The Forbidden Forest

Echo: It was said quietly around corners and alleys. Never out in the open. It was whispered over breezes and springs and spread a fear to many. All of them were afraid. I wasn't. So here I was in the Forbidden Forest just miles away from Hogwarts, my old school. Oh the memories. Dreadful ones. I had been a Ravenclaw in my years, but I'd always leaned toward Slytherin even if I hadn't found sanctuary with those types of people. I didn't find sanctuary in people in general. When I was a young naive girl I had always dreamed of pouring my heart out to someone, but that wasn't the way things worked in my world. But enough of that terrible school... I had come here in search of sanctuary... any kind of sanctuary... satisfaction and control. Others were afraid of it because they were afraid of the one who could give it to them. The Dark Lord. Voldemort. I had nothing left to lose though. Somewhere in this godforsaken forest lay the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows, and I was determined to retrieve and bring back the Dark Lord.

Gabriel: This was not good. Not good at all. It recently came to my attention that one of the Horcruxes of You-Know-Who was not destroyed. It was in the Forbidden Forest! I had no doubt the Death Eaters would be all over this place searching for it but to my surprise it was rather empty. I hadn't seen a soul since I arrived on the grounds of Hogwarts. I looked up to see a figure in the distance. Must be a Death Eater, I thought. My eyes narrowed.

Amos: I moved stealthily through the Forbidden Forest. I reached the trunk of a tree and climbed up and sat on one of its branched, observing the figure that was below me. So far Echo hadn't noticed me. I had been following her since she had left Eaglewillow View, where she lived. I was somewhat surprised that she hadn't noticed me. But did have the uncanny ability to stay hidden from unwanted eyes. It was partially because I liked the shadows. I didn't appreciate being seen by others, so I simply wasn't seen. And I hadn't wanted her to see me - until now. I dropped down from the large overhanging branched of a large willow. It was dark and secluded in the trees, it made me feel safe and comfortable. "Echo..." I acknowledged her presence.

Bellethiel: Walking through the Forbidden Forest had always given me a restless feeling. The trees were almost alive, and the wildlife was, for the most part, ferocious. I stopped as I saw three figures ahead of me. Two looked as if they were talking to each other, and one was watching them about 50 yards away. They two people talking hadn't noticed the other person, and they hadn't noticed me. I recognized the figure that was standing apart from the two. It was Gabe. I walked quietly over to stand next to him.

Echo: I blinked as Amos dropped right in front of me. I would have jumped if I was at all normal, but I'd cured that long ago. I shook my head and gazed up above me at the tree before returning my gaze to him. "Amos," I acknowledged in return with the slightest smile. "There are a few behind us. If you're here for the same reason I am, I suggest we hurry."

Gabriel: "Belle," I mouthed with a smile. I turned back to the others to make sure they were still there. I nodded toward them as spoke to each other to make sure Belle saw them too.

Amos: I smiled wryly at her, "Yes. We'd better hurry. I noticed them awhile ago. As soon as we walked into the forest. That is when at least one of them spotted us. It's quite unnerving, being followed by them." I jerked my head back to the figures behind us. "When we find it," by 'it' I meant the Resurrection Stone, "one of us will have to take it and run. I believe that they are ready to use any force necessary to keep it away from us." I started walking forward, but stopped. I turned to look at Echo, "Are you coming?" I asked irritated.

Bellethiel: I nodded at Gabe, acknowledging that I had seen them. I watched them carefully, and sighed, "They've noticed us. We still need to keep our voices down, but there is no use being completely silent."

Echo: I nodded quickly my eyes turning to steel. "Calm down..." I muttered under my breath. "Once we get the stone I'll Disapparate with you. They won't see it coming." I made sure to keep my voice lower as we discussed our plans. Who knows who else was watching us. I stole a few glances with a creeping paranoia.

Gabriel: "Yes," I whispered back. "Should we follow them or search on our own?" I watched as they began walking out our view with fog covering their tracks. I recognized the girl but not the man.

