ttd {commencing c o u n t d o w n, engines on} freddie

It was a wonderful sunny day wasn't it? Perfect for Quidditch practice, actually, even though it left her pretty sore and tired. Still basking in the sunshine by the lake sounded quite good, which was why she started making the trek down to from the pitch instead of the lockerooms. Or that had been her initial plan at least, until she spotted Snyder making his way towards the forest. The forbidden forest. She groaned, feeling both irritable and excited about the development, as she steered herself away from the tempting lake and cut across to try and catch up to him.

Where was he even headed, anyway?

The Gryffindor paused by the dividing line, questioning how this was a very bad idea, before gathering her courage and making her way towards the overgrown wilderness. She'd always wanted to go exploring but she also sort of valued her life a bit so the answer had been simple. It should annoy her more than it did that he'd provided a neat little excuse to satisfy her curiosity, actually, while simultaneously putting them in like mortal danger. "Oi! Snyder!" she called out, completed missing how the clouds had literally started gathering. She didn't realize something was amiss until a large boom made the ground tremble and her ears pop just as she was closing in on the distance between her and her housemate.

She jumped, feeling her heartbeat trying to escape through her ribcage, before she propelled herself forward even faster, her hands wrapping about the boys arms and tugging as she ran blindly through the thunder and lightning booming overhead and creating a blinding lightshow that left her with clawing panic. She felt a splash of water against her face and tugged on his arm harder, running blindly, before stopping against a densely wooded area with a rather large tree in which to duck for cover.

@Freddie Snyder

The weather was nice. It hadn’t been this sunny in a few days and Freddie just wanted to go out and breathe in some fresh air. He strolled through the grounds, lost in thought about what kind of present he could get Aase for her birthday. He was running out of time but no matter how much he thought about it, none of his ideas so far seemed to be good enough.

He reached the edge of the forbidden forest and hesitated. He wasn’t sure why he had come here. It hadn’t been a deliberate decision. It was more like his feet had carried him here. The Gryffindor smiled to himself. He wasn’t afraid of the creatures in the forbidden forest. Maybe he’d even find some inspiration in there.

Tentatively he made a few steps into the forest but turned around when he heard a girl’s voice call his name. “Perkins,” he said exasperatedly, “you’ve startled me.” He laughed, making clear that he didn’t really mind it much.

“You’re spying on me?” he teased as she wrapped her hands around his arm and stepped further into the forest with him. The weather had changed all of a sudden. The downpour was crazy but the high trees in the forbidden forest sheltered them from the rain.

“I guess we’ll have to wait this out. If we go back to the castle now, we’ll get soaked and possibly hit by lightning.”

"That doesn't sound believable Freddie." she huffed, feeling a little off kilter, but shooting her housemate a smile anyway. "I don't spy, you looked like you were going to try plot something, very suspect." she added, willing her heart rate to slow down a bit. "What if you got all chewed up by the forest, eh?" she added, though she didn't show it very well she tended to get quite concerned over her housemates health and general state of being. She'd prefer it if Freddie could stay whole and hearty, thank you.

Along with the rest of the knuckleheads she shared her space with. Reckless, the lot, including herself but she'd never pretend she wasn't a bit hypocritical in relation to this one aspect.

"You've got the right idea." she managed, leaning further up against the bark of the tree they'd take cover under. It was then that she looked at her surroundings and some real concern blossomed. "Ugh, do you happen to know which way is back?" because if he didn't she was pretty sure that meant they were lost.

Merlin she was too cute to die out in the rain like a particularly unlucky set of forgotten laundry left to dry.

“Chewed up by the forest?” Freddie grinned at the girl. “As if it really was that dangerous in here.” He paused. “Are you scared, Perkins?”

While he had gone into the forest without any clear motivation earlier, he was now eager to walk further into it. He wanted to provoke Adara who had apparently spied on him and followed him. Would she accompany him if he proceeded?

Freddie laughed when Adara asked if he knew the way back before he looked around himself. His laugh died when he looked around. “I think we came from there?” he said with very little conviction in his voice.

The noise of the rain on the leaves of the trees and the thunder were loud, it was dark as though it was night and Freddie pulled out his wand. “Lumos,” he muttered and pointed his wand in all directions to try and figure out the right way to go. He wasn’t convinced that he really knew how to get out of the forest and, to be honest, he wasn’t sure he wanted to get out while the downpour lasted. Anyway, Adara seemed nervous and a damsel in distress needed to be taken care of, right?

“Let’s go this way.” he, therefore, said, pretending to know the way out of the forest when, really, he had no clue in which direction they had to go.

