forcing Luna back with her. The gytrash whined, obviously not expecting the sudden tension.
“Oooh,” Luna said, peering over Pansy’s shoulder. “Harry told me about this one.”
“Potter knows that there is a three headed dog in the forbidden forest?” Pansy demanded.
“Well, he said that it was in Hogwarts when he knew it,” Luna answered.
“That thing was in Hogwarts?” Pansy stared at the dog that towered over the gytrash. “I would have noticed a giant dog at Hogwarts before.”
“He said that it was his first year,” Luna answered, pressing against Pansy as she stared at the three headed dog.
“The third floor corridor?” Pansy asked as the dots connected together in her mind. It was the only thing that made sense. No wonder Potter was knocked out if he was trying to play with this dog.
“He belongs to Hagrid and his name is Fluffy,” Luna said absently as she tried to remember the story.
“Fluffy, that’s even worse than a gytrash named Puppy,” Pansy grumbled. And people wondered why the Slytherins were so against Hagrid.
The dog growled at them again, clearly becoming impatient. It started stalking forward, getting ready to attack. Pansy took another step back, being careful not to stumble on Luna. Puppy race forward until he was standing in front of Pansy and Luna, protecting them.
“Harry said that they had to get past Fluffy to get something, he said that they figured out how to put him to sleep,” Luna said as they took another step back.
“Well, what is it?” Pansy demanded.
“Music,” Luna exclaimed. “It falls asleep when it hears music.”
“I don’t have an instrument hiding in my robe pocket, do you?” Pansy demanded.
“Sing! Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” Luna sang. The three headed dog paused, and crouched down. Luna took a breath and started to sing it again.
Pansy joined in this time around, “Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” A part of her wondered why Luna had chosen such a morbid song, a song that was known to both wizards and muggles alike. Pansy knew it by heart, even beyond the fact that it was such a short song. Purebloods loved the ditty because it referred to their triumph in finding a cure for the disease when so many muggles died from it. Muggles mostly used the song as a game for children.
Their combined singing worked and the three heads dropped as the dog fell asleep. Pansy gave the gytrash a pointed look as they quietly backed out of the clearing. The gytrash stayed silent as it followed them, not waking up the sleeping three headed dog. Pansy waited until they were out of earshot before they started running once more.
Chapter 3
When Pansy woke up it was morning and she was still lost in the Forbidden Forest with Loony Luna. The Unicorns were no longer glowing, looking as pure white as they did in their Care of Magical Creatures class. Luna was already awake and seemed to be dancing with the foals. The adult unicorns didn’t seem to mind Luna, which really didn’t surprise Pansy. What did surprise her, however, was the unicorn foal that nudged her when she sat up, looking to her for some attention.
Pansy obligingly petted the unicorn as she tried to figure out what to do next. They survived a night in the Forbidden Forest, which was more than she had expected, but they really couldn’t live with the unicorns. She still had her wand, although she didn’t know about Luna, they could send flares up and stay with the unicorns until they were rescued. The only problem with that, though, was that flares depended on someone looking for them and there was no guarantee that anyone at Hogwarts would see the flares. Pansy wouldn’t be missed until classes started on Monday and she doubted that anyone would honestly miss the Loony, which meant that they had two more days until people noticed that they were missing. No one would notice the sparks above the Forbidden Forest and it might in fact attract bad things over good.
Their best bet, really, was to make it back to Hogwarts on their own without dying. Pansy really wasn’t sure if that was possible, but she was a Slytherin and Slytherins were ambitious. Luna was too odd to really care that it would be impossible to get back alive; therefore they had a pretty good chance.
“Luna, we’re going back to Hogwarts and we’re not allowed to die,” Pansy said as she got up and strode over to where the blond was dancing.
“Really? Even if we come across some plain cloth? I really don’t like plain things.” Luna paused in her dancing and pouted at Pansy.
Pansy rolled her eyes. “Just as long as we don’t visit the other side, you can do what you want. Remember, safety and staying alive is the key, so don’t do anything stupid.” Pansy glanced around the clearing, trying to pinpoint where they had entered. “Now, do you know the way out of here?”
Luna glanced around with wide eyes. “You could probably pick any tree to pass by, but I’m afraid that going over or under a tree might take too long.”