Levi: I decided that, it being my last year at Hogwarts, I wasn't going to be as goody-good as I had been the past 6 years. The Forbidden Forest was Forbidden, I knew that. Sure, I was a prefect, but other than that, what did I have to lose? After spending the entire day trying to convince my friends to come with me, here I was, in the Forbidden Forest, alone, at night. My wand was pointed ahead of me, as I was sure that at least three times in the past five minutes, I'd heard voices. Yeah, maybe I was paranoid, but after the stories about what was in this forest, I was taking absolutely no chances. Apparently just because you didn't end up in Gryffindor, you weren't brave. Obviously no one had seen me punch Anthony Jacobs in the nose during first year, not that I cared what people thought of me, but I was tired of the disparaging comments that were so often made about Hufflepuffs. I stopped in my tracks as I saw four people ahead of me, they were split into pairs and each pair seemed to be watching the other. I was in so much trouble if they saw me, so I ducked behind a large tree, and peeked through a small hole in the trunk, glad I was still able to see both groups fully.

Amos: I sighed, "Alright. That works." I nodded as I started walking again. I could hear her following behind me. "It can't be far," I said after a few minutes.

Bellethiel: "I think it is too much of a risk to follow them. We need to go off on our own." I told him. "And be ready for anything." I added after a few seconds. "Come on." I started walking farther into the forest.

Echo: "Yeah..." I whispered barely audible. A thought struck me like lightning. Who even know if this rumor was true? Maybe it wasn't even here, and that's why the Death Eaters hadn't come for it. I suppose I was going out on a limb, but it was all I had right now. I searched the forest with anxious eyes.

Gabriel: I hastened my pace to catch up to Belle. I took my wand out and held it in a tight grip while we looked for the Horcrux. We couldn't let them find it first. If we did, the whole world was doomed.

Amos: I crouched down and started looking through the leaves. It had to be here somewhere. I had searched for it for a long time. All of the evidence pointed to the fact that it had been abandoned in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. I stood up and walked forward again. After a few minutes I crouched down again and started looking. I knew it was near this spot. My instincts told me that. I frowned and brushed at the foliage on the ground. I even ripped the bark off of a rotted tree, thinking that it could have fallen in one of the holes riddled in the side of the trunk. Rocks and twigs were moved from the places they laid in my haste to find it. I repeated this over and over again in various locations. After ten minutes I stood up and sighed. Maybe it wasn't here. That had always been a possibility, slim though it was. And that possibility now seemed a probable reality.

Bellethiel: I walked slowly, letting my eyes examine each individual leaf and plant. I turned and looked at Gabe, "You can turn down the brightness of that. I don't need it," I reminded him, "my eyes work just fine in the dark. And the light might give our whereabouts away."

Echo: I searched restlessly until I was at the point of insanity. Been there, down that. I shook myself awake and wandered over toward where Amos had been searching. My eye widened at the sight of leaves and tree bark scatter abound. I blinked bringing back I more relaxed expression and looked at Amos himself. He gave off a defeated air and my brows almost furrowed. Where else could it possibly be?

Gabriel: I nodded and the light of my wand dimmed. We kept searching and as I look over at a tree I spotted a hole. I heard a shallow breath took my wand into an offense position. "Who's there?" I asked calmly.

Amos: I looked at Echo, "It's not here.... We would have found it. It would have been in this area." I frowned in a defeated way. After the years of searching, to come to this?

Bellethiel: I drew in a breath and exhaled in with a hiss. Before Gabe had realized what was happening, I drew my bow and notched an arrow loosely into place.

((Totally off topic....but I have swords, knifes, and bows..while you have twigs that seemingly possess magical powers (hehe)))

Levi: I nearly stopped breathing when two stopped directly on the other side of the tree. I kept my breathing as quiet as possible, but it was only moments before there was a wand and an arrow pointed at me. A calm voice spoke, asking who I was. I felt so torn, did I run and risk getting killed? Or did I tell who I was and risk getting killed? I decided I wouldn't get far running, so I stood from my crouch, and kept my wand held high. "Astra Levesque, o-or Levi, for short," I said quietly, my accent becoming thicker than usual due to the fear surging through my body. "W-Who are you?" I asked, struggling to keep my voice from shaking. "And what are you doing at Hogwarts?"

Bellethiel: "We are looking for something." I said, I was about to add 'to save the world' at the end, but that sounded extremely far-fetched. "What are you doing here?" I asked, my bow and arrow trained at her neck.

Echo: I cursed under my breath. "How can this be? I had so much hope in this! We've risked our lives for this!" I ran my hands through my vanilla-colored hair. I kicked a pile of leaves away and there lay something gold and black. I gasped. Just within reach. My hands moved toward it, and I was a mere inch away when it disappeared. I hissed. Was I delusional? "Tell me I'm not the only one who just saw that."

