The Wandmaker's Granddaughter

The Wandmaker's Granddaughter is Lost in the Woods

James and Lucy's shouts vanished as Amelia plunged into the forbidden forest. 

The ground scraped against Amelia's back as she was dragged across the forest floor.  She reached out to try and grab hold of a tree to stop her but her eleven year old strength was no match against the vine.  Desperately Amelia clung on to her wand thinking of any spell that could help her.

"Petrificus totalus," Amelia managed to no avail.

Amelia continued speeding along the forest floor running into trees and rocks. As the forest thickened, every beam of any light seemed to be absorbed by the trees around her.

"Incendio," she tried but the flames just danced off.

The sky could no longer be seen through the trees.  The vine took a sharp turn throwing Amelia against a tree.  A loud crack filled her ears as she kept hurtling through the forest. Tears streamed down her face as the pain and fear over came her.

"Stop," she cried waving her wand desperately.  No books could help her, no library protected her, this wasn't a lesson, there was no assailant, Amelia was alone and for all she knew, very close to death.

"Stop. Stop! STOP!" She screamed just as she dropped down an embankment.  "RELASHIO!"

Sparks flew and the vine finally released sending Amelia crashing into a large boulder.

When Amelia finally opened her eyes there was only darkness surrounding her.  She pushed up against the rock behind her facing out into the woods. 

"Lumos," her wand sparked a dim, wavering light that barely lit two feet in front of her face.  The sound of rustling leaves mixed with Amelia's racing heart. A growl came from somewhere nearby as Amelia pulled her legs closer into herself. She closed her eyes as tight as possible.

Four years earlier:

"That's one of the purpura unicornis, it's hair creates one of the strongest unicorn cores," the old wandmaker whispered.  Ollivander and Amelia sat crouched behind a slop in a forest somewhere near Bucharest. 

"How do you get the hair?" Amelia whispered staring at the beautiful purple and white creature in front of her.  The unicorn's hair shone in the evening sunset as it grazed lazily on wormwood leaves.  Ollivander raised his wand slowly and silently aiming for the majestic creature. 

"Stupify."

The tree behind the unicorn burst apart, spooking it.  It ran away, deeper in to the forest.

"Damn, I missed, let's go," Ollivander said standing and running after the beast.  Amelia stood and tried to keep up but was no match for her grandfather.  Soon she wasn't even able to see his outline through the trees.

"Grandfather?" Amelia shouted as she kept running in the direction she thought her grandfather had gone. 

"Grandfather!  Where are you?"

The light was fading fast from the forest when Amelia tripped over a branch and fell sprawling across the forest floor.  She lay there for a moment before sitting up.  As Amelia looked around her eyes adjusted as best they could to the darkening forest.  Standing to her feet, she began tracing her steps backwards.  Where had she come from.

Grandfather had always told Amelia to remember where she'd been in order to know where she should go.

Presently:

Amelia opened her eyes.  The dark still engulfed her.  The rock still pressed firmly against her back.  But the lion's bravery coursed through her veins. 

Amelia stood up slowly.  Her back twinged with pain and her leg was clearly broken in several parts but if she just sat there, the animals would get to her before anyone else.  Shakily Amelia pointed her wand to her broken leg.

"Petrificus."

Her leg solidified into a petrified lump. 

Slowly, she made it to a tree, then another tree.  The faint light from her wand grew slightly stronger as she made her way from tree to tree back in the direction she thought she had come.