Pansy frowned and decided to ignore the tree comment. “I thought you might know the way back to Hogwarts.”
“Why would you think that?” Luna blinked, confused.
“You knew the way over to this clearing and the unicorns,” Pansy pointed out.
“Knowing and finding are two different things,” Luna replied, twirling around once more.
“So, find our way back to Hogwarts.” Pansy resisted the urge to throw her hands up in the air, not wanting to startle away the unicorns.
“Let’s see. London is that way,” Luna tilted her head to her left, “the moon is that way,” Luna pointed towards the ground and Pansy rolled her eyes, “the flying monkeys are that way,” Luna pointed straight up and Pansy couldn’t help but glance up at the blue sky, “and Hogwarts is that way,” Luna kind of waved her arm around so that it was hard for Pansy to figure out where Luna was pointing exactly, “so, we should go between those trees.” Luna pointed straight ahead.
“You couldn’t have done it without the long list of where things are?” Pansy asked, unconsciously checking the sky for flying monkeys once more.
“How else would I know where I was going if I didn’t know where I’ve gone?” Luna replied.
“You’ve been to Hogwarts before.” Pansy decided not to mention that flying monkeys weren’t a place.
“It’s a marvelous old building and the Forbidden Forest is fascinating. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to travel through it with a friend.” Luna smiled at Pansy and skipped forward before Pansy could give a scathing comment in reply.
“We are not friends,” Pansy muttered, only following after the girl to have someone around to toss as bait. She held her wand at the ready as they slipped between the trees, ignoring the sparks that Luna was making as she twirled her own wand.
It was slightly darker inside the trees and Pansy ignored all of the rustling to be heard through the woods and above their head. As long as they didn’t attack, creatures could scurry around as much as they wanted, in Pansy’s opinion. Luna seemed to notice the rustlings in so much as to label each unseen animal as a Dorngwagnit, or a Peopleplanter, or a Firesnubben. Pansy actually found that she didn’t mind Luna’s ramblings too much, as they distracted her from all of her daydreams of dying.
It took Pansy a while before she realized that something was following them through the bushes, it took her a bit longer to realize that it was larger than the small animals in the forest. She latched onto Luna’s arm - not because she was afraid, but because she didn’t want the blond to be killed before she could use the girl as a shield. Luna shot her an odd look, but she continued rambling on and talking to various trees.
“We’re being followed,” Pansy said when Luna paused for a breath.
“Really?” Luna asked as she turned around. Pansy tugged on her arm, trying to get her to stop, but Luna ignored her and peered into the bushes. “Come on out, little fellow.”
“Loony, we’ve got to keep moving,” Pansy hissed as she once again tugged on Luna’s arm. Then whatever it was in the bushes came out of the bushes and she stopped, not daring to move. “Loony!”
“I know what you are, you’re a Gytrash. I told Daddy that I saw some in the forest, but no one else believed me. They aren’t actually that rare, but they usually haunt solitary places and the forest is anything but that,” Luna rambled on as the large, dark hound paced closer to them.
“Loony, we don’t have time to deal with monstrous dogs,” Pansy said. Not to mention that she really didn’t want to be killed by a dead dog.
“Gytrash really aren’t that bad. They’re misunderstood because they look so scary, but they really can be quite gentle.” Luna ignored Pansy’s frantic attempts to stop her as she went up to the dog and patted its head. Pansy expected the dog to bite Luna’s hand off, but the dog seemed to love it.
“Okay, if we are done petting the monstrous dog, then why don’t we head back to Hogwarts,” Pansy suggested as she backed away a few steps. She had let Luna pet the dog for a couple of minutes, but she still couldn’t get over the feeling that it was going to attack them.
“Do you think you can take us home?” Luna asked the gytrash. The gytrash tilted its head at her and whined a little. Luna shrugged and stepped back from the dog. “It was worth a try,” Luna brightly told Pansy.
“Let’s just go and try not to die,” Pansy sighed. She took Luna’s arm once again, so that the blond wouldn’t stick with the dog and started walking again.
The dog watched them go, whining in confusion. Just as they reached the edge of the small clearing, about to vanish into the trees, it bounded forward and head-butted Pansy’s legs. Pansy let out a small shriek, expecting the dog claws and teeth at any moment, but instead she got dog drool on her face. The large dog grinned at her and licked her face again.