Gabriel: I watched the girl. She looked no older than seventeen. Damn it. She was from the school. As she stood, I noted her Hufflepuff uniform. I lowered my wand and placed a hand on Belle's shoulder to get her to lower her own weapon. "Shouldn't you be in your dorms? I think it's rather late, and I don't think they've changed any rules about not going into the Forbidden Forest since I was here..."

((Shush it about my twigs! They're very special to me! >.< (lol) ))

Levi: "I swear, I'm just wandering through the forest," I said quickly, eying the arrow which was a little to close to my neck for me to be comfortable with it. "The rules haven't changed, but I'm in my seventh year and I haven't even had a detention up until this point, it's a dare from one of my friends, that i wouldn't stay out here for even an hour," I explained, feeling foolish with how pathetic that actually sounded. "What are you looking for, maybe I can help?" I suggested. "I've been out here a few tikes to help Professor Sprout find certain herbs and things for Herbology, and I've seen my share of interesting things, secrets not many people might know," I offered, my voice sounding rushed with panic. I didn't want to go onside knowing there were strange people not far from the school searching for some unknown.... Thing. My eyes flickered from face to face nervously, trying to read them.

Gabriel: I shook my head fighting a smile. Oh to be young again. I watched as Belle slowly started to lower the target of her arrow. I thought for a second and decided it would probably be best not to inform her of what we were looking for... but maybe she could help... I sighed. Let's start off with an introduction. "Okay, so we know your name is Levi. I'm Gabe and this is my friend Belle." I gestured toward Belle as I spoke of her. "What kind of things have you seen here?"

Amos: I shook my head. "No. I saw it too. That was it!! But where did it go?!" I snarled. "We don't have time to just sit around looking for it. We're risking everything by just sitting here when we both just saw it disappear."

Bellethiel: I lowered my weapon as I listened to Gabe and Levi. I was usually quick to trust people, and had been told that doing so would be my downfall. But for some reason I hadn't trusted Levi. I didn't trust Levi. She gave me an uneasy and restless feeling. I knew that I wanted to trust Levi. Gabe seemed to at least partially trust her. Maybe it was because they were both wizards, and they had some sort of a connection. I shook my head and began looking around me, trying to look and listen to see if the two figures we had seen earlier were anywhere near us.

Echo: I nodded. "We can't follow it though seeing as it's gone and we have no clue where to." So close! If I had just been a little faster! "Seeing as we can't follow it... maybe we should try to figure out what exactly just happened."

Amos: I stared at her. Had she not heard me saying that we needed to get out of the forest before we were caught?? "Yeah. We can figure that out while we get out of here Echo. And I don't think there is anything to figure out. It disappeared. Maybe to a different location." Yeah, I thought to myself, and now we can spend the next 15 years looking for that location.

Echo: I shook my head stubbornly. "We can't leave yet... Don't you realize the possibilities of what could have happened to it? We don't necessarily know that it could have disappeared! It could have had an incantation to make it relocate at this very moment, there could be booby traps set up around here just so it hides it self just when I got that close, it could have been a fake copy, someone could be here with us right now with an invisibility charm!" I was desperate. We couldn't get out of here just yet. What were we risking anyway? If someone came along I'd just use a killing curse!

Levi: "Well, all kinds of things. It really depends what you're looking for," I said slowly. "What is it you're looking for, again?" I asked, hesitantly.

Gabriel: I sighed. I had to think fast. "It's... it's something that very important to me..." True. "It belong to my father..." Half-true. "I can't tell you exactly what it is, but trust me, it's very important that I get it back."

Amos: "It's gone. If you want to be caught, feel free. We've spent enough time here. We know people are following us, and they have a better chance of finding us the longer we stay here. You can stay here as long as you want fantasizing about where it could be and what could have happened to it. But I'd bet anything that one of your people cast some sort of spell on it to make it so that someone can't just take it. So it was relocated to a different place. And I'm determined to find that place. I mean we should have know that it wouldn't be this easy. No one but us wants the stone. They'd rather it stay somewhere hidden and safe. What better place than a creepy forest." I glanced around at the trees as I said that.

Echo: I was glaring at the ground by then. I glanced to my side and composed myself to my usual cold indifferent look. I could argue with him further about me being able to take them down if they came looking for us, but I was quick enough to know that with him, I wasn't going to get my way. "Alright then," I said with a hint of defeat in my tone. "Where do you suggest we go then?"