Dangerously Close to the Whomping Willow

((After the Great Hall, when the three Heads meet before the Triwizard Tournament))


Sevastyan sprinted across the grounds, wishing he'd had the time to summon Morana. She would have provided the extra speed he needed with ease. But there was no time to wait - Kazimir's accusations took up several minutes of precious time. Merlin, why did Boris have to be so much like Sevastyan himself when he was that age?!

He could just barely see his second cousin egging the tree on - a very stupid move if Sevastyan had ever seen one. "BORIS KAMINSKI!" he shouted, panting, though had a feeling the words would die on the wind before reaching their target. "BORIS!" The thought of immobilizing the tree with a spell did not occur to Sevastyan at this moment in time. All he was thinking about was getting his cousin as far from the cantankerous woody mass as possible, and then reaming him a new... well, you get the idea.

Sevastyan froze involuntarily when several branches lunged at the teen, but quickly returned to his former pace as Boris cleanly dodged the onslaught. It wouldn’t take long to reach him now. Another branch seemed ready to lob into his cousin, at the exact opposite angle that he was fast approaching. Boris attempted to move but ran into Sevastyan, making both of them fall over.

“Boris Miroslavich Kaminski!” Sevastyan shouted before laying into the kid with a string of swears that this author daren’t repeat, even in the Cyrillic script. All the while he spoke, Sevastyan attempted to drag Boris away from the branches that would surely pound the both of them to pulp.

“I know it is a Vomping Villow!” Boris shouted and flung himself away from his cousin’s grip. “I am going to climb it vether you like it or not, cousin! The moment you told me about it in reply to the letter I sent you, I’ve made a vager vith my friends – I vill not back out like a cowvard!”

A foul look crossed Sevastyan’s face at the word ‘coward’. He'd only heard it once today - now twice - but it was a rather sensitive word for him. “There is more to life than vot your friends think of you! Now, come! Your Headmaster vould surely blame me for your stupidity if you vere injured to the point of being unable to participate in the tournament!” he bellowed at the boy.

“No!” Boris continued to argue. Sevastyan had hoped that thoughts of the tournament would dissuade him from this fool’s errand.

The older wizard exhaled his frustration, though seconds later his eyes widened to the size of golf balls as he noticed a particularly large branch headed right for them. Sevastyan shouted, “Get avay from this tree, I tell you!” and gave Boris another shove before the tree knocked into him, sending the older Kaminski several feet into the air to land some distance away with a rather loud thud; the sudden impact causing a grunt of sorts to escape him. Stunned by pain into immobility, Sevastyan wasn’t quite sure how to get either of them out of this predicament…

Kiara made her toward the whomping willow, just to see what Sevastyan had meant about his cousin being injured by the tree.

As she aproached the tree her eyes widened as she Sevastyan being hit by the willow.

"No!" she yelled aproching the tree at a quicker pace

She ducked a swinging branch as she got close to the trees tunk and cast a spell on the weak spot of the tree.

"Immodulus!"

The tree halted all movement, Sighing in releif she ran over to Sevastyan she asked "Sevastyan? are you alright?" concern could clearly heard in her voice as she knelt down beside him.

'This patch of grass is a vonderful shade of green...' Sevastyan thought to himself in an attempt to wrap his mind around the new sensations his body was signaling. He had hit his right side pretty hard, and his elbow hurt like the devil - figuratively speaking. With a groan he rolled onto his back, wand drawn in an attempt to ward off the inevitable onslaught...

... but it never came. Instead, Headmistress Kiara stood over him with concern and relief on her face. He blinked idly as he tried to assess the damage without acknowledging the miscellaneous hurts too completely. His brows furrowed even further than they'd already been knitted when asked if he was okay. "I vill live," he replied with a tiny pain-drenched laugh. "Some example of a defense professor I've made, huh?" he inquired, mocking himself in an attempt at distraction and deciding to remain still for a few more minutes. He really didn't like the idea of moving his arm right now.

"Vot of Boris?" Sevastyan asked suddenly, his eyes focusing on Kiara's.


"I am only slightly bruised, cousin. I vould have been completely fine if you hadn't tried to stop me!" Boris growled to the older man defiantly, having silently approached and stood a few paces away from Kiara. It was clear that Boris was not exactly the most respectful kid on the Durmstrang block. One of the knees of his pants was torn, but other than that he seemed completely fine. Boris said nothing more however, and chose instead to glance between the two adults with interested suspicion.

Kiara glanced at Boris "You should not be attempting to climb this tree in the first place. It is not meant to be played with" she said as she pulled a potion vial out of her pocket and turned to Sevastyan.

