Forbidden Forest

"Then I will help you regain it, in anyway I can. Defense against the Dark Arts is my specialty, I am sure I can find a way to isolate and remove the fragments of Voldemort from you."

She turned to Eglantine and put a small smile on her face. "You really think I will let you go so easily after I get you back and after you called me Kiara before headmistress?"

"I suppose not." Eglantine did not smile. But her eyes showed relief. "This is the price I paid for Edwin... I took what would have remained in him."

"I will help you in anyway I can until I can remove it"

Looking around the dark part of the forest she said "We should go now, unlike the part of the forest conected to hogwarts, this part of the forest is dangerous"

"Yes." Eglantine struggled to her feet. "I fear I have misplaced my cane... and put you in harm's way. Lovely day..."

Kiara sighed

"Don't worry about me and as for your cane you are a transfigurations Professor are you not?" she said as she held out her hand to help Eglantine up.

Eglantine blushed. "Of course. But the cane was rather special." she transfigured a tree limb into a suitable replacement. "Shall we?"

Kiara nodded, and looked around the dark forest nervously, she felt eyes on them "Yes lets go, we are lucky nothing has come our way yet, and I don't want to wait and find out what else is lurking near by. Don't worry about your cane I am sure we will find it when we are back on safe ground."

"Of course. I believe I have left Edwin with Tibby for too long as well. It is getting dark." She could easily see in the dark thanks to her cat form which bled into her human form.

Concentrating, Kiara focused on the direction of the protection wards.

"We should hurry back then, before we are missed." said Kiara walking in the direction she felt the wards from.

((should we have a creature attack or have they been through enough?))

(Hmm... up to you...either way is fine...)

Eglantine nodded. She almost dreaded seeing her son's teary face, which she knew she would encounter as soon as she returned.

They were almost to the protective wards when Kiara was sure she felt eyes on her and she bagan to smell something awful the ground vibrated beneath her and she let out a grone.

"Not a mountain troll"

Sure enough a giant mountain troll came in to view,standing infront of there way to go beyond the boreder. It held a spiked club as big or even bigger then them. And the troll was huge.

"What is a mountain troll?" Eglantine asked, her ignorance of many magical creatures and items mocking her. She gasped as the huge creature came into their line of sight. "Never mind." Whipping her wand from her pocket she pointed it at the troll.

"Fera Verto!" she cast the spell at the troll, hoping a water goblet would take its place.

The troll look confusidly as at his club as it turned in a water goblet. Then it saw them.

Letting a horrible screem it stared running to ward them.

Kiara cursed, and moved out of its direct line of site, dragging Eglantine with her in to the trees around them, it would of course fine them again. But it gave her a moment longer to come up with a plan.

"Eglantine transfigure anything you find in to a rock or something hard, and hurl it as hard as you can at it's head. We'll have knock to it out the old fasion way." said Kiara as she found a small rock on the ground, making it larger she levitated it and then using momentum as a sling shot the rock slammed into the trolls head.

Only to have the troll look at her angrily and run toward her.

"Thick-head..." Kiara muttered as she moved around another tree.

Eglantine pointed her wand at two trees and hardened them into stone by the duro charm. Then she shot them at the troll. The heavy stone slammed into the troll's neck from both sides.

The troll looked to be in a lot of pain from being sandwitched between the two stones but he let another war cry and set his sights on Eglantine.

"Eglantine move!!" Kiara yelled she was on the other side of the troll she couldn't get to her firends side in time to help her.

Doing the only thing she could do she levitated a near by boulder and hualled it at the back of the trolls head.

Eglantine raised her wand and pointed it straight at the troll's head. "Confringo!" she shouted, send the blasting curse at the troll. In case the spell didn't work, she ducked to avoid its swinging arms.

Eglantines blasting curse of course had little effect in the troll, if any thing it made him more angry.

"I need to get its attention back on me.." Kiara thought.

Conjuring two sharp stones she through them at the trolls head. One actaully went into the trolls skull and the other cut it ear opened.

"Come here you stupid thing over here" said Kiara as she moved away from from the troll swinging limbs.

Avoiding the troll Kiara yelled back to Eglantine.

"Trolls are virtually immune to magic, Eglantine only way to defeat one is physicaly hurting it with an object. No spells effect it otherwise even the unforgivales..."

Kiara breath caugh in her throat , "No... not now" whispered as her lungs tightened, making it increasingly hard for her to breathe.

Throwing another rock at the troll she ducked behind another tree, caughing.

Inbetween coughs she yelled to Eglantine again.

"Eglantine..... transfigure h his club back.... an and drop it on to his head"

Busy caughing and trying to get her breath back Kiara didn't dodge one of the trolls massive arms and managed to hit her shoulder.

Kiara screamed as pain ripped through her shoulder.

Eglantine magically pulled Kiara out of the troll's reach. She cursed under her breath in German and French for not ever learning about trolls. Transfiguring the goblet back into the troll's club, as Kiara had told her to, Eglantine levitated it over his head and bashed him with it.
The troll howled as blood spurted from his skull and brought one of his heavy hand to his head. Roaring in anger, he kicked at Eglantine.
She attempted to shield herself from the kick, but even with the shield, the blow sent her flying against a tree.

Anger built up inside Kiara as she saw Eglantine be kicked into a tree.

Grabing on to her shoulder Kiara stood shakily to her feet, wandlessly she conjured three jagged rocks and levitated the trolls club above its head.

The three rocks flew at the trolls head at the same time dropped the club.

The troll rored on pain one last tome before finally falling to the ground, dead.