With a narrowed grey gaze the brunette Gryffindor puffed herself up a bit, completely offended by the insinuation she was scared. "Am not." maturity, thy name was Adara. Ugh. It was like her male housemates just brought it out of her, though, what with all the goading they tended to do. She always let it get to her when someone tried to call her a chicken. It was the principal of the matter, really.

Ordinarily she'd have felt pretty great about shutting his laughter up, but that just meant to her that they where well and truly out of luck. At least he had the bright idea to light their way. Which... "Wait." she murmured, wanting to tug on his arm but deciding not to last minute. It was sort of endearing he was trying to take charge, though she still wanted to reasure herself they had a semblance of a plan at least. "Point me." she cast, delighted, when the way north was shown. "The castle is east of us. I think?" she said, because the sun always set west behind the forbidden forest. She pointed forward towards where she was fairly sure the way back was. Worse case they'd waste some time moving deeper in the forest (not ideal) before figuring out they were moving the wrong way. At least she was fairly certain it was east they wanted to go, and since they knew where north was, now, all they had to do was walk.

Only the weather was truly horrid. She felt sort of bad, actually, since her quidditch robes were spelled to protect against the rain. Her face and hair would get soaked but at least the rest of her wouldn't. "Should we run for it?" she asked, bitting her lip, as she glanced out towards the rain and winced as thunder and lightning sliced the air. At this rate they were liable to loose even more visibility.

“Yeah, right,” Freddie said, smirking. Of course Adara would claim not to be scared. She was a Gryffindor, even if she was scared she knew that she wasn’t really supposed to be a scaredy cat. He thought he was playing his role much more convincingly. Then again he wasn’t really scared (yet), just not feeling perfectly comfortable.

Adara claimed that the castle was east of the forbidden forest and Freddie could neither confirm nor deny it. He tried to think of where the sun stood in the mornings and where it set in the evenings but, truth be told, while this might be an easy thing to figure out in the safety of the common room, it wasn’t as easy here and now.

“Run?” Freddie asked, his eyebrows raised. “I think if we run we won’t see so well what’s on the ground and might stumble.” Ugh he sounded so… sensible and ‘un-gryffindorish’. A sheepish smile spread across his face. “But yeah, sure, why not,” he added, pointing his wand in the direction that Adara had chosen for them. The forest was so dark and noisy. Some of the sounds were so foreign. Merlin knew which creatures were observing them from behind the trees.

"Rude." the Gryffindor clucked, though a smile was threatening to appear long the edges of her lips, despite the anxiety swirling in her gut. As much as she liked to convey her fearlessness she really disliked thunder, and being lost was a combination she was definitely against on principle.

The grin won over at last, though, as she blinked water out of her face. She couldn't help the slightly hysterical laughter that bubbled up in her chest, the burst of anxiety finally releasing, so she felt a numb sort of calmness take over instead. Both exhilarating and horrifying, in her opinion. "Not if we hold onto eachother." she managed, not caring in the moment if it was reckless, so long as it actually got the back towards the castle in one piece. She grinned, tasting rain water as it pelted her face, once Freddie agreed. He was a nice bloke, really.

She gripped at his empty hand, waiting as his wand lit the way, before she cast her own lumos. "We stay together." she said seriously, gripping his hand hard, before she tugged on it so he'd follow her in sprinting towards, what she hoped, would be the safe walls of the castle.

The Gryffindor common room had never sounded so good, especially at the thought of the fierce roaring fire. She wanted warm cocoa so much she could practically taste it.

{fade out!}

Grinning, Freddie shrugged as Adara called his comment rude. He was pretty certain that the girl did not feel affronted, not really anyway.

The girl was a little on the edge, though and Freddie felt like he had to take charge now. She suggested that they should hold onto each other which Freddie thought would not help if one of them really fell, then they'd both fall but whatever she suggested, he was fine to go for it. He didn't mind when she grabbed his hand and glanced at her with a one sided smile.

"Alright," he confirmed, his wand in his outstretched hand, Let's go!"

She started running and it took him a few steps to get into her rhythm. Soon enough they reached the edge of the forest and from there it was easy to find the way back to the school. The windows of the castle were lit and looking terribly inviting. Quite soon they'd be back in the Gryffindor tower. Freddie was looking forward to changing into dry clothes and spending the rest of the day inside. As they reached the castle, Freddie pushed the doors open and followed Adara inside.

"We made it," he said, feeling a little out of breath and using his sleeve to wipe the water off his face.

[end]