"Here it is a phoenix tear healing potion it will heal any serious injuries and lessin the pain. " said as she handed him the potion.

And don't be so hard on your self eh? it is a evil tree with out a care on who it hits. Been there myself once" she said with a small smile.

Boris looked rather miffed at Kiara's rebuke. How had she known what he'd told Sevastyan? Instead of sassing the hosting Headmistress, Boris turned and walked away after spotting Headmaster Kazimir heading towards the Durmstrang ship currently docked on the Black Lake.

"Thanks," Sevastyan half-sighed and took the offered phial of potion, smiling briefly and 'hmm'ing at her request. Being hard on himself was how he'd managed to steer clear of his formerly dark ways, but he wasn't about to say that. It was an entirely different, yet surprisingly similar, context. It was also a fact that he hated asking for help; though, because he hadn't exactly asked for a potion he was nowhere near feeling cross over it. Gently he pulled the cork out of the small bottle with one hand, clearly favoring his right one, and swallowed the dose of potion.

The magic of the draught worked almost instantly: his arm didn't feel like he'd impaled it on a spike, the ribs he landed on didn't hurt anymore, and the pains of scratches and bruises - especially the one slightly bloody scratch across the upper, clean-shaven portion of his left cheek - were now only dull aches and much more tolerable. Stretching out his formerly injured arm, the joint of his elbow gave an audible -pop-. By the look on his face, though, Sevastyan both expected and wanted that to happen.

"So, how many people has the tree decided to play the muggle sport of tennis vith?" he asked, though it was noticeable that the tree's strike had knocked the wind out of him. Sevastyan stood up gingerly, regarding the now frozen tree for a total of three seconds before turning to Kiara. "And how long vill it stay frozen?" Certainly, a tree matching the Headmistress's description would be able to resist magic to a degree... it was really only a matter of time before it started flailing again, according to his assumption.

Kiara smiled and was glad he wasn't hurting quite so badly.

"There isn't a year that goes by a student tries to take on this demon brut of a tree. nothing to serious though. The spell will only last could more minutes before it fades, We should go or at least back away from it"

Walking away she said "I fought that tree before, my cat decided to climb it an it got its self stuck.... It is something I don't want to experice again, it nearly broke my neck. Boris is lucky you came when you did, climbing the tree will lead to serious injury. My Pheonix potion may be powerful but not with someone to badly injured" Kiara explained.

"Vell, I'd say my cousin is vone of the first for this year," Sevastyan laughed mirthlessly, though nodded and followed Kiara away from the willow. "Please forgive Boris's boorish behavior. He clearly takes after his grandfather, from vot I am told.

"Vot became of your cat?" he asked curiously, gravely pondering precisely how lucky Boris was after hearing the Headmistress's anecdote. Perhaps if the teenage menace he called cousin had gotten hit it would've knocked some sense into him, Sevastyan thought with what he termed to be some sort of dark humor.

"I hope your potion is not too difficult to make?" Sevastyan trailed off, feeling a little self-conscious now about needing the assistance of a potion. "And thank you, again, for offering it."


((Should we move this to the "Several Metres..." thread or to a different location altogether?))

Kiara smiled "No need to apologizes, he is a teenager thinks he knows everything"

Thinking slight over the fate of cat she said "Molly my cat for the most part was fine, the tree merely trapped her in its branches.. I wasn't as lucky but I lived"

At his question of her potion smiled again "You are very welcome for it, I is my personal creation. It has Saturn's own tears in it that give kick above normal healing potion, and I created it so it is not difficult for me to make, no.. not to worry, but even if was it would hard to make, it's worth it, that is why I made it to heal those who need it. You were injured, I was more then happy to give it to you"

((Where ever you want to go Sub ^_^ ))

Becca started walking towards the whomping Willow and didn't know anything about the whomping willow. She was talking to Raven and didn't care where she was going all she wanted to do was sit down and relax.

Raven then stopped, "Um Becca? I wouldn't get TOO close to the tree..." She said warning Becca. She learned the stories around school about the whomping willow, how dangerous it was, and if Becca got hit Raven knew she wouldn't like it at all.

"Why it's just a tree" Becca laughed being next to the tree and without any warning she got hit by it right on her side of her stomach. She was thrown quiet a ways away from the tree. Becca laid there groaning in pain while holding her side she thought she broke something but then again Becca was being to dramatic. She rolled over to her back breathing hard and clentching her side.

"Raven!!! Take me to the infirmary PLEASE!" she felt like crying.

Raven went to Becca's side, "Are you ok!? I told you to keep away from that tree! Come on." Raven helped her up and helped her to the infirmary.