Kiara managed to get back Eglantines side before she fell to her knee's, caughing and still holding her aching shoulder.

"Eglantine? are you alright? Please be alright"

Eglantine blinked several times. The air had been rushed out of her lungs from the impact of hitting the tree and her hair was now spilling over her face. She moaned softly as pain coursed up her shoulders from her back.
"I just had the wind knocked out of me." she muttered, sitting up. The pain in her back continued to pulse through her as she accioed her cane and stood.
"We need to get you to the infirmary, you are injured." Eglantine stated, concerned that Kiara's shoulder might be dislocated or broken. Not waiting for the younger woman to claim she was alright, Eglantine conjured a stretcher and levitated the Headmistress onto it. Careful to keep it steady, she limped her way out of the Forbidden Forest.

((To the Infirmary))

Nicolas threaded the edge of the Forest. "Persephone!" He called out.

"Persephone!" On the third time however, he heard the familiar sound of wing riding on wind and looking up he saw the beautiful burgundy wings of his beloved aethonon. "Persephone! There you are!" He approached her and he gently stroked her neck. "I have good news, the Headmistress said you can stay."

The winged-horse nickered happily.

"So will you let me ride you today?" He asked bowing in a very gentlemanly like manner.

The aethonon approached him, or rather, his pocket filled with sugarcubes. "I suppose I'll take that as a yes."

He gave Persephone a handful of sugar and he mounted her. "Alright." He said once he was securedly seated. Persephone nodded as if she understood him and took off.

They hit the sky and Nicolas couldn't have been happier.

Horatio waited rather anxiously hoping Professor DeLanquar would actually show up. It was still roughly ten more minutes until two full hours after nightfall, but he had never been very patient. Finally he saw her wheelchair hover over the trimmed grass until she stopped several meters from him. She was carrying the same chest she had had in the sitting room on her lap, but a heavy cloak hid most of it from view.

Following her carefully, they entered the Forbidden Forest.

"There are wards set up further back that we will need to avoid." Eglantine whispered. Her companion, if he could be called that, nodded. The moonlight made his white hair and beard look as if it was glowing and he almost appeared unnatural.

"Detection wards to keep the more dangerous animals at bay. Those can be easily avoided." he returned as they hurried through the dense forest. They went at a hurried speed even after they had passed through the wards until they came to a clearing well guarded by ancient gnarled trees.

Without a word of comment, Eglantine set the chest down on the cold forest floor and began to mentally chant a complex list of incantations. Slowly the chest lifted into the air and began to shake. With a pop it burst into white flames that consumed it.

Horatio was amazed to see the much younger witch preform a complex destructive spell he himself had designed. Obviously, she had done more than simply kept the research.

"Satisfied?" she whispered, looking up at him from the wheelchair. He nodded rather dumbly. "Shall we return to the castle then?" They both turned and began to make their way back toward the castle.

((Post-Nightmare, after leaving Viper's Quarters))

Sevastyan was rather thankful he'd donned slippers before roaming the halls of Hogwarts, especially now that he and Viper were on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was still dark out, but the wandlight provided by his withdrawn wand sufficiently lit up the immediate area. The Russian turned briefly to make sure Amaranth was following as he stayed upon the path.

"Morana?" Sevastyan called and made a few noises that were between whistles and clicks; a kind of morse code between master and mount to come when called.

Footfalls clearly belonging to a horse of some kind echoed through the trees, followed by an odd sound that could easily be mistaken for a sigh. As Morana's reptilian head appeared in the wandlight, Sevastyan couldn't help but smile at his and Viper's fortune: it seemed as though the thestral had indeed been awake the whole time. There was a small leather-and-plume headdress with a large golden medallion bearing a letter that looked very similar to a K adorning the thestral's oblong face.

"Кто-то здесь которое хочет встретить вас…" he told the creature in a soft tone of voice, gesturing with his head in Amaranth's direction. Morana gently bumped her muzzle against his jaw before walking passed him.

"This is Morana - she almost alvays has this headdress on vith the Kaminski crest. If that doesn't single her out from the rest, the fact that she is qvite social and can't resist curiosity regarding human activity vill surely set her out from the rest," Sevastyan explained to Viper, clearly in a much better frame of mind than he'd been in when he first arrived to her chambers.

As if the creature understood whom her master was talking to, Morana watched the new arrival with curiosity and lowered her head for to show off the headdress. It almost seemed as if the creature was as bilingual - on the understanding end, that is - as its handler, and understood a great deal more than most would give her credit for.

Viper smiled as she tentively approached Morana, to ensure that she would not startle her or seem too forceful. "She's beautiful," she said softly to Sevastyan.

Opening the bag of treats she brought with her, Viper reached into it and pulled out a few pieces, resting them on the palm of her hand. "Hello, gorgeous." she whispered gently, slowly bringing her hand up to the thestral's mouth.

Sevastyan smiled approvingly, monitoring the interactions between thestral and witch. It wasn't that he didn't trust either of them, but he would rather be safe than sorry.

Morana tentatively sniffed at the contents within the woman's hand before taking the treats without further question. Once the thestral was certain even the crumbs were no more, Morana leaned forward to rest her head upon Viper's shoulder for a few moments.

Sevastyan chuckled softly at the interaction. "She trusts you - I've not seen her do that vith anyvone outside certain members of the family," he explained.

During the time it took him to say that, Morana had spotted where the source of the treats had been and gave the bag a curious nudge. "Morana...." Sevastyan admonished in a warning voice.

Returning his gaze to Viper, he added, "That, however, she does to everyvone in an attempt to be spoiled. Like I said, despite her species she is qvite social."