The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 59 - The Tower

"I don't think I've ever actually been up here before," Abbey announced as they reached the top of the stairs, using the hand that wasn't clasping Sam's to wrap her maroon cardigan tighter around her. It was a bit colder on the top of the Astronomy Tower than she had anticipated.

"What do you mean? We were up here a few weeks ago. When Nebbie went missing?" Sam asked, recalling how their whole group had been sent traversing around the school after Nebula, Ely's sparkling black cat that Sirius had given him for Christmas, was no where to be seen when they came back from watching the Slytherin and Ravenclaw quidditch semi-final, which, much to everyone's dismay, the Slytherin team had won.

"I never even made it up the stairs before Ely found her, though," Abbey explained, gaping up at the beautiful arches of the tower's ceiling before making her way over to one of the multiple large open archways.

She placed both of her hands on the parapet, staring out in wonder at the spectacular view of the tumbling hills of the Scottish countryside lit by the last rays of the setting sun. Sam came over and stood beside her, placing the wicker basket he had been holding - a gift from the kitchen's House Elves - down next him as Abbey leaned into him, resting her head on his chest. He placed a hand over one of hers.

This was all so cheesy, so incredibly cliché, and she absolutely loved it. The view, the sunset, the rolling hills, the pair of boys running frantically across the aforementioned rolling hills...

"Is that...?" Abbey began, watching as the two figures scrambled out of the slight ditch near the Whomping Willow.

Sam followed her gaze. "James and Peter? Merlin's beard, what are they doing out there?"

"Do you think something's happened?"

"Maybe it's just a... prank gone wrong or something. They're probably fine."

"Probably?" Abbey repeated, looking skeptically up at Sam.

"They do look rather distressed..." Sam trailed off, before letting out an exaggerated gasp. "Maybe this is the prank!"

"Sam! Should we... oh, I'd hate to ruin this, but should we go down and see if we can help them?"

Sam sighed. "I suppose we should find out what's going on."

Abbey nodded and the pair wasted no time in bolting down the stairs and making their way down to James and Peter. They passed a confused looking Ely along the way, with an equally confused looking Ravenclaw prefect in tow.

"What are you two doing?! It's nearly curfew!"

"We uh.... we'll explain later!" Sam shouted unhelpfully as they rounded the corner.

They made it to the second floor before Abbey stopped, panting. Sam, also breathing heavily, stopped a few metres in front of her.

"What are you doing?"

"These shoes were not made for running in!" Abbey exclaimed, reaching down to take her sparkly ballet flats off of her aching feet.

"Then take them off!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

Once Abbey had her shoes secured under one of her arms, they took off again, only to come across another obstacle.

"What on Earth are you two doing, running through the halls at this hour?" Professor McGonagall called, appearing from a corridor beside them.

Sam winced. They had completely forgotten about the teachers that might be patrolling the hallways. They both skidded to a stop.

"We... um..." Abbey began. She hated lying to teachers, especially to ones she respected as much as McGonagall.

"It's nearly dark and the pair of you should be in your Common Room."

"That's exactly where we're headed," Sam replied instantly. "We were running because we wanted to make it there before curfew."

"Well, whatever you two are up to," McGonagall said, unconvinced, as she look up at the large grandfather clock to one side of the corridor. "You have two minutes to finish it and get to your Common Room. Understood?"

The pair nodded frantically before continuing down the corridor once more.

By the time they reached the ground floor, they were positively exhausted. At one end of the hall they saw Peter and James slip through the main entrance.

"What's wrong?" Sam called as they jogged over to them.

"What are you two doing down here?" James asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"We saw you both running up the hill and thought something might've happened," Abbey explained.

"Have either of you seen Remus recently?" asked Peter, leaning against a wall as he tried to catch his breath.

"I don't think so. He doesn't have prefect duties or anything tonight so he should be up in the Common Room," Abbey replied, before glancing at James and Peter. "As should you."

"Wait, no, didn't he go to the Hospital Wing earlier? He was feeling sick again or something. Merlin's beard, his immune system must be rubbish."

"He must be still in the Hospital Wing then," James exclaimed, turning to Peter. "But it's nearly time, there's no way we'll make it up there before...."

"Before what?" both Abbey and Sam asked in unison.

"Before curfew?" Abbey questioned.

"Uh... yeah! Curfew!" James nodded enthusiastically before spinning back to face Peter. "We uh... oh gosh, what do we do Pete?"

Peter shrugged. James ran a hand through his hair, his foot tapping, trying desperately to think of something, anything...

He gasped. "Oh no."

"What?" the other three asked, turning to him.

But James wasn't looking at them, his gaze instead rested on the window next to where Peter stood, or rather what he could see through that window.

"I think I know where he is."

They all turned to see an over-sized grey wolf-like creature bounding up the ditch near the Whomping Willow, with what appeared to be a mountain lion and a large black dog running behind it.

---

howdy

Sorry it's been a while, again.

VCE is hard and literally all of my subjects are either maths or science (save for english ofc) which is proving to be painful but oh well I've gotta do it if I want to sell my soul to science.

- Grace