“He likes you,” Luna said, sounding absolutely delighted as she clapped her hands together.
“It’s trying to eat me,” Pansy said as she wiped the dog drool off of her face. She was thankful that she hadn’t really worn a lot of make up the day before, as it would have been ruined now.
“See, I told you that gytrashes were nice creatures,” Luna said, completely ignoring Pansy’s grumblings. “It wants to help us get home.”
“Can it really?” Pansy shot the dog a skeptical look as she got up from the ground. The dog barked and bounced around the small trail they were on. “It looks like a puppy.”
“That’s the perfect name for you, right, Puppy?” Luna asked, patting the dog that was almost as big as she was.
Pansy groaned, “We can’t adopt a gytrash.”
“We’re not adopting it, its adopting us,” Luna replied. “Come on, Puppy, show us the way we need to go.”
The gytrash let out a happy bark and bounded ahead of them. It ran forward a bit before pausing to make sure that they were following them. Pansy sighed, but decided that it wasn’t like they had any real idea of where they were going. “Might as well follow it.”
“Good job, Puppy,” Luna chirped as she skipped over to where the gytrash was waiting. Pansy followed after her, keeping an eye out for any more surprises.
They didn’t encounter any other creature while following the gytrash, despite the amount of noise that it and Luna made. Pansy was willing to bet that the large spectral hound scared off all of the other creatures that would attack them. That slightly worried her, because they were in the company of the creature scaring everything off, but, if one ignored the drool, there really wasn’t anything bad about the gytrash.
The gytrash finally stopped in front of yet another small clearing and looked back as if to reassure them all before he bounced into the clearing. Pansy narrowed her eyes and brushed her way in front of Luna to enter the clearing first. This was clearly not Hogwarts that the dog found and that meant that it probably wasn’t safe.
She was glad that she entered the clearing before Luna, because she was fairly sure that the blond would try to pet the three headed dog that was standing right in front of her. The three heads of the dog growled at her and Pansy took a step back, forcing Luna back with her. The gytrash whined, obviously not expecting the sudden tension.
“Oooh,” Luna said, peering over Pansy’s shoulder. “Harry told me about this one.”
“Potter knows that there is a three headed dog in the forbidden forest?” Pansy demanded.
“Well, he said that it was in Hogwarts when he knew it,” Luna answered.
“That thing was in Hogwarts?” Pansy stared at the dog that towered over the gytrash. “I would have noticed a giant dog at Hogwarts before.”
“He said that it was his first year,” Luna answered, pressing against Pansy as she stared at the three headed dog.
“The third floor corridor?” Pansy asked as the dots connected together in her mind. It was the only thing that made sense. No wonder Potter was knocked out if he was trying to play with this dog.
“He belongs to Hagrid and his name is Fluffy,” Luna said absently as she tried to remember the story.
“Fluffy, that’s even worse than a gytrash named Puppy,” Pansy grumbled. And people wondered why the Slytherins were so against Hagrid.
The dog growled at them again, clearly becoming impatient. It started stalking forward, getting ready to attack. Pansy took another step back, being careful not to stumble on Luna. Puppy race forward until he was standing in front of Pansy and Luna, protecting them.
“Harry said that they had to get past Fluffy to get something, he said that they figured out how to put him to sleep,” Luna said as they took another step back.
“Well, what is it?” Pansy demanded.
“Music,” Luna exclaimed. “It falls asleep when it hears music.”
“I don’t have an instrument hiding in my robe pocket, do you?” Pansy demanded.
“Sing! Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” Luna sang. The three headed dog paused, and crouched down. Luna took a breath and started to sing it again.
Pansy joined in this time around, “Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” A part of her wondered why Luna had chosen such a morbid song, a song that was known to both wizards and muggles alike. Pansy knew it by heart, even beyond the fact that it was such a short song. Purebloods loved the ditty because it referred to their triumph in finding a cure for the disease when so many muggles died from it. Muggles mostly used the song as a game for children.
Their combined singing worked and the three heads dropped as the dog fell asleep. Pansy gave the gytrash a pointed look as they quietly backed out of the clearing. The gytrash stayed silent as it followed them, not waking up the sleeping three headed dog. Pansy waited until they were out of earshot before they started running once more.
Chapter 3